Fire-resistant flexible dome (2) apparatus for covering and protecting buildings (6), goods, livestock, persons and other objects from a fire, especially a rapidly moving conflagration known as a "fire storm." In its preferred form, the apparatus comprises a dome-like structure (2) made of fire-retardant fabric, supported with air or gas pressure within integral tubes (40) radially disposed about the central axis, or between one or more layers of said fire resistant fabric. Said apparatus is rapidly deployed from its container (4), preferably located on the roof of the building (6) to be protected. Its ground-contacting periphery (13) is manually secured to the ground. In one embodiment, a liquid-filled circumferencial reservoir (24) integral with said ground-contacting periphery is provided to add an improved ground seal and added anchoring to ground to help maintain structural integrity. Air or gas pressure may be provided by several means including compressed gas, mechanical air movement or chemical devolution. The arcuate surface of the structure (2) permits laminar flow of air over the surface to aid in minimizing the effect of super-heated air, flame and burning debris upon the structure (6).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for protecting structures, as well as other objects, people and livestock from hazardous conditions, especially fire. In particular it relates to the design of an apparatus for emergency deployment in the event of the approach of hazardous conditions, especially rapidly moving fires commonly referred to as "fire storms."
Such fire storms, fueled by natural vegetation, debris and other sources create intense heat and severe convective air movement. As such, they create their own wind, rapidly drawing in air which in turn feeds the fire storm. Such fire storms cause millions of dollars in property damage every year, yet little has been done to proactively protect man-made structures. The present invention relates to protecting structures such as buildings, goods, livestock, persons and other objects from hazardous conditions, especially "fire storms."
2. Objects of the Invention
The principal object of this invention is to provide a means for protecting valuable property and/or lives from approaching fires, notably rapidly-moving forest and brush fires, commonly referred to as "fire-storms." More particularly, the present invention relates to a design for fire-resistant fabric structures deployed over buildings, other objects, livestock or people when confronted with an approaching fire.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a means to rapidly cover a man-made structure with at least one layer of fire-resistant fabric while maintaining an air space between the protected structure and the fabric.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a convenient storage method for the protective device.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide for rapid deployment of the protective device by a single person, if necessary.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for securing said apparatus to the ground thus providing a seal against the entry of hot air, flame, sparks, burning debris or other hazardous material.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a method of maintaining the integrity and support of said apparatus under harsh wind and fire conditions, and in the event of a power failure.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a method for maintaining at least a minimum air gap between said apparatus and the underlying structure being protected even in the eventuality that said apparatus should lose its structural support and collapse onto the underlying structure.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an arcuate shape to the exterior surface of the protective apparatus to maximize laminar flow characteristics of air moving over the surface thus minimizing the entrainment of burning debris or sparks, and reducing the effects of wind and hot air, or other hazardous conditions.
3. Description of the Related Art
Strategies to protect structures from external fires are diverse. Nevertheless, millions of dollars in damage are caused, and many lives are lost every year by fire-storms and other rapidly moving fires which consume valuable real estate in their paths. Prior approaches to deployable fire protection devices depended primarily on unfurling curtains or thin sheets made of fire-retardant material to protect buildings from "sparks and flame." (See e g. Rhoads U.S. Pat. No. 2,365,127; Ballinger U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,843; and Mitchell U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,958). Such devices have several important drawbacks. Notably they are difficult and time-consuming to deploy and provide little or no insulating air space between the apparatus and the structure being protected. Temperatures in a fire-storm can reach in excess of the ignition point for wood and other combustibles. Therefore, maximizing the thermal barrier provided by an air gap is essential. The time and effort required to deploy a fire-protection device is critical since in the face of an approaching fire-storm, evacuation of people necessarily takes precedence over the protection of structures. The easier and faster the deployment, the higher the likelihood that the apparatus will be successfully used. Additionally, the faster such a device is set-up, the quicker people can be evacuated, thereby increasing the safety margin. Therefore the present invention represents a significant improvement over prior art.

Rapidly deployable fire-protection apparatus


A subscriber to a two-way paging system can configure a call routing/forwarding "speed-dial" menu for display on the subscriber's two-way pager. The subscriber can then choose from among the options in this menu each time a call is placed to the subscriber's personal telephone number (PTN). The call forwarding menu is stored in a customer routing point (CRP) database record associated with the subscriber and/or the subscriber's PTN, and is either downloaded upon creation to the subscriber's two-way pager for long-term storage in the two-way pager's memory, or downloaded to the two-way pager each time a call is made to the subscriber's PTN. In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the subscriber can configure multiple call routing menus, and designate for each menu the caller(s) to which the menu corresponds. Thus, when a call is made to the subscriber's PTN, a determination is made as to the identity of the caller, and the appropriate call forwarding menu is then displayed on the subscriber's two-way pager.

Establishing communications with a called party becomes a problem when that party is mobile. In general, persons wishing to contact a particular party initiate a call to a specific telephone associated with that party, such as the party's home telephone. A disadvantage of this method of communication is that parties are not always in close proximity to their home telephone, or for that matter, in close proximity to any telephone. This presents a problem to persons who need to contact the mobile party immediately, and regardless of that party's location.
Several technologies have developed in an effort to solve the problem of establishing communication with a mobile party. These include call forwarding, paging, and cellular systems. However, each of these technologies has drawbacks which prevent seamless and ubiquitous communication.
Call forwarding is a well-known technique whereby an individual who plans to be away from an associated telephone can redirect calls to an alternate telephone. For example, an office worker planning to go on vacation could redirect calls to an office mate's telephone. Such a system, although desirable, is inflexible. It requires that the forwarding party access a telephone to activate and deactivate the call forwarding, and to change the forwarding number. This inflexibility is particularly harsh on those parties that require frequent changes to their forwarding number, such as a traveling salesman who is on the road and would like to receive calls from potential buyers.
Moreover, present call forwarding schemes make inefficient use of network resources. Calls must be sent to the forwarding party's end office before they are redirected. Thus, for example, when a party forwards calls from the party's home telephone in California to a relatives telephone in New Jersey, calls from New York to the party's home telephone will be routed to California before being forwarded to New York. Such a process unnecessarily ties up network resources from New York to California to complete a call from New York to New Jersey.
In a paging system, a mobile individual carries a portable pager. Typically, the pager is assigned a telephone number and is capable of receiving a predetermined radio signal. When a caller dials the pager's number, the predetermined radio signal is broadcast and the pager responds to the signal by activating an audible and/or visual alarm. The alarm serves to alert the mobile individual that an attempt to contact her has been made. Often, the caller's telephone number will be included in the radio signal so that the pager can record the caller's number and the called party can initiate a return call at some later time. One of the drawbacks of past paging system is that they do not usually support two-way communication. Thus, in a typical paging scenario, the called party must relocate and initiate a return call to establish full two-way communication with the calling party. Such relocation may be inconvenient and untimely resulting in "telephone tag"--situations in which two individuals periodically try to contact one another and fail because the other person is unavailable.
Another drawback of past paging systems is the delay associated with the paging queue. In general, a paging service can only transmit one page at a time. However, a service usually receives many paging requests at once. Consequently, a queue builds up at the service's broadcast facility and a delay in paging throughput times results. This problem is compounded in paging services that offer national coverage to their subscribers. In such services a subscriber's pages are broadcast from several facilities, and therefore a delay in throughput times results at each facility.
Cellular systems offer an answer to the relocation problems present in call forwarding systems and paging systems but introduce a host of new problems. A typical cellular phone is a wireless two-way voice communication device that can be carried on an individual person. Typically, each cellular phone user subscribes to service with a carrier in a particular geographic region serviced by that carrier. Calls to the subscriber, when the subscriber is in the home region, are easily completed since such calls are routed through a Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) serving their home region. However, when a subscriber is located in a different region, the subscriber is designated a "roamer", and call completion becomes more difficult because it is not known, a priori, through which MTSO to route the call.
The roamer problem may be overcome by having the roaming subscriber notify the "home MTSO" that she will be located in another region. This allows the necessary information to be transmitted from the "home MTSO" to the "host MTSO" so that the "host MTSO" can route the subscriber's calls. This "cellular call forwarding", however, introduces problems similar to those associated with traditional call forwarding. Moreover, all cellular communications--including those within the home region suffer from a sensitivity to noise, precluding guaranteed high quality communications.
Given the problems associated with the prior call forwarding, paging, and cellular systems, there is a need to provide a system that will assure ubiquitous high quality communications with mobile parties.
The invention disclosed in patent application Ser. No. 08/379425, cited hereinabove, addresses the foregoing disadvantages in prior systems used to communicate with mobile individuals. The 08/379,425 application disclosed a system for communicating with a mobile individual having an assigned Personal Telephone Number (PTN) wherein the mobile individual is paged whenever calls are made to the PTN and uses a two-way pager to transmit a forwarding number for such received calls on a call by call basis. In this manner, the invention overcame the disadvantages of the prior systems.
The 08/379,430 application also disclosed a system which employed a two-way paging technique to overcome the disadvantages present in the prior systems used to communicate with mobile individuals, while minimizing the time required to establish such communication. In accordance with that invention, a mobile person is equipped with a two-way pager and assigned a PTN. The mobile person uses the pager to transmit a forwarding telephone number to a paging service. The paging service relays the forwarding number to a Customer Routing Point (CRP) where the number is stored. Thereafter, whenever a call is placed to the mobile person's PTN, the terminating number is retrieved from the CRP and is used to forward the call to a terminating telephone. The 08/379,430 invention further disclosed an alternative to the call forwarding technique of the 08/379,425. While the 08/379,425 invention disclosed a bridging or merging technique for the forwarding of calls, the 08/379,430 disclosed a rerouting technique for the forwarding of calls.
In sum, the 08/379,425 allows a mobile party to use a two-way pager to respond to calls on a "call by call" basis, designating a forwarding number for each call upon reception of a page announcing the call. The 08/379,430, in contrast, allows a mobile party to "register" a forwarding number so that calls are automatically forwarded to the registered number, thereby eliminating the need to page the mobile party upon receipt of each call. In accordance with the Foladare 3-14-8-13 invention, the party may still change the forwarding number wherever and whenever the party wants, but need not respond on a call by call basis.
While the "registration" mode of the 08/379,430 application invention provides quicker call routing than does the "call by call" mode of the 08/379,425 application, the flexibility provided by the call by call mode--allowing call forwarding tailored to each individual call--makes that mode attractive to many mobile users.
Many two-way pagers include, instead of or in addition to a keypad which can be used to manually enter forwarding- telephone numbers, a menu feature which provides a list of "speed-dial" options from which the mobile party can choose for forwarding calls on a call by call basis. These options might include, for example, "forward to office" or "forward to secretary." The use of such menus lessens the call routing delay associated with call by call mode.
The menus on available two-way pagers, however, often are capable of displaying only a limited number of options (e.g., 3 or 4). Furthermore, notwithstanding any pager-defined menu limitation, it would be cumbersome for the mobile party to have dozens of call forwarding options to scroll through each time an incoming page is received. On the other hand, limiting the menu to the same, static 3 or 4 options diminishes the utility of the call forwarding menu to the mobile party. Thus, it is desirable to make the menu options which are available on the two-way pager when the pager is in call by call mode easily configurable by the mobile party.

System and method for updating network routing using integrated internet/two-way paging


This invention relates to apparatus for calibrating and recalibrating a digitized navigator or so-called frameless stereotactic instrument or device during a surgical operation. The apparatus enables calibration for the stereotactic digitizer to be recovered after sterile draping of the patient, movement of the patient's head during operation, relative movement of the patient's head and reference apparatus associated with the stereotactic digitizer, power failures, or other events which could compromise calibration of the stereotactic digitizer during the operation which would otherwise preclude continuations using the digitizer. It also provides convenient means for initial calibration or repeat calibration, should that be necessary. The apparatus is, in one embodiment, cooperatively coupled to, or coupled so as to move with, the portion of the patient's body which is being operated upon and enables the repositioning of the recalibration means after sterile draping. In exemplary embodiments, the apparatus would include a reference point structure or a reference holding structure that can be attached to, for example, a surgical head clamp in a neurosurgical operation and can be accessed for calibration positioning or calibration locationing by the digitizer during the operation. The apparatus could be removed, sterilized, and repositioned in an identical position relative to the head clamp, and therefore the patient's head during the operation, assuring that sterility and loss of calibration would not be compromised.

The field of so-called frameless stereotaxy, which includes use of digitized stereotactic navigators of a variety of kinds, has been well known for several years. Many types of stereotactic or so-called frameless digitizers are available, and such stereotactic navigators include mechanical operating arms, ultrasonic localizers, infrared light-tracking digitizers, magnetic digitizers, and others. These digitizers are designed to provide data relative to detection apparatus that can be used to track their position or the position of an instrument in space relative to a surgical field. For example, a surgical instrument mounted with light-emitting diodes or attached to a mechanical operating arm can send electronic signals to a computer graphic workstation which can assimilate these signals and determine the position and movement of the stereotactic navigator. Typically, to relate the position quantitatively of the stereotactic navigator to the patient's anatomy, a calibration maneuver is performed. For example, taking the case of neurosurgery, where the selected target position would be inside the brain, the patient is scanned in an imaging scanner. The image scan data is usually stacks of two-dimensional data that has been referenced into a stereotactic scanner coordinate frame by means of index markers placed on the patient's head or use of natural landmarks that are identifiable both in the image scan data and also physically on the patient's anatomy. The calibration process for the stereotactic navigator might consist of touching the instrument which holds the navigator devices to a series of three or more index marker points located on the surface of the patient's head or even contour tracings or natural anatomical landmarks on the patient's head, and by registering the electronic data in these particular calibration point positions, the stereotactic navigator can be "calibrated" relative to the patient's physical anatomy and therefore relative to the image scanner data representative of the tomographic or three-dimensional image (CT, MRI, PET, SPECT, etc.) of the patient's head stored in a computer graphic workstation. Once the calibration process is complete, then movement of the stereotactic navigator relative to the patient's anatomy will enable visualization on the computer graphic workstation of where the instrument probe is pointing towards the anatomy and inside of the anatomy. In this way, the navigator can be used to plan interventions in the brain or to visualize the internal anatomy of the brain including pathology, pre-operative planning, or intraoperative guidance to neurosurgery. This technique is now known in the state of the art.
One of the problems associated with such stereotactic navigators can occur in the sequence of the operation. For example, if markers are placed on the patient's skin during the image scanning and the patient is then brought to the operating room, he is anesthetized and put into a head clamp. Such a head clamp is shown in FIG. 1. The stereotactic navigator is then calibrated off of the positions of the index markers, and typically there are three or more of these markers located around the patient's head. By the way, these markers could be natural anatomical landmarks or the surface contour of the patient's head, for that matter. Once the calibration of the navigator is complete, the patient's head is sterile draped and the operation can begin. The navigator can then be used to point at the patient's head, and assessment can be made of the appropriate approach, for example, to a target within the head. A problem can occur, however, after sterile draping because the sterile draping will frequently cover up or totally obscure the index markers which enable the calibration in the first place, at a time when the field was not sterilely prepared. After sterile draping and the procedure begins, if for any reason, such as a power failure or movement of the navigator's interrogation system relative to the head, the navigator may be out of calibration relative to the patient's anatomy, and thus the navigator will be out of calibration with the three-dimensional data set from the image scanner. The utility of the navigator is then lost. One example of this might be power failure during the operation which, for the case of the mechanical operating arm, would shut down the readouts for the encoders which read out the position of the articulating links of the arm. Another example might be the movement of the patient's head relative to interrogation cameras in the case of light-emitting diode (LED) tracking systems of an instrument or a microscope. Yet another example of an intraoperative calibration loss would be movement of the relative position of a mechanical operating arm or camera or ultrasonic tracking system devices relative to the patient's head, which, again, would throw off the pre-calibration information relative to the navigator. All of these situations have the very undesirable effect of shutting down the use of the navigator at a time in the operation when it might be crucially needed. After sterile draping, the calibration points, be they natural landmarks or markers on the patient's skin or other localizers, cannot be accessed by the navigator since they are covered by the sterile drape, and therefore a recalibration based on these points is not feasible without breaking sterility. Breaking sterility might be impossible if a surgical opening has already been made.
It has been practice in some use of the Radionics OAS Operating Arm, after a skin incision has been made and the skull exposed, to make small drill holes or divot holes in the patient's skull surrounding the surgical opening or burr hole so that once the draping and sterile field have been achieved, access of these secondary registration or calibration points could be made, their position having been known or determined from the initial calibration step. This type of natural bony landmark recalibration process is possible to "restart" or "recalibrate" the digitizer, however, if the digitizer fails before such divots or bony landmarks can be established for reference, then there is still no way of recalibrating the navigator to the anatomy, and the navigator is of no use further.
Thus, one of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a means of recalibrating a stereotactic navigator in an intraoperative setting, and especially after a sterile draping has been made.
Another object of the present invention is to enable recalibration of a stereotactic digitizer in the event that the patient's anatomy, such as the patient's head with a head clamp on it, has moved relative to the means of tracking the digitizer, for example, moves with respect to the base of an operating arm that has been damped relative to a patient's head clamp or relative to cameras or ultrasonic detectors which are tracking stereotactic digitizers.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a means of recalibrating a stereotactic digitizer should there be a power failure or interruption of the equipment for any reason, especially between the time of initial calibration when the surgical field is unsterile and the time when the surgical field has been sterile draped and a surgical opening made.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a recalibration system that can be used with any type of stereotactic navigator, whether it be mechanical arm, LED optical tracking, ultrasonic tracking, magnetic tracking, etc. Another object of the present invention is to provide a recalibration device which can be moved with the patient's head in the case of neurosurgery so that it is always well established in mechanical relationship to the patient's anatomy.
Yet another object of the present invention is to have a recalibration device which can be used unsterile in a given position relative to the patient's anatomy during a calibration process and then, after sterile draping, the device can be autoclaved or otherwise sterilized during the operation and reset back onto the patient's head or head clamping means during the operation in a repeated or repeatable fashion and/or in exactly the same position as it was previously. In this context, an object of the present invention is to have a recalibration device that can be repeatedly relocated relative to a patient immobilization structure in exactly the same position so that it can be removed if it is in the way of the surgery, but can be put back on in the event that intraoperative recalibration is necessary.
The description of the invention which follows shows how these and other objectives can be achieved by it.

Intraoperative recalibration apparatus for stereotactic navigators


A die for encapsulating an IC structural body having bonding wires with a molten resin is provided with at least one first half having an ejector-pin-through-hole and at least one second half coupled together to form a cavity therebetween. An ejector pin having a mirror-finished surface at a tip end thereof is inserted into the ejector-pin-through-hole and positioned at a position where a surface of the tip end of the ejector pin coincides with an intermediate surface height of a satin-finished surface formed on an upper inner wall of the cavity of the first half. The IC structural body is then encapsulated with a molten resin, and the mirror-finished surface of the ejector pin and the satin-finished surface of the upper inner wall surface of the cavity are stamped on the semiconductor package in substantially the same plane.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor package, and in particular, relates to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor package while using a die having an ejector pin, the semiconductor package having a mirror-finished surface encircled by a satin-finished surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical semiconductor package is formed by embedding an IC structural. body having a lead, an IC chip, and bonding wires bonding between the lead and the IC chip within a resin bulk while using a die.
A surface of the die, as its normal appearance, is generally a satin-finished surface for the sake of easy exfoliation.
In such a prior art that is disclosed by "Nakagawa et al., Kata-Gijyutu-Binran, Nikkan-Kogyo-Shimbun, 1989, p. 88-95", a circular and concave imprint formed by an ejector pin, which is a mirror-finished surface, is used as an indicator of a "1-pin" for recognition of a first pin. The ejector pin is arranged in the die during a process of resin-encapsulation to readily release the semiconductor package from a die after the resin-encapsulation. When the ejector pin moves, an imprint of the ejector pin is formed on the satin-finished surface of the semiconductor package.
When plural imprints are formed, the "1-pin" is formed while having specific shape and appearance which are distinguishable from imprints of the other pins.
Japanese Patent Kokai 11-87565 (document D1) discloses another method for forming an indication portion of the "1-pin" on a package surface. In this method, a portion corresponding to the indication portion is made at a step of forming a satin-finished surface on the die by finishing the surface excluding a masked portion with plasma-etching etc.
After encapsulation of the IC structural body with a resin, a mark representing a product name, etc. is stamped on a surface of the semiconductor package released from the die as disclosed by a Japanese Patent Kokai 2001-160604 (document D2). As for the method for stamping a mark on the package surface, the mark is formed by a laser beam in view of its fast processing speed.
Recently, in a resin-encapsulation-type semiconductor package, in particular, a semiconductor package for an IC card, a thin thickness and a compactness are required, so that a resin layer covering the semiconductor package is made thinner.
It is, on the other hand to, be understood that the above-mentioned imprint of ejector pin influences an installment height of the semiconductor product, the imprint can not be formed as convex and is normally formed as concave.
For this reason, as a thickness of manufactured semiconductor package decreases, it is difficult to keep a space between the concave portion of the imprint of ejector pin and the bonding wires in the semiconductor package. There arises a problem that the bonding wires are subject to be exposed to the outside during the resin-encapsulation.
The laser stamping is typically performed by etching a resin surface of tens micrometers. When a thickness of the resin surface of semiconductor package is much thin, a depth of the mark to be formed by the laser beam can not be disregarded. There arises another problem that an IC structural body such as bonding wires etc. is exposed to the outside by way of etching the resin surface during resin-encapsulation and that a resin wall cracks at the laser stamped portion because of an external pressure.
In addition, a mirror-finished surface of a die is likely to be deteriorated much more than a satin-finished surface of the die, so that the mirror-finished surface is deteriorated earlier when the die is used repeatedly. In the die disclosed by document D1, a mirror-finished surface used for indicating directly the "1-pin" position is formed on an upper inner wall surface of the cavity which is a satin-finished surface. When the mirror-finished surface is deteriorated, it is required to replace one or all parts of die for new one even though the portion of satin-finished surface is not deteriorated. As a result, there arises another problem that mass-production of semiconductor package causes to raise costs for the die.

Method for manufacturing semiconductor package


The present disclosure is directed to processes for reducing the endotoxin level in gelatin and the resulting gelatin with low endotoxin content. The process includes dissolving a salt in a gelatin solution and filtering the gelatin-salt solution using anion exchange to reduce the endotoxin level. After reducing the endotoxin level of the gelatin-salt solution, the low endotoxin gelatin-salt solution is desalted to remove the salt, thereby producing a low endotoxin gelatin solution.

Vaccines are traditionally delivered by parenteral delivery via inter-muscular, inter-dermal, or subcutaneous routes. However, mucosal vaccine delivery (via the buccal, sublingual, nasal, oral, or vaginal mucosa) has received increasing interest as a means of inducing local and distant antibody immune response as well as systemic immune response. In addition, mucosal vaccine delivery by solid dosage forms (e.g., buccal/sublingual tablet, oral tablet or capsules, vaginal insert) offers several advantages such as the potential for mass immunization as well as cold-chain independent capability. Furthermore, mucosal vaccine delivery can be suitable for patients that have injection phobia and the patient can self-administrate the vaccine. The buccal/sublingual route has been used for many years to deliver drugs and small molecules to the bloodstream, but its application as a means of mucosal delivery for vaccines has received little attention.
One of the main considerations for mucosal vaccine delivery is the level of endotoxin present in the pharmaceutical composition. Endotoxin is a complex lipopolysaccharide ("LPS") found in the outer membrane of gram negative bacteria that is released after the death or lysis of the cell. Endotoxin can cause physiological changes in the human body and thus can impact organ systems and disrupt the humoral and cellular human mediation systems. For parenteral delivery products, there is a strict limit in the endotoxin content because the human body can only tolerate a small amount of endotoxin in the blood.
However, there is typically a small safety concern when ingesting buccal/sublingual products that contain high endotoxin levels because the mouth is colonized by aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. For example, a healthy adult with good oral hygiene has a mean level of endotoxins derived from the mouth microflora of about 2 endotoxin units (EU)/ml of saliva (1 ng=10 EU). Thus, the daily production of endotoxin is greater than 1000 EU/day for a healthy adult with good oral hygiene. However, in terms of vaccine delivery, endotoxin can eliminate, shut down, or amplify the immune response depending on the mucosa site.


A dough mixing apparatus for use in a bakery laboratory in order to test formulas and ingredients includes an upright mixing machine, a bowl with an upstanding center pin and a pair of dough arms approximating a double helix configuration. In operation, the mixing machine rotates the arms about their axes and eccentrically about the center pin to ensure efficient kneading and rapid dough development. The preferred apparatus also includes a strain gage for monitoring the torque on the dough arms and displaying a graph on a PC monitor of the torque over time in relation to a specification curve for monitoring dough development.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of baking. In particular, the invention is concerned with a dough mixing apparatus for use in a bakery laboratory in order to test formulas and ingredients, and includes an upright mixing machine, a bowl with an upstanding center pin and a pair of dough arms approximating a double helix configuration. In operation, the mixing machine rotates the arms about their axes and eccentrically about the center pin to ensure efficient kneading and rapid dough development. The preferred apparatus also includes a strain gage for monitoring the torque on the dough arms and displaying a graph on a PC monitor of the torque over time in relation to a specification curve for monitoring dough development.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical bakery for baking breads, pastries and the like includes a laboratory for testing the various formulas and ingredients. Testing is performed in the laboratory, for example, when a formula is changed or upon receiving a new batch of ingredients such as a new batch of flour.
To perform a test, a formulation is mixed in a conventional upright mixer such as a Hobart mixer. The ingredients of a selected formula or recipe are added to the bowl and mixed to form a dough. A conventional test mixer includes dough arms in the nature of a pair of spaced, straight rods that are rotated eccentrically about a center pin in the mixing bowl. The arms mix the ingredients and knead the dough until the dough is properly developed.
As those skilled in the art appreciate, this type of test mixer does not simulate realistically the dough development that occurs in a horizontal production machine. Moreover, this type of test mixer is very inefficient in that a portion of the dough often agglomerates around the center pin of the bowl and rotates thereabout without being properly kneaded. Also, a determination as to when the test dough is properly developed is strictly a subjective judgment by the operator. This judgment is based upon the look and feel of the dough.

Dough mixer apparatus for laboratory testing of the development of a dough sample


A force redistributing system operably attached to a vehicle. The system includes a first cross-car member, a first side load distributor and a second side load distributor. The first and second side load distributors are parallel to and spaced apart from each other and are attached at respective first ends to opposing ends of the first cross-car member. The system includes a second cross-car member having opposing ends, which are attached to second ends of the first and second side load distributors. The system establishes cross vehicle loading of force from a rear impact wherein the force from the rear impact on the vehicle is transferred along an upper path and a lower path.

Mobile vehicles are typically equipped with rear bumper systems to absorb the force from rear end impacts. Some of the force is transferred from the bumpers to the rails of the underbody in the vehicle. When the rear impact is non-symmetric, the force is unevenly distributed between the sides of the vehicles. Offset loading of the impact force occurs when the impact is not centered on the rear bumper. Symmetric loading of the impact force occurs when the impact is centered on the rear bumper.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,721 impact specifications require the rear portion of a vehicle aft of the end of the rear axle system 110 to crush, which upsets the rear floor and third row seat stability. In the event of a rear impact to the vehicle, the floor in the rear of the vehicle can be crushed pushing the seat structure upward and rearward. If the impact is forceful enough, the door openings of the vehicle can be deformed so that one or more doors cannot be opened normally. Rear impacts can also affect the vehicle fuel system and displace a spare tire stored under the vehicle body.
An apparatus to protect fuel tanks in the event of a rear collision is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,721 of Wedin, et al. Wedin et al. anticipated that their described apparatus, herein called the Wedin apparatus, would satisfy the standards, which were in place in 1976 when the Wedin patent application was filed. The impact test standards have been modified since to 1976 to more rigorous impact tests that the Wedin apparatus would be unable to pass.
Specifically, the Wedin apparatus has no cross-car member to distribute force from a rear impact to both sides of the struck vehicle. The Wedin apparatus does not protect against door opening closure, and it does not stabilize the rear floor of an impacted vehicle. The Wedin apparatus does not provide force distribution of off-center rear impacts.
It is desirable to distribute the force from an off-center rear impact between both sides of the impacted vehicle. It is further desirable to distribute the force from a rear impact on a vehicle along more than one path. It is also desirable to stabilize a rear floor having seat attachments for seating in a second and third row.

Force redistributing system for a vehicle in the event of a rear impact


Embodiments described herein relate to a 50%-duty-cycle consecutive integer frequency divider and a phase-locked loop circuit having the frequency divider. The frequency divider includes a consecutive integer frequency divider module having a non-50%-duty-cycle, wherein the module receives a clock signal CLK and an input control signal CB and outputs a consecutive frequency division clock signal CLK1 comprising a non-50% duty cycle; a D flip-flop module for receiving the clock signal CLK and the consecutive frequency division clock signal CLK1 and outputting at least one clock signal CLKx; and a logic OR gate module for receiving the consecutive frequency division clock signal CLK1 and the at least one clock signal CLKx, and outputting an output clock signal CLKout comprising a 50% duty cycle.

In order to implement signal processing synchronization between different electronic components or devices, a system clock is usually used to time the devices for proper data or signal operations between different components or devices. The system clock is sometimes established by means of a phase-locked loop (PLL).
Therefore, phase-locked loop circuits are widely used in analog circuits, and M dividers, N dividers, and O dividers are used in the phase-locked loop circuits. Currently, consecutive frequency division are achieved using the M and N dividers, while duty cycle is a quotient of 1 and a frequency divisor of the M and N dividers, instead of the desired 50%. The O dividers can achieve 50%-duty-cycle frequency division, while only frequency division with divisors 1, 2, 4, 8, . . . , 2n-1 can be achieved, where n is a binary bit. With the development of technologies, demands for higher duty cycle frequency division from customers have become higher, limiting the use of phase-locked loops. For example, some customers require 50%-duty-cycle consecutive integer frequency division of the outputs of the phase-locked loops.

50%-duty-cycle consecutive integer frequency divider and phase-locked loop circuit

SHANGHAI HUALI MICROELECTRONICS CORPORATION


A bonded wafer is produced by bonding an ion-implanted wafer for an active layer onto a wafer for a supporting substrate, and thereafter exfoliating the wafer for the active layer at the ion-implanted position through a heat treatment and then polishing a terrace portion of the resulting active layer with a predetermined fixed grain abrasive cloth to remove island-shaped projections on the terrace portion while controlling a scattering of terrace width and smoothness of an outer peripheral face of the active layer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of producing a bonded wafer by bonding a wafer for an active layer ion-implanted with a light element such as hydrogen or helium to a given depth position onto a wafer for a supporting substrate, and thereafter exfoliating the wafer for the active layer at the ion-implanted portion of the given depth position through a heat treatment to leave an active layer on an outer peripheral portion of the wafer for the supporting substrate and then polishing a terrace portion of the active layer formed on the outer peripheral portion of the wafer for the supporting substrate due to sagging of an outer peripheral portion of the wafer for the active layer during the exfoliation.
2. Description of Related Art
As the method of producing the bonded wafer, there is a so-called smart cut method wherein a wafer for an active layer ion-implanted with a light element such as hydrogen or helium to a given depth position is bonded onto a wafer for a supporting substrate and thereafter subjected to a heat treatment to exfoliate the wafer for the active layer at the ion-implanted portion of the given depth position. In the smart cut method, the exfoliated portion of the wafer for the active layer after the bonding can be recycled as a wafer, which is different from the conventional bonding technique. By such a recycling it is made possible to use one wafer in the bonded wafer plural times, which leads the way to reduce the material cost. Also, the bonded wafer produced by the smart cut method is excellent in the thickness uniformity, so that this method is noticed as a promising method.
In the smart cut method, however, when the wafer for the active layer is exfoliated through the heat treatment, a terrace portion of the active layer is inevitably formed on the outer peripheral portion of the wafer for the supporting substrate due to the sagging of the outer peripheral portion of the wafer for the active layer during the exfoliation and also a part of the wafer for the active layer is firmly fixed onto the terrace portion to form island-shaped projections called as so-called SOI islands. If the SOI islands remain on the terrace portion, there is a fear that they render into particles during device processing to easily cause a pattern defect badly exerting on the characteristics or performances of the device. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of the bonded wafer, it is necessary that the SOI islands are removed by polishing the terrace portion to render the surface of the terrace portion into a clean state having no SOI island or the like.
As a first method of removing the SOI islands retained on the terrace portion is mentioned a method of suppressing the occurrence of SOI islands. For example, JP-A-2003-347526 discloses a method wherein the occurrence of SOI islands is reduced by changing an exfoliation annealing condition so that the temperature is raised from an annealing start temperature at a moderate gradient up to a dislocation temperature and thereafter the heating is conducted at a rapid gradient.
As a second method of removing the SOI islands retained on the terrace portion is mentioned a method of suppressing the occurrence of the terrace portion. For example, JP-A-2000-243942 discloses a method wherein a supporting substrate, an oxide film and an active layer are stepwise piled one upon the other to make an adhesion area between the outer peripheral portion of the active layer and the supporting substrate to thereby decrease the occurrence of SOI islands.
As a third method of removing the SOI islands retained on the terrace portion is mentioned a method of removing the terrace portion. For example, JP-A-2001-144274 discloses a method wherein the active layer is exfoliated through a heat treatment and thereafter an end portion of the bonded wafer is subjected to a beveling treatment to remove the terrace portion.
In the method of JP-A-2003-347526, however, it is impossible to completely remove the SOI islands. Also, the smoothness on the outer peripheral face of the active layer, which is an existing range of SOI islands on the outer peripheral portion of the active layer, is as large as not less than 20 μm, so that there is a fear that these islands are exfoliated to form particles in the subsequent device processing.
In the method of JP-A-2000-243942, since the end portion of the bonded wafer is stepwise, the end portion of the wafer for the supporting substrate becomes wasted. In the method of JP-A-2001-144274, since the end portion of the bonded wafer is removed by the beveling treatment, the thin active layer has a fear of causing contamination or damage through the beveling treatment, and hence a part of the effective active layer is cut out. As a result, there is a problem that the effective area of the wafer usable as a semiconductor substrate is made small.

Bonded wafer and method of producing the same


A system is disclosed for detecting packetization delay of packets in a network. The system includes a router to receive at least one packet containing data. A detection system, which is in communication with the router, extracts a codec information and a packet length information from the packet. A management system, which is in communication with the router, receives the codec information and the packet length information and determines packetization delay based on the codec information and the packet length information.

Voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP) services have been gaining much attention from communication service providers, their customers and potential customers. VoIP is voice delivered on a network using an Internet Protocol. In general, this means sending voice information in digital form in discrete packets rather than in the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Communication service providers are using VoIP technology to offer end users more cost-effective voice services across the provider's data infrastructure. These services are typically delivered to customers through a broadband access network, such as a digital subscriber line (DSL) access network. VoIP technology may be used as the foundation for new multimedia communication services that may address mobility and cost reduction concerns to customers. VoIP may also optimize the communication service providers' PSTN network costs, such as when used to transport bulk voice traffic over a shared IP data network.
To ensure the quality of communication messages sent using VoIP, VoIP imposes stringent quality of service (QoS) constraints such as on network mouth-to-ear delay, jitter and packet loss. Mouth-to-ear delay is the delay incurred from the moment the speaker utters words until the instant the listener hears them. The mouth-ear-delay for VoIP-based communications should not exceed 150 ms. The end-to-end jitter may be limited to less than 30 ms and packet loss ratio should not exceed more than 0.5%. To achieve such a level of QoS, the communication service provider may have to provision a large amount of network resources, such as bandwidth, to support the VoIP application. Network bandwidth demanded by VoIP traffic may be closely tied to the codec and the packetiztion delay used by the VoIP codec. A wrong encoder/decoder (codec) or packetiztion delay of a customer on the network can cause prolonged network congestion and excessive VoIP packet loss. Therefore, that customer and other customers may experience service degradation and interruption.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System for detecting packetization delay of packets in a network


The present invention provides an inlet and outlet plenum apparatus for improving the forming of fibrous pads for absorbent products and providing improved density control. Fibers entrained in a high speed air flow coming from a fiberizer or other fiber source enter an inlet plenum which reduces velocity by increasing the area of the inlet plenum in a linear manner thereby decreasing turbulence and improving the density distribution of the fiber deposited onto the foraminous surface of a pad-former screen. The outlet plenum allows for a controlled velocity increase which reduces under-screen turbulence and further improves fiber distribution and density control.

This invention relates to a novel apparatus for depositing the air-borne cellulose or other fibers, including all forms of superabsorbent and wicking fibers, into foraminous forming pockets to form a fibrous pad. Prior art patents have demonstrated the importance of various methods of providing the fiber-air mixture to the foraminous forming pockets. U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,574 to Hertel et al. discloses the use of a reverse bend section in the fiber delivery duct which design intensifies the fiber stream to achieve particle deposition on the screen without substantial turbulence. U.S. Pat. No. 5,44,052 to Hertel et al. discloses the use of ducts that are characterized by reverse bends in order to densify the particle stream at the outside of the curvature for generally perpendicular deposition on the screen.
A major weakness in much of the art is the high pressure drops between the intake and outlet plenums as well as disturbances in air flow due to non-symmetrical placement of the exhaust from the low pressure plenum. A large body of art exists showing pad formers with the individual pockets having up to 8 layers of wire mesh, masks, and perforated plates which creates significant pressure drops across the forming section as well as highly turbulent areas above and below the forming section. Since the absorbent pads of today, especially in infant diapers are as much as 65% lighter than equivalent products of twenty years ago, due to the use of superabsorbents, uniform fiber formation and density are extremely important to the successful operation of pad formers.
It is well known in the patent art that in order to obtain good pad integrity it is necessary to have a high air flow through the pad during forming sequence. However, the large volume of air produces air turbulence and instability especially at the ends and edges of the forming pocket, consequently fiber distribution problems will occur. These instabilities are usually seen as eddies or pulsing at the perimeter of the foraminous forming pockets. This is especially bad when high differential pressures are created over the forming screen interface. This can be caused by excessively high inlet and outlet velocities, excessive under-screen masks and multiple layers of screens and other equipment.
Additional problems typically encountered due to uneven or turbulent flow entering the forming screen are uneven fiber density in the formed pad and clumping due to scarfing of the pad by high velocity air tangent to the screen.
After considerable investigation into the aerodynamics of the inlet and plenum we discovered that a significant slowing of the airflow from the conveying line into the forming area by a specified amount induced by a specific shaping of the inlet plenum resulted in improved uniformity of the pad. Additionally it was discovered that shaping the outlet or low pressure plenum in a specific way such that the airflow was gradually increased from the velocity at the screen surface to a specific range of velocities related to the area ratios of the inlet to outlet of the outlet plenum resulted in further improvement in pad density uniformity. It was also noted that the longer the effective length of the outlet plenum the more uniform was the fiber distribution.
This work was conducted using a rectangular pad designed for constant thickness from end to end and side to side to simplify the measurement of density variations. Limited work with pads having a shaped cross section indicated that end to end densities were uniform at given distances from the centerline of the pad.
In evaluations of competitive equipment before modification with low differential pressure plenums it was determined that the pressure profile across the width of the drum below the inner diameter of the drum had significant variations due to problems with the internal low pressure side design. This resulted in variations in fiber density and the amount or weight of fiber per square inch across the pad width and length. Use of the low differential pressure plenums resulted in reduced turbulence and improved pad density uniformity. It is important to note that the length of the outlet plenum provides a smooth transition back to high speed flow thus preventing the occurrence of eddies and turbulence on the inlet side of the forming screens. This results in a relatively even pressure distribution at all points on the forming screen. As mentioned above the experiments were carried out on a rectangular constant density absorbent product. However when the apparatus was used with shaped pads the uniformity was also excellent.
In another embodiment a superabsorbent doing tube is inserted through the intake plenum for delivery of superabsorbent. Tube placement is dependent on the anticipated placement of the superabsorbent in the pad.
These unexpected results are highly important in the modern absorbent pad where thinner pads are the rule. If the density and formation cannot be closely controlled the pad will break and not perform correctly.
It should be recognized that the instant concept is not limited to drum formers but can be adapted to other former configurations including linear endless "belt" systems.

Inlet and outlet plenum apparatus for uniform delivery of fiber to a pad former


An input device includes: a detector that detects an operation state of an operation object on an operation surface; a controller that performs input to a predetermined instrument; and a driver that vibrates the operation surface. The predetermined instrument includes a display. Multiple operation buttons and a pointer corresponding to a position of the operation object are displayed. The position of the operation object is associated with a position of each of the operation buttons and a position of the pointer by a relative coordinate. The controller causes the driver to generate a predetermined vibration on an area corresponding to an intermediate area between a first operation button and a second operation button. The controller prohibits execution of the attraction control, or corrects a movement amount of the pointer and causes the pointer to reach the second operation button from the first operation button.

In a comparative example, an input device is placed at a position different from a position of a display device. The input device includes the touch pad that detects an operation position of the finger on an operation surface, an actuator that controls a frictional force between the finger and the operation surface by vibrating the operation surface based on a detection result of the touch pad, and a controller that controls an actuation of the actuator.


A reading apparatus includes a communication unit, a scanner, and a processor. The communication unit communicates with a wireless tag provided on paper. The scanner scans the paper. The processor acquires data from the wireless tag through the communication unit, acquires an image from the paper by using the scanner, and generates a file in which the data is embedded in the image as hidden characters.

Paper with wireless tags, such as radio frequency identifier (RFID) tags, is known. Images may be printed on such paper.
In the related art, an information processing apparatus needs to create a table or the like to link the image printed on paper and the data stored in the wireless tag and manage both thereof.


In a camshaft adjusting device including a positioning actuator for adjusting a phase position of a camshaft with respect to a crankshaft of an internal combustion engine, wherein the camshaft is driven by the crankshaft via a drive input, and a base drive torque of the camshaft is provided by a positioning actuator, a spring element is arranged between the camshaft and the crankshaft and has a spring torque selected so as to compensate for at least part of a mean load torque of a load unit connected to the camshaft to be driven thereby and at most only a part of the base drive torque.

The invention relates to a camshaft adjusting device including an actuator for adjusting the phase position of a camshaft with respect to a crankshaft of an internal combustion engine while maintaining a basic drive torque.
It is known that, in camshaft adjusting devices composed of a summing gearing and rotary actuator, the camshaft drive torque is backed by at the positioning input. A base torque which is to be present is provided by the actual camshaft torque divided by the transmission ratio of the summing gearing. The positioning actuator which is connected to the positioning input, for example an electric motor or a brake, must constantly apply the torque which is to be backed up by some component. If an auxiliary unit, for example a high-pressure injection pump, is additionally connected to the camshaft so as to be driven thereby, then the torque which is to be backed up also increases at the positioning input, as a result of which the positioning actuator must be larger. Power consumption and, in the case of a passive camshaft adjusting device having a brake, brake losses are correspondingly increased. It is therefore generally preferable for auxiliary units not to be driven by the camshaft.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,088 A1 discloses a camshaft adjusting device in which a clutch is connected in series between a drive input shaft and drive output shaft. A constant torque as a result of friction effects is superposed on cyclic torque fluctuations which are generated by the crankshaft operating the engine inlet and outlet valves and which are utilized for phase adjustment of the camshaft by virtue of the latter being correspondingly braked or accelerated. If the camshaft adjusting device is used in a drivetrain in which the torque fluctuations are small enough that a summed torque composed of fluctuations and constant torque is positive overall, it is possible for a spring element which is preloaded in one rotational direction to be arranged parallel to the camshaft adjusting device, so that the spring element completely or partially compensates the constant torque. In this way, the positive and negative components of the torque fluctuations are available entirely to the camshaft adjusting device for accelerating or braking the camshaft. In the case of a low constant torque, when the torque fluctuations result in negative components even in the summed torque, the spring element can be dispensed with. The spring element should, in addition to the torque generated by friction effects, also compensate for torques, which result from the operation of auxiliary units driven by the camshaft other than the valves.
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a camshaft adjusting device which makes it possible to drive auxiliary units via the camshaft independently of an adjusting direction and without a significant increase in the torque to be backed up by the camshaft adjusting device.


A fixing bracket for a computer accessory and a computer case thereof are discloses. The fixing bracket is for the installation of the computer accessory. The interior of the computer case is used for the assembly of the fixing bracket. The fixing bracket includes a carrier, a clamping part, and a limiting part. The carrier plate has a surface for stacking the computer accessory, and a first side edge and a second side edge opposite to one another. The clamping part is disposed on the first side edge. The limiting part is disposed on the second side edge. The computer accessory is stacked on the carrier plate. The clamping part clamps one end portion of the computer accessory and the limiting part tightly presses against the other end portion of the computer accessory such that the computer accessory is attached against to the carrier plate.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer and in particular to a fixing bracket for a computer accessory and a computer case thereof.
Description of Related Art
The traditional computer case provided for the installation and assembly of the internal accessories thereof mainly provides a frame of proper size where the internal accessories are fastened by screw holes and screws of default size, such that the necessary accessories can be installed in the computer case. As an example of a general hard disk frame, two sides of a hard disk drive are provided with plural preset screw holes. The hard disk drive is placed on the hard disk frame and then is fastened by some screws to complete the installation.
However, the above design not only causes a screwing step during the installation between the hard disk frame and the computer case but also causes another screwing step during the installation between the hard disk drive and the hard disk frame. That is, multiple screwing steps are required during the whole installation, which is relatively inconvenient. Besides the above-mentioned hard disk drive, the computer accessory installed in the computer case such as a fan or a CD-ROM drive usually requires similar complicated screwing steps, which is also relatively inconvenient.
In view of this, the inventor pays special attention to research with the application of related theory and tries to overcome the above disadvantages regarding the above related art. Finally, the inventor proposes the invention which is a reasonable design and overcomes the above disadvantages.

Fixing bracket for computer accessory and computer case thereof


A device including a probe unit and a driver unit for tissue extraction and sample collection is disclosed. The probe unit includes an injection unit, a driving mechanism, a filtering mechanism and a tissue sample container. The injection unit includes a needle actuated by a prime-mover and the driving mechanism, which drives the needle into the subject for extraction of tissue sample. The tissue extraction is performed by a rotational motion of the needle and pressure. The pressure is provided by a pressure subsystem in the lumen of the needle and the tissue is collected in the tissue sample container. The amount of pressure applied is controlled by a control subsystem based on the organ specific requirement.

A biopsy procedure involves extraction of tissue samples from body tissues to diagnose various health conditions, such as diseases related to liver, prostate, breast, kidney, lungs, etc., and to identify infectious tissues, such as malignant or benign tumours in the body of a subject. To extract the tissue sample, a surgeon or a doctor first identifies a position of the biopsy region based on physical palpation, auditory auscultation, visual imaging, or a combination of these techniques.
Further, a needle in a biopsy apparatus is moved towards the biopsy region to extract the body tissue samples. Different procedures of biopsies are used for different body parts or the affected tissue area. For example, incisional or needle biopsy procedure may involve a special needle, such as Menghini aspiration needle, Tru-cut needle or BioPince needle, which are used to extract tissue or cells from a body area, such as muscles, bones, and organs, such as liver or lungs.

Devices and methods for extraction and collection of tissue samples


A method and apparatus for segmenting an audio interaction, by locating anchor segment from each side of the interaction, iteratively classifying additional segments into one of the two sides, and scoring the resulting segmentation, If the score result is below a threshold, the process is repeated until the segmentation score is satisfactory or until a stopping criterion is met. The anchoring and the scoring steps comprise using additional data associated with the interaction, a speaker thereof, internal or external information related to the interaction or to a speaker thereof or the like.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to audio analysis in general and to a method and apparatus for segmenting an audio interaction, in particular.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Audio analysis refers to the extraction of information and meaning from audio signals for purposes such as word statistics, trend analysis, quality assurance, and the like. Audio analysis could be performed in audio interaction-extensive working environments, such as for example call centers, financial institutions, health organizations, public safety organizations or the like. Typically, audio analysis is used in order to extract useful information associated with or embedded within captured or recorded audio signals carrying interactions. Audio interactions contain valuable information that can provide enterprises with insights into their business, users, customers, activities and the like. The extracted information can be used for issuing alerts, generating reports, sending feedback or otherwise using the extracted information. The information can be usefully manipulated and processed, such as being stored, retrieved, synthesized, combined with additional sources of information, and the like. Extracted information can include for example, continuous speech, spotted words, identified speaker, extracted emotional (positive or negative) segments within an interaction, data related to the call flow such as number of bursts in from each side, segments of mutual silence, or the like. The customer side of an interaction recorded in a commercial organization can be used for various purposes such as trend analysis, competitor analysis, emotion detection (finding emotional calls) to improve customer satisfaction level, and the like. The service provider side of such interactions can be used for purposes such as script adherence, emotion detection (finding emotional calls) to track deficient agent behavior, and the like. The most common interaction recording format is summed audio, which is the product of analog line recording, observation mode and legacy systems. A summed interaction may include, in addition to two or more speakers that at times may talk simultaneously (co-speakers), also music, tones, background noises on either side of the interaction, or the like. The audio analysis performance, as measured in terms of accuracy, detection, real-time efficiency and resource efficiency, depends directly on the quality and integrity of the captured and/or recorded signals carrying the audio interaction, on the availability and integrity of additional meta-information, on the capabilities of the computer programs that constitute the audio analysis process and on the available computing resources. Many of the analysis tasks are highly sensitive to the audio quality of the processed interactions. Multiple speakers, as well as music (which is often present on hold periods), tones, background noises such as street noise, ambient noise, convolutional noises such as channel type and handset type, keystrokes and the like, severely degrade the performance of these engines, sometimes to the degree of complete uselessness, for example in the case of emotion detection where it is mandatory to analyze only one speaker's speech segments. Therefore it is crucial to identify only the speech segments of an interaction wherein a single speaker is speaking. The customary solution is to use unsupervised speaker segmentation module as part of the audio analysis.
Traditionally, unsupervised speaker segmentation algorithms are based on bootstrap (bottom up) classification methods, starting with short discriminative segments and extending such segments using additional, not necessarily adjacent segments. Initially, a homogenous speaker segment is located, and regarded as an anchor. The anchored segment is used for initially creating a model of the first speaker. In the next phase a second homogenous speaker segment is located, in which the speaker characteristics are most different from the first segment. The second segment is used for creating a model of the second speaker. By deploying an iterative maximum-likelihood (ML) classifier, based on the anchored speaker models, all other utterance segments could be roughly classified. The conventional methods suffer from a few limitations: the performance of the speaker segmentation algorithm is highly sensitive to the initial phase, i.e., poor choice of the initial segment (anchored segment) can lead to unreliable segmentation results. Additionally, the methods do not provide a verification mechanism for assessing the success of the segmentation, nor the convergence of the methods, in order to eliminate poorly segmented interactions from being further processed by audio analysis tools and providing further inaccurate results. Another drawback is that additional sources of information, such as computer-telephony-integration (CTI) data, screen events and the like are not used. Yet another drawback is the inability of the method to tell which collection of segments belongs to one speaking side, such as the customer, and which belongs to the other speaking side, since different analyses are performed on both sides, to serve different needs.
It should be easily perceived by one with ordinary skills in the art, that there is an obvious need for an unsupervised segmentation method and for an apparatus to segment an unconstrained interaction into segments that should not be analyzed, such as music, tones, low quality segments or the like, and segments carrying speech of a single speaker, where segments of the same speaker should be grouped or marked accordingly. Additionally, identifying the sides of the interaction is required. The segmentation tool has to be effective, i.e., extract as long and as many as possible segments of the interaction in which a single speaker is speaking, with as little as possible compromise on the reliability, i.e., the quality of the segments. Additionally, the tool should be fast and efficient, so as not to introduce delays to further processing, or place additional burden on the computing resources of the organization. It is also required that the tool will provide a performance estimation which can be used in deciding whether the speech segments are to be sent for analysis or not.

Method and apparatus for segmentation of audio interactions


A U sleep weighted pillow promotes healthy sleep essential oils is presented. The U sleep weighted pillow provides comfort to a head, to an upper portion of the face, for body aches and pains. The U sleep weighted pillow provides a warming or a cooling to a desired body part while a person is laying down, sitting, etc. The U sleep weighted pillow further has custom weighting and firmness of the U sleep weighted pillow by the person. The U sleep weighted pillow helps restore movement from injured tissue, reduces joint stiffness, muscle spasms, sprains, strains, whiplash, pain relief, ease pain from both acute and chronic injuries, arthritis, promotes blood circulation and helps to relax muscle.

A pillow is a support of the body at rest for comfort, therapy, or decoration. Pillows are used by many species, including humans. Some types of pillows include throw pillows, body pillows, decorative pillows and many more. Pillows that aid sleeping are a form of bedding that supports the head and neck. Other types of pillows are designed to support the body when lying down or sitting. There are also pillows that consider human body shape for increased comfort during sleep. Decorative pillows used on beds, couches or chairs are sometimes referred to as cushions.
In contemporary western culture, pillows consist of a plain or patterned fabric envelope (known as a pillowcase) which contains a soft stuffing, typically synthetic and typically standardized in sizes and shape. Pillows have been historically made of a variety of natural materials and many cultures continue to use pillows made from natural materials in the world.
An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aethereal, or simply as the oil of the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. An essential oil is "essential" in the sense that it contains the "essence of" the plant's fragrance—the characteristic fragrance of the plant from which it is derived. The term "essential" used here does not mean indispensable, as with the term's essential amino acid or essential fatty acid, which are so called because they are nutritionally required by a given living organism. In contrast to fatty oils, essential oils typically evaporate completely without leaving a stain or residue.
Essential oils are generally extracted by distillation, often by using steam. Other processes include expression, solvent extraction, Pfumatra, absolute oil extraction, resin tapping, wax embedding, and cold pressing. They are used in perfumes, cosmetics, soaps and other products, for flavoring food and drink, and for adding scents to incense and household cleaning products.
Essential oils are often used for aromatherapy, a form of alternative medicine in which healing effects are ascribed to aromatic compounds. Aromatherapy may be useful to induce relaxation, but there is not sufficient evidence that essential oils can effectively treat any condition. Improper use of essential oils may cause harm including allergic reactions and skin irritation, and children may be particularly susceptible to the toxic effects of improper use.
People are exhausted these days. Insomnia is at epidemic levels where stress, anxiety and worries are the major components. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 adults don't get enough sleep; 7-9 hours is optimal amount of sleep. At least 40 million Americans are diagnosed with chronic, long-term sleep disorders each year. Studies reveal that not only zolpidem (commonly found in medicines such as Ambien®) bad for your health but also ineffective. Sleeping less than 7-8 hours a night is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
Accordingly, and in light of the foregoing, there is a need for a pillow that helps to promote good, healthy sleep. It would further be beneficial that the pillow has an ability to apply essential oils while the person is sleeping.


A system for controlling an electromechanical device includes a motor drive, a main controller, a voltage regulator and a resistor-capacitor circuit. The motor drive controls an electric motor of the electromechanical device. The main controller provides motor commands to control the motor drive that are provided by providing command voltage on at least one command line. The voltage regulator circuit receives the command voltage and provides a motor voltage to power the motor drive. A capacitor of the resistor-capacitor circuit is charged by the command voltage, and the motor voltage is controlled based upon charge of the capacitor.

The present invention relates generally to electromechanical device control, and in particular to a system and method for providing soft-start control for electromechanical devices using a resistor-capacitor circuit.
Electromechanical devices, such as valves, pumps, relays, and solenoids, may include electric motor based actuators to drive the device. These devices may be self-contained components that are utilized, for example, in aircraft systems. Commands are provided to the motor indicative of a desired action and are often also utilized to provide power to drive the motor. Because of the instantaneous application of voltage to the motor from the commands, a large stator inrush current creates a large torque spike in the gear train of the actuator. These torque spikes occur each time a new command is issued to the valve which creates excess stress and wear and tear in the mechanical gear train. This reduces the life and reliability of the actuator and requires the use of more durable materials. It is desirable to limit these torque spikes in order to increase reliability of the gear train and facilitate the use of lighter, more cost-efficient materials for the manufacture of electromechanical valve actuators.

Soft-start control for electromechanical devices using a resistor-capacitor circuit


A method of packaging an integrated circuit die including forming a mask window having a first aperture with a first set of alignment edges and forming an alignment feature on an uppermost surface of the integrated circuit die where the alignment feature has a second set of alignment edges. The alignment feature is inserted into the first aperture. The integrated circuit die is mechanically biased until the first and second set of alignment edges are in physical contact with one another and the alignment feature is secured into the mask window, thus forming an integrated circuit die assembly.

Semiconductor integrated circuit dice are ubiquitous in many contemporary consumer products. As semiconductor dice get smaller and more complex, problems associated with making electrical connections between semiconductor dice and printed circuit boards or intermediate substrates such as multichip modules have been addressed with a variety of constantly evolving solutions.
Flip-chip technologies using solder balls or bumps have helped to alleviate some of these problems. For example, instead of wire bonding, balls of solder may be formed at the locations of the bond pads of a semiconductor die. The semiconductor die is flipped upside down so the solder balls are placed on the contact pads of a carrier substrate. A solder reflow process heats the solder balls until the solder begins to flow and bond with a corresponding contact pad of a carrier substrate.
Another prior art packaging implementation provides for mounting a variety of integrated circuit dice on a substrate. In this implementation, a plurality of known good dice are mounted within cavities formed in the substrate. Redistribution and interconnect layers are formed terminating in electrical connections such as conductive bumps or balls. The substrate cavities receive signal device connections, such as conductive bumps, of a plurality of semiconductor dice in a flip-chip configuration. A portion of the substrate's back surface is then removed to a depth sufficient to expose the conductive bumps. In a related prior art solution, the cavities receive the semiconductor dice with their active surfaces facing up and metal layer connections are formed and connected to bond pads or other electrical connectors of the semiconductor dice.
However, in light of contemporary semiconductor device packages, there is a continued need for a reliable and cost effective solution for mounting integrated circuit dice into a single package. All solutions disclosed to date either require expensive and time-consuming fabrication steps to fabricate bumps or balls or demand an extraordinarily high-level of placement precision of the dice within a substrate. Therefore, what is needed is an economical, efficient, and reliable method to mount and interconnect singulated dice onto a substrate.

Integrated circuit assemblies with alignment features and devices and methods related thereto


A pair of sunglasses is provided with a polarized region in the upper portion of the eyeglass lens and a non-polarized region in the bottom portion of the eyeglass lens so as to permit reading of polarized instruments through the non-polarized region. The two regions may be separated horizontally at the halfway point or below the halfway point such that, by tilting one's head upwardly and looking through the non-polarized region, one can readily read the instruments which would appear black through the polarized region due to the cross-polarization. In one embodiment the polarization level is gradually decreased from the top to the bottom of the lens in a polarization gradient in which there is no polarization at the bottom portion of the lens.

Polarized sunglasses have been available for many years in which polarized lenses have been used to filter out reflections and in general to sharpen the viewed images of the surrounding scene. The polarization not only provides glare protection but also in some cases attenuates the overall light level such that the polarized glasses function not only as polarization lenses but also as light attenuating lenses.
The problem with such sunglasses is that in the newer instruments, such as cockpit dashboard-mounted instrumentation, there is a polarization layer over the display which is meant to enhance the display and cut down the effect of reflected light so that the display may be readily visible. This is true for aircraft cockpit instrumentation as well as, for instance, for instrumentation that is viewed outdoors, such as marine instrumentation, namely knotmeters, anemometers, wind direction and navigation instrumentation.
Moreover, in some automotive installations, the instrumentation is likewise provided with a polarized layer so as to make the display readily viewable in all light conditions. However, when one decides to view this instrumentation while using polarized sunglasses, the instrumentation appears black due to the cross-polarization in which no light comes through the sunglasses from the instrumentation itself. The result is that, in order to view the polarized displays, one must remove one's sunglasses, which is inconvenient at best and sometimes dangerous when, for instance, one is using the polarized sunglasses to view a scene and must switch one's gaze from the scene to the instrumentation, as in cases of emergency.
The result is that one uses non-polarized sunglasses, as do pilots, and therefore one does not attain the benefit of polarized sunglasses, which are substantially better at more sharply defining the viewed scene than are the non-polarized sunglasses. While these sunglasses do attenuate glare in various regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, they do not use the polarization component to effect such attenuations.

Method and apparatus for viewing polarized displays


A thin film transistor includes a substrate, a semiconductor layer disposed on the substrate, including a channel region and source and drain regions and crystallized using a metal catalyst, a gate electrode disposed to correspond to a predetermined region of the semiconductor layer, a gate insulating layer disposed between the gate electrode and the semiconductor layer to insulate the semiconductor layer from the gate electrode, and source and drain electrodes electrically connected to the source and drain regions of the semiconductor layer, respectively. The metal catalyst within 150 Å from a surface of the semiconductor layer in a vertical direction is formed to have a concentration exceeding 0 and not exceeding 6.5×E17 atoms per cm3 in the channel region of the semiconductor layer. An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device includes the thin film transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a thin film transistor, a method of fabricating the same, and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device including the same. More particularly, aspects of the present invention relate to a thin film transistor, in which the concentration of a metal catalyst is adjusted according to the location of a channel region of a semiconductor layer, which is crystallized using a metal catalyst, so that electrical characteristics are excellent, a method of fabricating the same, and an OLED display device including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a polycrystalline silicon layer can be used in a high field effect mobility and high operating circuit, and can constitute a CMOS circuit. Therefore, a polycrystalline silicon layer is widely used for a semiconductor layer of a thin film transistor. The thin film transistor using a polycrystalline silicon layer is generally used for an active element of an Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display (AMLCD), and a switching element and a driving element of an organic light emitting diode (OLED).
Methods of crystallizing amorphous silicon into polycrystalline silicon include a solid phase crystallization (SPC) method, an excimer laser crystallization (ELC) method, a metal induced crystallization (MIC) method, and a metal induced lateral crystallization (MILC) method. In the SPC method, an amorphous silicon layer is annealed for hours or tens of hours at a temperature of about 700° C. or less, i.e., less than a transition temperature of glass that forms a substrate of a display device in which a thin film transistor is used. In the ELC method, an excimer laser is irradiated onto a silicon layer to locally heat the silicon layer for a very short time period at a high temperature, so that the silicon layer is crystallized. In the MIC method, metals such as nickel, palladium, gold, aluminum, etc., are placed in contact with an amorphous silicon layer or are injected, so that the amorphous silicon layer is changed into a polycrystalline silicon layer, i.e., a phase change is induced. In the MILC method, silicide, which is generated by reacting metal with silicon, is laterally and continuously diffused to sequentially induce crystallization of the amorphous silicon layer.
However, the SPC method takes a long process time, and the annealing process performed at a high temperature for a long time carries a risk of deformation of a substrate. Also, in the ELC method, a high-priced laser device is required, and a protrusion is created on the polycrystalline surface, so that interfacial characteristics between a semiconductor layer and a gate insulating layer may be inferior.
At present, since in a method of crystallizing an amorphous silicon layer using a metal, crystallization can be achieved at a lower temperature and with less time consumption than in the SPC method, research into crystallization methods using metals is actively progressing. Methods of crystallizing an amorphous silicon layer using a metal includes an MIC method, an MILC method, and a Super Grain Silicon (SGS) crystallization method.
One of the factors determining the characteristics of a thin film transistor is leakage current. In particular, in a semiconductor layer that is crystallized using a metal catalyst, the metal catalyst may remain in a channel region to increase the leakage current. Therefore, unless the concentration of the metal catalyst in the channel region is controlled to a predetermined concentration or less, the leakage current of the thin film transistor may be increased and the electrical characteristics of the channel region may be worsened.

Thin film transistor, method of fabricating the same, organic light emitting diode display device including the same and method of fabricating the same


Techniques and structures for achieving a more uniform current density in solder ball contact areas for a ball-grid-array semiconductor package are presented. Current density may be made more uniform by introducing electrically non-conductive regions into one or more areas that form a dedicated power rail within a package substrate that is configured to be connected with a die. Additionally or alternatively, the number of μvias that connect each solder ball contact area with conductive areas within the package substrate may be individually tailored based on the desired current density at each solder ball contact area.

Due to the costs involved in manufacturing semiconductor devices and various other factors, such devices are typically manufactured en masse on a semiconductor wafer, e.g., a silicon wafer. A single silicon wafer may hold hundreds or thousands of semiconductor devices. After semiconductor processing operations are complete, the wafer may be cut apart, or "diced," to separate the individual semiconductor devices. The resulting semiconductor devices are called "dice," or, in the singular, a "die."
Due to the fact such dice are quite fragile and have feature sizes that are still quite small, it is common practice to affix a die to a package substrate to form a semiconductor package which is then sold to manufacturers of electronic devices. The package substrate is larger than the die in area and provides, among other things, structural support to the die as well as an electrical interface that serves to connect electrical contacts on the die side with electrical contacts on the opposing side that are typically larger and more widely-spaced. For example, one common way to mount a semiconductor package is to use flip-chip ball-grid-arrays (BGAs). In a BGA, a pattern of solder balls, usually a square array (often hollow in the middle), is affixed to the underside of a package substrate. Each solder ball is affixed to a contact pad on the underside of the semiconductor package. The contact pads, in turn, are electrically connected with solder bump pads on the opposing side of the package substrate through a number of conductive layers and vias within the package substrate; the solder bump pads are spaced and sized so as to connect with corresponding contact pads on the die using solder bumps. To install a BGA semiconductor package, the semiconductor package is positioned over corresponding contact pads on a printed circuit board (PCB) or similar component and then heated above the solder re-flow temperature. The solder balls then melt and, through surface tension, automatically center the semiconductor package over the contact pads on the PCB. When the solder balls cool, they form the electrical and structural connections between the semiconductor package and the PCB.
Discussed herein are techniques and structures for use in the design of package substrates for semiconductor devices.

Package substrate with current flow shaping features


An insulated gate field effect transistor having a stable threshold voltage controlled with a good accuracy and a method for manufacturing the same is disclosed. The method for manufacturing a field effect transistor is such that doping a gate electrode with a P-type dopant is carried out after introducing an N-type dopant to a base layer for forming a contact region. The field effect transistor has sources having an extended portion extending into an upper portion of the contact region.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insulated gate field effect transistor (referred to as an IGFET hereinafter) and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to an IGFET and a method for manufacturing the same in which a polycrystalline silicon layer serving as a gate electrode is formed of a P-type layer.
(b) Description of the Related Art
An IGFET has a variety of applications in many circuits including power circuits. A conventional method for manufacturing an IGFET will be first described with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1(A) to 1(C) each shows a step in a conventional process for manufacturing an IGFET of a vertical structure as an example. A gate oxide film 3 and a polycrystalline silicon layer 4 serving as a gate electrode are consecutively formed on a P-type epitaxial layer 2 grown on a P-type silicon substrate 1, an opening 11 being formed in the the gate oxide film 3 and the polycrystalline silicon layer 4 by a photolithographic technology. An N-type base layer 5 is formed by doping a portion of the P-type epitaxial layer 2 with N-type impurities through the opening 11 (FIG. 1A).
Next, a resist layer not shown in the drawings is formed and selectively etched for exposing portions of the base layer 5. P-type source regions 6A are formed on the N-type base layer 5 as shown in FIG. 1B by ion-implanting using the resist layer as a mask. Then, an N-type (n+) contact region 8A for contacting the base layer 5 with an aluminium electrode to be deposited is formed between both the source regions 6A by an ion-implanting by use of a photo-resist layer 7A as a mask. After the photoresist layer 7A is removed, an interlayer insulation film 9 and an aluminium electrode 10 are consecutively formed as shown in FIG. 1C.
The IGFET as shown in FIGS. 1A to 1C has a drawback in which the threshold voltage of the IGFET is not controlled to a desired value, so that the the reliability of the IGFET in an operation is not sufficient.

Method for manufacturing insulated gate field effect transistor


Disclosed is a method of making an acid chloride having the general formula ##STR1## where each R contains no unsaturated groups and is preferably independently selected from aliphatic from C.sub.1 to C.sub.7 and aryl from C.sub.6 to C.sub.15. A solution is formed in an inert solvent of an aldehyde having the general formula ##STR2## and chlorine gas is sparged into said solution. The reaction between the aldehyde and the chlorine gas to produce the acid chloride is performed in the absence of a catalyst, an initiator, and ultraviolet light. A chlorinated acid chloride can be prepared from the acid chloride by reacting it with additional chlorine in the presence of a chlorine free radical generator.

This invention relates to a method of making an acid chloride from an aldehyde. In particular, it relates to reacting pivaldehyde with chlorine gas to make pivaloyl chloride, which can then be chlorinated to produce cloropivaloyl chloride.
Chloropivaloyl chloride (CPC) is a commercially important raw material used in making herbicides. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,312,982 and 4,770,821) teach that CPC can be prepared by chlorinating pivaloyl chloride (PC). Pivaloyl chloride is prepared from pivalic acid by reaction with either phosgene or thionyl chloride, both of which are relatively expensive.