A Doppler-based radar system used in monitoring the speed of moving vehicles includes a self test circuit and related method for independently and remotely testing the operability of the entire radar system including the critical microwave components. The self test circuit includes a low frequency modulation diode positioned adjacent the antenna horn. The modulating diode causes a change in the voltage standing wave ratio seen by the radar system(s), thereby modulating the energy of the reflected radar test signal. The modulated test signal is compared to the original test signal and a resultant control signal is generated. The radar system is combined with a retarder system controller and a control system computer to provide an industrial control application, such as for controlling railway cars in a hump yard. Any number of additional radar systems/retarder system controllers can be added to expand the application.

The increasing use of Doppler-based radar systems to provide information used in the control of critical industrial equipment places greater emphasis on the reliability, and necessarily, the continuous operability of such systems.
One particular application involving the use of radar systems in the control of critical equipment is in railroad classification yards. More specifically, radar systems are presently being utilized in hump yards where individual and groups of rail cars travel through a series of switches and retarder sections in order to redistribute themselves to their designated trains. The combination of computer controlled switching and retarding operations provides control of both the direction and the speed of the rail cars.
As the cars approach the individual retarder sections, magnetic wheel sensors operate to determine their presence. Upon receiving an appropriate indicator signal from the wheel sensor, the dedicated radar system operates to monitor the speed of the rail car and to continuously relay this information to the hump yard control system computer. In response, the control system computer continuously keeps track of the position and speed of the car. In turn, it controls the switches to send the car to the proper spur, or parallel rail make-up line, where that particular train is being assembled, and it adjusts the retarding force applied to the wheels of the car while it travels through each retarding section. These continuous adjustments to the retarding force are designed to slow the cars from the standard speed established by gravity over the hump to an optimal exit speed.
Upon exiting the primary retarder section, the cars travel through a secondary retarder section and/or then through the series of switches which direct the cars to the proper parallel rail make-up line where they engage and couple with the next-in-line car in the designated train. Ideally, the desired speed at which proper coupling occurs without damaging the rail car's coupling mechanisms or internal cargo is about four miles per hour.
A failure in any portion of the hump yard control system, and particularly in the individual radar systems, can of course result in a collision, and even rail car derailment. The expense of repair and the system downtime due to such an accident is particularly costly. Thus, there is a distinct need identified to minimize, or preferably eliminate altogether, the potential occurrence of such radar system failures.
In view of this need, various methods and apparatus for testing the operability of Doppler-based radar systems have evolved. One particular method presently utilized to test hump yard radar systems, as well as other radar systems, involves interposing a test signal directly into the radar system's amplifiers and/or counting circuitry, thus bypassing the antenna, receiving diode and other of the critical microwave components. In this method, the output of the radar system under test is intermittently compared to the known input signal by manual observation. This method of testing radar systems is thus adequate to only test the system's amplifiers and/or internal counting circuitry. However, the method falls short of determining the overall operability of the entire system; most importantly, with respect to the microwave components, as mentioned above. Surveys have found that typically it is these microwave components that incur the greatest number of critical failures. The fact that these components are not subjected to a test for operability by this prior system is a serious shortcoming.
Indeed, a failure in any of the microwave components of a radar system can result in a false signal reading of 2-3 miles per hour. This false signal reading in one common occurrence is the result of signal noise from the surrounding radar systems and other sources throughout the hump yard. Unfortunately, these false signal readings not only prevent operation at the optimal exit speed for the rail cars, but the magnitude of the error compared to the optimal speed is enough to not only risk substantial damage to the couplers and undercarriage of the car, but cause the derailment, as mentioned above. In other words, with a microwave component failure, the hump yard control system computer incorrectly opens the retarders allowing the cars to proceed uncontrolled through the section, and thus maintain the excessive speed that causes the problem.
In addition to the self test method described above, additional methods and apparatus are known which are capable of testing the operability of the entire radar system. One such method uses the moving tines of a tuning fork to simulate a moving target. In this manner, the entire radar system can be evaluated by monitoring the resulting output of the system. An output reading corresponding to the frequency of the tuning fork indicates the proper operation of the overall radar system, including its microwave components.
Although this particular method is thus capable of testing the entire radar system, its use in hump yards, as well as in numerous other systems utilizing Doppler radar systems in the control of critical industrial equipment, is of limited utility. Specifically, the use of tuning forks requires the relatively frequent presence of personnel in the hump yard. As will be recognized, this makes the test operation labor intensive and increases the operation cost significantly. In addition to increasing the operating costs of the hump yard, it introduces the factor of human error, which can lead to the same deleterious results that are being attempted to be overcome.
An apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,481 to Mawhinney utilizes a separate, outside generated test signal for checking and calibrating a radar system. This instrument utilizes a modulation device to generate an acoustic signal of known frequency. The output of the radar unit under test is manually monitored for the proper visual and acoustic outputs. When used as a medical device, the '481 patent discloses the use of the piezoelectric sounder for producing pulses indicative in amplitude and duration of a heartbeat. These pulses create the acoustic signal which is manually monitored by the technician performing the calibration procedure. Thus, while the '481 patent discloses the use of a modulated test signal, there is no method of self-generating the test signal with the radar system under test, modulating the frequency of the test signal, or of monitoring the output of the system remotely to determine its overall operability.
Therefore, each of these prior art methods and apparatus are of limited utility in testing radar systems, and particularly the operability of the system components, that are used to remotely control critical industrial equipment. For example, these prior art methods may be appropriate to test traffic speed measurement radar systems, but not appropriate to be used as a highly reliable and stand alone system for monitoring and controlling industrial equipment. Indeed, it is not a problem for a police officer to periodically ring a tuning fork and visually observe and compare the resulting speed readout to the standard of the tuning fork. On the other hand, in cases where radar systems control critical industrial equipment, and the tests must be performed by remote control, preferably each time the system operates and without introducing the factor of human error, the prior art methods fall short. At the same time, holding down the operational costs, is an important consideration where the prior art systems are also sorely deficient.
Thus, there is a need identified for a highly efficient and economical Doppler-based radar system having a self test circuit for use in remotely determining the overall operability of the entire radar system, including the microwave components, as well as the over-all industrial control application.

Doppler-based radar system self test circuit and related method


Compounds of the formula: ##STR1## where R is hydrogen, hydroxyl, alkyl or acyl, R' and R" together are oxo, hydroxyimino or alkoxyimino, and R' and R" independently are hydrogen, hydroxyl, acyloxy, or amino substituted by any of hydrogen, alkylcarbonyl, arylcarbonyl, aralkylcarbonyl, alkoxycarbonyl, aralkoxycarbonyl, alkylsulfonyl or arylsulfonyl, and n is 0 or 1, and the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The compounds are macrolide antibiotics and are also useful as intermediates to the synthesis of other macrolide antibiotics. Pharmaceutical compositions and methods of their use are also provided for.

The present invention relates to a novel group of chemical compounds having antibacterial activity, which are useful in the therapy of bacterial infections in mammals. More specifically, the invention relates to derivatives of the well-known macrolide antibiotic, erythromycin A, the compound of the structure: ##STR2##
Even more specifically, the invention relates to the compounds of the structure: ##STR3## wherein R is hydrogen, hydroxyl, alkyl or acyl and n is 0 or 1, R' and R" together are oxo, hydroxyimino or alkoxyimimo, and R' and R" independently are hydrogen, hydroxyl, acyloxy, or amino substituted by any of hydrogen, alkycarbonyl, arylcarbonyl, aralkylcarbonyl, alkoxycarbonyl aralkoxycarbonyl, alkylsulfonyl or arylsulfonyl.
The present invention also provides for novel pharmaceutical compositions and methods of their use as antibiotic agents.

Homoerythromycin A derivatives modified at the 4"-and 8A-positions


An ultrasonic actuator with increased radiating surface is presented. The increased radiating surface is provided by a plurality of piezoelectric stacks that are each compressed by action of a respective bolt against a common backing structure of the actuator. According to one aspect, each of the stacks includes a plurality of stacked piezoelectric rings with the respective bolt arranged through the central opening of the rings. According to another aspect, one or both of the backing structure and the horn of the actuator include tuning grooves and/or tuning slots to produce amplitude uniformity of displacement through the actuator. According to another aspect, the radiating surface has a symmetrical shape about an axial direction of the actuator with a lateral dimension that is in a range between one quarter and one half of the wavelength of operation of the actuator.

FIG. 1A shows a prior art ultrasonic piezoelectric actuator (100a) that can generate amplified ultrasonic (e.g., in a range of 20 kHz to 40 kHz) stress (e.g., displacement, vibration) at a tip (110b) of a horn (110) based on ultrasonic stress generated by a combination of piezoelectric elements (120) compressed by action of a bolt (150) between a horn 110a and a backing structure (130). The ultrasonic stress is (rigidly) coupled/connected to a (radiating) surface S at a base (110a) of the horn (110) and amplified by the geometry of the horn (110) to provide the amplified ultrasonic stress at the tip (110b) of the horn (110) in an axial direction X of the actuator (100a).
FIG. 1B shows a prior art ultrasonic piezoelectric actuator (100b) wherein higher vibrating power is provided by a) extending a lateral dimension of the surface S of the actuator (100b) through contact of three laterally aligned piezoelectric elements (120) compressed by action of two lateral bolts (150), arranged on either sides of the elements (120), against the backing structure (130), and b) using a plurality of such actuators (100b), arranged in an angled configuration, to provide an increased (combined) radiated power as described in the above referenced U.S. Pat. No. 8,910,727 B2. It should be noted that because the actuator (100b) does not include a symmetrical surface around the axial direction, X, usage of such actuator for rotary drill action may not be adequate.
A total vibration power, P, radiated at the surface S of the actuator (100a, 100b)) is proportional to a load impedance (Z), frequency (w) and amplitude (A) of the vibration, and the area of the surface S as given by: P˜Zω2A2S. Therefore, for a constant load and frequency, an increased total radiated vibration power can be achieved by increasing either the amplitude A of the vibration or the area of the surface S. The amplitude A of the vibration cannot be increased above a certain level due to electrical and mechanical limits of piezoelectric materials of the piezoelectric elements (120). Furthermore, a maximum lateral dimension (i.e., in a radial plane) of the area of the surface S may be increased up to a certain level below a quarter wavelength (λ/4) of operation of the actuator, above which level radial displacement in the radial direction R of the actuator (100a, 100b) becomes more dominant than the axial displacement in the axial direction X (wherein λ is defined by the driving frequency of the piezoelectric elements and the speed of sound in the actuator (100a, 100b) material; for example, for a driving frequency of 20 kHz and an average speed of sound in the actuator material of 4500 m/s, the wavelength λ is about 0.225 m).
Excessive radial displacement may in turn result in a disruption of axial displacement and lead to poor amplitude uniformity at the two end faces (outer surfaces) of the actuator (100a, 100b), including the face of the horn tip (110b) and the face of the backing structure (130) that is away from the piezoelectric elements (120). Such poor amplitude uniformity may produce higher amplitude vibration at respective center regions of the two end faces and lower amplitude vibration at respective outer perimeter regions of the two end faces. In particular, as related to the poor amplitude uniformity at the end face of the backing structure (130), considerable parasitic bending modes of the prestressed bolt (150) which can lead to prestress loss and bolt failure can be obtained.
Teachings according to the present disclosure aim at providing systems and methods to produce ultrasonic actuators with higher total vibration power while circumventing the above problems and not necessarily requiring a plurality of such actuators. Such transducers may be used in, for example, percussive, or rotating and percussive, drills with increased percussive power.


A magnetorheological fluid for use in magnetorheological ultrasmooth polishing of a substrate surface, comprising an aqueous carrier vehicle; a first amount of magnetic particles having a average diameter between about 1 micrometer and about 2 micrometers; and a second amount of abrasive particles having an average diameter between about <1 nanometer and about 15 nanometers. The fluid may further comprise a chemical stabilizer. Preferably the size of the magnetic particles is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude greater than the size of the abrasive particles. Preferably, the magnetic particles are spherical and include carbonyl iron, and preferably, the abrasive particles are selected from the group consisting of aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, cerium oxide, silica, boron carbide, silicon carbide, natural diamond, synthetic diamond, and combinations thereof.

The technologies of ultrasmooth surfaces with rms roughness <0.15 nm are becoming increasingly important for the fields of conventional optics, semiconductor technology, UV, and x-ray optics. Increasingly, a finer finish polish is being sought in a variety of technologically-advanced glass polishing applications such as the production of photomask blanks, the manufacture of precision lenses and prisms, improvements in surface planarity, and the reduction of incidents of defectivity which are critical to achieving higher levels of device performance.
Some known prior art polishing techniques, for example based on pitch or synthetic pad/lap polishers, can deliver such precision ultrasmooth surfaces, assuming availability of a highly skilled optician. But such conventional methods have low yields due to their unpredictability, requiring much iteration to achieve desired figure and surface quality. Hence, these methods tend to be quite expensive of time and materials and are not well suited to volume production of such surfaces.
In general, polishing is accomplished by various mechanisms that remove or add material in a way that minimizes high-frequency spatial irregularities with respect to the mean surface. Various forms of abrasion are traditional methods for producing ultrasmooth surfaces. The nearly pure abrasion process of optical polishing is that of spherical particles elastically indenting or penetrating a surface and gauging a swath through the material with a cross-section proportional to the cross-section of the penetration. In all cases, the abrasion is somehow regulated by a reference surface, traditionally called a "lap". There may be no contact, soft contact, or hard contact with the lap. The smoothness obtained is a function of the lap and of the size of the abrasive particles; their physical and chemical relationship to the surface being polished; the physical and chemical properties of the liquid vehicle containing the abrasive; and the conditions of polishing such as pressure, speed, and temperature.
Methods in the prior art in which there appears to be no direct coupling of the workpiece and the lap include a float-polishing method and an elastic emission method.
In the float-polishing process, implemented on plane surfaces for diameters up to about 10 cm, the part rests on a corrugated tin lap. Hydrodynamic forces lift the part above the lap, so there is no contact with the hard lap material. Eddies activated by the corrugations swirl ultrafine particles (usually silica colloids of 4-7 nm diameter) against the surface, gently abrading it. Elastic emission polishing employs a rapidly rotating ball of plastic to generate the turbulence.
In each case, there appears to be no direct coupling (i.e. part-abrasive-lap) of the workpiece and the lap. The particulates impinge on the surface but are cushioned by the liquid vehicle. The process appears to be strongly dependent on the part-to-lap gap. Thus the figure or shape is controlled by the nearby lap surface. These processes were developed especially for the low subsurface damage requirements of the semiconductor industry and appear to be extraordinarily successful in this respect. Figure and smoothness are also excellent. Smoothness (also referred to herein as "roughness") as low as 0.2 nm rms (2˜400 cycles/mm, band limited) was achieved. In some instances, roughness as low 0.135 nm rms in the same frequency range has been reliably reported.
Soft laps include foams and felts, in which there is considerable elastic resiliency. As expected, smoother surfaces are obtained with combinations of fine particulates and softer laps. Various laps of this type are used with fine suspensions, such as colloidal silica, in the semiconductor industry. However, a resilient lap tends to follow longer spatial frequency perturbations. Thus, depending on the properties of the lap and to some degree on the polishing conditions, there is a tendency to set up a two-dimensional spatial resonance known as "orange peel."
For the most critical optical surfaces, a hard lap made of pitch is used. Pitch is a viscoelastic fluid material that gradually conforms to a regular surface and permits abrasive particles to sink in to a nearly uniform depth. This fluid's behavior is almost purely Newtonian, and its viscosity can be carefully controlled by mixing and temperature control. It is usually used at viscosities in the 2 to 8×108 poise range for metals and in the 2 to 8×109 poise range for glasses. With these high viscosities, the material appears quite rigid locally but yields slowly in a self-correcting manner with the surface. For aspheric surfaces, it is backed by a resilient pad of some sort.
It is known in the art that roughness is dependent on particle size and concentration in the polishing slurry. Thus, to achieve maximum smoothness small particles must be used with a fairly small size distribution and a fairly high particulate concentration. The maximum smoothness for a given distribution occurs just as the particles are about to disappear beneath the surface of the pitch. At this point, they have been pressed down to a nearly constant height, and the maximum number of particles is engaged to yield the lowest load per particle. This load is not completely uniform since the largest particles encounter a larger resistance to penetration into the pitch, causing a greater penetration into the material that supplies the load. With these techniques, surfaces near 0.1 nm rms have been produced, with a few readings of 0.08 nm rms in the 5-400 cycles/mm spatial frequency range.
It follows from the above description that both contact and non-contact conventional polishing methods can provide ultrasmooth surfaces under appropriate conditions, among which abrasive particle size is the principal factor defining the size of the contact zone as well as particle load.
In non-contact polishing, a particle's load results from particle-surface impingement and is proportional to the particle mass or the third power its diameter, while in contact polishing each particle supports a load in proportion to the square of its diameter. Reduction in particle size leads to dramatic reduction of particle load, in turn resulting in reduction of penetration depth and roughness. At the same time, however, excessive reduction in particle load eventually leads to diminishing of ultimate surface tensile strength that provides tensile failure in the manner of ductile failure or in the manner of brittle failure, in other words in fading away of material removal.
Thus, reduction in particle size in order to lower surface roughness has a lower limit that depends on particle and surface properties. Below about 50-100 nm, one cannot achieve smoother and smoother surfaces simply by using finer and finer abrasives because the unit load becomes unacceptably low and substrate removal simply doesn't occur. Such fine particles are referred to in the art as "nanoparticles".
In general, particles downsizing processes have broken through a certain barrier beyond which the old laws no longer necessarily apply. Any material reduced to the size of nanoparticles can suddenly behave much differently than it did before.
What makes a nanoparticle so unique? Particles in the nanometer range have two particular properties.
First, anything smaller than about 50 nm is no longer subject exclusively to the laws of classical physics, but of quantum physics. This means that nanoparticles can assume other optical, magnetic, or electrical properties that distinguish them clearly from their larger relatives in the particle family.
Second, as particle size decreases, the ratio between particle mass and surface area changes. This is because the smaller a body becomes, the greater its surface area becomes in relation to its mass. The increase in the surface-area-to-volume ratio, which is a gradual progression as the particle gets smaller, leads to an increasing dominance of the behavior of atoms on the surface of a particle over of those in the interior of the particle. The exceptionally large relative surface area and increased surface/volume ratio enables nanoparticles to exert a stronger effect on their environment and to react with other substances. In particular, nanoparticles with a crystalline structure have more atoms on their surface that are less strongly bonded than those in the interior of the particle. Given their unstable situation, the atoms are reactive. The smaller the particle, the greater is the relative surface area. This also means that there are proportionately more atoms on the surface and fewer in the interior. In short, the smaller the particle, the more reactive is the substance.
Some of the properties of nanoparticles might not be predicted simply by understanding the increasing influence of surface atoms or quantum effects. For example, it was recently shown that perfectly-formed silicon "nanospheres" with diameters of between 40 and 100 nanometers, were not just harder than silicon but among the hardest materials known, falling between sapphire and diamond.
MRF is a deterministic high performance polishing method that can deliver high precision surfaces in a programmable automatic regime. While a substrate surface roughness of ˜0.3-0.4 nm rms can be achieved by prior art MRF technology on glass, it is relatively low but acceptable for a many applications. A still lower level of roughness is yet to be achieved in MRF. Providing such a lower level of roughness by MRF is the object of the present invention.
In MRF, an abrasive particle's load is provided by a fluid flow, in particular by the shear flow of a concentrated mixture of solid particles. The key element in MRF is the MR polishing fluid itself.
MR fluid is a liquid composition that undergoes a change in mechanical properties and converts into a plastic material in the presence of a magnetic field. Normally, MR fluids comprise ferromagnetic (susceptible to soft magnetization) particles, typically greater than 0.1 micrometers in diameter, dispersed within a carrier fluid, typically water. In the presence of a magnetic field, the particles become magnetized and organized into chains within the fluid. The chains of particles form a spatial structure that is responsible for a remarkable change in mechanical properties, particularly for the increase of the yield stress, exhibited as an increase in apparent viscosity of many orders of magnitude. In the absence of a magnetic field, the particles return to a disorganized or free state and the initial condition of the overall material is correspondingly restored.
In general, an MR polishing fluid comprises four main constituents: water, magnetic particles, abrasive, and chemical additives. Due to unique chemical properties, water is preferred both as a chemical agent and a carrier fluid for polishing slurries intended for polishing glasses or silicon substrates.
It is commonly accepted to model MR fluid as a Bingham plastic material with the yield stress controlled by a magnetic field. The model suggests that material under deformation behaves as a solid body when stress is below the yield point and flows like a Newtonian fluid when the stress is higher than the yield point.
In MRF, a convex surface, such as a lens to be polished, is installed at some fixed distance from a moving wall (typically the outer surface of a moving wheel), so that the lens surface and the wall form a converging gap. An electromagnet, placed below the moving wall, generates a non-uniform magnetic field in the vicinity of the gap. The magnetic field gradient is normal to the wall. The MR polishing fluid is delivered to the moving wall just above the electromagnet pole pieces to form a polishing ribbon. As the ribbon moves into the field, the MR fluid stiffens and acquires plastic Bingham properties and becomes highly stratified. The upper layer of the ribbon adjacent the lens surface becomes saturated with abrasive due to levitation of non-magnetic abrasive particles in response to the magnetic field gradient. Thereafter the ribbon, which is pressed against the wall by the magnetic field gradient, is dragged through the gap. Due to MR fluid plasticity, a thin layer of sheared fluid is formed, sandwiched between the lens surface and a core of un-sheared material attached to the moving wall. At sufficiently high shear rates, such flow is characterized by intense interaction and collision between the abrasive particles and with the lens surface, causing a polishing by ablation of the lens surface. This area is known in the MRF arts as the "polishing spot."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,095 discloses that MR polishing fluid may comprise both non-colloidal magnetic particles and abrasive particles. Abrasive particle size may be in the range of 1 to 7 microns and magnetic particles medium diameter range of ˜3 to 5 microns. Obtained values of roughness can be in the range of 0.7 to 1 nm rms.
The polishing process employs a computer program to determine a CNC machine schedule for varying the velocity (dwell time) and the position of the rotating workpiece through the polishing spot. Because of its conformability and subaperture nature, this polishing tool may finish complex surface shapes like aspheres having constantly changing local curvature. A fundamental advantage of MRF over competing technologies is that the polishing tool does not wear, since the recirculating fluid is continuously monitored and rejuvenated. Polishing debris and heat are continuously removed.
The technique requires no dedicated tooling or special setup. Owing to its unique features, MRF is considered as a deterministic process that can reliably deliver predictable, high precision surfaces in a programmable automatic regime.
In the case of a binary (bimodal) mixture, as is the case for MR fluid, and according to the principle of conservation of momentum, larger particles may supply considerable load for smaller particles. When such an event takes place near the substrate surface, it may result in effective surface indentation by the smaller particle, especially if the particle possesses appropriate mechanical properties. As applied to MR polishing, this conceptual model suggests that larger or basic particles, such as the ferromagnetic particles, energized by shear flow provide an indentation load for smaller abrasive particles to penetrate the surface and remove material, i.e., the high-momentum larger magnetic particles accelerate and drive the smaller abrasive particles against or actually into the surface of the substrate. Such a mechanism of material removal is accepted for MR fluid-based polishing processes, assuming that some form of shear flow of a highly concentrated suspension (45-50 vol. %) of relatively large magnetic particles and much smaller abrasive particles occurs in the polishing interface, resulting in material removal over the lens contact zone.
This mechanism is disclosed and qualitatively confirmed by W. Kordonski and S. Gorodkin in "Material Removal in Magnetorheological Finishing of optics", 2011, Applied Optics, vol. 50, No. 14, pp 1984-1994, which is herein incorporated by reference. Preferably, the magnetic particles are two to three orders of magnitude larger than the abrasive particles. For abrasive particle sizes down to about 100 nm, Kordonski and Gorodkin show that the rate of material removal is well predicted by classical mechanics and can be controlled by controlling the magnetic field, the geometrical parameters of the interface, and the wall velocity.
As noted above, prior art MRF finishing can provide surface roughness of glass as low as about 0.40 nm rms. It is an object of the present invention to provide MRF conditions (MR fluid and method) enabling the surface polishing of a glass substrate to a surface roughness of less than about 0.15 nm rms, and preferably below about 0.10 nm rms.

Magnetorheological fluid for ultrasmooth polishing


The electric lamp has a glass lamp vessel (1) having seals (3) from which an external metal wire (6) extends. A bare corrosion resistant contact wire (7), having a specific resistance of less than 0.8 .mu..OMEGA.m and a hardness of 50-300 HV is welded, e.g. butt-welded to the external metal wire (6). The contact wire (7) has an axial free end portion (8). An transversally extending intermediate portion (9) may be present between the seal and the free-end portion (8). The lamp allows secure electrical connections to a luminaire easily and rapidly to be made.

The invention relates to an electric lamp provided with:
A glass lamp vessel having an axis and seals in mutual opposition on said axis; PA1 an electric element arranged in the lamp vessel; PA1 current conductors connected to the electric element and each embedded in a respective seal and comprising an external metal wire which issues to the exterior from said seal.
Such an electric lamp and a luminaire for this lamp are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,863.
The known lamp has a lamp cap at either end around the respective seal with an electrical contact which is connected to the relevant external metal wire. A conductor in a luminaire may be fixed onto the electrical contact, for example by means of a flat eye or hook cable tag present at the conductor, and clamped tightly onto the contact by means of a nut. The lamp consumes a comparatively high power of 1600 to 2000 W. This power implies that comparatively strong currents are passed through the contacts, which in their turn may assume comparatively high temperatures which involve the risk of corrosion.
The known lamp is mechanically held in the luminaire at the lamp caps by lampholders and is electrically supplied through the contacts of the lamp caps.
An alternative luminaire with lampholders for, for example, the known lamp mentioned above is known from EP-A-0,643,258.
U.S. Pat. No. EP 95 201 891.1 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,080) describes an electric lamp in which there are no lamp caps around the seals at the ends. A bare metal wire issues to the exterior from each seal, while a mounting member, on which a luminaire can grip the lamp mechanically, is present at a distance from each end on each seal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,275 discloses a lamp whose lamp vessel is fixed at one point in a lamp cap, while a molybdenum wire issues to the exterior-from a second end of the lamp vessel, having a welded joint of good quality with a wire of nickel/manganese 98/2. The latter wire extends to inside the lamp cap, surrounded by an insulating sleeve for the major part, and is fastened to a contact member of this lamp cap.
High temperatures in a contact spot may cause corrosion of the mutually contacting conductors, which will lead to high contact resistances and thus to electrical losses, indeed to extinguishing of the lamp. Major temperature fluctuations owing to high operating temperatures may also give rise to a loosening of a clamped connection formed by a nut tightened onto a contact member. This increases the temperature as well as the risk of corrosion. It is known that, for example, molybdenum often used as a metal for the external metal wire corrodes at room temperature already.


An alarm system having latching circuits for locking a signal detected by a respective sensor is provided. The alarm system includes counting control circuits for controlling a visual alarm, the visual alarm flashing a different number of times depending on which of a plurality of sensors is triggered. A counter for controlling the length of time that the visual alarm flashes is also provided.

The present invention relates to an alarm system. More particularly, this invention is directed to a motor vehicle alarm system which indicates the location of the triggered sensor. The indication being provided by means of a visual alarm which flashes at a predetermined frequency during a specific length of time.
Various alarm devices and systems are known and widely used in motor vehicles to provide a warning of danger. A motor vehicle alarm system may comprise several sensors installed at different locations for detecting different changes of condition. For example, multiple sensors may be simultaneously used in a motor vehicle alarm system, installed in a motor vehicle at different locations, for detecting the locked condition of the engine hood, the trunk, the car doors or the ignition switch. Sensors can also provide for monitoring the integrity of the electric circuit, vibration, or collision of the motor vehicle. These detectors are commonly connected to a common visual alarm, which is activated to give a warning once any detector is triggered. The disadvantage of such prior art vehicle alarm systems is that the user cannot immediately identify the location of the sensor being triggered. Without knowing the nature of a warning, the user cannot immediately take the necessary actions required.

Vehicle alarm system having a coded visual response

No. 11, Alley 12, Lane 7, Ching-Tyan St.


In the polishing system of the present invention, a adhering unit adheres a wafer on a carrying plate using liquid. A polishing unit polishes the wafer using a polishing plate. A feeding unit conveys the carrying plate from the adhering unit to the polishing unit. A dismounting unit removes the wafer from the carrying plate. A first discharging unit conveys the carrying plate from the polishing unit to the dismounting unit. A cleaning unit cleans the vacant carrying plate. A second discharging unit conveys the carrying plate from the dismounting unit to the cleaning unit. A third discharging unit conveys the carrying plate from the cleaning unit to the adhering unit. The units are formed into a loop lines so that the carrying plate is circulated in the loop line and the wafers are polished therein.

The present invention relates to a polishing system for polishing wafers.
Conventionally, in the case of polishing surfaces of wafers, e.g., silicon wafers for semiconductor devices, the wafers have been polished by a plurality of independent machines: a sticking machine for sticking the wafers on a carrying plate; a polishing machine for polishing the wafers by pressing the carrying plate onto a polishing plate of the polishing machine and relatively moving the carrying plate with respect to the polishing plate; a peeling machine for peeling off the wafers, which have been polished, from the carrying plate; and a cleaning machine for cleaning the carrying plate from which the polished wafers have been peeled off.
Highly integrated semiconductor devices require silicon wafers which are polished with very high polishing accuracy. Such silicon wafers are made in clean rooms to remove particles in the air.
Further, large size silicon wafers are now required, so large size carrying plates are required. However, it is difficult to manually handle the large carrying plates.
Conventionally, the machines for polishing the wafers are independently installed, so the wafers are manually conveyed from one machine to another machine for each polishing step. Therefore, workers must work in the clean room for an extended time, so the degree of cleanliness of the clean room cannot be high. Furthermore accuracy of sticking the wafers on the carrying plates is also not high, so that the polishing accuracy is not high.


Techniques for identifying, locating, detecting, and reviewing voltage contrast defects are described. A system for implementing the present invention includes a charged particle beam defect review system with one or more installed electron flood guns. In order to review a semiconductor specimen, an entire semiconductor wafer or a sub-region of a wafer is flooded with electrons from the flood gun(s) so that the wafer surface is charged to a certain voltage level. Flooding the specimen greatly enhances the effect of voltage contrast review techniques and therefore manifests voltage contrast defects that would not appear otherwise. The inventive techniques can also be applied so that a review system can be used to inspect at least a portion of a semiconductor wafer. Techniques for controlling the amount of negative charge applied to the specimen are also described.

The manufacture of integrated circuit devices involves intricate processes for creating circuit patterns on semiconductor wafers. Along with the highly developed technologies used to manufacture the integrated circuitry, highly developed testing processes are also necessary. The extremely small scale at which the circuitry is created demands such testing techniques in order to detect electrical failures earlier in fabrication processes. This is increasingly important to shorten product development cycles and to increase product yield and productivity.
Test processes for semiconductor manufacturing involves inspection and review stages. First, a semiconductor wafer can be inspected with an electron beam inspection system that detects electrical failures, for example as voltage contrast defects. The inspection process involves a high level scan of a wafer to identify and locate potential defects. Then, after the potential defects are located, a review process is conducted. The review process involves a much more detailed examination of individual potential defects. Through the review process, additional information regarding each potential defect can be obtained. For instance, the size, shape, general nature, and cause of a defect can be determined.
Typically, scanning electron microscopes (SEM) used for review processes are set to emit an electron beam at a much lower current level than that used by SEM inspection systems. For example, a typical SEM inspection tool generates an electron beam in the range of 20 to 200 nano-Amps and a typical SEM review system generates an electron beam in the range of 10 to 50 pico-Amps. The lower beam current allows the SEM review system to obtain higher resolution data. However, this also makes it more difficult to locate the voltage contrast defects found by the inspection system. The low beam current cannot provide the sufficient charge required for the voltage contrast defects to manifest themselves for review. Unfortunately, the inability to locate a voltage contrast defect during the review process eliminates any possibility of reviewing the defect and gaining any additional information about particular manufacturing processes.
In view of the foregoing, semiconductor review process that can more effectively locate and review voltage contrast defects at high resolution levels would be desirable.

Method and apparatus for reviewing voltage contrast defects in semiconductor wafers


In a high speed logic circuit using a vertical hetero-junction bipolar transistor, in which two-dimensional carriers formed at a semiconductor hetero-junction interface are used as a base layer, the uppermost layer being a collector layer, the lowest layer being an emitter layer, two base electrodes making contact with the base layer are disposed so as to put a collector electrode, which is electrically in contact with the collector layer, therebetween. The base electrodes are used at the same time as a source electrode and a drain electrode, respectively, of a field effect transistor using the two-dimensional carriers as an active layer. The high speed logic circuit is so constructed that one of the base electrodes of the bipolar transistor is an input terminal; the other is connected with a power supply; the emitter is grounded; and the collector is an output terminal.

The present invention relates to a logic circuit, and in particular to a high speed logic circuit using semiconductor devices, each having a device structure making the best use of characteristics of a hetero-junction bipolar transistor.
Owing to recent progress in the MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) and the MOCVD (Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition) technology, crystal growth can be effected with controllability at atomic level.
A hetero-junction bipolar transistor (HBT) having a new structure making use of two-dimensional charge carriers at a semiconductor hetero-junction interface formed by the technologies described above is disclosed in JP-A-Sho 62-199079, in which it is shown that a bipolar transistor (BJT) using two-dimensional charge carriers (or an inversion layer, a storage layer) at a semiconductor hetero-junction interface as a base layer and an electric field transistor (FET) using a bipolar transistor (BJT) as an active layer can be formed in a same substrate, making it possible to realize a circuit, where there exist BJTs and FETs mixedly.
As a technology, by which BJTs and FETs are used mixedly, e.g. the BiCMOS technology is well known, by which an Si BJT and a CMOS (complementary type metal-oxide-semiconductor) FET are formed simultaneously. Consequently, even with a BJT using a hetero-junction and an FET, from the point of view of circuit construction, it is relatively easy to realize a circuit similar to the BiCMOS. However such a circuit is formed merely by diverting almost a basis prior art circuit and it cannot be said that it makes the best use of the crystal growth technology having the controllability at atomic level and the device structure using it.
On the other hand there is known the IIL (Integrated Injection Logic) circuit as an SiBJT, for which high density integration is possible and which can be fabricated by a simple fabrication process. In the IIL circuit, a one-gate circuit can be realized with almost one transistor while reducing the area of the circuit owing to a construction, in which an npn type transistor of inversely-biased operation and a horizontal pnp type transistor are combined. FIG. 14A is a cross-sectional view showing a basic construction of a prior art IIL circuit and FIG. 14B is an equivalent circuit diagram thereof.
The IIL circuit is constructed, as indicated in FIG. 14A, by forming p-type regions 102 and 103 in an n-type substrate 101 by using the diffusion or ion implantation technology and further by forming an n-type region 104 and this circuit can be represented by the equivalent circuit as indicated in FIG. 14B. An npn type transistor 106 effecting a logic operation is realized by a vertical transistor of inversely-biased operation, the n-type region 101, the p-type region 102 and the n-type region 104 serving as an emitter, a base and a collector, respectively. The emitter of the vertical transistor, i.e. substrate, is grounded. On the other hand, a pnp type transistor 107 acting as an injector has the p-type region 102 as the collector in common with the base region of the transistor 106 and the n-type substrate 101 as the base in common with the emitter region of the transistor 106. The p-type region 103 serves as the emitter thereof.
The operation of this circuit is realized by two states, in which the pnp type transistor 107 supplies injector current to the base of the transistor 106 or to the preceding gate circuit. That is, when the preceding gate circuit is in a state where no current flows therethrough (hereinbelow called OFF state), since the injector current flows to the base of the transistor 106, a state is established where current flows through the transistor 106 (hereinbelow called ON state). Therefore output terminals Vout 1 and Vout 2 pull-in current from the succeeding gate circuit so that potentials thereof are close to the ground potential. On the contrary, when the transistor in the preceding gate circuit is in the ON state, since the injector current is drawn by the collector in the preceding gate circuit, the transistor 106 is in the OFF state so that the potentials of the output terminals Vout 1 and Vout 2 are at a logic high level, i.e. higher than the ground potential by the base-emitter voltage of the transistor in the succeeding stage.
The IIL circuit is fabricated by the diffusion or ion implantation technology. N or p-type layers are formed while effecting impurities compensation so that the higher the layer is, in other words the later the fabrication step is, the higher the concentration of impurities is, with which the layer is doped. As the result, in the pn junction formed by the emitter (presumed to be n-type), which is the uppermost layer, and the base (presumed to be p-type), which is directly below it, electrons injected from the emitter to the base are much more abundant than holes injected from the base to the emitter. For this reason, base current is small and current gain is great. Similarly, in the base-collector junction, holes injected from the base to the collector are much more abundant than electrons injected from the collector to the base. This means that the current gain is small at the inversely-biased operation, in which the collector acts as the emitter. This means further that the amount of holes stored in the collector increases in the saturation region, i.e. in the operation region where the base-collector junction is forward-biased, in the usual forward-biased operation. Consequently, the IIL circuit using a transistor of inversely-biased operation with the collector on the upside has a drawback that, since the cut-off frequency cannot be raised and in addition the current gain is low, a great amount of minority carriers (holes) are stored in the substrate acting as the emitter and the working speed is low.
Therefore various sorts of IIL type circuits improved at this point have been proposed. A circuit disclosed e.g. in IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. SC-14 No. 3, JUNE 1979, pp. 585-590, called ISL (Integrated Schottky Logic), is indicated in FIGS. 15A and 15B. FIG. 15A shows the device structure of the ISL circuit and FIG. 15B shows the equivalent circuit thereof.
As indicated in FIG. 15A, the npn type transistor 117 effecting logic operation in the ISL circuit has a vertical structure, in which the emitter, the base and the collector are realized by the n-type region 111, the p-type region 112 and the n-type region 113, respectively. In FIG. 15B, Schottky diodes 119 connected with the output terminals Vout 1 and Vout 2 are realized by forming Schottky electrodes 116 on an n-type region 113a. The pnp type transistor 118 has a structure combined with the transistor 117, in which the p-type region 112, the n-type region 113 and the p-type region 114 or 115 serve as the emitter, the base and the collector, respectively. An injector 120 is formed separately by resistors, etc., differently from the IIL circuit, although it is not indicated in FIG. 15A. What is intended to be improved by this circuit with respect to the IIL circuit is following two points; that (1) the inversely-biased operation of the transistor is abandoned and the transistor is used in the forward-biased operation and that (2) lowering in the working speed due to the fact that the working point enters the saturation region when the transistor is turned-on so that minority carriers are stored therein is avoided. In order to realize the first point, it is necessary to separate the output terminals from each other. For this purpose the Schottky diodes 119 described above are formed. In order to realize the second point, there is a method, by which clamping means is added so that the collector potential of the transistor 117 is not lowered excessively. In FIG. 15B the pnp type transistor 118 constitutes this clamping means, which makes holes, which are minority carriers stored in the collector, flow from the region 113 to 114 or 115 owing to the operation of the transistor 118, when the transistor 117 is in the ON state, so as to prevent the storage of the minority carriers.
The logic circuit such as the ISL circuit described above, etc., improved type of the IIL circuit, is better than the IIL in the circuit speed, etc., because a vertical transistor of forward-biased operation is used, but it is realized at the cost of some characteristics, which the original IIL circuit has. For example, in the ISL circuit, an element isolation region is required similarly to the case where a usual BJT is used, while no element isolation region is required in the ISL circuit, etc., because the emitter of the transistor of inversely-biased operation is the n-type substrate, which can be used at the same time for other transistors, and therefore it is difficult to increase the degree of integration. In addition, Schottky diodes are required for isolating a plurality of outputs and further clamping means is necessary for preventing the storage of minority carriers due to the saturation of the transistors, which makes the construction complicated. Furthermore, even if the clamping means is disposed, it is impossible to prevent completely the storage of minority carriers. Therefore there were problems that increase in the speed was limited, etc.


A vent assembly has a locking mechanism to retain its cover on its base. The locking mechanism includes a latch and linkage coupled with the latch to move the latch between a locked and an unlocked position. A post member extends from the cover to cooperate with the latch such that in a locked condition, the cover is locked with the base in a closed position. When the latch is moved to a second position, the cover is enabled to pivot away from the base to an open position.

In motor vehicles, such as motor coaches, which include a living area, it is desirable to have a vent assembly which enables the interior of the coach to vent. Ordinarily, a vent assembly is utilized with a fan that is capable of moving air either into or out of the interior of the motor coach. One such vent assembly is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,769 entitled "Roof Vent Fan Assembly".
Ordinarily, when the motor coach is being driven, the cover of the vent assembly is in the down position. The vent assemblies usually include an arm to raise and lower the cover between an open and closed position.
The disclosure provides a lock assembly to retain the cover in position during movement of the vehicle. The disclosure provides a locking mechanism which moves between an open and closed position to retain the cover in position during motion of the vehicle. The disclosure provides a fan assembly with a two point retention system to retain the cover in position during motion of the vehicle.

Mechanism for locking a vent cover with a base


A mouth to mouth resuscitator device for use by a rescuer for resuscitating a victim, the device comprising a sheet of flexible material having a top surface and an undersurface, the sheet forming a mouth opening, a hollow substantially rigid tube having an external surface, a first end, a second end and a tube length between the first and second ends, a tube passage aligned at least in part with the mouth opening, the tube extending from the undersurface of the sheet to the second end and a self closing one-way valve located within the tube passage to restrict flow from the second end to the first end of the tube and to allow flow from the first end to the second end when a rescuer exhales air into the mouth opening, wherein the external surface of the tube forms at least one recess at a location along the tube length, the recess for receiving a victim's teeth.

This invention relates generally to devices for providing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or insufflation, and more specifically relates to devices having a physical barrier or shield between the mouth of the rescuer and the victim when providing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to victims of suffocation, asphyxiation, cardiac arrest, drowning and the like.
Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is a first aid technique and a preferred method for reviving a non-breathing victim, when life or death may be determined from actions taken within seconds, by rapidly delivering large volumes of exhaled air under pressure to inflate the lungs and reactivate the normal breathing process. In this method, the victim is placed on his or her back, the mouth is opened to check and clear any airway obstruction and making sure the tongue is not lodged in the passageway to be used and is positioned in the lower cavity inside the mouth, the chin is pulled forward, the head is tilted backward, the nose or nostrils are pinched closed, then an air tight seal is made with the lips of the rescuer and the victim, and the rescuer commences to evenly exhale a deep breath under pressure into the victim's mouth; and then the lip seal is broken to enable another deep breath to be taken and the nose air pathways are opened in the event of any exhaling by the victim; and the process is repeated, until hopefully, the victim is able to exhale and to finally inhale unaided by the rescuer.
In the past, possible rescuers were reluctant to engage in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for fear of contracting disease or illness from such contact with the victim. Generally, however, the person would assume the risk when there was no other alternative for saving the life of the victim. The individual attitude is considerably different today, for there is a mortal fear, which may or may not have any basis in fact, that any close or intimate contact could result in being stricken with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome ("AIDS") virus, particularly if the victim is suspected of being a drug user or a homosexual. Presently there is no known cure and only certain death after a person contracts the AIDS virus, and the number of reported AIDS cases are dramatically increasing throughout the world. In view of this, people will avoid or just refuse to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation without any safeguard for shielding against direct and intimate contact. The subject invention provides such protection for the person giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or practicing this technique.
Various devices have been devised to shield the rescuer when applying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,428 (1974), Sherman, discloses a mouth-to-mouth resuscitator comprising a flexible face mask having a central opening formed therein and extends over the mouth area of the person administering artificial respiration. A flexible tubular member is attached to the periphery of the central opening and depends therefrom for placement in the mouth of the victim. The tubular member acts as a one way valve and inflates when delivering air and collapses for preventing any air or fluid flow in the reverse direction.
In Sherman there is no immediate closure action of the air pathway through the valve, and moist air or fluids from the victim could flow or seep back to the rescuer. Moreover, the face mask of this device could sufficiently contact the mouth and nose to partially or fully prevent the victim from exhaling.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,457 (1977), Davidson, utilizes a face shield having a central mouth opening formed therein. The shield conforms to the contours of the face in the mouth and nose area, and particularly provides a covering over the patient's lips to permit mouth-to-mouth resuscitation without intimate contact. However, moist air and/or fluids from the victim could still be transferred to the rescuer.
None of the aforesaid Patents provide a resuscitator device having a one way valve which instantly closes after air is delivered to the victim, to prevent any back flow of air or liquid from the victim to the rescuer, and includes means for ensuring that the victim is not inhibited from exhaling.
Furthermore, these and other resuscitator devices often include a stiff tube that is inserted into the victim's mouth to create a route for airflow to pass from the rescuer to the victim. These tubes extend into the victim's mouth to ensure that the victim's upper and lower teeth remain separated. However, there is a conflict between the size of the tube to ensure enough air passes from the rescuer to the victim, that the tube remains in place, and the pressure the tube exerts on the victim's teeth. None of the prior patents provide a guard for the victim's teeth.
Furthermore, resuscitator devices are designed to prevent the spread of diseases from the one of the rescuer and the victim and the other. However, when the rescuer performs mount-to-mouth resuscitation in a patient, the rescuer must firmly press his lips to the patient's lips, albeit with an intermediate shield separating them, so as to create a tight seal and prevent air from leaking from the victim's mount and not entering the victim's lungs.
When performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, there is always a chance that the victim may recover and move violently or have an uncontrolled muscle reflex. This presents a hazard to the rescuer and the victim as their teeth are in close and unprotected proximity to each other. This presents the potential for the rescuer or victim to chip or break a tooth if there is sufficient force or movement exerted by the victim. None of the prior patents provide a guard between the victim's teeth and the rescuer's teeth to protect them from injury.


A near-field scanning microscopy probe and a method for doing the same. A metal plasmon or dielectric waveguide is connected to a deformable material and coupled to a dielectric waveguide on a chip. The probe pops up out of the plane of the chip. The probe can be easily integrated with standard on-chip optical components.

1. Field
The present writing is directed to a Near Field Scanning Microscopy (NSOM) probe and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Related Art
According to the Near Field Scanning Microscopy (NSOM) technique, a scanning probe microscope is used to interrogate the optical near field region of various substrates. The technique typically uses a pulled or metallized fiber as an optical delivery and/ or extraction system.
There are a number of NSOM techniques, depending primarily on the illumination and interrogation path. Some techniques utilize a fiber probe as both the source and the probe by placing a filter, beamsplitter or circulator inline with the optical path. Other techniques only either illuminate or interrogate using the optical probe.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,520 describes an optical near-field scanning microscope. U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,330 describes a near field scanning microscope having a tapered waveguide. U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,779 describes a method and apparatus for near-field, scanning, optical microscopy by reflective, optical feedback. U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,151 describes a fiber optic probe and a method of making the same. U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,036 describes a high resolution fiber optic probe for near field and method of making same. U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,742 describes a near-field scanning optical microscope probe exhibiting resonant plasmon excitation. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,894,122, 5,994,691 and 6,194,711 describe a scanning near field optical microscope. All those patents are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
NSOM probes are typically made by a process that requires each individual probe to be fabricated separately. Such process is time and cost intensive.

Near field scanning microscope probe and method for fabricating same


A bottomed, tubular hollow elastic body that opens toward an outlet side of a drug solution flow path is accommodated and arranged in an accommodation part formed in a housing, and a middle protrusion is provided protruding toward an inlet side of the drug solution flow path from a center part of a bottom wall of the hollow elastic body. Insertion of a male luer causes the bottom wall of the hollow elastic body to be elastically deformed so as to enter inside a peripheral wall, increasing the volume of the drug solution flow path, which is formed between an outer surface of the hollow elastic body and an inner surface of the accommodation part. Removing the male luer and canceling the elastic deformation of the hollow elastic body causes the volume of the drug solution flow path to be reduced.

With fluid flow paths for which transfusion, blood transfusion or the like is performed in the medical field, to make it possible to connect and disconnect a syringe, transfusion bag or the like, a needleless connector is sometimes used. This needleless connector is constituted provided with a drug solution flow path inlet and outlet at one side and the other side of the lengthwise direction of the housing, and with an elastic valve body equipped with a slit at the inlet attached. The outlet of the drug solution flow path can be connected with a catheter, and by a catheter inserted in a blood vessel being connected with the drug solution flow path outlet, the drug solution flow path and the blood vessel are in communication.
Also, the drug solution flow path is switched from a blocked state to a communicating state by opening a slit by the elastic valve body being elastically deformed by the male luer inserted from the inlet of the drug solution flow path. Drug solution administration to the patient is performed by having a drug solution flow into the needless connector interior from a syringe or the like connected to the male luer in this kind of communicating state with the drug solution flow path. When drug solution administration is completed, the male luer is removed from the housing, and by the slit of the elastic valve body closing, the drug solution flow path is blocked by the elastic valve body, and the male luer is disconnected from the drug solution flow path connected to the blood vessel or the like.
However, with the needleless connector, when removing the male luer from the slit, there is the risk that blood will enter from the blood vessel to the catheter connected to that drug solution flow path (backflow), and that blood coagulation will occur. In light of that, there is demand for a needleless connector for which it is possible to prevent backflow of blood when removing the male luer from the slit.
In light of that, with PCT Japanese Translation Patent Publication No. JP-A-2006-515220 (Patent Document 1) and the like, a hollow elastic body (piston) is arranged in the accommodation part of the housing, and by the hollow elastic body being pressed by a male luer such as of a syringe or the like, compression deformation occurs in the axial direction on the tube shaped piston wall, and the drug solution flow path is switched to the communicating state. Then, by the male luer being removed, the deformation of the hollow elastic body is cancelled, the drug solution flow path is switched to the blocked state, and backflow of blood is prevented.
However, with the structure of Patent Document 1, there is the problem that with things such as blocking by the piston wall for which the lower channel has deformed or the like, switching to the communicating state for the drug solution flow cannot be realized with sufficient reliability.
Furthermore, the tube shaped piston wall is compressed in the axial direction by the pressing force of the male luer, but when the piston wall is made thin and deforms easily, it is difficult to obtain sufficient shape restoring force based on the elasticity of the item itself, and an auxiliary spring such as a coil spring or the like is needed. Meanwhile, when the piston wall is made thick to obtain sufficient shape restoring force by the elasticity of the piston wall itself, there is the risk of problems such as it being difficult for compression deformation to occur with the piston wall, making it difficult to do the operation of switching the drug solution flow path to the communicating state, or the piston wall overall deforming so as to bulge to the outer circumference side, blocking the drug solution flow path or the like.
As noted in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,418 (Patent Document 2), it is also conceivable to stabilize the hollow elastic body deformation mode by doing something like making the part to be deformed by pressing by the male luer at the hollow elastic body a bellows shape in advance or the like. However, in this case as well, due to the pressure fluctuation that accompanies the volume change of the drug solution flow path, the problem of blood backflow before blocking of the drug solution flow path is not eliminated. Furthermore, since the bellows part of the hollow elastic body undergoes general compression deformation in the axial direction, it is difficult to realize both ease of deformation and sufficient shape restorability, and it was difficult to stably and quickly perform switching between the drug solution flow path communicating state and the blocked state.


A method for medically employing ultrasound within a body cavity of a patient. An end effector is obtained having a medical ultrasound transducer assembly. A biocompatible hygroscopic substance is obtained having a non-expanded anhydrous state and having an expanded and fluidly-loculated hydrated state. The end effector, including the transducer assembly, and the substance in substantially its anhydrous state are inserted into a body cavity (such as endoscopically inserted into a uterus) of a patient. The transducer assembly is used to medically image and/or medically treat patient tissue (such as stopping blood flow to, and/or ablating, a uterine fibroid). A system for medically employing ultrasound includes the end effector and the substance. In another system, the end effector includes the substance. The substance in its hydrated state expands inside the body cavity providing acoustic coupling between the wall of the body cavity and the transducer assembly.

Known ultrasound medical methods include using ultrasound imaging (at low power) of patients to identify patient tissue for medical treatment and include using ultrasound (at high power) to ablate identified patient tissue by heating the tissue. Known ultrasound imaging includes Doppler ultrasound imaging to detect blood flow, and a proposed known use of ultrasound includes using an ultrasound transducer outside the body to stop internal bleeding (by sealing ruptured blood vessels) of a patient brought to an emergency room of a hospital.
In one known ultrasound uterine medical treatment method, an ultrasound transducer is endoscopically inserted into the vagina but outside the uterus of a female patient and is used to ablate a portion of a uterine fibroid. A known method for providing acoustic coupling between the ultrasound transducer and nearby surrounding patient tissue within a body cavity includes surrounding the ultrasound transducer with an expandable outer balloon (i.e., bladder) as part of the ultrasound transducer assembly and injecting water between the ultrasound transducer and the balloon to expand the balloon against some of the body cavity, wherein the water provides the acoustic coupling between the ultrasound transducer and the nearby surrounding patient tissue in contact with the balloon. In another known method, added water is used between the ultrasound transducer and a non-expandable outer sheath of the ultrasound transducer assembly which surrounds the ultrasound transducer, wherein the sheath contacts some of the nearby surrounding patient tissue. In a further known method, added water is used without the balloon or sheath to provide the acoustic coupling. Balloons and sheaths do not contact all of the nearby surrounding patient tissue, especially when the body cavity has sharp body contours, and it is difficult to keep water within the body cavity without the use of a balloon or sheath.
In known non-ultrasound uterine medical treatment methods, blood flow in a uterine artery (or a branch thereof) is blocked by embolization using small micropellets, by ligation, or by fulguration. The aim of such uterine artery blockage is to reduce the size of a uterine fibroid supplied by blood from the uterine artery and/or to reduce abnormal uterine bleeding from such uterine fibroid. Normal uterine tissue is essentially unaffected by these procedures as the uterus is supplied abundant collateral blood via the ovarian arteries. However, having micropellets in an artery can pose potential medical problems, and ligating and fulgurating an artery are relatively invasive procedures.
Known ultrasound medical systems and methods include endoscopically inserting an end effector having an ultrasound transducer transrectally or transurethrally in male patients to medically destroy prostate tissue for benign and cancerous conditions. Rotatable ultrasonic end effectors are known which have an ultrasonic imaging transducer on one side and an ultrasonic treatment transducer on the opposite side and which have an ultrasonic treatment transducer of a short focal length on one side and an ultrasonic treatment transducer of a long focal length on the other side. A known ultrasonic end effector also includes a biopsy tool. Known methods for guiding an end effector within a patient include guiding the end effector from x-rays, from MRI images, and from ultrasound images obtained using the ultrasound treatment transducer.
Known non-ultrasound medical systems include endoscopic or laparoscopic clamp end effectors, wherein the clamp end effector is articulated and is steered by the user.
What is needed is an improved medical system and method for employing ultrasound within a body cavity of a patient. This invention addresses those needs lacking in an ultrasonic medical system and/or an ultrasonic medical method.

Intra-cavitary ultrasound medical system and method


An exposure head, includes: a first imaging optical system and a second imaging optical system which are arranged in a first direction; a light emitting element which emits light to be imaged by the first imaging optical system; and a light emitting element which emits light to be imaged by the second imaging optical system, wherein an inter-optical-system distance in the first direction between the first imaging optical system and the second imaging optical system satisfies the following expression:m1·L1+m2·L2>2P1−(m1·dp1+m2·dp2)where m1 represents an absolute value of the optical magnification of the first imaging optical system, L1 represents a width in the first direction of the light emitting element to be imaged by the first imaging optical system, dp1 represents a pitch between the light emitting element in the first direction in the light emitting element to be imaged by the first imaging optical system, m2 represents an absolute value of the optical magnification of the second imaging optical system, L2 represents a width in the first direction of the light emitting element to be imaged by the second imaging optical system, and dp2 represents a pitch between the light emitting element in the first direction in the light emitting element to be imaged by the second imaging optical system.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to an exposure head including a plurality of light emitting elements and adapted to focus light beams emitted from the respective light emitting elements on an image plane and an image forming apparatus using the exposure head.
2. Related Art
An exposure head using a light emitting element array, for example, as disclosed in JP-A-2000-158705 has been proposed as an exposure head of this type. In this light emitting element array, a plurality of light emitting elements are linearly arrayed at constant pitches in the longitudinal direction corresponding to a main scanning direction. Further, a plurality of thus constructed light emitting element arrays are provided and lenses are arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the respective light emitting element arrays. In each light emitting element array, light beams are emitted from the plurality of light emitting elements belonging to this array, and the emitted light beams are focused on an image plane by the lens arranged in conformity with this array. In this way, spots are formed in a line in the main scanning direction on the image plane.

Exposure head and an image forming apparatus using the exposure head


Provided are: an ink composition for ink-jet printing use, which has good re-dispersibility after being dried and does not undergo the change in properties of the ink even when stored for a long period; and an ink-jet printing method and a dyeing method each using the ink composition. The ink composition according to the present invention comprises: a pigment; water; a polymer (D) composed of at least two monomers independently selected from the group consisting of a monomer (A), a monomer (B) and a monomer (C) respectively represented by specific formulae; a styrene-butadiene resin; a water-soluble organic solvent; and a nonionic surfactant.

Inkjet recording is widely used as a printing method for offices and homes as digitalization of information progresses. In recent years, a large number of applications such as commercial printing and printing on textile have been developed. As applications of inkjet recording are widely developed, as a coloring agent used in an inkjet ink, not only a conventional water-soluble dye such as an acid dye or a direct dye, but also a water-insoluble coloring agent is used according to the application; in other words, various coloring agents such as a disperse dye and a pigment are used.
In general, it is known that a recording image using a water-soluble dye as a coloring agent has low durability to light, ozone, water and the like.
On the other hand, it is known that a recording image using a pigment as a coloring agent is excellent in various types of toughness to light, ozone, water and the like.
However, when an ink containing a water-insoluble coloring agent such as a pigment loses water due to a certain factor and is thereby brought into a dried state, the dispersed state of the pigment is destroyed, with the result that the pigment is disadvantageously aggregated. It is impossible to return the once aggregated pigment in the ink as described above to the dispersed state even by the addition of a liquid medium such as water (since its redispersibility is poor), and thus an improvement is highly required.
In particular, it is required for an ink containing a pigment to be stable for a long period of time. It is known that a pigment whose particles are present in a dispersed state in an ink undergoes a sedimentation phenomenon caused by the aggregation of the pigment particles over time. Hence, disadvantageously, for example, a concentration gradient is produced in the ink and it is impossible to obtain the initial printing characteristics. Furthermore, the aggregated particles clog in a nozzle, and thus it is impossible to discharge the ink, with the result that improvement is highly required to help solve such problems.
As an inkjet ink using a pigment, there is an ink disclosed in Patent Document 1. This is a dispersed ink composition using a polymer dispersing agent. Patent Document 2 discloses an ink composition using a self-dispersed pigment.
In recent years, a method of mixing a resin into an ink to perform curing and fixing with thermal processing on a record-receiving material has also been known, for example, that disclosed in Patent Documents 3 and 4.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3534395
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 4016483
Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2011-246633
Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. H09-143407


A protected cabinet for cash or other valuables, designed to protect the cash or valuables from being robbed, the protected cabinet comprising: a housing, for receiving and housing two drawers, having a front opening through which one or both drawers simultaneously may be withdrawn; a first drawer, adapted to be moved into and out of the housing through the front opening, coupled to a front panel, the front panel adapted to substantially cover the front opening of the housing; a second drawer, positioned over the first drawer, adapted to be moved into and out of the housing through the front opening, when engaged to the first drawer, substantially covering the first drawer when engaged to it, preventing view of contents of the first drawer; engagement mechanism for engaging the second drawer to the first drawer, whereby one drawer is regularly used for transactions or presentation of the cash or valuables kept in it, whereas the other drawer is used as an emergency, decoy, drawer, pulled open in emergency instances, such as in a robbery, by operating the engagement mechanism.

Various methods of protection against robberies were developed over the years. Some of these methods include, forced delays before a safe door can be opened, doors locking when an emergency button is hit, silent alarm button, hidden beneath the desk, actuated to notify the police a robbery is in progress, etc.
Most of these methods impose obstructions on the robbers, and thus may cause the robbers to panic, or enrage them, leading to unnecessary violence or even casualties.
Often, In bank robberies, a robber enters a bank during working hours, finding the cashier sitting in front of an open cash drawer, and forces the cashier, at gun point, to hand over all the money found in that exposed drawer.
Methods and devices limiting the robber's access to his desired catch—money found in teller cabinets or safes, is dangerous, for the frustrated robber may take out his frustration on bank employees or customers. This notion has lead to the introduction of hidden drawers.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,997 (Lopez et al.), titled HIDDEN DRAWER ARRANGEMENT FOR BANK TELLER CABINET, there was disclosed a hidden drawer arrangement for a cash transaction cabinet. A drawer is mounted in slide-out fashion in a compartment of a cabinet. A plain face panel on the drawer extends the width of the compartment to have the appearance of an immobile structural element of the cabinet. A latch arrangement is provided on the bottom of the drawer and is hidden by a lower section of the drawer face panel extending below the plane of the drawer bottom.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,792 (Price et al.), titled CASH REGISTER SECURITY SYSTEM, disclosed a cash register security system having a first latch normally adapted to engage and securely hold within a cash register a false drawer, a release device connected to the first latch for releasing the first latch from engaging and holding the false drawer within the cash register, a second latch adapted to engage and hold within the cash register a cash drawer, the second latch normally being in disengagement with the cash drawer, a locking device connected to the second latch for locking the second latch in engagement with the cash drawer and holding the cash drawer within the cash register, an alarm circuit connected to the release device and the locking device and an alarm switch connected to the alarm circuit for operating the alarm circuit and activating the release device and the locking device whereby the cash drawer is locked within the cash register and only the false drawer may be ejected from the cash register after the alarm switch is operated. A police silent alarm, a plurality of cameras and a flashing beacon also are connected to and operated by the alarm switch. This patent does not describe the physical properties of the drawer chest, but rather discloses an electronic scheme.
In FR Pat. 2535573 (Diemert et al.) there was disclosed a hidden drawer that normally nests within the drawer cabinet, and upon engagement using a hidden a cable, the hidden drawer is revealed, allowing access to its content.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,390,361 (Gund) disclosed a method of protecting an active cash drawer from robbery comprising the following steps: housing the active cash drawer together with an emergency cash drawer in a housing having a frontal opening to accommodate the opening of a cash drawer; arranging for the active cash drawer to open through the frontal opening in the housing to facilitate routine cash transactions; generating an alarm signal in the event of a robbery and arranging for the emergency cash drawer to open instead of the active cash drawer subsequent to the alarm signal. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the frontal opening is generally the height of a cash drawer and the cash drawers vertically shift upwards within the housing subsequent to the alarm signal so that the active cash drawer is aligned behind the frontal opening prior to the alarm signal and the emergency cash drawer is in alignment with the frontal opening subsequent thereto.
Diemert and Lopez both deal with a hidden drawer arrangement, that can be used for concealing valuables etc., so that the latter may be saved, but the hidden drawer merely provides a concealed space for use. Price and Gund describe decoy drawers containing little sums of money, that are to be opened during robbery, aimed at fooling the robber to think the decoy drawer is the real operating drawer, and thus settle for the money found there, believing no more money can be stolen.
It is the purpose of the present invention to provide a novel protected cabinet for bank tellers or the like, having a normally operated drawer that would contain the sums of money required for the normal operation of the teller, and a decoy drawer that in the event of a robbery substitutes the normal drawer, leading the robber to believe the decoy drawer is in fact the normal drawer, and thus make do with what is found in it
Other advantages and objects of the present invention will be appreciated after reading the present specification and viewing the accompanying drawings.


A pixel circuit includes a first driving circuit, a light-emitting element, a second driving circuit, an energy storage circuit and an input circuit. A first end of the first driving circuit is connected to a power source voltage input end. An anode of the light-emitting element is connected to a second end of the first driving circuit. A first end of the second driving circuit is connected to a first level signal input end, a second end thereof is connected to a cathode of the light-emitting element. The energy storage circuit is connected to control ends of the first driving circuit and the second driving circuit, a second level signal input end. The input circuit is connected to a data signal input end, an input control end, the control end of the first driving circuit and the control end of the second driving circuit.

As a new-generation display technology, micro light-emitting diode (LED) display includes an array of miniaturized LEDs, i.e., the LEDs are thinned and miniaturized to form an array, so that each LED has a volume about 1% of a conventional LED. In this way, it is able to reduce a distance between adjacent pixels from a millimeter level to a micrometer level. In the related art, during the manufacture of the micro LED display, usually a micro LED pixel unit and a pixel driving circuit for driving the pixel unit are both formed on a silicon substrate, so as to acquire a silicon-based micro LED display. However, due to the limitation of the manufacture process, a data range applied by the pixel circuit to the pixel unit is limited to some extent, and thereby a brightness adjustment range of the pixel is limited too.

Pixel circuit and display device including light emission control circuit


The disclosed subject matter relates to a method and distance measurement apparatus for measuring a distance to an object, which can include a light source, a solid state camera, a controller and a distance data generator. The light source can be configured to emit a modulated light towards an object, and the solid state camera can convert the light reflected from the object into charges. The distance data generator can be configured to calculate the distance based on the charges, and the controller can be configured to adjust the modulated light to be more favorable under various circumstances. Thus, the method of the disclosed subject matter can accurately measure distance under various circumstances and can result in providing a distance measurement apparatus with a simple configuration and at low cost, and can be used as a sensor for distance measurement of an obstacle and the like in a vehicle, security system, robot, etc.

1. Field
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a method for distance measurement and a distance measurement apparatus using the method for distance measurement. The distance measurement apparatus and method can be used whenever it is desired to measure a distance of a moving object with high accuracy and under various circumstances by emitting a modulated light towards the moving object. The disclosed subject matter is particularly suitable for use in a vehicle, a robot, security system and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional method for distance measurement that can be employed in a vehicle and the like is disclosed, for example, in patent document No. 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid Open JP2005-182137), patent document No. 2 (Japanese Patent Application Laid Open JP2000-75030), etc. The disclosed conventional methods include: emitting light using extremely high frequency (EHF) radar, a laser radar, etc., towards an object; detecting the reflex light that is dashed against the object; and calculating the distance by measuring a time from emitting the light to detecting the reflex light. The above disclosed conventional method is well known as "Time of Flight" (TOF) method.
However, when a laser light source is used as a light source in a distance measurement apparatus, a major driver is used to create an oscillation thereof. In addition, an output characteristic thereof should also be adjusted in order to prevent people that may be located in a direction of the distance measurement from being affected by the laser light source. Thus, the configuration including the major driver and the adjustor may result in a complicated distance measurement apparatus.
Therefore, another conventional method using the TOF method is disclosed, for example, in patent document No. 3 (Japanese Patent Application Laid Open JP2004-32682). According to this conventional method using the TOF method, a semiconductor light-emitting device such as an LED can be used as a light source and an image sensor including a plurality of photoelectric conversion chips can be used as a detector.
This disclosed conventional method includes: emitting a modulated light with a predetermined frequency towards an object using a semiconductor light-emitting device; detecting the reflex light dashed against the object; converting the reflex light into a charge using the image sensor; and calculating the distance by measuring a phase difference between the modulated light emitted from the light source and the reflex light reflected from the object.
However, according to a distance measurement apparatus using this disclosed conventional method, because an amount of light emitted from the light source is maintained at a constant level, the apparatus may have a negative impact on measurement accuracy of distance data. For instance, when the modulated light is too dark, because the ratio of the modulated light to a background light decreases, the signal to noise ratio decreases and therefore an error of measurement distance may increase. On the other hand, when the modulation light of the light source is too bright, because the image sensor is saturated with charges from the incoming light including the reflex light reflected from the object, the distance may not be measured.
In addition, because brightness decreases in inverse proportion to a square of the distance from the light source to an object, when the distance from the light source to an object is relatively near, such as when indoors, and a distance area measured is limited to the distance measurement apparatus, a large error may not be caused even if an amount of light emitted from the light source is maintained constant.
However, when the above distance measurement apparatus measures a distance from the driven vehicle to a vehicle in front thereof (i.e., when used outdoors), the objects may be varied such as a road, an oncoming car, a car traveling ahead, a guardrail, a pedestrian, etc., and measuring a distance from the distance measurement apparatus thereto may vary from several meters to infinity. Therefore, because a favorable amount of modulated light of the light source for measuring an object that is near to the distance measurement apparatus may be different from the amount of modulated light for measuring an object that is far from the distance measurement apparatus, the amount of modulated light of the light source should be dynamically changed in order to improve a measurement accuracy of distance according to a measuring distance, a background light and the like.
Furthermore, even if measuring various objects that are located at the same respective distances, the respective intensity of reflex light may change in accordance with the reflectivity of each of the measured objects. Thus, when measuring a distance of an object with a high degree of accuracy, the amount of modulated light should be changed according to a measuring condition and the like.
The above-referenced Patent Documents are listed below and are incorporated herein by reference.    1. Patent document No. 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open JP2005-182137    2. Patent document No. 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open JP2000-75030    3. Patent document No. 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open JP2004-32682 and its related patent family document, U.S. Pat. No. 7,119,350 to Hashimoto et al.

Method and apparatus for distance measurement


Curable adhesive articles having topographical features and methods of making curable adhesive articles are disclosed.

Pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are used in a variety of applications due to their desirable characteristics such as tackiness at room temperature, bondability using a minimal amount of bonding pressure, bonding strength, and ease of application. However, in some applications, PSAs do not provide needed adhesive layer properties. For example, application of conventional PSAs on acrylic sheets and polycarbonate sheets that are known to be "out-gassing materials" and difficult to bond, may result in bubbling and delamination. In addition, conventional PSAs flow over time and/or lose any structural or topographical features, such as microstructures and/or macrostructures, present within the PSA layer when exposed to elevated temperatures and/or pressures.
Curable adhesives (e.g. heat or light cured) are also used in a number of applications. Curable adhesives have a number of desirable characteristics, such as substantial permanency and high strength adherence; however, conventional curable adhesives do not possess the desirable features of PSAs described above, such as initial tackiness.

Curable adhesive articles having topographical features therein