A fume exhaust hood is equipped with a fume detecting sensor element that controls the fan and, additionally, with a sensor element that directly or indirectly detects continuous activation of the range area connection and serves as a control member of a control circuit to start up the fume exhaust hood.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fume exhaust hood device for use above a range (stove top) wherein the fume exhaust device can be started with the aid of a module receiving an activation signal from the range.
Fume exhaust devices may be configured as exhaust hoods or as exhaust chimneys that are disposed above the range or another open cooking area, such as a deep-fat fryer or an open grill, to take up the cooking fumes from the cooking area, filter them and either direct them out of the room toward the outside or return them odor-free to the room. Such fume exhaust devices are sufficiently known.
The currently used fume exhaust devices generally have a manual fan control that permits an incremental adjustment of the speed and thus the control of the air flow through the fume exhaust device and the adjustment to individual requirements. However, fume exhaust devices have become known, which respond to the state of the cooking process that takes place in the cooking area. German Utility Model DE 76 33 882 discloses an exhaust hood for a range disposed underneath the exhaust hood and the exhaust hood has a sensor of a moisture filling device. The sensor controls the operation of the exhaust hood via an evaluation circuit. This is to provide a state-dependent control of the exhaust hood.
It is furthermore known to equip an exhaust hood with a temperature sensor (see Published, Non-Prosecuted German Patent Application DE 25 18 750 A). It is also known from Published, Non-Prosecuted German Patent Application DE 29 51 409 A to disposed a so-called residual heat indicator on a stove top, which signals the heating state of a burner to the user until safe temperature values have been reached. In connection therewith, Published, Non-Prosecuted German Patent Application DE 32 45 302 A discloses a configuration of a photoelectric sensor in an exhaust hood that responds to a signal generator located in the burner, e.g., the residual heat indicator.
It is furthermore known to provide a transmission connection between the range and the exhaust hood so that the exhaust hood can be controlled via the stove top or its input elements and controls. This connection can be galvanic, i.e. in the form of wires, or wireless, by radio, ultrasound or photoelectric techniques.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a fume exhaust device for use above a range which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices of this general type, which has improved functionality and user friendliness of the fume exhaust device in connection with a range located underneath it.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a fume exhaust hood device for use above a range, including:
an exhaust device for evacuating fumes;
a fume detecting sensor element;
a control circuit for starting up and operating the exhaust device and connected to the fume detecting sensor element; and an additional sensor element that one of directly and indirectly continuously detects an operating state of the range and serves as a control member of the control circuit for starting up the exhaust device, the control circuit is functionally configured such that in a presence of a range-on operating state detected by the additional sensor element, for a duration of the range-on operating state, the control circuit functioning in an automatic operating state that activates and controls the exhaust device.
According to the invention, a fume exhaust device that satisfies these requirements to a high degree is characterized in that the fume exhaust device is equipped with a fume detecting sensor element and, additionally, with a sensor, element that directly or indirectly detects continuous activation of the range area connection. The additional sensor element serves as a control member of a control circuit to start up the fume exhaust device and in that the control circuit is functionally configured in such a way that in the presence of the range area connection criterion (i.e. the range is in an operating state) detected by the additional sensor element, for the duration of the connection, the control circuit for the automatic control of the exhaust device is activated.
With such a measure in a fume exhaust device, the additional sensor element is typically kept in continuous stand-by operation via a mini-power pack so that the additional sensor element can detect a typical range area connection criterion at any time. Such a criterion can be, for example, the residual heat indicator, but this requires that a relevant heat output is already being supplied to the range. It is more practical to detect the startup of the range control itself, i.e., to respond, for example, to the actuation of a main switch or other input members. The states that are thus established without any heat outputs can be detected and evaluated by simple devices known in the art and can thus be provided to the additional sensor element of the fume exhaust device, preferably by radio techniques. For the duration of the connection (switched on state) of the range, this signal is thus available and is registered by the additional sensor element of the fume exhaust device and supplied to the control circuit. The absence of this signal causes the additional sensor element to switch off the automatic function of the fume exhaust device. In this case, it is provided that the fume exhaust device can be manually set to the desired power values. Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is described herein as embodied in a fume exhaust device for use above a range, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details described, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments.

Fume exhaust device for use above a range


A frequency conversion circuit having a plurality of N signal channels, each being fed an input signal and a train of pluses having a period T and a duty cycle T/N. Each channel includes: a sampler coupled the input signal and being responsive to sampling signals; and a controllable time delay for producing the train of sampling signals in response to the train of pulses, the time delay imparting a time delay to the pulses in accordance with a time delay command signal fed to the time delay. Each one of the sampling signals is produced by the time delay in each one of the channels with the period T and the duty cycle T/N with the sampling signals in one of the trains of the sampling signals being delayed with respect to the sampling signals in another one of the trains the sampling signals a time T/N.

As is known in the art, RF samplers are commonly used prior to conversion to digital information in an analog to digital converter. Conventionally, the RF Sampler includes several switches that perform the frequency conversion and a baseband filtering network that conditions the output signals.
One frequency conversion application is in phased array antenna systems, such as that is shown in FIG. 1. Here, a phased array system is shown having a plurality of antenna or radiating elements, each one of the elements being coupled to a corresponding one of a plurality of phase shifter sections. Each one of the phase shifter sections includes: an array port coupled to the corresponding one of the antenna elements. Each one of the phase shifter sections directs the signal received by the antenna element coupled to a pair of quadrature channels, each one of the channels having: a down converter section fed by the received RF signal and a local oscillator (LO) signal for converting the received radio frequency (RF) energy received by the antenna element to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal; and as phase shifter section fed by the down conversion section for providing as phase shift to the IF signal selectively in accordance with a phase shift command provided by a beam steering computer (BSC), as shown. The plurality of phase shifters produce, in response to the phase shift commands, a collimated and directed beam. It is understood that the directed beam may be used reciprocally in either a receive mode or, with a circulator or transmit/receive switch, not shown, a transmit mode. Thus, if the all the antenna elements are in-phase the antenna beam is directed along the boresight axis of the array. On the other hand if there is a fixed, non-zero, phase shift across the array, a directed beam is produced having an angle from the boresight axis in accordance with the fixed phase shift.
As is also known in the art, RF Samplers are commonly used to convert RF signals to analog baseband information prior to conversion to digital information in an analog to digital converter. Conventionally, the RF Sampler consists of several switches that perform the frequency conversion and a baseband filtering network that conditions the output signals. By using multiple switches that are active only during a fraction of the input signal cycle, the RF Sampler provides improved noise and loss performance over a conventional mixer.
More particularly, the RF Sampler is formed through the combination of three functions: frequency conversion via the sampling switches, Local Oscillator (LO) generation circuitry to drive the switches, and circuits that provide signal conditioning at the baseband output of the switches. FIG. 2A shows a simplified version of the RF Sampler architecture, where the input RF signal (VRF) is fed into 4 parallel switches (See a paper by Alyosha Molnar and Carline Andrews, "Impedance, Filtering and Noise is N-phase Passive CMOS Mixers," 2012 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), pp. 1-8, 2012). At the output of the switches, load capacitors form the baseband signal processing circuits. In this case, the baseband circuits are low pass filters. For an RF Sampler architecture with 4 switches, each of the switches are closed with a 25% duty cycle, with the frequency of the switching operation set to the frequency of the RF signal to be down-converted. Each of the 4 switches is closed in quadrature, meaning that only one of the 4 switches is closed at a time, each for ¼ of the cycle time of the RF signal. An equivalent model with is shown in FIG. 2B and the LO driving the waveforms and resulting RF current and virtual voltage Vx is shown in FIG. 2C. One method for generating the necessary LO pulses is to use a bank of dividers driven by a signal at a multiple of the RF signal frequency (FIG. 2C). The four outputs of this RF Sampler then correspond to a differential representation of the in-phase and quadrature component of the down-converted RF signal.
This RF sampling approach differs from conventional mixer architectures in several ways. First, the switch used in the RF Sampler is designed to be as low impedance as possible, ideally providing a perfect short between the RF signal and the baseband filter. Unlike a mixer where the switching function is matched to 50 ohms on both the input and output, the baseband filtering of the RF sampler is effectively translated to RF. The result of this is a passband filter, providing rejection of interfering signals outside of the desired receive band. Through this process, the out-of-band linearity of the RF sampler circuitry is higher than with mixer approaches that often require separate RF filters to be present prior to the frequency converting circuitry. Another key difference is that the impedance to the switch control terminal (the gate, if the switch is a Field Effect Transistor (FET)) is ideally high, and not matched to 50 ohms. In this case, the LO generation circuitry (e.g. a network of dividers) drives the high-impedance switch terminals and ideally alternates each switch between an open and closed state.
RF Samplers are often employed in low-cost commercial applications where frequency conversion is required prior to conversion to the digital domain. The state of the art employs silicon technology, where the switches, the LO generation, and the baseband processing all take place within the same chip technology. Performing all functions on the same chip is the standard approach, as it provides the lowest cost means to achieve the functionality and enables the highest performance by keeping the parasitics between the functional blocks low.
The inventors have recognized that in order to achieve higher RF performance, it would be desirable to use Column III-V (for example GaN) FET switches while using silicon for the LO generation and baseband processing. A low parasitic interface required between the LO generation circuitry and the switches is achieved through either heterogeneous or nearly-heterogeneous packaging approaches, or by resonating out the bondwire parasitic with passive components on the III-V die. An example of a nearly-heterogeneous packaging approach is The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, Mass. Integrated-Ultra High Density Packaging (iUHD) technology (U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,726,806 B2; 8,017,451 B2; 8,273,603 B2) or an Redistributed Chip Packaging (RCP) RCP technology of Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Corporate Headquarters 6501 William Cannon Drive West Austin, Tex. 78735 USA. Both packaging approaches enable close proximity of disparate MMIC technologies by encapsulating both die using silicon backend processing steps, where dielectric and metal layers are photo-lithographically defined to create interconnects that have similar characteristics to the interconnects found in the back end of commercial silicon processes—significantly lower inductance than bondwires. Heterogeneous integration of the III-V and silicon technology would provide similarly low-parasitic interconnects. If more commonplace packaging technologies are used, such as chip-and-wire, passive structures on the III-V die can be used to resonate out the inductance from the bondwires to achieve the desired low parasitic interconnect over a bandwidth of interest.
The inventors have recognized that the III-V switch be designed such that the closed position is close to zero impedance at the frequency of operation. Passive structures in the RF path can optionally be used to tune out the capacitive parasitics associated with the switch device. The baseband filtering section is designed to incorporate the parasitics of the interconnect between III-V and silicon die, such that the parasitics become part of the passband filter response at the input RF frequency. Because the III-V device has inherently higher voltage headroom than silicon technology, both the in-hand and out-of-band linearity achieve a 10-15 dB improvement over the state of the art. The baseband and LO generation circuitry remains in silicon technology, where the relatively large number of devices and calibration procedures to tune the RF Sampler architecture are easily achievable.
The inventors have recognized that using III-V switches as part of an RF Sampler architecture provides a significant improvement in the linearity, making the approach more compatible with the higher performance requirements of military systems. The enhanced RF Sampler architecture provides benefits over traditional III-V based mixer architectures, because the RF filtering function can be performed at baseband to achieve improved filtering response while minimizing insertion loss. Further, while the RF Sampler provides frequency conversion to baseband for a single RF signal, beamforming multiple RF signals as in a phased array antenna requires independent phase control of each RF signal and the summation of all signals into a combined output.
In accordance with one embodiment of the disclosure, a signal sampler is provided having: a column III-V semiconductor having formed therein a plurality of N, where N is an integer, transistor switches coupled to a common input of the sampler fed by the signal, each one of the plurality of N switches taking samples of the signal in response to a train of sampling signals fed to such one of the switches; and a column IV (such as silicon) semiconductor having analog signal processing circuitry and a generator for generating a plurality of N trains of the sampling signals, each one of the plurality of N trains of sampling signals being fed to a corresponding one of the N samplers. Each one of the N trains of sampling signals is generated with a period T and a duty cycle T/N with the sampling signals in one of the plurality of N trains of the sampling signals being delayed with respect to the sampling signals in another one of the plurality of N trains the sampling signals a time T/N.
In one embodiment of the disclosure, the analog signal processing circuitry a controllable time delay for producing the trains of sampling signals in response to a train of pulses, the time delay imparting a time delay to the pulses in accordance with a time delay command signal fed to the time delay and wherein each one of the sampling signals is produced by the time delay with the period T and the duty cycle T/N with the sampling signals in one of the trains of the sampling signals being delayed with respect to the sampling signals in another one of the trains of the sampling signals a time T/N.
In one embodiment of the disclosure, a frequency conversion circuit is provided having a plurality of N signal channels; each being fed an input signal and a train of pluses having a period T and a duty cycle T/N. Each signal channel includes: a sampler coupled the input signal and being responsive to sampling signals; and a controllable time delay for producing the train of sampling signals in response to the train of pulses, the time delay imparting a time delay to the pulses in accordance with a time delay command signal fed to the time delay. Each one of the sampling signals is produced by the time delay in each one of the channels with the period T and the duty cycle T/N with the sampling signals in one of the trains of the sampling signals being delayed with respect to the sampling signals in another one of the trains the sampling signals a time T/N.
With such an arrangement, the time delays between the trains of sampling signals may be independently controlled by the individual controllable time delays.
In one embodiment of the disclosure, a phased array antenna system is provided having: (A) a beam steering computer; (B) a plurality M, where M is an integers, of antenna elements each one being coupled to a corresponding one of a plurality of M antenna ports; (C) a pulse train source, the pulses in the train having a period T, and a duty cycle T/N; (D) a plurality of M frequency conversion/variable time delay circuits. Each one of the M frequency conversion/variable time delay circuits is coupled to a corresponding one of the M antenna ports. Each one of the M frequency conversion/variable time delay circuits comprises: a plurality of N, where N is an integer, signal channels, each one of the N signal channels being coupled to the corresponding one of the one of the M antenna ports. Each one of the signal channels includes: a sampler coupled to said corresponding one of the one of the M antenna ports and responsive to sampling signals fed thereto; a controllable time delay for producing the train of sampling signals to the sampler in such one of the signal channels in response to a train of pulses coupled to the controllable time delay in such one of the signal channels, the controllable time delay imparting a time delay δ to the pulses in the train of pulses coupled to the controllable time delay in such one of the signal channels in accordance with a time delay command signal fed to the controllable time delay by the beam seeing computer. Each one of the sampling signals in the N trains of sampling signals are produced by the controllable time delay in each one of the channels with a period T and a duty cycle T/N with the sampling signals in one of the N trains of the sampling signals being delayed with respect to the sampling signals in another one of the N trains a time T/N.
The details of one or more embodiments of the disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

Beam forming system having linear samplers


In one implementation, a pipeline processor is provided having a base architecture that includes one or more decoders operable to decode program instructions and generate one or more decoded instructions, and one or more execution units operable to execute the one or more decoded instructions. Each execution unit includes one or more execution pipeline stages. The pipeline processor architecture further includes one or more additional co-processor pipelines. The one or more decoders of the base architecture are operable to recognize one or more instructions to be processed by a given co-processor pipeline and pass the one or more recognized instructions to the given co-processor pipeline for decoding and execution.

The following disclosure relates to processing circuits and systems.
In a conventional pipeline processor, instruction execution is generally broken down into a series of discrete pipeline stages that can be completed in sequence by specialized hardware. For example, two types of instructions typically executed by a pipeline processor include load instructions and store instructions. Conventional pipeline processors generally include separate, dedicated pipeline stages to respectively handle load instructions and store instructions.
Further, in a conventional pipeline processor, a base architecture of the pipeline processor typically requires extensive redesign to accommodate additional instruction execution units or extended instruction sets, e.g., customer-specific instruction execution units or instruction sets. Additionally, conventional pipeline processors typically have a high power consumption due to, inter alia, an inability to precisely control portions of the pipeline as required.

Variable length pipeline processor architecture


Systems and methods for downhole telemetry diagnosis. A downhole telemetry system includes a plurality of joints of wired drill pipe connected end-to-end, a first repeater sub, and a second repeater sub. The first repeater sub is connected to an uphole end of the plurality of joints of wired drill pipe. The second repeater sub connected to a downhole end of the plurality of joints of wired drill pipe. The first repeater sub is configured to transmit a signal into one of the joints of wired drill pipe that is connected to the first repeater sub; to detect energy of the transmitted signal returned to the first repeater sub; to measure duration of the returned energy; and to determine an operational state of the first repeater sub based on the measured duration of the returned energy.

While drilling a wellbore in subsurface formations, it is advantageous for measurement and command information to be transferred between the surface and the drilling tools in a timely fashion. Some drilling systems employ a high-speed communication network including communication media (e.g., one or more wires) embedded in the drill pipes to facilitate timely information transfer between surface and downhole systems. Such drill pipe, known as "wired drill pipe" (WDP) includes communicative couplers at each end of each pipe joint and the aforementioned communication media extending between the couplers.
A system employing WDP for communication may include hundreds of individual wired drill pipes connected in series. Repeater subs may be interspersed among the WDPs to extend communication range. If one WDP (or repeater sub) has an electrical fault, then the entire communication system may fail.

Systems and methods for diagnosing a downhole telemetry link


A liquid crystal display is provided wherein a plurality of liquid crystal display tiles are arranged in a matrix and are electrically interconnected to a tile carrier by depositing an electrically conductive metal on a sidewall edge of the liquid crystal display such as by plating, evaporation, or sputtering. Also provided is the method for forming the liquid crystal display.

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are used extensively as monitors for numerous computer applications. Generally, liquid crystal displays are an assembly comprising a glass panel unit (which is a thin film transistor matrix controlling a liquid crystal emulsion contained between glass plate electrodes); driver electronics which provide the control signals to the thin film transistor matrix, and a lighting unit placed beneath the glass panel unit for illuminating the liquid crystal display panel. The glass panel unit includes a transparent glass substrate upon which the thin film transistor matrix is placed (the LCD or panel substrate), a second conducting transparent glass plate placed a small distance from and parallel to the panel substrate, filled-in between with the liquid crystal material, and sealed around the edges. The second glass panel is also prepared as an electrode to establish a capacitive connection with the individual transistors in the thin film transistor matrix on the panel substrate. The entire assembly is housed by a frame and usually has the driver assemblies attached to the frame near the front surface of the panel substrate which contains the thin film transistor array. The liquid crystal material is subjected to electric fields set up between the transistors and the thin film transistor and the cover glass transparent electrode.
Increasing the size of LCDs is continuously being demanded by industry. One method used to fabricate larger displays is referred to as tiling. In tiling, conventional sized LCD tiles are arranged in a matrix. Typically, the driver chips are interconnected to the LCD either directly on the perimeter of the display or to flexible tape which is then interconnected to the edge of the LCD.
In the tiling method, edges of an individual LCD tile may be internal to the overall matrix edge. However, these internal edges must also be electrically connected to the driver chips. Currently, these interconnections are made by wire bonding, flex circuits or conductive adhesives. However, these methods pose serious limitations on the minimum spacing that can be achieved between individual tile elements in the matrix. The spacing between tiles represents a critical parameter that must be controlled in order to present a "seamless" look generated by the tiled LCD. More particularly, the dimension of the spacing between tiles should be less than the space between pixels in the LCD. One estimate for the tile-to-tile space is 380 microns. Of the 380 microns, only about 100 microns is available for passage of an interconnect from the tile edge to escaping or interconnecting circuitry of a tile carrier located below the tile.
However, employing flex circuits for this purpose requires a ledge of about 2000 to about 4000 microns. Likewise, employing conductive adhesive typically requires a ledge of at least about 2000 microns. Furthermore, conductive adhesives are limited in extendibility. Likewise, wire bonding presents a formable technical challenge because of the highly constrained workspace presented by a 100 micron ledge. Wire bonding is made even more difficult because two 180.degree. loops are needed to interconnect the necessary surfaces that oppose each other.
Accordingly, the desire is to move tiles closer together as performance and resolution are continuously being improved while the electronics is becoming smaller. Therefore, improved techniques for electrically interconnecting the LCD tiles to the underlying tile carriers that require significantly reduced real estate would be desirable.

Liquid crystal display tile interconnected to a tile carrier and method

International Business Machines Corporation


A fuel cell bipolar plate that while retaining its mechanical strength, has its electrical conductivity enhanced; a process for producing the same; and a fuel cell including the bipolar plate. There is provided a fuel cell bipolar plate comprising laminated molded item formed by a sheet-shaped molding material, wherein the sheet-shaped molding material contains a resin and a carbon material, and wherein the laminated molded item has a laminate structure of, arranged in sequence, surface layer C/inner layer B/central layer A/inner layer B′/surface layer C′, and wherein each of the central layer A, inner layer B, inner layer B′, surface layer C and surface layer C′ consists of a single layer or multilayer of the sheet-shaped molding material, and wherein when the carbon material content of central layer A is referred to as a, the carbon material content of inner layer B as b, the carbon material content of inner layer B′ as b′, the carbon material content of surface layer C as c and the carbon material content of surface layer C′ as c′, there are satisfied the relationships 55≦a≦85, 55≦c≦85, 55≦c′≦85, 10≦a−b≦30, 10≦c−b≦30, 10≦a−b′≦30 and 10≦c′−b′≦30 (the unit of each of a, b, b′, c and c′ is % by volume).

In relation to a fuel cell electrically powered by electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, various applications to portable apparatuses, automobiles etc. have been studied. The fuel cell has a structure obtained by stacking several 10 to several 100 basic constitutional units, i.e., unit cells each consisting of an electrolyte membrane, an electrode and a bipolar plate. In a process for producing a general fuel cell, the electrolyte membrane and the electrode are previously formed as an electrolyte membrane/electrode assembly (MEA), and the bipolar plate is arranged thereon. The bipolar plate is provided with passages for supplying fuel gas such as hydrogen gas, an oxidizer consisting of air or oxygen and a coolant for cooling the cell respectively on at least a single surface thereof.
While the bipolar plate must be sufficiently conductive in order to improve power generation efficiency of the fuel cell by ensuring electric connection with the adjacent MEA, sufficient mechanical strength is required in addition thereto, in order to support the laminated structure of the unit cell. Further, reduction in the thickness of the bipolar plate has also been recently required following the requirement for downsizing of the fuel cell. In addition, improvement in thickness accuracy is also required in order to reduce contact resistance between the unit cells in the laminated structure of the unit cells.
As a method for improving the electrical conductivity of a fuel cell bipolar plate, a method increasing the content of a carbon material in a molded item containing at least the carbon material and a resin binder can be listed. While the electrical conductivity can be improved by this method, the mechanical strength of the bipolar plate tends to lower if the content of the carbon material is excessively increased, and hence the ratio between the carbon material and the resin binder has generally been designed on the basis of the balance between the electrical conductivity and the mechanical strength of the bipolar plate in the actual situation.
Thus, there are proposed various techniques for improving both of the electrical conductivity and the mechanical strength of the fuel cell bipolar plate and techniques related to a fuel cell bipolar plate reduced in thickness.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 63-294610 (Patent Document 1) proposes a conductive molded plate prepared by introducing thermosetting resin and carbon powder into a porous sheet of organic fiber or ceramic fiber in communication in the thickness direction of the sheet so that the electric specific resistance of the sheet is not more than 10 Ωm in the thickness direction.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-323150 (Patent Document 2) proposes a fuel cell bipolar plate or the like made of resin containing micro members of a carbon material for ensuring sufficient electrical conductivity by containing a larger quantity of the micro members in the outer surface as compared with the inner part and ensuring sufficient strength by forming the inner part by resin containing a small quantity of the micro members.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-126744 (Patent Document 3) proposes a fuel cell bipolar plate having a conductive material at least on a single surface or in the inner part of a synthetic resin molded item of graphite particles including coarse graphite particles of at least 40 to 120 μm in average particle diameter (D50%) and non-carbonaceous resin and exhibiting high electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, thermal conductivity, high dimensional accuracy and the like.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-52721 (Patent Document 4) proposes a fuel cell bipolar plate constituted of graphite particles and at least a single type of non-carbonaceous resin selected from thermosetting resin and thermoplastic resin with the graphite particles including coarse graphite particles of at least 40 to 120 μm in average particle diameter (D50%) and a conductor covering at least a single surface of this molded item to be excellent in gas impermeability, mechanical strength, electrical conductivity in the thickness direction and the like.
With respect to the requirement for downsizing and reduction in thickness, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-100703 (Patent Document 5) proposes a conductive molding material, prepared by wet-forming a slurry obtained by suspending a carbonaceous base material and thermoplastic resin fiber in water and sheeting and molding the same, containing the carbonaceous base material (A) and the thermoplastic resin fiber (B) as essential ingredients with the ratio A/B (mass ratio) of 90/10 to 62/38.
Although the electrical conductivity and the mechanical strength of the fuel cell bipolar plate can be rendered compatible with each other to some extent according to each of the methods described in Patent Documents 1 to 4, these performances are not yet highly exhibited in a well-balanced manner. While a bipolar plate downsizeable and reducible in thickness can be obtained according to the method described in Patent Document 5, this method does not disclose a bipolar plate simultaneously satisfying the electrical conductivity and the mechanical strength.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 63-294610    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-323150    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-126744    Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-52721    Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-100703

Fuel cell bipolar plate, process for producing the same, and fuel cell including the bipolar plate


Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for applying ordering to transactions in a software transactional memory system. A software transactional memory system is provided with a feature to allow a pre-determined commit order to be specified for a plurality of transactions. The pre-determined commit order is used at runtime to aid in determining an order in which to commit the transactions in the software transactional memory system. A contention management process is invoked when a conflict occurs between a first transaction and a second transaction. The pre-determined commit order is used in the contention management process to aid in determining whether the first transaction or the second transaction should win the conflict and be allowed to proceed.

Software transactional memory (STM) is a concurrency control mechanism analogous to database transactions for controlling access to shared memory in concurrent computing. A transaction in the context of transactional memory is a piece of code that executes a series of reads and writes to shared memory. STM is used as an alternative to traditional locking mechanisms. Programmers put a declarative annotation (e.g. atomic) around a code block to indicate safety properties they require and the system automatically guarantees that this block executes atomically with respect to other protected code regions. The software transactional memory programming model prevents lock-based priority-inversion and deadlock problems.
While typical STM systems have many advantages, they still require the programmer to be careful in avoiding unintended memory access orderings. For example, the order in which transactions are committed (i.e. commit processing) in a typical STM environment is unconstrained. Transactions race with one another to commit, meaning that whether transaction 1 commits before transaction 2 or after is often a product of the dynamic scheduling of the program (and often by program-specific logic too). Moreover, if two transactions conflict, such as by trying to write to the same piece of memory, then their committing order can be arbitrarily decided based on one of many possible contention management policies. In both of these scenarios, no particular commit order is guaranteed; therefore the burden is on the programmer to make sure that his/her program works correctly with either order. This makes parallel programming very difficult.
One approach to simplifying parallel programming is to automatically parallelize sequential programs, in a manner that guarantees that the semantics of the program are unchanged. In other words, if the sequential program works correctly, so does the parallelized version. Two (separate) variations of this concept to parallelize sequential programs have been termed, respectively, safe futures and speculative loop parallelization. In safe futures, the sequential version of a program might perform "A; B" (that is, do A then do B). The programmer can add an annotation (a "future") indicating that he or she thinks it might be possible to perform A and B in parallel without changing the program semantics—that A does not read any memory locations that B reads, nor vice-versa. But the system treats this strictly as a "hint" whose validity must be checked. It executes A and B as transactions, and if they conflict, it prevents B from committing if it would be serialized before A. This is an "undesirable" aspect of undetermined commit order referred to above.
Speculative loop parallelization is a similar idea, where the actions performed in the sequential program are the successive iterations of a loop. The programmer (or some static analysis) indicates that it may be advantageous to execute the loop in parallel, and the system runs each iteration of the loop as a parallel transaction, requiring that these transactions commit in the order the iterations would have committed in the original program.

Software transaction commit order and conflict management


The present invention relates to use of transition metal complexes in photochromic devices, to the production of optical information storage devices based on a polymeric matrix and on metal oxides with adsorbed transition metal complexes, to the production of photochromic materials constituted by a film of metal oxide with adsorbed two different type of molecular systems, one acting as a charge transfer sensitizer and the second as an electron acceptor.

The present invention relates to the use of transition metal complexes as means to store information in optical information storage devices.
Great interest is currently devoted to bistable molecular or supramolecular species presenting two forms whose interconversion can be modulated by an external stimulus. (Lehn J.-M., Supramolecular Chemistry, Concepts and Perspectives; VCH: Weiheim, (1995)). The design of such molecular-level switching devices is directly linked to the chemistry of signal generation, transfer, conversion, storage and detection.
Typical bistable species include photochromic compounds, which are molecules that can be interconverted between two forms exhibiting different visible light absorption (i.e., color). Photochromism occurs in a wide variety of materials, including both inorganic and organic compounds. Illustrative of the classes of organic compounds are anils, disulfoxides, hydrazones, oxazones, semicarbazones, stilbene derivatives, succinic anhydrides, camphor derivatives, syndromes and spiro compounds. A rather large variety of inorganic compounds show photochromism, including metal oxides, alkaline earth metal sulfides, titanates, mercury compounds, and copper compounds. These materials have been known for a long time and a description of these systems can be found in the literature. (xe2x80x9cPhotochromismxe2x80x9d Glenn H. Brown Ed., Volume III, John Wiley and Sons, Publisher, 1971).
Because they interconvert between two different colors, photochromic compounds have the capability to function as a binary information storage system. One color represents 0, and the second color 1, to encode information in digital format. Molecular level optical memory devices incorporating these molecules should offer the possibility of packing an extremely large quantity of information into a small space, which can be read through a binary code with a resolution of the order of nanometers.
However, previously known photochromic compounds are unsuitable for long term information storage applications. Most photochromic compounds change their color by photoexcitation and revert, more or less slowly, to their initial state when kept in the dark. Compounds exhibiting this behavior are useless for information storage since the written information is spontaneously erased after a relatively short time.
Other prior photochromic compounds are more stable, but tend to undergo reversible photoisomerization. (Irie, M.; Mohri, M. J. Org. Chem. 53, 803 (1988); Hanazawa, M; Sumiya, R.; Horikawa, Y.; Irie, M; J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. 206 (1992); Saika, T; Irie, M; Shimidzu, T; J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. 2123 (1994)). Such compounds can be used for information storage optoelectronic devices, but do not provide a good long term storage solution, because the light used for reading the written data causes the back-conversion of the sampled molecules, and thus the gradual loss of information. Several attempts have been made to overcome this difficulty, including the use of photochemically inactive infrared light to read the status of the system.
Consequently, there is a need for improved photochromic molecules which will provide for stable, long-term storage of information.
The present invention overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art photochromic molecules by providing reactive species which undergo stable and irreversible color changes under controlled conditions.
In one aspect of the invention, a binary data recording medium is provided which includes a substrate and a recording layer on the substrate. The recording layer includes an organometallic transition metal complex which absorbs at a first wavelength. When the complex is subject to a light-induced excited state resulting in a reaction product in the recording layer, it absorbs light having a second, different wavelength. The light absorption of the first wavelength is assigned a first value, and light absorption of the second wavelength is assigned a second value, the first and second values corresponding to binary code.
The transition metal complex in one aspect of the present invention includes at least one of the following formulas: [M(Nxe2x80x94N)2L2]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94N)L4]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)L3]n, and [M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)2]n. M is a transition metal; Nxe2x80x94N is a chromophoric polypyridine ligand incorporating from one to two substituents selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, xe2x80x94PO3H2, and xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, where R is a saturated or aromatic hydrocarbon group; Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N is a chromophoric terpyridyl ligand incorporating from one to three substituents selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, xe2x80x94PO3H2, xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, and phenyl, where the phenyl incorporates one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, xe2x80x94PO3H2, xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, where R is a saturated or aromatic hydrocarbon group; and L is a nonchromophoric monodentate or polydentate ancillary ligand.
In other aspects of this particular embodiment, M is selected from cobalt, nickel, copper, iridium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, osmium, iron, ruthenium and rhodium; Nxe2x80x94N is selected from substituted and unsubstituted 2,2xe2x80x2-bipyridyl, substituted and unsubstituted 1,10-phenanthroline and substituted or unsubstituted 2,2xe2x80x2-biquinoline; Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N is substituted by a phenyl, and where the phenyl incorporates a substituent in a para position; and L is selected from NCxe2x80x94(CH2)2xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)3xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)4xe2x80x94CN, halide, NCSxe2x88x92, N3xe2x88x92, xe2x80x94CH3xe2x88x92, Hxe2x88x92, oxalate, CO, CNxe2x88x92, NO, H2O, OHxe2x88x92, NH3, triazole, pyridine, pyrazine, 4,4xe2x80x2-bipyridine, 4,4xe2x80x2-bipyridylethane, 4,4xe2x80x2-bipyridylethylene, 4-cyanopyridine, dicyanobenzene, diethylenediamine, NO2xe2x88x92, and acetylacetone; or L may include a coordinating solvent selected from the group consisting of acetylacetone, methanol, acetonitrile, acetone, tetrahydrofuran, ethanol, dimethylformamide, and dimethylsulfoxide. The substrate may be amorphous, nanocrystalline or a semiconductor.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the transition metal complex includes at least one of the following formulas: [M(Nxe2x80x94N)2(Y-nor-Y)(L)]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94N)2(Y-nor-Y)2]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94N)2(X)(Y-nor-Y)M(Nxe2x80x94N)2(L)]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)(Y-nor-Y)(L)2]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)2(Y-nor-Y)2(L)]n, and [M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)2(L)2(Y-nor-Y)M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)2(L)2]n. Y is selected from cyano, pyridine, and pyridine methylene and nor is norbomadiene; M is a transition metal; Nxe2x80x94N is a substituted or unsubstituted chromophoric polypyridine ligand; Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N is a substituted or unsubstituted chromophoric terpyridyl ligand; L is a nonchromophoric monodentate or polydentate ancillary ligand; and X is a ligand selected from the group consisting of polyaza macrocyclic group and polythio macrocyclic group.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the transition metal complex includes at least one of the following formulas: [trans-HOOCpyRuII(X)4xe2x80x94NC-nor-CN]2+, ([trans-HOOCpyRuII(X)4xe2x80x94NC]2-nor)4+, [trans-CH3xe2x80x94OOCpyRuII(X)4xe2x80x94NC-nor-CN]2+, ([trans-CH3xe2x80x94OOCpyRuII(X)4xe2x80x94NC]2-nor)4+, [trans-CH3CH2xe2x80x94OOCpyRuII(X)4xe2x80x94NC-nor-CN]2+, and ([trans-CH3CH2xe2x80x94OOCpyRuII(X)4xe2x80x94NC]2-nor)4+. HOOCpy is the isonicotinic acid; NC-nor-CN is the dicyanonorbomadiene ligand; X is selected from polyaza macrocyclic group, polythio macrocyclic group, and NH3; and trans is the configuration of the Ru center.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the transition metal complex includes a molecular sensitizer. The molecular sensitizer has a photoabsorption spectrum and is capable of injecting an electron into an empty conduction band of the substrate upon absorption of visible light to form oxidized molecular sensitizer having a photoabsorption spectrum different from the unoxidized molecular sensitizer. An electron acceptor is present which has a photoabsorption spectrum and is capable of accepting the electron to form a reduced electron acceptor having a different photoabsorption spectrum. A separation of charge between the oxidized molecular sensitizer and reduced electron acceptor is maintained upon continued irradiation by visible light.
The transition metal in this aspect of the invention is represented by at least one of the following formulas: [M(Nxe2x80x94N)2L2]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94N)L4]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)L3]n, and [M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)2]n. M is a transition metal; Nxe2x80x94N is a chromophoric polypyridine ligand and incorporating from one to two substituents selected from the group consisting ofxe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, xe2x80x94PO3H2, and xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, where R is a saturated or aromatic hydrocarbon group; Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N is a chromophoric terpyridyl ligand incorporating from one to three substituents selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, xe2x80x94PO3H2, xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, and phenyl, where the phenyl incorporates one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, xe2x80x94PO3H2, xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, where R is a saturated or aromatic hydrocarbon group; and L is a nonchromophoric monodentate or polydentate ancillary ligand.
In this particular aspect of the invention, the electron acceptor is represented by one of the formulas:
where A is pyridine substituted in the para position by a moiety selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, PO3H2, and xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, where R is a hydrocarbon linking group; B is a bridging ligand; Lxe2x80x2, which can be the same or different, is a ligand selected from the group consisting of NCxe2x80x94(CH2)2xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)3xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)4xe2x80x94CN, halide, NCSxe2x88x92, oxalate, CO, CNxe2x88x92, NO, pyridine, 4-cyanopyridine, dicyanobenzene, H2O, OHxe2x88x92, NH3, diethylenediamine, NO2xe2x88x92, 2,2xe2x80x2-bipyridyl unsubstituted or substituted by one or more methyl groups, and 1,10-phenanthroline unsubstituted or substituted by one or more methyl groups; and Mxe2x80x2, which can be the same or different, is a transition metal capable of undergoing a reversible change of oxidation state. The medium may additionally include a thin transparent polymeric film situated atop the recording layer.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a method for storing data in optically-readable form is provided. The method includes providing a photochromic metal complex on a substrate, the photochromic complex absorbing visible light of a first wavelength; immersing the substrate and attached photochromic metal complex in a liquid having a coordinating compound; irradiating the attached photochromic metal complex at selected regions to induce a photoreaction between the metal complex and the coordinating compound, the resulting reaction producing a reaction product on the substrate which absorbs light of a second wavelength, the first and second wavelengths being selected to correspond to binary code for information storage; and removing excess coordinating compound to render the reaction irreversible.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a method for retrieving data stored in optically-readable form is provided. The method includes providing an optical information storage medium including a metal complex on a substrate, where the metal complex exists in an initial state and a reacted state, the initial state having an absorption or emission spectrum different from that of the reacted state, where regions of metal complex in the initial state correspond to a binary value of 1 or 0 and where regions of the metal complex in the reacted state correspond to the opposite binary value; exposing the medium to a beam of light, where the light has a wavelength which is selectively adsorbed by either the metal complex in the initial state or the metal complex in the reacted state; and measuring the intensity of the beam of light after exposure to the medium, where the intensity of the transmitted beam indicates whether the beam has been exposed to a region of metal complex in the initial state or a region of metal complex in the reacted state, thereby retrieving a binary value stored in the recording media.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a method for storing data in optically-readable form is provided. The method includes providing an optical information recording medium including a substrate component supporting regions of a nonisomerized metal complex, where the nonisomerized metal complex region has a first absorption spectrum corresponding to a binary value of 1 or 0; and exposing the nonisomerized metal complex region to electromagnetic radiation in the UV to visible light range, thereby causing the nonisomerized metal complex to convert to an isomer metal complex region, the isomer metal complex region having a second absorption spectrum which differs from the first absorption spectrum, the second absorption spectrum corresponding to the opposite binary value. More specifically, the substrate may be selected from tungsten trioxide, titanium dioxide, zinc dioxide, and tin dioxide. The substrate may also be nanocrystalline or include particles in colloidal form, the particles having an average diameter ranging from about 10 nm to about 50 nm.
In a further aspect of the present invention, a method for storing data in optically-readable form is provided. The method includes providing an unoxidized molecular sensitizer and an unreduced electron acceptor attached to a wide band gap semiconductor substrate, the unoxidized molecular sensitizer absorbing visible light of a first wavelength, the unreduced electron acceptor absorbing visible light of a second wavelength; and irradiating the unoxidized molecular sensitizer at selected regions to induce injection of an electron into an empty conduction band of the substrate followed by acceptance of the electron by the electron acceptor, thereby forming an oxidized molecular sensitizer, the oxidized molecular sensitizer absorbing light of a third wavelength, and thereby forming a reduced electron acceptor, the reduced electron acceptor absorbing light of a fourth wavelength, a combination of the third and fourth wavelengths being selected to correspond to a binary code for information storage.
In a further aspect of the present invention, a method for retrieving data stored in optically-readable form is provided. The method includes providing an optical information storage medium including a molecular sensitizer and electron acceptor adsorbed on a wide band gap semiconductor substrate, where in one or more regions of the medium is the molecular sensitizer is oxidized and the electron acceptor is reduced, where the oxidized molecular sensitizer has an absorption or emission spectrum different from that of the molecular sensitizer in an unoxidized form, where the reduced electron acceptor has an absorption or emission spectrum different from that of the electron acceptor in the unreduced form, where regions of the oxidized molecular sensitizer and reduced electron acceptor correspond to a binary value of 1 or 0 and where regions of the molecular sensitizer in the unoxidized state and electron acceptor in the unreduced state correspond to the opposite binary value.
In this particular aspect of the present invention, the molecular sensitizer is represented by one of the formulas: [M(Nxe2x80x94N)2L2]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94N)L4]n, [M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)L3]n, and [M(Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N)2]n. M is a transition metal having an oxidation state; Nxe2x80x94N is a chromophoric polypyridine ligand having a charge and incorporating from one to two substituents selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, xe2x80x94PO3H2, and xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, where R is a saturated or aromatic hydrocarbon group; Nxe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94N is a chromophoric terpyridyl ligand having a charge and incorporating from one to three substituents selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, xe2x80x94PO3H2, xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, and phenyl, where the phenyl incorporates one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, xe2x80x94PO3H2, xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, where R is a saturated or aromatic hydrocarbon group; L is a nonchromophoric monodentate or polydentate ancillary ligand having a charge; and n is the total charge including an algebraic sum of the oxidation state of M and the charge of the ligands. The method further includes reflecting a beam of light off the medium, where the light has a wavelength which is selectively adsorbed by either the oxidized molecular sensitizer or the molecular sensitizer in the unoxidized state; and measuring the intensity of the beam of light after it is reflected by the medium, where the intensity of the reflected beam indicates whether the beam has passed through a region of oxidized molecular sensitizer and reduced electron acceptor or a region of molecular sensitizer in the unoxidized state and electron acceptor in the unreduced state, thereby retrieving a binary value stored in the recording media.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a metal complex is provided that is represented by one of the formulas: [(4,4xe2x80x2-HPO3CH2)2bpyRu(CN)4]4xe2x88x92, [(4,4xe2x80x2-HPO3)2bpyRu(CN)4]4xe2x88x92, (4,4xe2x80x2-HPO3CH2)2(bpy)Re(CO)3(X), [(dcbH2)Ru(CN)4]4xe2x88x92,and (4,4xe2x80x2-HPO3)2(bpy)Re(CO)3(X); where X is selected from CNxe2x88x92, NCSxe2x88x92, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)2xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)3xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)4xe2x80x94CN, halide, CO, NO, pyridine, 4-cyanopyridine, dicyanobenzene, H2O, NH3, and NO2xe2x88x92.
In a further aspect of the present invention, an optical information recording medium including a recording layer and a substrate is provided. The substrate includes a wide band gap semiconductor, where the recording layer includes an electron acceptor and a molecular sensitizer, where the molecular sensitizer represented by one of the formulas: [(4,4xe2x80x2-HPO3CH2)2bpyRu(CN)4]4xe2x88x92, [(4,4xe2x80x2-HPO3)2bpyRu(CN)4]4xe2x88x92, (4,4xe2x80x2-HPO3CH2)2(bpy)Re(CO)3(X), [(dcbH2)Ru(CN)4]4xe2x88x92, and (4,4xe2x80x2-HPO3)2(bpy)Re(CO)3(X). X is selected from CNxe2x88x92, NCSxe2x88x92, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)2xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)3xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)4xe2x80x94CN, halide, CO, NO, pyridine, 4-cyanopyridine, dicyanobenzene, H2O, NH3, and NO2xe2x88x92. The molecular sensitizer has a photoabsorption spectrum and is capable of injecting an electron into an empty conduction band of the substrate upon absorption of visible light to form oxidized molecular sensitizer having a different photoabsorption spectrum, where the electron acceptor has a photoabsorption spectrum and is capable of accepting the electron to form a reduced electron acceptor having a different photoabsorption spectrum, and where a separation of charge between the oxidized molecular sensitizer and reduced electron acceptor is maintained upon continued irradiation by visible light.
In this particular aspect of the invention, the electron acceptor is represented by one of the formulas:
where A is pyridine substituted in the para position by a moiety selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94B(OH)2, PO3H2, and xe2x80x94Rxe2x80x94PO3H2, where R is a hydrocarbon linking group; B is a bridging ligand; Lxe2x80x2, which can be the same or different, is a ligand selected from the group consisting of NCxe2x80x94(CH2)2xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)3xe2x80x94CN, NCxe2x80x94(CH2)4xe2x80x94CN, halide, NCSxe2x88x92, oxalate, CO, CNxe2x88x92, NO, pyridine, 4-cyanopyridine, dicyanobenzene, H2O, OHxe2x88x92, NH3, diethylenediamine, NO2xe2x88x92, 2,2xe2x80x2-bipyridyl unsubstituted or substituted by one or more methyl groups, and 1,10-phenanthroline unsubstituted or substituted by one or more methyl groups; and Mxe2x80x2, which can be the same or different, is a transition metal capable of undergoing a reversible change of oxidation state. The medium may additionally including a thin transparent polymeric film, where the film is situated atop the recording layer.

Molecular level optical information storage devices


A robot system and a machining method capable of accurately and simply cutting an end of a pipe into a saddle shape and forming a hole on an outer surface thereof, and further machining a workpiece of a three-dimensional shape which does not have platelike shape. A tool unit is attached to a final axis of a moveable arm of a robot. The tool unit is provided with a first additional variable axis expanding and retracting vertically and a second additional variable axis expanding and retracting in the horizontal direction. By rotating the final axis, a cutting tool (machining nozzle of laser) at a distal end of the tool unit is turned about the final axis to cut a workpiece W of a pipe shape. By driving the first and the second additional variable axes in synchronism with rotation of the final axis, the cutting into a saddle shape and the forming of a hole are carried out. The movable arm of the robot is only for rotating the final axis and the machining accuracy is promoted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a robot system for machining a workpiece by a tool unit attached to a distal end of a robot movable arm, and a method of machining with such robot. In particular, the invention relates to a robot system suitable for cutting an end of a pipe in a saddle shape and for forming a hole on a side face of the pipe, and a method of machining using the robot system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there have been many cases in which pipes are used for parts of a suspension of an automobile. With increase of using pipes for parts of the automobile suspension, there has been an increase in machining operation for cutting an end face of a pipe W in a saddle shape and machining operation for forming a hole on a side face of a pipe part, as shown in FIG. 11. In the machining operation of cutting in a saddle shape and forming a hole on a side face of a pipe, a machining tool needs to operate accurately in a three-dimensional space and even when the machining operation is carried out by a robot, a path control function higher than that of an ordinary level is required.
When carrying out the machining operation by a robot on a workpiece which does not have platelike shape, such as a cylindrical workpiece, a workpiece having an elliptic section or a prism or a pyramid, in the conventional art, a cutting tool is attached at a distal end of a movable arm of a robot at a predetermined angle and the machining is carried out by totally operating a plurality of axes of the robot movable arms as shown in FIG. 13. In the case shown in FIG. 13, a cutting tool 2 of laser nozzle attached to the distal end of a movable arm 100 of the robot is brought to face the workpiece W of a pipe shape and a plurality of the movable arms of the robot are driven to turn the distal end of the movable arm 100 as shown by an arrow Q with respect to the workpiece W, thereby cutting the workpiece W or forming a hole on the workpiece W. As described, since the machining operation is carried out by totally operating the plurality of axes of the robot movable arm, accuracy of a machined face is lowered by vibration of the robot.
Further, in machining a workpiece of a pipe shape using a conventional robot, a cut face S1 of the pipe shaped workpiece W is made perpendicular to circumferential surface of the workpiece W as shown in FIG. 12a, and the machining to form a slant cut face S2 at an angle relative to the circumferential surface as shown in FIG. 12b can not be performed. When pipes are welded to join them as shown in FIG. 11, it is difficult to carry out a firm welding if the cut face S1 is perpendicular to a circumferential surface of a pipe as shown in FIG. 12a, and the machining of cutting a pipe in a saddle shape performed by the conventional robot is not suitable for the welding for forming a joint.

Robot system and machining method with robot system


Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a device for link aggregation control protocol (LACP) link switch. The method includes: monitoring state changes of interfaces in an LACP link aggregation group; when monitoring a state change occurs on an active interface in the aggregation group, determining whether the number of active interfaces in the aggregation group is smaller than a preset minimum active link number, if yes, keeping states of N interfaces among the interfaces on which a state change occurs being an active state, so that the number of active interfaces in the aggregation group is greater than or equal to the preset minimum active link number; and when monitoring a state change occurs on an inactive interface in the aggregation group, adjusting states of M interfaces among the N interfaces kept in the active state into an inactive state M being smaller than or equal to N.

An LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol, link aggregation control protocol) is a protocol for achieving dynamic link aggregation and disaggregation, and the aggregation is to improve transmission bandwidth and reliability of the system. Under the control of the LACP protocol, multiple links (member link) aggregate to a logic link with a higher bandwidth, the logic link is called an aggregation group and the link including the aggregation group is called an LACP link. The number of the member links aggregated in one aggregation group is usually determined according to the bandwidth requirement of the traffic.
Generally, the number of active interfaces at one end of the aggregation group member link is at least larger than or equal to a preset minimum active link number for corresponding traffic transmission. When such requirement is satisfied, the aggregation group is in an UP state, the LACP link is "ON" and ready for use; when such requirement is not satisfied, that is, the number of active interfaces at one end of the aggregation group member link is smaller than the preset minimum active link number, the aggregation group is in a DOWN state, the LACP link is "OFF" and unavailable for use.
The LACP link switching procedure depends on the state of the LACP link aggregation group. In order to monitor a state change of the aggregation group, both ends of the aggregation group periodically transmit a LACPDU (LACP Data Unit) message to each other. After receiving the LACPDU packet, one end of the aggregation group compares information carried by the LACPDU packet, such as system priority, interface priority of the opposite end, with configuration of the local end, in the case of inconformity, adjusts configuration of the local end based on the comparison result. The number of the active interfaces in the aggregation group will change in the process of adjustment. When the number of the active interfaces increases or decreases to a certain degree, the state of the aggregation group will change alternately between the UP and DOWN states, causing the LACP link to switch between "ON" and "OFF", so that the link appears a flash-off procedure, i.e., the link is OFF and ON. Due to this "flash-off" effect, the user terminal will be "off-line" frequently, and it is needed to re-access network and re-establish data links when communication resumes after a change from "off-line" to "on-line," which adversely affects normal communication and reduces network service level.
Furthermore, when the active interface in the aggregation group changes to be an inactive interface, the interface is usually configured to be a "dead" interface having no data-transceiving function; however, if the state change of the interface is caused by reasons other than a "physical link failure," then this can cause the message having been transmitted on the LACP link to be lost and affect normal communication.

Method and device for LACP link switching and data transmission


There is provided, according to the present invention, a reproducing device capable of preventing illegal duplication and reproduction, as well as of reproducing content without degrading the quality of the audio and visual contents.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproducing device, a reproducing method and a program used in the device and method, particularly relates to a reproducing device, a reproduction method and a program for reproducing audio and visual contents by network distribution.
2. Description of Related Art
Digital sound source and moving picture have replaced analog ones and digital audio-visual system, sound source content, visual content, media and the like have been available as well. However, since digital content is easily duplicated, various techniques have been provided for copyright protection of the content.
As prior art to realize the download processing suitable for copyright-protected data, an information processing device and its method are disclosed, in which a privileged space is set in an information processing space, and a download program and a recording medium interface program are allowed to operate in the privileged space. Then, download data whose copyright protection is necessary are recorded in an external storage medium by processing in the privileged space so that it is possible to prevent any direct access to the external recording medium from a user program or the like arranged in an unprivileged space (see JP2002-7194).

Reproducing device, reproducing method and program used in the same

Abstract: The reproducing device (100) comprises a first storage area (110), in which data is stored, using file system which is not supported by operating system of the reproducing device, an interface part (120) supporting the file system which the first storage area uses, accepting only reproducing request, reading out and supplying the data stored in the first storage area, wherein the reading out and supplying operations are hidden, and a reproducing part (132) reproducing the data supplied by the interface part.


A low cost objective lens system that provides complete axial color correction with no substantial residual color dependent aberrations such as spherochromatism or chromatic coma. The objective lens system includes a first lens element having an aspherical lens surface and a second lens element having a diffractive optical surface and an aperture disposed between the first and second lens elements. The axial separation of the aspherical lens surface and the diffractive optical surface may be determined by the condition 0.5<L.sub.A /efl<1.25 where L.sub.A is the axial distance from the lens element with the aspherical surface to the lens element with the diffractive optical surface and efl is the effective focal length of the objective lens system. The diffractive optical surface is optically dispersive and is preferably placed on the refractive lens element in the system having the highest optical power. The objective lens system does not exhibit residual color dependent aberrations such as spherochromatism and chromatic coma. The aspherical lens surface is preferably located on the object side of the aperture stop to provide the most advantageous coma correction and spherical aberration correction. The aspherical lens surface further corrects residual monochromatic aberrations such as astigmatism and distortion.

High performance passive and active optical lens systems need very high quality optical elements in order to obtain the required degree of performance. Optical lens systems are composed of multiple individual lens elements designed to achieve the necessary performance over a specified field of view and specified spectral band. The three main considerations in the design of an optical system are cost, weight, and performance.
To control the costs of optical systems, the optical systems are generally designed to contain only spherical surfaces. The use of aspherical surfaces in optical systems can reduce the number of elements needed to achieve the required performance. However, lens elements having aspherical surfaces are significantly more expensive to manufacture than lens elements having only spherical surfaces. Therefore, the decision to use aspherical surfaces in place of spherical surfaces in a particular optical lens system depends upon whether the weight of the optical system is a more critical factor than the cost of the system or whether the cost of the system is a more critical factor than the weight of the optical system.
Examples of optical systems that can require very high quality optical systems are passive and active infrared sensors and infrared camera systems. The number of optical materials that are transmissive at infrared wavelengths is limited. Most infrared lens elements are made from the four materials, germanium, silicon, zinc sulfide, and zinc selenide, all of which are dispersive. The dispersive characteristic of these materials results in an optical system that contains more elements than the optical system would if less dispersive materials were available. The additional elements are necessary to correct chromatic aberration, which is a consequence of dispersion and causes light to have different focal points depending upon wavelength.
The image produced by an optical system has other aberrations that take many forms, such as spherical aberration, spherochromatism, and coma. Spherical aberration results when spherical lens surfaces are used and causes light striking nearer the periphery of the lens to be focused closer to the lens while light striking near the center is focused farther away from the lens. Spherochromatism (or spherochromatic aberration) is a type of spherical aberration in which the focal points of light rays vary with the wavelength of the light. Coma is an aberration that distorts images formed by off-axis light rays that do not strike the lens at its center.
Conventional optical systems therefore require additional lens elements to correct for aberrations, thereby adding cost, weight, size, and complexity to the lens system in order to correct for the aberrations introduced into the lens system. The curvatures of the spherical surfaces of the elements are designed to reduce both the spherical and chromatic aberrations to an acceptable amount. However, without corrective lenses, conventional optical systems would be limited by chromatic aberration to low speeds or low focal ratios.
One alternative to adding lens elements to correct for aberrations is to use diffractive surfaces, such as one of many types of computer-generated Fresnel zone plates manufactured on at least one side of a lens element. A high efficiency binary approximation of a Kinoform-type Fresnel zone plate, called a binary grating surface, has been disclosed for use in infrared systems by Swanson and Veldkamp in "Diffractive optical elements for use in infrared systems," Optical Engineering, Vol.28 (6), pp. 605-608 (June 1989). The use of the diffractive surface can be used with a spherical or conventional lens. When used with a spherical surface, the spherical surface provides focusing and the diffractive surface corrects for as much of the spherical aberration as possible. However, the use of a diffractive surface to correct for spherical aberration results in a significant amount of spherochromatism. In addition, because low speeds or focal ratios are required to limit this chromatic aberration, the usable optical speed is significantly limited.
In an attempt to solve these shortcomings, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,706, Chen proposed an optical element having aspherical and binary grating optical surfaces. In embodiment of Chen, the optical element is a positive meniscus optical element made of germanium having a useful spectral bandpass in the infrared wavelength region. A telescope system incorporating two of the optical elements has an aspherical surface and a diffractive surface. In another of Chen's embodiments, an objective element having a convex aspherical surface and a concave binary grating surface is used in the telescope. The necessity of using two of the optical elements each having an aspherical surface and a diffractive surface results in an optical system that uses fewer lens elements than previous optical systems. However, as can be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the resulting optical systems are very expensive. The fabrication of a lens element having an aspherical surface and a diffractive surface is very difficult and expensive. In addition, the alignment of a system using one or more of the combined lens elements is critical to the performance of the optical system.
Accordingly, there is a need for a low cost objective lens system that has improved aberration correction and that provides axial color and spherochromatism correction so that chromatic aberration is not propagated through the optical system.

Objective lens system utilizing diffractive optical element


A display module adapted to receive a removable display device having a display for displaying digital images stored on the device. The display module includes a body having planar support surface, a recessed area, and a movable support member pivotable relative to the planar support surface. The movable support member is adapted to receive the digital image display device. The support member is movable between a first and a second position. The first position provides a viewing position, and the second position provides a storage position wherein the display device is substantially disposed within the recessed area.

Digital imaging systems are well known and include, for example, digital image capture devices, digital cameras, digital displays, camcorders, digital video recorders, computers, and kiosks.
Current digital cameras can connect to a host computer by means of a dock in order to transfer digital data to a computer. This digital data can include digital still images (e.g., JPEG files) as well as motion video files (e.g., Quick Time files). One example is the Kodak EasyShare DX3600 digital camera, which is sold with an optional docking unit. The camera captures digital still images and motion video segments, and stores the images using Flash EPROM memory. The still images and motion video files can be downloaded from the digital camera to the computer using the docking unit.
While such a digital camera has achieved a certain degree of success in its particular applications, there is a need for a digital imaging system which is modular, transportable, and which can be employed to share/transmit/archive/print/display digital images with or without the use of a computer.

Display module for supporting a digital image display device


A method for producing a multi-layer plastic film comprising at least one compact cover layer and at least one layer which is arranged under the cover layer and made of extruded foamed plastic (foam layer), wherein the compact cover layer is connected to the foam layer thermally or by adhesion after extrusion and cooling of the foam layer to below the melting temperature. The layer made of foamed plastic is generated by blowing a propellent which is under positive pressure into a plastic melt during the extrusion process and by subsequently relaxing the propellent which is under positive pressure, wherein the foamed plastic is at first not cross-linked and is cross-linked together with the compact cover layer, in particular by high-energy radiation, only after the foam layer and the compact cover layer have been connected.

In the field of decorative polyolefin-based sheet materials, currently substantially two structures are used. For applications and building components in which the sheet material is subjected to high stretching (for example, >200%) in downstream thermal forming processes, compact film structures which can be made up of several layers are preferably used. These materials generally have a density of >800 kg/m3 at a thickness of 0.5-3.0 mm, as a result of which the building components have a correspondingly high weight and, associated therewith, a high raw material requirement, see also U.S. Pat. No. 6,663,738.
For applications and building components in which the sheet material is subjected to low stretching (for example, <200%) in downstream thermal forming processes, sheet materials having at least one foamed layer, called foam layers, can be used. The compact cover layer can be reduced and constructed in a thickness of 0.2-0.8 mm for a density of >800 kg/m3. The foamed layer is generally constructed having a density of 20-200 kg/m3 and a thickness of 0.5-4.0 mm. The foamed layer reacts elastically to pressure stress, as a result of which pleasant haptic properties in response to pressure of the building components are achieved. Owing to the low density of the foamed layer, the weight of the building components falls, as does the raw material requirement necessary for the production.
Generally, a plastic foamed material based on a polyolefin composition is produced as follows: 5-100% by weight of one or more polyethylene-based plastics (these are understood to include polymers, the weight fraction of ethylene of which is >50% by weight) and also optionally 0-95% by weight of one or more polypropylene-based plastics (these are understood as including polymers, the weight fraction of polypropylene of which is >50% by weight) are mixed with a crosslinking agent and a chemical propellant (foaming agent) and also other process additives such as, for example, lubricants, stabilizers and pigments. A film is produced therefrom, for example, by extrusion. This film is exposed in the downstream process to a source of ionizing radiation, in such a manner that the melt strength is increased by molecular weight build up (crosslinking) in the plastic. In a subsequent heating process, using the propellant, a flat plastic foam material is obtained having a density of 20-200 kg/m3 and a thickness of 0.5-4.0 mm. The foaming process can be carried out vertically in a foam oven or horizontally, for example, in a salt bath. The above described chemically driven foam process leads to fine-celled foams having a very uniform foam cell distribution. Such foams are described, for example, in DE 102005050524 A1.
The resultant plastic foam material can then be joined thermally or by adhesion to surface materials such as, for example, sheet materials based on polyolefins, PVC or polyurethanes, in such a manner that a multi-layer flat material having at least one foamed layer is formed. The surface of the multi-layer flat material can be constructed by an embossing process having a three-dimensional structure, called grain.
The resultant flat material can then be brought into a desired form by processes such as thermoforming, in-mold graining or low-pressure molding. These forms or bodies are used in aircraft, railway vehicles, ships and in motor vehicles, in particular as motor vehicle interior linings or lining components.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,665 describes a method in which a plastic foam material based on a polyolefin composition is produced, in that the polymer mixture is loaded above the glass transition temperature with an inert gas at superatmospheric pressure and this gas-loaded melt is then expanded and cooled below the glass transition temperature. According to this method principle, a polyolefin-composition-based plastic foam material having a density of 20 kg/m3-800 kg/m3 may be generated via extrusion or an injection molding process. Sheet materials generated by this principle in the density range <100 kg/m3 generally exhibit a coarse-cell foam structure having a relatively broad cell size distribution.
The foamed polyolefin-based sheet materials generated in this manner are used, inter alia, in the building sector (for example, as footfall sound insulation in laminate floors, heat insulation of pipes, edge trims when laying floors) and in the packaging sector. Owing to the predominantly thermoplastic character of the sheet materials made by this method principle, they are unsuitable to date for the above described thermal forming process for producing three-dimensionally shaped bodies for use, for example, as motor vehicle interior linings or motor vehicle interior lining components.
Further methods for producing multi-layer plastic films are known, for example, from the publications: United States patent application publication 2010/0215934; U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,770; U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,691; EP 413912 B1; United States patent application publication 2009/0022934; JP 2001-096602 A; JP 2005-119274 A; and, U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,319.

Method for producing a multi-layer plastic film


A headset has a first and an optional second earpiece 12, 16 respectively coupled to a plug 30 via first and an optional second conductors 14, 20, 18, 22. An antenna loop section 36 has a first loop section 31 at least partially bound to a portion of the first conductor 20, and a second loop section 33 bound to at least a portion of the second conductor 22. Where bound, the first conductor and first loop section may be coaxial or side-by-side. The loop sections include inductors 42,44, and the conductors include ferrite rings 38,40 near the earpieces. A connector 24 mechanically holds the first and second conductors in proximity to one another, and also includes a conductive bridge 34 to electrically couple the first and second loop segments, which may be via a contact connection or a capacitive connection. Audio and RF signals are separated by frequency in a device 50 to which the headset is coupled.

Portable electronic devices such as broadcast radio receivers and radiotelephones are continually driven to smaller sizes while offering better performance and more varied features. One engineering challenge in continual size reduction has been improved antenna designs to ensure a reliable and efficient communications interface between the portable device and other entities with which it communicates. Antennas serve to transition an energy signal between circuitry and a wireless channel. The effectiveness of energy transfer between an antenna and its adjacent circuitry is dependent on the terminal impedance of the antenna and that of the adjacent circuit over the desired frequency range.
The directive properties of some antennas, exhibited as a non-uniform radiation pattern, give rise to the concept of antenna gain. Gain is the measure of radiation intensity in a given direction as compared to radiation intensity if the radiation pattern were uniform in all directions. Gain is principally dependent upon the size of an antenna, generally expressed in wavelengths. The gain is measured either on a linear scale or logarithmically in decibels. Larger antennas generally exhibit higher gain. When one or more dimensions of an antenna is significantly larger than a wavelength, its radiation pattern defines a lobe structure, generally with one or more maximums flanked by sidelobes. Maximizing the lobe structure for the intended reception has led to many different configurations for antennas.
A loop antenna has one or more closed conductive pathways, and sometimes a fixed or variable capacitor coupled to the terminals or in series along the conductor of the loop to tune the antenna to resonance. Loop antennas are desirable for their broadband capabilities, a regime in which portable devices are entering using a standard entitled digital video broadcast for handheld devices (DVB-H). Loop antennas are directional, exhibiting radiation patterns with a very large main lobe and a high gain in the direction of that main lobe. By their nature, portable electronic devices are suited to non-directional antennas, since a tower with which the portable device communicates may or may not be aligned with the main lobe of a directional antenna at any given time. Efficiency in a loop antenna is proportional to the area of the loop. In the prior art, a loop antenna no larger than the size of a handheld device results in a very inefficient antenna, which needs additional lossy matching circuits and increases necessary signal processing in the portable device and adds cost while simultaneously reducing battery life.
What is needed in the art is a broadband antenna that is sufficiently small and lightweight for use with a portable device, and that exhibits good reception properties over a broadband frequency range with acceptable efficiency.


A mobile data communications system that includes a mobile device having a reconfigurable user identification module that stores a mobile identity and provides mobile data communication via a mobile network, subject to the mobile identity being registered with the mobile network, and an account control server that includes memory to store identification and payment details for a user of the mobile device and a mobile identity provider to provide a mobile identity to the mobile device and to an authorization server of a mobile network. In response to a request by a user of the mobile device to obtain data access by a particular mobile network, the account control server provides a mobile identity to the mobile device for storage by the user identification module, provides the same mobile identity to the authorization server of that mobile network, and provides user identification and payment details to that mobile network.

1. Field of the Disclosure
This invention relates to mobile communications.
2. Description of Related Art
The "background" description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or implicitly admitted as prior art against the present invention.
Many mobile communications devices make use of so-called SIMs.
A SIM (subscriber identification module) is typically a secure data storage device embodied as a small form factor flat card which is insertable into a mobile communications device. The SIM carries certain data which uniquely identifies the user or owner of that SIM. Some of this data is transmitted across the mobile network to identify the user equipment (UE) into which the SIM is inserted, and some is kept secret within the SIM (and within a secure database held by the mobile network operator) for use in generating encryption keys for secure data transmission across the network.
In many countries there is a requirement that the SIM fits into a socket in the UE which is accessible by the user. This is to allow the user to choose a different card if he/she desires. In turn, this allows the user to select a different mobile network operator or a different network tariff. The ability for the user to do this is required by the competition law of many countries.
Having said this, some devices such as the Amazon® Kindle® electronic book reading device contain a SIM which is inaccessible to the user. This type of SIM will be referred to as an "embedded" SIM, though of course in the case of embedded SIMs, the word "card" often associated with "SIM" does not necessarily have any sensible meaning and does not imply any particular shape or form factor for the circuitry providing the SIM functionality. In other words, the user cannot choose a different network operator for mobile data access using this particular book reading device, but this is allowable because the device does not allow open internet access over the mobile network.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has recognised the future potential of including the functionality of a SIM (or, more generally, of a "UICC" or universal integrated circuit card) into a wide variety of devices. In general terms, this will provide communication functions to types of devices which have operated independently (that is, not using a mobile network) in the past. The way in which this would be carried out would be to embed the UICC in such a way that the UICC is not generally accessible or replaceable by the user.
ETSI has established a working group to look into the issues generated by the use of embedded UICC devices. This work is carried out by the ETSI TC Smart Card Platform group #48, and a document specifying a work item to address standardisation requirements has been accepted as SCP(11)0146r1, which is available at: http://portal.etsi.org/portal/server.pt/community/scp/333 and is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
This ETSI document recognises the need for the user to be able to change network subscriptions on devices with embedded wireless wide area network (WWAN) connectivity, which in turn has prompted the proposal to develop new methods for securely and remotely provisioning access credentials on embedded UICC devices. The scope of work defined by the document covers "defining use cases and corresponding requirements for remote personalisation and subscription management of . . . an embedded UICC including its integration in telecommunication network infrastructures".