The stove switch safety cover is a child safety device that is designed to deny children access to the control knobs of a stove. This shield would extend the entire width of the stove controls, covering and protecting the knobs from the child. The device would primarily consist of a back plate that would be mounted to the stove's control panel behind the knobs, a magnetic strip placed on the front of each control knob, a cover attached to the right edge of the back plate with a hinge, magnetic switches located on the interior of the cover, and a locking mechanism on the left edge of the cover. The magnetic switches would be spaced along the inside of the cover so they line up with the control knobs of the stove. When the cover is locked, the contacts in the magnetic switches would close when the magnetic strips are in polar and vertical alignment with the magnetic switches, allowing the illumination of an LED associated with each control knob when the control knob is placed in the OFF position. The LEDs are placed such that they can be viewed from the front of the locked cover. The LEDs will only be lit when the control knobs are in the locked position and the cover is in the closed position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stove switch safety cover for use in connection with the controls for stove top burners. The stove switch safety cover has particular utility in connection with locking the control knobs of the stove in an OFF position, thereby denying access to the knobs to any individual not possessing the key to unlock the cover.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many accidents that occur in the home involve the stove. Typically, a curious child will play with the stove's control knobs, resulting in an unattended burner, a fire, or injury. If the device is a gas stove, this can lead to severe health and fire risks. The occupants of the house could be overcome by the gas fumes, eventually dying if not discovered in time. Furthermore, the gas in the air is combustible and can be easily ignited by a spark if not detected. A further threat of fire is also present in both gas and electric stoves. Should a pan of food be left on the burner or an item left within close proximity to the burner, the unattended burner could eventually set the food or the item on fire. An additional danger with the stove is that of the child pulling the pan of food from the hot burner and spilling it on himself, resulting in severe burns, especially if water or hot fat is present in the pan. Therefore, a device which could lock the stove into an inoperable position and deny access to individuals not possessing the key to the lock would prevent the aforementioned misfortunes from happening.
The use of stove locking devices is known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,834,335 to Antonio Rondello discloses a gas stove safety device that consists of a rod that passes through a hole in each control knob and has a keyed lock on one end to prevent the knobs from being turned. However, the Rondello '335 patent is limited in use to stoves having knobs with holes in the lower section through which the rod may be passed. Control knobs for today's stoves rarely contain such holes and lack a shape that would lend itself to such a modification. Furthermore, the rod of the Rondello '335 device could entice a child to swing on it, which could result in the bending or breaking of the rod and possible damage to the control knobs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,181 to Halvor Saga discloses a safety device for stoves that comprises a front plate, for covering the control knobs, which may be raised in tracks and side plates which together comprise a partially peripheral obstacle for mounting the object on the front edge of a rectangular stove top. However, the Saga '181 patent makes no provision for a locking mechanism for the safety device, leaving the control knobs susceptible to an especially clever child or to a mentally challenged adult. Furthermore, the Saga '181 device could not be used with a stove top having the control panels on a flat horizontal surface as there would be no method for attaching the side plates of the device.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,413,237 to William R. Jones discloses a safety control valve which is connected in the gas supply in advance of the manifold through which gas is supplied to the stove and oven burners and which can be locked in a closed position, effectively cutting off the gas supply to the burners. However, the Jones '237 device is not effective for electric stoves and ovens; therefore it would not be applicable to a large number of stoves in use today. Moreover, the Jones '237 device is not visible to an individual visually inspecting the stove and might lead to confusion as to why the stove is not operating properly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,386 to Fred Miguel discloses a stove switch cover comprising a lock adapted to be mounted on the control panel of a stove and having a rotatable latch extending behind the control panel, with an elongated housing receiving the control knobs in its open rear portion. However, use of the Miguel '386 device requires the stove owner to modify the control panel of the stove to receive hardware for supporting both the hinge and the locking mechanism. Individuals renting homes or apartments might not be able to make such modifications to the stove. Additionally, the Miguel '386 knob cover opens upward and would probably fall closed again and need to be reopened each time the user wanted to readjust the heat on one of the burners. Should the Miguel '386 device remain upright after being opened, it would interfere with an individual's ability to cook on the stove top.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 346, 529 to Maglena Honaker discloses the ornamental design for a stove panel guard that would be used as a splashguard for stoves having a vertical control panel located at the rear of the top surface. However, the Honaker '529 patent makes no provision for locking the splashguard to prohibit access to the control knobs. Furthermore, the Honaker '529 device would not be suitable for stoves with control knobs on the top front surface since it is not attached in any manner to the control panel.
Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,878 to Luke E. Lewis and Christopher E.
Lewis discloses a safety knob for a stove or range that has a releasable lock assembly which prevents a switch or valve of the range from being turned to the ON position. The lock assembly has a pin movable between a lock position and a release position with a linear to rotational movement mechanism mounted in a housing joined to the body of the knob. However, the Lewis, et al. '178 patent requires the use of specific knobs that might not be compatible with all stoves. Additionally, the Lewis, et al. '178 device can easily be unlocked with the push of a button. A curious or observant child watching his caregiver could easily ascertain how the knobs were unlocked and perform the task for himself.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a stove switch safety cover that allows the owner to deny access to the stove's control knob by locking them in an OFF position. Saga '181 and Honaker '529 patents make no provision for a locking mechanism for the safety device, leaving the control knobs susceptible to an especially clever child or to a mentally challenged adult. In addition, the Lewis, et al. '178 device can easily be unlocked with the push of a button. A curious or observant child watching his caregiver could easily ascertain how the knobs were unlocked and perform the task for himself. The Rondello '335, Saga '181, Jones '237, Honaker '529, and Lewis, et al. '178 devices are limited in use because they are not compatible with all types of stoves. The Rondello '335 requires the control knobs to have holes through which the locking rod is inserted. Control knobs for today's stoves rarely contain such holes and lack a shape that would lend itself to such a modification. Furthermore, the rod of the Rondello '335 device could entice a child to swing on it, which could result in the bending or breaking of the rod and possible damage to the control knobs. The Saga '181 device could not be used with a stove top having the control panels on a flat horizontal surface as there would be no method for attaching the side plates of the device, while the Jones '237 device is not compatible for use with electric stoves. Moreover, the Jones '237 device is not visible to an individual visually inspecting the stove and might lead to confusion as to why the stove is not operating properly. Use of the Miguel '386 device requires the stove owner to modify the control panel of the stove to receive hardware for supporting both the hinge and the locking mechanism. Individuals renting homes or apartments might not be able to make such modifications to the stove. The Honaker '529 device would not be suitable for stoves with control knobs on the top front surface since it is not attached in any manner to the control panel, and the Lewis, et al. '178 device requires the use of specific knobs that might not be compatible with all stoves. Finally, the knob cover opens upward on the Miguel '386 device and would probably fall closed again, requiring the user to reopen the cover each time the heat on one of the burners needs adjusting. Should the Miguel '386 device remain upright after being opened, it would interfere with an individual's ability to cook on the stove top
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved stove switch safety cover that can be used for prohibiting access to the control knobs of any type of stove. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need. In this respect, the stove switch safety cover according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a locking safety cover for the control knobs for a stove that denies access to any individual not possessing the appropriate key.


Drive electrodes and sensing electrodes are formed on a front face of a piezoelectric body of a vibrator. A first reference electrode is formed on a rear face. Second reference electrodes are formed on side faces of arm bars of the vibrator at a position corresponding to the sensing electrodes. The second reference electrodes are connected to the first reference electrode formed on said rear face.

The present invention relates to an angular velocity sensor which can be employed in various control systems, such as a vehicle motion/behavior control system as well as a navigation system, or in a video camera for compensating the operator's hand movement, and more particularly to an angular velocity sensor which detects an angular velocity using a piezoelectric vibrator.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 8-210860, published in 1996, discloses a conventional angular velocity sensor which comprises a piezoelectric vibrator configured into a tuning fork with a pair of arm bars and a connecting bar. According to this angular velocity sensor, the vibrator causes a predetermined vibration in a driving direction along which the arm bars are arrayed. When the sensor is subjected to an angular velocity, a Coriolis force derived from the angular velocity is detected as a vibration change of the vibrator caused in a sensing direction normal to the driving direction.
Japanese Unexamined Utility Application No. 5-71715, published in 1993, discloses another angular velocity sensor employing a lead wire arrangement according to which terminals of lead wires are located adjacent to a vibrator to shorten the length of each lead wire in the air.

Angular velocity sensor, related method for manufacturing the sensor, and piezoelectric vibrator element used in this sensor


A process is disclosed in which optically active glycols are produced through an electrolytic asymmetric dihydroxylation (ADH) reaction involving olefins as substrates. The ADH reaction is mediated by a catalytically active amount of osmium tetroxide or osmium-containing precursor in a protic medium in the presence of chiral ligand. Any lower valent osmium species produced in the course of the ADH reaction is regenerated electrolytically either directly in the absence of a secondary oxidant or indirectly in the presence of a secondary oxidant that itself undergoes electrolytic regeneration.

The asymmetric dihydroxylation of olefins with osmium tetroxide to yield optically active glycols has been described extensively in the literature (Sharpless, K. B., et al. J. Org. Chem. 1992, 56, 4585 and references cited therein). In a dihydroxylation reaction, an olefinic substrate is transformed into a dihydroxyl-substituted compound (i.e., a glycol) through the addition of two hydroxyl groups across the double bond. During an asymmetric dihydroxylation reaction, the hydroxyl groups are added stereoselectively across a particular face of the prochiral olefin double bond. This stereofacial selectivity is made possible by chiral mediators, in particular, a chiral tertiary amine ligand that forms a complex with osmium tetroxide (Hentges, S. G., et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1980, 102, 4263; and Jacobsen, E. N., et al. Ibid. 1988, 110, 1968).
The optically active glycols produced by this asymmetric reaction are important chiral starting materials for organic synthesis. For instance, these glycols can be used advantageously as precursors of more complex molecules. In particular, pharmacologically active compounds, such as the anticancer drug taxol which can be prepared from optically active 2,3-dihydroxy-3-phenylpropionates (Denis, J. -N., et al. J. Org. Chem. 1990, 55, 1957). Also, optically pure 2,3-dihydroxy-3-arylpropionates prepared from cinnamate esters have been used to produce antihypertensive drugs such as Diltiazem (PCT AU88/00345). Also, optically pure stilbene diol (hydrobenzoin) from stilbene has been used as chiral ligand for Lewis-acid catalyzed asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions (Devine, P. N. and Oh, T., J. Org. Chem. 1992, 57, 396). Furthermore, optically pure glycols can be used to prepare chemically distinguishable or separable diastereomeric mixtures from racemic carbonyl-containing compounds; i.e., ketals and acetals from ketones and aldehydes, respectively (Mukaiyama, T., et al; Synthesis, 1987, 1043).
lnitially, asymmetric dihydroxylation reactions were carried out using stoichiometric amounts of osmium tetroxide-chiral ligand complexes (Hentges, S. G. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1980, 102, 4263; Yamada, T. et al. Chem. Lett. 1986, 131; Tomioka, K., et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1987, 109, 6213). More recently, however, the utility of this reaction has been extended by the development of catalytic processes in which less than a stoichiometric amount of precious osmium tetroxide-chiral ligand complex is employed. This catalytic process is made possible by using a stoichiometric amount of a secondary oxidant which is effective to reoxidize or regenerate the osmium tetroxide from the lower valent osmium species produced during the dihydroxylation reaction (Sharpless, K. B. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1989, 111, 1123; Sharpless, K. B. et al. Tetrahedron Lett. 1990, 31, 2999). Generally, high degrees of conversion are observed using a slight molar excess of the secondary oxidant relative to the initial amount of olefin present in the reaction mixture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,291 discloses a method for the chemical reoxidation of osmium species in a valence state less than 5 to a valence state greater than 5. The chemical oxidant is an organic secondary or tertiary hydroperoxide. This reference also discloses the dihydroxylation of olefins to glycols using hydroperoxide in the presence of catalytic amounts of osmium tetroxide.
However, the commercial success of a particular synthetic process hinges, more often than not, on the costs associated with that process versus a competing process. Although the asymmetric dihydroxylation of olefins proceeds relatively well using a catalytic amount of osmium tetroxide and chiral ligand plus a stoichiometric amount of secondary oxidant, such as N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide or potassium ferricyanide, the cost of the secondary oxidant is not insignificant especially in the large-scale manufacturing of fine chemicals. Moreover, other factors are equally important in deliberations to lower the number and corresponding amounts of reagents used in manufacturing methods. Such additional considerations include waste disposal and environmental factors, workplace and health regulations, as well as productivity and efficiency issues.
Thus, there exists a need to improve existing processes to meet the demands of the marketplace, the needs of the community and to satisfy or even preempt requirements imposed by regulatory agencies.

Electrocatalytic asymmetric dihydroxylation of olefinic compounds


The present application is directed to biosensors and methods for detecting a microorganism target in a sample using a mechanically interlocked nucleic acid catanane, wherein an enzyme from the microorganism target or that is activated by a molecule from the microorganism target cleaves a linkage in a first single-stranded nucleic acid ring of the catanane structure, allowing rolling-circle amplification to occur and the presence of rolling-circle amplification products indicates the presence of the microorganism in the sample.

DNA is not only important in biological systems as genetic material, it has also become a key player in synthetic biology. DNA can be engineered into catalysts (DNAzymes) and molecular receptors (DNA aptamers), making DNA a functionally versatile polymer. DNA, as a highly programmable material based on predictable Watson-Crick base-pairing interactions, has also become a valuable macromolecule for rational engineering of molecular machines for potential nanotechnology applications.
In recent years, tremendous progress has been made toward building DNA-based nanodevices with increasing structural complexity and functional capabilities [1-13]. One important feature of many reported DNA nanostructures, such as DNA Borromean rings [1] and DNA catenanes [3], is the use of mechanically interlocked topologies to connect individual DNA components. The mechanical interlocking between DNA strands can be easily achieved in the case of DNA through the formation of a linking duplex between partner rings before ring closure. The existence of a linking duplex is not only creates a strong connectivity between partner rings but also provides stability for these well-defined structures.
Many rationally engineered DNA nanostructures use mechanically interlocked topologies to connect individual DNA components. The physical connectivity of these structures is made possible through the formation of a strong linking DNA duplex. The existence of such a structural element also poses a significant topological constraint on the function of the component rings.

Nucleic acid catenane with a linking duplex biosensor for detection of a microorganism target


Provided is an optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus that performs recording and reproducing. The optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus has a recording control portion for storing, when recording data on the optical disc, an error address and an error code in a nonvolatile memory when a recording error occurs and, after recording is stopped, writing the error address and the error code read from the nonvolatile memory to a predetermined area of the optical disc, and a reproduction control portion for reading, when reproducing the data from the optical disc which is recorded according to the control of the recording control portion, the error address and the error code from the predetermined area and then storing the read error address and error code in the nonvolatile memory and, if an address of a recording error is found after reading of the data of the optical disc has started, reading the error address and the error code from the nonvolatile memory and then transferring the read error address and error code to a back-end processing portion to prevent data from being read from the address of the recording error.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus that records and reproduces data on and from an optical disc. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process of recording data on a minus format DVD such as a DVD-R or a DVD-RW or a plus format DVD such as a DVD+R or a DVD+RW, and a process of reproducing data from the minus format DVD such as a DVD-R or a DVD-RW or the plus format DVD such as a DVD+R or a DVD+RW.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, DVDs (digital versatile discs), which are optical discs that can record information such as a large amount of video/audio data like that of movies, have been increasingly widespread. As these DVDs, various types are known such as a DVD-ROM containing information that is pre-recorded by a manufacturer and cannot be rewritten by a user, a DVD-R or a DVD+R that allows the user to record information thereon only once, and a DVD-RW, a DVD+RW, or a DVD-RAM that allows the user to rewrite information thereon repeatedly. Information recorded on these DVDs can be reproduced by DVD players (optical disc reproducing apparatuses) or DVD recorders (optical disc recording/reproducing apparatuses), and information can be recorded on a DVD+R, a DVD+R, a DVD-RW, a DVD+RW, and a DVD-RAM by using DVD recorders. In the following description, a DVD such as a DVD-R or a DVD-RW will be referred to as a "minus format DVD" and a DVD such as a DVD+R or a DVD+RW will be referred to as a "plus format DVD".
In conventional optical disc recording/reproducing apparatuses, if a recording error occurs while data is being recorded on a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD, a write retry is performed a predetermined number of times on an address at which a write of data has unsuccessfully been done. In a case where write retries performed the predetermined number of times end up in failure, the address is skipped over to record data on the next address. On the other hand, at the time of reproduction, a read retry is performed a predetermined number of times on the address at which the recording error has occurred. In a case where read retries performed the predetermined number of times end up in failure, the address is skipped over and data is read from the next address.
For example, JP-A-2000-076785 discloses a conventional recording/reproducing method by which, if a defective block is found while data is being recorded on or reproduced from a DVD, the found defective block is ignored to continue recording/reproducing of data. Alternatively, a defective block registered in an SDL (secondary defect list) is skipped over, and, in the case of a new defective block that is not registered in the SDL, location information thereof is registered in the SDL entry after recording/reproducing of data is completed.
Now, as described above, in the conventional optical disc recording/reproducing apparatuses, if a recording error occurs after a write of data is started to record data on a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD, a write retry is performed a predetermined number of times on an address at which a write of data has unsuccessfully been done. In a case where write retries performed the predetermined number of times end up in failure, the address is skipped over to record data on the next address. On the other hand, at the time of reproduction, a read retry is performed a predetermined number of times on the address at which the recording error has occurred. In a case where read retries performed the predetermined number of times end up in failure, the address is skipped over and data is read from the next address. This disadvantageously causes time loss in recording/reproducing.
Incidentally, the conventional technique disclosed in JP-A-2000-076785 relates to recording and reproducing data on and from a DVD-RAM. This makes it impossible to apply this technique to a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD due to a difference in the data structure of the disc.
On the other hand, an apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2002-329321 records a track number of a CD in a PMA (program memory area) as a skip ID if recording is not performed properly, and, at the time of reproduction, the track corresponding to the skip ID is skipped over. This makes it impossible to apply this technique to a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD due to a difference in the data structure of the disc.
Furthermore, JP-A-08-087829 discloses a data managing method for an optical disc, by which an error block is skipped over at the time of data reading by referring to a write error block management file provided in a control unit. However, it is not clear what is referred to here as the optical disc is a minus format DVD or a plus format DVD, and a specific recording/reproducing process for such a DVD is not disclosed therein.
In view of the conventionally experienced problems described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus that prohibits reading from an address at which a recording error has occurred at the time of recording data on a minus format DVD such as a DVD-R or a DVD-RW, or a plus format DVD such as a DVD+R or a DVD+RW.

Optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus


A microwave integrated circuit for frequency translation includes a pair of mixers for receiving the input RF signal, mixing it with a pair of quadrature frequency modulation signals and by combining the output of the mixers in a quadrature coupler, suppressing all signals except for the input RF signal plus the modulation frequency. This is accomplished in an environment of high "g" forces, significant temperature variations and a need for high reliability and fast operation by a miniaturized microwave integrated circuit having microstrips on the top and bottom sides of a ceramic substrate. The mixers consist of quad diode chips which are compression welded to one side of the microstrip for good resistance to high "g" forces. Suitable balancing is provided by use of a ground plane on the opposite side with tapering. A quadrature coupler to suppress the lower sideband is in the form of a LANGE coupler which is effectively integrated on the top side of the substrate.

The present invention is directed to a microwave integrated circuit frequency translating apparatus and more specifically to apparatus used in electronic countermeasure (ECM) systems.
Fast phase shift or frequency translators are required in several areas particularly in the radar and electronic countermeasures (ECM) fields. A typical multimode ECM device using a serrodyne technique is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,312 entitled Multiple Mode Velocity Deception Apparatus and assigned to the present assignee. Such a system is typically mounted in the electronics pod of an airplane which wishes to deceive enemy radar by sending a false return signal. Because of the environment and the nature of the use of the frequency translator, it is desirable that it be economical, reliable, resistant to high "g" forces, versatile, of a relatively small size, and also able to operate over a wide temperature range.

Microwave integrated circuit frequency translating apparatus


Atomic operations may be implemented on a processor system having a main memory and two or more processors including a power processor element (PPE) and a synergistic processor element (SPE) that operate on different sized register lines. A main memory address containing a primitive is divided into a parity byte and two or more portions, wherein the parity byte includes at least one bit. A value of the parity byte determines which of the two or more portions is a valid portion and which of them is an invalid portion. The primitive is of a memory size that is larger than a maximum size for atomic operation with the PPE and less than or equal to a maximum size for atomic operation with the SPE. Read with reservation and conditional write instructions are used by both the PPE and SPE to access or update a value of the atomic.

Cell processors are a type of microprocessor that utilizes parallel processing. The basic configuration of a cell processor includes a "Power Processor Element" ("PPE") (sometimes called "Processing Element", or "PE"), and multiple "Synergistic Processing Elements" ("SPE"). The PPEs and SPEs are linked together by an internal high speed bus dubbed "Element Interconnect Bus" ("EIB"). Cell processors are designed to be scalable for use in applications ranging from the hand held devices to main frame computers.
A typical cell processor has one PPE and up to 8 SPE. Each SPE is typically a single chip or part of a single chip containing a main processor and a co-processor. Each SPE typically includes a synergistic processor unit (SPU) and a local store (LS). The PPE typically includes a power processor element (PPU) and one or more caches. All of the SPEs and the PPE can access a main memory, e.g., via the bus. The SPEs can perform parallel processing of operations in conjunction with a program running on the PPE. To coordinate processes executing in parallel on the SPE and PPE, atomic operations are often implemented. An atomic operation is one in which an SPU or PPU can read or write to a memory address (often referred to as an atomic) in a single operation while denying other processors access to the atomic. Atomic operations can be mutual exclusion (muxtex) "locked" operations or "lock-free" operations. In a mutex operation, a processor locks the atomic and prevents other processors from writing to it until it is unlocked. In a "lock-free" atomic operation, the only one processor can write to the atomic address at a time, but other processors can write over what has been atomically written. Lock-free atomic operations utilize "reservation" operations that notify a processor making the reservation whether an atomic has been overwritten since the reservation was made.
A problem with atomic operations on cell processors is that the PPU and SPU have different reservations sizes for atomic operations. These different atomic operation sizes are a result of different sized memory access capabilities of the PPU and SPU. The PPU's memory access, is generally limited by the register size of the PPU core. The cell processor architecture does not define how large the atomic operation size is for the SPU. However, the SPU can access the main memory through a memory flow controller (MFC), which can transfer data in increments much larger than the register size of the PPU core. For example, in certain types of cell processors, the MFC for an SPU can transfer data into and out of main memory in 128 byte chunks (or smaller) but the PPU can transfer data in only 8 byte chunks (or smaller). The maximum PPU memory transfer size for a single operation is determined by the size of the PPU register set. The PPU register length is 64 bits, 8 bytes of 8 bits each. The MFC sets the SPU atomic size. The SPU local store is in the form of 16 byte, 128 bit registers. The SPU local store registers are not tied to any main memory address. The SPU communicates with memory though the MFC, which operates on 128 byte chunks. The MFC handles direct memory access (DMA) operations for both atomic and non-atomic operations for the SPU. In certain cell implementations, all atomic operations on the SPU are 128 bytes. However, non-atomic operations are also handled by the MFC and can range in size from 1 byte to 16 kilobytes. Thus, SPUs perform read with reservation and copy 128 bytes into their local stores. The reservation granule can be any size. It will logically work correctly as long as it is larger than the atomic access size.
It is very powerful that the SPU can work atomically on large chunks of data and it can be quite crippling that the PPU can only work atomically on 8 bytes at a time. Such different sizes for atomic reservations can limit the features of a lock-free algorithm. Linked lists without mutex can be done using lock-free algorithms. However, if larger atomics are available, one can apply lock-free algorithms to more complex operations since more than one integer may be atomically modified at a time.
Thus, there is a need in the art, for a way to perform atomic operations with a cell processor where the PPE and SPE have different-sized register lines.

Atomic operation involving processors with different memory transfer operation sizes


Systems and media for reconstructing data from simulation models are disclosed. Embodiments may include a media containing instructions for accessing an alias from an alias file. The media may include instructions for searching for a net name and, if the net name is not found, searching an alias index file for an alias index entry associated with the net name, the alias index entry having a net name and an associated position. The instructions may also include, if the net name entry is found, instructions for accessing from an alias file an alias associated with the net name. A further embodiment may include instructions for receiving a net name and a position of an alias in the alias file, creating an alias index entry for the alias having a net name and the position of the alias, and storing the created alias index entry in the alias index file.

The present invention generally relates to the field of simulation of complex systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and media for reconstructing data from simulation models of Integrated Circuit (IC) chip designs.
Design of an Integrated Circuit (IC) chip, including its architecture, is a very complex, expensive, and time-consuming task, making verification of that design before fabrication important. When designing increasingly complex processors or IC chips such as Application-Specific ICs (ASICs) and system-on-chips (SoC's), functional verification of the design has proven to be a major bottleneck in achieving time-to-market goals. Functional verification ensures functional conformance of an integrated circuit design to its architectural and microarchitectural specifications and determines whether a design is logically correct. The verification process involves developing and simulating tests that are used to determine whether design components (e.g., processor units, resources, functions, etc.) behave according to their functional specification. Verification of the design of a complex system such as an IC chip is an iterative process where the entire system (or at least all of its major features) is tested or simulated on a continuous basis for the duration of the design. As the design complexity increases, so does the state space and the number of functional states and finite state machines that need to be verified. In a typical microprocessor design environment, billions of simulation cycles are required to verify all features of the design.
IC chip designers typically build simulation models such as register-transfer-level (RTL) models to model and simulate the performance of design components. RTL models may be hardware models that have a direct correspondence to gate-level functions of IC chip hardware. Designers typically design RTL models in a hierarchical fashion where one design module encapsulates and instantiates submodules. The building-block approach of a hierarchical design makes it easier to build and test designs. As part of the hierarchical approach to designing RTL models, only a useful subset of the model's functional logic is preserved when the model is created. To reduce the size of the RTL model, logic that is redundant or unnecessary for functional simulation is eliminated in a process that is known as 'flattening' the RTL model. For example, redundant nets that are functionally or electrically equivalent may be eliminated from the RTL model and only the highest-level net be saved. Other control or data signals that are shared across multiple modules may be similarly removed from the RTL model. Similarly, logic made unnecessary by functions such as inversion or concatenation may also be removed from the RTL model. Reduction of the functional logic reduces the size of the RTL model and decreases the resources, such as the memory footprint, necessary to execute the model and perform simulations using the model.
Eliminating unnecessary logic from an RTL model does save on simulation resources, but it makes interfacing and debugging more difficult for human designers. Designers seeking to debug a particular net, for example, must determine if the net exists at the current level of hierarchy and if it does not, they must find out its designation in the model and then work with its actual designation. Such a process can be laborious and time-consuming. To assist with the process, alias files can be created during the model build process. When a model is recursively flattened during a build and equivalent nets are optimized out of the model, the location of the equivalent nets may be written to the alias file. The alias files thus provide a method to reconstruct optimized-out information from a model and to restore accessibility of that information by providing the necessary logic equation information that is not present in the model itself.
For large simulation models such as those for SoC designs, however, the massive size of alias files makes them difficult to work with. For these large simulation models that have many equivalent nets, the size of the alias file may reach hundreds of megabytes or higher, making them practically unmanageable for many purposes. A designer attempting to find information about particular signals stored in the alias file, for example, may have to use search tools such as 'grep' in UNIX to manually search the alias file, a cumbersome process. As alias files become larger and larger because of increased design complexity, the inconvenience of using them to find information also increases.
There is, therefore, a need for an effective and efficient system to access data from simulation models and files. There is an even greater need for such a system as the complexity of designs to be simulated continues to increase.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Reconstruction of data from simulation models

International Business Machines Corporation


Disclosed herein are embodiments of a control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle that is capable of suppressing overheating of the second clutch. Control is switched between engine-used slip drive control and motor drive control on a basis of a temperature of the second clutch. Control methods for a hybrid vehicle are also disclosed.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-263383 published on Sep. 26, 2001 describes a control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle. In this Japanese Patent Application Publication, the hybrid vehicle includes a first clutch disposed to connect and disconnect the engine to and from the motor, a second clutch disposed to connect and disconnect the motor to and from drive wheels and an automatic transmission. The hybrid vehicle is further provided with an engine-used drive mode in which the vehicle travels while the engine is included as an additional power source. For the engine to have a minimum revolution speed at which the engine is independently operable even in a low shift ratio, such as first gear and during extremely low vehicle speed travel (including the start of vehicle travel), the second clutch is slipped to secure an independent revolution (or a self-rotation) of the engine. That is, with the second clutch slipped, the engine is revolved at a revolution speed equal to or higher than an independent revolution speed (a self-rotation speed), while the drive wheels are revolved at an extremely low revolution speed.

Control apparatus of a hybrid vehicle and method for controlling the same


A walk-behind mower includes a frame, and a cutting unit connected to the frame and at least one cutting element. Interchangeable power unit support assemblies are each adapted to support either a reciprocating engine or a battery unit. One of the power unit support assemblies is releasably connected to the frame. An electric motor is provided to displace the cutting element. An output voltage generated by either the reciprocating engine or the battery unit mounted on the power unit support assembly energizes the electric motor.

Lawn mowing machines adapted for cutting greens or other areas of golf courses generally have power units which include either a gasoline reciprocating engine or one or more electric motors powered by a plurality of batteries stored on the mower unit. Each mower design or configuration has its own power unit with unique configuration of components. Gasoline powered engine walk-behind mowers have generally long operating periods on a tank of fuel. Electric powered walk-behind mowers are generally quieter during operation than gasoline powered mowers. The power units of known gasoline powered mowers are not directly interchangeable with the power units of the electric powered mowers.
Golf courses have several conditions to meet which often do not allow the use of one of the above types of walk-behind mowers. During particular times of the day, for example, during early morning hours, noise ordinances can preclude the operation of gasoline powered engines and therefore require that the quieter operating electric powered mowers be used. Electric powered mowers have a drawback that their operating duration is limited due to the length of time their batteries hold a charge.
Golf courses therefore are often required to purchase several units of each type of walk-behind mowers, both gasoline and electric powered. This requirement results in additional costs for purchase, as well as increased costs of maintenance to maintain significantly different mower units. Because of differences in configuration, parts for one type of walk-behind mower generally are not interchangeable with the other type, therefore increased quantities of different parts are also required to be maintained.

Modular power source for walk-behind mower


In some implementations, a controller may obtain, during an event, pressure data regarding an amount of pressure of fluid associated with a component of the machine. The controller may obtain, during the event, flow data regarding a flow of the fluid associated with the component of the machine. The controller may determine, based on the pressure data and the flow data, an amount of wear of a track of the machine. The controller may perform an action based on the amount of wear of the track of the machine.

Components (e.g., tracks) of a machine wear over a period of time. Conventional techniques for detecting wear of such components include obtaining manual measurements of component dimensions of such components. The manual measurements may be compared against specified dimensions of the components. In order to obtain the manual measurements, the machine is required to suspend performing a task at a work site. Because obtaining manual measurements is a time consuming process (e.g., the travel time for obtaining manual measurements and/or the amount of time for obtaining manual measurements), obtaining manual measurements negatively affects productivity at the work site. In this regard, the task (that is to be performed by the machine) may be suspended for a long period of time (e.g., a period of time during which the manual measurements are obtained).
Additionally, such manual measurements can be inaccurate. Inaccurate measurements of component dimensions, in turn, may result in incorrect predictions regarding a remaining life of the components. As a result of such incorrect predictions, the components may either fail prematurely or may be repaired or replaced prematurely (e.g., because the components may not be sufficiently worn to require replacement or repair). Such premature failure of the components or premature replacement or repair of the components also negatively affects productivity at the work site. Accordingly, conventional techniques for detecting wear of the components need to be improved to prevent or reduce down time at the work site (e.g., down time associated with obtaining manual measurements of component dimensions, associated with premature failure of components, associated with premature repair of components, associated with premature replacement of components, and/or the like).
U.S. Pat. No. 10,099,735 (the "'735 patent") discloses a system for monitoring the track tension for a track assembly of a work vehicle, which may include a track tensioning assembly having a fluid-driven actuator. The '735 patent discloses that the actuator may be configured to adjust the track tension of the track assembly based on a fluid pressure of fluid within the actuator. The '735 patent discloses that the system may include a controller communicatively coupled to the wireless pressure sensor. The '735 patent discloses that the controller may be configured to monitor the fluid pressure within the actuator based on wireless pressure signals received from the wireless pressure sensor, wherein the monitored fluid pressure is indicative of the track tension for the track assembly.
While the '735 patent discloses that the monitored fluid pressure is indicative of the track tension for the track assembly, the '735 patent does not disclose determining an amount of wear of the track assembly.
The controller of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art.

Track wear detection based on pressure data and flow data


An adhesive tape composition includes a polymer blend comprising at least one ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer and at least one fully saturated adhesive-enhancing polymer miscible with said at least one ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer. The tape adhesive composition further includes at least one tackifying additive compatible with said polymer blend and a sulfur and organic accelerator cure package for said polymer blend, the adhesive composition being devoid of butyl rubber which is found in most other adhesive tape compositions. This composition is seen as providing excellent long-term heat aging, weathering resistance, and low temperature properties as compared to adhesive tape compositions containing butyl rubber. Moreover, the adhesive tape composition provides more surface tack, better "quick-grab", and higher green strength as compared to adhesive tape compositions containing 100 percent EPDM rubber. A method is also provided for covering roofs which includes the step of employing the adhesive tape composition.

Polymeric roof sheeting materials such as ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM), butyl rubber (IIR), neoprene, polyvinyl chloride, chlorinated polyethylene, thermoplastic polyolefin rubber and modified bitumen and the like are used as single ply roofing membranes for covering flat roofs typically found on industrial or commercial buildings. Such roofing membranes are customarily large elastomeric sheets which must be seamed or spliced together on the rooftop during installation. However, because these elastomeric (EPDM, neoprene and butyl-based, etc.) roofing membrane compositions are typically cured prior to being installed on a roof, they generally lack the ability to adhere to one another. Further, the seam or area of overlapping of the roof sheeting materials is subject to both short-term and long-term stresses such as those caused by roof movement, heavy winds, freeze-thaw cycles and thermal cycles. Such stresses may manifest themselves in shear forces or peel forces, i.e., the seam peels back under severe stress conditions or may cause a partially open seam (often referred to as a fish-mouth condition) under less severe conditions.
A variety of methods for adhering or seaming the roofing membranes together have been developed over the years. For example, solvent-based adhesives, which typically employ neoprene or butyl-based compounds, have been used to bond roof sheeting materials together by applying, with a brush or other similar means, the liquid or paste-like adhesives directly to the edge areas of the roofing membranes to be joined. However, these adhesives have limited storage life, and are highly toxic and flammable, making them environmentally undesirable. Moreover, application of these adhesives to the roof sheeting membranes is often time-consuming and requires skill in applying the adhesive evenly since streaking and uneven coatings are known to reduce bond strength between the adhesive and the rubber sheeting material.
Alternatively, uncured polymeric tapes containing no vulcanizing agents, i.e., non-curable tapes, have been developed. However, these tapes never cure, even after installation, and therefore, creep under stress is a significant problem associated with the use of these tapes on roofs.
Another type of adhesive composition often used for joining roofing sheet membranes together are those which are initially unvulcanized but which contain curatives so as to be vulcanizable. These adhesives, commonly referred to as rooftop curable adhesives, are typically used in the form of a preformed tape to bond sheet membranes and the like together. However, it is well known that, because the rooftop curable adhesives are uncured when initially installed on a roof, they are recognized as having low initial strengths and are not easily handled. Moreover, some rooftop curable adhesives can take several days or even weeks to achieve good adhesion.
To facilitate adhesion, some of these adhesives may include heat-activated or fast-acting cure systems. Those adhesives with fast-acting cure systems will require additional equipment to blend and extrude the tape mixture to prevent premature curing which can adversely affect the adhesive properties of the composition when applying the adhesive tape to the rooftop membranes. Those adhesives with heat-activated cure systems also will require comparable equipment at the job site to provide the necessary heat and pressure to the tape for joining the sheet membranes together.
Thus, it should be evident that only after an extended period of exposure to high rooftop temperatures or upon application of heat and pressure at the rooftop site is vulcanization achieved to provide the necessary peel and shear strengths required to prevent the seams from sliding or opening. Further, in order to obtain good adhesion, heat and pressure must be applied over a relatively lengthy period of time, thus increasing the time necessary for installation of the sheet membranes on the roof.
Accordingly, attempts have been made in the art to develop adhesive tape compositions which are easier to apply between the area of overlapping of the rubber sheeting membranes, and which provide sufficient seam peel and shear strengths to permit the splice formed by the bonding of the rubber sheeting membranes to withstand and resist heat aging and moisture penetration and other problems such as oxidation, hydrolysis and chemical attack from pooled water, as well as other short-term and long-term stresses as noted hereinabove. Unlike rooftop curable adhesives, these preformed adhesive tapes are at least partially cured prior to being installed upon the roof. Thus, they are far more deformation resistant and easier to handle than the adhesives noted hereinabove. These adhesives are also easier to remove from the release paper upon which they are stored prior to use. Nevertheless, these adhesives have the ability to adhere the roofing sheets together, with minimal pressure. Thus, these preformed adhesive tapes, and the adhesive tapes of the present invention, are often referred to as pressure sensitive adhesives.
In order to provide adhesion and a watertight seal between the tape and the rubber sheeting upon contact, these adhesive tapes typically include a tackifying additive compatible with the rubber employed such as, but not limited to, polybutene. It has been found that polybutene, when used with a butyl rubber composition, provides an adhesive tape having sufficient surface tack and "quick-grab" as well as adequate green strength for use in adhering roofing sheet membranes together.
Accordingly, heretofore, most pressure sensitive adhesives used to join rubber roofing membranes together included a rubbery polymer composition based on butyl rubber or butyl rubber blended with various amounts of an EPDM terpolymer. The cured adhesive also included a cure package, typically based upon the use of a sulfur, peroxide or quinoid crosslinking system.
For example, Chiu U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,588,637, 4,855,172 and 5,095,068 disclose adhesive compositions, prepared in the form of a cured adhesive tape, which comprises butyl rubber-based compositions made by compounding a butyl rubber, a curing agent for the butyl rubber, carbon black, and a compatible tackifying additive.
Metcalf et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,935 discloses a seaming tape comprising a carbon black-reinforced, compounded, lightly cured blend of a butyl rubber and a polyisobutylene. The seaming tape serves to adhere the primer-coated seam edges of EPDM membranes together.
Briddell et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,727 discloses a cured adhesive tape composition which includes substantially equal amounts by weight of a rubbery polymer comprising a blend of EPDM, a halogenated butyl rubber or a halogenated isobutylene-based copolymer and polyisobutylene, a compatible tackifying additive and a compatible accelerator/cure package for the rubbery polymer blend.
It is clear that all of the above adhesive tape compositions include butyl rubber (IIR). The term "butyl rubber" as used herein is intended to include copolymers of isobutylene and isoprene as well as other rubbery copolymers comprising at least 50 percent by weight of an isoolefin having 4 or more carbon atoms and 50 percent or less by weight of an open chain conjugated diolefin having from 4 to 8 carbon atoms. "Butyl rubber" is intended to also include halogenated butyl rubber, such as chlorobutyl or bromobutyl rubber, as well as those types of butyl rubber in which conjugated diene functionality has been added in the linear backbone at the diolefin units, such as more particularly described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,371.
Butyl rubber is used in these adhesive tape compositions to enhance surface tack required for joining together two overlapped single-ply EPDM roofing membranes. However, butyl rubber tape compositions do not provide as good long-term aging and weather resistance properties as tape compositions based upon ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymers (EPDM). Moreover, EPDM-based tape compositions exhibit good low temperature properties as compared to butyl-based tape compositions and would clearly be more compatible with EPDM membranes and flashing materials.
Some patents have recognized the use of EPDM in tape compositions. For example, Fujuki et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,114 discloses a curable tape which may include a rooftop curable EPDM rubber, butyl rubber, or a blend thereof. The curable tape may further include a vulcanizing agent and accelerator, a softening agent, and other ingredients such as fillers and the like.
Kakehi et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,404,056 discloses a cold-vulcanizable adhesive tape having a Mooney viscosity of from about 5 to 25 and which includes a rubbery polymer comprising EPDM, butyl rubber or a blend thereof, as well as a vulcanizing agent, a vulcanization accelerator, an adhesive (tackifying) agent and a softening agent.
Westley U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,092 discloses a preformed adhesive tape composition comprising EPDM or halogenated butyl rubbers, at least one polyisocyanate, a low-temperature and a high-temperature tackifying additive, and at least one curing agent.
It will be appreciated, however, that the rubbery components of the adhesive tapes noted hereinabove comprise essentially 100 percent EPDM rubber, 100 percent butyl rubber or a blend of EPDM and butyl rubber. As noted hereinabove, butyl rubbers do not provide as good long-term aging and weather resistance properties as tape compositions based upon ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymers (EPDM). However, 100 percent EPDM compositions do not have very good surface tack, initial strength or "quick-grab". "Quick-grab" refers to the characteristic of the adhesive tape composition to develop immediate adhesion when placed in direct contact with the surface of cured sheets of polymeric roof sheeting material.
Other patents have taught the use of modified or very high molecular weight EPDM terpolymers to provide novel compositions having particularly desirable characteristics. For example, Balinth U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,026 discloses a pressure-sensitive adhesive composition having high shear and low peel resistance which comprises an elastomeric blend of natural rubber (polyisoprene) and EPDM, a liquid plasticizer, a reinforcing filler, a solid tackifier, and a stabilizer.
Fieldhouse et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,958 discloses adhesive compositions containing a neutralized sulfonated EPDM terpolymer. This modified EPDM composition, however, further requires the use of an organic hydrocarbon solvent such as naphtha.
Also, Von Hellens et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,793 discloses elastomeric compositions having improved adhesive characteristics, the compositions containing specific EPDMs having high unsaturation and very high molecular weights. These compositions are disclosed as being suitable for pneumatic tire treads and sidewalls, not rooftops.
Thus, it should be clear that the EPDM-based adhesive compositions described hereinabove suffer from a significant disadvantage which materially limits their usefulness as pressure sensitive adhesives for bonding cured, elastomeric roof sheeting membranes together. While attempts may have been made heretofore to provide adhesive tape compositions which improve some of the properties in either 100 percent EPDM rubber-based or butyl rubber-based adhesive tape compositions, the need still exists in the art for an effective EPDM rubber-based adhesive tape composition and method of application for use in adhering together rubber sheets and for covering roofs which provides easy application, excellent peel and/or shear strength, excellent initial adhesive strength and "quick-grab" and better surface tack, and which maintains long-term heat aging and weather resistance.

Adhesive tape compositions and method for covering roofs


A system for recovery of energy in residue gases, comprising at least two energy conversion units (1), including a combustion chamber (2) having a fuel inlet (9), and a Sterling engine (4) having a heat exchanger (3) with a set of tubes containing working fluid, a portion of the heat exchanger extending into the combustion chamber (2). The system further comprises a pressure control system including a high-pressure reservoir (21) of working fluid, a low-pressure reservoir (22) of working fluid, a pressure pump (23) configured to maintain a pressure difference between the reservoirs, and a control arrangement (31, 32, 33) to regulate a pressure in the fluid circuit.

In many industries, various processes result in residue gas, often including a mix of burnable gases. One specific example is the reduction process in smelting plants, where carbon reacts with oxygen in metal oxide, in order to obtain pure metal with CO as a rest product. Further, due to the enormous heat, water present in the metal ore is split into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen. The mixing ratio of CO and H2 will depend on the amount of moisture in the ore.
Conventionally, such residue gases are used to some extent in various heating applications in the smelting plant. However, typically a large portion (e.g. 40% or more) of the residue gas cannot be used, and is then simply burned in a flare stack in order to get rid of the toxic CO.
Due to the large variation of H2 content, it is challenging to recover energy from the residue gas. For example, combustion engines are not feasible, as the ignition cannot be controlled when the H2 is mixed with oxygen and compressed. Also, the gas may contain contaminations which may damage a combustion engine, for examples particles that may melt and stick to the cylinder and valves.
There is thus a need for an improved way to recover energy in reside gases from industrial processes.


A SCARA robot according to an aspect of the invention includes a first arm rotatable with respect to a base, a second arm rotatable with respect to the first arm, a first rotation regulating member regulating a rotation of the first arm, and a second rotation regulating member regulating a rotation of the second arm. The first arm includes a beam provided inside a casing, at least one of the first rotation regulating member and the second rotation regulating member includes a contact part, a fixing part, and a connecting part.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm or Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm (SCARA robot).
2. Related Art
A stopper device that comes into contact with a rotary movable member of a robot when the rotary movable member is about to rotate beyond a movable range and mechanically stops the rotation has been proposed (for example, Patent Document 1 (JP-A-5-228882)).
However, in the stopper device, when the rotary movable member (arm) is in contact, shear stress is locally applied to a fixing part for fixing the stopper device and, for example, a bolt for fixing the stopper device may be broken.


Control of vehicle body tilting when a railway vehicle travels along a curve includes: detecting a pressure of compressed air in an air tank; driving a compressor that supplies compressed air to the tank when detecting a pressure drop in the tank to or below a first threshold level P1 in association with introduction of compressed air into air springs; and limiting the amount of compressed air to be introduced from the tank into the springs to a level equal to or lower than the amount of compressed air to be supplied from the compressor to the tank while continuing the introduction from the tank into the springs. This ensures that the tank pressure is maintained at a level equal to or higher than a minimum level required for braking actuation of the railway vehicle to have ride comfort when traveling along a curve and without causing braking trouble.

A railway vehicle includes a vehicle body and a bogie, and the vehicle body is supported on the bogie via a pair of left and right air springs. In general, when a railway vehicle which travels at high speed such as a Shinkansen "bullet train" travels along a curve, centrifugal force acts to make passengers feel uncomfortable. To improve ride comfort, control of vehicle body tilting is performed by introducing compressed air into the air spring on the outer rail side to tilt the vehicle body toward the inner rail side with respect to the bogie (see Patent Literatures 1 and 2, for example). Vehicle body tilting is carried out by means of compressed air stored in an air tank as a power source. The compressed air is produced by a compressor and supplied to the air tank.
In general, compressed air in the air tank is used as a power source for various pneumatic devices installed in a railway vehicle. In particular, it is used as a power source for a braking system. Thus, from a safety perspective, excessive decrease of the pressure of compressed air in the air tank (hereinafter also referred to as "air tank pressure") must be avoided.
However, when vehicle body tilting is carried out on consecutive curved sections, a significant amount of compressed air is consumed in the air tank. This causes an excessive decrease in the air tank pressure, which may lead to trouble with braking actuation. Because of this, conventional methods for control of vehicle body tilting are designed to forcibly stop the vehicle body tilting even while traveling along a curve if the air tank pressure falls to or below a prescribed level.

Method for control of vehicle body tilting of railway vehicle

NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION


Evaluating messaging content on a computer-based communications network includes classifying, using computer hardware, a response to a message previously rated by a user. The message, the response to the message, and the rating by the user can each be provided on the computer-based communications network. Evaluating messaging content also includes automatically changing, with the computer hardware, the rating of the message when the classifying of the response results in a classification that satisfies a predefined rating change condition.

The present disclosure relates to computer networking, and more particularly, to computer-based social networking services.
Computer-based social networking services enable users widely dispersed geographically from one another to interact and exchange data using a range of devices, including laptop computers, tablets, smartphones and a range of other electronic communication devices. Some social networks focus primarily on providing a platform for friends and acquaintances to socialize with one another, while others focus primarily on enabling non-personal, career-related communications among different users. Other social networks can be characterized as social navigation networks aimed at providing users specific types of information or resources.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


Various techniques and tools are disclosed for providing an osculating model of a circuit, which can be used to more accurately predict the circuit's operation. The parameters for a general model of the circuit are determined such that the general model matches desired circuit characteristics at one or more points. The parameters for the general model are determined such that the slopes of the general model at those points also match desired circuit characteristics. These determined parameters are used to create an osculating model specific to the circuit. The osculating model of the circuit can be employed to predict the operation of the circuit. Particular implementations of these techniques and tools may be used to predict the timing characteristics of a circuit having a capacitive, inductive, or magnetically-coupled load.

Microcircuit devices have become commonly used in a variety of products, from automobiles to microwaves to personal computers. As the importance of these devices grows, manufacturers continue to improve these devices. Each year, for example, microcircuit device manufacturers develop new techniques that allow microcircuit devices, such as programmable microprocessors, to be more complex and yet still smaller in size.
As microcircuit devices become more complex, they also become more difficult to design and test. A conventional microcircuit device, for example, may have many millions of connections, and each connection may cause the microcircuit to operate incorrectly or even fail if the connection is not properly designated. Not only must the connections be properly designated, but the time required for each circuit structure to process or transmit a signal must fall within a desired time constraint. If a circuit structure, such as a transistor gate, takes too long to process a signal, then another circuit structure may not receive the signal in time to operate properly. Similarly, if a circuit structure, such as a wiring line, takes too long to transmit a signal, then another circuit structure may not receive the signal in time to perform its intended task.
Accordingly, when designing or testing a microcircuit, it is often important to consider the timing characteristics of various structures in the circuit. Ideally, it would be desirable to determine the timing characteristics that each circuit structure would exhibit during actual operation with an input signal, sometimes referred to as Dynamic Timing Analysis (DTA). For a circuit of some complexity, however, calculating the dynamic timing for each circuit structure can be extremely time-consuming and impractical. Circuit designers and testers therefore will often try to calculate the timing characteristics that a circuit structure will exhibit without an input signal, sometimes referred to as Static Timing Analysis (STA).
For many years, the methodology used to perform Static Timing Analysis treated the electrical loads on a circuit structure as mere lumped capacitors. With the complexity of modern microcircuit devices, however, Static Timing Analysis is now being used to analyze distributed resistive-capacitive (RC) loads, and some versions even account for magnetic coupling and inductance. Typical Static Timing Analysis techniques perform this exacting interconnect analysis using capacitive characterization data for the output of a circuit with a load (hereafter generically referred to as a "cell" for convenience), driver, or active port of a block or subcircuit. More particularly, cell timing values for arbitrary loads are extrapolated from a sequence of measurements or simulations using only capacitive loads. A conventional Static Timing Analysis technique to achieve this extrapolation operates as follows. First, the load circuit or "cell," however sprawling and complex, is replaced by a single, effective capacitance (referred to as Ceff). This value is then used to determine the cell's timing data for capacitive loads. Next, the cell itself is replaced by a Thevenin circuit or other simplified linear model that approximately reproduces the cell's timing behavior at Ceff. Finally, this proxy Thevenin circuit is used to simulate driving the actual load, and the relevant delays and slews for the proxy Thevenin circuit (and thus ideally for the actual cell) are computed.
The accuracy of this replacement strategy, however, depends critically on how well the Thevenin model can replicate the cell's timing behavior. With capacitively loaded circuits, for example, resistive shielding often hides some of the load capacitance, causing the effective capacitance used by the analysis process to be inaccurate. Similarly, the inductance of long connection routes may be significant, and yet may not be accounted for in conventional static timing analysis techniques. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide static time analysis techniques that can more reliably and accurately predict the operating characteristics of a cell.

Osculating models for predicting the operation of a circuit structure


An organic light emitting display device may have a pixel region and a transparent region, and may include a substrate, at least one semiconductor device disposed on the substrate in the pixel region, an organic light emitting structure disposed on the at least one semiconductor device, and a capacitor disposed on the substrate in the transparent region. The capacitor may have a sufficient capacitance without substantially reducing a transmittance of the organic light emitting display device. Additionally, the transparent region of the organic light emitting display device may serve as a mirror in accordance with the material included in a lower electrode of the capacitor and/or an upper electrode of the capacitor.

1. Technical Field
Exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept relate to organic light emitting display devices. More particularly, exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept relate to organic light emitting display devices including capacitors disposed on transparent regions, and method of manufacturing the organic light emitting display devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic light emitting display (OLED) device may display various information such as images or characters by combining electrons provided from a cathode with holes provided from anode in an organic light emitting layer. The organic light emitting display device has been expected as one of promising next generation display devices because the organic light emitting display device has some advantages, for example, a wide view angle, a rapid response speed, a thin thickness, a low power consumption, etc.
Recently, a transparent organic light emitting display device has been rapidly developed. In the transparent organic light emitting display device, an image of an object in the front or the back of a transparent region of the organic light emitting display device may be recognized when the organic light emitting display device is in an "ON" state. In an "OFF" state of the organic light emitting display device, an image may be displayed in a pixel region of the organic light emitting display device using light generated from an organic light emitting layer.
Generally, the transparent organic light emitting display device includes a substrate having a pixel region in which pixels are arranged and a transparent region adjacent to the pixel region, semiconductor devices disposed in the pixel region, a capacitor disposed in the pixel region, peripheral circuits, etc. In the conventional transparent organic light emitting display device, the semiconductor devices and the capacitor are positioned in the pixel region. Here, the capacitor may not have enough area to provide a sufficient capacitance for other elements of the organic light emitting display device.


A multi-node virtual switching system (MVSS) may be provided. A virtual supervisor module (VSM) may be configured onto a network device to serve as a single control point for a network. The VSM may virtualize an interconnection of switches within the network as a virtual fabric and allocate a portion of the network switches to a network domain. The allocated portion of network switches may be represented by the VSM as a single virtualized logical switch. The VSM may then manage the network domain from the single control point.

Virtualizing networking devices and providing single point network management to virtualized networked devices is an emerging challenge facing network providers today. Conventional Virtual Switching Systems (VSS) may virtualize two physical switches into one switch by extending the switching fabric through a point-to-point link, known as a Virtual Switching Link (VSL). The VSL, however, limits conventional VSS to the aggregation of only two switches. Consequently, scaling this conventional model to large networks may limit virtual switching capacity and, in turn, single point network management.


A planar array antenna using a multi-layer substrate having an intermediate layer conductor in a laminated face comprises: four pieces of planar antenna elements disposed at each of geometrically square shaped apexes; first and second slot lines formed in the intermediate layer conductor, and intersecting each other; first to fourth microstrip lines formed along each side of geometrical squares so as to be coupled to each antenna element, and at the same time, electromagnetically coupled to first and second slot lines at both ends of these slot lines; and fifth and sixth microstrip lines, the top end sides thereof traversing the first and second slot lines, respectively, so as to be electromagnetically coupled to the first and second slot lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an array antenna which is used in a frequency band such as a millimeter band, a microwave band, and the like, and uses a planar resonator, and more particularly, to a planar array antenna, which can easily perform transmission and reception of an orthogonal polarization and a circular polarization, and can easily perform transmission and reception at plural frequency bands.
2. Description of the Background Arts
In general, a planar antenna can be easily fabricated and processed, and made compact and light in weight. Hence, It finds wide use in the field of radio communications, satellite broadcasts, and the like. Accompanied by development and diversification of the radio communications in recent years, the planar antenna has been also expected to have high performance and sophisticated features. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,753,817, the present inventors have proposed a multi-element planar antenna, which can share polarization components, and can use a circular polarization.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a conventional multi-element planar antenna. This planar antenna comprises four antenna elements 2a to 2d formed on substrate 1 made from dielectric materials and the like, and a feeding system for these antenna elements. Each of antenna elements 2a to 2d is configured as a planar resonator of a microstrip line type, and is specifically comprised of square resonance conductor 3 provided on one principal surface of substrate 1, and ground conductor 4 formed on an almost entire surface of the other principal surface of substrate 1. The centers of antenna elements 2a to 2d are positioned at each apex of a geometrical square, in the example shown here, a regular square.
The feeding system comprises first to fourth microstrip lines 5, 6, 7 and 8 provided on one principal surface of substrate 1, and first and second slot lines 9 and 10 provided on the other principal surface. First and second slot lines 9 and 10 are formed as slot lines having the same length and being short-circuited at both ends, and extend in mutually orthogonal directions, and at the same time, mutually intersect at the median point thereof. This intersection is equal to the center of the geometrical square. In the figure, first slot line 9 extends in the vertical direction, and second slot line 10 extends in the horizontal direction. That is, slot lines 9 and 10 are formed in the shape of a cross as a whole. As will be described later, four corners formed at a position where slot lines 9 and 10 intersect each other in ground conductor 4 becomes feeding positions for this planar antenna.
Any of microstrip lines 5 to 8 is the same in length, and as a whole, is formed along the side of the regular square. Antenna element 2a at the left above in the figure is connected to the upper end of microstrip line 7 and the left end of microstrip line 5, and is fed at two points from these microstrip lines 7 and 5. Similarly, antenna element 2b at the right above in the figure is connected to the upper end of microstrip line 8 and the right end of microstrip line 5, and antenna element 2d at the left below in the figure is connected to the left end of microstrip line 6 and the lower end of microstrip 7, and antenna element 2c at the right below in the figure is connected to the right end of microstrip line 6 and to the lower end of microstrip line 8. These microstrip lines 5 to 8 are orthogonal to these slot lines 9 and 10 so as to traverse them, respectively, at equally distant positions in the vertical and horizontal directions from the intersection of slot lines 9 and 10, and are electromagnetically coupled to these slot lines. With the guide wavelength corresponding to the antenna design frequency of this planar antenna taken as λ, the top end of each of slot lines 9 and 10 becomes a short-circuit end edge, but it is preferable that the top end is allowed to extend approximately λ/4 in length from the traversing point with the microstrip line. If configured in this manner, in the antenna design frequency, the top end of each of slot lines 9 and 10 electrically functions as an open end seen from the traversing point with the microstrip lines, and in this manner, propagation efficiency from the feeding point to the antenna element through slot lines and microstrip lines is enhanced.
In this planar antenna, each of antenna elements 2a to 2d has a degenerate mode in horizontal and vertical orthogonal directions. The electrical length from the intersection of first and second slot lines 9 and 10 to each of antenna elements 2a to 2d through microstrip lines 5 to 8 is the same.
As described above, in this planar antenna, four corners in ground conductor 4 formed at the position where first and second slot lines 9 and 10 intersect each other become feeding positions fed with high frequency signals. Hence, for the sake of simplicity, these four corners will be referred to as a, b, c, and d clockwise from the left above in the figure.
First, among the four corners in the feeding position, corners a and b located at the upper side of second slot line 10 are made a pair, and corners c and d located at the lower side of second slot line 10 are made another pair, and between corners a and b, and corners c and d, high frequency signals are fed. As a result, in second slot line 10 extending in the horizontal direction, a high frequency component is excited in the electric field direction shown by an arrow. This high frequency component is propagated to both ends of second slot line 10, and electromagnetically couples with the microstrip lines at each median point of third and fourth microstrip lines 7 and 8. Since the conversion from a slot line to a microstrip line is a reverse-phase series branch, the high frequency propagated to microstrip lines 7 and 8 is reversed in electrical field, respectively in the vertical direction in the figure, and is propagated in a reverse phase. While, seen from second slot line 10, antenna elements 2a and 2b at the upper side in the figure and antenna elements 2c and 2d at the lower side in figure are fed with high frequency signals in reverse phase, since the feeding points of the antenna elements are in mirror symmetry, each antenna is excited in-phase. In this case, since the feeding in the vertical direction is made to each of antenna elements 2a to 2d, a vertical polarization is radiated.
Among four corners a, b, c, and d in the intersection of slot lines 9 and 10, if corners a and d located at the left side of first slot line 9 are made a pair, and corners b and c located at the right side of second slot line 9 are also made a pair, and the feeding is made between corners a and d and corners b and c, a high frequency component is excited in first slot line 9 extending in the vertical direction. This high frequency component is propagated from the median points of first and second microstrip lines 5 and 6 to both end sides of these microstrip lines by electromagnetic coupling. At this time, in each of microstrip lines, when seen from the median points thereof, the electric field is reversed, and the high frequency component is distributed in reverse phase in the horizontal direction. As a result, similarly to the aforementioned case, in each of antenna elements 2a to 2d, high frequency is fed in-phase in the horizontal direction, and is radiated as a horizontal polarization from these antenna elements. Here, since the shape of the antenna element is made regular square, the antenna frequency by means of the vertical polarization and the antenna frequency by means of the horizontal polarization correspond to each other.
In the planar array antenna shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, a functional device such as an integrated circuit (IC) and the like is connected to the vicinity of the intersection of first and second slot lines 9 and 10, and if the space between the corners located in the vertical direction or the space between the corners located in the horizontal direction are selected and fed, in other words, if the space between corners a and b, and corners c and d, or the space between corners a and d, and other corners are selected and fed, the vertical polarization or the horizontal polarization can be switchably transmitted by a single array antenna.
Further, according to this planar array antenna, through the feeding between the corners located in a diagonal direction, that is, through the feeding either between corners a and c or between corners b and d, a linear polarization can be transmitted in a direction to tilt 45 degrees in the upper or lower direction, respectively, from the horizontal direction in the figure. Further, through the provision of a delay circuit, it is possible to transmit the circular polarization, and through the change of the shape of each antenna element, a planar array antenna sharing plural antenna frequencies can be configured. It is apparent that, in consideration of reversibility in the antenna, receiving operation is possible also by the reverse action of transmitting operation.
However, in the planar array antenna thus configured, a functional device for feeding is connected to the intersection between first and second slot lines, and for example, a feeding cable is connected so as to extend in the vertical direction to the substrate surface. Hence, the antenna including the feeding cable becomes three-dimensional, and surfaceness or compactness of the antenna is prevented.
Hence, in the above described U.S. Pat. No. 6,753,817, the present inventors have proposed a structure in which a dielectric substrate is also disposed on ground conductor 4 in the planar array antenna shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, and make the antenna into a multi-layer substrate structure, and on the surface of that dielectric substrate, a feeding microstrip line is disposed. Here, ground conductor 4, which becomes an intermediate layer conductor of the multi-layer substrate, is formed with first and second slot lines, and the feeding microstrip line on the dielectric substrate extends till a position corresponding to the intersection of first and second slot lines, and feed these first and second slot lines. Here, through extending the feeding microstrip line in the diagonal direction in the intersection, for example, in the direction to connect corner b and corner d, it is possible to transmit the linear polarization in a direction to tilt 45 degrees to the right from the vertical direction. Through the change of the arrangement of the feeding microstrip lines, the vertical polarization and the horizontal polarization can be transmitted and received.
However, to make such a planar array antenna shareable with the vertical polarization and the horizontal polarization, the feeding microstrip lines must intersect each other on the dielectric substrate. Further, while it is conceivable to provide feeding microstrip lines for first and second slot lines on the principal surface side on which the antenna elements are provided, such feeding microstrip lines intersect any of the first to fourth microstrip lines 5 to 8 which connect between antenna elements 2a to 2d.
Eventually, in the case of the planar array antenna shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, it is difficult to constitute a feeding system by the microstrip lines, while sharing the vertical polarization and the horizontal polarization, and therefore, it is difficult to construct the antenna including the feeding system in a planar manner.


Methods, systems, apparatus, devices for tracking, controlling and providing feedback on droplets used in EUV source technology. The method and system track and correct positions of droplet targets and generated plasma including generating the droplet target or plasma, optically imaging the generated target, determining position coordinates, comparing the position coordinates to a set optimal position to determine if a deviation has occurred and moving the generated target back to the optimal position if the deviation has occurred. The optical imaging step includes activating a light source to image the generated target, the light source is strobed at approximately the same rate as the droplet production to provide illumination of the droplet for stroboscopic imaging. The step of moving is accomplished mechanically by moving the generated target back to the predefined position or electronically under computer control.

EUV lithography (EUVL) is the one of the candidates for Next Generation Lithography (NGL) for microchip fabrication. EUVL is designed for printing those microchips whose minimum feature size is 30 nm or even smaller. To achieve such a small feature size, EUVL utilizes a shorter wavelength of radiation. Like other lithographic systems, EUVL consists of a light source, mask, demagnifying optics, and photoresist on the wafer. To utilize such short wavelengths of radiation in the optical system, no lenses can be used, since most materials absorb these wavelengths. Mirrors must be used throughout. The mirrors for this application are very specialized, consisting of two different materials stacked together in very thin bilayers, known as Multi-layer mirrors (MLMs) or Bragg reflectors. EUVL mirrors are silicon-molybdenum MLMs whose reflectivity peaks at about 13.5 nm. The surface quality and uniformity of these optics must be extremely good due to the short wavelength.
EUVL also requires sufficient light source power and lifetime to reach the required throughput for production. The power requirement, which is determined by the lithographic industry, is being specified in terms of EUV power at the intermediate focus (IF) of the optical system, which is the border between the light source segment and scanning (also called "stepper") segment in the lithographic system. The specified EUV power is 115 W, within 2% bandwidth of 13.5 nm. Also, the lifetime of the light source is required to be 30,000 hours as described in Presented at International Sematech Source workshop, February 2004, Santa Clara, Calif. [1].
The radiation for EUVL is usually generated from a high-temperature plasma. There are two methods of plasma production currently being investigated in this research field: laser plasma (LP) and gas discharge plasma (GDP). Both techniques are capable of creating such high-temperature plasmas. An LP light source consists of a high-power laser, target delivery system, and a vacuum chamber in which the plasma is created. Similarly, GDP consists of a high-power current source, electrodes, and a vacuum chamber. One advantage of LP over GDP is that the material surrounding the plasma is further away in an LP system, which allows a higher repetition rate of the plasma generation in order to reach the EUV light source power requirement. There is also an advantage of LP in terms of collecting useful radiation from the plasma. Due to the extensive electrode structure necessary for GDP, only a part of the radiation can be collected. In other words, the collection solid angle is limited by the electrodes.
LP is produced by a material which is under strong laser irradiation, usually with intensities of more than 1010 W/cm2. A single focusing lens with focal length of a few centimeters can be used for obtaining such a high-intensity laser focus. At these intensities, all of the material within the focus region of the laser beam will be ionized and become a high-temperature plasma. With a suitable material like tin, xenon, or lithium inside the target material, the plasma produces EUV emissions at 13.5 nm.
Many approaches are being investigated for EUVL light sources, such as xenon cluster jet which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,256; xenon filament described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,002,744), tin solid planar target, and others. Droplet target technology is one of the most promising for EUV lithography light sources. The advantage of this target over solid targets or other geometries is the reduced but sufficient mass of the target for EUV radiation. It is then possible to eliminate excess material from the plasma, which would tend to damage the MLM surfaces surrounding the plasma source. This scheme is necessary to achieve the EUVL light source lifetime requirement which is determined by the reflectivity lifetime of the mirror. The mirror reflectivity drops when the number of layers is decreased by ablation of the mirror surface, caused by target material emitted from the plasma. There are several approaches to generate appropriate droplet targets: water-based solution with tin doping as described in M. Richardson, et al. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B, volume 22, number 2, pp 785, (2004) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,862,339, liquid xenon described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,855,943, and liquid lithium described in Presented by Cymer Corp. at 3rd EUVL symposium, November 2004, Miyazaki, Japan.
The targets have to be positioned correctly within the laser focus region to produce a suitable-temperature plasma for EUV radiation. The size of the target ranges from a few tens of microns to possibly a few hundreds of microns where the laser focus region is adjusted to about the same size as the target. The target droplets are generated at high repetition rates, from a few kilohertz to a few tens of kilohertz, and travel at a few tens of meters per second. The laser pulse, with duration of a few nanoseconds to a few tens of nanoseconds, is focused. Any slight displacement of the target within the laser focal region during the laser pulse duration can cause reduced EUV emission. Thus high-precision controls over target positioning are required, both spatially within the laser focal region and temporally within the laser pulse duration.
An open-loop system is a simple approach for controlling the target positioning and laser pulse timing; i.e., a simple synchronization of the electrical signals controlling the droplet targets and laser pulse can be used. However, the generation of the droplet targets depends on many physical parameters of the target material and the orifice of the target supply. For instance, when the temperature of the target material changes, the viscosity of the material changes which leads to a slight change in the velocity of the droplet. Then the synchronization of the target and laser pulse has to be adjusted again. Similarly the physical profile of the orifice changes when the target material is deposited on the orifice over time. This changes the trajectory and stability of the targets. Again the target positioning has to be adjusted. These changes usually occur slowly, especially in long-term operation. In addition, EUVL requires full-time operation to meet the industry's fabrication throughput requirements. Therefore a closed-loop system is necessary to keep the target positioned correctly for best operation.
Several approaches have been published for controlling target positioning and synchronizing the target and the laser pulse. One approach is to generate the target dispensing signal from generated target signals as described in O. Hemberg, B. A. M. Hansson, M. Berglund, and H. M. Hertz, Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 88, pp. 5421-5424 (2000) and in J-Q. Lin, et al. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 5374, pp. 906-911 (2004). However, both approaches are only efficient in one dimension. When droplet trajectory changes by a certain amount the probe laser light no longer produces shadows, making it impossible to trigger the laser pulse. Another approach is to steer the droplet spatially as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,792,076. With a steering actuator, any trajectory change can be compensated, limited by the size and velocity of the actuator. However, the temporal adjustment has to be done separately when the velocity of the droplets changes.

Advanced droplet and plasma targeting system

University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.


An improvement in the properties of etch rate, mechanical stress, and chemical resistance of silicon layers obtained by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition from mixtures of reactive gases such as oxygen and tetraethoxysilane is achieved by adding nitrogen gas to the reactive gas mixture. The addition of nitrogen gas is effective in improving the cited properties of the silicon oxide layers without altering the basic properties of the deposition process or degrading the other desirable properties of the silicon oxide layers in any substantial manner.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of deposition of silicon oxide layers in the fabrication of integrated circuits, and more particularly to a method of oxide deposition resulting in improved uniformity and moisture resistance in the manufacture of integrated circuits.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits, and more specifically those in which silicon is the semiconductor, various uses are made of layers of insulating material. For example, such insulating layers are employed as electrical insulation between conducting layers such as electrical interconnection patterns. Another example is the insulion between the polysilicon gate electrode layers and their various interconnections. Still another example is the use of insulating layers to cover over the circuit structure before final provision of electrical contacts. This latter application is referred to as the passivation layer, For these specific and other applications, use is commonly made of chemically-deposited layers of silicon oxide in which the chemical reaction providing the deposited layer of silicon oxide is often enhanced by an electrical plasma sustained in the reactive gases by a radiofrequency power input.
The silicon oxide layers deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition from silicon-containing gaseous compounds and oxygen afford better coverage over surface topographical features such as steps and edges, but are of inferior quality with respect to etching behaviour and moisture resistance compared to silicon oxide layers obtained from mixtures of silane (SiH4) and oxygen. Such silicon oxide layer properties as etch rate, moisture resistance, and mechanical stress are critical in the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuit devices, especially with respect to manufacturing yield and device reliability. The method of using vapors consisting of silicon-containing compounds such as tetraethoxysilane in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition processes in conjunction with oxygen to deposit silicon oxide layers is described in "SILICON PROCESSING FOR THE VLSI ERA" by S. Wolf, published by Lattice Press, Sunset Beach, Calif. 1990 p. 194-199, but the quality of such silicon oxide layers is generally not as satisfactory with respect to etch rate, moisture resistance, and mechanical stress as are those obtained from silane and oxygen.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company,Ltd.