A pressure applicator device for applying pressure to a repair patch of a variable contoured aircraft surface, the pressure applicator device is provided with an inflatable pressure bladder. The bladder is configured for applying pressure to the repair patch and is formed of a generally fluid tight elastic material. The pressure applicator device is further provided with at least one variable direction adjustable arm. The arm is disposed in mechanical communication with the bladder for facilitating the application of pressure by the bladder to the repair patch upon inflation of the bladder. The bladder is further provided with at least one suction device for providing suction attachment to the aircraft surface. The bladder is attachable to a respective one of the at least one variable direction adjustable arm. The arm facilitates selective attachment of the respective suction device to the variable contoured aircraft surface while maintaining the position of the bladder with respect to the repair patch.

Typically the on-aircraft surface repair process includes filling a damaged surface region with an adhesive or other filler material so as to bring the surface of the damaged area flush with that of the adjacent undamaged surface areas. A repair patch is formed to substantially conform to the contour. The repair patch formed so as to overlap onto the adjacent undamaged surface area to obtain a metal-to metal (or composite-to-composite, as the case may be) bond region adequate to hold the repair patch in place. The repair patch is then adhesively bonded to the damaged area with a curing adhesive. The term adhesive is contemplated to include, but not limited to, epoxy resin, glue, cement and other bonding agents. Commonly, the adhesive requires heat to be applied to properly cure the adhesive or to accelerate the curing process.
In addition, trapped air is commonly encountered in the bondline between the structure and the repair patch and may take the form of small bubbles and volatiles where produce porosity in the bondline. During the curing process, however, these small bubbles may grow to become large bubbles or voids which significantly reduce the quality of the adhesive bond. It is known in the art that the application of uniform pressure to the repair patch during the curing process tends to squeeze out the trapped air in the bondline or otherwise mitigate the growth of the air bubbles into larger ones. Thus, the quality of adhesive bonding depends largely upon the application of substantially uniform pressure over the repair patch during the adhesive curing process.
A conventional method of applying pressure to the repair patch for on-aircraft repair involves using a flexible vacuum bag or cover. The vacuum bag is positioned over the repair patch and sealed around the perimeter. A vacuum or negative pressure source is applied to the vacuum bag so as to evacuate the vacuum bag, thereby collapsing the vacuum bag and forcing the vacuum bag against the repair patch. The amount of pressure applied to the repair patch is limited by the amount of vacuum pressure which may be achieved. For example, where there are holes or otherwise porous surfaces within the vacuum bagged area, such holes must be sealed prior to achieving adequate vacuum pressure. In addition, the sealing of the perimeter of the vacuum bag may present problems, especially where significant vacuum pressures are required to achieve a corresponding desired repair patch pressure.
Another method of applying pressure to an on-aircraft repair patch involves using tooling constructed specifically for a given repair. Obviously, such repair specific tooling is costly, labor intensive and inefficient.
Where the adhesive is a heat-curing adhesive, a heat source is additionally applied to the repair patch in conjunction with a pressure applicator. A conventional method for applying heat is through the use of a heating blanket.
Furthermore, aircraft surfaces in need of repair often are not located on smooth, flat, upward-facing areas. As such, repairs typically need to be effectuated surfaces which may be vertical or even downward facing. In addition, where the repair surface is located at an area of the aircraft which is contoured, the repair patch may be oriented significantly different from those surfaces immediately adjacent to the repair patch. For example, the convex curvature at the leading edge of the aircraft wings and the concave curvature where the wings intersect the aircraft fuselage present potential repair areas where the aircraft surface at the repair patch is significantly different from adjacent surface areas. Conventional pressure applicator devices may not be readily deployable at such contoured regions.
It is therefore evident that there exists a need in the art for a pressure applicator device for applying pressure to a repair patch during the curing process which facilitates on-aircraft repairs, applies substantially uniform pressure to the repair patch, accommodates the use of a heat source, such as a heating blanket, and is deployable adjacent a variable contoured aircraft surface.

Repair pressure applicator for in the field damaged aircraft


A plastic lens comprising the first acrylic hard coated layer formed on the outside surface of a plastic lens base and, on the inside surface, an antifogging coated layer while interposing of the second acrylic hard coated layer is obtained by coating both sides of a plastic lens base with an acrylic hard coating agent, masking the outside surface with a peelable masking agent (e.g., a coating composition containing poly(vinyl chloride) or a vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer), coating at least the inside surface with an antifogging agent, and removing the masking layer. As the hard coating agent or antifogging agent, use can be made of an ultraviolet-curable resin composition, and as the masking agent, a coating composition containing a poly-(vinyl chloride) or vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer may be employed.

When one participates in land sports such as skiing, skating, mountain climbing or hiking, or marine sports, or drives a bicycle or a motorcycle while wearing spectacles or goggles, the spectacles or goggles may sometimes become fogged or steamed over. In particular, when one moves between differing temperatures and humidities, the spectacles or goggles tend to become steamed over. By way of illustration, when the outside air temperature is low, the outside surfaces of the spectacles or goggles are exposed to the low temperature, and, the temperature of the inside surface rises due to a body heat. Also, the humidity increases to the dew point or as a result of sweating. Hence the spectacles or goggles are fogged or steamed up. Further, the spectacles or goggles are steamed over as a result of a person's breath. Among other situations, when one wears goggles, the fogging or steaming up can hardly be removed since the goggles form almost sealed spaces.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 165724/1986 (JP-A-61-165724) relates to cleaning and antifogging treatment of surfaces of spectacles, and discloses a process which comprises flowing a treating agent impregnated and held on a holding part to a coating part with the use of a capillarity phenomenon, cleaning the surfaces of spectacles on the coating part and treating the surfaces with a treating agent. According to this technology, however, a surfactant such as poly-oxyethylene nonyl phenol and the like is used as the antifogging agent so that impartment of a permanent antifogging property for the spectacles would not be expected.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 74169/1983 (JP-A-58-74169) discloses a process which comprises, in a method of coating multi-focus lenses such as double-focus or triple-focus lenses with a hard coating agent or antifogging-coating agent, coating a plastic lens base having a boundary by means of dipping while holding the boundary of the lens at a right angle with respect to the liquid level or at an angle not greater than 20.degree. with respect to the perpendicular (right angle), This process is proposed for the purpose of inhibiting accumulation of the coating composition in the boundary part of the lens.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 294339/1990 (JP-A-2-294339) proposes an antifogging process which comprises immersing a plastic molded article such as a lens or an end plate (mirror board) with a polymerizable coating composition containing a water-soluble monomer, a monomer copolymerizable with this water-soluble monomer, and a polymerization initiator and harding the resultant immersed article for antifogging treatment.
However, even when it is subjected to these antifogging treatments, the scratch resistance of articles can hardly be improved. That is due to the fact that an excellent property due to the antifogging agent and a high scratch resistance are incompatible with each other such that the scratch resistance is adversely affected with an increasing antifogging property, and the antifogging property is adversely affected with enhancing scratch resistance. Therefore, when the antifogging property is improved, the spectacles or goggles tend to be scratched or abraded when that the spectacles or goggles collide with dust or are in contact with or rubbed with other articles when handled.
On the other hand, for the purpose of achieving high antifogging property and enhanced scratch resistance, there has been intended a process which comprises treating the inside surface of a lens with an antifogging agent and treating the outside surface of the lens with a hard coating agent. According to the dipping technology, however, both sides of the lens are coated so that it is difficult to impart the antifogging property to the inside surface of the lens and the scratch resistance to the outside thereof, respectively. Further, it has been thought of to coat one side and thereafter the other side of a lens base respectively with the use of spray coating or flow coating technology. According to this process, however, expensive equipment is required and the producibility or yield tends to deteriorate.
Incidentally, a lens having different functions on each side respectively may also be obtained by, for example, a process which comprises masking the inside surface of a plastic lens base with a masking agent, hard coating the outside surface by immersing, removing the masking by means of peeling, masking the hard coated surface and coating the inside surface with an antifogging fogging agent by immersing, and removing the masking by stripping. This technology, however, requires a great number of steps and is complicated, and the productivity of lenses can hardly be improved. Further, when an organic solvent-based masking agent is directly coated on a plastic, removal of the masking agent is difficult because of great adhesion strength of the masking agent with respect to the plastic lens base. On the other hand, when a water-base latex paint is used as the masking agent, the resultant masking coated layer can be peeled off or stripped from the plastic base, but it peels off or partially peels off, or is solved out in a succeeding step such as an immersing step with the use of an organic solvent-based hard coating agent or antifogging agent, or washing or cleaning step. Accordingly, a masking agent having such an adequate adhesive strength as to have a high adhesive property with respect to a plastic base in the immersing step, and to be capable of peeling off after the immersing step would hardly be found.
Furthermore, it is possible to use a masking film in lieu of a masking agent, but the film cannot be the concave and convex shape of the lens and, even when it is applied to a plane, the workability deteriorates. Further, the surface which has not been treated with a hard coating agent has a tendency to be injured or scratched in the laminating step, and the external appearance is sacrificed since an adhesion mark remains after peeling off the film.

Plastic lenses and method of producing the same


Disclosed herein is a process for a coating composition for application at extremely high pressures under conditions which significantly reduce the amount of volatile organic materials which are given off during the spray process. Preferably, the coating composition is based upon a plasticizer wet nitrocellulose lacquer. The composition is utilized in a spray process involving the filling of a spray pump receptacle with the coating wherein the spray pump is operated at pressures above about 2,750 psi and wherein the pump is provided with a temperature control means for assuring that the temperature of the pumped coating is in the range of about 65.degree. F. to 150.degree. F. so that the viscosity of the pumped coating is maintained in the range of about 250 to about 1,000 cps. The resulting coatings may be applied as a top coat, sealer, lacquer, etc. to any desired substrate, although wood is preferred, with the resulting finished coating being equal or superior to existing coating compositions.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to processes for applying coating compositions. More particularly, this invention relates to a process for applying a high solids coating composition using a high pressure spray system which has a low volatile organic solvent content.
2. Prior Art
The spraying of chemical coating compositions has been known for many years. Spray systems are of two basic types. The first type is the air-atomized spray system whereby air or another gas is used to atomize a coating into a fine mist which is then propelled onto the substrate to be coated. Air-based spray coatings suffer from well known deficiencies, including specifically that a high degree of overspray is often observed leading to a loss in the efficiency of use of the coating. In addition, in recent years increasing concerns have arisen about the large amounts of organic materials which are released into the atmosphere by air-atomized spraying of organic solvent containing coatings.
The second common type of spray process is the airless spray process whereby the coating itself is pressurized and this pressure is used to project the spray onto the substrate. Airless spray systems, in general, operate at relatively low pressures--no higher than about 1,600 to 2,000 psi. While airless spray applications reduce the amount of volatile organic material which is released into the atmosphere, they generally do not atomize the coating as well as conventional air-based sprays and therefore the resulting finish coating is often not up to the standards for smoothness exhibited by air atomized spray coatings.
These two common types of spray systems are often combined to obtain a system which contains some of the benefits of both. In the so-called "air-assisted air spray system" a small amount, less than about 30 psi, of air is introduced into a airless system to improve its overall application properties.
Prior to 1970, the overwhelming majority of industrially-applied coatings were based on organic solvents with solid contents less than 30 percent. Due to environmental regulations, use of such coatings has dramatically decreased. In recent years, because of the continued need to reduce the amount of volatile organic materials contained in coatings, work has continued on developing systems which will permit the spraying of relatively high solids, high viscosity coating compositions. One approach has involved the so-called "Unicarb process" which employs carbon dioxide as a super critical liquid under heat and pressure in combination with a more conventional solvent for the coating. A device embodying this concept is described in Vol. 2, High Solids Coating, March, 1987 entitled, "Super Critical Fluid Processing of Polymers Used in High Solid Paints and Coatings." Among the disadvantages of the Unicarb process, the foremost is its extremely high cost and its complex operating procedures: individual spray units often cost between $50,000 and $100,000 and require frequent and costly maintenance. This system is disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,027,742 and 5,009,367.
An added impetus to the search for coatings which contain lower amounts of volatile organic solvents has been the recent changes in air pollution standards adopted in several states, including primarily California, and the recent regulatory amendments proposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"). In each case, the effect of these regulations is to limit the amount of volatile organic materials which may be present in a coating. In addition, the proposed EPA regulations prohibit or limit the use of 189 chemicals, many of which are solvents commonly used in the coatings industry. For this reason, these chemical solvents will either have to be substantially reduced or eliminated in future coatings.
Heretofore, the most widely employed solution to problems posed by governmental regulation of the volatile organic solvent content of coatings has been to switch to water as the solvent for the coating. However, particularly for high quality wood finishes, water-based coatings have an adverse effect on wood grain termed "grain raising." Moreover, the use of aqueous based systems to control volatile organic emissions is particularly difficult where there is the possibility of the presence of high humidity levels during drying which will make water evaporation difficult.
Coating compositions for application to substrates, particularly wood substrates, may be either thermoset or thermoplastic but, preferably, are thermoplastic coatings, particularly of a lacquer type. The materials most widely used with wood substrates are cellulosics, such as nitrocellulose. Traditionally, nitrocellulose lacquer coatings for wood substrates are made using an alcohol wet nitrocellulose. However, when such alcohol wet nitrocellulose is applied using a high pressure, high solids coating process, air entrainment frequently results and, in addition, the flow characteristics of the coatings are sometimes imperfect. Difficulties also occur when this coating is "dry sprayed" or sprayed at higher temperatures.
High pressure spray pumps have been known for many years. Among the manufacturers of such pumps, Graco, Speedflo, Nordson, Ransberg, and Wagner are included. Examples of high pressure spray systems include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,028.
Most spray coating systems typically operate at less than about 2,000 psi. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,433,415 and 3,726,711. Graco has offered pumps for sale which operate at pressures ranging from 2,700 psi to 4,050 psi. However, there has been no disclosure of the use of these pumps in conjunction with the coating compositions of the type described herein.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/722,260 generally discloses a process for preparing high quality, high solids coatings compositions using a high pressure airless spray system. Disclosed therein as the preferred type of coating composition for use in the system was an alcohol wet nitrocellulose lacquer. The instant invention involves a significant improvement over that prior art system. Specifically, according to the instant invention, the alcohol wetting agent is replaced with a plasticizer as described hereafter. As a result, the coating compositions of the instant invention exhibit less air entrainment in the lacquer upon application, greater tolerance for variations in film thicknesses, improved dry sprayability, and a greater temperature range at which the composition may be utilized, thus allowing the use of higher viscosity coatings.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to prepare a high quality, high solids coating composition that can be applied using a high pressure airless spray coating system by the disclosed process.
It is another object of this invention to prepare a high quality coating composition for wood furniture, cabinetry and related substrates by the disclosed process.
It is a still further object of this invention to prepare a coating composition which may be applied at high viscosity with a low volatile organic content by the disclosed process and which upon application maintains the coating characteristics of prior art systems which use conventional technology.
It is yet another object of this invention to prepare a coating composition which may be readily sprayable at temperatures of up to at least 150.degree. F. and which may be applied by the disclosed process.
It is a still further object of this invention to prepare a coating composition which will meet the highest regulatory standards for volatile organic solvent amount and type and which may be applied by the disclosed process.
It is a still further object of this invention to prepare a coating composition comprised of a high solid nitrocellulose lacquer which can be applied by the disclosed process to a wood substrate to achieve high quality finishes.
It is a still further object of this invention to prepare a coating composition which is easy to apply using standard spray techniques.
It is a still further object of this invention to prepare a coating composition which may be applied by the disclosed process at a greater temperature range allowing the utilization of higher viscosity base coating products.
These and other objectives are obtained by preparing the coating compositions of the instant invention using the process described herein.

Process for applying a high solids coating composition using a high pressure airless spray


A method and apparatus for providing steam for a test chamber is provided. The apparatus includes a heating element contained within a vessel which is fluid communication with an exterior reservoir wherein the heating element provides heat to generate steam from the water entering the vessel from the reservoir. The method for generating steam includes providing a chamber configured to contain a fluid insetting water into the chamber from a reservoir external from the chamber, controlling an amount of water inlet into the reservoir substantially equalizing the water level in the reservoir with the water level in the chamber. The method also includes heating the water in the chamber to turn at least some of the water into steam and venting at least some of the steam out of the chamber.

Simulation test chambers are chambers designed to replicate certain environmental conditions. Objects are placed in the chambers and are evaluated to see how well the object performs under certain conditions. A test chamber may be refrigerated to cold temperatures or may be heated to certain high temperatures. Along with the temperature, humidity is also controlled to see how an object performs under various humid conditions.
In order to provide humidity for a test chamber, a steam generator is often used. In some steam generators, steam is generated by applying water to a heating element. The heating element boils the water and generates steam. Not supplying enough water to the heating element can cause a multitude of problems, including not generating the proper amount of steam and also other problems associated with overheating the heating element.
Other problems associated with current steam generators are that valves and other moving parts which may contribute to the control and/or operation of the steam generator may be located in hard to access areas. Locating moving parts that need servicing in hard to access areas may increase the difficulty of servicing and/or manufacturing the steam generator. Other problems with some known steam generators are that they have complex designs which result in high manufacturing costs.
Another problem associated with some steam generators is that they are hard to clean and service. Additionally, they may not easily allow water to be drained from them in order to flush sediment and other types of build-up that occur within the steam generator.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a steam generator and method of generating steam that uses a steam generator of a simplified design and is less expensive to manufacture that prior art generators. It is desirable to provide a method and apparatus for generating steam that locates the valves and other moving parts in easy to access locations to simplify service of the steam generator. It is also desirable to provide a method and apparatus for generating steam that provides a steam generator that allows for simplified cleaning and flushing the system to remove sediment and other types of buildup.

Steam generating method and apparatus for simulation test chambers


Anthocyanin containing fractions isolated from tart cherries and exhibiting inhibition of oxidation when introduced into various materials is described. The fractions are particularly useful in high and low moisture foods.

(1) Summary of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and compositions for inhibiting oxidation in various materials, particularly lipids and most particularly in foods. In particular, the present invention uses a tart cherry natural extract containing a mixture of anthocyanins to accomplish the inhibition.
(2) Description of Related Art
Prunus Cerasus L. (Rosacease), cv. MONTMORENCY is the major tart cherry commercially grown in the United States. An artificial red dye is frequently added to MONTMORENCY cherry food products to enhance its low natural red color. In order to challenge the MONTMORENCY monoculture, a new cultivar, BALATON tart cherry (Ujferbertoi furtos), was introduced into the United States in 1984, and has been tested in Michigan, Utah, and Wisconsin. BALATON produces fruits darker than MONTMORENCY.
Colorants like anthocyanins were regarded as the index of quality in tart cherries. Most importantly, recent results showed that anthocyanins such as cyanidin-3-glucoside have strong antioxidant activities (Tsuda, T., et al, J. Agric. Food Chem. 42:2407-2410 (1994)). The addition of antioxidants is one of the popular methods to increase the shelf life of food products which is thought to be associated with lipid peroxidation. Natural antioxidants may play an important role in the prevention of carcinogenesis. Dietary antioxidants may be effective against the preoxidative damage in living systems (Halliwell, B. and J. M. C. Gutteridge, Free radicals in biology and medicine. Oxford University Press, New York 416-494 (1989); Osawa, T., et al, Role of dietary antioxidants in protection against oxidative damage. In antimutagenesis and anticarcinogenesis Mechanisms; Kuroda, Y.; Shankel, D. M., Waters, M. D., Eds.; Plenum Publishing. New York 139-153 (1990)).
Early studies have showed that MONTMORENCY cherry contains cyanidin-3-gentiobioside and cyanidin-3-rutinoside (Li, K. C., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 78:979-980 (1956)). Cyanidin-3-glucosylrutinoside was also found in six out of the seven sour cherry varieties (Harborne, J. B., et al., Phytochemistry 3:453-463 (1964)). Dekazos (Dekazos, E.D., J. Food Sci. 35:237-241 (1970)) reported anthocyanin pigments in MONTMORENCY cherry as peonidin-3-rutinoside, peonidin and cyanidin along withcyanidin-3-sophoroside, cyanidin-3-rutinoside and cyanidin-3-glucoside. However, cyanidin-3-glucosylrutinoside as well as cyanidin-3-glucoside, cyanidin-3-sophoroside and cyanidin-3-rutinoside were identified as main pigments in sour cherries. Using HPLC retention values, Chandra et al (Chandra, A., et al., J. Agric. Food Chem. 40:967-969 (1992)) reported that cyanidin-3-sophoroside and cyanidin-3-glucoside were the major and minor anthocyanins, respectively, in Michigan grown MONTMORENCY cherry. Similarly, cyanidin-3-xylosylrutinoside was detected as a minor pigment in MONTMORENCY cherry (Shrikhande, A. J. and F. J. Francis, J. Food Sci. 38:649-651 (1973)).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,867 to Pleva describes the use of whole ground cherries and oat bran in ground meat. The amount of cherries used is 10 to 15% by weight and the oat bran is believed to be added to compensate for the juice in the cherries. In any event, the cherries definitely contribute a flavor to the meat.
There is a need for natural antioxidants for use, particularly in foods and other materials containing oxidizable compounds. Lipids in meats are particularly prone to oxidation and contribute to rancidity in cooked or uncooked foods and natural lipid products for a variety of uses.

Board of Trustees operating Michigan State University


A leg attachment structure for a keyboard instrument including leg main bodies that support a keyboard portion from both sides, the keyboard portion in which plural keys are arranged on a key bed, wherein the leg attachment structure has plates installed on upper surfaces of the leg main bodies, the plates and the leg main bodies are fixed by inserting rod-shaped portions formed on lower surfaces of the plates into hole portions provided in the leg main bodies, and the plates are formed to be larger than an area of the upper surfaces of the leg main bodies, and installed at positions eccentric to the inner side and the rear side of the keyboard portion with respect to the upper surfaces of the leg main bodies.

A general leg attachment structure for a keyboard instrument is a structure of supporting a keyboard portion by, in order to ensure strength, arranging legs between side arms provided on both sides of the keyboard portion, the side arms projecting to the player's side from a keyboard instrument main body, and toe blocks projecting to the player's side from both sides of a main body lower portion.
As disclosed in the conventional art described in Patent Literature 1, a leg attachment structure of supporting by legs both side portions of a keyboard portion in which plural keys are arranged on a key bed is also proposed.
In this leg attachment structure, at the time of directly screwing bolts of the legs into screw holes provided on the side arm side, in a case where the legs are different in shape from round legs, due to thread pitches, it is not possible to reliably make desired leg surfaces face the front surface side of an instrument main body. Thus, there is a problem that the leg attachment structure can be adopted only for round legs.
Regarding this problem, the leg attachment structure disclosed in Patent Literature 1 includes bolts provided on upper surfaces of the legs, engagement pins provided in head portions of the bolts in the directions orthogonal to the center axis, bolt attachment holes formed, on lower end surfaces of the side arms, at positions corresponding to the legs, leg fixing metal fittings fixed to the bolt attachment holes for locking the bolts, and elastic members for biasing the legs downward. The leg fixing metal fittings are provided with holes through which the head portions of the bolts and the engagement pins pass, and pin locking portions that lock the engagement pins. Thereby, the leg attachment structure is provided as a structure in which desired leg surfaces can face the front surface side and can be fixed.

Leg of keyboard instrument and leg attachment structure

KAWAI MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


A method for promoting restful, quality sleep in an individual comprising the administration of a composition comprising Hops extract, Eclipta alba extract powder, and Nardostachys jatamansi extract.

Sleep occupies about one-third of our life and is necessary for mental and physical well-being. It additionally affects mood, behavior and physiology. Sleep and the control of sleep is a complex process involving multiple neuro-chemical pathways and associated brain structures. It is a dynamic process involving a shift in the balance of distinct physiological changes, involving both positive and negative signaling neural signaling. The regulation of sleep in humans is governed by three processes—each influenced by hormonal and environmental factors: a daily sleep-wake cycle influenced by a circadian rhythm (24 hour cycle) tied to light-dark cycles.
The need for sleep is a biological drive similar to thirst or hunger. Interestingly though, the function of sleep is largely unknown, however some evidence indicates that sleep is required for learning. In North America, insomnia is estimated to affect a significant portion of the population every year and is associated with health problems and concomitant economic losses to society (Stoller M K. Economic effects of insomnia. Clin Ther. 1994 Sep-Oct;16(5):873-97 Abstract). It is clear that the impairment of sleep is detrimental to one's health. In humans, mild sleep deprivation results in indications of impaired immune system function (Irwin M, McClintick J, Costlow C, Fortner M, White J, Gillin J C. Partial night sleep deprivation reduces natural killer and cellular immune responses in humans. FASEB J. 1996 April; 10(5):643-53). Prolonged sleep deprivation is even known to result in death. It has been determined by many that an individual can survive longer without food than one can without sleep; thus indicating the importance of sleep.
Strategies to improve sleep are beneficial, not only in terms of one's physical health, but also in terms of emotional health. Furthermore, reinforcement of sleep of adequate quantity and quality positively impacts most aspect of daily life.


Disclosed herein is a method and a system for handling read disturb errors in a memory unit. Status information related to each memory block in the memory unit is retrieved and plurality of target memory blocks with valid pages and having highest block erase count are identified for patrolling. Each valid page in the target memory blocks are patrolled for identifying read disturb errors. Finally, each valid page having read disturb errors are recycled, thereby effectively handling the read disturb errors in the memory unit. The method disclosed herein involves patrolling of only the valid pages in the memory block, thereby reducing the time required for handling the read disturb errors and improving the overall performance. Also, the method ensures data retention reliability within each memory blocks by patrolling the memory block in the order of highest block erase counts.

Memory patrolling or patrolling is a process of identifying correctable memory errors within a memory unit. One such correctable error that commonly persists in the memory units is Read Disturb errors in blocks of the memory unit. Patrolling through the blocks of the memory unit helps in identifying the read disturb errors in the blocks at specific intervals and performing a memory reclaim operation on the blocks.
The read disturb error is a type of error in a memory page, induced by read operations performed on the neighboring memory pages within a block of memory. When a memory page is read many times, it modifies the charge levels in the neighboring memory pages and causes the read disturbance error in those memory pages. Similarly, when a block of memory comprises multiple valid memory pages but is never read, it results in loss of charge in the memory pages over a period of time. Subsequently, when such memory pages are read from the block, it causes read disturb errors.
Generally, the read disturb errors are handled through the process of Garbage Collection (GC) or by performing block refresh. GC process involves copying the contents of the valid memory pages from the read-disturbed blocks into a free memory block and then moving the read-disturbed blocks into pool of free memory blocks. GC process is effective than block refreshing, which involves writing all the pages of the block to itself after successful erase.
The existing methods for identifying and handling the read disturb errors involve patrolling of all the memory blocks and all the memory pages, including the invalid pages, within each of the memory blocks in the memory unit. However, the existing methods do not evaluate all the system operations and memory blocks usage. This impacts the overall effectiveness of the patrolling process, i.e. process of identifying a block for patrolling and configuration of the patrolling process. Also, in the existing methods, the memory handling process (read/write throughput), consumes greater processor time and keeps the memory resources unavailable for a longer period. Hence, there is required an efficient method for handling the read disturb errors in the memory unit by considering the valid pages of the block, system block usage, performance configurations for patrolling process.
It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative systems embodying the principles of the present subject matter. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, state transition diagrams, pseudo code, and the like represent various processes which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and executed by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown.

Performance based method and system for patrolling read disturb errors in a memory unit


A modified chemical-mechanical polishing apparatus is described. The apparatus includes: (i) a polishing pad for providing a surface against which a surface of an integrated circuit substrate is polished during polishing; (ii) an anode on which the polishing pad is secured, the anode including an electrolyzable conductive material; and (iii) a voltage source including a first electrical connection and a second electrical connection, the first electrical connection being connected to the anode and the second electrical connection being configured for connection to the integrated circuit substrate undergoing polishing such that when a voltage is applied from the voltage source in the presence of slurry admixed with an electrolyte composition on the polishing pad, an electrolytic cell results in which the conductive material deposits on the surface of the integrated circuit substrate. A process of depositing a conductive material on and polishing a surface of an integrated circuit substrate simultaneously is also described.

The present invention relates to performing metal deposition and global planarization of an integrated circuit substrate (IC) surface simultaneously. More particularly, the present invention relates to employing a modified chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) apparatus to simultaneously perform metal deposition during global planarization of an integrated circuit (IC) substrate surface that is being processed according to the damascene process.
The damascene process, well known in the art and explained hereinafter, provides a metallization inlaid dielectric layer as opposed to having a metallization layer patterned above a dielectric layer. FIGS. 1A-1C show a portion of a surface of a partially fabricated IC substrate 10 that is processed to form a metal line and a via plug in a dielectric layer.
FIG. 1A shows the surface of a partially fabricated IC 10 including a dielectric layer 14, which is disposed above a first metallization layer 12 and includes a trench 16 and a via hole 18. As shown in FIG. 1A, trench 16 and via hole 18 are connected to each other in dielectric layer 14. Stated another way, trench 16 is a concave region that recesses inwardly into a top surface of dielectric layer 14 and is superimposed on via hole 18, which is an aperture through dielectric layer 14.
Partially fabricated IC 10 shown in FIG. 1A is typically formed by developing on the top surface of dielectric layer 14 a via mask, according to conventional photolithography, and then etching dielectric layer 14 from the top surface to a bottom surface to form via hole 18. Next, another mask, a trench mask, is similarly developed on dielectric layer 14 and dielectric layer 14 is etched to form trench 16. Those skilled in the art will recognize that trench 16 of FIG. 1A may be constructed by etching into the dielectric layer 14 before via hole 18 is formed using the same techniques described above or using a hard mask, e.g., a silicon nitride mask.
Next, a metallization layer 20 is blanket deposited on partially the fabricated IC substrate surface, as shown in FIG. 1B, filling trench 16 and via hole 18 of FIG. 1A to form a metal line 16' and a via plug 18', respectively. The IC substrate surface then undergoes chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) to remove the excess metallization layer 20 deposited above dielectric layer 14 and above metal line 16'. CMP typically involves mounting an IC substrate, e.g., a semiconductor wafer, faced down on a substrate holder and rotating the substrate surface against a polishing pad mounted on a platen, which is in turn rotating or is in orbital state. A slurry containing a chemical that chemically interacts with the facing substrate layer and an abrasive that physically removes that layer is flowed between the substrate surface and the polishing pad or on the pad near the substrate surface.
After CMP concludes, partially fabricated IC 10 is typically substantially planar and ready for another deposition of a dielectric layer. Those skilled in the art will recognize that similar steps of dielectric and metal layer depositions, followed by etching or CMP may be carried out on the surface of partially fabricated IC 10 to completely fabricate an IC.
Unfortunately, the current damascene process described above suffers from several drawbacks. By way of example, the current process requires two separate steps for metal deposition and polishing, which steps are expensive to implement. Furthermore, the current process is also time-consuming and therefore lowers the throughput for the semiconductor fabrication process.
What is therefore needed is a process of rapidly and inexpensively forming metal lines and plugs on an IC substrate surface.

Method of single step damascene process for deposition and global planarization


A common resource assigning method is used for a mobile communication system constituted by a plurality of radio base stations and a center station connected to the radio base stations and having a plurality of speech processing mechanisms. In this method, speech frame groups are set by grouping speech frames having different phases on radio interfaces. The speech processing mechanisms are related with the set frame groups. Speech channels are formed by using the speech frame groups in the radio base stations and the specific speech processing mechanisms related thereto.

The present invention relates to a mobile communication resource assigning method and, more particularly, to a method of assigning resources such as soft hand-over processing mechanisms in the speech processing mechanisms of a mobile communication system, e.g., vocoders (VOICE CODERS) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access).
In a mobile communication system, in order to effectively use radio resources, speech codes of a low bit rate are used, and voice codecs, i.e., vocoders, are required.
In a mobile communication system using TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), in order to increase the utilization efficiency of the transmission path between each base station and the center station, vocoders are arranged in the center station in one-to-one correspondence with radio channels on transmission paths, and time division multiplexing is performed between a plurality of channels of a low bit rate.
In a conventional scheme, these vocoders are generally prepared in number corresponding to the number of channels in radio base stations. For this reason, the number of vocoders required is equal to or larger than the number corresponding to the communication traffic, resulting in an increase in cost.
In a system which performs soft hand-over for speech frames as in CDMA, a soft hand-over processing mechanism for performing selective synthesis between a plurality of speech frames is required. Note that in a CDMA scheme, soft hand-over indicates that a mobile radio telephone moving from one cell area to another cell area is simultaneously communicating with the two cells through the same radio channel. In this case, in soft hand-over processing, redundant communication data received by one mobile telephone from two cells must be transmitted to a common call processing point in the system upon selecting a communication path, one of the communication data must be selected in real time while the other communication data is discarded, the reply must be copied to be sent to the two cells upon selecting communication paths, and the operations of the two cells must be harmonized with each other to simultaneously transmit the redundant replies to the mobile telephone.
In addition, a speech frame having a frame length of a variable rate is used in accordance with a speech state. For example, QCELP used by IS-95 of the TIA (Telecommunication Industry Association) standards is available.
Such a CDMA system uses a resources sharing method of performing transmission between each base station and the center station according to a frame relay scheme, and allowing an arbitrary relationship to be set between radio channels, vocoders, and hand-over mechanisms, as disclosed in U.S. Pat Nos. 5,305,308, 5,195,090, 5,278,892, 5,195,091, and 5,184,347.
When the frame relay scheme or ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) is used to perform transmission at a low bit rate, the ratio of additional information such as a header to actual speech information increases, resulting in a deterioration in efficiency in the transmission path.
In order to solve this problem, a composite cell scheme of multiplexing a plurality of speech frames on one ATM cell has been proposed, as in ITU/SG-13 (ITU-T/SG-13, D899 and D900, July 1995).
As described above, in the above conventional scheme, the following problems are posed.
The first problem is that when speech frames are to be transmitted between each base station and the center station according to the packet scheme, the transmission delay varies. When transmission is performed by time division multiplex as in a TDMA system, once a multiplexing point is set, almost no delay occurs during communication. When transmission is performed by the packet scheme, queues and processing mechanisms therefor are present at various positions in the transmission system, the transmission delay changes with a change in transmission amount.
The second problem is associated with the performance of a soft hand-over mechanism. Whether selective synthesis of some soft hand-over processes can be performed within a predetermined processing delay value depends on the performance of each processing mechanism itself and leveling of processing requests.

Common resource assigning method for mobile communication system


A semiconductor device includes JTAG ports receiving integrally command information representing a command and password information representing a password, a processor for performing a process in response to the command, an output port outputting consequence information representing a consequence of the process, a transfer section for transferring the command to the processor and for transferring the consequence information to the output port, and a cut off section. The cutoff section cuts off at least one of transferring the command information to the processor and transferring the consequence information to the output port when the password does not match a predetermined proper password. Thus, the semiconductor device can advantageously heighten its security effect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having a JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) port.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent years, some of semiconductor devices such as a system LSI (Large Scale Integration) have JTAG ports as interfaces for connecting inspection devices. The semiconductor devices are also provided with memories such as a flash ROM (Read-Only Memory) in their inside that have security bits so that the security bits prevent program sequences stored in memories from being read out and rewritten through their JTAG ports.
In this kind of semiconductor device, when its security bit is enabled, access from its JTAG port to its inside is cut off so as to prevent programs stored in a memory from being read out and rewritten.
Well, even if the semiconductor device switches the security bit to its enabled state after writing a finished program, the program may need to rewritten due to the discovery of a bug or change in its specifications.
However, in this kind of semiconductor device, when the security bit is enabled and the access from its JTAG port to its inside is cut off, it may be disadvantageous that the semiconductor device must be abandoned, and that, according to circumstances, a whole apparatus including the semiconductor device must be replaced.
Japanese Patent No. 3760087 discloses a semiconductor device that enables access from its JTAG port to its inside in spite of a state that its security bit is enabled. The semiconductor device in the Japanese patent is provided with general-purpose ports. In the semiconductor device, when an input state resultant from decoding the state on one or more of the general-purpose ports matches a predetermined pattern, access from its JTAG port to its inside is enabled.
A microcomputer disclosed in the Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2002-183108 enables access from its JTAG port to its inside in spite of a state that its security bit is enabled when data having a predetermined pattern is inputted to the JTAG port.
According to the Japanese patent and laid-open publication described above, even if a security bit is enabled, access from the JTAG port of the device to the inside allows rewriting the security bit to be disabled so that a program sequence stored in its inside can be read out and rewritten.
However, in the Japanese patent and laid-open publication described above, it is disadvantageous to not necessarily heighten security effect because access from the JTAG port to the inside allows a program sequence to be read out and rewritten when the security bit is disabled.

Semiconductor device with high security having JTAG ports


A planar type frequency shift probe that utilizes resonance of electromagnetic waves and includes a main body with a conductor plate and a coaxial cable. The main body includes a long narrow space, which has predetermined width and length and has an opening on the periphery of the main body, as well as the first surface part and the second surface part. The surface conductor of the coaxial cable is connected to the first surface part while the core conductor of the coaxial cable is connected to the second surface part via a lead wire.

Material processing technologies using plasmas generated in the discharge of reactive gases, such as etching and CVD(chemical vapor deposition), are being widely employed in industries and have taken root as important basic technologies. For further advancement of these technologies, it is strongly desired to make precise measurement of plasma states, especially plasma electron densities, as their basic information, and make a definite grasp of their sizes, spatial distributions and changes with time for proper control of plasma states. However, it cannot be said that the technique for measuring plasma electron densities has been well established to satisfactorily meet the needs from industries.
A classical method for measuring plasma electron densities employs a "Langmuir probe", as shown in FIG. 17. In this method, a metal electrode 82 is inserted in a plasma 81 generated in a plasma vessel 80 and the current is measured, which is generated when a direct current voltage is applied to the electrode 82. This method is very effective as well as convenient for discharge plasmas of argon, hydrogen, nitrogen and the like which yield no film deposition. In practical material processes using reactive plasmas, however, the surface of the metal electrode 82 inserted in the plasma 81 is covered with a deposition film, which often causes deterioration of the voltage-current characteristics. Therefore, it is difficult to employ a Langmuir probe in material processes using reactive plasmas. In addition, since heavy metal contaminants are emitted from the Langmuir probe, it is particularly difficult to apply the probe to semiconductor processes.
As a method which is unaffected by metal contamination and thin film deposition, the "microwave interference method" has been known, in which microwaves are irradiated from an incident antenna 83 to a plasma 81 and the microwaves transmitted through the plasma 81 are received at a receiving antenna 84, as shown in FIG. 18. The plasma electron densities are obtained from measurement of the phase difference caused by transmission of microwaves through the plasma 81. However, this technique has the following demerits. The method requires large windows for incidence and transmittance of microwaves as well as a large size of plasma 81 and it can only obtain the mean density of electrons along the passage of microwaves(spatial resolution is unobtainable). In addition, the measuring apparatus is expensive.
On the other hand, a highly sensitive method for measuring plasma electron densities by using a "surface wave probe" (also called plasma absorption probe) has been recently developed, which is unaffected by thin film deposition, yields no emission of metal contaminants and provides a sufficient spatial resolution (see, for example, Patent Document 1, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication(KOKAI) No. 2000-100599).
In this method, surface waves propagating along the surface of a rod type surface wave probe 85 inserted in a plasma 81 are excited by microwave signals transmitted from a network analyzer 86, as shown in FIG. 19. The surface wave probe 85 houses a coaxial cable and a loop antenna connected with the cable in a dielectric tube. At a specific frequency f0, decided by the electron density, the surface waves become resonant standing waves and are strongly excited. At this instant, the signals reflecting from the surface wave probe 85 decrease their intensities resonantly and can be observed by the network analyzer 86. Thus, the electron density can be obtained from measurement of the resonant frequency f0.
The method using this surface wave probe can be widely applied to reactive plasmas. It is applicable to electron densities from 108 cm−3 to 1012 cm−3 and discharge pressures from 10−5 Torr to 10 Torr.
The spatial distribution of electron densities can be measured with a resolution of several mm, by moving a surface wave prove 85 which is inserted in a plasma 81 through a port hole of a vessel 80. This function provides an important means for research and development in which a detailed survey is required for search of the optimum conditions.
However, in volume production under fixed conditions, the need is low to measure the spatial distributions of electron densities with high resolutions as minute as several mm. Reversely, when a foreign body such as a surface wave probe is protruded into a plasma in a volume production equipment, the plasma is likely to be disturbed during the plasma process. And, when the plasma vessel is cleaned after the process, the surface wave probe 85 protruding into the vessel is likely to be damaged.
To cope with the difficulties, a plan may be thought, in which the conventional rod type surface wave probe is retracted to a position where the tip of the probe is flush with the wall surface of a plasma vessel. However, when the probe is retracted to the vicinity of the wall surface where the electron density is small, significant signals are hidden by noises, leading to inaccurate measurement.
On the other hand, another method to measure plasma electron densities has been known, which employs a metallic dipole antenna and utilizes the resonance of electromagnetic waves (see Non-Patent Document 1: R. L. Stenzel, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 47, 604 (1976) and Non-Patent Document 2: R. B. Piejak, V. A. Godyak, R. Gamer, B. M. Alexandrovich and N. Stemberg, J. Appl. Phys. 95, 3785 (2004)).
In general, the wave length λ of electromagnetic waves, not limited to plasmas, propagating through a medium space with a dielectric constant ∈ is given by λ=c/(∈½), where c is the light velocity in vacuum. Consider a T-shape antenna, in which a metallic wire with a length L is connected to the core conductor of a coaxial cable and another metallic wire with the same length L is connected to the surface conductor of the cable. When the antenna is placed in a medium space with a dielectric constant ∈ and an electric power with a frequency f is sent to the antenna, electromagnetic waves are resonated at a frequency when L=λ/4 and the electric power is stored in the antenna. This kind of antenna is called a dipole antenna. For given dipole length 2L and dielectric constant ∈, the resonant frequency is given byfr=c/(4L∈½)   (1)In the simplest approximation(cold plasma model with no collisions) for a plasma space, the dielectric constant of the plasma is given by the following equation.∈=1−(fp2/f2)   (2)
Here, fp is a physical quantity called electron plasma frequency and is given by the following equation.fp=(½π)·(e2ne/me∈0)½  (3)where e and me are the electrical charge and mass of an electron, respectively, ∈0 is the dielectric constant of vacuum and ne is the electron density.
The resonant frequency fr of a dipole antenna in a plasma can be determined by substituting equations (2) and (3) into equation (1). If f0 denotes the resonant frequency in vacuum, free from plasmas, the following relation is obtained.fr2=f02+fp2  (4)
Therefore, the electron density ne can be determined from the difference between two measured data of f0 (GHz) and fr (GHz), as expressed by the following equation.ne={(fr2−f02)/0.81} (1010 cm−3)   (5)
A standard dipole antenna has a T-shape and the tip of the coaxial electric wire is connected vertically with a rectilinear radiant antenna with a total length of λ/2. However, the radiant antenna is not necessarily needed to be rectilinear but it may take an oval or U-shape. In either case, resonance occurs at the frequency when the total circumferential length of an antenna is equal to λ/2. In measurement of plasma electron densities, U-shape is preferable than T-shape because the size of the port hole for insertion of the antenna through a vessel wall is small.
FIG. 20 shows a U-shape wire type frequency shift probe as a U-shape antenna, inserted in a plasma 81. FIG. 21 depicts the principle of the U-shape wire type frequency shift probe, described in the aforementioned Non-Patent Document 1. Here, the magnetic force lines generated by the current flowing through a micro-loop(transmitting loop antenna) 89 mounted on the tip of a coaxial cable 88 interlace with the bottom of a U-shape antenna 90 and drive electric current along U-shape wire, from which electromagnetic waves are emitted. The emitted waves are picked up by another micro-loop (receiving loop antenna) 91. Then, I and T are assumed to denote the power incident on the transmitting loop antenna 89 and the transmitting power received on the receiving loop antenna 91, respectively. As shown in FIG. 23(a), when the incident power I is constant independent of frequency f, the transmitting power T becomes resonantly strong at the frequency fr to satisfy the relation, L=λ/4,as shown in equation (2). Here, the width d of the U-shape antenna 90 is designed to be larger than the thickness (several mm) of a sheath generated around the U-shape wire.
The probe in FIG. 21 requires two loops for power transmission and reception as well as two coaxial cables. In contrast with this, the aforementioned Non-Patent Document 2 describes a method to monitor the reflective power R by using one loop and one coaxial cable, as shown in FIG. 22. Here, tip C of core conductor 93 of coaxial cable 92 is connected with point A in the bottom of the U-shape antenna 94 via an arc shape lead wire 95. And, the bottom of U-shape antenna 94 is connected with the surface conductor 96 of the coaxial cable 92 at point G. In this situation, power I incident from the coaxial cable 92 is used to excite the U-shape antenna 94 through the arc shape lead wire. The rest of the power, as reflective power R, is sent back to the power source from the coaxial cable 92. A network analyzer functions to send a micro amount of incident power I to the antenna while sweeping frequencies and monitor reflective power R returning back from the antenna to the power source in the network analyzer. When reflective power R is measured, the power is found to resonantly decreased at the resonant frequency fr, as shown in FIG. 23(c). Plasma electron densities can be determined from this decrease by use of equation (5).
However, in the U-shape antenna 94 acting as a U-shape wire type frequency shift probe, described in Non-Patent Document 2, it is required to connect a lead wire 95 of micro arc shape to the U-shape antenna 94 at the tip of a thin coaxial cable 92. Therefore, it is difficult to fabricate and its mechanical strength is low. Furthermore, the U-shape antenna 94 as a measuring probe has a long thin shape as is the case with a surface wave probe. When this U-shape antenna 94 is protruded into a plasma through the wall of a plasma vessel, it causes a large disturbance in the plasma and it is subject to damage in volume production equipment.
Patent Document 1 describes an example which employs a flat metallic plate several mm wide as a special shape surface wave probe. However, in this case, a simple rectangular metallic plate is adopted just as an antenna of a surface wave probe, which functions on a different principle from that of a frequency shift probe that uses the resonance of electromagnetic waves.

Planar type frequency shift probe for measuring plasma electron densities and method and apparatus for measuring plasma electron densities

National University Corporation Nagoya University


The present invention provides new silica composite capsules that can be easily prepared, a composition containing the silica composite capsules, and a transparent gel-form composition excellent in appearance transparency and texture in use, and in particular, a transparent gel-form composition with improved cleansing properties when used as a cleanser. Micelle/silica composite capsules can easily be obtained, in an aqueous system, by mixing a material capable of forming micelles in water and a water-soluble silane derivative having a specific structure in aqueous solution. In addition, emulsion/silica composite capsules wherein the periphery of emulsion particles in the inner phase is coated with silica, can easily be obtained by mixing a surfactant, water, an oil, and a water-soluble silane derivative having a specific structure. Moreover, a transparent gel-form composition showing excellent appearance transparency, the texture in use and cleansing properties, can be obtained by blending a water-soluble silane derivative having a specific structure into the formulation that contains a surfactant, an oil and water, and capable of taking a surfactant association structure with aqueous continuous phase or both of aqueous continuous phase and oil continuous phase in the formulation.

The investigation concerning microcapsules, wherein a core material is contained inside the capsule, has been conducted in various fields such as in recording/display materials, drug delivery systems (DDS), cosmetics/perfume, food products, and agricultural chemicals. In one such example, an attempt was made to improve the drug stability in the product by enclosing the drug inside a capsule.
As such a microcapsule, a silica microcapsule has been known. There have been numerous reports concerning the production methods of silica microcapsules, for example, phase separation method, drying-in-liquid method, spray drying method, interfacial polymerization method, and in-situ polymerization method. However, in order to obtain silica microcapsules containing a core material, a separate treatment such as the impregnation, in a solution wherein the core material has been beforehand dissolved, of hollow silica microcapsules is usually necessary.
On the other hand, a one-step preparation method of the silica composite microcapsules containing a core material has been reported (for example, refer to patent literature 1). The preparation is done by the polymerization of silica, at the water-oil interface, using a water-in-oil type (W/O type) emulsion wherein the aqueous phase containing the core material is dispersed. In this method, however, a water-insoluble tetraalkoxysilane is used; thus the reaction system needs to be a water-in-oil type (W/O type). Therefore, there was a disadvantage in that the form of the obtained formulation is restricted.
In cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, various thickening agents and gelling agents have been used in order to maintain product forms. In the past, as water-based thickening/gelling agents, for example, natural water-soluble polymers such as agar and gelatin and synthetic water-soluble polymers such as polyethylene glycol and acrylic acid polymers were suitably selected and used depending upon respective purposes and effectiveness. However, when the base material was solidified with the use of these water-soluble polymers, there were usability problems in that the skin compatibility was poor or the spreadability during application was poor. In addition, when used as cleansers for cleansing, satisfactory cleansing power could not be obtained.
On the other hand, alkoxysilanes such as tetraethoxysilane are known to form silanol groups by the hydrolysis of alkoxy groups and to form silica gel by their subsequent dehydration-condensation. However, most of conventionally used alkoxysilanes are insoluble in water, and the hydrolysis reaction does not automatically proceed when an alkoxysilane is added into water. Thus, it is necessary to add other additives, and alkoxysilanes are not suitable for the gelation of an aqueous base material. In recent years, a simply mixed aqueous solution of a water-soluble polyhydric alcohol-substituted silane derivative was found to form a solid monolithic silica gel. For example, the application to a silica gel precursor for chromatography or the application to a biosensor, on which a biological component such as an enzyme is immobilized, is reported (for example, refer to patent literature 2 and non-patent literatures 1 to 4). However, the use of such a polyhydric alcohol-substituted silane derivative has not been tried as an aqueous gelling agent.    [Patent Literature 1] Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2001-38193    [Patent Literature 2] PCT international publication No. WO03/102001    [Non-patent Literature 1] Sattler et al., Ber. Bunsenges. Phys. Chem., 1998, 102, 1544-1547.    [Non-patent Literature 2] Mayer et al., J. Phys. Chem. B, 2002, 106, 1528-1533.    [Non-patent Literature 3] Schipunov, J. Colloid and Interface Sci., 2003, 268, 68-76.    [Non-patent Literature 4] Schipunov et al., J. Biochem. Biophys. Methods, 2004, 58, 25-38.

Silica composite capsules obtained by blending water-soluble silane derivative, composition containing the same, and transparent gel-form composition


A method for making a metal grating is provided. The method includes providing a substrate, applying a metal layer on a surface of the substrate, forming a number of protrusions spaced from each other on a surface of the metal layer, wherein each of the number of protrusions is made of two resist layer, one of the two resist layers being made of silicone oligomer, etching the surface of the metal layer exposed out of the number of protrusions using a physical etching gas and a reactive etching gas, and dissolving the number of protrusions on the surface of the metal layer.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing metal grating.
2. Description of Related Art
A sub-wavelength grating is a common optical component in the semiconductor industry. The size of the sub-wavelength grating is similar to or less than the active wavelength of the sub-wavelength grating. It is difficult to make a quartz grating with high density, sub-wavelength, and mark-space ratio. The sub-wavelength grating can be made by electron beam lithography, focused ion beam lithography, deep-ultraviolet lithography, holographic lithography, and nano-imprint lithography.
Currently there is no method for making the sub-wavelength grating made of metal.


A method and apparatus for associating stations to a port on a network concentrator. The network concentrator implements a network having a Ring based topology. Associating stations to ports provides for the coupling of multiple stations to a single port. Three maps are created which describe the network, a port map, a station map and an exit station map. The port map identifies the ports having one or more stations coupled to it. The station map identifies each station in the network. The exit station map identifies for each port with a station coupled to it, the station which transmits data into the port. By identifying the stations between two exit stations on adjacent ports in the network concentrator, the stations coupled to a port are determined. The identification of exit stations is facilitated by the use of an exit station detection circuit located at the port.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to network concentrators and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for associating Data Terminal Elements to a port on a network concentrator.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known in the art to interconnect Data Terminal Elements (DTEs) through a common communication cable. Such interconnection provides for enhancements such as simplified transfer of information, sharing of resources and distributed functionality. A configuration of interconnected DTEs that are within a close proximity, e.g. the same building, is known as a Local Area Network (or LAN). The physical manner in which the DTEs are interconnected is termed a LAN topology. Associated with a LAN topology is a protocol. A LAN protocol refers to the format in which data is transmitted and the rules by which Data In the network is transmitted and received.
One such LAN topology is a ring topology. In a ring topology, the DTEs are successively interconnected in a daisy chained fashion to form the ring. Data transmitted through the LAN will propagate around the ring and through each of the successive DTEs.
A common protocol used in a ring topology is a token passing protocol. In a token passing protocol a token is continuously transmitted around the ring. Whenever a DTE desires access to the network for transmission of data or some other function, the token is examined to determine if some other DTE has control of the network. Through a scheme of priorities and time sharing, the various DTEs are given control of, i.e. the ability to transmit data onto, the network.
A well known example of such a network with a ring topology utilizing a token passing protocol is the token-ring, which is embodied in the American National Standards Institute/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ANSI/IEEE) 802.5 Token Passing Ring standard.
An example of a token ring network is provided with reference to FIG. 1 which illustrates a ring-shaped communications media 103 having coupled thereto a plurality of ring interface units 102. Each ring interface unit 102 may be coupled with a DTE 101. A further description of typical components of a token-based network may be found, for example, with reference to Madron, T.W., LANS Applications of IEEE/ANSI 802 Standards, John Wiley & Sons, 1989 at pg. 163.
More recently network concentrators (also termed intelligent hubs) have been provided in networks in order to provide for increased connectivity, internetworking, and network management. An example of such a concentrator is the LattisNet System 3000.TM. intelligent hub available from SynOptics Communications, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. In a system utilizing a concentrator, each DTE is coupled with the concentrator and the concentrator provides a common communication channel, or backplane, allowing for communication between the various DTEs. This type of network, when depicted graphically, can represent a star-like image and, thus, is often referred to as a star configured network.
FIG. 2 illustrates a network as may be configured utilizing a concentrator. As illustrated by FIG. 2, a network may comprise a plurality of concentrators, such as concentrators 201 and 202. Each concentrators may have a plurality of data terminals coupled with the concentrators, such as data terminals 221-223 which are coupled with concentrators 201 and data terminals 231-233 which are coupled with concentrators 202.
The data terminals are coupled with the concentrator through one or more host modules which are housed in the concentrator. For example, data terminals 221 and 222 are each coupled with host module 241 while data terminal 223 is coupled with host module 242. The host modules provide individual ports for coupling with the data terminals.
The host modules are each coupled with a backplane bus (not shown) in the concentrator to allow communication with a repeater module, for example, repeater module 214. The repeater module is used to amplify and retransmit message packets being transmitted within the concentrator. For example, DTE 221 may transmit a message. As has been discussed above, data terminals 222 and 223 will then examine the packet to determine if the destination address of the message indicates the message is to be processed.
In addition, the concentrator may comprise a bridge or router module such as module 211 of concentrator 201. The bridge or router module allows communication of messages between DTEs which may exist in other parts of the network. As can be seen with reference to FIG. 2, concentrator 201 and concentrator 202 are coupled in communication through bridge/router 211 which is on concentrator 201 and bridge/router 212 on concentrator 202 to allow messages to be communicated from DTEs 221-223 coupled with concentrator 201 to DTEs 231-233 coupled with concentrator 202.
Port-Station Association
In some instances, a single physical attachment to the network concentrator will allow a plurality of DTEs to be coupled into the network. For example, in the case of a remote bridge, the single remote bridge coupling may incorporate multiple DTEs coupled to the corresponding concentrator on the remote end of the bridge, to be coupled into the network. In a similar manner it would be desirable to allow more than one DTE to be coupled to a port on the network concentrator.
In order to maintain proper management and security of the network, a means for recognizing the physical connection, e.g. the port, to which a DTE is connected to the network, is necessary. Such a port/station association is important in the event one or more DTEs must be partitioned from the network. This may arise, for example in a situation where a particular DTE, or set of DTEs are deteriorating network performance through excessive use. Such an instance may arise if the DTEs are constantly transmitting data onto the network. In such a situation, it may be desirable to partition such offending DTEs off of the network.
A second instance may arise with respect to network security. For example, if a DTE is performing an unprivileged data access to/from another DTE, it may again be desirable to partition the offending DTE off the network.
The requirement of a port/station association may cause restrictions in the implementation of a network concentrator. For example, it is common for a concentrator to have a restriction where a port may only have one station connected to it. Further, the need for port/station association has often complicated the installation of new stations onto the network. Finally, it is desirable that such a means be dynamic, namely that the port/station association may occur while the network is in operation, rather, than being a static process (e.g. loading a pre-defined table).
Thus, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a means by which stations may be dynamically associated to a particular port on a network concentrator which in turn would allow for multiple stations to be connected to a single port on a concentrator.

Method and apparatus for identifying port/station relationships in a network


A deformable vehicle door pull cup is provided which is both sufficiently strong for use during closing of the door and which also deforms during a side impact collision. A deformable vehicle door pull cup includes a weakening groove and dimple system in preferred embodiments. Dimples are placed within grooves to enhance crack propagation in a side impact collision.

Vehicle doors are frequently provided with an armrest having a pull cup for use in closing the door. Such a pull cup has a recess for permitting the fingers to grasp the pull cup while pulling the vehicle door shut. In order to perform this function, the pull cup must be sufficiently strong to withstand the forces produced by resistance of the mechanism holding the door open when being pulled during door closing. However, while the pull cup must be strong enough to withstand repetitive use over a number of years, it is disadvantageous to have a pull cup which is so rigid that it becomes dangerous to a vehicle occupant during a side impact collision. Thus, there is a continuing need for a deformable vehicle door pull cup which is both sufficiently strong for use during closing of the door and which also deforms during a side impact collision.

Weakening groove with dimple in pull cup

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.


A motor control device includes: a motor that has a plurality of rotors which respectively have a magnetic piece, which drives or supplementarily drives a vehicle; a phase changing mechanism that changes relative phases of the plurality of rotors, and sets these to a predetermined induced voltage constant; and a speed control device that controls a phase changing speed of the phase changing mechanism.

Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-236603, filed Aug. 31, 2006, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor control device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore a motor equipped with a first permanent magnet piece and a second permanent magnet piece for which the phase positions are mutually changeable by means of, for example, servo pressure, so that the magnetic field flux can be changed, is known (for example refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. S55-153300).
Furthermore, heretofore for example in motors such as for hybrid vehicles, those provided with an adjustment mechanism in which a plurality of rotors, which are provided with magnetic poles with polarities that are serially different in the rotation direction, are arranged on the same rotation axis such that they are adjacent, and the induced voltage constant of a permanent magnet with respect to the stator is adjusted by changing the spacing of these rotors by means of an actuator, is known (for example refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2001-69609).
Incidentally, in a motor according to the abovementioned conventional technology, in a case where current control is performed based on a torque command which is set for example corresponding to accelerator opening or the like related to the accelerator operation of the driver, so that a difference between a current command value and a current detection value with respect to the energizing current of the motor becomes zero, when the relative phase of the plurality of rotors is changed, there is the possibility that it becomes difficult to appropriately perform current control. That is to say, in the feedback control of the current, the induced voltage constant is set to a predetermined value. However, since this is an assumption, then when the induced voltage constant changes due to the change in the relative phases of the plurality of rotors, there is the possibility that it becomes difficult to make the current detection value converge on the current command value.
There present invention was made in view of the aforementioned circumstances and has an object of providing a motor control device that is capable of performing appropriate current control with respect to the energizing current of the motor, even in the case where the induced voltage constant of the motor changes.


A display processing unit causes a display device to display a screen on the basis of screen image data. A screen change detecting unit watches the screen image data and detects a change of the screen image data. A transmission processing unit transmits the screen image data to a monitoring apparatus if the screen change detecting unit detected a change of the screen image data. A storage device stores excluding condition data. The transmission processing unit does not transmit the screen image data if the detected change of the screen image data satisfies the excluding condition specified by the excluding condition data and transmits the screen image data if the detected change of the screen image data does not satisfy the excluding condition specified by the excluding condition data.

1. Field of the Present Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a system, an image of a screen displayed on an operation panel in an electronic apparatus such as a multi function peripheral is displayed on a remote apparatus. In such a case, for example, every time when an image of the screen is changed, image data of the image is transmitted through a network to the remote apparatus.
Various techniques are proposed on the transmission for image data of a screen.
An image of a screen in an electronic apparatus such as the aforementioned one is changed in various manners on the basis of a user operation, a status change in the electronic apparatus, displayed contents and the like, and in accordance with it, the load changes due to a transmission process of image data of the screen, and therefore, the load status in the electronic apparatus widely changes due to the transmission of the image data of the screen and consequently a delay may occur in another process.

Electronic apparatus that selectively transmits screen data changes based on exclusionary conditions


Disclosed is a semiconductor device including a semiconductor die, a base member, a side wall, first and second conductive films, and first and second conductive leads. The base member has a conductive main surface including a region that mounts the semiconductor die. The side wall surrounds the region and is made of a dielectric. The side wall includes first and second portions. The first and second conductive films are provided on the first and second portions, respectively and are electrically connected to the semiconductor die. The first and second conductive leads are conductively bonded to the first and second conductive films, respectively. At least one of the first and second portions includes a recess on its back surface facing the base member, and the recess defines a gap between the at least one of the first and second portions below the corresponding conductive film and the base member.

JP2012-038837A discloses a package for air-tightly sealing a semiconductor die in a semiconductor device for high-frequency use, for example. The package includes a base having a metal main surface, a dielectric side wall having a bottom surface bonded to the main surface of the base, and metal leads bonded to an upper surface on a side opposite to the bottom surface of the side wall. For electrical connection between an external circuit for the semiconductor device and the semiconductor die, the metal leads extend laterally from the upper surface of the side wall in the package.

SUMITOMO ELECTRIC DEVICE INNOVATIONS, INC.


A z buffer stores compressed z data represented in a planar format for one or more tiles. The compressed format includes a set of tile specific coefficients defining a plane equation for each z tested primitive intersecting the tile. The z buffer stores a maximum number of sets of tile specific coefficients for each tile, and when the maximum number of sets is exceeded for a particular tile, an uncompressed format is used to store the z data for the particular tile.

Conventional graphics processors are exemplified by systems and methods developed to reduce bandwidth between a memory storing a z buffer and a graphics processor accessing the z buffer. Conventionally, some graphics processors compress z values prior to writing them into the z buffer and decompress the z values after reading them from the z buffer. The compression and decompression operations require additional computations, beyond the typical z data processing to perform hidden surface removal. The additional computations may require dedicated logic used only for that purpose or the additional computation may be performed using general purpose logic. In either case, the performance or efficiency of the graphics processor is negatively impacted.
There is thus a need for a z compression and z decompression which reduces the bandwidth used by a graphics processor accessing the z buffer and minimizes the number of additional computations needed to perform hidden surface removal.

Planar z representation for z compression


A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device having N-type source and drain regions formed substantially in parallel to each other in the surface of a P-type semiconductor substrate. A channel region having first to fourth edges are sandwiched between each pair of the source and drain regions on the first and second edges. A gate insulating film is formed on the semiconductor substrate. Gate electrodes are formed substantially in parallel to each other on the semiconductor substrate via gate insulating film so as to cross the source and drain regions. The first and second edges of the channel regions are substantially parallel to the source and drain regions, and third and fourth regions are substantially parallel to the gate electrodes. A P-type impurity diffusion region is formed by ion implantation in accordance with self-alignment with gate electrodes, at least on either side of the third and fourth edge of at least one of the channel regions. An impurity concentration of the impurity diffusion region is adjusted such that it is higher than that of the semiconductor substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and its manufacturing method, and more specifically to a semiconductor device provided with a multiple-state ROM (Read Only Memory) for storing multiple-state level data and its manufacturing method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, in a memory cell array of masked ROM (read only semiconductor memory device), a plurality of memory cells composed of MOS transistors are arranged into a matrix pattern; gates of the memory cells are connected to a plurality of word lines extending in the row direction, respectively; and source and drain diffusion regions are connected to a plurality of bit lines extending in the column direction, respectively. FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram thereof, in which the memory cells are arranged into a matrix pattern; each of the gates of the memory cells is connected to each of a plurality of word lines W1, W2, . . . ; and each of the source and drain diffusion regions is connected to each of a plurality of bit lines B1, B2, . . . Further, the memory cells are of depletion type transistors a to d and of enhancement type transistors (reference symbols omitted).
Now, when data stored in the memory cell a is required to be read, the word line W2 connected to the memory cell a is set to a low level (e.g., 0 V) and all the word lines W1, W3 and W4 other than the word line W2 are set to a high voltage (e.g., 5 V); and further the bit line B1 connected to the memory cell a is set to a high voltage (e.g., 2 V). Under these conditions, if current flows through the memory cell, the memory cell a is determined to be a depletion type transistor; and if no current flows therethrough, the memory cell a is determined to be an enhancement type transistor. In the conventional masked ROM, data of "0" and "1" can be discriminated on the basis of whether the memory cell is of depletion type or enhancement type.
To obtain the transistor of depletion type, ions are implanted appropriately into a channel region formed under a gate electrode and between source and drain regions. In the masked ROM of this structure, however, with the advance of the memory capacity, since the parasitic capacitance of the bit lines increases with increasing number of memory cells connected to the bit lines the data read speed decreases. To overcome this problem, a ROM for reducing the parasitic capacitance of the bit lines for improvement of the data read speed has been proposed, in which the bit lines are divided into a main bit line group of a long wiring length and a subsidiary bit line group of a short wiring length; the memory cells are accommodated in a plurality of banks, respectively; and the memory cells of each bank are connected to the subsidiary bit lines. In the conventional ROM as described above, however, since one memory cell can store only onebit data of "0" or "1", when a large-capacity memory is required to be realized, there exists such a drawback that the chip size increases inevitably.
To overcome this problem, another method has been proposed such that 2 or more bit data can be stored in one memory cell to reduce the chip size, which is referred to as a multiple-state ROM. In the multiple-state ROM, the channel conductances of the respective memory cell transistors are set to a plurality of predetermined different values by changing the gate length and/or width of the memory cell transistors. Or the threshold voltages of the memory cell transistors are set to a plurality of different values by controlling the implantation rate of ions into the channel region formed under the gate electrode and between the source and drain regions. In order to control the implantation rate, however, it has been necessary to implant ions several times.
Here, a prior art method of changing the threshold voltage of the transistor will be explained hereinbelow with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4, which is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined (Kokai) Patent Application No. 3-185758.
FIG. 2 is a plane view showing a transistor formed on a semiconductor substrate;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line A-A' in FIG. 2; and FIG. 4 is a graphical representation showing the characteristics of dependency of the threshold voltage upon the overlap rate of the transistor gate portion with an ion implantation opening formed on a photoresist. As shown in FIG. 2, a source region 41 and a drain region 42 are arranged at an interval on a principal plane of a p-type silicon semiconductor substrate 1. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, a gate electrode 30 is formed on a gate oxide film 20 over and between the source and drain regions. A field oxide film 90 is formed outside of the active area. In the transistor formed as described above, to obtain the transistor having a predetermined threshold voltage, a photo mask 80 formed with a mask pattern 50 which opens over a gate electrode 30 of the transistor is arranged over the semiconductor substrate 1. Here, an end portion (on the left side) of the mask pattern 50 (the opening 60 in FIG. 2) along the longitudinal direction (the right and left direction in FIG. 2) of the gate electrode 30 is apart by a distance X from end portions (on the left sides) of the source region 41 or drain region 42. On the semiconductor substrate 1, a photoresist 70 is formed, an implantation opening 60 for determining the threshold voltage thereof is formed in the photoresist 70 so as to correspond to the mask pattern 50. Further, ions are implanted at a predetermined implantation rate through the formed opening 60. In this case, a threshold voltage can be determined by controlling the ion concentration implanted into the channel region between the source and drain regions 41 and 42 of the transistor. That is, the threshold voltage thereof can be decided on the basis of the distance X. In this method, the openings 60 of all the transistors can be formed by only one photolithography and further ions can be implanted to all the transistors simultaneously.
In the above-mentioned structure, however, when the threshold voltages are required to be set to four states of 0.5, 2.3, 4.1 and 5.9 V, for instance, the maximum allowable voltage margin is 1.8 V. In the current situation, however, since there inevitably exists an alignment offset (error) of about 0.2 .mu.m in the photoresist, if the distance X is offset by 0.2 .mu.m as an error, the threshold voltage differs as high as about 2.5 V, as shown in FIG. 4. In other words, in the case where the four states are required to be formed by changing the effective channel width of the transistors in accordance with this method, it has been necessary to increase the channel width sufficiently wide to such an extent that the channel width dispersion due to the mask alignment error can be disregarded, for instance to such an extent that W/4>>0.2 .mu.m can be satisfied (where W is a channel width), with the result that the cell size itself has been inevitably increased.
In summary, in the conventional method, when the multiple-state ROM of small cells is formed, since the channel width disperses due to the alignment error of the photoresist, the channel conductance gm inevitably changes, thus causing a problem in that the threshold voltage disperses. As a result, in the prior art multiple-state ROM, it has been difficult to increase the integration rate and the capacity of the multiple-state ROM.

Method for manufacturing a semiconductor device having an adjustable channel width