A transport vehicle wheel assembly comprising a set of rotating components and a set of static components wherein an applied electrical current applied to conductive material incorporated into at least one components structural matrix of one set of components gives rise to primary magnetic fields which interact with reactive magnetic fields associated with material incorporated into at least one components structural matrix of another set of components and gives rise to rotational forces which act on the rotating components of said transport vehicle wheel assembly to induce controlled forward rotation of a wheel and having regenerative braking and reverse drive ability thus allowing controlled retardation assistance.

An Information Disclosure Statement is enclosed along with a full description of prior Australian and P.C.T. patent Applications by the Inventor of this present Invention
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an aircraft landing wheel rotating apparatus primarily designed to achieve controlled forward rotation of the main landing wheels of commercial, and cargo aircraft prior to touch down with the runway thereby reducing wear on tires reducing impact loadings on the landing wheel assembly, reducing the possibility of sudden tire blowout. Improving aircraft stability at touch down by reducing differential torque reaction due to the fact that not all wheels impact the runway together and potentially improving brake efficiency by providing the option of a degree of retardation assistance after touch down during the deceleration of the aircraft while braking.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Aircraft wheel rotation devices or pre-rotation devices are widely known in the prior art of up to 50 years or more in the past.
The extensive interest shown by inventors both past and present highlights the potential importance of a system which overcomes the short falls of the prior art.
Aircraft landing wheel rotation devices forming the majority of the prior art have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example an international search report conducted by I.P. Australia returned Category A, documents defining the general state of the art which were not considered to be of particular relevance. These being the foreign patent applications FR2704514 A1 (PORTE) 4 Nov. 1994, DE29900944UI (MERLAKU) 20 May 1999, GB2311264A (TOON. ET. AL.) 24 Sep. 1997 certified copies of which are enclosed as part of the Information Disclosure Statement along with relevant translations.
It should be noted that the present invention was previously lodged as an Australian Patent Application AU2004237817, 9 Dec. 2004, Improvements in Aircraft Landing Gear which claimed priority of a Provisional Specification Number 2003906883, 15 Dec. 2003 Improvements in Aircraft Landing Gear, The Australian Patent Application was published by I.P. Australia on 30 Jun. 2005 less than one year prior to which the same inventor lodged this U.S. patent application. As regards the U.S. application the dates of the Australian Patent Applications should be considered in the case of a first to invent ruling. A P.C.T. application describing this present invention was lodged by this inventor with I.P. Australia on the 24 Oct. 2005.
Copies of the P.C.T. and Australian Patent Applications are enclosed along with the P.C.T. International Search Report which cited AU 2004237817 A1 (SODERBERG) 30 Jun. 2005 as the only document cited which was of particular relevance to the novelty of the P.C.T. application highlighting the unique features of the present invention which is in no way influenced by the Publication by I.P. Australia 30 Jun. 2005 since the present invention has been lodged with the U.S.P.T.O. within the requisite 1 year period and no other discloser or issuance of patent or inventors certificates have been performed. Two of the International Search Report cited patent applications DE29900944U1 (MERLAKU) 1999 and GB2311264A (TOON. ET. AL) 1997 mention the use of small electric motors. GB 2311264A (TOON. ET. AL) shows a remote mounted proprietary type of electric motor driving the aircraft wheel through either a shaft drive or friction drive on the tire while DE 29900944 U1 (MERLAKU) simply makes mention of a small electric motor. Neither system was considered by the International Search Report as being considered of particular relevance and neither is likely to be feasible in the crowded landing wheel assembly of modern day commercial aircraft for which the present invention is designed. An inspection of FIG. 3 of the Drawings associated with the present invention shows a wheel and brake assembly typical of the main load bearing landing wheel assembly found on the present day commercial, cargo, and all heavy duty fixed wing aircraft. It is clearly seen that there is extremely little free space in any of the main landing wheel assembly, incorporating a brake stack within the wheel along with the brake actuating mechanism and wheel support structure leave little or no free space for mounting a small proprietary electric motor.
Also pertaining to the prior art are an array of U.S. patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,393 Gennaro discloses an Aircraft Wheel Rotating Apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,624 Lewis discloses an Apparatus for pre-rotating aircraft wheels employing forced air and a vacuum.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,288, Sinclair discloses and Aircraft landing wheel rotating means.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,063 Hartley discloses an Aircraft landing gear pre-rotating system.
The respective U.S. patents listed also list an array of similar U.S. patent applications all directly related to pre-rotation of aircraft landing wheels prior to touch down.
While the majority of these devices fulfill their respective objectives the previously mentioned patents differ considerably from the principles and mode of operation of the present invention.
Few if any of the inventions associated with the prior art address what is claimed to be a significant problem associated with pre-rotation of aircraft landing wheels, this being either increased landing distance or increased brake loadings due to the loss of an amount of retardation energy that would otherwise be applied to the aircraft as a result of the energy dissipated during tire skidding and momentum transferred to achieve wheel rotation upon touch down.
This is a valid argument against pre-rotation of aircraft wheels since every increment of stopping distance can be critical in an emergency situation.
The present invention addresses this problem by providing retardation assistance as required and will have the potential to input greater retardation assistance over the deceleration distance of the aircraft than would have been the lost deceleration energy associated with bringing the non rotating landing wheel up to speed.
In addition to providing the option of retardation assistance and thus overcoming a claimed major draw back associated with pre-rotation of aircraft landing wheels the present application deviates significantly from the prior art by providing a mechanism for pre-rotation which is contained within the basic structure of the landing wheel assembly thus allowing use with the crowded inner wheel situation associated with large commercial aircraft whereby the inner wheel region of the main landing wheels, with the exception of the nose wheel, is almost completely filled with brake stack, torque tube, and bearings, and blocked on the inner face of the wheel by the brake actuating mechanism and support structure, thus negating the practical use of many of the prior art inventions.
In addition to the previously mentioned disadvantages of the prior art it can also be seen that many of these lack the start up torque and ease of rotational speed control necessary in the situation of normal wear and tear whereby binding and friction drag of some components of the aircraft wheel assembly is inevitable and can vary from one wheel to another and can easily be overcome by the mode of operation of the present invention which allows high start up torque and ease of rotational speed modulation under conditions of variable drag and frictional forces opposing the rotation.
The International Search Report conducted by I.P. Australia a copy of which is enclosed, cited what are considered to be the most relevant patent applications which most closely represent the general state of the art however these documents by PORTE, MERLAKU, TOON. ET. AL which were previously listed are classified as prior art references Category A, defining the general state of the art which were not considered to be of particular relevance.
The International Search Report cited only one document designated Category X, a document of particular relevance which is in fact this inventors own Australian Patent Application AU 2004237817A1 (SODERBERG) 30 Jun. 2005, which forms the basis of this present invention thus further high-lighting the significant difference between the present invention and all prior art,

Transport vehicle magnetically induced wheel rotation


A convertible printed product collecting assembly (10) includes a collecting fabric (11) rolled on a rotatable fabric bearing rod. Supporting legs (13) have a lower end tiltably connected to a printer (18) and are tillable in the collecting fabric's longitudinal direction. A tensioning and locking mechanism (15, 16) is arranged to release or to lock the fabric bearing rod to rotate. Stabilizing brackets (14) secure the supporting legs (13) in at least one tilting angle. The tensioning and locking mechanism (15, 16) is operable to tension and to hold the collecting fabric (11) in a flat, tensioned shape when in the locking state so as to provide a receiving desk for the printed product. Further, the collecting fabric (11) forms a collecting bag when unreeled from the fabric bearing rod.

Printers have an output where a printed product leaves the printer. Typically, the printed product is a sheet material of a given material and size. A printed product collecting assembly is to collect the printed product from the output of the printer. Among others the printed product is collected on a flat surface or it can be collected in a bag formed by a fabric material. The printed product can be a single sheet, or multiple sheets can be collected in a stack.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.

Convertible printed product collecting assembly

HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.


A method is described that comprises receiving at a first interface a request to lock a row of data from a database table. The method also comprises formatting the request into a format suitable for reception by a second interface. The second interface is an interface to a logical locking function.

Database Tables
A database typically contains a catalog that describes its various elements. The catalog divides the database into sub-databases known as schemas. Within each schema are tables. FIG. 1 shows an exemplary database table 100. A database table consists of rows C1-CN and columns R1-RN. The columns of a table are accessed and identified by name. For example, the name for column C3 might be "Phone#" and the name for column C6 might be "Social Security Number".
Each column typically has a defined data type where the value for the column in each row is supposed to be of the column's defined data type (or a null). Thus, continuing with the example above, the data type for the "Phone#" column C3 might be a ten digit string whereas the data type for the "Social Security Number" column C6 might be a nine digit string. Each value of column C3 would therefore be a ten digit number or a null value; and, likewise each value of column C6 would be a nine digit string or a null value.
The primary key for a table is a designated set of one or more columns whose values are unique for each table row. As a consequence, the primary key can be used to identify a particular row. For example, assume that the table described above contained information concerning certain individuals (e.g., their salary, tax records, investment information, etc.) where a separate row was used to hold all of the data for each individual. Here, given that there exists some likelihood that two different individuals might have the same name but practically no likelihood that two different individuals will have the same phone number and social security number, columns C3 and C6 could be used as the primary key for the table.
That is, presenting an individual's phone number and social security number as input information to the table 100 would be sufficient to uniquely identify the row in the table where the individual's data is recorded. As such, a row in any table within an entire database can be uniquely defined by: 1) the identity of the table (i.e., the Table ID); and, 2) the row's primary key values.
Data Dictionaries and Database Software/Drivers
In the realm of enterprise software, certain software functions have evolved into significant architectural components. Two of these, the data dictionary 201 and the SQL based database interface 204 are shown in FIG. 2. A database dictionary 201 provides as an output 203 a description of the organization of a database. Included in this information would be, for example, the number of columns in a particular table, the number of rows in a particular table, which columns of the table are the primary keys, etc.
The output 203 is provided in response to some indication of the information desired. FIG. 2 shows a particular data dictionary example that provides the structure of a table (which, for example, might include a description of the column strategy C1-Cx as depicted in FIG. 2) in response to an input that identifies the table (i.e., the Table ID).
The database dictionary output information 203 is typically used to determine the format for a Structured Query Language (SQL) database command 206 that is provided to an SQL based database interface 204 (also referred to in the art as "database software" or a "database driver"). An SQL based database interface 204 is the communicative focal point between a database and the software users (e.g., applications, transactions, sessions, etc.) that use its information.
Frequently, an SQL command is a read that requests information from the database 205 or a write that seeks to write new information into the database 205. The SQL based database interface 204 provides a response 207 to a read in the form of the data desired and to a write, typically, in the form of an acknowledgement that the write was successful. When information within a database table is to be accessed, the SQL command used to trigger the access may be structured in a way that resembles the table's organization. Here, the information 203 provided by a data dictionary 201 may be used to help build the SQL command 206.
Logical Locking
Because two different users may simultaneously desire the same data, most database management schemes permit database data to be locked. Traditionally, locking has been "physical" in the sense that the locking is performed by the database itself.
In contrast to physical locking, logical locking is a technique in which locking is controlled at a higher level of abstraction from the physical database(s). For example, according to one type of implementation, the logical locking function is executed upon a "lock server" that controls database locking activity separately from one or more database servers. By controlling locking in a remote fashion relative to the database(s), inefficiencies associated with physical locking may be avoided.
For example, logical locking should allow for better cohesiveness of software that depends upon databases having disparate physical locking characteristics (e.g., where a first database is able to lock a single row and another database is only able to lock a group of rows). The abstract remoteness of logical locking (with respect to physical locking) may also permit items other than database entries to be locked. For example, in an object-oriented environment, data objects having no relationship to any database could conceivably be locked (as well as database entries as described above). Moreover complex locking relationships may be implemented. For example, if an object that represents "an order" is to be locked, all other objects that represent items in the order may be automatically locked in response.
FIG. 3 shows a prior art logical locking interface 301. An interface (such as an Application Programmer's Interface (API)) is a defined set of inputs (e.g., commands, parameters, etc.) to a first software function that can be invoked by a second software function so that the second software function can use the first software function. Software interfaces also typically provide for the presentation of output information that is responsive to one or more of the inputs.
As described in more detail below, the information that is to be locked is defined at the logical locking interface 301 along with a request to lock it. The functionality behind the logical locking interface 301 (i.e., the software function that the logical locking interface 301 serves as a user interface for) analyzes each lock request and grants/rejects each lock request for a data item based upon the non-existence/existence of a lock for the same item of data.
The logical locking interface 301 of FIG. 3 has a name input 302 and an argument input 303. The name input 302 identifies "the owner" of the item of data for which a lock is being requested. The argument input 303 identifies the item of data that a lock is being requested for. The functionality behind the locking interface is "name based" in the sense that every data item that is capable of being locked is assumed to belong to an owner having a specific name. For example, if a data field within an object is to be locked, the name input 302 would identify the object and the argument input would identify the data field. In the case of a database row and column pair, the name input 302 would identify the table and the argument input 302 would identify the row and column.
The logical locking interface 301 also has a mode input 304, a lifetime input 305, a timeout input 306, and an asynchronous input 307. Each of these are described in detail immediately below.
The "mode" input 304 can specify any of the following: 1) SHARED for a read lock; 2) EXCLUSIVE for a write lock; 3) EXCLUSIVE_NON_CUMULATIVE for a write lock; 4) OPTIMISTIC for a read lock; or, 5) OPTIMISTIC_TO_EXCLUSIVE for a write lock. A description of each follows immediately below.
If a data item is experiencing a SHARED read lock by a user, other users can be given a read lock to the same data item—but—no user will be given a write lock to the data item. If a data item is experiencing an EXCLUSIVE write lock by a user other users are not given a read lock or a write lock to the data item. Cumulative means that, if a user requests an EXCLUSIVE lock for a data item that the user has already been granted an EXCLUSIVE write lock for, no "exception" will be thrown. NON CUMULATIVE means that an exception will be thrown if a user requests an EXCLUSIVE lock for a data item that the user has already received an EXCLUSIVE lock for.
An exception is a formal rejection to a lock request. Exceptions help to avoid deadlock situations. If two applications request exclusive locks for the same two data items in a different order (e.g., a first application requests item A and then item B and second application first requests item B and then item A), there might be a deadlock of these two applications. Deadlocked applications cannot proceed because, in order to proceed, they each simultaneously need access to the data that is locked by the other. In a deadlock situation, one of these applications could be stopped automatically by the application server or manually by an administrator.
To avoid such a situation, an exception is thrown if a read or write lock request cannot be granted. In response to the receiving of an exception from the logical locking interface (as a response to a read or write lock request), a user may again retry the lock request again after a short time. If the lock is still not granted, the user can retry repeatedly.
According to the OPTIMISTIC read mode, a read of the data is permitted but it is not guaranteed to be consistent with the database because other users may also be reading the same data with the intent to update (i.e., change) it. In OPTIMISTIC read locking, the first user to update the contested data "wins" because only that user is guaranteed to be consistent with the database. As such, the first "winning" user must have "propagated" the original OPTIMISTIC read into an EXCLUSIVE write. The OPTIMISTIC_TO_EXCLUSIVE mode is used for this purpose. That is, the OPTIMISTIC_TO_EXCLUSIVE mode is used when an attempt is made to update a data element that was read optimistically.
The "lifetime" input 305 specifies whether the data item is to be locked for the lifetime of a communication session; or, a transaction (local or distributed). The timeout input 306 specifies the amount of time that the logical locking interface will repeatedly try to lock a data item that, so far, has been locked by another user. Once this foreign lock is released, the lock is granted to the calling user. If the time amount given by the timeout parameter has been exceeded and the lock has not been granted to the calling user, an exception will be thrown. Therefore, a lock request call to the logical locking interface blocks the calling user until the lock is granted or the timeout time has been exceeded.
Although only locking has been discussed above, treatment as to the manner in which data items are "unlocked" can also be specified through the interface 301. According to one implementation, if the asynchronous input 307 is set to "false", locks for a transaction or user session are released synchronously (e.g., a lock server blocks until all locks are released). By asserting the asynchronous input 307 to "true" asynchronous releases are attempted (but cannot be guaranteed).
A problem is that because the logical locking function behind the interface 301 is geared toward "something more" than traditional physical locking, detrimental effects may result if the logical locking function is used to lock an entire row of data. For example, if different users specify the row columns according to different syntaxes, the functionality behind the interface 301 might "miss" the conflict and permit overlapping requests to access the same data.

Interface to lock a database row through a logical locking interface


A zoomable luminaire has a source of light, a primary reflector with entry and exit apertures, and at least one secondary reflector with entry and exit apertures. The source delivers light into the entry aperture of the primary reflector, and the primary reflector delivers the light at the exit aperture of the primary reflector. The luminaire has a retracted position for producing a beam of a first beam angle, where the primary reflector is nested within the secondary reflector and the secondary reflector does not substantially affect the distribution of the light. The luminaire has at least one extended position for producing a beam of a second width, where the exit aperture of the primary reflector is contiguous with the entry aperture of a secondary reflector so that the light is delivered at the exit aperture of a secondary reflector.

Beam-forming luminaires such as flashlights and searchlights sometimes feature a zoom capability, whereby illumination circles of varying size are produced by the movement of some component. An overwhelming commonality is that the moving sub-component is a lens, whether the luminaire is a lens-lens or lens-mirror design. Otherwise, when it is the reflector that moves, it remains a single piece and typically moves relative to the source. Only a portion of the prior art is applicable to light-emitting diodes at all, and those cited utilize imaging lenses for their zoom. Most of the References cited herein relate to incandescent lamps with a reflector and two or more imaging lenses. Nonimaging optics is rarely seen in the prior art of zoom-illumination. The objective of the present invention is to provide a compact wide-ranging non-imaging zoom-luminaire suitable for light-emitting diodes.

Zoom luminaire with compact non-imaging lens-mirror optics


A pneumatic ratchet wrench is connected with an air supply device and contains: a housing, a ratchet head unit, an impact clutch unit, and a driving unit. The housing extending along a first axis line and includes an opening defined on a front end thereof and an intake formed on a distal end thereof so as to couple with an air supply device. The ratchet head unit is received in the housing and includes a drive square extending along a second axis line and extending out of the opening The impact clutch unit is received in the housing and is coupled with the ratchet head unit. The driving unit is disposed in the housing and includes a multi-chamber cylinder, a rotor member inserted into the multi-chamber cylinder and connecting with the impact clutch unit. The multi-chamber cylinder has a body, a first chamber, and a second chamber communicating with the first chamber.

A conventional pneumatic ratchet wrench is operated in a single direction and contains a reducing gear set driven by an air motor of a single chamber cylinder so as to reduce an output rotating speed and to increase a torque, and then a crank shaft drives a ratchet yoke so as to actuate a drive square to rotate, wherein a pawl is shifted by a user to engage with the ratchet yoke, such that the drive square is controlled to rotate in a forward direction or a reverse direction. However, when the drive square of the conventional pneumatic ratchet wrench tighten a fastener (such as a screw or a bolt), the user has to resist a reaction force, thus causing the operation fatigue or damage.
With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, another conventional pneumatic ratchet wrench is operation in a single direction and is driven by an air motor 11 of a single expansion chamber so as to actuate the impact clutch 12, such that a crank shaft 13 is driven by the impact clutch 12 to actuate a drive square 14 to rotate, wherein the air motor 11 has a cylinder 111, a single chamber 112 defined in the cylinder 111, two exhaust ports 113 formed on one side of the cylinder 111 and communicating with the single chamber 112, an inlet 114 arranged on one end of the cylinder 111 and connecting with the single chamber 112, and a rotor 115. Thereby, the rotor 115 drives the impact clutch 12 to actuate the crank shaft 13 so that the reaction force of the drive square 14 will not pass back to the user. But the air motor 11 rotates at a high speed, so the impact clutch 12 hits the crank shaft 13 in high frequency to shorten tool service life.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,080,578 discloses that a pneumatic ratchet wrench is driven by an air motor via a reduction gear set so as to actuate the impact clutch to operate in a low speed, and then the impact clutch drives a crank shaft to rotate a drive square. Yet such a pneumatic ratchet wrench includes the reduction gear set, thus having complicated structure and increasing the tool size, weight, and production cost.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.


In nonlinear optical crystal 183D, each step of wavelength conversion can be performed using another fundamental wave that is output from light output unit 1612, without using the fundamental wave whose output level has been attenuated after going through wavelength conversion for several steps (wavelength conversion in nonlinear optical crystals 183A to 183C). Therefore, the wavelength conversion efficiency improves and the peak power of optical amplifiers 1611 and 1612 can be suppressed, which allows the wavelength of lights that are output from optical amplifiers 1611 and 1612 to be further narrowed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to light source units and light irradiation units, more particularly to a light source unit that comprises a wavelength converter, which converts light having a single wavelength emitted from a laser light source into light having a different wavelength, and a light irradiation unit that comprises the light source unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, light irradiation units have been used for fine structure inspection of objects, fine processing of objects, and for vision correction treatment. For example, in a lithographic process for manufacturing semiconductor devices or the like, in order to transfer a pattern formed on a mask or a reticle (hereinafter generally referred to as a "reticle") onto a substrate such as a wafer on which a resist or the like is coated or a glass plate (hereinafter appropriately referred to as a "substrate" or a "wafer") via a projection optical system, exposure apparatuses are used, which is a type of a light irradiation unit. As such an exposure apparatus, a static exposure type projection exposure apparatus that employs a step-and-repeat method, or a scanning exposure type projection exposure apparatus that employs a step-and-scan method is mainly used. In addition, for vision correction, a laser treatment system, which is also a type of light irradiation unit, is used to perform ablation of a corneal layer (PRK: Photorefractive Keratectomy) or ablation of inner cornea (LASIK: Laser Intrastromal Karatomileusis) for treatment of nearsightedness, astigmatism, or the like.
Many light sources that generate light having a short wavelength have been developed for such light irradiation units. The direction of development of such light sources with short wavelengths can be mainly divided into the following two groups. One is the development of an excimer laser light source whose laser oscillation wavelength itself is short, and the other one is the development of a short wavelength light source that makes use of harmonic generation of infrared or visible light laser.
Of such development, along the direction of the former group, a light source unit that uses a KrF excimer laser (wavelength: 248 nm) has been developed, and at present, alight source unit that uses an ArF excimer laser (wavelength: 193 nm) or the like is being developed as a light source having shorter wavelength. However, such excimer lasers have their disadvantages as light source units, such as their large size, and their complicated maintenance operation and high running cost due to hazardous fluorine gas used.
Therefore, a method of shortening the wavelength along the direction of the latter group is gathering attention, which is a method of converting long wavelength light (such as infrared light or visible light) into ultraviolet light with a shorter wavelength by using a nonlinear optical effect of a nonlinear optical crystal. As a light source that uses such a method, one disclosed in International Publication WO99/46835 pamphlet and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,590,698, (hereinafter simply referred to as a "conventional example"), for example, are available.
In the wavelength shortening method using nonlinear optical crystals as in the method described above, the generating efficiency of short wavelength light depends on the generating efficiency of the nonlinear optical effect of the nonlinear optical crystal. The higher the brightness (includes the meaning of a "peak power") of incident light whose wavelength is to be converted is, the higher the generating efficiency of its nonlinear optical efficiency becomes. Therefore, in order to obtain ultraviolet light with good efficiency, high brightness infrared light or visible light has to be incident on the nonlinear optical crystal. So, in the above conventional example, infrared light or visible light of a single wavelength generated by a semiconductor laser or the like is amplified by an optical fiber amplifier that has an amplifying optical fiber in which a rare earth element such as erbium (Er) is doped, and the light is made to be incident on the nonlinear optical crystal. In such an optical fiber amplifier, an optical amplifying function is given to the amplifying optical fiber by supplying exciting light to the amplifying optical fiber to excite the doped rare earth element and to form population inversion regarding the energy level of outer shell electrons of the rare earth element.
When the light having a long wavelength (infrared light, visible light) is converted into ultraviolet light having a shorter wavelength as in the art of the conventional example described above, wavelength conversion is performed by generating a secondary harmonic or a sum-frequency of the incident light, using the nonlinear optical effect of the nonlinear optical crystal. However, in such a case, the following disadvantages occurred.    (1) When obtaining an m-fold wave (m: natural number) of a fundamental wave, in the case an (m-1)-fold wave is already obtained, a sum-frequency generation of the (m-1)-fold wave and the fundamental wave is performed in order to obtain light having a desired wavelength. Normally, as the fundamental wave used for generating the sum-frequency, a fundamental wave is used that has passed through the nonlinear optical crystal in the previous step without being converted into a harmonic. However, the output level of the fundamental wave having passed through the nonlinear optical crystal in the previous step and reached a nonlinear optical crystal in the final step has attenuated significantly, and in such a case, sufficient wavelength conversion efficiency cannot be obtained.    (2) The wavelength that can be converted is limited to a wavelength of the m-fold wave of the fundamental wave, depending on the wavelength of the fundamental wave used for wavelength conversion.

Light source unit and light irradiation unit


A compact disk (CD) and digital video disk (DVD) error correction system is disclosed which generates a CRC validation syndrome on-the-fly while correcting the CD/DVD product code, thereby reducing the overall access latency as compared to the prior art. For the DVD product code, which comprises multiple data sectors with separate CRC symbols appended to each data sector, a buffer used for C1 and C2 encoding/decoding in CD mode is used to store partial data and error CRC syndromes for each data sector. During the vertical (P) and horizontal (Q) passes over the DVD product code, data and error CRC syndrome registers are loaded with the appropriate partial CRC syndromes depending on the current data symbol being processed by a P/Q decoder. After processing each data sector, the data and error CRC syndromes for each data sector are combined and compared to a constant to determine whether the corrections to the data sector are valid and complete. The data and error CRC syndromes are adjusted during the P and Q passes to account for offsets in the CRC codeword symbols. For example, when processing a vertical (i.e., P) codeword, it is necessary to adjust the error CRC syndromes by one row of data symbols for each vertical symbol processed. This is carried out by using a special multiplier circuit which multiplies the data and error CRC syndromes by EQU x.sup.k MODG(x). where k is the offset (e.g., one row of symbols) and G(x) is the CRC generator polynomial.

In computer storage devices (such as magnetic and optical disk drives) the bandwidth of the recording channel is limited, as well is the signal power. To achieve performance gains, various coding techniques are employed to increase the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by increasing the system's immunity to noise. This allows an increase in storage capacity by increasing the recording density while maintaining an arbitrarily low bit error rate.
There are generally two types of codes currently employed in recording devices: channel codes and error correction codes (ECC). Channel codes are directed at noise caused by a particular characteristic of the recording channel. For instance, a run-length limited (RLL) code is a channel code designed to attenuate noise due to intersymbol interference by limiting the minimum spacing between the pulses that represent the data symbols in the analog carrier signal. The spectral content of the data to be recorded may also adversely affect the system's ability to accurately detect the data upon readback; consequently, some data sequences may be harder to detect than others. To compensate for this phenomenon, a channel code for randomizing the data is commonly employed in recording devices which effectively "whitens" the data by randomizing it before writing the data to the disk storage medium. Upon read back, the recording channel is able to detect the randomized data at a lower bit error rate than if the data is not randomized. The data read from the storage medium is derandomized before being transferred to the host.
In error correction coding (ECC), the binary data to be recorded are processed mathematically to generate redundancy symbols that are appended to the data to form codewords which are written to the disk storage medium. Upon readback, the recorded codewords are estimated (detected) from the read signal, and the redundancy symbols are used to decode the estimated codewords back into the originally recorded user data. The redundancy symbols provide, in effect, a buffer which shields the codeword from noise as it passes through the recording channel. When enough noise "penetrates" this buffer, it mutates a written codeword into a different received codeword, thereby resulting in an error when decoded into the user data.
The more redundancy symbols employed in an error correction code, the larger the buffer around the codeword and the more noise that can be tolerated before a decoding error occurs. However, there is an upper bound on the performance of any given recording channel known as the "channel capacity" which refers to the maximum user data transmission rate (or recording density) achievable for a given channel while maintaining an arbitrarily low bit error rate. Ultimately, the channel capacity is a function of the channel bandwidth and the signal to noise (SNR) ratio. As mentioned above, channel codes and error correction codes are a means for improving performance by increasing the effective SNR.
There are many approaches to encoding/decoding the user data in order to maximize the reliability and efficiency of a recording channel; ultimately, the goal is to design a system that approaches the channel capacity while minimizing the implementation complexity and cost. Block error correcting codes are commonly employed in disk storage systems, particularly the Reed-Solomon block code due to its excellent error correction properties and low implementation cost and complexity.
Block codes encode a k-symbol input block of the source data stream into an n-symbol output block or codeword where n-k is the number of redundancy symbols and k/n is referred to as the code rate. The codewords are then transmitted through (stored to) the communication medium and decoded by the receiver. The encoding process performs a mathematical operation over the input block such that the output codewords are different from one another by a parameter referred to as the minimum distance of the code d.sub.min. The minimum distance d.sub.min between codewords determines the amount of noise that the system can tolerate before a received codeword is decoded erroneously.
With Reed-Solomon codes, the data stream is processed as a sequence of symbols, where the symbols are typically selected from a finite field GF(2.sup.w). The parameter w denotes the number of binary data bits per symbol. Each symbol of the k-symbol input block represents the coefficients of a data polynomial D(x). The redundancy symbols (which are also represented as a polynomial W(x)) are then computed as the modulo division of the input data polynomial D(x) divided by a generator polynomial G(x): EQU W(x)=(x.sup.m .multidot.D(x))MODG(x)
where m is the degree of the generator polynomial which equals the number of redundancy symbols. The redundancy polynomial W(x) is then added to the data polynomial D(x) to generate a codeword polynomial C(x): EQU C(x)=(x.sup.m .multidot.D(x))+W(x).
Those skilled in the art understand that the encoder circuitry for performing the above operations can be implemented with minimum cost using a linear feedback shift register (LFSR).
After encoding, the codeword C(x) is transmitted through the noisy communication channel, wherein the received codeword C'(x) equals the transmitted codeword C(x) plus an error polynomial E(x). The received codeword C'(x) is corrected according to the following steps: (1) compute error syndromes S.sub.i ; (2) compute the coefficients of an error locator polynomial using the error syndromes S.sub.i ; (3) compute the roots of the error locator polynomial, the logs of the roots are the error locations L.sub.i ; and (4) compute the error values using the error syndromes S.sub.i and the roots of the error locator polynomial.
The error syndromes S.sub.i are computed as the modulo division of the received codeword polynomial C'(x) divided by the factors of the generator polynomial G(x): EQU S.sub.i =C'(x)MOD(x+.alpha..sup.i)
when ##EQU1## where .alpha. is a primitive element of the finite field GF(2.sup.w) Techniques for performing the other steps of the decoding process, computing the error locator polynomial, computing the roots of the error locator polynomial, and computing the error values, are well known by those skilled in the art and are not necessary to understand the present invention. See, for example, the above referenced U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,743 entitled "COEFFICIENT UPDATING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REED-SOLOMON DECODER."
Another technique known in the prior art to further increase the error tolerance is to arrange the codewords into what is known as a multi-dimensional or product code. Digital Video Disk (DVD) storage systems, for example, commonly employ a two-dimensional product code shown in FIG. 3A. The codewords are arranged into intersecting horizontal (row or Q) and vertical (column or P) codewords and the decoding process is carried out in iterative passes. First a pass over the horizontal codewords is performed to correct as many errors as possible; any uncorrectable horizontal codewords are left unmodified. Then a pass is made over the vertical codewords to correct as many errors as possible, where a symbol corrected in a vertical codeword also corrects the corresponding symbol for the intersecting horizontal codeword. Consequently, the horizontal codeword may be correctable during the next horizontal pass. Similarly, a symbol corrected during a horizontal pass may render a previously uncorrectable vertical codeword correctable during the next vertical pass. This iterative process continues until the entire product code is corrected, or deemed uncorrectable.
The two-dimensional product code of FIG. 3A also comprises CRC redundancy symbols which are used to check the validity of the corrections to the row and column codewords. The CRC redundancy is typically generated by processing the user data according to EQU CRC redundancy=P(x).multidot.x.sup.n-k modG(x)
where P(x) is the user data represented as a polynomial having coefficients in a finite field GF(2.sup.m), n-k is the number of CRC redundancy symbols, and G(x) is a generator polynomial. The CRC redundancy is then appended to the user data before the resulting code word C(x) is written to the disk. During a read operation, the data read from the disk are processed to generate a CRC syndrome S.sub.CRC according to EQU S.sub.CRC =C'(x)modG(x),
where C'(x) is the received code word polynomial (including the CRC redundancy) read from the disk. If the codeword C'(x) is error-free, then the syndrome S.sub.CRC will be zero.
The CRC redundancy are typically generated over the data during a write operation before encoding the ECC redundancy symbols, and the CRC syndrome is generated during a read operation after the ECC redundancy are used to correct the product code. In this manner, the CRC syndrome operates to validate the corrections and to detect miscorrections. This is an extremely important function because it prevents the error correction system from passing "bad data" to the host system.
An overview of a prior art error correction system typically found in a CD/DVD optical disk storage system is shown in FIG. 1. During a write operation (assuming the device is not read only) user data received from a host system are stored in a data buffer 1. A CRC generator-and-correction validator 2 then reads the user data from the buffer over line 3, generates the CRC redundancy symbols, and restores the user data with appended redundancy symbols back into the data buffer 1. Thereafter the data is again read from the data buffer 1 (including the CRC redundancy), randomized by a data randomizer 4, and the randomized data restored to the data buffer 1. A P/Q encoder/decoder 5 then reads the randomized data from the data buffer 1, and an ECC/syndrome generator 12 generates the ECC redundancy symbols for the P and Q codewords to form the two-dimensional product code shown in FIG. 3A. The individual P and Q codewords are restored to the data buffer 1 after appending the ECC redundancy symbols. Once the entire product code has been generated, it is read from the data buffer 1 and written to the optical storage medium 6.
If the system is configured for a compact disk (CD) data format, then additional redundancy, referred to as C1 and C2, are generated and appended to the data before writing it to the disk. Thus to facilitate the CD recording format, the error correction system comprises a C1 encoder/decoder 7, a C2 encoder/decoder 8, and an interleaver/deinterleaver 9 for implementing the well known Cross Interleave Reed-Solomon Code (CIRC). Typically a static RAM (SRAM) 10 is employed to implement the CIRC coding process; SRAM is much faster than dynamic RAM (DRAM), the latter being used to implement the data buffer 1.
During a read operation, the process is run in reverse. If configured for CD format, then the C1 and C2 decoders make preliminary corrections to the randomized data as it is read from the optical disk 6 and stored in the data buffer 1. Once a complete product code is available in the data buffer 1, the P/Q decoder 5 begins the iterative passes over the P and Q codewords to make further corrections. The ECC/syndrome generator generates ECC syndromes transmitted over line 13 to an error corrector 14. The error corrector uses the ECC syndromes to correct errors in the individual codewords as described above. If at the end of a P or Q pass all of the ECC error syndromes are zero, indicating that the product code is error free (unless miscorrected), then the randomized data is read from the data buffer 1 and derandomized by derandomizer 4. As the data is derandomized, it is processed by the CRC generator-and-correction validator 2 to generate the CRC syndrome. If the CRC syndrome is zero, indicating that the corrections to the P and Q codewords are valid and complete, then the data is again read from the data buffer 1, derandomized, and the derandomized data transferred to the host system. If the CRC syndrome is non-zero, indicating that the product code has been miscorrected, then the CRC generator-and-correction validator 2 sends an error message to the host system over line 11 wherein the host system will initiate a retry operation (i.e., attempt to reread the data from the disk).
A fundamental drawback of the prior art error correction system shown in FIG. 1 is that the data must be derandomized before performing the CRC validation step. This requires an additional buffer access to read the entire product code, derandomize the data, and generate the CRC syndrome as described above. Obviously this increases the latency of the storage system which is highly undesirable, especially for multi-media applications where large blocks of audio/video data must be read from the storage system in a continuous stream to achieve smooth, uninterrupted performance.
There is, therefore, a need for an error correction system in a computer storage device that avoids the latency associated with verifying the validity and completeness of corrections to a multi-dimensional code, such as a CD/DVD product code.

Concurrent generation of ECC error syndromes and CRC validation syndromes in a DVD storage device


A cerium activated lutetium borate phosphor of the following formula (I):(Lux,Lny)BO3:aCe,bA   (I)

When exposed to a radiation such as X-rays, an energy-storing phosphor (e.g., stimulable phosphor, which gives off stimulated emission) absorbs and stores a portion of the radiation energy. The phosphor then emits a stimulated emission according to the level of the stored energy when exposed to electromagnetic wave such as visible or infrared light (i.e., stimulating light). A radiation image recording and reproducing method utilizing the energy-storing phosphor has been widely employed in practice. In the method, a radiation image storage panel which is a sheet comprising the energy-storing phosphor is used. The method comprises the steps of: exposing the storage panel to a radiation having passed through an object or having radiated from an object, so that a radiation image information of the object is temporarily recorded in the storage panel; sequentially scanning the storage panel with a stimulating light such as a laser beam to emit a stimulated light; and photoelectrically detecting the emitted light to obtain electric image signals. The storage panel thus processed is subjected to a step for erasing radiation energy remaining therein, and then stored for the use in the next recording and reproducing procedure. Thus, the radiation image storage panel can be repeatedly used.
The radiation image storage panel (often referred to as energy-storing phosphor sheet) has a basic structure comprising a support and an energy-storing phosphor layer provided thereon. However, if the phosphor layer is self-supporting, the support may be omitted. Further, a protective layer is generally provided on the free surface (surface not facing the support) of the phosphor layer to keep the phosphor layer from chemical deterioration or physical damage.
Various kinds of energy-storing phosphor layer are known and used. For example, a phosphor layer comprising a binder and an energy-storing phosphor dispersed therein is used, and a phosphor layer comprising agglomerate of an energy-storing phosphor without binder is also known. The latter can be formed by a gas phase-accumulation method or by a firing method.
The radiation image recording and reproducing method (or radiation image forming method) has various advantages as described above. However, it is still desired that the radiation image storage panel used in the method have as high sensitivity as possible and give a reproduced radiation image of high quality (in regard to sharpness and graininess).
It is known that rare earth activated rare earth borate compounds give instant emission off in the ultraviolet or visible wavelength region. For example, L. Zhang et al., "Radiation Effects & Defects in Solids", vol. 150, pp. 47 to 52 describes that a cerium or praseodymium activated lutetium orthoborate (LuBO3:Ce3+, LuBO3:Pr3+) shows scintillation, namely, gives off instant emission in the ultraviolet or visible wavelength region when excited with UV light or X-rays.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication Nos. 11-271453, 2001-187884 and 2003-248282 propose utilization of rare earth activated rare earth borates (e.g., GdBO3:Eu, YBO3:Eu) as scintillators or as phosphors for lamps or plasma display panels.
For preparing the rare earth activated rare earth borate, a hydrothermal process is known. For example, Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2001-187884 discloses a process comprising the steps of: preparing an aqueous solution of Y2(OH)3, EU2(OH)3 and H2BO3, adding a basic aqueous solution (e.g., aqueous ammonia) to the former aqueous solution to prepare hydrates; and causing hydrothermal reaction of the hydrates at a predetermined temperature and a predetermined pressure. In the process, it is necessary to make the hydrates gel in the hydration step.
Xiao-Cheng Jiang et al., "Journal of Solid State Chemistry", vol. 175 (2003), pp. 245 to 251 describes another process which comprises the steps of: dissolving Y2O3, Eu2O3 and H2BO3 in nitric acid, adjusting the pH value of the solution, adding urea to the solution, and subjecting the solution to hydrothermal processing. In the process, an excess of urea often forms undesirable compounds such as Y(OH)CO3 and Eu(OH)CO3. Further, products given by the process are in the form of polydispersive particles.
Yuhua Wang et al., "Chemistry Letters", vol. 30 (2001), No. 3, pp. 206 to 207 describes a process which comprises the steps of: dissolving Gd2O3, Eu2O3 and B2O3 in nitric acid, evaporating the solution to dryness, and treating the residue hydrothermally.

Stimulable cerium activated lutetium borate phosphor

Abstract: in which Ln is at least one rare earth element selected from the group consisting of Y, La and Gd; A is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Zr; and x, y, a and b are numbers satisfying the conditions of 0.5≦x<1, 0≦y<0.5, 0<a≦0.2, 0≦b≦0.2 and x+y+a+b=1.0, gives a stimulated emission off when it is excited with an electromagnetic wave after exposing to a radiation such as X-rays.


A hard disk drive is disclosed comprising at least one disk rotatable about an axis, an actuator assembly moveable relative to the disk, a transducer positioned on the actuator assembly, an actuator signal line, a piezoelectric actuator element disposed on the actuator assembly and electrically interconnected to the actuator signal line, a processor, a sensor signal line and a piezoelectric sensor element for sensing a vibration. The piezoelectric sensor element is collocated with the piezoelectric actuator element and electrically interconnected to the processor by the sensor signal line. The piezoelectric actuator element is operable to move the at least one transducer relative to a surface of the disk. The piezoelectric sensor element is electrically isolated from the piezoelectric actuator element. A method for detecting a vibration in a hard disk drive actuator assembly is also disclosed.

A hard disk drive typically includes one or more magnetic disks rotatably mounted in association with a spindle and one or more actuator assemblies for positioning a transducer or head relative to data tracks on the surface of each disk. The actuator assembly typically comprises a pivotable arm, a load beam or suspension arm affixed to the pivotable arm, a flexure at the distal end of the load beam and a slider and transducer or head assembly affixed to the flexure. A voice coil motor induces movement of the actuator assembly to position the head relative to the disk surface. Typically, the voice coil motor operates in association with a servo system to provide both gross positioning of the head, i.e., track to track positioning, and fine positioning, i.e., track following. Recently, piezoelectric elements have been incorporated into actuator assemblies to provide fine positioning of the head assembly for track following purposes, rather than only relying upon the voice coil motor for fine positioning.
With the emphasis on making hard drives smaller for numerous applications including portable computers, magnetic disks are not only becoming smaller, but data tracks are becoming increasingly more densely positioned on the disks and the tracks themselves are becoming physically narrower. As a result, maintaining the transducer or head in an accurate track following position for purposes of reading and writing is becoming more difficult. To accommodate increasingly finer adjustments in the position of the magnetic head, dual positionable actuator assemblies have been introduced. In a first mode, a voice coil motor will move the actuator assembly from track to track. In a second mode, the voice coil motor together with a piezoelectric element positioned on the actuator assembly will provide fine positioning of the head assembly. In particular, by supplying a voltage to the piezoelectric element, the piezoelectric element can expand and contract in a controlled manner to adjust the distal end of the actuator arm and thereby accurately maintain the position of the head relative to the tracks on the disk surface.
The dual-stage actuator assembly including both a voice coil motor and a piezoelectric actuator can maintain more accurate position of the magnetic head during track following control than a single-stage actuator assembly, e.g., the voice coil motor alone. However, vibrations due to mechanical resonance modes of the actuator assembly, including the voice coil motor and the piezoelectric actuator, limit further improvement of the head positioning control accuracy. In particular, the resonance modes of the actuator assembly limit the attainable track following servo control bandwidth. Furthermore, the vibration of these resonance modes, excited by air turbulence and gross positioning commands (e.g., seek control commands) executed during fast and/or relatively large track-to-track seeking, is a major source of head off-track position errors.
The piezoelectric material used for the piezoelectric actuator has also been used to detect vibrations and/or shocks affecting the actuator assembly. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,100,628 issued to Huang et al., for example, a dual-purpose, bulk piezoelectric element provides for fine positioning of a head assembly relative to a surface of a disk of a hard disk drive and for sensing vibrations affecting the actuator assembly. Since the same piezoelectric element is used both for actuation and sensing, however, the sensor signal must be extracted from the driving signal applied to the piezoelectric element for positioning the head assembly. Thus, discriminator and/or filtering circuitry is required to separate the sensor signal from the driving signal. This not only increases the system cost, but can also degrade the performance of the sensor when there is feed-through of the driving signal to the sensor signal.

Piezoelectric actuator and sensor for disk drive dual-stage servo systems


An active matrix liquid crystal display device in a normally white mode comprises two bus lines corresponding to pixel electrodes. The bus lines are formed under the pixel electrodes with an insulating layer interposed therebetween. First and second alternating current voltages whose phases differ from each other by 180.degree., are applied to the bus lines. The first and second voltages satisfies an equation of C.sub.1 .multidot.V.sub.1 =C.sub.2 .multidot.V.sub.2 (V.sub.1 and V.sub.2 represent first and second voltages, respectively, and C.sub.1 and C.sub.2 represent capacitances between the bus lines and the pixel electrodes, respectively). A pixel electrode having represented a bright spot defect is short-circuited with one of the bus lines, and the voltage of the bus line is applied to the pixel electrode. The bright spot defect is therefore changed to a dark spot defect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and, more particularly, to an active matrix liquid crystal display device in a normally white mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
Characteristics of a liquid crystal display device are that it is thin and light, it can be driven at a low voltage, and display a colored image. This type of device has recently been employed as a display device for a personal computer, a wordprocessor, and the like. In particular, an active matrix liquid crystal display device including a switching element for each of pixels does not deteriorate in contrast or response even though the pixels are increased in number. It allows a half-tone display and is the most suitable for use in color television sets and office automation equipment.
FIG. 10 shows a circuit equivalent to a conventional active matrix liquid crystal display device in which thin-film transistors (TFT) are used as switching elements. The liquid crystal display device includes two substrates (an array substrate and an opposed substrate) formed of a transparent insulation material such as glass, and a liquid crystal layer 8 interposed between these substrates. Pixels each having a TFT 3 and a transparent pixel electrode 4 are arranged in matrix on the array substrate. The transparent pixel electrode 4 is connected to the source of the TFT 3, and an address line 1 and a data line 2 are connected to the gate and drain thereof, respectively. An opposed electrode 7 is arranged on the opposed substrate so as to oppose to the transparent pixel electrodes 4. In the liquid crystal display device so constituted, an address signal and a data signal are supplied to the address line 1 and data line 2 at predetermined timing, respectively, with the result that voltages corresponding to display can be selectively applied to the pixel electrodes 4. The orientation of the liquid crystal layer 8--i.e. the light transmittance thereof--can be controlled by a difference in potential between the opposed electrode 7 and pixel electrodes 4, thereby allowing an arbitrary display.
Liquid crystal in a twisted nematic mode is generally used for the liquid crystal layer 8, and a polarizing plate is formed on each of the outer faces of the substrates. Two display modes--a normally white mode and a normally black mode--can be achieved in accordance with the arrangement of the polarizing plate. More specifically, when no voltage is applied to the liquid crystal layer 8, the maximum light transmittance represents the normally white mode, whereas the minimum light transmittance indicates the normally black mode. However, since, in the normally black mode, a slight difference in thickness between liquid crystal layers causes irregularities in the minimum light transmittance, and the thicknesses of the optimum liquid crystal layers differ from one another with the wavelength of light transmitted through the liquid crystal layers, high contrast is difficult to achieve. Therefore, the normally white mode is more frequently used.
The process for manufacturing switching elements such as the TFT is extremely complicated, and it is therefore very difficult to form defect-free pixels; some defective pixels are always included in the finished pixels. Defective pixels include a bright spot defective pixel which cause a bright spot defect on the screen of the liquid crystal display device when the screen is displayed black. The bright spot defective pixel degrades the display quality most. Basically, the the bright spot defect is caused in the liquid crystal display device in the normally white mode in a case where a voltage of a level which would cause the light transmittance of the liquid crystal layer to vary is not applied to the pixel electrode of the defect. Since there are many causes for this, the bright spot defect cannot be completely eliminated even by use of various types of redundant structures.
As described above, the conventional active matrix liquid crystal display device in the normally white mode has a drawback in which its display quality is greatly degraded because of bright spot defective pixels.


A control apparatus in a communication system including a base station and terminals, the control apparatus including: a memory, and a processor coupled the memory and configured to receive data addressed to M terminals (where M is a natural number equal to or greater than 2) of the terminals, and to transmit the received data to the base station, such that N terminals (where N is a natural number less than M) of the M terminals are scheduled in the same timing by the base station.

In a mobile communication system, 3rd Generation mobile communication services are conducted. Communication standards applied to a 3rd Generation (3G) mobile communication system include the following, for example. Namely, first there is High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), as well as the combination of the two, High Speed Packet Access (HSPA). Also, there is the successor to HSPA, High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+), as well as 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE). Note also that a successor to LTE called LTE-Advanced is also under review.
In such 3rd Generation and newer mobile communication systems, in order to improve spectral efficiency, a single channel is used by multiple users, that is, multiple mobile terminals. In other words, a shared channel is used by multiple users.
In order to enable the use of a shared channel by multiple users, a base station uses scheduling to allocate shared channel resources to data addressed to multiple users. With this shared channel scheduling, data is scheduled in order, starting from data received earlier. In other words, scheduling is conducted on existing data. For this reason, data groups addressed to multiple users that are contemporaneously received and kept in a buffer is scheduled with the same schedule timings. In other words, in the case where multiple mobile terminals are included as the addressees of received data groups, scheduling is conducted for all mobile terminals. Also, with this shared channel scheduling, more frequencies are allocated to users with better reception quality. In other words, for data addressed to a user with better reception quality, more data is transmitted per unit time. Note that fairness among terminals is also considered during frequency allocation.
For example, in the case where data is kept in a buffer for multiple mobile terminals, that is, UEs 1, 2, and 3 at a given scheduling timing, all UEs 1, 2, and 3 become subject to scheduling. Additionally, in the case where UE 1 and UE 2 have the same reception quality but the reception quality of UE 3 is lower than the reception quality of UE 1 and UE 2, frequency with the same bandwidth is allocated to UE 1 and UE 2, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Meanwhile, frequency with a narrower bandwidth than the bandwidth for UE 1 and UE 2 is allocated to UE 3. FIG. 1 is a diagram provided to explain a scheduling method of the related art.
For details, see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-206316.

Control apparatus, base station, and terminal


Provided are a semiconductor device and a touch sensor device. The semiconductor device includes a die including a sense signal generator for sensing a touch signal to generate a sense signal; a conductive die-attach pad attached to the die to generate the touch signal; and a package for packaging the die and the die-attach pad, wherein the die-attach pad generates the touch signal depending on whether a touch object comes into contact with the package. The touch sensor device includes a plurality of semiconductor devices connected in a daisy-chain communication mode, wherein each of the semiconductor devices includes a die including a sense signal generator for sensing a touch signal to generate a sense signal; a conductive die-attach pad attached to the die to generate the touch signal; and a package for packaging the die and the die-attach pad, wherein the die-attach pad generates the touch signal depending on whether a touch object is brought into contact with the package. The semiconductor device enables the size and position of a touch pad to be known in advance during the fabrication of a die so that a sensitivity adjusting process can be simplified. Also, since the touch pad is included in a touch sensor, a system can be simply configured at low cost. Furthermore, the touch sensor device requires no additional sensitivity adjusting process and enables a plurality of touch sensor systems to be constructed at low cost by simply connecting a small number of electrical signals.

A touch pad is a data input apparatus widely used instead of a mouse. The touch pad includes touch points arranged in a matrix form on a plane to detect where a user touches it and which direction the point contact moves. Conventionally, a variety of touch pads have been employed. For example, a touch pad may include electrical switches, capacitor-type sensors, resistor-type, or transistor-type sensors, arranged in a plane.
Among conventional touch pads, a touch pad using capacitor-type sensors is commonly used to control the motion of a cursor in notebook computers. The surface of the touch pad using the capacitor-type sensors is covered with an insulating layer, and horizontal lines and vertical lines are arranged at regular intervals under the insulating layer. Capacitors are disposed as electrical equivalent circuits between the horizontal lines and the vertical lines. The horizontal lines constitute first electrodes, while the vertical lines constitute second electrodes.
When a finger, serving as a conductor, comes into contact with the surface of the touch pad, the capacitance between horizontal and vertical lines corresponding to the point of contact differs from that between other lines so that the point of contact can be detected by applying a voltage signal to the horizontal lines and reading variation in capacitance from the vertical lines.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a conventional electrical touch sensor system. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional electrical touch sensor system includes a plurality of touch pads 10-1 to 10-N, a semiconductor device 20, and a host computer 30, and the semiconductor device 20 includes a plurality of input/output terminals and a plurality of sense signal generators 20-1 to 20-N. The input/output terminals of the semiconductor device 20 are externally connected to a power supply voltage, a ground voltage, and the touch pads 10-1 to 10-N, respectively. Also, the sense signal generators 20-1 to 20-N of the semiconductor device 20 internally have input terminals connected respectively to the touch pads 10-1 to 10-N via the input/output terminals of the semiconductor device 20, and output terminals connected to the host computer 30 via the input/output terminals of the semiconductor device 20.
The touch pads 10-1 to 10-N generate touch signals indicating a change in electrical state when a touch object such as a finger, which can be regarded as a resistive mean with a certain degree of conductivity, is brought into contact with the touch pads 10-1 to 10-N.
The input/output terminals of the semiconductor device 20 are connected to the power supply voltage, the ground voltage, and the touch pads 10-1 to 10-N, respectively, to form a plurality of channels, so that the semiconductor device 20 can appropriately control touch information generated by the touch pads 10-1 to 10-N and a system requiring the touch information.
In this case, parasitic capacitance is inevitably generated among a plurality of adjacent channels. Thus, an interference signal may be generated between adjacent channels and a difference in touch sensitivity may result between channels. Consequently, respective touch sensor systems have different sizes of touch pads and semiconductor devices and different electrical characteristics. Therefore, the construction of each touch sensor system has conventionally involved an additional tuning process to adjust the sensitivities of respective channels and make the characteristics of the channels uniform.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the touch pad and an electrical touch sensor controller of the electrical touch sensor system shown in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 2, the electrical touch sensor controller includes a reference signal generation unit 21, a first signal generation unit 23, a second signal generation unit 22, and a sense signal generation unit 24.
Functions of the respective blocks will now be described.
The reference signal generation unit 21 generates a clock signal as a reference signal ref_sig and applies the clock signal to a first signal generation unit 23 and a second signal generation unit 22.
The first signal generation unit 23 always delays the reference signal ref_sig by a first time irrespective of whether a touch object contacts the electrical touch sensor system and generates a first signal sig1.
The second signal generation unit 22 includes the touch pad 10-N with which the touch object is in contact. Thus, the second signal generation unit 22 delays the reference signal ref_sig by a shorter time of the first time when the touch object is out of contact with the touch pad 10-N, and delays the reference signal ref_sig by a longer time than the first time and generates a second signal sig2 when the touch object is in contact with the touch pad 10-N.
In other words, the second signal generation unit 22 generates the second signal sig2 having a phase that leads that of the first signal sig1 when the touch object is out of contact with the touch pad 10-N, and generates the second signal sig2 having a phase that lags that of the first signal sig1 when the touch object is in contact with the touch pad 10-N.
In this case, the touch object may be any object having a predetermined capacitance, for example, the human body in which a large amount of charge can be accumulated.
The sense signal generation unit 30 is synchronized with the first signal sig1, samples and latches the second signal sig2, and generates a sense signal con_sig.
In this case, when the touch sensor system is disposed at a distance from a plurality of touch pads 10-1 to 10-N and a plurality of channels are formed between the touch sensor system and the touch pads 10-1 to 10-N, it is very difficult to make sensitivities of the respective channels uniform.

Semiconductor device and touch sensor device


The control apparatus includes a clutch release determining portion configured to detect that a clutch is placed in the released state, and an engine starting control portion configured to initiate an engine starting control to start an engine after the clutch release determining portion has detected that the clutch is placed in the released state, when the engine starting control is implemented during an output gear is rotated in a reverse direction with a torque generated by at least one of first and second electric motors MG1 and MG2. The initiation of the engine starting control after the detection of the released state of the clutch permits effective prevention of reversal of the rotating direction of the output gear from the reverse direction to the forward direction and a rise of the rotating speed of the output gear with a rise of the operating speed of the engine.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a control apparatus for a drive system of a hybrid vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known a hybrid vehicle drive system including: a differential device which comprises a first differential mechanism and a second differential mechanism and which comprises four rotary components; an engine, a first electric motor, a second electric motor and an output rotary member which are respectively connected to said four rotary components; and a plurality of coupling elements. JP-2011-98712 A1 discloses an example of a hybrid vehicle transmission system configured to switch the hybrid vehicle drive system to a selected one of a plurality of vehicle drive modes, according to a selected one of different combinations of operating states of the coupling elements.
In the prior art hybrid vehicle drive system constructed as described above, the output rotary member is rotated in a reverse direction to drive a hybrid vehicle in a reverse direction, with an operation of the first or second electric motor in a negative direction. When the engine is started as a result of an increase of a required vehicle drive force while the hybrid vehicle is driven in the reverse direction, there is a risk of reversal of the rotating direction of the output rotary member from the reverse direction to a positive or forward direction and a rise of its rotating speed with a rise of the operating speed of the engine, depending upon a specific combination of the operating states of the coupling elements, so that the hybrid vehicle may not be adequately driven in the reverse direction. This problem was first discovered by the present inventor in the process of an intensive study in an effort to improve the performance of the hybrid vehicle.

Control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle drive system


The synthesis of thiophene based conducting polymer molecular actuators, exhibiting electrically triggered molecular conformational transitions is reported. Actuation is believed to be the result of conformational rearrangement of the polymer backbone at the molecular level, not simply ion intercalation in the bulk polymer chain upon electrochemical activation. Molecular actuation results from π—π stacking of thiophene oligomers upon oxidation, producing a reversible molecular displacement that leads to surprising material properties, such as electrically controllable porosity and large strains. The existence of active molecular conformational changes is supported by in situ electrochemical data. Single molecule techniques have been used to characterize the molecular actuators.

Human skeletal muscle exhibits combined properties, in terms of active strain, active stress, active strain rate, variable stiffness, power to mass ratio and bandwidth, which classical actuator technologies do not match. Hunter I. W. and Lafontaine S., "A Comparison of Muscle with Artificial Actuators", Technical Digest IEEE Solid State Sensors and Actuators Workshop, pp. 178–185, 1992. On the other hand, conducting polymer materials offer properties enabling the creation of biomimetic artificial muscles. Polypyrrole-based actuators, for example, generate forces per cross-sectional area that are up to two orders of magnitude greater than human muscle (40 MPa) with higher power to mass ratios (150 W/kg). In addition, these actuators require low drive voltages and offer typically limited active strain (2%) and limited active strain rate (1%/s). Madden J. D., Madden P. G. and Hunter I. W., "Polypyrrole Actuators: Modeling and Performance", Electroactive Polymer Actuator and Devices Conference, SPIE 8th Annual International Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials, Newport Beach, Calif., 2001; Madden J. D., Madden P. G. and Hunter I. W., "Conducting Polymer Actuators As Engineering Materials", Smart Structures and Materials 2002: Electroactive Polymers Actuators and Devices, Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Editor, Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. 4695, pp. 176–190, 2002.
Actuation in conducting polymers such as polypyrrole or polyanilines is based on electrochemical oxidation and a resulting diffusion and intercalation of ionic species into the polymer bulk film. Baughman R. H., Shacklette S. W., Plichta E. J. and Becht C., "Electromechanical Actuators Based on Conducting Polymers", Molecular Electronics, pp. 267–289, 1991. This ionic intercalation process arises to maintain electro-neutrality during the oxidation process, leading to significant volume changes. In addition, accommodation of these ions and their associated solvated species is favored by the weak polymer interchain interactions compared to the modulus along the polymer molecular backbone. As a result strains on the order of 2% are produced upon electroactivation. It is conceivable that ultimately the maximum strain achievable in these "classical" conducting polymer actuators is going to be limited by the inability of the polymer molecular backbone to significantly change length to accommodate further ions.
Molecular actuators, i.e. biological or synthetic molecular systems performing work upon consumption of energy have triggered great interest in various fields such as biology, chemistry, chemical engineering and mechanical engineering. Soong R. K., Bachand G. D., Neves H. P., Olkhovets A. G., Craighead H. G. and Montemagno C. D., "Powering an Inorganic Nanodevice with a Biomolecular Motor", Science, Vol. 290, pp. 1555–1558, 2000; Astumian R. D., "Making Molecules into Motors", Scientific American, pp. 57–64, July 2001; Ballardini R., Balzani V., Credi A., Gandolfi M. T. and Venturi M., "Artificial Molecular-Level Machines: Which Energy to Make them Work?", Accounts of Chemical Research, Vol. 34, pp. 445–455, 2001; Collin J. P., Dietrich-Buchecker C., Jimenez-Molero M. C. and Sauvage J. P., "Shuttles and Muscles: Linear Molecular Machines Based on Transition Metals", Accounts of Chemical Research, Vol. 34, pp. 477–487, 2001. Various biological machines such as the ATP synthase, or kinesins have been studied extensively; Synthetic non-conducting polymer molecules embedding metal complexes that exhibit electron-induced (redox) chirality have been created; Molecular (robotic) grippers made from resorcin[4]arene have been demonstrated, to cite just a few. Zahn S. and Canary J. W., "Electron-Induced Inversion of Helical Chirality in Copper Complexes of N,N-Dialkylmethionines", Science, Vol. 288, pp. 1404–1407, 2000; Yamakoshi Y., Schlitter R. R., Gimzewski J. K. and Diederich F., "Synthesis of Molecular-Gripper Type Dynamic Receptors and STM-imaging of Self-Assembled Monolayers on Gold", Journal of Materials Chemistry, Vol. 11, pp. 2895–2897, 2001. A possible mechanism of molecular actuation using cyclooctatetrathiophene conducting polymers has also been recently investigated by Marsella and colleagues. Marsella M. J. and Reid R. J., "Toward Molecular Muscles: Design and Synthesis of an Electrically Conducting Poly[cyclooctatetrathiophene]", Macromolecules, Vol. 32, pp. 5982–5984, 1999. Such materials with large contractions and great strength will lead to many useful applications.

Molecular actuators, and methods of use thereof


An apparatus for determining the orientation of a borehole at a point along the borehole, includes a tiltmeter for measuring the inclination of the borehole relative to the vertical, a vector magnetic sensor for measuring the amplitude of the component of the Earth's magnetic field along the axis of the borehole, and means for computing the orientation of the tubular sonde from the measurements of inclination and amplitude of the component of the Earth's magnetic field aligned with axis of the sonde.

Small diameter boreholes, such as are commonly employed in mining programs, are subject to unpredictable wanderings along their length. For strategic and economic reasons, it is often vital to determine their true trajectories in the subsurface. Only in this way is it possible to obtain a valid three-dimensional picture of the subsurface geology, and, in particular, the true parameters of any mineral deposit whose economic potential is being evaluated.
Various approaches have been made to date to provide the means for determining borehole trajectories. These approaches include, for example, the following: gyroscopes, bending of light in a long tube, tiltmeter and compass and combined tiltmeter and three component magnetometer devices.
Gyroscope (either spinning masses or interferometric) devices measure (and integrate) the rate of deviation of two orthogonal gyros in a sonde to obtain the orientation of the sonde at any point in the borehole. Typical examples of such a device include the BGO-1 gyro orientation probe manufactured by the IFG Corporation, Brampton, Ontario; the RGS-OR rate gyro manufactured by Gyrodata, Houston Tex.; or the MT9 sensor manufactured by Xsens, Enschede, The Netherlands.
With respect to bending of a long tube, these devices typically use a collimated light beam, projected from a source at one end of a long, flexible tube and a target at the other end. The deviation of the incident light beam from the centre of the target (up-down and left-right) is measured and recorded, to determine the local curvature of the borehole in the vertical and horizontal planes. These curvatures are integrated, to determine the orientation of the borehole at any point. An example of this type of orientor is the Fotobor, manufactured by Reflex Instruments Limited, Sweden.
With respect to tiltmeter and compass devices, these devices feature a mechanical tiltmeter and a mechanical compass in a sonde. The status of both of these mechanical devices may be photographed at points down the borehole, using a miniature camera in the sonde. In a simpler (single shot) version, the two devices are clamped after an elapsed time, at one station. The Pajari instrument, manufactured by Pajari Instruments, Inc., Orillia, Ontario, is an example of this latter type of device.
The combined tiltmeter and three component magnetometer device employs a three component magnetometer and dual axes tiltmeters in a sonde to derive the borehole orientation. The BVM-01 vector magnetometer borehole probe manufactured by IFG Corporation, is an example of such a device. The BVM-01 device, however, requires complex instrumentation. Firstly, the BVM-01 device requires the use of two tiltmeters, one to measure the inclination of the sonde relative to the vertical and the other to measure the angle of rotation of the long axis of the sonde relative to the vertical. Secondly, the BVM-01 device requires the use of three magnetic sensors, measuring three mutually orthogonal components of the Earth's magnetic field.
All of the above devices suffer from one or more limitations, such as high capital cost, cumulative errors, drifts, instrument complexity or inefficiency in operation. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus for determining the orientation of a borehole at a point along the borehole, which is simpler in instrumentation and lower in cost than the above approaches.

Method and apparatus for mapping the trajectory in the subsurface of a borehole


A transfer member having a substrate, an outer silicone rubber layer, and a silicone polymer release agent material, wherein the release agent material is a polydimethyl siloxane cationic liquid emulsion.

The present invention relates to transfer members useful in electrostatographic reproducing apparatuses, including digital, image on image and contact electrostatic printing apparatuses. The present transfer members can be used as intermediate transfer members, transfuse or transfix members, transport members, and the like. The transfer members are useful, in embodiments, in liquid ink development applications. In a preferred embodiment, the transfer members comprise a low surface energy release agent such as a polydimethylsiloxane release agent.
In a typical electrostatographic reproducing apparatus such as electrophotographic imaging system using a photoreceptor, a light image of an original to be copied is recorded in the form of an electrostatic latent image upon a photosensitive member and the latent image is subsequently rendered visible by the application of a developer mixture. One type of developer used in such printing machines is a liquid developer comprising a liquid carrier having toner particles dispersed therein. Generally, the toner is made up of resin and a suitable colorant such as a dye or pigment. Conventional charge director compounds may also be present. The liquid developer material is brought into contact with the electrostatic latent image and the colored toner particles are deposited thereon in image configuration.
The developed toner image recorded on the imaging member is transferred to an image receiving substrate such as paper via an intermediate transfer member. The toner particles may be transferred by heat and/or pressure to an intermediate transfer member, or more commonly, the toner image particles may be electrostatically transferred to the intermediate transfer member by means of an electrical potential between the imaging member and the intermediate transfer member. After the toner has been transferred to the intermediate transfer member, it is then transferred to the image receiving substrate, for example by contacting the substrate with the toner image on the intermediate transfer member under heat and/or pressure.
Intermediate transfer members enable high throughput at modest process speeds. In four-color photocopier systems, the intermediate transfer member also improves registration of the final color toner image. In such systems, the four component colors of cyan, yellow, magenta and black may be synchronously developed onto one or more imaging members and transferred in registration onto an intermediate member at a transfer station.
In electrostatographic printing machines in which the toner image is transferred from the intermediate transfer member to the image receiving substrate, it is important that the transfer of the toner particles from the intermediate transfer member to the image receiving substrate be substantially 100 percent. Less than complete transfer to the image receiving substrate results in image degradation and low resolution. Completely efficient transfer is particularly important when the imaging process involves generating full color images since undesirable color deterioration in the final colors can occur when the color images are not completely transferred from the intermediate transfer member.
Thus, it is important that the intermediate transfer member surface has excellent release characteristics with respect to the toner particles. Conventional materials known in the art for use as intermediate transfer members often possess the strength, conformability and electrical conductivity necessary for use as intermediate transfer members, but can suffer from poor toner release characteristics, especially with respect to higher gloss image receiving substrates.
Although use of a release agent increases toner transfer, the transfer member outer layer tends to swell upon addition of the release agent. For example, it has been shown that silicone rubber performs well as a transfer layer, but swells significantly in the presence of hydrocarbon fluid release agent. Also, release properties have been shown to decay from repeated interaction with certain release agents such as hydrocarbon release agents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,008 discloses an intermediate transfer member in combination with a thin film coating of a release agent material comprising a polyolefin, a silicone polymer, or grafts of these polymers, and mixtures thereof.
A need remains for an intermediate transfer member that exhibits substantially 100 percent toner transfer, without system failure, to image receiving substrates having glosses ranging from low to very high. Further, a need remains for a combination of transfer member surface layer and release agent that does not result in significant swelling of the outer layer of the transfer member. In addition, it is desired to present a combination of transfer member layer and release agent in which the release properties of the transfer member do not significantly decay over repeated interaction with the release agent.


A lockout prevention system includes a management Information Handling System (IHS) that is coupled through a network to network interface on a networking device. The networking device receives a configuration instruction through the network interface from the management IHS. The networking device then determines that the application of the configuration instruction will inhibit the communication between the management IHS and the networking device through the network interface. The networking device then provide a warning message for display on the management IHS in response to determining that the application of the configuration instruction will inhibit the communication between the management IHS and the networking device through the network interface.

The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a lockout prevention system for use in information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some IHSs such as, for example, networking devices (e.g., switch devices, router devices, etc.), are configurable with, for example, access control lists that include rules that may be applied to interfaces associated with the networking device (e.g., port numbers, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, etc.) and that define the entities (e.g., user IHSs, networks, etc.) that are permitted to access the networking device through those interfaces. However, the use of access control lists can raise a number of issues. For example, it is possible (and relatively common) for a network administrator to "lock" their administrator IHS out of accessing a networking device when configuring an access control list on that networking device. Typically, this occurs when the network administrator applies an access control list to the networking device that includes an interface that their administrator IHS is using to access the networking device without realizing that the access control list does not permit their administrator IHS to access the networking device through that interface. Once that access control list is applied to the networking device, that networking device must then be rebooted or reset in order to allow the network administrator to use their administrator IHS to access the networking device. Because such networking devices are typically physically remote from the network administrator, that network administrator typically must then contact another administrator or user to reboot the networking device such that their administrator IHS can access it. Such relatively common mistakes involved in the application of access control lists result in wasted time, losses in productivity, and embarrassment for the network administrator.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a lockout prevention system.