An automatic retractable safety trocar instrument includes a portal sleeve, a trocar disposed within the portal sleeve and a safety shield disposed between the portal sleeve and the trocar. The trocar is movable automatically from an operative position wherein a sharp distal end of the trocar protrudes from the portal sleeve to a retracted position wherein the sharp distal end is protected within the instrument upon penetration into a cavity in the body. The safety shield is automatically movable proximally from an extended position during penetration of tissue and distally toward the extended position upon introduction of a distal end of the portal sleeve in an anatomical cavity such that a distal end of the safety shield contacts tissue within the cavity and moves the tissue away from the cavity wall. A method of creating a space between a wall of an anatomical cavity and a layer of tissue within the cavity includes penetrating the cavity wall with the sharp tip of a penetrating member disposed within a portal sleeve to position a distal end of the portal sleeve within the cavity and extending a safety shield to protrude beyond the sharp tip and the cavity wall whereby a blunt distal end of the safely shield moves the tissue away from the wall maintaining a space between the tissue and the wall.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to safety penetrating instruments and, more particularly, to safety penetrating instruments having portal sleeves, penetrating members disposed within the portal sleeves and having sharp tips for penetrating cavity walls and safety shields disposed between the portal sleeves and the penetrating members with automatic retraction of the penetrating members within the penetrating instrument upon penetration to protect tissue and organ structures within the cavities from the sharp tips of the penetrating members.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Penetrating instruments are widely used in medical procedures to gain access to anatomical cavities of various sizes; and, in particular, use of penetrating instruments has become an extremely popular and important first step in endoscopic, or least invasive, procedures to establish an endoscopic portal for many various procedures, with access being established via a portal sleeve positioned during penetration into the cavity with the penetrating instrument. Such penetrating instruments include a penetrating member having a sharp tip or point to pierce or penetrate the tissue forming the cavity wall, and the force required to penetrate the cavity wall is dependent upon the type and thickness of the tissue of the wall. Once the wall is penetrated, it is desirable to protect the sharp tip of the penetrating member to prevent inadvertent contact with or injury to tissue or organ structures in or forming the cavity, and a particular problem exists where substantial force is required to penetrate the cavity wall or the cavity is very small in that, once penetration is achieved, the lack of tissue resistance can result in the sharp tip traveling too far into the cavity and injuring adjacent tissue or organ structures.
Safety trocars having a spring-biased protective shield disposed between an outer sleeve and an inner trocar are marketed by Ethicon, Inc. as the Endopath and by United States Surgical Corp. as the Surgiport. U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,773 to Yoon, No. U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,710 to Moll and U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,030 to Moll et al are illustrative of such safety trocars. A trocar disposed within a portal sleeve and retractable within the sleeve in response to an electrical signal generated when force from tissue contact is removed from the sharp tip of the trocar is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,773 to Yoon.
One of the limitations of many prior art safety penetrating instruments is that the trocars cannot be optionally removed from the safety shields upon penetration into body cavities to allow lumens of the safety shields communicating with the body cavities to be used to perform various medical procedures, such as evacuating and supplying fluids to the body cavities, via the lumens. Many prior art safety penetrating instruments have other limitations in that the safety shields are not retractable within the portal sleeves upon penetration into body cavities, and visual, tactile and aural confirmation of cavity penetration are not effectively provided. A disadvantage of prior art methods of penetrating body cavities with safety penetrating instruments is that extension of the safety shields beyond the portal sleeves is not used to create spaces or increase the size of spaces within the body cavities upon penetration of walls of the body cavities such as is useful in forming or enlarging a space between membranes, in penetrating plueral cavities to create or increase the size of a space between the perietal and visceral walls, the epidural canal, thoracostomy and where the cavities being penetrated are very narrow.

Automatic retractable trocar with safety shield and method of use


A method for injecting a plastic material into a mold cavity to precisely fill the mold cavity under low pressure and to avoid packing the mold cavity with plastic material. The plastic material is injected into the mold cavity at a rate sufficient to maintain an unbroken melt front and to avoid any spraying or splashing of the plastic material within the mold cavity. After an initial unbroken melt front is established, the rate at which the material is injected is increased in proportion to the size of the melt front. After a predetermined amount of the material has entered the mold cavity, the material is injected based upon a rate-dominated control algorithm which maintains the unbroken melt front. After detecting an indicia of a decrease in the surface area of the melt front, the material is injected based upon a pressure-dominated control algorithm where the injection rate is adjusted as needed so that an injection set limit is not exceeded in order to prevent overrunning the end point of the mold process and to eliminate splashing and associated backflow problems. The injection pressure is monitored and controlled until the mold cavity has been precisely filled, at which time the injection pressure is maintained until the plastic article has hardened within the mold cavity. By filling the mold cavity exactly, the prior art problems associated with packing, such as warping and flash, are eliminated in the present invention and a more uniform product is produced from less material.

This invention relates to a method for molding a plastic article and, more particularly, to a method for molding a plastic article which includes injecting based on a pressure-dominated control algorithm after detecting an indicia of a decrease in the surface area of the melt front along the leading edge of injected plastic material in order to effectively mold a plastic article without overfilling or packing a mold cavity with plastic material.
Injection molding machines generally include a two-section mold unit wherein a first section is stationary, and a second section is moveable between an open position away from the first section, and a closed position in sealed engagement with the first section in order to form a mold cavity. Typically, a gate opening in the first section allows the injection of plastic material into the mold cavity.
Once the mold cavity has been formed, a reciprocating screw or similar injection device is used to inject a plastic material through the gate opening into the mold cavity where the plastic material hardens with time. As the plastic material is injected into the mold cavity, the leading edge of the plastic material forms a melt front which spreads across the mold cavity as the mold cavity fills. The plastic material is typically injected into the mold cavity very quickly under high pressure to prevent the melt front from hardening too quickly and blocking the mold cavity. Unfortunately, as the mold cavity is filled, the plastic material begins to backflow, causing turbulence and requiring greater clamp pressures and injection pressures.
To overcome the backflow associated with prior art processes, and to assure that the mold cavity becomes completely filled with plastic material, a volume of plastic material greater than the volume of the mold cavity is injected into the mold cavity and maintained under high pressure until the plastic begins to harden. The injection of an excess amount of material into the mold cavity requires a sharp pressure increase in order to pack the material into the mold cavity. This sharp pressure increase is often referred to as a "spike." While injecting excessive plastic material into the mold cavity results in completely filling the mold cavity during the molding process, the resulting pressure spike causes enormous outward pressure on the mold sections, leading to an increased amount of wear on the mold sections and clamping apparatus. Despite constructing mold units of steel to handle the pressure spikes associated with prior art molding processes, these mold units often wear prematurely, requiring the mold units to be returned to the manufacturers for repair. Depending on the severity of the wear and the repair schedule of the manufacturers, worn mold units can be out of service for several weeks. The loss of production associated with the repair of cracked mold units is generally very costly.
The increased outward pressure on the mold sections may even lead to movement of the mold sections away from one another. When the mold sections move apart, plastic material seeps into the parting line between the mold sections. The plastic material which seeps into the parting line and forms as a portion of the finished plastic part is often referred to as "flash." This "flash" is not only aesthetically undesirable on a finished plastic part, but also leads to a waste of material and creates an uneven parting line between the mold sections. As the clamping apparatus presses the mold sections together against the plastic hardening at the parting line, the parting line becomes deformed and uneven, thereby making the occurrence of flash even more likely upon subsequent moldings.
Additional problems associated with prior art high pressure molding techniques include the increased amount of plastic material needed to be placed into the mold cavity, as well as the pressure gradients created throughout the molded part due to the increased amount of plastic material being packed into a finite volume mold cavity. In some cases, the pressure gradient is so large that it leads to warpage of the finished plastic article. If the warpage is great enough, the plastic article may not fit within design tolerances.
While theoretically it would be desirable to fill the mold cavity slowly throughout the molding process, it is difficult to inject the plastic material slowly without uneven curing and blockage resulting within the cavity. If the mold cavity is filled too slowly, the first portion of the plastic material to be injected into the mold cavity begins to harden as the rest of the plastic material is still being injected. This premature hardening leads to clogging of the mold cavity during the filling process. Such clogging is particularly undesirable since it requires stopping a molding run and discarding the partially hardened material.
The difficulties encountered in the prior art discussed hereinabove are substantially eliminated by the present invention.

Method of molding a plastic article including injecting based upon a pressure-dominated control algorithm after detecting an indicia of a decrease in the surface area of the melt front


A dryer appliance and a method of operating the same are provided. In one aspect, the dryer appliance includes a drum rotatably mounted within a cabinet. The cabinet defines an interior volume and a vent. The dryer appliance includes a closed loop airflow circuit along which process air is moved. The drum defines a chamber positioned along the closed loop airflow circuit. A conditioning system of the dryer appliance is also positioned along the closed loop airflow circuit and is operable to heat the process air flowing along the circuit. The dryer appliance includes a vent fan operable to move cabinet air disposed within the interior volume and not within the airflow circuit through the vent of the cabinet. The cabinet air can be vented to an outdoor space or other suitable space.

Although closed loop airflow circuit dryer appliances can efficiently dry laundry articles, they tend to heat the laundry room or indoor space in which they are located. Particularly, electrical power drawn by such dryer appliances to power a process air conditioning system thereof eventually heats or heat soaks the laundry room. As closed loop airflow circuit dryers are generally unvented, there is nowhere for the generated heat to go besides back into the laundry room. Essentially, such dryers act as space heaters. This is particularly problematic when the laundry room air is being cooled as the waste heat output by the dryer directly counteracts the cooling process.
Accordingly, a dryer appliance and methods of operating the same that address one or more of the challenges noted above would be advantageous.

Vented cabinet closed loop airflow circuit dryer appliance


An electronic component built-in substrate comprises a substrate having a core member with an opening in which an electronic component is disposed, a first auxiliary insulating layer formed on a first surface of the core member; a second auxiliary insulating layer formed on a second surface of the core member, the second auxiliary insulating layer having a first via hole, a filling resin portion filling a gap between the electronic component and a side surface of the opening of the core member, and a first wiring layer formed on the second auxiliary insulating layer and connected to the connection terminal of the electronic component through the first via hole. The whole of the first surface and the whole of the second surface of the core member are in direct contact with the first auxiliary insulating layer and the second auxiliary insulating layer, respectively.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an electronic component built-in substrate and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Related Art
With the recent development of electronic device, a wiring board for an electronic component device used in electronic device is required to be miniaturized and improved in performance and satisfies other requirements. To satisfy those requirements, electronic component built-in substrates have been put into practical use in which an electronic component is incorporated in a wiring board.
For example, in such an electronic component built-in substrate, an electronic component is disposed in an opening of a core substrate and build-up wirings are formed on both surfaces of the core substrate.

Electronic component built-in substrate and method of manufacturing the same


A hardware accelerator for histogram of oriented gradients computation is provided that includes a gradient computation component configured to compute gradients Gx and Gy of a pixel, a bin identification component configured to determine a bin id of an angular bin for the pixel based on a plurality of representative orientation angles, Gx, and signs of Gx and Gy, and a magnitude component configured to determine a magnitude of the gradients Gmag based on the plurality of representative orientation angles and the bin id.

For many embedded computer vision applications, such as, for example, pedestrian recognition in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), fast weighted gradient (angular) calculation is required. For example, canny and other angular edge and feature detection algorithms require calculation of oriented gradients on image pixels to help ensure accurate, thin edges. In another example, histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) features are used by many vision algorithms for general object detection which requires calculation of oriented gradients for each pixel in multiple windows of an image and calculation of the histogram distribution of the oriented gradients for each window.
Oriented gradient and histogram calculations are computationally expensive. For example, for a HOG algorithm, the orientation angle θ of the x and y gradients as well as the magnitude of the gradients for a pixel are given byθ(x,y)=tan−1(Gy/Gx)Gmag=√{square root over (Gx2+Gy2)}where Gx and Gy are the respective horizontal and vertical gradients. The orientation angle θ and Gmag are calculated for each pixel in multiple overlapping detection windows in an image. Performing such calculations in real time for large images in an embedded computer vision application can consume most if not all the computational power of processors currently used in embedded devices.

Hardware accelerator for histogram of oriented gradients computation


In accordance with the example embodiments of the invention there is at least a method, apparatus, and executable computer program to receive a location of a white space device, determine an original probability with which a primary receiver would operate correctly at the location, wherein the original probability is determined without taking interference due to the white space device into account, determine a maximum degradation to the original probability that the white space device may cause at the location, wherein the maximum degradation is based at least in part on an estimated signal quality of a primary system at the location, and determine a maximum transmission power for the white space device based on the maximum degradation.

This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention that is recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The continuous growth of wireless communication systems and the demand for additional bandwidth has provided motivation for a redefinition of frequency spectrum usage such that the spectrum can be used in a more efficient way. Previously, the spectrum has been allocated in a fixed manner, (i.e., it is allocated according to a particular service and technology). However, this fixed allocation is seen to lead to a waste of this finite resource for at least the reason that portions of the spectrum will inherently remain unused. These unused portions of the frequency spectrum herein referred to as white spaces. There exists a need for a more efficient way to allocate the spectrum such that there is less waste of the spectrum.

Maximum transmission power in white spaces


A computer-implemented method includes: detecting, by a computing device, a triggering of a discovery request event for discovering capabilities of each of a plurality of cognitive entities (CEs) in a distributed cognitive network; outputting, by the computing device, discovery requests to each of the plurality of CEs; receiving, by the computing device, respective responses to the discovery request from each of the plurality of CEs, wherein each respective response identifies capabilities of each of the plurality of CEs; generating, by the computing device, a capabilities mapping table based on the receiving the respective responses; and storing, by the computing device, the capabilities mapping table to process a pending or future service request based on capabilities criteria associated with the pending or future service request and the capabilities of each of the plurality of CEs identified in the capabilities mapping table.

The present invention generally relates to determining capabilities of cognitive entities in a distributed network and, more particularly, to determining capabilities of cognitive entities in a distributed network based on application of cognitive protocols.
Cognitive models are aimed to remember the past, interact with individuals, continuously learn, and refine responses for future. Cognitive capabilities enrich the automation of individual needs based on time and situation and provide dynamic responses and user satisfaction. For example, some cognitive systems are made to process security processing, authentication, authorization, etc. Other cognitive systems are developed for vision recognition, document processing etc. based on a set of requirements.

Determining capabilities of cognitive entities in a distributed network based on application of cognitive protocols

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The present invention is directed to a pneumatic tire comprising at least one component, the at least one component comprising a vulcanizable rubber composition, the vulcanizable rubber composition comprising: at least one diene based elastomer; precipitated silica; and a compound of formula I

Rubbery polymers are typically compounded with sulfur, accelerators, antidegradants, a filler, such as carbon black, silica or starch, and other desired rubber chemicals and are then subsequently vulcanized or cured into the form of a useful article, such as a tire or a power transmission belt. It has been established that the physical properties of such cured rubbers depend upon the degree to which the filler is homogeneously dispersed throughout the rubber. This is in turn related to the level of affinity that filler has for the particular rubbery polymer. This can be of practical importance in improving the physical characteristics of rubber articles which are made utilizing such rubber compositions. For example, the rolling resistance and traction characteristics of tires can be improved by improving the affinity of carbon black and/or silica to the rubbery polymer utilized therein. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to improve the affinity of a given rubbery polymer for fillers, such as carbon black and silica.

Abstract: where R1, R2 and R3 are independently selected alkyl or alkoxy groups containing from 1 through 8 carbon atoms provided that at least one of said groups is an ethoxy group, and alternatively provided that all three of said groups are ethoxy groups, R4 is an alkanediyl group containing from 0 through 8 carbon atoms, Si is silicon, N is nitrogen and O is oxygen.


Systems, devices and methods involving device identification are provided. In this regard, a representative system includes: a first device having a first power line and a first connector, the first connector being coupled to the first power line; and a second device having a second power line and a second connector, the second connector being coupled to the second power line and sized and shaped to mate with the first connector such that the first device electrically communicates with the second device; the first device being operative to modulate impedance exhibited at the first power line; the second device being operative to detect the modulated impedance and correlate the modulated impedance with an identification of the first device.

Over the years, portable handheld devices and accessories for these devices have become prevalent. Recently, the desire for a device to be able to identify the accessory to which the device is connected has gained in popularity. In this regard, a commonly proposed approach for identifying an accessory is to use a dedicated interface. However, the use of a dedicated interface involves numerous challenges, such as placement considerations and lack of standardization.


In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for creating an object within a system, utilizing a template. These mechanisms and methods for creating an object within a system, utilizing a template can enable increased efficiency, resource and time savings, more intuitive object creation, etc.

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
Conventional systems (e.g., multi-tenant on-demand database systems, etc.) may utilize one or more objects to facilitate system usage by one or more tenants of the system. For example, the objects may be used to enable report generation within the system, data manipulation within the system, etc. Unfortunately, the creation of these objects has been associated with various limitations.
Just by way of example, systems may utilize a significant amount of resources during the creation of objects within the system. For instance, each object within the system may need to be individually created and have its parameters manually established. Accordingly, it is desirable to optimize the creation of objects within a system.

System, method and computer program product for creating an object within a system, utilizing a template


A digital voltage protection circuit (138) and a phase monitor circuit (154, 160, 162, 168) disconnect AC-powered user equipment (22,182) from the AC power supply (141) whenever the AC power line voltage is outside a predetermined operating voltage window and when any two phases of the power supply (141) are separated by more than a predetermined phase angle. The user equipment (182) is automatically reconnected to the power supply (141) only after the power line voltage and phase remain continuously within operating range for a predetermined delay period. The voltage monitor (138) contains a digital comparator (18) that uses integrated circuit digital logic thresholds as reference voltages for setting upper and lower voltage window limits. The controller protects the user equipment from both over-voltage and under-voltage (brownout) conditions and from phase errors.

This invention relates to the field of protecting electrical circuits against potentially damaging effects of electrical transients and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for reliably protecting AC-powered user equipment from both over-voltage and under-voltage conditions.
Many types of electrical equipment are susceptible to malfunctions or damage due to transient impulses or line voltage conditions which exceed an acceptable voltage range or window. For example, computers and TV satellite receiver decoders are very sensitive to voltage transients. AC powered motors are subject to damage from overheating when driven by AC voltages greater than or less than an intended AC voltage operating range.
Since voltage transients may be caused by such things as lightning strikes, inductive load switching and physical shock to power lines, utility companies which supply electrical power have no practical ways of preventing such occurrences. The problems are particularly acute in rural areas.
Various circuits are known that disconnect electrical power from a load when the power output is outside acceptable tolerances. For example, a crowbar circuit shunts an AC power line to ground when an over-voltage condition occurs. The shunted AC power line causes either a fuse to blow or a circuit breaker to trip thereby disconnecting the AC line from the load. After the load is isolated from the AC line, a user must locate, identify and replace or reset the fuse or circuit breaker, respectively, in order to restore AC power to the user equipment. These actions are inconvenient and extend the equipment downtime.
Some over-voltage protection circuits automatically reset when the power supply voltage falls back within an acceptable operating tolerance. These circuits however, subject user equipment to erratic on-again, off-again operation when the AC power line voltage is irregular or marginal. This intermittent operation itself can lead to potentially damaging transients, particularly if the user equipment load is inductive. For example, intermittent operation of electric motor starter windings causes them to burn out.
Actuating a relay to disconnect the AC line from electrical equipment also creates transients within the over-voltage monitoring circuit. For example, an over-voltage monitoring circuit typically requires a small amount power to operate during normal operation. When the AC line voltage is above the maximum allowable voltage level, the monitoring circuit must actuate a high current relay to disconnect power to the electrical equipment. Actuation of the relay produces electrical noise by abruptly drawing a large current in relation to the quiescent current necessary to maintain normal operation of the monitoring circuit.
Typical over-voltage protection circuits use analog components to monitor the AC line voltage. Analog circuitry however, is more susceptible to electrical noise than digital circuitry and is harder to customize for different applications. In addition, digital components are less expensive, require less support circuitry, and are more reliable over a wider range of operating conditions.
Another drawback of known over-voltage protection circuitry is that a powerful power line transient may destroy a solid state over-voltage shunt device, effectively removing it from the circuit. The user equipment is thereby left completely unprotected against any subsequent transients.
Power disconnect circuits typically offer no protection against under-voltage conditions, i.e., where the AC line voltage falls below a predetermined minimum voltage, for example, 90 volts. This is frequently referred to as a "brown-out" condition. Motors connected to refrigerant compressors and similar loads can burn out under brown-out conditions. Computer disk drive damage can also be caused by brownouts. Most AC-powered user equipment in the U.S. is designed to operate within a line voltage range (i.e. 108-132 volts). Shunt circuits therefore do not adequately protect such user equipment from both under and over-voltage conditions.
Over-voltage protection circuits are designed to disconnect power from user equipment at a preset AC line voltage. The appropriate "trip voltage" depends on the type of electrical equipment. For example, power equipment may be designed to operate within an operating range of 120 VAC +/-15%, where as more sensitive computer equipment may require a tighter tolerance of 120 VAC +/-10%. For other types of electrical equipment it may be necessary to provide over-voltage protection but unnecessary to disconnect AC power in a under-voltage condition. Over-voltage protection circuits, particularly analog protection circuits, are not easily modified, and usually require complete redesigns to change trip voltage(s) or to accommodate a new load specification.
For electrical equipment that operates off three-phase power, phase monitoring is desirable in addition to voltage amplitude monitoring. For example, three-phase power equipment is designed to operate from a power supply having each phase offset 120 degrees from the remaining two phases. When any phase of the power supply is deviates from the 120 degrees offset, there is no longer an evenly distributed output of power to the electrical equipment. If the power supply is severely out of phase, for example, if two or more phases have a small or zero phase difference, the power supply can damage the three phase load. The phase and amplitude of a power supply must be monitored to effectively protect three-phase power equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,730 discloses a voltage monitor and control circuit that uses analog circuitry to monitor the AC power line voltage signal. The circuit however, does not provide phase monitoring for polyphase power supply signals and also suffers the shortcomings of analog monitoring circuits as described above.
Accordingly, a need remains for a low cost, noise resistent, AC voltage and phase monitor and controller, that is useful or easily adaptable to protect a wide variety of AC-powered equipment.

Digital voltage and phase monitor for AC power line

Voltage Control, Inc., a Montana corporation


A circuit for enabling a controlled transistor in response to an ablated fusible link. The fusible link is configured so that no d.c. potential resides on the link once it has been ablated. A source of alternating voltage is capacitively coupled to the fusible link and maintains the fusible link from reconnection due to dendrite formation once it is ablated. An a.c. to d.c. voltage converter is used to signal the change in condition of the fusible link, thus, actuating a control transistor of a redundant circuit element in a replacement operation.

The present invention relates to electronic circuits which have fusible links. Specifically, a circuit is described which enables a redundant circuit element in response to the ablation of a fusible link, and which inhibits dendritic growth on an ablated fusible link avoiding reconnection of the link.
Integrated circuit technology such as high density memories, including static random access memories and dynamic random access memories have many storage locations. High density integrated circuits are fabricated as an individual component where the entire device relies upon every circuit element. The entire memory may have to be discarded in the event of a failure to read or write to any storage location as a result of a single malfunctioning circuit element.
As a result of this consequence many semiconductor memories, as well as other circuits, are fabricated with redundant circuit elements. In the event of a failure of a circuit element, the redundant element may be substituted for the failed element. The redundant elements are enabled by ablating a fusible link which disables the failed component, and at the same time, activates the spare device. The process of ablating the fusible links is accomplished using a laser beam ablating the fusible link.
In other applications, fusible links are utilized to customize the chip function after manufacture. They may be used to customize the operations of a general purpose microcontroller, or to specify a determined optimal operating supply voltage. The fusible links may be used to provide an identification number for a circuit device to thwart theft or for secure communication from arrays for lookup tables.
Fusible links are extensively used in analog applications to trim the value of precision components, such as a capacitor or resistor, or to reduce the offset in amplifiers and comparators, as well as to finely trim component values of connected subassemblies to match output-input characteristics of the connected subassemblies.
The process of activating a redundant circuit element begins when the fusible link is ablated or "blown". Ablation is effected by laser radiation of the fusible link thereby vaporizing the link, or by forcing an excessive current through a very small diameter fusible link which heats to a temperature high enough to vaporize the link. The process of ablating a fusible link results in rupture of the dielectric encapsulation used on the integrated circuit and a portion of the metal material escapes as a vapor. The rupture in the dielectric passivation exposes the metal to unwanted chemical reactions. The ablation may also have another unfortunate consequence of rupturing any anticorrosive encapsulation material which may also be around the fusible link.
The fusible links are usually contained in the top most metal layer of the integrated circuit to provide easy access for laser ablation, and to permit the vaporized metallic material created during the ablation process to escape. In the past, the fusible links were typically aluminum, and when the fusible link is ablated or "blown", an oxide forms around the free ends of the fusible link largely self passivating the link against corrosion. In the future, however, integrated circuits will use other types of metal wiring, such as copper, which if implemented as a fusible link, will not produce a self passivating oxide. The free copper ends of a blown fusible link are subject to dendritic growth, which can reconnect the ends of a blown fusible link with a low enough resistance to reactivate the defective circuit component. The formation of dendritic growth on the ends of a conductor of a blown fuse is enhanced by the presence of a d.c. potential across the ends, as well as temperature and humidity. The exposed ends of a copper fusible link are also subject to corrosion which can proceed from the ruptured site and follow the wire material of the fusible link to a circuit junction where it may interrupt a conductive structure in the circuit wiring. Before integrated circuits may be implemented with metals other than aluminum, such as copper which are not self passivating, a solution to the forgoing problem is necessary.

Circuit for operating a control transistor from a fusible link

International Business Machines Corporation


A quick release pedestal for a vehicle seat comprising a base member rigidly attachable to a floor portion of a vehicle and defining first and second pairs of elongate slots extending in spaced, parallel relation therein. Releasably attachable to the base member is a seat support member including a first pair of hook members oriented so as to be receivable into the first pair of slots and a second pair of hook members oriented so as to be receivable into the second pair of slots. The seat support member further includes a mechanism for releasing the seat support member from engagement to the base member when the first pair of hook members are received into the first pair of slots and the second pair of hook members received into the second pair of slots.

In motor vehicles such as vans or minibuses, it is oftentimes desirable to remove one or more of the vehicle seats from therewithin for purposes of increasing the available storage space or allowing easy access to the interior portions of the vehicle during cleaning. In the prior art, a number of release mechanisms have been developed for purposes of allowing one or more vehicle seats to be selectively removed from within the interior of the vehicle.
One such prior art release mechanism comprises a plate member which is attached to the floor portion of the vehicle and defines an elevated surface having a generally circular configuration. Disposed about the periphery of the elevated circular surface are a plurality of detents, while formed in the central portion of the elevated surface is a generally circular recessed portion. The elevated surface further includes a guide member extending upwardly therefrom and an aperture disposed therein. The prior art release mechanism further comprises a support member which is rigidly attached to the bottom of the vehicle seat and adapted to be releasably engageable to the base member. Similar to the base member, the bottom surface of the support member defines an elevated surface having a generally circular configuration. Disposed about the periphery of the elevated circular surface are a plurality of lock members, each of which are sized and oriented to be selectively receivable into a corresponding one of the detents disposed within the base member. Additionally, formed upon the central portion of the elevated surface is a raised portion which has a generally circular configuration and is sized to be receivable into the recessed portion of the base member in a nested fashion. The elevated surface of the support member further includes an arcuate slot disposed therein which is adapted to receive the guide member, and a spring-loaded pin member extending downwardly therefrom which is adapted to be receivable into the aperture of the base member.
In the prior art release mechanism, the vehicle seat is attached to the base member by orienting the seat such that each of the lock members of the support member is received into a corresponding one of the detents, and the raised portion of the support member is received into the recessed portion of the base member. To aid in achieving such alignment, the guide member is initially received into the arcuate slot of the support member. After the lock members have been received into the detents, the vehicle seat is rotated so as to cause a stem portion of each lock member to be received into a complimentary notch portion of each detent. When the stem portions of the lock members are fully received into the notch portions of the detents, the spring-loaded pin of the support member is received into the aperture of the base member. To remove the vehicle seat from the base member, the pin member is pulled upwardly so as to remove the same from within the aperture. Thereafter, the vehicle seat is rotated in a manner operable to remove the stem portions of the lock members from within the notch portions of the detents. The vehicle seat is then lifted upwardly so as to remove each of the lock members from within the detents.
As will be recognized, to engage the vehicle seat to the base member in the prior art release mechanism, the guide member must first be received into the arcuate slot, with each of the lock members then being properly oriented relative the detents and the raised portion being properly oriented relative the recessed portion. After each of these components has been aligned in the aforementioned manner and the lock members received into the detents, the vehicle seat is then rotated to rigidly secure the support member to the base member and to cause the spring-loaded pin to be received into the aperture. Additionally, the vehicle seat cannot be removed from the base member until the spring-loaded pin is pulled upwardly and removed from within the aperture and the seat rotated and lifted upwardly to remove the lock members from within the detents. Though the prior art release mechanism serves to removably attach the vehicle seat to the base member, such attachment and removal is a difficult and time-consuming task due to the necessity of having to properly align various components of the base member and support member. The present invention overcomes these and other deficiencies associated with prior art vehicle seat release mechanisms by providing a quick release pedestal which is configured to eliminate the necessity of having to properly orient large numbers of components to releasably secure the vehicle seat to its associated base member.


A nose pad for eyeglasses is provided. The nose pad includes a pad part, which is connected to an eyeglass frame, and a pad body filled with a buffering material. The pad body is disposed on the pad part for contacting with a user's nose. The nose pad of the present invention is applicable to all types of eyeglass frames. The elastic pad body filled with the buffering material forms a droplet shape, which can accommodate the nose shapes of different users, so as to prevent slippery and to increase wearing comfort.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a nose pad for eyeglasses, and more particularly to a nose pad made of a buffering material, such that it can enhance the adhesion of eyeglasses to the human nose.
(2) Description of the Prior Arts
Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a conventional nose pad for eyeglasses is illustrated. The conventional nose pad 10 includes a pad part 11 and a connector 12 formed behind the pad part 11, such that the nose pad 10 can be connected to an eyeglass frame (not shown) via a screw or other connecting members.
It is noted that the conventional pad part 11 normally has a homogeneous thickness. However, since the nose bridge of Asian people is usually lower than that of the westerners, the conventional nose pad 10 is often incapable of sufficiently supporting the eyeglasses. As a result, the eyeglasses may slide down from the nose frequently, which will easily avert the focus of the eyeglasses. This will cause an improper vision correction. Even worse, the eyeglasses will slide away from nose and be damaged, especially when the user is sweating and doing exercises.
The currently available improvement to the conventional pad part 11 is to introduce a plurality of anti-slippery mechanisms, so as to prevent the eyeglasses from sliding down from the nose. However, there is still no proposal for improving the adhesion of the nose pad 11 with the user's nose.
In addition, in the conventional one-time molded eyeglass frame, one possible improvement is to introduce a hollow chamber in the nose pad during the one-time molding manufacturing process. In this manner, the height and style of the nose pad is adjustable. However, the introduction of the hollow chamber requires higher injection molding technology, which will largely increase the cost of the eyeglass frame. In addition, if the nose pad is broken and requires a replacement, one needs to replace the entire eyeglass frame, which is rather costly.
Accordingly, the inventor of the present invention has devoted himself to develop possible solutions for the drawbacks mentioned above. At last, a new nose pad is developed.


The present invention relates to an amorphous alloy corresponding to the formula:CoaNibMoc(C1-xBx)dXe wherein X is one or several elements selected from the group consisting of Cu, Si, Fe, P, Y, Er, Cr, Ga, Ta, Nb, V and W;

Due to the absence of microstructural defects such as grains, grain or twin boundaries, dislocations and stacking faults, metallic glasses (MGs) can offer a good corrosion resistance and a high mechanical strength with fracture strengths above 4 GPa and even 5 GPa. Their unique properties make them attractive for a number of structural applications where high specific strengths and/or elastic storage energies are required. Unfortunately, they are usually inherently brittle and do not show any macroscopic plastic deformation, i.e. ductility, prior to catastrophic failure if tested under tensile or bend loading conditions. The limited or non-existing malleability of MGs is caused by highly localized deformation processes with the rapid propagation of major shear bands and cracks. This lack of ductility hampers their potential for mechanical applications, especially if the fabrication of the structural part involves a room temperature deformation step as for springs in watches.
To be used as springs whilst being competitive with the best crystalline alloy, the amorphous alloy must fulfill several requirements:
High glass forming ability so that it may be synthetized under thick ribbon with a thickness higher than 80 and preferably higher than 100 μm,
High fracture strength with values above 3.75 GPa and preferably above 4 GPa,
High ductility under bend and compressive loading so that it may be plastically deformed at room temperature.
In the literature, a vast number of Fe- and/or Co-based amorphous alloy compositions are described. Their basic composition often fits the generic formula (Fe, Co)—(P, C, B, Si)— X, where X is at least one additional element among e.g. Nb, Ta, Mo, Al, Ga, Cr, Mn, Cu, V, Zr and rare earth elements. An extensive study on Fe-based compositions, also indexed as "structural amorphous steels", can be found in the following three publications:
Z. Q. Liu, and Z. F. Zhang, "Mechanical properties of structural amorphous steels: Intrinsic correlations, conflicts, and optimizing strategies," J. Appl. Phys., 114(24), 2013.
C. Suryanarayana, and A. Inoue, "Iron-based bulk metallic glasses," Int. Mater. Rev., 58(3):131-166, 2013.
Z. Q. Liu, and Z. F. Zhang, "Strengthening and toughening metallic glasses: The elastic perspectives and opportunities," J. Appl. Phys., 115(16), 2014.
Representative compositions showing strengths above 4 GPa are for example:
Co—(Fe)—Nb—B—(Er, Tb, Y, Dy), Co—(Ir)—Ta—B or Co—Fe—Ta—B—(Mo, Si),
Fe—(Co, Cr, Mn)—Mo—C—B—(Er) or Co—(Fe)—Cr—Mo—C—B—(Er),
Fe—(Co, Ni)—B—Si—Nb—(V) or Co—B—Si—Ta.
In particular, a document of Cheng et al. (Y. Y. Cheng, et al., "Synthesis of CoCrMoCB bulk metallic glasses with high strength and good plasticity via regulating the metalloid content," J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 410:155-159, 2015) discloses an amorphous alloy Co50Cr15Mo14CxBy with a compressive strength above 4.5 GPa.
The problem of the majority of these high-strength alloys is that they show a cleavage-like fracture behavior and hence offer no or a quite limited plastic formability.
Several phosphorus containing Fe— and/or Co-based amorphous systems with ductility improvement are known from the following documents.
T. Zhang, et al., "Ductile Fe-based bulk metallic glass with good soft-magnetic properties," Mater. Trans., 48(5):1157-1160, 2007.
K. F. Yao, and C. Q. Zhang, "Fe-based bulk metallic glass with high plasticity," Appl. Phys. Left., 90(6), 2007.
A. Inoue, et al., "Mechanical properties of Fe-based bulk glassy alloys in Fe—B—Si—Nb and Fe—Ga—P—C—B—Si systems," J. Mater. Res., 18(6):1487-1492, 2003.
M. Stoica, et al., "Mechanical behavior of Fe65.5Cr4Mo4Ga4P12C5B5.5 bulk metallic glass," Intermetallics, 13(7):764-769, 2005.
A. Seifoddini, et al., "New (Fe0.9Ni0.1)77Mo5P9C7.5B1.5 glassy alloys with enhanced glass-forming ability and large compressive strain," Mat. Sci. Eng. A, 560:575-582, 2013.
S. F. Guo, et al., "Enhanced plasticity of Fe-based bulk metallic glass by tailoring microstructure," T. Nonferr. Metal. Soc., 22(2):348-353, 2012.
S. F. Guo, and Y. Shen, "Design of high strength Fe—(P, C)-based bulk metallic glasses with Nb addition," T. Nonferr. Metal. Soc, 21(11):2433-2437, 2011.
W. Chen, et al., "Plasticity improvement of an Fe-based bulk metallic glass by geometric confinement," Mater. Lett., 65(8):1172-1175, 2011.
X. J. Gu, et al., "Mechanical properties, glass transition temperature, and bond enthalpy trends of high metalloid Fe-based bulk metallic glasses," Appl. Phys. Lett., 92(16), 2008.                L. Y. Bie, et al., "Preparation and properties of quaternary CoMoPB bulk metallic glasses," Intermetallics, 71:7-11, 2016.        H. T. Miao, et at., "Fabrication and properties of soft magnetic Fe—Co—Ni—P—C—B bulk metallic glasses with high glass-forming ability," J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 421:24-29, 2015.
However, the yield or fracture strengths of these systems are generally below 3.5 GPa and therefore they are not appropriate for our purposes.
In the patent literature, numerous documents disclose Fe— and/or Co-based amorphous alloys. Many of them cover amorphous compositions used for magnetic applications and no details about mechanical properties, i.e. strength and ductility, are presented. The documents WO 2012/010940, WO 2012/010941, WO 2010/027813, DE 10 2011 001 783 and DE 10 2011 001 784 can however be considered as an exception in view of the fact that they aim for protecting ductile, high strength alloys. However, the bendability as ribbon is generally limited to a maximum thickness of 86 μm for the Fe—, Co-based alloys unlike the present invention aiming to develop thicker ribbons.

Co-based high-strength amorphous alloy and use thereof

Abstract: wherein the indices a to e and x satisfy the following conditions:                55≤a≤75 at. %        0≤b≤15 at. %        7≤c≤17 at. %        15≤d≤23 at. %        0.1≤x≤0.9 at. %        0≤e≤10 at. %, each element selected from the group having a content≤3 at. % and preferably ≤2 at. %,        the balance being impurities.

The Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd.


A system and method are provided for testing features of an embedded system. The system includes a low-powered computing device communicatively coupled to a control application interface, a sensor interface, and a robotic interface. The low-powered computing device may receive sensor signals generated during a test, provide sensor data corresponding to the sensor signals, receive commands for the test, and provide instructions for movement of a robotic handler corresponding to at least one of the commands for the test. The system also includes a computing device communicatively coupled to the control application interface, an image processing interface, and a database interface. The computing device may receive sensor data, receive image data corresponding to images of the embedded system captured during the test, receive tests capable of being performed, and provide commands for the test.

Modern products for consumer, commercial, or industrial use may have logic, functionality, or workflow implemented using software, hardware, or some combination of the two. One type of product, also known as an embedded system, ordinarily involves a combination of software and hardware and generally has a dedicated purpose to serve in the context of a greater whole. Embedded systems may be fixed in function or programmable. There is a large variety of embedded systems, including components that operate independently, packages that require specialized environments in which to operate, and modules that can interoperate with software or hardware meeting certain communication standards or design tolerances.
Verification of correct behavior and validation of stakeholder values (hereby jointly referred to as tests or testing) is an important step in the design and manufacture of embedded systems described above. There are many different categories of tests, including stress tests, performance tests, usability tests, compatibility tests, and functional tests, among others. Many of the tests in these categories evaluate the internals of the product being tested, such as the specific manner in which the product handles certain tasks. To develop such tests therefore requires knowledge of product internals, and to conduct such tests requires access to product internals.
In contrast, one type of testing known as "black-box testing" or "behavioral testing" is a way to test that typically does not require knowledge of or access to product internals. Instead, the product is treated as a "black box" and the test evaluates how the product functions from an outside perspective. Black-box tests may consider things such as the behavior of the product, or outputs generated by the product, in response to various inputs (or the lack thereof). As it is externally focused, black-box testing therefore tends to be more closely aligned to the experience of actually using the product.
In general, product testing can be manual or automated. Automated testing can result in fewer mistakes and significantly more thorough documentation. Automated testing can also be advantageous for consistently handing repetitive or otherwise high-volume tests that need to run over a lengthy period of time or a large number of devices. As an example, automated testing is widely used in the software industry to test consumer software in a variety of situations and across different platforms. In these automated tests, software companies generally run special tools on computers to simulate user activity with respect to a particular program, and then determine if the program is behaving correctly in response to the simulated activity.
It is more complicated to simulate user activity with respect to other kinds of products like embedded systems in consumer electronics, appliances, or even vehicles. Some of these systems may offer special connectivity for testing and expose internal processes through some type of interface to enable the simulation of user actions, but testing on such systems can be cumbersome and expensive as every test must be specifically designed and customized for each interface. A further issue is that other embedded systems do not provide this kind of test interface, and instead only provide an interface for use by an end user.
Therefore, there is a long-felt need for an automated test platform that is universal, flexible, and powerful enough to conduct tests of embedded systems (of various types to verify correct behavior and validate stakeholder values, including black-box testing) from different vendors by interacting with the interfaces provided on each system. Moreover, there is a long-felt need for an automated test platform that does not require expensive industry robotics equipment, other types of expensive hardware, or space to house large pieces of equipment. There is a long-felt need for an automated test platform that is optimized for office use and affordable to use for testing purposes, including simultaneous testing of multiple devices.
At the same time, the automated test platform needs to provide precise measurement of testing, including for example timing data related to the occurrence of certain actions or reactions. The automated test platform needs to be capable of providing highly relevant testing results by, for example, performing end-to-end testing of all components that would ordinarily be involved in a genuine user interaction. Finally, the automated test platform needs the flexibility to permit the creation of tests using simple, structured language suitable for a person without specialized training to read and understand rather than complex computer code.

Universal automated testing of embedded systems


A test system for circuits which is capable of selecting any one of a plurality of circuits to be tested and testing a selected circuit to be tested, includes a tested circuit data producing unit which produces tested circuit data concerning any one of several circuits to be tested; and a control unit which controls a plurality of programmable gate arrays (PGAs) on the basis of an output of the tested circuit data producing unit. Furthermore, the test system for circuits includes a plurality of PGAs each of which is connected to the control unit and generates a test pattern in response to control data sent from the control unit according to a program; and interface units which are associated with the plurality of PGAS, respectively, and are connected to the circuits to be tested.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a test system for various circuits. More particularly, the present invention relates to a test system, for various circuits, suitable for testing an integrated circuit memory device or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of testing a memory device, a stored program method is normally adopted for a conventional test system that is a test system for circuits. Herein, for a better understanding of problems underlying conventional test systems for circuits, the configuration of a conventional test system, for circuits, adopting the stored program method and the operations thereof will be described in conjunction with FIG. 1, FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B that will be described in "Brief Description of the Drawings" later.
An explanatory diagram concerning the conventional stored program method is illustrated in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 1, there are shown a tester 1, a tester body 2, an instruction memory 3, a test pattern processor 4, a jig portion 5 (or interface unit) through which an object to be tested and the tester are connected to each other, a memory device or memory module 6 that is an object to be tested, a test assembly language 7, an assembler 8, and a test program 9. The jig portion 5 consists of an object-to-be-tested connector interface or an object-to-be-tested interface circuit.
In the thus configured system, the test assembly language 7 is used to describe an algorithm for producing a test pattern. The assembler 8 assembles the algorithm, thus producing the test program 9. The test program 9 is stored in the instruction memory 3 included in the tester 1. The pattern processor 4 included in the tester reads out the stored test program from the instruction memory 3, and interprets what instruction is indicated by the read numerical values. Thus, the test pattern is produced.
A test signal having the produced test pattern is applied to the object to be tested 6 through the interface unit 5, in accordance with an access protocol defined exclusively for the object to be tested 6. Thereafter, the next instruction is read out from the instruction memory 3, and a series of operations, that is, interpretations and executions, are carried out repeatedly.
The above-mentioned sequence will be itemized in the form of the following steps.
(1) Down-loading the test program into the instruction memory
(2) Starting a test
(3) Reading out numerical values from the instruction memory
(4) Interpreting what instruction, written in a machine language, is indicated by the numerical values
(5) Executing the instruction
(6) Transmitting an execution pattern to the interface circuit
(7) Applying a test signal having the above pattern to the object to be tested 6 (memory device or memory module) through the interface circuit
(8) Reading the next instruction from the instruction memory, and repeating the above steps (4) to (8)
(9) Completing the test
In the conventional stored program method, when the tester 1 executes one instruction described in a test program for the object to be tested, the steps of reading out the instruction memory 3, interpreting what instruction is indicated by the numerical value, and executing the instruction (usually referred to as a fetch cycle) must be carried out without fail. This situation remarkably affects the operating speed of a test system.
Moreover, a conventional test circuit system may adopt a method, of testing an object to be tested, by transferring a test pattern to the object to be tested by using a field programmable gate array (usually abbreviated to FPGA; a registered trademark granted to Zilinks Corporation). According to this method, program data is transferred to the FPGA so as to generate a predetermined test pattern that is used to test a circuit to be tested.
Whatever method may be adopted, a hardware architecture of a conventional system is fixed and, also, conditions for assignment of test signal components to pins of input and output ports are fixed. The arrangement of address lines and data lines varies depending on an object to be tested, while it is determined what signals are transferred through respectively corresponding pins in a tester. Therefore, the line connection between an object to be tested and an interface unit (jig portion) 5 is complicated. There is a disadvantage that the signal transmission lines cannot cope with high speed signals.
First and second examples of a pin configuration in a conventional test system, is illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. Herein, two examples are shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. In FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, there is shown a test pattern processor 4 whose pin configuration is fixed. More specifically, address pins (AD0 to AD7) and data pins (DO0 to DO7) are juxtaposed in that order from left to right. The test pattern processor 4 and the object to be tested are connected to each other, through a jig portion 5. The pin configuration of the object to be tested 6 varies depending on the type of the object to be tested. In the first example shown in FIG. 2A, the data pins DO0 to DO3, address pins AD0 to AD7, and data pins DO4 to DO7 are juxtaposed in that order from left to right.
It is therefore impossible to directly connect the test pattern processor 4 to the object to be tested 6, by using a plurality of lines for connecting the test pattern processor 4 to the object to be tested 6 from the lower part to the upper part, without making these lines intersect with each other. The jig 5 is therefore used to adjust a difference concerning the pin configuration between the test pattern processor 4 and the object to be tested 6. The lines therefore intersect with each other on the jig portion 5.
On the other hand, in the second example shown in FIG. 2B, the pin configuration of the object to be tested 6 is more complicated than that in the first example shown in FIG. 2A. The pins DO0 to DO3, AD0 to AD3, DO4 to DO7, and AD4 to AD7 are juxtaposed in that order from left to right. The number of intersections of lines on the jig portion 5 is therefore larger than that shown in FIG. 2A.
In recent years, memory devices (modules) have come to require a complicated access protocol and operate at remarkably high speeds. A tester is therefore required to operate at higher speeds and cope with various complicated access protocols. Therefore, various attempts have been made to cope with these disadvantages. More specifically, a dedicated LSI has been developed in order to resolve a delay in the operation caused by a fetch cycle, or an interface has been incorporated into a tester in order to cope with various kinds of objects to be tested, or the interface, per se, has been included in a jig portion.
Not only a test system for testing a memory device but also the other various test systems have configurations in which the architecture of each tester is fixed. Each of the test systems cannot provide capabilities other than those defined by the determined architecture of the tester. For this reason, each of the test systems is designed to provide various capabilities from the beginning and are therefore complicated, relatively large in size, and expensive.


Disclosed is a method for providing a broadcast service in a mobile communication system using code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. The novel method controls transmission of broadcast service data according to base station areas by registering a mobile station with a broadcast service. For that purpose, the mobile station requests an authentication server to authenticate a desired broadcast service, and registers the authenticated broadcast service in a packet data serving node via a base station so that the base station and the packet data serving node can set up a transmission path for the broadcast service. The method increases the efficiency of base station resources by controlling transmission times of base stations, and the packet data serving node can perform accounting on the broadcast service of the mobile station. Further, a plurality of registered mobile stations constitute a group, and broadcast service data is transmitted from one mobile station to other mobile stations within the group.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to broadcast services, and in particular, to a method for more efficiently providing broadcast services in a mobile communication system using code division multiple access (hereinafter referred to as "CDMA") technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the future, communications environments will undergo rapid changes regardless of wired/wireless region or country. In particular, the communications environment, such as IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunication-2000), tends to synthetically provide users with various information needs including image and voice information on a real-time basis. With the development of mobile communication technology, even in a cellular wireless communication system or PCS (Personal Communications System) mobile communication system, a mobile station (MS) has the ability to not only simply perform voice communication but also to transmit text information and to receive broadcast services.
At present, 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2) considers the efficient utilization of various service media and resources for a broadcast service in a mobile communication system. Such a broadcast service is performed by unidirectionally transmitting high-speed forward data without receiving reverse feedback information from a mobile station. A broadcast service in a mobile communication system is characterized in that a plurality of base stations (BSs) simultaneously transmit the same data stream. This is conceptually similar to a general television broadcasting service.
If a common channel is designed so as to guarantee the same performance even at a cell boundary, cell capacity is excessively wasted. Therefore, in a 3rd generation mobile communication system, a structure of a supplemental channel proposed as a dedicated channel for a packet data service is partially modified to realize high-speed transmission for a broadcast service. The supplemental channel uses a common long code mask instead of a long code mask dedicated to a user, for a broadcast service. During a broadcast service, autonomous handoff not requiring feedback information from a mobile station and outer coding are performed to guarantee performance higher than or equal to that of an existing common channel.
In an existing wireless broadcast service under discussion, a broadcast service provider is limited to a specific broadcast server or a contents server designated by a common carrier, so mobile stations can only passively receive the broadcast service. Therefore, the service provider cannot charge for the broadcast service according to its service time or quantity. In addition, because the same data stream is simultaneously transmitted from several base stations as stated above, network resources for a broadcast service must be assigned to all the base stations, preventing efficient utilization of resources.

Method for providing broadcast service in a CDMA mobile communication system


A contamination trap for use in a debris mitigation system of a radiation source, the contamination trap comprising a plurality of vanes configured to trap fuel debris emitted from a plasma formation region of the radiation source; wherein at least one vane or each vane of the plurality of vanes comprises a material comprising a thermal conductivity above 30 W m−1K−1.

A lithographic apparatus is a machine constructed to apply a desired pattern onto a substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). A lithographic apparatus may for example project a pattern from a patterning device (e.g. a mask) onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on a substrate.
The wavelength of radiation used by a lithographic apparatus to project a pattern onto a substrate determines the minimum size of features which can be formed on that substrate. A lithographic apparatus which uses EUV radiation, being electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength within the range 4-20 nm, may be used to form smaller features on a substrate than a conventional lithographic apparatus (which may for example use electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength of 193 nm).
A lithographic system may comprise one or more radiation sources, a beam delivery system and one or more lithographic apparatuses. The beam delivery system may be arranged to deliver EUV radiation from one or more of the radiation sources to each of the lithographic apparatuses.
The EUV radiation may be produced using a plasma. The plasma may be created, for example, by directing a laser beam at a fuel in the radiation source. The resulting plasma may emit the EUV radiation. A portion of the fuel may become fuel debris, which may accumulate or be deposited on or more components of the radiation source.
This may result in contamination of the one or more components of the radiation source, which may be difficult to clean. Contamination of one or more components of the radiation source may lead to a decrease in the performance of the radiation source, e.g. the quality or power of the produced EUV radiation, which in turn may lead to degradation of performance of an associated lithographic apparatus. Ultimately, this may lead to significant down-time of the lithographic apparatus whilst components of the radiation source are cleaned or replaced.


A novel perfluoropolyether derivative which is less likely to undergo decomposition, which is free from a problem of deterioration during its use, and which is useful as a lubricating oil or a coating agent, is provided.

Perfluorinated polyether compounds are compounds widely used as a lubricating oil, a coating agent, etc. Among such compounds, a derivative of which the terminal group is —CH2OH is known to be particularly useful. For example, a compound represented by the following formula (A) (in the formula (A), each of a and b represents an integer of at least 1) has been known (e.g. JP-A-6-44557 (page 2), C. Tonelli et al, J. Fluorine Chem., vol. 95, 1999, pages 51 to 70):HOCH2CF2O—(CF2CF2O)a.(CF2O)b—CF2CH2OH  Formula (A)
However, the compound represented by the formula (A) has —OCF2O— units derived from —(CF2O)— units as an essential component in its molecular structure, and thus it undergoes decomposition due to the above units, which may cause deterioration (e.g. W. Fong et al, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 35, No. 2, March 1999, pages 911 to 912, J. Scheirs, Modern Fluoropolymers, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1997, pages 466 to 468, P. H. Kasai, Macromolecules, vol. 25, 1992, page 6791).
As a compound having no —OCF2O— units, a compound wherein the terminal groups (—CH2OH) in the formula (A) are —COOH groups, has been known. However, the compound wherein the terminals are —COOH groups has such a drawback that when it is exposed under high temperature conditions, the polar terminal groups (—COOH) easily undergo decarbonylation and are lost, and thus such properties that the surface coating properties repair in short time (also called self-repair properties) decrease. Further, it has such a drawback that it may cause corrosion since the —COOH groups have high acidity.
Further, there is a literature which discloses a compound represented by the following formula (B) as a surface active agent (JP-A-9-111286 (page 1)). However, the literature does not disclose a compound represented by the formula (B) wherein q is 0. Further, specifically disclosed compounds are all known perfluoropolyether surface active agents, and they correspond to compounds wherein q is at least 1:R1—CF2(O—CFR2—CF2)e—(O—CF2)f—R3  Formula (B)wherein R1 represents F or a hydrophilic group, R2 represents F or CF3, R3 represents a hydrophilic group, each of e and f is an integer of from 0 to 1,000, and one of them may be 0, the oxyperfluoro groups in the brackets may not necessarily be arranged in this order, and may be randomly polymerized, or may be alternately polymerized so that the oxyperfluoro groups are alternately arranged.

Abstract: A compound represented by the following formula (1):HO—(CH2CH2O)r.(CH2CH(OH)CH2O)p—CH2CF2O(CF2CF2O)mCF2CH2O——(CH2CH(OH)CH2O)q.(CH2CH2O)s—H  Formula (1)wherein m represents an integer of from 3 to 200, and each of p, q, r and s which are independent of one another, represents an integer of from 0 to 100, provided that when each of p, q, r and s which are independent of one another, is an integer of at least 1, the arrangement of —(CH2CH2O)— and —(CH2CH(OH)CH2O)— units is not particularly limited, and when one of r and p is an integer of at least 2 and the other is an integer of at least 1, or when one of q and s is an integer of at least 2 and the other is an integer of at least 1, these units may be arranged in a block form or at random.


Two kinds of TFTs are fabricated by the same process with a high production yield to manufacture an active-matrix circuit and a peripheral driver circuit on the same substrate. The active-matrix circuit is required to have a high mobility and a high ON/OFF current ratio. The peripheral driver circuit needs a complex interconnection structure. The active-matrix circuit and the peripheral driver circuit comprising the TFTs are fabricated monolithically. In this step, the gate electrodes of the TFTs of the active-matrix circuit is coated with an anodic oxide on their top and side surfaces. The gate electrodes of the TFTs of the peripheral driver circuit is coated with the anodic oxide on only their top surfaces; substantially no anodic oxide is present on the side surfaces.

In recent years, researches on formation of insulated-gate semiconductor devices (MOSFETs) on an insulating substrate have been earnestly conducted. Such formation of a semiconductor integrated circuit on an insulating substrate is advantageous for high-speed operation, for the following reason. The speed of the prior art semiconductor integrated circuit has been mainly restricted by the stray capacitance between each conductive interconnect and the substrate. On the other hand, such stray capacitance does not exist on an insulating substrate. A MOSFET formed on an insulating substrate and having an active layer in the form of a thin film is known as a thin-film transistor (TFT). In the prior art semiconductor integrated circuit, TFTs are used as load transistors for an SRAM, for example.
Recently, a commercial product comprising a semiconductor integrated circuit which is required to be formed on a transparent substrate has emerged. Examples of this product include circuits for driving optical devices such as liquid crystal displays and image sensors. TFTs are also used in these driver circuits. Since these circuits are required to be formed in a large area, there is a demand for a decrease in the temperature of the TFT fabrication process. Furthermore, where a device has numerous terminals on an insulating substrate, if the terminals must be connected with a semiconductor integrated circuit, one might consider to form the first stage of the semiconductor integrated circuit or the semiconductor integrated circuit itself on the same insulating substrate monolithically to increase the packaging density.
Conventionally, the crystallinity of TFTs has been improved by annealing an amorphous, semi-amorphous, or crystallite semiconductor film at a temperature of 450–1200° C. Thus, a good semiconductor film, i.e., having sufficiently high mobilities, is obtained. Some amorphous TFTs comprise a semiconductor film made of an amorphous material. However, their mobilities are lower than 5 cm2/V·s, normally as low as about 1 cm2/V·s. Their operating speed and inability to fabricate P-channel TFTs have restricted their use severely. Anneal at the above-described temperature has been needed to obtain TFTs having mobilities exceeding 5 cm2/V·s. Also, the anneal permitted fabrication of P-channel TFTs (PTFTs). These thermal annealing steps can be carried out by the use of irradiation of laser light or intense light.
However, it has been pointed out that these TFTs do not have sufficiently high reliability to be used in an active-matrix device because of large leakage current in OFF state. Accordingly, we have proposed improved methods as described in Japanese Patent application Ser. Nos. 34194/1992 and 30220/1992. Specifically, gate electrodes are made of a low-resistivity metal such as aluminum. The surface of each gate electrode is anodized so that the surface is coated with an oxide. Using this lamination of the metal and the oxide as a main mask, impurities are implanted to form an offset region. As a result, the leakage current is reduced. Also, the interlayer insulation is enhanced by the anodic oxide film. Consequently, short circuit at the crossing portions can be greatly reduced.
More specifically, the film of the anodic oxide has only a small number of pinholes and can withstand high voltages greater than 7 MV/cm. Hence, interlayer insulation is secured. In practice, we have succeeded in greatly reducing short circuit between interconnections, by utilizing the techniques described in the above-cited Japanese Patent application Ser. Nos. 34194/1992 and 30220/1992. This is quite important in active-matrix regions because interconnections cross each other at very numerous locations.
However, we have discovered that technically very difficult problems occur when one attempts to fabricate a device on which an active-matrix device and its peripheral driver circuit are monolithically formed (e.g., a memory or an AMLCD), using the above-described technique.
Generally, a peripheral circuit is complex in structure and has interconnects connected in a complex manner. Therefore, even if one attempts to coat metal electrodes with an anodic oxide, it is impossible to supply electric power because of the complexity of the interconnect structure. Also, if interconnects used only for supply of electric power are formed, then an extra photolithography step is necessary to remove these interconnects. This results in a decrease in the manufacturing yield. If a circuit is constructed together with these extra interconnects, then the device density is deteriorated severely.
In another proposed method, an anodic oxidation step is used to fabricate an active-matrix circuit portion. The anodic oxidation step is not employed when a peripheral circuit portion and other regions are formed. This method suffers from a very low production yield. It has been found that the main cause is the presence of numerous pinholes because the interlayer insulator is incomplete. The pinholes cause short circuits between an upper interconnect and a lower interconnect (i.e., a gate electrode and its interconnect).
This is an essential problem where interconnects of a metal having a low melting point are used. It is well known that aluminum and their alloys are excellent electrode materials. If impurity atoms are implanted into an active layer using gate electrodes made of such a material as a mask by a self-aligning process, then activation utilizing thermal annealing at a temperature of 630° C. or higher cannot be adopted. Therefore, it is inevitable that a low-temperature activation technique such as laser annealing is used to activate the impurity atoms. Furthermore, a technique of forming an interlayer insulator film above 560° C. cannot be adopted.
For example, an interlayer insulator material such as silicon oxide formed by LPCVD or atmospheric-pressure CVD at a substrate temperature above 560° C. contains a quite small number of pinholes. Also, almost no short circuit occurs between interconnects. However, at low temperatures below 560° C., only sputtering or plasma CVD can be used. In these methods, a large amount of dust is deposited onto the film during its growth. This increases the number of pinholes. Also, the resulting insulation is not satisfactory. Even in a peripheral driver circuit, interconnects cross each other. Therefore, in order to improve the production yield, there is a demand for a method of forming an anodic oxide with an improved production yield.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A method of preparing a developer composition involves the steps of:. (1) blending carrier particles with finely divided toner particles, wherein blending is carried out for a period of time sufficient to enable the toner particles to alter the tribocharging ability of the carrier particles and become embedded therein; PA1 (2) dividing the blend of toner particles and carrier particles into coarse particles and fine particles; and PA1 (3) blending the coarse particles with toner particles.

This invention relates to methods of making developer compositions. More particularly, this invention relates to methods for making two-component electrostatographic developer compositions.
Methods of making developer compositions are known in the art. Reference is made, for example, to U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,734 to Laing et al., which discloses a process for making developer compositions comprising (1) providing carrier particles having a core with a coating thereover; (2) introducing the carrier particles into a blending apparatus; (3) adding to the blending apparatus fine toner particles with a diameter of from about 2 microns to about 10 microns, said particles being comprised of toner resin particles, pigment particles, and a charge enhancing additive; (4) effecting blending for a period of time sufficient to enable the classified toner particles to alter the tribogenerating ability of the surface of the carrier particles and become embedded therein; (5) subsequently adding to the resulting blended mixture toner particles of a diameter of from about 2 to about 18 microns, and comprised of toner resin, pigment particles, and a charge enhancing additive; and (6) blending for a period of from about 1 minute to about 5 minutes.
Although the Laing et al. method produces a developer having relatively stable electrical properties, including consistent triboelectric charging values, acceptable charge distributions, and constant conductivity characteristics, it is desirable to provide a method for making a developer which not only provides developers with stable electrical properties but also with improved machine performance.
Typically, after their introduction into a printing apparatus, developers prepared according to known processes require approximately 21/2 hours of use before they produce prints having high copy quality, e.g., good image sharpness and substantially no background deposits. Furthermore, developers prepared according to known processes generally require production of a high number of copies, e.g., about 2000 copies, before high quality copies are produced.

Method of making developer compositions with stable triboelectric charging properties


A method for generating a continuous mathematical model of a feature common to subjects in a subject group includes selecting a sample data set from each subject in the subject group, selecting a set of expansion functions to be used in the representation of the sample data set, mathematically expanding each member of the sample data set in the form of a summation of results of multiplying each the expansion function in the set of expansion functions by a different mathematical parameter wherein the expanding determines a value for each of the different mathematical parameters, deriving a corresponding distribution function for each of the mathematical parameters, and generating the continuous mathematical model of the feature from the derived distribution functions and the expansion functions. In this way, the model is continuous in time, incorporates dependencies between various parameters, and allows for creation of simulated subjects having pertinent features occurring in real subjects.

Mathematical modeling is well known in the art. Presently, mathematical models are in widespread use in nearly all forms of technologies such as in computer hardware and software and as an aide in the optimizing and improving of practically every development and manufacturing effort. As a result, mathematical models play an integral role in most technologies in use today.
These mathematical models have been developed and applied to a wide variety of technologies depending upon the intended need at the implementation site. One useful application of mathematical models today is in the field of health care. Delivering high quality health care efficiently generally requires making a large number of decisions as to which treatments to administer to which patients at what times and using what processes. While every conceivable alternative may be tried in an experimental setting to empirically determine the best possible approach, as a practical matter such a scenario is often impossible to carry out. Prohibitive factors such as the large number and combinations of interventions, the required long follow up times, the difficulty of collecting data and of getting patients and practitioners to comply with experimental designs, and the financial costs of the experiment, among other factors, all contribute to render an experimental approach impractical. Therefore it is highly desirable to use mathematical models in the development and implementations of high quality health care.
While offering a significant advantage over the experimental approach, the current usage of mathematical models in health care is not without shortcomings. Presently, mathematical models are generally used to address very narrow questions, such as the frequency of a particular screening test. More importantly, these models are discrete in scope and lack inclusion of any time factor at all, or include only one time period or a series of fixed time periods. In addition, these models generally do not include intervention factors or events that occur in the intervals between the fixed periods of other models, nor do they incorporate the dependencies between various parameters of the model, such as dependencies between biological features of a subject and its disease afflictions.
This invention generates a mathematical model of a feature common to subjects that is continuous in time, incorporates dependencies between the various parameters of the model, enables comparison of interventions that affect multiple features and allows for creation of simulated subjects that have all the pertinent features occurring in real subjects.

Generation of continuous mathematical model for common features of a subject group


The present invention is directed to a system for modifying a circuit breaker for removable installation in a cell of switchgear system, wherein the unmodified circuit breaker is not adapted for mounting in the cell. The system includes an adapter frame to which the circuit breaker is mounted and gear assemblies mounted to opposing sides of the circuit breaker. The gear assemblies adapt a racking device of the circuit breaker so as to be operable to rack the circuit breaker within the cell of the switchgear system.

The present invention relates to electrical switchgear, and more particularly, to an adapter system and method for retrofitting existing switchgear with new, removable power circuit breakers.
Many types of low- and medium-voltage switchgear systems use power circuit breakers that can be withdrawn for maintenance. Power circuit breakers from various manufacturers are not interchangeable, and as the manufacturers have eliminated older products and introduced new technologies, the new products have not maintained compatibility with existing switchgear. The result is that many aging switchgear installations have power circuit breakers that are costly or impractical to maintain. Complete replacement of switchgear is very expensive and requires significant downtime. In the past, upgrading of obsolete circuit breakers was accomplished by significantly modifying a new circuit breaker to fit the switchgear cell, or by modifying the switchgear cell to accept a new breaker.
The current art for circuit breaker retrofits is time-consuming and costly, and may also impact customer system downtime for initial installation as well as on-going reliability issues. One conventional approach is based on adapting a new replacement breaker cradle to the existing switchgear cell by using a "cradle-within-a-cradle" approach. This requires a means of inserting, connecting and supporting the new cradle to existing primary and secondary parts inside the switchgear. This process requires additional space that complicates dielectric and heat run considerations, places an additional layer of interface that impacts reliability by creating additional points of failure for the racking system, increases susceptibility to high momentary currents, and increases material costs. A second approach has been to simply remove the interrupters and operating mechanism from the existing breaker, refurbish and reuse many of the parts, and adapt a new fixed-mount breaker to the existing withdrawal assembly. Another version of this approach is to adapt a new replacement breaker to the existing cell by recreating the existing racking and connection schemes around a fixed-mount version of the new breaker. These processes complicate the interlocking and auxiliary contact functions, and require extensive custom design work and materials.
It would therefore be desirable, if a solution were available to replace an allow a new circuit breaker to be used in an existing switchgear breaker compartment, without the need to significantly modify either component. Such a solution would help to minimize de-energization and load interruption. The present invention addresses this need.

Retrofit breaker adapter system and method


Hollow, cylindrical, seamless metal master for producing seamless diffuser sheets of preselected length and width. Additional aspects of the invention include a hollow cylindrical seamless invertable elastomeric master and method of making the same and an apparatus and process for effecting variable diffuser recording in photosensitive medium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention, which has several aspects, is related to the field of light-shaping diffusers and is directed to a seamless master and method of making the same as well as seam replication of diffuser film, i.e. continuous light shaping coating without break point or break mark.
In particular, a first aspect of the present invention is directed to a hollow, cylindrical, seamless, invertable, elastomeric master with integral micro surface structure formed thereon and includes the method of making the same. A second aspect of the present invention is directed to a variable diffuser recording apparatus and process for manufacturing the same, in relation to the first aspect of the present invention. A third aspect of the present invention is directed to a seamless, cylindrical metal master with integral micro surface structure formed thereon and includes the method for forming the same, in relation to the other two aspects of the present invention. A fourth aspect of the present invention is directed to seamless (continuous film) production using the first three aspects.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Diffuser masters are used to produce a vast assortment of light-shaping diffusers capable of desirably optically affecting light being transmitted therethrough.
Holographic light-shaping diffusers, for example, which are commercially available from Physical Optics Corporation ("POC") of Torrance, Calif., U.S.A., and sold globally under the trademark LSD® are diffusers that include "holographically-recorded," randomized surface structures providing the diffuser with high-transmission efficiency, beam-shaping qualities, and the ability to homogenize light. Though they are referred to as "holographically-recorded," they are preferably recorded using only one beam.
Further in that regard, U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,354 to Jannson et al. (assigned to POC), hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a diffuser having integrally-formed light-shaping diffuser microstructures, where the diffuser is manufactured from commercially available photosensitive medium, such as commercial photoresist, and wherein the photosensitive medium has preselected speckle patterns recorded therein.
Additional light-shaping diffusers are disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,534,386 and 5,609,939 (both to Petersen et al. and assigned to POC) which are also hereby incorporated by reference. The methods taught in both of the Peterson patents can be used to produce and replicate internal and/or surface microstructures in a photosensitive medium such as conventional photoresist. The microstructures are able to diffuse light in a highly-efficient, uniform, and controlled manner, otherwise not possible via prior methods.
According to one prior method shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,917 to Perilloux et al., microstructures are disclosed as forming a laminate with a substructure. In our applications, we have found that a laminated structure poses several problems. For example, certain problems associated with such a laminated construction relate to separation of the layers, transmission losses (due to reflection and/or refraction) at interface surfaces, or problems caused by differences in index of refraction values between the joined optical layers and the optical grade epoxy used to join them, or small air bubbles in the epoxy.
Preferably, the microstructures are integrally formed by coherent light in conventional photosensitive material, to produce light-shaping diffusers. Further in that regard, and depending on the angle of distribution, such light-shaping diffusers will achieve between 85% and 92% transmission efficiency, between 365 nanometers ("nm") and 1600 nm. Also, the low back-scatter of light-shaping diffuser structures are anti-reflective in nature, utilizing light that would otherwise be wasted due to Fresnel loss.
Underlying principles as to how LSD® diffusers work are summarized as follows. LSD® diffusers are replicated from a "holographically-recorded" master, typically, with only one beam. The light shaping and diffusing structures that result, completely random and non-periodic, may be thought of as micro lenslets. Moreover, LSD® diffusers are not wavelength-dependent, and will work in white, monochromatic, coherent, or incoherent light.
Beam-shaping qualities provide LSD® diffusers with an ability to precisely shape and distribute light. LSD® diffusers can produce outputs having circular angles ranging from about 0.5° to 100° and/or elliptical outputs ranging from about 0.2° by 5° to 110° by 90°.
The ability to homogenize light is important because so-called "hotspots" and uneven light-distribution patterns are common problems with such light sources as light-emitting diode ("LED") sources, filament-based and arc-based sources, and fiber optic and laser light sources. LSD® diffusers significantly "smooth" and homogenize the light from such sources while providing uniform light transmission in such critical applications as liquid crystal display ("LCD") backlights, LED displays, machine vision, automotive lighting, and viewing screens.
However, conventional masters that are used to manufacture the light-shaping diffusers are generally planar and of finite size. Current manufacturing procedures to produce light-shaping diffusers for viewing-screen applications, result in the edge boundaries of such masters overlying, abutting, or being placed adjacent to each other, resulting in associated edge-boundary patterns in the diffusers, called "seams," that are undesirable because they result in "interference" areas which adversely affect the ability of the diffuser to transmit light through the "seam" portions thereof. Also, when mass produced on long continuous sheets of plastic and rolled up for storage, the seams press against other diffusers in the roll, thus ruining them. Moreover, seams are not acceptable in many applications as large high definition displays for military training, Air Force flight simulator, FAA real time traffic control displays and commercial displays.
Recent improvements have resulted in such edge-boundary "seams" in the diffusers being reduced to a very thin line. Nevertheless, even a very thin line in the diffuser adversely affects the ability of the diffuser to be used for current wide-screen applications, some of which may be as wide as 30 feet wide or 40 feet wide, even up to about 100 feet wide, or more, as is currently contemplated by certain well-known entertainment areas throughout the world.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to produce a seamless master, for producing seamless LSD® diffusers. It would be even more desirable to be able to produce a diffuser of virtually unlimited length, and having a seamless light shaping diffuser surface thereon.

Seamless master and method of making same