A computer implemented method and a system including at least one industrial robot arranged with a tool, and a conveyance path transferring a plurality of objects within a working area of the at least one robot. The computer implemented method includes obtaining position data indicating a position for each of the plurality of objects and applying a first strategy to the at least one robot. The first strategy includes: determining a value for each object within a certain area of the at least one robot, wherein the determination is based on the position data, and the value indicates a uniformity measure of the flow distribution in the direction of the conveyance path for the remaining objects within the certain area if the object, for which the value is determined for, was excluded from the conveyance path; determining a selected object within the working area of the at least one robot based on the determined values; and controlling the at least one robot to handle the selected object.

Industrial robots can be used to pick items from one location and place them at another location. The industrial robots often use a vision system to locate the items, and by correlating the coordinate system of the vision system with the robot coordinate system, the location of the items can be made known to the industrial robots such that the items can be found and picked by the robots. The items are transferred to another identified or previously known location.
In a multi robot system, items and empty places are often moved by conveyors passing by one or more robots. Items can be picked and empty places can be filled while they are inside a robot's working range. Each robot receives new pick and place locations continuously during the picking process. The positions of these can be random and the inflow rate can fluctuate. For every pick or place to be performed by a robot, a decision is taken in runtime on which item that shall be picked or which empty place that shall be used to place, i.e. filled. The decision is made among positions that will be within a reach of the robot at the time of handling the item or empty place. In the present description the term "object" is used to refer both to items and to empty places. When the robots are handling objects (e.g. picking or placing) on a common conveyor, the work load can be shared between the robots.
For efficiency of object handling, different object handling strategies may be implemented when handling objects with multiple robots from a common conveyor. In a first kind of strategy a fixed percentage of the objects are assigned to each robot. For example, the first object on the conveyance path is assigned to the first robot, the second object is assigned to the second robot etc. In a second kind of strategy, all objects are assigned to all robots. If an object then is handled by a robot, it becomes cancelled by the other robots. The second kind of strategy is often preferable since the flow handling is 100% redundant. If an object passes by a robot without being handled, for example due to a current overflow of items, due to the robot being occupied performing a different task, or due to the robot being in a stopped state, it can still be handled by any downstream robot.
However, the second kind of strategy also has some drawbacks. Typically, a robot operating according to the second kind of strategy handles the most downstream object within reach. As a consequence, the overflow is minimized from this robot. However, the overflow is not minimized from the multi robot system. The second kind of strategy is most efficient if the flow is uniformly distributed. A uniform flow is characterized by small variations in the separation distance between objects along the movement direction of the conveyor. With a uniform flow, the risk for overflow from a robot is decreased, since the available time for handling the next object, after handling a previous object, becomes stable. Since the robot will prioritize the most downstream objects, handling will, if there is an overflow from this robot, typically occur mainly in the downstream part of the working area of the robot. Therefore the outgoing overflow of objects from the robot on the conveyor typically remains substantially uniform if the conveyor velocity is stable and the time for handling an object also is stable.
With a fluctuating flow, the second kind of strategy will typically leave isolated heaps of clustered objects for the most downstream robot to handle. Since the objects are clustered, the time window for handling them all is small and the risk for overflow is increased. Between the heaps there are longer gaps that often cause extra standstill time when the robot has to wait for the next object to come within reach.
Often the first kind of strategy gives a better performance than the second kind of strategy when operating on a fluctuating flow. However, the need for redundant object handling often makes the second kind of strategy the preferred option.
In EP2876066A1 the problem of uneven workload among a plurality of robots along a conveyance path is mentioned. The problem is here solved by calculating a workload score for a robot for each article depending on the distance between the robot and each article on a conveyance path. The longer the distance, the higher the score. The articles are then distributed to the robots such that the sum of the scores becomes equal for each robot.

Method and a robot system for handling objects


In order to enable a gripper carried by a rapid moving gripper conveyor to be opened and therewith release an object gripped by the gripper, for instance a newspaper, without influencing neighboring grippers, the gripper is opened (45', 47) while moving along a path which is shorter than the distance (t) at which the grippers are spaced on the gripper chain (1) and the opened gripper is held open by means (4, 45') which only act on the thus opened gripper. The means which holds the gripper open accompanies the movement of the gripper conveyor. The method and the arrangement find use in conveyors that are provided with self-closing grippers where the conveyors have a high conveying capacity and enable independent release of individual objects. An opened gripper is held open while the gripper moves through a distance which is greater than the gripper spacing interval and which is sufficiently long to ensure that the object will fall free from the gripper.

Grippers for gripper conveyors intended for the separate transportation of objects, such as printed matter, have, in practice, earlier been of complex construction and, among other things, have included a releasable latching device by means of which the gripper is held latched in a closed state. When the gripper passes a stationary cam, the latch is released and the gripper opened so as to allow the object to fall from the gripper. Such latch equipped grippers have the advantage that the gripper will remain open after having released the object, and that, in conjunction with gripping a further object, the gripper need only be closed around this object and then latched or locked automatically in its closed state. Furthermore, the known grippers have the advantage that a newspaper or like printed matter is readily afforded the time needed to drop from a downwardly facing gripper whose release latch has been activated, irrespective of whether neighbouring grippers have been opened or not.
However, one troublesome drawback with such latch equipped grippers resides in their complexity and therewith in their expense and sensitivity to disturbances. These known grippers also incur high service costs.
Consequently, in practice, the trend has been towards the use of self-closing grippers, i.e. grippers which include two legs which can be pivoted in relation to one another and which are biased towards one another by means of a spring device. Such self-closing grippers are based on the clothespeg principle and afford important advantages, in that the grippers can be produced at low costs, given a simpler function, are highly reliable in operation and incur low service costs. These known self-closing grippers are constructed to be opened temporarily as they pass and are activated by a stationary gripper opening cam. In this regard, a problem is encountered when desiring to open solely one or a few grippers in order to allow the grippers to release the object held thereby, i.e. a newspaper or like object. The problem occurs when it is desired to extract one or a few newspapers or like printed matter from the newspaper stream in order, for instance, to check the quality of the print, without disturbing the smoothness of the newspaper stream in the continued handling thereof. A similar problem also arises when desiring to extract single newspapers from the stream, for instance when wishing to open e.g. each alternate gripper or every third gripper in order to form a newspaper bundle, an overlapping stream of newspapers, or the like, and further difficulties arise when wishing to switch between different desired gripper opening programs.
The problem indicated arises from the following circumstances:
The gripper spacing on the conveyor is relatively small, for instance 50 mm (or about 2 inches), while the conveyor is moved at a relatively high speed, e.g. a speed of 1 m/s, so that the conveyor will have the desired high transport capacity, e.g. an hourly capacity of 72,000 newspapers.
Furthermore, for safety reasons, the gripping depth of the grippers (the leg length) must fulfill a given minimum value, for instance a value of 45 mm. The time taken for a newspaper to fall gravitationally from a downwardly facing, open gripper pass free from the extremities of the gripper legs, will thus depend on the leg gripping depth. In the case of those transporting situations that are now often relevant and that have been described by way of example above, the time interval between two immediately adjacent grippers on the moving conveyor is shorter than the time required for the newspaper to fall free from the gripper. It will be seen from this that the conventional technique of opening such single grippers, i.e. the use of a stationary gripper opening cam, is encumbered with certain deficiencies, since if the cam is made sufficiently long to activate a gripper over the time period required for the newspaper to have time to fall from the gripper, the cam will also activate the next-following gripper, so that the position of the newspaper held by this gripper is displaced before the newspaper is again gripped by the gripper when the cam is lifted to one side. Because the position of the newspaper in the gripper last activated is disturbed, problems occur further on in the handling of the product series, and particularly when this series has the form of an overlapping newspaper stream.
Consequently, in accordance with the known technique, it has been necessary in conjunction with the use of self-closing grippers either to restrict the conveying capacity, so as to ensure that individual grippers will be opened in a functionally correct fashion and thus enable correct release of individual newspapers, or it has been necessary to accept limited usefulness of self-closing grippers, namely when all grippers shall be opened at a station with the aid of a stationary gripper opening cam of sufficient height.
CH-A-667 860 reveals a conveyor with self-closing grippers, of which only every second or all grippers are temporarily opened at an opening station, by means of an orbiting series of opening cams. US-A-3,713,648 reveals a conveyor in which all grippers are temporarily opened at an opening station by means of a circulating series of opening cams.

Method and arrangement for opening a self-closing gripper on a gripper conveyor


A pull exerciser includes two attachment members, two positioning devices respectively attached to the attachment members at a location opposite to a grip portion of an associated attachment member, and at least one resilient cord. Each positioning device includes a positioning block and a positioning plate removably received in the positioning block. Each of the positioning blocks and the positioning plates includes at least one positioning hole. The resilient cord has two ends extendible through the positioning hole of each positioning block and each positioning plate. An end piece is fixed to each end of the resilient cord. The end pieces of the resilient cord are mounted to at least one of the positioning plates.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pull exerciser having at least one replaceable resilient cord.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 of the drawings illustrates a conventional pull exerciser including two attachment members 20 each having a hole 201 , a resilient cord 1 having two ends respectively extending through the holes 201 of the attachment members 20 , with an end piece 11 being attached to each end of the resilient cord 1 , and two handles 2 respectively mounted to the attachment members 20. Each end piece 11 has a diameter greater than that of the hole 201 of the respective attachment member 20 to prevent the resilient cord 1 from disengaging from the respective attachment member 20 . A user may grasp the handles 2 and pull the resilient cord 1 with both hands to exercise muscles of the arms and the chest. A disadvantage of this conventional pull exerciser is that the resilient cord 1 could not be replaced with another resilient cord having a different elastic coefficient. Once the resilient cord 1 loses its resiliency, the whole pull exerciser has to be discarded. U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,576 discloses an adjustable pull exerciser including two attachment members, two handles respectively mounted on the attachment members, and at least one resilient cord attached between the attachment members. The resilient cord can be replaced with a new one when desired. Two positioning devices are respectively attached to the attachment members and each include a first positioning plate and a second positioning plate. Each of the first positioning plate and the second positioning plate includes at least one positioning hole in communication with outside via a reduced opening having a width smaller than a diameter of the positioning hole. The resilient cord is so sized to be extendible through the positioning holes of the first and second positioning plates. An end piece is fixed to each end of the resilient cord and has a diameter greater than that of the positioning holes of the first and second positioning plates. Each attachment member is adjustable in length to allow the associated first positioning plate and the associated second positioning plate to be spaced apart from each other for allowing removal/mounting of the resilient cord and to allow the associated first positioning plate to be in contact with the associated second positioning plate after removal/mounting of the resilient cord. However, when the resilient cord is subject to a relatively large force during use, the respective first positioning plates are liable to be spaced apart from or to turn relative to the respective second positioning plates, resulting in undesired disengagement of the resilient cord.


An operating system is formed in which an engagement shaft supported on an end portion of a brake piston is inserted through an engagement hole portion of a balance member; an operation wire is connected to the balance member via a coupling pin; and brake operating arms of rear wheel brake mechanisms are operated by a pair of arm portions of the balance member. A broad area is formed in the engagement hole portion in a manner allowing the balance member to swing about the coupling pin when the operation wire is pulled.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a working vehicle in which a brake operating system transmits a brake operating force of a brake operating device from an equalizer to brake mechanisms of left and right wheels; and the equalizer has a pair of arm portions transmitting the brake operating force to the left and right brake mechanisms, and is provided with a swingable balance member for absorbing a difference in operating strokes of the left and right brake mechanisms.
2. Description of Related Art
As a working vehicle configured as described above, Related Art 1 discloses a working vehicle in which a hydraulic brake system is provided transmitting oil pressure from a master cylinder to front wheel brakes and rear wheel brakes via piping to perform a brake operation when a brake pedal is depressed; and a mechanical brake system is provided transmitting a pulling operating force of an operation wire from a stabilizer link (an equalizer of the present invention) to the left and right rear wheel brakes to perform a brake operation when a parking lever (a brake operating device of the present invention) is operated.
In Related Art 1, the stabilizer link (the equalizer of the present invention) is configured with a balance member; a wire linked to the parking lever (the brake operating device of the present invention) is connected to a center position of the balance member; and wires connected to two end positions of the balance member are connected to operation levers of the left and right rear wheel brakes (brake mechanisms of the present invention). From such a configuration, when the parking lever is operated, by the swing of the balance member, a difference in operating strokes of the left and right rear wheel brakes is absorbed and uniform brake operations are realized.
[Related Art 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-50952
In a working vehicle, a hydraulic brake system obtaining a braking force by operating a brake pedal and a mechanical brake system obtaining a braking force by operating a parking brake operating tool are required. An equalizer for uniformly transmitting the operating force of the parking brake operating tool to the brake mechanisms of the left and right rear wheels is also required.
However, as described in Related Art 1, in the case where left and right hydraulic cylinders are provided for operating the left and right rear wheel brakes, the hydraulic cylinders and a mechanical configuration performing brake operations using the driving forces of the hydraulic cylinders are required. In addition, configurations such as wires and the like transmitting the operating force of the parking brake operating tool are required. Therefore, the number of parts increases, and configuration complexity also increases. In this regard, there is room for improvement.


The present invention relates to a method and composition for treating sunburned skin. The present invention provides a method and composition for applying a mixture of indomethacin and moisturizing lotion topically to sunburned skin. The composition includes a mixture having substantially 100 milligrams of indomethacin per 30 cc of moisturizing lotion. The moisturizing lotion is marketed under the trade name Cetaphil® and includes the following ingredients: purified water, glycerin, hydrogenated polyisobutene, cetearyl alcohol (and) ceteareth-20, macadamia nut oil, dimethicone, tocopheryl acetate, stearoxytrimethylsilane (and) stearyl alcohol, panthenol, farnesol, benzyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol, acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, sodium hydroxide, and citric acid. It is theorized that the Cetaphil® provides certain pH and viscosity levels which allow for the stabilization and solubilation of the indomethacin within the Cetaphil®.

Although there has been substantial effort in recent years to reduce or eliminate the risk of sunburn (erythema) produced by certain wavelengths in the ultraviolet (UV) region of the spectrum, there are still circumstances wherein skin becomes exposed to UV radiation. Such exposure may, in some cases, cause sunburn. Such sunburn may cause irritation and pain to the skin thereby leading to the need for having the sunburn treated.
A number of prior art formulations have been developed for the treatment of sunburned skin. However, such treatments have certain disadvantages. For example, sunburn treatments that provide a spray mist or a petroleum-based composition to the sunburned area do not produce a sufficiently large heat transference effect to remove heat from the sunburned area. Furthermore, petroleum-based compositions tend to produce a residue that needs to be subsequently cleansed from the tender and sensitive area of the sunburned skin. Such cleansing tends to cause further discomfort and irritation to the affected skin.
Preferably, a treatment for sunburn would satisfy several objectives simultaneously. The main objective for the treatment of sunburn would be to relieve pain, eliminate the source of heat, stop the burn progression, and, if necessary, help prevent infection. Thus, a useful treatment for sunburn preferably provides immediate relief from pain while also helping to promote healing. It would be desirable to have a formulation for treatment of sunburn to be combined in a reasonably convenient and cost-effective process wherein the prepared composition would remain stable during storage. Such a sunburn formulation should provide the relief and healing effects sought without producing an uncomfortable, sticky sensation and without soiling or sticking to one's clothing. In addition, the sunburn formulation should preferably not produce a residue that must be subsequently washed or removed from the sensitive sunburned area.
Since a sunburn is an inflammatory disorder, sunburn has been treated in the past with anti-inflammatory drugs. One of the most effective therapeutics is indomethacin [1-(p-chlorobenzoyl)-5-methoxy-2-methylindole-3-acetic acid], a non-steroid chemical compound that has been widely recognized for its outstanding anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic, and analgesic properties. However, indomethacin can become unstable when mixed with certain carriers for topical applications, and therefore, oral administration is sometimes the preferred method of administration.
Oral administration of indomethacin has previously been reported as effective in relieving pain, reducing fever, and providing increased mobility in patients with inflammatory disorders, including those of a rheumatic nature. When orally administered, the drug behaves as a systemic medicine that passes into the bloodstream for general distribution in the body. As in the case with numerous other drugs, not every one can satisfactorily accept this drug by the oral mode of administration, particularly over extending periods of therapy. In addition, oral administration does not provide for the direct and concentrated application of indomethacin on an affected area, such as an area of sunburned skin.
It would be desirable to provide a non-oral method of administering indomethacin for the treatment of sunburned skin. In addition, it would be desirable to provide a carrier vehicle for the topical application of indomethacin whereby local treatment of inflammation is achieved to an area of sunburned skin. It would also be desirable to provide a carrier for indomethacin that provided a topical application which utilized a reasonably convenient and cost-effective process that remained stable during storage.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and composition for treating sunburned skin

Lil Brat Pharmaceuticals of Marlette, MI


In accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention, a method for manufacturing strained silicon is provided. In one embodiment, the method for manufacturing strained silicon includes inducing a curvature in a silicon wafer, depositing an epitaxial layer of silicon upon an upper surface of the silicon water while the silicon wafer is under the induced curvature, and releasing the silicon wafer from the induced curvature, after depositing the epitaxial layer, such that a strain is induced in the epitaxial layer.

Silicon is used to manufacture a variety of semiconductors. The speed at which these semiconductors work ultimately depends on the rate at which the transistors in the semiconductors can switch on and off, which in turns depends on the speed at which current can flow through the transistors, and the distance the charge has to travel. One way of reducing this distance is to deform the lattice of the silicon used to manufacture the semiconductors, resulting in a sort of "strained silicon." By stretching the lattice of the silicon, the energies of the orbitals of the silicon in the direction of the tension are lowered, allowing electrons to flow more easily along the aligned orbitals. Similarly, putting the silicon lattice into compression raises the energies of the aligned orbitals, allowing positive charges to flow more easily.

Method for manufacturing strained silicon


A network device which is connected to a network and provides an information processor on the network with a service, comprising: a network communication unit for communications over the network; a storage medium interface unit for connection with a storage medium into which data can be written; a parameter information storage unit for storing parameter information containing an address for specifying a logical position on the network; a parameter information file creation unit for creating a parameter information file which reflects the parameter information stored by the parameter information storage unit; an installer program storage unit for storing an installer program which executes setup to allow the information processor to use the service; and a storage medium write unit for writing the installer program stored in the installer program storage unit and the parameter information file created by the parameter information file creation unit into a storage medium connected to the storage medium interface unit; wherein: the installer program reads a network address contained in the parameter information file from the storage medium and executes the setup according to the read network address when the storage medium having the installer program and the parameter information file written therein is connected to the information processor.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a network device and its setup method, and more particularly to a network device and its setup method for providing plural information processors with services over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of the network technology in these years, devices such as printers, facsimiles and scanners are provided as network devices accommodating to a network and commonly used by information processors such as plural PCs (Personal Computers) connected to the network.
For example, there is a USB connector which can be used without a troublesome installing work by simply connecting to a computer without using a storage medium such as a CD-ROM (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-114859).
Besides, with the development of the network technology, the Web technology used for the Internet or the intranet is also improved, and many information processors have come to operate as Web clients.
Under the circumstances described above, it is made lately that a Web server function is provided within a network device, and various settings of the network device are executed from an information processor which operates as a Web client.
For example, not only the Web server function is used to make various settings but also the device driver of a network device is stored in the network device, and the Web server function is used to provide each terminal device with the device driver (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-202986).
But, when the technology described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-114859 and the technology described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-202986 are used, the device driver to be provided to each information processor is fixed, so that, when the network device is provided with any option, a user who has received the device driver needs to install the device driver on the information processor and executes setting in accordance with the configuration of the network device.


Disclosed is a method for anaerobically cracking a power battery, which includes the following steps: disassembling a waste power battery to obtain a battery cell; taking out a diaphragm from the battery cell for later use, and pyrolyzing the battery cell to obtain electrode powder; extracting nickel, cobalt and manganese elements from the electrode powder with an extraction buffer, filtering, taking the filtrate, then adjusting the filtrate with a nickel solution, a cobalt solution and a manganese solution to obtain a solution A, adding the solution A dropwise into ammonium hydroxide under stirring, and then adding an alkali solution under stirring to obtain a solution B; subjecting the solution B to a hydrothermal reaction, filtering, and roasting to obtain a catalyst, such that a chemical formula of the catalyst is Ni2+1-x-yCo2+xMn2+yO, where 0.25≤x<0.45, 0.25≤y<0.45.

Currently, decommissioned power batteries are growing vastly, and large-scale full-component recycling is extremely urgent. However, the harmless treatment of three typical organic substances in the decommissioned power batteries has always affected the efficiency of full-component metal recycling. Currently, all around the world, it also seriously affects the clean production and secondary environmental protection of the recycling industry, and especially the traditional incineration and pyrolysis methods are difficult to reach the clean production and ultra-low emission environmental standards, which is the common key problem of the battery recycling industry.
In recent years, China's new energy vehicles have developed rapidly. By 2020, the annual output of the new energy vehicles will exceed 2 million vehicles, and the cumulative production and sales volume will exceed 5 million vehicles. With the increase of daily use times and service life of a new energy vehicle, various performances of a power battery for the vehicle are gradually attenuated. According to the international general battery standards, in order to ensure the daily driving safety of a vehicle, when the performance of a power battery pack is attenuated to 80% of the original power battery, it must be decommissioned and replaced. However, the decommissioned battery needs to be recycled to realize its value better.
The decommissioned power battery contains many kinds of organic substances. As the number of decommissioned power batteries is increased, irreversible environmental pollution is caused since the organic substances in the decommissioned power batteries are not properly disposed and utilized to maximize their values. A traditional incineration technology can use the exhaust heat of incineration to generate electricity. However, improper treatment of the tail gas after incineration will greatly pollute the air and soil. Both the tail gas and soot after the incineration contain toxic substances, which need to be discharged after special treatment. The treatment cost is high, and the investment cost is high. Ordinary pyrolysis does not carry out gradient control of the temperature, and thus valuable substances generated in the pyrolysis process of organic substances cannot be classified and recycled. At the same time, since temperature control cannot be carried out according to the temperature properties of the organic substances, the pyrolysis time is prolonged, and the energy consumption is increased, which is not conducive to cost saving.
The traditional cracking of an organic polymer material is to preheat waste plastics to a molten state in sections, and remove HCl generated in the preheating process with lime, such as that disclosed in "PROCESS AND DEVICE FOR OIL REFINING BY CRACKING WASTE PLASTICS" (CN201610156147.9). However, such traditional recycling manner cannot effectively recycle a plastic diaphragm in a lithium ion battery, and does not fully recycle other parts of the battery, resulting in waste of resources. This technology is relatively backward.

Method for anaerobically cracking power battery

GUANGDONG BRUNP RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A user interface display system can include at least one user responsive element. The user responsive element can include an optical mechanism. A pulsed light source can produce a light beam. Apparatus are provided for causing the light beam to repeatedly scan across the activity field. A controller can be arranged to repeatedly turn the light source on at one or more predetermined scan positions to illuminate the user responsive element. The controller can also be programed to act upon a signal regarding the status of the element. A photo detector can send the signal to the controller. The optical mechanism acts upon the light beam differently based upon the status of the user responsive element.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Automotive instrument clusters typically comprise large discreet display areas for a speedometer and a tachometer, and a number of smaller displays for coolant temperature, oil pressure, oil temperature, fuel level and the like. Arranged within and around the cluster are other indicators showing low fluid level conditions, turn signal operation, emergency light blinkers and so forth. The analog displays within the display fields can be provided by means of devices having electromechanical movements for causing an angular sweep of a needle across the display field. In many systems, low values of the measured quantity are typically displayed at the left side or bottom of the display field, high values at the right side or top of the display field, and intermediate values at incrementally spaced locations between the left and right sides.
Many instrument clusters also incorporate user actuated members, such as push buttons or rotary switches for performing a predetermined action. For example, push buttons can be incorporated on an instrument cluster to communicate a user input to a display or trip computer, to reset an odometer, reset an oil life indicator, or perform other actions. Display systems, which are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,193,729 and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/275,365, employ a scanning light source to produce pulsed light beam sweeping across the display field. The present teaching utilizes the same scanning light source and portions of the display field to provide user activated members while keeping all features of the said display system un-affected.
For a display which is created using the scanning light source, it is difficult to package the cables, wires, and electrical switches and components without interfering with the path of light used for the display. Moreover a solution that is flexible in placement of the switches and does not add significant cost or complexity is desired


A retainer ring configured to be attachable, at a first side thereof, to a polish head of a polish apparatus configured to polish a polish object by depressing the polish object against a polish pad is disclosed. The retainer ring is configured to depress the polish pad at a second side thereof. The retainer ring includes a contact surface contacting the polish pad. The contact surface applies depressing force on the polish pad. The depressing force is directed from a polish head side and is applied so as to be centered on an imaginary circle of pressure center having a radius falling substantially in a middle of an inner radius of the retainer ring and an outer radius of the retainer ring. An area of the contact surface is greater in a first region inside the circle of pressure center than in a second region outside the circle of pressure center.

One example of a polish apparatus for polishing objects such as a semiconductor wafer is a CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) apparatus. Polishing is carried out by moving the semiconductor wafer held by a polish head over a polish cloth. The polish head is provided with an annular retainer ring on its outer peripheral portion for holding the semiconductor wafer.
The polish head typically controls the polish profile by applying a constant pressure on the semiconductor wafer while applying controlled pressure on the retainer ring as well during the polishing process. When high pressure is applied to the retainer ring, the wear of the retainer ring becomes uneven and typically results in an increased clearance between the semiconductor wafer and the retainer ring. As a result, the pressure applied to the retainer ring becomes less effective which makes it difficult to maintain the desired polish profile.
Thus, increasingly high pressure needs to be applied to the retainer ring in order to obtain a polish profile close to the desired profile. However, application of high pressure accelerates the wear of the retainer ring itself.
On the other hand, the increase in the clearance between the semiconductor wafer and the retainer ring can be inhibited by reducing the diametrical width of the retainer ring. However, increasingly high pressure needs to be applied to the retainer ring in order to obtain a polish profile close to the desired profile since the area of contact between the semiconductor wafer and the polish cloth is reduced. This significantly reduces the life of the retainer ring.

Retainer ring, polish apparatus, and polish method


A coating for protecting metal components against corrosion in a saline atmosphere comprises at least one layer of a tin/zinc alloy containing between 8% and 35% by weight of zinc deposited on a sublayer of an alloy of zinc/nickel containing between 10% and 16% by weight of nickel, the thickness proportion of the two alloys forming the coating being two-thirds in the case of the zinc/nickel alloy and one-third in the case of the tin/zinc alloy. The coating may also include an external chromate film.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a protective coating for a metal component, said coating having good corrosion resistance in a saline atmosphere, to a method of forming such a coating, and to metal components having said coating. The invention is applicable in particular to the protection of steel aeronautical components, such as the components of aircraft engines, which require a high degree of reliability, and to the protection of aluminum-alloy components precoated with a chemical zincate sublayer.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
To protect steel components from saline corrosion, it is known to use cadmium, deposited electrolytically, as a protective anodic coating. This coating can be used hot, up to temperatures of about 235.degree. C.
Although cadmium provides metal components with good corrosion protection, it does have a high degree of toxicity and exhibits intrinsic incompatibilities when used with some materials. In particular, cadmium possesses a risk of intergranular corrosion, with the formation of cracks, when in contact with titanium and its alloys, and unfavorable catalytic action when in contact with synthetic oils and with fuels.
Various types of coatings have been proposed to replace cadmium. In particular, zinc-nickel coatings containing from 6% to 8% of nickel and produced in a noncyanide-containing alkaline medium have proved beneficial, since they provide good resistance to saline corrosion, but their behavior in alternating cycling is poor.
It is also known that, in the connector field, tin-nickel coatings containing 35% of nickel and deposited on a copper sublayer provide good corrosion-resistance properties. However, this type of coating does not behave in a sacrificial manner with respect to steel substrates, thereby limiting its lifetime under harsh conditions, such as alternating cycling.

Protective coating for metal components providing good corrosion resistance in a saline atmosphere, and method of producing said coating

Societe Nationale d'Etude et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation "SNECMA"


A drying device has been developed having a single electric motor configured to drive a drum and directly drive an air blower. The single electric motor is a non-line frequency electric motor. The drum is coupled to a support frame to enable rotation of the drum relative the support frame. The drum has an interior space for holding a load of articles, such as clothing. The motor includes a controller configured to regulate the angular velocity of the output shaft of the motor with reference to the current drawn by the motor.

Clothes drying machines, referred to as clothes dryers, dry damp clothing by circulating heated air among the clothing. Often, clothes dryers include a drum in which a load of damp clothing is placed. During a drying cycle, an electric motor rotates the drum and a blower circulates heated air among the clothing as the clothing tumbles within the drum. The drying cycle may continue until the expiration of a predetermined time period or until a control system determines that the clothing is substantially dry.
The electric motor coupled to the drum includes an output shaft having a fixed angular velocity or rotational speed. The rotation of the output shaft is typically coupled at one end to the drum, through a transmission system, to cause the drum to have an angular velocity suitable for most clothes drying situations, and at another end to an air blower that forces an air flow through the drum. In particular, if the drum is rotated too quickly the clothes within the drum may become forced against the sides of the drum instead of tumbling within the drum. Additionally, if the drum is rotated too slowly the clothes within the drum may remain grouped together, and prevent the heated air from flowing among the clothing sufficiently to dry the clothing. Therefore, the electric motor is chosen with reference to its angular velocity to produce an angular velocity for the drum at which an average load of damp clothing is dried within a reasonable time. The angular velocity of the motor output shaft, however, may not drive the air blower at an angular velocity, which produces a preferred amount of air flow, as explained below.
The air blower, or blower, often includes a fan mounted within a housing. When the fan is rotated within the housing, air is drawn into a housing inlet and expelled through a housing outlet. The air expelled from the housing outlet creates a vacuum in an outlet port of the drum for pulling air through the dryer for contacting the damp clothing tumbling in the drum. Depending on the drying cycle, a heating element, or heater, may be activated to heat the air before the air is drawn into the drum. The dry heated or unheated air circulates among the damp clothing causing water within the damp clothing to evaporate. As additional dry air is drawn into the drum, moisture laden air is extracted from the drum through an exhaust port of the drum via the blower. As would be readily understood by one skilled in the art, the blower may be adapted to blow air into the drum opposite as described above.
As noted above, the angular velocity of the motor output shaft is typically dictated by the number of motor poles and the electricity source frequency. With this relatively fixed value, a transmission system (e.g., a pulley) is used to produce a drum angular velocity suitable to tumble an average load of clothing. For instance, the dryer may have a two (2) pole line frequency electric motor coupled to a sixty (60) hertz ("Hz") power supply in North America. This motor is configured to have an unloaded output shaft angular velocity of approximately 3,600 rotations per minute ("rpm"). Even with a transmission system, however, size constraints prevent this motor from reliably rotating a drum. Specifically, because the output shaft angular velocity must be reduced in order to rotate the drum at a preferred angular velocity, a transmission member having a very small diameter must be coupled to the output shaft and a comparatively larger transmission member must be coupled to drum. A power transmission device, such as an endless belt, is used to couple the rotation of the small diameter transmission member on the output shaft to the larger transmission member coupled to the drum. In order to achieve a preferred drum angular velocity; however, the transmission member coupled to the output shaft may be too small to engage reliably the endless belt. Furthermore, when the blower is driven at 3,600 rpm it may operate at a noise level that some users find objectionable.
To address this problem, clothes dryers may include a four (4) pole line frequency electric motor coupled to a sixty (60) Hz power supply. This motor is configured to have an unloaded output shaft angular velocity of approximately 1,800 rpm. An angular velocity of 1,800 rpm may be faster than a preferred angular velocity of the drum; however, the reduced angular velocity of the output shaft (as compared to a two (2) pole line frequency electric motor) enables a preferred drum angular velocity to be attained with a larger output shaft transmission member, which engages an endless belt or other power transmission device more reliably. An angular velocity of 1800 rpm, however, may be too slow to drive the blower at a speed that produces a preferred amount of air flow. Therefore, a second transmission is required to convert the angular velocity of the output shaft to a preferred angular velocity for driving the blower. In summary, a four (4) pole line frequency electric motor may function to rotate both a drum and a blower of a clothes dryer; however, two transmissions are required to convert the angular velocity of the output shaft to preferred angular velocities for driving the blower and rotating the drum. Therefore, further developments in the area of clothes dryers having a single electric motor, are highly desirable.


A method and apparatus for choosing members of a local-area network and choosing a network coordinator among the members is provided herein. During operation a mobile node will determine presence information for nodes within its local area. These nodes will be solicited by the node to be part of a local-area network. Of all nodes that accept the request to form a local area network, a network coordinator for the local-area network will be chosen by determining which node's data budget allows for the cheapest transfer of data. The node with the best data budget is then chosen to be a network coordinator.

Modern cellular data communication has additional overhead signaling beyond traditional wireline data communication. For every bearer data transmission whether it is one byte or many megabytes, many signaling messages need to be exchanged to set up the RF traffic channel before the actual data transfer can occur. For example, with certain carriers it takes a dozen or so messages to get a channel set up before a data transfer can even begin. Additionally, modern cellular technologies employ data schedulers in the base stations for both uplink and downlink data. The schedulers require periodic input from each user which is sent over the cellular RF link. Multiply all that signaling up for N users and it begins to cut into the RF capacity of the network available for bearer transfers. Worse yet, any individual user may be bringing the RF link up and down for small transfers associated with social media.
A proposed hybrid-cellular network (HCN) seeks to alleviate the limitations of traditional cellular systems by allowing uplink and downlink connections to involve more than one link, with all links utilizing (i.e., passing through) a node serving as a network coordinator. Such a system is shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, multiple nodes 102 and 103 are in communication with base station 101. However, instead of each node in the system forming its own cellular air interface link 105, nodes 102 and 103 may choose a network coordinator, or access point 103 to use as a communication link to/from base station 101. This process involves setting up a local network among devices 102 and 103. Communication among devices 102 and 103 take place via local air interface 104 (e.g., an IEEE 802.11 air interface). Such a system is a hybrid between cellular and local network architectures, where uplink and/or downlink data is relayed to and from network coordinator 103 by other mobile units.
While hybrid-cellular networks alleviate network congestion, a problem exists in organizing such networks. For example, nodes within communication system 100 will need to choose local-area network members. These nodes will also need to choose a network coordinator among the network nodes. Therefore a need exists for a method and apparatus for choosing members of a local-area network and choosing a network coordinator among the members.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. Those skilled in the art will further recognize that references to specific implementation embodiments such as "circuitry" may equally be accomplished via either on general purpose computing apparatus (e.g., CPU) or specialized processing apparatus (e.g., DSP) executing software instructions stored in non-transitory computer-readable memory. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.

Link sharing within a communication system


A wrench or one way drive has a flexible head (2) with a split aperture (20) for loosely engaging a separate drive such as a socket or the head of a fastener (31) including a nut, bolt, screw or the like. Cam means, preferably pins (11,11a), are located on a handle (3) and engage the head (2) preferably through slots (21,22) in the head. The slots diverge outwardly so that as the handle is moved relative to the head the split aperture (20) closes and the flexible head (2) increasingly clamps a drive socket as more torque is applied to the handle.

A wrench is a tool for applying torque to fastener such as a nut, bolt, screw or the like for the purpose of tightening or slackening the fastener. The wrench has a head portion which is of a complementary shape to the periphery of the fastener in a non-rotatable manner so that a force applied to rotate the head transmits torque to the fastener. The fastener usually has an external polygonal shape, typically hexagonal or square, and the head of the wrench has a complementary internal shape and size. The head of a ring wrench is configured to substantially surround the periphery of the fastener.
The following description will refer particularly to wrenches for use with hexagonal nuts. However, it will be understood that the invention is equally applicable to wrenches and corresponding fasteners having other shapes.
A conventional ring wrench has a ring-shaped head having a curved, usually substantially circular external surface with a hexagonally shaped internal surface. Each internal surface of which can be substantially flat. In use the internal surface of the wrench head substantially engages the flat surfaces of the nut to put pressure on the corners when the fastener is tightened or slackened.
However, if the nut is undersized, damaged or worn, it is very likely that the head will "slip" and rotate around the nut burring the corners instead of properly gripping or engaging the flats or corners of the nut. A further embodiment of the present invention applies to a ratchet bar tool used for applying torque via an attached square drive and appropriate socket to a fastener for the purpose of tightening or slackening the fastener. The ratchet bar is movable relative to the socket in one direction only. Motion between the ratchet bar and the socket in the opposite direction is prevented by a set of angular teeth, which co-operate with a resilient pawl so as to create a locking motion in one direction only and free movement in the opposite direction. This operation of the socket and fastener via a ratchet bar is much more convenient in restrictive situations than the use of a fixed bar operated socket as there is seldom a requirement to remove and reattach the socket operating the fastener.
Variations of the ratchet bar are exhaustive. Most mechanisms have more and more locking teeth etc. to allow a smaller angle between drive, reposition and drive, resulting in mechanisms that whilst the angle between drive and reposition has been substantially reduced so has the amount of torque that can be safely applied to the ratchet bar without failure.


A device including a first integrated circuit (IC), a second IC configured to provide instructions to the first IC based on received data, wherein the first IC is a high-voltage IC and the second IC is a low-voltage IC, and a communication interface between the first and second ICs including a data bus of parallel data lines. The second IC is configured to select, based on the received data, one of a plurality of different communication modes for providing the instructions to the first IC via the communication interface, wherein each mode is defined by a quantity of address data and a quantity of configuration data used to provide the instructions to the first IC.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to implantable stimulating devices, and more particularly, to inter-chip communications for implantable stimulating devices.
2. Related Art
Implantable stimulating devices having one or more implantable components are used in various applications to provide electrical stimulation to recipients. Exemplary implantable stimulating devices include hearing prostheses, cardiac devices, incontinence devices, and other therapeutic and diagnostic devices.
Power consumption is a critical design consideration for implantable stimulating devices. In some implantable stimulating devices, an external device is used to provide power to the implantable stimulating device through the skin via a transcutaneous inductive link, or another arrangement. This link may be operated to continuously supply power to the implantable stimulating device, as in many cochlear implants, for example, or may be operated periodically, so as to provide power to an implantable power storage device (or "power supply"). An alternative for some implantable stimulating devices is to use an implantable power supply that may be replaced through minor surgery. In each of these alternatives, however, the power available within the implantable stimulating device is very limited.

Inter-chip communications for implantable stimulating devices


There is disclosed a handoff control method for registering a CDMA mobile station in such a way that the waste of a power is prevented if successive attempts to register the station fail. If it is judged that registration fails (step S106), idle handoff is inhibited (step S107). The mobile station shifts to a registration-waiting sleep mode (step S108 and state ST10) in which the sending and receiving operation of the mobile station is paused for a given time. When a sleep timer that is set in the step S108 times out, registration is resumed under certain conditions. On resumption, a new pilot signal is acquired.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system making use of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) as an access method and, more particularly, to a control method implemented on the side of a mobile station when it is registered with a wireless base station in a coverage area where the mobile station exists. Also, the invention relates to the mobile station utilizing this control method. The invention is especially adapted for power savings in the mobile station.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a CDMA system, a signal is modulated by multiplying a pseudo noise codes (PN codes) which are spreading codes so as to form a spread spectrum communication signal and is transmitted from a base station to a mobile station. When a CDMA mobile station receives the signal from the base station, the mobile station demodulates the original signal by multiplying the PN codes to the received signal. This demodulation is called despreading. For this purpose, synchronization is necessary to bring the phase of PN codes into agreement with the phase of PN codes of the base station.
The process of synchronization consists of two steps: acquisition of a pilot signal and holding of the synchronization. The acquisition is generally based on calculation of correlation. A replica PN code is multiplied by a received signal while shifting the replica PN code in spreading chip increments. A decision is made as to whether a value obtained by the integration is in excess of a threshold value. If the replica PN code is not synchronized to the PN code of the base station, no peak is produced on the value obtained by the integration. Therefore, the search is continued while varying the phase of the replica PN code. In a typical CDMA system, the code length of each pilot PN code is 215, i.e., 32768. Since the search is conducted within this phase space, it is required to acquire pilot signals quickly. On the other hand, the holding of the synchronization expresses a process where synchronization within chips in terms of phases is maintained after spreading chip synchronization is acquired.
Plural base stations or sectors within a mobile communication system are so selected and positioned that they are different from each other in spreading code phase. In the typical example described above, the base stations or sectors are spaced from each other such that they achieve integral multiples of 64 PN chips. After the synchronization processing, the mobile station adjusts the phases of the despread codes and examines the strengths of other pilot signals. In this way, a handoff to a better pilot signal can be performed. A handoff performed in idle state is known as idle handoff.
The mobile station that has finished the synchronization processing performs registration. This registration is carried out by exchanging message with a base station. This permits the network to call the mobile station. Since the registration involves transmission, if registration is frequently done, then traffic on the network increases. Also, the battery power in the mobile station is consumed. Accordingly, the registration needs to be carried out minimally.
When the power supply of a mobile station is turned on, it is synchronized to a pilot signal as described above. Then, the mobile station receives access messages and makes a decision as to whether the mobile station needs to be registered newly with the coverage area where the station is currently present. If the current coverage area agrees with any one of registered areas that may or may not be in the form of a list, a message that requests registration is not sent out.
When the mobile station goes out of the coverage area described above, the station is handed over to the base station of the coverage area that the mobile station enters next.
Techniques associated with the aforementioned techniques are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,267,261, 5,109,390, 5,179,571, and 5,101,501 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 30023/1993 and 107584/1996.

Handoff control method and a mobile station employing the same


In order to provide an active muscle display unit that extracts a firing pattern of the individual motor unit without applying a load to living organisms and display the extracted motor unit, the active muscle display unit comprises multiple electrodes that are arranged on a skin surface, a surface electromyogram measuring part that measures a surface electromyogram on the skin surface at the multiple electrodes, a motor unit separating part that estimates the individual motor unit constituting an active muscle based on the surface electromyogram measured by the surface electromyogram measuring part, a motor unit position estimating part that estimates a three-dimensional position of the firing motor unit based on the motor unit estimated to be the firing motor unit by the motor unit separating part, and a display part that displays the motor unit estimated by the motor unit position estimating part in an image.

Living organisms conduct complicated motor control, and then it is very significant to clarify the control mechanism in a field of ergonomics or the like. A lot of approaches to measure and analyze the nerve-muscle action have been tried in order to elucidate the control mechanism in vivo.
Muscles consist of multiple sub-units referred to as motor units. The motor unit consists of a single α motor neuron (hereinafter referred to as α-MN) in a spinal cord and a muscle fiber group dominated by the α-MN, and is a minimum function unit of a nerve-muscle control mechanism. When the muscle contracts, the multiple motor units act in a cooperative manner. In order to elucidate the nerve-muscle control mechanism it is important to measure a motor unit action potential (hereinafter referred to as an MUAP) and to analyze each action style.
An electromyogram showing a change of an electric potential generating in accordance with contraction of muscle is measured as an interference waveform of multiple MUAPs. There are a needle electromyogram measured by the use of needle electrodes stinging in muscles and a surface electromyogram measured by the use of non-invasive surface electrodes as the electromyogram.
Since the needle electromyogram has merits such that it is not susceptible to living organism tissue and it can separate the motor unit relatively easily, the needle electromyogram is used for analyzing the electromyogram by separating it into the motor units. (K. C. McGill, K. L. Cummins, and L. J. Dorfman, "Automatic Decomposition of Clinical Electromyogram", IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. BME, vol. 32, pp. 470-477, 1985) Since the surface electromyogram can be measured by attaching surface electrodes to a surface of skin, it has a merit that the surface electromyogram can be measured relatively easily compared with the needle electromyogram.
However, since it is necessary for the needle electromyogram to sting needle electrodes on muscles in order to measure the electromyogram and there is a problem that load is applied to living organisms, it has been difficult to measure multiple muscles at a time. In addition, a portion where the needle electrodes measure is a very narrow range, and which portion is to be measured in a tissue of a living organism has to be settled previously. Meanwhile, since the surface electromyogram monitors multiple MUAPs locating under the electrodes in a spatially and temporally added state, it is difficult to extract a firing pattern of an individual motor unit.

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology


The present invention includes a Chien search device that implements an error-locator polynomial divided by a factor. The device includes first and second devices to generate .alpha..sup.i and .alpha..sup.-i, respectively. The device also includes a root determination block coupled to receive .alpha..sup.i and .alpha..sup.-i to provide a signal responsive to .alpha..sup.-i. In particular, the signal represents that .alpha..sup.-i is a root of the error-locator polynomial. The root determination block includes multiple root determination circuits to find the roots of the error-locator polynomial for each data interleave.

The integrity of data stored in storage systems is typically protected by error detection or correction code methods. Shown in FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a small computer system interface (SCSI) controller 100. Data is received from a SCSI bus 105 and provided through the blocks shown to a buffer manager 110. Data flow is controlled by buffer manager 110, and data is provided to a disk FIFO 120 and an ECC engine 130. ECC engine 130 encodes the received data with a generator polynomial g(x). In this manner ECC bytes are created and are transmitted to a disk formatter 140 concurrently with the data from disk FIFO 120. The ECC bytes are appended to the data by disk formatter 140 and then provided to a storage device, such as a hard drive (not shown), which is coupled to lead 145. The hard drive typically stores the data in 512 byte sectors with the multiple ECC bytes appended at the end.
The data sector is read from the drive and interleaved, usually a 3-way interleave. 3-way interleave is typical due to constraints on how many bytes the ECC logic can decode, i.e., the ECC logic cannot decode the entire sector. To this end, the ECC bytes usually contain an ECC byte for each interleave. For example, the following data sector ##STR1## is 3-way interleaved as ##STR2## where each row represents an interleave and the number of columns equals n/3.
For a read operation, disk formatter 140 receives the interleaved sector as a plurality of code words. Each code word can be represented as a polynomial c(x). Thus, the data bytes that form the code words of each interleave can be represented as a polynomial defined as v(x)=c(x)+e(x), where e(x) is an error polynomial that represents at most t errors in the stored data. From the received polynomial v(x), partial syndromes can be defined. The partial syndromes, in turn, are used to compute the coefficients of an error-locator polynomial .LAMBDA.(x). The partial syndromes and the coefficients of the error-locator polynomial determine the error-locator polynomial. Next, the error value or magnitude is determined for each error location. Finally, the error is corrected. A more detailed discussion of the above can be obtained from Weldon, E. J., "Error Correcting Codes with Application to Digital Storage Systems," Seminar Notes, University Consortium for Continuing Education (May 1993), which is incorporated herein by reference.
To illustrate, an interleaved 3-burst Reed Solomon code has an error-locator polynomial defined to be: EQU .LAMBDA.(x)=.LAMBDA..sub.3 x.sup.3 +.LAMBDA..sub.2 x.sup.2 +.LAMBDA..sub.1 x+1 (1).
.LAMBDA..sub.3, .LAMBDA..sub.2 and .LAMBDA..sub.1 are 8-bit symbols or field elements in Galois Field GF(2.sup.8). A Galois Field GF(2.sup.m) is a distinct set of 2.sup.m -1 m-bit symbols of .alpha..sup.i where i is an integer ranging from 0 to 2.sup.m -2, and can be used to index or locate the ith m-bit symbol within an encoded interleaved message or sector. The logarithms of the implicative inverse of the roots (log.sub.2 (.alpha..sup.-i)) of this error-locator polynomial are the error offsets or locations of the interleaved sector with 0 being the farthest encoded ECC byte. Since for an 8-bit GF(2.sup.8) there are only 255 field elements to check, the simplest way to find the zeros or roots of the error-locator polynomial .LAMBDA.(x) is by trial and error, a process known as a Chien search. .LAMBDA.(.alpha..sup.-i) is computed for each i and checked for zero. In other words, EQU .LAMBDA.(.alpha..sup.-i)=.LAMBDA..sub.3 x.sup.3 +.LAMBDA..sub.2 x.sup.2 +.LAMBDA..sub.1 x+1.vertline..sub.x=.alpha..sup.-i =0 (2).
Executing Equation 2 for each i requires four multipliers (about 300 gates each), two squaring circuits (about 50 gates each), on 4-input adder (8-bitwise 4-input exclusive-OR) and a logarithm circuit of the inverse of i to produce .alpha..sup.-i in GF(2.sup.8). For a n-way interleaved Chien search in parallel, the gate count could run up to 4n multipliers, 2n squaring circuits and a logarithm circuit. Besides, the critical path for this type of execution which goes through a squaring circuit (about 2 ns), two multipliers (about 12 ns) and an adder (about 2 ns) requires roughly 30 ns. Consequently, this logic is restricted to around a 33 MHz 8-bit NRZ clock speed.
In addition to data errors occurring randomly in digit positions of v(x), some disturbances in the data path may corrupt an entire block of digits. For example, platter defects of hard disk drives usually affect more than one digit. A burst error is an error that occurs over a sequence of b digits of a data block. For a burst error sequence, the first and bth digits are in error, while the intermediate digits may or may not be in error. A burst error can extend over the interleaves. An error correction code implemented as an L-way interleave with a burst-correcting capability of M provides a code that has a burst-correcting capability of LM.
A burst-correction capability of an ECC can be limited to improve (decrease) the probability of miscorrection. Some hard disk controller ECCs have burst limiting logic that operates after all the error patterns are identified. Such configuration involves sorting all error locations numerically to determine subsequent burst spans. As a result, additional hardware overhead is imposed and on-the-fly performance will degrade.
A need exists for an ECC device that includes a high-speed Chien Search circuit that requires less logic, thereby reducing design cost, complexity and physical area requirements. A further need exists for an ECC device that has burst-limiting capability which minimizes on-the-fly performance degradation, hardware overhead and associated costs. The present invention meets these needs.


A vertical transfer charge-coupled device for vertically transferring signal charges, a horizontal transfer charge-coupled device for receiving and horizontally transferring the transferred signal charges, an unwanted electron eliminator, and a potential barrier between the horizontal transfer charge-coupled device and the unwanted electron eliminator are provided on a semiconductor substrate. The potential barrier includes a first n-type diffusion layer, a second n-type diffusion layer that is in contact with one end thereof, and a third n-type diffusion layer that is in contact with the other end. The second n-type diffusion layer and the third n-type diffusion layer have higher impurity concentrations than the first n-type diffusion layer. As a result, a solid-state imaging device is provided with which the ability of the unwanted electron eliminator to eliminate unwanted electrons is enhanced, without decreasing the size of the charge handled by the horizontal transfer charge-coupled device, allowing image output even with a large optical volume signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state imaging device having a charge-coupled device (hereinafter also referred to as "CCD").
2. Description of the Related Art
With solid-state imaging devices used in consumer and professional video cameras, as well as in the digital still cameras that have undergone such amazing growth in recent years, the size of the charges handled by CCD pixel components (hereinafter also referred to simply as "pixel components") that are a result of reduced cell size has increased tremendously as cameras have become smaller and include more pixels. On the other hand, horizontal transfer CCD components that send signal charges to an amplifier (hereinafter also referred to simply as "horizontal CCD components"; in the following description the word "transfer" may be omitted as appropriate) need to have lower voltage requirements so that they can be driven by battery, and a major increase in the amount of charge handled has yet to be achieved. Consequently, this creates a situation in which an image cannot be outputted during the charge transfer of a signal produced by a large quantity of light (hereinafter also referred to as "large optical volume signal"), such as when capturing an image of a subject with high brightness, in indoor and outdoor image capture. This phenomenon will be described with reference to FIG. 9. FIG. 9 is a schematic of a common solid-state imaging device. When capturing an image of a subject with high brightness, the large amount of light generates a large quantity of electrons at the photodiodes 91 of a pixel component 93, and these overflow into a vertical CCD 92. The vertical CCD 92 is constantly performing transfer to a horizontal CCD 95, so that the horizontal CCD 95 fills up with electrons in the region 33 corresponding to the pixel component. These electrons go over the level that can be handled as a signal and thus are called unwanted electrons. At this point, unless the unwanted electrons can be eliminated quickly to an unwanted electron eliminator 96 that has been created in contact with the horizontal CCD 95, the signal charge (that is, the electrons) will completely bury the horizontal CCD 95 in the region 34 corresponding to an optical black component (hereinafter referred to as "OB component") 94, making it impossible to detect the 0 level serving as a reference signal in the camera, and preventing the output of an image.
An unwanted electron eliminator in a conventional solid-state imaging device has been disclosed in JP H9-223788A, for example. FIG. 10 is a schematic cross section of the conventional horizontal CCD component including an unwanted electron eliminator disclosed in JP H9-223788A. In FIG. 10, reference numeral 101 is an n-type semiconductor substrate, 102 is a p-type well, 103 is an n-type region that is a horizontal CCD component, 104 is an n-type region that is a buried channel of a potential barrier, 105 is an n-type region that is an unwanted electron eliminator, 106 is a p-type region that separates devices, 107 is polycrystalline silicon that serves as a first horizontal charge transfer electrode, 108 is a gate insulating film, 131 is a thick oxide film, and 130 is an insulating film. The unwanted electron eliminator and the buried channel of the horizontal charge transfer component are formed with the same impurity profile. The broken line 109 indicates the horizontal direction on the substrate surface within the regions 104 to 106.
With a conventional configuration, however, if the n-type region 103 that is a horizontal CCD component, the n-type region 104 that is a buried channel of a potential barrier, and the n-type region 105 that is an unwanted electron eliminator are merely formed with the same impurity profile, there will be a decrease in the ability to sweep away the unwanted electrons that flow in from the pixel component, making it impossible to output an image, or decreasing the amount of charge that can be handled by the horizontal CCD. This problem will be described through reference to FIGS. 11A to 11C. FIGS. 11A to 11C are schematic diagrams of the impurity distribution and potential distribution in the region along the broken line 109, going through the n-type region 103, n-type region 104, and n-type region 105 in FIG. 10. The following problems will be encountered when the impurity concentration of the n-type region 104 (hereinafter "impurity concentration" also will be referred to simply as "concentration") is relatively low. The impurity distribution 111 in FIG. 11A results when the n-type region 104 has a relatively low concentration. The potential 115 in FIG. 11B is the potential in a state in which power source voltage applied from around the solid-state imaging device has depleted the n-type region 103 and the n-type region 104, but the n-type region 105 remains undepleted. The potential drops from the potential 115 to the potential 113 when unwanted electrons 114 flow in from the pixel component in the case of a large optical volume signal. However, since the electron elimination distance 116 within the n-type region 104 is long, the unwanted electrons 114 cannot be eliminated, and the horizontal CCD corresponding to the pixel component overflows with unwanted electrons 114. Accordingly, even the horizontal CCD of the OB component fills up with the unwanted electrons 114, and consequently no image can be outputted when there is a large optical volume signal.
Meanwhile, the following problems will be encountered when the impurity concentration of the n-type region 104 is relatively high. The impurity distribution 112 in FIG. 11A results when the n-type region 104 has a relatively high concentration. The potential 117 in FIG. 11C is the potential in a state in which power source voltage applied from around the solid-state imaging device has depleted the n-type region 103 and the n-type region 104, but the n-type region 105 remains undepleted. The potential drops from the potential 117 to the potential 119 when unwanted electrons 118 flow in from the pixel component in the case of a large optical volume signal. In this case, the electron elimination distance 120 within the n-type region 104 for eliminating the unwanted electrons 118 is shorter than the above-mentioned electron elimination distance 116, and therefore poses no problem in terms of eliminating unwanted electrons. However, the potential at which signal charge can be accumulated with the horizontal CCD is only the potential 119, which means that the amount of charge that can be handled by the horizontal CCD decreases.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Discarded weed seeds in the chaff from the sieve of a combine harvester are destroyed by a weed seed destructor section which provides repeated high speed impacts caused by a pair of rotors each mounted in one of a pair of side by side housings which accelerate the discarded seeds onto a respective stator. A straw chopper and spreader section operate on the straw. The weed seed destructor and optionally the straw spreader is mounted so that it can be moved rearwardly away from the sieve to provide operator access between the destructor and the sieve.

Combine harvesters harvest cereal grain crops, such as wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn, soybeans and flax. Grain and straw are separated in a combine harvester. Following the separation process, waste straw and chaff is supplied to a chopper for shredding and distributing back over the field in an even spread pattern.
During the harvesting process weed seeds and grain seed are discharged with the residue into the chopper and spread back onto the field. The combine is then effectively acting as a seeder to evenly spread the seed back onto the field. In a number of areas of the world herbicides are used heavily to control the weed seeds however this has led to weed seed that has become resistant to the herbicide. Grain seed has been developed to be resistant to specific herbicides, which depending on crop rotations can be a problem for subsequent crop.
It is known that if the seed can be removed or destroyed before the combine spreads it back onto the field the cycle can be stopped. Research has shown that, with three consecutive cycles of weed and grain removal, significant reductions in herbicide can be obtained providing huge saving for farmers.
One recent approach is shown in WO 2014/127408 published Aug. 28, 2014 and assigned to Grains Research Development Corporation Australia which shows that a plurality of impacts at relatively high speed of the seeds with a stationary object causes breakdown of the seed sufficient to prevent germination. Thus they have developed a cage mill which is integrally mounted inside the combine harvester so as to receive waste material (discarded seeds and chaff) from the sieve. The cage mill assembly includes at least one rotating ring carrying a plurality of blades and a series of outer stationary rings or fixed blades. Thus the seeds are accelerated outwardly by escaping centrifugally from the rotating blades into the surrounding stationary blades of the outer rings where a series of impacts occur as the seeds move outwardly into and through the fixed blades. The seeds are released outwardly under the centrifugal force from the stationary blades and escape outwardly into a peripheral channel for discharge.
The document shows evidence that four impacts at relatively high speed are sufficient to cause the required breakdown of the seeds, for example to obtain a 95% kill rate.
However the cage mill shown is large and complex with numerous rings running in opposite directions. Should a rock, or other hard material enter the mill, the entire cage mill would need to be replaced. Thus the system may function to destroy the seeds but has practical difficulties as it is without consideration of other obstacles passing through the assembly. The assembly runs at a very high rotational speed, so the precision in manufacturing is critical. Although this is believed that this arrangement is closer to commercialization a number of problems remain with the design.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,448,933 (Roy) issued Jun. 10, 1969 describes a cone style grinding shear mill used to process weed seed. All excess chaff and weed seed is processed by the unit. However it is a permanently fixed grinder without a means to bypass material other than residue. It would also allow passage of small fine seeds as it would need to be set to the average seed size to allow adequate throughput.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,154 (Reyenga) issued Oct. 22, 1991 discloses a pair of rollers to mill seeds smaller than grain that are in the clean grain auger. This does not address seeds thrown over the back of the sieve and would not work if placed behind the sieve as today's combines the chaff stream is often 6 inches thick which would cushion the seeds and allow the spread of live seed back onto the field.
In AU Published Application 2001/038781 an additional sieve is added to remove more of the chaff before milling, and separate the weed seed from the grain. However this is not practical with today's combines. All combines throw out some grain and farmers want the herbicide tolerant grain removed as well.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,152,610 (Harrington) issued Apr. 10, 2012 discloses an arrangement which processes all the chaff coming off of the sieves and blows it to a trailing cart to pulverize all of the residue. The cart requires a second engine running in the dust of the combine and the mill requires a significant amount of power to pulverize and discharge the residue back onto the field. The cage mill disclosed is large and complex with numerous rings running in opposite directions. Again, the rings have not removable parts so should a rock, or other hard material enter it the entire cage mill would need to be replaced. The cost of this system will limit its commercial viability.
The term weed seed destruction used herein is used somewhat colloquially in that the seeds are not annihilated but are devitalized or rendered so that they cannot germinate. It will of course also be appreciated that not necessarily each and every seed is destroyed but that the intention is that a significant number will be incapable of germination so as to reduce the number of emerging seeds in the growing season.

Weed seed destruction device which is movable to allow access to the combine harvester


A pillar-shaped spacer is disposed at the position between the boundary line of adjacent liquid crystal cells and an OLB terminal so as to face the end portion of the OLB terminal and so as to be interposed between a first large-size substrate and a second large-size substrate. Even when the respective liquid crystal cells are separated from one another along the boundary lines of the adjacent liquid crystal cells, exfoliation of the OLB terminals is prevented by the pillar-shaped spacers, so that extra cutting margins between the adjacent liquid crystal cells can be reduced and the manufacturing performance and the built-in number of the liquid crystal cells can be enhanced.

A liquid crystal cell as a display element used for a liquid crystal panel as a liquid crystal display element has been conventionally formed by interposing a liquid crystal layer between a pair of glass substrates.
In such a liquid crystal cell, a plurality of pixels are formed in a matrix form in a rectangular display area, and a non-display area is formed at the outside of the display area. A driver IC for driving thin film transistors (TFT) as switching elements for driving the pixels is mounted in the non-display area. The driver IC is electrically and mechanically connected to a flexible board having flexibility for various kinds of circuits formed thereon by so-called Outer Lead Bonding (OLB). Therefore, a plurality of OLB terminals as connecting terminal pads are juxtaposed with one another at the outside of the display area at the liquid crystal cell side, and the OLB terminals are formed in the non-display area so as to face the outside of the liquid crystal panel.
Such liquid crystal cells are manufactured by disposing a pair of large-size glass substrates so that the substrates face each other, attaching the substrates to each other with seal agent, enclosing a liquid crystal layer at a predetermined position between these large-size substrates to form a board device, and cutting out the board device along predetermined parting lines, that is, cut lines by a board cutting device as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-250912, for example.
However, in the above-described board device, cutting margins are formed on each large-size substrate so as to surround the liquid crystal cells. Therefore, when a plurality of liquid crystal cells are formed in a matrix form on the board device, the respective liquid crystal cells must be arranged so as to be spaced from one another by the amount corresponding to each cutting margin. Therefore, the above-described board device has a problem that it is not easy to improve the built-in number of display elements for the liquid crystal panel.
Furthermore, when the respective liquid crystal cells are cut out, the cut-out frequency of the large-size substrate is increased by the amount corresponding to the cutting margins of each large-size substrate, and thus the manufacturing performance is unsatisfactory.
The present invention has been implemented in view of the foregoing points, and has an object to provide aboard device and a method for manufacturing a display element that can improve the manufacturing performance and the built-in number of display elements.

Board device and method for manufacturing display element

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd.


Techniques for performing multi-style speech synthesis. The techniques include using at least one computer hardware processor to perform: obtaining input comprising text and an identification of a first speaking style to use in rendering the text as speech; identifying a plurality of speech segments for use in rendering the text as speech, the identified plurality of speech segments comprising a first speech segment having the first speaking style and a second speech segment having a second speaking style different from the first speaking style; and rendering the text as speech having the first speaking style, at least in part, by using the identified plurality of speech segments.

Text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis involves rendering text as speech. Various TTS synthesis techniques exist including concatenative synthesis, sinewave synthesis, HMM-based synthesis, formant synthesis, and articulatory synthesis. TTS synthesis techniques may be used to render text as speech having desired characteristics such as content, pitch or pitch contour, speaking rate, and volume.

Systems and methods for multi-style speech synthesis


This invention relates to a process for preparing a high purity epoxy resin comprising reacting an aromatic compound containing hyroxyl or amino group with an excess amount of an epihalohydrin in the presence of hydroxides of alkali metal or alkali earth metal in one or more low-boiling aprotic cosolvents under normal or reduced pressure with dewatering to obtain a high purity epoxy resin with low level of hydrolyzable halides.

Epoxy resins have been widely used in microeletrical industry as an encapsulating material to encapsulate semiconductor devices. The epoxy resins used as an encapsulating material mostly contain o-cresol novolac epoxy resin as a main ingredient. Thus the purity of the epoxy resin determines the purity of the encapsulating material prepared therefrom and also directly affects a reliance and a life of a semiconductor device encapsulated with the encapsulating material. The purity of the o-cresol novolac epoxy resin mainly depends on the content of halides and the presence of volatile substances therein. Generally, halides content above a certain level will cause a corrosion of wires on a wafer and then cause a damage of the wafer. Moreover, the presence of the volatile substances will cause a reduction of heat resistance of a solder and result in the release of the resin encapsulant from the wafer. Therefore, reducing the halides contents and removing of volatile substances are very important for an epoxy resin for encapsulating a semiconductor.
In a process for preparing a high purity epoxy resin, one or more organic solvents are used to aid the reaction. If such a process uses an alcohol as the solvent, and inter reaction between an active hydrogen on the alcohol and the epihalohydrin will occur to produce undesirable by-product. To avoid the production of the by-product, there are many patents disclosing the use of a solvent containing no active hydrogen, for example Japanese Patent Examined Publication No. 62-34330 and Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 61-195111. However, the halide content of the epoxy resin prepared by the processes does not meet the requirement of high purity required by the microelectrical industry. Additionally, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 58-189223 disclosed a process for preparing an epoxy resin in high purity by using high-boiling solvent. However, the process will cause the contamination of the epoxy resin.
In view of this, the present inventors have widely investigated on the process for preparing epoxy resins and found that an epoxy resin with high purity and low halide content can be obtained by using specific solvents and thus completed this invention.

Process for preparing a high purity epoxy resin


Concerns lithium-doped diamond: Low-resistivity n-type semiconductor diamond doped with lithium and nitrogen, and a method of manufacturing such diamond are provided.

Diamond has been employed as a semiconductor material for some time, and research into its practical application as a basis for semiconductor devices is ongoing.
In diamond, with its extraordinarily large bandgap of 5.5 eV, no intrinsic gap—in which carrier conduction is forbidden—as a semiconductor exists at temperatures of 1400° C. or less. And since the dielectric constant of diamond is a small 5.7, its breakdown electric field is a large 5×106 V·cm−1. Moreover, the carrier mobility for electrons/protons alike is a high 2000 cm2/V·s. Diamond also has an unusual property in that its electron affinity is negative. Having electrical characteristics such as these, diamond can be expected to produce such semiconductor devices as power devices that can withstand being operated at high frequency and high output power under high temperatures, light-emitting devices that enable the emission of ultraviolet rays, as well as electron-discharging devices that can be driven at low voltage.
In order to employ diamond as a material for semiconductor devices, the form of its electrical conductivity, p-type or n-type, must be controlled. By adding boron as an impurity into diamond crystal, p-type semiconductor diamond can be obtained. Diamond exists in nature as a p-type semiconductor, and p-type semiconductor diamond can by synthesized relatively easily by introducing gas containing boron atoms into a source-material gas using a chemical vapor synthesis (a CVD) method.
On the other hand, n-type semiconductor diamond does not exist in nature, and although its synthesis has until recently proven elusive, lately single-crystal n-type semiconductor diamond of comparatively favorable crystal quality has been obtained by optimizing the synthesizing conditions in a microwave-plasma CVD technique with phosphorous and sulfur as dopants. What is more, by combining n-type semiconductor diamond doped with the phosphorous and sulfur dopants, with p-type semiconductor diamond doped with boron, pn junctions are being formed to prototype UV-emitting LEDs.
Nevertheless, among single-crystal n-type semiconductor diamond of favorable crystal quality, even in the best-performing phosphorous-or sulfur-doped n-type semiconductor diamond, the resistivity at room temperature is at the 104 Ω·cm level, which is so high compared with the resistance of other semiconductor materials as to put the diamond into the insulator category. Moreover, given that the dependence of the resistivity of these n-type semiconductor diamonds on temperature is considerable because their activation energy is extraordinarily large—for the phosphorous-doped diamond it is approximately 0.6 eV, and for the sulfur-doped it is approximately 0.4 eV—across a wide temperature range, stable application of devices employing these n-type semiconductor diamonds has been problematic.
Furthermore, the covalent radius of the carbon atoms constituting diamond is 0.077 nm, whereas the covalent radius of phosphorous is 0.106 nm, and the covalent radius of sulfur is 0.102 nm. Inasmuch as the covalent radii of phosphorous and sulfur are appreciably large compared with the covalent radius of carbon, a problem in situations in which vapor synthesis is carried out while doping with phosphorous and sulfur has been that if diamond is vapor-deposited to a thickness on the order of 10 μm or more, cracks appear in the deposited diamond.
Other than phosphorous and sulfur, dopants with which n-type semiconductor characteristics have been experimentally verified include nitrogen, but with the activation energy of diamond that has been doped with nitrogen being approximately 1.7 eV, and the electrical resistivity at room temperature being 1010 Ω·cm or more, nitrogen-doped diamond is an insulator.
Meanwhile, it is known that diamond into which lithium is added will exhibit n-type semiconductor characteristics. For example, Japanese Unexamined Pat. App. Pub. Nos. H03-205398, H04-175295, and H11-54443 disclose techniques wherein by means of a hot-filament CVD method or various plasma CVD methods, with lithium or else water or a liquid organic compound—either of which contains a lithium compound—as a source material, or otherwise in which lithium or a lithium compound is vaporized and introduced into the deposition reactor, lithium is doped during the vapor deposition of diamond to produce low-resistivity n-type semiconductor diamond.
Nonetheless, problems with these methods have been that stable electrical properties cannot be achieved because the lithium moves around within the diamond, and that during the vapor deposition of diamond, what with the lithium bonding with hydrogen that is incorporated at the same time, the lithium is not electrically activated.
In another example, a technique for obtaining low-resistivity n-type semiconductor diamond by introducing lithium into the diamond lattice interstices is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Pat. App. Pub. No. H07-106266. This technique is a method in which, with a nitrogenous compound of lithium as a source material, an ECR plasma is used to dope lithium into diamond without damaging its crystal quality. With this method, however, inasmuch as the ionic diameter of lithium (0.060 nm) and the ionic diameter of nitrogen (0.027 nm) are each smaller than the covalent diameter of carbon (0.077 nm), lithium and nitrogen both can enter into the diamond lattice interstices without damaging its crystalline structure. A large amount of lithium and nitrogen ends up being doped into the diamond lattice interstices, yet with this method the density at which the lithium and nitrogen are incorporated is not readily controlled. A further problem with the nitrogen has been that though it is doped into the lattice interstices, it does not become activated as an n-type dopant at all; the nitrogen doped in large quantity in the lattice interstices drastically deteriorates the n-type semiconductor characteristics such that the low-resistivity n-type semiconductor properties sought cannot be achieved.

Abstract: Low-resistivity n-type semiconductor diamond containing 1017 cm−3 or more of lithium atoms and nitrogen atoms together, in which are respectively doped lithium atoms into carbon-atom interstitial lattice sites, and nitrogen atoms into carbon-atom substitutional sites, with the lithium and the nitrogen holding arrangements that neighbor each other. To obtain low-resistivity n-type semiconductor diamond, in a method for the vapor synthesis of diamond, photodissociating source materials by photoexcitation utilizing vacuum ultraviolet light and irradiating a lithium source material with an excimer laser to scatter and supply lithium atoms enables the diamond to be produced.