Device for cutting, picking up, and for temporarily storing grass or similar products with a view to transporting the stored product to a site for further processing. The device is integrally mounted to a vehicle so that it may be moved over an area of grass to be cut. The device includes a cutting head to cut and to take-up the lawn clippings. The cutting head is connected to first and second transfer pipes utilized to direct the cut grass to the interior of a storage enclosure. A turbine is horizontally mounted under the storage enclosure between the first and second transfer pipes and is dissociated from the cutting head. The turbine provides suction inside the first pipe so that cut grass may be moved from the cutting head toward the turbine. A turbine wheel with blades moves the cut grass tangentially into the second pipe which is integrated with the storage enclosure so as to direct the flow of cut grass into the enclosure. The turbine is driven by a transmission belt that is connected to a driving pulley that operates the cutting head. The storage enclosure is composed of first and second molded members. The first molded member is pivotally movable relative to the second molded member which is rigidly fixed and supported at the rear of the vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement made to devices for taking up loose products from the ground, with a view to ensuring their transfer from the take-up site to a discharge zone. It relates equally to vehicles fitted with such a device, and more particularly to a new type of lawn mower.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In many spheres, the problem is encountered of having to take up a material from a site with a view to transporting it into another zone. Such a problem arises in particular during the maintenance of green spaces (sports fields, golf courses, lawns, parks . . . ) in order to pick up grass after mowing, remove leaves or other waste.
In the continuation of the description, the invention will be described for such an application (picking up grass after or during mowing), but it is plain that this is not limitative and that the invention could be applied in other spheres where similar problems arise, such as for example on machines used for cleaning the ground, particularly roads and pavements.
At the present time, the equipment serving to carry out mowing operations is constituted by a "tractor" type vehicle on which is mounted an assembly which serves not only for cutting the grass, but also for picking it up and storing it with a view to its disposal. Such an assembly, one embodiment of which in current use at the present time is shown in the accompanying FIG. 1, is constituted essentially by a head, designated by the general reference (1), movable close to the surface of the ground, mounted in general under the chassis of the vehicle (2) (or in front of the latter), these heads comprising means serving to cut and to take up the grass which is transferred by means of a connecting pipe (3) to a storage enclosure (4) carried by the vehicle, which enclosure can appear in different forms and can consist for example of a simple bag, a fixed or tipping hopper or, as is shown in the accompanying FIG. 1, of an assembly constituted essentially by two shells (5, 6) which define between them the volume for storage of the material. In such an embodiment, the two shells (5, 6) are mounted at the rear of the vehicle through the intermediary of a beam (7), one shell (5) being mounted fixed to the said beam (7) and the other shell (6) being capable of pivoting on a horizontal axis (8). Means constituted for example by a jack (9) and a system of "gas caliper" type (10), serve to control the movements of the shell (6) with respect to the fixed shell (5), so that they can be maintained in separated position as is shown in said FIG. 1 when it is desired to proceed to an operation of unloading the hopper after filling and so that they are maintained pressed against one another in order to define the storage volume during the mowing operation per se.
In such assemblies, in order to carry out the transfer of the grass cut by the cutting members per se (11), a turbine (12) is used which serves to transfer the grass through the connecting pipe (3) which opens into the upper part of the storage enclosure (4) and, in the present case, to the interior of the fixed shell (5). The most widespread solution, shown in the accompanying FIG. 1, consists of disposing the turbine (12) either vertically as shown in FIG. 1, or horizontally; the grass may or may not be subject to the action of the blades of said turbine.
One of the main problems which arise with such assemblies in which the turbine is associated directly with the cutting head, resides in their lack of effectiveness, particularly when the grass is wet, taking into account the long distance between said turbine and the zone of discharge to the interior of the storage enclosure. Moreover and especially, such a design (cutting member and integrated turbine) leads to a large overall width dimension, since the turbine projects laterally with respect to the cutting head per se, and also to the complex construction of power transmission assemblies, especially when the turbine is disposed vertically, necessitating in general the use of pinions, bevel gears, universal joints. . . . Lastly, such integrated assemblies (cutting head and turbine) are difficult to assemble and disassemble, which complicates their maintenance.

Device for taking up and for storing grass or similar products and vehicle fitted with such a device


A liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry system that can be configured as either a particle beam or an electrospray interface is provided. The device incorporates structural elements that are common to both interfaces thereby eliminating the need to have two completely separate ES and PB LC/MS systems. The LC/MS device according to the present invention generally comprises a momentum separator, nozzle housing, mass spectrometer, and a vacuum subsystem. A mass spectrometer housing encloses a quadrupole mass analyzer. When used in the ES mode, and ES source module is coupled into the inventive device. Similarly, when used in the PB mode, a PB source module is coupled into the inventive device along with a separate source PB probe. The mass analyzer chamber can accommodate a particle beam source probe for generating ions from analyte particles. In either mode, the modules can consist of commercially available interfaces modified for use with the inventive device.

Mass spectrometry (MS) has long been a widely accepted analytical technique for obtaining qualitative and quantitative information from a sample. MS is commonly used to determine molecular weight, identify chemical structures, and accurately determine the composition of mixtures. MS is becoming increasingly important in biological research to determine the structure of organic molecules based on the fragmentation pattern of ions formed when sample molecules are ionized.
A well-known analytical technique which combines a separation technique with an analytical detection device is gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In this method, GC can provide separations of sufficiently volatile compounds which are then ionized and analyzed by mass spectrometry. GC-MS has become established as the definitive analytical technique for amenable compounds, i.e., compounds having sufficient volatility for GC separation and ionization by conventional gas phase electron impact or chemical ionization methods used in mass spectrometry. Such an established capability of broad application is not known to exist for nonvolatile compounds and mixtures.
The coupling of mass spectrometers with liquid chromatography systems has provided a very valuable tool for identifying organic compounds. The unique value of the liquid chromatographic separation systems is their ability to separate solutions containing mixtures of organic compounds into liquid fractions containing individual compounds. However, the product of the liquid chromatographic column is an eluant liquid solution of the compound or compounds to be analyzed that is at atmospheric pressure, whereas the mass spectrometer analyzes compounds in a high vacuum system. Evaporation of the eluant solvent and presentation of the desolvated particles to the mass spectrometer in a suitable form has presented serious difficulties limiting the sensitivity of the mass spectrometer and greatly complicating its efficient operation. Currently Particle Beam (PB) and Electrospray Atmospheric Pressure Ionization (ES-API) Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometers (LC/MS) are the two most popular interface techniques.
In ES-API LC/MS, an electrospray nebulizer produces an aerosol of charged droplets at atmospheric pressure from which desorbed charged analytes are separated. These ions are then electrostatically driven through a multistage separator in which the final pressure is reduced to about 10.sup.-5 torr.
ES-API is a soft ionization technique. For low molecular weight compounds it typically produces singly charged molecular ions and simple spectra. One feature of ES-API is its ability to produce multiple charged ions for high molecular weight compounds; this makes ES-API suitable for analysis of compounds with molecular weights far in excess of the nominal mass range of a quadrupole analyzer. In most designs, by adjusting specific potentials, structurally significant fragmentation can be produced via CID (collision induced dissociation) at the interface. ES-API is best suited for polar compounds, particularly high molecular weight compounds. Current interfaces operate at relatively low flow rates (<100 .mu.l/min), although concentration dependency implies that higher flow rates could be split without loss in sensitivity. Most ES-API designs use a multistage pressure reduction system; some designs employ a large capacity cryopumping mechanism.
In PB LC/MS systems, an aerosol consisting of helium dispersion gas and droplets containing relatively low levels of analyte dissolved in LC effluent is first generated by a nebulizer. The aerosol is injected into a heated desolvation chamber where the volatile components of the droplets (primarily HPLC effluent) are vaporized, resulting in a mixture of helium gas, solvent vapor, and desolvated analyte particles. This mixture then enters a two stage momentum separator in which the less massive components (such as solvent vapor and helium gas) are pumped away while the more massive particles continue through the system and into the mass spectrometer source where the particles are vaporized, ionized, and mass analyzed. The momentum separator also serves as a pressure reduction and sample enrichment device, since most of the gas and solvent are pumped away, while most of the sample enters the mass spectrometer.
Particle Beam LC/MS is capable of producing classical, library searchable electron impact (EI) or chemical ionization (CI) spectra. Since PB relies on gas phase ionization methods, samples must have some degree of volatility. Although this may be significantly less volatility than required for GC/MS analysis, totally non-volatile samples cannot be analyzed. Furthermore, even those samples that have sufficient volatility may be too thermally labile for EI analysis. In this case, the use of CI can extend the analytical usefulness at the cost of structural information. PB LC/MS is best suited to non-polar compounds with molecular weight less than 1000 amu and low volatility.

Combined electrospray/particle beam liquid chromatography/mass spectrometer


A motor vehicle lighting device that includes a means for emitting a first cut-off light beam along an optical axis where the cut-off is a substantially horizontal line that includes a cut where the cut extends in a coordinate system formed by a horizontal reference axis (HR) that is parallel to a first horizontal axis (HI) passing through the substantially horizontal line; and a vertical reference axis (VR) that is perpendicular to the horizontal reference axis (HR) and to an optical axis; where the optical axis passes through the coordinate system's center; Also is included a means for emitting a second light beam that is horizontally divided into a multitude of selectively activated light segments where the light segments illuminate a zone located astride of the first horizontal axis (HI) that is characterized by the cut, which includes a proximal longitudinal end along the horizontal reference axis (HR) between 1.25° and 1.5° or between −1.25° and −1.5° and which includes a lower vertical end along the vertical reference axis (VR) at a height of −0.75° or below.

Vehicles are increasingly equipped with driver assistance systems in order to improve passenger safety. In particular, vehicles may be equipped with lighting devices allowing adaptive lighting functions, also called an "adaptive driving beam" or ADB, to be performed.
In a first example, the vehicle may be equipped with a lighting device that is able to limit the risk of dazzling the driver of a vehicle that is being passed or that is ahead while maintaining good illumination of the road.
In another example, the vehicle may be equipped with a lighting device that is able to project a light beam that can track the trajectory of the car when turning in order to best illuminate the road for the driver. The light beam thus performs a dynamic bending lighting function, also called a "dynamic bending light" or DBL.
A first known way of producing such a light beam is to integrate, into the lighting device, a lighting module that produces a low beam which has a cutoff and which is movable within the lighting device. The lighting module can then pivot according to the angle of the turn followed by the vehicle.
This solution provides the driver with great driving comfort, since it allows the entire light beam to be pivoted. Thus, the cutoff of the low beam pivots at the same time as the vehicle and follows the turn. The driver therefore clearly sees the cutoff moving, regardless of the direction of the turn. However, it has the drawback of using moving parts, which leads to higher cost and greater bulk.
A solution without moving parts has been found and consists in producing such a light beam using the superposition of a low beam that has a cutoff, the cutoff having a first lower horizontal line and an upward bend for illuminating an upper region above a horizontal axis passing through said first line, and of a second light beam comprising a plurality of selectively activated light segments which are astride the horizontal axis of the cutoff of the low beam. The light intensity of each of the light segments can be modulated such that the position of a region of maximum intensity of the light beam is able to change according to the turns followed by the vehicle. The turn is then followed by electronically moving the region of maximum intensity of the light beam.
However, due to the high intensity of the low beam at the bend, the light segments of the second light beam cannot have a light intensity that is too high for the beam formed by the lighting device to remain regulatory. Consequently, the driver does not clearly perceive the light segments of the second light beam. The driver therefore does not benefit fully from the function provided by the second light beam.
In addition, when the vehicle is following a turn on the side of the bend of the cutoff of the low beam, the bend cannot be moved. It remains fixed with respect to the optical axis of the means for emitting the low beam. The light distribution is modified only by modifying the intensity of the light segments of the second light beam. The driver therefore does not perceive any movement of the cutoff of the low beam, the bend always remaining visible to the driver. Only the region of maximum intensity is moved.


A rewritable DVD-RAM disc. By changing the location or dimension of the lead-out area of the DVD-RAM disc, the data area of the disc can be enlarged. The enlarged area of the disc can be flexibly applied to the user area, the main spare area, or the backup spare area.

This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application Ser. No. 88122148, filed Dec. 16, 1999.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a DVD-RAM disc. More particularly, this invention relates to rewritable DVD-RAM disc.
2. Description of the Related Art
One specification of the DVD-RAM version 2.0 disc has been provided in July, 1999. In this specification, the area and the parameters of the DVD-RAM have been defined. The specification includes a track pitch of 0.615 micron and a total capacity of 4.726 Giga-bytes. Referring to FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, an area distribution of a conventional DVD-RAM disc is shown. In FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, the DVD-RAM disc comprise a user area 14 of 4.7 Giga-bytes, a spare area of 146 Mega-bytes, a lead-in area 10 and a lead-out area 16.
The spare area 12 further comprises a main spare area 12 and a backup spare area. The main spare area 12 has a capacity of 26 Mega-bytes, and the backup spare area has a capacity of 120 Mega-bytes. The range of the backup spare area covers a portion of the last area (the 34th area) of the user area 14. That is, the backup spare area is included in the user area 14.
In a general operation, the user may use the above user area 14 only. There are two occasions to use the spare area for a user. One is when the DVD-RAM disc is produced and a quality inspection is performed to find out that the user area 14 is not writable. For example, as shown in FIG. 1C, the DVD tester automatically extends the user area 14 with an original compensation area 18 towards the main spare area 12. The dimension of the original compensation area 18 is equivalent to that of the original damage area 20. Therefore, to write the DVD-RAM disc, it starts from the original compensation area 18 and then enters the user area 14. While necessary, the original damage area 20 is skipped until the writing operation is complete.
The other occasion to use the spare area is when the user writes the DVD-RAM disc, the user area 14 is not writable. For example, as shown in FIG. 1D, when a damage area 24 occurs in the user area 14, the writing machine may obtain a compensation area 22 from the main spare area 12, and the compensation area 22 has a dimension the same as that of the damage area 24. Referring to FIG. 1D, when the writing machine writes along the direction that the arrow 102 points at and reaches the damage area 24, the writing machine then jumps to the in the compensation area 22 where the arrow 104 points at. After the compensation is written, the writing machine jump back to the user area 14 at the position that the arrow 106 points at and continues writing. The same steps are repeated until the writing is complete.
In the above two occasions, if the main spare area 12 is run out, the backup spare area 26 as shown in FIG. 1E is open, so that the coverage of the user area 14 is thus reduced.
In the prior technique, the total capacity of the main spare area 12 and the backup spare area 26 is 146 Mega-bytes. While the backup spare area 26 is open, the user area is reduced to 4.58 Giga-bytes. The ratio of the spare area to the user area 14 is 3.2% (146/4580=3.2%). Generally speaking, the ratio is too low for practical application since the spare area is easily run out.
The invention provides rewritable DVD-RAM disc. The location and dimension of the DVD-RAM disc is changed to enlarge the usable area. The enlarged area can be flexibly applied to the user area, the main spare area or the backup spare area.
The invention provides a rewritable DVD-RAM disc with a track pitch of 0.615 microns, and a diameter of 120 mm. The DVD-RAM disc comprises a lead-out area starting side and a lead-out area ending side. The lead-out area starting side is distant from a center of the DVD-RAM disc with a length of about 57.889 mm to about 58.145 mm. The lead-out area ending side is distant from the center of the DVD-RAM disc with a length of about 58.493 mm to about 58.516 mm.
Both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


An apparatus and method for selectively loading and enabling software stored within firmware of an electronic device to support an input device coupled to the electronic device if a power switch is pressed and held for at least a predetermined period of time as the power switch is used to turn the electronic device on.

The use of a power switch to turn an electronic device, such as a computer system, on or off is very widely known. More recently, with the advent of proliferation of portable electronic devices, such as so-called "notebook" computers, the use of a switch to change the power state of an electronic device, causing an electronic device to enter or exit a "suspend" or "hibernate" or other power conserving state, has become widely known. It is also widely known to use switches, generally, to start or stop the execution of various software routines on electronic devices having a processor. Common examples of such a use of switches are "reset" switches that cause software already running on an electronic device to be stopped while also causing software routines to reinitialize that electronic device to be started, or "setup" switches that cause software routines that allow a user to set parameters for an electronic device to be started.
In the area of computer systems, it is common to run a combination of software during the normal use of a computer system, and it is also common for different combinations of software to be run when a computer system is being configured for normal use. Each piece of software that is run on a computer system makes use of that computer system's resources, most notably memory and processor time, and it is widely accepted that it is not desirable to waste such resources by loading and running pieces of software that are not needed. Commonly available computer systems are designed to run a variety of operating systems and applications software, and part of this flexibility is achieved by providing a wide-ranging set of software routines within a computer's built-in repository of firmware. Often, much of the function served by the software routines within the firmware was to provide support for an array of input and output devices, such as keyboards, displays, terminals and printers. Operating systems running on such computer systems would often rely on these software routines within the firmware to provide this support. One of the best known examples of this is the basic input/output software ("BIOS") found in read-only or erasable integrated circuits found on the main circuit board of widely available personal computers.
More recently, however, it has become common practice for operating systems to provide support for such input and output devices in order to allow greater flexibility in optimizing how these devices would interact with the operating system. As a result, operating systems have begun to rely progressively less and less on the software routines within the firmware, and this has begun to obviate the need to load and run such software routines.
However, despite this developing trend on the part of operating systems, such that the loading and running of such software routines within the firmware is often unnecessary during normal use of a computer system, there are still situations outside of normal use in which the loading and running of such software routines is desirable or even necessary. The most common example of such a situation is the running of setup software to configure a computer system for use. Often, setup software must be run to configure a computer system before an operating system can be loaded and run, and so there is no opportunity to make use of the support for input and output devices that might have been provided by an operating system.
Due to this continuing need to provide input and output device support ahead of loading and running an operating system, it is common for computer systems to be designed to always load and run the software routines within the firmware that provide such support, regardless of whether or not there is a need to do so. At a point after these software routines are loaded and support for input and output devices is now provided, it is common for user to be presented with the option to press a key on a keyboard connected to the computer system in order to start the setup software within the firmware. However, this wastes time, forcing the user of a computer system to wait while these software routines are loaded and run each time a computer system is turned on for the few occasions outside of normal use of the computer system where the user may desire to run such setup software.
The need exists to allow a user of an electronic device, such as a computer system, to be able to turn on the electronic device and to be able to choose at the time of doing so, what kinds of software will be run in order to allow the user to avoid unnecessary delays in turning on an electronic device for normal use.

Method and apparatus for use of power switch to control software


A file server program that performs proper load distribution among a plurality of file servers. One of the plurality of file servers judges whether to perform a process in compliance with a request to manipulate a file on the basis of judgment conditions predefined for judging which process of processes performed by a cluster it should take charge of when it receives the request to manipulate a file of requests to manipulate a file sent to the plurality of file servers included in the cluster. If it judges that it must perform a process in compliance with the request to manipulate a file, it performs a process on a storage device which it manages in compliance with the request to manipulate a file.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a file server program for manipulating a file in response to a request from another unit and, more particularly, to a file server program used on a computer included in a cluster.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, file servers have been used to share a file among a plurality of computers. A client computer (hereinafter referred to simply as a client) using file servers can obtain a necessary file by accessing the file servers via networks.
By the way, file servers on large-scale networks manage a vast number of files. Moreover, there are a large number of clients which use files. Therefore, a cluster is formed by a plurality of file servers and processes related to file manipulation (such as writing or reading a file) are distributed among the plurality of file servers. This reduces the load on each file server.
If a large number of files are managed distributively in this way by a plurality of file servers, each client must always realize which file server manages each file.
One method for making a client realize a file server which manages a file is to store file management information for the entire system on one of a plurality of file servers. Under this method, each client can realize a file server which manages a file by inquiring of a file server which stores file management information.
Another method for making a client realize a file server which manages a file is to define a certain rule as to determination of a file server which creates a directory for storing a file. Under this method, a file server which manages a directory manages files under this directory. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei5-233417 discloses an example of this method. According to the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei5-233417, a file server which creates a directory is determined under a rule which uses the identifier of the directory. Under this rule, a client specifies a file server which created the directory.
Under the conventional methods, however, it has been difficult to properly distribute a load.
That is to say, under the method of storing file management information for the entire system on one file server, the processing load on the file server which stores the file management information will increase with an increase in the number of files accessed.
Under the method of determining a file server which manages a file on the basis of a directory identifier, a limited number of file servers will create directories if there are many similar directory identifiers. For example, if a file server is determined on the basis of the first letter in a directory identifier, the processing load on a file server which creates a directory of an identifier beginning with a letter frequently used will be heavier than the processing loads on the other file servers.
If a load is not distributed properly, a delay in a file manipulation process will occur. This degrades the throughput of the entire cluster.
Moreover, in recent years transmission speeds on networks have increased. As a result, file write and read rates on file servers are slow, compared with data transfer rates on networks. Therefore, it is greatly hoped that file write rates and file read rates on file servers will be improved.


A vise assembly which is able, with one single operation, to adapt to a nut and to lock into position with respect to the nut positioned between a pair compressing jaws. The locking function is readily releasible with a releasing device. Thus, with one direction of rotation of the vise assembly the vise assembly is adapted to conform and lockingly engage the nut and with an opposite direction of rotation, the vise assembly jaws automatically release upon activation of the releasing device.

Actually, there are two fundamental kinds of vise assemblies or gripping devices: one with jaws that are fixed in position in accordance with the many different dimensions of nuts, and the other kind with movable jaws. In this last kind, for obtaining the locking and therefore the rotation of the nuts, the two jaws must be adapted to the different dimensions of said nuts through the movement of an adjustment screw or by means of other known methods.


A hierarchical representation encapsulates the detailed internal composition of a sub-circuit using the notion of a cell definition (a CellDef). The CellDef serves as a natural unit for operational reuse. If the computation required for the analysis or manipulation (e.g. parasitic extraction, RET, design rule confirmation (DRC), or OPC) based on a CellDef or one cell instance can be applied, with no or minimal additional effort, to all or a significant subset of other instances of the cell, very substantial reduction in computational effort may be realized. Furthermore, a hierarchical representation also allows for the partitioning of the overall analysis/manipulation task into a collection of subtasks, e.g. one per CellDef. Multiple jobs may then be distributed across a large number of computational nodes on a network for concurrent execution. While this may not reduce the aggregate computational time, a major reduction in the overall turnaround time (TAT) is in itself extremely beneficial.

The process of designing integrated circuits typically involves a functional design step, followed by a physical design step. During the functional design step, a design concept is described using a hardware description language and is then converted into a netlist, which specifies the electronic components and the connections between the components. The physical design step specifies the placement of the electronic components or elements on the chip and routing of the connections between the electronic components, thereby implementing the netlist. The physical design process generates the physical design data, which are synonymously called layout data, layout, or target layout.
The layout data defines a set of binary patterns or objects, which are also called "geometric features" or "features". Usually the objects are represented as a polygon or collection of polygons in the layout data in order to facilitate the specification of the objects.
Each object can be a part of an electronic component such as a gate of a transistor or a connection between components. Each polygon object has vertices and edges joining those vertices. Each vertex is usually defined by its coordinates in a Cartesian x-y coordinate system. In a typical very-large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit, most edges are parallel to the x or y axis, in a so-called Manhattan layout style.
Often the physical layout data are stored and transmitted in a machine-readable format such as GDSII format, OASIS™ format, or in a database such as OpenAccess database or Milkyway™ design database. See, for example, OpenAccess: The Standard API for Rapid EDA Tool Integration, ©2004 by Si2, Inc.; Milkyway Foundation Database for Nanometer Design, ©2003 by Synopsys, Inc.
In these formats or databases, the layouts are often described hierarchically. This has the advantage of reducing file sizes and improving efficiency for certain analysis or modification operations, since some repetitive patterns can be given certain unique names and then placed multiple times in the layout by simply referring to those names. Repeatedly describing or performing computations for the same structure in detail can thus be avoided.
In a hierarchical layout description, a cell is a collection of layout features that can be referenced as a whole object. Thus, cells can be included in the layout by reference. Inclusions by reference can further be nested.
Figuratively, the hierarchy of the layout resembles a tree. The leaves of a tree are attached to its branches. Branches are attached to larger branches. The hierarchy of branches continues until the trunk of the tree reaches its root. "Leaf cells" of a layout are cells that do not include any other cells by reference. A leaf cell comprises a set of primitive objects or features, which are usually polygons. A "child cell" is included in its "parent cell." A "root cell" is not included in any other. A layout can have multiple root cells, resembling a forest with multiple trees. And cells can be referenced any number of times within a single parent cell or by multiple parent cells.
Cell references can take one of two forms: a Structure Reference (SREF) or an Array Reference (AREF). A structure reference places an instance (a copy) of a cell at a particular (x,y)-offset within a parent cell. Each instance has some transformation information, which can often include translation, magnification, reflection, and/or rotation. An array reference describes multiple instances of a cell that are placed on a set of locations that form a regular grid or array. The array is defined by: 1) a number of rows; 2) a number of columns, 3) row and column spacings, 4) (x, y) offset of an instance; and 5) a set of magnification, reflection, and rotation that are common to all cells in the array.
If a layout does not have hierarchy, it is called flat. A layout can be flat as per design. Sometimes a hierarchical layout can be flattened. "Flattening a layout" means removing its hierarchical organization by replacing each cell reference by the set of geometric features contained in the cell that is referenced.
Semiconductor device manufacturing comprises many steps of patterning layers of silicon wafers according to the layout data. A layer is either the substrate of the semiconductor wafer or a film deposited on the wafer. At some steps, a pattern is etched into a layer. At some other steps, ions are implanted, usually in a pattern, into the layer. Generally, patterning comprises: lithographic exposure, resist development, and resist etching.
The prevalent form of lithography is optical projection lithography. This involves first making a mask or reticle that embodies the pattern to be projected onto the wafer. An image of the mask's pattern is then optically projected onto a photoresist film coated on the wafer. This selectively exposes the photoresist. The latent image is then developed, thereby making a stencil on the wafer.
Presently, the most common optical lithography projectors are stepper-scanners. These instruments expose a slit shaped region, which is often 26 millimeters (mm)×8 mm on the wafer. The wafer is scanned under the slit by a motorized stage under interferometer control. The mask is scanned in synchronization with the wafer but at a higher speed to account for the reduction of the projector (typically 4×). One scan typically exposes a 26 mm×33 mm image field. Step-and-repeat lithography projectors expose the wafer a field at a time. A common field size here is 22 mm×22 mm. In either case, many exposure fields are needed to cover the wafer.
Other forms of lithography include mask-less optical projection lithography, where the mask is replaced by a spatial light modulator. The spatial modulator is typically an array of micro-machined mirrors that are illuminated and imaged onto the wafer. The spatial light modulator is driven by the lithography data. Direct electron-beam writing lithography, electron projection lithography, and imprint lithography are other forms of lithography.
Modern semiconductor lithography processes often print features that are smaller than the exposure wavelength. In this regime, called the low-k1 regime, the field and wave nature of light is prevalent, and the finite aperture of the projection lens acts as a low-pass filter of spatial frequencies in the image. Thus, it may be difficult for the projection lens to reproduce the high spatial frequency components required to reproduce the sharp edges or corners in polygon objects, for example. Also, light entering a mask opening from one object may impact another shape in close proximity, leading to a complex interaction of the electric fields of adjacent objects. Thus, the final shapes that are produced on the wafer will often have rounded corners and may bulge towards adjacent objects in ways that can impact the process yield. This resulting image distortion, called optical proximity effect, is responsible for the most significant distortion that arises in the transfer of the mask pattern onto the wafer.
Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) is the process of changing, or pre-distorting, the target layout data to produce the lithography or mask data so that the pattern that is etched in the wafer is a closer replica of the target layout. The goal of OPC is to counter the distortions caused by the physical patterning process (see A. K-T Wong, Resolution enhancement techniques in optical lithography, SPIE Press, Vol. TT47, Bellingham, Wash., 2001; H. J. Levinson, Principles of Lithography, SPIE Press, Bellingham, Wash., 2001). In effect, the objects or polygons of the lithography data are modifications from those specified by the target layout in an effort to improve the reproduction fidelity of the critical geometric features. This is often accomplished by moving object edges and by adding additional objects to the layout to counter optical and process distortions. These corrections are required to ensure the intended target design pattern fidelity is met, improving the process window and consequently manufacturing yield.
Application of many resolution enhancement technologies (RET) can also have the effect of changing the layout data relative to the lithography data. RET also addresses distortion in the lithography process by pre-compensation. Typically, RET involves implementing a resolution enhancement technique such as the insertion of sub-resolution assist features (SRAF), phase shift enhancement using an attenuated phase mask, or designing a mask that includes quartz etching to introduce phase shifting across features.
Still further, functional requirements can lead to changes when migrating from the layout data to the lithography data. For example, electronic elements, including conductive traces and transistors, that lie on critical paths may be more aggressively modified to improve yields, possibly at the expense of other, lower priority paths.
In short, the target layout describes the pattern that the designer desires to render on the wafer to form the integrated circuit. It is usually different than the pattern that is actually rendered on the integrated circuit, and is therefore usually very different than the pattern submitted to the mask making process due to implementations of RET and OPC. Thus, the target layout, the lithography or mask data, and the pattern resulting on the wafer are typically distinct patterns.
Different techniques are used to simulate the transformation between the mask pattern and the pattern that is formed in the photo resist. The process for generating the OPC, RET, and other compensations for a given object or mask is typically an iterative process involving moving parts of or adding to the objects, and determining if the new objects result in a better resist pattern. In model-based OPC or RET, various process effects are simulated. Model-based OPC, for example, is a numerically intensive calculation that transforms the target layout into mask data.

Method and system for reticle-wide hierarchy management for representational and computational reuse in integrated circuit layout design


An shielded electrical connector comprises an insulating housing, a plurality of conductive contacts received in a plurality of passageways defined in the housing, and standoff means for standing off on a circuit board in either a vertical arrangement in which the front mating face of the main body faces an upward direction or a horizontal arrangement in which the mating face facing a lateral direction. A shielding device surrounds the housing for prevent from electromagnetic interference. The shielding device is either manufactured as a unitary piece by stamping and bending or further comprises second shell as a two-piece design. The conductive contacts comprises a front contacting section including a stress-releasing portion for distributing stresses.

1. Field of The Invention
The invention relates to an electrical connector, particularly to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector having shielding device thereon for latchably coupling to a complementary cable connector.
2. The Prior Art
There is a trend in the computer field to use USB connectors in place of most of the I/O connectors, such as D-Sub connectors and Mini-Dins. As can be seen in FIG. 1, a USB connector disclosed in Taiwan Patent Applications Nos. 84213585 and 84213586 assigned to the same applicant, generally designated at 1, mainly comprises an insulating housing 2, a front shell 3 and a rear shell 4. In assembling, a number of contacts (not shown) will be disposed in the housing and these contacts extend downward out of the housing 2 for wave soldering to an exterior circuit board. Thus, the transmission of electrical signals may be prevented from external electromagnetic interference owing to the shielding device. Other similar connectors of this type and their related parts can be found in Taiwan Patent Applications Nos. 85301901, 85301709, 79203382, 79204719, 79203005, 79211295, 81200270, 81204407, 82217806, 83101476 and 85202863. These connectors, however, encounter some problems.
In wave soldering, molten solders and flux may be sucked into the connectors owing to capillary effect because the bottoms of the connectors get too close to the surface of the circuit board they resting on. The molten solders and flux penetrated into the interior of the connectors may do harm to the transmission of electrical signals.
In addition, the housings of traditional connectors fall into the vertical type connectors and the horizontal type connectors to meet the requirements of different insertion directions of a mating connector. This increases both the manufacturing cost of the manufacturer and the inventory cost of the vendor.
Moreover, in some of the conventional connectors which grounding tabs are attached to the shielding device, different grounding tabs are attached to the shielding devices by means of various different securing means, such as bolt and nuts, fasteners, etc.; this also increases the inventory cost. While in the other conventional connectors which grounding tabs are integrally formed on the shielding device, such as the one disclosed in FIG. 1, a number of inward deflected grounding tabs 7 are integrally formed on the peripheries of a pair of symmetric openings 6 defined in the front surface of the shell 3 for engagement with the metal casing of a mating connector (not shown) to constitute grounding paths for the connector 1. This shielding device, however, has the shortcoming that it is difficult for a mating connector to be withdrawn from the connector 1 owing to the inward deflected grounding tabs 7.
Besides, some conventional connectors do not include grounding means possessing clipping function on their shielding devices, and thus may not provide an excellent engagement effect to a mating connector. Other connectors, though include grounding means possessing clipping function on their shielding devices, still provide poor engagement effect to a mating connector.
Furthermore, traditional connectors have a lower strength due to their structures, which encounter a deformation problem of the shielding device while a mating connector is inserted or withdrawn therefrom.
Hence, there is a need for a shielded electrical connector at can overcome the above-mentioned problems and shortcomings.


There is provided a microcomputer including therein a DRAM controller, the DRAM controller including a refresh controller for refreshing a DRAM and an access controller for controlling the access to the DRAM whereby the need of a DRAM controlling external circuit that suffers from severe timing adjustment is eliminated and hence the DRAM is made directly connectable to the microcomputer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microcomputer including a memory controller that refreshes a dynamic memory.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, a prior microcomputer is illustrated. In the figures, designated at 1 is a microcomputer and 2 is a dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The microcomputer 1 includes a DRAM controller 3 composed of a refresh controller (refresh control means) 3a. Designated at 4 is a central processing unit (CPU). The refresh controller 3a includes an interval counter 5 for counting an internal clock .phi., a memory control register (MCR) 6 for defining how many of the internal clock .phi. pulses should be counted, a bus priority decision circuit 7 for controlling a refresh request together with other bus requests, and a refresh address counter 8 for refreshing the DRAM2. Additionally, designated at 9 is an internal bus.
Operation of the prior microcomputer is as follows. The interval counter 5 counts the internal clock .phi. and issues a refresh request to the bus priority decision circuit 7 in a proper value of the counts defined by the MCR6 for every 32 .phi., for example from 32 .phi. to 256 .phi.. The bus priority decision circuit 7 controls the other bus requests such for example as those of a CPU bus access, a direct memory access controller (DMAC) bus access, and a bus access request by an external bus master, and updates the refresh address counter 8 to refresh the DRAM2 provided that the conditions are to respond to the refresh request. For the DRAM refreshing performed at that time RAS-only refreshing is usually available.
The prior microcomputer is constructed as described above, and the DRAM controller 3 is a refresh controller for obtaining the refresh timing, refresh address, and refresh signal for the DRAM2, without having any other function. On the contrary, in order to have an access to the DRAM2, there are required row/column address generator means for generating row/column addresses to be inputted into the DRAM2 in addition to the refresh controller 3a and access signal generator means for generating RAS and CAS signals for strobing the foregoing addresses, which are needed to be realized with an external circuit of the microcomputer shown in FIG. 8. These signals suffer from considerably severe timing thereamong, so that an external high speed TTL such as an AS (advanced Schottky) circuit, a digital delay line, and the like must be used for assuring in reserve the set-up time of a row address for the RAS signal and the holding time of the same, switching timing between row and column addresses, and the set-up and holding time of a column address for the CAS signal, etc.

Microcomputer including memory controller for DRAM

200
MS
File;900
MS
File
FSS 400 MS;425 MS
FSS 222


A fuel tank assembly includes a fuel tank having a plurality of side walls spaced apart by a floor. A flange extends downward from one of the plurality of side walls at an angle toward the floor. A fuel pump extends from the flange; the fuel pump and flange are arranged to fixedly position at least one inlet connected to the fuel pump at or in close proximity to the floor of the fuel tank. A fuel dam extends away from the floor and has at least one passage formed therein. The fuel dam is positioned so as to create an accumulated area of the fuel tank surrounding the at least one inlet. Fuel enters the accumulated area through the at least one passage and is received by the at least one inlet.

In automotive vehicles, a fuel pump is typically disposed within a fuel tank assembly. The fuel pump draws fuel from the fuel tank through the fuel lines for supply to the engine. Known fuel tanks utilize top-mounted fuel pumps having an inlet arranged to receive fuel from a separately constructed reservoir tank arranged within the fuel tank, i.e. a tank within a tank. Such arrangements use supplemental pumps that are arranged to transfer fuel from the fuel tank to the reservoir tank, thus requiring additional mechanical energy. Consequently, such fuel tank assemblies utilizing top mounted fuel pumps tend to be more costly to assemble and difficult to access for service.
Thus, there exists a need for a fuel pump and tank assembly that overcomes these and other disadvantages.

Fuel pump and tank assembly for an automotive vehicle


A fuel injection pump for internal combustion engines having a pump piston driven to reciprocate by a cam drive, guided axially in a cylinder bore of a cylinder bush in which with one face end the pump piston defines a pump work chamber. The control piston has on a jacket face an oblique control edge that cooperates with a control opening in the cylinder bore. This control opening is embodied in an oval shape for the sake of a slight prepumping effect at the injection onset and a rapid opening at the end of injection, and is disposed obliquely enough in the cylinder liner so that a longitudinal axis of the oval extends approximately parallel to the oblique control edge.

The invention is based on a fuel injection pump for internal combustion engines as defined hereinafter. In a fuel injection pump of this type known from German Patent 33 14 360, a pump piston is moved axially back and forth in a cylinder bore by a cam drive with its end remote from the cam drive, the pump piston defines a pump work chamber in the cylinder bore of a cylinder liner that can be supplied with fuel during a portion of the pump piston stroke via a radial control opening in the cylinder liner. The pump piston is rotatable via a governor rod and on its jacket face has an oblique control edge, communicating with the pump work chamber via a longitudinal groove, and with this control edge it cooperates with the radial control opening of the cylinder liner for the sake of varying the fuel injection quantity.
The contour of the control opening is embodied such that during the diversion process, a maximally large opening cross section is made available rapidly, so that the pump work chamber and an injection valve, connected to it via an injection line and protruding into the combustion chamber of the engine to be supplied, is pressure-relieved as fast as possible, which results in a fast closure of the injection valve. To that end, the control opening is in the shape of an egg, flattened on one long side; this flattened side is oriented toward the oblique control edge of the pump piston and cooperates with it during the diversion process. In the known fuel injection pump, however, the disadvantage arises that because of the embodiment of the upper end of the control opening as a circular arc with a very large radius, which is closed at the onset of fuel injection by the end of the pump piston remote from the cam drive, a very rapid pressure rise in the pump work chamber takes place. The result is even at the onset of combustion in the combustion chamber, a large fuel quantity is injected, which combusts abruptly and thus leads to severe strain on the component and is very noisy. Accordingly, with the known fuel injection pump it is not possible to adapt both the beginning and the end of high-pressure pumping in the pump work chamber optimally to the conditions of the engine to be supplied.

Fuel injection pump for internal combustion engines


Hydrogen atoms and crystal defects are introduced into an n− semiconductor substrate by proton implantation. The crystal defects are generated in the n− semiconductor substrate by electron beam irradiation before or after the proton implantation. Then, a heat treatment for generating donors is performed. The amount of crystal defects is appropriately controlled during the heat treatment for generating donors to increase a donor generation rate. In addition, when the heat treatment for generating donors ends, the crystal defects formed by the electron beam irradiation and the proton implantation are recovered and controlled to an appropriate amount of crystal defects. Therefore, for example, it is possible to improve a breakdown voltage and reduce a leakage current.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method for producing a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device, such as a diode or an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) including an n− type field stop layer, and a method for producing a semiconductor device.
B. Description of the Related Art
As a semiconductor device used in a power semiconductor device, for example, there is a diode or an IGBT with a breakdown voltage of 400 V, 600 V, 1200 V, 1700 V, 3300 V, or a higher one. The diode or the IGBT is used in a power conversion apparatus such as a converter or an inverter. The power semiconductor device requires good electrical characteristics, such as low loss, high efficiency, and a high breakdown voltage, and low costs. For example, a semiconductor device has been known in which a donor layer which will be an n-type field stop (FS) layer is provided in an n− drift layer to improve switching characteristics. The semiconductor device including the n-type FS layer according to the related art will be described using a diode as an example.
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a main portion of the diode including the n-type field stop layer according to the related art. In diode 100a shown in FIG. 6, p-type anode region 2 is formed in a first main surface (front surface 1b) of n− semiconductor substrate 1 which will be an n− drift layer that is so thin that a predetermined breakdown voltage is obtained. N+ cathode layer 3 is formed in a second main surface (rear surface 1a) of n− semiconductor substrate 1. Then, a plurality of p-type layers and a metal electrode coming into contact with the p-type layers which form junction edge termination structure 4 are formed in the outer circumference of p-type anode region 2 on the front surface 1b of n− semiconductor substrate 1 so as to surround p-type anode region 2.
Reference numeral 5 denotes an anode electrode, reference numeral 6 denotes a cathode electrode, reference numeral 8 denotes an insulating film, and reference numeral 9a denotes an n-type FS layer. A donor layer denoted by reference numeral 18a forms n-type FS layer 9a. N-type FS layer 9a is an n-type diffusion layer which has an impurity concentration higher than n− drift layer 1, has a high impurity concentration peak at a relatively deep position (for example, at a depth of 3 μm to several tens of micrometers) in the n− drift layer from rear surface 1a of n− semiconductor substrate 1, and has a large width (a large thickness) in the depth direction of the substrate.
In the diode or the IGBT having the above-mentioned structure, in order to improve the switching characteristics, a method has been known which generates crystal defects in the n− drift layer using electron beam irradiation and controls a carrier lifetime. In addition, in the diode or the IGBT, in order to reduce switching loss, it is necessary to control carrier concentration at a deep position from the front surface 1b to rear surface 1a of n− semiconductor substrate 1.
As a method of controlling the carrier concentration in n− semiconductor substrate 1 which will be an n− drift layer, a method has been known which performs proton implantation capable of forming a deep range in n− semiconductor substrate 1 from rear surface 1a of n− semiconductor substrate 1 at a relatively low acceleration voltage and generates donor layer 18a in an n− silicon substrate, which is n− semiconductor substrate 1, as shown in FIG. 6. This method performs proton implantation for a region including oxygen to form n-type FS layer 9a which is donor layer 18a including the crystal defects formed by the proton implantation.
FIG. 7 is a characteristic diagram illustrating a carrier concentration distribution on the line X1-X2 of FIG. 6. FIG. 7 illustrates the carrier concentration distribution of donor layer 18a which is formed in n− semiconductor substrate 1 by the proton implantation. As shown in FIG. 7, donor layer 18a formed by the proton implantation has an impurity concentration distribution in which impurity concentration has a peak position at a predetermined depth from rear surface 1a of n− semiconductor substrate 1 and is reduced from the peak position to p-type anode region 2 and n+ cathode layer 3. In FIG. 7, the vertical axis is carrier concentration B and the horizontal axis is a depth C from the interface between n+ cathode layer 3 and donor layer 18a (n-type FS layer 9a).
The proton implantation is used to control a lifetime killer, in addition to the generation of donors. A method has been known in which crystal defects serving as the lifetime killers are generated in the semiconductor substrate using the proton implantation. The generation of the crystal defects in the semiconductor substrate by the proton implantation makes it possible to control the carrier lifetime of the diode or the IGBT, but has an adverse effect on electrical characteristics. For example, the breakdown voltage is reduced or the leakage current is increased by the crystal defects. Therefore, it is possible to control the amount of crystal defects for generating donors and the amount of crystal defects which will be the lifetime killers at the same time.
The following Patent Literature 1 discloses heat treatment conditions required to obtain the desired element characteristics in a method of generating donors using proton implantation. The following Patent Literature 2 discloses oxygen concentration required to increase the donor generation rate in the generation of donors by proton implantation.
Patent Literature 1: United States Patent Application, Publication No. 2006/0286753
Patent Literature 2: Pamphlet of PCT International Publication No. 2007/55352

Semiconductor device and method for producing semiconductor device


Embodiments of a high-speed multiplexer latch are described. The multiplexer latch may include a multiplexer and a latch coupled to each other at a first node and a second node. The multiplexer latch may further include an inverter having an input and an output. The input of the inverter is also coupled to the latch at the second node and the output of the inverter is coupled to a data output terminal. The multiplexer latch may further include a bypass circuit coupled to the latch at the first node and the data output terminal.

Latch circuits, such as MUX latches, are widely used in various electronic products, such as memory devices. For instance, latch circuits may be used at memory outputs to hold data between cycles. This allows the memory cells to be disabled to save power. Moreover, latch circuits may also be used with precharge logic to speed up the access time of memory devices.
A conventional MUX latch is shown in FIG. 1. The conventional MUX latch 100 is used in a memory device. The data output from a core of the memory includes two sets of signals, data (dat0–datn) and their complements (dat_b0–dat_bn). The number of signals is determined by the number of memory banks that the memory is divided into. Typically, one data signal and its complement are output from each memory bank. In the reset state of the memory device, these signals are typically charged to a power supply Vcc. Depending upon the value of the data being read (1 or 0) and the bank being accessed, one of these signals is driven to Vgnd. The MUX latch 100 determines which input has discharged to Vgnd and holds the appropriate logic state even after all inputs have returned to Vcc.
The MUX latch 100 has a four-input pairs (dat0 to dat3 and dat0_b to dat3_b) MUX 110. The MUX latch 100 also has a latch 120 having two inverters 121 and 123, which are embedded inside the MUX 110. The latch 120 stores the previously read data value when the inputs are reset. When one of the input signals to the MUX 110 falls, either node d0 or node d1 is pulled up to Vcc and this value is stored in the latch 120. The MUX latch 100 further includes a five-input NAND gate 130 driven by the signal at node d0 and the signals dat0 through dat3. The NAND gate 130 causes the output signal qout 150 to begin switching before the nodes d0 and d1 reach their final values. This helps to prevent the set time of the latch 120 from being added to the propagation delay through the MUX latch 100.
However, the conventional MUX latch 100 in FIG. 1 suffers from some disadvantages as well. Typically, the five-input NAND gate 130 has a stack of five n-type Metal Oxide Semiconductor (nMOS) devices in its pull down path. This path is hence highly resistive and also has capacitive loading in its four intermediate nodes. If the nMOS devices are sized up to reduce path resistance, then gate capacitance of the nMOS devices increases and hence, node d0 is loaded by the extra gate capacitance. Also, in the worst case, a single p-type Metal Oxide Semiconductor (pMOS) transistor of the NAND gate 130 has to pull up the four intermediate nodes of its pull down path up to Vcc. This parasitic capacitance turns out to be significant and in order to get substantially equal rise and fall delays, the pMOS transistor size in the NAND gate 130 has to be made about 1.1× the size of the nMOS device instead of the expected 0.4×(2/5) factor. This further increases the capacitance of node d0, leading to more delay in the output transition of the MUX latch 100.


A method for the fabrication of water-repellent hardened moldings wherein the diorganopolysiloxane is not discharged into the effluent water during the molding or forming process and the molding itself is free of nonuniformities in its water repellency. The method for the preparation of water-repellent hardened moldings includes forming a slurry of a mixture including a calcareous raw material and a siliceous raw material in an arbitrary quantity of water; emulsifying a diorganopolysiloxane using nonionic surfactant and adding this emulsion to the slurry at a temperature at or above the cloud point of the nonionic surfactant; subsequentially draining off the water, then molding or forming, and finally drying or steam-curing to produce the water-repellent hardened molding.

Calcium silicate moldings and the recently popularized cement exterior wall materials have become essential building materials in the last few years, and are used as various types of insulating materials and as exterior wall panels for prefabricated housing and the like.
These calcium silicate moldings are prepared by dispersing lime and silicic acid in a large quantity of water and heating the resulting slurry. A crystalline structure (tobermorite, gyrolite, wollastonite, etc.) is formed that consists of a crystalline structure of calcium oxide, silicon dioxide, and water. Moldings are generally used that have been asbestos, etc.) in the slurry, pouring the slurry into a form, draining, molding, and drying or optionally steam-curing. The various types of exterior wall panels used for example, in prefabricated housing, consist of the strong, hard moldings prepared by dispersing cement, crushed silica, perlite, and asbestos to homogeneity in a large volume of water, pouring this into a form, draining, molding, and then steam-curing and drying.
At specific gravities of 0.2 to 0.5, these calcium silicate moldings have very good thermal insulating characteristics due to their high air contents. The so-called exterior wall panels typically have specific gravities within the range of 0.8 to 1.2. However, a common problem among these calcium silicate moldings has been their high water absorptiveness. For example, a calcium silicate molding immersed in water overnight will absorb about 80 to 95 weight % water. Water absorption rates of approximately 30 to 40 weight % occur even with exterior wall panels. The freezing of this absorbed water causes cracking and surface attrition, which of course is a prohibitive drawback to the application of such panels in cold-weather regions. Another problem with these materials is that their absorption of large quantities of water impairs their thermal insulating performance.
In response to these problems, there have been numerous attempts at equipping calcium silicate moldings with a native water repellency through the addition thereto of diorganopolysiloxane or a diorganopolysiloxane emulsion prepared using anionic surfactant. For example Japanese Patent Application Laid Open [Kokai] Number Sho 59-92963 [92.963/1984], Japanese Patent Publication [Kokoku] Number Hei 2-58227 [58.227/1990]. Japanese Patent Publication Number Hei 2-15511 [15.511/1990]. Japanese Patent Publication Number Hei 1-58148 [58.148/1989]. and Japanese Patent Publication Number Hei 1-35790 [35.790/1989] propose such methods.
However, these known methods suffer from several problems. When a diorganopolysiloxane is added to a large volume of water-based slurry, this diorganopolysiloxane, being insoluble in water, does not become uniformly dispersed in the slurry. This results in an uneven manifestation of the water repellency. On the other, absorption by the diorganopolysiloxane is unsatisfactory in the case of the addition of an anionic surfactant-based diorganopolysiloxane emulsion. This results in the release of diorganopolysiloxane into the waste water, which creates problems for water purification.
The present invention pertains to a method for the preparation of water-repellent hardened moldings by using an emulsion that is readily broken in the type of slurry under consideration. The emulsion may be readily broken in the type of slurry under consideration when a diorganopolysiloxane with a specific structure is emulsified using nonionic surfactant that has a cloud point and this emulsion is then mixed into the slurry at a temperature at or above this cloud point. This results in almost no release of diorganopolysiloxane into the effluent during the sheet fabrication process.
The present invention takes as its object the introduction of an efficient method for the fabrication of uniformly water-repellent hardened moldings that does not release diorganopolysiloxane into the effluent during the molding process and that provides moldings in which there is no variation in water repellency.

Method for the preparation of water-repellant hardened moldings


An x-ray diffraction measurement apparatus for measuring a sample, having an x-ray source and detector coupled together in a combination for coordinated rotation around the sample, such that x-ray diffraction data can be taken at multiple phi angles. The apparatus may provide a pole figure representation of crystal orientation of the sample, wherein the pole figure represents the crystal alignment, and a full width half maximum value is calculated from the pole figure for crystal alignment quantification. Data may be taken at discrete positions along a length of the sample, and the sample is in a fixed position during measuring; or data may be taken continuously along a length of the article, as the sample continuously moves along its length in a movement path between the source and detector. The sample may be in the form of a tape, linearly passing through a measurement zone.

X-ray analysis techniques have been some of the most significant developments in twentieth-century science and technology. The use of x-ray diffraction, spectroscopy, imaging, and other x-ray analysis techniques has led to a profound increase in knowledge in virtually all scientific fields.
One existing class of surface analysis is based on diffraction of x-rays directed toward a sample. The diffracted radiation can be measured and various physical properties, including crystalline structure and phase, and surface texture, can be algorithmically determined. These measurements can be used for process monitoring in a wide variety of applications, including the manufacture of semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, specialty metals and coatings, building materials, and other crystalline structures. This measurement and analysis process requires the detection of diffracted x-ray information at multiple locations in reference to the sample. Conventional diffraction systems are large, expensive and prone to reliability problems. Their size, cost, and performance limit their use to off-line "laboratory" settings.
There is a strong drive in the market for applying this technology to in-line process monitoring—allowing real-time process control. This type of in-line or "in-situ" measurement leads to certain practical concerns—such as the need for smaller instruments, and for sample handling and excitation/detection techniques compatible with the surrounding production environment. For example, the sample may be continuously moving past the instrument on a movement path. The technique must be compatible with both the sample movement and the movement path.

Method and system for X-ray diffraction measurements using an aligned source and detector rotating around a sample surface


An interventionalist or operator uses a variety of apparatus 30 including tools, tool guides, and pointers in a procedure on a region of interest. The region of interest was previously the subject of a diagnostic imaging procedure to generate three dimensional diagnostic image data, selective slices or other portions of which are displayable on video monitors 34. The position of the apparatus 30 in operator space is determined by actuating emitters 32, receiving the emitted signals with receivers 12, and calculating the position of the pointer in operator space. A pair of radio translucent constructions 14, 16 each carry a plurality of radiopaque markers 18 which are positioned adjacent the region of interest. Two or more projection images are taken through the region of interest and the radiopaque markers using a movable x-ray tube 22 and radiation detector 24. The operator uses a control 36 to position cursors on corresponding anatomical markers in both the projection images and images from the diagnostic data to determine a correlation or transform between projection image space and diagnostic data space. The operator positions a tip of the pointer 30 on each of the radiopaque markers and actuates the emitters 32 to determine the position of the radiopaque markers in operator space, i.e. to correlate operator space with projection image space. In this manner, the correlation or transform between operator space and diagnostic data space is generated through the intermediary of projection image space.

The present invention relates to the medical diagnostic and surgical arts. It finds particular application in conjunction with stereotactic surgery and will be described with particular reference thereto. It will be appreciated, however, that the invention will also find application in conjunction with minimally invasive surgery, neurosurgery, neurobiopsy, CT-table needle body biopsy, breast biopsy, endoscopic procedures, orthopedic surgery, other invasive medical procedures, industrial quality control procedures, and the like.
Three-dimensional diagnostic image data of the brain, spinal cord, and other body portions is produced by CT scanners, magnetic resonance imagers, and other medical diagnostic equipment. These imaging modalities typically provide structural detail with a resolution of a millimeter or better.
Various frameless stereotactic procedures have been developed which take advantage of the three-dimensional image data of the patient. These procedures include guided-needle biopsies, shunt placements, craniotomies for lesion or tumor resection, and the like. Another area of frameless stereotaxy procedure which requires extreme accuracy is spinal surgery, including screw fixation, fracture decompression, and spinal tumor removal.
In one prior art technique, the fiducials or other markers which are imaged substantially as points in the diagnostic imaging process are affixed to the patient's head or other stable region of interest before the image data is generated. In this manner, the fiducials appear as points in the resultant image data. Before the frameless stereotaxy procedure, a pointer is touched to each of the fiducials and actuated to generate a position indicating signal. By touching the pointer to several fiducials and actuating it, a plurality of points corresponding to the fiducials are determined in the coordinate system of the pointer, operator space. The coordinates of the fiducials are readily identified in the coordinate system of the diagnostic data. As illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,913, once a plurality of corresponding coordinates are known in two different coordinate systems, the mathematical transform for transforming coordinates of one coordinate system into the other is readily calculated.
For some medical procedures, the use of fiducials is inconvenient or inappropriate. For example, in spine surgery, the spine is separated from the outer surface of the skin by muscle and fat tissue. Accordingly, fiducials affixed to the skin during an imaging procedure are apt to shift relative to the spine, when the patient moves. However, the spine itself has many small, distinctive structures, such as points that are readily identified in the diagnostic image. Once the surgery is started and the spine is exposed, the pointer is positioned on these distinctive structures and actuated to mark the structures in the pointer coordinate system. The corresponding points in the diagnostic image are identified and their coordinates determined. In this manner, natural, anatomical fiducials are used instead of artificial fiducials. They are again imaged in a fixed relationship to the region of interest during the imaging procedure.
However, there are other regions of the anatomy, such as the organs, to which fiducials cannot be attached conveniently and which lack pointer accessible, accurate anatomical fiducials or marker points.
The present invention provides a new and improved apparatus and method which overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.

Non-invasive spine and bone registration for frameless stereotaxy


An electronic apparatus includes a composite connector including a plurality of digital signal terminals and a plurality of analog signal terminals, the plurality of digital signal terminals including at least a pair of differential signal terminals; and a wiring board on which the plurality of digital signal terminals and the plurality of analog signal terminals are arranged. The plurality of analog signal terminals and the plurality of digital signal terminals are arranged and disposed in line on the wiring board. The plurality of analog signal terminals are not disposed between the pair of differential signal terminals. The plurality of analog signal terminals are disposed between the plurality of digital signal terminals other than the pair of differential signal terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composite connector to which a digital signal or an analog signal is transmitted, and to an electronic apparatus including the composite connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic apparatus is provided with a universal serial bus (USB) connector for communication with a personal computer (PC). An A connector at a PC side (corresponding to a host) and a B connector at an apparatus side are connected to each other with a USB cable, to exchange data. In a small portable electronic apparatus, such as a digital camera or a video camera, a mini-B connector is mounted and used for exchanging photographed images or for exchanging data when directly operating the portable electronic apparatus using the PC. When one wants to print out the photographed images, the portable electronic apparatus is directly connected to a printer. When peripheral devices are connected to each other, a mini-A connector, which is a downsized version of the A connector, may be used. USB signal lines include signal lines D+ and D− and power supply lines VBUS and GND. The signal lines are used to transmit differential signals. Two signal lines are provided for transmitting one signal, to transmit the signal on the basis of a potential difference thereof. In addition, a signal line including an ID signal used in a USB On-The-Go Standard is available. Here, the USB On-The-Go Standard makes it possible to transfer data as a result of directly connecting electronic apparatuses to each other using a USB cable instead of connecting them through the PC.
As an image output terminal, an AV terminal is mounted to a digital camera or a video camera. An AV cable is connected to a monitor or an audio device to output an image or a sound.
Since, for example, the shape of a USB cable plug differs from the shape of an AV cable plug, receptacle connectors are disposed in correspondence with the respective plugs in the apparatus. However, the volume occupied by the USB connector and an AV connector in the apparatus is large. This is a serious hindrance to reducing the size of the electronic apparatus. Accordingly, a technology which makes it possible to insert the mini-A connector and the mini-B connector into one connector is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-59351.
Data transfer speed of the USB tends to increase. USB2.0 has Hi-speed, Full-speed, and Low-speed communication modes. In the Hi-speed communication mode, high-speed communication is performed at 480 Mbps. A characteristic impedance required of a USB transmission path is equal to a differential impedance of 90Ω±15%. It is necessary to perform impedance control on a pair of D+ and D− signals (which are USB differential signals). Various considerations need to be made for maintaining communication, such as making the lengths of wires equal to each other for ensuring the quality of signals, and adjusting the widths and thicknesses of the wires so that the impedance is set at a prescribed value.
The high-speed differential signals generate radiation noise as a result of moving in a board, a connector, or a cable. The noise generated from a circuit in another apparatus may be transmitted along the USB cable or the AV cable and radiated to the outside. Therefore, the influence of radiation noise on other apparatuses is becoming a problem. To overcome this problem, a common mode choke coil is inserted in the USB differential signals or a bead is inserted in audio and video signal lines.
However, when a connector in which two types of plugs can be inserted is used, different signal lines for USB signals and AV signals are mixed, thereby making it difficult to overcome radiation noise and to maintain the quality of the signals.
FIG. 14 is a rear perspective view of a conventional connector. Reference numeral 400 denotes a connector in which two types of plugs can be inserted. Terminals are drawn out for mounting the connector 400 to a wiring board from the rear side of the connector. In FIG. 14, USB signals move at the upper side; and other signals, such as AV signals, move at the lower side. USB signal lines are drawn out straight, and lower AV signal lines are bent toward both sides and drawn out. An arrangement of pins at the upper USB side is prescribed on the basis of a USB standard. Reference numeral 401 denotes USB signal terminals, reference numeral 402 denotes a USB GND terminal (USB ground terminal), reference numeral 403 denotes an ID terminal, reference numeral 404 denotes a D+ terminal, reference numeral 405 denotes a D− terminal, and reference numeral 406 denotes a Vbus terminal. Reference numeral 407 denotes AV terminals, which are disposed at respective sides of the USB signal terminals 401. Since the AV terminals are separated at the respective sides, they need to be disposed on respective sides of the USB differential signals.
In FIG. 15 showing another conventional example, USB terminals 401 are disposed at the upper side, and AV terminals 407 are disposed at the lower side. These terminals are substantially alternately drawn out. In this case, the AV terminals 407 are disposed between a USB differential signal terminal D+ 404 and a differential signal terminal D− 405 on a wiring board. This may influence signals thereof. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-59351 does not discuss the quality of the signals and noise.

Composite connector and electronic apparatus thereof


A plural number of letters or characters, inferred from the results of letter/character recognition of an image photographed by a CCD camera (20), a plural number of kana readings inferred from the letters or characters and the way of pronunciation corresponding to the kana readings are generated in an pronunciation information generating unit (150) and the plural readings obtained are matched to the pronunciation from the user acquired by a microphone (23) to specify one kana reading and the way of pronunciation (reading) from among the plural generated candidates.

A mechanical apparatus performing the movement similar to the movement of the human being, as a living organism, using electrical or magnetic operations, is termed a robot. In this nation, the robot began to be used towards the end of sixties. The majority of the robots used were industrial robots, such as manipulators or transfer robots, aimed to automate productive operations in a plant for dispensing with human labor.
Recently, development of a utility robot, supporting the human life as a partner of the human being, that is, supporting the human activities in various situations of our everyday life, such as in living environment, is proceeding. In distinction from the industrial robot, the utility robot has the faculty of learning the method for adapting itself to the human users different in personality or to variable aspects in different situations of the human living environment. For example, legged mobile robots, such as a pet type robot, simulating the physical mechanism or the movements of four-legged animals, such as dogs or cats, or a humanoid robot, designed after the bodily mechanism of the human being, standing erect and walking on two legs, and after their behavior, are already being put to practical use. These legged mobile robots, having the appearance extremely close to that of the animal or the human being, capable of behaving similarly to the animals or the human being, in contradistinction from the industrial robots, and also of performing various entertainment-oriented actions, are sometimes called entertainment robots.
Among the legged mobile robots, there are those having small-sized cameras, equivalent to eyes, and sound collecting microphones, equivalent to ears. In this case, the legged mobile robots execute image processing on acquired images to recognize the surrounding environment, input as the image information, or to recognize the "language" from the input surrounding sound.
In particular, the technique of recognizing the speech, acquired form outside, for converting it into letters or characters, or of recognizing the speech to make a reply, is being used not only in the legged mobile robots but also in various electronic equipment, such as personal computers.
In conventional speech recognition techniques, a dictionary for speech recognition (referred to below as a dictionary for recognition), in which the pronunciation of a given word is stored in association with its notation, is used for speech recognition. This technique has a deficiency that a word not registered in the dictionary for recognition cannot be recognized. Moreover, in recognizing the pronunciation of a word sequence, such as a sentence, the words registered in the dictionary for recognition must be combined together. That is, if there is any word or words, not as yet registered in the dictionary for recognition, is contained in a sentence, such sentence is misrecognized, or cannot be recognized.
Taking an example of " (name of a station, uttered as kita shinagawa)", if "" has not been registered in the dictionary for recognition, the pronunciation of "" or the pronunciation containing "", such as the speech comprised of a sequence of words, e.g., "  (Where is Kitshinagawa?, uttered as kitashinagawawa, dokodesuka) "cannot be recognized, or the portion of "" is misrecognized. Thus, for allowing to recognize words not registered in the dictionary for recognition, unregistered words need to be registered anew additionally.
In the dictionary for recognition, owned by the speech recognition device for enabling speech recognition, a "word symbol" for a given word, as an identifier for distinguishing the word from other words, is associated with a "PLU sequence" representing the pronunciation information for the word in question. The PLU (phoneme-like unit) is to be an acoustic or phonetic unit. The speech uttered can necessarily be expressed as a combination of PLUs (PLU sequence).
Therefore, if a word is to be registered in the dictionary for recognition, it is only necessary to add a word symbol and an associated PLU sequence. It is noted however that, in order for a word symbol and an associated PLU sequence to be added in this manner, the notation of "" or "kitashinagawa" needs to be able to be input directly, using suitable inputting means, such as a keyboard.
Thus, in case of e.g., a robot apparatus not having such inputting means, e.g., a keyboard, there is such a method in which the pronunciation of a word acquired as speech is acoustically recognized to obtain a PLU sequence for an unknown word. In this case, recognition is with use of a garbage model. The garbage model, applied only to Japanese, is such a model in which the speech is represented as a combination of "phonemes" as basic unit for pronunciation, or as a combination of kana (Japanese syllabary) as basic units for word reading.
In a conventional speech recognition device, a garbage model is applied to obtain the results of recognition by speech, a word symbol is applied to the results of recognition and these are associatively registered as a new word in the dictionary for recognition.
It should be noted that the "phoneme" and "PLU" are approximately synonymous and that the "PLU sequence" represents the pronunciation of a word formed by concatenation of plural PLUs.
The conventional technique for speech recognition, applying the garbage model, has a deficiency that recognition accuracy tends to be lowered by a delicate difference in the way of pronunciation from user to user, even though the words uttered is the same, by weakness of particular phonemes, such as /s/ in a beginning part of the word, that are necessarily liable to be misrecognized, due to changes in the phonemes caused by surrounding noise, or due to failure in detecting the speech domains.
In particular, if the speech recognition device is applied to the robot apparatus, the speech collecting microphone on the side speech recognition device is separated away from the user, in a majority of cases, so that mistaken recognition is likely to be produced frequently.
In case " (name of a station, uttered as kita shinagawa)" is to be recognized, the result of recognition tends to be recognized as being for example a PLU sequence "hitotsunanoga" or "itasunaga:" which is analogous with but is not the same as "" in pronunciation. If speech recognition is performed using a dictionary for recognition, the word registration of which has been made by such method, not only is the recognition accuracy lowered, but also display errors due to mistaken recognition is produced. That is, since incorrect PLU sequences are conferred to newly registered words, the accuracy with which this word is recognized is lowered.
In case the other user than the user who input a word utterd the word, even though "" has been registered in the dictionary for recognition, there were occasions where the pronunciation containing the word "" can not be recognized due to a difference in an accent from user to user.
Moreover, if the results of speech recognition are converted into letters or characters for display, there are occasions where mistaken letters or characters are demonstrated, because the information as to display has not been conferred to the newly registered word. If, after registering "" with speech, the user uttered " (I want to go to Kitashinagawa, uttered as kitashinagawa ni yukitai)" to the speech recognition device, the display may be "hitotsunanoga  (I want to go to hitotsunanoga, uttered as hitotsunanoga ni yukitai)" or " (I want to go to hitotsunanoga, uttered as hitotsunanoga ni yukitai)", even though the pronunciation "" has correctly been recognized by the speech recognition device. There is also an inconvenience that, when the speech recognition device repeats the PLU sequence as the results of recognition by speech synthesis, only the portion of the PLU sequence of the synthesized newly recognized word be uttered as an unnatural junction in the entire PLU sequence.
Additionally, if a new word is registered by the garbage model, it is not possible to register the information concerning the attributes of the registered word, such as part-of-speech or meaning. For example, if "" has been registered, it is not possible to register the information as to whether the word is a noun or a place name. The result is that, if the grammatical rule for particular expressions, such as "<>+++ (where is the <word indicative of place name>?, uttered as <chimeiwo arawasugo>+wa+doko+desu+ka)" is pre-recorded in for example the grammar for dialog or a language model for recognition, such rule cannot be applied to the newly registered word. Although word attributes can be input with speech, at the time of registration, the user is required to be aware of the word attributes. Moreover, it is troublesome for the user to input not only the word but also the word attribute for registration.

Robot apparatus, method and device for recognition of letters or characters, control program and recording medium


An indexable glass shipping apparatus that can be used in conjunction with reusable steel racks or other glass shipment racks. The apparatus includes a catalog made up of a plurality of sheets of shock absorbent material, spaced from each other to accommodate glass panes between. The sheets are fastened together by a series of fasteners located along a lower edge of the catalog. In one embodiment, the lower edge is journaled to conform to the shape of a steel rack, to minimize any risk of longitudinal movement of the catalog on the rack. The sheets of the catalog may be indexed to facilitate selection of glass panes. In addition, an outer protective cover is provided, that is secured to the outside of the catalog after it is mounted on the glass shipment rack. The lower edge of the cover is supplied with a pair of camming levers that engage longitudinal rails of the glass shipment rack, and the upper end of the cover is supplied with a quick release strap mechanism that allows ready access to glass panes in the catalog.

Planar glass panes are produced, cut to specific size, and shipped to users. Frequently, a multiplicity of glass panes of different sizes are shipped to the same customer, and are transported on a single glass shipping rack. As explained below, while this facilitates mass glass shipment, it hinders the customer in selection of the order in which individual glass panes must be removed from the shipping rack.
Currently, there are at least three apparatus in use for shipping plate glass. One means is to pack the glass plates in a wooden case, which provides good protection, but incurs a relatively high cost in construction, packing and disposal. The wood case must be inclined before opening to ensure that the glass will not fall out. This is typically achieved by leaning the case against a wall, post, or an A-frame style rack. Unless the wooden case is covered by a top, the glass can be wetted or otherwise damaged by environmental conditions. Moreover, unless all the glass panes in the case are of the same size, the panes must be moved individually and sorted to allow selection of each particular pane, as needed by the customer. This sorting operation requires space, labor, and increases the risk of breakage.
As an alternative to wooden cases, steel reusable racks are also presently in use. These racks, an embodiment of which is illustrated in FIG. 1, can be of the L-frame-type or the A-frame type. Since these frames are reusable, they offer the advantage of reduced overall cost compared to wooden racks, but they have a higher initial investment cost, and there is an additional freight cost for returning empty racks to the glass supplier. There are several different methods for securing plate glass to steel racks. These range from simple cords or ropes to padded bars that can be adjusted to suit a particular load requirement. Because the glass plate leans against the rack structure, any restraint used to secure the glass during transportation can be removed without risk of glass falling and breaking. Racks are typically constructed to be handled with forklifts, cranes or other common material handling machines.
In the case of steel racks, as in wooden racks, organizing the order of the glass on the rack is dictated by reduction of the risk of breakage. Thus, the largest sized pieces are loaded first, followed by progressively smaller panes. However, this may not be the order in which the customer desires to utilize the glass panes. Accordingly, steel racks suffer from the same shortcoming as wooden cases in that additional handling of the glass panes is necessary to arrange them in the proper order for use.
Plate glass is also shipped on harp racks or slot racks, which include a series of covered cables strung tight to a framework to act as separators and to support individual panes of glass. This type of rack is advantageous because it allows the user to store or retrieve the glass in any order necessary to facilitate efficient utilization. However, this type of rack requires more physical space for storage because each slot requires a separation area from the adjacent slot. Moreover, the overall size of the rack must physically accommodate the largest possible glass pane. Furthermore, the glass panes are not entirely separated from each other, and can scratch or damage adjacent panes when inserted or withdrawn from the rack. Finally, it is a major disadvantage of this type of rack that it can only be used on a flat floor surface, because the glass cannot be secured to the rack. Thus, the rack is unsuitable to ship the glass panes to another location.
There exists a need for a method of shipping glass plate from one facility to another that allows the customer ease of selection between the panes being shipped, and that reduces the risk of glass breakage.


An RFID tag 10 attachable to an article in use that includes an RFIC module including an RFIC chip and a helical coil connected to the RFIC chip, and an antenna member that is a threadlike conductor having a portion helically wound on the RFIC module around a winding axis extending parallel to an extending direction of a coil axis of the helical coil.

RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification) tags attached to cloth products such as linen in use are conventionally known. For example, the RFID tag described in Patent Document 1 (identified below) has a main antenna sewn on a cloth product, and a loop antenna connected to a semiconductor device and disposed near the main antenna. A magnetic field coupling between the main antenna and the loop antenna causes the RFID tag to perform wireless communication.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 5912398.
However, in the case of the RFID tag described in Patent Document 1, a degree of coupling between the main antenna and the loop antenna is small, so that a long communication distance cannot be ensured.

RFID tag, article including RFID tag, and method of manufacturing article