A driving device for an optical member or an optical apparatus comprises a first transmitting member for transmitting a driving force provided by a driving source, a second transmitting member for transmitting a driving force provided by a manual operation, an output member to which the driving forces from the first and second transmitting members are transmitted, the optical member being moved by a rotation of the output member, and a planetary rotating member in contact with the second transmitting member and the output member, wherein the planetary rotating member is supported for rotation with respect to the first transmitting member, and the first transmitting member rotates while revolving the planetary rotating member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving device which drives an optical member by means of a driving source and also allows the optical member to be driven by a manual operation, as well as to an optical apparatus having such driving device.
2. Description of Related Art
A lens barrel of the type which includes a built-in vibration type motor has heretofore been used. This type of lens barrel is arranged to perform an automatic focusing operation by means of a ring-shaped vibration type motor built in the lens barrel and also to allow a user to perform a manual focusing operation without the need for a special changeover operation.
A planetary mechanism type of driving device for such lens barrel is proposed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 2-253216 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,115). The planetary mechanism type of driving device includes a power transmitting member for transmitting the driving force of a vibration type motor, an operating force transmitting member for transmitting a driving force for manual operation, and planetary rollers maintained in contact with these transmitting members, and rotating support shafts for the respective planetary rollers are provided on an output member which performs lens driving.
FIG. 4 shows one example of the planetary mechanism type of lens driving device for the lens barrel. Referring to FIG. 4, a support tube 101 serves to hold various constituent components of the lens driving device. A ring-shaped vibrator (hereinafter referred to as a stator) 102 constitutes part of a vibration type motor, and an electromechanical energy converting element 103 is joined to one end surface of the stator 102 to excite a vibration in the stator 102. A vibration absorber 104 such as felt is maintained in pressure contact with one surface of the electro-mechanical energy converting element 103, and a disc spring 105 is provided for urging the vibration absorber 104 and the stator 102 in the forward direction along the optical axis of the lens barrel (in FIG. 4, toward the left).
A nut 106 for adjusting the pressure of the disc spring 105 is screwed onto a threaded portion formed to extend around the outer diameter portion of the support tube 101, and a rotation stopper 107 for inhibiting the rotation of the stator 102 is integrally held on the outer diameter portion of the support tube 101. A rotor 108 is arranged to receive a rotating force about the optical axis from the stator 102 while the stator 102 is vibrating, and an automatic-focusing connection plate 110 is arranged to rotate integrally with the rotor 108 via a rubber ring 109.
An output rotating tube 111 has a plurality of shafts 111a which extend in radial directions centered at the optical axis, and rollers 112 are rotatably secured to the shafts 111a, respectively. A focusing key 115 for transmitting the rotation of the output rotating tube 111 to a cam ring for lens driving (not shown) is secured to the output rotating tube 111. A manual-focusing connection plate 113 is arranged to rotate together with a manual operating member (not shown).
Each of the rollers 112 is disposed between the automatic-focusing connection plate 110 and the manual-focusing connection plate 113 and is maintained in contact with both plates 110 and 113. For example, if the driving force of the vibration type motor is transmitted to the automatic-focusing connection plate 110 and the automatic-focusing connection plate 110 is rotated about the optical axis, the rollers 112 revolve about the optical axis together with the output rotating tube 111 while each of the rollers 112 is rotating on its axis, since the rotation of the manual-focusing connection plate 113 is inhibited by the friction between the manual-focusing connection plate 113 and the lens barrel through the manual operating member. The rotation of the output rotating tube 111 is transmitted to the cam ring through the focusing key 115, and a lens (not shown) is driven to move along the optical axis by the cam ring.
On the other hand, if a driving force from the manual operating member is transmitted to the manual-focusing connection plate 113 and the manual-focusing connection plate 113 is rotated about the optical axis, since the rotation of the automatic-focusing connection plate 110 is inhibited by friction between the rotor 108 and the stator 102 of the vibration type motor, the rollers 112 revolve about the optical axis together with the output rotating tube 111 while each of the rollers 112 is rotating on its axis, and the rotation of the output rotating tube 111 is transmitted to the cam ring through the focusing key 115 and the lens is driven to move along the optical axis by the cam ring.
In this manner, it is possible to drive the lens without performing a special changeover operation, merely by actuating the vibration type motor or operating the manual operating member.
In the field of such lens driving device, there is not much demand for higher lens-driving speeds with respect to the operating speed of the manual operating member, because it is necessary for users to readily make fine adjustment of a lens position (focus). In contrast, there is an increasing demand for higher lens-driving speeds for automatic focusing.
In the above-described conventional lens barrel, the driving force of the vibration type motor is transmitted to the output member after having been speed-reduced by the planetary mechanism. If the speed of transmission to the output member is to be increased to make the speed of automatic focusing far higher, the driving speed of the vibration type motor may be made faster. However, as the driving speed of the vibration type motor is made faster, it becomes more difficult to control the stop position of the vibration type motor, and this leads to the problem that the accuracy of control of automatic focusing is easily impaired.
In the lens barrel shown in FIG. 4, the pressure produced by the disc spring 105 to press the stator 102 against the rotor 108 in the vibration type motor is utilized to maintain each of the rollers 112 in pressure contact with both connection plates 110 and 113. Accordingly, care must be taken to optimally set both the pressure between the stator 102 and the rotor 108 and the pressure between each of the rollers 112 and both connection plates 110 and 113.
There is a recently proposed type of lens barrel which makes use of a differential mechanism which uses rollers as a planetary mechanism. The respective rollers of the planetary mechanism have rotating shafts in radial directions perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens barrel. The rollers of the planetary mechanism are disposed in the state of being clamped between an output end surface associated with a manual ring for manual focusing and an output end surface associated with a vibration type motor (ultrasonic motor) for automatic focusing, and an output ring arranged to rotate with the revolution of the rollers about the optical axis is disposed to constitute a differential mechanism whose final output is the rotation of the output ring.
In order to prevent an excessive force from acting on the differential mechanism even if the manual ring is rotated when the rotation of the output ring is inhibited, a friction coefficient is set so that the rollers and the output end surface associated with the manual ring can start slipping at any time when the manual ring is rotated with the rotation of the output ring being inhibited.
Incidentally, if the rollers and the output end surface of the rotor of the vibration type motor are arranged to start slipping at an earlier timing, the rollers rotate about their respective axes without rolling on the output end surface of the rotor and the output end surface of the rotor is abraded at particular points only, so that the marks of the abrasion will be made on the output end surface. On the other hand, if the rollers and the output end surface associated with the manual ring are arranged to start slipping at an earlier timing, the rollers do not roll nor rotate and only the manual ring rotates, so that the entire output end surface associated with the manual ring will be abraded by the rollers. Accordingly, the latter arrangement is more advantageous in abrasion than the former arrangement.
In addition, since the output ring is arranged to drive a focusing lens, the feature of the structure of the ultrasonic motor can be fully utilized, particularly during a manual focusing operation.
As is known, in the vibration type motor, a ring-shaped rotor which constitutes an output member is maintained in pressure contact with a ring-shaped metallic elastic body (which corresponds to a stator) in which to form a progressive wave, by a pressure member such as a spring, so that the rotor is frictionally driven by the progressive wave formed in the elastic body.
In the above-described differential mechanism, even if the output member rotates which receives the pressure of the pressure member along the optical axis, the pressure of the pressure member acts so that the manual ring maintains a non-rotating state, whereas if the manual ring is rotated to perform manual focusing, the non-rotating state of the rotor is maintained because the rotor of the vibration type motor is maintained in pressure contact with the stator. Accordingly, it is possible to effect changeover between an automatic focusing operation and a manual focusing operation without using a special changeover mechanism.
In the conventional lens barrel having the above-described structure, the rollers are used as the planetary mechanism in the differential mechanism which effects changeover between the manual focusing operation and the automatic focusing operation without a special changeover operation, and the output end surface of the vibration type motor and the output end surface of the manual ring are maintained in frictional contact with each other with the rollers being clamped therebetween, thereby realizing transmission of a driving force. Since the pressure of the pressure member for pressing the rotor against the stator of the vibration type motor is used as the pressure required for such frictional contact, such pressure is set to an optimum pressure which can bring out the performance of the vibration type motor.
For this reason, if a focusing lens having a large lens load is driven, a slip occurs in the frictional contact with the rollers and it becomes impossible to efficiently transmit the output of the vibration type motor, so that the focusing lens may not be fully driven.
To cope with this problem, it is preferable that the friction coefficient between the rollers and the output end surface of the manual ring be increased within a range smaller than the friction coefficient between the rollers and the output end surface of the rotor of the vibration type motor, because the first slip occurs between the rollers and the output end surface of the manual ring. However, it is difficult to continuously vary the friction coefficient which greatly depends on the materials of the surfaces in contact with each other.
For this reason, to efficiently transmit the output of the vibration type motor, a pressure member for raising the driving force to a limit driving force capable of transmitting drive without causing a slip between the outer circumferential surface of each of the rollers and the output end surfaces of both the manual ring and the vibration type motor (hereinafter referred to as a slip torque) is provided separately from the pressure member for pressing the rotor against the stator of the vibration type motor, thereby applying to the vibration type motor an optimum pressure capable of bringing out the performance of the vibration type motor.
It has also been proposed to provide an arrangement which makes it possible to apply a pressure capable of producing a sufficient slip torque for the frictional contact between the outer circumferential surface of each of the rollers and the output end surfaces of both the manual ring and the vibration type motor (hereinafter referred to as a pressure separating type).
One conventional example of the pressure separating type will be described below with reference to FIG. 9.
FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of a conventional focusing driving unit. A unit support tube 301 serves to hold various constituent components of the focusing driving unit. A ring-shaped vibrator (hereinafter referred to as a stator) 302 has a trapezoidal shape in cross section, and an electrostrictive element 303 for vibrating the stator 302 is joined to one end surface of the stator 302.
A ring-shaped vibration absorber 304 made of felt or the like is maintained in pressure contact with one surface of the electrostrictive element 303, and a first disc spring 305 constitutes first pressure means for urging the vibration absorber 304 along the optical axis of the lens barrel. A first nut 306 for adjusting the pressure of the disc spring 305 is screwed into a threaded portion formed to extend around the inner diameter portion of the unit support tube 301.
A rotation stopper 307 for inhibiting the rotation of the stator 302 is integrally held on the inner diameter portion of the unit support tube 301. A rotor 308 serves as a contact element arranged to receive a rotating force about the optical axis from the stator 302, and a first connection plate 310 is arranged to rotate integrally with the rotor 308 via a rubber ring 309 and is maintained in contact with a first roller 312 which will be described later.
A plurality of roller support shafts 311 each of which rotatably supports the first roller 312 and a second roller 313 (to be described later) are secured to the unit support tube 301 in such a manner as to project toward the optical axis from the inner diameter portion of the unit support tube 301. The first roller 312 is maintained in contact with the first connection plate 310 to receive pressure from first pressure means 305, and has a bearing structure formed by two separate inner and outer diameter sides which are joined to each other by bearing balls to eliminate rotational loss.
The second roller 313 is maintained in contact with a second connection plate 314 (which will be described later) and receives pressure from second pressure means (which will be described later), and has a bearing structure formed by two separate inner and outer diameter sides which are joined to each other by bearing balls to eliminate rotational loss. The second connection plate 314 is maintained in contact with a third roller (which will be described later) and is pressed by the second pressure means and is engaged with a claw of the first connection plate 310 so that the rotation of the first connection plate 310 is transmitted to the second connection plate 314 and the second connection plate 314 is rotated in the same direction as the first connection plate 310.
An output ring 315 has a plurality of output shafts 315a which extend in radial directions centered at the optical axis, and third rollers 316 which will be described later are rotatably supported by the output shafts 315a, respectively. The revolution of the third rollers 316 about the optical axis is transmitted to the output ring 315, and the rotation of the output ring 315 is transmitted to a cam ring (not shown) connected to the output ring 315. The third rollers 316 are rotatably supported by the output ring 315, and revolve about the optical axis while rolling in the state of being clamped between the second connection plate 314 and a manual-focusing connection plate 317 which will be described later.
The rotation of a focusing ring (not shown) is transmitted to the manual-focusing connection plate 317, and the manual-focusing connection plate 317 receives pressure from the second pressure means (which will be described later) and one end surface of the manual-focusing connection plate 317 is maintained in contact with the third rollers 316.
The material of the manual-focusing connection plate 317 is selected so that the friction coefficient between the third rollers 316 and the manual-focusing connection plate 317 becomes smaller than the friction coefficient between the third rollers 316 and the second connection plate 314. A holding ring 318 is pressed by the second pressure means (which will be described later) and is maintained in contact with the manual-focusing connection plate 317, and is fitted on the body of the focusing driving unit to inhibit the rotation of the body.
A reinforcement plate 319 is secured to the holding ring 318. A second disc spring 320 constitutes the second pressure means, and urges the manual-focusing connection plate 317 against the third rollers 316 along the optical axis. A second nut 321 for adjusting the pressure of the second disc spring 320 is screwed into a threaded portion formed to extend around the inner diameter portion of the unit support tube 301.
However, in the conventional pressure separating type, pressure separating parts for respectively receiving pressure from the vibration type motor and pressure from the manual ring (in the conventional example, the first rollers 312 and the second rollers 313) are disposed in parallel along the optical axis between a vibration type motor portion and a manual connection portion, so that the thrust length of the unit increases.
To obtain another means for solving the above-described problem, attention has been paid to the fact that the slip torque due to the frictional contact between the outer circumferential surface of each of the rollers and the output end surface of the manual ring is smaller than the slip torque due to the frictional contact between the outer circumferential surface of each of the rollers and the output end surface of the vibration type motor and a slip starts to occur at all times between the outer circumferential surface of each of the rollers and the output end surface of the manual ring.
A driving unit, which is incorporated in a lens barrel including a built-in vibration type motor composed of a ring-shaped stator and rotor disposed concentrically with the optical axis of a lens, is provided with a manual-focusing connection member to which the rotation of a manual ring is to be transmitted, and first rollers which are disposed at at least three circumferential locations centered at the optical axis of the lens and which are respectively rotatable on radial axes perpendicular to the optical axis and are capable of rolling in the state of being clamped between the rotor of the vibration type motor and the manual-focusing connection member.
The driving unit also includes an output ring which rotatably supports the first rollers and which rotates about the optical axis by receiving a revolution of the first rollers about the optical axis, a first pressure member which maintains end surfaces of the rotor and the stator of the vibration type motor in pressure contact with each other and also the outer circumferential surfaces of the first rollers and the end surface of the rotor in pressure contact with each other, a second pressure member which maintains the outer circumferential surfaces of the first rollers and an end surface of the manual-focusing connection member in pressure contact with each other, and second rollers which are disposed on the output ring and are urged against an end surface of a fixed portion by the pressure of the second pressure member via the first roller and the output ring.
In the above-described proposed arrangement, the slip torque due to the frictional contact between the outer circumferential surfaces of the rollers and the output end surface of the manual ring can be adjusted to a largest value within a range smaller than the slip torque due to the frictional contact between the outer circumferential surfaces of the rollers and the output end surface of the vibration type motor, whereby the thrust size of the driving unit can be shortened.
One example of the above-described proposed arrangement will be described below with reference to FIG. 10.
FIG. 10 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of a focusing driving unit. A unit support tube 401 serves to hold various constituent components of the focusing driving unit. A ring-shaped vibrator (hereinafter referred to as a stator) 402 has a trapezoidal shape in cross section, and an electrostrictive element 403 for vibrating the stator 402 is joined to one end surface of the stator 402. A ring-shaped vibration absorber 404 made of felt or the like is maintained in pressure contact with one surface of the electrostrictive element 403.
A first disc spring 405 constitutes first pressure means for urging the vibration absorber 404 along the optical axis of the lens barrel. A first nut 406 for adjusting the pressure of the disc spring 405 is screwed into a threaded portion formed to extend around the inner diameter portion of the unit support tube 401. The pressure of the first pressure means (the disc spring) 405 is adjusted to an optimum pressure which is capable of bringing out the maximum performance of the vibration type motor.
A rotation stopper 407 for inhibiting the rotation of the stator 402 is integrally held on the inner diameter portion of the body of the focusing driving unit. A rotor 408 is arranged to receive a rotating force about the optical axis of the lens barrel, due to a vibration wave produced in the stator 402.
A connection plate 410 is arranged to rotate integrally with the rotor 408 via a rubber ring 409 and is maintained in contact with first rollers 412 which will be described later.
An output ring 411 has a plurality of shafts 411a and 411b which extend approximately equally in radial directions centered at the optical axis, and the respective shafts 411a rotatably support the first rollers 412 which will be described later, while the respective shafts 411b rotatably support second rollers 413 which will be described later. The rotation of the output ring 411 is transmitted to a cam ring (not shown) which is connected to the output ring 411.
The respective first rollers 412 are rotatably supported by the shafts 411a disposed at a plurality of locations on the output ring 411, and revolve about the optical axis while rolling in the state of being clamped between the connection plate 410 and a manual-focusing connection plate 414. The respective second rollers 413 are rotatably supported by the shafts 411b disposed at a plurality of locations on the output ring 411, and are urged against an end surface of an inner diameter projection 401a of the unit support tube 401 by receiving the pressure applied by second pressure means (which will be described later) from the manual-focusing connection plate 414 (which will be described later) through the first rollers 412 and the output ring 411. The second rollers 413 have a bearing structure formed by two separate inner and outer diameter sides which are joined to each other by bearing balls to eliminate rotational loss.
The second rollers 413 are disposed on the output ring 411 at the same locations as the first rollers 412 in the direction of the optical axis and out of phase with the same in the radial directions so that the second rollers 413 do not interfere with the first rollers 412. The rotation of a focusing ring (not shown) is transmitted to the manual-focusing connection plate 414, and one end surface of the manual-focusing connection plate 414 is maintained in contact with the first rollers 412 by receiving pressure from the second pressure means which will be described later.
The material of the manual-focusing connection plate 414 is selected so that the friction coefficient between the first rollers 412 and the manual-focusing connection plate 414 is smaller than the friction coefficient between the first rollers 412 and the connection plate 410. A holding ring 415 is pressed by the second pressure means (which will be described later) and is maintained in contact with the manual-focusing connection plate 414. The holding ring 415 is fitted on the unit support tube 401 to inhibit the rotation thereof.
A reinforcement plate 416 is secured to the holding ring 415. A second disc spring 417 constitutes the second pressure means, and urges the manual-focusing connection plate 414 against the first rollers 412 along the optical axis.
A second nut 418 for adjusting the pressure of the second disc spring 417 is screwed into a threaded portion formed to extend around the inner diameter portion of the body of the focusing driving unit. The pressure of the second pressure means (the second disc spring) 417 is adjusted to a pressure larger than that of the first pressure means (the first disc spring) 405 so that slip torque due to the frictional contact between the first rollers 412 and an end surface of the manual-focusing connection plate 414 becomes as large as possible within a range smaller than slip torque due to the frictional contact between the first rollers 412 and the connection plate 410.
However, even in the above proposal, the value of output torque is limited because the slip torque on the side of the manual-focusing connection plate 414 is merely increased within the range of the slip toque on the side of the vibration type motor, which slip torque is predetermined on the basis of the pressure of the vibration type motor.

Driving device for optical member and optical apparatus


A compressor comprises a plurality of pairs of a cylinder bore and a piston moving reciprocally in the cylinder bore, a valve plate provided with a plurality of outlet holes for leading pressurized gas in the cylinder bores to the outside, a plurality of strap-shaped outlet valves, each whereof is free at one longitudinal end opposing a corresponding one of the outlet holes to open and close it, and a plurality of retainers, each whereof extends in the same direction as a corresponding one of the outlet valves and is provided with a divergence restricting surface opposing the valve plate with the corresponding outlet valve extending between the surface and the valve plate to restrict the divergence of the corresponding outlet valve. The divergences of the outlet valves restricted by the retainers are different from each other.

The present invention relates to a compressor comprising a plurality of pairs of a cylinder bore and a piston moving reciprocally in the cylinder bore, a valve plate provided with a plurality of outlet holes for leading pressurized gas in the cylinder bores to the outside, a plurality of strap-shaped outlet valves, each whereof is free at one longitudinal end opposing a corresponding one of the outlet holes to open and close it, and a plurality of retainers, each whereof extends in the same direction as a corresponding one of the outlet valves and is provided with a divergence restricting surface opposing the valve plate with the corresponding outlet valve extending between the surface and the valve plate to restrict the divergence of the corresponding outlet valve.
Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 05-073276 discloses a compressor comprising a plurality of pairs of a cylinder bore and a piston moving reciprocally in the cylinder bore, a valve plate provided with a plurality of outlet holes for leading pressurized gas in the cylinder bores to the outside, a plurality of strap-shaped outlet valves, each whereof is free at one longitudinal end opposing a corresponding one of the outlet holes to open and close it, and a plurality of retainers, each whereof extends in the same direction as a corresponding one of the outlet valves and is provided with a divergence restricting surface opposing the valve plate with the corresponding outlet valve extending between the surface and the valve plate to restrict the divergence of the corresponding outlet valve.
In the aforementioned compressor, the retainer restricts the distance of lift of the outlet valve when the outlet valve opens i.e., divergence of the outlet valve to prevent the divergence from becoming too large, thereby controlling noise generating when the outlet valve touches the valve seat.
The compressor disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 05-073276 has a problem in that all the outlet valves are forced to have the same divergence to behave in the same manner and vibrate with the same frequency, thereby causing a marked vibration of the compressor and pulsation of the gas with the aforementioned specific frequency of the vibration of the outlet valves.


There are described various methods and circuits for trimming the parameter value of a thermally mutable electrical component in two directions. A sequence of heat pulses is selected as a function of thermal history using an adaptive trimming algorithm, where parameters of the sequence of heat pulses are based on a resulting impact of previous heating pulses. Direction of trimming, trimming increment, and remaining trimming distance can all be used to determine the parameters of succeeding heat pulses, wherein the parameters of the pulses can be, for example, amplitude, duration, and time interval between pulses.

The trimming (adjustment) of electrical resistors is a widely used procedure in the manufacture of microelectronics and electronic components, and in common design of user circuits, especially where precision calibration is desired. In principle, one trims the resistor until an observable local or global circuit parameter reaches a desired value. Resistor trimming is widespread in both manufacturing of a variety of components and instruments, and in the user community.
It is known that certain thermally-mutable materials, such as polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) or polycrystalline SiGe, respond to heating or voltage pulses above a certain threshold, by changing their electrical resistivity. Several publications describe experiences whereby the resistance is deliberately "trimmed" to a target value within a certain level of precision.
Amemiya et al (Y. Amemiya, T. Ono, K. Kato Electrical Trimming of Heavily Doped Polycrystalline Silicon Resistors IEEE Trans. Electron. Dev. vol. ED-26 (1979), 11, pp. 738-742; and US patent #4210996-1980), describe using applied voltage pulses directly to polysilicon resistors, where these trimming pulses have duration in the range of 0.5 us to 1 ms. The effect of these pulses is to trim "down" (reduce the resistance). They state that shorter pulses require higher voltages (24-28V) than longer pulses, to achieve the trimming effect. For example, 0.5 us pulses yielded 0.02% resistance decrease. They also state that the resistance can be increased and so called "recovery" can be accomplished, even to resistance values higher than the initial (as-fabricated) resistance value, Rinit. They state that the "Time constant for recovery is larger than that of the trimming process." They disclose 0.01% (100 ppm) trimming accuracy.
Kato et al (K. Kato, T. Ono, Y. Amemiya A Monolithic 14 Bit D/A Converter Fabricated with a New Trimming Technique (DOT), IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits vol. SC-19 (1984), 5, pp. 802-807), also apply voltage pulses directly to polysilicon resistors, and describe a technique for stabilizing the post-trimming resistance, called the Excess Trimming and Restoration (ETR) technique. They describe that the "Trimmed R shows a slight recovery when it's left at high T for a long time" and state that it is necessary to suppress this recovery. They describe a technique by which the "resistor is intentionally over-trimmed and then restored to its required value", indicating that this recovery requires lower current. They also report 0.01% (100 ppm) accuracy, using this technique.
Feldbaumer et al (D. Feldbaumer, J. Babcock, V. Mercier, C. Chun, Pulse Trimming of Polysilicon Resistors IEEE Trans. Electron. Dev. vol. ED-42 (1995), 4, pp. 689-695), also apply voltage pulses directly to polysilicon resistors. To trim down, they apply a series of heat pulses of increasing amplitude, having 3 ms duration, with 10 ms between each pulse. They accomplished recovery, by "reapplying a current of less than the final trim current but above threshold" (where the "threshold" is the threshold below which the resistance doesn't change.) They report that the "Magnitude of recovery is small in comparison to the amount which is trimmed" for example less than 1% after trimming "down" by 20% of the as-fabricated value. They suggest that this "Offers a method to finely tune resistors which are trimmed past their target" and suggest that there is an optimal recovery current, in the range of 80% to 90% below the current of the last previous "down" pulse. They use only constant-amplitude pulses with total accumulated time of approximately 25 ms. For example they use a "Trim Pulse Width" of 1 ms and "Recovery Pulse Width" of 2.5 ms with Total Accumulated Recovery Time of 25 ms (FIG. 5 of their paper), and state that they could recover by about 1% to 2% of the resistance value using total accumulated pulse times on the order of a second or less.
Babcock et al (J. Babcock, P. Francis, R. Bashir, A. Kabir, D. Shroder, M. Lee, T. Dhayagude, W. Yindeepol, S. Prasad, A. Kalnitskiy, M. Thomas, H. Haggag, K. Egan, A. Bergemont, P. Jansen, Precision Electrical Trimming of very Low TCR Poly-SiGe Resistots IEEE Electron. Dev. Letters, vol. 21 (2000), 6, pp. 283-285), also use auxiliary heaters to heat integrated Si—Ge resistors. They disclose that they are able to recover up to ˜20% higher than the as-fabricated resistance, (Rinit), by applying a constant-amplitude current for 40000 s. In this publication, they also demonstrate that the TCR of a trimmed resistor varies with (is a function of) the trimmed resistance.
Babcock et al have also described in provisional patent application US 2002/0035519 a procedure of trimming involving applying a sequence of pulses having increasing amplitude (each pulse greater than the previous).
Therefore, the prior art shows methods of both increasing and decreasing the resistance of certain thermally-mutable materials, but there remain significant limitations of trimming performance. Most importantly, increasing the resistance by these methods appears to take very long times, or is quite limited in range (e.g. 1%-2%). It would be extremely advantageous, for the purpose of circuit design, to increase the precision to which a resistor can be trimmed and have this precision be achievable over a short period of time.

Bidirectional thermal trimming of electrical resistance


A sling construction in the form of a hammock includes a number of panels stitched together in the form of an open top container for placement in the back seat of a motor vehicle to protect the interior of the vehicle and to further protect animals within the sling construction.

In a principal aspect the present invention relates to a sling or hammock construction for maintaining a pet safely on a vehicle seat, particularly the back seat behind a driver and passenger.
When traveling with a pet, particularly a pet that may be large or sheds fur, placement of the pet in the back seat of a vehicle often results in rendering the back seat untidy and unclean. Fur which has been shed and dirt from the animal may result in making the back seat unsuitable or unusable by a subsequent passenger. Additionally, if a pet is placed in the back seat of a vehicle, the pet may be thrown forward and injured in the event of a sudden stop.
Thus, there has developed the need for means to not only protect the interior upholstery of a vehicle, including the seat and floor area behind the driver and passenger front compartment, but also a means to enhance the safety of a pet placed in the back seat of a vehicle. Merely attaching the pet to a safety belt by means of a leash may not be appropriate or safe. Retaining the pet in a seatbelt will, of course, not be feasible. Thus, the need described has become an important factor, particularly with people who have pets as their companions.


Discloses is a computer network system comprising a plurality of network management tools, a network segment comprising a plurality of hardware devices, and a proxy for interconnecting network management tools with the network segment. Each of the network management tools is assigned at least one functionality for monitoring and controlling at least one hardware device which is polled by the network management tools. The functionalities from different network management tools are separate from each other, and the proxy is set up to consolidate requests from the different network management tools and to focus the requests on one single request to the device to be controlled by the different network management tools.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a method for monitoring the performance of a computer network, and in particular to a method for monitoring and controlling hardware devices of a network, such as for example switches, routers and firewalls. The invention further relates to an appropriate computer network system, a computer program and a computer program product.
Background Art
Related technology is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,782, U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,171, U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,486 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,080 and incorporated herein by reference.
Furthermore, familiarity with general concepts, protocols and devices currently substantially used in LAN (local area network) networking applications and in WAN (wide area network) internetworking applications is presumed. These standards are publicly available and not discussed herein in more detail. This specification also presumes some familiarity with specific network and operating system components discussed briefly in the following paragraph, such as the simple network management protocol (SNMP) for management of LAN and WAN networks, and the general functionality of a network proxy.
A local area network (LAN) is an arrangement of various hardware and software elements that operate together to allow a number of digital devices to exchange data within the LAN and also may include internet connections to external wide area networks (WANs). Typical modern LANs are comprised of one to many LAN intermediate systems that are responsible for data transmission throughout the LAN and a number of end systems that represent an end user equipment. End systems may be familiar end-user data processing equipment such as personal computers, workstations, and printers and additionally may be digital devices such as digital telephones or real-time video displays. Different types of end systems can operate together on the same LAN.
The already mentioned simple network management protocol (SNMP) is a common protocol used for managing network infrastructure over the network. SNMP is a layer 7 network and system management protocol that handles network and system management functions and can be implemented as a driver or SNMP agent interfacing through UDP or some other layer 4 protocol. Prior art SNMP installations largely were not placed in end systems because SNMP did not handle end system management or monitoring functions and because SNMP agents are processor and memory intensive.
SNMP is designed to provide a simple but powerful cross platform protocol for communicating complex data structures important to network infrastructure management. However, its power and platform-independent design makes it computationally intensive to implement, and for that reason it has limited applications in end system management or monitoring. It is primarily used in network infrastructure management, such as management of network routers and bridges.
In conventional computer performance monitoring applications or network management tools, the network management tool generates a request for data which is sent by the network management tool to a hardware device of the network which has to be controlled. The hardware device sends in return the information requested to the network management tool which then processes the data as required.
The hardware devices to be monitored are often of high complexity. The information to be monitored becomes continuously more complicated so that there are enormous amounts of information to be analyzed. Furthermore, a lot of different network management tools exist to monitor and control networks or network hardware devices, respectively. Such network management tools are, for example, fault management, configuration management, accounting, that means for example bandwidth measurements, performance, such as memory usage or CPU usage, security management, as, for example, firewall management, authentication, and userID management. These network management tools cause a high network load and impose more and more load on a single hardware device which can result in performance degradation of both network hardware devices as well as in network bandwidth. Each operator often has his own solution for monitoring and does not in general take into account other possibilities. Since a lot of users, particularly those who work worldwide, use a plurality of network components of different operators, there are several different network management tools which cause redundancy by monitoring hardware devices.
Different users, which have their own internal network, often use identical IP address ranges. By taking over those users as outsourcing users, address conflicts result. At the moment, the most common solution is to install a double monitoring system for each user, which results in double costs.
There exist so-called NAT (Network Address Translation) devices/tools that perform an address translation into identical IP addresses. These tools change only the IP address in the so-called TCP/IP header, but not the IP address inside the transported SNMP packet. The SNMP data received therefore still includes the duplicate IP addresses. Most network management tools cannot handle these duplicate addresses and therefore dedicated installations must be chosen instead of cheaper shared solutions.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Computer network system and a method for monitoring and controlling a network

International Business Machines Corporation


A system for measuring gait kinematics information during exercise of a subject comprising a fixing member adapted for fixing onto the trunk of the body of the subject; an acceleration sensor attached to the fixing member for sensing the vertical acceleration of the trunk of the body of the subject; and a microprocessor coupled to the acceleration sensor adapted to receive the vertical acceleration data from the acceleration sensor, and to compute and derive the speed and distance traversed by the subject, and to communicate the speed and distance information. In the preferred embodiment, a heart-rate monitoring device is also provided.

It is valuable for an exerciser to know his/her heart rate and speed information during exercise. Current Heart Rate and speed Monitor is either acceleration sensor based or GPS technology based. The acceleration sensor based heart rate and speed monitor is composed of a chest belt for heart rate measurement, a foot pad embedded with an accelerometer to measure speed and a wrist watch to display heart rate and speed information received separately from the chest belt and foot pad. This approach has the disadvantage of RF interference problem since the wrist watch will receive signal from both the chest belt (heart rate information) and foot pad (speed and distance information). This problem will get worse when two or more heart rate and speed monitor users are getting together and may result in inaccurate reading.

System and method for measuring gait kinematics information


In a press device for pressing a slider with a plurality of motors as driving sources, pressing is performed while a slider is kept horizontal even if an eccentric load is applied. In this press device, in the teaching stage, when the eccentric load is to be applied, a degree of shortage of a driving torque in each of the driving sources is determined at each timing when the eccentric load is applied so that a torque addition signal for compensating for the torque shortage is supplied to the respective corresponding driving sources corresponding to the respective timing during the actual machining

A press device for pressing the slider by motors, which are a plurality of driving sources, is known, and the applicant filed a patent application as the Patent Document 1.
FIG. 7 shows a conventional publicly known press device. FIG. 7 is substantially the same as that disclosed in the Patent Document 1.
In FIG. 7, in a frame body 404 formed by a base 401, a support plate 402 and a plurality of guide poles 403, two sliders 405 and 406 are provided, and at the four corners of each of the sliders 405 and 406, sliding holes engaged with the guide poles 403 and through which the sliders 405 and 406 freely slide respectively in the axial direction of the guide poles 403 are provided.
On an upper face of the support plate 402, a plurality of, four in this case, for example, mounting bases 408 are provided, and a servo motor 409 for rapid traverse containing an encoder is mounted on each of the mounting bases 408.
Since the constitution and components relating to each of the servo motors 409 for rapid traverse mounted on the four mounting bases 408, which will be described below, are totally the same, only one of them will be described.
A screw shaft 410 fastened to a shaft of the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse inside the mounting base 408 is pivotally supported by the support plate 402 capable of rotation, screwed with a screw feed nut 411 fixed to the slider 406 and can penetrate the slider 405 provided further below the slider 406. Therefore, the slider 406 is raised or lowered by synchronized normal/reverse rotation of the four servo motors 409 for rapid traverse, and the slider 406 can be reciprocated by rotation control of the servo motors 409 for rapid traverse.
On the slider 406, a double-nut lock mechanism 414 for clamping, that is, fixing the screw shaft 410 onto the slider 406 is provided. When this lock mechanism 414 is operated, the screw shaft 410 is fixed (locked) onto the slider 406 and the screw shaft 410 and the slider 406 are integrated so that the screw shaft 410 and the slider 406 can not mutually move.
On an upper face of the slider 406, a plurality of, 2, 3 or 4, for example, mounting bases 415 are provided, and a servo motor 417 for pressurization containing an encoder and having a reducer 416 is mounted on each of the mounting bases 415. Since the constitution and the components of each of the servo motors 417 for pressurization mounted on the mounting base 415 are totally the same, only one of them will be described below.
A ball screw shaft 418 fastened to a shaft of the servo motor 417 for pressurization inside the mounting base 415 is screwed with a ball screw mechanism 419 with differential mechanism in which a ball and a nut member are provided inside, and pivotally supported by the slider 406 capable of rotation. The ball screw shaft 418 and the ball screw mechanism 419 with differential mechanism fixed on the upper face of the slider 405 form the structure in which the two sliders 406 and 405 are connected. That is, by rotating the plurality of servo motors 417 for pressurization provided on the mounting bases 415 in normal or reverse rotation in synchronization, the slider 405 is raised or lowered, and the slider 405 can be reciprocated by rotation control of the servo motor 417 for pressurization.
On a lower end face of the slider 405, an upper die 407 is mounted, while a lower die 420 is provided on the base 401 at a position corresponding to this upper die 407. And between the base 401 and the support plate 402, a pulse scale 421 for detecting a position of the slider 405 is mounted along each of the four guide poles 403, respectively, to detect a contact position between the upper die 407 and a work piece 422 loaded on the lower die 420 and an upper limit standby position and a lower limit lowering position of the upper die 407. Parallel control of the slider 405 or the like is performed based on the four pulse scales 421.
A control device 423 for controlling rotation of 2 to 4 servo motors 409 for rapid traverse and 2 to 4 servo motors 417 for pressurization and for controlling the lock mechanism 414 for fixing (locking) the screw shaft 410 onto the slider 406 or releasing (unlocking) the same receives various set values inputted in advance and position signals detected by the pulse scales 421 for detecting a position of the slider 405, that is, the position of the upper die 407. And the control device 423 rapidly lowers the upper die 407 through the slider 406 lowered by rotation of the screw shaft 410 by the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse and the slider 405 lowered by rotation of the servo motor 417 for pressurization, when necessary, till the time when the upper die 407 located at the upper limit standby position is brought into contact with the work piece 422 loaded on the lower die 420 or at the time immediately before the contact. After stop of the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse, the lock mechanism 414 is immediately locked and from the time when the upper die 407 is brought into contact with the work piece 422 or the time immediately before the contact to the time when the upper die 407 is lowered to a predetermined lower limit lowered position (an imaginary line position (407) of the upper die 407 in FIG. 7), the upper die 407 is lowered by the servo motor 417 for pressurization. That is, the slider 405 is decelerated as compared with the rapid lowering speed. In this case, the control device 423 brings the servo motor 417 for pressurization in the torque applied mode so that the upper die 407 presses the work piece 422 loaded on the lower die 420 so as to press the work piece 422 into a predetermined shape. After the upper die 407 reaches the lower limit lowered position, lock of the lock mechanism 414 is released (unlocked), and such control is performed that the upper die 407 is rapidly raised using both raising of the slider 405 by the servo motor 417 for pressurization and raising of the slider 406 by the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse.
After stop of the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse, the lock mechanism 414 is locked and the screw shaft 410 is fixed (locked) onto the slider 406. The lock mechanism 414 works as follows. Even if a force operates to move the slider 406 upward through the slider 405, the ball screw mechanism 419 with differential mechanism and the ball screw shaft 418 by reaction generated when the upper die 407 presses the work piece 422 loaded on the lower die 420, the rotation of the screw shaft 410 is able to be prevented by the above described integration of the screw shaft 410 and the slider 406 and then the slider 406 is not able to move upward but maintains the stop position. That is, the upper die 407 can apply a predetermined press load onto the work piece 422.
FIG. 8 shows an enlarged explanatory view of a preferred embodiment of a moving mechanism portion of the upper die with regard to a variation of an electric press machine corresponding to FIG. 7, and the same components as those in FIG. 7 are given the same reference numerals. Also, FIG. 8 is substantially the same as that disclosed in the Patent Document 1.
In FIG. 8, inside the frame body 404 formed by the base, not shown, the support plate 402 and the plurality of guide poles 403, a slider 460 is provided, and at four corners of the slider 460, sliding holes engaged with the guide poles 403 and through which the sliders 460 freely slide in the axial direction of the guide poles 403 are provided, respectively.
On the upper face of the support plate 402, a plurality of, two or four, for example, mounting bases 461 are provided, and the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse containing an encoder is mounted on each of the mounting bases 461 through the reducer 416 (the reducer 416 may be omitted).
Since the constitution and components relating to each of the servo motors 409 for rapid traverse mounted on the plurality of mounting bases 461, which will be described below, are totally the same, only one of them will be described.
An output shaft 462 of the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse penetrating the mounting base 461 mounted on an upper face of the support plate 402 is connected to the tip end of a ball screw shaft 463 through a coupling 464. At a hole 465 provided on the support plate 402, a bearing 467 fitted in the ball screw shaft 463 through a bearing holder 466 is mounted, and the ball screw shaft 463 driven by the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse is mounted onto the support plate 402 capable of rotation.
On the support plate 402, a lock mechanism 468 is provided. This lock mechanism 468 is comprised by a gear 439 fixed to the ball screw shaft 463 and a solenoid 440 having a gear piece 441 meshed with the gear 439. When this lock mechanism 468 is operated, the gear piece 441 is meshed with a tooth of the gear 439, the ball screw shaft 463 is fixed to the support plate 402, and the ball screw shaft 463 is integrated with the support plate 402 so that the ball screw shaft 463 can not be rotated any more.
On an upper face of the slider 460, a support body 470 with a hollow 469 inside is fastened. At the hollow 469 of this support body 470, a hole 473 at the center capable of free rotation of the ball screw shaft 463 together with a hole (not shown) provided at the slider 460, a worm wheel 476 supported by an upper and a lower bearings 474 and 475 for thrust load and rotatably supported around the ball screw shaft 463 as a center shaft, and a servo motor 478 for pressurization containing an encoder to which a worm 477 meshed with the worm wheel 476 is fixed are provided. At an upper portion of the worm wheel 476, a ball screw mechanism 479 provided with a ball and a nut member inside to screw with the ball screw shaft 463 is fixed capable of rotation in the form projecting to a ceiling portion of the support body 470.
When the servo motor 478 for pressurization is stopped, mesh between the worm 477 fixed to the output shaft of the servo motor 478 for pressurization and the worm wheel 476 makes the ball screw mechanism 479 fixed at the upper portion of the worm wheel 476 to be integrated with the slider 460. Then, the ball screw shaft 463 is driven by normal rotation/reverse rotation of the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse, the slider 460 is raised or lowered through a connecting mechanism (third connecting mechanism) 471 constituted by the ball screw mechanism 479 screwed with the ball screw shaft 463, the worm wheel 476, the two bearings 474 and 475, the support body 470 or the like, and the slider 460 can be reciprocated by rotation control of the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse.
Also, when the servo motor 478 for pressurization is rotated in the normal/reverse direction in the state where the lock mechanism 468 is operated and the ball screw shaft 463 and the support plate 402 are integrated, a rotation portion constituted by the worm wheel 476 and the ball screw mechanism 479 is rotated through the ball screw shaft 463 in the stationary state, and the slider 460 is raised or lowered. That is, the slider 460 can be reciprocated by rotation control of the servo motor 478 for pressurization.
After the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse is stopped, the lock mechanism 468 is locked and the ball screw shaft 463 is fixed to the support plate 402. This reason is as follows. That is, an unwanted action operates so as to move the slider 460 upward and then to rotate the ball screw shaft 463 by reaction generated when the upper die 407 presses the work piece 422 loaded on the lower die 420. In this invention, even if the unwanted action to move the slider 460 upward tries to rotate the ball screw shaft 463, the ball screw shaft 463 and the support plate 402 are integrated as above, then the ball screw shaft 463 is prevented from being rotated. Thus, the upper die 407 can apply a predetermined press load onto the work piece 422.
Though not shown, the upper die 407 (See FIG. 7) is mounted on a lower end face of the slider 460, and a lower die 420 (See FIG. 7) is provided on the base 401 (See FIG. 7) at a position corresponding to the upper die 407. And between the base 401 and the support plate 402, the pulse scale 421 for detecting a position of the slider 460 is provided along each of the four guide poles 403 to detect a position of contact between the upper die 407 and the work piece 422 (See FIG. 7) loaded the lower die 420 as well as an upper limit standby position and a lower limit lowered position of the upper die 407.
A control device 480 for controlling rotation of each of the servo motors 409 for rapid traverse and the servo motors 478 for pressurization and the lock mechanism 468 for fixing (locking) the ball screw shaft 463 onto the support 402 or releasing (unlocking) the same receives various set values inputted in advance and position signals detected by the pulse scales 421 for detecting a position of the slider 460, that is, the position of the upper die 407. And the control device 480 rapidly lowers the upper die 407 through the rotation of the ball screw shaft 463 by the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse and the rotation of the rotation portion of the connecting mechanism 471 by the servo motor 478 for pressurization, when necessary, till the time immediately before the upper die 407 located at the upper limit standby position is brought into contact with the work piece 422 loaded on the lower die 420. After stop of the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse, the lock mechanism 468 is immediately locked so that the support plate 402 and the ball screw shaft 463 are fixed, and from the time the upper die 407 is brought into contact with the work piece 422 or the time immediately before the contact till the upper die 407 is lowered to a predetermined lower limit lowered position (the imaginary line position (407) of the upper die 407 in FIG. 7), the upper die 407 is lowered through the slider 460 by rotation of the rotation portion of the connecting mechanism 471 under fixation between the support plate 402 and the ball screw shaft 463 at a speed slower than the above rapid lowering speed. In this case, the control device 480 brings the servo motor 478 for pressurization in the torque applied mode under the fixation between the support plate 402 and the ball screw shaft 463 so that the upper die 407 presses the work piece 422 loaded on the lower die 420 so as to press the work piece 422 into a predetermined shape. After the upper die 407 reaches the lower limit lowered position, lock of the lock mechanism 468 is released, and such control is performed that the upper die 407 is rapidly raised to the original upper limit standby position through the slider 460 using both the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse and the servo motor 478 for pressurization under release of fixation between the support plate 402 and the ball screw shaft 463.
The internal structure of the nut member of the ball screw shaft 479 is, as shown in FIG. 8, a ball arranged in a ball groove of the ball shaft screw 463 is circulated from a lower ball groove to an upper ball groove by rotation of the ball screw shaft 463 and the ball screw mechanism 479, and by this circulation of the ball, locally concentrated abrasion of the ball can be avoided.
Also, since ball-bearing position adjusting means 481 is provided between the slider 460 and a base disk 482, a differential member 453 is moved in the right and left directions in the drawing by rotating a screw portion 457. Therefore, a nut member of the ball screw mechanism 479 is moved through the base disk 482 on which the support body 470 is mounted for an extremely short distance in the perpendicular direction. By this, the ball groove in the nut member of the ball screw mechanism 479 changes its position in contact with the ball arranged in the ball groove in the ball screw shaft 463 at loading of the press working, that is, the position of the ball groove in contact with the ball in the nut member of the ball screw mechanism 479 is changed at loading of the press working, and durability of the nut member of the ball screw mechanism 479 is ensured as compared with the constitution that the ball is brought into contact with the same position every time.
In the press device as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the control device 423 (or 480) performs driving control for the servo motor 409 for rapid traverse and the servo motor 417 (or 478) for pressurization in press working.
FIG. 9 shows a block diagram for driving control for the servo motor for rapid traverse and the servo motor for pressurization. It is to be noted that FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of only one pair of the servo motor for rapid traverse and the servo motor for pressurization, but it may be considered that the similar control is performed for each of plural pairs.
Reference numeral 101 in FIG. 9 is a time/position pattern generation portion for generating information specifying the position that the slider should take according to time when the press working progresses (corresponding to individual time). And reference numerals 111 and 121 show servo modules for position loop, respectively, while reference numerals 112 and 122 for servo modules for speed loop, respectively.
Moreover, reference numeral 113 is an inertia moment response portion corresponding to the servo motor for rapid traverse for outputting an angular speed of the servo motor for rapid traverse. Reference numeral 123 is an inertia moment response portion corresponding to the servo motor for pressurization. Furthermore, reference numerals 114 and 124 are integration response portions corresponding to integration of an inputted angular speed, and in an example shown in FIG. 7 or 8, it may be considered as an output from the pulse scales 421 representing an actual position of the slider. Also, reference numerals 115, 116, 117, 125, 126 and 127 denote adders, respectively.
According to the time when press working progresses (corresponding to individual time), a signal of position that the slider should take is generated by an NC device, not shown, for example. That is, it is supplied to the servo modules 111 and 121 for position loop. In the adders 115 and 125, a deviation between the position signal which should be taken and an actual position signal of the slider is acquired, and the deviation is inputted into the servo modules 111 and 121 for position loop. The servo modules 111 and 121 for position loop issue velocity signals corresponding to the servo motor for rapid traverse and the servo motor for pressurization, respectively.
The adders 116 and 126 acquire deviation between the respective velocity signals and actual angular speed signal of the servo motor for rapid traverse and the servo motor for pressurization, which are supplied to the servo modules 112 and 122 for speed loop, respectively. And they become signals dealing with disturbance generated in some cases at the adders 117 and 127 and drive the servo motor for rapid traverse and the servo motor for pressurization.
In the case shown in FIG. 9, so-called feedback control is performed that the deviation between the signal position which should be taken by the slider and the actual signal position of the slider is acquired particularly at the adders 115 and 125. Though not shown, if plural pairs of motors for vertically moving the slider exist as shown in FIG. 7 or 8, control according to the block diagram corresponding to one pair of motors as shown in FIG. 9 is performed to each of the plural pairs. And such control is performed that the slider is correctly and horizontally (without being tilted) lowered during press working by the plural pairs of motors.
Patent Document 1: Unexamined Japanese Patent Application (Kokai) No. 2004-358525


An electronic component includes an insulating layer, a low voltage conductor pattern formed inside the insulating layer, a high voltage conductor pattern formed inside the insulating layer such as to face the low voltage conductor pattern in an up/down direction, and a withstand voltage enhancement structure of conductive property formed inside the insulating layer and along the high voltage conductor pattern such as to protrude further outside than the low voltage conductor pattern in plan view.

For example, in the field of power electronics, development of transformers having a pair of coils that are arranged to face each other is progressing. Patent Literature 1 discloses a transformer having a pair of inductors. One of the inductors is arranged to face the other inductor upon being rotated by 180° with a central axis as a rotational axis.

Electronic component and electronic component module


In an organic electroluminescent device according to the present invention, at least a luminescent layer using an organic material is provided between a hole injection electrode and an electron injection electrode, and a luminescent material composed of a condensed polycyclic aromatic compound having condensed rings each having a benzene ring as a basic unit the number of which is in the range of 2 to 10, along with an organic material having hole transporting characteristics, is contained as the organic material in the luminescent layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an organic electroluminescent device having at least a luminescent layer using an organic material provided between a hole injection electrode and an electron injection electrode, and more particularly, to an organic electroluminescent device capable of emitting light efficiently at a low voltage and stably over a long time period.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the needs of plane display devices the consumed power and the spatial occupied area of which are smaller than those of a CRT which has been conventionally generally employed have been increased as information equipments are diversified, for example, whereby an electroluminescent device (hereinafter referred to as an EL device) has been paid attention to as one of the plane display devices.
The EL device is roughly divided into an inorganic EL device using an inorganic material and an organic EL device using an organic material depending on the used material.
The inorganic EL device is so adapted that a high electric field is generally exerted on a luminescent portion, and electrons are accelerated within the high electric field to collide with a luminescence center, whereby the luminescence center is excited to emit light.
On the other hand, the organic EL device is so adapted that electrons and holes are respectively injected into a luminescent portion from an electron injection electrode and a hole injection electrode, the electrons and the holes thus injected are recombined with each other in a luminescence center to excite an organic material, and the organic material emits fluorescence when it is returned from its excited state to its ground state.
In the inorganic EL device, a high voltage of 100 to 200 V is required as its driving voltage because a high electric field is exerted as described above. On the other hand, the organic EL device can be driven at a low voltage of approximately 5 to 20 V. Further, in the organic EL device, a device emitting light in a suitable color can be simply obtained by selecting a fluorescent material which is a luminescent material, and it is expected that the device can be also utilized as a full-color display device or the like. In recent years, various studies have been undertaken on the organic EL device.
Known examples of the organic EL device generally include ones having a three-layer structure which is referred to as a DH structure in which a hole transporting layer, a luminescent layer and an electron transporting layer are laminated between a hole injection electrode and an electron injection electrode, a two-layer structure which is referred to as an SH-A structure in which a hole transporting layer and a luminescent layer abundant in electron transporting characteristics are laminated between a hole injection electrode and an electron injection electrode, and a two-layer structure which is referred to as an SH-B structure in which a luminescent layer abundant in hole transporting characteristics and an electron transporting layer are laminated between a hole injection electrode and an electron injection electrode.
The organic EL device has the advantage that it can be driven at a lower voltage than the inorganic EL device as described above, so that it can be easily multi-colored, while having some disadvantages. For example, a voltage of approximately 5 to 20 V is still required to drive the organic EL device, and the organic EL device cannot be driven simply by a dry cell. Further, much of power which did not contribute to light emission is changed into heat. The device is degraded by the heat, whereby light is not emitted stably over a long time period.


An apparatus and method for measuring the dielectric constant or permittivity at a plurality of positions on a test specimen are provided. Accordingly, the present invention enables the spatial variance of the dielectric constant, i.e., the dielectric homogeneity, of the test specimen to be measured. In particular, high resolution dielectric homogeneity measurements are performed at low frequency (100 kHz to 10 MHz) using a specially designed guarded electrode assembly and a specially selected high permittivity matching liquid. The guarded electrode assembly comprises a guarded electrode surrounded by a guard electrode which is supported over a test specimen resting on a planar electrode. The test specimen and the planar electrode are immersed in a dielectric fluid. The guarded electrode as well as the guard electrode, which extends into the dielectric fluid, are translated across the test specimen while the capacitance between the guarded electrode and the planar electrode is measured. The present invention is designed so that the number of required measurements are reduced compared to other techniques for measuring permittivity. The present invention also overcomes problems associated with prior art methods such as long processing times, low accuracy, and low resolution. Accordingly, the present invention permits rapid accurate high resolution measurements of dielectric homogeneity at a significant cost reduction in contrast to prior art methods.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to measuring the dielectric constant of a material and, more particularly, to measuring the spatial variation of the dielectric constant.
2. Description of Related Art
The dielectric material needed to construct Continuous Transverse Stub-Electrically Scanned Array (CTS-ESA) radar antennas is barium strontium titanate (BST). Barium strontium titanate is a voltage variable dielectric (VVD) material which can operate from DC to microwave frequencies of 12 GHz and beyond. As used herein, the term microwave frequencies is used in its accepted meaning to correspond to frequency bands at about 1 GHz and above, for example, to about 300 GHz. By voltage variable dielectric is meant a dielectric material having a dielectric constant which varies with applied voltage.
The dielectric constant of BST also varies with position. As used herein, the term "dielectric constant" corresponds to the "real dielectric constant". Accordingly, the real dielectric constant as measured over a region on a given material may vary with the location on that material where the measurement is conducted. Dielectric homogeneity corresponds to the extent to which the real dielectric constant varies with position. In particular, dielectric homogeneity is defined as the measure of the spatial variance of the real dielectric constant of a material. High and low dielectric homogeneity correspond to low and high spatial variance, respectively.
The dielectric homogeneity of a material used to construct a CTS-ESA antenna directly impacts the magnitude of the side lobes in the antenna pattern. High dielectric homogeneity yields low side lobes, while low dielectric homogeneity produces high side lobes. High side lobes are detrimental to antenna performance as less energy is associated with the central beam of the antenna. Side lobes also reduce the antenna's ability to discriminate between a main target and off-axis clutter. Consequently, the characterization of the dielectric homogeneity of the material used to construct a CTS-ESA antenna is important.
Precise high resolution dielectric homogeneity measurements performed at microwave frequencies, however, are not practical, and in many cases, impossible. At low frequencies (i.e., lower than microwave frequencies), guarded electrode capacitance measurements are conventionally used to measure the dielectric constant of materials; see, e.g., ASTM D-150, "Standard Test Methods for A-C Loss Characteristics and Permittivity (Dielectric Constant) of Solid Electrical Insulating Materials," ASTM Standard D 150-87, American Society for Testing and Materials. By guarded electrode capacitance measurement is meant that the capacitance is measured between two electrodes, a guarded electrode and an unguarded electrode, wherein the guarded electrode, in practice, has sides and two ends, and is surrounded on all the sides by a guard electrode which is separated therefrom by a guard gap. Fringing and stray capacitance at the edge (i.e., sides) of the guarded electrode are essentially eliminated by the addition of the guard electrode provided that the guard gap is sufficiently small.
To measure the dielectric constant or the permittivity of a material, a test specimen of the material is placed between the guarded electrode and the unguarded electrode and the capacitance therebetween is measured. (As used herein, "permittivity" corresponds to the "real permittivity".)
The capacitance measurements which are conventionally employed are separated into two categories: contact and non-contact. Contact methods employ electrodes which are in direct mechanical contact with the test specimen. Non-contact methods employ electrodes which do not contact the test specimen.
Contact methods are the most commonly employed means for measuring the dielectric constant or the permittivity of a material. With contact methods, the dielectric constant is determined directly from a capacitance measured between a pair of electrodes. However, it is difficult to avoid an air gap between the electrodes and the test specimen when rigid electrodes and a rigid test specimen are used. Additionally, the effect of such an air gap becomes greater as the permittivity of the material being tested increases and the thickness of the test specimen decreases.
Consequently, the rigidity and high permittivity of BST requires that for BST-based materials, vacuum deposited electrodes are employed. Vacuum deposited electrodes are formed directly on the test specimen (e.g., by sputtering or evaporation, etc.) and, thus, avoid the formation of an air gap. Accordingly, to determine the dielectric homogeneity, multiple capacitance measurements are performed using a plurality discrete guarded electrodes which are metallized directly onto the surface of the BST. In particular, metal such as gold and/or silver is deposited on the test specimen thereby forming a metal film. Portions of the metal film are removed to create a plurality of isolated regions in the metal film which serve as the discrete electrodes. Typically a line of metal pads (discrete electrodes) is formed to sample the dielectric constant across the test specimen. This line of discrete electrodes is surrounded by a larger region of metallization which acts as a guard. Individual capacitive measurements are made at each of the metal pads to establish the variation in capacitance across the test specimen. In some cases, in order to further reduce stray capacitance when a capacitance measurement at a given metal pad is taken, any adjacent metal pads (typically two) are electrically connected to the surrounding larger region of metallization using jumpers.
This method of measuring dielectric homogeneity, however, is time consuming; the entire process takes a minimum of four days.
This method of using discrete guarded electrodes to perform multiple capacitance measurements also lacks the desired accuracy in determining the permittivity or dielectric constant. One source of uncertainty in computing the permittivity is in the determination of the dimensions of the individual discrete electrodes. The dimensional variation of the electrodes is a significant source of error associated with this method. Dimensional variations of the test specimen will also affect the accuracy of the measurements (as is true for all techniques), however, the test specimens are typically ground with tight dimensional tolerances, e.g., .+-.0.0001 inch (0.0025 mm) for a given lot.
Another source of error originates from stray capacitance. To conduct each capacitance measurement, electrical connection to the electrodes is completed using a four point probe or wires attached to each of the discrete guarded electrodes. A four-point probe is the preferred means of electrical connection. Both four-point probes and attached wires, however, produce stray capacitance. Disadvantageously, the stray capacitance associated with each of the guarded electrodes is different. In the case of the four-point probe, the inconsistencies in the stray capacitance result from moving the probe and/or the test specimen as each discrete electrode is tested. Stray capacitance can be a significant source of error since the values of capacitance to be measured are small, i.e., in the same range as the noise produced by the stray capacitance. Due to the uncertainty in the dimensions of the individual electrodes and to the inconsistent stray capacitance associated with each individual electrode, the dielectric homogeneity, as determined using this method, lacks the desired accuracy.
Additionally, positioning restrictions for the discrete guarded electrodes limit the spatial resolution of the dielectric homogeneity measurements. Typically, it is desirable to have the guard electrode extend beyond the guarded electrode by at least twice the thickness of the test specimen. Consequently, the guarded electrodes must be spaced apart by a distance that is greater than twice the thickness of the test specimen. Such spacing requirements restrict the placement of each of the discrete guarded electrodes. The resolution of the measurement of the dielectric homogeneity is thus limited. (It will be appreciated that when electrical jumpers are used to electrically connect adjacent metal pads to the surrounding larger region of metallization, the guard electrode need not necessarily extend beyond the guarded electrode by at least twice the thickness of the test specimen. However, in this case where jumpers are employed and the guard electrode does not extend beyond the guarded electrode by at least twice the thickness of the test specimen, then some uncertainties may exist in the capacitance measurements.)
Alternatively, non-contact methods can be used to measure the dielectric constant of materials at low frequency (i.e., lower than microwave frequencies). Non-contact methods include fluid displacement methods wherein multiple capacitance measurements (at least four) are obtained using two or more dielectric fluids or liquids; see, e.g., H. S. Endicott et al, "Measurement of Permittivity and Dissipation Factor Without Attached Electrodes", in 1960 Annual Report, Conference on Electrical Insulation, NAS-NRC Publication 842, 1961, pp. 19-30 and W. P. Harris et al, "Precise Measurement of Dielectric Constant by the Two-Fluid Technique", in 1962 Annual Report, Conference on Electrical Insulation, NAS-NRC Publication 1080, 1963, pp. 51-53. For example, a test specimen is introduced into a cell filled with a dielectric fluid and the change in capacitance is determined, first when the cell is filled with a dielectric fluid having a low permittivity and second when the cell is filled with a dielectric fluid having a higher permittivity. The permittivity of the specimen is calculated using the permittivities of the two dielectric fluids and the two capacitances changes.
Fluid displacement methods, however, involve placing the test specimen between electrodes and then removing the specimen. This process can result in misalignment and, thus, affect the accuracy of the calculated location and value of permittivity measured. Fluid displacement methods are also time consuming since they require changing the dielectric fluid.
An additional non-contact method used to measure the dielectric constant of liquids at low frequency is reported by, e.g., I. Yu, "Electrodeless measurement of RF dielectric constant and loss", Measurement Science Technology, Vol. 4, 1993, pp. 344-348.
Some non-contact (or probe-type) methods can measure the permittivity of materials at microwave frequencies. The most common of these non-contact techniques is to employ an open-ended coaxial line sensor such as the HP 85070A dielectric probe available from Hewlett-Packard Company (Santa Rosa, Calif.). Probes of this type, however, suffer large uncertainties when used to conduct measurements on rigid materials having low loss or high permittivity. Difficulties (described above) result from the air gap formed between the probe and the rigid material. The BST-based material for use in fabricating CTS-ESA antennas is a rigid material having low loss and high permittivity. Accordingly, an open-ended coaxial line sensor is not the ideal probe for performing dielectric homogeneity measurements on BST-based material. Additionally, when conducting measurements on low loss materials having finite thickness, and in particular, for thin test specimens, microwave energy can reflect off a back surface thereby confusing the measurement.
Coaxial line probes, and non-contact microwave frequency techniques, in general, suffer additional disadvantages. Other non-contact microwave frequency techniques such as free space techniques are based on directing a microwave beam at or through a slab of material and measuring the reflection and/or transmission coefficients; see, e.g., "Dielectric Materials Measurements: Solutions Catalog of Fixtures and Software", Hewlett Packard Company, Microwave Instrument Division, 1993, pp. 2-21. As a result of fringing and the divergence of the microwave beam, however, these non-contact microwave frequency techniques do not sample a precisely well defined region with uniformly distributed incident microwave energy. These non-contact microwave frequency techniques also lack the desired resolution. Additionally, the orientation of the electric fields associated with the coaxial line probes and the diverging microwave beam include components that are both perpendicular and parallel to the surface of the test specimen. Consequently, these non-contact microwave frequency techniques do not independently sample the components of the dielectric constant perpendicular and/or parallel to the surface (which are different for anisotropic materials). Accordingly, the anisotropic nature of BST-based material can cause erroneous conclusions to be produced when using such non-contact microwave frequency techniques to measure the permittivity or dielectric constant.
Thus, there remains a need for a method for measuring dielectric homogeneity that avoids most, if not all, the foregoing problems.

Precise high resolution non-contact method to measure dielectric homogeneity


A flower tissue-specific promoter, and uses thereof, is the promoter for Phalaenopsis 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase, ACC synthase gene PtACS2, and has a sequence as shown in SEQ ID No: 2. The invention further provides a gene expression cassette, which is composed of a promoter having a DNA sequence as SEQ ID No: 2, and a polynucleotide with an open reading frame linked to the 3′ end of said promoter, wherein said promoter can activate transcription of said polynucleotide in an organism containing said gene expression cassette. The invention provides furthermore a gene expression vector, which is composed of a promoter having a DNA sequence as SEQ ID No: 2. The invention provides further a method for producing a transgenic plant or parts of organ, tissue or cell of the transgenic plant that contain a gene expression cassette described above.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a stretch of gene promoter capable of activating expression specifically in plant tissue, and in particular, to a promoter capable of activating expression specifically in calyx, petal and stamen of a plant floral organ, as well as to the application of said promoter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In transgenic plants, the target gene to be transferred into the plant has to be constructed downstream of a promoter usable by the plant. After transformation, the expression of said target gene in the transgenic plant can be activated by the action of said promoter. The CaMV 35S promoter is the most commonly used promoter for driving target gene expression in plants. However, CaMV 35S promoter does not exhibit tissue specificity, and hence can not carry out the expression of the target gene in a specific plant tissue to achieve the purpose of modulating a gene expression. Further, it exhibits lower activity in monocot plants, such as orchid, than in dicot plants.
In some cases, constitutive over-expression of a transgenic target gene may interfere with the normal physiological processes in a plant. The development of tissue-specific promoters to drive a particular gene of interest should help to alleviate these problems. Therefore, the isolation and development of floral specific promoters from monocots is necessary. To modulate the expression of a target gene in transgenic plants, the critical point for modulating a gene expression is how to make a strong expression of a target gene at a specific tissue organ and/or a specific phase other than carrying out a strong expression of a target gene in the transgenic plant. Therefore, one of the important topics in promoting industrial development is to screen each promoter with different a specificity that can be used as various tools for modulating gene expression so that the transferred promoter can support the production of recombinant protein, as well as a promoter having activating ability with space specificity so as to attain the function of modulating gene expression and hence increase economical benefit.
In view of the foregoing, it is evident that CaMV 35S promoter has many disadvantages, is not designed perfectly and needs to be urgently improved.
The inventor had recognized various disadvantages derived from the conventional CaMV 35S promoter described above, and had devoted to improve and innovate. After studying intensively for many years, the inventor has developed a promoter capable of activating expression specifically in a floral organ tissue according to the invention and the application thereof.

Flower tissue-specific promoter and uses thereof

Agriculture and Food Agency, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan


An automatic flushing device for a screen filter of a biogas slurry drip irrigation system and a use thereof are provided. The automatic flushing device includes a feeding mechanism, a filter unit, a discharging mechanism and a control mechanism, where the filter unit is provided with a feeding end fixedly threaded to a discharging end of the feeding mechanism and a discharging end fixedly threaded to a feeding end of the discharging mechanism; and the control mechanism is clamped on a pipe of the feeding mechanism. The automatic flushing device enhances the cleaning strength and uniformity of ultrasonic waves to the filter screen. The ultrasonic vibration rod is nested inside the upper filter casing through the externally-threaded hollow cap and a threaded top portion of the upper filter casing, which greatly facilitates the cleaning, replacement and maintenance of the ultrasonic vibration rod.

Biogas slurry produced in the farm is a kind of waste water with high conductivity and chemical oxygen demand (COD). A dairy farm with a herd size of less than 10,000 cows can produce up to 500 cubic meters of biogas slurry per day. If the biogas slurry is directly discharged into the field, it will have significant negative effects on soil and crops. Considering that biogas slurry is rich in nutrients such as nitrogen and amino acids, it can be mixed with water to form an organic fertilizer to be applied to the field through a drip irrigation system, so a biogas slurry drip irrigation system is established.
During the operation of the biogas slurry drip irrigation system, when the flow rate and application concentration of the biogas slurry are high, the traditional screen filter or disc filter will be clogged within a few minutes, resulting in the paralysis of the drip irrigation system. The substances such as sludge, macromolecular organic matter and microorganisms that are viscous and prone to clog in the complex composition of the biogas slurry put forward high requirements on the performance of the filter. The existing self-flushing filters (Patent Nos. 201310081243.8, 201580029407.X and 201310250878.6) only use hydraulic shearing methods such as water flow impact and centrifugal suction, which cannot eradicate the viscous substances in the filter screen or disc.
It has been found through an experiment that ultrasonic waves can effectively remove the viscous impurities attached to the filter. The ultrasonic filters in the prior art (Patent Nos. ZL201310720645.8, ZL201310720672.5 and ZL201310720825.6) are often electrostatic filters (air filters), which effectively filter the air by charging particles with a high-voltage electrostatic field and trapping them by a dust collection plate. However, they have little effect on electrostatic filtration of impurities in liquids. In addition, the ultrasonic cleaning filter (Patent No. ZL200810042634.8) has problems such as low cleaning efficiency, inability to self-clean and inconvenient maintenance, making it fail to be maturely applied to the biogas slurry drip irrigation system.
Other existing treatment processes (for example, Patent No. CN2021103245867) have been applied to biogas slurry drip irrigation to filter impurities such as sludge through a filter screen, to improve the irrigation uniformity and purity. However, the filter screen will still be clogged due to sediment adhesion after long-term operation. Some of the existing solutions use back-up drip irrigation filtration systems. When one of the drip irrigation filtration systems is clogged, it is closed for repair and switched to the other drip irrigation filtration system to work, and it is switched back after finishing repair. The two drip irrigation filtration systems work independently. However, when the clogged drip irrigation filtration system is directly switched after repair, the biogas slurry in the repaired drip irrigation filtration system is directly discharged, which often makes the quality of water discharged in the early stage unqualified. Ultrasonic vibration is a method based on physical inertia, and sludge and waste will inevitably remain on the filter screen, so the water directly discharged from the repaired drip irrigation filtration system is impure and non-uniform.
To this end, the present disclosure proposes an automatic flushing device for a screen filter of a biogas slurry drip irrigation system and a method thereof.

Automatic flushing device for screen filter of biogas slurry drip irrigation system and use thereof


A control device for an internal combustion engine and a continuous variable transmission which enables well-responsible transmission control to be carried out at a proper transmission rate without increasing the transmission shock. When engine power corresponding to an engine power torque corrected amount is changeable, then an intake air flow adjusting unit is controlled in response to a corrected engine power torque corrected amount. On the contrary, when the corrected engine power torque corrected amount is not changeable, the amount corrected engine power torque corrected is restricted within a range where the engine power can be changed.

This invention relates to a control device for use in an internal combustion engine and a continuous variable transmission, wherein the control device is connected to the continuous variable transmission arranged in a power transmission method between driving wheels and the internal combustion engine loaded on a vehicle. More particularly, this invention relates to a control device of this type in which power of an internal combustion engine can be adjusted by means of controlling an intake air flow adjusting unit and which gear ratio of the continuous variable transmission can be changed at a variable speed suitable for driving conditions of a vehicle.
Generally, engine power (hereinafter referred as power) of an internal combustion engine (hereinafter referred as an engine) mounted on a vehicle is mechanically controlled by a throttle device. The throttle device is coupled to an accelerator pedal and a throttle lever (both of which are referred as accelerator hereinafter) through an accelerator cable.
However, when the accelerator and the throttle device directly cooperate with each other, excessive power may be generated due to careless driving and lack of skill of a driver. The excessive power will cause many troubles: a car may slide when a driver steps the accelerator; slip on the icy ground; skid at a sudden acceleration.
With respect to the above-mentioned problems, many method have been proposed for the control device, such as a dual throttle valve method and a traction control (power control) method utilizing so called drive-by-wire method. In the dual throttle valve method, a main throttle valve and a sub throttle valve are arranged in the throttle device and the sub throttle valve is electronically controlled. The drive-by-wire method is one such that the accelerator cable is not disposed between the accelerator and the throttle valve. An accelerator opening (throttle opening) is detected by using a sensor such as a potentiometer, while the throttle valve is operated by a stepping motor or the like.
With the traction control method, the internal combustion engine and the continuous variable transmission are generally controlled by using an engine control unit (ECU). The ECU calculates an optimum opening for the main throttle valve and the sub throttle valve in accordance with the data representative of the rotation speed of the front and rear driving wheels as well as a step amount for the accelerator pedal. In this way, a driving shaft torque of the wheels is controlled so as not to cause the undesirable skid or the like.
An information regarding to the required power of the engine is properly determined in accordance with the data representative of, for example, the accelerator opening. As mentioned above, the ECU calculates the required power of the engine when using the traction control method for controlling the internal combustion engine and the continuous variable transmission. The sub throttle valve and the main throttle valve are controlled so as to obtain the calculated required power. In this event, it is preferable that the calculation is carried out with respect to a real torque of the current condition. More specifically, an over-control and a bad responsibility of the control device can be prevented by calculating a deviation between a required torque and the real torque and by carrying out a real time control to eliminate the deviation.
The real torque of the engine can be detected under a bench test using a chassis dynamometer. However, it is difficult to mount such a chassis dynamometer on a vehicle due to its weight, size, and costs. In addition, power (energy) loss is inevitable when using the chassis dynamometer for detecting the real torque of the engine.
On the contrary, a power torque of an engine is transmitted to a driving shaft via a transmission in the power transmission method for the engine. For example, a continuous variable transmission (CVT) is applied to a vehicle as such a transmission. The CVT can adjust a gear ratio in response to a signal indicative of hydraulic pressure which is applied to a hydraulic actuator.
In the continuous variable transmission of the type described, a gear speed is calculated so as to eliminate a gear ratio deviation between a desired gear ratio, calculated in accordance with a driving condition, and a real gear ratio. Accordingly, the hydraulic actuator Of the CVT can be controlled in order to obtain an optimum variable speed.
The above-mentioned conventional continuous variable transmission for a vehicle controls the hydraulic actuator so as to correct the real gear ratio into the desired gear ratio. However, a high/low level of the torque transmitted on control in not considered.
Accordingly, when the gear ratio of the CVT increases or decreases at a relatively low speed, the torque on the driving shaft is smoothly changed. Further, when the gear ratio deviation between the desired gear speed and the real gear speed is relatively large, the gear speed rapidly increases or decreases. However, the CVT consumes a gear operation torque and a moment of inertia of pulleys is relatively high. This may cause an opposed reaction against the gear acceleration with rough gear operation. In addition, excessive torque of the engine may result in slide of a steel belt. Such a "shock" on transmission is reduced merely by restricting the transmission rate, which results in low transmission performance of the continuous variable transmission.

Drive by wire control device for an internal combustion engine and a continuous variable transmission using engine torque correction means based on acceleration to determine a rate-of-change of speed-ratio correction means

Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha