A digital microfluidic device, comprising a bottom plate and a top plate. The bottom plate comprises a bottom electrode array comprising a plurality of digital microfluidic propulsion electrodes. The top plate comprises a segmented top electrode array comprising a plurality of separately voltage addressable top electrode segments. Each top electrode segment and at least two of the propulsion electrodes of the bottom electrode array form a zone within the device. A controller is operatively coupled to the top electrode array and to the bottom electrode array and is configured to provide propulsion voltages between the top plate segment and the bottom plate propulsion electrodes of at least one of the zones. The top plate and the bottom plate are provided in a spaced relationship defining a microfluidic region therebetween.

Digital microfluidic devices use independent electrodes to propel, split, and join droplets in a confined environment, thereby providing a "lab-on-a-chip." Digital microfluidic devices are alternatively referred to as electrowetting on dielectric, or "EWoD," to further differentiate the method from competing microfluidic systems that rely on electrophoretic flow and/or micropumps. A 2012 review of the electrowetting technology was provided by Wheeler in "Digital Microfluidics," Annu. Rev. Anal. Chem. 2012, 5:413-40, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The technique allows sample preparation, assays, and synthetic chemistry to be performed with tiny quantities of both samples and reagents. In recent years, controlled droplet manipulation in microfluidic cells using electrowetting has become commercially-viable, and there are now products available from large life science companies, such as Oxford Nanopore.
Most of the literature reports on EWoD involve direct driving devices (a.k.a. "segmented" devices), whereby ten to twenty electrodes are directly driven with a controller. While segmented devices are easy to fabricate, the number of electrodes is limited by space and driving constraints. Accordingly, it is very difficult to perform massive parallel assays, reactions, etc., in direct drive devices. In comparison, "active matrix" devices (a.k.a. active matrix EWoD, a.k.a. AM-EWoD) devices can have many thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of addressable electrodes. The electrodes are typically switched by thin-film transistors (TFTs) and droplet motion is programmable with controllers so that AM-EWoD arrays can be used as general purpose devices that allow great freedom for controlling multiple droplets and executing simultaneous analytical processes.
Because of the need for higher performance, i.e., higher voltage driving and faster switching, most advanced AM-EWoD devices are constructed from polycrystalline silicon (a.k.a. polysilicon, a.k.a. poly-Si). However, polysilicon fabrication is substantially more expensive than amorphous silicon fabrication, i.e., the type used in mass-produced active matrix TFTs for the LCD display industry. For example, Sharp Life Sciences depends upon the improved functionality of polysilicon to achieve AM-EWoD devices that include propulsion, sensing, and heating capabilities on a single active matrix. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,419,273, 8,547,111, 8,654,571, 8,828,336, 9,458,543, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
While poly-Si fabrication techniques allow implementation of complex AM-EWoD devices, the costs of poly-Si device production, combined with a global shortage of suitable fabrication facilities, has prevented the AM-EWoD technology from becoming widely available. There is a need for different designs that can take advantage of existing amorphous silicon fabrication capacity. Such devices could be produced at lower cost, and in great quantities, making them ideal for commonplace diagnostic testing, such as immunoassays.

Segmented top plate for variable driving and short protection for digital microfluidics


The present invention provides a network communication device and method for simultaneous connection establishment and traffic delivery in a network. The network communication device comprises a first interface for exchanging information with a network device, a second interface connected to the first interface for establishing a connection with the network device, and middleware logic for coordinating information exchange between the first interface and the second interface. The second interface comprises a clock and a clock value that may be dynamically altered. The network communication device may be a Bluetooth device or a Bluetooth Access Point and is capable of functioning in a scan state and a connect state simultaneously.

Presently, portable transceivers of many types including cellular telephones, PCs, laptops, cordless phones, headsets, printers, PDAs, etc., are incorporated into wireless networks. These portable transceivers, such as Bluetooth devices, may contain digital devices to secure fast wireless transmissions of voice or data with worldwide compatibility. As a specification for a small-form factor, low-cost radio solution Bluetooth products may provide links between mobile computers, mobile phones and other portable handheld devices, and connectivity to the Internet. "Bluetooth" refers to a specification to standardize wireless transmission between a wide variety of devices such as PCs, cordless telephones, headsets, printers, PDAs, etc. as is known in the art. Bluetooth creates a single digital wireless protocol to address end-user problems arising from the proliferation of various mobile devices that need to keep data synchronized from one device to another thereby allowing equipment from different vendors to work seamlessly together using Bluetooth as a "virtual cable".
Bluetooth devices may be named according to a common naming concept. For example, a Bluetooth device may possess a Bluetooth Device Name (BDN) or a name associated with a unique Bluetooth Device Address (BDA). Bluetooth devices may participate in an Internet Protocol (IP) network as well. If a Bluetooth device functions on an IP network, it may be provided with an IP address and an IP (network) name. Thus, a Bluetooth Device configured to participate on an IP network may contain at least one of a BDN, a BDA, an IP address and an IP name.
In the case of Bluetooth devices, communication between devices is commonly accomplished through an Inquiry and Paging procedure that entails a first Bluetooth device emitting an INQUIRY message that is received by all Bluetooth devices within range of the first Bluetooth device. In response to receiving the INQUIRY message, Bluetooth devices may return an INQUIRY_RESPONSE message back to the first Bluetooth device. Upon receiving all of the INQUIRY_RESPONSE messages from neighboring Bluetooth Devices available for communication, the first Bluetooth device selects the device in which connection is desired and sends that device a PAGE message. The connection is typically established upon receipt of a PAGE_RESPONSE message from the receiving Bluetooth device.
In this method, however, the Bluetooth devices must be in the proper mode or scan state for receiving INQUIRY or PAGE messages. These scan states may be referred to as Inquiry_Scan state for receiving inquiry responses and Page_Scan state for receiving pages. Collectively, these states may be referred to as scan states. To receive an INQUIRY message, for example, a Bluetooth device must be in the proper Inquiry_Scan state by tuning to a particular frequency hopping pattern (FHP). Likewise, to receive a PAGE message, a Bluetooth device must be in the proper Page_Scan state. However, when a Bluetooth device is in a Scan state, it cannot form a connection with another device. To form a connection with another device, the Bluetooth device must be in a connected state by tuning to a different FHP, namely the channel hopping pattern (CHP). A Bluetooth Device may only tune to one FHP at a time and therefore may not be in a scan state and a connected state simultaneously as each requires a different FHP.
A Bluetooth device must therefore choose between being in a scan state and being in a connected state. A Bluetooth device may enter a scan state in order to become aware of its surrounding devices. Although when the device enters a scan state, it may not maintain an active connection with other devices. This is because a Bluetooth device may form a connection with another device while in a connected state by tuning to a CHP. The length of time that a device spends in a scan state is referred to as the Scan Dwell Time (SDT). The longer this time is, the more the Bluetooth device loses an opportunity for transmitting user information, degrading the throughput performance of the system. Conversely, the longer the time the Bluetooth device spends in a connected state (referred to as connection dwell time, CDT), the longer the device is able to exchange user information, however during this time the device remains oblivious to surrounding devices that are not already connected, degrading the responsiveness of the device to establishing new connections. This may result in lost opportunities to connect with the Bluetooth device. The frequency in which a device enters a scan state is defined by the scan frequency (SF). A low SF indicates that the originating device does not enter a scan state often and as a result, a second device desiring a connection with the originating device may have to wait before the next time the originating device enters scan state to exchange INQUIRY and PAGE messages. The higher the SF, the longer the wait time.
Therefore, a tradeoff exists such that increasing the CDT while necessarily decreasing the SDT would result in longer connection times, more user data being transmitted and more efficient utilization of the link, however, it would also result in decreased opportunity to connect with other devices. On the other hand, increasing SDT while necessarily decreasing CDT would result in the Bluetooth device spending large amounts of time seeking other devices but less time transmitting actual user information.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for a method and system for providing Scan state operations for devices without limiting the connection of the devices.

Managing scanning and traffic in a network


The invention concerns a method for controlling the operation of a cylinder assembly according to which the following phases are carried out during the same operating cycle: an exhaust opening phase (L1); a first inlet opening phase (L2) during a compression phase of the piston, and; a second inlet opening phase (L3) subsequent to the first. The second inlet opening phase (L3) begins once the piston reaches a position located in the second third of the travel thereof, in an expansion phase, and the first phase (L1) is carried out entirely during the exhaust opening phase (L1). The invention also concerns an internal combustion engine that operates according to the aforementioned method, and to a motor vehicle equipped with this engine.

The present invention concerns a method for controlling the operation of an internal combustion engine cylinder assembly, said cylinder assembly comprising a cylinder and an associated piston, defining together a combustion chamber, the piston being mounted slidingly in the cylinder between a bottom dead center position and a top dead center position, the combustion chamber being capable of being opened or closed at the intake, and opened or closed at the exhaust, method in which, during a same operating cycle, the following phases are performed:                an exhaust opening phase;        a first intake opening phase during a compression phase of the piston; and        a second intake opening phase subsequent to the first.
Such a control method is already known in the state of the art, in particular from document FR 2 796 418, and it aims generally at suppressing clicking sounds, without deteriorating the performance of the engine in a significant way.

Method for controlling an internal combustion engine with the aim of reducing the pollutant emissions, engine operating according to this method, and motor vehicle equipped with said engine


A method may include receiving a session initiation protocol (SIP) Invite message associated with a call and determining that the call involves location based processing. The method may also include identifying location information associated with the call based on header information included in the SIP Invite message and identifying a location ID based on the location information. The method may further include modifying the SIP Invite message to include the location ID, identifying a call type associated with the call and identifying a mobile switching center to which the SIP Invite message is to be forwarded based on the call type and the location information.

Routing calls through networks has become increasingly complex. For example, in circuit switched mobile networks, certain calls are routed based on the originating location of the caller. In conventional wireless systems (e.g., code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, global system for mobile communications (GSM) systems), a mobile switching center (MSC) identifies the cell and sector in which the caller is located and is able to route the calls to the appropriate location based on the location of the call origination.


Techniques for controlling receive diversity on a wireless device are disclosed. In one aspect, one or more thresholds are determined based on one or more parameters. One or more other parameters are compared against the one or more thresholds to determine whether to enable or disable receive diversity. For example, a wireless device may determine a threshold value based on a first parameter related to communication of the wireless device. The wireless device may decide to enable or disable receive diversity based on a second parameter and the threshold value. The wireless device may receive data transmission with receive diversity when a decision is made to enable receive diversity. The first parameter may relate to characteristics of data being received by the wireless device and may be represented by percentage downlink utilization. The second parameter may relate to channel conditions and may be represented by an improvement in received signal quality with receive diversity enabled.

I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for controlling operation of a wireless device in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems.
A wireless device may utilize multiple receive antennas for data reception to obtain diversity against deleterious path effects. At least one propagation path typically exists between each transmit antenna at a base station and each receive antenna at the wireless device. If the propagation paths for different transmit-receive antenna pairs are independent, which is generally true to at least an extent, then diversity increases and the received signal quality at the wireless device improves when multiple antennas are used to receive data transmission from the base station.
The wireless device may include various circuits to process one or more received signals from one or more receive antennas. These circuits consume battery power when operational. It is desirable to obtain the benefits of receive diversity while reducing power consumption by these circuits in order to extend battery life of the wireless device.

Method and apparatus for controlling receive diversity on a wireless device


Provided is a green pellet (10) which comprises: an inner core layer (11) containing an iron oxide-containing starting material, a carbonaceous material for reduction, and a slag-forming agent; and a coating layer (12) disposed so as to encapsulate the surface of the inner core layer (11), wherein the coating layer (12) is formed from a protective layer (12a), which is disposed so as to encapsulate the surface of the inner core layer (11) and which contains an inorganic compound (includes an alkali metal oxide) having a melting point that is 750°C. or greater but less than 1100°C., and a combustion layer (12b ), which is disposed so as to encapsulate the surface of the protective layer (12a) and which contains the carbonaceous material.

The following green pellets and the like are conventionally known. Specifically, one is a green pellet comprising an inner core layer 111 in which an iron ore powder, a carbonaceous material, and a lime-based auxiliary starting material are mixed with each other, a first coating layer 112 which covers the inner core layer 111 and which is made of an iron ore powder, and a second coating layer 113 which covers the first coating layer 112 and which is made of a carbonaceous material (see FIG. 3A), as described in Patent Literature 1 listed below and the like and proposed as production of partially reduced iron by use of a sintering machine. Another is a green pellet having a coating layer 122 containing CaO at 25% by weight or more and being disposed on a surface of a particulate body 121 in which a powdery iron starting material and a powdery solid reducing agent are mixed with each other, as described in Patent Literature 2 listed below and the like (see FIG. 3B).
Suppose a case where the conventional green pellet 110 described in Patent Literature 1 listed below and the like is supplied to a partial reduction furnace of a packed bed-type such as a sintering machine. In such a case, the lime-based auxiliary starting material in the inner core layer 111 forms a calcium ferrite-based melt, as the combustion of the carbonaceous material proceeds. Part of the melt oozes so as to be absorbed into the iron ore powder in the first coating layer 112, and partially melts the iron ore powder in the first coating layer 112. The rest of the iron ore powder in the first coating layer 112 is calcined, and a dense solidified layer surrounding the inner core layer 111 is formed after the calcination. Consequently, a pellet can be obtained which is prevented from reoxidation due to a reaction of the partially reduced iron with oxygen in the air.
Meanwhile, suppose a case where the conventional green pellet 120 described in Patent Literature 2 listed below and the like is supplied to a partial reduction furnace. Also in such a case, CaO in the coating layer 122 functions as a flux for forming a low-melting compound, and forms a melt layer by a reaction with iron. Thus, a pellet can be obtained which is prevented from reoxidation by blocking the contact of iron with supplied air.


An oil in water emulsion cosmetic composition for skin, in which vitamin A and its derivatives are stably incorporated and which has superior feeling in use (skin familiarity or feeling of skin absorption, feeling of efficacy after application) and base composition stability (emulsion stability) with the passage of time. The oil in water emulsion cosmetic composition for skin comprises, relative to the total amount of the cosmetic composition, (a) from 0.01 to 4% by mass of vitamin A and its derivative, (b) from 0.6 to 4% by mass of a nonionic surfactant comprising three of (b-1) sorbitan tristearate, (b-2) polyethylene glycol stearate with from 20 to 120 mols of polyethylene glycol added thereto, (b-3) glyceryl stearate having an HLB of from 5 to 8, and (c) from 1 to 10% by mass of a higher alcohol having from 14 to 24 carbon atoms, wherein the blend ratio (by mass) of component (b-1) to component (b) is from 0.1 to 0.8.

Vitamin A and its derivatives (=retinols), such as typically vitamin A and vitamin A acetate or the like, have heretofore been known as ingredients effective for prevention or remedy for skin keratosis and for prevention or recovery of skin aging, and are incorporated as active ingredients in external preparations for skin.
However, vitamin A and its derivatives are unstable and are readily denatured by the influence of light, air, heat, metal ions and the like thereon. Accordingly, external preparations for skin with such vitamin A and its derivatives incorporated therein have a problem in the stability with the passage of time thereof. Heretofore, for solving the problems, there has been reported a technique of incorporating an oil-soluble antioxidant thereinto. For example, JP 11-228377A (Patent Reference 1) discloses an oil in water emulsion composition containing a vitamin A fatty acid ester, an oil-soluble antioxidant, an amphiphilic substance, and a hydrophilic nonionic surfactant in a specific blend ratio. JP 2005-104962A (Patent Reference 2) discloses an external preparation for skin containing vitamin and/or its derivative, a chemical having a superoxide removal rate of at least 75% and an oil-soluble antioxidant.
The invention described in Patent Reference 1 exhibits an excellent effect for stable incorporation of vitamin A and its derivatives, however, it has made no investigation for the feeling in use (skin familiarity, feeling of efficacy after application) in particular. Patent Reference 2 also does not have a description relating to the effect of feeling in use.
JP 2005-320263A (Patent Reference 3) discloses an oil in water emulsion cosmetic composition for skin, especially a cream-type one for which the feeling in use such as fittability, permeability and the like, is aspired for; however, the patent publication does neither describe nor suggest stable storage of vitamin A and its derivatives.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Oil in water emulsion cosmetic composition for skin


Methods and apparatus for billing communications services through the use of AIN functionality are described. Billing information is communicated to a service control point by placing one or two calls to a service subscriber to be billed for a service. The calls encounter a trigger set at a switch. In response to trigger activation the switch sends a message to the service control point. The message includes billing information placed into a billing data field of the call. The service control point extracts the billing information received in the message or messages from the switch and bills the called service subscriber based on the received billing information. In the single billing call embodiment the device initiating the billing call is responsible for determining the amount of time for which the service is to be billed, e.g., conference duration, in addition to other billing information.

Conference calls have many uses in our society. For example conference calls can be used by businesses to hold meetings with clients located in various parts of the country. A business owner located Maryland can conference with a potential customer in New York and a supplier located in California.
Conference calls can also be used for personal reasons. For example conference calling functionality may be used to provide family members located at different locations the ability to talk to each other as a group.
The ability to initiate conference calls may be provided as part of a particular telephone service, e.g., a Centrex service package or family communications service, or as a separate service.
Various conference call services are available that can establish a connection between multiple users. Normally an individual seeking to set up a conference call calls the conference call service, indicates the number of call participants and the time of the call. In such known services, at the time the individual sets up the conference call, the individual also provides billing information. This may be credit card information or, in some cases, a business account information. Once the necessary conference call set up information is obtained, the individual setting up the call is usually provided with a call-in number and a PIN. Conference call participants call the provided number at the time of the scheduled call, enter the PIN and are then placed into conference with each other.
After the conference call is completed, e.g., by the participants hanging-up their phones, the conference call is billed to the credit card or business account which was identified at the time the conference call was initially set up. This normally results in the charge for the conference call being reflected on a credit card bill or on a separate business account invoice.
Known conference call services of the type described above can be implemented using conference bridges or peripheral devices coupled directly to a telephone switch. In such known implementations, the telephone number called to setup a conference call and to participate in a conference call normally corresponds to that of the conference bridge or peripheral device used to provide the conference call service.
In order to provide new sources of revenue and provide needed or desired services to customers, telephone companies are increasingly relying on advanced intelligent network (AIN) functionality to provide services which include, among other things, conference calling functionality. Examples of such services include advanced call forwarding and/or call screening services where a call to a particular phone number may trigger calls to multiple phone numbers. As the call to each phone number is answered, the answering party may be placed into conference with the calling party. Such a service may be desirable, e.g., where individuals located at different locations are responsible for servicing a particular customer account.
While the above described billing techniques work satisfactorily in the case of pure conference calling services, such billing techniques are not very well suited for advanced telephone services which involve the automatic setup and establishment of conference calls, e.g., through the use of AIN functionality used in combination with a conference bridge or peripheral device with conference calling capabilities.
In the case of AIN based services, service control logic in a service control point (SCP) is often responsible for the automatic initiation of a conference call in response to activation of an AIN trigger set on a telephone service subscriber's line. In the case of such automatic conference call setup and establishment, there normally will be no call to setup and schedule the conference call during which billing information can be collected. Furthermore, in the case of advanced telephone services, it is often the called party who is the subscriber to the service. As part of the service it is often desirable to bill the service subscriber and not the call participants for the cost of the conference call.
From a convenience standpoint, it is often desirable to bill a service subscriber for services associated with a particular telephone number on a monthly basis. Telephone switches include functionality for generating a log of telephone services that are to be billed to a particular telephone number, i.e., a bill for the logged service is to be sent to a service subscriber associated with the telephone number to which a call or other telephony service is billed. Alternatively, it may be desirable to output billing information to a third party or other device in a manner which allows the billing information to be processed and billed to a service subscriber, e.g., on a monthly basis.
The lack of a conference call setup call in which billing information can be collected, the automated conference call initiation process and the potential for an unknown number of call participants at start of a conference call initiated as an advanced telephone service tend to complicate conference call billing operations.
In the cased of advanced telephone services, it often desirable to bill a conference call to a specific phone number associated with the service. For example, family or a business, which uses conference call services, may wish to receive their conference call bills as part of their monthly telephone billing statements. This way all telephone activity can be reviewed in a single bill corresponding to one or more phone numbers, rather than in separate bills.
In view of the above discussion, it can be appreciated that there is a need for new methods and apparatus for billing conference call services. The need is particularly noticeable in the case of AIN based services where a conference call may be automatically initiated as part of an advanced telephone service provided through the use of service control logic present in a SCP. Accordingly, there is a need for new conference call billing methods and apparatus. It is desirable that at least some of the new methods and/or apparatus be capable of determining the number of conference call participants or number of calls initiated as part of a conference call and the duration of the conference call. It is also desirable that at least some methods and apparatus allow the conference call to be billed automatically to a telephone number associated with the telephone service which includes conference call functionality. It is also desirable that at least some billing methods and apparatus allow for conference calls to be billed independently from a bill associated with other services associated with a particular telephone number thereby allowing for 3rd party billing and billing to credit cards. To allow for billing of AIN based conference call services, it is desirable that at least some billing methods be suitable for use in conjunction with AIN based services and the use of SCP logic to provide telephony services.

Methods and apparatus for billing conference calls


A process for producing acrylic acid is described, which process comprising providing a mixed gas of acrylic acid and by-products produced by catalytic gas phase oxidation of propylene and/or acrolein, contacting the mixed gas with water to obtain an aqueous solution, and adding an azeotrope solvent to the aqueous solution for distillation to obtain a mixture of the by-products, water and the azeotrope solvent from a tower top and acrylic acid from a tower bottom. Highly pure acrylic acid is obtained by using, as the azeotrope solvent, a mixed solvent of solvent A selected from diethyl ketone, methyl propyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, methyl-tert-butyl ketone, n-propyl acetate and mixtures thereof and solvent B selected from toluene, heptane, methyl cyclohexane and mixtures thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a process for producing acrylic acid by catalytic gas phase oxidation of propylene and/or acrolein (which may be sometimes referred simply to as propylene etc.) with molecular oxygen-containing gas. The invention particularly relates to a process for producing highly pure acrylic acid by efficiently separating by-products, particularly acetic acid, from the reaction product obtained by the catalytic gas phase oxidation. More particularly, the invention relates to a process for producing highly pure acrylic acid wherein water is added to the reaction product to obtain an aqueous solution of the product to which an azeotrope solvent is further added thereby removing by-products through the azeotropic phenomenon.
2. Description of the Related Art
The catalytic gas phase oxidation of propylene etc., with molecular oxygen-containing gas in the presence of a catalyst for oxidation provides a reaction product in the form of a mixed gas which contains, aside from intended acrylic acid, by-products such as acetic acid, formic acid, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde and the like and unreacted starting materials such as propylene, acrolein and the like. In known processes of industrially producing acrylic acid by catalytic gas phase oxidation of propylene etc., with molecular oxygen-containing gas, the mixed gas obtained by the catalytic gas phase oxidation is introduced into an acrylic gas absorption tower. In the tower, the gas is contacted with water for cooling and absorption, thereby obtaining an aqueous solution containing acrylic acid and the by-products such as acetic acid. Then, acrylic acid is separated and purified from the aqueous solution by distillation.
Among the by-products, acetic acid is undesirably produced in comparatively large amounts. Since acetic acid has a high distillation temperature (boiling point of 118.1.degree. C. under atomic pressures), the separation by distillation involves the problem that acrylic acid is liable to polymerize during the distillation and that the relative volatility between acrylic acid and acetic acid is so close that it is difficult to simply separate one from another by distillation. To avoid this, there has been carried out a process wherein an azeotropic phenomenon of a three-component system consisting of acetic acid-water-azeotrope solvent or a multi-component system is utilized. More particularly, the reaction product is contacted with water to obtain an aqueous solution, to which an azeotrope solvent is added, followed by distillation to distil off a mixture of acetic acid-water-azeotrope solvent from the top of a distillator and to collect acrylic acid from the tower bottom.
In Japanese Patent Publication No. sho 63-10691, toluene is employed as the azeotrope solvent. Although most of the acetic acid could be azeotropically separated, part of the acid would be left unseparated, resulting in the discharge from the bottom of an azeotropic separation tower along with acrylic acid. This leads to further separation of the unseparated acetic acid by use of an acetic acid separation tower, thus needing two towers including the azeotropic separation tower and the acetic acid separation tower.
In Japanese Patent Publication Nos. sho 46-34691 and 46-18967, azeotropic distillation is performed using ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, dibutyl ether, ethyl acetate, hexane, heptane, ethyl methacrylate, propyl acrylate and the like. The azeotrope solvent, acetic acid and water are distilled off from the top of the tower and acrylic acid is obtained from the bottom of the tower. However, our investigations have revealed that mere removal of high boiling points' impurities through distillation of acrylic acid obtained from the tower bottom according to these processes is not satisfactory with respect to the removal of acetic acid, such acrylic acid being unsatisfactory for use as an acrylic acid product.
It will be noted that the impurities other than acetic acid mentioned as contained in the by-products, e.g. formic acid (boiling point: 100.8.degree. C.), acetaldehyde (boiling point: 20.8.degree. C.), formaldehyde (boiling point: -19.5.degree. C.) and acrolein (boiling point: 52.5.degree. C.), are all low in boiling point and can be readily removed without resorting to the azeotropic treatment.

Process for purification of acrylic acid


A pressure sensor with a reflective acoustic surface wave (SAW) delay line fashioned on a pressure-sensing membrane having at least three reflectors wherein the delay line extends over both an expanding region and a compressing region of the pressure-sensing membrane.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a pressure sensor which uses elements operating with acoustic surface waves (SAW elements) wherein a reflective saw delay line with at least three reflectors is positioned on a pressure-sensing membrane such that it extends over both an expanding region and a compressing region of the membrane.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pressure sensors of this generic type are known, for example, from the 1994 publication "IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium," pages 395-400. In a known SAW pressure sensor of this type, two SAW resonators are provided on a piezoelectric substrate fashioned as a pressure-sensing membrane; one sensor being arranged in the center of the pressure-sensing membrane and the other being arranged outside of such center. The two resonators are connected into the feedback loop of two oscillators wherein they serve as frequency control elements. The deformation that arises when pressure is exerted on the membrane causes changes in the mid-frequencies of the resonators. Since the resonance spaces of the resonators are located at points of opposite signs of the deformation, their respective frequency displacements likewise have different signs. The difference in frequency is the sum of the resonator frequency displacements. The measured pressure is a function of this difference in frequency and a function of the temperature. For the compensation of temperature changes, a thermoresistor is provided in addition to the SAW resonators.
Pressure sensors of this type require the incorporation of active electronic wiring of the SAW resonators for the realization of oscillators. In addition, pressure sensors of this type are not unproblemmatically remotely interrogatable. As such, the possibilities of their use are limited. For example, pressure sensors of this type can be used at wire bound points that are difficult to reach or that are completely inaccessible only with difficulty, if they can be used here at all.

Pressure sensor using elements operating with acoustic surface waves (saw elements)


A solenoid valve with the magnet filter includes a flange having a guide hollow part formed therein, in which at least one port that communicates with the guide hollow part is formed on an outer circumferential surface of the flange to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance in a lengthwise direction; a spool that is slidably installed in the guide hollow part; and a driving unit that is installed at a lower end of the spool and allows the spool to slide along the guide hollow part by a supply of current, wherein a bypass flow passage is formed in the driving unit so that bypass of oil or air is performed, and a magnet filter is installed at one side of the bypass flow passage so as to prevent introduction of metallic foreign substances.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a solenoid valve, and more particularly, a solenoid valve with a magnet filter in which the magnet filter is installed at one side of a bypass flow passage of the solenoid valve so that the introduction of metallic foreign substances may be prevented.
2. Description of the Related Art
A general internal combustion engine for a vehicle requires stronger torque and low rotation speed when starting to drive and requires higher rotation speed than torque so as to increase driving speed.
Thus, in order to maintain rotation of an engine at constant speed, a transmission serves to reduce rotation speed and simultaneously to increase torque using gears when the engine starts to drive and to increase rotation speed when driving speed need to be increased.
Such a transmission includes a manual transmission that a user manipulates directly a clutch and an automatic transmission that can automatically change gears using hydraulic pressure as the vehicle moves.
A solenoid valve that controls a clutch by lowly reduced control pressure (for example, 5 to 7 bar) is mainly used as an automatic transmission according to the related art.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a solenoid valve disclosed in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0903834 (Patent literature 1).
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a solenoid valve 10 according to the related art includes a flange 20 having a guide hollow part 21 formed therein, a feedback chamber 22, a supply chamber 23, a control chamber 24, and a discharge chamber 25 being formed in the guide hollow part 21, a spool 30 that is movably installed in the guide hollow part 21 of the flange 20 and has one or more ring-shaped grooves 31a and 31b, and a driving unit 40 that drives the spool 30.
A feedback port 22a, a supply port 23a, a control port 24a, and a discharge port 25a are formed on an outer circumferential surface of the flange 20 and are spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance in a lengthwise direction. They communicate with the feedback chamber 22, the supply chamber 23, the control chamber 24, and the discharge chamber 25.
A plurality of land parts 32a, 32b, and 32c, of which widths are increased, are formed on an outer circumferential surface of the spool 30 and are spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance in the lengthwise direction due to the ring-shaped grooves 31a and 31b. The plurality of land parts 32a, 32b, and 32c open/close the above-described ports 22a to 25a when the spool 30 moves due to the driving unit 40.
An external hydraulic pressure supply source (for example, a hydraulic pressure pump) is connected to the supply port 23a and supplies hydraulic pressure into the flange 20. The control port 24a is connected to a clutch (not shown) of a transmission so as to supply control pressure to the clutch (not shown) of the transmission, thereby controlling the pressure of the clutch. Pressure that remains in the solenoid valve 10 is discharged through the discharge port 25a.
Meanwhile, the driving unit 40 includes a bobbin 42 on which coils 41 are wound, a housing 43 that surrounds an outer circumferential surface of the bobbin 42, an amateur 44 that is installed at an inner diameter part of the bobbin 42 to be movable in a vertical direction, a spindle 45 that is fixed to a center of the amateur 44 and contacts a lower end of the spool 30, a core 46 that is disposed on one end of the amateur 44, a pole 47 that is disposed on the other end of the amateur 44, and a terminal part 48 that is connected to the bobbin 42.
In the solenoid valve 10 according to the related art, no bypass flow passage is formed in the driving unit 40. Thus, the degree of precision of hydraulic pressure performance is lowered, hysteresis characteristics are irregular and thus it is difficult to precisely control hydraulic pressure when gears are shifted using a transmission.
Thus, a bypass flow passage that communicates an inner side of the driving unit 40 and an outer side of the solenoid valve 10 need to be formed. In this case, foreign substances may be introduced into the driving unit 40 via the bypass flow passage.
In particular, since the amateur 44 and the spindle 45 slide within the driving unit 40 by a magnetic force, when metallic foreign substances, such as chips as a component of the transmission or belt abrasion materials, are introduced into the driving unit 40, precise hydraulic pressure control cannot be performed due to abnormal movement of the amateur 44, and shock may occur during shifting gears or shifting gears is not performed.


A method and device of magnetic resonance imaging carry out the steps of selecting a trajectory in phase space; expressing that trajectory as a function of variables in a coordinate system suitable for driving gradient coils of an imaging system; performing variable transformation and redefinition to extract a subset of variables varying as a function of time along gradient wave forms but constant from projection to projection; calculating that subset of variables prior to imaging; storing that calculated subset of variables in a memory; and computing online gradient values during imaging with the assistance of said stored subset of variables to significantly reduce wave form memory requirements such that a gradient controller can perform required mathematical functions online. By separating the variables describing the selected trajectory, in the coordinate system appropriate to the gradient coils, into variables which are constant from projection to projection and variables which change from projection to projection, the method and device allow a significant fraction of the quantities to be calculated prior to imaging. These calculated values are then stored and used for real-time calculations of parameters which must be changed during the course of the imaging process as projections are stepped through. As a result of this separation of the variables into two groups as described, it is possible to significantly reduce the wave form memory requirements to a size which allows current gradient controllers to perform the required mathematic functions online.

The invention concerns a method and device for magnetic resonance imaging which is particularly suitable for sodium imaging in clinical applications.
The application of sodium MRI in diagnostic radiology and clinical research has been limited due to the technical difficulty of imaging this quadrupolar nucleus. The inherent low concentration of tissue sodium (intra- and extra-cellular concentrations of approximately 10 and 140 mM respectively in the brain1), along with very short transverse relaxation times (3 to 8 ms)2 make this a challenging nucleus to image with adequate signal-to-noise and scan time for clinical use. Despite these constraints, a number of clinical uses of sodium imaging have been reported. The clinical areas most likely to benefit from this technique are in the diagnosis and management of acute stroke1, myocardial infarction,3 skeletal muscle disease4 and osteoarthritis and cartilage degeneration.5 As sodium imaging has been shown to be a better indicator of ischemic tissue compared with diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) in animal models of stroke6 there is potential for fast sodium imaging methods to replace the requirement of high-end echoplanar MR scanners capable of DWI for the clinical assessment of acute stroke patients.
Projection imaging (PI) methods7 and conventional 3D fast gradient echo sequences (FLASH)8 have previously been adapted to image sodium. Unfortunately, these early PI methods have suffered from inefficient k-space sampling strategies, and gradient echo methods from excessive T2 weighting. Three-dimensional twisted projection-imaging (TPI) sequences with extremely short echo times (TE˜0.4 ms) have recently been shown to produce sodium images of diagnostic quality.9 This approach however does not utilize the potential of the scheme to minimize the noise variance of a sodium image through the uniform sampling of k-space. There is therefore a need for demonstrating how the original concept that resulted in development of the 3D TPI methodology can be used to produce three-dimensional uniform sampling density (USD) k-space trajectories, further improving the efficiency of 3D projection imaging for sodium.
In view of the above aspects of prior art it is the underlying purpose of the present invention to develop a method and device for magnetic resonance imaging which is particularly advantageous for applications involving sodium nuclei, which effects efficient, uniform sampling density with adequate signal to noise ratios for the extracted signals and with scan times which are acceptable for clinical applications.

Computer readable magnetic resonance method calculating on-line gradients during imaging


An object of the present invention is to enable the detection of the presence/absence of an object over a plurality of detection areas without using a plurality of light-receiving devices and light-emitting devices. A sensor detects the presence/absence of an object in a detection area where a light-emitting area of a light-emitting device and a light-receiving area of a light-receiving device are overlapped with each other, and includes: a power supply unit that outputs a driving current I of the light-emitting device such that its current value is variable; a control unit that has the function of controlling the power supply unit to change in magnitude of the driving current I of the light-emitting device, and determining the presence/absence of an object based on an output from the light-receiving device to output the result of determination as a detection signal; and an output signal 50 that converts the detection signal into an analog signal to output the converted signal as a signal α.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photoelectric sensor for detecting the presence/absence of an object using a light-emitting device and a light-receiving device.
2. Description of the Related Art
This kind of photoelectric sensor has a basic configuration of detecting the presence/absence of an object in a detection area where a light-emitting area of a light-emitting device and a light-receiving area of a light-receiving device are overlapped with each other. More specifically, when an object passes through the detection area, light emitted from the light-emitting device is reflected from the object, and is received by the light-receiving device. As a result, a level of a signal output from the light-receiving device is changed, so that the intrusion of the object is detected.
The detection area is determined by the positional relationship between the light-emitting device and the light-receiving device, the orientation of the light-emitting device and the light-receiving device, and the like. When a plurality of light-emitting devices and light-receiving devices is used, the presence/absence of an object can be detected over a plurality of detection areas (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-168967, for example).
However, in the case where a plurality of light-emitting devices and light-receiving devices is used, there is a problem in that it is very difficult to realize miniaturization and cost-reduction of an apparatus.

Photoelectric sensor for detecting presence/absence of object


A system and method for collecting dump information in a system having a plurality of computation processors to execute a parallel processing program, which minimizes a down time of the system due to a dump collection. The plurality of computation processors are interconnected via a network for executing the parallel processing program. When one of the computation processors has failed, abort operation means aborts the computation processors. Dump writing means writes dumps of the computation processors excluding the failed computation processor into an internal storage unit of the failed computation processor. After the dump writing means has finished writing the dumps, restarting means restarts the computation processors excluding the failed computation processor. Reading means transfers the dumps written in the failed computation processor and a dump of the failed computation processor to an external storage unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for and method of collecting dump information in a data processing system in which a plurality of computation processors execute a parallel processing program, and more specifically, to a system for and method of collecting a plurality of dumps in a parallel computer system with distributed memory architecture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stand-alone computer systems generally collect a memory dump of their main storage or secondary storage when they have gone down, and output it to external storage for troubleshooting of their operating system.
In contrast to the stand-alone systems, parallel computer systems with distributed memory architecture have a plurality of computation processors interconnected with a network, where each computation processor incorporates an independent CPU and memory to perform a concurrent computation under the control of a common parallel processing program, making data transfer and synchronization via the network. The above-described dump collection in the case of a system failure is carried out also in such parallel computer systems.
Take a conventional computer system organized by multiple computation processors, for instance, and assume that some of the computation processors are executing a common parallel processing program. If a failure is detected in one of such processors, all the processors executing the parallel processing program will be aborted in the middle of their operation. Subsequently, the dumps of those computation processors will be collected and outputted as files to be stored in an external storage unit.
Among those computation processors that have offered their dumps, the computation processors other than the failed one are then restarted after the completion of the dump collection, because they must have no problem.
In the above-described situation, there arises a quite reasonable demand that the system down time (i.e., a period of time from abort to restart) due to a trouble be minimized.
Unfortunately, however, it generally takes a long time to finish writing the dumps from the computation processors into the external storage unit. Furthermore, increasing memory consumption in modern computation processors makes the time necessary for writing the dumps longer and longer. The total system down time also increases in proportion to the number of computation processors subject to the dump collection.
All those things are serious disadvantages to the users, and therefore, it is essential to reduce the system down time as much as possible.

System and method for collecting dump information in a multi-processor data processing system


A worm gear drive has a self locking gear train. The gear train comprises a worm 34 fitted to a motor shaft 32 and in mesh with a worm wheel 35 which drives the output 26. The motor shaft 32 extends between two thrust bearings 29, 60 having faces 54 which contact respective axial ends of the motor shaft 32. The contact between at least one of the thrust bearings 29 and the shaft 32 is adapted to provide a high frictional force.

Worm gear drives comprise a worm or helical cog driven by a shaft and in mesh with a worm wheel driving an output, typically a shaft or cog. Worm gear drives are speed step down gearboxes and as such increase the torque developed by the motor driving the shaft. Usually, the driving shaft is the motor shaft and the worm is fitted to the shaft or formed on the shaft.
In certain applications the use of a worm gear drive is desirable due to the simplicity of construction and because of the torque able to be delivered because of the gear ratio. There is a certain loss of power due to friction between the worm and the worm wheel. By making certain modifications, this friction can lead to an arrangement where the load cannot back drive the motor due to the losses in the gears. This is known as self locking, i.e., the input shaft can drive the output shaft but the output shaft can not drive the input shaft, without the use of additional components.
This is highly appreciated in certain applications, such as for lifting heavy loads or for security issues such as for doors and windows, especially windows in a vehicle, where to prevent theft it is important that the windows cannot be pulled down to gain access.
To achieve self locking of the gear train, the design of the worm and the worm wheel has to be modified from ideal or optimal from an efficiency viewpoint. The lead angle is made low, that is, the helical thread of the worm has a greater number of turns per unit of length, also the surface texture of the worm and worm wheel is made rough to increase friction between the two gears thus making it harder for the worm wheel to drive the worm. However, both of these measures decrease the efficiency of the gear drive resulting in the need for a more powerful motor to drive the load. This trade-off has been accepted because of the need for preventing back drive.
A typical prior art worm gear drive has a motor driving a motor shaft. A worm fitted to the shaft and in mesh with a worm wheel fixed to an output shaft. The motor shaft is journalled in bearings, typically oil impregnated sintered bushings, and extends between two thrust bearings. Each end of the motor shaft is rounded and each thrust bearing has a hard flat surface which contacts a respective rounded end of the motor shaft to support the shaft against excessive axial movement caused by the reaction forces on the shaft as the worm tries to turn the worm wheel. The rounded end of the shaft makes a point contact with the respective thrust surface, which point lies on the axis of the shaft to minimise frictional losses therebetween. The thrust surfaces also support the shaft against axial movement when the worm wheel tries to drive the worm as when a rotational load is applied to the output shaft. Due to the low lead angle of the worm and the friction of the gear interface, the worm wheel tries to drive the motor shaft axially rather than cause the worm to rotate, thus locking the gears. A small gap, known as end play, is left between the ends of the motor shaft and the thrust bearings under no load conditions. This allows for thermal expansion of the shaft but also means that the shaft only contacts one thrust bearing at a time and slight axial movement of the shaft will occur when the axial forces change direction.
There are other designs of lockable gear drives which allow an efficient gear train and these can use a smaller lighter motor. These designs have a separate braking or clutch mechanism to prevent back drive but these mechanisms are usually complex, prone to failure and add weight and cost to the final assembly. As a separate locking mechanism is required, these drives are not self locking.
Accordingly, there is the desire for a self locking worm gear drive which is simple and efficient.


A hat includes a band connected to a first side of the hat and configured to be releasably and adjustably connectable to a second side of the hat. The band is positioned and configured to leave a gap between a front of the hat and a wearer's head when the hat is worn. The hat includes an open mesh segment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparel, specifically to a hat with structure to enhance ventilation of a wearer's head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various attempts have been made in the prior art to make hats more comfortable through permitting ventilation of the wearer's head. Usually, these attempts have involved constructing the hat out of light material or manufacturing at least part of the hat out of open mesh. No serious attempt has been made to construct a hat which uses natural convection and natural air velocity to ventilate a significant area of a person's head in a truly effective way.


Methods and apparatus for predictive analytics generally comprise one or more artificial agents and an agent factory. An artificial agent may be responsive to at least one of an internal data set and an external data set. Further, an artificial agent may produce a correlation data set relating an outcome data set and at least one of the internal data set and the external data set. In addition, an artificial agent may produce a predictability value corresponding to the correlation data set. The agent factory may be responsive to the outcome data set. Also, the agent factory may produce the artificial agent in response to the outcome data set.

At least partial automation is being applied in a growing range of fields, improving the efficiency of industrial processes and raising productivity dramatically. The improvement has not been fully matched in the service sector, however, in part because many of the tasks carried out in the services industries are perceived to require intelligent reasoning and skills that are not easily emulated by machines.
Lack of automation is notable in areas traditionally associated with complexity and/or intuition. For example, although computers have greatly aided the process of processing financial information, it is still principally a human-based activity to interpret technical analysis charts and predict company performance. While automated algorithmic trading systems are becoming more popular, these systems are not true predictive systems since they rely, ultimately, on heuristic rules that cannot have global validity over time in a constantly changing financial market.
In many other fields, a relatively high level of automation has been achieved, such as in information storage, retrieval and communication. At the level of predictive analysis, however, automation is very rudimentary. The increasing demand in recent years for "predictive analytics" has been chiefly addressed with large analytic engines, such as those of SAS and SAP. Such analytics engines are essentially large, well equipped statistical tool boxes, but require significant training to use. Additionally, a user has to decide which statistical model is most appropriate for a given problem. When confronted by a choice of thousands of possible models, die user must either use expert human advice or develop the relevant skills to make a suitable judgment.
Furthermore, a model that is good for one aspect of analysis may be poor for another. For instance, neural networks can be very useful non-parametric statistical estimators that can lead to good predictive accuracy in a large variety of problems. Their outputs, however, may be opaque and therefore difficult to understand from, for example, a business perspective. On the other hand, association rules can be quite transparent, but may be suboptimal in terms of the precision of their predictions.
Such deficiencies are more than academic. In today's complex business world, problems are multi-faceted, addressing important prediction tasks such as—Who are my best customers? Where should a new sales office be located? When is a customer likely to change vendors? Associated with these different questions there is another—Why? An answer to each of the above however, gives only a partial solution to the overall problem of increasing the company's ROI or profit margins.
Each of the above is then a sub-problem, associated with a particular perspective, of the overall problem. Hence, solutions should be multi-faceted and multi-perspective, with solutions to sub-problems being combined together to form solutions at an aggregate level. This is precisely how teams of humans working together function—outputs from different sub-teams demonstrating expertise in a particular area being integrated together to give an overall solution.
Up to now, such high level cooperation and integration has been an exclusively human domain. For example, for a typical company, experts in marketing try to advertise a particular product line to stimulate demand, without necessarily having good predictive tools to understand how a particular marketing campaign can translate into demand. Meanwhile, another group has to plan the production that will satisfy the demand. Yet another group has to plan how to sell the product through different channels while another integrates all these different perspectives at a corporate level to assure that all the sub-teams are functioning within the framework associated with the company's overall goals. However, these goals have to be adjusted and adapted according to the constant feedback from the different sub-teams. Perhaps the production team cannot satisfy the demand generated by the marketing team for instance.
Artificial Intelligence is a relative newcomer to the field of predictive modeling and has held out the hope of providing automated systems that may one day substitute, at least partially, some of the high level tasks normally associated with humans. However, although there are now many systems available for prediction which may contain sophisticated elements such as neural networks and evolutionary algorithms, these systems may apply highly non-linear analysis and use computationally complex processes whose results can be highly unstable. Additionally, they do not necessarily offer predictions a priori but need to be "tuned" or "trained" by the user who almost inevitably is not an expert in artificial intelligence and, therefore, likely to produce unreliable results. Additionally, training of neural networks or optimization of genetic algorithm parameters, if done correctly, tend to be computationally intensive processes requiring computational resources and resources of time from the client that could better be dedicated to other tasks. Furthermore, typically, artificial intelligence applications have as their goal the solution of a very specific (sub)-problem. For instance, the IBM computer Deep Blue can play chess at the very highest level. However, it cannot do anything else. As emphasized above, in the real world, global "solutions" to real problems often require the simultaneous solution of many different sub-problems. On the forefront of artificial intelligence research are intelligent artificial agent systems which are now opening new avenues for productivity increases in areas where humans are carrying out repetitive intelligent tasks. This sets the stage for a new technological revolution that will change the way in which many services are rendered. Commercial applications of intelligent agents have essentially been restricted to "data mining" where a more intelligent search of databases is carried out. In fact many such systems are no more sophisticated than standard web search engines.
The use of analytical models may be complicated by factors such as a lack of data, too much data, and/or difficulty of determining a correlation between inputs and outputs. As to systems having a lack of data, this condition may arise due to a failure to properly record activity or difficulty of quantifying activity. For example, without detailed records of the behavior of financial instruments, it would be difficult to make any predictions regarding future trends. As another example, an advertising agency may have difficulty quantifying such concepts as brand loyalty, whether an ad is humorous, and/or the like. Accordingly, it may be difficult for an advertising agency to replicate past successes.
Analysis may be complicated by the sheer volume of data. For instance, a variety of predictive functions may be employed to produce an estimate of future activity. As the volume of data increases, it may become cumbersome to manually determine estimates based on the predictive algorithms.
In addition, in some systems correlations may be difficult to determine. For instance, accurately predicting whether a baseball prospect will be a future Hall of Frame player may be complicated by the difficulty of isolating indicia of future ability. As another example, predicting whether a condominium complex will be successful in a given area may be exceedingly difficult given the variety of factors relating to success.
While prediction is an increasingly analytical rather than intuitive process, even relatively quantitative systems of prediction may have substantial shortcomings. While sports scouts may make a living by predicting the future success of athletes based on a combination of statistical analysis and experience, the number of failed former first round draft picks would suggest that conventional scouting methods are not necessarily robust. In addition, that corporations frequently suffer decreased share prices due to overestimated earnings suggests that the predictive tools employed by even the biggest corporations do not operate with optimal accuracy.

Methods and apparatus for predictive analysis


A positive photoresist adhesion promoter which is provided as a thin layer between a resist such as polymethylmethacrylate for use on gallium arsenide is described. The positive photoresist adhesion promoter includes a mixture of a positive photoresist with an organic solvent. The use of the positive adhesion promoter increases the resistance of the resist such as PMMA to chemical stress during subsequent processing steps for the circuit. An alternative arrangement is to use a composition of the photoresist to be deposited as the masking layer as adhesion promoter layer and processing the adhesion promoter layer to induce cross linking in the resin component of the photoresist material to thus provide a tenacious bond between the adhesion promoter layer and the material of the substrate, such as gallium arsenide.

This invention relates generally to semiconductor fabrication techniques and, more particularly, to masking techniques.
As it is known in the art, a semiconductor circuit is fabricated by using sequences of semiconductor growth, etching, metalization, and patterning steps, which are used in various combinations to form the desired semiconductor circuit or integrated circuit. One of the most commonly used steps in semiconductor fabrication process are masking steps. Generally the masking steps include the use of a resist which is patterned either by projecting a desired image through a mask onto the resist layer or disposing a mask on the resist layer and imaging through the mask. The image is used to selectively sensitize regions of the resist material.
Resists generally are of several types. The first classification for a resist is the classification pertaining to the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum used to sensitize the resist. In general, resists are a three component system. The first component is a resin, such as a phenolic resin which forms a matrix when deposited and a chemical activator which is sensitive to particular electromagnetic energy and a solvent in which the other two materials are dissolved. The solvent is generally driven off prior to imaging the resist and is used as a vehicle to apply the solids in the resist to the surface to be masked. Resists are available which are sensitive to various bands of electromagnetic energy including resists sensitive to exray energy, electron beams, as well as photons of optical energy in the UV, as well as, optical portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. A principal factor used in selecting a resist is the degree of resolution required for the formed photoresist pattern.
The second classification for a resist are resists which are positive resists and resists which are negative resists. A positive resist is a resist having a positive electromagnetic energy activator which when exposed to such energy undergoes a chemical change with the resin matrix material providing an exposed resist region which can be washed away in a developing process by use of a suitable developer. On the other hand, a negative photoresist undergoes the exact opposite transformation, that is, providing an activator chemical which undergoes a chemical transition causing the exposed portion of the resist to be inert to the developing chemical.
Other types of resists such as polymethylmethacrylate develop a latent image through fissioning of polymer chains as a result of incident high energy electron beams or energetic photons.
Within each photoresist type particularly positive photoresist which are activated by electron beams or optical photons (i.e. either deep UV or UV), there are many different commercially available photoresists. The particular photoresists chosen is chosen for various properties including its degree of adhesion to materials over which they are disposed, its chemical and thermal resistance to solvents used during other portions of a semiconductor fabrication process and as mentioned above its optical imaging characteristics. Thus, while each of the aforementioned properties of resist are important, a particular semiconductor fabrication step may dictate the importance of one property over another. Often, a resist chosen for imaging qualities has concomitantly poor adhesion properties, particularly on semiconductor materials.
As an illustrative example of the aforementioned problem, a photoresist generally denoted as PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate) is commonly used on gallium arsenide for providing patterns having a high degree of resolution, as for example, the patterns which are commonly used during steps of forming gate electrodes for field effect transistors fabricated on the gallium arsenide. PMMA is a popular resist patterning material for submicron gates on gallium arsenide wafers because of its excellent optical imaging properties. However, as described in a paper entitled "Gallium Arsenide Process Compatibility Adhesion for PMMA Resists" by Levinson, et al., Electro Chemical Society, Solid State Science and Technology, Vol. 133, No. 3 (1986), page 619, PMMA is prone to undercutting and adhesion failure particularly during wet chemical etching processes.
Proper adhesion of the PMMA resist to the gallium arsenide is a critical requirement since adhesion failure will cause a failure in the etching step. In a typical process fabrication flow for such devices, the gate deposition step is one of the final steps in the processing of a wafer including such semiconductor devices. Failure at that juncture is extremely costly and troublesome. One solution suggested for this problem is an adhesion promoter referred to as hexamethyldisilazane. This material is an adhesion promoter for silicon and surfaces containing silicon. The promoter acts to form a siloxane bond with the silicon containing surface. However, it has been reported in "Gallium Arsenide Processing Techniques" by Williams, et al., Art Tech House, Inc. (1984), p. 137, that hexamethyldisilazane is not an effective adhesion promoter without the formation of siloxane bonds. Therefore, hexamethyldisilazane is probably not an effective promoter for use with gallium arsenide since such siloxane bonds will not form.
Another approach to this problem has been to bake (i.e. cure) the deposited resist at an elevated temperature over an extended period of time than otherwise used. While this has some effect in increasing adhesion promotion, it also has the drawback of reducing the ability of a developer to remove exposed portions of the resist. This occurs because the extended baking of the phenolic resin causes the resin to undergo a chemical reaction. That is, the resin material which is in the form of a long chain polymer undergoes cross linking polymerization. This is very undesirable for effective removable of exposed portions of the photoresist since cross linking increasing the integrity and the resistance of the material to removal during developing of the resist. This is undesirable for providing patterns having good resolution.


In a method for forming a ferroelectric film of insulating metal oxide on a surface of an electrode with a concave or a convex or in convex shape which is formed above a substrate, multiple types of source gases constituting a material gas and each containing an organometallic compound are introduced into a chamber and main components of the multiple types of source gases are allowed to chemically react with one another with the chemical reaction proceeding depending on the reaction rate. Then, the ferroelectric film is deposited on the surface of the electrode.

(a) Fields of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for forming a ferroelectric film made of insulating metal oxide and to semiconductor devices including such ferroelectric films.
(b) Description of Related Art
With recent progress in digital technologies, there is a growing trend to rapidly process or store a large capacity of data. In accordance with this trend, higher packing density and higher performance of semiconductor devices used in electronic equipment are demanded. To achieve higher packing density and lower power consumption of the semiconductor devices, research and development is widely conducted on the technology to employ, for capacitor elements in the devices, capacitor insulating films made of films of high dielectric constant instead of conventional capacitor insulating films made of silicon oxide or silicon nitride. Moreover, with the aim of putting into practical use nonvolatile RAMs capable of performing rapid writing and reading operations at conventionally impracticable low operating voltage, research and development is actively conducted on ferroelectric films as capacitor insulating films having spontaneous polarization properties.
Of semiconductor memory devices employing high dielectric constant films or ferroelectric films as capacitor insulating films, those with ultrahigh packing density use three-dimensional memory cells as alternatives to conventional stacked memory cells.
In fabricating a three-dimensional memory cell, a capacitor insulating film made of a ferroelectric film has to be formed on a lower electrode with steps. Therefore, practical utilization of capacitor insulating film formation methods using CVD techniques capable of providing excellent step coverage is strongly demanded. In particular, one method for forming a capacitor insulating film of a ferroelectric film using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (referred hereinafter to as MOCVD) is a method for forming bismuth oxide by MOCVD using bismuth organometallic compound with bismuth-oxygen bonds as a material (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 09-142844, (page 5, paragraph 27)).
A conventional method for forming a ferroelectric film will be described below with reference to FIG. 19.
Referring to FIG. 19, a first material container 101 made of stainless steel is provided within a first constant temperature bath 100. Bismuth tributoxide filled in the first material container 101 is heated to 80 to 110° C. Argon gas is introduced into the first material container 101 at a flow rate of 50 to 100 ml/min (in a normal state), and then bismuth tributoxide is sublimated at an elevated temperature and a reduced pressure. Subsequently, the sublimated bismuth tributoxide is introduced into a gas line 102 kept at about 110° C. and carried to an MOCVD reaction chamber 103.
A second material container 105 is provided within a second constant temperature bath 104. Tantalum pentaethoxide (Ta(OC2H5)5) filled in the second material container 105 is heated to 120° C. and then bubbled using argon gas with a flow rate of 50 to 100 ml/min (in a normal state). Subsequently, the gasified tantalum pentaethoxide (Ta(OC2H5)5) is introduced into a gas line 106 of stainless steel heated to 130° C. and carried to the MOCVD reaction chamber 103. Strontium dipivaloylmethane tetraethylenepentamine (C38H84O4N10Sr) filled in a third material container (not shown) is heated to 150° C. and then bubbled using argon gas with a flow rate of 50 to 100 ml/min (in a normal state). The gasified strontium DPM tetraethylenepentamine is introduced into a gas line (not shown) of stainless steel heated to 160° C. and carried to the MOCVD reaction chamber 103.
The MOCVD reaction chamber 103 is equipped with a base stage 108 which has a base 107 of platinum (Pt) provided on its upper surface. Onto the surface of the base 107 kept at 400 to 800° C., preferably at 450 to 700° C., the three types of source gases shown above, that is, bismuth tributoxide, tantalum pentaethoxide (Ta(OC2H5)5), and strontium dipivaloylmethane tetraethylenepentamine (C38H84O4N10Sr) are simultaneously introduced accompanied with oxygen gas and argon gas for dilution. Then, a ferroelectric film made of insulating oxide containing Bi, Sr, and Ta is formed on the surface of the base 107.
In order to obtain a ferroelectric film containing components in desired proportions (Bi:Sr:Ta=2:1:2), it is sufficient that the flow rates of argon gases introduced into the first to third material containers or the heating temperatures of the first to third material containers are adjusted to control supplies of the source gases to the MOCVD reaction chamber 103. This control can grow a ferroelectric film made of insulating oxide represented by SrBi2Ta2O9.
We conducted various studies on the conventional example mentioned above. From these studies, we found the following fact: in forming a ferroelectric capacitor element which has a capacitor insulating film made of a ferroelectric film, it is difficult, by simply adjusting the flow rates of the argon gases or the heating temperatures of the source gases, to realize the ferroelectric film having an excellent step coverage over an electrode of the element and concurrently to control the components of the ferroelectric film to desired proportions.
More specifically, to provide the ferroelectric film of an SBT film composed in proportions of Sr:Bi:Ta:O=1:2:2:9, we adjusted not only the flow rates of the argon gases or the heating temperatures of the source gases but also the mixture ratio of the source gases introduced in the MOCVD reaction chamber 103. Then, we were able to form a ferroelectric film composed in a desired composition represented by SrBi2Ta2O9.
In this case, in order to provide the ferroelectric film composed in proportions of Sr:Bi:Ta:O=1:2:2:9, the MOCVD reaction chamber 103 was supplied with sufficient amounts of the source gases. Therefore, the chemical reaction within the MOCVD reaction chamber 103 proceeded depending on the rate of the gas supplies, which caused the disadvantage that the ferroelectric film having an excellent step coverage over the electrode cannot be formed. In particular, for a capacitor insulating film used for a three-dimensional ferroelectric capacitor element formed with an ultrafine pattern necessary for high integration, we found the disadvantage that desired polarization properties cannot be obtained because of an inadequate step coverage of the ferroelectric film over the electrode.
On the other hand, a ferroelectric film made of an SBT (SrBiTa) film was formed by adjusting the flow rates of the argon gases or the heating temperatures of the source gases to develop the chemical reaction within the MOCVD reaction chamber 103 depending on the reaction rate of the gases. Then, we were able to form the ferroelectric film having an excellent step coverage over the electrode. From this result, in order to form a ferroelectric film of an SBT film containing components in desired proportions with the chemical reaction for film growth proceeding depending on the reaction rate of the gases, a fine adjustment of the flow rates of the argon gases or the heating temperatures of the source gases was made to form a ferroelectric film. In this approach, however, the proportions of components of the formed ferroelectric film made of an SBT film could hardly be changed, and therefore the formed film failed to have desired polarization properties.

Method for forming ferroelectric film and semiconductor device

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A display terminal, an apparatus for cover opening detection, and a method of arranging a Hall sensor in a display terminal are provided. A display terminal includes a first body, and a Hall sensor disposed in the first body, the Hall sensor including a magnetic field sensing surface configured to sense a magnetic field, in which the magnetic field sensing surface is disposed at a slope with respect to an front surface of the first body.

1. Field
The following description relates to an arrangement of Hall sensor in a display terminal, an apparatus for cover opening detection, and a method of arranging a Hall sensor in a display terminal to avoid inaccurate sensing of the state of a flip cover without using a shielding sheet.
2. Description of Related Art
The Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0167871 relates to a device that detects whether a flip cover of a flip-type cordless phone is open or closed, and discusses a device including a magnetic sensor and a flip cover. The magnetic sensor detects a magnetic force at a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and at a bottom of the PCB to control a power supply. The flip cover is integrally injected and inserts a magnet in a corresponding position of the magnetic sensor to be sensed by the magnetic sensor.
Such conventional technology uses a Hall sensor to detect whether the flip cover opens or closes but does not disclose a method to prevent inaccurate sensing when an angle of opening of the flip cover reach about 360 degrees and an arrangement method of a Hall sensor.

Cover opening detection using hall sensor


Structure and method for growing crystalline superlattice rare earth oxides, rare earth nitrides and rare earth phosphides and ternary rare-earth compounds are disclosed. The structure includes a superlattice having a plurality of layers that forming a plurality of repeating units. At least one the layers in the repeating unit is an active layer with at least one species of rare earth ion.

In order to make next generation of devices the silicon industry must aggressively reduce the thickness of SiO2 or SiOxNy gate dielectrics to approximately 1 nm. Such small gate oxide thickness in ultra-large-scale-integrated circuits (ULSICs) and VLSI have negative consequences. Namely, reduced oxide reliability, lower breakdown strength and higher leakage tunneling currents. These limitations put extreme restrictions on conventional field effect transistor (FET) scalability. To solve the 'gate oxide problem' alternative gate oxides with high-k dielectric constant have been tried. However most high-k dielectrics found are amorphous and lack the required valence and conduction band offsets when hetero-junctions with Si are formed. Furthermore, the interface quality of high-k/Si junctions is automatically rougher than the simple native SiO2/Si system.
One of the other prior art techniques included sputtering which resulted in polycrystalline form and that is not suitable for ULSICs or VLSI.
Other existing solutions include the fabrication of a different type of FET, called a FinFET, which is a double or even triple vertical gate FET. This technology requires the use of high quality silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. Typically, high quality SOI substrates are formed via the SIMOX process, where oxygen is implanted through the surface of a Si wafer to an appropriate depth and thickness. The resulting defective top most Si layer is subsequently repaired to high mobility silicon via extensive thermal annealing processes.
Another potential use of developing crystalline oxides, nitrides and phosphides is in the area of optoelectronics. Communication networks increasingly rely upon fiber optics for high-speed, low cost transmission. For this, efficient and inexpensive electrically driven planar photonic devices operating at fiber communication wavelengths are needed.
Accordingly, there is a need for materials which can be relatively easily integrated with Si-based electronics manufacturing. Development of such material can also lead to reduction of manufacturing costs. Moreover, there is a need in the industry to design devices with desired wavelength.

Method and apparatus for growth of single-crystal rare-earth oxides, nitrides, and phosphides


A method for determining the ignition angle is provided, in which modifications of manipulated variables which have an influence on the knock limit, and therefore on the optimum ignition angle as well, are dynamically taken into account. To this end, a base ignition angle is first determined, based on the instantaneous engine speed and load. As part of a downstream knock control, a first ignition angle adjustment in the retard direction is determined when knocking has been detected. As part of a knock limit control, a second ignition angle adjustment is also determined when at least one manipulated variable influencing the knock limit changes, with the type of the second ignition angle adjustment, i.e., advancing or retarding, depending on the manipulated variable and its modification.

In the development of internal combustion engines, the issues of fuel consumption and exhaust gas emission limits are assuming increasing importance. These operating parameters may be influenced by various measures or manipulated variables, for example exhaust gas recirculation, moving the charge motion control valve, adjusting the camshaft, modifying the valve train, and/or regulating the engine temperature, or regulating the coolant temperature and/or the coolant flow rate. All these manipulated variables also have an influence on the knock limit of the engine, and therefore on the optimum ignition angle as well.
For this reason, the base ignition angle is determined in practice in multiple steps. Based on the instantaneous engine speed and load, an initial ignition angle is first determined. This initial ignition angle is usually read out from an appropriate characteristic map. To determine the base ignition angle, an ignition angle offset is then added to the initial ignition angle for each manipulated variable, i.e., for each of the above-mentioned functionalities, to enable operation of the engine under all operating conditions at the most optimum efficiency. The ignition angle offsets for the individual manipulated variables are usually determined from appropriate characteristic maps as well. The base ignition angle thus determined forms the starting point for a downstream cylinder-specific knock control, thereby allowing retardation of the base ignition angle when knocking has been detected.
In practice, the above-described method has proven to be problematic in several respects. For manipulated variables which are calculated using a model, dynamic changes frequently result in errors in determining the manipulated variable. This results in erroneous mapping to the corresponding characteristic map for the ignition angle offset, and thus results in less than optimum determination of the base ignition angle. The exhaust gas recirculation rate and the engine temperature are examples of manipulated variables which may be calculated using a model. The model calculations for determining the engine temperature under alternating load or a change in the coolant flow rate and/or coolant temperature have often proven to be inaccurate. One reason is the slow transient phenomena which occur during temperature changes. In addition, changes in the coolant flow rate have a strong non-linear effect on the component or engine temperature. It is possible that the known ignition angle pilot control may not take these circumstances into consideration.
As previously stated, in the known ignition angle pilot control each manipulated variable requires its own characteristic map for the corresponding ignition angle offset. As a consequence, the complexity of data recording and storage increases with the number of manipulated variables to be considered. Data recording for characteristic maps is susceptible to errors based on the sheer quantity of data alone. Furthermore, in some cases data recording is also very time-intensive, such as in the case of the ignition angle offset resulting from dynamic changes in the engine temperature, or the coolant flow rate and the coolant temperature.

Method for determining the ignition angle


Improved corrective procedures for conductive keratoplasty are disclosed. Over correction can be relieved by the addition of one or two spots along one of the rings on the cornea.

Eyeglasses and contact lenses can be inconvenient for many people. Some people are unhappy with the restrictions that corrective lenses put on their lives and lifestyles. Glasses and contact lenses can interfere with sports like swimming and golf, and can even disqualify people from certain professions. Also, some people cannot wear contact lenses successfully, while many people do not like the way they look in glasses or the way glasses make them feel about themselves.
Due to medical advances in vision correction techniques, people today can reduce their dependence on glasses and contacts. Vision correction techniques today include Lasik procedures, Lasek procedures, radiokeratomy (RK), conduct keratoplasty (CK) and the like. Numerous persons have found that they are viable candidates for one of these procedures and have had their vision successfully corrected and/or improved.
Conductive keratoplasty ("CK") uses radio frequency energy instead of a laser to reshape the contours of an eye. CK procedures change the way the cornea directs light to the eye and effectively reduces the need for reading glasses.
There is a need today for improved instruments and procedures for performing conductive keratoplasty, particularly for persons with cornea thickness outside of conventional ranges. There is also a need for improved procedures and techniques for enhancing the results of CK operations where necessary.

Method and system for conductive keratoplasty


The device includes a cover for concealing or revealing a crown, via a relative rotation of the crown and an external casing element. In a preferred embodiment, the cover is secured to a ring slide friction mounted in an annular groove at the base of the middle part and held in place by a washer provided with lugs in order to be screwed into the horns of the middle part.

Devices that protect and conceal a crown when it is not being used, which means most of the time that a wristwatch is used, are already known. These devices are provided for essentially technical reasons, for example to prevent the crown catching and inadvertently switching on a function, or, even worse, damaging the winding stem.
The best known method consists of providing lugs on the middle part, on either side of the crown, said lugs extending as far as the head of the crown and only leaving one portion of the notched crown visible. A device of this type is clearly shown in the Figures of CH Patent No. 515 541, even though protection of the crown is not the feature of the invention concerned.
In addition to appearing unattractive, this solution has the drawback of making it awkward to manipulate the crown, particularly pulling it.
CH Patent No. 567 300 discloses a device for locking the push buttons and crown of a chronograph wristwatch by means of a cover secured to a rotating bezel including an extension extending beyond the middle part and including a vertical cylindrical wall substantially matching the height of the middle part. This solution is satisfactory for the desired object, but has the drawback of making the rotating bezel totally unusable for the usual functions of a rotating bezel.


The present disclosure provides a transducer shaping chamber for shaping ultrasound transducers. The transducer shaping chamber includes a transducer coupon carrier having one or more slots. The one or more slots each are geometrically shaped to hold a transducer coupon having a plurality of ultrasonic transducers formed thereon. The transducer shaping chamber includes a first plate disposed over a first side of the transducer coupon carrier. The transducer shaping chamber includes a second plate disposed over a second side of the transducer coupon carrier. The second side is opposite the first side. The transducer shaping chamber is configured to move the first plate and the second plate toward each other so as to push against the transducer coupon carrier from the first and second sides, respectively, until the transducer coupon carrier has been sealed against the first plate and with the second plate.

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging is widely used in interventional cardiology as a diagnostic tool for assessing a vessel, such as an artery, within the human body to determine the need for treatment, to guide intervention, and/or to assess its effectiveness. An IVUS imaging system uses ultrasound echoes to form a cross-sectional image of the vessel of interest. Typically, IVUS imaging uses a transducer on an IVUS catheter that both emits ultrasound signals (waves) and receives the reflected ultrasound signals. The emitted ultrasound signals (often referred to as ultrasound pulses) pass easily through most tissues and blood, but they are partially reflected by discontinuities arising from tissue structures (such as the various layers of the vessel wall), red blood cells, and other features of interest. The IVUS imaging system, which is connected to the IVUS catheter by way of a patient interface module, processes the received ultrasound signals (often referred to as ultrasound echoes) to produce a cross-sectional image of the vessel where the IVUS catheter is located.
IVUS catheters typically employ one or more transducers to transmit ultrasound signals and receive reflected ultrasound signals. However, conventional methods and apparatuses for fabricating transducers may not be optimized. For example, conventional methods and apparatuses do not disclose how to shape a thin polymer film into an ultrasound transducer having concave, lens-like geometries in an automated process.
Therefore, while conventional methods and apparatuses of fabricating transducers are generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in every aspect.

Apparatus for shaping transducer membranes