A pressing member having a body member with a first downwardly inclined plate and a second downwardly inclined plate is configured for mounting on a coin feeding apparatus to control the translation of coins on a rotary selector disk as they are released. The coins experience a downward force from the inclined plates to push them against the surface of the rotary disk to ensure that the coins remain within the predetermined translation path for the coins. A blocking plate can be extended upward from the body member adjacent the upstream downwardly extending plate, to prevent a rising of the coins to ensure the coins passes under the canopy of the pressing member across the translation path.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coin feeding apparatus for coins that are accommodated in a storage portion, separated by a rotation disk, and fed to a feed-out coin port, and more particularly to a coin feeding apparatus suitable for providing an accurate release of coins fed out along an outer periphery of the rotation disk by way of centrifugal force against a controlled resistance.
2. Description of Related Art
As one example of a conventional technique of a coin feeding apparatus, a rotation disk is provided inside a hopper and coins are scraped out one by one by a claw provided on the rotation disk and moved upward. The coins are received on a coin rail at an exit near a top portion to be guided to a coin mechanism from the exit along the rail, as shown in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-298749.
In such a conventional technique, a coin can inadvertently drop off the claw due to vibration occurring when coins are supplied and thrown into a hopper while a coin is being subjected to feeding operation to an exit by the rotation disk. Particularly coins having small diameter and a thin thickness can easily drop off. Although such a coin is scraped out and is in the feeding operation, if the coin drops off, the feeding operation is nullified, which undesirably reduces the coin processing efficiency.
Further, at the time of a normal coin feeding by the rotation disk, the coin is pushed out while being moved in the periphery direction on the disk face of the rotation disk, and enters a slit-shaped exit positioned in parallel. The height and width of the exit formed in a slit shape is set such that only a single horizontally-laid coin, positioned on an upper face of a lower rotation circular plate can pass through.
If a coin drops off the disk face of the rotation disk due to vibration or the like, the coin can unintentionally strike the slit-shaped exit obliquely. Then, a coin which obliquely strikes the exit can be pressed with the claw in the feeding operation on its opposite side, and consequently the coin is sandwiched between the exit and the claw to create a locked state.
In such a situation, the rotation disk cannot perform a feeding rotation operation due to the locked coin so that the rotation is stopped. A rotation stop is detected as an operation fault and the entire apparatus is stopped in its operation by a controller and removal of the locked coin is needed to restart the apparatus. Therefore, there is a problem in that a frequent abnormal stop, due to such a cause, also reduces the operation rate of the coin feeding apparatus.
Furthermore, when a coin that is carried near the exit is passed to a coin rail by the rotation disk, the coin can drop off the rail due to an unstable movement caused by vibration of the apparatus itself. The coin can drop off due to irregular motion of the coin itself when stirred and rotated at a fast speed inside the hopper instead of being located on the rail. Also, the coin may not drop off and the coin may be hung up and stopped at the rail.
In this case, when a coin that has passed to the receiving portion is fed out by a feeding wheel, the wheel can press against the coin and cannot rotate so that the apparatus will be stopped in its operation.
There is accordingly, a demand to address such problems as the requirement for increasing the speed of coin movement has increased in this field.

Coin feeding apparatus and method for biasing a release of coins


Method for autonomous safe emergency landing of a powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the event of an engine failure. A landing approach trajectory is generated, including a downwind leg, initiating at an initiation point of the trajectory, an upwind leg, terminating at a selected touchdown point, and a U-turn leg, joining between the downwind leg and the upwind leg. The UAV is directed to the initiation point to follow the downwind leg. A glide ratio of the UAV is repeatedly determined based on current flight conditions. A current turning point is repeatedly determined along the downwind leg based on the determined glide ratio, the U-turn leg initiating at the current turning point. When the UAV arrives at the current turning point, the UAV is directed to follow the U-turn leg and the upwind leg, for landing the UAV at the selected touchdown point.

The capabilities of UAVs have considerably developed such that UAVs are commonly used for various tasks and missions which are not necessarily military related. Nowadays, UAVs may be remotely controlled or autonomously operated on the basis of pre-programmed flight plans. However, a major drawback of a UAV is the possibility of loss of control of the UAV in the event of an acute technical failure, such as an engine failure, or such as the loss of communication with the operator of a remotely controlled UAV. In such cases, the UAV could eventually crash, thus posing a severe safety hazard, especially in the proximity of populated areas, in addition to the high cost of the resultant damage or complete loss of the UAV and its onboard systems. Therefore, authorized airspace for UAV flights is highly restricted and UAVs are generally not permitted to fly through civilian airspace. Such restrictions make it more difficult to operate a UAV and limit its potential uses.
Onboard autonomous systems may facilitate the continued controlled operation of the UAV and may assist flight and landing procedures, in the event of loss of communication with the UAV operator or in the event of an acute technical failure. Such systems are generally computer based systems which may, inter alia, determine flight routes for the UAV or select possible landing sites. Nevertheless, landing a UAV safely (safely for the surroundings and for the UAV), and moreover, landing a UAV safely in the event of an engine failure, is not a straightforward task. In addition to safety and damage prevention considerations, safe landing capability in such a scenario may contribute to fewer restrictions of UAV flights.
Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which is a top view schematic illustration of a trombone landing approach as known in the art, generally referenced 10. A trombone landing approach is a type of circling or curved landing approach or maneuver (also known as a "circle-to-land" maneuver), which is commonly employed by piloted aircrafts approaching an airport runway when straight-in landing is not feasible or desirable. There are several common patterns of circling approaches, which include several legs (flight segments) and one or more turns at different angles with respect to the runway or the preceding leg.
Trombone landing approach 10, as illustrated in FIG. 1, generally includes a downwind leg 30, a base leg 40 and an upwind leg 50. A piloted aircraft 20 is flying along trombone landing approach 10 in order to land on runway 70. Downwind leg 30 is substantially directed downwind and is substantially parallel to runway 70. Upwind leg 50 is substantially directed upwind and aligned with a centerline 60 of runway 70 to facilitate the landing of aircraft 20 on runway 70. Downwind leg 30 and upwind leg 50 are substantially straight and parallel. Base leg 40 allows aircraft 20 to perform a 180° turn from downwind leg 30 to upwind leg 50.
It should be noted that such a landing approach is commonly named "trombone" due to its geometry, which resembles the shape and manner of operation of a trombone musical instrument. The musical instrument includes a telescopic slide which allows the player to vary the length of its tube in order to produce different pitches. In the same manner, different landing approaches may be obtained by varying the length of the downwind leg of a trombone-shaped landing approach. Thus, a trombone landing approach is highly advantageous for air traffic controllers at airports when spacing between aircrafts is required, as this landing approach provides flexibility by adjustment of the downwind leg length.
Curved and circling approaches have been also used in the prior art as landing approaches for piloted aircrafts in the event of an engine failure (also known as: "glide approach", "forced landing approach" or "180° power-off approach"). These approaches are used by pilots, commonly during flight training on light planes, in order to execute power-off landings.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,689,328, to Spinelli, entitled "Determining Suitable Areas for Off-Airport Landing", discloses a system and a method for facilitating a safe emergency landing of a piloted aircraft or a UAV operated manually or automatically. The system includes a route analysis and planning tool which utilizes a routing algorithm to process information such as GPS data, aircraft instrumentation data and performance parameters. In a flight planning mode, the route analysis and planning tool may provide information about attainable and safe landing areas and information about the route to such a landing area. During in flight (real time) mode, the aircraft systems may provide information regarding the position, speed, heading and altitude of the aircraft, and wind speed. The route data may also be based on current data provided by the aircraft systems and may include Safe Options Limit (SOL) information and Vertical Trend Indicators (VTI). The SOL envelope provides information about the current engine out glide limits and available landing sites, accordingly. The VTI show the effect of a configuration change on the glide distance. The aircraft's systems may include an aircraft performance auto learning system. In operation, the auto learning system may utilize aircraft performance algorithms to generate performance data from flight maneuvers. The systems continue to update the performance data using current flight data.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,573,841 to Price, entitled "Glide Range Depiction for Electronic Flight Instrument Displays" discloses a method for depicting a glide range for a piloted aircraft after an engine failure. A display depicts a safe glide range. The pilot may select an airport within the glide range for emergency landing. The safe glide range is continuously computed and based on weather and wind information, airspeed, heading and computation of theoretical glide altitude, the last of which considers, at least, the aircraft's altitude and glide ratio. Additional information which may affect the glide ratio may be considered. Such information may be stored and recalled or determined by sensors.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,512,462 to Nichols et al., entitled "Automatic Contingency Generator" discloses an automatic contingency generator (ACG) for UAVs, preferably autonomous, for automatically determining a contingent route in response to contingencies experienced by the UAV, such as engine failure. The ACG continuously generates new routes to alternative destination points. In determining such routes, the ACG uses the energy state of the UAV, including relative altitude. The energy state is used to determine the UAV's glide range and to identify candidate landing locations within the glide range. Forecasted and actual wind data are used to dynamically adapt all routes for wind effects on the turn radius and climb/descent performance capabilities. The ACG may construct a route to an approach pattern or to a designated runway (including approach). Approach patterns may be stored as a part of the mission data.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,330,781 to Artini et al., entitled "Method to Determine and Guide Aircraft Approach Trajectory", discloses a method to guide a piloted aircraft and automatically determine a transition point between a first trajectory and a second trajectory, for which a tactical landing is carried out, and so as to reach the initial point of the second trajectory under predetermined flight conditions. The trajectories are in the form of straight line segments. The predetermined flight conditions include, at least: speed, altitude, aerodynamic configuration of the aircraft, and rate of deceleration.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,438,469 to Dwyer et al., entitled "Flight Control System and Method for an Aircraft Circle-to-Land Maneuver" discloses a flight control system and method for designing and controlling a circle-to-land (CTL) maneuver of a piloted aircraft using an airborne area navigator. The pilot selects a runway which would be used for landing. The system determines an appropriate CTL maneuver according to received input, including position data, aircraft velocity data and atmospheric conditions. In addition, the system is configured to receive pre-entered or real-time data from the pilot such as the turn radius and the final approach length.
Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand, "Forced Landing Practice", VECTOR—Pointing to Safer Aviation, (January/February 2007): pp. 3-7, discloses basic techniques for conducting a forced landing without power in a light single-engine aircraft. These techniques include procedures which are preformed mostly manually or visually by the pilot, including confirming wind direction and speed, selecting a landing site and planning an approach. Such an approach generally includes a downwind leg, a base leg and a final approach. The base leg may be altered in order to adjust the height of the aircraft as required (i.e., turning away from the landing site if the aircraft is too high or turning towards the landing site if the aircraft is too low).


A vector for expression of relevant therapeutic genes in mammalian cells which utilizes the mdr promoter, and optionally, the mdr enhancer, operably linked to the therapeutic gene.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vector and its use for the expression of therapeutically relevant genes in mammal cells. Fields of application of the invention are in the biotechnology industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and in medicine.
In the treatment of cancer patients with cytostatic agents, signs of resistance frequently occur (Igor B. Roninson, 1991), which are an obstacle to achieving the desired therapeutic result. For this reason, a plurality of different chemotherapeutic regimens have been developed, varying the application of the cytostatic agents and their dosage. In addition, attempts were made to enhance chemotherapy by combining cytostatic agents with other groups of substances, such as, e.g., cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, etc. Another way of rendering tumor chemotherapy more effective is the use of antibody-coupled cytostatic agents in order to thereby achieve the transport of the cytostatic agent to the cancer cell and to attain effectiveness in this cell (H. M. Pinedo, et al. 1991). Although partial success has been achieved in some cases, a thorough clinical success could as yet not be achieved with any of these methods.
Successful chemotherapy of human tumors is often limited by simultaneous resistance to structurally and functionally unrelated amphiphilic cytotoxic drugs, the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype (Germann, et al, 1993). Classical MDR is mediated by the multidrug resistance gene (mdr1) encoded P-glycoprotein, which acts as an energy-dependent drug-efflux pump (Roninson, 1992). Several studies have demonstrated the inducibility of the mdr1 gene promoter by stress factors, such as differentiating agents, heat shock, arsenite, protein kinase c agonists, as well as by UV irradiation (Mickley et al, 1989; Chin et al, 1990; Chaudhary et al, 1992; Uchiumi et al, 1993; Ferrandis et al, 1993). Modulating effects of MDR associated drugs on the mdr1 promoter have also been reported (Kohno et al, 1989; Licht et al, 1991; Chaudhary et al, 1993; Stein et al, 1994), mostly using the COS monkey kidney system. However, since colon carcinoma cells frequently show high intrinsic mdr1 expression levels, they may represent an important model for investigation of modulated mdr1 expression and the resulting MDR phenotype.
Among human sarcomas, osteosarcomas usually display high intrinsic mdr1 expression while malignant fibrous histiocytomas (MFH) do not. A comparative polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based sequence analysis of the mdr1 promoter revealed point mutations in 7/9 osteosarcomas at nucleotides +103 (2 cases T.fwdarw.C) and +137 (5 cases G.fwdarw.T). No changes were seen in 8 MFHs. When COS cells transfected with CAT constructs containing the T.fwdarw.C-mutant mdr1 promoters were treated with vincristine or doxorubicin, expression of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene was enhanced to a higher extent than with constructs containing wild-type or G.fwdarw.T-mutant mdr1 promoters.
Several investigations have shown that malignant gliomas express P-glycoprotein at high levels. The P-glycoprotein is a product of the multidrug resistance gene (mdr1) and functions as an energy-dependent efflux pump which decreases drug accumulation and cytotoxicity. Since tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF.alpha.) is a powerful anticancer agent used in clinical trials and gene therapy protocols, this cytokine gene was chosen for the present investigations. Transduction of the human TNF.alpha.(hTNF) gene carrying retroviral vector pN2tk-hTNF into U373MG human glioblastoma cells resulted in expression and secretion of biologically active hTNF. Release of transduced hTNF reduces P-glycoprotein expression and is associated with enhanced rhodamine-123 uptake and potentiation of cytotoxicity of the MDR relevant drugs vincristine and doxorubicin. Furthermore the transfected cell clones showed a reduced growth rate compared to the parental cells.
Malignancies of the brain including gliomas have poor prognosis due to their aggressiveness and their resistance to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Several investigations have been made to identify the molecular mechanisms of intrinsic resistance in human and animal brain tumors and tumor models (Mousseau et al., 1993). Among the chemoresistance-related genes the multidrug resistance gene (mdr1) was shown to be involved in reduced response of brain tumors to chemotherapy (Matsumoto et al., 1991). Thus, the overcoming of multidrug resistance provides an attractive goal for a more effective therapy of brain tumors. Beside the occurrence of multidrug resistance (MDR) in patients with malignant gliomas, deficiencies in immunological functions have been observed which may contribute to tumor progression.
Cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF.alpha.), play an important role in immunoregulation and antitumor activities. This fact led to several In Vitro and In Vivo investigations and clinical trials for an immunotherapy of malignant gliomas with TNF.alpha. (for review see: Jaeckle, 1994). Tumor necrosis factor is predominantly produced by activated macrophages and can be induced by Natural Killer-(NK), T- and tumor cells (for review see: Tracey and Cerami, 1993). Despite the fact that TNF.alpha. is an effective antitumor agent, external TNF.alpha. application in glioblastoma patients is surrounded by controversy. New approaches including gene transfer of cytokine genes into glioblastoma cells are being used in an attempt to circumvent the disadvantages of immunotherapy and to potentiate immune response against the tumor (Yu et al., 1993; Sparmann et al., 1994). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that cytokines are able to modulate mdr1 expression and to enhance cytotoxicity to certain tumor cell lines (Evans and Baker, 1992; Walther and Stein, 1994).
The transfer of the human TNF.alpha. (hTNF) gene into U373MG human glioblastoma cells was used to investigate the effects of the cytokine on P-glycoprotein expression and the chemosensitivity to MDR related drugs in stably transfected glioblastoma cells. Introduction of the hTNF-expressing retroviral vector pN2tk-hTNF into U373MG glioblastoma cells revealed that secretion of biologically active hTNF alters growth characteristics, reduces P-glycoprotein expression associated with an enhanced rhodamine-123 uptake and accumulation, and increases cytotoxicity of doxorubicin and vincristine in vitro. This indicates that the endogenous expression of the cytokine is capable of reversing the MDR phenotype and making these cells more susceptible to treatment with MDR relevant drugs, thus providing an alternative approach in the therapy of malignant gliomas.

Vector for the expression of therapy-relevant genes

Max Delbruck-Centrum fur Molekular Medizin Berlin


A rechargeable lithium-ion battery includes an anode, a cathode and an electrolyte containing one or more dispersed lithium salts. The electrolyte is composed of one or more solvent materials. A principal solvent constituent compound is at least one of γ-valerolactone, methyl isobutyryl acetate, 2-methoxyethyl acetate, 2-ethoxyethyl acetate, and diethyl oxalate.

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are widely used for portable battery applications and may find uses in larger size batteries for stationary and transportation applications. Lithium is a light element that is highly electropositive (−3 volts versus standard hydrogen electrode). The electropositive property may be utilized to provide a battery with a high open circuit voltage. Further, batteries based on light lithium metal or lithium-based alloy as the active anode material can provide a relatively high level of electrical energy per unit weight or per unit volume of the battery.
There are different embodiments of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. One embodiment includes an anode comprising lithium metal or a lithium alloy within its structure or composition. This battery further comprises a non-aqueous, lithium-ion containing electrolyte and a cathode comprising, for example, LixMO2, where M is a transition metal such as cobalt nickel, or manganese. During charging of this battery element combination, lithium ions are removed from the cathode material as the oxidation state of the transition metal component (M) of the cathode increases. Lithium ions are inserted in the cathode during reduction at the cathode (cell discharging) as the oxidation state of the transition metal component is lowered. As stated, these electrochemical cells offer relatively high voltage and high energy density performance.
The electrolyte in a lithium-ion cell may be liquid, comprising a non-aqueous solvent in which solid lithium salts, such as lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), are dissolved in an organic solvent, for example ethylene carbonate or propylene carbonate.
In order to be suitable for automotive applications, lithium batteries need performance features that exceed the requirements for small-scale battery applications in consumer electronics and portable computers. For example, they must produce suitable electrical power over a wide temperature range, including quite low temperatures. Automotive applications of lithium-ion batteries would benefit from electrolyte materials contributing to such performance features.

Lithium-ion battery non-aqueous electrolytes


An apparatus comprising means configured to: receive first audio content from a remote apparatus, the audio content comprising at least one audio stream associated with respective location information; present the audio stream as spatial audio to be perceived as originating from a respective perceived-direction based on the location information; determine a user input direction to identify one of the audio streams; transmit a message to the remote apparatus identifying the identified audio stream; receive second audio content comprising an enhanced version of the at least one identified audio stream; present the enhanced version of the identified audio stream as spatial audio, wherein the perceived-direction of the identified audio stream is offset from the second perceived-direction of the enhanced version of the identified audio stream.

Telecommunication or telephony systems are being developed that provide for more than monophonic capture and presentation of audio. The audio content of such telephony may comprise spatial audio. The presentation of such audio may require careful consideration to ensure the telecommunication is clear and effective.
The listing or discussion of a prior-published document or any background in this specification should not necessarily be taken as an acknowledgement that the document or background is part of the state of the art or is common general knowledge. One or more aspects/examples of the present disclosure may or may not address one or more of the background issues.

Apparatus and associated methods for presentation of audio content


Gate electrodes with selectively tuned channel thicknesses are formed by selective epitaxial growth. Embodiments include forming shallow trench isolation regions in an SOI substrate, selectively removing the nitride stop layer and pad oxide layer in an exposed particular active region, and implementing selective epitaxial growth to increase the thickness of the semiconductor layer in the particular active region. Subsequently, the remaining nitride stop and pad oxide layers in other active regions are removed, gate dielectric layers formed, as by thermal oxidation, and the transistors completed.

The relentless pursuit of miniaturized semiconductor devices continues to challenge the limitations of conventional semiconductor materials and fabrication techniques. Conventional semiconductor devices typically comprise a plurality of active devices in or on a common semiconductor substrate, e.g., CMOS devices comprising at least a pair of PMOS and NMOS transistors in spaced adjacency. Current technology utilizes crystalline semiconductor wafers as substrates, such as a lightly p-doped epitaxial ("epi") layer of silicon (Si) grown on a heavily-doped, crystalline Si Substrate. The low resistance of the heavily-doped substrate is necessary for minimizing susceptibility to latch-up, whereas the light doping of the epi layer permits independent tailoring of the doping profiles of both the p-type and n-type wells formed therein as part of the fabrication sequence, thereby resulting in optimal PMOS and NMOS transistor performance.
The use of the very thin epi layers, i.e., several μm thick, is made possible by utilizing shallow trench isolation ("STI"), which advantageously minimizes up-diffusion of p-type dopant(s) from the more heavily-doped substrate into the lightly-doped epi layer. In addition, STI allows for closer spacing of adjacent active areas by avoiding the "bird's beak" formed at the edge of each LOCOS isolation structure. STI also provides better isolation by creating a more abrupt structure, reduces the vertical step from active area to isolation to improve gate lithography control, eliminates the high temperature field oxidation step that can cause problems with large diameter, i.e., 8 inch, wafers, and is scalable to future logic technology generations.
Conventional practices include forming a semiconductor layer, such as silicon (Si) or silicon-germanium (Si—Ge), on an insulating substrate, or over an insulation layer formed on a substrate. Such technology sometimes is referred to as Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology. Silicon-on-Insulator metal oxide silicon (MOS) technologies have a number of advantages over bulk silicon MOS transistors. These advantages include: reduced source/drain capacitance and hence improved speed performance at higher-operating frequencies; reduced N+ to P+ spacing and hence higher packing density due to ease of isolation; and higher "soft error" upset immunity (i.e., the immunity to the effects of alpha particle strikes).
Silicon-on-Insulator technology is characterized by the formation of a thin silicon layer for formation of the active devices over an insulating layer, such as an oxide, which is in turn formed over a substrate. Transistor sources and drains are formed by, for example, implantations into the silicon layer while transistor gates are formed by forming a patterned oxide and conductor (e.g., metal) layer structure. Such structures provide a significant gain in performance by having lower parasitic capacitance (due to the insulator layer) and increased drain current due to floating body charging effects (since no connection is made to the channel region and charging of the floating body provides access towards a majority of carriers which dynamically lower the threshold voltage, resulting in increased drain current). However, the floating body can introduce dynamic instabilities in the operation of such a transistor.
Conventional SOI field effect transistor's (FET's) have floating bodies in which the body or channel region of the FET is located on an insulator and not electrically connected to a fixed potential. These devices are known as partially depleted SOI devices and have the aforementioned advantages and disadvantages. Fully depleted SOI devices are those in which the layer of semiconductor is sufficiently thin, such that the entire thickness of the body regions is depleted of majority carriers when in the off state and both diffusions are at ground. Fully depleted devices offer additional advantages, such as reduced short channel effect, increased transconductance and reduced threshold voltage sensitivity to changes in body doping. Furthermore, the kink effects and threshold voltage shifts caused by body charging in partially depleted devices are reduced. The fully depleted devices do not have a neutral region in the channel and thus do not allow for charging and discharging of the body corresponding to the change in threshold voltage. Additionally, the fully depleted devices do not show hysterisis effect.
Semiconductor devices typically contain various different types of transistors, e.g., N-channel MOS, P-channel MOS, low Vt and high Vt transistors, as well as wide and narrow transistors. In order to optimize the operating speed of an integrated circuit it would be advantageous to provide efficient methodology enabling the fabrication of various types of transistors having a tunable channel thickness which can be precisely controlled or tailored for a particular implementation. It would also be advantageous to provide methodology enabling the fabrication of a semiconductor device based on an SOI substrate with both partially depleted and fully depleted transistors, consistent with the desired characteristics of the particular device for a particular implementation.
Accordingly, a need exists for efficient methodology enabling the fabrication of various types of semiconductor devices comprising transistors having tunable channel thicknesses. There exists a particular need for methodology enabling the fabrication of semiconductor devices based on SOI substrates with both partially depleted and fully depleted transistors, depending upon the desired characteristics of the device for a particular implementation.

Selective epitaxial growth for tunable channel thickness


A method for simulating a real on-board system for testing an operating software program. The disclosed embodiments include preparation of a test to be carried out on the operating software program, by adding and/or removing control functions to/from a library; execution of the operating software program of the real on-board system in a simulated environment; simulation of a dedicated peripheral by activating functions from the library; transmission of the test results from the dedicated peripheral to the results folders stored on the host platform and recording of the aforementioned results.

For safety reasons, the systems designed to be placed onboard an aircraft have to undergo tests to make sure they run smoothly and show that said systems meet the certification requirements before an aircraft equipped with such systems is authorized to fly and to enter into commercial service.
Before they are installed, these systems now undergo many tests to make sure they meet the integrity, safety and other requirements issued by the certification authorities. These onboard systems can be specialized computers designed to perform functions that may be crucial for the aircraft, for example pilot functions. Hereinafter, these systems will be called computers.
Most often, in the architectures of the current systems, each computer is dedicated to one or more applications of the same kind, for example flight control applications. Each computer has a hardware part and a software part. The hardware part includes at least one central processing unit (CPU) and at least one input/output unit by which the computer is connected to a network of computers, external peripherals, etc.
One basic feature of onboard systems, often used in the field of aeronautics, is associated with an architecture, both hardware and software, that prevents the introduction, as much as possible, of any means not necessary to perform the functions dedicated to said systems.
Thus, contrary to the systems generally encountered in applications commonly used in aeronautics, the computer is not equipped with a complex operating system. Moreover, the software is written in a language as close as possible to the language understood by the central processing unit, and the only inputs/outputs available are those necessary to operate the system, for example information coming from sensors or other elements of the aircraft or information intended for actuators or other elements.
The advantage of this type of architecture is the fact that the operation of such a system is much better controlled. It is not dependent on a complex operating system, some aspects of whose operation depend on parameters that are not controlled and that would otherwise have to be subject to the same demonstrations of safety as the applications software. The system is simple and less vulnerable, since it has only the means strictly needed to perform the functions assigned to said system.
On the other hand, the operation of such a system is much harder to observe. For example, the system has no conventional man/machine interfaces, like keyboards or screens, which would make it possible to be sure the sequences of instructions are being carried out properly and to interact with them, which makes it hard to run the tests essential during software development, verification and qualification.
The software part of the computer includes software specific to the application considered and ensures the operation of the computer, whose logic instructions correspond to algorithms that determine the operation of the system.
To obtain certification for the system, prior to its commissioning and that of the aircraft, a computer validation phase is carried out.
As is known, the validation phase generally consists of verifying, at each step in the process of making the computer, that it meets the specifications that have been set so that said computer gives the operating responses expected from the system.
This conformity to specifications is done, particularly for the software, in successive steps from verifying the simplest software components to the complete software program containing all components that must be built into the target computer.
In the first verification step, the simplest software elements that can be tested are put through so-called unit tests. These tests make sure that the logic instructions, i.e., the code, for said software elements, taken individually, have been written in accordance with the design requirements.
In the second, so-called integration step, different software components that have been put through isolated tests individually are integrated to create an assembly in which the software components interact. These different software components are put through integration tests designed to make sure that the software components are compatible, particularly in terms of the functional interfaces between said components.
In the third step, all of the software components are built into the computer for which they are intended. Validation tests are then done to show that the software, made up of all the components built into the computer, meets the specification, i.e., that it performs the functions expected and that it operates reliably and safely.
To guarantee that a software program is safe and to meet the certification requirements, it is also necessary, in this validation phase, to show that all of the tests which the software has gone through make it possible to conclude, with an adequate level of assurance, that the software meets the security requirements of the system into which it is built.
The different tests done on the software during the validation phase make it possible to be sure that no malfunction of said software (which could have an impact on the proper operation of the computers and consequently on the aircraft and its safety) can occur or that, if a malfunction does occur, the software can handle it.
However, during the validation phase, and especially for the operations to investigate when there are problems, it is often necessary to make sure not only that the input and output parameters of the computer in which the software is installed meet the expectations, but also that certain internal behaviors of the software are correct.
In this case, because of the specific architecture of the specialized computers for onboard applications, it is generally very difficult to observe the operation of the software without using special devices and methods.
The first known method consists of setting up a file distribution system between the computer being tested with the software installed and an associated platform, using simulators. A simulator is understood to be a device that makes it possible to simulate, on the associated platform, the logic operation of a calculating unit, a processor of the computer.
In such an operating mode with a simulator, the computer processor is replaced by a probe that serves as an interface with the associated platform for the simulation of the processor.
Thus, it is possible to have the software being tested run on the computer, except for the processor part and, through functions proper to the associated platform, to observe the operation or certain internal malfunctions of the software, for example, in response to simulations of inputs of the input/output units, and to observe the outputs of said input/output units.
This first method has many drawbacks. Actually, each type of computer being tested requires a specific test bench or at least a very specialized configuration of a test bench. A test bench is an assembly that includes, in particular, means of interconnection with the computer being tested, means of simulating the computer processor or processors and means of running test programs.
Since each processor requires a specific simulator, both for the simulation software and for the probe connected in place of the processor, it is necessary to have multiple simulators according to the definitions of the computers.
Moreover, the possibilities of investigating with simulators are generally limited. The need to work with the specific machine language of the processor under consideration implies that the user be a specialist in machine-language programming.
What is more, a simulator is an expensive product that is generally produced only in small quantities. The life cycle of this type of product is very short (6 months to 2 years), while the means of development and verification must be maintained in operating condition (regulations, industrial reactivity) for the duration of the aircraft program (20 years or more). This translates into problems dealing with obsolescence that are increasingly difficult to solve.
This simulator solution therefore proves poorly suited, since besides its limited performance in terms of investigation, it is expensive to set up and expensive to maintain.
The cost is also hurt by the fact that different processor models are generally used to provide functional redundancy, through design safety, thus multiplying the need for simulators.
A second method, which is aimed at eliminating the simulator problems, consists of simulating the operation of the computer that must run the program being tested on a host platform. In this case, the software being tested must access files on the host platform, either to read the test vectors or to record test results.
Since the software being tested does not naturally have functions for such access to the files on the host platform, it is necessary to modify the software being tested to integrate these access functions.
To transfer the information, generally system calling instructions are used that are issued by the simulated test environment. The system calling instructions can be, for example, to open a file, write a file or read a file. The system calling instructions are intercepted by the operating system of the host platform, which converts them into system calls from the host platform.
This second method also has drawbacks. Actually, the variety of files is such that the development of access functionalities is very dependent on the host platform and its operating system. Now, the variability of the host platforms is huge both in space (for development teams scattered all over the world) and in time (replacing host platforms), which poses practical problems using the method.
These problems are accentuated by the fact that the skills of experts, who can modify the functions of the operating systems, are required to develop such functionalities to access the file systems, and therefore cannot be assigned to test specialists.
Consequently, this method has proven expensive and hard to use.
What is more, this method is very intrusive in terms of the software being tested, and modifying software to run tests on it causes the risk of interfering with the operation of the software itself.

Method for simulating a system on board an aircraft for testing an operating software program and device for implementing said method


An fuser apparatus for minimizing heat transfer between an end of a fuser roll and a fuser bearing includes a generally cylindrical fuser collar positioned between one end of the fuser roll and one of the fuser bearings and having an outer surface contacting the fuser bearing and an inner surface contacting the fuser roll. A plurality of protrusions are formed on either the inner surface or outer surface of the collar to reduce the heat transfer between the fuser roll and fuser bearing. Grooves supporting O-rings may also be formed in the collar or in an end of the fuser roll for allowing the fuser roll to move axially relative to the collar.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to xerographic apparatus, and particularly relates to fusers used in the xerographic process.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The basic xerographic process includes exposing a charged photoconductive member to a light image of an original document. The irradiated areas of the photoconductive surface are discharged to record an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the original document. A development system moves a developer mix of carrier granules and toner particles into contact with the photoconductive surface. The toner particles are attracted electrostatically from the carrier granules to the latent image, forming a toner powder image thereon. The toner powder image is then transferred to a sheet of paper or other support material. This sheet of paper advances to a fuser which permanently affixes the toner powder image to the paper.
Conventional fusers generally included a rotatable fuser roll and pressure roll supported by a frame. The ends of the fuser roll were supported on the frame by cylindrical bearings. The bearings were provided with a lubricant to reduce wear.
In order to permanently affix the toner powder image to the sheet, the fuser roll was heated to a temperature of approximately 350.degree. F. A circumferential surface of the pressure roll was brought into contact with a circumferential surface of the fuser roll to form a nip in which a sheet carrying a toner powder image passed through. The fuser roll was rotated to pull the sheet carrying the toner powder image through the nip between the pressure roll and the fuser roll. The combination of heat and high loads exerted between the pressure roll and fuser roll permanently affixed the toner powder image to the sheet.
In prior applications, the fuser roll had to be heated to its operating temperature each time the copier was used. This resulted in delay times for users waiting to use the copier. In order to increase the efficiency of the copiers, the fuser roll was maintained at the operating temperature of approximately 350.degree. F. during the standby mode. As a result, a user could promptly use the machine without waiting for the fuser roll to be heated to the desired operating temperature.
The maintaining of the fuser roll at a temperature of approximately 350.degree. F., while reducing down time, caused problems due to the heat transfer between the fuser roll and the bearings. The lubricant contained in the bearings could not handle high temperatures for extended periods of time. As a result, the lubricant broke down, thereby increasing wear on the bearings and reducing bearing life.
In an attempt to remedy this problem, metal collars were mounted on the ends of the fuser roll between the fuser roll and the bearings to reduce wear. However, significant heat transfer between the fuser roll and the collar still caused the lubricant to break down.
The metal collars also damaged the ends of the fuser roll. Relative motion occurred due to the difference in diameters between the fuser roll and the collar. This caused the ends of the fuser roll to scrape against the inner surface of the collar during operation, thereby reducing both fuser roll and collar life.
In an attempt to reduce the wear caused by relative motion and heat transfer, plastic collars were used in place of the metal collars. The plastic collars contained a land which engaged a notch formed on the end of the fuser roll to prevent relative motion. However, since the contact between the pressure roll and the fuser roll generated high loads exceeding 100 pounds, the high loads sheared the land of the plastic collar during operation. The plastic collars also did not significantly reduce the heat transfer between the fuser roll and the bearings.
An additional problem occurred when the fuser roll was initially heated to its operating temperature. The heating caused the fuser roll to expand in both the radial and axial directions. This radial and axial expansion produced great stress on the fuser bearings, sometimes causing the fuser bearings to fall out of the fuser frame supporting the fuser roll. Axial expansion of the fuser roll also caused the fuser roll to slide on the fuser bearings, thereby causing wear on the fuser roll. Additionally, the sliding of the metal fuser roll on a metal fuser bearing sometimes generated unwanted noise during operation.

Fuser roll apparatus having a heat stabilizing collar


A casting belt for using in a single-belt or twin-belt casting apparatus is disclosed. The casting belt is made of aluminum alloy such as an alloy from the AA5XXX and AA6XXX systems, preferably having a thickness in the range of 1 to 2 mm. The aluminum casting belt of the invention is suitable for casting non-ferrous and light metals such as aluminum, magnesium, copper, zinc and their alloys, especially aluminum alloys such as Al—Mg, Al—Mg—Si, Al—Fe—Si and Al—Fe—Mn—Si alloy systems. A belt casting machine and process using the aluminum casting belt of the invention are also disclosed.

Twin-belt casting machines have been used for casting metals for quite some time. In machines of this kind, endless belts rotating in race-track patterns are positioned one above the other (or, in some cases, side-by-side) with generally planar parallel runs of each belt positioned closely adjacent to each other to define a mold therebetween. Molten metal is introduced into the mold at one end and the metal is drawn through the mold by the moving belt surfaces. Heat from the molten metal is transferred through the belts, and this transfer is assisted by cooling means, such as water sprays, acting on the opposite sides of the belts in the regions of the mold. In consequence, the metal solidifies as it passes through the mold, and a solid metal slab or strip emerges from the opposite end of the mold. For example, improved casting machines of this kind are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,008,750 and 4,061,177 issued respectively on Feb. 22, 1977 and Dec. 6, 1977 to the same assignee as the present application. The casting machines also use high efficiency coolant application systems such as are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,440 issued on Mar. 18, 1980 to the same assignee as the present application and in International Application Publication WO 02/11922 filed on Aug. 7, 2001 also by the same assignee as the present application. The disclosures of all these publications are incorporated herein by reference.
These casting machines, with their high efficiency coolant application systems, operate by creating a thin, high velocity stream of coolant behind the casting belt. This results in a high maximum heat transfer coefficient between coolant and belt. The belt in addition "floats" on the coolant layer in the critical areas of the casting, rather than merely being supported between pulleys.
The belts used in casting machines of this kind are usually made of textured steel or, less commonly, of copper. Such materials are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,681 issued on Jun. 10, 1997 to the same assignee as the present application. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,158 issued on Apr. 10, 1990 and assigned to Hazelett Strip-Casting Corporation discloses a copper belt providing a backing for a ceramic coating. However, belts made of these materials (particularly those made of copper) are expensive to manufacture and copper belts are susceptible to "plastic set" (i.e. distortion due to handling or lack of external support systems). Moreover, steel belts tend to have thermal conductivities that are suitable only for casting non-ferrous and light metal alloys of one kind, whereas copper belts have thermal conductivities suitable for non-ferrous and light metal alloys of another kind. For example, textured (e.g. shot-blasted) steel belts may be used for many relatively short freezing range aluminum alloys, such as fin or foil alloys, whereas copper belts are required for surface critical applications, e.g. for automotive aluminum alloys having longer freezing ranges than normal. A process for casting such automotive alloys using the high heat flux capability of copper belts is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,189 issued on Apr. 1, 1997 to the same assignee as the present application. In that reference, heat fluxes as high as 4.5 MW/m2 are found suitable, and such heat fluxes normally require the use of Cu belts. Other long freezing range alloys, for example those described in Leone et al., Alcan Belt Casting Mini-Mill Process, May 1989, are preferably cast at even higher heat fluxes (over 5 MW/m2).
However, due to the higher thermal conductivity of copper belts, such belts cannot be used to cast light gauge alloys due to the onset of a casting defect referred to as "shell distortion" (caused by a variation in ingot cross-section resulting from regions of higher heat transfer formed adjacent to low heat transfer regions, i.e. uneven heat removal). Consequently, when the casting apparatus is used for casting a variety of non-ferrous metal alloys, it is frequently necessary to change the belts from steel to copper or vice versa between casting operations. This is time consuming, expensive and troublesome. In modern casters of the type described above, it is desired as well that they operate at a wide range of throughput, also requiring easy operation at high heat fluxes.
Moreover, Applicants have found that textured steel belts require the use of a different parting agent application system than copper belts (brushes versus rotating atomizing bells and a cleaning box), so that it is necessary to change the parting agent application system when changing alloy systems. U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,043 issued on Dec. 3, 1968 to A. R. Wagner, discloses a casting process in which a mold is formed between advancing single-use strips. The strips are made of the same material as the molten metal (which is not identified), but strip material may be incorporated into the final product, which is obviously not acceptable for belt casters.
There is therefore a need for improvements in the belts used in belt casting machines of the type described above.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Belt casting of non-ferrous and light metals and apparatus therefor


A grill, which may be portable, includes an open support lattice surrounded by upright walls. The support lattice forms a plurality of adjoining bays each dimensioned to receive and support a fuel module in the form of a disposable non-flammable tray and charcoal briquettes within the tray. Various food supporting devices may be used to support items of food to be cooked on the upper edges of the walls or at selected lower levels by use of terraced steps cut out in the walls. By placing fuel modules in less than all the bays, both the size and the shape of the cooking area can be selected. When no fuel modules are used a flat plate can be placed on top of the support lattice on which conventional briquettes can be placed.

Portable cooking or barbecue grills have conventionally been fueled with charcoal briquettes. Such briquettes are typically sold in different sized bags and users have placed such briquettes onto a charcoal grate or other charcoal supporting surface. This approach has presented some problems. Firstly, it has necessitated the user also to bring to the barbecue site a frequently heavy bag of charcoal briquettes. Aside from the inconvenience and possible spillage of charcoal briquettes or dust, the use of loose charcoals does not always result in controlled dispensing of a proper amount of briquettes. This, in turn, may result in heat which is too high or too low and, in most cases, uneven heat over the cooking area. Samples of some portable cooking grills which fall in this category include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,508,094 and 4,938,202, both to Hait, 4,526,158 to Lee, 3,765,397 to Henderson and 4,413,609 to Tisdale. A collapsible barbeque cooking store of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,118 to David et al.
When too many briquettes are poured on the grate, either some briquettes have to be removed or the resulting pile may be too high and uneven heating results. The tendency, therefore, is to spread the briquettes over the entire area of the grate. This frequently provides heat in areas which are not needed and the briquettes are thereby inefficiently used and wasted. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,101,080 to Lorbacher an outdoor grill is disclosed which includes a free-standing partition which can be used to compact the fuel toward one end of the box, as in later stages of burning, or where a small capacity cooking job is contemplated. The partition makes it possible to contain the fuel within areas of the grill which may be varied along the length of the grill. However, movement of the partition during later stages of burning may be difficult because the partition becomes heated. Additionally, movement of burning briquettes frequently releases ash or dust which deposits on the food being cooked. Furthermore, the degree of containment will, as with the previously described embodiments, be a function of the quantity of briquettes initially deposited.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,429 to Bouet a cooking device is disclosed which includes a rigid carrier frame with a handle and a cooking container which is flame resistant and disposable. The device is intended to be placed over a flame or briquettes exteriorly.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,863 to Katcs et al. a barbecue pack is disclosed which is intended to be used once or twice and then disposed. The barbecue pack includes a fuel pack which may be ignited by igniting paper packets which form part of the fuel pack and which contain charcoaled lumps. The grill, however, is primarily intended to be disposed to avoid cleaning. Also, the fuel pack is generally the size of the barbecue pack, cardboard box and wire frame into which the fuel pack is received. There is no possibility to selectively provide a large cooking surface, when that is needed, or to provide a small cooking surface when that is more appropriate.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,682,154 to Mollere, a portable disposable charcoal grill is disclosed in which charcoal briquettes are placed over a fire pan and covered by a grill. A fuel or briquette element is disclosed which consists of either one piece or an integral grid of briquette segments which require no starting fluid. The patent identifies a number of known or available "self-starting" fuel elements although, it appears that the size of the fuel element or fuel pack always corresponds to the total available cooking area or surface presented by the grill.


A system and method for removing gases from an engine coolant system. In one embodiment, the system includes a fluid system that is operable to collects gas, and a gas collection system coupled to the fluid system. The system also includes a venturi pump system coupled to the fluid system and to the collection system, where the venturi pump system is operable to extract the gas from the fluid system via the collection system.

Engine coolant systems are well known. Engine coolant systems typically include a radiator that cools and circulates coolant fluid through an engine in order to cool the temperature of the engine. One problem with engine coolant systems is that air can become trapped in the engine coolant system. A problem with entrained air in the engine coolant system is that the entrained air reduces heat transfer. In addition, the air can cause thermal shock failure. For example, if there is a substantial amount of air with a few droplets, the surfaces of the coolant system can get quite hot. When a drop hits a surface of the coolant system, the temperature in a very small region (e.g., at the contact point) drops quickly. This may cause cracks in the engine coolant system. Also, the propagation of the thermal stress is rapid, because the cycle rate can be very high.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved system and method for handling air in a coolant system. The present invention addresses such a need.

Gas extractor for an engine coolant system


An eye diagram capture device includes a delay line arranged to receive a digital signal and output time delayed version of the digital signal. An edge detection circuit is arranged to receive the digital signal and the time delayed version of the digital signal, the edge detection circuit operating to output a signal corresponding to a logical value of the digital signal received coincident with an edge of the time delay version of the digital signal. A voltage comparator is arranged to receive the digital signal and a reference voltage. The voltage comparator operates to output a first signal when the a voltage of the digital signal and the reference voltage are equal to each other.

This disclosure relates generally to semiconductor testing, and more particularly to eye diagram capture devices, systems, and methods, and even more particularly to an on-chip eye diagram capture device, system and method for a chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) flow.
Eye diagrams provide a useful tool in evaluating the quality of a digital signal. To construct an eye diagram, the digital signal is displayed on an oscilloscope at the signal bit rate, whereby individual instances of the digital waveform are superimposed upon each other. The display has the appearance of an eye. The size and shape of the clear area around the center of the eye provide an indication of the quality of the digital signal.
In three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D-IC) technology, it is sometimes impossible to display eye diagrams using conventional techniques during the wafer stage, since the signal speed is typically too high. Designers need to bond out the high speed IO signals and connect to an oscilloscope in order to display the eye diagram. In 3D-IC technology for CoWoS applications, a wide bus connection may be made available; however, it can be difficult to monitor all the bus eye diagrams due to lack of available controlled collapse chip connection (C4) solder bump resources and limited chip area. In cases where the high speed IO interface can be connected out, such connection may impact high speed IO performance for normal operating modes. If eye diagrams cannot be displayed, the analog performance parameters of the device cannot be fine-tuned to obtain optimum performance for a device.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


Described herein is a technique in which the proof that an object (e.g., a document) was processed within a certain task by an entity in a workflow is chain-linked to another proof of the next task. The chain of proofs embedded within the document serves to irrefutably prove that a certain set of tasks were completed before the next task was executed on the object. It is thus difficult, if not impossible, for a user to alter the actions on previous tasks without destroying the chain of proofs.

The embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method and system for providing a non-repudiable proof that a certain set of tasks were completed before an entity (user or system) could perform the next task in the workflow. While the exemplary embodiment is particularly directed to the art of electronic document processing and will be thus described with specific reference thereto, it will be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment may have usefulness in other fields and applications.
By way of background, a workflow represents a flow of work. In a business, for example, suppose that one of the members of the business is going to purchase an article. First, the person prepares a purchase slip and then that person brings the purchase slip to the superior. The superior checks the purchase slip, stamps the approval, and sends the purchase slip to the accounting department. Based on the purchase slip, the accounting department orders the article. Thus, the purchase slip flows from the originating person to the superior, and then from the superior to the accounting department, thus advancing the workflow. Therefore, a workflow can be considered a sequence of tasks. A task can be further divided into sub-tasks. Tasks can be performed by persons as in the foregoing example, and can automatically be performed by computers as, for example, in a printing job.
In an ad-hoc workflow, however, there is no pre-defined workflow model for the business process. That is, the business process is built ad-hocly as it is enacted using distributed services (activities). For instance, in the health care environment a new or existing patient may go to the doctor's office for treatment of an ailment. If it is a new patient, medical records are generated. The patient may undergo one or more medical tests, and in that case the patient's medical records, including various documents, are updated. Typically, the physician will then review the patient's medical records (and test results) and make a diagnosis. Once again, the patient's medical records, including at least some of the various documents, are updated (or deleted), this time by the physician and/or a nurse. In some instances, the patient may be referred to one or more surgeons for further testing and/or medical procedures. In this scenario, various medical personnel are reviewing and updating the patient's medical records, including receptionists, nurses, physicians, testing department, surgeons, etc. During this process new documents may be added, at least some of the documents may be modified, and at least some of the documents may be deleted.
Previous developments depended upon an audit log stored on a central server that was used to determine if a certain set of tasks were performed. Not only are the audit logs subject to hacker attacks, but they could not be used in ad-hoc workflows that span different organizations, each having its own network or domain servers.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a non-repudiable proof that a certain set of tasks were completed before an entity (user or system) could perform the next task in the workflow. Otherwise a user (e.g., an employee) could alter one or more of their actions relating to previous tasks and pretend that the previous set of actions had never taken place or had taken place in a different manner.

Method for non-repudiation of ad-hoc workflows


A multipurpose illumination device, specifically related to an illumination instrument that can be used as an electric torch, a night-light, an emergency aid or an indicator light. The device includes a column with three sections. A main section, which is a middle of the three, has a main light, a battery, circuits, a button switch and a power supply plug. An upper section located above the main section is made of transparent or semi-transparent material. A pedestal located below the main section is made of semi-transparent material.

Generally multipurpose illumination devices include a plurality of integrated functions, such as, the functions of an electric torch, a night-light, emergency illumination (e.g., power-out indicator light), and flash (used for alarm or for asking for help). These devices include several separate bulbs that are employed for each respective function. These integrated illumination instruments have a complex structure, are very bulky, and are neither handsome nor convenient.


A frequency synthesizer includes a direct digital synthesizer (DDS), a digital-to-analog converter for converting the output of the DDS to a DDS output signal, a first bandpass filter for filtering the DDS output signal, a single side band mixer for mixing the filtered DDS output signal with a mixing frequency signal, a divider for dividing the mixer output, a second bandpass filter for filtering the mixer output, and a phase lock loop for turning the filtered mixer output into a signal of the desired frequency. This frequency synthesizer combines the high resolution of a DDS with high bandwidth and low noise.

The present invention relates to frequency synthesizers and, more particularly, to a frequency synthesizer having high bandwidth, a low level of spurious frequencies and phase noise, and high resolution. Such a frequency synthesizer would have many applications in electronic communications, for example, for up-conversion and down-conversion.
High resolution variable frequency synthesizers are known. One class of frequency synthesizers is the class of direct digital synthesizers (DDS), for example the model Q2240 DDS available from QUALCOMM Inc. of San Diego Calif. DDSs have variable frequency output at very high resolution, but have relatively high levels of spurious output frequencies. DDSs typically produce frequencies in the MHz range, which is far below frequency bands, such as the L-band (0.950-1.535 GHz) that are of interest for communications. The frequency produced by a DDS may be multiplied, but this also multiplies the spurious frequencies.
FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a circuit recommended by QUALCOMM in their Synthesizer Products Data Book for boosting the frequency output by a DDS without a corresponding boost in the spurious frequencies. The output of a DDS 10 is converted to an analog DDS output signal (frequency=fDDS) by a digital-to-analog converter 12. The DDS output signal is filtered by a bandpass filter 14 and mixed with a mixing frequency signal, of mixing frequency fMIX greater than  greater than fDDS, in a mixer 16 to produce a signal that includes the sum and the difference of the frequencies of the two signals input to mixer 16. Mixing frequency fMIX also is called a local oscillator frequency fLO. The output of mixer 16 is divided by a divider 18 to reduce the frequency of the mixer output by a factor of P. The resulting divided signal is filtered by a second bandpass filter 20 to produce an output signal with the desired frequency ((fM+fDDS)/P or (fMxe2x88x92fDDS)/P). The division by P also reduces the noise (phase noise and spurious frequencies) in the input to mixer 16, so that the output of the circuit of FIG. 1A is much cleaner than the signal that would be obtained simply by multiplying the output of DDS 10.
DDSs have very high resolution but also have limited bandwidth. QUALCOMM recommends the circuit of FIG. 1B for increasing the bandwidth of a DDS. As in the circuit of FIG. 1A, the output of DDS 10 is converted to an analog DDS output signal (frequency=fDDS) by digital-to-analog converter 12 and is filtered by a bandpass filter 22. The filtered output is amplified by an amplifier 24. The frequency of the amplified signal is multiplied by a variable factor M in a multiplier 26 and further filtered by a second bandpass filter 28. The circuit of FIG. 1B has a much higher bandwidth than DDS 10, but is noisier than the circuit of FIG. 1A because of the multiplication in multiplier 26.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a frequency synthesizer that combines the high resolution of a DDS with high bandwidth and low noise.
According to the present invention there is provided a wide bandwidth, high resolution, clean frequency synthesizer including: (a) a direct digital synthesizer; (b) a digital-to-analog converter for receiving output from the direct digital synthesizer and producing a DDS output signal; (c) a first bandpass filter for filtering the DDS output signal; (d) a source of a mixing frequency signal; (e) a single side band mixer for mixing the mixing frequency signal with the filtered DDS output signal, thereby producing a mixer output signal; (f) a divider for dividing the mixer output signal, thereby producing a divided signal; and (g) a second bandpass filter for filtering the divided signal.
The present invention includes two innovations. The first innovation is the use of a single side band mixer instead of the mixer of FIG. 1A. The advantage of a single side band mixer is that a single side band mixer outputs either the sum or the difference of the input frequencies, but not both. The second innovation is following bandpass filter 20 with a phase lock loop (PLL). A typical PLL lacks the high resolution of a DDS, but has much cleaner output and a much wider bandwidth than a DDS, and reaches higher frequencies than a DDS.

Shiron Satellite Communications (1996) Ltd.


A multichip module comprises a multilayer substrate circuit having conductive patterns on its surface(s) to which microelectronic device(s) are attached. A part of the substrate is flexible and bifurcated. Two rigid members are attached lengthwise, one on either side of the substrate, and the free ends of the bifurcation are reflexed respectively about these members and bonded to them. Electrodes are located on the bifurcations so that they will be exposed outwardly and/or downwardly after reflexing. The module may further be provided with protective heat spreading covers. The electrodes and rigid members may be configured to engage a mating socket or they may be solderable to a printed circuit board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to means for packaging microelectronic devices and multichip modules. More particularly, the invention relates to improved flex-circuit solutions for SIMM and DIMM type memory modules and other modular electronic circuits.
2. Description of Related Art
High density computing is continually evolving to offer high performance devices with higher densities and smaller form factors. Servers are designed with these goals in mind and are key enablers for various computing applications. Servers contain, among other electronic components, microprocessors and memory modules, which generate considerable heat during operation. Currently higher performance servers make use of dual and quad core microprocessors. In turn, these microprocessors require memory modules with greater memory capacity for optimal performance.
Another important aspect of server design is that servers are often arranged in closely packed groups set in vertical racks that rely on forced air cooling for heat exhaust. So, air cooling is done for each server unit as well as the entire rack of server units. When multiple memory modules are tightly spaced together inside the tightly packed server chassis, the circulation of air as a cooling fluid becomes ineffective. Air can be restricted, leading to overheating of memory modules which in turn leads to premature failures including device failures and corrupt data streams.
The desirable attributes of the best memory modules include: high memory density, reduced thickness, reduced height, good thermal exhaust, good signal integrity, reliability, manufacturability and reduced cost. These characteristics are inter-related and the optimization of one may adversely impact the other; so, a balance must be found among these various characteristics to determine the most effective solution. The most effective solution may be relative to a given memory density. In other words, the most effective memory module solution at 2 GB or 4 GB may be different than the solution for 8 GB and 16 GB modules. Furthermore, the best DIMM solution for DDR2 DRAMs may be different than the best DIMM solution for DDR3 and DDR4 DRAMs since the standards are slightly different.
Increasing memory density inside a module can be achieved through stacking of chips. However, stacking of chips is accompanied by an increase in cost of the stacked chips. Also, stacking of chips is accompanied by greater heat that is concentrated between the stacked chips and is more difficult to dissipate which leads to an overall hotter module. Additional heat exhaust can be obtained through the use of heat spreaders or heat sinks. However, the addition of larger heat sinks and heat spreaders is accompanied by an increase in thickness. In turn, increasing thickness leads to a pressure drop between adjacent modules which impedes the flow of air and adversely affects cooling. The words heat spreaders and heat sinks are used interchangeably in this invention.
Thickness reduction can be achieved through the use of thin laminates and flexible circuits. However, flexible circuits can be more expensive than standard PCB based on FR4 materials. Furthermore, thickness reduction causes a mismatch between the thin laminate or the flexible substrate and the standard connector.
As previously taught by J. E. Clayton in a series of patents detailing the use of flexible circuits for memory modules (U.S. Pat. No. 6,665,190, U.S. Pat. No. 6,232,659, U.S. Pat. No. 6,091,145, U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,975, U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,633, U.S. Pat. No. 5,751,553, U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,297, U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,339, 2007/0211426A1, 2007/0212902A1, 2007/0212919A1, 2007/0211711 A1, 2007/0212906A1, 2007/0212920A1) the design for the optimal thermal path puts the chip in a configuration that optimizes the heat path between the heat generation source and the metallic heat sinks and heat spreaders. However, when the chips are in an optimal heat path configuration, they may not be in an optimal electrical path configuration.
Flexible circuits exhibit many desirable attributes that lend themselves to solving many electronic packaging problems. Because they are constructed using thin flexible laminates, flexible circuits can be adapted into a large variety of three-dimensional configurations. In particular they are uniquely suited for joining two separate circuit components that involve repeated dynamic flexing motions such as when opening and closing cell phone, camera and notebook LCD displays.
Flexible circuits are also used in applications where reduced thickness or curved surfaces are important. Many mobile products produced today are made feasible by the unique characteristics inherent with flexible circuits. For background purposes, a fairly comprehensive description of flexible circuit technology, including construction methods, design and application specific examples may be found in a book authored by Dr. Joseph Fjelstad entitled "Flexible Circuit Technology" (3rd Edition—September 2006) the teaching of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Another reference on flexible circuits is "Coombs' Printed Circuits Handbook—Fifth Edition" by Clyde F. Coombs, Jr., the teaching of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Lastly, "Foldable Flex and Thinned Silicon Multichip Packaging Technology" edited by John W. Balde, is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
High performance computers, such as server and super computers, involve many dense, high frequency electrical connections where flexible circuits may be advantageously employed. Their thin uniform laminate thickness, ability to be fashioned with fine lined traces and small vias for layer-to-layer interconnections are better suited for higher frequency operation than traditional rigid printed wiring boards (PWB).
As clock frequencies increase with each succeeding generation of microprocessors, there is an increasing need to design circuit motherboards using techniques for controlled impedance and signal integrity. Usually this results in an increase in the layer count of rigid PWB circuit boards. Computer motherboards that could previously be designed with only 4 or 6 laminate layers now require 8 or more layers to properly route traces operating at higher clock rates. This may increase the cost of these special PCBs.
Using finer wiring patterns, flexible circuits can significantly reduce the number of required layers to form the same circuit functions. Rigid PWB motherboards are, nevertheless, presently required for mounting many hardware pieces such as power supplies, disc drives, fans, and component sockets and are therefore in no danger of being eliminated in the foreseeable future. However, the advantages of flexible circuits, as noted above, are leading many engineers to look for creative ways in which to include them in their designs. Examples developed by SiliconPipe are described by co-founder Dr. Fjelstad and illustrated on pages 32 and 33 of the reference text "Flexible Circuit Technology" cited above.
Although the use of flexible circuits in packaging semiconductors and consumer electronics is well known and offers the capability of high density interconnect signal stability at high frequencies, and flexible form factor (connecting sites that are not aligned), the technology based on flexile circuits is not without disadvantages. Flexible circuits present an overall cost disadvantage, they are inherently a non-rigid form factor and need structural members to be incorporated. Furthermore, the technology needs special design talent for high performance, reliability and operation at high frequencies. One of the challenges caused by the use of flexible circuits is that it reduces the thickness of the substrate to the point that it becomes incompatible with current standard connectors.
Multi Chip Modules (MCM) have a known form factor with known advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of thickness reduction in DIMM applications are increase air flow and space savings on the mother board. However, solving the thickness issues create other issues. Thickness reduction can be achieved by the use of Thin PCB, Rigid Flex, Flex circuitry (connected to standard PCB connector), or by using Flex circuit exclusively.
The thickness of a PCB can be reduced as is the practice of companies such as Eastern Company. These thin laminates can reduce thickness of the PCB but may not be good for high density modules and high frequency operations due to the limited number of layers they utilize and their dielectric properties. However, when thin PCB laminates are used a transition between the thin laminate and the wider DIMM connector is needed.

Microelectronics Assembly Technologies, Inc.


A method is disclosed of extracting two or more spectral image records from an imagewise exposed multicolor photographic element containing a plurality of tabular grain emulsions for individually recording imagewise exposure in at least two different regions of the visible spectrum. In each of the tabular grain emulsions tabular grains exhibiting a mean equivalent circular diameter of greater than 0.4 micrometer and a mean thickness of less than 0.2 micrometer account for greater than 90 percent of total grain projected area. No more than one of the tabular grain emulsions exhibits a mean tabular grain thickness of less than 0.07 micrometers, and each of the remaining tabular grain emulsions exhibit a coefficient of variation of tabular grain thickness of less than 15 percent. The mean tabular grain thickness of emulsions for recording imagewise exposure to different regions of the visible spectrum differs by at least 0.02 micrometer. The imagewise exposed element is photographically processed to develop silver halide grains as a function of exposure and to remove developed silver. The processed photographic element is scanned in a first spectral wavelength region at which the tabular grains in a first of the emulsions reflect to a greater degree than the tabular grains of any emulsion which has recorded imagewise exposure in a different region of the spectrum, and the processed photographic element is also scanned in a second spectral wavelength region within which the tabular grains in a second of the emulsions reflect.

In classical black-and-white photography a photographic element containing a silver halide emulsion layer coated on a transparent film support is imagewise exposed to light. This produces a latent image within the emulsion layer. The film is then photographically processed to transform the latent image into a silver image that is a negative image of the subject photographed. Photographic processing involves developing (reducing silver halide grains containing latent image sites to silver), stopping development, and fixing (dissolving undeveloped silver halide grains). The resulting processed photographic element, commonly referred to as a negative, is placed between a uniform exposure light source and a second photographic element, commonly referred to as a photographic paper, containing a silver halide emulsion layer coated on a white paper support. Exposure of the emulsion layer of the photographic paper through the negative produces a latent image in the photographic paper that is a positive image of the subject originally photographed. Photographic processing of the photographic paper produces a positive silver image. The image bearing photographic paper is commonly referred to as a print.
In a well known, but much less common, variant of classical black-and-white photography a direct positive emulsion can be employed, so named because the first image produced on processing is a positive silver image, obviating any necessity of printing to obtain a viewable positive image. Another well known variation, commonly referred to as instant photography, involves imagewise transfer of silver ion to a physical development site in a receiver to produce a viewable transferred silver image.
In classical color photography the photographic film contains three superimposed silver halide emulsion layer units, one for forming a latent image corresponding to blue light (i.e., blue) exposure, one for forming a latent image corresponding to green exposure and one for forming a latent image corresponding to red exposure. During photographic processing developing agent oxidized upon reduction of latent image containing grains reacts to produce a dye image with silver being an unused product of the oxidation-reduction development reaction. Developed silver (Ag.degree.) is removed by bleaching during photographic processing. The image dyes are complementary subtractive primaries--that is, yellow, magenta and cyan dye images are formed in the blue, green and red recording emulsion layers, respectively. This produces negative dye images (i.e., blue, green and red subject features appear yellow, magenta and cyan, respectively). Exposure of color paper through the color negative followed by photographic processing produces a positive color print. Again, bleaching removes developed silver that would otherwise blacken the color print.
In one common variation of classical color photography reversal processing is undertaken to produce a positive dye image in the color film(commonly referred to as a slide, the image typically being viewed by projection). In another common variation, referred to as color image transfer or instant photography, image dyes are transferred to a receiver for viewing.
In each of the classical forms of photography noted above the final image is intended to be viewed by the human eye. Thus, the conformation of the viewed image to the subject image, absent intended aesthetic departures, is the criterion of photographic success.
With the emergence of computer controlled data processing capabilities, interest has developed in extracting the information contained in an imagewise exposed photographic element instead of proceeding directly to a viewable image. It is now common practice to extract the information contained in both black-and-white and color images by scanning. The most common approach to scanning a black-and-white negative is to record point-by-point or line-by-line the transmission of a near infrared beam, relying on developed silver to modulate the beam. In color photography blue, green and red scanning beams are modulated by the yellow, magenta and cyan image dyes. In a variant color scanning approach the blue, green and red scanning beams are combined into a single white scanning beam modulated by the image dyes that is read through red, green and blue filters to create three separate records. The records produced by image dye modulation can then be read into any convenient memory medium (e.g., an optical disk). The advantage of reading an image into memory is that the information is now in a form that is free of the classical restraints of photographic embodiments. For example, age degradation of the photographic image can be for all practical purposes eliminated. Systematic manipulation (e.g., image reversal, hue alteration, etc.) of the image information that would be cumbersome or impossible to achieve in a controlled and reversible manner in a photographic element are readily achieved. The stored information can be retrieved from memory to modulate light exposures necessary to recreate the image as a photographic negative, slide or print at will. Alternatively, the image can be viewed as a video display or printed by a variety of techniques beyond the bounds of classical photography--e.g., xerography, ink jet printing, dye diffusion printing, etc.
Hunt U.K. 1,458,370 illustrates a color photographic element constructed to have three separate color records extracted by scanning. Hunt employs a classical color film modified by the substitution of a panchromatic sensitized silver halide emulsion layer for the green recording emulsion layer. Following imagewise exposure and processing three separate records are present in the film, a yellow dye image recording blue exposure, a cyan dye image recording red exposure and a magenta dye image recording exposure throughout the visible spectrum. These three dye images are then used to derive blue, green and red exposure records, but the photographic element itself is not properly balanced to be used as a color negative is classically used for photographic print formation.
A number of other unusual film constructions have been suggested for producing photographic images intended to be extracted by scanning:
Kellogg et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,131 extracts image information from an imagewise exposed photographic element by stimulated emission from latent image sites of photographic elements held at extremely low temperatures. The required low temperatures are, of course, a deterrent to adopting this approach.
Levine U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,102 relies on the differential between accumulated incident and transmitted light during scanning to measure the light unsaturation remaining in silver halide grains after exposure. This approach is unattractive, since the difference in light unsaturation between a silver halide grain that has not been exposed and one that contains a latent image may be as low as four photons and variations in grain saturation can vary over a very large range.
Schumann et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,308 relies upon differentials in luminescence in developed and fixed color films to provide an image during scanning. Relying on differentials in luminescence from spectral sensitizing dye, the preferred embodiment of Schumann et al, is unattractive, since luminescence intensities are limited. Increasing spectral sensitizing dye concentrations beyond optimum levels is well recognized to desensitize silver halide emulsions.
Unusual silver halide photographic element constructions for producing images intended to be extracted by scanning have employed the same silver halide emulsions developed for classical black-and-white and color photography. The silver halide grain population of an emulsion can take a wide variety of forms. The silver halide grains themselves can take varied shapes. Regular grains, those free of internal stacking faults or screw dislocations, are typically cubes or octahedra, although rhombododecahedra and four additional rarely encountered regular geometric forms are known. Cubes are bounded entirely by {100} crystal faces; octahedra are bounded entirely by {111} crystal faces; and rhombododecahedra are bounded entirely by {110} crystal faces. There are a variety of grain structures that exhibit a combination of crystal faces lying in different crystal planes--e.g., tetradecahedra (a.k.a. cubo-octahedra) have six {100} crystal faces and eight {111} crystal faces. Emulsions prepared in an active ripening environment, such as ammoniacal emulsions, often have had the grain corners sufficiently rounded that the grains are essentially spherical. Many, if not most, silver halide grains found in photographic emulsions are not regular. Twinning is a common grain irregularity. Singly twinned grains are common. Tabular grains having {111} major faces are produced by two or three parallel twin planes. Multiply twinned grains are often of irregular shape and have on at least one occasion been descriptively referred to as "potato" grains. To complicate matters further, silver halide emulsions usually contain a mixture of grains of different sizes and shapes. Thus, nominal references to photographic silver halide emulsions embrace a large variety of silver halide grain populations.
Although tabular grains had been observed in silver bromide and bromoiodide photographic emulsions dating from the earliest observations of magnified grains and grain replicas, it was not until the early 1980's that photographic advantages, such as improved speed-granularity relationships, increased covering power both on an absolute basis and as a function of binder hardening, more rapid developability, increased thermal stability, increased separation of blue and minus blue imaging speeds, and improved image sharpness in both mono- and multi-emulsion layer formats, were realized to be attainable from "tabular grain" silver bromide and bromoiodide emulsions in which the majority (>50%) of the total grain population based on grain projected area is accounted for by tabular grains satisfying the mean tabularity relationship: EQU ECD/t.sup.2 >25
where
ECD is the equivalent circular diameter in micrometers (.mu.m) of the tabular grains and
t is the thickness in .mu.m of the tabular grains. Once photographic advantages were demonstrated with tabular grain silver bromide and bromoiodide emulsions techniques were devised to prepare tabular grains containing silver chloride alone or in combination with other silver halides. Subsequent investigators have extended the definition of tabular grain emulsions to those in which the mean aspect ratio (ECD:t) of grains having parallel crystal faces is as low as 2:1. Photographic advantages attributable to the tabular grain shape can be realized with tabularities of greater than 8.
Although most tabular grain emulsion definitions require greater than 50 percent of the total grain projected area to be accounted for by tabular grains, tabular grain emulsions often contain significant unwanted grain populations and also exhibit a higher level of grain dispersity (ECD variance) than can be obtained by a well controlled precipitation of a regular grain emulsion. This has presented a continuing challenge to those preparing tabular grain emulsions.
A statistical technique for quantifying tabular grain dispersity that has been applied to both nontabular and tabular grain emulsions is to obtain a statistically significant sampling of the individual tabular grain projected areas, calculate the corresponding ECD of each grain, determine the standard deviation of the grain ECDs, divide the standard deviation of the grain population by the mean ECD of the grains sampled and multiply by 100 to obtain the size coefficient of variation, hereinafter referred to as COV(ECD), of the grain population as a percentage.
Kofron et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,520 illustrates tabular grain emulsion technology at the outset of its development in the early 1980's and multicolor photographic elements containing these emulsions.
Saitou et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,354 reports in its Examples tabular grain silver bromide emulsions with tabular grain projected areas of up to 93 percent. Of the tabular grain emulsions having a tabular grain projected area of greater than 90%, a mean ECD of at least 0.4 .mu.m and a mean thickness of less than 0.2 .mu.m the lowest COV(ECD) reported is 15.3%.
Nakamura et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,806 reports in Example 2 a tabular grain silver bromoiodide emulsion having a tabular grain projected area of 99.7%, a mean tabular grain thickness of 0.16 .mu.m, a mean ECD of 1.1 .mu.m. and grain COV(ECD) of 10.1%.
Tsaur et al U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,147,771, 5,147,772, 5,147,773 and 5,171,659 disclose processes of preparing tabular grains silver bromide and bromoiodide emulsions employing varied polyalkylene oxide block copolymer to reduce grain dispersity. Although no quantification is provided, Tsaur et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,771 and 5,171,659 are notable in observing qualitatively the reduced thickness variance of one of the tabular grain emulsions prepared.
Buhr et al Research Disclosure, Vol. 253, May 1985, Item 25330, presents in FIG. 1 a calculated correlation between sheet thicknesses of from 0.07 .mu.m to 0.16 .mu.m and reflectances at varied visible wavelengths. Based on the calculated reflectances of thin sheets Buhr et al suggests employing tabular grain emulsions for varied layers of a multicolor photographic element to minimize reflectance of light intended to be recorded by underlying emulsion layers or to maximize reflectance of blue light before it can reach one or more underlying emulsion layers and thereby contaminate a minus blue (green or red) image record.

Photoelectric elements for producing spectral image records retrievable by scanning


A paint bucket comprised of an open-top-end container. A lid is engageable over the open-to-end. The lid is provided with attachment brackets on an inner surface thereof for the retention of one or more paint applicating implements. A slot is formed in a top end of the bucket for accommodating passage of a paint roller connecting rod whereby a wet paint roller may be held inside the container connecting rod and handle extending outside the container to maintain the wet roller in an enclosed area to prevent the wet roller from drying, when not in use.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paint bucket comprised of an open-top-end container having a lid with attachment brackets disposed on a rear face of the lid to retain paint applicating implements thereagainst and wherein the paint bucket has a slot in a top edge thereof for the passage of a paint roller connecting rod whereby a wet roller may be stored inside the container to prevent drying thereof.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is known in the prior art to provide paint buckets having a ribbed wall surface formed with the bucket whereby to remove excess paint from a roll applicator brush rolled thereagainst. This is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,988,767. However, with such buckets there is a need to remove paint from the bucket in order to use the ribbed side wall as the paint in the bucket, when full, conceals this ribbed side wall. It is therefore necessary to have another bucket to store paint while the bucket with the flat ribbed wall is utilized. U.S. Pat. No. 2,983,938 also discloses a paint bucket wherein a roller-type paint applicator is inserted within the container, which is filled with paint, through a small cylindrical orifice and then withdrawn therefrom and during this withdrawing process a plurality of circumferential serrations will be in doctoring contact with the peripheral surface of the roller brush to remove excess paint. The purpose of this device is to eliminate the need to use paint pans which need to be constantly refilled due to their small capacity size. It also eliminates the need to clean the paint pan.
There is, however, another need for storing wet paint applicating implements, such as rollers or paint brushes, to prevent them from becoming dry when there is a pause in the applicating of paint for a substantial period of time. When wet paint implements are left uncleaned and exposed to air they dry out. This need to prevent wet paint implements from drying also eliminates the need to have to clean the paint implements each time there is a lengthy pause. Often paint implements have to be left wet for a substantial length of time.
There is a further need to provide a paint bucket which will also serve as a paint tray but without having to remove paint from within the bucket for access to a ribbed surface of the paint bucket whereby excess paint from a roller-type paint applicator can be removed.

Paint bucket with inner paint implement attaching means