Some embodiments include an apparatus comprising a spray head to spray a substrate, the substrate having a region to be sprayed and a region to be masked, the two regions separated by a boundary, and a mask having channels, the mask located between the spray head and the substrate. In an embodiment, the mask further has a lip to prevent flux overspray from falling onto a substrate below. In an embodiment, flux overspray removal is assisted with a vacuum system. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

In the field of electronics there is competitive pressure among manufacturers to drive the performance of their equipment up while driving production costs down and maintaining acceptable yield and reliability. This is especially true for packaging of dice on substrates, where problems with flux overspray reduce yield and/or increase throughput time.
Flux overspray causes non-uniform thickness on a substrate bump field, resulting in die misalignment during reflow. Non-uniform thickness in the solder bump region may also cause non-wetting of solder bumps. Additionally, if excess flux extends onto die-side lands, the solder paste may also be contaminated. Such problems lead to reduced yield, as misaligned dice are typically scrapped.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Flux overspray removal masks with channels, methods of assembling same, and systems containing same


A method comprising irradiating a polycrystalline rare earth metal-alkaline earth metal-transition metal-oxide superconductor layer with protons having an energy of 1 to 6 MeV. The irradiating process produces an irradiated layer that comprises randomly dispersed defects with an average diameter in the range of 1-10 nm.

Coated conductors have many applications. A coated conductor includes a superconductor layer deposited over a flexible metal substrate and metal oxide buffer layers disposed between the superconductor layer and the flexible metal substrate. Coated conductor production-line wires of hundreds of meters in length have been produced with critical current densities, Jc, of 3 MA/cm2 at 77 K and self-field. These materials exhibit a suppression of Jc in magnetic fields, especially in fields applied along the crystallographic c-axis of the superconductor. This characteristic limits the applicability of these materials for applications that require operation in magnetic fields such as motors, transformers, generators, solenoids and MRI systems.

Creation of high-pinning microstructures in post production YBCO coated conductors


A method of forming a thin film on a substrate/workpiece by sputtering, comprising steps of:                (a) providing an apparatus comprising a vacuum chamber including at least one sputtering source and a gas supply means for injecting a gas containing at least one reactive component into said chamber, the gas supply means comprising a plurality of differently-sized outlet orifices adapted for providing substantially the same flow rate of gas from each orifice;        (b) providing a substrate/workpiece having at least one surface for formation of a thin film thereon;        (c) generating a sputtered particle flux from the at least one sputtering source;        (d) injecting the gas containing the at least one reactive component into the chamber via the gas supply means, such that the same gas flow rate is provided at each orifice; and        (e) forming a reactively sputtered thin film on the at least one surface of the substrate/workpiece, the reactively sputtered thin film having a substantially uniform content of the at least one reactive component.

Magnetic and MO recording media are widely employed in various applications, particularly in the computer industry for data/information storage and retrieval purposes. A magnetic medium in, e.g., disk form, such as utilized in computer-related applications, comprises a non-magnetic substrate, for example, of glass, ceramic, glass-ceramic composite, polymer, metal or metal alloy, typically an aluminum (Al)-based alloy such as aluminum-magnesium (Al—Mg), having at least one major surface on which a layer stack comprising a plurality of thin film layers constituting the medium are sequentially deposited. In the case of longitudinal type magnetic recording media, such layers may include, in sequence from the substrate deposition surface, a plating layer, e.g., of amorphous nickel-phosphorus (Ni—P), a polycrystalline underlayer, typically of chromium (Cr) or a Cr-based alloy such as chromium-vanadium (Cr—V), a longitudinally oriented magnetic layer, e.g., of a cobalt (Co)-based alloy, and a protective overcoat layer, typically of a carbon (C)-based material, such as diamond-like carbon (DLC), having good mechanical (i.e., tribological) and corrosion resistance properties. Perpendicular type magnetic recording media typically comprise, in sequence from the surface of a non-magnetic substrate, an underlayer of a magnetically soft material, at least one non-magnetic interlayer or intermediate layer, a vertically (i.e., perpendicularly) oriented recording layer of a magnetically hard material, and a protective overcoat layer.
A similar situation exists with magneto-optical (MO) media, wherein a layer stack is formed which comprises a reflective layer, typically of a metal or metal alloy, one or more rare-earth thermo-magnetic (RE-TM) alloy layers, one or more dielectric layers, and a protective overcoat layer, for functioning as reflective, transparent, writing, writing assist, and read-out layers, etc.
According to conventional manufacturing technology, a majority (if not all) of the above-described layers constituting multi-layer longitudinal and perpendicular magnetic media, as well as MO recording media, are deposited by means of cathode sputtering processing. For example, the magnetic recording layers are typically fabricated by sputter depositing a Co-based alloy film, wherein the alloying elements are selected to promote desired magnetic and microstructural properties. In the case of longitudinal-type magnetic disk recording media, metallic and metalloidal elements, such as, for example, Cr, Pt, Ta, B, and combinations thereof, have been found to be effective. Similar alloying elements have been found to be useful in the case of perpendicular-type magnetic disk recording media, and in addition, reactive sputter deposition of the Co-based alloys in an oxygen (O2)-containing atmosphere has been found to be especially effective in controlling (i.e., limiting) exchange coupling between adjacent magnetic grains.
In a typical reactive sputtering process utilized for formation of perpendicular-type magnetic recording media, O2 gas is mixed with an inert sputtering gas, e.g., Ar, and is consumed by the depositing Co-based alloy magnetic film. Due to the high reactivity of O2 with metals, and since only partial oxidation of the depositing Co-based alloy magnetic film is desired, the degree of oxidation as a function of the location or position on the substrate (i.e., disk) surface tends to exhibit wide variation depending upon the process conditions, including, inter alia, O2 injection geometry, gas pumping (i.e., evacuation) geometry, gas flow rate, and film deposition rate.
FIG. 1 is a simplified, schematic, perspective view of a portion of a conventional reactive sputtering apparatus which may be utilized for performing reactive sputtering of magnetic thin films as part of the manufacturing process of disk-shaped magnetic recording media. As illustrated, the apparatus comprises a vacuum chamber equipped with an opening for connection to a pumping means for evacuating the interior of the chamber; at least one, preferably a pair of facing sputtering targets or sources of conventional type, e.g., a pair of magnetron sputtering guns; a means for positioning a substrate/workpiece in the space between the pair of facing sputtering sources, illustratively a disk-shaped substrate for a magnetic recording medium, for receipt of sputtered particle flux therefrom on both substrate surfaces; and a gas injector having a gas inlet portion extending outside the chamber for connection to a source of a gas, and a gas outlet portion within the chamber, for injecting gas, e.g., a reactive gas, in the space between the pair of facing sputtering sources. Illustratively, the gas injector is "wishbone"-shaped, and comprises a linearly elongated, tubular inlet portion having a first, gas inlet end, and a second end, with a pair of arcuately-shaped, tubular gas outlet portions extending from the second end, comprising a plurality of spaced-apart gas outlet orifices.
One-disk-at-a-time sputtering apparatus for the hard disk manufacturing industry, e.g., the Intevac MDP-250 (Intevac Co., Santa Clara, Calif.), typically employ gas injection means with design criteria, e.g., geometries, which are poorly suited to the high film uniformity requirements of the hard disk industry, particularly with respect to the special problems presented by reactive sputtering in atmospheres containing O2. For example, FIG. 2(B) is a graph illustrating the circumferential variation of S* for magnetic disks fabricated by means of "top-center" O2/Ar injection (relative to the disk) utilizing the "wishbone" style gas injector of the apparatus of FIG. 2(A), whereas FIG. 2(C) is a graph illustrating the circumferential variation of S* for magnetic disks fabricated by means of "bottom-side" O2/Ar injection utilizing the apparatus of FIG. 2(A), which apparatus comprises at least one conventional sputtering source for forming a film on at least one surface of the vertically positioned, dual-sided, disk-shaped magnetic disk substrate (which at least one conventional sputtering source is not shown in the figure for illustrative simplicity). Herein, the parameter S*=1−(dH/dM)Hc(Mr/Hc), and is closely related to the slope of the perpendicular M-H hysteresis loop at the coercive field. S* is a sensitive measure of the oxygen content of the oxide content of the perpendicular magnetic recording film. As the oxide content of the magnetic film increases, the exchange coupling between adjacent magnetic grains decreases, the hysteresis slope decreases, and S* decreases.
Specifically, it is seen from FIG. 2(B) that in the case of "top-center" O2/Ar injection, that S* is highest at the bottom of the disk (i.e., at 180°), indicating that the bottom of the disk is oxide-poor, relative to the disk top and sides (i.e., 0, 90, and 270°). By contrast, it is seen from FIG. 2(C) that in the case of "bottom-side" O2/Ar injection, that S* is lowest, i.e., the oxide content is highest, at the 90° position, corresponding to the region of the disk directly above the O2/Ar injection port.
A typical manufacturing specification for S* is in the range 0.30–0.50, with a tolerance of ±0.05, and nearly all of the magnetic films of FIGS. 2(B) and 2(C) are seen to exceed the specified tolerance for oxide content. However, the results of FIGS. 2(B) and 2(C) demonstrate that variation, e.g., asymmetry, of oxide content of the deposited magnetic films, as inferred from the values of the parameter S*, can be correlated with the O2/Ar injection geometry of the sputtering apparatus. In general, the oxide content is highest in the region of the disk surface which is closest to the point of O2/Ar injection. For the same sputtering chamber and pumping (evacuation) hardware, disks can be manufactured in which the magnetic recording layer is oxide rich at the top, bottom, or side(s), depending upon the geometry of the O2/Ar injection system, suggesting that the variation in oxide content of the magnetic recording layer (as reflected in the value of S*) can be reduced by proper design of the injection geometry/system.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a clear need for improved means and methodology for fabricating, by reactive sputtering techniques and at deposition rates consistent with the throughput requirements of automated manufacturing processing, thin films having a specified, typically minimal, compositional variation over the substrate surface, of a film constituent supplied via reactive gas injection to the sputtering atmosphere. More specifically, there exists a need for improved means and methodology for overcoming the above-described drawbacks and disadvantages associated with reactive sputtering processing for the manufacture of hard disk magnetic and MO recording media, notably oxide content variation over the disk surface which exceeds specified manufacturing tolerances.
The present invention addresses and solves the problems, disadvantages, and drawbacks described supra in connection with conventional means and methodology for performing reactive sputtering, e.g., of oxide-containing perpendicular magnetic recording layers, while maintaining full compatibility with all aspects of conventional automated manufacturing technology for hard disk magnetic and MO recording media. Further, the means and methodology afforded by the present invention enjoy diverse utility in the manufacture of all manner of devices and products requiring formation of high compositional uniformity thin films by means of reactive sputtering processing.

Gas injection for uniform composition reactively sputter-deposited thin films


The problem of unevenness that an outer shape is different for each booklet is solved by correcting coating thickness control depending on a thickness of a sheet bundle, based on booklet information which includes information on at least the number of sheets constituting the sheet bundle, keeping adjustment of a coating thickness for adhesive depending on a thickness of a sheet bundle as a basic method.

The present invention relates to a bookbinding apparatus to make a booklet by coating adhesive on a spine of a sheet bundle and to a bookbinding system equipped with the aforesaid bookbinding apparatus and with an image forming apparatus that forms images on a sheet.
A bookbinding apparatus for binding a sheet bundle composed of a plurality of sheets through gluing which is conducted by moving a coating device along a spine of the sheet bundle has been developed as a small-sized binding apparatus.
In particular, the aforesaid bookbinding apparatus has been developed as s small-sized bookbinding apparatus to be used for a bookbinding system wherein an image forming progress for forming an image on a sheet with an image forming apparatus and a bookbinding progress for binding sheets are conducted in a continuous progress.
For example, in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 2006-346984, there is proposed a bookbinding apparatus for conducting coating by moving a coating device along a spine of a sheet bundle wherein coating is conducted through first coating operations by bringing the coating device into contact with a spine of the sheet bundle under strong contact pressure and through second coating operations under weak contact pressure.
The bookbinding apparatus in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 2006-346984 conducts the aforesaid first and second coating operations for the purpose of making adhesion between sheets constituting a sheet bundle to be sure and of making adhesion of a cover to be sure.
By changing a thickness of coating of an adhesive layer formed on a spine of a sheet bundle depending on a thickness of a booklet, it is possible to produce a high-quality booklet, and thereby the quality is stabilized.
The reasons for the foregoing are as follows.
In the case of a thick booklet, it is necessary to make a coating thickness to be thick for obtaining necessary adhesive strength. However, if a coating thickness is made to be thick in the same way in the case of a thin booklet, adhesive is squeezed out as side adhesive when wrapping with a cover, resulting in excessive adhesive and poor binding.
On the other hand, when a booklet is thin, sufficient adhesive strength can be obtained even when a coating thickness is relatively thin.
As is suggested in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 2006-346984, changing coating conditions depending on a thickness of a sheet bundle is a powerful technique to solve the aforesaid problems. In other words, by changing a coating amount of adhesive depending on a thickness of a sheet bundle, the problems mentioned above can be solved to a certain extent.
However, when conducting coating control based on a thickness of a sheet bundle, a thickness of a formed adhesive layer is changed for each sheet bundle, and an external form of a sheet bundle or an external form of a booklet prepared by joining a cover on a sheet bundle shows lack of uniformity, which is a problem.
The lack of uniformity of the sheet bundle or of the booklet is especially remarkable in the following occasions.
For changing a coating weight depending on a thickness of the sheet bundle, there is employed a controlling method wherein a prescribed thickness represents a threshold value, and when a thickness is the threshold value or higher, a coating amount is increased, while, when a thickness is less than the threshold value, a coating amount is decreased.
When binding processing is continued for sheet bundles each having a thickness close to the threshold value, there is sometimes an occasion wherein a judgment for control of a coating thickness is changed for every sheet bundle even when the number of sheets is the same, resulting in formation of adhesive layers each being different for every sheet bundle.
FIG. 1 shows schematically situations of the prepared booklets wherein adhesive layers which are different in terms of a thickness are formed for every sheet bundle even when the number of sheets in a sheet bundle is the same, as described above.
As a result of adhesive layers N1-N4 of booklets P1-P4 which are different from each other in terms of a thickness, when the booklets P1-P4 are aligned at the reference position of their spines, ends Q1-Q4 of the booklets show lack of uniformity.
In other words, as a result of control of coating amount, there is caused a problem that consistency of booklets is lowered and quality of booklets is lowered.

Bookbinding apparatus and bookbinding system

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


An arc tube (6) of discharge lamp comprises a main tube body (11) of translucent ceramic sealed with a terminal plate (13) at both ends thereof. The main tube body (11) comprises integrally a large diameter portion (11A), a tapered portion (11B) which is disposed at both sides of the large diameter portion (11A) and has a smaller diameter toward the forward end thereof, and a small diameter portion (11C) which is connected to the forward end of the tapered portion (11B). In this arrangement, the discharge lamp can be produced more easily than the conventional structure having a narrow portion integrally formed at both ends of a ceramic tube body, making it possible to drastically reduce cost. Further, since a low temperature zone can be only with difficulty formed inside the arc tube during discharge, the luminous efficiency can be raised.

The present invention relates to a discharge lamp comprising a translucent ceramic tube dosed with a metal halide.
As this kind of a lamp, there is a high pressure discharge lamp as described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 6-196131. As shown in FIG. 8, the arc tube of this lamp comprises a tube body 100 which is made of translucent ceramic such as polycrystalline alumina and is tapered at both ends thereof to form a narrow tube portion 101 at an end thereof, and an electrode lead 103 which is connected to an electrode 102 and inserted in and sealed to the narrow tube portion 101 with a sealing glass 104.
However, this structure has difficulty in providing the arc tube with a higher output. In order to provide a higher output, the diameter of the tube body 100 must be increased to prevent the temperature of the tube body 100 from rising to an abnormally high temperature. This makes the difference in diameter between the tube body 100 and the narrow tube portion 101 too great, making it difficult to produce this structure and causing cracks to occur more easily due to thermal impacts. On the contrary, when the diameter of the narrow tube portion 101 is increased, the gap between the narrow tube portion 101 and the electrode lead 103 increases, adding to the thickness of the sealing glass layer 104 with which they are sealed to each other. Such a sealing glass layer 104 can crack.
As shown in another structure (FIG. 9) described in the above-mentioned patent publication, there is an effective structure comprising a straight tube 105 of translucent ceramic, a ceramic terminal plate 106 fixed at both ends of the straight tube 105, a ceramic narrow tube 107 attached to the terminal plates 106, and an electrode lead 108 inserted in the narrow tube portion 107.
Although this arrangement makes it possible to provide a higher output and makes it easy to produce, a new problem was found that this arrangement gives a lowered luminous efficiency.
The reason for this problem can be thought as follows. In general, the arc tube is dosed with a halide in an amount far more than that required to be vaporized during lighting of lamp. Thus, extra halide left unvaporized is accumulated in a low temperature zone inside the arc tube. When this extra halide is accumulated in the arc tube, emitted light is absorbed by the halide thus accumulated, reducing the amount of light emitted by the arc tube and hence reducing the efficiency of lamp. When the arc tube is actually observed, it is recognized that the poorer the efficiency of the lamp, the more the amount of halide which has been deposited on the lower inner wall of the main tube is lit in a horizontal burning position. Since the structure shown in FIG. 9 comprises the straight tube 105 having the same diameter along the axial length, the temperature is low at the periphery of the both ends of the straight tube 105 (zone A indicated by the shadow). Excess halide left unvaporized resides in these zones to lower the luminous efficiency.
A first object of the invention is to improve the structure of the tube body, making it possible to provide a high output discharge lamp at a low cost. A second object of the invention is to further improve the luminous efficiency.
The first invention for solving the foregoing problems lies in a discharge lamp comprising an arc tube made of translucent ceramic dosed with a metal halide, and electrodes provided in the arc tube whereby discharge occurs across the electrodes, characterized in that the arc tube comprises a main tube body having integrally a large diameter portion, a tapered portion which is positioned at both ends of the large diameter portion and has a smaller diameter toward the forward end thereof and a small diameter portion which is continuously provided at the forward end of the tapered portion, a terminal plate of ceramic airtightly fitted in and fixed to the interior of the small diameter portion at the both ends of the main tube body, and a narrow tube of ceramic having the terminal plate airtightly inserted and fixed therein, the narrow tube having an electrically-introducing member connected to the electrodes inserted therein and airtightly sealed thereto with a sealing glass.
This arrangement can be produced more easily than the conventional structure having a narrow portion integrally formed at both ends of a ceramic tube body, making it possible to drastically reduce cost. Further, since the tapered portion is disposed at both sides of the large diameter portion of the main tube body so that the main tube body narrows at both ends thereof, a low temperature zone can be only with difficulty formed inside the arc tube during discharge, making it possible to prevent excess unvaporized halide from residing in the low temperature zone and causing the deterioration of luminous efficiency.
The second invention lies in the foregoing invention wherein supposing that the inner diameter of the large diameter portion of the main tube body is A and the inner diameter of the narrow tube is B, A and B satisfy the relationships:
B greater than 1.3 mm and 4.5xe2x89xa6A/Bxe2x89xa611.5.
In accordance with the present invention, the inner diameter of the narrow tube is not smaller than 1.3 mm, making it possible to use a large electrode and hence provide a discharge lamp with a great power consumption. Further, since supposing that the inner diameter of the large diameter portion is A and the inner diameter of the narrow tube is B, A and B satisfy the relationship 4.5xe2x89xa6A/Bxe2x89xa611.5, the resulting lamp efficiency is raised. When this numerical value A/B falls within a range of from not smaller than 6 to not greater than 10 (6xe2x89xa6A/Bxe2x89xa610), the resulting lamp efficiency is further raised.
Moreover, in accordance with the invention comprising a fitting member, which is made of ceramic sleeve or metal pipe and covers a part of the electrically-introducing member, fitted between the electrically-introducing member and the narrow tube, even if the inner diameter of the narrow tube is not smaller than 1.3 mm, the thickness of the sealing glass layer formed between the electrically-introducing member and the narrow tube can be reduced, making it possible to prevent the crack occurrence of the narrow tube during sealing and hence early leakage of air from the sealing glass layer due to heat cycle developed by switching of lamp on and off.


Methods are provided for depositing a silicon oxide film on a substrate disposed in a substrate processing chamber. The substrate has a gap formed between adjacent raised surfaces. A process gas having a silicon-containing gas, an oxygen-containing gas, and a fluent gas is flowed into the substrate processing chamber. The fluent gas is introduced into the substrate processing chamber at a flow rate of at least 500 sccm. A plasma is formed having an ion density of at least 1011 ions/cm3 from the process gas to deposit a first portion of the silicon oxide film over the substrate and into the gap. Thereafter, the deposited first portion is exposed to an oxygen plasma having at least 1011 ions/cm3. Thereafter, a second portion of the silicon oxide film is deposited over the substrate and into the gap.

One common step that may be performed frequently during fabrication of modern semiconductor devices is the formation of a film, such as a silicon oxide film, on a semiconductor substrate. Silicon oxide is widely used as an insulating film in the manufacture of semiconductor devices and, as is well known, may be deposited as a film by a thermal chemical vapor deposition ("CVD") process or by a plasma-enhanced CVD ("PECVD") process. In conventional thermal CVD processes, reactive gases are supplied to the substrate surface, where heat-induced chemical reactions take place to form the desired film. In a conventional plasma process, a controlled plasma is formed to decompose and/or energize reactive species to produce the desired film.
Semiconductor-device geometries have decreased significantly in size since such devices were originally developed several decades ago. This decrease in device-geometry size has consequently resulted in an increase of circuit elements and interconnections formed in integrated circuits fabricated on semiconductor substrates. One persistent challenge faced by semiconductor manufacturers in the design and fabrication of such densely packed integrated circuits is the prevention of spurious interactions between circuit elements.
Unwanted interactions are typically prevented by providing spaces, sometimes referred to in the art as "gaps" or "trenches," between adjacent elements, and filling the spaces with electrically insulative material. This arrangement acts to isolate the elements both physically and electrically. Such spaces may be used in a variety of different applications, including shallow-trench-isolation ("STI"), premetal-dielectric ("PMD"), or intermetal-dielectric ("IMD") applications, among others. As circuit densities increase with reduced feature sizes, the widths of these spaces decrease, increasing their aspect ratios, which are defined as respective ratios of a gap's depth to its width. High-aspect-ratio gaps are difficult to fill using conventional CVD methods, causing some integrated-circuit manufacturers to turn to the use high-density-plasma CVD ("HDP-CVD") techniques. The use of an HDP-CVD technique results in the formation of a plasma that has a density approximately two orders of magnitude greater than the density of a conventional, capacitively coupled plasma. Examples of HDP-CVD systems include inductively coupled plasma ("ICP") systems and electron-cyclotron-resonance ("ECR") systems, among others. There are a number of advantages of plasma-deposition processes in gapfill applications that are thus enhanced in the case of HDP-CVD deposition processes. For example, the high reactivity of the species in any plasma deposition process reduces the energy required for a chemical reaction to take place, thereby allowing the temperature of the process to be reduced compared with conventional thermal CVD processes; the temperatures of HDP-CVD processes may advantageously be even lower than with PECVD processes because the species reactivity is even higher. Similarly, HDP-CVD systems generally operate at lower pressure ranges than low-density plasma systems. The low chamber pressure provides active species having a long mean-free-path and reduced angular distribution. These factors contribute to a significant number of constituents from the plasma reaching even the deepest portions of closely spaced gaps, providing a film with improved gapfill capabilities.
Another factor that allows films deposited by HDP-CVD techniques to have improved gapfill characteristics is the occurrence of sputtering, promoted by the plasma's high density, simultaneous with film deposition. The sputtering component of HDP deposition slows deposition on certain features, such as the corners of raised surfaces, thereby contributing to the increased gapfill ability of HDP deposited films. Some HDP-CVD processes introduce an inert element that further promotes the sputtering effect, with the choice of inert element often depending on its atomic or molecular weight, a parameter that is generally correlated with the size of the sputtering effect. In addition, the sputtering effect may be further promoted by applying an electric bias with an electrode in the substrate support pedestal to use electrical attraction of the plasma species.
It was initially thought that the simultaneous deposition and etching provided by HDP-CVD processes would allow gaps to be filled in almost any application. Semiconductor manufacturers have discovered, however, that there is a practical limit to the aspect ratio of gaps that HDP-CVD deposition techniques are able to fill. The challenge of filling gaps with HDP-CVD is illustrated schematically with the cross-sectional views shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. FIG. 1A shows a vertical cross section of a substrate 110, such as may be provided with a semiconductor wafer, having a film of features 120. Adjacent features 120 define gaps 114 that are to be filled with dielectric material, with the sidewalls 116 of the gaps being defined by the surfaces of the features 120. As the deposition proceeds, dielectric material 118 accumulates on the surfaces of the features 120, as well as on the substrate 110, and forms overhangs 122 at the corners 124 of the features 120. As deposition of the dielectric material 118 continues, the overhangs 122 typically grow faster than the gap 114 in a characteristic breadloafing fashion. Eventually, the overhangs 122 grow together to form the dielectric film 126 shown in FIG. 1B, preventing deposition into an interior void 128.
In an increasingly common process, an HDP-CVD process is used to deposit a silicon oxide film using a process gas that includes monosilane SiH4, molecular oxygen O2, and argon Ar. It has been reported that when such a process is used to fill certain narrow-width, high-aspect-ratio gaps, the sputtering caused by argon in the process gas hampers the gapfill effects. Specifically, it has been reported that material sputtered by argon in the process redeposits on the upper portions of the sidewalls of the gaps being filled at a rate faster than at the lower portions. This, in turn, has resulted in the formation of a void in the gap as illustrated in FIG. 1B. There accordingly remains a need in the art for techniques that allow improved gapfill with HDP-CVD processes.

Oxygen plasma treatment for enhanced HDP-CVD gapfill


In one embodiment, a process and method of screening an avian embryo feather color (pre-hatching) and determining the sex of the avian embryo, based at least in part, on the feather color or the color of feather precursors is provided. In an alternate embodiment, a process and method of screening chick embryo sex is provided, comprising the steps of: (i) obtaining a chicken egg; (ii) exposing the chicken egg to, or contacting the chicken egg with, electromagnetic radiation emitted from an electromagnetic radiation source; (iii) determining the amount of absorption, diffusion, refraction, reflection or a combination of any of the forgoing, of the electromagnetic radiation by the chicken egg by using an imaging system; (iv) comparing the absorption, diffusion, refraction, reflection or a combination of any of the forgoing, of the electromagnetic radiation by the chicken egg to a database; and (v) determining the sex of the chick embryo in the chicken egg, at least in part, as a result of the comparing step.

In 2006, the United States produced more than 12 billion (12,000,000,000) chicken eggs. In the egg production industry, only the female chicks are productive and the male chicks are currently culled. The culling of male chicks typically occurs after hatching and presents serious problems both economically and ethically. Economically, culling the male chicks is labor intensive and requires that certain waste disposal guidelines be followed. Ethically, the large scale culling of male chicks is undesirable to the industry consumers and the general public.
While there are a number of known methods useful to screen or determine the sex of many avian species, both pre- and post-hatching, the known methods fall short for several reasons. For simplicity, much of the specification will refer to known methods, and the present invention, as they relate to determination of the sex of a chick. However, many of the known methods can be used to determine the sex of other avian species, and the novel system and methods disclosed herein can similarly be utilized for avian species other than chickens. For example, the known pre-hatch screening methods are in some cases unreliable and are only available relatively late in the twenty one (21) day developmental cycle of the chick embryo. Many of the known pre-hatch screening methods analyze chick sex only after day eleven (11) in development which is after the point of development that the chick embryo is considered a sentient animal.
Thus the known pre-hatch screening methods do not avoid the ethical issues associated with post-hatch sexing. Second, many of the current pre-hatch methods are invasive and require sampling the contents of the egg, often by penetrating, or creating a hole in, the egg shell, thus compromising egg quality, embryo survival, physically damaging the egg and potentially introducing a source of contamination. The samples taken from the egg then require cost and time, or intensive assays of DNA, hormones or other metabolites to determine sex.
The known post-hatch sexing methods suffer many of the same drawbacks and limitations as discussed above and require extensive labor and expense or present waste disposal and ethical issues. One wide spread method of determining chick sex after hatching is feather color differentiation, designated on FIG. 1 as "ƒc". Feathers are elaborate skin appendages that serve many functions on a bird, including communication, regulation of body temperature and in some species, flight. Feathers originate from feather follicles and in the modern chicken, beginning on the 8th day of incubation, feathers have begun to form, and they are readily apparent on the 10th day of incubation. Further, feather color or pigmentation exists by the 10th day of incubation, as shown in FIG. 1. Feather color is determined by the expression of certain pigments by the cells forming the feather/feather precursor. Using feather color differentiation ƒc to sex newly hatched chicks was developed over a century ago, and today, commercial breeds of chickens (as well as some wild type breeds) can be sexed at over 99% accuracy based upon feather color after hatching. One common color scheme used in feather color differentiation ƒc involves breeding chickens with a sex-linked genetic marker so that male chicks are born with brown feathers while female chicks are born with white feathers, or vice versa. As shown in FIG. 1 as an example of developing brown feathers in a female chick embryo, the differentiation of feather color ƒc may exist as early as days 8-10 of egg incubation in some breeds of chickens and persists to hatching.
Accordingly, it is desirable that a method and apparatus be developed that allows for the non-invasive embryonic (or pre-hatch) determination of chick sex using feather color.
The unmet needs described above, as well as others are addressed by various embodiments of the methods, systems, and devices provided by the present application; although it is to be understood that not every embodiment disclosed will address a given need.

Spectrophotometric analysis of embryonic chick feather color


Calculation of the two-dimensional velocity vector of liquid flowing through a region which is imaged in a B-mode ultrasonic echoscopy display involves dividing the region into a number of small, preferably rectangular, cells. One of the cells is scanned rapidly, at least twice, by a beam of ultrasonic energy which is transmitted sequentially along a number of lines of sight which intersect the cell. An image of the cell is formed from the signals reflected from scatterers within the liquid in the cell during each scan of the cell. The two-dimensional brightness functions, S(x,y), of each image of the cell form a data set S(x,y,t) after the repeated scanning. The data set S(x,y,t) is integrated separately with respect to x and y by projection onto the (x,t) and (y,t) planes. Using the projected functions of S(x,y,t), the average velocity of the scatterers in the cell (and hence of the liquid flowing through the cell) is obtained in the x-direction and in the y-direction. From these two average velocities, the magnitude and direction of the two-dimensional velocity vector is obtained, and displayed on the echogram. The scanning, imaging and computational procedures are then repeated for another of the cells.

It is now well known that ultrasonic echoscopy techniques can be used to provide information about an object that is not visible to the eye. The basic technique of ultrasonic echoscopy involves directing a short pulse of ultrasonic energy, typically in the frequency range from 1 MHz to 30 MHz, into the region of the object that is being examined, and observing the energy that is reflected, as an echo, from each acoustic impedance discontinuity in that region. Each echo received is converted into an electrical signal and displayed as either a blip or an intensified spot on a single trace of a cathode ray tube or television screen. Such a display of the echoes is known as an "A-mode" echograph or echogram, and is useful in a number of diagnostic techniques to locate the boundaries of the object or to provide other information about the region into which the pulse of ultrasonic energy has been directed.
If a series of adjacent A-mode displays are obtained (for example, by physically or electrically moving the transmitting transducer which produces the pulses of ultrasonic energy, or by scanning the direction of transmission of the pulses of ultrasonic energy), a two-dimensional image of the object under examination may be displayed on the cathode ray tube or television screen. Such an image or display of acoustic discontinuities, which corresponds to the structure of the object, is known as a "B-mode" image or display.
The use of the Doppler frequency shift in the ultrasonic examination of flowing liquids and moving objects is also well known. Many echoscopes which perform the B-mode imaging examination described above can also perform Doppler frequency shift measurements in respect of echoes returned from moving objects within the region receiving ultrasonic energy from the echoscope. When the object under examination is a blood vessel, measurement of the Doppler shift of echoes from the blood cells within the vessel permits the velocity of those blood cells to be estimated. As pointed out by R W Gill, in his article entitled "Measurement of Blood Flow by Ultrasound: Accuracy and Sources of Error", which was published in Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Volume 11 (1985), pages 625 to 641, it is possible to measure the total volume of flow per unit time using an ultrasonic examination technique which includes the measurement of frequency changes due to the Doppler effect.
In ultrasonic examinations including Doppler frequency shift measurements, it is necessary to obtain echoes from a limited volume of the flowing liquid which is within the vessel being examined. This is achieved by fixing the line of sight of the ultrasonic transducer and, in the most commonly used version of Doppler measurement known as "pulsed Doppler", analyzing the echoes obtained from the sample volume for a limited range of time delays. The Doppler shift in the received echoes is averaged in order to calculate the average speed of scatterers in the flowing liquid.
In current implementations of the pulsed Doppler technique, the quantity measured as "velocity" is actually the component of velocity measured along the line of sight of a beam of ultrasound. Therefore the actual velocity (magnitude and direction) of the flowing liquid is not determined, although it can sometimes be inferred (for example, when the flow is along a vessel with clearly-imaged walls, as in the case of blood flow through an artery).
The information obtained by applying the Doppler technique to ultrasound measurements is commonly displayed in one of two ways or modes.
The first mode, known as a spectral display, is used when ultrasound pulses are repeatedly transmitted down the same line of sight, and echoes from a small region (the "sample volume") are selected for analysis. This selection is effected by accepting only echoes received within a certain range of delay times after transmission of the ultrasound pulses. The frequency spectrum observed, over a series of transmitted pulses, as a result of mixing the returned echoes with the transmitted frequency, corresponds to the spectrum of velocities in the flowing liquid that is being examined. This spectrum is displayed in a two-dimensional form with a horizontal axis representing time and a vertical axis representing velocity, and with the brightness of the displayed data corresponding to the strength of Doppler signal (which is approximately proportional to the number of scatterers in the flowing liquid at that time moving with the indicated velocity). Information about the direction and distribution of flow velocities, as well as their time evolution, may be inferred from this kind of display. The physical principles involved in this form of velocity display are well explained by K J W Taylor, P N Burns and P N T Wells in their book entitled "Clinical Applications of Doppler Ultrasound", published by Raven Press (1988).
The other commonly employed display mode is usually termed "color Doppler imaging". This display mode incorporates Doppler frequency shift information into a conventional ultrasound image. In this display mode, selected ultrasound lines of sight are repeated several times in rapid succession. Doppler shift measurements are taken for a number of sample volumes down each of the selected lines of sight. By suitable arrangement of the selected lines of sight, the whole or a part of the imaged area can be covered with a grid of sample volumes. A simplified version of the Doppler spectrum is calculated, and the liquid velocity is displayed by coloring the area of the ultrasound image which is covered by the sample volume. The color indicates the direction (towards or away from the transducer) and approximate magnitude of the velocity. In some applications of the color Doppler imaging technique, the spread of velocities can also be displayed. The display is updated in real time and gives an overview of liquid dynamics over an extended region. This technique has been described by K Miyatake, M Okamoto, N Kinoshita, S Izumi, M Owa, S Takao, H Sakakibara and Y Nimura in their article entitled "Clinical applications of a new type of real-time two-dimensional flow imaging system", which was published in American Journal of Cardiology, volume 54 (1984), pages 857-868.
In both the spectral and color Doppler imaging display techniques, the displayed velocity is actually the component along the line of sight, as indicated in the well-known Doppler equation: ##EQU1## in which f.sub.D is the Doppler frequency shift, f.sub.0 is the ultrasound frequency, v is the velocity of the liquid, c is the speed of sound in the medium and .theta. is the angle between the flow vector and the ultrasonic line of sight. Thus changes in the Doppler frequency shift f.sub.D may be due to changes in the liquid velocity v, or they may be due to changes in the angle .theta.. In some cases (for example, when there is undisturbed flow along a straight vessel), the angle .theta. may be inferred from the vessel orientation. A technique for doing this automatically is described by L S Wilson, M J Dadd and R W Gill in the specification of International patent application No PCT/AU91/00026. However, in many instances where liquid flow is being investigated by applying Doppler frequency shift measurements to ultrasound, the absolute magnitude and direction of the flow velocity cannot be easily inferred from the value of one velocity component.
Clearly it is desirable to be able to measure two orthogonal components of the velocity of a flowing liquid, to enable its velocity vector to be determined, and several alternative methods of doing this have been proposed. For example, M D Fox, in an article entitled "Multiple crossed beam ultrasound Doppler velocimetryle", published in IEEE Transactions on Sonics and Ultrasonics, volume SU-25 (1978), pages 281-286, describes the use of several transducers viewing the region of flow from different directions to obtain several velocity components. In addition, G E Trahey, S M Hubbard and O T von Ramm, in their article entitled "Angle independent ultrasonic blood flow detection by frame-to-frame correlation of B-mode images", published in Ultrasonics, volume 26 (1986), pages 271-276, describe the use of two-dimensional cross-correlation between successive B-mode image frames to determine the blood velocity vector. However, the first approach (described by Fox) uses a non-standard transducer arrangement, while the second approach (described by Trahey et al) requires larger computing power, making real time implementation of the technique difficult.

Method and apparatus for determining the velocity of a flowing liquid

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation


A satellite communication device is provided. The satellite communication device includes a determiner for determining availability of communication from a terminal to a WAN based on determination information acquirable from either one of communication via a LAN and the device itself without performing communication via the WAN, and for generating, when the communication from the terminal to the WAN is available, a communicable signal indicating the communication to the WAN being available. The satellite communication device also includes a notifier for receiving, from the terminal, a communication checking signal for requesting to check the availability of the communication to the WAN, and transmitting, when the communication from the terminal to the WAN is available, the communicable signal to the terminal.

Conventionally, a technique for performing communication with, for example, a telephone, a facsimile, and internet, via an artificial satellite has been known. Communication via an artificial satellite (satellite communication) is used in an area (sea, a remote island, etc.) where neither of wired communication facilities nor wireless communication facilities are equipped. JP2006-527926A discloses a technique which is used when utilizing satellite communication in aircrafts, etc.
In JP2006-527926A, the technique enabling telephone conversation and communication in aircrafts via mobile phones is disclosed. Specifically, an aircraft has an antenna for satellite communication. The satellite communication connects a network for mobile phones inside the aircraft with a network for a base station on the ground. Thus, telephone conversation and communication are also available in the aircraft by using mobile phones.
Meanwhile, for satellite communication, a measured rate system in which the fee is determined based on a communication volume, airtime or the like is adopted. In this case, if the satellite communication is always available, the communication fee becomes high. Therefore, in JP2006-527926A, a configuration using an emulator is disclosed.
Even when the network for mobile phones is not connected to the network for the base station, the emulator can operate as if they are connected to each other. Thus, when neither of the telephone conversation nor the communication is performed using the mobile phones, or when the information that neither of the telephone conversation nor the communication is performed is not required to be transferred to the ground, the communication fee can be reduced by disabling the satellite communication.
Meanwhile, a protocol referred to as an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) has been known conventionally. The ICMP is a protocol for notifying to a source host, information and the like regarding an error caused before a packet reached a destination, or the communication regarding the packet. Note that, hereinafter, a server which supports (respondable to) packets using the ICMP is referred to as an ICMP server.
As communication using the ICMP, a ping is known, for example. The ping utilizes an echo request and an echo notification of the ICMP. The ping transmits an ICMP packet to other terminal and ICMP server and the like with which network communication is desired to be checked, and checks whether the packet arrives appropriately based on whether a response to the ICMP packet is received. By utilizing the ping, for example, it can be monitored whether the line to the ICMP server is alive.
Here, in failover systems (a collective term of systems where one of the systems cannot be used, another one of the systems is used), in order to grasp a line status in a simple method, normally, the life-and-death monitoring of the main line is performed using the ICMP packet. However, in this case, if the measured rate system is adopted to the main line, a communication fee will be charged.
Note that, as long as the method of checking either one of the availability of the communication and the communication environment by actually performing satellite communication is adopted, methods other than the ping also have this disadvantage.

Satellite communication device and satellite communication system


A web engagement system for an off-reel printing press comprising a guide piece, a guide channel and drive stations for the displacement of the guide piece. The guide channel accommodates and guides the guide piece and is located on the frame of the press between the drive stations. The guide piece is slightly longer than the distance separating the various drive stations. The advance of the guide piece is caused as a result of the displacement of a slide equipped with wedging rollers which alternately grip and release the guide piece. A pair of wedging rollers prevents the return movement of the guide piece. The invention is used for introducing paper webs unwinding continuously in an off-reel printing press.

Off-reel printing presses, whatever the printing process used, print onto a continuous paper web unwinding from a reel. These presses are generally composed of the following components: a reelstand which supplies a paper web at a regulated tension; an infeeder which increases the paper tension provided by the reelstand and which improves the tension regulation; printing units which deposit ink films of various colors onto the paper in so-called "printing" zones; a hot-air drier which dries the ink film by blowing hot air; chill rolls which return the paper to ambient temperature at its exit from the drier; a paper passage which cuts the various webs into strips, superposes them by means of turning bars and puts them in phase so as to bring the pages of the various strips into coincidence by means of cutting registers; and a folder or open-sheet delivery which cuts the continuous web arriving there and, if appropriate, folds it to form a folded booklet.
These various components include a large number of free or driven rollers, on which the running web passes and changes direction. Before the printing press is put into operation, the web has to be "engaged" between or around the various rollers.
The engagement operation has in the past traditionally been carried out by hand. Several operators moving around the machine would pass the leading edge of the paper web to one another. The leading edge of the web may be cut to a point to make it easier to pass it between the many pairs of rollers involved in the printing process.
Manual engagement of the web is lengthy and laborious, because it is necessary to climb into the structure of the machine in order to engage the web on the paperpassage rollers, and could be dangerous if the various pairs of engaging rollers were not protected by "finger guards".
It should also be noted that, on most printing presses, the paper does not follow a single path. Depending on the final product desired, it can follow different paper paths and therefore pass over the various rollers in a different order.
An improved engagement system known as "engagement belts" is well known. This system involves providing idle pulleys at the end of the various rollers on which an endless belts travels following the path most often travelled by the paper. When it has reached the end of its travel, this belt has to return to its starting point on a series of so-called return pulleys. It is necessary to provide tensioning devices for keeping this belt at a suitable tension and a drive device for driving the system as a whole. To engage the paper, it is cut obliquely to make a point, on the side where the engagement belts is located, this point is attached to the engagement belts and the press and the drive system of the cords are put into operation so that the paper is carried by these from roller to roller. It should be noted, however, that such belts have single and invariable paths and therefore do not allow a plurality of paper passes to be executed according to choice. This system is generally satisfactory, especially on presses for printing the daily newspapers.
This system can be modified to provide a plurality of belts, for example one on each side of the breadth of the paper to be engaged, these belts carrying out the engagement along different paths. In this arrangement, moreover, the paper can be secured to one of the belts over a particular length of the path and to the other belts over another part. It should be noted, however, that this solution is not fully automatic and requires a considerable involvement of personnel.
There are other known engagement systems, in which a bar passes across the width of the paper breadth, being connected on the two sides of the latter to chains or to cables driven in synchronism by a winch located at the end of the machine. In this arrangement, the chains or cables pass over pulleys, the axles of which are fastened on either side of the frames of the machine. To engage the web, its end is fastened to the engagement bar by means of adhesive tape and the printing press and winch are set in slow motion. The engagement bar is displaced according to the path of the chains or cables and introduces the web along this path. This system can be "endless" with the chains or cables arranged on a continuous looped path.
Other systems employ an unwinder having an "unwinding" chain or cable winch and a "winding" winch near the folder end of the machine. When the web has been engaged, the bar of the chain or cable drive system is disconnected and the chain or cable is rewound onto the "unwinding" winch. Here again, the main disadvantage of this system is that it enables the paper to be engaged only along a single path.
Systems have been proposed, in which a roller chain section of a length of only a few meters is displaced in a channel fastened against the frame of the machine. This channel has a C-shaped cross-section, thus ensuring that the chain is retained in the channel. At the rear of the chain section, a hook emerges through the orifice of the channel and serves for attaching the point formed in the paper web to be engaged. Of course, the chain is arranged in the channel in such a way that its rollers and therefore its axes of articulation are parallel to the axes of the rollers and cylinders of the press. To drive this chain, along the channel, there are at a fixed station electric or pneumatic motors driving chain pinions, the axes of which are themselves parallel to the axes of the rollers of the press. These chain pinions mesh with the chain through slots made at fixed intervals in the wall of the chain guide channel.
The roller chain arrangement is such that the distance, along the channel, between two chain pinions is smaller than the length of the chain section, so that this section is pushed along in the channel as far as the following pinion which then meshes with it and pulls it. Electric or pneumatic chain presence detectors are used for starting and stopping the motors, these operating only when a chain passes through them.
The advantage of this system over the preceding ones is that it makes it possible to engage the web along varied paths. It is possible, in fact, to arrange switches on the channels between the various sections and to direct the chain different ways.

Web engagement system for an off-reel printing press


The present invention concerns methods and apparatus for use in a spread spectrum communications system. In particular, in a method of the present invention information useful for acquiring a target signal is selected; the information is incorporated in an acquisition signal; the acquisition signal is transmitted; the target signal is spread with a spreading code; and the target signal is transmitted. At a receiving node, the acquisition information useful for acquiring the target signal is recovered from the acquisition signal and used to acquire the target signal. Apparatus in accordance with the present invention implement methods of the present invention. The methods and apparatus of the present invention can be used in node- and network-discovery situations.

In direct sequence spread spectrum (DSS) communication, a wide band carrier signal is modulated by a narrow band message signal. The wide-band carrier is typically generated by modulating a single frequency carrier using a pseudo-random noise (P/N) code sequence. The data rate at which a message is communicated is usually much lower than the P/N code symbol or "chip" rate. The ability of DSS to suppress interference is proportional to a ratio of the chip rate and the data rate. In many applications, there are thousands of code chips per data bit.
At the receiver, a carrier replica is generated by reducing the DSS signal to baseband and multiplying it with a locally generated replica of the original narrow-band carrier using a local oscillator. If the frequency and phase of the carrier replica is the same as that of the received original narrow-band carrier, then the multiplier output signal will be the product of the bipolar P/N code and intended message. The P/N code is removed by multiplying the wide-band data stream with the locally generated replica of the P/N code that is time-aligned with the received P/N code. This is the de-spreading process.
Generating the carrier replica with proper carrier frequency and phase and generating the P/N code replica at the proper rate and time offset is a complex problem. In many DSS communication systems, the necessary carrier frequency, carrier phase, and P/N code offset are not known a priori at the receiver, which tries different values until a large signal is observed at the data-filter output. This is termed the search or acquisition process, and a DSS signal is said to be acquired when the proper frequency, phase and code offset have been determined. A receiver selects and detects a particular transmitted signal by choosing the appropriate P/N code and performing the acquisition search. In some cases the acquisition search must include examination of different P/N codes from a known list when the transmitting node is not known. When many different codes, code offsets and carrier frequencies must be examined and the SNR is low, the acquisition task can be both time and energy consuming.
The above constraints are more pronounced in a secure environment such as that depicted in FIG. 1 (detailed below), where a new node termed a hailing node 34 seeks to join an existing network while maintaining security for the joining node and those nodes already on the network. In addition, an established network requires a method of discovering the existence of another separate network that may have migrated into communication range, so that a cross-link can be established between the networks in order to form a larger network. The process of nodes "discovering" each other is termed node discovery, and is where DSS signal acquisition occurs. Typically, node discovery is done on channels separate from the primary data communication channels. Limited data exchange on the "discovery channel" is preferable for network optimization. As a result, the discovery waveform must be flexible in the messages it carries and not be constrained to one specific message type or size.
The air interface should consist of a flexible and symmetric full-duplex or half-duplex link. The transmitting node or hailing node is that node that sends a discovery signal, essentially a message inquiring as to the presence of receiving nodes. Receiving nodes are the nodes that listen for the discovery signal. The receiving nodes are therefore target nodes, which may have already formed a network. These receiving nodes may become transmitting nodes when they send an acknowledgment back to the initiating new node. In this way, a new node that flies into range of an established network will transmit discovery messages on that transmitting node's transmit link. When a receiving node in the established network hears the discovery message on the receive link, it will respond via its transmit link which is the hailing node's receiving link. Subsequent handshaking can then be performed via the two nodes' transmit and receive links to bring the initiating new node into the network. The transmitting and receiving links may occupy separate time slots in a time division duplex (TDD) system, or may be separate frequency bands in a frequency division (FDD) system.
An exemplary but non-limiting environment in which node discovery may be important is illustrated in perspective view at FIG. 1, a prior art arrangement of disparate nodes operating in a traffic data network and one hailing node seeking to join the traffic network. The nodes may be airborne as in aircraft; terrestrial as in autos, trucks and trains; or waterborne as in ships and other surface watercraft. They may be stationary or mobile, fast or slow moving, as for example, communications between nodes in a building, an aircraft, and an automobile. For additional flexibility, it is assumed that a hailing node 34 may not have a clock signal synchronized with the network prior to joining. The range 22 of the traffic data network is centered on a command node 24, absent relays by other nodes within the network. Where the network links members via a satellite link, the line-of-sight range 22 is not particularly relevant. The range 22 is included to show further advantages of the invention that may be exploited when network communications are geographically limited.
The command node is representative of the node that receives the discovery signal, and may be a true command node that controls access to the secure network (in that no other nodes receive and acknowledge discovery signals) or it may represent any node already established within the network that receives the discovery signal (such as where all established nodes listen for discovery signals). In FIG. 1, all nodes depicted as within the traffic network range 22 communicate on the traffic network, either through the command node 24 or directly with one another once granted network entry. The traffic network typically operates by directional antennas 24a, at least at the command node 24, to maximize the network range 22. This is because directional antennas typically enable a higher antenna gain and a higher tolerable path loss as compared to omni-directional antennas. Therefore, a range (not shown) of a discovery network that operates using omni-directional antennas 24b is somewhat less, at least in the prior art. The command node 24 maintains communication with stationary nodes 26, 28. When two nodes are aircraft, they may be closing or separating from one another at very high rates, rendering Doppler effects significant. When a hailing node 34 sends a discovery signal to locate and request entry into the traffic network, its signal is typically not received at the command node 24 until the hailing node is within the traffic network range 22. Since the hailing node 34 is not yet identified as authorized, this potentially puts communication within the network at risk, or alternatively unduly delays granting the hailing node 34 access to the network. Because access to the traffic network is obtained through the discovery protocol, that protocol must exhibit security features to prevent compromise of the traffic network.
Considering the issues apparent in light of FIG. 1, a good node discovery scheme for a highly secure communications network would therefore exhibit (a) high speed and reliability; (b) long range; (c) low probability of intercept (LPI) and low probability of detection (LPD) by unauthorized parties; (d) universal discovery and recognition among the various nodes; (e) asynchronous discovery; and (f) reliability for both stationary and fast-moving nodes. Each of these aspects are detailed further at co-owned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/915,777, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully restated herein.
Transmission signals are normally divided into preamble and payload sections, payload carrying the substantive data. In a discovery signal of the prior art, the preamble and payload sections were at the same frequency and the receiving node would search among the possible frequency bins until it acquired the signal preamble. This prior art approach has been described as the receiver spinning its frequency search. In Doppler environments where transmitter and receiver may move relative to one another at a rate unknown prior to acquisition, as with the hailing and command nodes of FIG. 1, the frequency at which a discovery signal reaches a receiver is unknown to the extent of Doppler uncertainty. Ensuring the prior art receiver locks onto a discovery signal payload within the very short time of that signal preamble (e.g., on the order of milliseconds) with a high degree of probability requires a large hardware commitment. The present invention uses a different discovery signal regimen to reduce the hardware requirement in the receiver while simultaneously decreasing acquisition time in a highly secure communication environment.
Accordingly, in such communications environments the goals of security, hardware simplicity and speed of operation are often conflicting. For example, security requires very long and often complex spreading codes. Such codes require complicated circuitry on the transmitting and receiving sides which, in addition, require relatively large amounts of power to operate. Further, communications signals spread with such codes may take relatively long to acquire.
As a result, in most if not all situations encountered in such communications environments, fast acquisition of communications channels is desired. Fast acquisition contributes favorably to desired goals of low probability of intercept and resistance to jamming. Fast acquisition, though, may require relatively short and simple spreading codes, negatively impacting security. Those skilled in the art do not desire that speed of acquisition sacrifice security, pointing back to the use of long spreading codes.
For these reasons, those skilled in the art desire methods and apparatus for use in channel acquisition that have security performance usually associated with long spreading codes, while having speed of acquisition usually associated with short codes. Those skilled in the art also desire methods and apparatus for use in channel acquisition that are applicable to frequency hopping spread spectrum communications systems and hybrid time-division or frequency-division spread spectrum communications systems.

Methods and apparatus implementing short and long code channel overlay for fast acquistion of long PN codes in spread spectrum communications systems


A device for measuring blood pressure includes a sensor arrangement which is releasably attached to the exterior of a body and which is electrically conductively connected with electronic circuit. The sensor arrangement and the circuit are configured to determine, in at least one measuring region of the body, a valve which is a measure for a variable that changes periodically over time in the rhythm of the pulse beat and which is correlated with the blood pressure. This variable may, for example, be the flow velocity and/or flow quantity and/or the volume of the arterial blood and/or a cross-sectional dimension and/or the flow cross section area of an arterial blood vessel. The sensor and circuit further determine a value which is a measure for the pulse wave velocity. By linking the two values together and including at least one calibration value, at least one value that is characteristic for of the blood pressure (preferably including at least the systolic blood. pressure) can be determined. The device makes it possible to measure the blood pressure of a person at least quasi-continuously with relatively little bother for the person.

The invention relates to a device and a method for measuring blood pressure.
The device and the method serve to measure blood pressure, namely to measure blood pressure in a non-invasive manner. The term "non-invasive" here means that the measurement is performed without an instrument being introduced into a blood vessel and is thus effected with sensor means which are disposed completely outside of the living human, or possibly animal body whose blood pressure is being measured.
At present, blood pressure is mostly measured by methods based on the Riva-Rocci method. Prior art devices provided for such blood pressure measurements include a deformable cuff. This cuff defines a cavity which is connected with a compressed gas source, usually formed by a pump that pumps air, an outlet and a pressure measuring device. Means are further provided to be able to associate two values of this pressure when there is a change in the pressure existing in the cuff--namely upon deflation of the cuff--with the systolic and the diastolic pressure. The association with the systolic and the diastolic pressure can here be made either on the basis of Korotkoff sounds generated when the blood flows through an artery or according to the oscillometric variant of the method. In more recent prior art sphygmomanometers, the pressure measuring devices include a measuring transducer that is connected with the cavity in the cuff for converting the pressure into an electrical value, electronic circuit means and a display member for the analog or digital display of the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Devices for determining the systolic and diastolic blood pressure on the basis of the Korotkoff sounds additionally include either a stethoscope or a microphone. Reference is here made, for example, to German Laid-Open Patent Application 3,014,199 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,991. The pulsating flow of the blood is able to excite vibrations in the gas present in the cuff, normally air. In the devices provided for oscillometric measurements, the pressure measuring transducer and the electronic circuit means are configured to detect the fluctuations of the pressure in the cuff connected with the above-mentioned vibrations.
For a measurement according to the Riva-Rocci method, the cuff is fastened to a body segment--for example an upper arm or a finger--and is pumped up until the pressure of the air present in its cavity is sufficient to constrict the artery in the enclosed member. Then the cuff is slowly deflated. In the variant involving the detection of the Korotkoff sounds by means of a stethoscope or microphone, two values are detected and identified for the pressure in the cuff cavity during deflation of the cuff as the systolic blood pressure and the diastolic blood pressure, respectively. The pressure existing in the cuff during the first occurrence of Korotkoff sounds is associated with the systolic blood pressure. The diastolic pressure is recognized by the fact that the actual Korotkoff sounds disappear, with the sounds generated by the flowing blood becoming lower and less distinct or disappearing altogether. In the oscillometric variant of the method, the pressures of the air contained in the cuff and corresponding to the systolic and diastolic blood pressures are determined in that the fluctuations in the cuff pressure caused by the pulsating flow of the blood begin to appear or disappear again.
For seriously ill or critical accident victims and/or patients just coming out of surgery and in other cases it may be necessary or at least desirable to measure the blood pressure of the respective patient over a certain period of time--for example over several hours or days--permanently and as continuously as possible. In practice, devices are known for this purpose which operate according to the Riva-Rocci method and in which the cuff can be inflated and deflated automatically in cycles during operation, with the systolic and diastolic blood pressure each being measured during the deflation. However, periodic pumping up and subsequent deflating of the cuff and the interruption of blood circulation connected therewith in the limb around which the cuff is placed is unpleasant for the patient being examined and may even be damaging to his health. Since an inflation/deflation cycle usually requires at least about one minute and, moreover, short pauses should be introduced between successive measurements to keep annoyance to the patient being examined at a minimum, the Riva-Rocci method does not really permit truly continuous blood pressure measurements.
The publication entitled "Possible Determinants of Pulse-Wave Velocity In Vivo" by Masahiko Okada, in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Volume 35, No. 5, May 1988, pages 357-361, discloses a photoplethysmographic method for measuring pulse wave velocity that will be discussed in greater detail below. The measurement is made at the finger or toe tips with the use of light at a wavelength of 300 nm to 500 nm. This publication describes the correlation of the pulse wave velocity with various other parameters and variables, one of which is the blood pressure. According to this publication, a certain correlation was found to exist between the pulse wave velocity and the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Such a relatively slight correlation, however, does not permit a determination of the blood pressure. Since the pulse wave velocity does not change periodically, it would also not be possible, in particular, to determine the systolic and the diastolic blood pressure from the pulse wave velocity. Moreover, the walls of the large arteries and the tissue portions usually covering them toward the exterior are practically impermeable to light of a wavelength of 300 nm to 500 nm. The method disclosed in the publication by M. Okada is therefore suitable only for measurements at thin-walled blood vessels near the surface, which are correspondingly small and is not suitable for measurements at large, correspondingly thick-walled blood vessels that may possibly be relatively far removed from the surface of the body part being examined.
Several general characteristics relating to blood circulation will now be discussed. The circulatory system includes arterial blood vessels -(that is, arteries),-venous blood vessels, and capillaries that interconnect the two types of vessels. The smallest arterial blood vessels or arteries, that are connected directly with the capillaries, are called arterioles. The arterial blood vessels have elastically deformable walls and are at least in part provided with muscle fibers and/or enclosed by such muscle fibers. These muscle fibers are able to compress the arteries and particularly the arterioles to different degrees and thus influence their elasticity, the flow resistance and the distribution of blood to the various blood vessels. The heart pumps the blood in a pulsating manner--that is, in surges--through the blood vessels. The blood flows through the blood vessels at a flow velocity v that is a function of locus as well as time. If, for the sake of simplification, it is initially assumed that the blood vessels have rigid walls, changes in pressure in the blood propagate at the speed of sound cs, whose second power or square is defined by the following formula: EQU c.sub.s.sup.2 =k/.rho. (1)
where .rho. is the density of the blood and K the modulus of compression, which is also called the volume elasticity modulus and is equal to the reciprocal of compressibility, usually identified as .kappa..
In reality, however, the arterial blood vessels do not have rigid walls but--as already mentioned--elastically deformable walls. During each blood surge caused by one cardiac cycle and the pulse-like pressure increase connected therewith, the arterial blood vessels are distended. These distensions propagate along the arterial blood vessels. The velocity at which the change in pressure caused by a cardiac cycle or blood surge propagates along an arterial blood vessel under the influence of its wall elasticity, is the already mentioned pulse wave velocity c.sub.pw. According to the book by Ludwig Prandtl, entitled "Furer durch die Stromungs-lehre" [Fluid Mechanics Guide], published by Verlag Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig, 1965, the second power or square of the propagation velocity of pressure changes in tubes having elastically distensible walls, and thus at least approximately also the second power or square of the pulse wave velocity, neglecting flexural vibrations, is given by the following equation: ##EQU1## where E is the modulus of elasticity of the blood vessel wall, s is the thickness of the blood vessel wall and d is the interior diameter of the blood vessel.
According to the above-cited publication by M. Okada, the square of the pulse wave velocity is given by the following equation: ##EQU2##
By inserting c.sub.s in Equation (2), it can be demonstrated that Equation (3) is derived from Equation (2) if, for the sake of simplicity, the second product in the parenthetical expression in Equation (2) is omitted.
The flow velocity of the blood is--as already mentioned--a function of locus as well as time. Its maximum value in an arterial blood vessel and particularly in a large artery of a grown human being is at most about 0.5 m/s and normally a little less. According to Equations (2) and (3), the pulse wave velocity is dependent upon the ratio of the wall thickness to the diameter of the arteries. Since this ratio increases from the heart toward the capillaries and since the pulse wave velocity additionally is a function of the modulus of elasticity and of the tension in the muscle fibers belonging to the respective blood vessel, the pulse wave velocity changes along the arterial blood vessels and is also dependent upon the state of the human beings or animals examined. In the arteries, the pulse wave velocity is typically about 4 m/s to 5 m/s. The speed of sound in water, which is known to be the major component of blood, lies in an order of magnitude of 1500 m/s. The pulse wave velocity c.sub.pw is thus significantly greater, namely at least or approximately 10 times greater, than the flow velocity v, and the speed of sound c.sub.s, in turn, is very much greater than the pulse wave velocity.
The blood pressure developing in a certain blood vessel depends on the pumping output of the heart, on the flow resistance of the blood vessel, on the momentary quantity flowing through, on the elasticity of the blood vessel wall and on the viscosity of the blood.

Blood pressure measuring device and method


A device for accurately controlling the positions of a driving motor and a print head and enhancing print quality by sensing the position of the driving motor by occurring pulses from a timer at shorter intervals than predetermined step units and synchronously driving the print head with control of the driving motor, includes a synchronizing pulse generator for generating high speed synchronizing pulses for controlling the position of the driving motor and the print head, a position controller for synchronously controlling the position of the driving motor with divided generated pulses, a print head controller for synchronously controlling the position of the print head with the divided generated pulse, an interrupt controller for receiving interrupt signals generated in the position controller during the acceleration and deceleration of the driving motor and for generating interrupt in the priority order, and a CPU (central processing unit) for generating interrupts according to interrupt request signals, setting time in the generator, outputting signals for controlling the driving motor according to the set time during the acceleration and deceleration periods and governing all the component blocks.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling the position of a driving motor (e.g. a step motor) and a print head. More specifically, the invention relates to a position control technique for accurately controlling the position of a driving motor by generating timer pulses at shorter intervals than step units, and for enhancing print quality by synchronizing the drive of the print head with the control of the driving motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
An earlier position controlling device for driving motor and a print head includes a position controller for controlling the position of the driving motor by supplying the driving motor with pulse signals resulting from an interrupt, a print controller for controlling the drive of the print head by supplying the print head with pulse signals, and a central processing unit for generating interrupt signals to drive the driving motor and the print head according to interrupt request signals generated by the position controller and the print controller and governing all of the component blocks in the controllers.
The position controller includes a first timer for generating pulses at fixed intervals, a first interrupt generator for generating drive motor interrupt signals according to the pulse signals from the first timer, a control circuit for receiving the driving motor interrupt signals from the first interrupt generator and for generating corresponding interrupt request signals in a predetermined priority order and transmitting the interrupt request signals to the central processing unit, a first buffer for temporarily storing driving motor drive signals from the central processing unit, and a fire drive circuit for moving a carriage having the print head attached thereto to a desired position by controlling the driving motor according to the signals stored in the first buffer.
The print controller includes a second timer for generating pulses at fixed intervals, a second interrupt generator for generating print head interrupt signals according to the pulse signals from the second timer, the control circuit for receiving the print head interrupt signals from the second interrupt generator and for generating corresponding interrupt request signals in a predetermined priority order and transmitting the interrupt request signals to the central processing unit, a second buffer for temporarily storing print head nozzle drive signals from the central processing unit, and a second drive circuit for driving the nozzle of the print head by reading the signals stored in the second buffer to perform a printing job.
The position of the driving motor is controlled as follows. The time for one step of the driving motor is fixed in the first timer so that the first timer can output pulse signals at fixed times.
The first interrupt generator, which has received the pulse signals from the first timer, outputs interrupt signals corresponding to the pulse signals and is enabled or disabled depending on control signals from the central processing unit.
When the first interrupt generator is enabled, the pulse signals from the first timer are inputted to the control circuit via the first interrupt generator and are supplied to an interrupt terminal of the central processing unit to require an interrupt in the predetermined interrupt priority order.
The central processing unit, which received the interrupt request signals, generates an interrupt to transmit control signals for controlling the position of the driving motor to the first buffer. By data stored in the first buffer, the first drive circuit drives the driving motor and consequently, the carriage having the print head attached thereto moves.
The method in which the position of the print head is controlled is similar to the method for controlling the driving motor.
The time for moving the print head is fixed in the second timer so that the second timer can output pulse signals at fixed times.
The second interrupt generator which received the pulse signals from the second timer outputs interrupt signals to the control circuit and is enabled or disabled depending on control signals from the central processing unit.
The control circuit, which received the interrupt signals, transmits the interrupt signals received in a priority order to the central processing unit to require an interrupt.
The central processing unit, which received the interrupt signals, generates an interrupt and outputs signals for operating the print head to the second buffer.
The data stored in the second buffer is transmitted to move the print head via the second drive circuit, whereby the nozzles of the print head operate to perform a printing job.
In short, the central processing unit generates an interrupt by the interrupt request signals which are generated depending on the fixed times in the timers. Then, the driving motor and the print head are controlled to perform the printing job.
However, the earlier position controller for a driving motor and a print head has several problems. Whenever the driving motor and the print head drive, interrupts are required. In addition, two times need to be fixed in the two respective timers. One time is for the next step of the driving motor and the other time is for driving the print head. This results in an overload in the CPU during high-speed driving. An increased cost and limited control are other defects. The position of the driving motor is calculated only by the interrupt occurrence and is controlled by the step units thereof.
Accordingly, for more accurate control, a costly precise motor is required.
Furthermore, the limitation of the step angle prevents the controlling of the motor by a smaller step unit.
The following patents each disclose features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the specifically recited technique for controlling the position of a driving motor and a print head in accordance with the present invention:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,121 to Santon, entitled Printhead Carriage Control Method And Apparatus For Achieving Increased Printer Throughput, U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,508 to Suzuki, entitled Position Detector For Synchronizing Operation Of A Recording Device With That Of A Carriage In A Recording Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,295 to Kanemitsu, entitled Carriage Driving Method And Apparatus For Efficiently Accelerating To A Constant Speed, U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,395 to Hiramatsu et al., entitled Carriage Drive Control For A Printer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,461 to Hirai et al., entitled Serial Printer With Carriage Position Control, U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,178 to Tateyama et al., entitled Printer Control Apparatus For Synchronously Controlling Driving Of Recording Head And Transfer Of Data, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,359 to Ito et al., entitled Recording Apparatus With Recording Head Carriage Driving Motor Control.

Technique for controlling the position of a driving motor and a print head


The present disclosure is directed to improved food protection apparatuses, assemblies, and methods of use. The food protection apparatus includes a base portion; a removable covering coupled to the base portion, the removable covering including a top surface and one or more side walls, the top surface integrally connected to the one or more side walls; and a candle delivery apparatus coupled to the top surface of the removable covering, the candle delivery apparatus including one or more openings to receive one or more candles to position the candles external to the removable covering.

Normal handling of food items can result in these items being exposed to pathogens, contagions, germs, viruses, and/or other contaminating substances. For example, a food item may be exposed to contaminants when it is delivered, prepared, and/or served. Individuals who ingest food items that have been exposed to contaminating substances can develop various adverse health effects or conditions.
For instance, it is customary to serve a cake to celebrate an individual's birthday (as well as for other reasons), and to have one or more persons blow out candles that are placed onto the cake. Contaminating substances, such as bacteria, viruses and/or germs, may be transmitted to the cake when an individual blows out the candles. Contaminating substances can also be transmitted to the cake by those individuals who prepare, handle, and/or serve the cake.
In recent times, COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus disease 2019) is a virus that has rapidly spread and been the cause of grave impact worldwide. Like many other viruses, COVID-19 can be spread to food items in situations where individuals infected with the virus prepare, handle, serve or otherwise interact with the food items. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of taking proper precautions to avoid spreading contaminants, bacteria, and disease.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved food coverings that can protect food items, such as cakes from contaminating substances, and ensure that the food items are maintained and served in a hygienic and sanitary fashion.

Food protection apparatuses, assemblies, and methods of use


Methods and systems for providing content. A selection of a single virtual channel may be received from the user. Virtual programming data for the single virtual channel may be accessed. The virtual programming data may define content to be provided over the single virtual channel. The content may be provided over the single virtual channel in accordance with the virtual programming data.

Users may select a number of different television channels at various times to view content (e.g., television shows or movies) on a display device. Not all of the content may be available through a real-time broadcast from a content source. Rather, the content may need to be downloaded from a content source prior to viewing. The users may be inconvenienced by selecting different channels and downloading content from a variety of sources when attempting to view content during a viewing session.


The present invention relates to the RRR/SSS pair of enantiomers of the of Gd(PCTA-tris-glutaric acid), the single enantiomers of the pair, the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, their amide derivatives, and compositions comprising at least 50% of these compounds.

MRI contrast agents used in daily diagnostic practice typically include gadolinium complex compounds characterized by high stability constants that guarantee against the in vivo release of the free metal ion (that is known to be extremely toxic for living organisms).
Another key parameter in the definition of the tolerability of a gadolinium-based contrast agent is the kinetic inertness (or kinetic stability) of Gd(III)-complex, that is estimated through the half-life (t1/2) of the dissociation (i.e. decomplexation) of the complex.
A high inertness becomes crucial in particular for those complex compounds having lower thermodynamic stability and/or longer retention time before excretion, in order to avoid or minimize possible decomplexation or transmetallation reactions.
EP1931673 (Guerbet) discloses PCTA derivatives of formula
and a synthetic route for their preparation.
EP 2988756 (same Applicant) discloses a pharmaceutical composition comprising the above derivatives together with a calcium complex of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid. According to the EP 2988756, the calcium complex compensates the weak thermodynamic stability observed for PCTA-based gadolinium complexes, by forming, through transmetallation, a strong complex with free lanthanide ion, thereby increasing the tolerability of the contrast agent.
Both EP1931673 and EP 2988756 further refer to enantiomers or diastereoisomers of the claimed compounds, or mixture thereof, preferentially chosen from the RRS, RSR, and RSS diastereoisomers.
Both the above patents disclose, among the specific derivatives, (α3, α6, α9)-tris(3-((2,3-dihydroxypropyl)amino)-3-oxopropyl)-3,6,9,15-tetraazabicyclo(9.3.1)pentadeca-1(15),11,13-triene-3,6,9-triacetato(3-)-(κN3,κN6,κN9,κN15,κO3,κO6,κO9)gadolinium, more recently identified as gadolinium chelate of 2,2′,2″-(3,6,9-triaza-1(2,6)-pyridinacyclodecaphane-3,6,9-triyl)tris(5-((2,3-dihydroxypropyl)amino)-5-oxopentanoic acid), (CAS registry number: 933983-75-6), having the following formula

otherwise identified as P03277 or Gadopiclenol.
For Gadopiclenol, EP1931673 reports a relaxivity of 11 mM−1s−1Gd−1 (in water, at 0.5 T, 37° C.) while EP 2988756 reports a thermodynamic equilibrium constant of 10−14.9 (log Kterm=14.9).
Furthermore, for this same compound a relaxivity value of 12.8 mM−1s−1 in human serum (37° C., 1.41 T), stability (log Kterm) of 18.7, and dissociation half-life of about 20 days (at pH 1.2; 37° C.) have been reported by the proprietor (Investigative Radiology 2019, Vol 54, (8), 475-484).
The precursor for the preparation of the PCTA derivatives disclosed by EP1931673 (including Gadopiclenol) is the Gd complex of the 3,6,9,15-tetraazabicyclo-[9.3.1]pentadeca-1(15),11,13-triene-tri(α-glutaric acid) having the following formula

herein identified as "Gd(PCTA-tris-glutaric acid)". In particular, Gadopiclenol is obtained by amidation of the above compound with isoserinol.
As observed by the Applicant, Gd(PCTA-tris-glutaric acid) has three stereocenters on the glutaric moieties (identified with an asterisk (*) in the above structure) that lead to a 23=8 possible stereoisomers. More particularly, the above structure can generate four pairs of enantiomers, schematized in the following Table 1
TABLE 1RRRSSSRSRSRSRRSSSRRSSSRR
Isomer RRR is the mirror image of isomer SSS and that is the reason why they are called enantiomers (or enantiomer pairs). As known, enantiomers display the same physicochemical properties and are distinguishable only using chiral methodologies, such as chiral chromatography or polarized light.
On the other hand, isomer RRR is neither equal to nor is it the mirror image of any of the other above six isomers; these other isomers are thus identified as diastereoisomers of the RRR (or SSS) isomer. Diastereoisomers may display different physicochemical properties, (e.g., melting point, water solubility, relaxivity, etc.).
Concerning Gadopiclenol, its chemical structure contains a total of six stereocenters, three on the glutaric moieties of the precursor as above discussed and one in each of the three isoserinol moieties attached thereto, identified in the following structure with an asterisk (*) and with an empty circle)(°, respectively:

This leads to a total theoretical number of 26=64 stereoisomers for this compound.
However, neither EP1931673 nor EP 2988756 describe the exact composition of the isomeric mixture obtained by following the reported synthetic route, nor does any of them provide any teaching for the separation and characterization of any of these isomers, or disclose any stereospecific synthesis of Gadopiclenol.

Gadolinium bearing PCTA-based contrast agents