A method and computing system for determining whether a DTC set in a vehicle involved in a collision is collision-related or non-collision-related. The method can include determining a vehicle model associated with the vehicle, determining a DTC set within an ECU in the vehicle, determining a damaged portion in the vehicle, determining the DTC is collision-related, and outputting a collision report that indicates the DTC is collision-related. The determined damaged portion indicates where the vehicle was damaged by the collision. Determining the DTC is collision-related can include determining the damaged portion in the vehicle matches a reference vehicle portion associated with both a component attributable to setting the DTC and the vehicle model associated with the damaged vehicle. The collision report can indicate that a different DTC set by the same or a different ECU in the vehicle is non-collision-related.

Vehicle collisions are costly. For example, the Illinois Department of Transportation issued a report in 2015 indicating that there were 296,049 crashes involving motor vehicles in Illinois in 2014. That same report indicates that the total estimated cost of crashes in Illinois for 2014 was $5.8 billion. A substantial portion of those costs are associated with repairing the crashed vehicles (i.e., vehicles involved in a crash). In some instances, a crashed vehicle will display a malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) to indicate that a diagnostic trouble code (DTC) is currently set to an active status. The DTC can be indicative of a particular vehicle malfunction. Repairing a crashed vehicle can include repairing the vehicle malfunction so that the MIL is not illuminated when the vehicle owner drives the repaired vehicle away from the repair shop.
In many instances, an insurance company, such as the State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, issues an insurance policy that covers at least some of the costs associated with repairing a policy holder's crashed vehicle. Many insurance policies do not cover the costs associated with repairing a vehicle malfunction that existed before a vehicle crash or a vehicle malfunction that arose while repairing the crashed vehicle.
Many insurance companies require or determine estimates for repairing a crashed vehicle. A problem in determining an estimate to repair a crashed vehicle is determining whether or not a DTC set to the active status within the crashed vehicle existed before the vehicle crash. Existing vehicle scan tools do not determine whether a DTC set in a vehicle is collision-related.
Furthermore, in many situations, a vehicle body repair person is skilled in repairing the body of a damaged vehicle, but is unskilled as to using a vehicle scan tool to diagnose or repair a vehicle because of the complexity of the scan tool. A diagnostic tool configured to determine if a DTC is collision-related and/or that is simpler to use would be useful to many vehicle body repair persons.

Method and system for reporting diagnostic trouble code set in vehicle is collision-related


A field-effect transistor (FET) structure and method of formation thereof is presented. The FET structure includes first and second source/drain regions formed in a semiconductor substrate to define a channel region. A gate insulation layer is formed at a surface of the channel region. A control layer is formed at a surface of the gate insulation layer. A diode doping region is formed to realize a diode in the semiconductor substrate. An electrically conductive diode connection layer connects the diode doping region to the control layer. A depression is formed in the semiconductor substrate. The diode doping region is formed at a bottom of the depression and the diode connection layer is formed in the depression to dissipate excess charge carriers in the semiconductor substrate.

In semiconductor technology, the most advanced technologies with the highest integration densities are used in particular for fabricating so-called DRAM memories (dynamic random access memory). With an increasing packing density or integration density, however, the following difficulties result for example in DRAM semiconductor memories:
In order to control a short-channel behavior (roll-off) of a selection transistor in a DRAM semiconductor memory cell, from technology generation to technology generation an associated well doping or a channel implant is increased. However, this results in a greater body effect, which in turn impairs writing behavior. The body effect is manifested in an increase in the threshold voltage of the field-effect transistor as source-body voltage increases. The term "body" hereinafter denotes in particular the semiconductor substrate situated directly in the vicinity of the transistor or of the source/drain regions and of the channel region.
During a writing operation in a DRAM memory cell with a trench capacitor (for example writing a logic "1"), the potential of a source/drain region which is connected to the trench capacitor, for example, increases with increasing charging of the corresponding trench capacitor capacitance. Given a fixed body potential, this means an increase in the voltage between the source/drain region and the body, as a result of which the transistor, depending on a charging state of the trench capacitor, increases its threshold voltage on account of the body effect. This phenomenon is generally referred to as "source follower mode".
As a direct consequence of the increased threshold voltage, the field-effect transistor then also supplies a lower current given an otherwise identical voltage difference between a further source/drain region or a bit line and the capacitance of the trench capacitor. Consequently, the complete charging of the trench capacitor takes correspondingly longer, for which reason this body effect correspondingly limits the writing performance for example in a DRAM memory cell.
Furthermore, as the integration density increases, it becomes more and more difficult to ensure a contact connection of the local well regions, i.e. well regions relative to the selection transistor. In particular on account of depletion around the trench capacitor regions, it is difficult, in particular in the case of a high packing density, to ensure a low-impedance or highly conductive current path from the well contacts to the selection transistors without potential barriers. This is true particularly since as the well doping increases, the associated field strengths at connection regions with respect to the trench capacitor increase correspondingly.
FIG. 1 shows a simplified plan view of a conventional DRAM memory cell arrangement, where STI designates shallow trench isolations which are formed in strip-type fashion and form a multiplicity of strip-type active regions AA in a semiconductor substrate. In the active regions AA, respective first and second source/drain regions S/D with a channel region lying in between are formed to produce a field-effect transistor structure. To realize a control layer CG above the channel region, strip-type word lines WL are formed essentially perpendicular to the strip-type active regions AA, the word lines enabling the field-effect transistor structure to be driven. DTC denotes a trench capacitor (Deep Trench Capacitor) which is conductively connected to one of the source/drain regions, the further source/drain region S/D being connected to a bit line (not illustrated). Furthermore, a minimum feature size that can be fabricated lithographically is represented by F in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 shows a simplified perspective view of the memory cell arrangement in accordance with FIG. 1 along a section I-I, identical reference symbols designating identical or corresponding elements and layers and a repeated description being dispensed with below.
In accordance with FIG. 3, a semiconductor memory cell accordingly comprises a trench capacitor DTC (deep trench capacitor) which is connected via an electrically conductive buried connection plate BP (buried plate) to further trench capacitors or the external electrodes thereof (not illustrated) in the memory array. The lower part of the trench capacitor DTC with its internal and external electrodes is not illustrated in FIG. 3.
The upper region of the trench capacitor DTC as illustrated in FIG. 3 has a trench capacitor connection layer 8 comprising, for example, polycrystalline, highly-doped semiconductor material and in particular polysilicon. For the insulation of the trench capacitor connection layer 8, the upper part of the trench capacitor DTC has a collar insulation layer 7 comprising silicon dioxide, for example. In order to connect the trench capacitor connection layer 8 to a first source/drain region S/D, by way of example, a buried layer BS (buried strap) is formed below the first source/drain region S/D. Like the first source/drain region S/D, the buried layer BS preferably constitutes a highly-doped semiconductor region of a first conduction type n, which is formed in the semi-conductor substrate of the second conduction type p, opposite to the first conduction type n. A top insulating layer 9, preferably comprising silicon dioxide, is formed in order to insulate the trench capacitor connection layer 8 from a word line WL formed at the substrate surface or the passive control layer region PCG (passive control gate) of the word line.
Furthermore, at the surface of the semiconductor substrate, a second source/drain region once again of the first conduction type n is formed in the semiconductor substrate 1, thereby defining a channel region of the field-effect transistor structure. At the surface of the channel region or of the semiconductor substrate 1, a gate insulation layer 2 is formed at least between these first and second source/drain regions S/D, at the surface of which gate insulation layer a control layer 3 (CG, control gate) as part of the word line WL formed in strip-type fashion undertakes the driving of the field-effect transistor structure. Via a bit line contact BLK, which makes contact with the second source/drain region S/D of the field-effect transistor structure, the region is connected to a bit line BL lying essentially above the word lines WL and parallel to the active regions AA formed in strip-type fashion.
For the connection of a well region (not explicitly illustrated) in the semiconductor substrate 1, a well connection doping region WA is usually provided at some distance from the field-effect transistor structure. In accordance with FIG. 3, the well connection doping region WA has a second conduction type p opposite to the first conduction type n, and usually serves for dissipating or depleting the charge carriers L that occur in the body or semiconductor substrate 1 present directly at the field-effect transistor structure.
FIG. 4 shows a simplified equivalent circuit diagram of the semiconductor memory cell in accordance with FIG. 3, identical reference symbols designating identical or corresponding elements and regions and a repeated description being dispensed with below.
In particular, the resistor R, which essentially results from an electrical conductivity of the well region or of the semiconductor substrate 1 with respect to the well connection doping region WA, increases as the integration density increases, which leads to an impairment of the function on account of the body effect described above.
In particular in DRAM semiconductor memory cells with associated trench capacitors, this problem is intensified by the fact that the trench capacitors DTC arranged in an array in accordance with FIG. 1 move ever closer together and, consequently, the clearance between the trench capacitors for dissipating the charge carriers L becomes more and more constricted. Moreover, DRAM semiconductor memory cells also do not afford the possibility of dissipating the charge carriers L via the deeper regions of the semiconductor substrate 1, since, by virtue of the buried connection plate BP for connecting the counterelectrodes of the trench capacitors DTC, an insulating layer is built up in this region.
However, an insufficient or high-impedance well connection of the body or of the semiconductor substrate in direct proximity to the field-effect transistor structure leads sooner or later to its charging and consequently, on account of the body effect, to a reduction of the effective threshold voltage and thus to increased leakage currents. In particular in the case of the DRAM semiconductor memory cell illustrated in FIG. 3, the retention time is thus impaired.

Field-effect transistor structure and associated semiconductor memory cell


A system and method for altering the operation of a computer application while avoiding recompiling the computer application or modifying the kernel associated with the operating system of a computing device. A computer application is launched in a suspended mode. An asynchronous procedure call (APC) is used to load an additional dynamic link library (DLL) to be associated with the computer application. The additional DLL includes routines that operate differently than routines originally associated with the computer application through an initial DLL. The references to the routines within the computer application are redirected to the routines of the additional (DLL). The operation of the computer application is therefore changed while avoiding rewriting the application or changing the operating system.

An important factor in providing computer applications is the ability to update the functionality of the computer programs. New versions of the same computer programs are released on a regular basis. However, the continual release and update of computer applications tends to deter from the user experience in using the computer applications.
The most common method for updating a computer application is by recompiling or rewriting the computer application to change the operation of the computer application as desired. However, this update process consumes a user's time by forcing the user to update the computer application or purchase a new version of the computer application to be installed.
Another method for altering the operation of a computer program is to change the interaction of the operating system with the computer program. Functions within the kernel of the operating system may be changed such that when the computer application makes use of those functions, the operation of the computer application is also changed. However, changing the kernel for execution of the computer application consumes processing time since the kernel will need to be returned to its original state for other computer applications executed on a computing device.

System and method for changing operation of an application without recompiling


In the field of engine-powered vehicles is desirable to monitor vehicle operating parameters and provide a vehicle operator with an indication when the monitored parameters enter undesirable operating conditions. It is further desirable in many instances to provide a visual indication of the relative magnitude of the sensed parameter which is in an undesirable operating condition. The subject invention provides an apparatus for monitoring the operating condition of a vehicle of the type having a plurality of sensor devices for sensing separate vehicle parameters and producing respective parameter signals responsive to the sensed parameters. The apparatus includes a processor means for receiving the parameters signals, processing each of the parameter signals to determine if the associated sensed parameter is in an undesirable operating condition, and producing respective display control signals in response to the parameter signals indicating undesirable operating conditions for the sensed parameters, respectively. The apparatus further includes a display device for receiving the display control signals and sequentially providing a visual indication of the magnitude of each sensed parameter which is in an undesirable operating condition in response to the display control signals.

In a variety of engine-powered vehicles, monitoring devices are employed to detect the presence of various undesirable operating conditions, such as over heating of the engine, low oil pressure, low fuel and the like, and indicators are provided to warn the operator of such conditions.
The importance of the various monitored conditions usually varies as to criticality. For example, the air filter for the engine or the filter for the hydraulic fluid may gradually clog during operation of the vehicle. The vehicle operator should be warned of such clogging, but generally there is no need to remedy the situation until the end of the day when the vehicle returns for normal servicing and maintenance. A low fuel condition requires more immediate attention from the operator. A loss of engine oil pressure or a loss of hydraulic fluid represent conditions which require immediate operator attention to prevent damaging the vehicle.
Prior monitoring systems have detected the presence of undesirable conditions and then signaled the vehicle operator by means of dial indicators, indicator lamps, or audible means. The efficiency of these systems greatly depend upon the operator's careful attention to all of the various indicators and upon his judgement as to which may call for immediate correction. As the complexity of a vehicle increases, the number of monitored parameters generally increases. Therefore, the operator is required to direct more attention to the increasing number of indicators, and less attention to operating the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,146, which issued to Fratzke et al. on Jan. 15, 1980 and is assigned to the assignee herein, recognizes and partially addresses the above problems. Fratzke et al. provides a system for warning a vehicle operator of an undesirable operating condition of one or more of a plurality of monitored operating parameters of an engine-powered vehicle. Three degrees of warning are given, depending upon the criticality of the monitored parameter. Individually energizable low-intensity warning indicators are provided for each of the monitored parameters, and a multiplexing circuit is provided for staggered pulsing of the indicators. The existence of any critical fault will cause an intermittent operation of a more intense warning device, while the existence of a highly critical fault results in an additional intermittent warning of a still greater degree of intensity.
Since the invention of the Fratzke et al. system, vehicles have become much more complex and the number of vehicle parameters requiring monitoring has increased dramatically. In Fratzke et al. and other prior systems, an increasing number of monitored parameters results in an increased number of warning indicators. However, increasing the number of indicators on a vehicle is undesirable from both an economic and operator standpoint.
Furthermore, in many instances it is desirable to provide an indication of the relative magnitude of the parameters which are in an undesirable condition. For example, in the instance of low oil pressure, it is desirable to provide an indication of the relative magnitude of the actual oil pressure. In order to provide an indication of this type, past systems have utilized separate indicators, such as dial indicators, for each monitored parameter which is to be displayed. Again this is undesirable because it adds to the cost of the vehicle and requires greater attention on the part of the vehicle operator. Hence, many prior systems only provide such an indication for a few selected parameters, such as fuel level, oil pressure, and engine temperature. However, it is desirable to provide such an indication for any monitored parameter which enters an undesirable condition without increasing the number of indicators on the vehicle. It is further desirable to provide a display which indicates the relative magnitude of selected parameters in the absence of any undesirable operating conditions.
The present invention is directed towards overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.


A linear compressor includes a cylinder part and a piston part. A spring connects the cylinder part and the piston part and operates in the direction of reciprocation of the piston part relative to the cylinder part. The piston part includes a radially compliant but axially stiff linkage and piston. The cylinder part includes a cylinder and a cylinder liner therewithin. A bore runs through the cylinder liner and the piston reciprocates in the bore. Gas bearing passages are formed between the cylinder and the cylinder liner leading to opening through the wall of the cylinder liner to the bore. A gas bearing manifold receives compressed gases and supplies the compressed gases to the gas bearing passages. The gas bearing passages follow a tortuous path to the openings.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a linear compressor, particularly but not solely for use in refrigerators.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
Compressors, in particular refrigerator compressors, are conventionally driven by rotary electric motors. However, even in their most efficient form, there are significant losses associated with the crank system that converts rotary motion to linear reciprocating motion. Alternatively a rotary compressor which does not require a crank can be used but again there are high centripetal loads, leading to significant frictional losses. A linear compressor driven by a linear motor would not have these losses, and can be designed with a bearing load low enough to allow the use of aerostatic gas bearings as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,845, where a connecting rod that is compliant to lateral movement allows for the low bearing load.
A discussion of aerostatic gas bearings is included in "Design of Aerostatic Bearings", J. W. Powell, The Machinery Publishing Company Limited, London 1970. However with normal manufacturing tolerances and equipment production of effective gas bearings is difficult.
Conventional compressors are mounted within a hermetically sealed housing which in use acts as a reservoir of refrigerant gas. Refrigerant gas is drawn into the compressor from this reservoir and is exhausted through an exhaust conduit leading from the compressor, through the housing.
Operation of the compressor involves the reciprocation of moving parts leading to vibration of the compressor unit, in all three axis. To reduce the external noise effect of this vibration the compressor is mounted on isolation springs within the sealed housing.
With a linear compressor the piston vibrates relative to the cylinder in only one axis, with consequent reaction forces on whichever part, if either, is fixed. One solution proposed to this problem is to operate a pair of compressors synchronously in a balanced and opposed configuration. However this arrangement would be too complex and costly for use in a commodity item such as a domestic refrigerator. Another proposed solution is the addition of a resonant counterweight to reduce the vibration. However this approach limits the operation of the compressor because the counterweight is a negative feedback device and is limited to the fundamental unbalance force. A further solution is proposed in "Vibration characteristics of small rotary and linear cryogenic coolers for IR systems", Gully and Hanes, Proceedings of the 6th International Cryocooler Conference, Plymouth, Mass., 1990. This solution involves independently supporting the piston part and the cylinder part of the compressor within the housing so that the "stator acts as a counterweight". However in implementing this design in a domestic refrigerator there is a problem when the piston mass is low. In such a compressor, as the discharge pressure increases, the force of the compressed gas acts as a spring force (the "gas spring") which increases the running speed as the discharge pressure increases. This is a problem because the frequency of the "third" vibration mode (where the piston and the cylinder vibrate in phase with each other but out of phase with the compressor shell) is only slightly above the frequency of the desirable "second" mode (where the shell does not vibrate and the piston and cylinder are out of phase). Thus the shell starts to vibrate intolerably as the "gas spring" starts to operate and effectively raises the "second" mode frequency to, and eventually above, the "third" mode frequency.


When secondary-transfer residual toner adheres to a brush member, the secondary-transfer residual toner is concentrated on an end of the brush member and it is difficult to uniformly charge the secondary-transfer residual toner. The secondary-transfer residual toner can be recovered to the roots of conductive fibers of the brush member by satisfying the relationship Rb≧Ri, where Rb (Ω) is a resistance value of the brush member and Ri (Ω) is a resistance value of an intermediate transfer member in an area where the intermediate transfer member is in contact with the brush member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus that uses an electrophotographic process etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus that includes photosensitive drums for yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (Bk) colors arranged in series, toner images of the respective colors are sequentially primary-transferred in a superimposed manner onto an intermediate transfer member. Then, the toner images are finally secondary-transferred together from the intermediate transfer member onto a recording medium. Such an image forming apparatus has been known as a copier or laser beam printer.
Toner remaining on the intermediate transfer member without being secondary-transferred from the intermediate transfer member to the recording material (hereinafter referred to as secondary-transfer residual toner) needs to be recovered from the intermediate transfer member before the toner images are secondary-transferred to the next recording material. As a configuration for recovering secondary-transfer residual toner, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-50167 discloses a configuration in which secondary-transfer residual toner is charged by a charging unit and recovered from an intermediate transfer member. Specifically, after the secondary-transfer residual toner is charged by the charging unit with a polarity opposite that of toner in a charged state during development, the charged secondary-transfer residual toner is moved from the intermediate transfer member to a photosensitive drum for recovery. The secondary-transfer residual toner moved to the photosensitive drum is recovered by a cleaning unit for the photosensitive drum.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-205012 discloses a configuration that uses a brush member as a charging unit. Secondary-transfer residual toner on an intermediate transfer member may be deposited in layers. To uniformly charge the secondary-transfer residual toner deposited in layers, the configuration disclosed in PTL 2 uses the brush member to charge the secondary-transfer residual toner deposited in layers on the intermediate transfer member while distributing the secondary-transfer residual toner.
However, adhesion of the secondary-transfer residual toner to the brush member may degrade the performance of charging the secondary-transfer residual toner. The degradation in charging performance of the brush member makes it difficult to equalize electric charges of the secondary-transfer residual toner. As a result, the secondary-transfer residual toner may not be able to be recovered from the intermediate transfer member.
The charging performance of the brush member may be degraded, because when the secondary-transfer residual toner is charged by the brush member, adhesion of the secondary-transfer residual toner is concentrated on the tips of conductive fibers of the brush member. If a large amount of secondary-transfer residual toner adheres to the tips of the conductive fibers, it is difficult to distribute the secondary-transfer residual toner deposited in layers on the intermediate transfer member, and is difficult to uniformly charge the secondary-transfer residual toner. If the secondary-transfer residual toner cannot be uniformly charged, it is difficult to recover the secondary-transfer residual toner from the intermediate transfer member.
This phenomenon tends to occur particularly when the electric charge of toner is low, or when the amount of secondary-transfer residual toner is increased by a reduction in transfer efficiency caused by use of paper with rough surface nature, such as rough paper.
In view of the circumstances described above, an aspect of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can suppress, even if secondary-transfer residual toner adheres to a brush member, concentration of the adhering secondary-transfer residual toner on the tips of the brush member, and can efficiently recover the secondary-transfer residual toner from an intermediate transfer member.

Image forming apparatus with a brush member configured to charge untransferred developer material


An object of the present invention is to reduce the volume of a control signal and shorten a delay of processing in a system comprising a base station configured to transmit a pilot signal at a predetermined transmission power and a mobile station configured to transmit a preamble prior to transmission/reception of data. A mobile station comprises means for spreading the preamble with a spreading code corresponding to a reception power or a signal interference ratio of the pilot signal at the host station, based on a correspondence between the spreading code and, the reception power or the signal interference ratio of the pilot signal at the host station (power code determiner and transmitted signal converter), and means for transmitting the preamble after the spreading process (transmitter); and a base station comprises means for determining a transmission power or a downlink transmission rate for a signal directed to the mobile station, according to the spreading code of the preamble received from the mobile station, based on the correspondence between the spreading code, and the reception power or the signal interference ratio of the pilot signal at the mobile station (spreading code measuring part, estimator, and transmission rate determiner).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a base station for transmitting a pilot signal at a predetermined transmission power, a mobile station for transmitting a preamble prior to a start of transmission/reception of data, a communication system for implementing radio communication based on code division multiplexing between the base station and the mobile station, a transmission control method, and a mobile station control program.
A "signal interference ratio" in the present specification means a power ratio of a signal to an interference signal with the signal. The interference signal herein can be the sum of the so-called interference signal (Interference) and noise signal (Noise) and, in this case, the signal interference ratio is called SINR (Signal Interference & Noise Ratio). The interference signal can also be defined by adopting the so-called interference signal (Interference) only and, in this case, the signal interference ratio is called SIR (Signal Interference Ratio). Embodiments of the invention described later will explain examples adopting SINR.
2. Related Background Art
The preamble power ramping is applied to random access of W-CDMA (cf. "W-CDMA Mobile Communications System" pp 130–134 (editorship: Keiji Tachikawa, publisher: Maruzen Co., Ltd.)). A preamble is a short signal transmitted prior to transmission of data packet, and a spreading code to be used is selected from sixteen types of limited spreading codes. Therefore, a base station can readily detect a preamble by means of a simple matched filter. Furthermore, the application of power ramping using this preamble can reduce the adverse effect of interference on other users due to control error of open-loop transmit power control. Specifically, a mobile station repeatedly transmits the preamble plural times until it receives an AI (Acquisition Indicator), which indicates detection of the preamble, from a base station. The mobile station gradually increases its transmission power every transmission of preamble. The mobile station terminates the transmission of preamble at a time of reception of an AI and starts transmitting a data packet at a power corresponding to a preamble transmission power at that time. The mobile station selects a spreading code to be used, at random every transmission of a preamble, and, when receiving an AI, it starts transmitting a data packet with a spreading code uniquely corresponding to a spreading code used for the last preamble, from a determined time (e.g., 4 ms) after the transmission of the last preamble.

Base station, mobile station, communication system, transmission control method, and mobile station control program


A communication system is disclosed that comprises first and second communication apparatus. The first communication apparatus is provided with a transmitter for each of the transmission paths, which are capable of sending at least part of a communication signal to the second communication apparatus. The first communication apparatus moreover comprises training mechanisms for generating a training code to be sent to the second communication apparatus enabling a receiver to match a received signal to a corresponding transmitted signal. According to the invention, a training code is used with at least nearly ideal cyclic auto-correlation properties such that its cyclic auto-correction function is at least nearly zero for all cyclic shifts. The transmitter concurrently sends a training code in a mutually shifted manner, while the receiver is capable of performing a cyclic auto-correlation with respect to a received training signal.

Communication systems, especially of a non-wired type, share a common faith in that they have to cope with the available bandwidth over the transmission path used. Numerous techniques have been developed through the years to utilize the available bandwidth as efficient as possible in order to enhance the bit rate over the transmission path. One of these techniques is so called space division multiplexing (SDM) by which a communication signal is fed and divided over a number of separate transmission paths in parallel. The communication means of the type described in the opening paragraph employ this technique and for that purpose are equipped with transmission and reception means for every transmission path which is used for the exchange of the communication signal.
A problem encountered with SDM in a non-wired environment is that the signals sent by the different transmitters are likely to interfere with each other such that each receiver not only receives a signal from the associated transmitter but also from the other transmitters. In a simple case of two transmitters and two receivers the signals r1 and r2 received by the two receivers may be represented as follows:
            r      1        =                            h          1                ·                  x          1                    +                        h          2                ·                  x          2                                r      2        =                            h          3                ·                  x          1                    +                        h          4                ·                  x          2                    where x1 and x2 are the signals sent by both transmitters and h1.4 are still unknown constants representing distortion and attenuation factors as well as other environmental and atmospheric influences exerted on the transmitted signals during transport. More generally this may be represented as: ri=Hi.xi, where Hi is the appropriate column of a n-dimensional matrix containing the constants hj, said dimension n being equal to the number of transmission paths used. If these constants are known, the system will be able to satisfactorily decode the signals received by the receivers and to derive the original signals xi out of them. Accordingly it is necessary to teach the system these factors before information is being sent. To this end the system is provided with training means which are capable of issuing known training codes which are packed into one or more training symbols which precede the information to be sent. Based on these training codes, the reception means will be able to calculate the constants hj and to apply these constants to the information which follows.
A straightforward training scheme would be to use a predetermined training symbol and to send at least one such symbol by each transmitter consecutively while the other transmitter(s) are inactive. In this manner the receiver may calculate the first column of the above matrix from the training symbol sent by the first transmitter, the second column from the training symbol sent by the second transmitter, and so on. Hence, a system using n transmission paths will require a minimum of n training symbols to recover the constants hj. This training length is a serious problem for high rate wireless packet transmission links, because of the associated overhead which reduces the net data rate. For instance, at 100 Mbps, a 1000 byte packet has a duration of 80 μs. Using the same 4 μs symbol duration as the IEEE 802.11a standard, a system using 4 transmission paths would take a minimum training time of 16 μs, which means a significant overhead of 20%. The training overhead grows with bit rate and number of transmission paths so it partially reduces the benefits of using SDM.
The present invention has inter alia for its object to provide a communication system which the training time may be reduced considerably compared to the above. It is a further object of the invention to provide such a communication system with improved frame detection and frequency synchronization.

Methods and apparatus for generating and utilizing training codes in a space division multiplexing communication system


There is provided an apparatus for reducing pair to pair cross talk which arises in electrical connectors due to closely spaced elongated parallel contacts while maintaining proper longitudinal balance and characteristic impedance of each pair. The cross talk which occurs within the connector is reduced by modifying certain circuit paths either inside or outside of the connector so that each conductor of a first pair which is parallel to and cross talking with an adjacent conductor of a second pair in the connector is relocated adjacent and parallel to the other conductor of the second pair over a predetermined distance. A substantial amount of incident reflected signal, due to impedance mismatch, is reduced by the addition of an additional circuit path, which carries the same signal as one of the relocated conductors of the first pair, at a position adjacent to the other conductor. It is preferred that the relocation of the circuit paths and the additional circuit path occur on a circuit board which is attached to the connector.

This invention relates to improving electrical signal transmission for systems having electrical connectors with parallel adjacent contacts. More particularly it relates to the partial cancellation of pair to pair interference or cross talk induced into a signal carrying cable pair by FCC type modular jacks and plugs, or other input/output signal connectors while maintaining proper longitudinal balance and characteristic impedance within the connector system.
The Federal Communications Commission has adopted certain architectural standards with respect to electrical connectors utilized in the telecommunications industry so as to provide intermatability. The connectors most commonly utilized are FCC type modular plugs and jacks. The plug is normally terminated to a cable having a plurality of parallel conductors which may be connected to a telephone handset or other communications device. The conductors are paired and each pair forms a signal loop. Each pair in the cable normally consists of two adjacent twisted conductors. This arrangement in the cable results in certain electrical characteristics of the cable including its characteristic impedance and longitudinal balance. The corresponding jack is commonly mounted to a panel or a printed circuit board which in turn is connected to a telecommunications network. A typical FCC jack is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,478.
Often a plurality of jacks, such as six, are placed adjacent to one another in a housing with the printed circuit board forming the backside of the housing. Each jack includes a plurality of elongated contacts which are closely spaced and parallel to one another. A typical jack having eight adjacent and parallel contacts is shown in FIG. 1. Jack 10 includes electrical contacts 12 which are housed in the hollow portion of the jack and include at least two pairs of parallel contacts. Each pair 14 and 20 form separate communication circuits, each of which will be referred to herein sometimes as a signal pair. Pair 14 includes adjacent conductors 16 and 18 and pair 20 includes conductors 22 and 24 which flank pair 14. Each of these contacts extend through the backside 26 of jack 10 and are soldered to circuit board 28, as shown in FIG. 2. The lengths of the contacts running through the jack are predetermined by connector design considerations.
When an electrical signal of a given frequency is applied to a pair of conductors, an unequal portion of signal energy is transmitted to the individual conductors of an adjacent pair by each conductor of the signal pair. This transmission is primarily due to the capacitive and inductive couplings between adjacent conductors being substantially higher than the couplings of the other conductor of the signal pair resulting in a phenomenon known as cross talk. This phenomena is further exacerbated when both conductors of the signal pair are placed adjacent to and outside of, or flanking, opposing conductors of the other signal pair. For ease of discussion adjacent conductors which are not a signal pair in themselves are referred to herein as a cross-talking pair. For example conductors 16 and 22 form a cross-talking pair and conductors 22 and 24 form a signal pair. The extent of the cross talk is governed by such parameters as the space between the adjacent conductors, the dielectric constant of the material between such conductors and the distance in which such conductors are closely spaced and parallel to one another. Furthermore, the extent of the cross talk is a function of the frequency of the signal on either or both of the signal pairs. Cross talk increases logarithmically as the frequency of the signal increases and is commonly expressed as 10 .times. log of the ratio of the cross talk energy divided by the signal energy (decibels or dB).
As FCC modular plugs and jacks are utilized more and more in high frequency data and communication applications, cross talk which arises in the adjacent and parallel contacts of the jack, and to a lesser degree in the plug, has become a problem in the industry. Furthermore, because of miniaturization as well as FCC rules, these jacks are quite small resulting in a very close spacing of the contacts which worsens the problem.
A current industry standard permits no more than -56 dB of near end cross talk at 16 Megahertz (MHz). Using good prior art design techniques, such as that shown in FIG. 3, one is able to reach -50 dB of cross talk at 16 MHz utilizing a commonly available modular plug and jack combination. Many designers believe that the routings of the individual circuit paths forming a single signal pair on the circuit board should generally be parallel to each other and the signal pairs should be separated from other pairs as much as possible and be non-parallel to them. That type of design technique on the circuit board does nothing to reduce the cross talk which arises within the connector which is attached to the circuit board but simply, at best, maintains the status quo.
It has been found that cross talk coupling induced by the modular plug and jack interface can be reduced to a great extent by judicious placement of conductors after they exit the modular jack so as to induce signals of opposite phase to those which were induced inside the plug and jack. In the case where the exit from the modular jack is to a printed circuit board, this conductor placement can be effected by using routing methods so as to insure consistent performance in the mass produced part. To decrease cross talk, the circuit traces that form both pairs should be routed in a pattern that is opposite in polarity to the pattern that produces cross talk in the jack and plug. Thus, a positive polarity signal that is induced in the jack is reduced by a negative polarity signal induced by traces on the printed circuit board. It has been demonstrated that improvement in cross talk may be obtained by utilizing this technique to cancel cross talk induced between pairs 1 and 2 of a four pair plug and jack interface wired according to the E.I.A.- A Standard. This wiring standard requires pair 2 to straddle pair 1 causing poor cross talk. The routing pattern of the circuit board places the traces of pair 2 on opposite sides of the corresponding conductors of pair 1 as to which they were positioned inside a plug and jack, thus increasing opposing polarity coupling and thereby reducing the net induced cross talk. The above-described technique of cross talk reduction is described and claimed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/855,893, filed Mar. 23, 1992 by Kenneth W. Brownell and Sterling A. Vaden, titled Low Cross Talk Electrical Connector System, which application is assigned to Superior Modular Products, Inc., assignee of the present application. U.S. application Ser. No. 07/855,893 is incorporated herein by reference.
It has been found that by utilizing the cross talk reduction techniques as set forth above, while having a desirable effect on the reduction of cross talk, the rerouting on the circuit board contributes to an impedance mismatch of the entire transmission system, including the cable, connector, and printed wiring board, thereby negatively affecting structural return loss, voltage standing wave ratio, and combined system attenuation. Table 1, set forth below, shows near end cross talk (NEXT) performance and structural return loss (RETURN LOSS) for two similar sample board assemblies. Assembly 100067 REV P1 utilizes strictly prior art paired traces on the circuit board 30, as shown in FIG. 3, while Assembly 100067 REV B utilizes split pairs, as shown in FIG. 5, which is the subject matter of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/855,893.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ TABLE 1A PAIRS NEXT 100067 REV P1 NEXT 100067 REV B ______________________________________ 1-2 -55.5 dB -65.2 dB 1-3 -59.1 -57.3 1-4 -63.2 -62.8 2-3 -74.6 -78.5 2-4 -63.8 -60.1 3-4 -62.3 -67.3 ______________________________________ TABLE 1B RETURN LOSS 100067 REV P1 RETURN LOSS 100145 REV B ______________________________________ PAIR 1 -38.1 dB PAIR 1 -37.1 dB PAIR 2 -34.8 PAIR 2 -28.0 PAIR 3 -38.0 PAIR 3 -36.7 PAIR 4 -35.8 PAIR 4 -36.1 ______________________________________
Table 1 refers to next pairs 1-2 (Table 1A) and return loss for pair 2 (Table 1B). It is clear that the return loss is substantially improved for pair 2 in the REV P1 sample where parallel runs are utilized when compared to a split pair. This parallel routing, however, limits the amount of cross talk reduction that can be effective in a given board length or area because only one conductor of each pair is in close proximity with the other cross-talking conductors. Thus, pair 1-2 cross talk improvement is further enhanced when the pairs are split, however, return loss is worsened in pair 2. In the embodiments set forth above, pair 1 is the innermost pair, pair 2 flanks pair 1, and pairs 3 and 4 are the two outermost pairs. A schematic of a prior art paired routing of 100067 REV P1 is shown in FIG. 3 with pair 1 indicated as 31 and pair 2 indicated as 33. A schematic of 100067 REV B showing a split paired routing as taught in U.S. application Ser. No. 07/855,893 is shown in FIG. 6 with pair 1 being represented as 35 and pair 2 represented as 37.
It is therefore desirable to reduce cross talk without sacrificing return loss.

Impedance matched reduced cross talk electrical connector system


An attachment unit interface electrical connector which includes a slide latch which is moveable between open and close positions utilizing a pivotally mounted tab member. The pivotally mounted tab member is mounted onto the slidably mounted latch so that the latch member is accessible even when the attachment unit interface female connector is attached to a male connector in an area of confinement.

An attachment unit interface connector, commonly called in the computer industry an "AUI connector" is a multiple pin-type connector which utilizes a slidable latch to attach the male and female connectors together. The female connector includes a central multi-port terminal arrangement of pins typically housed within a shell sometimes referred to as a "D" shell. The female connector further includes first and second mounting pins positioned on each side of the D shell. Each mounting pin includes a circular recess which receives the base of a sliding latch, which is slidably mounted for movement between latch open and latch closed positions.
The latch base includes spaced, tabbed end portions having slots which may be moved to positions of non-engagement or engagement with attachment pins of a male connector.
When the male and female AUI connectors are connected together by the latch, the edges of the slots in the spaced end portions of the latch actually engage the attachment pins of the male connector to maintain the male and female connectors in tight electrical connection. This latch has proved to be extremely successful and is commonly used.
However, oftentimes, the AUI connectors are used in situations where access to the latch for opening or closing the latch is extremely limited. For example, an option card for a computer may include several connectors mounted in the same slot in the rear panel of the computer housing. The proximity of the AUI connector to other connectors located in the same slot may prevent one from easily accessing the latch to move the latch to open and closed positions. Insofar as known, no one has developed a way to make this latch more accessible so that the AUI connection may be more easily connected and disconnected.


A neck strap for a mobile electronic device, includes a flexible loop arrangeable around the neck of a user and a connector whereby said flexible loop is connectable to said mobile electronic device. Furthermore, one section of said flexible loop includes at least one securing element, whereby a cable is securable to said at least one section of the flexible loop. In this way, a cable, such as an earphone cable, may be secured to the flexible loop, thereby organizing the cable and reducing tangling of the cable.

Neck straps for mobile electronic devices usually comprise a flexible loop which is arrangeable around the neck of a user, and a connector whereby the flexible loop is connectable to the mobile electronic device. Two typical, but not exclusive, examples of mobile electronic devices used with such neck straps are mobile telephones and music players, such as an MP3 player.
The neck strap allows the user to "hang" their mobile electronic device about his or her neck via the neck strap. This allows the user to carry the device without needing to use his or her hands. As is often the case, some sort of interface device, such as earphones or a microphone are connected to the mobile electronic device with a cable. It is often difficult to keep this cable from tangling with the neck strap when not in use. In addition, the presence of both the neck strap and a cable gives the electronic device an untidy and unorganized impression. Furthermore, the interface device, such as the earphones, can be difficult for the user to locate due to the long and disorganized cable.
One typical way for keeping cables from interface devices, such as earphones organized is with the use of a cable drum. One example of such a cable drum is shown in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/142817. However, the cable drum is an extra device which the user must keep track of an carry around.
Another device for keeping earphones and a neck strap organized is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,847,724. The neck strap shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,847,724 shows a device in which a drum mechanism is built into the housing of a mobile electronic device. The drum mechanism can roll the neck strap into the housing. The earphones are located in a pouch on the end of the neck strap. However, due to the presence of the drum in the housing, the mobile electronic device becomes quite bulky. In addition, the cables can still get tangled when they are placed in the pouch on the strap.


The present disclosure relates to a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate having a trap-rich layer, with crystal defects, which is disposed within a handle wafer, and an associated method of formation. In some embodiments, the SOI substrate has a handle wafer. A trap-rich layer, having a plurality of crystal defects that act to trap carriers, is disposed within the handle wafer at a position abutting a top surface of the handle wafer. An insulating layer is disposed onto the handle wafer. The insulating layer has a first side abutting the top surface of the handle wafer and an opposing second side abutting a thin layer of active silicon. By forming the trap-rich layer within the handle wafer, fabrication costs associated with depositing a trap-rich material (e.g., polysilicon) onto a handle wafer are reduced and thermal instability issues are prevented.

Integrated chips are formed on substrates comprising a semiconductor material. Traditionally, integrated chips were formed on bulk substrates comprising a solid layer of semiconductor material. In more recent years, silicon-on-insulator substrates have emerged as an alternative. Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates are substrates that have a thin layer of active silicon separated from an underlying handle wafer by a layer of insulating material. The layer of insulating material electrically isolates the thin layer of active silicon from the handle wafer, thereby reducing current leakage of devices formed within the thin layer of active silicon. The thin layer of active silicon also provides for other advantages, such as faster switching times and lower operating voltages, which have made SOI substrates widely used for high volume fabrication of radio frequency (RF) systems, such as RF switches.

Handle wafer for high resistivity trap-rich SOI

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A ladder guard (10) for use with a ladder (8) having a plurality of rungs (8a-8f). The ladder guard has a first position, in which respective portions (21-23) of the ladder guard are located in front of a number of the rungs (8b-8d) to prevent access to the rungs. The ladder guard has a second position, in which the portions (21-23) of the ladder guard are located behind rungs of the ladder to allow access to the rungs of the number of rungs. The ladder guard includes a support (12) for supporting the ladder guard on a ladder for movement from the first to the second position by lifting the portions of the ladder guard up and over the rungs of the number of rungs. The ladder guard further includes means to releasably lock the ladder guard in the first position.

It is often desirable to be able to prevent use of a ladder, especially when ladders provide ready access to buildings, vehicles or towers.
On both domestic and commercial building sites, ladders are commonly left on site, overnight and on weekends, ready for use on the next working day. During this time they allow easy access to upper levels and roofs, which may be unsafe. As well as the dangers of locations able to be accessed by ladders left on site, the ladders themselves can present a hazard to unauthorised users.
Unauthorised users may be children, vandals, thieves or people wishing to survey the progress of the building works.
Ladder guards have been developed that block access to a ladder in a number of alternative ways. U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,206 discloses a ladder guard having two sheets of metal pivotally joined together. The upper sheet hooks over a rung of the ladder. The lower sheet includes a portion that engages a rung from behind. The lower sheet is locked into position to prevent removal of the guard and access to the ladder. This guard must be completely removed and installed at the beginning and end of every day.
There are a number of other ladder guards disclosed in patent specifications, that simply sit over the front of the ladder engaging one rung at one end and locking onto the ladder at the other end. As with the previously described ladder guard, each of these devices must be fully removed and installed at the beginning and end of every day. Whilst installation is relatively straightforward, the ladder guard must be retrieved from its storage location, installed onto the ladder and locked into position. This process means that many of the people working on a typical building site, such as builders and other trades people, are likely to leave at the end of the day without installing the ladder guards. That is, there is a significant disincentive to reliable daily use of the ladder guards.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,225,863 discloses a ladder guard having a panel which is hingedly mounted at one side to the ladder, such that the panel can swing around to allow or prevent access to the ladder. The ladder guard is permanently installed on the ladder and therefore a site worker would simply swing the panel across the ladder and lock it into a closed position.
While this construction overcomes the problems of a separate ladder guard, it presents new problems. The ladder guard takes up space next to the ladder when open, thus preventing the ladder from being positioned next to an access opening or doorway. The ladder guard could be easily broken as people move past it, catching things on it when in the open position. The ladder guard, when in a closed and locked position, does not prevent access to the rear of the ladder, and indeed the ladder can still be used unless it is permanently affixed to a wall.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved ladder guard that overcomes at least some of the problems with the prior art described.
The applicant does not concede that the prior art discussed above forms part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia at the priority date.


A door stop is formed from a single flexible band of sheet metal which is symmetrical about a transverse center line and includes an arch shaped central section and two end portions. An underside of one end portion includes a high friction material while the underside of the other end portion is free from that material. The only engagement with the door is provided by the frictional engagement of a high friction material on a center section engaging the bottom edge of the door. The device can thus be used from either direction and provides a symmetrical force on the door preventing movement relative to the stop in either direction.

1. Field of Invention
This invention is a new device suitable for holding a door in a stationary position and prevent a door from swinging open or closed.
The device is a curved spring constructed with steel or similar compatible materials. In operation the spring is loaded by flattening the springs fabricated curve. When the spring tries to return to its original curvature, an expansive force is generated. This expansive force under the door holds the door stationary.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Available on the market today are the following devices and methods to hold a door in a stationary position.
(A) Triangular Shaped Devices;
This is the most common device to hold a door stationary. The bottom of the door is forced onto a triangular shaped device or shim. This action twists and lifts the door whereby the weight and torque of the door compresses the shim. This compression force is transferred through the shim and onto the floor. The vertical force generated by the door and the friction between the door to shim and shim to floor prevents the door from swinging.
The disadvantages of triangular shim devices are:
(a) A triangular shim device is unidirectional. This is because a triangular shim can only prevent a door from swinging in one direction but free to move in the opposite direction. Also a triangular shim can only be engaged from one side of a door's swing since the door must be pulled up the slope of the shim.
(b) The shim material may relax under load, losing its expansive force and allows the door to move.
(c) The holding force on the door is determined by the initial loading of the door onto the shim. A stronger person will impose a larger holding force for the door than a weaker person.
(B) Magnetic Devices and Hooks:
These require exact alignment of the door to the magnet or hook to work. Also a door can only be opened to a predetermined position. This may not always be desirable.
(C) Heavy Objects:
A heavy object such as a chair or a brick is used to block a door open. This method is not desirable because the object restricts a doorway's clearance.
(D) Many devices have also been proposed in prior patents including U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,479 (Lunn). This discloses a spring arrangement covered by a rubber frictional coating which provides a base plate for resting on the floor and a spring plate at an angle to the base plate to form a spring wedge.


A seal cartridge for a centrifugal pump includes a housing that fits within a conventional stuffing box of the pump and has a cylindrical internal surface receiving the shaft. A pair of annular grooves are provided internally of the housing adjacent respectively opposite ends thereof. Each groove receives an O-ring that runs in contact with the sleeve when the shaft rotates. The sleeve, housing and O-rings define an annular chamber through which water is circulated to cool and lubricate the O-rings. The water is pressurized to cause the O-rings to deform and seal against the sleeve.

The invention has been devised primarily in the context of (but is not limited to) seals for centrifugal pumps. A typical centrifugal pump includes an impeller that rotates in a pump chamber to draw liquid into the chamber through a central inlet and direct the liquid radially outwardly by centrifugal force to an outlet at the periphery of the chamber. The impeller is mounted at one end of a rotary drive shaft that extends outwardly through a housing that defines the pump chamber. Externally of the chamber, the shaft is supported in bearings and is coupled to a suitable drive motor. A seal is provided where the shaft extends through the housing defining the pump chamber.
Conventionally, two alternative types of seal have been employed, namely a traditional so-called pump "packing" or a composite mechanical seal. A traditional pump packing includes a housing into which packing rings are inserted and then compressed by means of a packing gland so that the rings seat snugly against the shaft. A mechanical seal involves a complex assembly of seal components that co-operate with one another to provide the required sealing effect. This type of seal is quite expensive both in terms of capital cost and initial set-up time and complexity.
Seals deteriorate rapidly in pumps that are used in harsh environments such as for pumping acid in paper mills. The seals must be replaced at frequent intervals, and the pump must be shut down each time. This is costly not only in terms of direct maintenance cost, but also in terms of pump down time.


Translation apparatus and method thereof for helping a user to more easily input a sentence to be translated. The translation apparatus has a speech input unit that receives a speech of a first language from a user, a control unit that generates sentences to be translated of the first language from the speech of the first language input from the speech input unit, a communication unit that transmits the sentences to be translated of the first language to a translation server and receives the sentences to be translated of a second language from the translation server, a display unit that displays the translated sentences of the second language along with previously translated sentences, a memory that stores a translation history including the sentences to be translated of the first language and the translated sentences of the second language, and a user input unit that receives an operation input of the previously translated sentences from a user.

A user interface of the existing translation apparatus performs speech recognition processing on a user's speech input through a mike to generate a sentence and display the generated sentence on a single window. When the sentence displayed on the window is translated, contents of the sentence are output on another window. The users are not familiar with the UI, such that there is a problem in that it takes much time and energy to adapt users thereto.
Even when a user frequently gives utterance several times due to the frequent occurrence of errors during a speech recognition process, it is difficult for the existing UI to approach the speech recognition and the translated results that have been attempted before.
Since the translation has been attempted only by the speech recognition merely using a microphone or only by a text input, a failure probability is high, such that a lot of attempts have been made so as to implement correct speech recognition and translation.

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A method and an apparatus or machining a workpiece include the use of a cryogenically cooled oxide containing ceramic cutting tool. The method involves cryogenic cooling of the cutting tool during a cutting operation, which cooling results in enhanced wear resistance and fracture resistance of the cutting tool. A preferred embodiment involves jetting a cryogenic fluid directly at the cutting tool.

The present invention relates to the field of machining of materials by cutting (e.g., shaping parts by removing excess material in the form of chips), and more particularly machining of materials by cutting with cryogenically cooled oxide-containing ceramic cutting tools.
As used herein, the term "cutting" includes but is not limited to the following operations: turning, boring, parting, grooving, facing, planing, milling, drilling and other operations which generate continuous chips or fragmented or segmented chips. The term cutting does not include: grinding, electro-discharge machining, ultrasonic cutting, or high-pressure jet erosion cutting, i.e., operations generating very fine chips that are not well defined in shape, e.g., dust or powder.
The term "oxide-containing ceramic cutting tool," as used herein, includes cutting tools (or cutting tips or cutting bits) made of oxide-containing ceramic materials and/or any other advanced tool materials containing at least 5% by weight of an oxide ceramic phase.
The "material removal rate," a measure of machining productivity, is the volume of material removed by a tool per unit time and is defined by the machining parameters selected for the operation. In the case of turning, the most generic cutting operation, the material removal rate is the product of cutting speed, tool feed-rate, and depth of cut. The objective is to enable machining at a higher cutting speed, a higher feed-rate, a greater depth of cut, or at any combination of these parameters leading to an overall increase in material removal rate. Alternatively, the objective is to enhance the life of cutting tools in order to minimize the down-time spent for tool change-over and/or to reduce worn tooling costs. In certain machining operations, it is sometimes desired to increase cutting speed only while keeping material removal rate constant, or even reducing it, in order to produce an improved surface finish of a machined part or to reduce cutting force and/or part fixturing requirements. This can be accomplished by a corresponding reduction in feed-rate or depth of cut, or both. The undesired effect of such a manipulation with machining parameters is a significant increase in tool temperature leading to its premature wear and failure. The objective is to minimize this undesired effect.
Driven by economic factors, the machining industry is interested in achieving cost-reductions by:                increasing material removal rates without increases in worn tool and tool change-over costs, thereby increasing productivity;        increasing cutting speeds without increases in worn tool and tool change-over costs;        turning or milling hard parts which, in the past, could have been produced only via expensive grinding operations; and        using cleaner, safer, and more health-acceptable machining methods to eliminate numerous costs associated with conventional cutting fluids (e.g., emulsions) and clean-up operations.
New, advanced cutting tool materials recently have been developed and commercialized to address these needs and improve the cutting performance of conventional tools made of high-speed steel (HSS) or tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC/Co). Compared to tools made of HSS and WC/Co, these new tools are significantly harder but also are much more brittle and sensitive to load stress and/or thermal stress shocking. Some of these advanced cutting materials, such as oxide ceramics and cermets, are capable of operating at relatively high temperatures. (Cermets are dense composite materials comprising both ceramic and metallic phases. As applied in the field of machining technologies, the term cermet includes carbide, nitride, boride, oxide and/or other more complex ceramic particles bonded or infiltrated with alloyed metals, but excludes the conventional WC/Co "hard metals.") However, the wear behavior of oxide ceramics is less predictable than that of HSS, WC/Co or other advanced tool materials. After an initial, usually negligible, cratering, flank wear, and/or notching, the oxide ceramic tools usually fracture catastrophically within the cutting edge area or nose, resulting in machining down-time and, frequently, in a damaged work-piece surface.
Table 1 below compiles typical values of thermo-mechanical properties of some of the most popular cutting tool materials. Compared to carbide, nitride, and diamond-based cutting tools, the oxide ceramic-based tools show significantly lower values of a combined traverse rupture strength, fracture toughness, and thermal conductivity, while revealing a dangerously high thermal expansion coefficient. This makes the oxide ceramic tools prone to brittle fracture under mechanical load as well as cracking due to a localized thermal expansion in thermal gradient.
TABLE 1Thermo-mechanical Properties of Popular Cutting Tool MaterialsTraverseFractureThermalThermalrupturetoughnessexpansionconductivitystrength(K1C)coefficientat 20° C.Tool material(M Pa)M Pa m−1/2(ppm/° C.)(W/m° C.)Al2O3550489Al2O3—TiC8004.5816–21 Al2O3—1% ZrO27005.58.510SiAlON8006.532–20Si3N4100–8001.5–5.53.57–54SiC550–8604.64.557–77 Polycryst. CBN 800–11004.55100(PCBN)Polycryst. 390–15506–84560Diamond (PCD)WC/Co2000–340094–680–121(TiC—TaCaddit.)Data compiled from: "Ceramics and Glasses, Engineered Materials Handbook", Vol.4, ASM Int., The Materials Information Soc., 1991, "Microstructural Effects in Precision Hard Turning", Y. K. Chou and C. J, Evans, MED-Vol. 4, Mfg. Sci. and Engr., ASME 1996., and "Temperature and Wear of Cuffing Tools in High-speed Machining of Inconel 718 and Ti-6Al-6V-2Sn", T. Kitagawa et al., Wear 202 (1997), Elsevier, pp. 142–148.
It is recognized that all conventional coolants and cutting fluids, including room-temperature water and an emulsified oil, as well as evaporative-cooling fogs or oil mists, can thermally shock and fracture oxide ceramics. The machining community is well aware of the need to avoid the use of these cutting fluids and coolants when machining with oxide ceramic cutting tools. Numerous publications, research papers, and tool manufacturers' recommendations warn machining operators about a drastic reduction of ceramic tool life on contact with conventional cutting fluids or even with a small residue of such fluids on workpiece surfaces. Despite numerous inherent deficiencies, e.g., overheated workpiece, reduced dimensional accuracy, and risk of chip fires, dry machining is recommended when ceramic cutting tools are used.
P. K. Mehrotra of Kennametal teaches in the "Applications of Ceramic Cutting Tools", Key Engineering Materials, Vol. 138–140 (1998), Chapter 1, pp. 1–24 that: "the use of coolants is not recommended when these [ceramic] tools are used to machine steels due to their low thermal shock resistance". R. Edwards states: "this ceramic [Al2O3-ZrO2 white ceramic] has a low thermal conductivity which makes it susceptible to thermal shock and so the use of coolant should be avoided", "Cutting Tools", The Institute of Materials, 1993, p. 20. According to D'errico, et al, "when a coolant is used, alumina, alumina/zirconia, and alumina/TiC tools, with one exception, tend to have poor performance probably due to limited thermal shock capability resulting from high thermal expansion coefficients", "Performance of Ceramic Cutting Tools in Turning Operations", Industrial Ceramics, Vol 17, #2, 1997. A 1995 ASM handbook adds: "water or oil coolants are not recommended for use with cold-pressed Al2O3-base ceramics because they may cause the insert to crack. If carbide tooling is used to machine a part run with coolant and a subsequent operation is planned using a cold-pressed oxide-base ceramic, the residual coolant should be blown away from the part", ASM Specialty Handbook, "Tool Materials", 1995, p. 73. R. C. Dewes and D. K. Aspinwall ("The Use of High Speed Machining for the Manufacture of Hardened Steel Dies", Trans. of NAMRI/SME, Vol. XXIV, 1996, pp.21–26) tested a range of oxide and nitride tools including: 71% Al2O3-TiC (mixed alumina), 75% Al2O3-SiC (whisker reinforced alumina), 50% CBN-AlB2-AlN, 50%-TiC-WC-AlN-AlB2, 80% CBN-TiC-WC, as well as 95% CBN-Ni/Co. They found that the use of conventional cooling fluid applied by flooding or spraying resulted in the reduction of tool life by more than 95% except for the whisker reinforced alumina for which the life was shortened by about 88%.
The oxide ceramics have one thing in common with all of the other cutting tool materials—as their temperature increases, they soften, weaken, and build-up localized, internal stresses (due to thermal expansion frequently compounded with a limited conductivity) which ultimately leads to a limit in the cutting speed, material removal rate, and/or the hardness of workpieces machined. This common characteristic of tool materials is well described by E. M. Trent and P. K. Wright in "Metal Cutting", 4th Ed., Butterworth, Boston, Oxford, 2000, and in the ASM Handbook on "Machining, Ceramic Materials".
Thus, a problem facing the machining industry is the inability to use conventional cooling methods with oxide ceramic cutting tools, i.e., the thermo-mechanical limitation on further increases in cutting speed, material removal rate, and/or the hardness of workpieces being machined.
Other problems facing the machining industry include significant environmental and health related problems associated with the conventional cutting fluids and coolants presently used in the industry. For example, carbon dioxide (CO2), a commonly used coolant, is a greenhouse generator. Also, since CO2 is denser than air it presents a potential asphyxiation concern. In addition, CO2 also has the potential to cause acid corrosion, since it is soluble in water. Freons and freon substitutes, some other commonly used coolants, also are greenhouse generators and ozone depleters. These substances also are explosive and/or toxic when heated on contact with red-hot solids. Other coolants which can be explosive include hydrocarbon gases and liquefied ammonia. Coolants such as cryogenic/liquefied air with oxygen in it can result in chip fires.
There exists a relatively large body of prior art patents pertaining to cryogenic cooling of cutting tools, including: U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,974 (Wang, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,623 (Hong), U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,114 (Dudley), U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,701 (Lundin, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,335 (Emerson), U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,859 (Yankoff), U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,863 (Joskowiak, et al.) and WO 99/60079 (Hong). However, neither these patents nor the other prior art references discussed herein solve the problems discussed above or satisfy the needs set forth below.
It is desired to have an apparatus and a method that enables machining operators to increase machining speeds and/or material removal rates without shortening the useful life of tools made of oxide-containing ceramic materials and/or any other advanced tool materials containing a significant fraction of oxide ceramic phase.
It is further desired to have an improved apparatus and a method for cooling and strengthening cutting tools made of materials revealing a tendency to wear and fail by brittle cracking so as to enable cutting at increased speed without reducing the useful life of cutting tools.
It is still further desired to have an apparatus and a method that increase material cutting speeds and/or productivity, which are limited by the lifetime (and cost) of cutting tools.
It is still further desired to have an apparatus and a method for machining materials and/or parts that cannot tolerate elevated temperatures generated on contact with the hot edge(s) of cutting tools.
It is still further desired to have an apparatus and a method for machining a workpiece which improves safety and environmental conditions at work places by minimizing the risks of chip fires, burns and/or chip vapor emissions while using an environmentally acceptable, safe, non-toxic and clean method of cooling cutting tools.
It also is desired to have an apparatus and a method for machining a workpiece which overcome the difficulties and disadvantages of the prior art to provide better and more advantageous results.

Apparatus and method for machining with cryogenically cooled oxide-containing ceramic cutting tools


A pan rack for a mixing machine is mounted to the mixing machine independent of dimensional and locational variances from machine to machine of typical bowl support mounting pins and hole. The pan rack has a mounting section which includes a hook that engages the lower surface of the bowl support, and the mounting section further has spaced corners that rest on the upper surface of the bowl support such that the pins on the upper surface of the bowl support are received by the mounting section corners. A locking collar is slidably mounted on the hook. The collar is moved into contact with the front surface and locked on the hook to prevent horizontal motion of the pan rack.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the area of agitating, and more particularly, to a pan rack support for a mixing machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically mixing machines in the food processing industry have a gear head driving a beater shaft attached to a beater that extends into a mixing bowl supported on the mixing machine. Many mixing machines further have a power take off at the front of the gear head to which processing attachments, such as dicers, slicers, grinders or other processing attachments may be connected. The processing attachment discharges processed food forward of the mixing machine and its bowl support. Therefore, support attachments are available which connect to the mixing machine and support a pan or tray to receive the processed food from the processing attachment.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,486, discloses a solid platform for a mixer with a horizontal pin that inserts a hole in the bowl support. The platform also has holes in side extending wings that receive pins on the bowl support thereby mounting the platform to the bowl support for holding a pan beneath a grinding attachment attached to the front end of the mixer.
Other pan racks are commercially available which are comprised of a wire frame construction having a similar horizontal end pin that inserts into a hole in the bowl support. The wire frame pan rack has a cross member with holes for receiving the bowl support pins thereby mounting the pan rack on the bowl support. The pan rack has a first section for supporting the pan and a second section offset vertically above the first section which contains the cross member and horizontal pin. The outer end of the first section is tilted vertically upward approximately 4.degree. with respect to the horizontal which helps hold the pan on the rack. A disadvantage of this pan rack is that cross member may become bent during handling and use which will cause a misalignment of the holes relative to each other and the horizontal end pin.
The above rack designs have the disadvantage of utilizing the pins and hole on the bowl support of the mixers. Utilization of the existing pins and hole requires that the mating holes and pin on the rack be adapted to accommodate the variations in diameter of the bowl support pins and hole and relative locations thereof. Reducing the diameter of the mating components on the rack to accommodate all possible variations of bowl support pin and hole size may result in a rack that can be mounted on every machine but does not fit properly on any machine. That is, the rack fits so loosely that it vibrates, is noisy and does not appear to be a quality product. There are further disadvantages in that the construction of prior racks and the machining requirements for manufacturing increase their cost.


The universal hybrid (26) comprises a two-cycle engine (28), boosted by the engine power reciprocating compressor (32) and a hydraulic pump (34). The pump plunger (148) fastened to engine piston (72) provide direct energy transmission to the compressor and pump. The plunger and compressor piston (94) moving in opposite direction coupled each to one of two diametrically opposite rotor's (36) axial rods, which double-sided interact with the pivotable swash plate (42).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to hydrostatic transmission, specifically to a system of internal combustion engine and pump, which are used for high pressurized fluid flow generation of such transmission.
2. Background of the Invention
The widespread engine and pump system with hydrostatic transmission is used to drive wheels and working equipment of widely known machinery-mountainous, construction, agricultural, transportation automotive and other heavy equipment.
System engine-pump are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,380 to Ritmasterl (1982), U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,477 to Patten (1982), U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,021 to Heintz (1983), U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,991 to Galitello (1989), U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,956 to Deng et al. (1990), U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,667 to Thatcher (1991), U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,292 to Moiroux et al. (1992), U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,797 to Christenson (1993), U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,331 to Sawyer (1995), U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,262 to Achten et al. (1996), U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,010 to Sawyer (1997), U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,231 to Valentin (2001) and U.S. patent application "The hybrid two cycle engine, compressor and pump and method of operation" Ser. No. 10/638,024 (filing date Aug. 08, 2003) to the same inventor Epshteyn.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objective and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe the universal hybrid engine, compressor and pump and method of operation for providing increased efficiency and specific power while minimizing the weight, installation space and fuel consumption.
The hybrid two-cycle engine, compressor and pump has the following disadvantages:
(a) The engine, compressor and pump fixed displacement volume prevent engine power from efficiently adapting to wide variable load and the speed range of an automotive.
(b) The engine, compressor and pump fixed displacement volume prevent the creation of a more environmentally-friendly internal combustion engine using the minimum specific fuel consumption in all modes of operation.
(c) The engine fixed displacement volume does not allow change of the compression ratio for using different fuels.
(d) The high power fixed displacement volume engine does not efficiently use the minimum capacity idling process and requires the high power starter.
(e) The single plunger pump has large change fluid feeding magnitude per cycle and does not provide for smooth power flow.
(f) The compressor valves camshaft disposition between the engine cylinders does not allow the modular engine block design.
(g) The compressor piston and the axial rod coupling mechanism motion within the rotor occurs without guide and this limits the compressor longevity and the power transmission.
(h) The widespread fixed displacement volume engine has only one magnitude of the cycle per minute with the minimum specific fuel consumption. This limits the necessary automotive load and speed range because the acceleration increases the specific fuel consumption. This engine defect corrected by means of complicated, heavy, high installation space, cost and labor widespread use of automatic transmission.
3. Objects and Advantages
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved universal hybrid engine-pump for progressive hydrostatic transmission having better specific data than widespread automotive engine and automatic transmission.
The present invention substantially fulfills these needs.
The objectives and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) to adapt the engine power to wide variable load and the speed range of an automotive by means of the automatic turning of the swash plate (shoe plate) and simultaneously changing the engine, compressor and pump displacement volume;
(b) to provide an environmentally—friendly engine operating in all mode with minimum specific fuel consumption by means of engine, compressor and pump displacement volume changing;
(c) to allow for the utilization of different fuels and to transform the engine into an omnivorous engine by means of the swash plate turn axis shifting;
(d) to provide the engine, pump and compressor with smaller displacement volume, allowing minimum fuel consumption during the idling operation;
(e) to provide the pump more smooth power flow by means of the pump plunger and additional pistons joint operation within the rotor;
(f) to provide the modular engine block and pump housing with smaller weight, installation space, cost and labor, by means of the pump's rotor using the capacity of the compressor camshaft;
(g) to increase the compressor's piston drive mechanism longevity and power transmission by means of using the rotor guide grooves;
(h) to provide use of the progressive hydrostatic transmission with variable displacement volume of the engine, compressor, pump and hydraulic motor instead of the widespread automotive engine and automatic transmission, thereby minimizing the weight, installation space, cost, labor and fuel consumption.
Even more objectives and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.

Universal hybrid engine, compressor and pump, and method of operation

Abstract: The swash plate turn provides simultaneously the engine, compressor and pump variable displacement volume with engine invariable compression ratio while the swash plate turn axis fixed. This increases the engine power range using the minimum specific fuel consumption. The swash plate turn axis shifting provides the engine compression ratio change for the either kind of fuel use.

Abstract: This combined factors provides the progressive hydrostatic transmission use instead of widespread automotive engine and automatic transmission, thereby minimizing the weight, installation space, cost, labor and fuel consumption.


A vehicle includes an engine, a battery storing electric power generated by operating the engine, and an ECU allowing the engine to stop in the state where a remaining capacity of the battery is larger than a first threshold value. When the engine is started by a factor different from a reduction in the remaining capacity of the battery in the state where the remaining capacity of the battery is smaller than the first threshold value, ECU causes the engine to operate and causes the battery to be charged until the remaining capacity of the battery increases to a second threshold value which is larger than the first threshold value.

A hybrid vehicle on which an electric motor for running is mounted in addition to an engine, and an electric vehicle equipped with a cruising distance extension function (range extender) are known. In these vehicles, when the vehicular speed is low, for example, the engine is stopped, and only the electric motor is used as a drive source. As described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-262401 (PTD 1), there is a case in which, when the remaining capacity of a power storage device, such as a battery, decreases to a threshold value even if the vehicular speed is low, the engine is forcedly started for driving a power generator and a battery is charged.

Vehicle, method for controlling vehicle, and control device of vehicle


The present invention relates to a system and method for displaying airline seats. The system or method transmits data to an application running on a general purpose computer, the data including information descriptive of available individual seats on one or more airplanes, the data processed by the application to generate a graphical user interface on the general purpose computer that comprises an interactive seating map representing individual seats on the one or more airplanes, the data processed by the application to generate an additional display of information about one or more of the individual seats in response to a user interaction with the graphical user interface, the interaction being triggered when placing a mouse over a portion of the graphical user interface.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic means by which people can select the exact seat or seats they want for any type of event or reserve an appointment for any activity such as a doctor or dentist appointment or even an appointment to have their car lubed. More specifically, a customer or a ticket re-seller or a venue operator can go, for example, to the internet and select the event or activity for which they want a ticket or tickets or reserve a time and reserve and order the exact seat or seats or the time of their choosing directly online. The seat or seats or reserved time they select is then removed from the inventory for that activity or event and made not available for any other buyer and such is so indicated by a graphical representation or other such indicator on the online map or picture representing availability of seating or time for that event. For an appointment reservation, the user connects to the internet or other wide area network, such as a bulletin board, from his home of office computer and connects to a page that displays a reservation calendar where he can interact such as to reserve a specific time period for himself.
In accordance with the present invention a remote location ticketing and reservation system for any venue comprises an internet or network compatible computer program constructed generally to afford access to a database, or other record maintained in electronic form, containing information about all sold and unsold seating for any specific venue or event and means and method by which a remote user, through use of a computer terminal or other such device, may access said database or other record and receive at his location through any computer terminal or other such device information about which specific seats remain available and then through a computer mouse or keyboard or other such input device select a specific seat or seats for that specific event and reserve such for himself for use during said event.
2. Prior Art
The inadequacies and inefficiencies of present ticketing and reservation systems are recognized and addressed through this invention. The rapid growth of the internet now makes it possible for anyone at his home or office to avail himself of the advantages of the instant invention through a simple internet or other wide area network connection.
Prior art makes a feeble attempt to address the inconvenience of ticket ordering. U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,126 (1988), Helbling, et al., describes a series of individual kiosks in wireless communication with a central station where a visitor can locate events of interest, view an excerpt of scenes from that venue and purchase tickets. This falls far short of the instant invention since it still requires a user to physically visit a remote site to avail himself of the service. Additionally, said prior art makes extensive use of what is called "kiosks" implying that, unlike the instant invention, it is only from his specialized machines that such services may be rendered.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,252 describes a more interactive theater attendance system where patrons are permitted two way communications between themselves and a broadcast center but this is still far from objectives of the instant invention and requires that persons be in attendance at the theater and, further some attendant be present at the remote broadcast center. The instant invention is fully automated and, other than the normal monitoring of any application for a wide area network, requires no human attendance or intervention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,427,438 describes a ticket vending system where sales of tickets can be recorded on a seating layout but, again falls far short of the instantaneous update and automatic operation of the instant invention. U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,257 allows for a view from a seat but that is now common for internet applications where a hyperlink to any graphic is routinely provided and ancillary to and even unnecessary to the instant invention. Other prior art does nothing to make ticket ordering or seating reservations more readily available and does nothing to improve the information flow to prospective customers so that they may make a more informed decision about attending any given event.
Consider the traveler who has planned a vacation in, say, New York City and wants tickets for some Broadway show. Presently he has either to phone and accept someone else's definition of what constitutes "best available" or wait until he gets into town and seek out a scalper or reseller agency and he still isn't sure exactly what his seats offer.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for displaying airline seats