An image sensor is disclosed. The image sensor includes: a pixel circuit in a first die, the pixel circuit including a pixel for sensing an incident light to generate a result; and a correlated double sampling (CDS) readout circuit in a second die different from the first die; wherein the first die is coupled to the second die, and the result sensed by the pixel circuit is read out by the CDS readout circuit. A semiconductor structure is also disclosed. The semiconductor structure includes: said image sensor, wherein the first die is stacked on the second die; and an interconnector between the first die and the second die, the interconnector electrically connecting the pixel circuit and the CDS readout circuit.

A CMOS image sensor with global shutter exposure is widely used to catch fast moving objects without distortion. Compared to the rolling shutter images, image sensors with a global shutter allow all of the pixels to accumulate a charge with the exposure starting and ending at the same time. In other words, all pixels in a global shutter image sensor integrate light simultaneously. At the end of the exposure time the charge is read out simultaneously. In turn, the image has no motion blur on moving objects. This is given the exposure is short enough to stop pixel blur.
However, the global shutter image sensor is more complicated and consumes more area compared to the rolling shutter image. For example, additional global reset transistor, global charge transfer transistor and charge storage capacitor are added to perform global reset, global charge transfer and signal storage respectively. Inevitably, extra devices reduce the fill factor and a dilemma arises.

Image sensor and semiconductor structure


An apparatus for rejection diagnostics after organ transplantations is provided with. an extracorporal base station with a high frequency transmitter and receiver unit, and PA1 a telemetric rejection sensor implantable in a patient's body, comprising. a high frequency receiver unit for receiving high frequency signals from the base station, PA2 a rectifier and decoder unit for converting the high frequency signals received into a supply voltage and control records for the rejection sensor, PA2 an energy storage for storing the supply voltage, PA2 a control unit for controlling the measuring processes within the apparatus, PA2 a sensor arrangement controlled by the control unit and to be brought into contact with the organ to be monitored and having measuring electrodes for measuring rejection-specific variables, PA2 an encoder unit for converting the measured variables into corresponding data signals, as well as PA2 a high frequency emitter unit for transmitting the data signals produced by the encoder unit to the extracorporal base station.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for rejection diagnostics after organ transplantations.
2. Background Art
As regards the background of the present invention, a main post transplantation problem resides in a possible rejection of the transplanted organ due to a corresponding defense reaction of a patient's body. For this to be prevented, medicinal immunosuppression is carried out, which is meant to suppress the rejection reactions.
This medicinal immunosuppression has considerable side effects so that patient after-care is always accompanied with the conflict of too high an immunosuppression--and the possibly lethal consequences of an infection--and too low an immunosuppression--having the possibly lethal consequences of an acute rejection reaction. For these reasons, the tendency is to manage with minimum base therapy and to diagnose possible rejection episodes at an early stage, which can then still be parried by an immediately increased dose of drugs. For this type of therapy to be put into practice, a method must be available which permits the rapid diagnosis of a rejection reaction. To date, biopsy is customary in this regard, tissue being taken micro-invasively from the transplanted organ and then being examined hisologically. It is possible to infer from the result of these histological examinations that rejection reactions are to be expected.
A drawback of such a biopsy control resides in the fact that it is rather complicated and costly. Biopsies have to take place at a rhythm ranging between two weeks and two months, this meaning that each time, a micro-invasive operation is necessary, which is troublesome to the patient.
Approaches to solve these problems consist in that electric signals of reaction to stimulus of the transplanted organ are analyzed, from which conclusions are made, regarding the latter's condition and any possible rejection reaction. However, this is not an established method of diagnosis so far and it can only be used in the case of transplanted hearts, only hearts manifesting corresponding signals of reaction to stimulus. Consequently, other transplantation organs cannot be monitored. Moreover, another drawback resides in that a complete heart-pacemaker systems comprising ECG telemetry must be implanted for this method of diagnosis to be possible. Such heart-pacemaker systems have some size owing to the integrated battery and they have only a limited lifetime. Once the battery is exhausted, the heart-pacemaker system must be replaced, which does not predestine it to long-term use in diagnostic rejection investigation.

Apparatus for rejection diagnostics after organ transplants

Biotronik Mess- und Therapiegerate GmbH & Co. Ingenieurburo Berlin


A saddle hanging system efficiently supporting a saddle in various locations. The saddle hanging system includes a support member comprised of a support plate having a catch member and first handle attached at a first end and a second handle attached at a second end. The support plate is a flattened V-shaped structure, formed to accept the placement of a saddle upon it. The catch member is U-shaped for positioning onto a fence or a connecting member. The handles located at each end are used for moving the support member from location to location or for adjusting when in place.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to saddle racks and more specifically it relates to a saddle hanging system efficiently supporting a saddle in various locations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Saddle racks have been in use for years. Typically, saddle racks attach to gates or doors leading into stalls or fenced in areas. The saddle racks attach to the top edge of the gate or door and are additionally supported by bars or rods extending to the main body of the gate or door. Unfortunately, saddle racks currently used today are not configured to attach to a plurality of objects (e.g. gates, fences, walls) as the user and horse move from location to location.
While these devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable efficiently supporting a saddle in various locations. Current saddle racks are not capable of being easily attached to a plurality of items.
In these respects, the saddle hanging system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of storing and/or drying a saddle on a portable rack capable of being attached to many objects.


The invention relates to an electrical connection structure for a superconductor element cooled by a cryogenic fluid and connected to an electrical bushing, which bushing passes successively through an enclosure at an intermediate temperature between ambient temperature and the temperature of the cryogenic fluid, and an enclosure at ambient temperature, said bushing projecting outside the ambient temperature enclosure. According to the invention, said intermediate enclosure is filled at least in part with a solid material of low thermal conductivity, such as a polyurethane foam or a cellular glass foam. The invention is applicable to connecting a superconductor cable at cryogenic temperature to a device for equipment at ambient temperature.

Because of the large temperature difference between the superconductor element and the equipment to be connected to said element, i.e. between ambient temperature and cryogenic temperature which may be about −200° C., it is necessary to interpose a connection structure between the element and the equipment in order to make the temperature transition while minimizing heat losses, and while also complying with electrical constraints due for example to the high voltage of a cable. The structure then includes an electrical bushing constituted mainly by a central conductor surrounded by an insulating sheath for transporting the electricity from the superconductor cable to an outlet connection at ambient temperature. Over some reasonable length, the structure must make the temperature transition while ensuring that losses by thermal conduction are low so as to avoid boiling the cryogenic liquid cooling the cable and/or so as to avoid increasing the costs of cooling the cable.
The solution to the problem consists in providing the connection structure with an adiabatic intermediate enclosure, an airlock or "buffer" enclosure so to speak, placed between the portion at cryogenic temperature and the portion of the connection structure that is at ambient temperature. The electrical bushing passes through the intermediate enclosure. This solution is described, for example, in European patent application EP 1 283 576. The side walls of the intermediate enclosure are constituted by the side walls of a cryostat. The bottom and top walls have fastener flanges through which the electrical bushing passes, the bottom wall being adjacent to the portion at cryogenic temperature and the top wall being adjacent to the portion at ambient temperature. The intermediate enclosure is either evacuated or else filled with a gas. It is therefore essential to ensure that the places where the electrical bushing passes through the bottom and top walls are leaktight, thus leading to manufacturing constraints that are difficult and expensive. For example, even a very small amount of leakage between the portion at cryogenic temperature and the intermediate enclosure (e.g. a leak of about 10−8 millibars per liter second (mbar/L.s)) inevitably leads to a change in the composition of the gas or to degradation in the level of the vacuum in the intermediate enclosure. If the cryogenic fluid is liquid nitrogen, a leak leads to gaseous nitrogen being present in the intermediate enclosure, thus leading firstly to an additional consumption of liquid nitrogen, and secondly to a reduction in the thermal insulation of the intermediate enclosure. The excess pressure in the intermediate enclosure that results from such a leak is incapable of being controlled by means of safety valves since opening a valve would destroy the thermal insulating medium (vacuum or gas). In addition, it is not easy to perform on-site maintenance of such a connection structure away from the workshop. For example, reestablishing a vacuum in the intermediate enclosure or refilling it with gas on site requires special equipment and specially-trained staff.

Electrical connection structure for a superconductor element


A method, an apparatus and a system can be used for improving data transmission performance. Specific steps may include determining whether a transmission rate for transmitting data is lower than a reference transmission rate that the data is actually required. If it is lower than the reference transmission rate, a reference working frequency is obtained by querying part of or an entire working frequency band. The reference working frequency corresponds to a transmission rate that is higher than or equal to the reference transmission rate from the working frequency band. Frequency modification indication information is sent to a network access device and a working frequency for communication is modified to the reference working frequency.

A 5 GHz WiFi (Wireless Fidelity, Wireless Fidelity) frequency band works on a bandwidth ranging from 4910 MHz to 5835 MHz. Signal strength attenuation may occur no matter what frequency a terminal uses for transmitting data. Therefore, when a terminal transmits data using a certain frequency in a 5 GHz WiFi frequency band, data transmission performance dramatically decreases after signal strength attenuation occurs, which may result in a problem such as delayed data transmission, or data loss. At the meantime, 60 GHz and 2.4 GHz WiFi frequency bands also encounter the problem. The prior art does not provide a method for solving the problem.

Method, apparatus and system for improving data transmission performance


A decoration panel the length of which is adjustable so that it may be fitted to a various sizes of walls, windows, furniture and so on. The decoration panel includes a main panel having a plurality of holes aligned on the upper or lower part of it in the vertical direction. Sub panels having a front cover and a plurality of holes on the rear of the front cover corresponding in spacing to the holes are inserted on the upper or lower end of the main panel. A joiner is engaged through the holes of the sub panel into the holes of the main panel.

Decoration panels are widely used on both sides of windows, peripheries of room walls or furniture. Such decoration panels are fixed on the walls adjacent to the windows or the furniture by way of screws. But the windows or furniture are made in various sizes depending on their location, therefore the decoration panels must also be made in various sizes corresponding to the sizes of walls, windows or furniture. That is, a decoration panel of single size can not be used for all walls, windows or furniture. Therefore, the panel makers must prepare many apparatuses or moulds to meet the various sizes of decoration panels, which will result in high cost of manufacturing.


The invention is a shut-off device for a gas or liquid conduit that closes the conduit upon receiving a signal from a leak detector. The shut off device is a spring biased full flow ball valve positioned in the fluid conduit that closes upon receiving a signal from the leak detector that a fluid leak has occurred. The detector may be a conductivity detector for liquids or a specific gas detector, and may be hard wired or remote signaling in operation. Multiple detectors may be used in the system. An audible alarm is also activated when a leak is detected.

There are many fluids that are routed from one location to another by means of a conduit. The fluids include both gases and liquids. In residential dwellings, office buildings, and manufacturing facilities the most common fluids transferred by conduit or pipe include natural or LP gas for heating or cooling, water, and liquid petroleum products, an example being fuel oil.
Safety is of major concern in using the above mentioned fluids in our homes or places of business for the modern conveniences of heating, cooling, or cooking. Serious safety hazards arise when a fluid leak in the conduit system occurs, or a piece of equipment that uses one or more of the fluids malfunctions. These leaks or malfunctions can result in accumulation of explosive concentrations of fuel gases within a structure, or toxic concentrations of carbon monoxide generated from malfunction of a gas powered appliance such as a furnace, water heater, gas dryer, or the like. Similarly, property damage occurs every day due to water leaking from a water heater, broken water line, or even a bathtub overflowing. Likewise, liquid petroleum fuel is used for heating both buildings and water. Leakage of the liquid from the fuel conduit carrying the fuel, or from the device that burns the fuel, presents a hazardous situation to individuals in the vicinity.
Currently, a variety of devices are commercially available to detect gaseous hazards such as natural gas, carbon monoxide, smoke, etc. These devices usually emit an audible alarm to warn building occupants of the danger, but do nothing to remedy the situation that caused the danger.
A number of innovations have been developed relating to devices for detecting fluid leaks and shutting off fluid flow. The following U.S. patents are representative of some of those innovations.
Shuh, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,979,939, Pottash, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,261,201, and McLean in U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,102 all describe a gasoline leak detector based on pressure changes.
A line break detection system for pipelines based on pressure drop is disclosed by Ledeen et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,512.
A leak testing apparatus that measures liquid level drop is described by Oster in U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,918.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,835, Kennedy et al. describe a leak detector for plastic injection molding machines that shuts down the fluid plastic injection when air flow through a conduit is blocked by plastic material.
Makel et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,050, disclose a computerized liquid natural gas management system that includes a leak detection system with emergency warning and shut-down capabilities.
Richards, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,069, discloses a leak detector, based on a conductivity detector, for use in water supply systems. The device uses a solenoid to close a supply conduit valve when the conductivity detector senses a leak.
MacFadyen, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,934, discloses a gas distribution system that includes a leak detector connected to a shut-off valve.
Most of the above described inventions for shutting off fluid flow use a solenoid valve within the fluid conduit line as the means of stopping fluid flow. The standard solenoid valve uses the solenoid to raise or lower a plunger with attached diaphragm seal to open or close -the main port of the valve body. The solenoid valve is not a full flow type valve and presents considerable flow restriction to the fluid in the valved conduit. When used with liquids, such as water, a strainer assembly is often necessary to protect the internal diaphragm from fouling due to sediment or other foreign material in the water conduit. In addition, many state plumbing codes require that line valves controlling water supply lines within buildings must be full-port shut-off valves, or have a cross-sectional area at least as large as the smallest pipe in which the valve is installed.
Thus, there is an unmet need for a device that automatically shuts off a fluid supply line to a building or piece of equipment for safety, and to prevent property damage, upon sensing a fluid leak or otherwise dangerous condition associated with use of the fluid.


A steering and transmission mechanism interconnects the front and rear wheels of an in-line vehicle which includes rigid steering members or links operable by manual control for selectively determining rear wheel positioning from a normal turn or straight position to a crab position. Each member has adjacent ends selectively coupled together by a lock-arm movable in response to a manual control to change rear wheel positions. The steering members are slidably carried on a shifter housing and a resilient device is employed for returning steering from the crab position to the normal steering position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of vehicle steering, and more particularly to a steering transmission mechanism interconnecting front and rear wheels so as to maneuver the vehicle with respect to a longitudinal axis in an arcuate path, a linear path or in a linear angular path.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Maneuverability of a conventional in-line wheeled vehicle, such as a scooter, is limited due to the fact that the front and rear wheels track along a common path that restricts maneuvering. In some instances, maneuverability is increased by permitting rotation or pivoting of the rear wheel to follow the front wheel so that a curvilinear path is followed which allows for more turning freedom and a shorter turning radius. Such examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,349, No. 4,799,702, and No. 4,555,122.
However, problems and difficulties have been encountered with these conventional vehicles, which stem largely from the fact that all the interconnecting mechanisms or transmission means between the front and rear wheels are directly connected to and are supported on the vehicle frame. The prior mechanisms rely on cable and pulley arrangements which have a tendency to stretch creating slack or "play" during structural flexing. In other instances, strings, complicated flexible linkages and rider body weight balancing techniques are employed to effect rear wheel pivoting so as to track with the front wheel. Still others, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,620,547 (FIG. 6) permit both turning of the front and rear wheels so as to track along a linear or curvilinear path as well as allowing the wheels to track in parallel in angular relation to the longitudinal axis of the frame wherein such a maneuver gains "crab" maneuvering. Again, it is the shifting of the rider or driver's weight which achieves the pivoting of the rear wheel to effect such maneuvering.
In none of the above reference disclosures is there provision of a mechanism not supported or directly fastened to the frame that employs a rigid mechanism to effect shift or change from turn-steering to crab-steering by manual switch-over control.
Therefore, a long-standing need has existed to provide a steering and transmission assembly for a vehicle, such as an in-line scooter, that is rigidly connected between the front and rear wheels and operable to alternately cause the rear wheel to track the front wheel in a curvilinear path or to cause the rear wheel to pivot parallel to the front wheel where both wheels are in an angular "crab" path with respect to the center line of the vehicle and wherein the assembly is supported on the front and rear wheel assembly without connection or support on the frame of the vehicle.

Front and rear wheel steering for a vehicle


Disclosed is a system for playing multimedia for a PDF document-based e-book. According to one embodiment of the present invention relating to the system for playing multimedia for a PDF document-based e-book, it is possible to map an object, such as text and an image, of an e-book document having multimedia content, and to play/stop the multimedia content of the document according to the request of a user.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and method for playing multimedia for an e-book based on a PDF document and an application for a PC or mobile device for implementing the same and, more particularly, to a system and method for playing multimedia for an e-book based on a PDF document and an application for a PC or mobile device for implementing the same, in which an object, such as the writings and image of an e-book, is mapped with multimedia content and the multimedia content can be played/stopped on a document in response to a request from a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the PDF is an abbreviation of a 'Portable Document Format' and is a file format produced using Acrobat or Acrobat Capture developed by Adobe Systems of U.S.A. or equivalent software.
A web cannot provide documents having various formats other than a specific style owing to its limited function. Adobe Systems has distributed Plug-In or Acrobat Reader to users free of charge so that the users can see PDF files on a web. As users who use PDF files are increased, Plug-In or Acrobat Reader has become the most important means when public offices, research institutes, and companies try to distribute documents over the Internet. A PDF file can be printed or can have e-mail attached thereto and can be loaded onto a network server or a website simply. A PDF file having a small file size is an ideal format for electronic distribution.
In particular, the PDF is advantageous in that a PDF file can be viewed and printed in all computers irrespective of whether or not an operating system, software, or a font specific to the PDF file has been installed and it can be viewed and outputted in the state in which a PDF file has been designed in the original application program.
Accordingly, a PDF file has been rooted as an electronic document format standard for the exchange of information which is most safe and reliable so far since it was issued in 1993. In particular, a PDF file has been used in worldwide governments and companies for the safe sharing, management, and keeping of e-books and electronic records as the PDF file was adopted as an international standard in 2008.
In the case of a PDF file provided in an e-book form, there are disadvantages in that provided content is limited because only an image having the same format as a publication can be outputted and multimedia elements, such as moving image/voice, cannot be added to the PDF file.
Furthermore, when receiving an e-book, a user inevitably receives only writings and images provided by a content provider because the user's interaction with objects, such as writings and an image within a document, is difficult. Furthermore, various types of content cannot be provided because a PDF file cannot be associated with media data on the Internet.
Accordingly, there is a need to change an existing static e-book based on a PDF document, outputting only an image having the same format as a publication, into a dynamic e-book capable of providing various types of content in response to a request from a user and to provide the dynamic e-book.

Playing multimedia associated with a specific region of a PDF


A flat, modular measuring circuit having two connecting terminals for one phase of load current and a current sensor connected thereto. The two connecting terminals are arranged one above the other on one of the end faces of the module. This configuration leads to a significant reduction in the meter width and to a reduction in the production costs, since these modules can also be cost effectively produced in increased quantity and used for multi-phase meters.

The present invention relates to an electronic electricity meter with a measuring circuit having two connecting terminals for one phase of load current and a current sensor connected thereto.
The increasing miniaturization of electronics appears to have overlooked present-day electricity meters, including so-called solid-state, electronic meters. This is because at least the width of the meter housing, which is determined essentially by the connecting terminals arranged side-by-side, has not been significantly reduced in size. Further, production costs have not become any more favorable and there are no synergetic effects to be found between single-phase and multi-phase meters.

Modular electronic meter having reduced width


A method for watermarking documents comprising:                identifying and locating spaces in a received original document (10) by a location analysis (110) module which distinguishes between intra-word spaces and inter-word spaces;        minimizing an error probability of interference between intra-word spaces and inter-word spaces in the watermarked document (20) by an optimization module (111);        encoding (113) the message (30) into codewords and encoding (114) the codewords into the watermark;embedding the watermark to generate (115) the watermarked document (20) by modifying the intra-word spaces and inter-word spaces of the original document (10).

The inclusion of hidden information in a text file is a desired feature in many fields and for many different applications. On one side, hidden information embedded in a text document may be decoded by machines to enable automatic classification of documents. At the same time, such information may enable automatic validation of the authenticity, integrity and ownership of a document. Furthermore, that information—included in confidential documents—may allow their tracking, dissuade information leak or help in the identification of the responsible in a case of leak.
Information included in documents with this purpose are usually intended to be imperceptible by human beings while appreciable by computer systems, which can read and decode them. Such information inclusion is usually referred to as watermark. A watermark is an alteration of a document that may include an identifying image or pattern, such as character spacing or character deformation in the case of text, or pixel shifting in frequency or space in the case of images. The watermark may represent a code or a unique sign/signature. The watermark may be replicated in different parts/sections of the document itself, allowing to be extracted also from a portion of the original document (in case of damaged/dirty/crumpled documents). Finally, the watermark cannot be appreciated by a human inspection, while can be identified at a digital inspection, retrieving the represented code.
Many different methods exist to include watermarks into multimedia data, namely audio, video and images, for which a wide scientific literature exists describing embedding and extraction methods. Inclusion and extraction of watermarks from multimedia data, however, usually implies techniques not applicable to text documents.
Different methods are used to include information in text documents, usually implying the addition or change of the appearance of a document. The easiest methods include visible marks to in the document, such as barcodes. However, the addition of visible marks in the document may not be acceptable for various applications, either for esthetic reasons or because the watermark should be unnoticed by the user. As such, imperceptible watermarks are of great interest for text documents, where there are usually few areas to conceal a mark than in multimedia data.
For what concerns imperceptible watermarks in text documents, different techniques are available and are mainly based on one of the following three encoding methodologies: (i) special elements may be implied to embed the watermark, which are not part of the standard printing process (e.g., special inks or papers), (ii) info may be encoded in the text part of the document, through semantic or syntactic rules, i.e., altering the text content using synonyms or different capital/small letter sets, etc., or (iii) info may be encoded in modification of the document appearance, including color variations, transpositions of parts of the content, etc.
Some of the available techniques to integrate watermarks into documents are valid for paper documents, others for digital documents (a digital document is an original document created in a digital format, e.g., usually PDF), some for both formats, but all of them present limitations, including dependence on the printing and scanning process, or not resistance to printing, distortion, or limited amount of information that can be embedded in the document.
Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop a method for embedding watermarks in paper text documents and digital documents resulting resistant to distortions of the document, without needing the original document for watermark extraction and without requiring any special equipment for printing nor scanning the document.

Watermark embedding and extracting method for protecting documents

TELEFONICA CIBERSECURITY & CLOUD TECH S.L.U.


To improve reliability of a semiconductor device obtained through a dicing step. In a ring region, a first outer ring is provided outside a seal ring, and a second outer ring is provided outside the first outer ring. This can prevent a crack from reaching even the seal ring that exists in the ring region, for example, when a scribe region located outside the ring region is cut off by a dicing blade.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a semiconductor wafer, and to a technology effective in applying to, for example, a semiconductor device that is provided with a ring region in which a seal ring has been arranged outside a circuit region in which an integrated circuit has been formed and a semiconductor wafer.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-222939 (Patent Document 1) describes a semiconductor device in which a crack protection ring is provided in a region directly under a crack prevention window located outside a moisture-resistant ring. At this time, a top surface of the crack protection ring is configured so as to be exposed from a bottom surface of the crack prevention window.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-270720 (Patent Document 2) describes a semiconductor device in which a metal wire is provided in a region directly under an opening located outside a moisture-resistant shield ring.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-9795 (Patent Document 3) describes a semiconductor device in which a silicon nitride film peel-off prevention groove is provided outside a seal ring, being a moisture shielding wall, and in which an external seal ring is provided between the seal ring and the silicon nitride film peel-off prevention groove.


First and second switch are connected in series to both terminals of a DC power source. A series circuit comprising a reactor, a primary winding of a transformer, and a capacitor connected in series, and is connected to a node between the first and second switches and one terminal of the DC power source. A rectifier smoothing circuit rectifies and smoothens a voltage generated across a secondary winding of the transformer and outputs a DC voltage. A control circuit alternately turns the first and second switches on and off. A voltage detection circuit detects the DC voltage from the rectifier smoothing circuit. A signal generation circuit generates a feedback signal from the DC voltage detected by the voltage detection circuit, and outputs the signal for turning the first and second switches on and off. A load current detection circuit detects load current contained in resonance current flowing through the capacitor.

The disclosure relates to a current resonant power supply device, and particularly relates to a current resonant power supply device, which can achieve reduced power consumption under light load.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2014-60895 (Patent Literature 1) and Japanese Patent No. 5384973 (Patent Literature 2) disclose current resonant power supply devices that can achieve reduced power consumption under light load.
The current resonant power supply device of Patent Literature 1 judges whether the device is currently in a light load state by comparing a power value detected by the power detection circuit with threshold Vref, and performs a burst oscillation operation while controlling the cycle of the burst oscillation if judging that the device is currently in the light load state.
The current resonant power supply device of Patent literature 2 detects the phase of current flowing through the switching elements. If the phase of the current thus detected is smaller than a predefined value, the current resonant power supply device judges that the device is currently in a light load state, and thus operates in a burst oscillation mode while operating the high side switch and the low side switch at unequal duty ratios.
Meanwhile, when changed to a standby load state, an Inductor Inductor Capacitor (LLC) current resonant system receives a standby signal received from outside, and switches from a normal mode to a standby mode.
Specifically, the standby signal is outputted from a system microcomputer on the secondary side of a transformer and is inputted into a power control integrated circuit (IC) on the primary side of the transformer via a photocoupler. For example, an SB terminal of the power control IC on the primary side of the transformer receives the standby signal from the photocoupler on the secondary side of the transformer.
The current resonant power supply devices of Patent Literatures 1 and 2 are capable of transitioning to a burst mode upon detection of a light load state.


A heating system including: a heating device including a first heat generator supplied with electric power by a commercial power source device, and a second heat generator and a third heat generator supplied with electric power by an auxiliary power source device; an electric storage device composed of a capacitor; a discharger for pursuing discharge to raise an input voltage from the electric storage device and supplying an electric power to the second and third heat generators; a detector for detecting an input voltage from the electric storage device to the discharger; and a power supply controller for switching off the electric power supply from the discharger to the third heat generator when the detector detects a reaching of the input voltage to a first threshold value which is set as a value in connection with a permissible limit of an input electric current to the discharger.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heating system provided with an auxiliary power source which supports an electric power supply to a heating device such as a fixing device, and an image forming apparatus adopting the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in image forming apparatuses such as a copying machine, a complex machine, a printer and a facsimile machine, there has been a known method of using an auxiliary power source composed of a high-capacity capacitor such as an electric double layer capacitor to support a power supply to a fixing device, as a method for reducing a standby electricity as much as possible and shortening a fixing start-up time i.e. a method for allowing the fixing temperature to rise promptly (for example, refer to Japanese Examined Patent No. 3588006). Since the electric double layer capacitor is capable of charging and discharging electricity at a high current and has a long capacitor life (more than hundred thousand times of charging), it is adapted to be used as an auxiliary power source for a heat generator such as a halogen heater for use in the fixing start-up. However, since a charging voltage of the electric double layer capacitor as a single body is generally about 2.5V, which is low, a method has been devised in which a voltage-raising circuit is provided between the capacitor and the heat generator, and the voltage-raising circuit is used to raise the output voltage (capacitor voltage, discharging voltage) from the capacitor to a necessary voltage for the heat generator (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication Nos. 2003-297526 and 2004-266984).
In a case where a predetermined voltage is applied to the heat generator with use of the voltage raised by the voltage-raising circuit as described above and outputted from the capacitor, the voltage after the discharging lowers and the input current to the voltage-raising circuit increases when deterioration of the capacitor advances. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide a protective circuit for stopping an output so as not to cause a failure in an input portion of the voltage-raising circuit. However, such method of merely stopping an output in accordance with deterioration of the capacitor causes a problem that the supporting of the electric power supply is disabled as soon as the capacitor reaches the end of a rated life duration (even though use of a capacitor is still possible) even in a case where supporting of an electric power supply by the capacitor should be continued although the fixing start-up time becomes longer than the rated life duration.

Heating system and image forming apparatus adopting the same


When setting up a working path, a protection path is automatically set up by taking each node on the working path as a start point. A working path setup request message carrying “protection needed/not-needed” information is transmitted from an ingress node toward an egress node along the route of the working path. When transferring a path setup response message as a response to it, each node autonomously determines the route of the protection path and sends out a protection path setup request message along the route of the protection path.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of setting up a protection path for restoring a link or node failure on a working path established in a network, and an apparatus for implementing the method.
With the widespread use of the Internet in recent years, the demand for high transmission efficiency and quality has been increasing. To achieve this, a technology for superimposing IP packets on a physical link with the smallest possible overhead (for example, IP over DWDM (Dense WDM)) and Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) as a means for achieving low-cost and high-speed transmission of IP packets at the hardware level have been attracting attention. In these circumstances, since the protection that has traditionally been provided at a lower layer such as SONET/SDH can no longer be provided, packet protection, a scheme for providing protection at a higher layer, is needed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In this era where the IP packet is recognized as a basic transmission unit, there is a tendency for lower layers such as SDH/SONET to be rendered unnecessary and, for failure restoration in a network, packet protection, a scheme for accomplishing restoration on a packet-by-packet basis, has been receiving attention.
In packet protection, a protection switch node (hereinafter abbreviated PSL) and a protection merge node (hereinafter abbreviated PML) are determined on a working path, and a different path that does not overlap with the working path is set up from the PSL to the PML. If a failure occurs along the segment between the PSL and PML on the working path, a node that has detected the failure sends a failure notification to the PSL which then reroutes the traffic over the protection path. There are no provisions for the number of links between the PSL and PML (the range of failure to be restored by one protection path), and various repair schemes such as global repair and local repair are currently being proposed. However, the method of implementing the packet protection, including the method of determining the PSL and PML on the working path, the method of setting up the protection path, and the method of switching, has not yet been clearly defined.
Among the various repair schemes currently proposed, local repair, in which a node that detects a failure or its adjacent node performs switching to the protection path, is attracting particular attention because of its capability to accomplish switching within 50 ms and its simple mechanism.
As a method of implementing such packet protection, a path protection method using MPLS that enables high-speed packet forwarding is described in a document presented to IETF by Tellabs (draft-change-mpls-rsvpte-path-protection-00.txt, draft-change-mpls-rsvptepath-protection-01.txt).
In this document, the following provisions for achieving faster switching to a protection path are described without limiting the repair scheme to any particular method.
For protection path setup, it is recommended that a protection path be set up in advance in order to reduce the switching time. In a specific method of path setup, the PSL on the working path determines the PML from among the downstream nodes on the working path, and determines the route of the protection path in accordance with a path selection algorithm in such a manner that the protection path does not overlap with the working path between the PSL and PML. The PML merges the outgoing end of the protection path into an outgoing path of the corresponding working path. It is specified that the protection path thus set up be required to satisfy the same QoS requirements (bandwidth and delay requirements) as the corresponding working path.
The switchover from the working to the protection path is initiated by sending a failure notification from a downstream node that has detected the failure to the PSL located on the upstream side. High priority is given to the failure notification. Each node extracts the destination of the failure notification based on the RNT created in advance during the establishment of the path, and performs label switching by using an inverse-cross-connect table. This, as it is proposed in the document, contributes to speeding up the notification of a failure and reducing the switching time.
To provide packet protection, it is required that the same bandwidth as that for the working path be guaranteed for its protection path through which no traffic flows before protection switching. If the same bandwidth is to be reserved not only for the working path but also for its protection path, the total number of paths required in the entire network increases as the PSL to PML distance becomes shorter, and more than twice the bandwidth of the working path will become necessary for the network as a whole, reducing the efficiency of network resource utilization. Accordingly, for the realization of packet protection, it is becoming important to also consider a "bandwidth sharing scheme" which aims at saving network resources by sharing the bandwidth among protection paths, but this scheme is difficult to implement; in fact, the method proposed by Tellabs only describes the following condition and does not provide any specific method of implementation.
The condition for bandwidth sharing: Protection paths provided for a plurality of working paths that do not share any nodes between PSL and PML can share the bandwidth (since the bandwidth will not become necessary simultaneously if the occurrence of a double failure is not considered). The shared protection path bandwidth must be equal to the maximum of the bandwidths in the plurality of corresponding paths.
Japanese Patent No. 2985940 discloses a method in which, when establishing a working path in a large-scale network, complete source route information of the working path is acquired by the ingress node of the path in order to set up a protection route and, when setting up a protection path, the source route information is added to signaling information for connection setup, thereby setting up a physical path entirely different from the working path. With this method, however, when a failure occurs, the failure must be reported all the way to the ingress node; this not only takes time to switch to the protection path, but ends up being unable to guarantee the same QoS (bandwidth and delay) as that for the working path when the path is switched to the protection path.
The protection scheme presented by Tellabs only describes the path setup conditions. When the protection path is set up manually in accordance with the conditions, working/protection switchover can be accomplished within the required time, i.e., 50 ms, but the problem is that everything has to be managed manually, requiring an enormous number of maintenance cost.
Furthermore, though the protection scheme is described on the premise that the PSL recognizes the topology up to the PML, if this scheme is applied in a large-scale network that uses the concept of "area", control may not be able to be performed because a node in a certain area cannot recognize the topology outside the area. For example, when setting up a protection path bypassing an area border node, the proposed scheme has the problem that the PSL cannot determine a node outside the area as the PML, nor can a route be selected that does not overlap with the working path. In this case, the path can be set up if maintenance personnel explicitly specify the protection path route, but there is a limit to the kinds of topologies that maintenance personnel can recognize and, as one can easily imagine, they are prone to error.
As for the protection path delay guarantee, the end-to-end delay when routed via the protection path must be guaranteed. The problem here is that with the PSL-to-PML delay information alone, it is not possible to guarantee the end-to-end delay, and the scheme proposed by Tellabs does not provide any specific means to address this issue.

Method and apparatus for protection path setup


A multi-chip electronic module comprises a multiplicity of integrated circuit chips arranged in a vertical stack. Each chip includes at least one first electrical terminal, with at least a first subset of the first terminals being disposed at different heights relative to the stack. A multiplicity of second electrical terminals is disposed on a support member, and a multiplicity of first electrical conductors (e.g., wirebonds) is connected between the first subset and at least a second subset of the second terminals. In order to reduce the skew produced at relatively high frequencies, all of the first conductors have substantially the same inductive impedance at the frequency of operation of the module. Our invention is particularly well suited to modules that operate at frequencies of about 500 MHz or higher.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to integrated circuit (IC) chips and, more particularly, to multi-chip modules for high-frequency operation.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In the IC industry it is common to mount IC chips on a lead frame 10 of the type shown in FIG. 1. More specifically, a chip 12 is mounted on a paddle 13, and wirebonds 15 connect terminals on the chip to particular ones of the conductive fingers 11.
In the electronic memory industry, in order to increase the density of a memory module some manufacturers, as shown in FIG. 2, have interleaved N substantially identical memory chips 20.N (N=1, 2, 3 . . . ) with spacers 22 to form a vertical stack 30, which is then mounted on the paddle 13 of a lead frame 10. Wirebonds 40.N are connected between terminals on the chips and conductive fingers 50.N on the lead frame. (For simplicity only a portion of each conductive finger is depicted, and only a few of the many connections between the chips and the fingers is shown.)
Our analysis indicates that the prior art stacked memory module design is acceptable only at relatively low frequencies of operation where the transistors within the chips are the limiting factor as to access times, not the inductance external to the chips. At higher frequencies of operation, corresponding, for example, to clock frequencies above about 500 MHz, an undesirable effect known as skew results; that is, when a multiplicity of memory cells is simultaneously addressed by signals that propagate over the wirebonds, longer wirebonds such as 40.N connected to the chip at the top of the stack produce longer access times than shorter wirebonds such as 40.1, 40.2 or 40.3. More specifically, the longer wirebonds have higher self-inductance, which in turn produces higher reactive impedance than that of shorter wirebonds. At high frequencies the wirebond impedance becomes significant relative to the impedance of the CMOS logic circuitry that is typically located at the input of the memory chips, whereas at lower frequencies the wirebond impedance is so small that any skew that does result is inconsequential.
An example will be instructive. In one prior art design of the type shown in FIG. 2, nine 4 Mb memory chips are stacked to produce a module having a density of 36 Mb. Let us assume that the wirebonds have a typical elongated, circular cylindrical shape, are 1 mil in diameter, and are made of Au, which means they would have a self-inductance of 0.14 nH/mil of length in free space. Since the longest wirebond is about 1.4 mm (55 mils) long, it would have a self-inductance of 772 pH, whereas the shortest wirebond being about 0.64 mm (25 mils) long would have a self-inductance of only 350 pH. The corresponding inductive reactance at 1 GHz of the longest wirebond would be about 4.8 Ω and of the shortest wirebond would be about 2.2 Ω. (Thus, the longer wirebond has a reactance that is about 100% larger than that of the shorter wirebond.) The transmission delay through these diverging lengths of wirebond is likewise longer in the longer wirebonds than in the shorter ones. For example, we can estimate the skew as follows. We first assume the speed of signal propagation to be c=3×108 M/s. [There is no need to adjust the propagation speed for the various parameters of the wirebond (e.g., physical properties, dielectric strength) since we also assume they are common to all wirebonds.] Then, the difference in propagation delay between the longest and shortest wires (i.e., the skew) is given by (Llongest−Lshortest)/c, where L is the length of the wirebond in meters. Using the lengths of 1.4 mm and 0.64 mm above, we estimate the skew to be about 2.5 ps, which is significant at 1 GHz. In contrast, at much lower frequencies the reactance of the wirebonds is not sufficiently large to cause significant skew.

Multi-chip integrated circuit module for high-frequency operation


A process and system for treating aluminum salt cake containing water soluble halide salts by contacting the salt cake with water to dissolve water soluble halide salts forming a saturated brine solution. Transporting a portion of about 25% of the saturated brine solution to a reactor and introducing into the saturated brine solution at least an equal volume of a water-miscible low-boiling organic material such as acetone to precipitate a portion of the dissolved halide salts forming a three-phase mixture of an aqueous-organic-salt solution phase and a precipitated salt phase and an organic rich phase. The precipitated salt phase is separated from the other phases and the organic rich phase is recycled to the reactor. The remainder of the saturated brine solution is sent to a multiple effect evaporator having a plurality of stages with the last stage thereof producing low grade steam which is used to boil off the organic portion of the solution which is recycled.

Scrap-aluminum recycling starts with the melting of the scrap aluminum in open-hearth reverberatory furnaces. In order to decrease the interfacial tension of the dross/aluminum and allow the aluminum to coalesce for easier separation as well as to minimize the oxidation of the molten aluminum and to capture the aluminum oxide that forms during the melting process, a salt mixture called flux, is spread on top of the bed. Flux typically consists of about 62% by weight sodium chloride, 32% by weight potassium chloride and 6% by weight other materials, including cryolite (Na.sub.3 AlF.sub.6). This layer also serves to trap impurities such as magnesium chloride, which also reports to the flux layer. After the melting process is completed, the top layer of dark-colored material, called dross, is removed for further processing to recover some of its aluminum content. The black dross typically consists of aluminum metal (10-20% by weight), salt-flux mixture (40-55% by weight), and aluminum oxide (20-50% by weight). One of two methods is used to process the black dross for the recovery of aluminum: (1) reprocessing of the black dross in a rotary furnace (along with low grade scrap) or (2) physically separating the aluminum from the black dross using hammer mills. When the aluminum content of the dross is such that it is not economical to recover, the dross is disposed of in landfills. Rotary furnace processing requires the addition of salt fluxes in even larger quantities than that required for reverberatory furnace processing.
Residue generated by the rotary furnaces is referred to as salt cake, and it contains about 3-5% by weight aluminum, 15-30% by weight aluminum oxide, 30-45% by weight sodium chloride, 20-30% by weight potassium chloride and minor amounts of the chlorides of impurities such as magnesium chloride. The amount of black-dross and salt-cake residues generated from U.S. secondary aluminum-smelting plants in 1988 was approximately 229.times.10.sup.3 tons. The quantities of scrap and salt cake that are being processed are increasing. Because the salts are readily leachable, the disposal of this material in landfills is becoming more costly and less acceptable. Therefore, alternatives to disposal in landfills are in demand.

Process for separating dissolved solids from a liquid using an anti-solvent and multiple effect evaporators


To allow a DC voltage to be obtained as an output signal for higher versatility. A sensor unit 400 has three electrodes: a transmission electrode 401, a reception electrode 402 and a shielding electrode 403. The shielding electrode 403 shields the transmission electrode 401 and the reception electrode 402 from each other in terms of high-frequency and is constantly earthed. A high-frequency voltage is applied to the transmission electrode 401 from a high-frequency oscillation circuit 410. A high-frequency voltage depending upon the magnitude of the electrostatic capacity between the electrodes 401 and 4023 is outputted from the reception electrode 402. The high-frequency voltage outputted from the reception electrode 402 is converted into a DC voltage by a detection circuit 420. The presence or absence or the amount of a substance is determined based on the magnitude of the DC voltage produced in the detection circuit 420.

Among sensors, there are capacitance-coupled sensors, namely capacitance-coupled (electrostatic capacity) sensors using a condenser (capacitor). JP-A-2000-80703 discloses a sensor using a capacitance-coupled sensor for detecting the human body sitting on a toilet seat of a human body private part washing device. The sensor disclosed in the official gazette has a sensor unit comprising a detection electrode and an earth electrode for capacitive coupling, and a protection electrode interposed between the detection electrode and the earth electrode, and the electrodes are insulated from each other. The electrostatic capacity between the detection electrode and the earth electrode is used to set the oscillation frequency of a high-frequency oscillator, and a change in the electrostatic capacity caused by approach of a human body is obtained as a change in the oscillation frequency (final output signal) from the oscillation circuit. The protection electrode is provided to reduce the electrostatic capacity possessed by the sensor itself.
However, the sensor disclosed in the official gazette requires a special device for detecting frequency since the output signal obtained from it a signal representing a change in frequency, which is not common. Also, the sensor disclosed in the official gazette is to detect the presence or absence of a substance that is a human body and is not intended to detect changes in the amount of a substance such as a liquid in a continuously variable manner.
This invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and it is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a capacitance-coupled sensor from which a general DC voltage signal is obtained and a method for detecting a substance using the capacitance-coupled sensor.

Capacitance coupled sensor and substance detecting method using capacitance-coupled sensor


There is provided a bodily fluid simulant made from red blood cells in an amount between about 10 and about 60 weight percent, egg white in an amount between 20 and 50 weight percent, and plasma.

The field of personal care products includes diapers, training pants, adult incontinence articles and feminine hygiene products like tampons and sanitary napkins, also called pads. In the course of development of such products, it is useful, indeed almost a requisite, that such items be tested to determine how well they function in use. Such testing may be done by a "use test" in which people wear the item to be tested for a finite time and return the used item for evaluation, usually also giving their opinion of the item. Use testing is, however, a rather tedious and time consuming exercise and so is usually reserved for the products most likely to be commercialized or closest to commercialization. The examination of items tested with genuine body fluids also exposes the researcher to any viruses or diseases which may be present therein. Moreover, for feminine hygiene applications, genuine menses fluid is a highly variable substance which has a great range of viscosity and other properties differing from woman to woman and even over short time periods in each woman, making testing with actual menses fluid somewhat problematical.
As a result of this concern for safety, cost and variability, a number of artificial body exudates have been developed. One such fluid is an artificial feces (BM) used in the testing diapers and the like, which is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,626, commonly assigned. Another such fluid is known as "Z-Date", available from PPG Industries, Inc. of Pittsburgh, Penn., which is an artificial menses consisting of water, red dye, and a thickener. Yet another artificial menses fluid is mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,924, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, at column 7, lines 51-60.
Previous menses simulants, though useful, have proven unsatisfactory in the emulation of many properties of actual menses. Features such as viscosity, cell size, debris content and others have not been provided to the degree necessary for the reliable testing of today's highly engineered, high performance products. There remains, therefore, a need for an artificial menses fluid which more closely mimics actual menses fluid yet which is safe to use, consistent in properties, and cost effective, and it is an object of this invention to provide such a fluid.


A fuel injection system with an injector for an internal combustion engine has a binary injection nozzle whose pressure chamber can be alternatingly supplied with fuel and a supplemental fluid. A valve device is provided which can control the high-pressure side fuel delivery to the binary injection nozzle and the connection of the pressure chamber to a low-pressure side and to a supply line of the supplemental fluid. The valve device has a reversing valve that is embodied for controlling the impingement of high or low pressure on the pressure chamber and is also embodied for controlling the filling of the pressure chamber with the supplemental fluid. Therefore, the valve device is improved with regard to more rapid and precise switching operations and is also simplified, resulting in greater reliability and reduced maintenance.

The invention is directed to improvements in a fuel injection system for internal combustion engines.
In a fuel injection system of this kind, which has been disclosed by DE 43 37 048 C2, a high-pressure delivery pump supplies a high-pressure reservoir with fuel from a storage tank. Pressure lines lead from the (common rail) high-pressure reservoir to the individual injection nozzles of the internal combustion engine. The nitrogen oxide and soot emissions of the engine are reduced by means of an injection of fuel (diesel fuel) and a supplemental fluid, which can be carried out in succession. This type of injection effects a reduction in fuel consumption. As a rule, water is used as the supplemental fluid.
In a low load operation of the engine or when the engine is cold, however, the water injection portion must be dynamically and rapidly reduced or shut off. Otherwise the HC emissions increase.
In a common rail system, the high injection pressure continuously prevails in the injection nozzle. As a result, in the known fuel injection system, the provision is made that the pressure inside the pressure chamber is temporarily reduced in order to facilitate the pre-storing of supplemental fluid in the pressure chamber. This is carried out by means of a 3/2-way valve so that fuel can be displaced from the pressure chamber by means of the incoming supplemental fluid. In the injection pause, the 3/2-way valve opens the passage to a discharge line for the pressure reduction and the return of the fuel from the injection nozzle to a reservoir. At the same time, the inlet from the common rail pressure reservoir is closed off. Parallel to this valve control, an opening for the inlet of the supplemental fluid (water) is unblocked by means of another check valve. The supplemental fluid is supplied to the injection nozzle in the region of the nozzle tip. The check valve is held in an open position until the desired quantity of supplemental fluid has been pre-stored in the pressure chamber.
If the check valve is closed again, the 3/2-way valve is switched over again into the injection position for fuel. Then fuel can once again arrive in the pressure chamber at high pressure. The connection to the common rail pressure reservoir is thereby continuously reestablished. The storage of fuel and supplemental fluid in the pressure chamber occurs in layers. When supplemental fluid is pre-stored in the pressure chamber, a residue of fuel nevertheless remains beneath the inlet opening for the supplemental fluid. After being let in, the supplemental fluid forms a layer over the fuel. Then, fuel is once again supplied to the pressure chamber, which settles down over the supplemental fluid layer. Consequently, a small quantity of pure fuel is injected first at the beginning of the injection. For this reason, a short ignition delay occurs. Then all of the stored supplemental fluid is injected. The metering of the supplemental fluid through the control of the valve device must be carried out so that no residual supplemental fluid remains in the pressure chamber. At loads from zero to approx. 20% (max. 40%) full load, the storage of supplemental fluid is switched off and pure fuel is injected. At loads below approx. 20% and in engines that have not yet reached normal operation temperature, no supplemental fluid is pre-stored.
The admixture of fuel and supplemental fluid in the pressure chamber requires a precise and rapid control of the valve device. For example, depending on the operating state of the engine, the quantity of fuel or supplemental fluid must be able to be varied from work cycle to work cycle.
Two reversing valves that are separate from each other are provided in the known fuel injection system, for the filling of fuel and supplemental fluid into the pressure chamber. The reversing valve for the fuel storage is embodied as a 3/2-way valve, while in addition, a separate check valve is required for storing supplemental fluid in the pressure chamber.
The two valves must be coordinated with each other and controlled interdependently for an alternating filling of the pressure chamber. This requires additional control devices. The tuning of the valve control by means of the development of costly electronics therefore makes the fuel injection system more expensive and has a disadvantageous effect on the effort and costs associated with maintenance.
The use of the complexly designed fuel injection system, which is comprised of a number of individual components, increases the susceptibility to malfunction.

Fuel injection system for an internal combustion engine


A process for continuous hydrogenation of adiponitrile (ADN) to hexamethylene diamine (HMD) and optionally to amninocapronitrile (ACN) involving the catalytic hydrogenation of adiponitrile at relatively low temperature (e.g., 75.degree. C.) and pressure (e.g., 500 psig) using a sponge cobalt catalyst (Raney.RTM. Co) in a reaction medium that is substantially free of caustic. In such a process periodic addition of water controls the production of side reaction products and the periodic addition of ammonium hydroxide rejuvenates the catalyst. Hexamethylene diamine is an important intermediate for the synthesis of polyamides such as Nylon-6,6 and aminocapronitrile is a potential intermediate of Nylon-6.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved process for continuous hydrogenation of adiponitrile (ADN) to hexamethylene diamine (HMD) and aminocapronitrile (ACN). More specifically but not by way of limitation, the present invention relates to a process for the continuous hydrogenation of ADN at low temperature and pressure in the presence of a sponge cobalt catalyst and in a reaction medium substantially free of caustic.
2. Description of Related Art
It is generally known in the art that the hydrogenation of nitriles can be achieved by contacting a hydrogenation catalyst with a solution containing a nitrile, hydrogen, and an alkali or base. The reaction product typically contains primary amine as the desired product and one or more secondary and tertiary amines as adventitious side products. The secondary amines are believed to be formed by the reaction between primary amines and imine intermediates, formed by the partial hydrogenation of the primary amines. Tertiary amines, on the other hand, are the products of the reaction between secondary amines and additional imine intermediates. Various alternative methods for accomplishing such hydrogenation have been proposed including batch-processing in a stirred autoclave reactor, or by continuous processing, using a fixed-bed or bubble-flow reactor.
For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,758,584 and 3,773,832 a fixed-bed reactor has been used for the hydrogenation of ADN. HMD was prepared by hydrogenating ADN in packed bed reactors in the presence of excess of hydrogen and anhydrous ammonia, at temperatures of 85 to 185.degree. C. and pressures of 4,000 to 6,000 psig. Cobalt or iron oxide was pelletized, calcined, and reduced in a mixture of hydrogen and ammonia at a temperature in the range of 300 to 600.degree. C. The major drawbacks of this process are that it requires high temperature and pressure, a large amount of ammonia, reduction of iron or cobalt oxide catalyst used in this process, and difficulties associated with heat removal. Moreover, the cost of the catalyst used in the process has been increasing over time.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,429,159 and 4,491,673 describe the use of a Raney.RTM. nickel catalyst in a bubble-column reactor. The described process uses lower pressure (200 to 500 psig) and temperature (less than 100.degree. C.). However, this process uses copious amounts of caustic to maintain the activity, selectivity, and the life of the catalyst. As a result, it requires expensive purification steps to produce high purity HMD.
A process for preparing HMD is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,015 where HMD is produced in a fixed bed reactor by hydrogenating ADN in the presence of granular Cr and Ni promoted Raney.RTM. Co catalyst. The reaction is carried out in the presence of at least 5 wt % ammonia (based on ADN) at a temperature and pressure in the range of 60 to 125.degree. C. and 50 to 5,000 psi, respectively. The disadvantage of such a process is the inherent necessity to recover, purify, compress, and recycle ammonia (used as a solvent).
The preparation of a branched aliphatic diamine from the corresponding dinitrile is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,391. This patent discloses the hydrogenation of 2-methylglutaronitrile to 2-methyl, 1,5-pentamethylenediamine using chromium-promoted sponge cobalt catalyst in the presence of 0.5 to 4.0% by weight of water, at a temperature of about 80 to 150.degree. C., and at a pressure of about 400 to 2,500 psig. While it is not obvious whether a branched aliphatic dinitrile will behave in the same fashion as a straight chain aliphatic dinitrile, it is apparent that the process makes a number of by-products including some cyclic condensation products. This would lead to a lower yield of the desired product during reaction, as well as separation. In addition, there would be a significant amount of water present that would need to be continuously pumped into the reaction vessel, to sustain the activity of the catalyst.

Process for continuous hydrogenation of adiponitrile


Provided are a secondary battery including a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a solid electrolyte layer disposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode, wherein the positive electrode and the negative electrode include first solid electrolyte particles, the solid electrolyte layer includes second solid electrolyte particles, and a particle diameter of the second solid electrolyte particles is greater than a particle diameter of the first solid electrolyte particles.

The application field of chargeable and dischargeable secondary batteries is increasingly being expanded to electric vehicles as well as portable devices such as mobile phones, notebooks, and camcorders. Accordingly, secondary batteries have been actively developed. Also, research and development of battery design to improve capacity density and specific energy have been conducted during the development of the secondary batteries.
In general, it is known that battery safety improves in the order of a liquid electrolyte, a gel polymer electrolyte, and a solid polymer electrolyte, but battery performance decreases in the same order.
An electrolyte in a liquid state, particularly, an ion conductive organic liquid electrolyte, in which a salt is dissolved in a non-aqueous organic solvent, has been mainly used as an electrolyte for an electrochemical device, such as a typical battery using an electrochemical reaction and an electric double-layer capacitor. However, when the electrolyte in a liquid state is used, an electrode material may degrade and the organic solvent is likely to be volatilized. Also, there may be limitations in safety such as combustion due to a high ambient temperature and the temperature rise of the battery itself.
In particular, since an electrolyte used in a lithium secondary battery is in a liquid state and may have a risk of flammability in a high-temperature environment, this may impose a significant burden on electric vehicle applications. The above limitations may be addressed when the lithium electrolyte in a liquid state is replaced with a solid-state electrolyte. Thus, various solid electrolytes have been researched and developed to date.
A flame retardant material has been mainly used as a solid electrolyte and as a result, since the solid electrolyte is formed of a highly stable and non-volatile material, the solid electrolyte is stable at high temperature. Also, since the solid electrolyte may act as a separator, a typical separator is not required and a thin film process may be possible.
Among them, since a perovskite-structure oxide having a chemical formula of Li0.33La0.66TiO3 (LLTO) is a material having high chemical stability and durability, a significant amount of research into this material has been conducted.
However, since a typical solid electrolyte may have high interfacial resistance, low ionic conductivity, and low flexibility due to the contact between an electrode and the solid electrolyte, there are various limitations in terms of processing.

Secondary battery including solid electrolyte layer

Abstract: In the secondary battery, the electrode may increase the amount of movement of lithium ions by increasing a contact area between the solid electrolyte particles and electrode active material, and the solid electrolyte layer may minimize the reduction of ionic conductivity by decreasing interfacial resistance due to the contact between the electrode and the solid electrolyte layer. Thus, stability and performance of the secondary battery may be improved.


A control device for a restraining system in a motor vehicle is proposed, a safety switch, which also includes a watchdog, performing the function of a safety switch in the control device. The safety switch monitors sensor signals which are transmitted to the processor of the control device for plausibility and triggers appropriate restraining systems via a time unit for a predefined time period only when the safety switch itself detects a trigger event. On the basis of supplementary data from the sensor signals, the safety switch infers how the sensor signals are to be processed. The safety switch is designed such that it triggers the restraining systems correspondingly assigned to the sensors. When the control device is switched on, the processor performs a test of the safety switch by generating a test signal using the sensors.

Airbag-control systems in which a micro-controller as the processor is monitored for its function by a watchdog are already known. The processor itself is connected to various sensors in the motor vehicle or in the control device, the sensors sensing an impact. In some cases, airbag control devices use mechanical safety switches in which during negative accelerations a ring magnet is moved against a spring, whereupon a reed contact closes. The reed contact then triggers the restraining means associated with this delay direction, either directly via a triggering signal to the output stages, or indirectly via the micro-controller. In some instances, the generated signal also triggers a safety semiconductor lying in the main ignition-current path, which allows the required ignition current to flow to the output stages.

Control device for a restraining system in a motor vehicle


Non-human mammals comprising a disrupted MSH2 gene are disclosed. More particularly, animals having a disruption in one or both alleles of the MSH2 gene or a homolog of the MSH2 gene are disclosed. Animals homozygous for the disruption are viable past the embryonic stage of development but show an increased incidence of lymphoma, intestinal adenomas and carcinomas, and squamous cell tumors of the skin. Specifically disclosed are mice whose genome comprises a disrupted MSH2 gene such that the mice exhibits an increase in the incidence of spontaneous lymphoma over the incidence of spontaneous lymphoma in wild type mice.

Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colon Cancer (HNPCC) is a common cancer predisposition syndrome characterized by a dominant mode of transmission and a high penetrance (Lynch et al., Gastroenterology 104:1535-1549 (1993)). Approximately 5% to 15% of colon cancers in industrialized nations have been attributed to HNPCC, suggesting an allele frequency that could be as high as 1 in 200 (Papadopoulos et al., Science 263:1625-1629 (1994); Ponz de Leon et al., Cancer 71:3493-3501 (1993); Kee and Collins, Gut 32:509-512 (1991); Cannon-Albright et al., N. Engl. J. Med. 319:533-537 (1988)). Although colon cancer is the principal cancer associated with HNPCC, more than 35% of the people in these families suffer other types of tumors of which endometrial and ovarian tumors are the most common. (Bishop and Thomas, Cancer Surveys 9:585-604 (1990)).
Genetic linkage studies have identified two HNPCC loci that are thought to account for nearly 90% of the affected families (Peltomaki et al., Science 260:810-812 (1993a); Lindblom et al., Nature Genetics 5:279-282 (1993); Nystrom-Lahti et al., Am. J. Hum. Genet. 55:659-665 (1994)). The first genetic locus characterized, which appears to account for approximately 50-60% of the HNPCC cases, was found to be located on chromosome 2p21 where mutations in the human MutS Homologue (hMSH2) gene were found to cosegregate with the disease (Fishel et al., Cell 75:1027-1038 (1993); Leach et al., Cell 75:1215-1225 (1993)).
The second locus, which appears to account for up to 20-30% of the HNPCC cases, was found to be located on chromosome 3p21 where mutations in the human MutL Homologue (hMLH1) gene were found to cosegregate with the disease (Bronner et al., Nature 368:258-261 (1994); Papadopoulos et al., Science 263:1625-1629 (1994)). These two genes code for homologues of the bacterial MutS and MutL proteins, which are essential components of the post-replication mismatch repair machinery (For a review see: Fishel and Kolodner, Curr. Op. Genet. Devel. 5:382-395 (1995)). Mutation of these genes in bacteria results in a generalized mutator (mut) phenotype that has been attributed to the absence of repair functions capable of recognizing mismatched nucleotides introduced into nascent DNA chains as a result of polymerase misincorporation errors. Such mismatches would subsequently lead to the passive accumulation of spontaneous mutations after a second round of DNA replication. Biochemical studies have shown that the MutS protein is involved in the initial mismatch recognition step and the MutL protein appears to link the excision repair machinery to mismatch recognition (Modrich, Ann. Rev. Genet 25:229-253 (1991)). These results support a direct role for mismatch repair functions in mutation avoidance.
Two other MutL homologues have been described, HPMS1 and hPMS2, that are related to the S. cerevisiae PMS1 gene which was originally identified as a contributor to "Post-Meiotic Segregants": a genetic phenomenon that suggested unrepaired mismatched nucleotides following chromosomal recombination (Nicolaides et al., Nature 371:75-80 (1994)). Mutations of these genes have been found in sporadic colorectal tumors and, in the case of hPMS2, in HNPCC families and may account for an additional 5-10% of HNPCC cases (Parsons et al., Science 268:738-470 (1995)).
The identification of hMSH2 and hMLH1 as genes in which mutations may predispose individuals to HNPCC, was facilitated by the observation that >85% of the tumors derived from these patients displayed instability of simple repetitive (microsatellite) sequences (Aaltonen et al., Science 260:812-816 (1993)). A similar nucleotide repeat instability was first observed in both E. coli and S. cerevisiae only when their respective mismatch repair genes were defective (Levinson and Gutman, Nucleic Acids Research 15:5313-5338 (1987); Strand et al., Nature 365:274-276 (1993)). Microsatellite instability has been observed in 5-85% of a variety of sporadic tumors (often termed: RER+ for replication error positive) suggesting that defects in mismatch repair or some related replication fidelity process may contribute widely to tumorigenesis (Ionov et al., Nature 363:558-561 (1993); Thibodeau et al., Science 260:816-819 (1993); Risinger et al., Cancer Res. 53:5100-5103 (1993); Young et al., Hum. Mutat. 2:351-354 (1993); Han et al., Cancer Res. 53:5087-5089 (1993); Peltomaki et al., Cancer Res. 53:5853-5855 (1993b); Gonzalez-Zulueta et al., Cancer Res. 53:5620-5623 (1993); Rhyu et al., Oncogene 9:29-32 (1994); Wada et al., Blood 83:3449-3456 (1994); Shridhar et al., Cancer Res. 54:2084-2087 (1994); Merlo et al., Cancer Res. 54:2098-2101 (1994); Wooster et al., Nature Genet. 6:152-156 (1994); Yee et al., Cancer Res. 54:1641-1644 (1994); Burks et al., Oncogene 9:1163-1166 (1994); Schoenberg et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 198:74-80 (1994); Honchel et al., Cancer Res. 54:1159-1563 (1994); Shibata et al., Nature Genet. 6:273-281 (1994); and Aaltonen et al., Cancer Res. 54:1645-1648 (1994)). In addition to microsatellite instability, cell lines that contain mutations in hMSH2 or hMLH1 are also defective for mismatch repair in vitro (Umar et al., J. Biol. Chem. 259:1-4 (1994a); Parsons et al., Science 75:1227-1236 (1993)), they display a generalized increase in spontaneous mutation frequency (Bhattacharyya et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91:6319-6323 (1994)) and are resistant to alkylating agents (Kat et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:6424-6428 (1993)). The connection of microsatellite instability to a generalized mutator phenotype has suggested that the detection of such changes might be used as a convenient molecular diagnosis of a mismatch repair defect and a mutator phenotype in clinically presented tumors.
In both bacteria and yeast, MutS and its homologues play additional roles in genetic recombination. Mutational studies have shown that recombination between closely spaced markers is increased (Fishel et al., J. Mol. Biol. 188(2):147-157 (1986); Feinstein and Low, Genetics 113:13-33 (1986); Jones et al., Cell 50:621-626 (1987)) and the length of DNA tracts exchanged between recombining chromosomes is reduced (Alani et al., Genetics 137:19-39 (1994)) in MutS (or MSH2) deficient cells. In addition, the tolerance of heterologous DNA sequence in recombining chromosomes is substantially increased in such bacterial or yeast cells (Rayssiguier et al., Nature 342(6248):396-401 (1989); Selva et al., Genetics 139:1175-1188 (1995)). These results suggest that mismatched nucleotides formed during genetic recombination provide a target for mismatch repair functions which, in the case of multiple mismatches, results in abortion of the recombination process (Radman, Genome 31(1):68-73 (1989); and Worth et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 91:3238-3241 (1994)). This later observation has particular relevance to carcinogenesis since large scale rearrangements between non-homologous and/or partially homologous chromosomal sequences are a hallmark of tumor cells and may be indicative of widespread reduced-fidelity recombination processes.
Although the precise function of hMLH1 is poorly understood, hMSH2 has been purified and found to bind insertion/deletion loop-type (IDL) mismatched nucleotides with high affinity, and the single base pair G/T mismatch with lower affinity (Fishel et al., Science 266:1403-1405 (1994a); Fishel et al., Cancer Res. 54:5539-5542 (1994b)). IDL mismatched nucleotides have been proposed as an intermediate in microsatellite instability (Kunkel, Nature 365:207-208 (1993)). Furthermore, biochemical reconstitution studies that examine mismatch repair functions in vitro (Umar et al., J. Biol. Chem. 259:1-4 (1994a); Umar et al., Science 266:814-816 (1994b)), have resulted in the purification of two activities that appear to complement extracts derived from cell lines with known mutations in hMSH2 and hMLH1. Interestingly, both these purified complementing fractions consist of tightly complexed heterodimers. Protein extracts of the LoVo cell line, which contains deletions of both hMSH2 alleles, are complemented by a heterodimer that consists of hMSH2 (105 kDa) and a 160 kDa protein (P. Modrich, Ann. Rev. Genet. 25:229-253 (1991)), that has been cloned and identified as another MutS homologue a GT binding protein (GTBP/P160) and which has been found to co-purify as a heterodimer with hMSH2). There is some suggestion that the hMSH2/GTBP/160 heterodimer may bind mismatched nucleotides with a much higher affinity than either of the corresponding individual proteins. Protein extracts of the HCT116 cell line, which contains a deletion and a non-sense mutation of the hMLH1 alleles, are complemented by a heterodimer of hMLH1 (84 kDa) and hPMS2 (110 kDa) (Li and Modrich, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 92:1950-1954 (1995)).
There are multiple possibilities by which faulty mismatch repair genes could result in the development of cancer (Fishel and Kolodner, Curr. Op. Genet. Devel. 5:382-395 (1995)). It has been hypothesized that cells with repair defects might have elevated rates of mutations (Loeb, Cancer Res. 51:3075-3079 (1991)). The accumulation of mutations could result in growth control defects--such as by interfering with check-point control mechanisms, tumor suppressors, or oncogenes that cause mutant cells to progress to malignancy. It is clear that an appropriate animal model is needed to investigate the possible role(s) of mismatch repair in tumorigenesis and to provide systems for testing of therapeutic interventions for the treatment of cancer and other diseases associated with mismatch repair deficiencies.
Although mutations in the human MSH2 gene co-segregate with malignant disease in a number of HNPCC kindreds, it has remained debatable whether mismatch repair is involved directly in the onset of tumorigenesis. Described below are mice having one or more disrupted MSH2 alleles. These mice are useful for the study of the role of mismatch repair in oncogenesis and as screening tools for suspected charcinogens and chemotherapeutic agents. While these mice are fertile and viable through at least 3 generations, they succumb to tumors at an early age with high frequency, supporting a role for MSH2 in tumorigenesis.


An exhaust gas purification catalyst includes a Rh-containing catalyst layer provided on a base material. The Rh-containing catalyst layer includes a binder material of Rh-doped CeZr-based composite oxide containing Ce and Zr and doped with Rh. The binder material has been previously subjected to a reduction treatment.

The present disclosure relates to exhaust gas purification catalysts and methods for producing the catalysts.
Exhaust gas purification catalysts (three-way catalysts) loading catalytic metals, such as Pt, Pd, or Rh, on oxide supports have been used in order to purify hazardous substances, such as hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen oxide (NOx), emitted from automobile engines.
The exhaust gas purification catalysts include, for example, a catalyst loading Pt on CeO2. This catalyst is known to have a large oxygen storage/release capacity and show excellent performance in oxidizing and purifying CO and HC. The catalyst can efficiently generate H2 through a water gas shift reaction and, thus, promote reduction purification of NOx by using H2 generated.
An exhaust gas purification catalyst becomes active at a predetermined temperature, and can purify the hazardous substances described above in exhaust gas into a nontoxic gas through oxidization or reduction. However, in an initial period of starting up an engine in which the engine is not warmed up enough yet, the temperature of the exhaust gas is low, and thus, the catalyst does not become active. Accordingly, in this initial period, hazardous substances in the exhaust gas are emitted to the air without being purified. To prevent such emission, catalysts that become active at low temperatures, i.e., exhibit excellent exhaust gas purification performance, have been in demand.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-265958 describes a catalytic material which is loaded with a precious metal as a catalytic metal on a composite oxide containing CeO2 and ZrO2 as main components and on which a heat treatment has been performed at 600° C. to 1000° C. in a reduction atmosphere. In the catalytic material of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-265958, a precious metal performs storage/release of lattice oxygen of CeO2, oxygen can be released in a reduction atmosphere even at low temperatures, and thus, the catalytic material can exhibit excellent purification performance of exhaust gas.

Exhaust gas purification catalyst and method for producing the same


A ballast compatible with different types of gas discharge lamps includes a power supply and a controller connected to the power supply. The controller includes a memory having a plurality of desired operating parameters stored therein for respective different types of gas discharge lamps. A sensing circuit causes the power supply to supply a current to the gas discharge lamp prior to start-up and senses a voltage based thereon indicative of a type of the gas discharge lamp. A control circuit causes the power supply to provide the desired operating parameters based upon the type of gas discharge lamp. Since the desired operating parameters are applied to the gas discharge lamp, the life of the lamp is increased.

The present invention relates to the field of lighting devices, and more particularly, to a ballast for a gas discharge lamp.
Gas discharge lamps are widely used for general illumination and offer substantial advantages such as efficiency, color, coolness and shape over incandescent lamps. Gas discharge lamps include fluorescent lamps and high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps. These lamps are driven with a ballast. The ballast provides a predetermined level of current to the lamp which causes the lamp to emit light. To initiate current flow through a gas discharge lamp, the ballast provides a relatively high start-up voltage. After the gas discharge lamp has been ignited, a lower operating voltage is applied.
A conventional ballast generally provides predetermined operating parameters for characteristics adapted for a single lamp type. Operating parameters include a start-up voltage, a preheat time with a preheat frequency or pulse width which sets a preheat current, an operating frequency and a frequency ramping profile. The frequency ramping profile shifts the operating frequency from preheat to ignition, and then to operating. For example, a 40 watt gas discharge lamp may require a start-up voltage of 800 volts, whereas the start-up voltage for a 40 watt gas discharge lamp will be different.
However, gas discharge lamps of different wattages generally have different operating parameters. For example, the operating parameters for a 20 watt gas discharge lamp are different than those for the 40 watt gas discharge lamp. Consequently, the gas discharge lamp is generally ignited with a high enough start-up voltage that will support the desired lamp type and other lamp types having a start-up voltage less than the desired lamp type. The other operating parameters supporting the desired lamp type will also generally support these other lamp types requiring a lower startup voltage.
An advantage of this approach is in terms of manufacturing cost since a single ballast can be used instead of providing multiple versions of gas discharge lighting devices, each with a uniquely configured ballast. However, to support these different lamp types, the same high start-up voltage is applied to all gas discharge lamps even if a lower start-up voltage is better suited.
An excess voltage applied to a gas discharge lamp may decrease the life of the lamp. This difference in usable lamp life may be especially important in applications where the gas discharge lamp is turned on and off on a regular basis, such as in storage areas and spaces with occupancy sensors.
In view of the foregoing background, it is an object of the present invention to provide a ballast and associated method that is compatible with different types of gas discharge lamps.
This and other objects, features and advantages in accordance with the present invention are provided by a ballast comprising a power supply, and a controller connected to the power supply. The controller preferably comprises a memory having a plurality of desired operating parameters stored therein for respective different types of gas discharge lamps, and a sensing circuit for causing the power supply to supply a current to the gas discharge lamp prior to start-up and sensing a voltage based thereon indicative of a type of the gas discharge lamp.
The ballast preferably further comprises a control circuit for causing the power supply to provide the desired operating parameters based upon the type of gas discharge lamp. Since the desired operating parameters are applied to the gas discharge lamp, the life of the lamp is increased. The ballast according to the present invention is thus compatible with different types of gas discharge lamps, such as lamps of different wattages.
The desired operating parameters may include at least one of a start-up voltage, preheat time and a preheat frequency, an operating frequency, a frequency ramping profile which shifts the operating frequency from preheat to ignition to operation, fault detection levels, and minimum and maximum dimming frequency to be used with an external dimming control.
The gas discharge lamp preferably comprises a housing, at least one electrode carried by the housing, and a gas contained within the housing and contacting the at least one electrode. In one embodiment of the present invention, the sensing circuit senses the voltage across one of the electrodes.
The sensing circuit may include a switching circuit connected to a first voltage reference and to the electrode. The control circuit, which may include a microcontroller, provides a control signal for operating the switching circuit so that the current is supplied to the electrode. In one embodiment of the present invention, the switching circuit comprises at least one photocoupler. The sensing circuit may further include a sense resistor connected between the electrode and a second voltage reference.
The sensed voltage may be either across the electrode alone or across the electrode and the sense resistor. The sensed voltage is converted to a digital value by an analog to digital converter, which may be internal to the microcontroller, for example. The sensing circuit senses the voltage prior to every start-up. The sensed voltage is compared to a database of lamp type voltages stored within the memory. If the sensed voltage is within a particular range, then the control circuit causes the power supply to provide the desired operating parameters based upon the voltages corresponding to the stored lamp type voltage.
In yet another embodiment of the ballast according to the present invention, the controller preferably comprises a fault detection circuit connected between the gas discharge lamp and the control circuit. A fault counter within the control circuit counts the number of times the ballast has had a fault or has failed to ignite. This information may then be used to modify the start-up characteristics of the ballast prior to attempting to restart the ballast again. In addition, fault information may be transferred to a master controller or computer external the gas discharge lighting device.
Another aspect of the invention relates to a method for operating a ballast compatible with different types of gas discharge lamps. The method preferably comprises storing a plurality of desired operating parameters for respective different types of gas discharge lamps. A current is supplied to the gas discharge lamp via a power supply prior to start-up and a voltage based thereon indicative of a type of the gas discharge lamp is sensed. The method preferably further includes controlling the power supply to provide the desired operating parameters based upon the type of gas discharge lamp.
The controlling preferably comprises comparing the sensed voltage to a plurality of lamp type voltages corresponding to respective different types of gas discharge lamps, and selecting the desired operating parameters based upon the sensed voltage corresponding to a stored lamp type voltage. The gas discharge lamp comprises at least one electrode, and the sensing comprises sensing the voltage across the at least one electrode.

Microcontrolled ballast compatible with different types of gas discharge lamps and associated methods