An ultra shallow junction (USJ) FET device and method for forming the same with improved control over SDE or LDD doped region interfaces to improve device performance and reliability is provided, the method including providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a gate structure comprising a gate dielectric, an overlying gate electrode, and first offset spacers adjacent either side of the gate electrode; forming at least one doped semiconductor layer comprising dopants over a respective source and drain region adjacent the respective first offset spacers; forming second offset spacers adjacent the respective first offset spacers; and, thermally treating the at least one semiconductor layer to cause out-diffusion of the dopants to form doped regions in the semiconductor substrate.

In the integrated circuit industry today, hundreds of thousands of semiconductor devices are built on a single chip. As the size of CMOS transistors, also referred to as MOSFETs, are scaled down, one of the most important challenges facing a device designer are short channel effects (SCE) in reduced gate length devices. For example, short channel effects that influence the electrical operating characteristics of FET devices include VT rolloff, drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL), subthreshold swing degradation, gate to drain overlap capacitance and current (diode) leakage characteristics. Short channel effects (SCE) are a function of several processing effects including width and depth of S/D regions and S/D region dopant concentration.
For example, since SCE is related to the junction depth (xj), shallower junction depths can improve device operating characteristics. However, an off-setting consideration as junction depths decrease is the increase in the S/D parasitic resistance which has several components including the resistance of the source/drain extension (SDE) region and the resistance of conductive portions over the source/drain regions. As the junction depth decreases to reduce SCE, increased dopant concentrations are required to offset an increase in parasitic resistance to avoid degradation of device performance.
To overcome some of the short channel effects (SCE) as device sizes are scaled down, including leakage current (diode leakage), proposed solutions have included providing raised S/D regions by raising up the S/D contact surface by selective epitaxial silicon growth (SEG) over the S/D contact regions. While diode leakage has been shown to be reduced by this process, other shortcomings remain, including achieving shallower junction depths while preserving low S/D and SDE resistances. For example, gate to drain overlap capacitance is strongly affected by lateral diffusion of the doped S/D and SDE regions, which is increasingly difficult to control by conventional ion implantation and thermal diffusion processes. For example, carrying out a process to form raised S/D structures following doping of the S/D regions contributes an additional thermal process which can undesirably increase the lateral diffusion thereby increasing gate to drain overlap capacitance and degrading device performance.
In addition, ion implantation to form ultra-shallow junctions, for example less than about 300 Angstroms, is increasingly difficult to control. For example higher dopant implant concentrations are required to avoid an increase in parasitic resistances at shallower junction depths. While reducing the ion implant energy may result in shallower junctions, the higher required dopant concentration required contributes to significant semiconductor substrate damage including forming amorphous or disordered lattice regions.
Consequently, in the thermal activation process, or in subsequent thermal processes carried out following ion implantation and activation, localized ion implanted damaged regions experience higher dopant diffusion rates, leading to poorly defined dopant region interfaces, which contributes to both increased junction depths and increased lateral diffusion into the channel region below the gate. As a result, SCE effects are increased, including increased gate to drain overlap capacitance and current leakage thereby degrading device performance and reliability.
There is therefore a continuing need in the MOSFET device design and processing art to develop new device designs and processing methods for forming MOSFET devices to achieved reduced short channel effects (SCE) while avoiding degradation of device performance and reliability.
It is therefore among the objects of the present invention to provide an improved MOSFET device and a process for forming the same to achieved reduced short channel effects (SCE) while avoiding degradation of device performance and reliability, in addition to overcoming other shortcomings of the prior art.

Ultra shallow junction formation by solid phase diffusion

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A backrest assembly includes an annular front frame having a front surface on which inner and outer annular flanges are formed, defining a first annular groove therebetween. A plurality of pegs is formed in the annular groove. A net is mounted in front of the front frame in a tightened state and includes a plurality of peg holes. A periphery of the net covers the outer annular flange of the front frame and is received in the first annular groove. Each peg of the front frame extends through one of the peg holes. Inner and annular wall are formed on a front face of an annular rear frame and define a second annular groove therebetween. A plurality of stubs is formed in the second annular groove. Each stub includes a receptacle receiving one of the pegs. Fasteners are extended through engaging holes in the front and rear frames.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backrest assembly and, more particularly, to a back assembly that is reliable, durable, and easy to assemble.
2. Description of the Related Art
A backrest of a chair provides a support for a back of a user sitting in the chair. For venting purposes, the backrest is provided with a net. FIGS. 8 and 9 show a conventional backrest with a net. Specifically, the backrest includes an annular frame 1′ made of rigid material and having a plurality of fixing holes 11′. A flexible net 2′ is fixed by nails 3′ to an engaging portion 12′ on a front side of the frame 1′ to tighten the net 2′. A cover 4′ having a shape corresponding to the frame 1′ is mounted to the front side of the frame 1′. The cover 4′ includes a plurality of coupling holes 41′ aligned with the fixing holes 11′. Screws 5′ are extended through the fixing holes 11′ and the coupling holes 41′ to fix the cover 4′ and the frame 1′ together while providing a quality appearance from a front side of the backrest.
However, when a user lies against the backrest, the lying force is imparted to the nails 3′. Some of the nails 3′ are liable to loose when the lying force is large or not applied to a center of the backrest. Furthermore, the net 2′ can not be maintained in its tightened state. Further, the fixing holes 11′ and the screws 5′ can be viewed from the rear side of the backrest, adversely affecting the appearance. Further, recycling of the backrest is not easy due to difficulties in removing the nails 3′ before separating the net 2′ from the frame 1′.


A device and process to allow remote receipt and placement of Internet Telephony connections (calls) using emulation of traditional POTS telephone service through a combination of software and a specialized cordless handset appliance. The system allows ringing and answering of inbound calls, dialing of outbound numbers, and signaling of handset status, as well as traditional telephony capabilities such as memory dialing, redial and radio channel controls. Voice control of dialing may also be implemented under software control. This system is easily adapted for operation with most PC based Internet Telephony software systems.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of Internet Telephony, and in particular, the emulation of POTS call placement and receipt using a specialized remote cordless telephone handset.
2. Background Information
The recent surge in Internet Telephony software and infrastructure creation has provided the public with the ability to make and receive voice calls from a PC to other PC's and telephones. More advanced systems such as the Trident™ system developed by Pagoo also allow inbound calling from a telephone to a user PC, and similar services are expected to appear in the near future from ITXC and other Internet Telephony Service Providers. Current systems rely on audio ringing via speakers or other sound card/DSP based devices to play a ringing sound that notifies the user of an inbound call.
This has created the situation where even with volume set high, a user is required to stay within audio range of their computer to receive a call, and then quickly reduce the volume as the call is accepted, or alternatively, stay in front of the computer at any time a call is expected. There is currently no way to remotely answer an inbound call, or dial without replacing the entire PC sound system with a custom device. Even such custom devices attempt to interface a standard two wire telephone, creating the problem of echo, which most DSP based processing cannot fully eliminate. Additionally, operating a PC with multiple sound devices such as a Voice modem, Sound Card, and telephone adapter can cause massive user confusion as PC standard audio must now be mapped to the proper device for each use. The best example is the standard WAV file, which may be music, game sound effects, a Windows alert sound, Internet Telephony Voice or an Internet Telephony "Ring". Mapping of a WAV file to the correct device and maintaining those mappings is usually beyond an average user's capability, and automated mapping often has unintended and undesirable results. USB based solutions which also add an additional sound system suffer from some of the same issues, and are additionally limited by the USB specification to approximately 12 ft. range from the computer.


The invention relates to a reflective display panel (9), comprising a plurality of pixels (10, 11a b), each having a modulative portion (15, 16a-b) which is controllable between light-modulation states, and a non-modulative portion (17, 18). The reflective display panel (9) comprises a redirection sheet (14) having a plurality of redirecting structures (19, 20) each being configured to redirect ambient light incident thereon towards an adjacent modulative portion (15, 16a-b). Through the invention, the portion of the light which would otherwise have hit the non-modulative portion of the pixel and would not have contributed constructively to the image forming of the display panel is instead directed towards the modulative portion of the pixel and can thereby contribute to the brightness as well as to the contrast of the reflective display panel.

Flat panel displays of various kinds are presently the displays of choice for a variety of applications, ranging from full-size television screens to minute displays in hand-held devices. To accommodate all of these diverse applications, various types of flat panel displays have been developed and are being developed, utilizing various image-forming technologies, such as liquid crystal technology, electrowetting, electrophoresis and electrochromism.
For applications where power consumption is the main concern, reflective displays, not requiring a backlight in order to display an image, are generally used. In a reflective display, light incident on the display is reflected differently in different areas of the display and an image thereby becomes visible to the user.
Generally, each pixel in a reflective display has a modulative portion, which can be switched between reflection states in a controllable way, and a non-modulative portion, which does not constructively contribute to the modulation of the light.
For example, in the case of an active-matrix reflective liquid crystal display (LCD), each pixel may be individually addressed and activated through applying a voltage over a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between two electrode layers. In order to drive individual pixels, a pixel electrode is typically connected to drive circuitry, which is normally implemented in the same plane as the pixel electrode.
In the case of such an LCD, the non-modulative portion of each pixel includes the drive circuitry implemented in the same plane as the reflective electrode layer, pixel selection lines and so on.
Traditionally, the non-modulative portions of pixels in a reflective display have been shielded by a black mask. Light incident in the black mask portions cannot contribute to the brightness and/or contrast of the display. This leads to a loss in brightness and/or contrast of the display, which is especially serious for low ambient light conditions.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,750, a liquid crystal display is disclosed in which this problem is addressed through forming a reflective light shielding layer in order to shield the drive circuitry from incoming light and reflect light incident on the light shielding layer covering the pixel drive circuitry. The light shielding layer according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,750 is disposed in the same plane as the reflective electrode layer and bumps are formed on the light shielding layer as well as on the reflective electrode layer in order to redirect obliquely incident light towards a direction vertical to the display.
Although the brightness of the display disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,750 may be improved compared to the traditional black mask technology, the contrast would appear to be unaffected or even adversely affected.

Reflective display panel and method for manufacturing such a display panel


A direct current voltage conversion device includes a direct current to alternating current converter, a transformer, a first converter switch, a second converter switch and a clamping circuit. The clamping circuit clamps a voltage across the second converter switch to a preset value, and stores energy of a voltage peak across the second converter switch.

A voltage peak of a rectifier at a secondary-side of a direct current voltage conversion device is an important factor affecting the conversion efficiency and reliability of the direct current voltage conversion device. Energy of the voltage peak results mainly from energy of a parasitic capacitor(s) of the rectifier during charging, and a reverse recovery energy of the rectifier. Conventional clamp circuits used in a direct current voltage conversion device, such as RC damping (absorbing) circuits, and RCD damping (absorbing) circuit, are not able to clamp the voltage peak of the rectifier at a secondary-side to an ideal voltage value. Furthermore, such conventional clamp circuit is not highly reliable, resulting in the need to select a rectifier of a high voltage grade in order for the rectifier of a direct current voltage conversion device to endure voltages higher than the ideal voltage value. However, a rectifier of a high voltage grade may cost more, and may have a high turn-on resistance, which causes high power loss that decreases an overall conversion efficiency of the direct current voltage conversion device.

Direct current voltage conversion device and clamping circuit


The invention is a packaging bag for storing contents such as coffee beans and MISO (fermented soybean paste) that breathe and produce gas, which is capable of controlling oxidization of the contents during storage as well as venting the gas produced inside the bag. The body of the packaging bag includes a vent line formed on a part thereof and a synthetic resin film layer provided along the vent line; wherein the film layer contains particles made of a material that does not melt at the melting point of the film layer, and is drawn to be stretched. In the bag thus constructed, fine interstices are formed as ventholes adjacent to each particles in the thickness direction of the film layer so as to allow the gas inside the bag to be vented therethrough, when the bag expands with the gas produced by the contents through their breathing and the pressure inside the bag reaches a certain level.

As a bag for packaging coffee beans or MISO (fermented soybean paste), those provided with venthole portions so as to degas them have been well known.
When the contents are coffee beans, it is enough to provide the bag with venthole portions of which size is smaller than that of coffee beans. However, when the content is MISO, the location of venthole portions should be carefully determined so that MISO may not be spilled through such venthole portions. And it has been a problem that for a bag for packaging MISO, it should be provided with venthole portions exclusively at its top, in addition, it should be stored and displayed with their venthole portions facing upwards. Further, though coffee beans and MISO should be stored being prevented from oxygen as much as possible, if the size of the venthole portions are too large, oxygen outside the bag easily flows in the bag and oxidizes the contents.


In switch-capacitor systems for extremely low supply voltage, employing a fully differential switched op-amp, proper functioning of nMOS switches coupled to the inverting input node of an integrated stage capable of outputting a common mode control signal is made possible by retaining the ground potential on the input node to prevent body effects on the threshold of nMOS switches by means of an auxiliary switched capacitor.

Switched-capacitor circuits are widely used for signal processing because of their low distortion and because they are simple to integrate. Filters of may types can be realized with switched-capacitor circuits. In battery powered integrated circuits, or more generally when designing for low voltage supply and low power consumption, there exists the need for the circuits to function at extremely low voltages, such as down to about 1.5 V. Under these conditions it is difficult to efficiently drive the switches, which are most commonly provided by field effect (FET) transistors, usually MOSFETs.
Indeed, when the power supply is lowered down to levels comparable to those of the threshold voltage of the devices, the classical switched-capacitor structures as shown in the left hand portion of FIG. 1, may lose their effectiveness rapidly. To guarantee a correct functioning of the input switch S1 whose overdrive voltage depends upon the input signal, the operating voltage swing of the circuit should be limited.
A proposed solution to this problem that would ensure a high conductance under any input signal condition of the switches, and in particular of the input switch S1, rests on realizing the switches with low voltage threshold devices or on employing dedicated clock voltage multiplier circuits integrated in the device (voltage boosters) to overdrive the switches. This second approach, while overcoming the burden of having to diversify the manufacturing process to realize low threshold devices, unfortunately requires the integration of dedicated voltage boosters.
An alternative solution is based on the use of a switching structure called a "Switched Op-Amp" that is represented substantially by an operational amplifier, as is disclosed in the article: "Switched-Opamp, an approach to Realize Full CMOS Switched-Capacitor Circuits at Very Low Power Supply Voltages" by Jan Crols and Michel Steyaert, Journal of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 25, No. 8, August 1994, pages 936-942. According to this article, the proposed approach for ensuring a high conductance of the switches under any signal condition, and in particular of the input switch S1, rests upon substituting the MOSFET that is conventionally used as an input switch with a switched op-amp, driven ON and OFF through a switch. The other switches of the switched-capacitor structure may be realized with single n-channel or p-channel transistors without necessarily resorting to CMOS structures.
In the prior U.S. patent application No. 94830318.5, filed on Jun. 24, 1994, by the same assignee, whose content is herein incorporated by way of reference, there is described a low consumption switched-capacitor circuit employing an input switch, and a switched op-amp architecture. According to a preferred embodiment described in the previous patent application, the architecture of the switched op-amp is fully differential (that is, having a differential output). This doubles the voltage swing and offers the possibility of inverting the sign of the output signals by simply crossing the signal paths.
In this type of application, as well as in any other application involving a fully differential operational amplifier, it is necessary to implement a common mode control. The control of the common mode in a fully differential op-amp is carried out by sensing the common mode voltage at the amplifier's outputs and by applying such a signal, eventually filtered through a low-pass filter, such as an integrating stage, to a common mode input present in any differential output operational amplifier.
The known circuits for sensing and controlling the common mode in switched-capacitor circuits functioning at a relatively low supply voltage would require a supply voltage higher than the minimum voltage required for the proper functioning of the differential op-amp circuit which, as stated in the above noted references, may be equal to VTH+2V.sub.ov. For this reason the known circuits used for common mode control cannot be used in switched op-amp structures for functioning at extremely low supply voltages.

Common mode control circuit for a switchable fully differential Op-AMP


A system in which drooping of the video levels due to leakage currents and proper DC bias level is addressed by providing a charge into the video signal to offset the leakage currents and to provide DC bias. To determine the leakage current level, measurements are made measuring the voltages of the syncs and the blanking intervals. To determine the DC bias, a measurement is made of the sync. Over a series of video lines these measurements are averaged. If the average is below the desired level, a charge is provided via a current source to the incoming signal. By having the current source provide charge during each video line, droop is reduced and the proper DC bias is provided.

1. Field of the Inventions
The inventions generally relates to video decoders, and more specifically to input video signal shaping, and even more specifically to providing constant video signal levels.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a large surge in the use of digital video devices today. Examples include: digital televisions, LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) TVs and monitors, DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) recorders, personal video recorders, PC (Personal Computers) video cards, video capture and streaming applications, and video conferencing. In many cases, these units need to receive an analog video signal, which may be one of the composite signals, such as NTSC (National Television Standards Committee), PAL (Phase Alternating Line) or SECAM (Sequential Couleur Avec Mémoire); s-video; component video or RGD (Red, Green, Blue). It is then desirable to produce the proper digital output, such as eight or ten bit ITU-R BT 656. It is preferred that all the video decoding be done in a single chip for all of these formats. The decoder not only has to handle composite signals, which means it must be able to determine the chroma and luma values, but it also must handle vertical blanking interval (VBI) data and handle VCR signals, which may be unstable signals.
In many cases, the actual signal level being received will droop over time due to various leakage currents. This droop will result in the signal effectively getting darker, i.e., having less amplitude or less luminance. It is very desirable, of course, that the picture remain at a constant brightness level as compared to the transmission level, and therefore, it would be desirable if some way to address the drooping was developed.
Because the composite video signal is usually AC coupled into the decoder, a DC bias level of the internal signal must be developed. If this DC bias level is not correct, all brightness values will be incorrect. It is very desirable, of course, that the picture remain at the proper brightness level as compared to the transmission level, and therefore, it would be desirable to provide the proper DC bias level.

Method and apparatus to interface video signals to a decoder to compensate for droop


An adaptor for using a mini-sized memory card in an appliance having a slot for a regular-sized memory card is provided. This adaptor is formed with a base and a cover made of a resin material, a plurality of electrically conductive members fixed to the base so as to electrically contact a plurality of I/O terminals of the memory card in the adapter, and a metal shell held between the base and the cover. A memory-card storage room is provided by a space surrounded by the metal shell and the base. By use of the metal shell, it is possible to improve rigidity of the adaptor, obtain a reliable compatibility, and prevent that the thin, mini-sized memory card is damaged.

Memory cards such as SD memory card and multi media card (MMC) are becoming increasingly common in digital cameras, laptop computers and mobile phones, which place importance on portability and power consumption. In addition, as these electronic appliances are further downsized, a thinner compact mini memory card such as mini SD memory card is proceeding toward commercialization. To use such a mini memory card in an electronic appliance having a slot for a conventional regular-sized memory card, an adaptor is needed, which can accommodate the mini memory card therein, and be electrically and mechanically connected to the slot for the regular-sized memory card.
For example, Japanese Patent Early Publication [kokai] No. 11-3405 discloses an adaptor used to connect a memory card to a slot for another standard memory card. This adaptor is mainly composed of a frame with a pair of arms and a coupling piece, circuit board having a conductive pattern, and a pair of upper and lower metal covers. The frame is a synthetic resin product manufactured by injection molding. The circuit board is formed by printing a wiring pattern on an insulating material such as a phenol resin. One end of the conductive pattern is electrically connected to a plurality of terminals of the memory card inserted in the adaptor, and the opposite end of the conductive pattern is electrically connected to a plurality of terminals of the electronic appliance when the adaptor is inserted in the memory card slot. The frame mounting the circuit board thereon is held between the metal covers.
In this adaptor, the memory card is supported by the pair of arms of the frame made of a resin material. Although the arms are reinforced by the upper and lower metal covers, warpage or deformation of the arms of the resin material easily occurs. For example, when it is used as an adaptor for a thin mini memory card, the mini memory card may be damaged. In addition, since surfaces other than both side limbs of the memory card inserted in the adaptor are exposed, there is a fear that the exposed surfaces are grasped by mistake to eject the adaptor from the slot of the electronic appliance. In such a case, the thin mini memory card may be damaged. Thus, the conventional adaptor structure is not sufficiently considered as the adaptor for the thin compact mini memory card in view of its rigidity, and therefore has still plenty of room for improvement.


A spectrometer recognizes a measurement target on the basis of the spectral data set of observed light detected by a spectral sensor capable of measuring wavelength information and light intensity information. The spectrometer is provided with a spectral data processor. Spectral data sets are detected at two different positions by the spectral sensor, and the processor subtracts a first spectral data set from a second spectral data set, or divides the first spectral data set by the second spectral data set to calculate one phase correlation spectral data set, which is correlated to the spectral data sets at the two different positions. The processor simultaneously identifies the measurement target corresponding to the two different positions on the basis of the correlation spectral data set.

In recent years, efforts have been made toward practical use of a technique for recognizing a measurement target that is measured by a spectral sensor and exists in the surrounding environment of the spectral sensor from multispectral data including a visible light region and an invisible light region, and providing various kinds of support in accordance with the recognized measurement target or its state. For example, for vehicles such as automobiles, a drive support device has been examined for practical application that recognizes pedestrians or other vehicles that exist in the surrounding traffic environment of the vehicle based on spectral data measured by a spectral sensor mounted on the vehicle, and supports driving or decision-making of the driver.
Since spectral sensors are designed to measure a spectrum of a reflected light reflected on a measurement target, the spectrum measured by a spectral sensor is directly affected by the spectrum of ambient light radiated to the measurement target. Such ambient light includes solar light and illumination light, which radiates to the measurement target. The spectrum of the ambient light varies under influence of the weather, the brightness around the measurement target, and objects and the like that exist around the measurement target. Therefore, in order to recognize a measurement target based on the spectrum of the reflected light, it is difficult to improve accuracy in recognizing the measurement target, unless the influence of the ambient light radiated to the measurement target is taken into consideration.
Therefore, conventionally, techniques for reducing the influence of ambient light included in spectrum of reflected light have been proposed, and Patent Document 1 describes one example. The spectrometer described in Patent Document 1 includes a spectral sensor for measuring a reflected light spectrum of a measurement target for each pixel; a spectral sensor for detecting a measured ambient light spectrum of a target to be measured in a measurement environment, and calculating means for calculating a spectral reflectance distribution of the measurement target from the reflected light spectrum and the measured ambient light spectrum of these measurement targets. Further, the spectrometer of Patent Document 1 includes a spectral sensor for detecting a reproduced ambient light spectrum in a reproduction environment, spectrum converting means for converting the measurement target to a spectrum at the time of measuring it based on the reproduced ambient light spectrum, and reproducing means for reproducing the converted spectrum. Thus, an influence of the measured ambient light spectrum included in the reflected light spectrum of the measurement target can be removed, and the influence of the reproduced ambient light spectrum can be taken into consideration. Accordingly, the colors of the measurement target measured in the measurement environment can be reproduced with fidelity.


Systems and methods are described herein that provide a mobile push notification system that sends notifications to various types of mobile devices using a single cloud based interface. One example embodiment includes a registration logic configured to receive device data from a mobile device. A record of the device data is stored in a database. A token generator creates a registration token that identifies the mobile device. The registration logic is facilitates communication between the mobile device and a vendor service when the registration token is received from the mobile device.

Mobile devices such as handheld computing devices use an operating system (OS) to run various types of application software, commonly referred to as applications or apps. Applications are available through application distribution platforms, which are typically operated by the vendor of the OS such as APPLE, ANDROID, GOOGLE, WINDOWS. The user of the mobile device may subscribe to various types of information to be received by the applications as notifications. Applications receive notifications generated by a publisher associated with the application. The notifications can be received by periodically polling the publisher. Push notifications are initiated by the publisher and are sent immediately through an open connection.
The push notifications sent by the publisher are designed specifically for the OS of the mobile device. Thus, each application uses a separate notification interface for each mobile OS. Each application also has to register multiple security certificates with the different OS vendors. Therefore, if a publisher has ten applications, the publisher develops ten different interfaces and registers ten security certificates with each mobile OS vendor. This requires substantial infrastructure to generate multiple notifications and security certificates for each OS vendor as well as time, effort, and maintenance.


Methods and systems for phase shifting include a hybrid quadrature coupler having an input, an output, and two termination loads. Each termination load includes multiple terminations, each termination having a varactor; and one or more transmission lines separating the terminations. A control module is configured to determine a phase shift and gain to apply to the input and to independently control a capacitance of each varactor such that the output of the hybrid quadrature coupler is shifted by the determined phase shift relative to the input with the determined gain.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to phase shifters and, more particularly, to providing variable loads for reflection-type phase shifters.
Description of the Related Art
Directional transmitters and receivers allow signals to be transmitted and received to/from specific directions while attenuating signals to/from other directions. Electronic steering of the preferred direction of the signal beam can be accomplished by using multiple transmitters and receivers with variable phase shift capability. Electronic variation of the phase shift results in steering the beam direction.
Typical beam steering applications need precise control of the beam pattern, both in the peak angle as well as in filtering. This uses amplitude control as well as variable phase shift in each transmitter/receiver element. To simplify pattern generation, amplitude control is separated from phase control. Such separation needs a relatively constant loss or gain in the variable phase shifter across phase shift values. Conventional phase shifters often use varactors to provide a variation in phase shift values, but varactors often vary in quality and factor and loss with the value of the capacitance. As such, implementing a termination for a reflection-type phase shifter using varactors leads to losses that vary with the phase shift. While an amplifier may be used to compensate for these losses, using active components defeats part of the purpose of using a reflection-type phase shifter.

Variable load for reflection-type phase shifters

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A camera includes a ferromagnetic member, which is formed of a ferromagnetic material into one of a plate shape and a film shape, and arranged between a coil and an imaging element so that a part of a flat surface is opposed to the coil. The ferromagnetic member has a thickness that is less than a skin depth, which is determined by a drive frequency of a coil, magnetic permeability of the ferromagnetic material, and electric conductivity of the ferromagnetic material. Accordingly, with the ferromagnetic member having a smaller thickness than before, an amount of arrival by which magnetic flux generated at the coil arrives at the imaging element may be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology of suppressing superimposition of magnetic field noise generated from a coil, which is implemented in an imaging apparatus main body or an interchangeable lens, on an imaging element.
2. Description of the Related Art
An imaging element to be mounted in an imaging apparatus such as a digital camcorder or a digital still camera has increased in ISO sensitivity in recent years, thereby being capable of imaging a more clear image even in a scene where a sufficient amount of light is unavailable, such as a night view. However, an increase in sensitivity gives rise to a problem in that small noise, which has not heretofore been a problem, affects the imaging element so as to cause an image disturbance.
For example, in a digital single lens reflex camera, a motor with a coil for driving a lens is provided in an interchangeable lens, and magnetic flux generated from the coil may affect the imaging element to cause the disturbance in the generated image.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-54643, there is disclosed a structure in which a plate-like or film-like conductive member, which is made of a non-magnetic material and has an opening, is provided around the imaging element. When magnetic field noise due to high-frequency electromagnetic waves from the outside, variations in magnetic field, and the like is input into the imaging element, an eddy current flows through the conductive member. In this Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-54643, the magnetic field noise from the outside is cancelled by a demagnetizing field generated by the eddy current, to thereby reduce the magnetic field noise that is input into the imaging element.
In general, a skin depth d caused by a skin effect is expressed by: skin depth d=√(1/(π·f·σ·μ)), where f is a frequency, μ is magnetic permeability, and σ is electric conductivity. When a thickness of the conductive member formed of the non-magnetic material is less than the skin depth d, the thickness is small but the eddy current that flows through the conductive member is insufficient. As a result, the effect of cancelling the magnetic field noise is small, and the magnetic field noise penetrates through the conductive member to be input into the imaging element, which affects the picked-up image. Therefore, in order to allow enough eddy current to flow through the conductive member and in order to obtain the effect of cancelling the magnetic field noise by the demagnetizing field generated by the eddy current, the thickness of the conductive member needs to be the skin depth d or more.
As described above, with the conductive member described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-54643, the thickness needs to be the skin depth or more, and because the non-magnetic material has relative magnetic permeability of about 1, the thickness of the conductive member is inevitably increased. Therefore, in order to obtain the effect of cancelling the magnetic field noise by the conductive member while avoiding interference with another member, the imaging apparatus and the interchangeable lens have inevitably increased in size.
In view of the above, the present invention is directed to reducing an amount of arrival by which magnetic flux generated at a coil arrives at an imaging element by a ferromagnetic member having a smaller thickness than before.

Imaging apparatus and interchangeable lens


A new and unique x Mangave plant named ‘Bridal Falls’ characterized by a medium mound of broad, fleshy, longitudinally folded, medium green foliage having a broad creamy-white margin and minty-green intermediate zone. The leaves cascade or arch downward toward the apices. Foliage displays faint spots that in low ultraviolet light are dark green in the leaf centers or purplish-pink in the margins. The new plant is suitable for the garden or as a potted plant in the garden or home.

The present invention relates to the new and distinct x Mangave hybrid plant, x Mangave 'Bridal Falls' discovered by the inventor at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA as an uninduced whole plant mutation of x Mangave 'Falling Waters' U.S. Plant Pat. No. 30,650 on Oct. 4, 2019. Through trials at the same nursery the plant was assigned the breeder code 19-SP-MANG-895. The new plant has been successfully asexually propagated by sterile shoot-tip tissue culture at the same nursery in Zeeland, Mich. and been found to produce stable and identical plants that maintain all the unique characteristics of the original plant.
No plants of x Mangave 'Bridal Falls' have been sold, under this or any name, in this country or anywhere in the world, prior to the filing of this application, nor has any disclosure of the new plant been made prior to the filing of this application.


Methods of enhancing the solubility of a fluorinated compound in an organic solvent are provided. In one embodiment, carbon dioxide gas pressure is applied to the solvent at a pressure effective to enhance the solubility of the fluorinated compound. The method may further include recrystallizing the fluorinated compound by reducing the pressure of the carbon dioxide gas. Also provided are methods of conducting a reaction using a fluorinated compound in an organic solvent. In one embodiment, the method comprises applying carbon dioxide pressure to an organic solvent comprising at least one substrate and a fluorinated catalyst, in an effective amount to solubilize the catalyst; and permitting the fluorinated catalyst to catalyze the reaction of the substrate to form a product. The catalyst is optionally separated from the reaction product and solvent after the reaction by the release of the pressure.

Fluorous biphasic catalysis methods have been described in the art. A review of fluorous phase separation techniques in catalysis is described in de Wolf et al., Chem. Soc. Rev. 28(1): 37-41(1999); Hope and Stuart, J. Fluorine Chem., 100(1-2): 75-83 (1999); Fish, R. H., Chem. Eur. J, 5:1677-1680 (1999); and Barthel-Rosa and Gladysz, Coord. Chem. Rev., 192: 587-605 (1999). Fluorous biphasic catalysis is a method of homogeneous catalysis that allows the catalyst and the products to be separated after the reaction. In this scheme, shown in FIG. 1, a highly fluorinated catalyst is dissolved in a highly fluorinated solvent (the fluorous solvent) and organic reagents are dissolved in a traditional organic liquid. The two liquid solutions are placed together, and the reaction takes place, often requiring heating and stirring. After the reaction, the organic products are removed by pipetting off the organic liquid solution. The catalyst remains in the fluorous liquid. Unfortunately, the fluorous solvents used as the lower liquid phase are usually volatile, environmentally damaging and expensive to replace. An example of fluorous biphasic catalysis is the fluorous biphase hydroformylation of olefins as described in Horváth and Rabai (1994), Science 266(5182): 72-75.
Supercritical antisolvent precipitation, in which a solid compound is dissolved in an organic solvent and then made to precipitate as a fine powder by the rapid addition of carbon dioxide gas, has been described in Reverchon, E., J. Supercrit. Fluids, 15: 1-21 (1999); Bertucco, A., "Precipitation and crystallization techniques" in Chemical Synthesis using Supercritical Fluids; Jessop and Leitner, Eds.; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 1999, pp 108-126; and Field et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 122, 2480-2488 (2000). The article by Field also described a somewhat slower addition of carbon dioxide gas in order to obtain very small crystals of the solid compound.
Methods of synthesis and separation in which organic/fluorous phase separation techniques are used to effect separations, and compositions of matter comprising fluorous Si, Sn and Ge compounds are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,156,896; 6,376,676; 6,372,906; 5,777,121; and 5,859,247.
Crystallizing under gas pressure, in which an organic compound is made to melt by the addition of carbon dioxide pressure and then is made to crystallize by the slow release of the carbon dioxide, is described in Freund and Steiner, Crystallization under Gas Pressure" in High Pressure Engineering, von Rohr and Trepp, Eds., Elsevier Science B. V. (1996). This technique is limited to those few compounds which can be made to melt by carbon dioxide pressure at moderate temperatures. The growth of crystals from supercritical carbon dioxide or related fluids is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,846; Tai and Cheng, AIChE Journal, 41:2227-2236 (1995). In this technique, an organic compound such as naphthalene is dissolved in supercritical carbon dioxide and then made to crystallize by slow release of the carbon dioxide pressure. The observation that highly fluorinated metal complexes have good solubility in supercritical carbon dioxide was described in Laintz et al., J. Supercritical Fluids, 4:194-198 (1991). The observation that highly fluorinated surfactants have good solubility in carbon dioxide is described in Consani, K. A. and Smith, R. D., J. Supercrit. Fluids, 1990, 3: 51-65 (1990). Polymerization of styrene in solutions with compressed carbon dioxide as antisolvent is described in Liu et al., J. Supercritical Fluids, 20:171-176 (2001).
Fluorous solvents are disadvantageous because of their long lifetime in the environment, high cost, and contribution to the greenhouse effect. It would be advantageous if the use of fluorous solvents could be avoided in solvation, recrystallization and catalytic reaction techniques using fluorinated compounds.

Methods for solubilizing and recovering fluorinated compounds

The Regents of the University of California


A double-row four-point contact ball bearing 100 according to the present invention includes an outer ring 102, an inner ring 104, and balls 106 and 108 that are arranged in two rows between the outer ring 102 and the inner ring 104 and each have four contact points. Inner side contact angles α of the balls 106 and 108 arranged in the two rows are set such that lines of action L1 and L2 that extend respectively connecting center points of the balls 106 and 108 and contact points of the balls do not cross each other in the outer ring 102.

Tapered roller bearings that have high rigidity have been conventionally used in portions of vehicles, machines, etc. that are exposed to a relatively large load, such as a pinion shaft of a differential gear (final reduction gear) of an automobile. Since the rotating torque of a tapered roller bearing is large, recent years have seen many cases where ball bearings with improved rigidity are used instead of tapered roller bearings to reduce loss. For example, in Patent Document 1, the applicant of the present invention proposed a double-row four-point contact ball bearing that is capable of effectively taking on a radial load and an axial load.

Double-row four-point contact ball bearing


According to one embodiment, a method involves determining whether a wireless connection between a first access point and a wireless station has failed. If so, a partial scanning process is conducted only on a subset of communication channels over which data is transmitted by access points neighboring the first access point. The subset of communication channels, inclusive of zero, is determined by analysis of a scanning history database.

The ability of users to access programs and share data over local area networks (referred to as "LANs") has become a necessity for most working environments. To improve efficiency and ease of use, certain enhancements such as mobile wireless access may be added to transform a LAN into a wireless LAN (WLAN). Commonly, WLANs are adapted to support wireless communications in accordance with the current Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. Herein, the "current IEEE 802.11 standard" represents the original 802.11 standard developed in 1997 as well as any or all enhancement standards already ratified (e.g., IEEE 802.11a/b/g/d/h/i).
For instance, in accordance with the current IEEE 802.11 communication standard, a wireless mobile device conducts a scanning process before it associates, namely establishes an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Layer 2 wireless link, with an access point (AP). This scanning may be conducted actively or passively through the detection of beacons for example. The scanning process is conducted quite frequently, typically when the mobile device needs to establish or re-establish communications with an AP in response to an event such as a power-down, dropout, or even general roaming where the mobile device needs to move from one AP to another AP. At this time, the mobile device conducts a scanning process in order to identify available candidate APs and to receive information concerning these APs. Based on this information and some local policies, the mobile device will select one AP and try to associate with the selected AP.
More specifically, in accordance with the current IEEE 802.11 standard, the conventional active scanning process involves the mobile device switching to a first channel (Channel 1), sending a PROBE REQUEST message and waiting for PROBE RESPONSE messages from neighboring APs. Thereafter, the mobile device switches to a second channel (Channel 2), sends another PROBE REQUEST message and waits for PROBE RESPONSE messages. The mobile device repeats the process until all of the channels have been scanned. For current IEEE 802.11b communications operating in the North American allocated frequency band, eleven (11) channels are scanned while current IEEE 802.11a communications involve twenty (20) channels.
Clearly, the active scanning process for multi-mode deployment communication schemes (e.g., IEEE 802.11a/b/g) is quite time consuming, which adversely affects network performance during roaming. In fact, for many WLAN applications including Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) requiring a fifty-millisecond (50 ms) or faster transition time, the current scanning delay is not acceptable. As a result, there is continued interest to optimize the scanning process by minimizing scanning delays.
There have been attempts to optimize the scanning process, such as conducting an initial scanning of the most popular channels. For example, when supporting current IEEE 802.11b, the optimized scanning process for the mobile device would begin by scanning Channel 1, then scanning Channel 6 followed by Channel 11. The reason is that Channels 1, 6 and 11 are the most popular since they are fully non-overlapping. However, this optimized scanning process fails to provide a more efficient scanning process for all wireless networks, especially when Channels other than 1, 6 and/or 11 are in use.

Method and apparatus to intelligently perform scanning and assist scanning by profiling scanning history


In a high-frequency filter, four LC parallel resonators include four capacitors and four resonance coils, and are aligned in a predetermined direction. The four capacitors are defined by a ground conductor and a resonance capacitor conductor. The four coils are defined by a first via conductor, a second via conductor, and a line conductor. A floating conductor is provided astride within the four coils, and a sum of electrostatic capacitance between line conductors and the floating conductor is larger than electrostatic capacitance between the resonance capacitor conductor and the floating conductor, the line conductors overlapping with the floating conductor in planar view from a lamination direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-frequency filter, and more specifically, relates to a high-frequency filter including a plurality of LC parallel resonators.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a high-frequency filter of the related art, for example, a laminated band pass filter has been known that is described in International Publication No. 2007/119356. FIG. 10 is the exploded perspective view of the laminated band pass filter described in International Publication No. 2007/119356. FIG. 11 is the equivalent circuit diagram of the laminated band pass filter described in International Publication No. 2007/119356.
As illustrated in FIG. 10, a laminated band pass filter 500 is a laminated body including a ground electrode forming layer 401, a capacitor electrode forming layer 402, an input-output electrode forming layer 403, a line electrode forming layer 404, and an outer layer 405, and includes four LC parallel resonators and a between-input-and-output capacitor electrode 260.
Capacitor electrodes 411, 412, 413, and 414 in the capacitor electrode forming layer 402 face a ground electrode 409. As a result, capacitors C501 to C504 illustrated in FIG. 11 are configured. A via electrode 441 connects an input-output electrode 721 and the capacitor electrode 411 to each other. A via electrode 442 connects an input-output electrode 722 and the capacitor electrode 414 to each other.
As illustrated in FIG. 10, a via electrode 431 connects the capacitor electrode 411 and one end of a line electrode 616 to each other, and a via electrode 432 connects the other end of the line electrode 616 and the ground electrode 409 to each other. Accordingly, an inductor L501 illustrated in FIG. 11 is configured. A via electrode 433 connects the ground electrode 409 and one end of a line electrode 617 to each other, and a via electrode 434 connects the other end of the line electrode 617 and the capacitor electrode 412 to each other. Accordingly, an inductor L502 illustrated in FIG. 11 is configured. A via electrode 435 connects the ground electrode 409 and one end of a line electrode 618 to each other, and a via electrode 436 connects the other end of the line electrode 618 and the capacitor electrode 413 to each other. Accordingly, an inductor L503 illustrated in FIG. 11 is configured. A via electrode 437 connects the capacitor electrode 414 and one end of a line electrode 619 to each other, and a via electrode 438 connects the other end of the line electrode 619 and the ground electrode 409 to each other. Accordingly, an inductor L504 illustrated in FIG. 11 is configured.
As a result of including such individual electrodes as described above, the laminated band pass filter 500 includes a four-stage LC parallel resonance circuit and a coupling capacitance C514.
In addition, in the laminated band pass filter 500, so as to obtain a desired pass band characteristic, LC parallel resonators not adjacent to each other are capacitively coupled to each other. Here, the capacitive coupling between the LC parallel resonators not adjacent to each other is capacitive coupling between an LC parallel resonator including the inductor L501 and the capacitor C501 and an LC parallel resonator including the inductor L504 and the capacitor C504. In more detail, the between-input-and-output capacitor electrode 260 is provided in the input-output electrode forming layer 403, and faces the capacitor electrode 411 and the capacitor electrode 414. Accordingly, capacitance is generated between the between-input-and-output capacitor electrode 260 and the capacitor electrode 411, and capacitance occurs between the between-input-and-output capacitor electrode 260 and the capacitor electrode 414. As a result, the LC parallel resonator including the inductor L501 and the capacitor C501 and the LC parallel resonator including the inductor L504 and the capacitor C504 are capacitively coupled to each other. The coupling capacitance C514 in FIG. 11 indicates capacitance occurring between the LC parallel resonator including the inductor L501 and the capacitor C501 and the LC parallel resonator including the inductor L504 and the capacitor C504.
Incidentally, in the laminated band pass filter 500, so as to obtain the desired pass band characteristic, the coupling capacitance C514 is produced between the LC parallel resonator including the inductor L501 and the capacitor C501 and the LC parallel resonator including the inductor L504 and the capacitor C504, as described above. Therefore, the between-input-and-output capacitor electrode 260 is located near the capacitor electrodes 411 and 414. In addition, so as to produce the resonance capacitors C501 and C504 illustrated in FIG. 11, the capacitor electrodes 411 and 414 are located near the ground electrode 409. As a result, in the laminated band pass filter 500, the between-input-and-output capacitor electrode 260 is located near the ground electrode 409. Accordingly, in the laminated band pass filter 500, since unintended capacitive coupling occurs between the between-input-and-output capacitor electrode 260 and the ground electrode 409, it has been difficult to obtain the desired pass band characteristic.


An arrangement for accessing a non-volatile memory array including providing a signal having a first condition if an access is a read and a second condition if an access is for any other operation; reading data directly from an address in the non-volatile memory array if the signal is a first condition; and performing any other access of the non-volatile memory array utilizing a command-centric interface if the signal is a second condition.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for utilizing a flash EEPROM memory array as a supplement to main memory in a computer.
2. History of the Prior Art
Recently, flash electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) storage devices have been used in arrays as a new form of long term storage. A flash EEPROM memory array is constructed of a large plurality of floating-gate metal-oxide-silicon field effect transistor devices arranged as memory cells in typical row and column fashion with circuitry for accessing individual cells and placing the memory transistors of those cells in different memory conditions. Such memory transistors may be programmed by storing a charge on the floating gate. This charge remains when power is removed from the array. This charge (typically, a "zero" or programmed condition) or its absence (a "one" or erased condition) may be detected when the device is read.
These arrays may be designed to accomplish many of the operations previously accomplished by other forms of memory in digital systems and especially in computer systems. For example, flash memory is being used to replace various read-only memories (ROM) such as the basic input/output startup (BIOS) memory of a computer system. The ability to program flash memory in place offers substantial advantages for BIOS memory over more conventional EPROM memory which must be removed from the system to be reprogrammed for changes to system components. More recently, flash memory has been used to provide a smaller lighter functional equivalent of an electro-mechanical hard disk drive. Flash memory is useful for this purpose because it may be read more rapidly and is not as sensitive to physical damage as an electro-mechanical hard disk drive. Flash hard drive memories are especially useful in portable computers where space is at a premium and weight is extremely important.
Although flash EEPROM memory arrays have been used for ROM type storage and to replace electromechanical hard disk drives, they have not been successfully adapted to use on the memory bus for storing changing data.
There are a number of reasons that it is desirable to use flash EEPROM or other non-volatile memory arrays to supplement main memory. Flash and other non-volatile memory requires no refresh cycle and do not expend power or time on such cycles. A non-volatile memory on the memory bus would allow programs stored therein to be retained when power was removed from the system. Such programs would be available for execution when power was applied without having to be copied to memory. The system BIOS could be stored in and executed from such memory to provide much faster start ups and to eliminate the need for main memory DRAM to shadow the BIOS. Application programs and other processes could also be stored in and executed directly from the non-volatile memory array. To do so would eliminate the transfer of those application programs between long term memory and main memory and thereby relieve most of the page swapping and attendant loss of speed caused by congestion in the limited space available in DRAM main memory. It would also allow applications to begin running more rapidly when they were called.
It would seem simple to place flash memory storing an application program on the memory bus. However, all known prior art flash EEPROM memory arrays which store changing data have been designed to utilize what is referred to as a "command-centric interface." Such an interface is specifically designed to require a command to place the flash memory array into a particular mode before any command may be executed.
Typically the command-centric interface includes a control center which receives commands from a host and runs the necessary processes to access the flash media as dictated by the command. Thus, for example, when the host processor directs a write command to a flash EEPROM memory array and furnishes data and an address, the control center stores the command and starts a sequence of processes to first determine if the array is in the proper state to receive the command. The control center is typically able to execute a number of commands such as "read," "write," "erase," and "provide status." Because of the number of individual operations which are carried out to accomplish any of these commands, a command is executed only if the flash EEPROM memory array is in a mode in which a commanded operation is allowed. A write to an address in a block being erased cannot be processed, for example; and an error signal will be returned. On the other hand, when the flash EEPROM memory array is in a proper state, the control center causes the data furnished with a write command to be written to the specified address. Such an interface was designed to automate the very complicated processes of writing and erasing the flash media, processes which often affect large amounts of data. These processes are typically conducted by state machines under control of the control center. All other commands directed to a flash EEPROM memory array including read commands are similarly handled. In one flash EEPROM memory array, if a read command is directed to an array functioning in an incorrect mode to carry out the command, the array automatically provides status data.
In order to execute processes out of memory on the memory bus, memory must immediately respond whenever a read access is attempted by providing the addressed data to the processor. To assure that this is accomplished, DRAM main memory on the memory bus is adapted to respond immediately to a row address strobe (RAS) followed by a column address strobe (CAS) and output enable signals furnished by a memory controller to provide the data on the memory bus from an address provided by a host processor. Similarly, when a host processor writes to DRAM on the memory bus providing data and an address, the memory responds to row address strobe (RAS) and column address strobe (CAS) signals generated by the memory controller to store that data at the addressed position.
Even when flash memory is designed to be accessed as a row and column array so that it may be positioned on the memory bus, the command-centric interface eliminates the ability of the array to respond absolutely to a read command by providing the addressed data. The interface may provide the data if the mode is proper or instead provide status if the mode is improper. A memory controller is not equipped to deal with other than the read data so a status report would cause a system failure. It might be possible to place circuitry between the memory bus and the command centric interface which would cause the interface to automatically respond to a read which produced a status result by completing any running operations within the flash memory, shifting the mode of the flash memory to read, and then furnishing the read data on the memory bus. However, although such circuitry would produce the addressed data in response to a read, it could not possibly do so in a time frame which would allow the processor to function without an inordinate number of wait states.
In addition to its command-centric interface, a flash EEPROM memory array inherently responds more slowly to write operations. The level of charge required to write a flash device is quite high so that writing even to unused flash memory takes somewhat longer than writing to DRAM. Moreover, that time to write a flash EEPROM memory array is further increased because with such arrays modified information is written to a clean memory area rather than being written over old data; and the old data is marked as invalid. Because changed data may not be directly written over invalid data in a block of flash memory but must be written to an unused area, the old data invalidated, and the block with invalid data ultimately erased, the average time to write to flash memory is increased by this erase time.
Thus a flash EEPROM memory array cannot be guaranteed to respond to operations at a rate or with a result which will allow its use on the memory bus to store processes which may be directly executed from that flash memory.
It is desirable to be able to utilize flash memory to supplement main memory in a computer system by providing an interface which allows flash memory to respond rapidly to read operations on the memory bus while still protecting data stored.

Flash memory array with two interfaces for responding to RAS and CAS signals


A multimedia system and method for providing consistent playback performance across a variety of playback system and network configurations. The multimedia system and method includes an authoring tool element, an interleaver element, and a playback interpreter element. The authoring tool is used by an author build a presentation script specifying images and/or sounds and times for their playback. The authoring tool determines whether the images and/or sounds can be delivered for playback at the specified times within the bandwidth specified by the author. An interleaver element is used to compress and combine images and sounds data from existing multimedia data elements into an interleaved playback data stream for delivery of a multimedia presentation within the author-specified bandwidth. The playback interpreter element is used to deinterleave, decompress and interpret the playback data stream in a timed, coordinated manner to provide consistent predictable playback performance. The playback interpreter element includes event handling software for monitoring events and initiating branching or other conditioned performances based on conditional statements extracted from the playback data stream during run-time.

Existing computer implemented systems used to assemble and display image and sound presentations employ "load and play" operating principles. In such "load and play" systems, an author builds a presentation file which specifies a number of multimedia data elements, e.g. image files, video segment files, or digital audio segment files to be displayed in the presentation. At run-time, all of the multimedia data elements specified in the presentation file are loaded into the memory of a playback computer system and then played back, one after another, in the sequence specified in the presentation file.
However, load and play systems are subject to certain operational constraints which make them disadvantageous for assembling and playing back multimedia presentations. First, in load and play systems all multimedia data elements to be played back during a presentation must be loaded into the playback system's memory before playback can begin. Further, each multimedia data element must be loaded in full into active memory of the playback system before it can be played back.
These constraints have the effect of requiring all systems used for playing back the presentation to have large memory resources available, both as active memory for playing back particular multimedia data elements, and as larger, slower access, local storage media, e.g. magnetic, optical and/or magneto-optic disc or tape drives. However, since playback systems have finite active memory resources, load and play systems are subject to undesirable breaks during playback during which multimedia data elements are loaded into the playback system's active memory from the larger, slower access storage media and/or networks.
Further, load and play principles do not provide reproducible playback performance across a variety of playback system configurations. In existing load and play systems, the presentation file used to specify the playback sequence of multimedia elements does not permit the playback times of certain multimedia elements to be fixed so as to maintained the synchronization of images playback with respect to a background soundtrack under different system conditions.
Because of existing differences in the speeds of operation and memory access between available desktop systems, (e.g. a 166 Mhz Pentium.RTM. system versus a 50 Mhz 486 type system), a presentation sequence which results in synchronized playback on a relatively fast system where it is first assembled and tested, is often out of synchronization when played back on slower systems. Thus, an author assembling a presentation for playback on a relatively slow system must use a system of the same or similar speed in order to obtain predictable, consistent playback on such slow systems. In addition, an author of the multimedia presentation, being able to specify only the sequence of playing back multimedia elements rather than particular playback times, must rely on time-consuming trial and error techniques to achieve the desired timing and synchronization during playback,
In addition, existing load and play systems are ill-suited for playing back presentations across a network because they require that all multimedia data elements be loaded into the memory of the playback system. This operational constraint is the source of several problems. A one-time or occasional viewer of the presentation is forced to configure the playback system to free sufficient memory to permit the large volume of multimedia data elements supporting the presentation to be copied into the local storage and active memory thereof.
Further, networks on which a on-demand presentations are to be provided must be capable of responding to undetermined throughput requirements in order to transfer the supporting multimedia data elements en masse, prior to their being played back during the presentation. Should the network be even moderately busy when the presentation reaches a point which requires the loading of additional data elements, undesirable delays will occur which cannot be readily mitigated.
In addition, systems on which network available presentations are to be played back must be provided with communications hardware and software for servicing the not readily determined throughput requirements for receiving the multimedia data elements at load-time. Finally, after playback of the network available presentation, the playback system user must be able to identify the names of the multimedia data element files which have been loaded, i.e. copied, onto the playback system and cause them to be deleted, in order to protect the playback system from memory overload.
Existing systems are not readily customized with user add-on features such as conditional statements which condition the performance of operations upon the occurrence of specified events. Existing off-the shelf systems provide few opportunities for varying the operation of a presentation based on events which occur during playback. Off-the-shelf systems do not provide the presentation author with freedom to choose the type of events upon which the performance of particular operations is conditioned, nor do they permit conditional statements to be added, removed, and changed during the playback, i.e. during the run-time of a presentation. Further, while methods exist for creating customized multimedia presentations having conditional statements for performing operations upon the occurrence of particular specified events, custom application programs must be written for assembling and playing back such presentations, requiring significant time and programming expense. Finally, such customized presentations cannot be reused readily with different multimedia data element content or the addition of or change in conditional statements.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a computer implemented system for assembling a multimedia presentation which permits an author to specify one or more times for playing back specified images and/or sounds of a multimedia data element, so as to facilitate synchronization upon playback.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a computer implemented system for assembling a multimedia presentation which generates a playback-oriented presentation data stream which does not require large playback system memory resources.
A further object of the present invention to provide a computer implemented system for assembling a multimedia presentation which permits an author to select a playback bandwidth for generating a bandwidth-controlled presentation data stream, thereby controlling network load and providing predictable performance on a variety of playback systems.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a computer implemented system for assembling a multimedia presentation which gives an author unlimited freedom in specifying conditional statements to be inserted into a presentation data stream for varying the run-time playback of a presentation data stream.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a computer implemented system for assembling a multimedia presentation which provides a playback-oriented presentation data stream containing data portions including commands and possibly also compressed image and/or sound data and/or a timestamp.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a computer implemented system for assembling a multimedia presentation which regenerates a presentation data stream by finding and replacing data portions therein which correspond to multimedia elements which have been updated.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a computer implemented system and method for playing back a multimedia presentation which identifies data portions in a presentation data stream, extracts commands from those identified data portions, and uses the commands at run-time for controlling playback operations.

System and method for streaming multimedia data


The present invention relates to the field of take-out food cases, more particularly to a take-out food case for keeping food fresh. The principle is as follows. The temperature information of the heat insulation portion is detected and fed back to the temperature controller by the thermocouple probe. When the detected temperature is lower than the minimum temperature preset by the temperature controller, carbon fiber heating pipes are controlled to heat the food by the temperature controller. When the temperature inside the heat insulation portion reaches to the maximum temperature preset by the temperature controller, carbon fiber heating pipes are controlled to stop heating by means of the temperature controller. When the take-out food case for keeping food fresh is not in use, ultraviolet sterilizing lamps are controlled to perform regular sterilization for the take-out food case by means of the timer.

With the continuous development of the society, pace of modern life accelerates, and various new industries such as take-out food industry are generated in such fast-paced life. As the popularization of the telephone, the mobile phone and the Internet, the take-out food industry develops rapidly. Nowadays, convenient take-out food is more and more popular, and it is desirable to overcome its drawbacks. It is found that existing take-out food cases for containing the take-out food do not have sterilization function or heat and cold insulation function, as a result of which the take-out food can hardly be kept fresh.
It is reported that many restaurants never sterilize the take-out food cases even after long periods of use, and apparently the sanitary condition of the take-out food cases is bad. It is known that, during the food delivery, sometimes the deliverymen may accidently spill some soup on the take-out food cases. However, many deliverymen merely clean it up with tissues, leaving the bacteria to grow in the take-out food cases to contaminate the food and do harm to human health. Moreover, in order to keep food warm or cold, some deliverymen put insanitary towels under or over the food inside the take-out food cases. In these cases, the take-out food that the customer receives not only become cold meals or unfrozen drinks, but also is contaminated and unclean.
Furthermore, since existing take-out boxes cannot absorb water vapor, the water vapor evaporated from the food condenses into water, stays in the box and mixes with the food, which makes the food taste worse. All the above problems affect the food taste, lead to customers' negative evaluations for the take-out food, and impact the reputation of restaurants.

Take-out food case for keeping food fresh


A recording apparatus has a main body case housing a printing head. A recording-paper insertion slot is formed in the upper surface of the case and a recording paper discharge slot is formed in the side surface of the case. A pair of stop levers are mounted on the upper surface so as to be pivotable between standing and horizontal positions. A part of the upper surface is used as a continuous-recording-paper receiving portion on which the recording paper is placed and is led to the insertion slot. The standing stop levers contact the insertion-slot-side end of the recording paper to hold it in its predetermined posture or position and restricts the movement of the recording paper toward the insertion opening.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording apparatus, in which a recording paper fed to printing means in a main body case is discharged from the main body case through a recording-paper discharge opening after an image such as a character, figure, and drawing is recorded on the recording paper by the printing means.
2. Description of the Related Art
A recording apparatus of the above described type is incorporated in a facsimile apparatus, and is used for printing images, corresponding to image signals that the apparatus receives, on a recording paper and for printing predetermined data, relating to the received image signals in the apparatus, on the recording paper.
A conventional facsimile apparatus receives a rolled continuous recording paper in a recording-paper receiving space provided in its main body case, and the recording paper is drawn out from the receiving space and is fed to a printing means. The rolled recording paper has a large diameter and is heavy, so that the main body case of the facsimile apparatus has inevitably a large size and is heavy. Therefore, such conventional facsimile apparatus is not suitable for being carried by hand.
Since the height of a facsimile apparatus is set at, for example, about 30 mm in order to make it suitable for being carried by hand, the diameter of a rolled continuous recording paper that can be received in the main body case will be approximately 26 mm. The unrolled overall length of the rolled recording paper having such diameter will be approximately 5.5 m, and it is equal to the total length of approximately 18 sheets of paper of A4 size (210 mm wide .times. 297 mm long) which is the most prevailing size for a recording paper used in a facsimile apparatus in Japan.
Therefore, the facsimile apparatus cannot continuously receive an amount of image signals which need more than 18 sheets when they are printed, and even if the apparatus only receives an amount of image signals which need less than 18 sheets, it will require frequent supply of new rolls of printing paper.

Compact portable recording apparatus with thin, flat case, and which receives recording paper on an upper surface thereof


An apparatus for managing input/output (I/O) data may include a streaming I/O controller to receive data from a load/store domain component and output the data as first streaming data of a first data type comprising a first data movement type and first data format type. The apparatus may also include at least one accelerator coupled to the streaming I/O controller to receive the first streaming data, transform the first streaming data to second streaming data having a second data type different than the first data type, and output the second streaming data. In addition, the apparatus may include a streaming interconnect to conduct the second data to a peer device configured to receive data of the second data type.

Historically personal computers (PCs) have been designed around a model in which a general processor (CPU) processes all data that enters or leaves the system. Relatively simple Input/Output (I/O) Controllers are used to move data from external I/O data sources into memory for processing by the CPU, and to move the processed data from memory to external I/O data sinks. Virtually all I/O data enters or exits a platform as a stream of data units, whether as network data from the "cloud," audio samples from a microphone or output to speakers, blocks of data from a disk, etc. The conventional I/O controllers simply move streams of native data units between I/O devices to main memory so that the CPU can manipulate the data.
PC architecture has recently been rapidly evolving to adapt to needs of mobile platforms, which are extremely sensitive to power efficiency. It has been demonstrated that there are many mobile usage models where it is more power efficient to implement specialized hardware functions (Accelerators) to process data, than it is to use employ a CPU. Most accelerators process I/O data as sequential streams of data units to and from memory. For example, in a common MPEG-2 Audio Layer III (MP3) playback scenario, an I/O controller is used to stream Ethernet frames that encapsulate an MP3 file from a remote source into a memory buffer. A first accelerator then may be employed to input the Ethernet Frames from memory and output MP3 encoded data to another memory buffer. A second accelerator may input MP3 data from memory and output audio samples back to yet another memory buffer. Finally another I/O controller may be employed to retrieve the audio samples from memory and output them to playback devices such as headphones.
A typical scenario for treating I/O is thus one in which a CPU configures an I/O controller to transfer I/O data into memory, configures one or more accelerators to process that data, and another I/O controller to output the data. In this scenario memory is used simply as a first-in first-out (FIFO) device for the data that is streamed between I/O controllers and accelerators. Another notable feature of current I/O controllers and accelerators is that each defines a unique method of moving data in and out of memory. This model requires a unique device program (driver) for each device in order to move data, as well as a higher level application to coordinate the drivers so that the data is passed between them in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) manner.
In present day architecture, the software configuration process of devices in an I/O pipeline may take place once for a given I/O operation, e.g., playing an MP3 file. However, device driver data management activity may occur at a frequency that is a function of the data rate and the size of FIFO buffers used to store data. Often FIFO buffers have been arranged with a small size in order to reduce the latency between devices, which results in an increase in the frequency of software activity. Recently new device or platform management has been developed to maximize system idle times to enable longer and deeper sleep states. To accomplish this, large hardware FIFO buffers may be added to I/O controllers so that they can burst large amounts of I/O data from main memory with a lower frequency, to minimize device driver data management activity, which may increase latency.

Scalable input/output system and techniques to transmit data between domains without a central processor


A novel pesticidal metabolite-producing B. mycoides strain is provided. In addition, a supernatant of the novel strain with pesticidal activity is provided. A water-soluble, small molecular weight (<10,000 daltons) metabolite produced by the novel strain of Bacillus mycoides with pesticidal activity against corn rootworm is provided. Also included are methods for protecting or treating plants from corn rootworm infestations comprising the step of applying to the plant an effective amount of the novel Bacillus mycoides strain, the metabolite produced by the novel strain or a combination thereof, optionally, further comprising applying another pesticidal metabolite-producing bacterial strain and/or a chemical pesticide.

Every year 250-300 million dollars of chemical pesticides are used to control corn rootworm infestations. Many of these chemical pesticides are toxic to humans, wildlife and other nontarget species. In addition, some of these pesticides have been found in ground water. New chemical pesticides cost $100 million to develop.
Biological control offers an attractive alternative to synthetic chemical pesticides. Biopesticides (living organisms and the naturally-occurring compounds produced by these organisms) can be safer, more biodegradable, and less expensive to develop.
One commonly used biopesticide is the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. Pesticidal B. thuringiensis strains are known to produce crystal proteins during sporulation that are specifically toxic to certain orders and species of insects and nematodes (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,192 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,017). Proteinaceous endotoxins produced by B. thuringiensis also act as insecticidal agents against corn rootworm and other beetles (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,091, and Johnson et al. (1993) J. Economic Entomology, 86: 330-333). B. thuringiensis endotoxins have been shown to be effective pesticides in the form of purified crystals, washed cell pellets, and expressed proteins. Warren et al (WO 96/10083) discloses non-endotoxin proteins produced during the vegetative stage of Bacillus cereus and B. thuringiensis. These vegetative proteins, designated Vip1 and Vip2, have potent insecticidal activity against corn rootworm (northern and western) (Estruch et al. (1997) Nature Biotechnology 15:137-141 and Yu et al. (1997) Appl Environ. Microbiol. 63:532-536.
One B. thuringiensis thermostable-metabolite designated beta-exotoxin has also been shown to have pesticidal properties. Burgjeron and Biache (1979) Entomophaga II:279-284 report a beta exotoxin that is active against Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata). In addition, the known B. thuringiensis beta-exotoxins exhibit non-specific pesticidal activity, killing not only nematodes, but also flies, armyworms, mites, and corn rootworms. Sigma-exotoxin has a structure similar to beta-exotoxin, and exhibits pesticidal activity against Colorado potato beetle (Argauer et al. (1991) J. Entomol. Sci. 26: 205-213). Alpha-exotoxin is toxic to larvae of Musca domestics (Luthy (1980) FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 8:1-7). Gamma-exotoxins are various proteolytic enzymes, chitinases and proteases. The toxic effects of gamma-exotoxins are only expressed in combination with beta-exotoxin or delta-endotoxin. Forsberg et al. (1976) "Bacillus thuringiensis: Its effects in Environmental Quality," National Research Council of Canada. Stonard et al. (1994) ACS Symposium Series 551: 25 report a water-soluble secondary metabolite exhibiting pesticidal activity against corn rootworm in the supernatant of a Bacillus cereus strain.
There are no documented strains of Bacillus mycoides that produce metabolites exhibiting pesticidal activity against corn rootworms. Moreover, there are no known water-soluble metabolites produced by Bacillus mycoides with pesticidal activity against corn rootworms.

Bacillus mycoides strain for controlling corn rootworm


Test cases are executed by the software engineering test system. The test cases target software products. Test outputs are generated indicating whether the software engineering test system determined the test cases to have passed or failed. Separately, bug records are stored in a first dataset whose records identify corresponding bugs. Records of the test case executions are stored in a second dataset. Records thereof indicate whether a corresponding test case failed when executed. Such records may have bug identifiers entered by a test engineer and corresponding to bugs identified by the test engineer. The first dataset is parsed to identify records of test runs that have failed, and for each such test run record a bug identifier thereof is identified. Statistics such as failure counts are updated for the bugs found in the test run records.

Identifying high impact bugs within a software engineering environment is useful to help prioritize engineering resources and streamline the engineering process cycle. A typical software engineering environment usually includes both (i) an automation system and (ii) a bug tracking system.
An automation system usually has physical hardware resources such as servers, test networks, and databases, as well as software used to execute tests. An automation system automates testing of software products, captures test results, schedules tests, and may perform other known test functions.
A bug tracking system is a software tool that usually provides a front end to a database, often stored remotely on a server. Test engineers typically file database records, known as bugs, which can be tracked to prioritize and fix product issues. Prioritization has previously been managed manually via a software product team, for instance, based on the severity of the issue reported. This manual triage process has problems. Engineers are unable to identify bugs that have systemic affects (e.g., bugs that can lower the throughput of the engineering system) or that create a disproportionate number of software failures. Bugs that may occur for different independent software products and that cause widespread test failures for those software products have had low visibility.
Techniques related to identifying high impact bugs are discussed below.


A object of the present invention is to enable a double-locking of female terminals without making a whole connector larger in size or complicating a structure thereof while maintaining fine waterproof function. A female connector includes a female housing for retaining a female terminal and a seal member holder. The seal member holder retains a seal member having through holes. When the seal member holder is completely attached to the female housing, the seal member comes in close contact with a front surface of the female housing. In this state, a male terminal of a male connector fits into the female terminal so that a projecting portion of the female connector comes in close contact with an inner surface of the through hole to make terminals waterproof individually. Further, the seal member holder is provided with a double-locking piece in, which pursues the double locking of the female terminal in the female housing at the time of the complete attachment.

It is generally recognized that a conventional waterproof connector is provided with a seal member surrounding a plurality of terminal accommodating chambers and collectively waterproofs the entire terminal accommodating chambers with the seal member. However, such configuration requires a space for mounting the seal member to be secured on further exterior side from each terminal accommodating chamber, and this causes a disadvantage that a size of the whole connector becomes larger in a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the connector. Therefore, to make the size of the connector be small, a waterproof connector having an individual waterproof function as described in the below-listed patent document 1 has been under development.
As shown in FIG. 9, the waterproof connector includes a female connector C1 in which a plurality of female terminals 110 are retained by a female housing 112, and a male connector C2 in which male terminals 120 to be inserted respectively to the female terminals 110 are retained by a rear section 122.
The female housing 112 of the female connector C1 includes terminal accommodating chambers 112c for accommodating the female terminals 110 respectively, and lances 113 for locking the female terminals 110 respectively in the terminal accommodating chambers 112c. Further, the female housing 112 has a housing front wall 112a formed with male terminal insertion holes 112b into which the male terminals 120 to fit into the female terminals 110 respectively are insertable from the front side. Further, a seal member 114 made of an elastic member such as rubber has close contact with the housing front wall 112a, and a seal member holder 116 is attached to a front end portion of the female housing 112 so as to cover the seal member 114 from the front side. The seal member 114 is formed with through holes 114a aligned respectively with the terminal insertion holes 112b. Similarly, a front wall of the seal member holder 116 is formed with projection through holes 116a aligned respectively with the through holes 114a.
On the rear side of each female terminal 110, a seal member 118 comes in close contact with an electric wire W onto which the female terminal 110 is crimped, to accomplish waterproofing.
On the other hand, the male connector C2 is a connector mountable onto a substrate in the drawing example. Each male terminal 120 in the male connector C2 has a pin-like shape. The male terminal 120 has one end portion as a mounting portion 120a to be mounted on a substrate P, and the other end as an electric connection portion 120b to fit into a corresponding female terminal 110. The rear section 222 integrally includes a main body wall 123 for retaining the middle portion of the male terminal 120, and a hood 124 covering the end portion of the male terminal 120 as the electric connection portion 120b projecting from the main body wall 123. The female housing 112 and the seal member holder 116 to be mounted thereto are insertable to the hood 124. Further, in the hood 124, there are formed projecting portions 125 projecting from a front surface 123a of the main body wall 123 for respective male terminals 120. Each projecting portion 125 has a shape to surround a predetermined portion of the respective male terminal 120, and has an external diameter such that the projecting portion 125 can be inserted into the projection through hole 116a of the seal member holder 116 and come in close contact with an inner surface of each of the through hole 114a of the seal member 114.
In such waterproof connector, when the electric connection portion 120a of each of the male terminals 120 is inserted to the female terminal 110 through the male terminal insertion hole 112b, each projecting portion 125 of the rear section 222 is press-inserted into each of the through holes 114a of the seal member 114 through each of the projection through hole 116a of the seal member holder 116 and comes in close contact with an inner surface of the through hole 114a thus making each of the terminals 110, 120 waterproof individually.
Patent Document: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-297479.

Small double-locking waterproof connector


A web, formed from dielectric fibers and non-dielectric fibers, which has been subjected to corona discharge to improve the particulate filtration properties of the web is provided. The dielectric and non-dielectric fibers may be intermingled within the web such that the distribution of the dielectric and non-dielectric fibers within the web is generally uniform. In one embodiment, the dielectric fibers may be formed from a thermoplastic polymer, and particularly polyolefin and the non-dielectric fibers may be formed from cellulose, and particularly wood pulp.

Various particulate filtering media may be formed from diverse materials, such as glass fibers, asbestos fibers, synthetic polymer fibers, e.g., polyolefins, polyamides, polyesters and the like, and natural fibers, such as wood pulp and the like. Desirably, a particulate filter medium should possess a high particulate filtration efficiency, but should also possess a high filtered fluid (e.g., gas or liquid) permeability. However, these performance attributes tend to be inversely related. For example, in some instances, increasing the particulate filtration efficiency of a filter media may tend to increase the pressure differential at the filter media between the filtered fluid and the unfiltered fluid.
As is known in the filtration art, filtration efficiency is improved by improving the ability of the filter media to mechanically entrap contaminates. In some instances, the filter media's ability to mechanically entrap contaminates, such as air born particulates, is improved by increasing the loft or thickness of the filter media without increasing the density of the filter media.
However, increasing the filter media's thickness has several disadvantages. In some instances, existing filter receiving structures may not be large enough to receive such thickened filters. In other instances, and particularly in those instances when the filter media is formed from a conform of wood pulp and polymer fibers, such increased thickness is generally achieved by incorporating increased quantities of the conformed materials. Increasing the quantities of these materials not only results in increased material costs and shipping costs but also reduces the filter material's fluid throughput by increasing the pressure differential across the filter media.
Therefore, there exists a need for a filter media, and particularly for filter media formed from a conform of wood pulp and polymer fibers, and methods of making the same which provides improved filtration efficiencies over conventional filter media formed from similar materials and which avoids the problems associated with conventional methods of improving the filtration efficiencies of filter media.