A silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material having, on a support, at least each one light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers containing yellow-, magenta-, or cyan-dye-forming-coupler, and at least one light-insensitive hydrophilic colloid layer, wherein at least one of the dye-forming couplers is a dye-forming coupler that forms an azomethine dye having a solubility of 1×10−8 mol/L to 5×10−3 mol/L in ethyl acetate; and an image forming method using the light-sensitive material.

As a material that provides a high quality image with image stability at a low price, a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material has been widely used until today. Demands for improvements on image quality, stability of quality and productivity by users have been remarkably increasing in recent years. As to the demands for improvements on image quality, it is wanted to improve pure whiteness, color reproduction, sharpness, etc. As to the demands for improvements on quality stability, it is necessary to improve production stability of a light-sensitive material, fastness with the lapse of time in the unexposed state, and performance stability during developing processing. As to the improvement in productivity, improvements on processing speed are wanted.
In photographic light-sensitive materials for direct view such as a color paper and a color reversal, first of all color reproduction is important. For improvement of color reproduction, it is essential that dyes formed by a coupling reaction between a dye-forming coupler (hereinafter sometimes referred to simply as "a coupler") and an oxidized product of aromatic primary amine compound (specifically an oxidized p-phenylenediamine-series color developing agent) have small unwanted absorption and they are excellent in absorption characteristics. In addition, it is important to reduce a residual color owing to remaining sensitizing dyes and dyes for prevention of irradiation (irradiation-neutralizing dyes) and also fogging. A secondary importance is to have high image preservability after formation of color images. Therefore, this industry has conducted studies of long-term stabilization of color images through effective control of decomposition of dyes by light and heat, e.g., with the aid of selection of couplers and high boiling organic solvents to be used, and addition of image stabilizers.
In recent photographic processing service business, color prints from digital information sources, such as digital cameras, have come to be obtained with ease and rapidity by virtue of widespread use of printing devices utilizing digital exposure, and there has been a growth in occasion to produce image outputs in the form of color prints. For the color printing business, efficiency enhancements including reduction in time period from print exposure to color development processing has been required mainly with the intention of increasing a production speed in photofinishing laboratory and improving customer service. Examples of a general method for improving rapid processing suitability of color photographic light-sensitive materials include:    (1) Reduction in a coating amount of organic materials by means of, for example, employing a coupler that forms a dye having a large molar extinction coefficient,    (2) Reduction in a coating amount of a silver halide emulsion attendant upon (1),    (3) Reduction in both a coating amount of a hydrophilic binder and a thickness of the entire photographic constitutional layers attendant upon (1),    (4) Employment of a coupler having a high activity, and    (5) Employment of a silver halide emulsion that can be processed at a high developing speed.In order to provide a photosensitive material suitable for ultra-rapid processing in color-development and desilvering steps, this industry also has tried reduction in coating amounts of silver in a photosensitive material by means of, for example, employment of a coupler that can form a dye having a high molar extinction coefficient and has made efforts to achieve [1] and [2] for the purpose of preventing undesired stains from occuring by leaving ingredients of processing solutions in processed prints.
Examples of couplers having high activity and high molecular extinction coefficient, suitable for the foregoing photosensitive materials, as improved couplers of conventional acylacetanilide-series compounds include 1-alkylcyclopropanecarbonylacetanilide-series compounds (cf. JP-A-4-218042 ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application)), cyclic malonediamide-type yellow couplers (cf. JP-A-5-11416), heterocyclic acetanilide yellow couplers (cf. JP-A-2003-173007), pyrazoloazole magenta couplers (cf. JP-A-63-041851 and JP-A-6-043611), pyrroloazole-type cyan couplers (cf EP-A1-0488248 and EP-A1-0291197) and pyrrolotriazole-type cyan couplers (cf. JP-A-2001-342189 and JP-A-2002-287311).
Such couplers are generally formed into fine-particle dispersions of lipophilic components including couplers and other ingredients soluble in organic solvents and incorporated in hydrophilic colloid layers. More specifically, the lipophilic components include couplers, high boiling organic solvents, polymers insoluble in water and soluble in organic solvents, and various other organic materials used, e.g., for prevention of color-mixing and image stabilization. Of these organic materials, high boiling organic solvents have been studied in this industry also because they not only have been used as coupler solvents, but also they affect many photographic properties, such as the fastness of photosensitive materials after production, color forming performance upon color development processing, and the preservability of color images after formed.
However, it was not always sufficient to merely adopt the above couplers capable of forming dyes with high molecular extinction coefficient for achievement of further improvements in rapid processing suitability through the aforementioned reductions in coating amounts of organic materials and the total thickness of photographic constituent layers. Although a photosensitive material suitable for washing and drying steps in ultra-rapid processing can be obtained by reduction in usage of organic materials other than couplers, such as high boiling organic solvents, and its accompanying reduction in usage of gelatin binder, cases sometimes occurred in which color formation characteristics, hue and image preservability are impaired. Further, there were cases where organic materials in a photosensitive material migrated between their constituent layers during time-lapse storage to aggravate undesirable uneven density. Of these migrations, fears have been entertained as to interlayer migration of color-mixing inhibitors in particular.
There are known photographic elements and arts, such as the photographic element having a color enhancing layer between an emulsion layer and a color-mixing inhibiting layer (cf U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,159), the color photographic light-sensitive materials wherein a coupler-containing layer and an emulsion layer are adjacent to each other as separate layers (cf. JP-A-4-75055 and EP-0062202-A1), the multilayered photographic element made up of light-sensitive layers and light-insensitive dye-forming layers without containing any color-mixing inhibiting layer (cf. U.S. Pat. No. 6,268,116), and the art of forming a color-mixing inhibiting interlayer into a multilayer structure made up of light-insensitive inter layers having color-mixing inhibiting property different from one another (cf JP-A-4-110844).
However, when ultra-rapid processing is carried out actually, it is further required to overcome various problems including compatibility between the foregoing rapid processing suitability and image preservability.

Silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material and image forming method


Embodiment of the present invention disclose an array substrate and a manufacturing method thereof, and the manufacturing method of an array substrate comprises the following steps: Step S1: a gate electrode metal layer, an insulating layer and an active layer are deposited successively on a substrate, and gate electrodes, gate lines and an active layer pattern are formed through a first mask process; Step S2: a protective layer is deposited on the substrate after completion of the step S1, and via-holes are formed in the protective layer through a second mask process; and Step S3: a pixel electrode layer and a source/drain electrode metal layer are deposited sequentially on the substrate after completion of the step S2, and source/drain electrodes, pixel electrodes and data lines are formed through a third mask process.

Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Displays (TFT-LCDs) occupy a dominant position in the current flat panel display market because of the features of small volume, low power consumption and no radiation, etc. For a TFT-LCD, an array substrate and a manufacturing method thereof determine the performance, yield and price of a product. In order to effectively reduce the production cost of the TFT-LCD and improve the yield, the manufacturing process of the array substrate of the TFT-LCD is gradually simplified, and it has been developed from seven mask (7 mask) processes at the beginning to four mask (4 mask) processes on a basis of a slit photolithography technique.
The 4 mask processes adopted for manufacturing an array substrate in the prior art mainly comprise the following steps: Step S11, Gate electrodes and gate lines are formed on a substrate; Step S12, an insulating layer is deposited on the gate electrodes and the gate lines; Step S13, an active layer is deposited on the insulating layer; Step S14, a source/drain electrode layer is deposited on the active layer; Step S15, a PVX protective layer is deposited on the source/drain electrode layer, and via-holes are formed in the protective layer; Step S16, finally, an ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) conductive layer is formed on the protective layer. Since the formations of the gate electrodes, the source/drain electrode layer, the via-holes, and the ITO conductive layer all require mask process, the manufacturing of an array substrate in the prior art needs four mask processes in total. The step S11 utilizing one mask process to form the gate electrodes and the gate lines makes sequent processes complicated, and the performance of the array substrate manufactured is hard to be guaranteed. On the other hand, the insulating layer in the prior art has a thickness of 400 nm, which is relatively thick, and which results in a relatively long charging time of the TFT. The protective layer has a thickness of 250 nm, which is relatively thin, and which results in a relative large capacitance between the data lines and the gate lines and is liable to generate a parasitic capacitance (CgS), causing crosstalk phenomenon to occur between the source/drain electrodes and the gates, and affecting the display quality.

Array substrate and manufacturing method thereof


An electropneumatic trailer supply module, for an electropneumatic parking brake system for a tractor vehicle/trailer combination, includes a supply connection configured to connect a compressed air supply, a trailer supply connection configured to deliver a supply pressure for a trailer vehicle, a pneumatically controlled main valve unit configured to provide the supply pressure to the trailer supply connection, and an electropneumatic pilot control unit configured to select at least a first control pressure at the pneumatically controlled main valve unit. When the first control pressure exceeds a predefined first threshold value of the pneumatically controlled main valve unit, the supply pressure provided to the trailer supply connection can be selected. When the first control pressure falls below the predefined first threshold value of the pneumatically controlled main valve unit, the trailer supply connection is configured to be vented.

Electropneumatic trailer supply modules for tractor vehicle/trailer combinations are used to provide a supply pressure for the trailer vehicle from a compressed air supply in the tractor vehicle. An electropneumatic trailer supply module of this kind may be integrated or provided alongside a so-called trailer control valve via which a control pressure is delivered to the trailer vehicle from the tractor vehicle. While the supply pressure provides a volume flow to actuate service brakes and/or spring-actuated brakes of a trailer vehicle, only a control pressure which represents a brake request signal is delivered via the trailer control valve.
Particularly in North America, corresponding connections to the tractor vehicle, in other words coupling heads, are not provided with a non-return valve which means that the coupling head is open for the supply pressure for the trailer vehicle and supply pressure should only be provided to the trailer vehicle from the tractor vehicle if there is a trailer vehicle attached.
In order to open the pneumatic connection between the tractor vehicle and the trailer vehicle via the coupling head and therefore provide the trailer vehicle with supply pressure, it is known in the art for a manually operated slide valve to be provided in the cab of the tractor vehicle, which slide valve is operated by the vehicle driver after the trailer vehicle has been coupled, in order to activate the provision of supply pressure to the trailer vehicle and thereby release the parking brake in the trailer.
However, as part of the ever-increasing automation and electrification of vehicles it is desirable for a manually operated valve of this kind to be replaced with electrical or electropneumatic components and, in particular, activated automatically or by a signal emitted by a switch in the driver's cab.
So-called parking brake modules are also known in the art which transfer a control pressure to the trailer control valve (TCV) so that the service brakes of the trailer vehicle are thereby applied in the parked state when spring-actuated brakes of the tractor vehicle are activated. A parking brake module of this kind is known from EP 1 968 830 B1, for example. The parking brake module disclosed there controls the pressure of the spring-actuated brakes of the tractor vehicle via a connection to the trailer control valve, so that the service brakes of the trailer vehicle are activated in conjunction with the spring-actuated brakes of the tractor vehicle.
A similar system is known from EP 2 384 943 A2, in which pressure is likewise delivered to the spring-actuated brakes. Further systems are also known from DE 10 2011 101 438 A1 and from DE 10 2015 106 150 A1.

Electropneumatic trailer supply module for providing the trailer supply pressure


A novelty soap bar surrounds a supercompressed sponge novelty item which pops out when significant use of the soap provides a path for water entry which triggers a surprise expansion of the supercompressed sponge novelty. The supercompressed sponge novelty item, or plurality of novelty items positioned together or separately, pops out when the enclosing soap shell becomes sufficiently thin to permit moisture to enter and expand the supercompressed sponge novelty item. The supercompressed sponge novelty item is encapsulated in a slow-soluble or non-soluble soft easily-abradable encapsulent to prevent moisture from expanding the novelty item during manufacture or shelf life.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to novelty soap, and particularly to a novelty soap bar surrounding a supercompressed sponge novelty item which pops out when significant use of the soap provides a path for water entry which triggers a surprise expansion of the supercompressed sponge novelty.
2. Description of Related Art
Supercompressed sponges are known novelty items. Compressed sponges with impregnation of soap are known. Novelty soap items such as soap in the shape of dinosaurs are known. Jack-in-the-box toys are well known. Hidden prize identifications such as lottery prize identifications are known in secure locations such as bottle cap liners. Toy-in-box prizes are known in such items as CRACKER JACK caramel popcorn.
There has, however, been no previous showing of a novelty soap item with an internally captured supercompressed sponge novelty which pops up like a jack-in-the-box as the soap covering is removed by use.

Toy soap containing compressed sponge which pops out during use


A body supporting apparatus is provided for motored compressors. The body supporting apparatus includes two coil springs that connect a seat spring of a stator to a seat spring of a lower casing holding the stator thereon, The two coil springs thus stably support the stator on the lower casing. A cylindrical spring guider is set between the two coil springs with an annular support ring formed around the central portion of the internal surface of the guide and supporting the two coil springs on opposite surfaces thereof within the guider. Two coil seat chambers are formed in the cylindrical guider at positions above and under the support ring and communicate with each other through a central opening of the support ring. The two coil springs are movably received within the two coil seas chambers such that the elastic compressive and tensile movement of the two coil springs are axially and stably guided within the associated chambers of the guider without being undesirably moved in a transverse direction. The body supporting apparatus for motored compressors almost completely prevents the stator support coil springs from undesirable movement in a transverse direction, thus preventing a transverse vibration of the stator during an operation of such a motored compressor.

The present invention relates, in general, to motored compressors and, more particularly, to a body supporting apparatus for such motored compressors designed to support a frame in a compressor while minimizing operational vibration of the frame, thus improving the operational reliability of such compressors.
FIG. 1 shows the internal construction of a conventional motored compressor. As shown in the drawing, the conventional motored compressor comprises a hermetic housing 1 consisting of upper and lower casings 1t and 1b, with a plurality of desired parts constituting the motored compressor being set within the interior of the housing 1. For example, a frame 2 is set within the interior of the housing 1. A stator 3 is fixedly mounted to the frame 2 while being held at a desired position by a spring 3S.
FIG. 2 shows a structure for holding the stator 3 on the frame by the spring 3S in detail. As shown in the drawing, the upper end of the spring 3S is inserted into a seat spring 3xe2x80x2 provided on the lower surface of the stator 3, while the lower end of the spring 3S is inserted into a seat spring 1bxe2x80x2 of the lower casing 1b. In the above structure, the seat spring 1bxe2x80x2 of the lower casing 1b also acts as a stopper used for limiting the downward vibration of the stator 3. That is, the lower end of the seat spring 3xe2x80x2 comes into contact with the upper end of the other seat spring 1bxe2x80x2, thus allowing the seat spring 1bxe2x80x2 to collaterally act as a stopper for limiting the downward vibration of the stator 3.
On the other hand, a crankshaft 5 is installed within the hermetic housing 1 while passing through the central portion of the frame 2, while a rotor 4 is integrated with the crankshaft 5 into a single structure. The above rotor 4 is electromagnetically rotated along with the crankshaft 5 in cooperation with the stator 3.
An eccentric pin 5b is provided on the upper end of the crankshaft 5 while being eccentric from the rotating axis of the crankshaft 5. A balance weight 5c is provided on the crankshaft 5 at a position opposite to the eccentric pin 5b. The above crankshaft 5 is rotatably held on the frame 2.
An oil passage 5a is formed in the crankshaft 5 and guides lubrication oil L from the bottom of the hermetic housing 1 to the upper portion of the frame 5 prior to spraying the oil at the upper portion of the frame 5. In addition, a pump 5d is provided on the lower end of the crankshaft 5 and generates pumping force for sucking the lubrication oil L from the bottom of the housing 1 to the oil passage 5a of the crankshaft 5.
On the other hand, a cylinder 6, having a compression chamber 6xe2x80x2, is integrated with the frame 2 into a single structure, with a piston 7 being set in the compression chamber 6xe2x80x2 of the cylinder 6. The above piston 7 is connected to the eccentric pin 5b of the crankshaft 5 through a connecting rod 8. A valve assembly 9 is installed on the end of the cylinder 6. This valve assembly 9 controls a flowing of refrigerant which is sucked into and exhausted from the compression chamber 6xe2x80x2 of the cylinder 6. A head cover 10 is mounted to the valve assembly 9. In the head cover 10, a suction muffler 11 is connected to the valve assembly 9 and introduces the refrigerant into the compression chamber 6xe2x80x2 through the valve assembly 9.
In the drawings, the reference numeral 12 denotes a suction pipe used for leading the refrigerant into the interior of the hermetic housing 1, and the reference numeral 13 denotes an exhaust pipe used for discharging the compressed working fluid from the compressor into the outside of the compressor.
The above-mentioned motored compressor is operated as follows. When the compressor is electrically activated, the rotor 4 is electromagnetically rotated in cooperation with the stator 3. The crankshaft 5, integrated with the rotor 4, is thus rotated along with the rotor 4. When the crankshaft 5 is rotated as described above, the eccentric pin 5b is rotated along with of the crankshaft 5 while forming a circular trace around the shaft 5. In addition, the connecting rod 8, connected to the eccentric pin 5b, is driven by the pin 5b, thus allowing the piston 7 to perform a linear reciprocating action within the compression chamber 6xe2x80x2 of the cylinder 6. Due to such a linear reciprocating action of the piston 7 within the compression chamber 6xe2x80x2, the refrigerant is compressed.
During such an operation of the compressor, the stator 3 is may be undesirably vibrated due to several causes, for example, a rotating action of both the rotor 4 and the crankshaft 5 and a linear reciprocating action of the piston 7. The conventional motored compressor is thus designed to reduce such a vibration of the stator 3 using the spring 3S, which holds the stator 3 on the lower casing 1b.
However, the conventional support structure, designed to simply support the stator 3 on the lower casing 1b using the spring 3S, is problematic in that it fails to effectively reduce the vibration of the stator 3. In an effort to overcome such a problem, another support structure of FIG. 3 is proposed.
In the support structure of FIG. 3, a stator 3 is held on the lower casing 1b using two springs 3S1 and 3S2, with a connection member M being used for connecting the two springs 3S1 and 3S2. When the two springs 3S1 and 3S2 are connected to each other using the connection member M, it is possible to remarkably improve the elastic vertical support characteristics V of the springs 3S1 and 3S2 holding the stator 3 on the lower casing 1b. However, this support structure has a problem in elastic lateral support characteristics C of the springs 3S1 and 3S2. Therefore, the lateral movement of the stator 3 is gradually increased during an operation of the motored compressor, and so the frame 2 and/or the stator 3 are undesirably brought into partial contact with the interior surface of the hermetic housing 1.
In addition, the connection member M undesirably forms two gaps G1 and G2 between the connection member M and the two seat springs 3xe2x80x2 and 1bxe2x80x2 of both the stator 3 and the lower casing 1b, with the two gaps G1 and G2 requiring a special precise management. That is, the presence of the connection member M between the two seat springs 3xe2x80x2 and 1bxe2x80x2 in the support structure undesirably forces a user to more precisely manage the two gaps G1 and G2 and to allow the connection member M along with the two seat springs 3xe2x80x2 and 1bxe2x80x2 to act as a stopper.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a body supporting apparatus for motored compressors, which is designed to support a frame in a hermetic housing while desirably reducing operational vibration of the frame.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a body supporting apparatus for motored compressors, comprising a stator installed on the frame of a motored compressor, the frame having a vibration source, an elastic member connected to the stator so as to support the stator, a fixed support part fixedly installed relative to the stator and used for supporting the elastic member, and a guider installed at the middle portion of the elastic member and used for guiding an elastic movement of the elastic member.
In the above body supporting apparatus, the guider receives the middle portion of the elastic member therein, thus intercepting an undesirable elastic lateral movement of the elastic member.
The body supporting apparatus for motored compressors of this invention is designed to intercept an undesirable lateral movement of a plurality of coil springs using a cylindrical guider, with the coil springs being used for absorbing vibration generated during an operation of a compressor. This body supporting apparatus thus finally reduces vibration of the frame within such a motored compressor.

Body supporting apparatus for hermetic compressor


An RFID tag that has a tag antenna and a tag LSI comprising: a power-supply element in which the tag LSI is mounted on a power-supply section; a plurality of patch antennas that function as tag antennas and sizes differs; and a high-frequency coupling section that couples the power-supply element with each of the patch antennas by high-frequency coupling.

This invention relates to an RFID tag that comprises an antenna and tag LSI, and more particularly to an RFID tag having a plurality of patch antennas of different sizes as tag antennas so that the RFID tag can be utilized in a plurality of areas using different transmission frequencies.
Conventionally, in the distribution industry, transportation industry and the like, one method that is widely used as a method of controlling and managing various kinds of product information, is a method in which barcodes are printed onto or stuck on a product itself or to the product box, and this barcode is read by a barcode reader. However, in the method of processing barcodes, the barcode reader must come in contact with the barcode, so the work of reading the barcodes is somewhat troublesome. Also, in a conventional barcode processing method there is a problem in that it is not possible to add or update new information to the barcode itself. Therefore, in recent years, instead of barcodes, a method of attaching RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags to products and the like, and reading the product information without contact by radio communication (electromagnetic coupling) is being demanded and also being put into practice. In an RFID tag, a radio communication function for transmitting information has been added to the function of an IC card, and comprises a nonvolatile memory that is capable of storing information, and does not have a battery (power supply section). Therefore, when a tag reading device reads information from the memory of the RFID tag without contact, it supplies power to the RFID tag by electromagnetic waves, and reads the information from the memory. By using an RFID tag, workability can be greatly improved, and by using technology such as a verification function and cipher function, it is possible to maintain excellent security.
FIG. 21 is a drawing explaining an RFID tag, where a reading device 1 sends a radio signal (electromagnetic wave) that is modulated with transmission data to the RFID tag 3 from an antenna 2. The antenna 3a of the RFID tag 3 inputs the received signal to a rectifying circuit 3b and modulation/demodulation circuit 3c. The rectifying circuit 3b converts the radio signal to a DC voltage and supplies the DC voltage to the modulation/demodulation circuit 3c and a logic circuit 32d, which acts as a power supply. The modulation/demodulation section 3c demodulates the control data that was sent from the reading device 1 and inputs the result to the logic circuit 3d. The logic circuit 3d performs logical processing according to the control data (commands); for example, it reads the information stored in the internal memory and inputs it to the demodulation/modulation circuit 3c. The modulation/demodulation circuit 3c uses the information that is input from the logic circuit 3d to modulate a carrier wave, and transmits that carrier wave to the reading device 1 from the antenna 3a.
Various types of RFID tags have been proposed. As one of these, the inventors of this invention have proposed a UHF band RFID tag that comprises: a power-supply pattern section on which a tag LSI is mounted, a patch antenna that functions as a tag antenna, and a high-frequency coupling section that performs high-frequency coupling between the power-supply pattern section and patch antenna (refer to Japanese patent application 2006-216727). With this UHF RFID tag, the communication distance does not become poor even when the tag is stuck on a metal or liquid object, and it is not necessary to open holes up in the patch antenna for supplying power or to use an impedance conversion circuit, so this tag has the advantage that it can be made small and thin, however, there is a problem in that the frequency band is narrow, and the gain quickly becomes poor when the frequency shifts from the resonant frequency of the patch antenna. By reason of the narrow frequency band and poor gain characteristic, it is impossible to use the proposed UHF band RFID tag in a case where a wide frequency band is demanded. In other words, the transmission frequency differs according to country, for example, in Japan the transmission frequency used is 952 to 954 MHz, in the USA the transmission frequency used is 902 to 928 MHz, and in Europe the transmission frequency used is 869.4 to 869.65 MHz, so a RFID tag having a narrow frequency as described above cannot be applied to products or parts that are to be used in a plurality of countries to manage product information.
As prior art, there is a multi-band RFID tag that can be used in a plurality of frequencies (refer to Japanese patent application JP10-70411A). As shown in (A) of FIG. 22, this RFID tag comprises construction in which one H-type patch antenna 5 is replaced by a plurality of line elements 6 as shown in (B) of FIG. 22, where by changing the length of the line elements 6a, 6b, the tag is capable of corresponding to a plurality of frequencies (7.8 GHz, 10.8 GHz) as shown in (C) of FIG. 22. However, with the RFID tag of this prior art, it is necessary that the frequencies be sufficiently separated from each other, and there is a problem in that the tag cannot be used when the frequencies are relatively close. In other words, in the case of the frequencies used in Japan, the USA and Europe, where the frequencies are relatively close, the tag cannot be used.


A tile joint brush structure is provided with a sturdy, handle which can be used from a standing position, pivotable about a horizontal axis, through vertical, to two oblique extremes at which positive stops are provided. The brush structure includes a main brush for cleaning one band of the joint, and a laterally adjustably spaced auxiliary brush for simultaneously cleaning an adjoining band of the joint.

Tile, and equivalent blocky panels used for providing the wear surfaces of floors and walls often are bedded in a cementitious and/or resinous layer of settable or otherwise hardenable material, with some spacing being provided between edges of adjoining panels, which provide exposed joints, in which the bedding material, or a screeded or flowed into place outward extension thereof, is exposed. The exposed outer surface of the joint material may be flush with the wear surfaces of the panels, or (more commonly) outwardly shallowly concave, or otherwise patterned.
The floors or walls may be located within a building, or wholly or partly outdoors.
Most commonly, such wear surfaces require cleaning at least once at the conclusion of the installation process. Depending on the location, cleaning may, from time to time, be thereafter necessary or desirable.
Especially when such surfaces are provided on floors, a common way to clean them is to spread a layer of cleaning solution on the floor, e.g., by pouring or spraying, to swab, scrub or burnish the surfaces using mops, scrubbing machines and/or buffers. While the techniques conventionally used may be quite adequate for efficiently cleaning the exposed surfaces of the tiles, brick or other panels per se, it has heretofore been difficult or impossible to efficiently clean the exposed surface of the joint material. It is not uncommon for the mechanized cleaning of the panel surfaces, to be accompanied by manual, on-hands-and-knees cleaning of the joint surface, using scrub-brushes, and even tooth brushes. Special tile grout cleaning tools have previously been devised by others, but they are designed for cleaning one band of joint surface at a time, and generally are meant to be used while the worker is down on hands and knees.


A CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes N adaptive antenna reception sections and an initial antenna weight production section. Each of the reception sections includes an initial antenna weight selection section, which selects initial values from initial antenna weight candidates, an antenna weight control section, which adaptively controls antenna weights, and antenna weighting synthesis sections, each of which multiplies signals received by K antennae by the antenna weights and synthesizes the results of the multiplication to detect a desired signal. The initial antenna weight production section detects beam directions and null directions from antenna weights of desired signals. A null formation direction discrimination section estimates a null direction of a new desired signal, and an initial antenna weight candidate production section produces initial antenna weight candidates with which the null is formed in the estimated null direction in order to detect the new desired signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) adaptive antenna reception apparatus, and more particularly to a CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus wherein the initial convergence of the antenna weight is completed at a high speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus is disclosed, for example, in N. Nakaminami, T. Ihara, S. Tanaka and M. Sawahashi, "Performance of Coherent Adaptive Antenna Array Diversity Receiver Using the Common Antenna Weights for Rake Combined Paths for W-CDMA Reverse Link", Technical Report RCS2000-46 of the Society for the Study of the Radio Communications System, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, June, 2000 or S. Tanaka, Y. Miki and M. Sawahashi, "The Performance of Decision-Directed Coherent Adaptive Diversity in DS-CDMA Reverse Link", Technical Report RCS96-102 of the Society for the Study of the Radio Communications System, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, November, 1996.
The conventional CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus performs weighted synthesis of signals received by a plurality of antennae by adaptive control to form an optimum beam pattern which has a high directivity in an incoming direction of a desired signal and has the null of a low directivity in an incoming direction of an interference signal. The direction in which the beam pattern has a high directivity is hereinafter referred to as beam direction whereas the direction in which the beam pattern has a low directivity is hereinafter referred to as null direction.
Through the use of such a beam pattern as just described, the conventional CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus removes interference from a reception signal and thereby achieves an optimum reception characteristic.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus. Referring to FIG. 5, the conventional CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus includes K (K is an integer equal to or greater than 2) antennae 1-1 to 1-K and a number of adaptive antenna reception sections 102-1 to 102-N equal the number N (N is an integer equal to or greater than 1) of users.
The K antennae 1-1 to 1-K are disposed closely to one another so that they may have a high correlation to one another. A signal from a certain user is received by the antennae 1-1 to 1-K with phase differences caused by path differences which rely upon a relationship between incoming directions of the signal and the antenna arrangement. The antennae 1-1 to 1-K receive signals synthesized from signals from a plurality of users and interference signals such as multi-path interference signals and output the received signals to the adaptive antenna reception sections 102-1 to 102-N.
The adaptive antenna reception sections 102-1 to 102-N all have a same configuration and are allocated to the N users, that is, the first to Nth users. In other words, the CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus is capable of processing signals from N users simultaneously. The adaptive antenna reception sections 102-1 to 102-N process the reception signals from the users and individually output discrimination results thereof.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an adaptive antenna reception section 102-n (1≦n≦N, n is an integer) of the conventional adaptive antenna reception apparatus. It is to be noted that the number of multi-paths is L (L is an integer equal to or greater than 1).
The adaptive antenna reception section 102-n includes K despreading sections 4-1 to 4-K, L antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L, an adder 6, K adders 9-1 to 9-K, a further adder 11, a discrimination section 7, a reference signal production section 8 and an antenna weight control section 10.
The antenna weighting synthesis section 5-1 includes K multipliers 5-1-1-1 to 5-1-1-K, a multiplier 5-1-4, K multipliers 5-1-5-1 to 5-1-5-K, an adder 5-1-2 and a channel estimation section 5-1-3. All of the other antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-2 to 5-L have a configuration similar to that of the antenna weighting synthesis section 5-1.
The K despreading sections 4-1 to 4-K are connected to the K antennae 1-1 to 1-K, respectively. The despreading sections 4-1 to 4-K despread signals from the antennae 1-1 to 1-K, respectively, with a spread code allocated to the nth user to separate first path signals and output the first path signals to the L antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L. The first path signals individually separated by the despreading sections 4-1 to 4-K are inputted to all of the antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L.
Since the antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L all have a same configuration, description is given of the antenna weighting synthesis section 5-1.
The K multipliers 5-1-1-1 to 5-1-1-K multiply the outputs of the K despreading sections 4-1 to 4-K by antenna weights outputted from the antenna weight control section 10.
The adder 5-1-2 adds outputs of the multipliers 5-1-1-1 to 5-1-1-K.
The channel estimation section 5-1-3 estimates a channel distortion from an output of the adder 5-1-2 and outputs a complex conjugate of the channel distortion to the multiplier 5-1-4 and the multipliers 5-1-5-1 to 5-1-5-K.
The multiplier 5-1-4 multiplies the output of the adder 5-1-2 and the output of the channel estimation section 5-1-3 and outputs a result of the multiplication as a demodulation signal of the first path.
The K multipliers 5-1-5-1 to 5-1-5-K are connected to the K despreading sections 4-1 to 4-K, respectively. The multipliers 5-1-5-1 to 5-1-5-K multiply the outputs of the despreading sections 4-1 to 4-K by the complex conjugate of the channel distortion outputted from the channel estimation section 5-1-3.
The antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-2 to 5-L output demodulation signals of the second to Lth paths, respectively, similarly to the antenna weighting synthesis section 5-1.
The adder 6 adds the demodulation signals of the first to Lth paths outputted from the L antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L to perform RAKE synthesis.
The discrimination section 7 performs data discrimination of the signal obtained by the RAKE synthesis of the adder 6 and outputs a result of the discrimination.
The reference signal production section 8 produces a reference signal using the result of the discrimination outputted from the discrimination section 7.
The adder 11 determines an error signal between the signal obtained by the RAKE synthesis of the adder 6 and the reference signal produced by the reference signal production section 8 and outputs the error signal to the antenna weight control section 10.
The K adders 9-1 to 9-K correspond to the K antennae 1-1 to 1-K, respectively.
The adder 9-1 synthesizes the first to Lth path signals separated by the despreading section 4-1 and multiplied by complex conjugates of channel distortions by the antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L and outputs a despread and path synthesis signal to the antenna weight control section 10.
The adders 9-2 to 9-K synthesize first to Lth path signals separated by the corresponding despreading sections 4-2 to 4-K and multiplied by complex conjugates of channel distortions by the antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L and output despread and path synthesis signals to the antenna weight control section 10.
The antenna weight control section 110 determines antenna weights controlled to minimize the error signal determined by the adder 11 from the error signal and the despread and path synthesis signals obtained by the adders 9-1 to 9-K and outputs the antenna weights to the antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L.
As an example of a control algorithm to be used by the antenna weight control section 110, the LMS (Least-Mean-Square) algorithm is available. According to the LMS algorithm, where the antenna weight of the antenna k (2≦k≦K, k is an integer) at time t is represented by Wk(t), the error signal of the output of the adder 11 is represented by e(t) and the path synthesis signal of the kth antenna which is an output of the adder 9-K is represented by xk(t), the antenna weight is updated in accordance with the following expression (1):Wk(t+1)=Wk(t)+μ·xk(t)·e*(t)  (1)where μ is a constant called step size, and * represents a complex conjugate. While, in the conventional example described here, an antenna weight common to all of the first to Lth paths is used, antenna weights different among different paths may be produced and used.
Operation of the conventional CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus is described.
The conventional CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 receives, at the K antennae 1-1 to 1-K, signals synthesized from signals from a plurality of users and interference signals with the signals from the users such as multi-path interference signals. Then, the CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus despread, at the despreading sections 4-1 to 4-K thereof, the signals received by the antennae 1-1 to 1-K using spread codes individually allocated to the adaptive antenna reception sections 102-1 to 102-N.
Thereafter, the CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus performs, at the L antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L thereof, weighted synthesis of the signals obtained by despreading of the despreading sections 4-1 to 4-K with weights determined for the individual channels and further performs compensation of the synthesized signals for channel distortions. In this instance, the CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus performs the weighting with antenna weights controlled by the antenna weight control section 110.
Then, the CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus RAKE synthesizes, at the adder 6 thereof, the signals synthesized and compensated for by the antenna weighting synthesis sections 5-1 to 5-L, performs, at the discrimination section 7 thereof, data discrimination of the signal obtained by the RAKE synthesis and outputs a result of the discrimination.
In order that a desired signal can be received from whichever direction the desired signal arrives, initial values for antenna weights of a conventional CDMA adaptive antenna reception apparatus are usually set to values with which beam patterns become non-directive. Therefore, much time is required until an antenna weight converges from its initial value to a value with which a beam pattern of an optimum solution wherein the directivity is directed to the direction of a desired signal and the null is directed to the direction of an interference signal is formed.


A photonic-crystal electromagnetic-wave device includes a photonic crystal structure having a periodically changed optical property at least in one direction. The photonic crystal structure includes electromagnetic-wave absorptive portions periodically arranged, each of the absorptive portions having an extinction coefficient larger than that of the other portions of the photonic crystal structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electromagnetic device and a method for producing the same. In particular, the present invention relates to a photonic-crystal electromagnetic-wave device including electromagnetic-wave absorptive portions, and a method for producing the photonic-crystal electromagnetic-wave device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, photonic crystals each having a structure in which optical properties change periodically have been receiving attention as devices capable of controlling the propagation of electromagnetic waves, in particular, light. Typically, photonic crystals are defined as structures having a periodically distributed (changed) refractive index of the constituent thereof. Photonic crystals are each an artificial material capable of achieving a novel function by changing the design of the structure.
Physical Review Letters (1987, Vol. 58, p 2059-2062) discloses that photonic crystals have photonic band gaps, as main characteristics, that forbid propagation of specific electromagnetic waves in a certain frequency or wavelength range. It is known that center positions of the photonic band gaps and widths of the gaps are controlled by appropriately adjusting structures, periods of the structures, and refractive indices of constituents of photonic crystals. Furthermore, introducing a proper defect into the refractive-index distribution of the photonic crystal results in the formation of an energy level (a defect level) due to the defect in the photonic band gap. Thereby, photonic crystals can flexibly control electromagnetic waves.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-57461 (Patent Document 1) discloses the following technique in order to provide an optoelectronic substrate for preventing electromagnetic radiation interference noise. That is, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for inhibiting the generation of noise by forming a photonic crystal, filling part of micro-pores with a dielectric material, a conductive material, or a magnetic material, and absorbing electromagnetic waves at the micro-pores filled with the material.
In the above-described technical situation with regard to photonic crystals, when a photonic crystal is used in an electromagnetic-wave device, it is desirable to design not only the center position of the photonic band gap and the width of the gap but also structures of the band edges and the vicinity of the band edges of the photonic crystal.
However, designing only the structure of the photonic crystal, the period of the structure, and the refractive index of the material in the same way as in the known art limits control of device properties, in particular, the structures of the band edges and the vicinity of the band edges, of the photonic crystal.
Although Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for introducing portions for absorbing electromagnetic waves into the photonic crystal, the technique is not intended to control the band structure of the photonic crystal but is intended to prevent the electromagnetic radiation interference noise.

Photonic-crystal electromagnetic-wave device including electromagnetic-wave absorptive portion and method for producing the same


An apparatus may be configured to generate document data representing a document for use in providing a service comprising a number of different activities that are to be carried out in providing the service. The apparatus may enable a user to retrieve previously stored document portions in accordance with the activity to which the document portion relates so that it is not necessary for the user to identify a specific document portion, a specific filename or an inventory part number allocated to that document portion. In one embodiment, an apparatus may be configured to generate a document that enables a user to assemble a document in accordance with the activities to which the document relates rather than to the actual content of the document. Thus, the user wishing to assemble a document may be concerned with the activities instead of which precise document portions to include in the document.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly to document generation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Document generation apparatus such as computers programmed with word processing software are widely available. Users of such word processing software often wish or need to reuse certain standard documents or paragraphs and most word processing software provides facilities whereby standard documents or paragraphs can be retrieved by use of macros or shortcut references.
EP-A-0216063 describes a document preparation process for use in connection with a word processing facility that includes a succinct identification and listing of designated parts of a memorandum or document, each unique part having access to an associated file which contains the basic text and formatting controls for that particular part. The user of the process may readily assemble a document from the parts inventory displayed on a master screen by mere cursor reference or by keying the name of designated parts and have the newly created document displayed, or printed in most cases without reference to additional screens.
The facilities described above enable a user of word processing software to retrieve previously stored standard documents or portions of text using filenames or inventory parts associated with the text. However, it is necessary for the user of the word processing software to identify the filenames or part numbers for the specific portions of text that he or she wishes to insert into their document.


A network management system (100) has a communications interface (110), a memory (104), and a controller (102). The controller is programmed to retrieve (202) a plurality of call detail records (CDRs), reconstruct (208) call paths from attributes in the plurality of CDRs, and generate (210) extended CDRs from reconstructed call paths.

Service provider companies typically utilize IVRs (Interactive Voice Response Systems) for managing product sales, technical support, billing and other services. The call flows of an IVR will generally dictate interactions with a caller, and a determination is made whether the caller needs to be transferred to representatives at other call centers to address their needs. Once an IVR releases a call to the telephony network, it loses visibility to what happens during the remainder of the call.
FIG. 1 illustrates this issue. In FIG. 1, a caller dials into an IVR at reference point A. If the IVR releases a call to a specific toll free number (TFN) based on caller selection, the TFN may be pre-configured to route to a multitude of destinations based on percentage, time of day, agent availability, or other factors designated by an enterprise. Once the transfer takes place, the calling information (shown as a CDR—Call Detail Record) captured by the IVR no longer provides visibility to the complete call path the caller experiences. That is, the IVR keeps no record as to which service center was chosen, nor does it maintain a record as to whether the caller was transferred yet again between service agents.
Knowing the call path for each caller provides valuable operational metrics for the service provider. For example, a service provider can monitor excessive transfers by one or more service centers indicating perhaps an abuse and/or lack of productivity. The service provider can also assess cost of multi-trunk (e.g., 3-way calls) versus single-trunk (i.e., point-to-point call transfer) usage between service agents. The service provider can also identify highly productive centers. From this information, a service provider can continually take mitigation steps to improve service for its customers and cost effectiveness. From prior art systems such as shown in FIG. 1 it would be desirable to establish a means for reconstructing call paths in multiple telephony sessions.

Method and apparatus for reconstructing call paths in multiple telephony sessions


A fluid-heating apparatus for heating a fluid and method of operating the same. The fluid-heating apparatus includes a heating element for heating a fluid surrounding the heating element and a control circuit connected to the heating element and connectable to a power source. The control circuit is configured to determine whether a potential dry-fire condition exists for the heating element. In one implementation, the method includes applying a first electric signal to the heating element, detecting a first value of an electrical characteristic during the application of the first electric signal, applying a second electric signal to the heating element, applying a third electric signal to the heating element, detecting a second value of the electrical characteristic during the application of the third electric signal; and determining whether a potential dry-fire condition exists based on the first and second values.

The invention relates to a fluid-heating apparatus, such as an electric water heater, that can determine an operating condition of the apparatus, and a method of detecting a dry-fire condition and preventing operation of the fluid-heating apparatus when a dry-fire condition exists.
When an electric-resistance heating element fails in an electric water heater, the operation of the heater is diminished until the element is replaced. This can be an inconvenience to the user of the water heater.

Fluid-heating apparatus, circuit for heating a fluid, and method of operating the same


A manufacturing cell for the treatment of grinding of gear wheel flanks, in particular by bevel pinions, and suggested for the wheel set testing, which includes a grinding machine (1), an unreeling test equipment (2), a laser inscription unit (3) with a time band (5) and a robot-supported load system (4), which are concatenated with one another and controllable that the process of pinion loops/wheel set examining/marking and the correction of the grinding machine attitude as a function of the results of the unreeling examination is feasible.

Such manufacturing cells serve for the treatment of grinding of gear wheel flanks, for example, of bevel pinions, as well as noise testing of bevel gearsets, in particular for automobile applications.
It is aimed at maintaining the quality and optimizing economy or production systems and/or manufacturing cells constant. From DE 101 22 318 A1, for example, a procedure and a device are well known for the computation of quality capability parameters. Here a digital processing system is used in the framework of which an applicable distribution time model is selected electronically from several distribution time models, whereby the distribution time model describes, at least temporally, a changing average value of the measured values or a temporally changing dispersion of the measured values. Subsequently, the quality capacity characteristics are computed electronically as a function of the statistical methods, which determine the estimated values for characteristics of the distribution time model and indicate suitable mechanisms.
Working and/or test equipments for the grinding of gear wheel flanks, in particular for bevel pinions, and for wheel set examination are well known in the state of the art, whereby a production run consists usually of the following work procedures:                The grinding of gear wheel teeth;        The rolling examination of the gears at different pinion installation distances;        Definition of the installation distance between gears for assembly of the gears by the machine operator, and        Any necessary manual corrections of the gear grinding positions or angles by the operator when the inspection results are outside of the given tolerance.
The arrangement in relation to each other of the machines necessary for these operations may be resolved in different ways. 1:1 allocations of grinding and test equipment with manual operation of the test equipment are known in the prior art, as well as arrangements wherein the grinding and test equipment are separately located.
Performance of the work procedures by manual performance of the grinding and inspection of the wheel set and correction of the grinding machine, results in stresses on the capacity of the personnel. Errors in gear wheel tolerances can develop due to dependence on an operator, which again results in disadvantageous decreases in load-carrying capacity and increases noise problems.
Dependence on an operator for manual grinding machine corrections can also result in lengthy correction preparation times leading to productivity losses. A further disadvantage is that automated statistic processing is not possible concerning noise, since no regulation mechanisms exist.
The invention concerns a manufacturing cell for grinding of gear wheel flanks, in particular for bevel pinions, and for wheel set examination by which the disadvantages of the state of the art are avoided. In particular, the necessary personnel capacity is to be reduced and high productivity with uniform quality is to be ensured. Moreover, a procedure for the operation of the manufacturing cell according to the invention is shown.

Manufacturing cell for the treatment of grinding and wheel set testing and procedures for the operation of the manufacturing cell


A system is provided that allows completely occluded blood vessels to be crossed. The system includes a pathfinding guidewire that is coupled to the distal end of an ultrasound catheter. The distal section of the pathfinding guidewire acts as a narrow extension of the distal end of the catheter which is effective in transmitting ultrasound energy to cross occlusions. Once the distal section of the guidewire has crossed the occlusion, the distal end of the catheter can be advanced over the distal section of the guidewire and against the occlusion to remove the occlusion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an ultrasound catheter system for ablating obstructions within tubular anatomical structures such as blood vessels, and in particular, an ultrasound catheter system that is capable of crossing completely occluded obstructions in a blood vessel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of ultrasound catheter systems have heretofore been proposed for use in ablating or removing obstructive material from blood vessels. These ultrasound catheter systems include an ultrasound transmission member incorporated with a catheter for transmitting ultrasound energy to the obstructive material to remove the obstructive material. The catheter is delivered percutaneously to the location of the obstruction with the aid of a guidewire. Specifically, the guidewire is first percutaneously advanced through the patient's vasculature until it reaches and crosses the region of the blood vessel where the obstructive material is located. The catheter carrying the ultrasound transmission member is then advanced along the guidewire to the location of the obstructive material. The distal tip of the catheter is caused to contact the obstructive material, and ultrasound energy is then applied to the distal tip of the catheter via the ultrasound transmission member, to remove the obstructive material. The catheter is advanced along the guidewire through the obstructive material until the distal tip of the catheter has passed through all the obstructive material. In some instances, adjunctive balloon angioplasty (PTCA) can be performed to achieve better results.
Thus, the ultrasound systems and devices described above have been effective in removing obstructive material in blood vessels when it has been possible to cross the obstructed region with a guidewire. Since the guidewire is needed to guide the distal tip of an ultrasound catheter through the obstructed region, these ultrasound catheter systems are ineffective in treating a blood vessel which has been completely occluded by obstructive material, where the guidewire is not able to cross the obstructive material at the obstructed region.
Completely occluded obstructions are also troublesome since the number of treatment options are limited. For example, PTCA or balloon angioplasty procedures cannot be carried out to ablate completely occluded obstructions because it is not possible to place an expandable balloon inside the obstructed region. In addition, ultrasound catheter systems, such as those described above, are ineffective for the reasons explained above. Of the remaining options, highly invasive alternatives such as cardiovascular surgery are possible, but are undesirable.
There are also available less invasive techniques such as laser techniques and cutting techniques such as atherectomy and thrombectomy where rotational cutters, shavers, and coring means are used to cut through the occlusion. However, not only do these less invasive techniques also require that a guidewire be used to cross the obstructed region, but they also have additional drawbacks. For example, the cutting techniques require the use of cutting devices that are often bulky in nature, and therefore cannot be used, without a guidewire, to cut obstructive material. In addition, there is always a possibility that some of these cutting devices may damage or even perforate the blood vessel wall if they are not used with guidewire support. Further, the laser techniques, when used without guidewire support, may perforate the vessel wall, and can cause mechanical thermal damage or necrosis, which kills healthy cells and nerves. Laser systems for providing the laser energy can also be expensive.
One attempt to address this problem is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,118 to Nita et al., in which an ultrasonic guidewire is provided for crossing completely occluded blood vessels. The ultrasonic guidewire creates the necessary pathway through the obstructive material, and a balloon catheter is then advanced inside the obstructive material and the balloon expanded to dilate the obstructive material. Unfortunately, the ultrasonic guidewire in U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,118 is not by itself fully effective in removing the obstructive material because the low profile throughout the length of the guidewire means that an insufficient amount of ultrasound energy is transmitted from the transducer to the distal end for treating the occlusion.
Thus, there still exists a need for improved ultrasound systems having ultrasound catheters that can treat and remove obstructive material from fully occluded blood vessels.

Ultrasound system with pathfinding guidewire


In one aspect, the invention features a combination of oligonucleotides comprising a forward primer oligonucleotide and a blocking oligonucleotide. The forward primer oligonucleotide has a 3′ end region, where the 3′ end region includes a portion complementary to a mutation positioned in a region within a polynucleotide. The blocking oligonucleotide contains a blocking moiety and has a 5′ end region, where the 5′ end region includes a portion complementary to a wild-type sequence of the region corresponding to the position of the mutation. In other aspects, the invention provides kits including the combination of primer oligonucleotides and methods of using the oligonucleotides to detect a mutation in a polynucleotide.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. In 2012, the most commonly diagnosed cancers were lung cancer (13% of all cancers diagnosed, 1.8 million people), breast cancer (12% of all cancers diagnosed, 1.7 million people), and colorectal cancer (10% of all cancers diagnosed, 1.4 million people). In the same year, the most common causes of cancer-related death worldwide were lung cancer (19% of all cancer deaths, 1.6 million people), liver cancer (9% of all cancer deaths, 800,000 people), and stomach cancer (9% of all cancer deaths, 700,000 people).
While cancer is often considered to be a localized disease in its early stages, many types of cancer become systemic through a variety of metastatic processes by the time a patient presents with symptoms. Despite continued advances in cancer therapies directed against aggressive/metastatic tumors (e.g., pharmaceutical, biologic, and surgical approaches), most cancer patients die as a result of metastatic disease.
Because there are a limited number of highly specific tumor markers that are common among many individuals, the ability to identify tumor cells or free tumor DNA in blood samples has the potential to provide useful approaches for cancer detection, including monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of various treatments. However, existing methods that specifically detect and quantify circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can be difficult and/or expensive to perform because these cells are very rare (e.g., CTCs may be as low as 1 in 106-107 leukocytes in peripheral blood of cancer patients). Nucleic acid amplification methods such as PCR lack sufficient sensitivity to distinguish tumor cell DNA from normal cell DNA in biological samples. In particular, the difficulty in detecting tumor cell DNA is due in part to the very large excess of normal cell DNA, which leads to a high level of background noise.
New methods for specifically detecting or quantifying DNA variants associated with a tumor cell (particularly tumor cells present in low numbers) or other diseased cell in a patient are urgently needed.

Compositions and methods for detecting a mutant variant of a polynucleotide


The present invention focuses on the development of a high-efficiency single-stage bidirectional converter with multi-input power sources. In the present invention, it takes a three-winding coupled inductor as the main component of energy transmission, and utilizes only two power semiconductor switches to accomplish the multi-input function. According to the designed switching conditions, this circuit could be operated at discharge, charge and standalone states to simplify conventional structure in which multiple converters are used in boosting voltage and then connected in parallel to supply power. Moreover, the coupled inductor as the principal part of this circuit has high-voltage gain property, and the present invention fully utilizes the winding voltage in the high-voltage side to further increase the corresponding voltage gain superior to that in the conventional coupled-inductor strategy. This property is helpful to solve the power conversion problem caused by clean energies with inherent low-voltage characteristics. In addition, all switches and diodes have favorable voltage-clamped effects so that the voltage spikes induced by the leakage-induction energy can be alleviated effectively, and there are no high reverse-recovery currents within diodes because the leakage induction can restrain instantaneous changes in the current. Furthermore, the present invention has a charging route of low-voltage conversion without adding additional components, avoiding the power losses induced by the multistage conversion in the traditional auxiliary power systems, and utilizes the synchronous rectification technique to decrease the conducting losses.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to DC-DC conversion technology, specifically, using clean energy in a distributed electrical generating system, and utilizing rechargeable batteries as auxiliary power source, in which multiple inputs mechanism, charging loop of low voltage conversion, voltage clamping and synchronous rectification technique are used to overcome the drawback in existing clean energy used in the distributed electrical generating system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Clean energy source becomes an important subject due to oil shortage crisis. Clean energy source, such as fuel cell battery, solar battery, can be used in a distributed power generation equipment, including electrical transportation equipment, un-interrupted electrical power system and standalone electrical power generating system, etc. In a distributed power generating system in which clean energy source is used, normally rechargeable battery is used as auxiliary power source, effectively reducing load capacity of the clean energy source and cost for the system and generating power. In a conventional system, multiple converters are connected in parallel to high voltage DC bus bar [1]-[2], as front power source for an inverter or directly apply to circuit equipment. However, one of the converters has to be able to function in bi-direction for charging the rechargeable battery; the energy needed for charging is from clean energy source and this energy has to be converted many time before reaching the rechargeable battery, therefore reducing efficiency substantially. Overall, conventional system is large in size, complex in structure and expensive [2]. To simplify circuit structure, improve performance and reduce cost, single-stage, multiple-input and bidirectional high-efficiency converter becomes the focus of latest research and development around the world. [3]-[7].
References [8]-[9] all proposed multiple windings transformer type to achieve multiple-input. The topology proposed by reference [8] is very simple; it utilizes time-sharing method to control multiple power sources of the transformer, which can induce voltage clamping problem. This control method also makes driving circuit more complex; and under impact of duty cycles being divided, each power source has fewer duty cycles, decreasing voltage gain of the converter. In addition, adding diode in main passage of power supply will increase conduction loss for a clean energy source with of low voltage/large current character, and decrease conversion efficiency; also, it will prevent possibility of charging route and is not well suit for clean energy source applied in distributed power generating system. The reference [9] uses concept of current source and overcomes voltage clamping problem associated with multiple power sources supplying power, and also uses complete duty cycle to adjust output voltage. However, the main route also has several diodes and excessive number of switches, making charging route impossible; this will mandate additional charging circuit and make the structure more complex and less efficient.
Due to its electrical characteristics of low voltage and large current as well as high output voltage, clean energy source is large in size and difficult to make; its output voltage fluctuates easily with load variation. Also, high voltage rechargeable battery made up of multiple stacked batteries is not reliable, making it more appealing to have multiple-input converter with high voltage boost gain for applications which require high voltage. In conventional technique [8]-[9], separation transformer is used as voltage boost device. However, maximum voltage boost gain of this kind of structure only equals to winding ratio, and output rectifying diode has to bear at least twice of output voltage; to high output voltage, it is hard to find qualified diode. The references [10]-[11] all proposed non-separation coupled inductor structure as voltage boost method. The coupled inductor structure can not only provide higher voltage boost ratio, but also reduces voltage burden on switches and reversal-recovery current of the diode. For voltage boost using coupled inductor, the key technique leis in processing of leakage induction energy; if not processed properly, it will cause high voltage spikes, increasing conducting loss and necessitate higher voltage bearing on the switches. The reference [11] offers a passage for leakage induction energy on low voltage side, and effectively clamping the voltage on the switches, making possible to use low loss components. However, a snubber circuit has to be added to output diode to suppress high voltage spike induced by leakage induction of the winding on high voltage side. In addition, the references [10]-[11] do not have multi-input function. In summary, an electrical power conversion equipment with high performance, clean energy source, distributed power generating system should have multi-input function, charging loop route, high voltage boost ration and high conversion efficiency.
The present invention can operate in discharging state, standalone state and charging state by utilizing the characteristic of clean energy source in which the voltage changes easily with load while rechargeable battery has stable voltage output. Both voltage power sources are directly connected to the inputs of a three winding coupled inductor as voltage source. When both rechargeable battery and clean energy source supply power, voltage on the winding of clean energy source is adjusted according to voltage on the winding of rechargeable battery, and balancing with the voltage on the winding of rechargeable battery; therefore, no complex control and no additional circuit design are required, and it overcomes voltage inconsistence at input from the voltage source. The charging loop route makes energy transfer through the coupled inductor, which is a low voltage conversion type, and it has higher energy utilization rate than that of conventional auxiliary power system. In addition, the coupled inductor used as main circuit body has high voltage boost gain; the present invention further utilizes the voltage on the winding of high voltage side and has higher voltage gain than conventional coupled inductor structure, and is useful in solving power conversion problem existed in clean energy source with low voltage source. Both the switches and diodes of the present invention are used in clamping voltage, effectively handling voltage spike phenomenon induced by leakage induction energy; it also utilize the characteristic of leakage induction limiting instantaneous current change to prevent high reversal recovery current in the diodes. In summary, the circuit topology of the present invention can achieve high efficiency single-stage multi-input bi-directional power conversion and is suitable in high performance clean energy distributed power generating system.

High efficiency single stage bidirectional converter


Disclosed is a process for producing light olefins from hydrocarbon feedstock. The process is characterized in that a porous molecular sieve catalyst consisting of a product obtained by evaporating water from a raw material mixture comprising a molecular sieve with a framework of Si—OH—Al— groups, a water-insoluble metal salt, and a phosphate compound, is used to produce light olefins, particularly ethylene and propylene, from hydrocarbon, while maintaining excellent selectivity to light olefins. According to the process, by the use of a specific catalyst with hydrothermal stability, light olefins can be selectively produced in high yield with high selectivity from hydrocarbon feedstock, particularly full-range naphtha. In particular, the process can maintain higher cracking activity than the reaction temperature required in the prior thermal cracking process for the production of light olefins, and thus, can produce light olefins with high selectivity and conversion from hydrocarbon feedstock.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing light olefins from hydrocarbon feedstock, and more particularly to a process for producing light olefins at high yield with high selectivity from hydrocarbon feedstock using a catalyst which, even in an atmosphere of high temperature and humidity, has a relatively stable structure, thereby maintaining its catalytic activity over a long period of time, and shows hydrothermal stability.
2. Description of the Related Art
Olefins, particularly light olefins, such as ethylene and propylene, are widely used in the petroleum chemical industry.
These light olefins are generally produced by the thermal cracking (steam cracking) of naphtha in the presence of steam. The steam cracking technology is being improved in many fields in order to cope with high process temperature and a reduction in residence time and to optimize energy efficiency. However, it is not easy to improve energy efficiency merely by simple improvements in engineering technology, and the steam cracking process currently accounts for about 40% of the total energy required in the petroleum chemical industry. Accordingly, to reduce environmental pollution and increase economic efficiency, there is a need for improved process technologies for the optimization of energy, the reduction of feedstock use, the minimization of carbon dioxide discharge, etc. Also, light naphtha is typically used as feedstock, but is expensive compared to full-range naphtha as described later, and thus, will necessarily act as a limitation in increasing economic efficiency. Particularly, in the steam cracking technology, that is currently applied, not only it is not easy to control the composition of olefins but also the reaction temperature is a level of 800-900° C., indicating a requirement for a large amount of thermal energy. Thus, a need for improvement in steam cracking technology has suggested.
Also, light olefin compounds can be produced by a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process. This FCC process is widely known in the art as catalytic cracking technology using a catalyst having the form of fine particles, which behaves like fluid when treated with steam. Particularly, deep catalytic cracking (DCC) technology is known which is a process developed by modifying the FCC process in order to increase the yield of olefins (mainly, propylene) other than gasoline. In the FCC process, a heavier fraction than full-range naphtha used in the present invention, such as vacuum residue, atmospheric residue, or gaseous oil, is used as feedstock.
Regarding the production of olefins, in addition to the above-described steam cracking and FCC processes, olefin conversion processes using catalytic cracking have been proposed. In most of these processes, the HZSM-5 catalyst as a solid acid catalyst is widely used. However, in the conventional catalytic cracking processes using the solid acid catalyst, the reaction temperature is typically at least 650° C., and at least 30% of the reaction feed is steam. The porous solid acid catalyst (e.g., zeolite) used in these catalytic cracking processes has problems in that, when it is placed in a steam atmosphere of more than 500° C., the dealumination of its tetrahedral framework will occur to cause structural breakdown thereof and at the same time, the acid sites of the solid acid catalyst will be reduced, resulting in a rapid reduction in catalytic activity and reactivity.
Accordingly, in the above-described conventional light olefin production processes including the catalytic cracking process, studies are actively performed to decrease the instability of the catalyst, and thus, a reduction in process performance, which occur when the catalyst is placed in a severe process atmosphere of high temperature and humidity.
Regarding these studies, U.S. Pat. No. 6,867,341 discloses a naphtha cracking catalyst obtained by controlling the distribution of aluminum atoms and crystal size of zeolite, as well as a process for cracking naphtha using this catalyst. According to the disclosure of said patent, the catalyst is designed so that the production of aromatic compounds on the pore surface can be minimized by chemically neutralizing aluminum present outside the pores, whereas ethylene and propylene, having small sizes, can be more selectively produced by increasing the concentration of aluminum ions inside the pores to increase the number of acid sites. Meanwhile, as disclosed in said patent, when a ferrierite zeolite catalyst obtained by this technology is used in catalytic cracking, the reactivity of the catalyst will become excellent even in a relatively severe process environment, such as maintaining the catalyst in an atmosphere of 50% steam at 690° C. for 2 hours. Regarding the hydrothermal stability of the catalyst, however, it is expected that the structural stability and reactivity of the catalyst cannot be secured when it is treated with 100% steam at 750° C. for 24 hours.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,835,863 discloses a process for producing light olefins by catalytically cracking naphtha (boiling point: 27-221° C.) using a pelletized catalyst containing 5-75% by weight of ZSM-5 and/or ZSM-11, 25-95% by weight of silica or kaolin and 0.5-10% by weight of phosphorus. However, there is no mention of hydrothermal stability in a severe environment of high temperature and humidity.
Japanese patent laid-open publication No. Hei 6-192135 discloses a catalytic cracking process for producing ethylene and propylene from C2-12 paraffin-containing light naphtha (density: 0.683 g/cc; composition: 42.7 wt % n-paraffin, 36.1 wt % iso-paraffin, 0.1 wt % olefins, 14.0 wt % naphthene, and 7.1 wt % aromatics; and the distribution of the paraffin component: 0.1 wt % C3, 5.2 wt % C4, 18.7 wt % C5, 19.0 wt % C6, 15.2 wt % C7, 13.5 wt % C8, 6.1 wt % C9, 0.1 wt % C10 and 0.1 wt % C11) using HZSM-5 and HZSM-11 catalysts (molar ratio of SiO2/Al2O3: 150-300) at a temperature of 620-750° C. and a WHSV of 1-200 h−1. According to the disclosure of said patent, under reaction conditions of 680° C. and a WHSV of 25 h−1, a conversion rate of 93.6 wt % and ethylene+propylene production of 44.9 wt % are shown. However, the HZSM-5 or HZSM-11 catalyst is used in the catalytic cracking reaction in an unpelletized state, and steam or inert gas is not fed during the reaction. Thus, the catalyst has excellent initial activity, but there is a possibility for the catalyst to be easily inactivated. For this reason, it is expected that the reactivity of the catalyst in a severe environment of high temperature and humidity will be remarkably reduced.
Meanwhile, Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 6-199707 reports that, in a catalytic cracking process for producing ethylene and propylene as main products from light naphtha containing C2-12 paraffin, the use of a proton-zeolite (SiO2/Al2O3=20-500) catalyst loaded with 100 ppm iron (Fe) allows light olefins to be produced with good selectivity. The catalyst has excellent initial activity since steam or inert gas is not fed during the reaction, but there is a possibility for the catalyst to be easily deactivated in a high-temperature reaction involving steam. For this reason, it is expected that the reactivity of the catalyst in a severe environment of high temperature and humidity will be remarkably reduced.
Accordingly, there is an urgent need for the development of a process where reaction activity is maintained even in a severe process environment of high temperature and humidity so that light olefins, such as ethylene and propylene, can be selectively produced with high conversion and selectivity from reaction feedstock, particularly full-range naphtha.

Process for production of light olefins from hydrocarbon feedstock

Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology


In one embodiment a switch has active and standby LAYER 2 switch interfaces coupled, respectively, to device interfaces of first and second LAYER 2/LAYER 3 network devices. The active switch interface is configured to forward all egress traffic and accept all ingress traffic and the standby switch interface is configured to forward only IGMP messages and configured to block all ingress traffic.

As the number of Internet users and Internet-based mission-critical applications increase daily at an unprecedented pace, service-provider and enterprise customers are demanding greater reliability and availability. When every minute of downtime can mean millions of dollars in lost revenue and embarrassing headlines, companies are eagerly looking for solutions to make their systems highly available.
One technique for increasing reliability and availability is redundancy, where active and standby resources are provided along with techniques to switch to the standby resource when the active resource fails.
On such technique, developed by the assignee of the present application, is to backup the active interface, or port, on a switch with a standby interface. In the following this technique will be referred to as "flexlink". Flexlink allows users to configure a first Layer 2 interface of a switch to backup another Layer 2 interface of the switch. For a given set of virtual local area networks (VLANs), at any given time only one flexlink interface is in forwarding state (referred to as "active" link in the following) while the other link does not allow the traffic to pass through (referred to as "standby" link). Flexlink is generally used at the edge between access and distribution switches/routers. These distribution switches/routers include both Layer 2 (or data link layer) interfaces which use Media Access Control (MAC) addresses and Layer 3 (network layer) interfaces which use network (IP) addresses and will be referred to in the following as LAYER 2/LAYER 3 network devices.
The idea behind flexlink is that if one of the uplink fails, the edge switch still remains connected to the core network through the other uplink. With the flexlink configuration, only one of the uplinks is forwarding data at any given time and hence data forwarding loops are avoided.

Achieving super-fast convergence of downstream multicast traffic when forwarding connectivity changes between access and distribution switches


A slug or plate of copper or some other material having high heat conductivity is attached by an adhesive such as epoxy to a heat-emitting electrical component such as a chip, ASIC, microprocessor, or the like. A heat sink having a base and a plurality of fins upstanding from the base is attached to the slug or plate by screws, nuts or other, preferably detachable, means. The bottom of the base may be formed with a socket to receive the slug. The heat sink may be larger than the slug, thereby improving heat dissipation. When it is necessary to replace the component, the heat sink is detached from the slug and re-used.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new and improved enhanced heat sink. More particularly the invention relates to a thermally enhanced and scalable heat sink to dissipate heat from an electrical component.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of heat sinks to dissipate heat from electrical components is well known in the art. Permanent attachment of heat sinks to such components may require disposal of the heat sink as well as the component when the latter has to be replaced or accessed. The present invention attaches (preferably permanently) to the component a slug or plate of a heat conductive material. The heat sink is then detachably connected to the slug or plate. When the component must be replaced, the slug or plate may be discarded with the component but the heat sink may be reused, thereby differing from prior constructions.


A semiconductor device includes a MISFET. The semiconductor device also includes a silicon nitride film 12 and a silicon nitride film 10 arranged on the silicon nitride film 12. The silicon nitride film 12 covers at least a portion of an upper part of a source/drain 8 of the MISFET and has a film thickness thinner than a height of a gate electrode 4. The source/drain 8 includes nickel silicide 9 on its boundary to the silicon nitride film 10. The silicon nitride film 10 is a stressed film. A tight adhering property between the silicon nitride film 12 and the surface of the source/drain 8 and that between the silicon nitride film 12 and the silicon nitride film 10 are rendered higher than a tight adhering property which would prevail when the silicon nitride film 10 be made to adhere tightly to the source/drain 8.

Recently, with development in the field of the information communication equipment, the processing ability required of the LSI is becoming higher, and correspondingly, the operating speed of transistors is increasing. Up to now, the device structure has to be miniaturized in order to cope with such increase in the operating speed of transistors. However, it is becoming difficult to reduce the gate length due to limitations imposed on the photolithographic technique, while it is becoming difficult to reduce the film thickness of the gate insulating film due to physical factors.
For this reason, there is a demand for techniques for achieving high performance of LSIs by routes other than device size miniaturization. Among such techniques, there is such a technique consisting in applying the stress to apply strain to the channel to improve the mobility (piezo-resistance effect). In a known manner, if a tensile (or compressive) stress is applied in a parallel (horizontal) direction to the channel to induce strain, the electron mobility is improved (or deteriorated), while the hole mobility is deteriorated (or improved). Several techniques for improving the performance of LSIs by taking advantage of this phenomenon have so far been disclosed (see for example Patent Documents 1 and 2).
In Patent Document 1, there is disclosed a technique in which a silicon nitride film is used as a stopper film at the time of opening a contact hole. This silicon nitride film is subjected to high tensile stress to induce strain to the channel to improve the electron mobility thereby improving the performance of the n-channel MISFET (abbreviated herein to nMISFET).
In Patent Document 2, there is disclosed a technique in which the nMISFET is covered with a silicon nitride film being under the tensile stress, and a p-channel MISFET (abbreviated herein to pMISFET) is covered with another silicon nitride film being under the compression stress, thereby to improve the mobility of both carriers to improve the performance of both the nMISFET and the pMISFET.    Patent Document 1: JP Patent Kokai Publication No. JP-P2002-198368A    Patent Document 2: JP Patent Kokai Publication No. JP-P2003-86708A    Non-Patent Document 1: "Journal Vacancy Science Technology (J. Vac. Sci. Technol.", US, 1998, A16(4), p 2003    Non-Patent Document 2: "Journal Vacancy Science Technology (J. Vac. Sci. Technol." US, 1999, A17(5), p 2612


An angular velocity sensor comprises a receiving member receiving therein a case containing a vibration element and an IC, and having a hole usable in soldering one end of a terminal strip to a case electrode, whereby, after this soldering operation, a condition of a soldered region in a mounting portion can be checked through the hole. This prevents deficiency in a solder amount required for soldering between the case and the receiving member to ensure accuracy in an output signal of the angular velocity sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an angular velocity sensor applicable to various systems for a moving subject, such as an aircraft or vehicle, for example, attitude control systems and navigation systems.
2. Description of the Background Art
Heretofore, this type of angular velocity sensor has been designed in a structure as shown in FIG. 12, which is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-332378.
FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a vibration element provided in a conventional angular velocity sensor. FIG. 13 is a circuit diagram of this angular velocity sensor, and FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the vibration element installed in a case of the angular velocity sensor.
As shown in FIGS. 12 to 14, vibration element 1 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and comprises a first piezoelectric substrate 2, and a second piezoelectric substrate 4 attached to first piezoelectric substrate 2 through an electrode layer 3. Further, two segmented electrodes 5 having both functions of driving and detection are attached on a top surface of the vibration element 1, and a common electrode 6 is attached on a bottom surface of the vibration element 1.
Reference numeral 7 indicates four terminals having an approximately Z shape. Each of the terminals 7 has one end formed as a broadened portion 8. This broadened portion 8 is soldered onto a corresponding one of the segmented electrodes 5 of the vibration element 1 to allow one end of the terminal 7 to be fixedly supported by the segmented electrode 5. Another end of the terminal 7 protrudes outward. The broadened portion 8 of the terminal 7 is positioned at a vibrational node in the vibration element 1.
The conventional angular velocity sensor has a circuit configuration as shown in FIG. 13. Specifically, an oscillator circuit 9 serving as driving means has one output terminal connected to respective segmented electrodes 5 through parallel lines each having a resistor 10 interposed therein, and another output terminal connected to the common electrode 6. One of the segmented electrodes 5 is connected to a non-inverting input terminal (+) of a differential amplifier circuit 12 through a resistor 11, and another segmented electrode 5 is connected to an inverting input terminal (−) of the differential amplifier circuit 12 through a resistor 11. Further, a resistor 13 is interposed in a line connecting between an output terminal of the differential amplifier circuit 12 and the inverting input terminal (−) of the differential amplifier circuit 12. As shown in FIG. 14, the vibration element 1 and the terminals 7 are disposed inside of case 14.
An operation of the above conventional angular velocity sensor will be described below.
In response to applying a driving signal, such as a sinusoidal signal generated from the oscillator circuit 9, to the segmented electrodes 5 through the resistors 10, each of the first piezoelectric substrate 2 and the second piezoelectric substrate 4 bendingly vibrates in a direction orthogonal to a principal plane thereof. Then, when the vibration element 1 is rotated around its axis, a Coriolis force will be generated in proportion to an angular velocity of this rotation. This generated Coriolis force acts in a direction parallel to the principal plane of the first and second piezoelectric substrates 2, 4 and orthogonal to the axis of the vibration element 1. The Coriolis force causes a change in direction of a bending vibration of the vibration element 1, and each of the segmented electrodes 5 generates a signal proportional to the angular velocity. Then, the differential amplifier circuit 12 receives the signal generated in each of the segmented electrodes 5 through the corresponding resistor 11 to detect an angular velocity acting on the angular velocity sensor.
From a viewpoint of improving durability of the angular velocity sensor, it is conceivable to enclose the case 14 in an additional receiving member (not shown) to form a case having a double-walled structure so as to provide enhanced durability of the angular velocity sensor.
However, this structure involves difficulties in inspecting or managing an amount of solder for soldering the receiving member to the case 14 during an operation for surface-mounting the case 14 onto the receiving member. This problem becomes serious along with progress in downsizing of the angular velocity sensor. An insufficient amount of solder during soldering causes a problem in that an unstable or unreliable electrical connection between the case 14 and the receiving member is realized, and deterioration in accuracy of an output signal of the angular velocity sensor is also realized.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.