A method for fumigating a produce commodity comprising packing the commodity in a vented fumigation container (10, 18, 30) that is constructed from a solid-wall material that is substantially free of contaminants that would bind fumigant gas, fumigating the container and commodity contained therein in a fumigation chamber (40), and shipping the fumigated commodity in the containers.

Before domestically grown fruit may be shipped to certain foreign countries (e.g., Japan), the quarantine procedures established by the receiving country must be adhered to. These quarantine procedures vary with the type of fruit being shipped and with the ultimate destination, but each procedure calls for fumigation of the fruit prior to shipment.
Fumigation of the fruit typically occurs in a packing house similar to that schematically represented in FIG. 1. The packing house may be an enclosed-wall structure, or may be formed of a skeletal framework to which quarantine netting (similar to screen door material) is secured. Such packing houses are quite large, often exceeding 10,000 square feet in floor space and requiring as many as 60 workers.
Recently harvested fruit, called "field run" fruit, is delivered to the packing house either from an immediately adjoining orchard or from a relatively nearby orchard. The delivered fruit is normally housed within bulk storage bins capable of carrying 400 pounds or more of fruit.
The storage bins bearing fruit enter the packing house through an incoming air lock of double-door design, and then are placed directly into a fumigation chamber integral with the packing house. Certain fruit (e.g., apples) must be heated prior to fumigation. Thus, the fumigation chamber is equipped with a heating source. While the storage bins may be stacked several levels high within the chamber, certain countries place restrictions on the percentage of fumigation chamber volume that may be occupied during the fumigation process. For example, Japanese procedures mandate that no more than 50% of the fumigation chamber volume be occupied.
Once the chamber is loaded, the door to the fumigation chamber is closed and the fumigation process is conducted by introducing and circulating a mixture of air and methyl bromide gas throughout the chamber for a period of approximately two hours. The rate of circulation is such that a complete air exchange occurs approximately every 4-5 minutes.
At the beginning of the fumigation cycle, all entrances to the packing house are closed and the interior of the packing house is fogged with a food-grade insecticide (e.g., pyrethrin). Fogging takes approximately 15-20 minutes. Thereafter, a short spray of insecticide is emitted approximately every two hours. After the fogging process is completed, the packing house is classified as a "quarantine secure area."
Upon completion of the fumigation process, off-gassing is conducted. The door to the fumigation chamber is opened and the mixture of air and methyl bromide gas contained therein is vented through an exhaust stack coupled to the fumigation chamber. Venting directly to the atmosphere, using fresh air drawn into the chamber from the interior of the packing house, continues for a period of time sufficient to lower the methyl bromide exposure concentration level to 5 ppm, the currently recognized level established by the Environmental Protection Agency. Off-gassing typically takes four or more hours to complete.
After off-gassing, the storage bins are transported to a bin dump which deposits the fruit atop a fruit conveyor. Once positioned upon the fruit conveyor, the fruit next encounters a series of cluster cutters. Certain fruit (e.g., cherries) may come with two or more pieces of fruit connected together by their stems. The cluster cutters, which essentially are saw blades, are used to effect a separation so that each piece of fruit stands alone with a single stem. With many types of fruit, the cluster cutters are not employed (e.g., apples, nectarines, etc.).
The fruit is next conveyed to a grading area where defective fruit is removed and discarded. While the degree of defective fruit varies considerably, it is not unusual for 10% or more of the incoming fruit to be removed at the grading area. Graded fruit then enters a sizing area located at the terminal end of the fruit conveyor, at which point the flow of fruit is split into groups of different sizes. Each group of sized fruit is placed on one of a series of "runout" conveyors disposed adjacent the sizing area. For certain fruit (e.g., cherries), in-line hydrocooling is performed while the sized fruit travels along the runout conveyors.
At the terminal end of the runout conveyors, or so-called "packing area," the sized fruit is deposited within the bottom portions of conventional shipping boxes that are positioned atop automated volume fillers. When a preset weight is achieved within a box, the automated volume filler stops the associated runout conveyor until the fully loaded box is removed and an empty box is placed in position. As shown in FIGS. 2-4, conventional shipping boxes are of corrugated configuration and are composed of cardboard. For fruits that emit heat due to the maturing process during extended shipping periods (e.g., apples), a conventional shipping box having vents and screens must be employed to disseminate the buildup of heat and to prevent insect reinfestation (see FIG. 3).
The loaded shipping boxes are next placed on a box conveyor which transports the boxes past an inspection area to a box taper. At the inspection area, an authorized inspector takes a random sample to ensure that no quarantine pests exist and that the fruit is of the proper grade and size. Usually, a 1% sample is drawn. Beyond the inspection area, the top portion (or cover) of a conventional shipping box is placed over the bottom portion containing the fruit. A band of tape is then secured across the upper surface of this top portion of the conventional box at the box taper. The tape does not secure the two halves of the box together--it simply provides identification information relating to the packed fruit.
The packed fruit then travels to a palletizing area located at the terminal end of the box conveyor, the boxes of fruit being stacked to form pallets of manageable size. The fully loaded pallets are sent to a pallet netting area, where each pallet is placed on a rotating platform. A spool of plastic stretch-wrap netting, having holes formed in it which allow air to flow through, is wound around the exterior of the rotating pallet in a spiral fashion to produce a secured pallet that maintains its structural integrity during shipment. Alternatively, corner boards held in place by strapping may be used to secure the fully loaded pallets.
Secured pallets are removed from the packing house through an outgoing air lock of double-door design. As with the incoming air lock, this double-door design prevents airborne insects from entering the interior of the packing house. Pallets exiting the outgoing air lock may then be loaded directly onto shipping containers (e.g., railway, truck, etc.) or may be deposited into an adjoining cold storage area, from which they later will be shipped. Because certain fruit (e.g., apples) must be subjected to forced-air cooling prior to shipment, the cold storage area must possess this capability.
Fumigating fruit using the above-described packing house is generically represented in the process flow diagram of FIG. 5. All harvested fruit is directed to the fumigation chamber where "bulk fumigation" is conducted. This process is known as bulk fumigation because each and every piece of fruit is fumigated. The fumigated fruit is then graded and sized by packing house workers, and subsequently packed for shipment in conventional shipping boxes of corrugated cardboard design.
While quarantine treatment of fruit may be generically represented by FIG. 5, it must be noted that each particular fruit requires its own unique processing. Processing of cherries is represented in FIG. 6 (refer additionally to FIG. 1). As indicated, harvested cherries stored in open-top bins are directed to the fumigation chamber where bulk fumigation of the cherries is conducted. At the conclusion of the off-gassing cycle, the cherries are placed upon a fruit conveyor and transported to cluster cutters, where separation of connected cherries is effected. Downstream along this conveyor, the cherries are graded, sized, and transferred to a plurality of runout conveyors.
Along the runout conveyors the cherries are exposed to in-line hydrocooling to bring about a 34.degree. F. core temperature. In the packing area, the bottom portion of a non-vented conventional shipping box of corrugated design is pre-lined with a plastic bag. The bag and box combination qualifies as a "quarantine-certified shipping box" for the shipment of cherries. The bag and box are then filled with fruit as the box sits atop the automated volume filler. When full, the top of the plastic bag is folded inwardly on itself and the box is placed on a box conveyor. If selected, the box is pulled from the box conveyor for inspection. If not, the box continues along the box conveyor to an area where a shipping box cover is applied and identifying tape is placed over the cover. The packed boxes are then palletized, pallet netting is applied, and the secured fully loaded pallets are then transported from the packing house to the cold storage area for storage and/or shipment.
With certain fruits, such as apples, there are no currently accepted quarantine procedures for many foreign countries. Thus, the shipment of apples to these foreign countries simply does not occur. However, there is a "proposed" quarantine procedure using current technology for sending apples to Japan, which is illustrated in FIG. 7. This procedure is quite similar to that for cherries illustrated in FIG. 6, but does have several important differences. First, prior to bulk fumigation, the apples must undergo 55 days of cold treatment, wherein a core temperature of approximately 34.degree. F. or below (but not freezing) is maintained. Second, the apples must be heated to a core temperature of 10.degree. C. (50.degree. F.) or above prior to commencement of the bulk fumigation procedure. This heating step is normally accomplished within the packing house's fumigation chamber. Third, apples require no in-line hydrocooling prior to being packed. Fourth, apples must be packed in screened/vented conventional shipping boxes to allow the buildup of heat during shipment to be disseminated. Lastly, apples must be forced-air cooled in the cold storage area to approximately 34.degree. F. core temperature prior to being shipped.
The above-described bulk fumigation approach to fumigating fruit is problematic. As stated, 10% or more of the incoming fruit may be culled at the grading area. Furthermore, only a fraction (perhaps 25%) of the fruit leaving the sizing area is of a quality sufficient to be sent to the foreign country imposing quarantine (fumigation) procedures. Consequently, the fumigated fruit not of sufficient quality must be sold in domestic markets at steep discounts. Because quarantine procedures do not apply to fruit grown and sold domestically, domestic markets simply are not very interested in fruit that has been fumigated.
The disadvantages of bulk fumigation do not stop here. Unnecessarily fumigating fruit means that higher amounts of methyl bromide are vented to the environment. It also means that packing house workers handling the fruit are exposed to more methyl bromide than is necessary. Furthermore, there currently are state and federal governmental efforts under way to completely eliminate exposure of workers to methyl bromide.
It has been suggested that fruit bound for foreign countries imposing quarantine procedures simply be graded and sized prior to fumigation. This way, only that fruit meeting the foreign standards need be fumigated. Unfortunately, this approach means that the fruit entering the packing house would be graded and sorted twice. Not only is this handling labor intensive, additional damage to the fruit is also caused. Accordingly, industry has declined to use this approach, opting instead for bulk fumigation.
It also has been suggested that "in-box fumigation" could overcome many of the problems associated with existing procedures. In-box fumigation requires that the fruit be packed, fumigated, and shipped in the same container. However, currently existing containers and procedures will not allow for in-box fumigation.
As shown in FIG. 4, a conventional shipping box of corrugated design has a plurality of flutes formed between opposing walls of the box. During fumigation, these flutes are filled with methyl bromide gas. During the off-gassing period, much of the methyl bromide gas remains trapped in these flutes. Thus, because the allowable exposure level of 5 ppm cannot efficiently be reached during the off-gassing process, conventional shipping boxes have not been approved as a quarantine-certified packaging material for in-box fumigation. An additional drawback of conventional shipping boxes of cardboard composition is that they do not retain structural integrity during extended shipping periods (due to moisture accumulation, etc.).
While containers formed of plastic and wood may technically qualify as quarantine-certified packaging materials, they possess other disadvantages. Plastic is much more expensive to produce than cardboard and would prohibitively add to the cost of fruit shipped in such containers. Further, the additional weight of a plastic container is undesirable. As for wood containers, the porous nature of wood does allow migration of methyl bromide through it, which results in essentially no retention of methyl bromide gas at the conclusion of the off-gassing period. However, this same porous nature provides a container that is susceptible to reinfestation during shipment.
As described above, current procedures for the fumigation of fruit are fraught with limitations and associated problems. This invention is directed to overcoming these problems.


A system for removing at least one pollutant from an air stream exhaust, the system including a plurality of enclosures through which the air stream exhaust is directed to cool the air stream exhaust, a plurality of barriers within each respective enclosure to impede a flow of the air stream exhaust, a liquefied material, comprising bone glue, gelatin and/or skin glue, mixed with water provided within at least one of the plurality of enclosures, and wherein the air stream exhaust passes therethrough the liquefied material and at least one pollutant attaches to the liquefied material.

Numerous industries produce exhaust air containing harmful particulates to the atmosphere and living beings. Such industries include, but are not limited to, automotive, wood products, laundry dryers, furniture manufacturers, copper manufacturers, aluminum producers, cement manufactures, foundries, plastics producers, PVC producers, chemical material producers, stationary diesel and turbine generators, power plants, tanning, inks and printing, paper products, paper mills, transatlantic vessels, trains, organic waste fired hospitals, refineries, rubber producers, transatlantic vessels, locomotives, medical plants, incineration plants, kitchen chimneys, odor creating industries, other industrial plants, etc. Such harmful particulates include, but are not limited to volatile organic compounds (V.O.C.s), nitrous oxide compounds (NOx), sulphur (SOx), mercury, phosphor, and carbon oxide compounds (CO). Additionally, when coal is burned, in some countries, radiation particulates are found to be a waste product.
Legislative efforts have established emission standards to control emission wherein these standards identify how much of a certain particulate may enter the atmosphere from an exhaust air stream. Current and future compliance with such standards places a continuing demand on industry and creates an ongoing need to reduce, degrade, and eventually destroy pollutants in exhaust air stream in a cost effective manner.
Many methods and systems are currently utilized to reduce particulates from entering the atmosphere. Such methods and systems include, but are not limited to, scrubbers, incineration techniques, exposure to ultraviolet light, mechanical filtering, electrostatic filtering, condensing heat exchangers, and etc. Even though many approaches are currently utilized to reduce harmful particulates, a certain amount of these harmful particulates still are released into the atmosphere.

Polluted air treatment method and system


Hard link handling for incremental file migration is described. A file is stored on a storage device. A determination is made whether a path associated with the file is also associated with an index node number in a hard link table. The file is deleted from the storage device if the path associated with the file is also associated with the index node number in the hard link table. The path is linked on the storage device with another file that is associated with another path that is associated with the index node number in the hard link table.

If a software error corrupts a database, or if erroneous data updates the database, a database administrator may restore the database to a previous uncorrupted state that does not include the erroneous data. A backup application executes a backup operation either occasionally or continuously to enable this restoration, storing each desired database state (the values of its data and these values' embedding in database's data structures) within dedicated backup files. When a database administrator decides to return a database to a previous state, the database administrator specifies the desired previous state by identifying a desired point in time when the database was in this state, and instructs the backup application to execute a restore operation to restore the corresponding backup files for that state to the database.
The standard Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) provides a mechanism to facilitate file system backup and restore operations between compatible storage devices and backup devices. However, NDMP is unsuitable for heterogeneous backup and restore operations when a backup needs to be created for a source device and stored on a storage device that does not support any of the source device's data formats. NDMP can also be used to provide file and directory migration functionality to copy data from a source device to a storage device by connecting the source device to the storage device, executing a backup operation on the source device, and executing a restore operation on the storage device. Similar to the backup and restore operations using NDMP, this "NDMP copy" process functions properly only if the source and storage devices support at least one compatible data format. NDMP enables an incremental backup by specifying that only files and directories modified after a selected point in time need to be copied from the source device to the storage device.

Method and system for hard link handling for incremental file migration


An attachment head for a prophy angle comprises a convex shape body with a plurality of radial ridges on an outside surface of the body. The attachment head rotationally cleans the upper surface of a tongue and removes foreign material and bacteria from the tongue. The attachment head can be used with or without a cleaning compound.

(1) Field of the invention
This invention relates to a tongue hygiene device, and more particularly to a tongue cleaner which attaches to a prophy angle. The tongue cleaner allows the tongue to be cleaned by rotary motion to minimize bacteria and foreign matter buildup on the surface of the tongue.
(2) Description of related art
Many microorganisms locate on the surface of the tongue. These microorganisms cause a variety of harmful oral diseases, plaque buildup and halitosis. It is desirable to clean the surface of the tongue; but the tongue's irregular surface, the tongue's flexibility, and the gag reflex when something is placed too far back on the tongue make cleaning the tongue difficult. The tongue's surface has microscopic projections and cavities formed by papillae and lymph follicles. The tongue also has a number of macroscopic ridges and grooves.
Several prior art methods exist for cleaning the surface of the tongue. These methods include scraping the surface of the tongue with a tongue scraper, brushing the tongue with a toothbrush or tongue brush, and blasting the surface of the tongue with an abrasive fluid.
One type of tongue scraper comprises a handle which has a cross bar with a scraping edge at an end of the handle. To clean the tongue, the user inserts the handle into the mouth so that the scraping edge contacts the back or inner end of the tongue. The user then draws the tongue scraper forward while maintaining a steady downward pressure on the tongue scraper. Foreign material stripped from the surface of the tongue collects on a surface of the tongue scraper adjacent to the scraping edge. Sometimes, large sections of the tongue surface are not cleaned because of movement of the tongue during the tongue scraping.
Brushing the tongue to remove foreign material is typically done with a toothbrush and a mild abrasive, such as toothpaste. Cleaning the tongue with a toothbrush and toothpaste is often inefficient due to the size of the toothbrush head and the softness of the bristles. The efficiency of cleaning the tongue with a brush can be improved by using a tongue brush. The design of the tongue brush head and the hardness of the bristles of a tongue brush improve the efficiency of a tongue brush for cleaning the surface of a tongue as compared to a toothbrush. Large sections of the tongue surface are not cleaned because of movement of the tongue during the tongue brushing.
Another method of cleaning the tongue is to blast the surface of the tongue with an abrasive fluid to "sandblast" the tongue. This aggressive treatment is sometimes used as a regular treatment for people suffering from severe halitosis.
When a person has a dental checkup, a dental hygienist or dentist cleans the person's teeth both under and above the gums. Then, the teeth are polished using either a prophy jet or prophy cup to complete the cleaning phase of the dental checkup. Typically, the tongue is not cleaned during a dental checkup. Cleaning the tongue during a checkup would provide the patient with a cleaner, fresher mouth. Also, cleaning the tongue would significantly reduce the presence of bacteria and foreign matter that causes plaque, gum disease and bad breath.


Provided is a semiconductor package including a substrate, a semiconductor chip and a passive device disposed on the substrate, and a heat slug configured to cover the semiconductor chip and the passive device. The substrate and a first electrode of the passive device are electrically connected to each other, and the heat slug and a second electrode of the passive device are electrically connected to each other. The semiconductor package may include multiple passive devices in which a vertical height of each passive device is greater than a horizontal width thereof. Also disclosed is an electronic system, which may include a power supply unit, a microprocessor unit, a function unit, and a display controller unit to receive one or more power supply voltages from the power supply unit. At least one of the microprocessor unit, the function unit, or the display controller unit may further include the described semiconductor package.

1. Field
Embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a semiconductor package having a heat slug and a passive device.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, advancement in personal mobile communication has triggered development of a large number of highly integrated and multi-functional devices or components, which are realized through development of various software, integrated circuit (IC) integration technology, etc. To this end, much effort has been made to mount a semiconductor package on a motherboard, and then mount a plurality of passive devices on the resultant structure so as to increase signal processing capabilities or perform filtering, etc.

Semiconductor package having heat slug and passive device


The present invention relates to the use of hydrocarbon-rich gels as a safe storage or transportation form for liquid hydrocarbons and to a process for the safe storage and safe transportion of liquid hydrocarbons, characterised in that. a) the hydrocarbon is converted into a hydrocarbon-rich gel by addition of a surfactant and water and PA0 b) after storage or transportation has taken place, the hydrocarbon-rich gel is broken down again.

The storage and transportion of liquid hydrocarbons, for example fuels, via roads, rail and on the waterways present a considerable potential hazard. Thus, for example, the high flammability and explosiveness in mixtures of air has led in the past to serious accidents which have caused considerable damage. Serious ecological damage moreover constantly results from fuels discharged from leaking storage or transportation tanks.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a process for the safe storage and the safe transportation of hydrocarbons.
This object is achieved, surprisingly, by storing and transporting the hydrocarbons in the form of hydrocarbon-rich gels.
A hydrocarbon-rich gel is understood as meaning a system which consists of polyhedrons which are formed from surfactant and are filled with hydrocarbon, water forming a continuous phase in the narrow interstices between the polyhedrons. Systems of this type are known and are described in Angew. Chem. 100 933 (1988) and Ber. Bunsenges. Phys. Chem. 92 1158 (1988).
Hydrocarbon-rich gels are distinguished by the occurrence of a flow limit. This flow limit is reached when the gel no longer withstands a stress imposed on it (shear, deformation) and starts to flow. Below the flow limit, the gel structures have the properties of solids and obey Hooke's law. Above the flow limit, in the ideal case, the system is equivalent to a Newtonian fluid. This means that although hydrocarbon-rich gels can be pumped in a simple manner, they cannot flow in the state of rest because of their properties of solids. They therefore cannot be discharged from defective storage or transportation tanks, and danger to the environment is virtually excluded.

Process for the storage and transportation of liquid hydrocarbons


An ophthalmologic apparatus includes a tomographic image acquisition unit configured to acquire a tomographic image of a subject's eye based on a combined beam obtained by combining a return beam from the subject's eye, which is irradiated with a measuring beam, and a reference beam corresponding to the measuring beam, an optical path length difference changing unit configured to change an optical path length difference between the measuring beam and the reference beam, and a control unit configured to, in a case where relative positions of an optical system for irradiating the subject's eye with the measuring beam and an anterior segment of the subject's eye satisfy a predetermined condition based on an image of the anterior segment, control the optical path length difference changing unit so that the optical path length difference is within a predetermined range.

As an ophthalmologic apparatus, mainly an apparatus which acquires a tomographic image of the fundus of the subject's eye at a high resolution using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) and a scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) are currently available.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-291252 discusses that an operator executes an alignment operation on the subject's eye using a joystick while observing the anterior segment of the subject's eye through a monitor and, when this alignment operation is completed, the SOL fundus image can be acquired. At this time, when the operator presses an auto-focus start switch, a focus lens arranged in an SLO optical system is moved based on the SLO fundus image. After the auto-focus lens arranged in the SLO optical system is moved, a focus lens arranged in the OCT optical system is also moved based on an SLO fundus image to execute a rough auto-focus for the OCT optical system. Further, after that, a reference mirror is moved based on the OCT tomographic image to automatically adjust a coherence gate, thereby achieving a precision auto-focus of the OCT optical system.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-181172 discusses that the operator operates a control lever to move a fundus camera unit to a subject side and then changes a display screen from an anterior segment image of the subject's eye to a fundus observation image prior to the alignment adjustment. At this time, after performing the change-over, an alignment light source is turned on to project an alignment bright point onto the subject's eye. After the alignment adjustment is completed, the focus adjustment is executed, and then, when it is determined that the alignment state is appropriate, the reference mirror is moved and the luminance value of the acquired OCT tomographic image is analyzed to automatically detect the OCT tomographic image. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-181172 also discusses that the alignment adjustment may be executed manually or automatically.
When considering a physical burden on the subject, it is required to reduce a time taken until a main image capturing of the OCT is started. Because at this time, it is also desirable to reduce the burden on the operator, it is more useful to execute the alignment automatically than manually. However, when the display image is changed from the anterior segment image to the fundus observation image prior to the alignment adjustment, an alignment light source is required as well as the observation light source for acquiring the anterior segment image. Consequently, this not only leads to an enlargement in the size of the apparatus but also an increase of adjustment time due to a time taken until the alignment light source is stabilized after being turned on, thus increasing the burden on the subject.


An apparatus and method for hardware protection of a virtual machine monitor (VMM) runtime integrity watcher is described. A set of one or more hardware range registers that protect a contiguous memory space that is to store the VMM runtime integrity watcher. The set of hardware range registers are to protect the VMM runtime integrity watcher from being modified when loaded into the contiguous memory space. The VMM runtime integrity watcher, when executed, performs an integrity check on a VMM during runtime of the VMM.

Consumers (and potential consumers) of cloud computing services have expressed reluctance to deploy sensitive data and workloads into cloud infrastructures due to concern about the infrastructure's ability to protect their sensitive information. In a cloud environment, this means providing adequate security for the virtualized environment.
For example, in a virtual environment (as most infrastructure as a service (IaaS) deployments are), it is the job of the virtual machine monitor (VMM) to provide security services to the virtual machines (VMs) it is managing. Accordingly, the VMM has a very high asset value since if it is compromised, then security of all the VMs (workloads) that it is monitoring is also compromised.
Technology exists, such as the Intel Trusted eXecution Technology (TXT) that ensures launch time integrity of a VMM. However, there is currently no technology that ensures VMM integrity during runtime. In a typical virtual IaaS environment, launched VMMs may keep running for over a month at a time thereby increasing the vulnerability of this critical asset (VMM).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Hardware protection of virtual machine monitor runtime integrity watcher


A light beam deflecting device having therein a rotor portion fixed on an outer circumference of a bearing, a polygon mirror stuck and fixed on a supporting section of the rotor portion and an elastic material for pressing and holding the polygon mirror on the supporting section, wherein the rotor portion has a cylindrical portion fixed on the outer circumference of the bearing, the supporting section and a disc-shaped flange portion provided on an end portion of the cylindrical portion, and a clearance is provided between an inner circumference of the cylinder portion on the end portion side where the flange portion is provided and an outer circumference of the bearing.

The present invention relates to a light beam deflecting device equipped with a polygon mirror (rotating polygon mirror) used for an image forming apparatus such as, for example, a laser beam printer and a laser facsimile machine.
Heretofore, in an image recording apparatus such as a laser printer, a laser beam is made to enter a polygon mirror (rotating polygon mirror) that rotates at high speed on a light beam deflecting device based on information read as a means of writing images, and thus, a reflected light beam is made to scan to be projected on the surface of a photoreceptor, for image recording. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a beam-scanning optical device employing a light beam deflecting device using a polygon mirror.
In the drawing, the numeral 80 represents a semiconductor laser, 81 represents a collimator lens of a beam-forming optical system, 82 represents a first cylindrical lens, 83 represents a polygon mirror, each of 84A and 84B is an fθ lens, 85 represents a second cylindrical lens, 86 represents a mirror, 87 represents a cover glass and 88 represents a photoreceptor drum. Incidentally, 89 represents an index mirror for synchronous detection, 89S represents an index sensor for synchronous detection and 83M represents a driving portion to rotate polygon mirror 83 on the light beam deflecting device.
A light beam emitted from the semiconductor laser 80 is made to be collimated light by the collimator lens 81, and passes through the first cylindrical lens 82 of a first image forming optical system to enter a mirror surface of the polygon mirror 83 that is rotating at constant high speed. Then, the reflected light therefrom passes through a second image forming optical system composed of fθ lenses 84A, 84B and the second cylindrical lens 85 to conduct (main) scanning on the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum 88 with a spot having a prescribed diameter, through the mirror 86 and the cover glass 87. The main scanning direction is subjected to fine adjustment by an unillustrated adjusting mechanism, and synchronous detection for each one line is made when a beam before the start of scanning enters index sensor 89S through index mirror 89.
To obtain an excellent latent-image on photoreceptor drum 88 with the beam-scanning optical device like that mentioned above, it is requested that a reflecting surface of the polygon mirror that rotates at high speed is processed to be a highly accurate plane, and it rotates without eccentricity and inclination from a rotation axis and without positional deviation in the axial direction.
A rotary mirror unit is provided with a polygon mirror and a permanent magnet for generating torque that faces a coil mounted on a printed board on the fixed base board, and it is structured to rotate at high speed on a bearing.
When the mirror unit rotates especially at high speed such as 30,000 rpm or higher, an air dynamic pressure bearing is used, and there is known a light beam deflecting device wherein a ceramic material is used for a member on one side of a dynamic pressure bearing member-and a metallic material is used for a member on the other side, to raise durability and abrasion resistance and thereby to lengthen life, between an inner cylindrical bearing and an outer cylindrical bearing both forming the air dynamic pressure bearing (JP TOKKAI No. 2001-173643).
There is further known a light beam deflecting device wherein a surface roughness of a contact surface on one side or both sides where a polygon mirror and a flange are in contact each other satisfies 3 μm≦Ry≦20 μm, under the structure where the polygon mirror is pressed against the flange to be held by a pressing member (JP TOKKAI No. 2002-48997).
However, in the light beam deflecting device which has been used so far, if the polygon mirror is shifted by a centrifugal force or by thermal expansion while it is used, a balance of a rotor portion is changed to cause vibrations and noises. If an amount of shifting grows greater, binding is caused on the dynamic pressure bearing, resulting in its rupture. Further, if spring force (force of an elastic member) which presses the polygon mirror is made to be stronger, the polygon mirror becomes hard to be shifted, but a flatness of the polygon mirror is worsened, and scanning characteristics, namely, image qualities are deteriorated, which is a problem. If contact surfaces between the polygon mirror and the flange portion are roughened, the polygon mirror turns out to be hardly shifted, but it becomes insufficient in use at high speed rotation of 50,000 rpm or higher or at high temperature of 60° C. or higher. Therefore, when the polygon mirror is made to adhere for prevention of its shifting, if hard adhesives of an epoxy type are used, there is caused a problem that the polygon mirror is distorted by internal stress of adhesives and by thermal strain in the course of adhesion hardening or in the course of usage, although it is effective for preventing shifting of the polygon mirror. When flexible adhesives of a silicon type are used, it is impossible to control shifting of the polygon mirror sufficiently, although distortion of the polygon mirror can be prevented by deformation of adhesive itself.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A computer-implemented method of identifying federations of manufacturing apps using House of Quality (HoQ) analysis includes receiving user request information comprising a plurality of desired functions and an importance value for each of the plurality of desired functions and generating a correlation matrix between the plurality of apps, wherein each element of the correlation matrix indicates a degree of correlation between a pair of apps. A relationship matrix is generated which comprises numerical values indicating relationships between a plurality of apps and the plurality of desired functions, wherein each column of relationship matrix is associated with an app and each row is associated with a desired function. Next, a weighted matrix is created by multiplying each row in the relationship matrix by the importance value corresponding to the desired function associated with the row. The numerical values in each column of the weighted matrix are aggregated to determine a total value for each of the plurality of apps. A federation of apps is identified based on the correlation matrix and the total values determined for the plurality of apps.

Apps are small applications that are easily programmed on the controller to execute simple tasks, much as they function on a smart phone. Individual apps may be developed for applications such as monitoring a sensor output, or taking an action based on a sensor's output. Apps that are manufacturing oriented are called "manufacturing apps." Like mobile apps on smart devices, as this concept becomes more popular, these manufacturing apps for machine controllers will be created and programmed by app developers from all over the world to serve the needs of customers. These app developers can be employees, customers, or even some app hobbyists. More and more people will be involved in the app design, development and download. During this process, huge amount of data/information will be generated from customers, app developers or app users. A good organization of these apps and valuable data/information will provide better understanding of customer desires and greater customer satisfaction. Accordingly, it is desired to provide a tool to guide customer chosen apps, analyze market supply/demand, and work as an organizer for these apps.
One tool for relating customer needs to engineering requirements is the "House of Quality" (HoQ). Briefly, as is understood in the art, the HoQ comprises a matrix with customer requirements on one dimension and correlated product technical requirements on the other dimension. This matrix is commonly referred to as a "relationship matrix." The elements of the relationship matrix are weighted according to the importance of the technical requirements to the customer. A triangular correlation matrix resides at the top of the main body (thus creating the "house"). The correlation matrix describes the relationship between the design features in the relationship matrix. Finally, below the relationship matrix, a lower level (or "foundation") section provides benchmarking and target values which can be used for ranking different options.
The conventional HoQ allows users to analyze customer desires and highlight important engineering requirements; however, some drawbacks limit the practicability and suitability of the conventional HoQ to be used with manufacturing apps. The conventional HoQ is meant to facilitate designing products and it cannot adapt automatically to new customer desires and apps. Also, because each section of the conventional HoQ is fixed, it cannot provide the most up-to-date customer desires in real-time or near real-time. In other words, it doesn't provide information statistically, which is quite important to understand the trend of market.

House of quality for federated manufacturing apps


A portable collapsible garbage can has a central vertical axis and inner and outer sides and concentrically adjacently spaced substantially vertically oriented annular flat wall panels. Each wall panel has upper and lower distal ends and there is an innermost and outermost wall panel. The wall panels are concentrically oriented about the vertical axis and can be vertically telescopically raised and lowered between an extended and a retracted position. In the extended position the panels partially overlap along the vertical axis and define a garbage compartment having an open top and bottom. In the retracted position the panels are concentrically nested adjacent each other and overlapped along the vertical axis.

Conventional garbage or trash cans are fabricated from metal or synthetic plastic materials and are designed to withstand rough handling. The common practice is to line garbage cans with plastic trash bags when refuse to be collected in the cans is in the form of food waste or other substances which tend to stick to or smear the inner surface of the garbage can. The bag is of sufficient strength so that when filled, it may be tied and then removed from the can and discarded.
Conventional metal or plastic garbage cans are not foldable or collapsible and they occupy a substantial amount of space. The portability and collapsibility of conventional garbage cans is not an issue since they usually remain in one location for the life of the container.
Garbage collection is often required in the outdoors and locations away from the home or where there is regular garbage collection. Campers for example, often need to collect the garbage they produce at their campsite in their own garbage containers. In these circumstances a portable collapsible garbage can that is animal proof is desirable. Campers preferably would like to be able to transport their garbage containers with them to the campsite.
A number of prior art devices have attempted to produce a collapsible portable garbage can, for example: U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,679, Oct. 15, 1991 entitled Refuse Container Assembly by John Lonczak, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,483, Jul. 3, 1984, entitled Collapsible Support for Garbage Bags by Laurat Gagne. These garbage cans although portable and collapsible fail to address the problem of being animal proof and generally sealable so as to prevent odours from being released from the garbage can and/or animals from entering and disturbing the contents of the garbage can. One can appreciate that for campers and outdoors! applications being able to seal the container is an important function of a collapsible portable outdoor refuse garbage can.
Accordingly, there is a need for a garbage can which can be easily transported and moved to an outdoor location where garbage collection is required and which overcomes the prior art's shortcomings. This is particularly useful for campers, picnickers, outdoors men and other activities away from the home. It is also desirable that the container be sealable to prevent odours escaping and animals entering into the garbage can.


Techniques for stereoscopic 3D display systems with active shuttered glasses are provided which overcomes the real-world limitations of sample/load & hold displays, resulting in greater overall brightness, while reducing crosstalk between each eye perspective. In some embodiments, a first left-eye perspective frame and a first right-eye frame are determined from image data. A first composite frame of a first type is then created. This first composite frame of the first type comprises one or more left-eye pixel values from the first left-eye frame and one or more right-eye pixel values from the first right-eye frame. The first composite frame of the first type is outputted to the display area. This may also include use of scanning backlight synchronized to loading/hold of display in conjunction with the composite frame.

In stereoscopic 3-D display systems, 3-D effect is achieved by presenting slightly different perspectives to each left & right-eye, offset by the distance between the pupils. In frame-sequential implementation of stereoscopic 3-D display systems, image frames for left and right-eye perspectives are not displayed to a viewer simultaneously. Rather, image frames from left and right-eye perspectives may be time sequentially, alternatively displayed. For example, a left-eye frame may be followed by a right-eye frame, which in turn may be followed by a subsequent left-eye frame, which in turn is followed by a subsequent right-eye frame, and so on. To perceive 3D effects from the sequential playing of image frames of different perspectives, the viewer is typically required to wear shuttered glasses (otherwise known as "active" 3-D glasses). Moreover, the shuttered glasses are synchronized with the playing of image frames to ensure that each eye only "sees" one perspective. When a left-eye frame is displayed, the shuttered glasses only open the left-eye, blocking the right-eye; when a right-eye frame is displayed, the shuttered glasses only open the right-eye, blocking the left-eye. Ideally, through the shuttered glasses, a left-eye frame would be seen by the viewer's left eye only, while a right frame seen by the viewer's right eye only. However, even with the shuttered glasses perfectly synchronized to the playing of image frames on a LCD 3-D display, the viewer typically still sees crosstalk between frames of different perspectives i.e. the viewer may see image data of the right-eye perspective from a previous right image frame when the viewer is supposed to see only a left image frame, or vice versa. This occurs because a frame of a single perspective cannot be instantaneously replaced with a new frame of the opposite perspective with LCD 3-D displays. The effect of this is a degradation of the stereoscopic 3-D effect, which can also result in fatiguing of the viewer, as the perspective perception cues become inconsistent with what one would naturally see.
In some approaches, open/close duty cycles of shuttered glasses may be significantly reduced in order to give the viewer a narrower temporal window during which the viewer may see a frame of a single perspective and thus less potential crosstalk between eyes. Specifically, the temporal window may be synchronized with the playing of frames in a display system in such a manner that, in the narrow temporal window, the viewer only sees the frame of a single perspective such as a left frame or a right frame when the frame of the single perspective has fully replaced a previous frame of a different perspective. However, as the temporal window is narrowed by shortening the opening of the "shutter" for an eye, the user will perceive dimmer images, and most of the backlight is wasted when the viewer is blocked from seeing any frame by the shuttered glasses. This is a real-world trade-off in active glasses 3-D systems between crosstalk vs. brightness. Still, the shuttered glasses must be capable of performing fast and responsive switching within very tight timing requirements, in order to realize a precise synchronization of the operation of the shuttered glasses with the displaying of frames.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. Similarly, issues identified with respect to one or more approaches should not assume to have been recognized in any prior art on the basis of this section, unless otherwise indicated.

Stereoscopic 3D display systems and methods for improved rendering and visualization

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation


Check valve units having one or more sound attenuating members are disclosed. A check valve unit includes a housing defining an inlet port, an outlet port, and a chamber in fluid communication therewith thereby defining a flow path from the inlet port through the chamber to the outlet port. The chamber includes first and second valve seats and has a sealing member disposed therein that is moveable from a position seated on the first valve seat to a position seated on the second valve seat. A sound attenuating member is disposed in the flow path downstream of the chamber, within the chamber, or both. In another embodiment, the check valve unit includes a Venturi portion in fluid communication with the chamber. The Venturi portion has a fluid junction with the flow path downstream of the chamber or forms the discharge section of the Venturi portion thereby defining the outlet port.

Engines, for example vehicle engines, are known to include aspirators or ejectors for producing vacuum and/or check valves. Typically, the aspirators are used to generate a vacuum that is lower than engine manifold vacuum by inducing some of the engine air to travel through a Venturi. The aspirators may include check valves therein or the system may include separate check valves. When the check valves are separate they are typically included downstream between the source of vacuum and the device using the vacuum.
During most operating conditions of an aspirator or check valve the flow is classified as turbulent. This means that in addition to the bulk motion of the air there are eddies superimposed. These eddies are well known in the field of fluid mechanics. Depending on the operating conditions the number, physical size, and location of these eddies is continuously varying. One result of these eddies being present on a transient basis is that they generate pressure waves in the fluid. These pressure waves are generated over a range of frequencies and magnitudes. When these pressure waves travel through the connecting holes to the devices using the vacuum, different natural frequencies can become excited. These natural frequencies are oscillations of either the air or the surrounding structure. If these natural frequencies are in the audible range and of sufficient magnitude then turbulence generated noise may be heard under the hood and/or in the passenger compartment. Such noise is undesirable and new aspirators, ejectors, and/or check valves are needed to eliminate or reduce this type of noise.

Noise attenuation in a check valve unit or apparatus for producing vacuum


A hook device for a vehicle seat having a rotatable arm rest mounted on a side of a seat back. Left and right seats are disposed on opposite sides of a walk-through passage, and an arm rest is vertically rotatably mounted through a support shaft on the side of the seat back of each of the seats, which faces the walk-through passage. A hook member is mounted on a side of each arm rest at a location on an axis of the support shaft, so that a grip of a vinyl bag or the like may be hung from each hook member. The hook members and any bag hung therefrom may be used not only by occupants on the left and right seats, but also by occupants on seats at the rear of the left and right seats.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a seat for a vehicle, including an arm rest which is supported through a support shaft on a side of a seat back facing a longitudinally center plane of a vehicle body, and which is rotatable between a substantially horizontal service position and a retracted position in which it extends along the side of the seat back.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Hook devices for hanging a vinyl bag provided upon shopping in a supermarket, and the like have conventionally been proposed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open Nos. 58-35437 and 60-106852.
The hook device described in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No.58-35437 suffers from a problem that a hook is provided on an instrument panel and hence, can be used only by occupants on a driver's side or seat and an assistant driver's side or seat. The hook device described in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No.60-106852 suffers from a problem that a hook is mounted on a side of a seat back and hence, when a rotatable arm rest is provided on the side of the seat back, if the arm rest is rotated into a retracted position in which it extends along the side of the seat back, the hook cannot be used because it is covered by the arm rest.


A novel duel directional electromagnetic actuator includes a case, a core, an electrical current conductive coil and a field coil. The case includes a first case end, a second case end, and an interior wall extending between the first and second case ends. A chamber is defined by the interior wall. An electrical current conductive coil is disposed in the chamber coextensively adjacent the interior wall. The conductive coil has a first coil end disposed proximate the first case end, a second coil end disposed proximate the second case end, and a midpoint. The core has a first core end, a second core end, and an exterior wall extending between the first and second core ends. The exterior wall has a first region adjacent the first core end and a second region spaced from the first region and adjacent the second core end. The core is moveably received in the chamber with motion of the core occurring between the first and second case ends such that said first region traverses the conductive coil between the first coil end and the midpoint and the second region traverses the conductive coil between the second coil end and the midpoint. The conductive coil and the exterior wall are in a facing relationship with respect to each other. The field coil is in a spaced relationship to the conductive coil so that magnetic flux across the conductive coil between the first region and the interior wall is in a first direction and magnetic flux across the conductive coil between the second region and the interior wall is in an opposite direction. The field coil is arranged so that an electrical current in the conductive coil between the first coil end and the midpoint flows in an opposite direction than the current between the second coil end and the midpoint, whereby the flux current cross products of the flux in the first direction with the current and the flux current cross products of the flux in the second direction and said current are additive.

Electromagnetic actuators are well known. In many applications, the output force of the actuator is controlled by and is a function of an electrical control or command signal, and as such can be used in a variety of applications.
For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,398, issued Feb. 16, 1993 and assigned to the assignee of the invention disclosed in the present application (hereinafter the "'398 Patent"), one type of a linear electromagnetic actuator is described. The electromagnetic actuator of the '398 patent includes a magnetic flux conductive material case, an electrical current conductive coil, a magnetic flux conductive material core, and a pair of radially polarized magnetic flux developing elements. The coil is disposed in the case coextensively adjacent to its interior wall. The core is moveably received within the chamber with motion of the core occurring between the first end and the second end of the case such that a first region of the core traverses the coil between its first end and its midpoint, and a second region of the core traverses the coil between its second end and its midpoint. A first one of the magnetic elements is carried by the first region and a second one of the magnetic elements is carried by the second region so that magnetic flux across the coil between the first region and the case is in a first direction, and magnetic flux across the coil between the second region and the case is in a second direction. The coil is arranged so that an electrical current in the coil between the first coil and the midpoint flows in an opposite direction with respect to the direction of the current in the coil between the second coil and the midpoint. Therefore, the flux current cross product of the flux in the first direction with the coil current and the flux current cross product of the flux in the second direction with the coil current are additive.
Many known electromagnetic actuators use permanent magnets. Permanent magnet actuators however have several disadvantages and limitations. For example permanent magnets are fragile and are therefore unsuitable for use in actuators for rugged applications. Permanent magnets also experience a loss of polarization at high temperatures. Therefore permanent magnet actuators operating at high temperatures may experience a reduction in the flux density through the gap, thereby reducing efficiency of the actuator. Permanent magnets are also expensive, adding to the overall cost of the permanent magnet actuator.


This document describes tools having or interacting with a touch-sensitive device with one or more contact detectors that detect a tactile input from a user making contact with the contact detectors and an input/output module that persistently identifies contact data representing the detected tactile input. This identification is unique, thereby differentiating one or more tactile inputs from other current tactile inputs represented in the contact data. Using this unique identification, the input/output module can initiate an application to provide a function, such as data entry or a mapped function, associated with the detected tactile input. These data or mapped functions may, in many instances, provide a greater depth or breadth of functions by which users may interact with applications and computer systems.

Touch-sensitive devices permit users to interact with applications running on a computing system. While users appreciate the ability to intuitively interact with the computing system through these touch-sensitive devices, in many instances, the applications offer more functions or more complex functions than touch-sensitive devices are configured to detect. As a result, a user is often forced to interact with graphical objects or drop-down menus that detract from the touch-sensitive device's intuitive nature.


An integrated circuit such as a MOS transistor, having an electrically conductive diffusion barrier at the metal/silicon interface and a method of manufacture therefor is disclosed. The metal/silicon interface is formed by selective metal deposition onto silicon. According to the method, the interface is subjected to a nitrogen-based plasma during a period of at least five minutes. The interface is brought to a temperature greater than 500.degree. C. during this period, in order to create a diffusion barrier comprising a silicon nitride layer. The interface is then subjected to an annealing treatment under a neutral atmosphere so as to remove the nitrogen previously introduced into the metal. The diffusion barrier forms a linking and protecting interface between each source drain or gate zone of the MOS transistor and the corresponding layer of metal covering the latter.

In the technical field of the manufacture of integrated circuits, especially of MOS transistors, it is increasingly necessary to stabilise the physico-chemical properties of the various zones of these integrated circuits, especially at the level of the metal contact/semiconductor material interfaces.
Among recent developments in this technical field, it has been proposed to use, as contact metal, intended for providing the electrical contacts with the source, gate and drain zones of these transistors, a metal such as tungsten. The provision of the corresponding metal onto the gate, source or drain zones is usually carried out by means of a metallisation by selective deposition of tungsten using vapour phase chemical deposition.
Such a technique has numerous advantages, the abovementioned selective deposition being easy to perform, implementing the usual operational precautions, by means of appropriate machines such as industrial machines marketed in France by the companies SPECTRUM and TEGAL.
Furthermore, the abovementioned vapour phase deposition produces no uncontrolled consumption of silicon during the operation of the latter.
Tungsten itself has an excellent resistivity value, of the order of 8 .mu..OMEGA..cm, which justifies the choice of the latter so as to produce the electrical connections of the various zones of the transistor or corresponding integrated circuit.
This material also gives a high degree of conformity to the covering of the abovementioned zones, which results in a good mechanical and electrical homogeneity of the corresponding electrical contacts.
However, although the metal/silicon interface constitutes a good diffusion barrier when the chosen deposition metal is tungsten, between the tungsten and silicon molecules, the same does not apply however when this chosen metal is subjected to high temperatures, and this substantially reduces the advantage in such a choice.
The major drawback in the choice of tungsten appears to be the reactivity of this metal with silicon in order to form a tungsten silicide WSi.sub.2 at a temperature above 700.degree. C. The consequence is an increase in the resistivity and the resistance of the connection contact and a consumption in silicon from the junctions of the corresponding zones by creating a rough WSi.sub.2 /Si interface. In particular, it will be noted that recent studies, see Vacuum Technology Industrial Research & Development--March 1983 p 141-147, report a certain stability of the structure Al/W/Si, the latter is however limited to a temperature of the order of 500.degree. C.
Such stability may be sufficient for a single metal integrated circuit, that is to say having a single level of interconnection, but it may not be suitable for modern double metal integrated circuits where the W/Si interface is at 950.degree. C., especially during the flowing stage of the intermetallic dielectric.

Process for producing an electrically conductive diffusion barrier at the metal/silicon interface of a MOS transistor


A semiconductor memory device having a trench-type capacitor configuration is provided. The device comprises an element isolation insulating film formed on the surface of the substrate in the vicinity of the trenches. The insulating film includes a thickness-reducing region to which the inclined end portion of the capacitor electrode is connected.

1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly to a DRAM having a trench-type capacitor configuration wherein memory cells are constituted by MOSFETs and trench MOS capacitors.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
In recent years, considerable progress has been made in semiconductor technology, particularly in achieving high-density integration of semiconductor memory devices. However, the high-density integration inevitably reduces the capacitor chip area that stores information (electric charge). The reduction of the electric charge stored in the capacitors causes software errors such that the memory contents of the capacitors might be erroneously read, or destroyed by alpha rays and the like.
To achieve the high-density integration of semiconductor memory devices while maintaining the large capacitance of the storage capacitors, various techniques including a so-called trench capacitor cell configuration have been disclosed.
A conventional trench capacitor cell configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 7a through 7c, showing a plan view and cross-sectional views, respectively. In FIGS. 7a through 7c, a trench 102 is formed on the surface of a silicon substrate 101. A capacitor is formed along the sidewalls of the trench 102. Thus, the capacitor area can be increased without an increase in chip area. Each of the memory cells comprises a MOSFET and a MOS capacitor.
In this configuration, a field oxide film 103, which isolates respective element regions, is formed on the surface of a p-type silicon substrate. Each of the MOSFETs is formed in an element region isolated by the field oxide film 103. The MOSFET is constituted by source and drain regions 110 and 114 of n-type layers, and a gate electrode 109 formed therebetween through a gate insulating film 108. A storage node electrode 104 is formed on the inner wall of the trench 102 interposing a thermal oxide film 100 therebetween. A capacitor insulating film 105 is formed on the surface of the storage node electrode 104. Further, a plate electrode 106 is buried in the trench 102. The storage node electrode 104, the capacitor insulating film 105 and the plate electrode 106 constitute the MOS capacitor. A word line 109 is formed on the plate electrode 106 through an interlayer insulating film 107.
As described above, the trench capacitor cell configuration utilizing the inner walls of the trench capacitor can be increased up to several times that of the planar configuration. As a result, the chip area for memory cell can be reduced without a decrease in the amount of electric charge to be stored.
However, in the above-described conventional configuration, an undesirable short-circuit layer 200 might be formed in a region from the end portion of the plate electrode 106 to the substrate surface, as shown in FIG. 7c. The short-circuit layer 200 is composed of residual material which should have been removed while the word line 109 was formed by use of an anisotropic etching technique. The short-circuit layer 200 inevitably short-circuits between the gate electrode 109 which serves as the word line (not shown in FIG. 7C) and the adjoining word line 109'. The short-circuit layer 200 is left unetched because of the following reasons. Specifically, a conductive layer (dotted line), which is to be etched, has regions of different thicknesses indicated by arrows t1 and t2 with respect to the etching direction, i.e., the vertical direction, as shown in FIG. 7C. Thus, when the word line 109 is formed by the use of the anisotropic etching technique, the region of arrow t1, which corresponds to the flat portion of the plate electrode 106, can be completely removed. However, if the etching ends on the completion of removing the region of arrow t1, the region of arrow t2, which corresponds to the inclined end portion of the plate electrode 106, cannot be completely removed. The residual material forms the short-circuit layer 100. It is possible to completely remove the region of arrow t2, when the word line 109 is formed by use of the anisotropic etching technique. However, this causes the word line 109 to be excessively etched, and thereby a prescribed thickness thereof cannot be maintained. As a result, the resistance of the word line 109 inevitably increases, and causes a decrease in operations. Further, the thinned word line 109 is easily broken.
More specifically, the cause of the occurrence of the short-circuit layer 200 will be described with reference to FIG. 8, which is a schematic illustration. In FIG. 8, the plate electrode 106 is formed on the field oxide film 103 having a substantially flat surface of uniform thickness. The plate electrode 106 comprises a flat portion 106a and an inclined portion 106b having an inclination angle .theta.. The bottom portion of the inclined portion 106b is defined as an inclined portion's bottom length, and is represented by G (hereinafter simply referred to as bottom length G). As shown in FIG. 7C, the occurrence of the short-circuit layer 200 is caused by the difference between etching lengths of arrows t1 and t2 with respect to the flat portion 106a and the inclined portion 106b shown in FIG. 8. Assume that the bottom length G is designed to be greater and thereby the inclination angle .theta. of the inclined portion 106b becomes smaller. This reduces the difference between etching lengths of arrows t1 and t2. As a result, the occurrence of the short-circuit layer 200 can be avoided. However, in order to meet the recent requirements of the miniaturization and higher-density of elements, the bottom length G must be as small as possible. Thus, the inclination angle .theta. inevitably becomes greater, and thereby the difference between the etching lengths of arrows t1 and t2 also increases.

Semiconductor memory device with trench-type capacitor


An instruction buffer and a method of buffering instructions. The instruction buffer including: a memory array partitioned into multiple identical memory sub-arrays arranged in sequential order from a first memory sub-array to a last memory sub-array, each memory sub-array having multiple instruction entry positions and adapted to store a different instruction of a set of concurrent instructions in a single instruction entry position of any one of the memory sub-arrays, the set of concurrent instructions arranged in sequential order from a first instruction to a last instruction

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of processors; more specifically, the present invention relates to an instruction buffer circuit for buffering multiple instructions for a processor simultaneously and a method of buffering multiple instructions for a processor simultaneously.
2. Background of the Invention
In a high performance processor application in order to maximize the number of instructions executed concurrently and to provide high bandwidth to the instruction cache, a large register file instruction buffer (IBUF) supporting multiple writes and reads is required. In our application, a 64-entry instruction buffer supporting 8 concurrent writes and 5 concurrent reads is required to allow for high concurrency in the pipeline. The conventional approach is to implement the register file instruction buffer with 8 write ports and 5 read ports. This approach requires a large SRAM cell area to support the required numerous read and write ports. It also requires a complex decoding scheme resulting in a slow access and large array area. The multi-ported array therefore represents a potential integration and timing problem. Therefore, an instruction buffer capable of supporting multiple writes and multiple reads concurrently and requiring a minimum amount of memory area and fast access is needed.

Method and circuit for reading and writing an instruction buffer

International Business Machines Corporation


Biocompatible hydrogels made from cross-linked catechol-borate ester polymers are disclosed, along with methods of synthesizing and using such hydrogels. The hydrogels of the present invention are prepared by boronic acid-catechol complexation between catechol-containing macromonomers and boronic acid-containing cross-linkers. The resulting hydrogels are pH-responsive and self-healing, and can be used in a number of different biomedical applications, including in surgical implants, in surgical adhesives, and in drug delivery systems is data provides further evidence of the viability of using the disclosed hydrogels for in vivo in biomedical applications.

The complexation of diols and boronic acid in aqueous solution results in reversible covalent bonding through the formation of a boronate ester linkage, and this reaction has been extensively used in biomedical application as an efficient method of detecting sugar under specific conditions (see Asher et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 3322-3329; Dowlut, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 4226; Winblade et al. J. Biomedical Materials Research 2001, 59, 618). The complexation reaction occurs at solution pH which is higher than the pKa of the two reagents used (see Yan et al. Tetrahedron 2004, 60, 11205-11209; Springsteen et al. Tetrahedron 2002, 58, 5291). Because the pKa of phenyl boronic acid is very high (˜8.8), this complexation reaction has not been generally reported to occur under physiological conditions.
Hydrogels are made from three-dimensional polymeric networks, which are hydrophilic and cross-linked via covalent or non-covalent interactions. Because they are homogenous soft materials with physical properties similar to those of soft tissues, there is great interest in using hydrogels for a number of biomedical applications, including in sensors, in separation systems, and in various biomaterials. Recently, efforts have focused on stimuli-responsive hydrogels, which have the ability to respond to external triggers like pH, temperature, and light. This ability to respond to conditions in the surrounding environment makes such hydrogels suitable for a range of applications in medicine and tissue engineering.
Research on stimuli-responsive hydrogels has specifically focused on physical (non-covalently bonded) hydrogels. However, physical hydrogels are generally less stable and have poorer mechanical properties than covalently cross-linked hydrogels. Therefore, there is a need in the art for hydrogels that integrate into a single material the stimuli-responsiveness of certain physical gels with the stability provided by chemical (covalently bonded) hydrogels. Ideally, such hydrogels would be self-healing and would form under physiological conditions.

pH responsive self-healing hydrogels formed by boronate-catechol complexation


An apparatus and method of converting flue gases produced by a fossil fuel burning furnace boiler is disclosed. The flue gas is separated into its constituent parts by cooling and filtering. Carbon dioxide, the main constituent, is then converted to carbon monoxide in a laser powered gas converter in which carbon is a catalyst. The laser powered converter also produces hydrogen from steam, and the two newly produced gases are chemically combined to produce a hydrocarbon fuel product which can then be burned in the furnace boiler. In this manner no harmful greenhouse gases are permitted to escape to the atmosphere.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of utilizing the flue gas mixture produced from burning fossil fuels, particularly the gaseous carbon dioxide constituent of the mixture, thereby eliminating the release of greenhouse gases into the earth's atmosphere.
2. Description of the Related Art
A recently discovered consequence of our industrial age is an increase of the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), a trace element in our Earth's atmosphere. It is known that just before the industrial revolution the CO2 content of the atmosphere was 280 parts per million (ppm). In 1989 the CO2 content was a little over 350 ppm. This increase in a relatively short period of time is an apparent indication that an overload condition exists upon elements which behave as natural sinks for this gas. These elements, namely the oceans, vegetation, and rocks have so far been able to function perfectly as natural sinks throughout the ages, having only been exposed to the natural occurring sources of carbon dioxide such as fires and volcanic sources. However this recent addition by anthropogenic sources, such as industrial processes which rely upon the burning of fossil fuels, has increased the concentration of CO2 in the atmospheric makeup to the point where certain adverse effects are now apparent. The most obvious effect is a phenomena known as "greenhouse effect", a potentially dangerous phenomena which if left unchecked could possibly reap catastrophic consequences upon the human race. This effect is theorized by climatologists to bring about a rise in the mean temperature of the worlds oceans, thereby melting polar ice and increasing the mean sea level of the oceans. In fact, recent independent studies by Russian and American scientists have shown that the prediction of temperature rises in the polar regions have been correct. Sonar readings from British submarines patrolling this region have shown the ice to be one third as thick in the last thirty years. The British have a legitimate concern as the local effect upon Britain will be Russian like winters, replacing the moderate winters of present times. Since the mid-nineteen eighties Eskimos have reported spring arriving one month early, and autumn arriving one month late. It is also theorized that this phenomena will result in a greater number and severity of hurricanes. In fact meteorologists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have calculated a relationship between sea surface temperatures and the central low pressure of a tropical cyclone. It was shown the cyclone pressures could decrease substantially with increasing sea-surface temperatures. Increases of ocean temperatures of only a few degrees could increase the intensity of hurricanes by as much as 40% based on typical greenhouse warming projections. In 1998 such a violent hurricane named "Mitch", caused the devastation of the entire infrastructure of the Central American country, Honduras, taking the lives of nearly twenty thousand people as well. A more recent event in November of 1999, which has officially been recorded as the most powerful cyclone to date, struck the nation of India killing twenty thousand people and left twenty million people homeless. Recent floods worldwide have been attributed to excess water vapor in the atmosphere, another predicted result of greenhouse effect. One such flood in December of 1999, the result of a torrential downpour, killed an estimated 35,000 people and left untold hundreds of thousands homeless in and around Caracas, Venezuela. It is only natural to assume the human and economic toll will only increase as time goes by with no effort made to reduce anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. It is entirely possible the effect will eventually evolve into a stage known as "runaway greenhouse" which will eliminate all Human life forms from the surface of the Earth. To the trained eye it is obvious an emergency situation is eminent.
Accordingly, with the demand for electric power increasing steadily worldwide, thereby increasing the amount of fossil fuels being burned, it is readily apparent some corrective measure must be taken to alleviate this situation. While converting all electric utilities to nuclear power is completely unrealistic, there exists a need in the art for the emergence of fossil fuel burning electric power generation plants which possess the ability to contain all of the resultant emissions, and doing so while operating in an efficient manner. My previously issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,027,720, 5,129,331 and 5,265,424 address this issue to some extent. However, these designs do not adequately address the final disposition of the enormous quantities of carbon dioxide produced by a fossil fuel burning furnace boiler. The inventive system disclosed herein will create useful products from the resultant flue gases. Thus no harmful exhaust gases are permitted to escape into the atmosphere, overcoming the disadvantages of the prior art, and providing a much needed solution to a difficult environmental dilemma.

Flue gas conversion apparatus and method


A method for repairing an article comprises providing an article, providing a repair material, and joining said repair material to said article. The repair material comprises, in atom percent, at least about 50% rhodium; up to about 49% of a first material, said first material comprising at least one of palladium, platinum, iridium, and combinations thereof; from about 1% to about 15% of a second material, said second material comprising at least one of tungsten, rhenium, and combinations thereof; and up to about 10% of a third material, said third material comprising at least one of ruthenium, chromium, and combinations thereof. The repair material comprises an A1-structured phase at temperatures greater than about 1000° C., in an amount of at least about 90% by volume.

The present invention relates to materials designed to withstand high temperatures. More particularly, this invention relates to heat-resistant alloys for high-temperature applications, such as, for instance, gas turbine engine components of aircraft engines and power generation equipment. The present invention further relates to methods for repairing articles for high temperature applications.
There is a continuing demand in many industries, notably in the aircraft engine and power generation industries where efficiency directly relates to equipment operating temperature, for alloys that exhibit sufficient levels of strength and oxidation resistance at increasingly higher temperatures. Gas turbine airfoils on such components as vanes and blades are usually made of materials known in the art as "superalloys." The term "superalloy" is usually intended to embrace iron-, cobalt-, or nickel-based alloys, which include one or more additional elements to enhance high temperature performance, including such non-limiting examples as aluminum, tungsten, molybdenum, titanium, and iron. The term "based" as used in, for example, "nickel-based superalloy" is widely accepted in the art to mean that the element upon which the alloy is "based" is the single largest elemental component by atom fraction in the alloy composition. Generally recognized to have service capabilities limited to a temperature of about 1200° C., conventional superalloys used in gas turbine airfoils often operate at the upper limits of their practical service temperature range. In typical jet engines, for example, bulk average airfoil temperatures range from about 900° C. to about 1100° C., while airfoil leading and trailing edge and tip temperatures can reach about 1150° C. or more. At such elevated temperatures, the oxidation process consumes conventional superalloy parts, forming a weak, brittle metal oxide that is prone to chip or spall away from the part.
Erosion and oxidation of material at the edges of airfoils lead to degradation of turbine efficiency. As airfoils are worn away, gaps between components become excessively wide, allowing gas to leak through the turbine stages without the flow of the gas being converted into mechanical energy. When efficiency drops below specified levels, the turbine must be removed from service for overhaul and refurbishment. A significant portion of this refurbishment process is directed at the repair of the airfoil leading and trailing edges and tips. For example, damaged material is removed and then new material built onto the blade by any of several methods, such as, for example, welding with filler material, welding or brazing new sections onto the existing blade, or by plasma spraying or laser deposition of metal powders onto the blade. The performance of alloys commonly used for repair is comparable or inferior to that of the material of the original component, depending upon the microstructure of the repaired material, its defect density due to processing, and its chemistry. Furthermore, in current practice, the original edge material is made of the same material as the rest of the original blade, often a superalloy based on nickel or cobalt. Because this material was selected to balance the design requirements of the entire blade, it is generally not optimized to meet the special local requirements demanded by conditions at the airfoil leading or trailing edges. However, maximum temperatures, such as those present at airfoil tips and edges, are expected in future applications to be over about 1300° C., at which point many conventional superalloys begin to melt. Clearly, new materials for repair and manufacture must be developed to improve the performance of repaired components and to exploit efficiency enhancements available to new components designed to operate at higher turbine operating temperatures.

Method for repairing high temperature articles


In a matrix including a plurality of memory cells, each in which a drain of a writing transistor is connected to a gate of a reading transistor and the drain is connected to one electrode of a capacitor, a gate of the writing transistor is connected to a writing word line, a source of the writing transistor and a source of the reading transistor is connected to a bit line, and a drain of the reading transistor is connected to a reading word line. A conductivity type of the writing transistor is different from a conductivity type of the reading transistor. In order to increase the integration degree, a bias line may be substituted with a reading word line in another row, or memory cells are connected in series so as to have a NAND structure, and a reading word line and a writing word line may be shared.

There are many kinds of memory devices using semiconductors. For example, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a static random access memory (SRAM), an electrically erasable and programmable read only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, and the like can be given.
In a DRAM, data is stored by holding charge in a capacitor which is provided in a memory cell. However, even when a conventional transistor which has been used for switching is in an off state, a slight amount of leakage current is generated between a source and a drain; thus, the data is lost within a relatively short time (several tens of seconds at the longest). Therefore, the data needs to be rewritten (refreshed) in a certain cycle (generally several tens of milliseconds).
In an SRAM, data is held by utilizing a bistable state of a flip-flop circuit. Although a CMOS inverter is generally used in a flip-flop circuit of an SRAM, since six transistors are used in one memory cell, an integration degree of the SRAM is lower than an integration degree of a DRAM. In addition, the data is lost when power is not supplied.
On the other hand, in an EEPROM or a flash memory, a so-called floating gate is provided between a channel and a gate and charge is accumulated in the floating gate, whereby data is held. The charge accumulated in the floating gate is held even after power supply to a transistor stops, which is why these memories are called non-volatile memories. For example, Patent Document 1 may be referred to for a flash memory.
In this specification, a memory having a floating gate, examples of which are an EEPROM and a flash memory, is called a floating gate non-volatile memory (FGNVM). Since data at some stages can be held in one memory cell in an FGNVM, storage capacity can be large. Further, since the number of contact holes can be significantly decreased in a NAND-type flash memory, an integration degree can be increased to some extent.
However, in a conventional FGNVM, high voltage is needed at the time of injection of charge to a floating gate or removal of the charge. Because of this, deterioration of a gate insulating film cannot be avoided and writing and erasing cannot be repeated without limitation.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A surface cleaning device including a planar wiping trimming carrier and a handle connected to the wiping trimming carrier by a joint. The joint has a swivel axis which extends parallel to the longitudinal direction of the wiping trimming carrier, so as to be able optionally to swivel the one or the other main side of wiping trimming carrier into a position that extends parallel to a surface to be cleaned, the wiping trimming carrier being provided at at least one end with an extension that is shiftable along the former's longitudinal extension in the direction towards the joint.

Conventional surface cleaning devices are described, for example, in German Utility Patent DE 9415002 U1, which includes a wiping trimming carrier and a handle connected to the wiping trimming carrier by a joint. The joint system is located in the edge region of the wiping trimming carrier, and permits the wiping trimming carrier to be used on both sides. With this design, the wiping covers may be designed such that they are made either on both sides of the same material, or of different materials adapted to certain application cases, and may be used on both sides-without manual effort. This embodiment allows high surface efficiency and a long service life of the wiping cover.
Surface cleaning devices are also described and illustrated in European Patent Application EP 0 599 227 A1, wherein the wiping trimming carrier can only be provided with a wiping cover on the underside of the plate. In these wiping trimming carriers, a device is provided for tightly mounting the wiping cover on the wiping trimming carrier. Because of that, even with intensive use, such as in the professional field of use, the wiping covers are not able to detach from the wiping trimming carrier.
The disadvantage with conventional surface cleaning devices is that the wiping covers are not exchangeable between the two unit types described. The wiping trimming carriers are in each case developed such that the carriers may accommodate either a wiping cover usable on both sides or one that is usable only on one side.


A laser display device, which is capable of ensuring the safety of a person's eyes and reducing speckle noise even when a screen is arranged at an arbitrary position, includes a laser light source emitting a laser light, a modulator modulating the laser light and emitting a modulated light, and a branching unit branching the modulated light into a plurality of branched lights. Further, at least two of the plurality of branched lights reach same positions on a screen at substantially same timings.

In recent years, laser display devices using laser lights as light sources have been brought to attention as high-luminance laser display devices taking advantage of monochromaticity and high luminance of laser lights and having wide color reproduction ranges.
However, measures for the safety of eyes, for example, by devising the construction of an optical system for introducing a laser light as a light source to a screen are necessary in the case of a laser display device having such excellent properties. It is also necessary to reduce speckle noise produced due to high monochromaticity of laser lights.
There has been illustrated a projection type image display device constructed to be able to ensure the safety of eyes and brighten display images (see, for example, patent literature 1). This projection type image display device includes a projector means for projecting an image on a screen for image display by scanning laser lights, wherein the laser lights includes a plurality of laser beams R1 (red laser 1), G (green laser), B (blue laser) and R2 (red laser 2). These plurality of laser beams R1, G, B and R2 are irradiated with time differences substantially to the same positions of the screen by the projector means of the display device, and the safety of eyes is ensured by reducing the intensities of the laser beams projected substantially to the same positions. Further, image signals to be applied to the respective laser beams R1, G, B and R2 have time differences in conformity with the time differences of irradiation so that the preceding laser beam delays relative to the succeeding laser beam. By doing so, the intensities of the laser beams irradiated to the substantially same positions are increased to normal intensities within a specified time range, whereby a displayed image is brightened.
There has been also disclosed an example in which scanned beams of light LR (red laser light), LG (green laser light), LB (blue laser light) respectively have intensities equal to or below a specified value and have spatial intervals of a specified distance or longer from each other in any of planes at an observer side, whereby the safety of eyes is ensured (see, for example, patent literature 2). By doing so, a plurality of beams of light are prevented from being concentrated substantially at same positions to ensure the safety of eyes.
However, in the above conventional image display device or image display method, the construction of the optical system to ensure the safety of eyes and the like are disclosed, but a construction or a method for simultaneously solving the problem of speckle noise produced upon using a laser light is not disclosed. Further, there is clearly disclosed no specific solution for problems concerning the ensuring of the safety of eyes and the reduction of speckle noise in the case where a screen is arranged at an arbitrary position.
Patent Literature 1:
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-31529
Patent Literature 2:
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-10616

Laser display device branching a modulated laser beam that scans both beams to the same position at the same time on a screen


A packaging method and a package structure of a fan-out chip are disclosed. The package structure comprises a first chip with bumps and a second chip without bumps, a first dielectric layer formed on a surface of the second chip and through-holes fabricated in the first dielectric layer; a plastic package material; a second dielectric layer; a metal redistribution layer for interconnecting within and between the first chip and the second chip; under bump metallization layers and micro-bumps. By fabricating the dielectric layers with the through-holes on the surfaces of the first chip and the second chip, exposing the bumps of the first chip and metal pads of the second chip and subsequently fabricating the metal redistribution layer, the interconnections within and between the first chip and the second chip are achieved and thereby the integrated package of the first chip and the second chip is achieved.

With rapid development of the integrated circuit manufacturing industry, requirements on integrated circuit packaging technologies continuously increase. The existing packaging technologies include a ball grid array (BGA) package, a chip scale package (CSP), a wafer level package (WLP), a three-dimensional (3D) package and a system in package (SiP) and the like, where the wafer level package (WLP) is gradually adopted by most semiconductor manufacturers because of their excellent advantages, all or most process steps thereof are completed on a silicon wafer with previous processes completed, and finally the wafer is directly cut into separated independent devices. The wafer level package (WLP) has the following unique advantages: (1) the packaging and processing efficiencies are high as multiple wafers can be simultaneously processed; (2) it has advantages of a flip chip packaging, i.e., lightweight, thin, short and small; (3) as compared with the previous processes, two processes, i.e., a pin redistribution (RDL) and a bump fabrication, are added, and all other processes are traditional processes; and (4) repetitive tests in the traditional package are decreased. Therefore, large IC package companies worldwide vigorously have studied, developed and produced wafer level package (WLP).
Using existing fan-out chip packaging technologies, solder bumps are fabricated until the semiconductor chip is cut. As a result, there may be some abnormal problems occur during the fabrication process, e.g., how to package semiconductor chips preformed with initial bumps, or how to achieve an interconnection between a chip having initial bumps and a chip not having initial bumps.
There are no effective methods to solve the problems in the prior arts which solve the problem of how to integrally package the chip having initial bumps and the chip having no initial bumps as well as how to achieve the interconnection therebetween.
In view of the above-mentioned reasons, there is a need to provide a packaging method and a package structure to effectively achieve the package of and the interconnection between a semiconductor chip with initial bumps and a chip without the initial bumps.

Packaging method and package structure of fan-out chip


A heat-shrinkable white film including an amorphous polyethylene terephthalate; a cyclic olefin resin having a glass transition temperature of 100° C. or higher; and a polyester elastomer having a Vicat softening point of 150° C. or lower.

In general, a label formed of a heat-shrinkable film subjected to printing is mounted on a beverage or seasoning bottle.
Most heat-shrinkable films which have been used in the past are transparent. However, white heat-shrinkable films are required from the viewpoint of diversification of designs. As a method of whitening a heat-shrinkable film, a method of containing an inorganic white pigment such as titanium oxide and a coating method using a white ink are proposed (for example, Patent Document 1 and 2).