A vehicle comprises a platform, a propulsion system, a communications system, a sensor system, and a computer system. The propulsion system, communications system, sensor system, and computer system are associated with the platform. The propulsion system is configured to move the platform on a ground. The communications system is configured to establish a wireless communications link to a remote location. The sensor system is configured to generate sensor data. The computer system is configured to run a number of control processes to perform a mission and configured to perform operations in response to a number of commands from the number of operators if the number of requests is valid.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to vehicles and, in particular, to ground vehicles. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to unmanned ground vehicles for performing missions.
2. Background
In performing surveillance and obtaining information about geographic areas, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used in various locations. An unmanned aerial vehicle is capable of travelling over large areas. These types of vehicles are capable of obtaining information about the locations of vehicles, troops, bridges, roads, and/or other types of information.
Unmanned aerial vehicles, however, are restricted in their usefulness by the amount of time that can be spent flying over target areas. The duration of flight for a vehicle is currently up to about 40 hours. As a result, an unmanned aerial vehicle returns to base to refuel before continuing a mission or performing another mission.
As a result, the monitoring of the target area is not continuous with only a single unmanned aerial vehicle. A second unmanned aerial vehicle may be used to monitor the area, while the first unmanned aerial vehicle refuels. Additionally, additional unmanned aerial vehicles may be needed in case maintenance operations need to be performed. As a result, a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles is needed to work in a relay fashion to maintain a constant presence to monitor a given target area.
This type of monitoring provides the desired information about target areas. However, the cost of this type of monitoring is often higher than desirable. For example, each unmanned aerial vehicle has a cost and requires a number of operators to provide constant monitoring of a target area. Also, logistics for launching, controlling, and recovering unmanned aerial vehicles also increases the complexity of maintaining constant monitoring of the target area. Further, unmanned aerial vehicles may be detected and may forewarn a target of their presence or may become a target of enemy fire.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least one of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues.

Unmanned multi-purpose ground vehicle with different levels of control


The present disclosure is directed to apparatuses, systems and methods for measuring time-varying radar cross section (RCS) of an artery of a patient, which may be used to determine blood pressure of a patient. In some embodiments, an apparatus is provided which comprises a radio-frequency (RF) transceiver for generating RF waves, and at least one sensor configured for positioning on or adjacent the skin of a patient, and at least one of transmitting the RF waves into tissue of the patient and receiving RF wave reflections from at least one artery located within the tissue. The apparatus may further comprise a processor having computer instructions operating thereon configured to cause the processor to determine an RF arterial pulse waveform based on the received RF wave reflections. The time-varying radar cross section (RCS) comprises the RF arterial pulse waveform. This may be in turn correlated to blood pressure of the patient.

Radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic radiation has been used for diagnosis and imaging of body tissues, examples of which may be found in PCT publication no. WO2011/067623, US publication nos. 2009/0299175 and 2009/0240133, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,926,868 and 5,766,208.
WO 2011/067623 is understood to be directed to a diagnostic apparatus that includes an antenna, which directs RF electromagnetic waves into a living body and generates signals responsively to the waves that are scattered from within the body. US patent publication no. 2009/0240133 is understood to be directed to a radio apparatus and method for non-invasive, thoracic radio interrogation of a subject for the collection of hemodynamic, respiratory and/or other cardiopulmonary related data. US patent publication no. 2009/0299175, is understood to be directed to a method and apparatus for determining and tracking the location of a metallic object in a living body, using a radar detector adapted to operate on a living body. U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,868 is understood to be directed to a method and apparatus for cardiac hemodynamic monitoring based on the complex field amplitudes of microwaves propagated through and scattered by thoracic cardiovascular structures, particularly the heart chambers, as a function of time during the cardiac cycle.
However, none of these references are understood to disclose ascertaining blood pressure utilizing radio-frequency (RF) waves.

Systems, apparatuses and methods for determining blood pressure


A network address includes a predefined portion that identifies a hostname, where the predefined portion is less than all of the network address. A request is received for a secure session at the network address. The hostname is identified from the predefined portion of the network address and a secure session negotiation is made including returning a digital certificate for the identified hostname.

A main advantage of IPv6 versus IPv4 is the increase in the address space. An IPv6 address is 128 bits compared to 32 bits in IPv4. An organization may be allocated an address space that is relatively large in size. For instance, a service that allocates an IPv6 address for each customer may have many more IPv6 addresses than customers. For example, a common IPv6 allocation is a /32 network prefix, which allows up to 2^96 addresses being available for assignment.

Embedding information or information identifier in an IPv6 address


Apparatus and method for temperature mapping a rotating component (12) in a high temperature combustion environment. The apparatus includes a thermal imager (14) having a field of view to sense infrared (IR) emissions. Emissivity of a surface of the component is subject to variation in the combustion environment. A radiance emitter (18) defines a spot within the field of view of the thermal imager. The spot indicates a respective emissivity value. A processor (30) is connected to the thermal imager to generate a radiance map of the component based on the IR emissions from the component. The processor includes a thermal calibration module configured to calibrate the radiance map based on the emissivity value of the spot within the field of view of the thermal imager to generate a calibrated thermal map of the component that displays absolute temperature over the surface of the component.

It is known to use various superalloy materials, such as cobalt or nickel-based superalloys, for making blades, vanes and other components for power generating turbines, propulsion equipment, etc. These turbines can operate at relatively high temperatures and are generally protected by a series of protective coatings. The coatings may comprise layers of metallic base coats, thermally grown oxide layers, as such layers grow in service-run components and a final ceramic thermal barrier coating ("TBC"). Long-term exposure of these ceramic coatings to the hostile, high temperature, abrasive environment in which such turbines typically operate can cause phase destabilization, sintering, microcracking, delamination and ultimately spallation within the coating layers, exposing the superalloy component and possibly resulting in rapid degradation or failure and potentially requiring costly and burdensome repairs.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/610,214 titled "Method And Apparatus For Measuring On-Line Failure Of Turbine Thermal Barrier Coatings" describes an infrared (IR)-based system configured to non-destructively measure the radiance of a rotating turbine component (e.g., a blade) in a gas turbine in the context of monitoring the formation and progression of TBC defects where images of relative high spatial resolution are needed but where accurate absolute temperature information may not be needed. The foregoing patent application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/470,123, and each is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present invention and herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,422,365 describes a thermal imaging system that purportedly uses an in-field-of-view electronically controlled heat source having a known and fixed temperature for generating a calibrated temperature map of a scene. However, such an approach would not be a feasible approach in a high temperature combustion environment of a turbine, where operating temperatures change as a function of the load of the turbine. Moreover, the system described by U.S. Pat. No. 7,422,365 appears to be limited to thermally imaging non-moving objects. Accordingly, such a system would not be suitable for temperature mapping a rotating turbine component.
It would be desirable to acquire two-dimensional IR images of the rotating turbine component to consistently provide accurate absolute temperature measurements of the component. However, temperature measurement errors can be introduced due to various factors, which under prior techniques have not been appropriately accounted for. For example, the emissivity of the TBC can change as a function of wavelength, temperature, age, contamination, etc. Additionally, it would be desirable to account for thermal emissions that may be transmitted through the TBC from subsurface coatings and/or thermal gradients than can arise in a cooled turbine component. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and techniques that overcome the foregoing issues.

Apparatus and method for temperature mapping a rotating turbine component in a high temperature combustion environment


An elimination-absorber monitoring system addresses diaper-monitoring problems with a unique, low cost, multi-layer disposable sensor structure that absorbs small volumes of urine, yet allows most urine volume to flow unimpeded through it, and into the diaper below. When connected with a reusable, miniature monitor/indicator unit, the sensor presents a clear and on-going change of measurement condition upon experiencing a rapid influx into the diaper of a significant volume of urine, and/or upon a significant reduction in the available absorbency of the diaper's top surface. The sensor additionally provides recessed, protected elements for similarly presenting a clear and on-going change in measurement condition upon experiencing the presence of fecal matter. Further provided is the monitor unit employing narrow, widely-spaced, fast rise-time, fast transition-time pulses for conductivity measurement and alarm activation. The monitor and sensor are interconnected and attached to a diaper by particularly effective and unique means, and the monitor is equipped with a highly intuitive and convenient control interface, as well as improved assemblies for the transmission of audible and visual alarm indications. Also described is a convenient test-strip device which, when connected to the monitor/alarm unit of the system, can selectively simulate either a soiled or unsoiled elimination-absorber/sensor for test, caregiver-training or demonstration purposes.

Inventors have long sought to provide a system of associated devices for effectively monitoring the condition of a diaper, other undergarment, bedding or the like. While the present invention provides an elimination-absorber monitoring system useful in each of these environments, a preferred embodiment is utilized in conjunction with a disposable diaper. Thus, for purposes of brevity in the present specification, the term "diaper" shall indicate any of the above-described use environments, except where otherwise specifically stated or apparent from context.
The art is replete with examples of prior attempts to satisfy the need for an elimination-absorber monitoring system. Each has, for one reason or another, apparently failed to achieve significant implementation and consumer acceptance. Upon review, the prior systems appear either impractical, unsuitable to the use environment, unworkable and/or uneconomical—largely for one or more of the following reasons: failure to provide an appropriate sensor response or alarm criteria with respect to urine-soiling; inability to detect fecal matter, or to provide an appropriate sensor response or alarm criteria with respect to feces-soiling; lack of important user-oriented features; and unsuitability to cost-effective manufacturing.
Most previous systems have utilized the measurement of electrical conductivity between two spaced electrodes disposed somewhere on top of, within, or under the absorbent layers of a diaper, to detect the presence of liquid urine when it bridged some path between the electrodes. This approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,460,123 (Bass), U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,818 (Macias), U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,370 (Vetecnik), U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,559 (Kelly), U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,023 (Xie), U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,859 (Brown), U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,264,830 and 5,392,032 (Kline), U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,672 (Dvorak), and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,266,928 and 5,395,358 (Lu). These systems all depended on the relatively high conductivity of urine, as compared to the typically low conductivity of unsoiled, dry diaper materials. Several of these prior inventors clearly assumed that the key to a useful "diaper wetness" alarm (as their objective was often termed) would be the detection of virtually any urine in a diaper. They also recognized that, depending on the sensor configuration, urine could miss the intended target. Thus, variations of this approach incorporated either distributed (e.g., screen-like) electrodes or various absorbent pads or modifications of a diaper to help collect, funnel or direct urine flow to bridge the sensing electrodes, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,818 (Macias). However, this focus on the detection of simple "wetness" resultant from urination—as opposed to the far more useful determination that an elimination-absorber actually required changing (or at least inspection)—failed to answer the real needs of caregivers and diaper-wearers. As with all the prior systems, seemingly little emphasis was placed on defining and obtaining truly user-responsive sensor performance. While this simple "wetness detection" focus may have appeared somewhat workable, as applied to certain cloth or early low-absorbency diapers, it did not adequately address the effects of widely differing flow-rates and volumes in various urination events and situations. Moreover, for reasons that shall be explained below, this approach was completely incompatible with the properties (and particularly the much greater capacity) of modern disposable diapers. Thus, previous systems based on simple "wetness detection" typically either failed to work consistently, or were prone to meaningless or premature alarm indications.
Some prior attempts took the view that a "soiled" diaper condition could be deduced by simply detecting the arrival of urine at the bottom (just inside the outer cover) of a diaper, i.e., that this would indicate when the diaper had reached its absorbent capacity. However, high-absorbency diapers are specifically designed to prevent urine from soaking to the outer cover, at least during the expected wearing time. Because urine permeates into and through a diaper with at least some time delay, additional urine will continue to collect after it first reaches a pair of sensing electrodes. If urine is detected only after soaking to the bottom of a diaper, the continued accumulation will tend to quickly spread along the inside of the cover, and quite likely leak out before the diaper can be changed. Thus, the determination of a fully saturated condition based on the sudden presence of urine at the bottom layers is not practically useful. Even completely non-electronic approaches to diaper monitoring, such as the "happy face" visual indicators incorporated into the outer cover of Fitti™ brand diapers, can similarly suffer from the limitations of over-simplified alarm criteria and inappropriate, inconsistent, or untimely sensor response. Also, such purely visual wetness-indicating devices, which are necessarily disposed directly on a diaper cover, have limited value for other reasons. Just as with traditional methods, they still require frequent and continual checking by a caregiver—and the awkward removal of clothing layers worn over a diaper—to permit viewing of the indicator. They thereby fail to provide a convenient, automatic, attention-getting signal that a diaper needs changing.
Still other inventors tried to "intercept" the flow of urine somewhere in the mid-layers of a diaper, but as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, another problem results from the modern disposable diaper being such an aggressive absorber. No choice of conductivity-sensing path within such diapers (including midway through the absorbent layers) is likely to conveniently go from "dry" to fully "wet" at such time as to appropriately reflect a "needs to be changed" condition. In some such diapers, "super-absorbent" particles or polymer jells have been used to dramatically increase the liquid-holding capacity in a central core of the absorbent structure. These central absorbers are typically surrounded by conventional (e.g., cellulose based) absorbent wadding because the super-absorbers tend to react relatively slowly in absorbing liquid, as compared to the conventional materials. This means that the distribution of liquid through the diaper is highly non-uniform and it changes markedly after a urination event, as the super-absorber core gradually pulls liquid out of the conventional absorbent bulk. Also, with intermediate levels of moisture in any type of diaper (where the absorbent material is not yet completely saturated), urine can accumulate gradually or unevenly—often separated into discontinuous droplets or unpredictably scattered wet or merely damp regions. Thus, these regions may not happen to span a chosen path between electrodes so that the urine can be reliably detected. Moreover, the mere presence of relatively high conductivity (and hence the presence of liquid) along any given path through a diaper may not reflect a true "needs to be changed" condition (i.e., correlate with caregiver expectations or with traditional diaper inspection methods), particularly in the case of modern high-absorbency, disposable diapers. As explained above, none of the foregoing simple conductivity-based systems reflected a truly appropriate sensor response or "alarm criteria" with respect to urine-soiling of diapers. They typically responded either immediately or prematurely to the presence of trivial amounts of urine passing into a diaper; or alternatively, they responded either inconsistently, or not until after the diaper was soaked beyond its safe absorbent capacity—depending primarily on the choice of sensing location.
Other prior devices have measured AC-conductivity (or related electrical capacitance) across a bulk volume of diaper absorbent material, to achieve more appropriate alarm indications, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,704,108 and 4,754,264 (Okada). These methods employed indirect determination of the average "moisture content" or "dampness" in some portion of the diaper absorber. This indirect determination was based on the presumed proportionality of average dampness to directly-measured capacitance or AC-conductivity. Proponents of this approach held that an accurate measurement exceeding a certain fixed threshold value would indicate a urine-soiled condition. They also held that such would be appropriate and sufficient to determine that a diaper needed changing. To be even partially correct, however, this assumption required that the portion of absorbent material actually measured be truly representative of the average dampness in the entire absorber volume. Also for meaningful measurements, that portion would have to be held in a constant shape and position, relative to the sensing means. Furthermore, selecting an appropriate fixed threshold value (that would remain valid with different sizes and applications of diapers) may not be possible. Thus, making sufficiently accurate and meaningful measurements (under all expected conditions) presented serious and unanswered practicality problems. These problems result from variations in measurable conductivity or capacitance due to many factors such as high humidity, perspiration, residual dampness from the washing of soiled skin, and the relative movement and random compression of the absorber as the wearer shifts position—all of which are likely to be experienced in the use environment.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,145 (Johnson), the use of capacitive coupling of a sensing circuit (disposed on the outside of a diaper) to the material to be measured (inside the diaper) eliminated all direct connection between the monitoring device and the inside of a diaper. However, the described relatively high-impedance capacitor input to a monitor circuit would likely be particularly prone to external electrical noise and interference, as well as to significant capacitance variations due to unpredictable moisture distribution, the presence of other nearby conductive surfaces and physical movement—as the diaper wearer actively and continually shifts position. In short, all the previously described difficulties associated with other distributed dampness measurement approaches would tend to be worsened with the sensing elements moved farther away from the measurement volume. In addition, the use of continuous sinusoidal AC signals for sensing also typically entails greater energy consumption than does the use of DC conductivity methods. In prior systems this has required either the recharging or replacement of batteries, and thus complicated or precluded the use of a permanently sealed monitor unit.
Moreover, the prior systems were all ineffective for detecting the feces-soiling of diapers. Only a minuscule change in DC-conductivity or absorbent-bulk AC-conductivity (or capacitance) results from a small quantity of fecal matter on the surface of a diaper. This has rendered it typically undetectable by prior methods relative to much larger background changes produced by many of the above-described factors in the use environment. In general, the prior devices' collective inability to reliably detect feces stems from both the physical nature of the sensors and the electronic systems employed with them.
As described above, prior electronic systems have measured either DC or AC-conductivity or capacitance to detect urine. DC systems for accurately measuring liquid ionic conductivity typically require some "latching" means (such as circuits which detect an initial event and then remain "triggered"), because the applied electric field used for measurement causes dissociation of the very ions that enable electrical conduction, thus decreasing the measured conductivity over time. This effect poses only a minor problem when liquid urine directly bridges two closely spaced contacts, because the sudden initial increase in conductivity is substantial (due to the relatively high uric acid ionic concentration in urine) and this sudden increase can be easily differentiated from the baseline "dry diaper" condition. However, neither proportional bulk moisture content distributed in a diaper, nor the presence of feces, are suitable for direct DC-conductivity measurement. Particularly with feces, the ionic concentration is much lower than with direct liquid urine contact—and the water content, which allows the ions mobility, is often much lower in semi-solid waste. If a steady-state voltage is applied in an attempt to detect feces by inducing a DC current, the ionic dissociation effect results in rapid reduction in measured conductivity. With DC sensing of urine, a reference alarm threshold can be chosen such that the alarm condition will persist for a reasonable time—but probably not in all cases. This approach does not work at all with feces, however, because the initial conductivity is so low—and the decrease is so rapid—that after mere seconds, the conductivity falls below a practically measurable level. If a "latching" electronic detector is used to circumvent this problem—and is made sufficiently sensitive for detection of feces—this type of circuit may be easily triggered by momentary and insignificant conditions. Should this occur in actual use situations with a diaper monitoring system, caregiver intervention would likely be required to reset it. Because the true state of the diaper could not, in such cases, be reliably determined (without reverting to traditional diaper inspection), latching-type detectors are undesirable for use in elimination-absorber monitoring systems.
An additional problem is presented by the appropriate alarm criteria for feces-soiling. Since a diaper does not absorb feces and carry it away from direct contact with the skin (as it does with urine), and particularly given the irritation resultant from prolonged contact, feces must be detected virtually at the diaper surface—and a feces-soiled diaper needs to be changed as quickly as is practical. Obviously, for feces detection purposes, the various prior AC bulk-dampness type of sensors were not useful, as their sensing elements focused on a bulk volume of a diaper, not on its surface. On the other hand, a sensor structure involving exposed electrodes placed on the top surface of a diaper, while not only disconcerting to a caregiver, would prematurely respond to the presence of any urine. Such arrangement would also greatly increase the likelihood of false alarms resulting from bridging of the electrodes through either AC-coupling, or direct contact with skin, particularly if damp. As discussed above, feces are relatively very low in conductivity, and are thus difficult for such a system to reliably detect in the use environment. The overall elimination-absorber feces-detection problem is even more difficult, because a truly practical system must effectively combine the determination of both feces and urine-soiling of diapers. Clearly, no prior system has successfully done so.
The absence of any widely marketed consumer product for elimination-absorber monitoring further highlights the unsuitability of prior inventors' attempts. Today's parents and caregivers are still embarrassed by sniffing our kids and pulling their pants down in public to see whether they need to be changed. Thus, the desire remains for a truly effective, economic, safe, reliable, convenient, and energy efficient system for use with infants and other individuals dependent on a caregiver. These and other objectives, as will become apparent from the following specification and drawings, are satisfied by the present invention.


An improved slotter wheel mechanism (30) designed for use in the formation of box blanks is provided which includes a rotatable wheel assembly (32) supporting one or more slotter blades (34); the blades (34) are coupled to the wheel by means (36) permitting shifting of the blades (34) during rotation of the wheel assembly (32) between an extended slotting position and a retracted blank-clearing position. In one embodiment, a slotter wheel (222) is equipped with a plurality of spiders (232) operatively secured to corresponding blade holders (246). As the wheel (222) rotates, the spiders (232) encounter strategically located members (294, 294a, 296 and 296a) serving to successively rotate the spiders (232), thus moving the blade holders (246) and blades (256).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with improved slotter wheel apparatus of the type used in box making operations for the purpose of creating strategically located and sized slots in box blanks which in turn define the flap sections of an ultimate box. More particularly, it is concerned with such slotter wheel apparatus having dynamically retractable slotter blades permitting use of a given slotter wheel in the production of a wide variety of box blank sizes; in particular, the apparatus hereof permits retraction of slotter blades during rotation of the slotter wheel so that blanks of virtually any practical length can be formed on standard sized slotting machines. In addition, sectionalized, pivotally interconnected slotter blade constructions are described which in the cutting positions thereof extend through an arc greater than 180.degree., while nevertheless being fully retractable into a collapsed, folded-together orientation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional box making operations involve initially die cutting a box blank typically formed of corrugated board, followed by subjecting the blank to creasing and slotting steps in order to define the sides and end flaps of the blank. Generally speaking, the creasing and slotting operations are performed using adjacent, serially aligned creasing and slotting wheels respectively mounted upon powered shafts. As the blank is fed through the creasing/slotting device, the rotating creasing and slotting wheels act on the blank to create a series of spaced slot pairs of desired length separated by continuous creases. In this manner, the side panels of the final box are formed, along with the end closure flaps thereof. In order to efficiently produce blanks of varying dimensions, the slotting and creasing wheels may be shifted laterally along the lengths of their supporting shafts; moreover, cutting blades of varying lengths may be bolted to the slotting wheels at any one of a number of positions thereon, so that the size and location of the flap-defining slots may be altered.
While creasing/slotting devices of the type described are well known, they suffer from a serious drawback in that there are definite limitations as to the size of blanks which they may accommodate and process. That is, the maximum blank length which may be handled using a conventional slotter wheel is determined by the effective diameter of the wheel and knife blade. If it is desired to produce a larger blank, the only recourse is to employ a larger, more expensive slotting device. As will be appreciated, this problem stems from the fact that the slotter blade carried by conventional slotter wheel is fixed during rotation thereof and accordingly creates a corresponding slot during every wheel revolution.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,502 describes a slotter wheel device wherein the wheel-supporting shaft is equipped with an eccentric permitting selective movement of the supported slotting blades to a non-cutting position. However, the apparatus described in the '502 patent is incapable of moving a slotting blade between an extended slotting position and a retracted, blank-clearing position during rotation of the slotting wheel. In short, it is necessary to stop the operation of the wheel, manipulate the eccentric to alter the blade position, and then resume operations. Accordingly, the device described in this patent cannot accommodate oversized blanks and suffers from the same deficiencies as conventional slotters.

Slotter wheel mechanism having dynamically retractable slotter blades


A method of coding and transmitting channel quality control information through a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) is disclosed. The method of transmitting channel state control information (CQI and/or PMI) in a wireless access system includes performing channel coding with respect to the channel state control information according to a payload size of the channel state control information, performing rate matching with respect to the channel state control information coded through channel coding according to physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format 3, and transmitting the channel state control information using the PUCCH format 3.

A 3rd Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) (or Rel-8 or Rel-9) system (hereinafter, referred to as an LTE system or a Rel-8 system) uses a multi-carrier modulation (MCM) scheme for segmenting and utilizing a single component carrier (CC) into several bands. However, in a 3GPP LTE-Advanced (hereinafter, referred to as an LTE-A system or a Rel-10 system), in order to support a system bandwidth wider than that of the LTE system, a method such as carrier aggregation (CA) for aggregating and utilizing one or more CCs may be used. CA is also called carrier matching, multi-CC environment or multi-carrier environment.
In a single CC environment such as an LTE system, only the case in which uplink control information (UCI) and data are multiplexed on one CC using a plurality of layers is described.
In addition, only ACK/NACK and scheduling request (SR) of up to 20 bits were transmitted in the existing PUCCH format 3 and only channel quality control information (CQI/PMI) of up to 11 bits was transmitted in another PUCCH format.

Method and apparatus for transmitting channel quality control information using PUCCH format 3 in a wireless access system


A packaging substrate and a semiconductor package using the packaging substrate are provided. The packaging substrate includes: a substrate body having a die attach area, a circuit layer formed around the die attach area and having a plurality of conductive traces each having a wire bonding pad, and a surface treatment layer formed on the wire bonding pads. Therein, only one of the conductive traces is connected to an electroplating line so as to prevent cross-talk that otherwise occurs between conductive traces due to too many electroplating lines in the prior art.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor packages, packaging substrates and fabrication methods thereof, and, more particularly, to a wire-bonding semiconductor package, packaging substrate and fabrication method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
For electrically connecting a semiconductor chip and a packaging substrate or a lead frame through bonding wires, the semiconductor chip has a plurality of electrode pads formed on a surface thereof and the packaging substrate has a plurality of wire bonding pads corresponding to the electrode pads, or the lead frame has a plurality of leads corresponding to the electrode pads. The semiconductor chip is mounted on a die attach area of the packaging substrate or the lead frame and the electrode pads of the semiconductor chip are electrically connected to the wire bonding pads or the leads through a plurality of bonding wires such that the semiconductor chip is electrically connected to the packaging substrate or the lead frame.
Generally, before a wire bonding process, a surface treatment layer made of, for example, Ni/Au is formed on the wire bonding pads of the packaging substrate for improving electrical bonding forces between gold wires and the wire bonding pads and avoiding oxidation of the wire bonding pads. The process for forming the surface treatment layer can be a process with plating lines or a process without plating lines.
FIGS. 1A and 1A′ show a conventional electroplating process with plating lines. Referring to the drawings, a substrate body 10 has a die attach area A and a circuit layer 11. The circuit layer 11 has a plurality of conductive traces 11a and a plurality of conductive vias 11b. One end of each of the conductive traces 11a has a wire bonding pad 110 disposed adjacent to the die attach area A, and the other end is disposed away from the die attach area A for connecting a corresponding one of the conductive vias 11b and further connecting an electroplating line 111 extending to an edge of the substrate body 10. Further, the electroplating lines 111 at each side of the substrate body 10 are connected to an electroplating bus (or referred to as a common electroplating line, not shown). An insulating protection layer 12 is formed on the substrate body 10, and a plurality of openings 120 are formed in the insulating protection layer 12 for exposing the wire bonding pads 110.
Then, a plurality of array-arranged substrate bodies 10 are disposed in an electroplating tub (not shown) and an electroplating process is performed such that current flows through the electroplating buses as well as the electroplating lines 111 to thereby form a surface treatment layer 14 on the wire bonding pads 110. Then, the electroplating buses are removed.
As described above, each of the conductive traces 11a is connected to an electroplating line 111. After the electroplating process, the electroplating lines 111 still remain on the edges of the substrate body 10. As such, when the packaging substrate 1 is applied to a high frequency product having high electrical performance, signal transmission in the conductive traces 11a can be adversely affected by the electroplating lines 111 such that cross-talk occurs, thereby resulting in signal distortion or poor electrical performance.
Accordingly, an NPL (Non-plating line) electroplating process is provided. Referring to Taiwan Patent No. I223426 or FIG. 1B, a conductive film 13 is formed on a substrate body 10′ and a first resist layer 12a is formed on the conductive film 13 such that an electroplating process is performed for forming a circuit layer 11′. Then, a second resist layer 12b is formed such that an electroplating process is performed through the conductive film 13 for forming a surface treatment layer 14′ on wire bonding pads 110′ of the circuit layer 11′. Thereafter, the first resist layer 12a, the second resist layer 12b and the conductive film 13 covered by the first and second resist layers 12a, 12b are removed. By using the conductive film 13 instead of a plurality of electroplating lines, cross-talk is avoidable.
However, in the NPL electroplating process, two patterning processes for patterning the resist layers are required. The resist layers and masks are high in material cost, and exposure and development processes are also high in equipment cost. Therefore, the NPL electroplating process is costly, time-consuming and does not meet cost-effective requirements.
To mount a semiconductor chip 16 on the packaging substrate, an adhesive layer 15 is formed on the insulating protection layer 12 in the die attach area A. Referring to FIG. 1A′, when the chip 16 is attached to the adhesive layer 15, the adhesive layer 15 is squeezed to overflow, thus polluting the wire bonding pads 110 around the die attach area A and adversely affecting the electrical connection of the packaging substrate 1.
In order to increase the distance D between the wire bonding pads 110 and the die attach area A so as to protect the wiring bonding pads 110 from being polluted by the adhesive material, the area of the substrate body 10 needs to be increased. As such, the packaging substrate 1 cannot meet the miniaturization requirement. Furthermore, since the layout space for the circuit layer 11 are reduced due to the provision of the electroplating lines, the flexibility of the circuit layout is reduced.
To increase the distance D between the wire bonding pads 110 and the die attach area A, the length of gold wires (not shown) also needs to be increased, thereby leading to a high material cost and a high fabrication cost.
Therefore, how to overcome the above-described drawbacks has become urgent.

Fabrication method of packaging substrate

Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd.


An imaging device includes objective optics configured to form an image at a focal plane and having an optical axis that intersects the focal plane at an optical center. An image sensor, which includes an array of sensor elements arranged in a matrix of rows and columns, is positioned in the focal plane with a center point of the matrix displaced transversely by at least ten rows relative to the optical center.

Most mobile communication and computing devices that are currently on the market include at least one built-in camera. These cameras are used extensively in capturing images of the user of the device. In addition to the documentary use of such images as "selfies," they are also used in some devices, such as the iPhone® X, for authentication of the user by automatic face recognition.


The disclosed method can improve the luminescence life of an image display device. By using a blue luminescent phosphor having the phosphor component ZnS:M, N (where M is one or more elements selected from Cu, Ag, and Au, and N is one or more elements selected from Al, Ga, In, and Cl); wherein a shoulder is observed at around 400 nm (3.10 eV) of a cathode-luminescence spectrum of a field-emission display. A phosphor of a field-emission display of the present invention has improved characteristics against deterioration by electron-beam irradiation and an excellent luminescence maintenance factor, therefore, the luminescence life characteristics of a display are improved.

Research and development of various display devices have been carried out in image information systems according to a variety of demands such as high resolution, wide screen, thin type and low power consumption. Display devices using Braun tubes have mainly been used up to now, but there is a limit to making it thinner. Recently, research and development of FEDs are actively being carried out to achieve a thin type and low power consumption display according to such demands.
An FED has a structure, wherein a flat-shaped field-emission electron source is placed at the back plane of an enclosed vacuum box and a phosphor layer at the inside surface of a front faceplate, and by irradiating the phosphor layer with a low accelerating voltage electron beam on the order of approximately 0.1-10 kV accelerating voltage, the phosphor glows and an image is displayed. Herein, the electron density of the electron beam irradiated onto the phosphor layer is about 10-1000 times higher than that of a conventional Braun tube, thereby low resistance characteristics are required in the FED phosphor layer so as not to cause electron charge saturation Moreover, excellent characteristic of life under high electron density and high luminance characteristics with low luminescence saturation are also necessary.
Heretofore, a variety of research has been carried out to realize a long-life phosphor layer. Regarding crystal defects of the phosphor, as written in nonpatent document 1, crystal defects of a ZnS:Ag,Al phosphor were analyzed by observation with a transmission electron microscope (TEM), in phosphor No. P55 it is reported that the luminescent maintenance factor is excellent because of a small number of crystal defects. Additionally, as reported in Non-patent document 2, by irradiating an electron beam onto the ZnS phosphor, sulfur on the surface is eliminated, and formation of ZnO progresses. As a method to improve the performance of a phosphor for an FED, there is a means, as described in Patent document 1 for instance, to improve the crystallinity of a blue SrGa2S4:Ce phosphor layer by annealing in a reduced pressure atmosphere containing H2S. Moreover, although it is for electroluminescence (EL) and not for an FED, as described in nonpatent document 2 there is a means that an SrS system luminescence layer is treated in a sulfur atmosphere to reduce impurities and control the addition of luminescence centers.
Heretofore, various methods have been examined to achieve low resistance, long life, and high luminescence of phosphor layers for FEDs. However, all the problems have not been solved by the methods of the prior art. Especially, a new means is necessary to achieve long phosphor life.    [Patent document 1] JP-A 261367/1998    [Patent document 2] JP-A 192813/2001    [Non-patent document 1] J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A19 (2001) 1083    [Non-patent document 2] J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A14 (1996) 1697

Image display device having a long-life phosphor layer


The present disclosure provides one embodiment of a reflective electron-beam (e-beam) lithography system. The reflective e-beam lithography system includes an e-beam source to generate an e-beam; a digital pattern generator (DPG) having a plurality of pixels that are dynamically and individually controllable to reflect the e-beam; a substrate stage designed to secure a substrate and being operable to move the substrate; an e-beam lens module configured to project the e-beam from the DPG to the substrate; and an alignment gate configured between the e-beam source and the DPG, wherein the alignment gate is operable to modulate an intensity of the e-beam.

Semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) fabrication involves forming multiple material layers with designed patterns on a semiconductor wafer. Those patterned material layers on the semiconductor wafer are aligned and configured to form one or more functional circuits. Photolithography systems are used to pattern a semiconductor wafer. When semiconductor technology continues progressing to circuit layouts having smaller feature sizes, a lithography system with higher resolution is need to image an IC pattern with smaller feature sizes. An electron-beam (e-beam) system is introduced for lithography patterning processes as the electron beam has wavelengths that can be tuned to very short, resulting in very high resolution. An e-beam lithography can write small features to a wafer but takes longer time. The corresponding fabrication cost is higher and cycle time is too long. A reflective e-beam lithography system having a digital pattern generator is used to generate an e-beam pattern with the reduced cycle time. However, multiple pixels of the digital pattern generator encounter misalignment on wafer pixels due to clock skew.
It is desired, therefore, to provide an e-beam lithography system and a method for e-beam lithography patterning in IC fabrication to address the above issues.

E-beam lithography with alignment gating

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


Techniques for managing data in a non-volatile memory system (e.g., Flash Memory) are disclosed. A controller can use information relating to a host's filing system, which is stored by the host on non-volatile memory, to determine if one or more clusters (or sectors with clusters) are currently allocated. The controller can use the information relating to the host's filing system to ensure that one or more clusters (or one or more sectors within a cluster) are not copied from one location to another location in the memory during a garbage collection cycle. As a result, some unnecessary operations (e.g., copying data) which are conventionally performed can be avoided and system performance can be enhanced.

The present invention relates generally to data storage systems for use with computing systems and, more particularly, to techniques for maintaining data on non-volatile memory storage device.
There are many commercially successful non-volatile memory products being used today, particularly in the form of small form factor cards, which employ an array of flash EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory) cells formed on one or more integrated circuit chips. Typically, a memory controller on a separate integrated circuit chip is provided as an interface to a host. The host can use the controller to perform various operations (e.g., read, write) on the non-volatile memory. A controller typically includes a microprocessor, some non-volatile read-only-memory (ROM), a volatile random-access-memory (RAM) and one or more special circuits such as one that calculates an error-correction-code (ECC) from data as they pass through the controller during the programming and reading of data. Some of the commercially available cards are CompactFlash™ (CF) cards, MultiMedia cards (MMC), Secure Digital (SD) cards, Smart Media cards, personnel tags (P-Tag) and Memory Stock cards. Hosts include personal computers, notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), various data communication devices, digital cameras, cellular telephones, portable audio players, automobile sound systems, and similar types of equipment. Besides a memory card implementation, non-volatile memory can alternatively be embedded into various types of host systems.
As in most integrated circuit applications, the pressure to shrink the silicon substrate area required to implement some integrated circuit function also exists with flash EEPROM memory cell arrays. It is continually desired to increase the amount of digital data that can be stored in a given area of a silicon substrate, in order to increase the storage capacity of a given size memory card and other types of packages, or to both increase capacity and decrease size. One way to increase the storage density of data is to store more than one bit of data per memory cell and/or per storage unit or element. This is accomplished by dividing a window of a storage element charge level voltage range into more than two states. The use of four such states allows each cell to store two bits of data, either states store three bits of data per storage element, and so on. Multiple state flash EEPROM structures using floating gates and their operation are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,043,940 and 5,172,338, and for structures using dielectric floating gates in the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0109093. Selected portions of a multi-state memory cell array may also be operated in two states (binary) for various reasons, in a manner described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,930,167 and 6,456,528.
Memory cells of a typical flash EEPROM array are divided into discrete "blocks" of cells that are erased together. Each erase block typically stores one or more pages of data, the page being the minimum unit of programming and reading, although more than one page may be programmed or read in parallel in different sub-arrays or planes. Each page typically stores one or more sectors of data, the size of the sector being defined by the host system. An example sector includes 512 bytes of user data, following a standard established with magnetic disk drives, plus some number of bytes of overhead information about the user data and/or the erase block in which they are stored. Such memories are typically configured with 16, 32 or more pages within each erase block, and each page stores one or just a few host sectors of data. It should also be noted that in order to re-write data to a block, the block should be erased first.
In order to increase the degree to parallelism during programming user data into the memory array and read user data from it, the array is typically divided into sub-arrays, commonly referred to as planes, which contain their own data registers and other circuits to allow parallel operation such that sectors of data may be programmed to or read from each of several or all the planes simultaneously. An array on a single integrated circuit may be physically divided into planes, or each plane may be formed from a separate one or more integrated circuit chips. Examples of such a memory implementation are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,798,968 and 5,890,192.
To further efficiently manage the memory, erase blocks may be linked together to form virtual blocks or metablocks. That is, each metablock is defined to include one erase block from each plane. Use of the metablock is described in International Patent Application Publication No. WO 02/058074. The metablock is identified by a host logical block address as a destination for programming and reading data. Similarly, all erase blocks of a metablock are erased together. The controller in a memory system operated with such large blocks and/or metablocks performs a number of functions including the translation between logical block addresses (LBAs) received from a host, and physical block numbers (PBNs) within the memory cell array. Individual pages within the blocks are typically identified by offsets within the block address. Address translation often involves use of intermediate terms of a logical block number (LBN) and logical page.
From the perspective of a host application, flash memory can be divided into a logical address space starting from a logical address zero (0) and ending with a logical address N. FIG. 1 illustrates a host's logical address space 102 which is partitioned into "logical sectors". The host groups several (e.g., four (4)) logical sectors into a cluster. As shown in FIG. 1, a host may divide the logical address space 102 into clusters that include clusters A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H. As such, each of these clusters may represent a predetermined number of sectors (e.g., four (4) logical sectors per cluster). In any case, the host allocates data in a logical unit of data which can be referred to as a "cluster". For example, clusters A, B and C may be used to allocate a file 1, while cluster D is used to allocate a file 2. It should be noted that the host allocates files in clusters. However, not all the logical sectors in a cluster need to contain data for a file. By way of example, only a portion (e.g., only one logical sector) of cluster C may have data. Nevertheless, the host typically allocates a cluster to a file even though not all the logical sectors in the cluster are needed.
A host can use a File Allocation Table (FAT) 104 to keep track of files. The File Allocation Table (FAT) 104 effectively represents a logical file structure and also indicates what cluster has been allocated for each of the files in the logical file structure. The host maintains the logical file structure by updating the File Allocation Table (FAT) 104. By way of example, when a new file is allocated, the File Allocation Table (FAT) 104 is updated to, among other things, indicate which clusters have been allocated for the new file. Also, when a file or directory is deleted, the host updates the File Allocation Table (FAT) 104. It should be noted that clusters may be deallocated by the host as a result of an update. By way of example, when the host deletes file 1, an updated File Allocation Table (FAT) 106 may result where the host effectively deallocates clusters A, B, and C which were allocated for storing file 1.
In contrast to a host's logical address space, the logical address space of a flash-memory controller is divided into "logical blocks". In other words, the same logical address space 102 may be represented as a logical address space 103 for the controller. As shown in FIG. 1, the logical address space 103 may be divided into various logical blocks, including logical block 1 and logical block 2. These logical blocks are mapped into physical blocks of memory that can be erased as a unit. For example, logical block 1 may be mapped into physical block 2, and so on. In summary, the host and controller use different logical units of memory. The host divides the logical address space into clusters while the controller divides the logical address space into logical blocks. It should also be noted that typically host clusters are applied to logical address space allocated for application data and sub-directory entries only. In addition, logical address space allocated for other system data may not be managed by the host as clusters. It should also be noted that the first cluster is not normally located at the beginning of the logical address space. Clusters and logical blocks may therefore not align with each other.
A conventional controller, however, is not aware of the logical organization used by the host. Conventionally, the controller simply maps the logical address 102 used by the host to a logical address 103 and then into a physical address 110. This means that a conventional controller does not consider the host's logical organization of data or consequences that a host operation may have had on data. By way of example, when a new file is allocated, the logical file system 104 is updated to, among other things, indicate which clusters have been allocated for the new file. Also, when a file or directory is deleted, the host updates the logical file system 104. Moreover, one or more clusters may be deallocated by a host. By way of example, when the host deletes file 1, the updated File Allocation Table 106 indicates that the host has effectively deallocated clusters A, B, and C which were previously allocated for storing file 1 (i.e., file 1 is no longer represented in updated File Allocation Table 106). Although clusters A, B, and C have been deallocated by the host and can be erased, a conventional controller does not "garbage collect" that data corresponding to deallocated clusters A, B, and C. This means that the data will persist on memory. In addition, the deallocated data may be copied a number of times when blocks are updated during garbage collection when data in two blocks may be combined into one block.
To further illustrate, an original physical block 120 is depicted in FIG. 1. For simplicity, it is assumed that the original physical block 120 includes data corresponding to logical clusters A, B, C and D used by the host to allocate files 1 and 2. Also, further assuming that the host has later deallocated file 1 (clusters A, B and C), the original physical block 120 still contains all the logical clusters A, B, C and D because the controller has no way of knowing that file 1 has been deallocated by the host. The host, however, has requested the controller to update data portion D of the original physical block 120. In other words, at some point the host may want to change file 2, so it sends a write request using the logical address it knows for data corresponding to one or more logical sectors that should be updated. The controller determines that these logical sectors addressed by the host correspond to sectors that already have been written to by the host (i.e., Cluster D), so an update block 122 is used partly because data in original physical block 120 cannot be overwritten. This means that two physical blocks may be used to represent a logical block for some time until the update block 122 is "closed" (i.e., all data in original block 120 is copied to block 122). The original block 120 and the update block 122 may be combined, for example, during a garbage collection cycle, so that the update block 122 becomes an "original" block 122 and the previous original block 120 is erased and returned to a pool of available memory blocks. In any case, it should be noted that data corresponding to the deallocated clusters (A, B, and C) are copied sooner or later to the update block 122 so that update block 122 can be closed and original block 120 can be erased. The controller may maintain a mapping table within volatile memory or non-volatile memory defining the allocation of physical memory blocks to logical blocks of data. Copying data stored in non-volatile memory takes a significant amount of time and resources. However, copying deallocated data (e.g., deallocated clusters A, B, and C) is not necessary. Thus, system performance can be further enhanced if deallocated data is not copied. In general, it is desirable to enhance system performance as much as possible while adhering to the addressing conventions that are widely used.
Accordingly, alternative non-volatile memory management techniques would be useful.

Method and apparatus for maintaining data on non-volatile memory systems


Disclosed is a method for detecting road slope and a system for controlling vehicle speed using the method. The method comprises the steps of receiving input of road images from a camera; performing conversion of the road images into a bird""s-eye view; extracting a plurality of lane markers from the converted road images; calculating a slope in the extracted lane markers; and calculating a slope in the road using a difference in value between the slopes. The system comprises a vehicle speed setting unit for establishing a target vehicle speed and outputting the same; a camera for obtaining road images and outputting the same; a drive state detecting unit having a plurality of sensors for detecting a vehicle drive state; an actuator unit for performing specific automatic controls of the vehicle; and a control unit for performing the method of the present invention to detect a road slope, and controlling the actuator unit according to road slope detection results such that the vehicle is maintained at the established speed.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for detecting road slope and a system for controlling vehicle speed using the method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for detecting a road slope using road image information provided by a camera, and to a system that performs vehicle speed control on the basis of whether a road slope has been detected.
(b) Description of the Related Art
An ever-increasing amount of electronic control is being used in vehicles to provide greater safety and convenience. Such electronic control is fully automatic and often entails various determinations of driving conditions, on the basis of which operation is performed. The ABS (anti-lock brake system), TCS (traction control system), and cruise control system are some common examples.
An important such determination of a driving condition is that of identifying an approaching upward or downward slope in the road. If an approaching slope in the road is not identified with the use of the cruise control system, for example, vehicle speed may fall well below the set speed in the case of an uphill slope and well above the set speed in the case of a downhill slope. That is, using the uphill example, without detection of the approaching slope in the road, no adjustments prior to the uphill slope are made such that the vehicle loses speed. Although the drop in speed is detected then compensated for, a substantial amount of time is often required to recover the set speed.
Conventional methods to detect a slope in the road include the use of instruments such as a level meter, G-sensor, etc. that are mounted to the vehicle to detect changes in the horizontal positioning of the vehicle, and include processes in which vehicle operation is detected and modeling of the vehicle operation is performed to determine if the vehicle is traveling on a slope in the road. However, in the case of the level meter, the instrument is expensive and responds slowly. The G-sensor, on the other hand, is error prone as a result of noise elements caused by shock received from the road. In vehicle modeling, the process of calculating variables used is complicated such that errors are often found in the calculated results.
The present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for detecting a road slope using road image information provided by a camera, and to a system that uses the detected road slope for controlling vehicle speed.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for detecting road slope and a system for controlling vehicle speed using the method. The method comprising the steps of (a) receiving input of road images from a camera; (b) performing conversion of the road images into a bird""s-eye view; (c) extracting a plurality of lane markers from the converted road images; (d) calculating a slope in the extracted lane markers; and (e) calculating a slope in the road using a difference in value between the slopes.
According to a feature of the present invention, the slope in the road is calculated by selecting two lane marker slopes of lane markers on opposite sides of the road, and calculating a difference in value between the slopes.
According to another feature of the present invention, in step (b) of conversion into a bird""s-eye view, only data in a relevant area including left and right lane markers that define a lane are converted.
According to yet another feature of the present invention, the method further comprises the step of determining if a steering angle is within a predetermined range by receiving input from a steering angle sensor, wherein the steering angle determination may be performed before any of the steps (a)-(e), and wherein if it is determined that the steering angle falls outside the predetermined range, remaining steps of the method are not performed.
The system for controlling vehicle speed comprises a vehicle speed setting unit for establishing a target vehicle speed and outputting the same; a camera for obtaining road images and outputting the same; a drive state detecting unit having a plurality of sensors for detecting a vehicle drive state; an actuator unit for performing specific automatic controls of the vehicle; and a control unit for performing the above-described method of the present invention to detect a road slope, and controlling the actuator unit according to road slope detection results such that the vehicle is maintained at the established speed.
According to a feature of the present invention, the actuator unit includes a throttle valve actuator for controlling a throttle valve according to control signals received from the control unit, and wherein the throttle valve actuator is a step motor.
According to another feature of the present invention, the control unit, if it is determined that there is an approaching upward slope in the road, outputs a control signal to the throttle valve actuator such that an opening of the throttle valve is increased, and if it is determined that there is an approaching downward slope in the road, the control unit outputs a control signal to the throttle valve actuator such that the opening of the throttle valve is decreased.

Method for detecting road slope and system for controlling vehicle speed using the method


A cowl for a turbomachine nozzle, the cowl having a plurality of repeated patterns disposed circumferentially at a trailing edge, each pattern being asymmetrical about a midplane of the pattern containing a longitudinal axis of the cowl, and each pattern having a first portion inclined radially towards the inside of the cowl and a second portion inclined radially towards the outside of the cowl.

The present invention relates to the general field of nozzles fitted to turbomachines. The invention relates more particularly to a separate stream nozzle having at least one of its cowls provided with patterns for reducing the jet noise generated on leaving the nozzle.
Separate stream nozzles for turbomachines are generally made up of a primary cowl, a secondary cowl disposed concentrically around the primary cowl so as to define a first annular channel for passing an outer stream (or cold stream), and a central body disposed concentrically inside the primary cowl so as to define a second annular channel for passing an inner stream (or hot stream).
One of the known solutions for reducing jet noise at the outlet from such a nozzle is to encourage mixing between the hot and cold streams coming from the turbomachine. The difficulty of the problem lies in controlling the characteristics of the mixing to be obtained between the hot and cold streams, given that one consequence of mixing too suddenly is an undesirable increase in levels of turbulence in the near field of the discharge. Such an increase has a negative influence on the potential for reducing noise in mixing zones that are further away. Thus, mixing between the streams must be as effective as possible, while satisfying constraints and criteria concerning both aerodynamic and acoustic efficiency.
To this end, it is well known to provide one of the cowls of the nozzle with a plurality of repeated patterns distributed around the entire circumference of the trailing edge of the cowl. By putting such patterns into place at the trailing edge of the nozzle cowl, the streams are caused to mix together by creating contrarotating longitudinal vortices.
For example, European patent application EP 0 913 567 provides for fitting the trailing edge of the primary cowl of the nozzle with a plurality of repeated patterns of triangular shape (referred to as chevrons) that encourage mixing between the hot and cold streams. Similarly, publication GB 2 355 766 proposes providing the trailing edges of the primary and secondary cowls of the nozzle with a plurality of repeated patterns of trapezoidal shape (refereed to as crenellations).
Although encouraging mixing between these streams, the patterns mentioned above nevertheless present drawbacks. A pattern of symmetrical shape (such as triangles or crenellations) at the trailing edge of at least one of the cowls of the nozzle causes each pattern to generate two contrarotating longitudinal vortices of equivalent intensity that are relatively close to each other. Over the entire circumference of the nozzle cowl, that is equivalent to a plurality of pairs of vortices that compensate mutually. That results in mixing between the streams that is not very effective, particularly in the zones that are furthest away from the ejection.

Turbomachine nozzle cover for reducing jet noise


A connector capable of facilitating the insertion of a connected object, and obtaining a sufficient contact force. Contacts are held by a housing including a receiving space into which is inserted FPC. An actuator is mounted in the housing in a manner pivotally movable between open position for inserting FPC into the space, and closed position for holding FPC therein. The contacts have respective seesaw-type beams having one ends thereof formed with portions for contact with FPC, and the other ends thereof formed with power point portions for receiving the turning force of the actuator. The actuator has pressing portions for pushing downward the power point portions when open, to thereby lift them to move the contact portions out of the space, and cam portions for pushing upward the same when closed, to thereby push them downward to cause the contact portions to enter the space.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector suitable for electrically connecting between an FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) and a printed circuit board.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed a connector comprising a plurality of contacts, a housing that holds the contacts, and an actuator that is rotatably mounted on the housing and elastically deforms the contacts to thereby bring the contacts into contact with an FPC (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-221067).
The contacts each include a seesaw-type beam that has one end thereof formed with a contact portion for contact with the FPC, and the other end thereof formed with a power point portion on which the turning force of the actuator acts.
When the actuator is pivotally moved from an FPC-inserting position to an FPC-connecting position, the power point portions of the contacts are pushed upward by the actuator, and the contact portions of the contacts are pushed downward such that they enter a receiving space in the housing, to be urged against the FPC. As a result, it is possible to obtain a contact force required for bringing the contacts into contact with the FPC.
However, in some connectors configured as above, when the actuator is in the FPC-inserting position, part of the contact portions of the contacts stand in a track along which the FPC is inserted. This has been a factor which causes an increase in the force required for inserting the FPC into the receiving space of the housing.

Japan Aviation Electronics Industry, Limited


An array type inkjet printer with a multi pass structure and a method of compensating an irregular nozzle defect thereof. The array type inkjet printer includes a scattering portion that is configured to provide a nozzle selection pattern in which a plurality of ink dots per color is arranged in a zigzag shape over a predetermined ink scattering area. The scattering portion is also configured to select a dimension of the ink scattering area along which the dots are arranged in the zigzag shape on the basis of resolution selected for printing of printing data. The inkjet printer further includes a head controller that is configured to control discharge of ink from a nozzle according to the zigzag arrangement of the dots in the nozzle selection pattern. The inkjet printer further includes a dispersion portion that is configured to modify the nozzle selection pattern by randomly rearranging the dots arranged in the zigzag shape by the scattering portion prior to dispersion of the dots over the ink scattering area. Thus, an irregular defect in a nozzle can be compensated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept generally relates to an array type inkjet printer. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to an array type inkjet printer with a multi-pass printing structure and a method for compensating an irregular nozzle defect thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inkjet printer is a printer that performs printing by spraying ink drops through a nozzle onto a printing medium, such as a sheet or a film, in response to a predetermined control signal.
An inkjet printer can be classified into a shuttle type inkjet printer or an array type inkjet printer depending on the driving mode of the printer head during printing.
A shuttle type inkjet printer is provided with a plurality of nozzles arranged in a head in a sub-scanning direction. The shuttle type inkjet printer prints one line while moving the head in a scanning direction and prints another line while moving the head in a sub-scanning direction.
On the other hand, an array type inkjet printer is provided with a nozzle and a sheet, wherein the nozzle is longitudinally arranged along a scanning direction of a head to print lines in a sub-scanning direction one by one while the sheet moves in the sub-scanning direction.
Several thousand nozzles may be formed in the head of the array type inkjet printer depending on the desired resolution or design criteria. For example, if 1200 nozzles are used to print one line, then a total of 4800 (1200×4) nozzles are formed in the head when the printer supports four-color printing using the four colors of CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black).
If a dead nozzle occurs in a part of the head of the array type inkjet printer provided with a plurality of nozzles as described above, it adversely affects output images. In this respect, in addition to the method of physically exchanging a head with another one, other methods for compensating a dead nozzle have been suggested.
Recently, a multi-pass printing structure for the array type inkjet printer has been suggested to compensate for the dead nozzle. Hereinafter, a multi-pass printing structure will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 conceptually illustrates a multi-pass printing structure in an array type inkjet printer, FIG. 2 illustrates a four-color multi-pass printing method for compensating a dead nozzle in an array type inkjet printer, and FIG. 3 illustrates a problem caused by irregular discharge characteristics of a nozzle during multi-pass printing.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, if a printing medium 30 is fed in a sub-scanning direction (indicated by the arrow "A") of a printer head cartridge 10, ink is discharged through a nozzle 12 so that a first pass printing operation (shown leftmost in FIG. 2) is performed and the printing medium 30 is fed back. During the first pass, ink of one of the four colors is discharged.
The printing medium 30, which remains engaged with the head cartridge 10 and a feeding roller 20, horizontally moves at a certain interval, and, hence, a second pass printing operation with a different ink color is performed as illustrated in FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 1, the arrow A represents a feeding direction of the printing medium 30 as noted before, and an arrow B represents the direction of movement of the feeding roller 20.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the multi-pass printing operation is repeated for each of the total number of ink colors. Thus, in case of the four-color printing illustrated in FIG. 2, the multi-pass printing operation is repeated four times so that first through fourth pass printing operations are carried out to print the whole image in four colors.
A dead nozzle can be compensated by the aforementioned multi-pass printing manner. However, in case of multi-pass printing, additional technology and cost are required for accurate control of nozzles to accomplish suitable display resolution.
Also, charge characteristics of each nozzle 12 may not be maintained uniformly due to any irregularities in the air flow into an ink chamber or user environment. In other words, although a dead nozzle situation may be remedied via multi-pass printing, an irregular nozzle defect may render the multi-pass printing useless.
For example, a white line C may occur in the printed image as illustrated in FIG. 3 due to a nozzle's irregular charge characteristics. The problem illustrated in FIG. 3 may render it difficult to maintain picture quality of a normal image when an irregular nozzle defect is present in an array type inkjet printer with a multi-pass printing structure.

Array type inkjet printer with multi-pass structure and method of compensating an irregular nozzle defect thereof


An operating stage is formed by a rigid ring and is provided with a resilient wedge forming helically wound spring that forms a plurality of resilient pressure applying, suture gripping wedging clamps around the stage and positioned adjacent to the bottom outside corner of the stage.

There are numerous different types and forms of operating stages being used by Surgeons to aid in positioning and holding devices such as retractors during operations. They generally take the form of a rigid ring from which various retractors may be mounted using a variety of different connecting devices. These stages are usually mounted on a suitable arm that positions the ring in fixed relation to the operating table or the like on which the patient is positioned.
Retractors are normally mounted on the operating stage or ring by some form of hooking or fixed clamping type mechanism such as a screw clamp that locks the retractor in a fixed position relative to the ring. These clamping devices generally require two hands to operate, one to place the retractor in position in the clamp and the other to screw the clamping mechanism to firmly clamp the retractor in fixed position. Obviously, these systems are inconvenient to use and provide no release to permit relative movement of the retractor and operating stage in the event of an unforeseen relatively high forces that may cause damage to the patient is applied to the retractors.
Also, during many operations, some means must be provided to anchor sutures which are used, in the manner of retractors, for example, to hold back the skin or parts of the body around the operative site. These sutures are generally tied off or weighted off by pinning them to the drapes or by attaching weights or the like; in some cases they are clamped or otherwise connected to the stage.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,430,991 and 4,434,791 issued Feb. 14, 1994 and Mar. 6, 1994 respectively, both to Danelle, both show notches on the outside of an operating stage or ring and utilize the notches to receive collapsible tubes and wedge the tubes into position to hold the tubes. One of the ends of each tube is connected to a retractor hook or the like and the wedging action clamps the tube to position the retractors relative to the operating stage.
When sutures are used the sutures pass over the top of the stage or ring before they are clamped into position and thus, tend to limit mobility of the retractors circumferentially around the ring.


A windage blocker integrated with a base for a hard disk drive is disclosed. One embodiment provides a cavity portion comprising a planar surface defining an inner bottom surface of the cavity, the cavity portion for receiving an actuator assembly, the actuator assembly comprising a flex cable. The cavity includes at least one windage blocker integrated with the planar surface of the cavity of the base, the windage blocker for reducing detrimental local excitation of an airflow encountering the flex cable.

At least one hard disk drive (HDD) is used in almost all computer system operations. In fact, most computing systems are not operational without some type of HDD to store the most basic computing information such as the boot operation, the operating system, the applications, and the like. In general, the HDD is a device which may or may not be removable, but without which the computing system will generally not operate.
The basic HDD model includes a storage disk or hard disk that spins at a designed rotational speed. An actuator arm with a suspended slider is utilized to reach out over the disk. The slider is coupled with a suspension that supports both the body of the slider and a head assembly that has a magnetic read/write transducer or head or heads for reading/writing information to or from a location on the disk. The complete head assembly, e.g., the suspension, slider, and head, is called a head gimbal assembly (HGA).
In operation, the hard disk is rotated at a set speed via a spindle motor assembly having a central drive hub. There are tracks at known intervals across the disk. When a request for a read of a specific portion or track is received, the hard disk aligns the head, via the arm, over the specific track location and the head reads the information from the disk. In the same manner, when a request for a write of a specific portion or track is received, the hard disk aligns the head, via the arm, over the specific track location and the head writes the information to the disk.
Over the years, the disk and the head have undergone great reductions in their size. Much of the refinement has been driven by consumer demand for smaller and more portable HDDs such as those used in personal digital assistants (PDAs), Moving Picture Experts Group audio layer 3 (MP3) players, and the like. For example, the original HDD had a disk diameter of 24 inches. Modem HDDs are much smaller and include disk diameters of less than 2.5 inches. Advances in magnetic recording are also primary reasons for the reduction in size.
A second refinement to the HDD is the increased efficiency and reduced size of the spindle motor spinning the disk. That is, as technology has reduced motor size and power draw for small motors, the mechanical portion of the HDD can be reduced and additional revolutions per minute (RPMs) can be achieved. For example, it is not uncommon for a HDD to reach speeds of 15,000 RPMs. This second refinement provides weight and size reductions to the HDD, it also provides a faster read and write rate for the disk thereby providing increased speed for accessing data. The increase in data acquisition speed due to the increased RPMs of the HDD and the more efficient read/write head portion provide modem computers with hard disk speed and storage capabilities that are continually increasing.
However, the higher RPMs of the disk have resulted in problems with respect to the interaction of the air with components of the HDD. For example, although the HDD is closed off from the outside, it has an amount of air within its packaging. As the disk spins and the RPMs increase, the air within the HDD package will also begin to rotate and will eventually approach the speed at which the disk is rotating especially near the spindle hub and disk surfaces. This is due to the friction between the disk and the air. In general, Reynolds numbers are used to represent the flow characteristics. For example, in one case the Reynolds number may be based on the tip speed of the disk. That is, the linear velocity at the outer diameter of the disk.
Only when the Reynolds number is sufficiently small (e.g., an enclosure with reduced air density), the air may stay in steady flow with the boundary layer of air remaining smooth with respect to the rotating disk. However, any obstructions to the flow will result in turbulence.
As is well known from fluid dynamics, the characteristics of turbulent airflow can include buffeting, harmonic vibration, and the like. Each of these characteristics will result in problematic motion for the arm and head portion and/or the rotating disk. The problematic motion will result in excessive track miss-registration. This is even more significant as the tolerances are further reduced. In addition to track miss, turbulent airflow can induce vibrations that can damage components of the hard disk drive over time.

Integrated windage blocker for reduction of flex cable vibration in a disk drive

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Netherlands, B.V.


An architecture for a rake receiver of a CMDA demodulator utilizes a common data path for signal processing. This common data path is shared by all channels (either physical channels or propagation paths within physical channels) to avoid redundant calculations, reduce circuit space and reduce power consumption. The sharing of the common data path for demodulation is made on a time divided manner, with each channel being given sequential access to the data path to perform all or part of a given demodulation function (for example, de-scrambling, de-spreading, de-rotating, and de-skewing accumulation).

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to spread spectrum communications and, in particular, to signal processing operations for a rake receiver and an integrated circuit chip for performing those operations.
2. Description of Related Art
Many multiple access techniques are known in the art. For example, wireless communications between many users currently use, for example, time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), and code division multiple access (CDMA) techniques that allow multiple users to share a limited communications frequency spectrum.
Considerable attention is currently being directed to CDMA techniques which are viewed by those skilled in the art as possessing numerous advantages over other multiple access techniques. These advantages stem from the wideband nature of the CDMA communication format which, contrary to narrowband TDMA and FDMA techniques, spreads signal energy over a wide bandwidth. By spreading in this manner, the frequency spectrum can be reused more effectively to increase communications capacity. Additionally, CDMA systems operate without substantial adverse affect due to the common problems of multipath and fading that plague the wireless terrestrial communications channel. In fact, CDMA systems take advantage of the multipath phenomenon by using diversity combiners to capture the communications energy of multiple paths and thus enhance communications performance.
In order to demodulate two distinct paths of a communications channel, the time offset between those two paths must be determined. Using a demodulator, the CDMA receiver searches through a sequence of offsets and measures the corresponding received energy. If the measured energy exceeds a threshold, the receiver assigns a demodulation element (also referred to in the art as a "finger" of the rake receiver) to the signal representing that particular offset. Once all the paths for a channel are determined and assigned fingers, the signals on those paths are demodulated by the respective fingers and the symbols output from each finger are summed together to recover the communicated signal. Given the time varying nature of the wireless terrestrial communications channel, it is possible, and in fact likely, that the relative offsets between the paths will vary, and thus the individual fingers of the rake receiver must possess the ability to track, adjust and account for offset time changes.
The functioning of the fingers of the rake receiver is asynchronous with respect to each other due to the asynchronous nature of the plural propagation paths. Since the combination operation requires the availability of synchronous symbols from the plural paths of a single channel, a buffer is typically employed to temporarily store the symbol data output from each finger. When the last symbol to be combined for a given channel is output from its processing finger (i.e., the finger tracking the most delayed propagation path), the combining operation is performed with respect to the buffer stored symbols. Locations within the buffer are then made free to store subsequently arriving symbols, and the process repeats. This operation for collecting (accumulating) related symbols carried over different paths for combining is referred to in the art as "de-skewing."
There are a number of recognized drawbacks with the conventional, prior art, buffer-based de-skewing operation. The computations necessary for demodulation are performed locally, that is, within the fingers of the rake receiver. Because of this, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain computation reductions due to the redundant processing operations being performed in each of the fingers. Additionally, each finger submits sequence generation requests in an asynchronous way. Thus, the different fingers will reiterate requests to receive the same sequences at different times. Nonetheless, the sequences used by the fingers are the same, and thus the receiver inefficiently operates to generate more than one sequence per sequence period. All of these issues lead to receivers that are complex in implementation and power consuming in operation.
There is accordingly a need for an improved rake receiver that eliminates the need for separate, local performance of demodulation calculations in each finger.

Common data path rake receiver for a CDMA demodulator circuit


A mobile personal digital assistant (PDA) allows a user to enter information using both a touch screen and voice commands with a stylus. The stylus includes a microphone positioned at one end, and a transmitter for transmitting received voice signals to either a personal computer (PC) or the PDA. In one embodiment, a wireless stylus also includes a power supply and an activation control switch. The PC is used to translate the voice signals into translated voice data which is transmitted to the PDA for storage and display. If the user and the PDA are located remotely from the receiving PC, voice signals are stored in the PDA until a later time when the PC can translate the received voice signals. Where the PDA containsa processor to translate received voice signals, the stylus transmits directly to the PDA, and the PDA translates the received voice signals.

Advancements in processing power have enabled the design and manufacture of processing devices which deviate from a traditional input device such as a keyboard. For example, hardware and software have been developed which allow a user to control a computer using normal speech. The user is also capable of dictating information to be stored in memory provided with the computer. Presently, however, accurate speech input must be provided to allow the processor to accurately translate the speech into computer readable data. As such, it is desired to locate a microphone close to the user such that background noise is minimized. Present systems, therefore, require that the user wear a headset to position the microphone close to the user's mouth. The processing power required to perform speech recognition, combined with the requirement for high-quality speech input, dictates that a user operate a traditional stationary personal computer.
Mobile personal computing devices, such as lap-top computers and personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, are available with touch screens as input devices. These touch screens allow a user to touch locations on the display screen to indicate desired input. This type of input allows manufacturers to simplify the interface between the user and the processor, while still providing flexibility to adapt to changes in software executed by the processor.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a mobile personal computing device which allows a user to enter information using both a touch screen and voice commands.

Pointing device with integrated audio input


According to one embodiment, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry acquires an ambient temperature relating to a magnetic resonance imaging examination and determines an interlock value of a specific absorption rate (SAR) in accordance with the ambient temperature.

To obtain a magnetic resonance image, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus irradiates a to-be-imaged section of a subject with radio frequency (RF) pulses, which serve as a high-frequency magnetic field. The RF pulses are absorbed into the body tissue of the subject, thereby increasing the temperature of the subject. The indicator of the energy of the RF pulses absorbed into the subject's body tissue is expressed in the form of a specific absorption rate (SAR).
The value of SAR is limited by an upper limit that is specified by the standards of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) or the like. For this reason, in conventional MRI apparatuses, an interlock value lower than the upper limit of the SAR is set irrespective of the ambient temperature.


The present invention relates to cemented carbide for steel tire cord drawing operations. The cemented carbide comprises WC with an ultra fine grain size and greater than 5 and less than 10 wt-% Co, including grain growth inhibitors (V and/or Cr) and with a specific relation between HV30 and cobalt content.

The present invention relates to a tool for coldforming and drawing operations, particularly steel tire cord drawing operations.
The performance of a drawing die in production of steel tire cord is improved by increasing the hardness of the cemented carbide. Coarse wire is usually dry drawn by grades with 10 wt-% or 6 wt-% Co and a hardness 1600 and 1750 Vickers respectively. Wet drawing from 1.5-2 mm down to final dimension, 0.15-0.3 mm, is usually made with drawing dies in grades having a hardness of from about 1900-2000 HV and Co binder content <5 wt-%, most often around 3 wt-%.
In the 1980's a grade having only 3 wt-% binder and ultra fine grain size for tire cord drawing was introduced by Sandvik. It was later withdrawn due to the low strength and brittle behaviour leading to premature failures.
In a European project, Wireman, (reported by A. M. Massai et al, "Scientific and technological progress in the field of steel wire drawing", Wire 6/1999), the conditions for drawing of tire cord were investigated. New cemented carbide grades were tested in the grain size range of 0.3-1 μm and a binder content of 0.3-5 wt-%. A hardness increase was achieved by reducing the binder content and decreasing the grain size of WC. According to published results, the grades did not completely satisfy the expectation on better performance, despite the high hardness achieved. The conclusion quotes: "The wear tests demonstrated that not only the hardness of the dies controls the die wear mechanism."
According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,748, beside hardness of cemented carbide, corrosion is a major factor controlling the wear resistance. Normally higher Co binder content leads to higher sensitivity to corrosion and said US-patent discloses improvements by low binder content and alloying of the cobalt binder with nickel and chromium to make it corrosion resistant, i.e. a similar approach as in the above mentioned Wireman project.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,523 discloses a coldforming tool with an improved hard wearing surface zone. This has been achieved by a post-sintering heat treatment in a boron nitride containing environment of a hard metal of a suitable composition. The effect is most pronounced when the heat treatment is made of a hard metal which has previously been sintered to achieve a high carbon content through a suitable choice of chemical composition and processing conditions.
During many years there has been an ongoing development of cemented carbide with finer and finer grain size.
The extension of cemented carbide grain sizes into the ultra fine size range leads to a number of positive improvements regarding the wear processes.
Attrition wear (or grain loss volume) may be reduced by an order of magnitude by little more than halving the sintered grain size (in the absence of other wear processes), since grain volume is related to the cube of diameter.
Adhesive fracture is another dangerous kind of attrition wear, in which the separation of strongly welded tool-workmaterial interfaces can induce tensile cleavage within the underlying carbide. Ultra fine hardmetals can resist the onset of such fractures better than coarser ones due to their greater rupture strength.
Erosion/corrosion of the binder phase is said to be part of the wear mechanism in wire drawing. Even though the content of binder is increased in ultra fine cemented carbide the smaller WC grain size leads to thinner binder films, generally called binder free path. Thus resistance to selective erosion of the soft binderphase by wear particles is reduced. It is reasonable to believe that the thinner binder also leads to better oxidation/corrosion properties since the properties of the binder at the WC interface is different from the pure metal.
From the above it seems that the main interest in developing finer sub-micron hardmetal, perhaps into the nanometer range, is to raise hardness, maximise attrition wear resistance and strength whilst as far as possible maintaining all other attributes at useful levels.
It has now been found that use of ultra fine grained cemented carbide with a Co content >5 wt-% can lead to improved performance in steel tire cord production by the combination of the improvements in strength, hardness and toughness of ultra fine cemented carbide.

Tool for coldforming operations with improved performance