A package including an outer container, with upper narrow flanges, and which can be folded into the container form, and includes interiorly thereof at least one liner, the liner being shaped so as to provide for its interfitting within the container, having clearance on at least two opposite sides from the container walls, while the other two walls of the liner are contiguous with, or adhesively connected to, the interior of the other two walls of the container. The liner has beveled panels, at its corners, so that when the container of the package is folded into a flattened configuration, the liner follows suit, and can likewise be folded simultaneously flat with the container, so that the package blank can then be shipped or stored in that condition. When the package is erected, for filling, the liner shapes into the open configuration, with the container, can be filled with bulk material, and then a particular style of cap formed of a cover panel, with beveled flanges along each edge embrace the narrow upper flanges of the container, to secure the package into closure, at which time it may be banded or otherwise secured into closure.

This invention relates in general to packaging, and more specifically to a bulk bin package and cap, especially designed for affording sufficient strength for withstanding extensive internal pressures when laden with bulk material, and in addition, provides a package and its liner that can be adhered together, during the manufacturing stage, the combined components folded into the flat condition, for shipment, but yet can be readily erected for usage without requiring any further manipulation of the liner, with respect to the bin, once the two have been pre-assembled together.
Many styles of bulk bin boxes or containers have long been available in the art. In addition, even containers that included an interior liner, functioning as a bin, have been employed, usually where the liner must be shipped separately from the container, and then inserted into the same, prior to its filling with bulk material. In the prior art, there have even been liners of multi-shapes, including the octagonal shape, for use as an insert, and functioning as a bin, for holding bulk material.
The current invention takes the design a step further, in forming a uniquely shaped liner, or bin, which has been predetermined to have fold lines at particular locations, so that the liner can be inserted at the manufacturing plant into the container, adhesively applied at select surfaces to the interior of the container, wherein both can be folded, together, into a flattened condition, for storage or shipment, and readily available for further erecting into the usable form, at the situs of filing with bulk material.
Examples of some prior art are shown in the earlier patent to Bobye, U.S. Pat. No. 1,979,956, which shows a box, formed of a blank, and wherein its upper flaps are of a narrowed dimension, as can be seen.
The patent to Hill, U.S. Pat. No. 2,404,067, shows a container enclosure therefor. This particular container is pertinent from the standpoint of showing a rectangular carton, which has narrow side flaps, and which cooperate with a particular styled cover to furnish closure for the container, as noted.
The patent to Bailey, U.S. Pat. No. 3,343,660, shows a box closure, which has a series of upper narrow panels, and which cooperate with a lid, such as shown in FIG. 6, to furnish closure.
The patent to Kupersmit, U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,373, discloses a foldable reinforcing element for a shipping container. This element is multi-sided, as noted, generally comes in two parts, and apparently fits in combination within a container to prevent its bulging. The element is formed of corrugated board, and resists bulging and bursting of the container in which the material or cargo is located. This liner, although, is capable of being folded into a somewhat flattened condition.
The patent to Halsell, U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,809, discloses a packaging container for an electric motor. The patent shows a pair of separate, or two structures, that form positioning panels for locating around, apparently, any motor that is disposed upon its mounting plate. The paneled structures also incorporate diagonal panels, at their corners. The combination of a pair of positioning panels does furnish an octagonal type of liner for locating within a container, as noted, but this patent does not describe the usage of this type of packaging container for resisting bulging, as in a bin and cap arrangement, as with the current invention. This particular device is primarily for use for anchoring of a heavy single structure product.
The patent to Bartelt, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,388, shows another form of container, as noted. Particularly, this container includes an outer element, that has a series of telescoping sleeves, and which are of octagonal shape, having diagonal or beveled corners, for the purpose of providing reinforcement to the overall container, when used.
The patent to Takazawa, U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,227, discloses an anti-bulging bag-in-box design. This is relevant from the standpoint of showing how a bag of bulk material may be arranged within an octagonal inner cylinder, as noted, and then the inner cylinder actually being formed of four parts, is then located within the shown casing. The casing or container is formed with side walls, and an inner cylinder is formed from various panels, that are foldably attached to the sides of these side panels. The structure can form a reinforced inner liner for a container or casing, from a single blank. Although, this is a bag within a box, but all of it being formed from a one-piece blank.


An apparatus for generating a digital signal representing an analog signal comprising a reference array establishing reference values at hierarchically arranged reference nodes in response to a reference signal. The apparatus includes a first iteration comparing circuit comparing selected first reference values present at first nodes with the analog signal. The first reference values establish a plurality of ranges of reference values. The first comparing circuit generates a first output signal indicating a particular range in which the analog signal first compares with respect to a reference value in a predetermined relation. A logic circuit generates a control signal in response to the first output signal. A second comparing circuit effects second comparing of selected second reference values with the analog signal. The second reference values are present at selected nodes which are in intervals adjacent the first reference nodes and hierarchically segment those intervals. The second comparing circuit responds to the control signal to effect the second comparing and comprises a plurality of second comparators. Each second comparator receives the analog signal as a first input and receives hierarchically equal of the second reference values from the intervals as a plurality of available second inputs. One of the available second inputs is selected as the second input value to each second comparator in response to the control signal. The second comparing circuit generates a second output signal and the logic means responds to the first output and the second output to generate the digital signal output.

The present invention addresses the conversion of analog signals to representative digital signals; specifically, the signals present invention deals with two-stage flash conversion of analog signals to representative digital signals.
Flash analog-to-digital signal converters generally apply a reference voltage to a resistor array and connect a first input of each comparator of an array of comparators to nodes intermediate each of the resistors in the array. Usually the resistors in the resistor array are all equal in value. An input analog signal is applied to the second input of each of the respective comparators. The voltage drops across the resistor array present a voltage input at the first input of each of the respective comparators. The various voltage inputs differ from each other by a predetermined differential amount which is established by the individual resistances in the resistive array. Comparison of the input analog signal to each of the various reference voltages presented will result in a first output presented by those comparators at which the input analog signal exceeds the respective reference voltage presented at a respective comparator, and will result in a second output by those comparators at which the input analog signal does not exceed the respective reference voltage presented at the respective comparator. The outputs of the comparators are applied to a logic circuit which is configured, or programmed, to present the various comparator outputs as a digital signal output which is representative of the various comparator outputs and which, in turn, represents the input analog signal applied to the various second inputs of the respective comparators. For such a flash converter circuit to present a digital representation of the input analog signal in n-bits, the converter must employ 2.sup.n resistors and 2.sup.n comparators.
In implementing such circuitry in CMOS technology, comparators occupy a relatively large amount of "real estate", or space, on a substrate. In an effort to miniaturize such analog-to-analog conversion circuits, prior art designers have developed two-stage flash converters, commonly known as half-flash analog-to-digital signal converters. Such a half-flash analog-to-digital converter will employ 2.sup.n resistors in establishing a reference resistor tree similar to the resistor tree required for a flash converter. However, the comparators are arranged differently, since a comparator occupies more real estate than is required for a resistor. For example, an n-bit analog-to-analog half flash conversion circuit may have a first stage comparator circuit with respective comparators having a first input connected every nth resistor node so that comparison of the input, or received, analog signal applied to the second input of each respective first stage comparator with the reference voltage present at the first input of each respective comparator yields a first iteration indication at the outputs of the first stage comparators which is representative of a predetermined number of the most significant digits of the digital representation of the received analog signal.
This first iteration indication is applied to a logic circuit which is employed to selectively energize particular switches in an array of switches. The particular switches effect electrical connection of selected resistive nodes among the plurality of resistive nodes associated with each of the first iteration comparators to the first inputs of a second array of comparators. For example, where the analog-to-digital converter is to present an n-bit representation of the received analog signal, and the first iteration comparators are connected to a primary resistive node at every nth resistive node, n-1 resistive nodes exist intermediate each secondary resistive node to which the first inputs of the first iteration comparators are connected. Thus, n-1 secondary comparators are required to further refine the digital representation of the received analog signal. The most significant resistive node within each of the secondary resistive node groups is selectively switched to a first secondary comparator, the second most-significant resistive node within each of the secondary node groups is selectively switched to a second secondary comparator, and the third most-significant resistive node within each of the secondary node groups is selectively switched to a third secondary comparator. The various outputs of the respective secondary comparators are provided to a logic circuit which interprets the secondary comparator outputs appropriately to represent the less-significant digits of the digital representation of the received analog signal. The logic circuit then proceeds to combine the representations presented by the first iteration comparators with the representations provided by the second iteration comparators (i.e., the most-significant digits and the less-significant digits of the digital, binary, representation) to present as an output the n-bit representation of the received analog signal.
Thus, the two-stage flash converter for an n-bit digital representation of a received analog signal requires n first iteration comparators and n-1 second iteration comparators. By way of example, an 8-bit analog-to-digital converter would require 256 comparators if implemented in a flash construction, but would require only 15 comparators if implemented in a two-stage flash configuration.
There are, however, problems with a two-stage flash converter circuit configuration. The switching of the secondary comparators in electrical connection with the resistor tree imposes noise by the sudden introduction of an RC component comprising the resistance at the node to which the secondary comparator is switched, and the inherent capacitance in the switch employed to effect such an electrical connection. Such an RC component, suddenly imposed, generates noise which is manifested as a disturbance of the reference signals presented at each of the secondary comparators and imposes a time delay by the time required for the reference signal to settle after the disturbance is injected by the switching operation. Moreover, the RC factor varies depending upon where the secondary comparator was connected in the resistor tree, since the resistance at different nodes of the resistor tree varies along its length.
There is a need for a half flash analog-to-digital converter which will realize the space-saving benefits of employing fewer comparators, but will not suffer from the inherent speed limitations heretofore experienced by half flash analog-to-digital converters.

Improved two-stage analog-to-digital converter


In one aspect, the invention provides a method of making a thermal interface material comprising the steps of: (a) providing a polymeric hot melt pressure sensitive adhesive having a number average molecular weight of greater than 25,000; (b) melt-blending the polymer with at least 25 weight percent of a thermally conductive filler to form a mixture; and (c) forming the mixture of hot melt pressure sensitive adhesive and thermally conductive filler as a film. In another aspect, the invention may further comprise the steps of: providing a fire retardant and/or microfiber forming material; and/or irradiating the film with gamma or electron beam (E-beam) radiation or a combination of both to form a thermal interface material.

Integrated circuits, active and passive components, optical disk drives, and the like generate heat under use conditions that must be diffused to allow continuous use of the heat-generating component. Heat sinks in the form of finned metal blocks and heat spreaders containing heat pipes are commonly attached to these heat-generating components to allow excess heat to be conducted away and radiated into the atmosphere. Materials useful for providing a thermal bridge between the heat generating components and heat sinks/heat spreaders are known. Many of these materials are based on gel masses, liquid to solid phase change compounds, greases, or pads that must be mechanically clamped between the heat generating component and heat sink/heat spreader.
More recently, thermally conductive materials incorporating adhesives have been introduced. These thermally conductive adhesive materials typically form an adhesive bond between the heat generating component and heat sink/heat spreader so that no mechanical clamping is required. Both heat-activated (hot melt) and pressure sensitive adhesives have been used in thermally conductive adhesives. In all cases, these thermal interface materials need to be thermally enhanced (compared with unfilled or lightly filled polymer compositions), be dimensionally stable at elevated temperatures (heat generating components often run at 50° C. or higher) and be soft and conformable enough to provide good contact (wet-out) between the substrates.
Thermal interface materials can be prepared by a number of known methods. One method is dispersing thermally conductive particles in a low viscosity material, such as a monomer or low molecular weight polymer, followed by polymerization and/or curing and/or crosslinking of the monomer or low molecular weight polymer. For example,f EP Publication No. 0566093 describes preparing thermally conductive electrically insulating pressure sensitive adhesives by blending thermally conductive, electrically insulating particles in reactive monomers and/or oligomers or in a partially photopolymerized syrup, degassing the mixture, coating the composition between two silicone-release treated films, and photopolymerizing the coating to a pressure sensitive adhesive state. Another method is the addition of low molecular weight components to high molecular weight components to provide a suitable viscosity to assist incorporation of the thermally conductive particles. Yet another method is the use of a hot melt coatable PSA composition and crosslinking by use of actinic radiation. Initial attempts with relatively low molar mass hot melt PSA compositions failed to attain good elevated temperature shear performance. Subsequent improvements in this hot melt PSA method have focused on the addition of radiation sensitive, multifunctional, small molecules to improve the crosslinking step. Several different small molecules have been suggested modestly improve elevated temperature shear performance. These methods have certain disadvantages of requiring multiple processing steps and/or multiple component compositions, which add to overall cost of manufacturing.
In some applications, there is a need for rework and/or repair, such as for example, attaching an aluminum frame to a plasma display panel (PDP). In these applications, a thermally conductive adhesive interface article with an easily removable attachment system, such as a stretch-releasable attachment system would be beneficial.
Consequently, it is desirable to provide a simple, cost-effective, method for the manufacture of thermally conductive adhesive interface articles that have acceptable thermal conductivity. It is also desirable to provide the foregoing thermally conductive articles in a fire retardant and/or a stretch-release construction.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Thermal interface materials and method of making thermal interface materials


Repeater cells each comprising a buffer or an inverter and an n+ diffusion layer-P well type protection diode or a p+ diffusion layer-N well type antenna protection diode connected to an input pin of the buffer or the inverter for preventing antenna damage or an antenna rule error from occurring are previously registered by registration means 511 as the cells to be registered in a cell library 505. Whether or not a wiring conductor conducting to a gate electrode becomes an antenna ratio exceeding an allowed antenna ratio in the semiconductor device is determined by determination means 514 and if the wiring conductor exceeds the allowable antenna ratio, one or more repeater cells are inserted into any point of the wiring conductor by selection means 515.

This invention relates to a semiconductor device, a semiconductor device design method, a recording medium recording a program for executing the semiconductor device design method, and a semiconductor device design support system and in particular to a semiconductor device, a semiconductor device design method, a semiconductor device design method recording medium, and a semiconductor device design support system capable of preventing antenna damage caused by an antenna effect occurring in a plasma step at the metal wiring formation time in a semiconductor process.
In recent semiconductor process wiring steps, various plasma techniques have been used. The representative plasma techniques include dry etching at the wiring layer patterning, plasma TEOS film deposition of wiring layer insulating film in a multi-layered wiring step, and the like, for example, which will be hereinafter referred to as plasma steps.
For example, when plasma etching is executed, if a diffusion layer does not connect to metal wiring, plasma charges accumulate in the metal wiring and an electric current flows into the gate oxide film of the transistor to which the metal wiring connects. The current causes such trouble of destruction of the gate oxide film, change in the transistor characteristics because of film quality change of the gate oxide film, or degradation of the hot carrier life. Such phenomena are called "antenna effect" and trouble caused by the antenna effect will be hereinafter referred to as "antenna damage." This antenna damage is also caused by the antenna effect due to side walls of the of the metal wiring. In order to simplify the explanation, only areas of the metal wirings are taken into consideration.
Such antenna damage proceeds toward the worse when micro-miniaturization develops; the factors are as follows:
First, the gate oxide film itself of a transistor becomes thin and pressure resistance of the gate oxide film considerably lowers as compared with the conventional process. There is an estimation that as the film is furthermore thinned, the antenna damage is remedied because the tunnel current in the gate oxide film grows. However, it is said that antenna rule proceeds toward the worse until at least the gate oxide film thickness of about 5 nm generally used with CMOS according to 0.25-μm design rule.
Second, the minimum gate width reduces with micro-miniaturization of process, but the wiring length is not much shortened although micro-miniaturization of process develops, because the signal wiring length does not lessen if the chip size set considering yield, etc., is micro-miniaturized to about 10 mm square.
Third, although damage caused by plasma entering from a side wall of wiring at the over-etching in a dry etching step of wiring is the main factor of the antenna damage, if the wiring width is thinned, the wiring film thickness cannot be so thinned for the purposes of providing resistance to electro-migration of wiring and suppressing the resistance value.
Fourthly, as the wiring pattern becomes fine, the plasma density at the etching time also tends to rise.
Because of the factors as described above, if the antenna ratio is about several thousands in the recent fine process antenna damage such as destruction of a gate oxide film or characteristic degradation of a transistor has occurred during the manufacturing process in extremely general designed LSI although no problem arises even in the antenna ratio of about a hundred thousand in the conventional CMOS generation, etc., according to 0.8-μm design rule. The "antenna ratio" generally refers to the ratio between the area of a gate oxide film and the area of a conductive layer in which plasma charges occurring at the plasma etching time are accumulated.
Against the backdrop, it becomes necessary to take countermeasures against electrostatic destruction in the chip considering a wafer diffusion step apart from ESD protection on packaging and handling required for conventional I/O pins.
The above-described "antenna ratio of about several thousands" means that design considering the antenna damage is required not only for a long pattern such as a power supply, but also in general signal wiring in LSI. This is shown using general values of the current process.
For example, assuming that the area of a gate oxide film portion, namely, gate length X gate width is 0.25 μm×0.6 μm and that the wiring width is 0.4 μm and applying the antenna rule of "assuming wiring with antenna ratio=3000 or more to be an error," the allowed wiring length becomes 1125 μm. However, in the antenna ratio calculation, the conductive layer area in which plasma charges are accumulated is calculated as the area of wiring only.
Therefore, to use such metal wiring running on one side of the chip of LSI having a chip size of 10 mm square as described above, the antenna rule is applied and the metal wiring becomes antenna wiring that can cause antenna damage. However, this does not mean that whenever such an antenna ratio is applied, antenna damage occurs. If a diffusion layer connects to the target wiring in a plasma step, plasma charges escape via the diffusion layer, thus antenna damage does not occur in the gate oxide film; this fact also need to be considered. This means that if an aluminum pattern with the gate oxide film connecting to long aluminum wiring, not connected to the diffusion layer exists, an antenna rule error occurs.
Next, how antenna damage, namely, an antenna rule error occurs in the actual LSI design and specific examples of conventional countermeasures to be taken when the antenna damage, namely, an antenna rule error occurs will be discussed.
First, specific examples of comparatively easy countermeasures against antenna image are given. FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram to show a state in which an unused input pin in a functional block is connected to a power supply trunk and potential is fixed. In the figure, in a functional block 2101 such as RAM or ROM, a second metal input pin 2102 unused is connected via first metal wiring 2103 to a second metal power supply trunk 104 and potential is fixed. The second metal power supply trunk 104 is connected to a third metal power supply trunk 105. When the second metal is etched in a wiring step of such configured LSI, the third metal power supply trunk 105 does not yet exist. Thus, the second metal power supply trunk 104 becomes giant antenna wiring in a floating state not connected to a diffusion layer with respect to a gate oxide film connected to the second metal input pin 2102 unused.
Available as the countermeasures to be taken when such an antenna error occurs are a method of adding an antenna protection diode as shown in FIG. 17A or 17B to the second metal power supply trunk 104 of the antenna wiring or the first metal wiring 2103, a method of changing the first metal wiring 2103 to third metal wiring, and the like.
If an antenna protection diode is added according to the first countermeasure, plasma charges escape through a diffusion layer of the protection diode as described above, so that occurrence of antenna damage is eliminated. FIG. 17A is a schematic representation to show the structure of an n+ diffusion layer-P well type antenna protection diode 2201 consisting of an n+ diffusion layer 2202 and a P well 2203 fixed to power supply potential VSS and FIG. 17B is a schematic representation to show the structure of a p+ diffusion layer-N well type antenna protection diode 2211 consisting of a p+ diffusion layer 2212 and an N well 2213 fixed to power supply potential VDD.
If the first metal wiring 2103 is changed to third metal wiring according to the second countermeasure, the functional block 2101 and the second metal power supply trunk 104 are separated at the etching time of the second metal forming the second metal power supply trunk 104, thus antenna damage cannot occur.
If an unused input pin is fixed in a normal block formed of a standard macro cell, usually it is fixed to a power supply in the macro cell or a power supply trunk to which the power supply in the macro cell is connected. Since the power supply in the standard macro cell is provided with a substrate contact almost beyond doubt, a path to a well via a diffusion layer exists. Thus, in such a block formed of a standard cell, antenna damage in an unused input pin with potential fixed can little occur.
Next, a specific example of signal wiring harder to counter antenna damage will be discussed with reference to FIGS. 18A to 18C. FIG. 18A is a schematic diagram to describe a layout of signal wiring from one inverter 2301 to another inverter 2302.
In an automatic placement wiring tool, normally longitudinal and lateral wiring layers assigned are used for wiring without considering an antenna rule as described above. Assume that one signal wiring is laid out as first metal wiring 2312 which is very long exists, as shown in FIG. 18A. That is, it is a wiring layout using first metal wiring 2311, 2312 and second metal wiring 2321.
In the layout in FIG. 18A, it seems that antenna damage does not occur because a drain diffusion layer of a transistor in the inverter 2301 is connected to the signal wiring. However, it should be noted that when the first metal wiring 2312 is etched, the second metal wiring 2321 does not exist. That is, the drain diffusion layer of the inverter 2301 is not connected to the first metal wiring 2312, which is long and becomes wiring that can cause antenna damage for a transistor gate oxide film of the inverter 2302.
Layout design considering the antenna rule is not yet general and effective countermeasures against antenna damage are not established as things stand now. Used as the countermeasures against antenna damage at present are a method of adding an antenna protection diode to first metal wiring 2312b which is long and can cause antenna damage as shown in FIG. 18B, a method of providing diffusion layer wiring 2503 at an intermediate point of the first metal wiring 2312 in FIG. 18A, as shown in FIG. 19A, a method of specifying use of upper layer wiring 2541 such as second or third metal as the first metal wiring 2312 in FIG. 18A and again performing automatic wiring processing, as shown in FIG. 19B, and the like, for example.
If an antenna protection diode is added according to the first countermeasure, plasma charges escape through a diffusion layer of the protection diode as described above, so that occurrence of antenna damage is eliminated. The antenna protection diode may be an n+ diffusion layer-P well type antenna protection diode 2303 as shown in FIG. 18B or a p+ diffusion layer-N well type antenna protection diode 2304 as shown in FIG. 18C; it may be designed to apply a reverse bias to a signal line to which the protection diode is connected so that no problem occurs on the operation if the potential level of the signal line changes to high or low. To be precise, if the antenna protection diode is added, the load of the signal line becomes heavy because diffusion capacitance is added. However, if diodes are embedded on mask operation all in wiring that can cause an antenna error, a wiring load problem arises; a load capacitance problem hardly occurs if a contact of the minimum size is added or so.
If a wiring route passing through the diffusion layer wiring 2503 is provided at an intermediate point of the first metal wiring 2312 in FIG. 18A according to the second countermeasure, plasma charges escape through the diffusion layer, so that occurrence of antenna damage is eliminated. FIG. 19A shows an example of using an n+ diffusion layer formed on a P well fixed to power supply potential VSS.
Further, if use of the third metal wiring 2541 as the first metal wiring 2312 is specified and automatic wiring processing is again performed, as shown in FIG. 19B, according to the third countermeasure, at the etching time of the second metal forming the second metal wiring 2321, the second metal wiring 2321 and the gate oxide film of the inverter 2302 are separated and the diffusion layer of the inverter 2301 is connected to the second metal wiring 2321, thus antenna damage cannot occur.
However, the above-described conventional countermeasures taken when antenna damage or an antenna rule error occurs involve the following problems:
First, throughout all the countermeasures, an additional correction to an antenna error is required and when an attempt is made to use a CAD tool for automation, a clear and effective procedure does not exist. That is, an antenna rule error is frequently found at a one-chip wiring layout stage close to the end of design and the current automatic placement wiring tool of CAD does not provide a function for avoiding an antenna rule error. Therefore, with the current state of the art, the designer manually takes such measures of adding an antenna protection diode to a device for which an error is found at the stage where a mask order is about to be given. Such a relapse in the design stage and occurrence of manual work become the largest problem in design automation.
The second countermeasure (see FIG. 19A) involves a performance problem. This means that to provide a wiring route passing through the diffusion layer at an intermediate point of metal wiring, a large resistance value is added as compared with the metal wiring owing to the diffusion layer, worsening the circuit operation speed. If the process is a silicide process, such worsening of the circuit operation speed is a little alleviated.
A common problem to the first and second countermeasures is to place limitations on a design style. In recent years, a technique of executing steps in parallel with layout design as much as possible has been adopted for shortening the time from LSI design to manufacturing. For example, at completion of a chip at the block level, if the blocks are placed and a mask order is given from the ground and diffusion is started on one hand and layout design is furthermore advanced and an antenna rule error is found in the later layout design using aluminum wiring on an upper layer on the other hand, the error cannot be handled by changing the design of the lower layer.
In such a case, the error has to be avoided by changing wiring; a limitation is placed so as to use upper layer metal in place of the metal wiring where the antenna rule error occurs, for example. In this case, the wiring is connected to the diffusion layer at the wiring etching stage and the antenna rule error is solved. However, if the error occurrence frequency increases, wiring corrections as countermeasures against the antenna rule errors are made to the device with wiring well laid out, largely changing the congestion degree of the upper layer aluminum wiring and the wiring pattern. Then, when the wiring is again executed, it cannot be fitted as the same area as before the antenna rule error corrections are made is held, or the wiring congestion degree and the wiring length are changed, thus new trouble of occurrence of a timing error on logical circuit design not previously occurring is caused.
In the recent LSI design, signals whose wiring delay is to be suppressed have been wired at gentle pitches with thick metal film wiring of an upper layer as much as possible; an increase in the congestion degree of the upper layer wiring is undesirable for speed performance.

Semiconductor device, semiconductor device design method, semiconductor device design method recording medium, and semiconductor device design support system

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A dosage form is disclosed comprising a wall surrounding a compartment, which comprises a first composition comprising a carboxymethylcellulose and a second composition comprising a higher molecular weight carboxymethylcellulose. The first composition comprises a dosage amount of drug that delivers from the dosage form at a controlled rate over time.

Controlled release dosage forms are increasingly important for delivering drugs to an animal for obtaining good therapy. The controlled release of drug by a dosage form indicates control is exercised over both the duration and the profile of a drug release program. Controlled release dosage forms provide many therapeutic advantages over conventional dosage forms. For example, one major and important advantage is the lessening of fluctuation in blood plasma drug concentrations. The pharmacologic basis for minimizing fluctuations in plasma level derives from three therapeutic principles. First, every drug has a therapeutic blood level that must be reached if the desired therapeutic benefit is to be achieved from the administered drug. Second, most drugs have blood plasma levels that define the limits above which side effects may appear, and this can be substantially avoided by the use of controlled release dosage forms. Third, the drug plasma concentration response for most drugs is proportional to the concentration administered, which dictates of the need for controlled release dosage forms. These pharmacologic principles indicate a need for keeping plasma concentrations within a therapeutic level, and accordingly, addresses the need for a controlled release dosage form to achieve the intended results.
The dosage form used for drug administration can influence the course of therapeutic activity by affecting the profile of drug concentration in the blood. For example, the blood level profile of a drug following administration by a prior art conventional dosage form is defined by an initial high peak, followed by a rapid decline, in both the slope and the duration of the drug. The initial high peak typically substantially exceeds the therapeutic plasma concentration range and the level fluctuates in peaks and troughs above and below the desired therapeutic level. In contrast, controlled release dosage forms can minimize the fluctuations known to the prior art, minimize or even avoid the peaks in blood level concentration and the following valley in blood level concentrations. A controlled dosage form can extend also the duration of therapeutic index levels over time.
In view of the above presentation it is immediately evident a pressing need exists for a controlled release dosage form for administering a therapeutically-important drug, such as a calcium channel blocking drug to a patient in need of calcium channel blocking therapy. The expression "calcium channel blocking drugs" also are known as calcium channel blockers, calcium channel antagonist, or calcium antagonists. The calcium channel blockers possess broad pharmacological use and they exhibit pronounced properties such as long-lasting vasodilating effects accompanied by an energy-sparing effect on cardiac metabolism, antiarrhythmic and antianginal action on cardiac muscle, vascular spasmolytic action, antihypertensive action, spasmolytic action on smooth muscle of the gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts and the cerebrovascular and respiratory system, useful for antihypercholesterolemic action, protection of the ischemic myocardium, inhibition of irritable bowel syndrome and esophagal spasm, inhibition of migraine, inhibit vascular calcium contraction, reduce cardiac contractile force, inhibit calcium mediated tracheal contraction, inhibit calcium uptake in primary cells, myocardial ischemia and hypertension. The calcium antagonist drugs that possess these therapeutic properties and can be administered by the dosage form and the method of the invention comprise a member selected from the group consisting of verapamil, nifedipine, diltiazem, bepridil, nicardipine, nitredipine, isradipine, niludepine, nisoldipine, felodipine, cinnarizine, flunarizine, perhexiline, amlodipine, or as their pharmaceutically acceptable salts or as their pharmaceutically acceptable derivatives. The pharmaceutically acceptable salts are acid addition salts of non-toxic pharmaceutically acceptable acids. The acids include inorganic acids and organic acids, and consequently, the salt can be an inorganic or organic salt. The pharmaceutically acceptable salts for the purpose of this invention consist of a member selected from the group consisting of inorganic, hydrochloric, hydrobromic, hydriodic, phosphoric, sulfuric, nitric, and the like, organic, trifluoroacetic, trichloroacetic, acetic, glycolic, pamoic, pyruvic, malonic, succinic, maleic, fumaric, malic, tartaric, citric, mandelic, benzoic, cinnamic, methane sulfonic, ethane sulfonic, salicylic, p-toluenesulfonic or cyclohexanesulfamic. The pharmaceutically acceptable derivatives include alkyl substituted and ester derivatives. The drugs are known to the medical art in USAN and the USP Dictionary of Drug Names, 1961-1990 Cumulative List, published 1990 by United States Pharmacopeial Convention, Inc.; and in Physician's Desk Reference, 45 Ed. 1991, published by Medical Economy Company, Inc.

Dosage forms comprising polymers comprising different molecular weights


Systems and methods for waking a controller from a sleep mode are described. In one example, the controller may be woke in response to an estimated amount of time that it will take for a temperature in an evaporative emissions system to be within a threshold temperature of ambient temperature.

A vehicle may be equipped with an evaporative emissions system for reducing an amount of fuel vapor that may escape from a vehicle. The evaporative emissions system may be tested from time to time to ensure a desired level of operation. In particular, a breach diagnostic of the evaporative emissions system may commence after an engine of the vehicle is stopped. The diagnostic may be more reliable if the evaporative emissions system is evaluated at "quiet" conditions. The quiet conditions may reduce system noise so as to reduce a possibility of false positive indications of system issues. The system may be most quiet when a temperature in the evaporative emissions system is within a threshold temperature of a present ambient temperature. However, maintaining a controller in an activated state until such conditions are present may consume significant amounts of electrical power. Therefore, it may be desirable to provide a way of operating a controller in a way that avoids significant power consumption, yet performs evaporative emissions system diagnostics at conditions that may improve diagnostic results.
The inventor herein has recognized the above-mentioned issues and has developed a method for operating a controller of a vehicle, comprising: estimating a time that a temperature at a location in an evaporative emissions system will be within a threshold temperature of ambient temperature; and waking a controller from a sleep mode at the estimated time.
By estimating an amount of time it will take for a temperature in an emissions system to be within a threshold temperature of ambient temperature, it may be possible to provide the technical result of waking a controller at a time that is proper for performing a diagnostic so that battery power is not consumed unnecessarily. Further, when the controller is woke at conditions that may be desirable for performing a diagnostic, it may be possible to avoid exercising system components to reduce a possibility of system degradation.
The present description may provide several advantages. In particular, the methods may reduce unnecessary consumption of battery power. In addition, the methods described herein may help to reduce a possibility of system degradation. Further, waking a controller and performing diagnostics at desirable temperatures, may increase reliability of diagnostic procedures so as to improve diagnostic results.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

System and method for a vehicle diagnostic wakeup


A weight plate includes a first section having an annular shape with a passage extending axially through the first section and configured to receive an elongated member therethrough, and a second section having an annular shape and positioned radially outward of the first section, where the second section includes first and second outer surfaces on opposite axial sides of the weight plate with an axial thickness defined between the first and second outer surfaces. The second section has a plurality of recesses each extending axially inward from the first and second outer surfaces at least partially through the axial thickness of the second section.

Weightlifting exercises are performed in a large variety of different settings, including large gyms, small gyms, homes, among many other locations. Such settings may be located in an area where loud noise is a potential issue, such as within a home or residential area or close to another business. Weight plates are one of the most frequently used types of weightlifting equipment. In some exercises, barbells weighted with weight plates are dropped from a height to the ground, such as from waist height, shoulder height, head height, etc., and such dropping can create significant noise. There is a need for providing a weight plate that reduces the noise emitted when dropping the weight plates from a height, while also retaining plate durability and safety.
The present disclosure is provided to address this need and other needs in existing weight plates. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.


An automatic vending machine for a sticker combinable caricature printed article is provided. The automatic vending machine includes a memory, a caricature outputting printer, a sticker outputting printer and a controller for controlling the operation of the respective elements. The automatic vending machine provides not only a sticker on which a face of a user is photographed but also a caricature printed article printed on A4 size paper, thereby satisfying user""s various choices. According to user""s option, a caricature printed sticker can also be obtained.

The present invention relates to an automatic vending machine for photograph printed stickers, and more particularly, to an automatic vending machine for a sticker combinable caricature printed article, for receiving image data of a user by means of a camera or the like, editing the same according to user""s option and outputting the edited image data on a sheet of sticker paper.
In general, a conventional automatic vending machine for stickers receives image data of a user by means of an image pickup unit such as a camera and edits the image data with a previously stored background image to then be output on sticker paper. The conventional automatic vending machine outputs only a multitude of small-sized stickers on which photographs are printed. Thus, the conventional sticker vending machine cannot satisfy users"" various choices.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic vending machine for a sticker combinable caricature printed article, for outputting not only a stamp-sized sticker but also a caricature of a user on A4 size paper, for sales.
To accomplish the above object of the present invention, there is provided an automatic vending machine for a sticker combinable caricature printed article having a housing having a predetermined shape and providing a space required for installing necessary components, a money identifier installed in the housing and allowing a normal user who complies with a prescribed procedure to use the automatic vending machine, a camera connected to the housing, for receiving necessary image data, a monitor for displaying a predetermined selected image for viewing by the user, and inputting means allowing the user to edit the image data and to optionally execute desired operations, the automatic vending machine including memory means in which in which data of an operating system program and an exclusive program for caricature processing is stored, a caricature outputting printer for outputting image data received by the camera and applied to the exclusive program for caricature processing as a caricature printed article, a sticker outputting printer for outputting the image data received by the camera on sticker paper, and control means for controlling the operation of the respective elements.
Preferably, the housing further includes a plurality of illuminators installed around the camera, for processing shades of the caricature.
More preferably, the automatic vending machine according to the present invention further includes an external monitor for allowing the image received by the camera and processed to be viewed by passers-by.

Automatic vending machine for sticker and caricature printed article

90-9 Okum-Dong, Songpa-Ku, Seoul , 138-130


A system and method for prostate cancer treatment under local anesthesia includes creating a superficial skin and subcutaneous block in a perineal area of a patient by administering a first anesthetizing agent; creating a deep nerve block under ultrasound guidance by administering a second anesthetizing agent, the second anesthetizing agent infiltrating cavernosal nerve bundle tissue and periprostatic space; and ablating prostate tissue. The office-based method, statistical models and computer generated treatment plans identify and ablate prostate tissue containing cancer through or via the perineum while preserving prostate function, and critical anatomical structures. Multiple technologies are integrated and processed to deliver a safe treatment procedure, under local anesthesia by integrating the information of magnetic resonance imaging and planning the ablative treatment using algorithms that ensure maximal precision in both killing cancerous tissue and preserving healthy tissue along with its corresponding function.

A conundrum of questions has surrounded prostate cancer management where just in the United States over 200,000 men have received such diagnosis yearly in the last two decades alone. An unquantifiable research effort has been conducted by thousands of health care providers, investigators, and epidemiologists seeking to elucidate the trails from molecular origins of prostate cancer to its clinical virulent variants that pose a real mortality risk. In this process millions of patients across the globe have been treated by several means and all kinds of results have been reported.
Currently, prostate cancer screening practices are questioned, due to a significant harm versus benefit risk calculus. Standard biopsy procedures (transrectal) carry significant risk for infections, sample the prostate inadequately, lack precision of sampled area and do not allow appropriate access for direct treatment. Surgical approaches such as Open, Laparoscopic and Robotic Radical Prostatectomy have been shrouded with variability in outcomes. Even if the cancer treatment does result in successful removal of the cancerous tissue, current treatment approaches too often lead to detrimental quality of life (such as incontinence, loss of erection, and loss of ejaculation).
The current management conundrum leads patients to choose to either take no action and pursue surveillance measures or have physician treat the prostate gland completely. The latter leads commonly to significant losses of daily function such as the control of urination or the initiation of erections.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an integrated system and method for treatment of the prostate which minimizes adverse effects of the treatment.

System and method for prostate treatment under local anesthesia


A method and system and for fabricating 3D (three-dimensional) SIC (stacked integrated chip) semiconductor devices. The system includes a vacuum chamber, a vacuum-environment treatment chamber, and a bonding chamber, though in some embodiments the same physical enclosure may serve more than one of these functions. A vacuum-environment treatment source in communication with the vacuum-environment treatment chamber provides a selected one or more of a hydrogen (H2)-based thermal anneal, an H2-based plasma treatment, or an ammonia (NH3)-based plasma treatment. In another embodiment, a method includes placing a semiconductor chip in a vacuum environment, performing a selected vacuum-environment treatment, and bonding the chip to a base wafer. A plurality of chips formed as dice on a semiconductor wafer may, of course, be simultaneously treated and bonded in this way as well, either before or after dicing.

Modern electronic appliances are frequently manufactured using one or more packaged semiconductor devices, which are sometimes called chips, each enclosed in a familiar black plastic package or in some other type of protective enclosure. Each chip performs a specific function associated with the operation of electronic appliance, and is mounted on one or more printed wired boards (PWBs) that provide for mechanical support and for electrical connections between the various chips. The PWBs and one or more input and output devices such as keyboards or LCD screens are then secured in some type of housing. Examples of modern electronic appliances include mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, and personal gaming devices. Larger electronic appliances include personal computers and television sets.
A chip is, generally speaking, a small piece of semiconductor material onto which a large number of tiny electric components have been fabricated and connected with one another to form integrated circuits. An example is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a simplified perspective view illustrating a typical semiconductor chip 10. As can be seen in FIG. 1, semiconductor chip 10 is thin and usually in the shape of a square or rectangle. On the top surface 11 of semiconductor chip 10 is an active area 12. Active area 12 is simply the portion of top surface 11 at which the many tiny electrical components (not shown) are located. In this particular example, active area 12 also includes a series of bond pads 13, which are basically larger, externally-accessible conductive pads to which exterior electrical connections may be made, for example by attaching a bond wire (see FIG. 3). A seal ring 14 is formed on surface 11 of semiconductor chip 10 about the periphery of active area 12, segregating it from the rest of the chip and providing protection during certain fabrication operations. The backside 15 of chip 10 is referenced but not visible in FIG. 1. Ordinarily there are no circuits or pads formed on the backside 15, although there may be in some applications.
For efficiency, the electronic components for a number of chips are often fabricated simultaneously. For this purpose a thin wafer may be sliced from an ingot of, for example, silicon, and treated by ion implantation to impart semiconductor properties. An example is shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating a typical semiconductor wafer 20. For the purpose of illustration, chip 10 is pointed out, although at this stage it has not yet been separated from the other, adjacent devices, and is typically referred to as a die. As can be seen in FIG. 2, a plurality of dice 22 is often formed in an array on the surface 21 of wafer 20. The dice 22 are collectively fabricated in a series of process steps that, in general, selectively deposit and selectively remove layers of insulating, conductive, and semiconductor material. Much of this process is automated, and great precision is required. An orientation notch 23 is for this reason formed in the periphery of wafer 20 so that it's proper positioning may be confirmed. Other methods of orientation control are used as well. Inspection and various types of testing take place at certain points in the fabrication process to identify those dice containing irremediable defects so that they are not used. Each of the dice 22 are usually though not necessarily identical with respect to each other, and will later in the fabrication process be separated into individual chips, such as the chip 10 shown in FIG. 1. The process for separating the chips is sometimes referred to as dicing.
As mentioned above, the various chips mounted on a given PWB (not shown) are often interconnected, and may in that manner form systems intended to perform an overall function, or set of functions, with each chip performing its own function-associated tasks. As small, energy-efficient electronic appliances become more popular, however, there arises a demand for new ways to configure the systems on which they rely. The chips forming an entire system, for example, may be contained within a single package. An exemplary SIP (system in package) device is shown in FIG. 3.
FIG. 3 is a simplified perspective view illustrating an exemplary 3D (three-dimensional)-SIC (stacked integrated circuit) semiconductor device 30. As should be apparent, this device consists of three chips that have been mounted one on top of the other. Semiconductor chip 10 shown in FIG. 1 is in this example at the top of the three-chip stack. Semiconductor chip 31 is directly beneath it, and semiconductor chip 32 is beneath a semiconductor chip 31. An intermediate layer 33 is shown between chip 31 and chip 32, and intermediate layer 34 is shown between chip 31 and chip 10. These intermediate layers are typically some type of insulating material that may also serve to bond the chips together. When assembled, the entire device 30 may be encased in this or a similar material, though this is not shown in FIG. 3. Semiconductor chip 10 is the smallest of the three chips in device 30, and semiconductor chip 31 the largest, permitting the numerous electrical connections required between the chips to be made using bond wires 35. As should be apparent, this is a very simplified illustration; an actual device may have dozens of such bond wires. Alternative means of providing electrical connections may also be used, for example creating vertical conductive structures that connect components on one chip with components on another, usually adjacent chip.
Unfortunately, when using vertical conductive structures to make connections between the components of one semiconductor device and those of another, problems in bonding may occur. The processes used to prepare one chip for bonding with another, such as grinding and polishing, often leave behind chemical residue and deleterious material that interferes with the bonding process. In addition, if too much time is allowed to elapse between preparation and bonding, oxidation or corrosion may degrade the quality of the exposed conductors. Eliminating this delay (sometimes referred to as Queue-time, or simply Q-time), however, may impose addition costs or other undesirable consequences. Needed, then, is a manner of manufacturing semiconductor devices such as 3D-SICs, and in particular preparing the multiple chips involved for bonding, which provides for greater bonding reliability and permits longer Q-times. The present invention provides just such a solution.

Method and system for bonding 3D semiconductor devices

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


An apparatus, method, and system of popping popcorn. In one aspect of the invention, an apparatus comprises a popcorn popper, a popped popcorn hopper and a dispensing mechanism in communication with the hopper. By actuation, the dispensing mechanism dispenses one or more servings from the hopper. In another aspect of the invention, the apparatus further comprises a dosing mechanism to provide sequential doses of unpopped corn to the popper to make a plurality of batches of popped popcorn. In another aspect of the invention, a sensor sensing when popped popcorn in the hopper exceeds a pre-determined level or amount and instigates a signal to actuate the dosing mechanism to fill the hopper. In a system according to the invention, a self-contained cabinet includes the popper, hopper, dispensing mechanism and dosing mechanism, as well as a control circuit and actuators to operate the dosing mechanism and dispensing mechanisms. A method according to the invention comprises sensing amount of popped corn in the hopper, if determined needed, adding a single dose of unpopped corn to a popper and filling the hopper, and rechecking amount of popped corn in the hopper periodically.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to popcorn machines, and in particular, to semi-automated or fully automated machines.
2. Problems in the Art
A variety of popcorn machines exist. Many home-use popcorn machines utilize a heated base and small cover in which individual batches of popcorn are made with the use of oil or the like. Hot air poppers for home use are also available. They generally discharge popcorn from a spout and are quite compact in size. They do not use oil to create the popcorn.
Larger popcorn machines, including those used for commercial endeavors, tend to have a larger housing or enclosure for storing popped popcorn. Conventionally, a kettle or bucket with a heating element requires the user to load popcorn seeds and oil or shortening into the kettle, monitor its progress, and pop new batches when popcorn in the enclosure is exhausted or close to be used up. Not only does this require relatively constant monitoring of the machine, but substantial effort and resources to maintain its operation. There are also issues regarding danger to the user (e.g., burns) and cleanliness issues (e.g., multiple opening and closing of doors to the popcorn and multiple hands handling the popcorn).
Relatively recently, there is a heightened awareness and concern regarding healthiness of foods. Because most conventional commercial poppers utilize some sort of oil or shortening, there is concern over the amount of fat, and healthiness thereof, for such popcorn. Air poppers do not utilize such oil and therefore have that advantage over oil or shortening based poppers. However, air poppers present logistic and labor issues where substantial amounts of popcorn on a continual basis are needed. They also produce a significant amount of heat that is distributed by the creation of hot air.
With respect to commercial level popcorn machines, there is a need in the art for automation of at least part of the operation of the machine. This would relieve workers or users from substantial effort of operating them. Also, a need has been identified for a practical semi-automatic or automatic commercial-size popcorn machine. Also, there has been identified a need for a machine that could precisely meter individual servings to customers instead of requiring the customer or an attendant to manually fill a customer's popcorn container. A need has also been identified for a self-contained, larger semi or fully automated popcorn machine that is modular in nature, having subsystems that can be interchanged.


A wrench for engaging a faucet mounting nut, the wrench including an elongated tubular pipe which has slots at one end. A nut engaging socket, having radially projecting studs, is adapted for reversible insertion into the pipe opening, with the socket studs engaging the slots in the pipe. A variety of socket inserts, for engagement of a variety of nut sizes and shapes, is provided. Openings in the pipe, at the end opposite the socket engaging end, provide a means for a rod to be inserted into the pipe to facilitate pipe rotation. The elongated pipe, since it is hollow, can slide over a water supply line during mounting nut removal, thereby eliminating the requirement of first detaching the supply line.

The sinks in kitchens and bathrooms of residences and commercial buildings are mounted against a wall. Usually, the sink has a shelf, interposed between the sink basin and the wall, on which a faucet is mounted. In many cases, the faucet is fixed in place by a pair of elongated tubular threaded bolts which extend through the shelf and an underlining counter and are secured by nuts under the counter. The nuts are often hexagonal in shape although in some cases, wing nuts are used. In addition to their role in securing the faucet to the sink, the elongated bolts are threaded to accept a second nut which attaches the water supply line to the faucet.
During faucet installation, it is necessary for one to reach up into the confined space, between the sink basin and the wall, to tighten the nuts on the elongated bolt. This is often a very difficult task since conventional wrenches are not usable in the confined space.
During faucet removal, a similar problem exists because now the nuts must be removed and the problem of removing the nuts is often more severe because of corrosion which tends to freeze the nut in place. The problem can be exacerbated if the nut securing the water supply line proves difficult to dislodge.
In view of the foregoing, it would be very desirable to have a wrench which could effectively and efficiently engage a variety of faucet mounting nuts in confined spaces. Ideally, such a wrench would be convenient to use and would be inexpensive to manufacture.


There is provided a display control device including an action information acquisition unit that acquires, at an action position of one actor, action information regarding a past action of another actor, an object generation unit that generates a virtual object for virtually indicating a position of the other actor during an action of the one actor based on the acquired action information, and a display control unit that causes a display unit displaying a surrounding scene to superimpose and display the generated virtual object during the action of the one actor.

The present disclosure relates to a display control device, a display control method, and a program.
In recent years, athletes (actors) wear devices that can receive various kinds of information from the outside via a communication network or the like and perform exercises.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2002-507734 discloses a technology for providing information regarding a traveling distance of an athlete to the athlete or a device used by the athlete during an exercise based on global positioning satellite data.

Wearable display system that displays a guide for a user performing a workout


A medical fluid machine includes (i) a pump that pumps a medical fluid and (ii) a heater that heats the medical fluid, the heater including an electrically insulative housing, at least one flat sheet of electrically conductive material suitable for contacting the medical fluid, the sheet disposed within the insulative housing, the sheet defining a flow path for the medical fluid in which the medical fluid changes direction at least one time, a primary coil of a transformer located outside the insulative housing, the primary coil configured to induce a current into the at least one conductive sheet, creating heat that may be transferred to the medical fluid.

In general, the present disclosure relates to medical fluid delivery systems that employ a pumping cassette. In particular, the present disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatuses for cassette-based dialysis medical fluid therapies, including but not limited to those using peristaltic pumps and diaphragm pumps.
Due to various causes, a person's renal system can fail. Renal failure produces several physiological derangements. The balance of water, minerals and the excretion of daily metabolic load is no longer possible and toxic end products of nitrogen metabolism (urea, creatinine, uric acid, and others) can accumulate in blood and tissue.
Kidney failure and reduced kidney function have been treated with dialysis. Dialysis removes waste, toxins and excess water from the body that would otherwise have been removed by normal functioning kidneys. Dialysis treatment for replacement of kidney functions is critical to many people because the treatment is life saving.
Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are two types of dialysis therapies used commonly to treat loss of kidney function. Hemodialysis treatment utilizes the patient's blood to remove waste, toxins and excess water from the patient. The patient is connected to a hemodialysis machine and the patient's blood is pumped through the machine. Catheters are inserted into the patient's veins and arteries so that blood can flow to and from the hemodialysis machine. The blood passes through a dialyzer of the machine, which removes waste, toxins and excess water from the blood. The cleaned blood is returned to the patient. A large amount of dialysate, for example about 120 liters, is consumed to dialyze the blood during a single hemodialysis therapy. Hemodialysis treatment lasts several hours and is generally performed in a treatment center about three or four times per week.
Peritoneal dialysis uses a dialysis solution, or "dialysate," which is infused into a patient's peritoneal cavity via a catheter. The dialysate contacts the peritoneal membrane of the peritoneal cavity. Waste, toxins and excess water pass from the patient's bloodstream, through the peritoneal membrane and into the dialysate due to diffusion and osmosis, i.e., an osmotic gradient occurs across the membrane. The spent dialysate is drained from the patient, removing waste, toxins and excess water from the patient. This cycle is repeated.
There are various types of peritoneal dialysis therapies, including continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis ("CAPD"), automated peritoneal dialysis ("APD"), tidal flow APD and continuous flow peritoneal dialysis ("CFPD"). CAPD is a manual dialysis treatment. The patient manually connects an implanted catheter to a drain, allowing spent dialysate fluid to drain from the peritoneal cavity. The patient then connects the catheter to a bag of fresh dialysate, infusing fresh dialysate through the catheter and into the patient. The patient disconnects the catheter from the fresh dialysate bag and allows the dialysate to dwell within the peritoneal cavity, wherein the transfer of waste, toxins and excess water takes place. After a dwell period, the patient repeats the manual dialysis procedure, for example, four times per day, each treatment lasting about an hour. Manual peritoneal dialysis requires a significant amount of time and effort from the patient, leaving ample room for improvement.
Automated peritoneal dialysis ("APD") is similar to CAPD in that the dialysis treatment includes drain, fill, and dwell cycles. APD machines, however, perform the cycles automatically, typically while the patient sleeps. APD machines free patients from having to manually perform the treatment cycles and from having to transport supplies during the day. APD machines connect fluidly to an implanted catheter, to a source or bag of fresh dialysate and to a fluid drain. APD machines pump fresh dialysate from a dialysate source, through the catheter, into the patient's peritoneal cavity, and allow the dialysate to dwell within the cavity, and allow the transfer of waste, toxins and excess water to take place. The source can be multiple sterile dialysate solution bags.
APD machines pump spent dialysate from the peritoneal cavity, though the catheter, to the drain. As with the manual process, several drain, fill and dwell cycles occur during APD. A "last fill" occurs at the end of CAPD and APD, which remains in the peritoneal cavity of the patient until the next treatment.
Both CAPD and APD are batch type systems that send spent dialysis fluid to a drain. Tidal flow systems are modified batch systems. With tidal flow, instead of removing all of the fluid from the patient over a longer period of time, a portion of the fluid is removed and replaced after smaller increments of time.
Continuous flow, or CFPD, systems clean or regenerate spent dialysate instead of discarding it. The systems pump fluid into and out of the patient, through a loop. Dialysate flows into the peritoneal cavity through one catheter lumen and out another catheter lumen. The fluid exiting the patient passes through a reconstitution device that removes waste from the dialysate, e.g., via a urea removal column that employs urease to enzymatically convert urea into ammonia. The ammonia is then removed from the dialysate by adsorption prior to reintroduction of the dialysate into the peritoneal cavity. Additional sensors are employed to monitor the removal of ammonia. CFPD systems are typically more complicated than batch systems.
Hemodialysis, APD (including tidal flow) and CFPD systems can employ a pumping cassette. The pumping cassette typically includes a flexible membrane that is moved mechanically to push and pull dialysis fluid out of and into, respectively, the cassette. Certain known systems include flexible sheeting on one side of the cassette, while others include sheeting on both sides of the cassette. Positive and/or negative pressure can be used to operate the pumping cassettes.
One problem with dialysis systems is to be able to accurately measure dialysate flowrate. Accurate flowrate measurement can be difficult in systems intending to use a sealed disposable cassette. As discussed above, detecting air or gas in dialysis systems is important. It is also useful to be able to detect fibrin in PD systems. In both cases, it would be useful to be able to detect for example the size and/or shape of the gas bubbles or fibrin particles for quantification.
Yet a further concern for dialysis systems is fluid or dialysate temperature heating. The dialysate needs to be heated to roughly body temperature or 37° C. before being delivered to the patient. For dialysate heating, it is desirable to have an apparatus that can be incorporated into, at least partially, and/or operate with a disposable dialysis cassette.
The present disclosure addresses the above-described needs and concerns.

Dialysis system having inductive heating


A folding chair with wheels includes a backrest, a seat, a front leg frame and a rear leg frame pivotally connected to both sides of the seat, a plurality of wheel assemblies and a plurality of connection blocks. Each of the front leg frame and the rear leg frame comprises a groove at a side surface thereof. The wheel assembly includes a wheel, a bearing and a threaded stem screwed into the connection block. The connection block has a plurality of connection screw holes, and is screwed onto the grooves of the front leg frame and the rear leg frame by bolts. The wheel assemblies connected with the front leg frame and the rear leg frame are disposed at the external side and the internal side of the folding chair, respectively. Therefore, the wheel assemblies do not interfere with each other when the chair is folded.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a folding chair, and in particular to a folding chair provided with wheels that is easy to move.
2. The Prior Arts
Referring to FIG. 7, a conventional folding chair used in an office or a conference room is made of metal, and comprises a front leg frame, a rear leg frame, and a seat pivotally connected between the front leg frame and the rear leg frame. The folding chair does not take much room when it is folded. However, because the metal folding chair is heavy, it is exhausting to move them in quantity. Furthermore, because the folding chair is not equipped with wheels, a user can not sit in the folding chair and glide the chair to grab something close by. If the user sitting in the folding chair wants to move the chair by a short distance, he or she needs to stand up to move the chair. Therefore, there is a need to provide the folding chair with wheels.
Referring to FIG. 6, an office chair sold in the market includes a seat A, a backrest B, a base D, an adjustable post C mounted between the base D and the seat A, and a plurality of wheels E equally disposed beneath the base D. The office chair overcomes the disadvantage of chairs without wheels, but it is unfoldable. Thus, the office chair takes up a lot of room to store or move when it is not in use. Furthermore, the wheels E are screwed into the base D. Bolts and screw holes are worn out after long time use, and thus the wheels E are then loosened or even fail to function. The base D and the wheels E will need to be replaced after the bolts and the screw holes are worn out.


A display apparatus includes a display panel which has a curved surface in a first direction and a flat surface in a second direction crossing the first direction, and includes, a first substrate, a second substrate which faces the first substrate, a liquid crystal layer which is disposed between the first and second substrates and includes liquid crystal molecules pre-tilted at predetermined angles with reference to a direction substantially vertical to a plane of the display panel, where the liquid crystal molecules are pre-tilted at the predetermined angles corresponding to cell gaps defined by distances between the first substrate and the second substrate, respectively.

1. Field
The invention relates to a display apparatus improving uniformity in response time of a liquid crystal layer and reliability thereof and a method of manufacturing the display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a display apparatus includes a display panel to display an image and a backlight unit to supply light to the display panel.
The display panel includes a first substrate including pixels formed thereon, a second substrate disposed to face the first substrate, and an image display layer interposed between the first and second substrates. The image display layer is driven by the pixels, and a transmittance of the light is controlled by the image display layer, thereby displaying a desired image. The image display layer includes various types of layers such as a liquid crystal layer, an electrowetting layer, or an electrophoretic layer.
In general, the display apparatus has a flat plate shape, but in recent years, a display apparatus having a curved shape has been developed. The display apparatus having the curved shape is manufactured by deforming a flat plate-shaped display apparatus to have the curved shape and putting the display apparatus having the curved shape into a case having the curved shape.

Display apparatus and method of manufacturing the same


A method of diagnostics of living organism state and an apparatus for its realization, comprising the steps of (i) illuminating living organism surface (1) with electromagnetic radiation from source (2) of optical wavelength range from 0.3 to 2.0.mu., (ii) receiving transmitted through or back scattered by the living organism radiation by detectors (3 and 4), (iii) with the help of sequentially connected commutator (5), analog-to-digital converter (6) and input-output controller (7), spatial distribution of at least one parameter, characterizing transmittance and/or back scattering by living organism radiation in the computer system (8) is performed sequentially and continuously in time. At the above mentioned spatial distributions, spatial regions are revealed, differing from each other by at least one parameter, characterizing their temporal changes, and the revealed regions are recorded as a functional map of physiological processes taking place in living organism.

The present invention belongs to the field of physics and medicine, or more precisely, to methods and apparatus for obtaining information about physiological processes taking place in living organisms. It relates to a method of living organism state diagnosis and apparatus for its realization which could be used for the investigation and diagnosis of the functional dynamics of a living organism's physiological processes.
Functional dynamics is defined as a measure of the homestatic stability of a living organism. Functional diagnosis means using a measure or measures of functional dynamics to diagnose possible pathological conditions in a living organism. Using functional diagnosis as a diagnostic procedure has the potential to detect early precursors of pathology by revealing subtle disturbances in the relationships between physiological systems. Early detection of a pathological condition makes likelier the avoidance of non-reversible disturbances in a living organism and therefore avoids radical treatment methods. For this reason, methods of early functional diagnostics are acquiring increasing significance for population screening and development of preventive medicine.
The state of living organism is reflected in the continuous functional dynamics of its biological tissues. These dynamics are determined by the functioning of the main distributed physiological systems, such as cell metabolism, which supplies the tissues with energy, and microcirculation, which supplies their metabolic resources. The functional status of these main life supporting tissue systems is determined by distributed regulatory mechanisms, which function both for the whole organism and at the cellular level. Cell metabolism is connected with microcirculation via one important distributed tissue system-perfusion. Since the perfusion system interconnects the first two systems, study of the functional dynamics of the perfusion system will reveal important information on the state of the living organism both for the whole organism and at the cellular level.
The state of the whole-organism systems is reflected not only and not exclusively by tissue functional dynamics at separate organism sites, but mainly by the degree and the character of the spatial synergy of these dynamics. To explore this synergy of tissue physiological processes characterizing the whole-organism functional status, the investigation of continuous spatial distribution of functional dynamics of microcirculation is necessary. In the relaxation state, for example, spatial synergy of the functional dynamics in the process of tissue activity is minimal, whereas it is greatly increased under the stress conditions.
Each physiological parameter has its own physical image, or physical "projection".
Integral cell metabolism and microcirculation intensity in each organism site is reflected by its temperature value. In addition, one of the most informative physical parameters, reflecting the state of biological tissues of a living organism, is their complex dielectric permeability. Its imaginary part, the absorption coefficient of electromagnetic (EM) radiation by biological media, is characterized by a specific spectral dependence in the optical range on the main physiological agent of microcirculation--hemoglobin and its different functional forms: oxy-hemoglobin and carboxy-hemoglobin, as well as for cytochrome aa3, which also participates in cell metabolism. In a very wide range of EM-radiation frequencies, the real part of dielectric permeability depends on the degree of blood content in tissues and characterizes tissue functional inhomogeneity, produced, for example, by microcirculation dynamics.
In order to measure the temperature and dielectric characteristics of biological tissues, different physical methods are applied for functional diagnostics investigations. For non-invasive measurements of biological tissues' temperature, their electromagnetic thermal radiation is registered. The latter is the most intensive in the middle infrared (IR) range, which makes it possible to measure tissues temperature with the necessary accuracy of 0.1 degree. This is the essence of infrared dynamic thermovision, which permits investigation of spatial distribution of living organism tissue functional dynamics.
In this method, (Godik E., Gulyaev, "Functional Imaging of the Human Body," IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology," 1991) temporary changes in spatial distribution of IR-thermal radiation intensity of living organism tissues are registered, reflecting their spatial-temporal microcirculation dynamics in the form of a temporal sequence of thermoimages. This is performed both in the process of natural organism functioning and in the process of physiological reactions on different functional probes: reflective and humoral ones. For example, pain reactions or the influence of pharmaceutical treatments can be visualized via such procedures; the regions with different regulation disturbances can be revealed, differentially diagnosing which type of regulation is disturbed: reflective or humoral one. Also, the state of internal organs can be estimated by specific reactions of the corresponding dermatomes (Zakharjin-Ged skin zones). However, IR-thermovision method has a number of significant restrictions, as outlined below.
First, IR-thermal radiation carries direct information on physiological processes only in skin, since its characteristic absorption depth does not exceed 100.mu.. The method taught by Jobsis in U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,645 "Method and Apparatus for Monitoring Metabolism in Body Organs," attempts to overcome this limitation by transilluminating the body and integrating over a long path length. However, functional changes in blood content in skin capillary nets, disposed at the depth of 0.5.mu. or larger, are reflected in skin temperature by means of thermoprojection, due to which a delay and inertia of several seconds emerges. That is why IR-thermal radiation does not reflect practically blood flow functional dynamics, connected, for example, with cardio- and respiratory pulsation, since thermoprojection time is several seconds. Second, the temperature reflects blood flow and metabolism contributions simultaneously and integrally, which does not permit differential diagnostics of their disturbances. Third, the middle IR-range technology, necessary for the realization of the above method, is unreasonably expensive.
For dielectric permeability measurements, the investigated part of the living organism is illuminated with EM-radiation and parameters of back scattered and/ or transmitted radiation are measured. EM-radiation of optical wavelength range--from 0.3 to 1.3.mu. wavelengths is effectively used for biological tissue investigation. At near IR wavelength range from 0.65 to 1.0.mu. the tissues are transparent enough to be seen at depth of more than one centimeter. This transparency is limited by light scattering, with the characteristic weakening of such radiation making the 3-5.mu. range unusable for water-containing tissues. The absorption depths for the above mentioned physiological pigments reach up to several centimeters; in spite of the low absorption in the above region, it is selective enough to separate the contributions from the different pigments. For the wavelengths longer than 1.2.mu. the transparency of water-containing tissues decreases sharply as a result o f the strong water absorption.
The photopletismography method is well known (U.S. Pat. No. 4927244). The essence of this method is that the region under investigation, mostly the thinnest and thereby easier transilluminated body parts--ear lobes or hand and leg finger tips, are illuminated by EM-radiation of the above mentioned wavelength range; the intensity of transmitted and/or back scattered radiation is measured; the ratio of the latter intensities and that of the illuminating radiation (transmittance and back scattering coefficients, respectively) are calculated as a continuous functions of time; temporal dependencies of these coefficients, originating from cardiopulsation, arc analyzed; functional state of microcirculation is judged from the extremum positions and the amplitudes ratio. This method is similar to that taught by Parker, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,173 "Electro-Optical Device and Method for Monitoring Instantaneous Singlet Oxygen Concentration Produced During Photoradiation Using a CW Excitation Source."
These methods, however, are based on the analysis of the microcirculation functional mechanics at separate organism sites and do not permit estimation of microcirculation over the organism surface, or the spatial picture of its interconnection within the organism scope. Thus there exists no potential to estimate the state of the organism's health based on the interaction of separate physiological systems.
More weighty information on the functional microcirculation dynamics and cell metabolism in separate organism sites could be obtained using the method of spectral monitoring of biological tissues in the near IR-wavelength range (U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,026, Strobl, et al, "Apparatus and Method for Spectroscopic Analysis of Scattering Media"). To realize this method, the part of living organism under investigation is alternatively illuminated by radiation of several wavelengths in the range from 0.6.mu. to 1.0.mu.; the intensity of transmitted and/or back scattered radiation is measured for each wavelength as a continuous function of time; coefficients of transmittance and/or back scattered radiation are determined for each wavelength; the system of differential equations is solved with the use of these data and temporal dependencies of oxyhemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin and cytochrome aa3 are calculated. The character of these dependencies is analyzed in the process of physiological reactions on different functional tests both local ( i.e. applying a blood pressure cuff) and the whole-organism ones. The obtained dependencies are compared with similar ones for a healthy person and the presence of pathology is judged by the deviations in the reaction amplitudes and the time delays. This method permits more detailed analysis of the functional state of the living organism to be performed to reveal not only disturbances in the functional microcirculation mechanics, but also deviations in oxygenation status of the tissue investigated, in the ratio of arterial and venous blood content, in the perfusion state--by a delay in time dynamics and by the amplitude ratio of changes in oxyhemoglobin and cytochrome aa3 concentrations. This extends significantly the potential to revel pathology and its differential diagnostics.
However, this above described method as well as the previous one permits estimation of the character of functional dynamics of physiological processes only at separate organism points and does not make it possible to visualize and to investigate a continuous spatial synergy of these processes in a whole organ or in the organism as whole.
A method and apparatus are known which permit the determination of the optical properties of living organism tissues (U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,165). To realize this method, the part of living organism under investigation, a mammary gland, for example, is illuminated by electromagnetic radiation of optical wavelength range (near IR-range), transmitted radiation is acquired and the spatial distribution of its intensity is registered. This method reveals pathological inhomogeneities in transparency of living organism tissues but only of sufficiently large size and located not too deep from the surface, and happen to be turned to the radiation detector. Tumors of the mammary gland, for example, are able to be discovered with method, as a rule, too late, when they have already reached a large size .
The method proposed by Bowen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,634 "Radiation-Induced Thermoacoustic Imaging" describes the possibility of increasing the spatial resolution to reveal pathological changes in tissue morphology (structure) but not in physiological dynamics.
Thus, currently used methods permit investigation of spatial synergy of the functional dynamics of physiological processes only in skin, either only morphological changes in a tissues depth in one (or a few) frame or functional changes in separate preselected points. All methods reviewed yield insufficient information for differential diagnostics based on partial contributions of microcirculation and metabolic thermoproduction. Methods that permit a detailed investigation of pre-capillary blood flow and cell metabolism only provide it at separate discrete points.

Method of living system organism diagnostics and apparatus for its realization


A system and method of licensing electronic circuit designs within target electronic circuits or devices that allows secure delivery and reliable accounting of the licensed circuit designs on a per-usage basis. The method includes determining whether an electronic circuit design is licensable for use within a target electronic circuit by verifying licensing information included in a set of predetermined vectors associated with the electronic circuit design. In the event it is determined that the electronic circuit design is licensable for use within the target electronic circuit, the set of vectors is applied to the target electronic circuit by a licensing controller. Next, in response to a predetermined event, an attribute of the licensing information is updated to indicate the licensed use of the electronic circuit design within the target circuit. The licensing system allows IP core providers and IP core users to account for the use of licensed electronic circuit designs on a per-usage basis with higher accuracy, thereby providing increased assurance that the electronic circuit designs are being licensed in a manner that is fair to all parties.

The present invention relates generally to the licensing of electronic circuit designs programmably configured or designed into target electronic circuits, and more specifically to a system and method of securely licensing and reliably accounting for the delivery of licensed electronic circuit designs for use within target electronic circuits.
In recent years, as the size and complexity of Integrated Circuits (ICs) have increased, many circuit designers have found that it was no longer practical to design ICs using existing proprietary circuits. As a result, circuit designers adopted alternative approaches to IC design that allowed them to take advantage of advances in semiconductor technology, while satisfying the increased demand for electronic products.
One such approach adopted by circuit designers is known as "design re-use", in which functional circuit blocks from one or more existing IC designs or third party providers are re-used to create a new IC design. This approach allows circuit designers to take advantage of new semiconductor technology and maintain increased productivity because they do not have to design all of the circuits within the IC. Design re-use can be employed to achieve product miniaturization and cost reduction, to enable a new product with several functions that were previously implemented within separate chips to be integrated into a single IC, and/or to create a new product that combines existing functions with newly designed capabilities.
Moreover, design re-use, along with advances in semiconductor technology and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools, have made it possible to design a System on a Chip (SoC), in which an entire system can be designed and configured to fit within a single IC package. Such SoC designs typically employ high level functional circuit blocks, which are frequently referred to as "IP cores" because they generally comprise the Intellectual Property (IP) of the circuit designer or a third party provider(s). SoC design approaches employing IP cores have allowed circuit designers to accelerate product development cycles. For example, a circuit designer (the "IP user") may obtain one or more IP cores from a third party provider (the "IP provider"), thereby obviating the need to design the core circuits themselves, and allowing integration of the core circuits at higher levels in the design development process.
When an IP provider provides an IP core to an IP user, the IP provider typically licenses the circuit design to the IP user for use in the development of an IC or system. The IP core can be licensed in one of two ways—on a "per-project" basis or on a "per-usage" basis. When licensed on a per-project basis, the license is generally granted to the IP user for use within a particular IC, product, or family of ICs or products, and a flat fee is charged for the duration of the project. When licensed on a per-usage basis, a fee or royalty is generally charged for each individual use of the IP core, often regardless of what product it is designed into, or the duration of the project.
Per-usage licensing is generally viewed as being fairer and more predictable than per-project licensing for both the IP provider and the IP user. For example, the flat fee required for per-project licensing is usually relatively high to cover the expected usage of the IP core over the project duration. Further, the IP provider and the IP user normally have to estimate both the expected product volume and the expected manufacturing duration. If the product does not reach the estimated product volume, then the IP user typically pays more for each usage of the IP core. Alternatively, if the expected product volume is exceeded, then the IP provider typically licenses each IP core at a lower fee or royalty. As a result, the fees paid by the IP user, and the royalties received by the IP provider, may be significantly different from what the parties originally bargained for.
In contrast, when an IP core is licensed on a per-usage basis, the IP provider and the IP user generally do not have to rely upon the expected product volume and/or the expected manufacturing duration, which can vary considerably from the original estimates. Further, per-usage licensing allows the IP user to spread the cost of licensing the IP core out over the product's manufacturing duration. However, even though per-usage usage licensing is generally fairer and more predictable than per-project licensing, per-usage licensing typically does not afford the IP provider a reliable way of accounting for the actual IP core usage, i.e., the number of IP cores that have employed in the manufacturing of an IC. For example, the IP provider may have to rely upon the IP user to give an accurate accounting of the number of IP cores used in various products.
Although there are software licensing systems available today for per-use monitoring of the execution of software applications, there remains a need for systems and methods for managing the secure delivery and reliable accounting of licensed circuit designs within target electronic circuits and devices.

Management system, method and apparatus for licensed delivery and accounting of electronic circuits