An integrated circuit device is fabricated upon a semi-conductor wafer by first forming a stop layer upon the surface of the wafer. Holes are formed through the stop layer and wells are formed in the semiconductor material of the semiconductor wafer below the openings. A dielectric layer is formed over the surface of the device substantially filling the wells and covering the stop layer. The dielectric layer is then planarized to substantially the level of the stop layer. A PAD oxide layer is provided between the stop layer and the surface of the semiconductor device. Conventional thin film oxidation of the wells and implants into the side walls of the wells are performed. An abrasive mechanical polisher is used to perform the planarization wherein the mechanical polisher is provided with the self-stopping feature when it encounters the stop layer.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to providing isolation between transistors of semiconductor devices and in particular to a process for making semiconductor devices having such isolation wherein the semiconductor device is planarized.
2. Background of The Invention
Various ways have been proposed to electrically isolate a plurality of pockets of semiconductor material in which one or more circuit elements can be formed. For example, these pockets can be isolated by growing oxide in certain regions of the silicon wafer. This is called local oxidation. This local oxidation produces a nonplanar surface because when silicon oxide is grown on the surface of silicon the thickness of the oxide which grows is approximately twice the thickness of the silicon oxidized. If a silicon surface is not etched prior to oxidation, the so called semi-recessed oxide results. If the silicon surface is etched prior to oxidation, the so called fully-recessed isolation results. Both the semi-recessed and the fully-recessed oxides suffer from lateral encroachment or growth of the isolation region. This is called "birds beaks" and it tends to occur at the boundary between the oxide being grown and the silicon. It can occur due to an extension of the growing oxide underneath a mask due to lateral diffusion of the oxidizing species.
When the semi-recessed oxide grows to a level higher than the original silicon surface, a nonplanar surface results. The fully-recessed oxide is flush with the original surface in large areas, but there are local ridges or "birds heads" at the edges. These must be planarized to avoid ribbon formation. Semi-recessed isolation is usually used for MOS technologies, while a planarized fully-recessed technology is used for bipolar circuits.
Encroachment reduces the area available to build devices on a wafer. To avoid encroachment, isolation schemes have been suggested which involve etching shallow trenches into the silicon surface, depositing oxide by chemical vapor deposition over the surface of the wafer, and then planarizing the surface by an elaborate combination of photolithography and reactive-ion-etching.
Many other ways have also been proposed to provide electrical isolation between circuit elements. Among the ways proposed are biased PN junctions disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,260, issued Noyce on Jan. 7, 1964; combinations of PN junctions and zones of intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductor materials as taught in the U.S. patent issued to Noyce on Sep. 22, 1964; dielectric isolation disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,391,023, issued to Frescura on Jul. 2, 1968; and mesa etching disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,961, issued to Frescura Jan. 13, 1970. Tucker, et al., in application Ser. No. 845,822, filed Jul. 29, 1969, discloses the use of selectively doped polycrystalline silicon to help isolate islands of single crystal silicon in which circuit elements can be formed.
After electrically isolated pockets of semiconductor material are prepared, active and passive circuit elements are formed within or on the pockets. Many of these circuit elements are typically formed using the planar diffusion techniques disclosed by Hoerni in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,025,589 and 3,064,167. In the planar process, the regions of each semiconductor pocket into which circuit elements are diffused are controlled by forming a diffusion mass from an insulation layer formed on the surface of the semiconductor material. After the desired elements have been formed in the semiconductor material, a conductive lead pattern is formed on the insulation and used to interconnect selective active and passive circuit elements into the desired circuit. Additional passive circuit elements can also be formed on the insulation and interconnected into the circuit. Such a structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,981,877, issued to Noyce on Apr. 25, 1961. Another way to improve planarization and reduce encroachment with grown oxide techniques is to change materials in the masking layer and put a layer of polysilicon between the oxide and the nitride.
In the manufacture of integrated circuits, several problems arise. First, the area of the wafer required for the placement of the isolation regions between adjacent pockets of semiconductor material is a significant portion of the total wafer area. A large isolation area reduces the number of devices which can be placed in a wafer and thus lowers the packing density of the circuit elements formed in the wafer. Second, the leads formed on, and adherent to, the insulation on the wafer surface sometimes crack at steps in the insulation on the wafer surface. These steps are often quite steep. To eliminate cracks in the inter-connect leads at steps in the insulation, J. S. Sa in U.S. Pat. No. 3,404,451, issued Oct. 8, 1968, disclosed removing portions of this insulation from the wafer surface during processing. It has also been proposed to slope the edges of the insulation at the contact window. Another approach is to etch grooves into the semiconductor wafer adjacent to those regions in which PN junctions are formed and thermally oxidizing the material exposed by the grooves.
Third, several of the isolation techniques result in significant capacitances being introduced into the integrated circuit. At low frequencies, these capacitances do not affect the operation of the circuit. However, at high frequences these capacitances can have a significant effect on circuit performance.
Shallow trench isolation technology using RIE, CVD oxide fill and planarization to realize lithography-limited, submicron device and isolation dimensions is taught in "A Variable-Size Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) Technology with Defused Sidewall Doping for Submicron CMOS" by B. Davari, IEEE publication number CH2528-8/88/0000-0092, proceedings 1988 IEDM Conference, San Francisco, Calif. In this method, in order to achieve planarization, the trenches are filled with CVD oxide after passivation of the sidewalls by a boron diffusion. A block resist is then patterned followed by a planarization resist coat. The CVD oxide and the resist are then etched back and the surface is planarized. However, in addition to requiring the etchback, this method requires an extra photomasking step to pattern the blocking resist layer. This is expensive and a source of defects. This is required because a single planarization resist coat does not provide good results in the presence of large high or low areas.
The reason that a single planarization resist coat does not provide good results in the presence of large low areas and large high areas, thereby requiring an extra photomask step, is that the planarization resist tends to flow out during planarization of relatively wide low areas. This results in equal resist thickness in the regions toward the centers of the low and high areas. Thus no planarization of these relatively wide areas is achieved. This results in progressively more material being removed from the low area towards the center as compared with the outer regions of the low area. Thus, poor planarization is provided by the method of Davari when the low areas are large enough to permit this bending of the polishing pad during the planarization process.
One prior art solution to this problem is taught in "Method for Removing Protuberances at the Surface of a Semiconductor Wafer Using a Chem-Mech Polishing Technique", U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,851, issued to Beyer on Jun. 9, 1987. Beyer teaches a relatively wide recess formed in a silicon wafer and filled with a material which forms a flat portion with small upwardly extending protuberances at the edges of the recess as a result of previous processing steps. These protuberances must be substantially planarized. However, removal of the material filling the recess in the flat portion is not desired during removal of the protuberances. Therefore, Beyer teaches depositing a layer of silicon nitride to serve as a stop layer on the flat portion of the material above the recess. This stop layer prevents removal of the material from within the recess during chem-mech polishing and may be removed after planarization. Thus, using the method taught by Beyer, the problem of excess removal of substance from a relatively wide recess may be solved.

Method of planarizing integrated circuits with fully recessed isolation dielectric


A data processor maintains an electronic exercise program, which defines exercise sessions defining exercise sets for a subject on one or more exercise apparatuses. The data processor makes a selection (306) between an exercise set (320) and a performance test (308). If a set is selected, instructions relating to the set are given. Each repetition is detected, a risk of injury is assessed, and if a threshold is exceeded, instructions for reducing likelihood for injury are given. Repetitions are counted until detection of a last repetition in the set (410). Feedback is given after the last repetition. If a performance test (308) is selected, instructions relating to the test are given. Subject's performance is monitored until termination of the test. After the test, the exercise program (310) is adapted based on the monitored performance data.

When a person ("subject") follows an exercise program in a gym or comparable environment, progress of the subject and compliance with the program is typically monitored manually by the subject or not monitored at all. This has a number of undesirable consequences. For instance, recording of exercises is prone to errors, inaccuracies and omissions. It is also labor-intensive and typically inconsistent among different exercise apparatuses and gyms. US patent application publication 2010/216600 by Kent Noffsinger et al. discloses a strength training apparatus with automatic exercise monitoring. The Noffsinger apparatus suffers from a number of residual problems, however. For instance, since the resistance against which the subject is exercising is generated in an unconventional manner, the Noffsinger apparatus has poor compatibility with other strength training apparatuses, which is why its use may not be usable as evidence for compliance with planned therapies. To a lesser degree, variations among apparatuses of any type make it difficult to monitor the subject's progress with precision. Another problem is that automatic progress monitoring systems do not detect or adapt to situations wherein the subject is more than usually prone to injury. A yet further problem is that automatic progress monitoring systems from different providers are incompatible with each other.

Automatic monitoring and coaching of strength exercise


There are a semiconductor device including: a plurality of memory blocks including a plurality of pages; peripheral circuits configured to perform a least significant bit read operation and a most significant bit read operation of a selected page included in a selected block; and a control circuit including a least significant bit read-retry table and a most significant bit read-retry table which have a plurality of indexes, and configured to control the peripheral circuits to store an index used when error correction is possible among the least significant bit read-retry table in the least significant bit read operation and perform the most significant bit read operation by first selecting the stored index among the most significant bit read-retry table.

1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a semiconductor device, a memory system and an operating method thereof, and more specifically, to a read operation of a semiconductor device.
2) Discussion of Related Art
A semiconductor device includes a memory cell array configured to store data. The memory cell array includes a plurality of memory blocks, and each of the memory blocks includes a plurality of memory cells storing data. Among semiconductor devices, a non-volatile memory device is in that data stored in the memory cells is retained even when power is cut off. However, as the number of memory cells storing data and a degree of integration of semiconductor devices are increasing, a distance between the memory cells is becoming narrower, and thus the memory cells in which a program is already completed may interfere during a program operation of adjacent memory cells. Thus, data of the memory cells may be distorted when the memory cells having completed the program are read later, and thus reliability of the semiconductor device and an operation of the semiconductor device may be reduced.

Semiconductor device, memory system and operating method thereof


The present invention resides in an apparatus for removing chloride ions from a reinforced concrete structure. The apparatus comprises an integrated anode assembly which includes an anode and an electrolyte, the anode being immersed in the electrolyte. The integrated anode assembly is flexible and conformable to the surface configuration of the concrete structure to which it is applied. Means are provided for removably adhering the integrated anode assembly to the concrete structure, conformed to said surface configuration, and for establishing an electric current between said anode and the reinforcement of said concrete structure.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the removal of chloride ions from reinforced concrete structures, such as bridge decks and substructures, and more specifically, to a novel apparatus for such removal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is generally acknowledged that a major cause of the deterioration of reinforced concrete structures, such as bridge surfaces and substructures, is the corrosion of reinforcing steel due to the ingress of chloride ions from de-icing salts or sea water. Chloride causes active corrosion by destroying the natural passivity of steel in the alkaline environment of concrete. Prevention of corrosion of the steel components by electrochemical means can be accomplished by either applying cathodic protection or by removal of sufficient chloride to allow the steel to repassivate and then prevent the future ingress of chloride ion.
Prior publication entitled "Electrochemical Removal of Chlorides From Concrete Bridge Decks", Materials Performance, November, 1976, pages 21-26, by J. E. Slater et al. discloses the electrochemical removal of chloride ions by applying an anode and electrolyte to the structure surface and passing current between the anode and the reinforcing steel as a cathode. Since anions migrate toward the anode, it is possible to migrate chloride ions away from the steel and out of the concrete structure. The speed at which this process is accomplished is dependent largely on the magnitude of the applied current. In the Slater et al. procedure, a liquid electrolyte of calcium hydroxide dissolved in water was used, formed as ponds on the surface of the bridge deck. The electrolyte contained an ion exchange resin slurried into the electrolyte. The anode was platinized titanium. Direct current power leads were attached to the metal anode and to the steel reinforcing bars in the bridge deck. The chloride removal was undertaken using a direct current varying between about 1 and 2.5 amps per square foot with a voltage from 100 to 120 volts. The article reported that up to 90% of the chloride ions in the bridge deck could be removed in a 24-hour period.
Prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,803 teaches extracting chlorides from a reinforced concrete structure by attaching a thin net electrode to a surface of the concrete structure, and then applying a thin viscous chloride absorbing electrolyte material such as gunite to the surface of the concrete structure to cover the net electrode. A direct current between the reinforcing members and the net electrode causes chloride ions to migrate to and be absorbed in the electrolyte layer. One suggested electrode net was graphite fibers having high conductivity. An object in prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,803 was to provide a method which could be used not only on horizontal surfaces but also surfaces which were other than horizontal surfaces.
A Federal Highway Administration report number FHWA-RD-76-60 entitled "Neutralization of Chloride in Concrete", D. R. Lankard and others, 1975, discloses on page 96, using a self-supporting sponge containing an electrolyte. A metal anode can be permanently attached to the sponge surface. Alternatively, a graphite cloth anode can be made an integral part of the sponge, for instance as a filler in a sponge sandwich. The electrolyte in the sponge can be replenished as necessary, for instance by spraying the upper surface of the sponge/anode combination. An ion exchange resin can be spread on the deck surface before placement of the sponge, and can be successfully held in position by the sponge, particularly if the bottom surface of the sponge has a ribbed or waffled texture. It is mentioned in the report that the sponge concept is attractive because of its ease of placement, its portability, and its ease of reuse. From the context of the report, it appears that the authors contemplated treating only substantially horizontal surfaces, albeit surfaces that could have surface irregularities and gradients.

Apparatus for the removal of chloride from reinforced concrete structures


Character recognition includes detecting a union of characters, preprocessing the union of characters, comparing the preprocessed union of characters with one or more template symbols, and applying a decision rule to either reject a template symbol or decide that the template symbol is included in the union of characters. Such preprocessing involves representing the union of characters as one or more curves, and parameterizing the curve(s); and, regarding various classes of transformation, forming one or more shapes for the curve(s). The comparing operation involves forming one or more geometric proximity measures, and determining for every shape the values of those measures between the shape and correspondingly determined shapes for the template symbols. Applying a decision rule involves selecting one or more template symbols in consideration of the values.

There are a plurality of known methods for character recognition, especially for recognition of handwritten characters, which requires especially good interpretation of the character. Several of the known methods are based on the detection of each stroke of the pen when a handwritten character is being formed. Geometric characteristics, such as directions, inclinations and angles of each stroke or part of a stroke, are determined and compared to corresponding data for stored, known characters. The written character is supposed to be the stored character whose geometric characteristics best correspond to the geometric characteristics of the written character. The geometric characteristics are related to an xy-coordinate system, which covers the used writing surface. Such known methods are disclosed in, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,625 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,916. A problem in such methods is that they are sensitive to rotation. For example, if one writes diagonally over the writing surface, the method has difficult ties in correctly determining what characters are being written.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,489 discloses a method for preprocessing the characters by normalizing them. The written character is sampled, and each sample is represented as a pair of coordinates. Instead of solely comparing the characters in the coordinate plane, the transformation is determined which best adjusts the written character to a model character. Indirectly, also rotation and certain types of deformations, which the above-mentioned methods cannot handle, are thus taken into account. The transformation is used to normalize the written character. In particular, the character is normalized by being translated so that its central point is in the origin of coordinates, where also the central point of the model character is found, after which the character is scaled and rotated in such a manner that it corresponds to the model character in the best possible way. A disadvantage of this method is that the normalization requires computing power and that in any case the choice of model characters has to take place by determining what model character the written character resembles the most.
Another method which certainly can handle rotations is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,420. In this known method, curve recognition is described by means of a ratio that is named "ratio of tangents". A curve, for instance, a portion of a character is mapped by selecting a sequence of pairs of points along the curve, where the tangents in the two points of each pair intersect at a certain angle. The ratio between the distances from the intersection point to the respective points of the pair is calculated and makes up an identification of the curve. This method is in principle not sensitive to translation, scaling and rotation. However, it is limited in many respects. Above all, it does not allow certain curve shapes in which there are not two points whose tangents intersect at the determined angle. It is common that at least portions of a character comprise such indeterminable curve shapes for a selected intersection angle. This reduces the reliability of the method.


This micro relay comprises a body 1, a cover 4, an armature block 3. The body 1, which is made of silicon or glass, has an electromagnetic mechanism 2. The cover 4 is also made of silicon or glass. The armature block 3 is made of silicon. The armature block 3 is composed of an armature base 30 and a frame 31. The frame 31 surrounds an entire circumference of the armature base 30 and supports the armature base 30 pivotally. The armature base 30 is cooperative with a magnetic material 32 on a surface of the armature base 30 to define an armature 300. A fixed contacts 14A, 14B, 15A, 15B and movable contacts 33A, 33B are selectively closed and opened by a pivot motion of the armature 300. And, the frame 31 is directly bonded over its entire circumference to a periphery 19 of the body 1 and to a periphery 41 of the cover 4 to define a sealed space surrounded by the frame 31 and closed between the body 1 and the cover 4 for accommodating the armature 300 and the fixed contacts and the movable contacts.

A common micro relay comprises an electromagnetic mechanism, an armature, and a contact mechanism having a fixed contact and a movable contact which are selectively closed and opened by a pivot motion of the armature. Preferably, the contact mechanism of the micro relay is disposed in a sealed space in order to prevent dust or dirt from settling on the movable contact, or in order to improve switching performance of the contacts. For this reason, in the common micro relay, a body and a cover are sealed with a sealing agent after the armature and the contact mechanism are placed in a space formed by the body and the cover.
However, as the micro relay becomes miniaturized, it becomes more difficult to seal the micro relay with the sealing agent. Furthermore, using the sealing agent is a waste of money and the sealing process is a waste of time.


An object of the present invention is to generate a vector or data from inputted drawing data interactively by suppressing the input cost.. When an unknown process occurs in the system during data processing, an inquiry to a user is generated in the case of interactive operation. However, when drawings are handled, the number of inquiries to a user increases and the system operability lowers inversely. The present invention executes the drawing recognition method by cooperation and and competition of a multi-agent on the basis of the basic property of a figure such as adjacent relation. When blurring or a problem portion such as in interruption part or a junction part appears during recognition of a drawing, the linkage relation of line paths is automatically decided by making the recognition agent adjacent to the problem portion cooperate and compete. An inquiry to a user is not made. By doing this, vector data is obtained.. The input cost of figure information in a data base can be reduced remarkably.

1. Field of the Invention
The present inventions relates to a drawing registration method of registering a drawing contained in a map or a drawing described by a photo-electro transfer device such as a scanner or TV camera in a data base and more particularly to a drawing recognition method valid in recognizing and registering a drawing indicated by a group of a plurality of similar lines such as contour lines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a conventional drawing recognition method, many preceding researches on automatic input of information of contour lines have been reported. For example, in Reference 1: Agui and 2 others, "Research on mountainous geographical map information" (Electric Communication Society Report, PRL81-37, 1981), a method of performing the thinning process for a mountainous geographical map image to be inputted, extracting a contour line candidate from decision of whether it is a long vector component or not, and connecting the contour line candidate interrupted by characters and symbols mutually on the basis of the vector angle is proposed. However, this method causes a problem that since the decision of vector angle is local, many connection errors occur.
On the other hand, in Reference 2: Mizutani and 3 others, "Extraction of contour lines using the adjacent relation by a Voronoi-line graph" (Technical Report of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, D-II, Vol. 1, J74-D-II, No. 11, 1991), a method of preparing a Voronoi-line graph so as to grasp the global adjacent relation of line segments, obtaining an adjacent graph between these line segments, and connecting the interrupted contour component lines correctly is proposed. This method reduces connection errors from decision of the adjacent graph. However, in a portion where contour lines are crowded in a narrow area and jointed as a drawing or a portion where lines are interrupted by numeric characters indicating elevation and cliff symbols, it is impossible to recognize contour lines perfectly and many recognition errors occur. Therefore, when automatic recognition using the aforementioned batch processing input method is performed, a concentrated error check is often requested to an operator. This concentrated error check requires enormous labor, so that a problem arises that the entire cost from input to output for the system will not reduce.
Therefore, as shown in Reference 3: Yamakawa and 1 other, "Interactive drawing input system" (Nikkei Computer Graphics, April issue, 1987, pp. 120 to 130), a man-machine based automatic recognition method in which decision of an operator is reflected positively from the initial stage of vectorization is widely noticed. In this man-machine based automatic recognition method, when the vectorization direction is not automatically decided, the vectorization direction is decided by an inquiry to an operator from the system, so that an unnecessary operation required for error check can be cut down. However, since the system is structured so that whenever a portion where the tracing direction is not automatically decided such as a junction part or an interruption part of contour lines appears, the tracing direction, that is, the vectorization direction is inquired, the burden imposed on an operator (user) is severe.
On the other hand, separately from this flow, many researches on recognition of the whole by describing a drawing to be traced structurally according to the relation between the whole and the parts and confirming the consistency between parts traced successively have been reported. For example, in Reference 4: Nakamura and 1 other, "Extraction of image characteristics by parallel trace" (Artificial Intelligence Society Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 65 to 78, 1993), it is proposed to realize characteristic extraction on the basis of this structure description by a cooperative action of a multi-agent. This method enables to decide a process dynamically at execution time without detailed description on the processing flow and highly precise image recognition by self-adjusting problem solving is expected. However, in this method, there is a possibility that an enormous calculation time is required due to an explosive increase of combinations. Furthermore, in a drawing having a complicated shape such as contour lines, structure description itself is not clear. Therefore, the present invention proposes a method of constituting a system with a recognition agent for recognizing a path in correspondence to a plurality of adjacent lines designated by an operator one by one and a supervisor agent for supervising the whole as application of the multi-agent theory to drawing recognition. This method enables highly precise recognition by describing an autonomous action of each agent and a cooperative action between the agents. However, when two agents are set in correspondence to one contour line due to incorrect assignment of agents, a problem arises that an incorrect recognition result is obtained because the cooperative action between the agents is not performed correctly. To realize highly precise recognition by a cooperative action of a multi-agent, an art for automatically changing assignment of agents so as to set agents correctly is important.
As an example in which changing of agent assignment is realized, Reference 5: Gyoten and 3 others, "Multi-agent system for separation of characters from a document image" (Technical Report of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, AI95-37, PRU 95-152, pp. 21-26) may be cited. In this reference, the spatial distributed method in the multi-agent theory is applied to a problem of separation of characters in a document image and one agent is set in correspondence to one character string in the document image. However, character separation and drawing recognition are different in the recognition object, so that the agent assignment used for character recognition and the assignment error detection method cannot be used for the drawing as they are.
Description of an autonomous action of each agent and a cooperative action between the agents enables highly precise recognition. However, when two agents are set in correspondence to one contour line due to incorrect assignment of agents or agents are set in correspondence to a component other than contour lines, a problem arises that an incorrect recognition result is obtained because the cooperative action between the agents is not performed correctly.

Method of recognizing image data and apparatus therefor


An unbonded flexible pipe for transportation of fluids and comprising a tubular inner sealing sheath defining a bore. At least one armor layer surrounds the inner sealing sheath and a carcass is arranged in the bore to support the inner sealing sheath. The carcass comprises at least one profiled elongate element, which is helically wound to form directly and/or indirectly engaging elongate element windings along the length of the pipe. The carcass provides a quasi fluid permeable inner wall of the bore with discontinuities between successive turns of the wound elongate element(s). The discontinuities have an average width in the axial direction of the pipe which is about 3 mm or less when the pipe is in an unloaded and unbent condition, and the pipe can bend with a minimum bending radius of about 10 m or less in an unloaded condition.

Flexible pipes of the present type for offshore transportation of fluids are well known in the art. Such pipes usually comprise an inner liner also often called an inner sealing sheath or an inner sheath, which forms a barrier against the outflow of the fluid which is conveyed through the pipe, and one or more armoring layers on the outer side of the inner liner (outer armoring layer(s)). An outer sheath may be provided with the object of forming a barrier against the ingress of fluids from the pipe surroundings to the armor layers.
Typical unbonded flexible pipes are e.g. disclosed in WO0161232A1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,114, U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,799 and in Recommended Practice for Flexible Pipe, API, 17B, Fourth edition, July 2008, and in Specification for Unbonded Flexible Pipe, API, 17J, Third edition, July 2008.
The term "unbonded" means in this text that at least two of the layers including the armoring layers and polymer layers are not bonded to each other. In practice the known pipe normally comprises at least two armoring layers located outside the inner sealing sheath. These armoring layers are not bonded to each other directly or indirectly via other layers along the pipe. Thereby the pipe becomes bendable and sufficiently flexible to roll up for transportation.
In order to have sufficient strength, in particular to prevent the collapse of the inner sealing sheath, the flexible pipe often comprises an armor layer located inside the space defined by the inner sealing sheath. Such inner armoring layer or layers are normally referred to as a carcass. An unbounded flexible pipe with a carcass is usually referred to as a rough bore pipe. The prior art carcasses are usually made from helically wound and interlocked metal strips, such as for example described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,904,939 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,546. However, also the use of profiled elongate elements in a carcass has been suggested in EP 1 475 560 and WO 2008/077409 by the assignee.
However, the carcass in a rough bore pipe often provides an undesirable high resistance to fluid flowing in the bore of the pipe and thereby results in an undesired high loss of pressure along the length of the pipe, in particular when compared with smooth bore, unbonded flexible pipes which do not comprise a carcass.
Furthermore a problem has arisen when using rough bore flexible pipes for producing and exporting gaseous hydrocarbons. This problem has shown to be associated with the flow of gas or fluid containing gas in the rough bore pipe and more specifically with the phenomena of the formation of vortices which occur upon contact with the discontinuities between the turns of the carcass, which results in flow induced pressure pulsations (FIP) from the flexible pipes carcass.
The pulsation induced vibration forces acting on the pipes may lead to damaging vibrations and noise and in particular damage due to vibrations at the ends of the pipe and its connection to stationary structure problems often occur. Such damage may eventually result in leaks.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,318,454 this problem has been alleviated by providing the rough bore pipe with an anti turbulence sheath which is placed on the inner side of the carcass and which is pierced with holes that are intended to oppose turbulence of the fluid flowing in the pipe.
The object of the invention is to provide a flexible unbonded pipe with a strength comparable to the strength of flexible unbonded pipes of the rough bore type but where the problem related to the undesired high resistance and/or formation of vortices as described above has been reduced in a simple and cost effective way. The inventor of the present invention has found an alternative solution to the problem which has shown to be surprisingly effective and simultaneously be relatively simple and cost effective to provide.


A metal case consists of a inner case and an outer case, the inner case and the outer case have respective rear surface portions which are mutually separated but overlapped on a back side of the metal case, an inflator has fitting bolts which penetrate the rear surface portions of the inner case, the inflator secured to the rear surface portion of the inner case by fitting bolts and nuts, and top ends of the fitting bolts are covered with the rear surface portion of the outer case. Accordingly, even when a passenger pushes or touches a seat back above the fitting bolts, he or she feels smooth or pleasant to the touch.

The present invention relates to an air bag system for a vehicle seat and, more particularly, an air bag system for a vehicle seat capable of absorbing an impact load applied from a side plate of a vehicle body to a passenger to protect the passenger from the impact load by forward spreading out an air bag provided in one side portion of a seat back when a vehicle collides in a side crash.
In order to avoid the direct impact between the side plate of the vehicle body such as a door plate deformed by the impact load and the passenger sat on the seat when the vehicle crashes at its side, various air bag systems have been proposed in the prior art, as has been known in Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) 4-50052, for example.
In a common configuration of this kind of the air bag system, an inflator and an air bag are installed together in a metal case. The air bag system is fitted to a side bracket which is secured to an outside of a seat back frame in the vehicle width direction. When the vehicle crash happened, the high pressure gas is immediately generated from the inflator and then injected into the air bag, so that the air bag can rapidly spread out forward from an opening portion of the metal case. At that time, the air bag is able to break through the stitching portion of the seat back cover to thus protrude into a compartment in a moment. A spreading direction of the air bag can be regulated by the opening portion of the metal case.
Fitting bolts are provided on the back surface of the inflator so as to protrude backward. The fitting bolts penetrate the rear surface portion of the metal case and fixed by the nuts. Why the inflator is secured on the rear surface portion of the metal case is due to receive and absorb the rearward reaction force which is developed by an expanding of the air bag.


An integrated circuit chip includes a number of memory bitcells. Each bitcell includes: a latch having a sense node; a programming transistor having an efficient saturation region of operation; and a fuse connected to the programming transistor at a first terminal of the fuse. A programming voltage can be supplied to the fuse at a second terminal of the fuse; and a logic gate circuit is connected to the gate of the programming transistor. The logic gate circuit is operated at the programming voltage so that the logic gate circuit drives the programming transistor in the efficient saturation region when programming the fuse. The bitcell also includes a fuse-sensing circuit having no more than one transistor. Operation in the efficient saturation region allows the programming transistor to be small. Combined with using no more than one sensing transistor, significant reduction in area of the bitcells on the chip is achieved.

The present invention generally relates to electronic devices and integrated circuit chips and, more particularly, to non-volatile, electronically programmable memory for integrated circuit electronic devices.
There are several uses and applications for an electronic fuse, sometimes referred to in the art as an "eFUSE", including, for example, array redundancy for large cache memories in microprocessor chips, electronic chip identification, part number identification, and thermal diode calibration. In a redundancy application, for example, chips returned from fabrication are usually tested and a certain percentage of them are usually found to be bad, for example, from random contingencies that may occur in the fabrication process. The percentage of good, usable chips is commonly referred to as the "yield". Redundancy may enable programming a chip at the testing phase so that flawed portions of the chip are not used in favor of unflawed redundant portions, thereby increasing the yield and decreasing the percentage of chips that must be thrown away as unusable. Most of the applications for electronic fuses combine the electronic fuse with the use of a memory in some way, for example, as part of a memory bitcell. For example, in electronic chip identification or part number identification, an electronic fuse may be used to "program" or write information into a non-volatile memory, which may be comprised of memory bitcells, and the information can then be read from the memory as a unique chip identifier or part number identifier. Also, for example, in thermal diode calibration, a non-volatile memory programmed using electronic fuses can be used to hold a test temperature and the thermal diode voltage read at the test temperature.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art memory bitcell 100 for writing, storing, and reading one bit of information. Memory bitcell 100 may include circuitry for a scannable flip-flop, or latch, 102, fuse-sensing circuitry 104, fuse-programming circuitry 106, and clamp circuitry 108. Memory bitcell 100 may also include a clock buffer 110, which may provide a clock signal 112 and a complement 114 of clock signal 112 from a single phase clock. FIG. 2 shows another memory bitcell 101, which may use two-phase clock signaling as opposed to the single phase clock signaling used by the memory bitcell 100 shown in FIG. 1. Memory bitcell 101 is similar to memory bitcell 100 and may include scannable flip-flop or latch 103, fuse-sensing circuitry 104, fuse-programming circuitry 106, and clamp circuitry 108. Circuitry for latch 103 may be similar to circuitry for latch 102 except that latch 103 may be driven by two-phase clocks providing clock signal 116 (labeled φ1 in FIG. 2) and its complement 117 (φ1b) and clock signal 118 (φ2) and its complement 119 (φ2b).
Referring now to both FIGS. 1 and 2, when sense transistor 121 ("M7") is turned off, for example, by providing an appropriate voltage at its gate 123 ("SENSE_FUSE")—also referred to as SENSE_FUSE being set to "off"—latches 102, 103 may be operated independently of the rest of the circuitry—such as fuse-sensing circuitry 104, fuse-programming circuitry 106, and clamp circuitry 108—latches 102, 103 being effectively isolated when transistor 121 is off. For example, with transistor 121 turned off, either of latches 102, 103 may be operated as a scannable flip-flop. For example, a given number, say 64, of latches 102 may be chained together, the output 120 ("SOUT") of a given latch 102 being connected to the input 122 ("SIN") of the next latch 102 in line. Then the chain of latches 102, in this case 64 latches 102, will store a sequence of bits fed into the input 122 of the first latch 102, referred to as "scanning in" the sequence; the chain of latches 102 may be referred to as a "scan chain". In this example, only the most recently entered 64 bits of any sequence entered will be stored because there are only 64 latches 102 chained together.
Fuse-programming circuitry 106 of memory bitcells 100, 101 may include a fuse 124. Fuse 124 may be fabricated, for example, using polysilicon with a metalized layer of silicide on top, as known in the art. Memory bitcells 100, 101 may be programmed, e.g., a sequence that has been scanned in may be permanently, or nonvolatilely, stored, by either blowing or not blowing fuse 124. Fuse 124 may be blown, for example, by providing sufficient voltage across the fuse and current flow through the fuse to destroy the fuse or alter its electrical properties, e.g., the resistance, of the fuse. For example, an unblown fuse may have a nominal resistance of about 100 ohms between terminals 126 and 128 of fuse 124, and a blown fuse may have a nominal resistance of about 5,000 ohms between terminals 126 and 128. Then, for example, a memory bitcell 100 or 101 with a blown fuse may be used to nonvolatilely store a "0" bit, and a memory bitcell 100 or 101 with an unblown fuse may be used to nonvolatilely store a "1" bit (or vice versa depending on the logic representation being used).
Fuse 124 may be programmed by providing an appropriate "on" or "off" signal at gate 130 of programming transistor 132 ("M9"). The signal at gate 130 may be provided, for example, as an AND operation of two inputs 134 and 136 by AND logic provided by NAND gate 138 and inverter 140. Input 134, for example, may be provided to all fuses simultaneously, e.g., all fuses for a chain of latches 102 as described above, so that because of the AND logic any particular fuse may be blown only when both input 134 is high and the distinct input 136 for that particular fuse is also high. Thus, programming only occurs when input 134 is high and accidental blowing of fuses from high inputs 136 may be prevented when input 134 is low. Assuming that it is desired to blow fuse 124, both inputs 134 and 136 may be set high, producing a high or "on" signal at gate 130 of programming transistor 132, allowing transistor 132 to conduct so that voltage 142 ("VDD—4_BLOW") may be applied at terminal 126 of fuse 124 and cause current to flow through fuse 124 and transistor 132 to node 144, which may be a ground, for example. Sense transistor 121 and clamp transistor 148 should be off during fuse programming operations.
In order to blow the fuse, 10 milliamps (mA) of current is typically required to flow through the fuse 124 and transistor 132. Conventional memory bitcells—such as bitcells 100, 101—typically drive the gate 130 of transistor 132 with a voltage of 1.2 volts (V). Therefore, to make 10 mA of current flow through programming transistor 132, the drain voltage of transistor 132 must be raised very high, usually accomplished by making VDD—4_BLOW voltage 142 nominally about 3.5 V and at least in excess of 3.0 V. Thus, programming transistor 132 operates in its inefficient saturation region during the fuse programming operation.
The relatively high voltage required for blowing the fuse (e.g. VDD—4_BLOW voltage 142) produces several disadvantages. For example, any transistor in electrical proximity to the fuse 124—such as programming transistor 132—must be fabricated as a thick oxide transistor so that damage due to the high voltages and currents associated with fuse 124 can be avoided. (Thick oxide transistors are indicated in the figures by a thick dark band used to represent the channel, and thin oxide transistors are indicated in the figures by a normal thickness line used to represent the channel.) Thus, sense transistor 121 typically requires a protection transistor 146 ("M8") of thick oxide, which may be biased to always be on, and the sole function of which is to electrically isolate and protect sense transistor 121 from fuse 124. Similarly, clamp transistor 148 ("M10") is also typically required to made of thick oxide.
In addition, the relatively high fuse blow programming voltage 142 and consequent high drain voltage on programming transistor 132 (as described above) requires that programming transistor 132 have a large area on the chip. For example, programming transistor 132 typically has a width of about 40 microns and overall bitcell area typically is about 184.85 square microns.
As can be seen, there is a need for a memory bitcell that operates at a lower voltage than prior art memory bitcells. There is also a need for a non-volatile memory that reduces the size of integrated circuit elements used to implement the non-volatile memory.

Reduced area, reduced programming voltage CMOS eFUSE-based scannable non-volatile memory bitcell


To improve sensitivity of a defect inspection, it is required to decrease influence of excessive diffraction from a spatial filter. Further, it is preferable to secure signal intensity from defects and particles as much as possible, while the influence of the excessive diffraction is decreased as much as possible. The present invention is characterized in setting a width of a spatial filter surface such that an unnecessary image caused by diffraction, that is, an intensity of the excessive diffraction is sufficiently small with respect to an intensity of a desired image. In the present invention, an SN ratio that is an index for deciding a width of the spatial filter is calculated from a region subjected to the influence of the excessive diffraction in an inspection image, and a width of a shield unit of the spatial filter is set so as to maximize the SN ratio.

In a semiconductor manufacturing process, in order to promote a yield ratio, an inspection process is set in various steps during the semiconductor manufacturing process, and particles on a semiconductor substrate, defects in a formed pattern, etc. are inspected. In the semiconductor manufacturing process, fine particles on the semiconductor substrate contribute to an insulation failure of wiring and a short circuit of wiring. Along with the progress of miniaturization of patterns on semiconductor devices, minute particles on a semiconductor substrate contribute to an insulation failure of a capacitor, breakage of a gate oxide film, etc. As miniaturization of the patterns on the semiconductor devices are progressed, smaller particles or smaller defects may contribute to a failure of semiconductor devices. Therefore, an inspection system capable of detecting smaller particles and defects (they can be expressed as "defect" in some cases) on the semiconductor substrate is required.
As a technique for detecting this kind of defects on a substrate, there is known a method in which a semiconductor substrate is irradiated with laser light to detect scattering light from a particle which adheres to the semiconductor substrate or from a defect formed on the pattern. In the method, comparing an image obtained by laser irradiation with an image obtained immediately prior to the image obtained by the laser irradiation makes it possible to eliminate a false report caused by a pattern, thereby enabling a particle and a defect inspection with high sensitivity and high reliability. In addition, as the technique for inspecting a defect, there is known a method in which a wafer is irradiated with coherent light, light emitted from a repetition pattern on the wafer is removed by a spatial filter, and scattering light from a defect which does not have repetition is emphasized to be detected. Note that Patent Documents 1 to 4 are cited as prior art.


A liquid crystal lens element is provided, which does not produce change of transmission wavefront regardless of polarization state of incident light when it is off-state at a time of no voltage application, and which exhibits concave lens function for extraordinarily polarized incident light when it is on-state at a time of voltage application.

As an optical recording medium (hereinafter referred to as "optical disk") having an information recording layer formed on a light incident side surface and a cover layer being a transparent resin layer covering the information recording layer, an optical disk for CD (hereinafter referred to as CD optical disk or "CD") having a cover layer thickness for information recording layer (hereinafter referred to as "cover thickness") of 1.2 mm, or an optical disk for DVD (hereinafter referred to as DVD optical disk or "DVD") having a cover thickness for information recording layer of 0.6 mm and the like are widely used. Meanwhile, as an optical head device to be used for writing and/or reading (hereinafter referred to as "writing/reading" of an information to/from a CD, one having a laser diode of wavelength λ3 (hereinafter referred to as "wavelength λ3 of CD") in a 790 nm band as a light source and an objective lens of NA (numerical aperture) 0.45 to 0.50, has been known. Further, as an optical head device to be used for writing/reading to/from a DVD, one having a laser diode of wavelength λ2 (hereinafter referred to as "wavelength λ2 of DVD") in a 660 nm band as a light source and an objective lens of NA 0.6 to 0.65, is employed.
Further, in recent years, in order to improve recording density of an optical disk, an optical disk having a cover thickness of 0.1 mm (hereinafter referred to as BD optical disk or "BD") has been developed. As an optical head device to be used for writing/reading such a BD, one having a blue laser diode of wavelength λ1 (hereinafter referred to as "wavelength λ1 of BD") in a 405 nm wavelength band as a light source and an objective lens of NA 0.85, is employed. However, when writing/reading to/from a DVD or a CD is carried out using an objective lens optimally designed to make wavefront aberration substantially zero for BD at the wavelength λ1 (hereinafter referred to as "objective lens for BD"), a large spherical aberration due to the difference of cover thicknesses of optical disks, is generated. As a result, convergence of incident light on an information recording layer is deteriorated, which prevents good writing/reading. Under these circumstances, development of small sized three-wavelength compatible optical head device has been investigated, which can write/read three types of optical disks having different cover thicknesses using single objective lens. By the way, as one of the optical head devices to realize such a three-wavelength compatible optical head device, an optical head device has been proposed (for example, JP-A-2004-71134), which can write/read a DVD using an objective lens for BD and a Fresnel lens.
The optical head device employs as a Fresnel lens, a hologram grating having a step-shaped cross-section formed in a region corresponding to NA for DVD. The Fresnel lens is formed to have a (Fresnel lens) shape exhibiting a concave lens function at the wavelength λ2 for DVD, in which each unit step height of the step-shaped cross-section corresponds to an optical path difference of about one wavelength for light of wavelength λ1 of BD, and the Fresnel lens is to be used integrally with an objective lens for BD. By this construction, an optical head device which can write/read BDs and DVDs is constituted. However, since there is no aberration correction function for CDs, it is difficult to write/read three types of optical disks.
Further, an optical head device which reduces a spherical aberration generated due to the difference between cover thicknesses of CD, DVD and BD by a phase corrector, has been proposed (for example, JP-A-2003-207714).
The optical head device has a phase correction element for DVD which is a phase correction surface having a step-shaped cross-section, formed in a region corresponding to NA for DVD, and a phase correction element for CD which is a phase correction surface having a step-shaped cross-section formed in a region corresponding to NA for CD, and they are used integrally with an objective lens for BD.
Each unit step height of a step-shaped cross-section of a phase correction surface for DVD, is made to be a step height providing an optical path difference of substantially an integer times of wavelength λ1 of BD and wavelength λ3 of CD, so as to exhibit spherical aberration correction function only for wavelength λ2 for DVD. Further, each unit step height of the step-shaped cross-section of the phase correction surface for CD, is made to be a step height providing an optical path difference of substantially an integer times of wavelength λ1 of BD and wavelength λ2 of DVD, so as to exhibit spherical aberration correction function only for wavelength λ3 of CD.
However, in order to exhibit desired wavelength selectivity in each phase correction element, a glass material having a special refractive-index-wavelength-dispersion is required, and accurate fabrication of a plurality of deep step height is required, and thus, it is difficult to stably obtain wavelength-selective aberration correction function. Further, since the phase correction element corrects only spherical aberrations, the element does not show concave lens function for expanding the distance (hereinafter referred to as "working distance") between the objective lens and an optical disk. Accordingly, in a case where the objective lens for BD is used integrally with a phase correction element for CD, working distance for CD becomes at most 0.3 mm, and it is difficult to stably write/read an optical disk without contact of the optical disk and the objective lens when the optical disk is rotating.
Here, a concave lens function can be exhibited by making the phase correction surface of the phase correction element for CD to have a Fresnel lens shape shown in JP-A-2004-71134. However, in this case, step height of the concave-convex portion and the number of annular rings are increased, which causes diffraction light of high diffraction order due to wall surfaces of the steps at the wavelengths λ1 of BD and λ2 of DVD, and thus, efficiency of transmission wavefront corresponding to desired concave lens function is reduced, such being problematic.
As means for correcting such a spherical aberration generated due to the difference of cover thicknesses of e.g. optical disks, an optical head device employing an optical modulation element corresponding to the liquid crystal element, has also been proposed (for example, JP-A-9-230300). FIG. 16 shows a lateral cross-sectional view of the optical modulation element.
The optical modulation element 100 comprises two transparent substrates 110 and 120 substantially in parallel with each other and a liquid crystal layer 130 sandwiched between them, and on a liquid crystal side surface of the transparent substrate 110, a Fresnel lens-shaped concave-convex portion 140 having a concentric blaze shape is formed. Further, on liquid crystal side surfaces of each of the transparent substrates 110 and 120, an electrode 150 and an alignment film 160 are formed. Further, a liquid crystal layer 130 has an alignment direction substantially in parallel with the transparent substrates at a time of no electric field application, and the alignment direction is substantially perpendicular to the transparent substrates at a time of electric field application.
Here, by constituting a construction in which any one of ordinary refractive index no or extraordinary refractive index ne of the liquid crystal layer 130 approximately equals to the refractive index nF of the concave-convex portion 140 of the transparent substrate having a blaze shape, a refractive index difference Δn between the liquid crystal layer 130 and the concave-convex portion 140 changes from Δn(=ne−no) to zero for extraordinarily polarized incident light at a time of no electric field application and at a time of electric field application. Accordingly, by making the depth of the concave-convex portion 140 to be Δn×(depth of concave-convex portion)=(wavelength of light in vacuum) and by making the refractive index nF of the concave-convex portion 140 substantially equal to ne, for extraordinarily polarized incident light, the optical modulation element 100 functions as a liquid crystal lens element, whose off-state having no concave lens function at a time of no voltage application and whose on-state exhibiting concave lens function at a time of voltage application for extraordinarily polarized incident light, are switchable.
When the optical modulation element 100 is integrated with an objective lens for BD and employed in an optical head device, and the optical modulation element 100 is made to be in on-state only at a time of writing/reading a CD, a spherical aberration generated due to the difference of cover thicknesses of optical disks can be corrected and a concave lens function of expanding a working distance to be at least 0.3 mm is exhibited. Meanwhile, at a time of writing/reading a BD or a DVD, high transmittance can be obtained by making the optical modulation element 100 to be in off-state.
However, when ordinarily polarized light is incident into the optical modulation element 100 shown in FIG. 16, transmission wavefront changes according to the refractive index difference Δn between the liquid crystal layer 130 and the concave-convex portion 140 regardless of the presence of applied voltage. Particularly, at a time of writing/reading a BD or a DVD, both of ordinarily polarized light and extraordinarily polarized light are incident into the optical modulation element 100, which deteriorates transmission wavefront aberration to cause a problem that writing/reading is prevented.
Further, heretofore, commonly used DVD optical disk has a single layer information recording layer and has a cover thickness of 0.6 mm (hereinafter referred to as "single layer DVD optical disk"). However, in recent years, in order to increase information amount in each optical disk, a (read only or readable and writable) optical disk having two information recording layers (hereinafter referred also to as "double layer DVD optical disk") has been developed, and in the double layer optical disk, information recording layers are formed at positions corresponding to light incident side cover thicknesses of 0.57 mm and 0.63 mm.
Also with respect to BD optical disk, besides a BD optical disk having a single information recording layer and having a cover thickness of 0.1 mm (hereinafter referred to as "single layer BD optical disk"), a double layer optical disk (hereinafter referred to as "double layer BD optical disk") has been developed to increase information amount in each optical disk, in which information recording layers are formed at positions corresponding to light incident side cover thicknesses of 0.100 mm and 0.075 mm.
Thus, in a case of employing an optical head device having an objective lens optimally designed to make zero aberration for a single layer optical disk (namely, a singe layer DVD optical disk or a single layer BD optical disk), to write/read to/from a double layer optical disk (namely, a double layer DVD optical disk or a double is layer BD optical disk), if their cover thicknesses are different, a spherical aberration is generated according to the difference in cover thicknesses, to deteriorate convergence of incident light into an information recording layer. Particularly, in a case of double layer optical disk of writable type, deterioration of convergent causes lowering of converging power density at a time of writing, which causes writing error, such being problematic.
To cope with this problem, as means for correcting a spherical aberration generated due to the difference of cover thicknesses of e.g. double layer optical disks, for example, an optical head device having a wavefront aberration correction means described in JP-A-10-269611 has been proposed. In this optical head device, as described in FIG. 2 of JP-A-10-269611, a segment liquid crystal panel is employed for correcting spherical aberration component generated according to the distance between recording layers of a multilayer disk.
However, in a case of correcting only spherical aberration component, if the liquid crystal panel is employed as it is disposed separately from an objective lens, misalignment between these elements occurs at a time of tracking operation of the objective lens, which causes a problem of comma aberration. In order to avoid such a problem, for example, it is considered to employ the liquid crystal panel integrally with the objective lens, but in such a construction, there has been a problem that load of an actuator for operating the objective lens increases and a voltage application system for the liquid crystal panel becomes complicated.
Further, in the same manner, for the purpose of correcting a spherical aberration generated due to the difference of cover thicknesses of e.g. double layer optical disks, an aberration correction device described in JP-A-2004-103058 has been proposed.
In this aberration correction device, as described in FIG. 2 of JP-A-2004-103058, an aberration correction unit is employed which comprises a hologram liquid crystal cell for rough adjustment which corrects large spherical aberration corresponding to the distance between recording layers of a multilayer optical disk, and a segment liquid crystal cell for fine adjustment which corrects spherical aberration corresponding to correlation error of cover layers. Here, the hologram liquid crystal cell constitutes a liquid crystal Fresnel lens comprising a glass substrate, another glass substrate having a saw-toothed-shaped cross-section, a liquid crystal sealed between these glass substrates and having a shape of diffraction grating whose cross-section has a saw-tooth-shaped blaze hologram shape, and transparent electrodes disposed on both sides of the liquid crystal for applying voltage to the liquid crystal. The electrodes are each made of non-divided uniform transparent conductive material.
However, in the case of this hologram liquid crystal cell, since the transparent electrode is formed on a surface of the glass substrate whose surface is fabricated into a saw-tooth shape, the transparent electrode tends to be broken, and thus, it has been difficult to produce stable and low-resistant transparent electrodes.
Further, in recent years, in order to improve recording density of an optical disk, an optical disk (hereinafter referred to as HDDVD optical disk or simply as "HD") having the same cover thickness as DVD 0.6 mm, has been developed, which uses an optical head device having a blue laser diode of 405 nm wavelength band and an objective lens having a NA of 0.65. However, since HDDVD and BD have different cover thicknesses, there has been a problem that writing/reading of HDDVD using an objective lens for BD or writing/reading of BD using an objective lens for HDDVD is not possible.

Liquid crystal lens element optical head device

Abstract: In a liquid crystal lens element 10 comprising a pair of transparent substrates 11 and 12 and a liquid crystal layer 16 sandwiched between the transparent substrates, which is configured to change convergent point of light transmitted through the element according to the magnitude of voltage applied to the liquid crystal layer 16, the liquid crystal lens element 10 further comprises a Fresnel lens 17 having a concave-convex-shaped cross section formed on the transparent substrate 11, a first transparent electrode 13 formed on a flat surface of the transparent substrate 11 on which the Fresnel lens 17 is formed, and a second transparent electrode 14 formed on a flat surface of the other transparent substrate 12.


An electronic light detection circuit for detecting an intensity modulated light signal on a photosensitive element under backlight condition. The circuit comprises the photosensitive element, in particular as a light position detector for detecting a striking position of the light signal spot within a detection window, an amplifier with high input resistance connected to an output of the photosensitive element and a backlight suppression circuitry.

In the technical field of laser leveling, a laser rotator or a line laser is used to span a leveling plane which can be horizontal, vertical or tilted by a desired angle. The laser plane is often detected by a laser receiver, which detects the striking position of the laser inside a detection window to determine the receiver's position relative to the laser plane. The detection window, or receiver window, is the area at the laser receiver device, which is embodied to detect the light beam. The position of the light beam's striking point within the detection window is detected for determining the position of the laser-beam's optical axis relative to the receiver device in at least one direction. In many embodiments, the center—in half of the detection windows length—is the desired level of the laser beam and the receiver indicates a deviation from this ideal position by indicative or quantifying means. The electronic reception of the laser beam allows an extension of the distance range of the laser leveling, usability under sunlight conditions, etc. compared to manual observation of the projected laser plane. Many types of laser receivers are known, with many different functional, performance and cost advantages compared to their competitors. The devices can comprise many additional features like optical level indication, acoustic level indication, distance determination, angle determination, data communication, receiver-rotator pairing, etc., which are not the primary scope of the present invention.
Some examples of such laser leveling implementations are U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,283 showing a rotating single beam laser transmitter, or U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,617 showing a continuous 360° laser plane generated by directing a laser at a conical surface, wherein typically an amplitude modulated laser source is used. Those two principles of projecting a laser line are also referred to as line lasers with a scanning line or line lasers with a continuous laser line, wherein the light can be modulated.
A rotating or scanning laser beam transmitter produces a beam that sweeps past the receiver and generates laser pulses of short duration but of high bandwidth in the detection window. In contrast, continuous laser transmitters generate a continuous laser signal of a narrow bandwidth at the modulation frequency. Although the sensor element of the receiver (and many other parts of the receiver) can be the same for both types of laser levels, the signal conditioning and evaluation in the receiver can be different. The invention presented herein relates to rotating beam transmitters, but is also valid for modulated continuous beam laser transmitters.
In many cases of use, the laser receiver is attached to a leveling rod or to machinery which has to be leveled. The point of intersection of the laser plane at the reception window of the receiver is determined by measuring the striking position of the beam's optical axis within the receiving window. This position is indicated to the user, in particular as a deviance from a desired striking position at the desired leveling position.
There are multiple techniques known to determine the striking position of the laser in the receiver window. One approach of determining the position of a light beam is by usage of photodiodes or arrays of photodiodes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,122 describes a line of separate adjacent photo electric units connected in parallel to each other and connected in series with identical resistors. The photocurrent measured between the thus resulting poles gives the position of the point at which the laser beam strikes the receiver relative to the length of the line of photo electric units. Light guides are used to increase the filling/density of the detection window with photo electric units. For the arrangement of the photo electric units, this receiver only yields a stepwise linear response.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,230 describes an aligned array of parallel photo detecting devices where each photo-detecting device corresponds to an increment in position. The receiver indicates which photo detection unit first receives a light signal above a predetermined level. A Plexiglas rod is aligned with the sensor array to form a cylindrical lens, increasing the amount of light falling onto the detection array. The apparatus further employs the use of optical filters to reduce the influence of ultra-violet light, bright sunlight or other sources of light. This receiver assumes that the impinging beam shape of the laser beam is circular and that photo detecting units are sufficiently spaced apart. Therefore the range of detection of this receiver is limited.
EP 1,484,577 describes a receiver for amplitude modulated laser beams (100 kHz to 10 MHz) by an intermittent array of (parallel) photodiodes that are connected to a phase shifting circuitry. A light diffusing sensor window is arranged in front of the intermittent array of photodiodes. The light diffuser spreads the laser light in such a manner that when the laser beam impinges on the center between two photodiodes, both diodes are equally illuminated. By this structure this receiver can use fewer photodiodes; however this receiver is only partly linear.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,372,011 describes a linear array of (parallel) photodiodes with associated weighting circuits. The weighting circuits are used to determine whether the receiver has been struck by a laser beam or by another strobe light. For shunting D.C. sunlight current, the receiver uses inductors referenced to ground.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,339,154 and JP 04046282 show a sensor stage with a parallel array of photodiodes weighted with a circuit based on an, arrangement of resistors in series. The load resistors Rh and Rl are preferably dimensioned such that the sum of the weighing resistors is considerably larger than the load resistors.
Besides single photodiodes as used above, also BiCells are used, as dual photodiodes, placed on a rectangle with a typically long aspect ratio and which are electrically as well as optically separated by a diagonal, forming two congruent triangles (BiCell). When the laser beam strikes at the upper/lower side of the rectangle, the first photodiode covers the laser beam with a small/large area, whereas the second photodiode is covered with the remaining large/small area. The relationship between the difference of both signals and the sum of both signals is linear. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,634 shows a BiCell and alternative two photocells in butt-to-butt arrangement with a beam averaging and deadband selection for on-grade stabilization.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,617 describes the usage of so called BiCells for a linear determination of the position where the laser beam impinges on the receiver. The use of a passive inductor is described for bypassing the DC and low frequency signals to ground (sunlight protection) by connecting a passive inductor from the BiCell output to Ground. Further, the use of amplitude modulated laser beams is described to increase the peak strength of the laser beam without increasing the regulated RMS (root mean square) value which allows an increase of the maximum distance range of the receiver.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,750,953 shows a position detecting laser receiver with a position detection based on a logarithmic scaling of the BiCells output values. There are also passive inductors from the BiCells outputs to ground.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,489 describes a BiCell based laser receiver for linearly determining the relative height of the laser beam. The azimuth position of the receiver is determined at the rotator by means of a back reflected signal by the receiver. A radio is used to communicate the azimuth position as well as the distance of the rotator to the receiver. Far distance measurement, time of flight as well as phase shift measurement methods are proposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,907,874 & U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,538 both describe a modified BiCell sensor through a parallel arrangement of the individual interdigitated photo elements combined in two resulting elements with two signals.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,133,991 describes multiple BiCell sensors stacked on top of each other with different sensor shapes and sensor arrangements to reduce the shading effect. The contributing sensor elements are electronically used in parallel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,747,266 describes an arrangement using an optical filter with a lenticular part capable of expanding the laser beam in scanning direction and a diffusing part capable of diffusing an expanded laser beam with the advantage that a wide laser beam as well as a narrowly focused (scanning) laser beam can be detected by a divided BiCell sensor.
Also, the usage of lightguides in leveling laser receivers is known. For example in DE 195 40 590 an N-type or V-type line shaped optical detection unit is described. The detection units can consist of arrays of photo electrical sensors, bundles of optically transmitting glass or plastic fibers which are aligned in a line at the detection window or a specially made bar consisting of optical material able to conduct the orthogonally impinging laser light to a photo electric sensor at the end of the bar. By using the bars in N-shape or V-shape and measuring the time difference between receipt of signals on either bar, the relative height of the laser beam on the optical receiving elements is determined.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,394,527 and US 2003/0174305 both describe a rotator with at least two signal beams in a given relationship to each other for determining the distance from the receiver to the rotator. The receiver is designed for time resolved reception of these signal beams. Furthermore a receiver is described with two photo sensors on both ends of a light conductor which allows measuring the point where the light beam impinges the light conductor. Using two receivers arranged in a fixed distance allows determining the distance to a rotator by only a single beam. Differentiating two signal generators by emitting at the receivers can take place via different rotational frequencies, coding of the emitted signals, selection of a suitable emission spectrum and similar.
Another known element for the determination of a light point is a PSD (short for Position Sensitive Device), which is well known in industry and is for example used in triangulation sensors as device to detect the position of a (reflected) laser beam.
PSDs according to the understanding of the present application are devices like those based on the lateral photoelectric effect, also referred to as isotropic PSDs or Lateral Effect Photodiodes (LEP) or MOS-Type PSDs. As the presented readout circuitries imply, the PSD substrates referred herein have (at least two) opposed, balanced outputs. The signals on the outputs are dependent on the position of a light beam on the PSD's active surface. The two output signal are reversely dependent on the position (such output behavior is sometimes also referred to as symmetrical output). In view of the known electrical characteristics or equivalent circuits, a significant difference of PSDs compared to BiCells is the resistive connection between the output terminals of a PSD. BiCells are 2 photodiodes, tapered in geometry, which do not provide an electronic interconnect in-between of its opposed signal outputs. Fast-readout CCD or CMOS arrays, which are sometimes also referred as PSDs—since they can also be used to determine the position of a light spot projected on them—are not meant, in particular since their electrical connections and readout characteristics are different. The so called "segmented PSDs" are herein referred to as BiCells.
For ease of understanding, the PSDs in the explanations of the present text are one-dimensional PSDs, although a skilled person is aware of the fact that the same principles are also applicable on a second direction of two dimensional PSDs, wherefore also the evaluation of two dimensional PSDs is part of the present invention.
Although the usage of PSDs for position detection has advantages, the main problem is their low saturation threshold, wherefore, in outdoor conditions with bright sunlight, PSDs have not been used thus far. In particular in outdoor laser leveling applications, PSD sensors suffer from the fact that they easily saturate under sunlight and—relative to photodiodes—have lower signal strength at far distances between the receiver and the laser source. For those reasons, PSD sensors have not been used in a commercial implementation of a laser receiver in building trade e.g. for construction sites, etc.
The signal response of the PSD is somehow similar to that of a BiCell arrangement: providing two continuous signals that increase/decrease with changed position of the incident laser beam. However, there are several technical differences in the use of a BiCell compared to a PSD, for example:
1. There is a phase delay between the signals created by each photodiode of a BiCell. This phase delay has disadvantages during the digitalization of a pulse and is cause to some nonlinearity.
2. The triangular shape of each diode in a BiCell causes some non linearity when being struck by a round or elliptical laser beam because of the difference in point of gravity of the triangular sensor areas and the laser beam intensity distribution.
3. BiCells typically require a larger detection area than PSDs, which results in higher sensor cost and more backlight saturation.
4. When the BiCell is not aligned orthogonally to the laser beam, and a part of the sensor is covered—e.g. by the receiver housing—the sensor will give a wrong height reading. This is also referred to as shading effect. Many solutions have been proposed to solve this inherent BiCell sensor problem.
In leveling applications using "intelligent leveling rods", it is desired to cover large height differences, for example 10 cm or more.
Standard, off the shelf PSD devices with long detection areas are not available, for example PSDs having an active detection length greater than 5 cm or 7 cm or even more than 10 cm. Those few long PSD-devices available, suffer from saturation problems by background light etc. and can not achieve the desired performance which is required for a leveling receiver, wherefore they are commonly not used in such applications.

Abstract: The backlight suppression circuitry is connected to the output of the photosensitive element in parallel to the amplifier and comprises an electronic active resonator structure. The active resonator, structure is designed in such a way to provide a load impedance to an output of the photosensitive element with a low load impedance for low frequencies for suppression of natural and artificial backlight-saturation of the photosensitive element and a high load impedance at the frequency of the intensity modulated light signal.


An improved semichemical pulping process is disclosed to reduce washing costs and recovery process costs, while producing equivalent pulp and paper products. In some variations, the invention provides a process for producing a paper product from biomass, comprising: digesting lignocellulosic biomass in the presence of steam and/or hot water to generate an intermediate pulp material and a liquid phase containing extracted hemicelluloses; mechanically refining the intermediate pulp material, to generate a refined pulp material; and introducing the refined pulp material, the liquid phase, and optionally a separate solid material to a paper machine, to produce a paper product. The process optionally employs no washing step. When the liquid phase is washed from the intermediate pulp material or the refined pulp material using an aqueous wash solution, the wash filtrate may be introduced directly or indirectly to the paper machine.

Wood and biomass have been converted to paper and packaging carton products by chemical pulping methods since 1864. The aim of chemical pulping is to delignify biomass and release fibrous cellulose material. Cellulose is composed of straight glucose chains consisting of several thousand units. These fibers are extremely strong, but only 1-3 millimeters long and only nanometers wide. When fibers are formed on a flat surface and dewatered, the intertwined fibers create a mat of pulp or paper sheet. The strength of a sheet from pure cellulosic fibers is weak due to lack of chemical bonding.
The hemicelluloses are short chains of only few hundred monomer units. The hemicelluloses consist of heterogeneous chains of sugars including glucose, xylose, mannose, arabinose, galactose, and rhamnose. In addition, the some hemicellulose side chains terminate in acetyl groups, which gives them functional properties. The hemicelluloses bond between the cellulose fibers creating a strong network, a fundamental property of paper. Other hemicellulosic components, such as uronic acids, are not desirable because they cause chemical consumption in pulping and bleaching.
Commercial paper machines form paper in a continuous forming table, named after Fourdrinier. Because the table is moving at ever-increasing speeds, the fibers orient in the machine direction giving more strength than the cross-machine direction. Higher hemicellulose content increases the strength in both directions. In some cases, the bonding is increased by adding starch in the Fourdrinier or on the dried paper sheet. Starch is a sugar polymer of vegetable origin.
Pulping processes are broadly divided into mechanical, semichemical, and chemical methods differing in pulp yield. Chemical pulping dissolves about half of the original material to release bleachable cellulose. This dissolved material is commonly burned to recover chemical used in the pulping. Alkaline pulping chemicals include sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, and sodium sulfide in different variations. Acid-based pulping chemicals include sulfur dioxide as sodium sulfite, ammonium sulfite, calcium bisulfite, and magnesium bisulfite in acid-sulfite pulping.
Mechanical pulping utilizes grinding wood or woodchips by mechanical means. An example is the stone groundwood process, where a complete wood log is ground to fine powder with nearly 100% yield. This requires large amount of electricity, such as 1500 to 2500 kWh per ton of wood. Thermomechanical pulping systems incorporate a short presteaming step before disk refining of wood chips.
Semichemical pulping is a compromise between chemical and mechanical pulping. The yield is typically 75-85% from a 10-60 minute cook. The aim is to soften the wood chips enough to significantly reduce refining energy, while maintaining the hemicelluloses in the pulp. A portion of lignin is dissolved in the sodium-based or ammonium-based processes. The process may include acidic, neutral, or alkaline pulping conditions. Sulfur dioxide in the form of ammonium sulfite or sodium sulfite may be used in the neutral and acidic processes. Sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate may be used in alkaline processes.
In semichemical pulping, wood chips are first subjected to mild cooking in, most commonly, sodium sulfite combined with a small quantity of alkaline salts, such as sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, or sodium hydroxide. The cooked chips are then sandwiched in a disk refiner—or two rotating serrated disks—that separate the individual fibers of cellulose. The pulp is then washed to remove the chemicals.
Semichemical pulping is commonly performed in a continuous digester in the absence of free liquid. This is called "vapor phase" digesting. Washing is performed in 2-5 stages to remove 70-95% of the dissolved solids from the pulp. This is important for economic and environmental reasons. The digester and washers present approximately half of the pulp plant cost.
The pulp from semichemical pulping is used for packaging products, especially for corrugating medium in box plants. Semichemical pulping results in stiff fibers, and the process is used to make corrugated paperboard, cardboard roll cores, and containers. Important physical properties include crush resistance of the corrugators. Preferred fiber sources are hardwood and bagasse, which contain shorter fibers. The hemicelluloses are retained to add bulk and strength from bonding. Lignin removal is not necessary for unbleached products. Higher yields are preferred to reduce cost of fiber.
The semichemical pulping spent liquor contains reacted cooking chemicals and dissolved wood components. The combustion of this liquor is practiced to recover chemicals and to produce energy for the process. Due to high pulping yield, the amount of energy recovered is less than energy needed for processing the liquor. In some cases, no process energy is produced, or in extreme cases, chemicals are not recovered. The sodium is typically recycled by combusting in a recovery boiler. The sulfur dioxide from ammonium sulfite can be recycled from flue gases after combustion of the spent liquor. In either case, the recovery process present about half of the pulping plant cost.
What are desired are improvements to semichemical pulping processes to reduce washing costs, recovery process costs, and overall process costs, while producing equivalent pulp and paper products.

Processes for producing high-yield pulp and paper products


The invention relates to a method and system for automatically identifying and presenting video clips or other media to a user at a client device. One embodiment of the invention provides a method for updating a user profile or other persistent data store based on user feedback to improve the identification of video clips or other media content responsive to the user's profile. Embodiments of the invention also provide methods for processing user feedback. Related architectures are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the identification and delivery of media assets to a user. More specifically, the invention relates to a method and system for receiving and processing feedback from the user to improve the identification and delivery of subsequent media content to the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exists an increasing amount of information available in a variety of media formats from a variety of sources. Known systems and methods for searching video content, for instance, rely on a search of titles or other metadata to identify entire video broadcasts or video files of potential relevance to a user. Once identified, video content is transmitted to the user via conventional methods for distribution of the video source. For example, a content provider manually directs video content to a user over closed circuit television, mails a video tape to a user, or manually generates an electronic mail (email) message with an attached video file.
Known systems and methods for identifying and delivering video or other media content have various disadvantages. For example, since known systems and methods for searching video typically identify entire video broadcasts or video files that are of interest to a user, a user may need to sort through a relatively large volume of irrelevant information to view a relatively small amount of relevant content. In addition, known systems and methods lack a means to monitor and improve the relevance of the transmitted media, except, in some instances, with reference to predetermined categories or hierarchies.
Thus, there exists a need for systems and methods that identify and present media relevant to the interests of a user, and for continually improving the relevance of the identified and presented media.

Method and apparatus for interactively retrieving content related to previous query results


The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to photodiodes and/or PIN diode structures and methods of manufacture. The structure includes: at least one vertical pillar feature within a trench; a photosensitive semiconductor material extending laterally from sidewalls of the at least one vertical pillar feature; and a contact electrically connecting to the photosensitive semiconductor material.

An avalanche photodiode (APD) is a highly sensitive semiconductor photodiode that exploits the photoelectric effect to convert light into electricity. From a functional standpoint, the avalanche photodiode can be regarded as the semiconductor analog of photomultipliers. Typical applications for avalanche photodiodes are long-range fiber-optic telecommunication and quantum sensing for control algorithms. Newer applications include positron emission tomography and particle physics.
Avalanche photodiode applicability and usefulness depends on many parameters. Two factors, for example, are quantum efficiency and total leakage current. Quantum efficiency indicates how well incident optical photons are absorbed and then used to generate primary charge carriers; whereas, total leakage current is the sum of the dark current, photocurrent and noise.
Photodiode sensitivity is dependent on the length of the path of light through the photosensitive material and the ability of generated carrier pairs to reach the electrode/contact/cathode. In conventional structures, the carriers travel in a two dimensional pathway, e.g., vertically or laterally, which results in a long pathway. Due to the longer pathways of conventional avalanche photodiodes, there is a high frequency of photon recombination within the photosensitive material resulting in signal loss or weakening of the signal, itself. Moreover, the photosensitive material itself needs to be very thick, which is expensive and time consuming to grow, and which can make integration with other circuit elements more challenging.

Photodiode and/or pin diode structures with one or more vertical surfaces


A information recording medium on which stream information including images or sound and management information of the stream information are digitally recorded includes a first recording region in which first management information of the management information for use in common in management of each stream information divided every predetermined data amount can be recorded, and a second recording region in which a reference unit of information obtained by adding second management information of the management information for use in management of divided individual stream information to the divided stream information can be recorded.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording medium, such as an optical disk, on which digital data is recorded with high density. Moreover, the present invention relates to an information recording apparatus which records digital data on such an information recording medium with high density. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus which reproduces digital data recorded with high density on such an information recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, in recent years, television (TV) broadcasting has shifted to the use of digital transmission, and there has accordingly been a demand for streamer equipment to record digital TV broadcasts.
Presently, as the data transfer form at of digital TV broadcast in Japan, the U.S., and Europe, the MPEG-transport stream (TS) defined mainly according to the moving picture image coding experts group (MPEG) standard is being used.
It is believed that an MPEG-TS system will be standardized in the field of digital broadcasting using moving images in future. Currently, as an apparatus which records digital broadcast data sent using MPEG-TS, the digital (D)-video home system (VHS), in which a tape is used as the recording medium, is being marketed. However, for convenience, there has been a demand for an apparatus in which an optical disk is used as the recording medium.
In general, digital TV broadcasts are received/reproduced by a set-top box (STB). The STB is an apparatus which subjects encrypted data to extension/reproduction processing based on a key distributed by a broadcast station.
When the received data is reproduced as such, a digital extension portion decrypts the data, an MPEG decoder portion decodes the data, and a video encoder portion converts the data to a TV signal and displays the data as a picture on a TV screen.
On the other hand, a method of storing the data comprises: transferring the digital data received from a tuner system as a bit stream to a recording apparatus via a digital interface such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394 Interface (I/F) without changing the state of the data; and recording the data on a recording medium.
Conversely, to reproduce the data recorded on the recording medium from the beginning or from midway, all the data is sent as such, and reproduced on the STB side. As content to be recorded, a plurality of programs are multiplexed and recorded in some cases. In the case, the desired program is selected and reproduced on the STB side.
As a recording apparatus now on sale, there is D-VHS in which tape media are used as the recording media. The tape media have a disadvantage that there is not random accessibility, and a problem is that a scene actually desired to be seen cannot momentarily be reproduced. Therefore, there has been an increasing demand for realization of the recording apparatus which uses high-capacity optical disk media such as Digital Versatile Disc (DVD)-Random Access Memory (RAM).
From the DVD forum, as of February, 2001, as a standard in which video information can be recorded or reproduced with respect to the information recording medium, "DVD Specifications for DVD-RAM/DVD-RW/DVD-R for General Discs Part 5: STREAM RECORDING" has been prepared.
Additionally, in this standard, to match concept with that of another DVD standard, a pseudo MPEG-Program Stream (PS) packet is constituted by one unit of 2 kilobytes (KB). Therefore, header information and access time information are added in a 2 KB unit, and as a result recording efficiency is lowered.
On the other hand, in the standard, access information is prepared as concentration information in order to effectively utilize the random accessibility of the optical disk. Additionally, the access information is basically prepared with respect to a certain given data amount to be recorded, or a data amount to be recorded by a given reproduction time unit. Therefore, when a recording capacity of the optical disk increases, an information amount also increases. This results in an increase of the capacity of a memory for storing information which has to be constantly held by the recording apparatus.

Information recording medium, information recording apparatus, and information reproducing apparatus