A polarizing beam splitter includes: first and second prisms each having first and second end surfaces serving as an input surface or an output surface of light and an opposed surface as side surfaces of a pillar-like member; and at least two parallel flat layers disposed in parallel between the opposed surfaces of the first and second prisms. Here, one of the least two parallel flat layers is a first parallel flat layer polarization-separating the input beam. When it is assumed that the refractive index of a base material of the first and second prisms is Np, the resultant refractive index of the parallel flat layers other than the other parallel flat layer of the at least two parallel flat layers is Na, and the refractive index of the other parallel flat layer of the at least two parallel flat layers is Nb, (Na−Np)×(Nb−Np)<0 is satisfied.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical prism (a so-called polarizing beam splitter) as an optical member used for a projection optical system for separating polarization by separating an input beam into two linearly-polarized beams perpendicular to each other, transmitting and outputting one polarized beam, and reflecting the other polarized beam, a projection optical device (projection optical system) employing the polarizing beam splitter, and a projection display such as a liquid projector having the projection optical device as a main part or a rear projection display displaying a projected image on a rear projection screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Projection displays emitting a light beam from a light source to a small-sized image forming unit forming an optical image corresponding to an image signal and enlarging and projecting the optical image onto a screen by the use of a projection lens so as to obtain a large-sized image are known. An active-matrix liquid crystal panel modulating a light beam using polarization is widely and practically used in the image forming unit. A transmissive or reflective liquid crystal panels can be used as the liquid crystal panel, but the reflective liquid crystal panel enhancing a pixel aperture ratio even with a small size of the liquid crystal panel has attracted attention with the requirement for an increase in brightness, a decrease in size, and an increase in precision of the projection display. In the projection display employing the reflective liquid crystal panel, since an input portion and an output portion of the liquid crystal is the same, it is necessary to separate polarization by the use of a polarizing beam splitter.
FIGS. 29A and 29B are diagrams illustrating a known polarizing beam splitter and a basic optical system of a reflective liquid crystal projector having the polarizing beam splitter and a liquid crystal panel. Here, FIG. 29A is a diagram illustrating a polarization separating function of the polarizing beam splitter and FIG. 29B is a diagram illustrating the basic optical system of the reflective liquid crystal projector.
As shown in FIG. 29A, the known polarizing beam splitter 942 has a structure in which an optical member having a multi-layered film constituting a polarization separating surface 943a is disposed between slopes of two triangular glass prisms (rectangular prisms) 942a and 942b and they are bonded to each other. The polarizing beam splitter 942 has a function of allowing the polarization separating surface 943a to transmit a P polarization component of P and S polarization components input to the polarizing beam splitter 942 and allowing the polarization separating surface 943a to reflect the S polarization component.
As shown in FIG. 29B, a projection optical device 901 as a basic optical system of a projection display having the polarizing beam splitter 942 includes a light emitting unit 912, an image forming unit 914, and a projection lens 917 having an input lens 917a and a transmission lens 917b.
The light emitting unit 912 emits a light beam to the image forming unit 914 and the image forming unit 914 modulates the light beam on the basis of image information and inputs the modulated light beam as an image-projecting light beam to the input lens 917a of the projection lens 917. The image-projecting light beam input to the input lens 917a is projected onto a screen not shown by the transmission lens 917b of the projection lens 917, whereby an image is projected onto the screen.
The light emitting unit 912 specifically includes a light source (discharge lamp) 922 emitting a predetermined color beam (for example, white beam) and a light-emitting optical system 923. The light-emitting optical system 923 includes a reflecting mirror (parabolic mirror) 924 condensing the beam from the light source 922 and a lens group 925 disposed in front of the light source 922 in a straight line with respect to an optical axis. Only one convex lens is shown as the lens group 925 in the drawings, but for example, a UV cut filter or a condenser lens having a half wavelength plate may be provided.
The image forming unit 914 includes a polarizing beam splitter 942 and a reflective liquid crystal display (hereinafter, also referred to as a reflective liquid crystal panel) 970 generating a light beam corresponding to image information. As described above, the polarizing beam splitter 942 has a function of reflecting or transmitting an input beam depending on the polarization directions of the beam.
For example, the light beam (emitted light) emitted from the light source 922 is condensed by the reflecting mirror 924, is converted into a substantially parallel light beam, and is input to the lens group 925. The light beam having passed through the lens group 925 is condensed and applied to the reflective liquid crystal panel 970 through the polarizing beam splitter 942 having a polarization separating function. The polarizing beam splitter 942 disposed before the reflective liquid crystal panel 970 reflects the S polarization component and transmits the P polarization component, as shown in FIG. 29A. Accordingly, in this configuration, the P polarization component is input to the reflective liquid crystal panel 970.
In the reflective liquid crystal panel 970, the birefringence of liquid crystal varies depending on voltage information of an input image signal SV. That is, the reflective liquid crystal panel 970 applies an electric field to the liquid crystal in accordance with the input image signal SV. The alignment of liquid crystal molecules is changed by the applied electric field. Since the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules has an optical rotatory power, the input beam (P polarization component) polarization-rotates and is then output. In this configuration, while the input beam to the reflective liquid crystal panel 970 passes through the liquid crystal, is reflected by a reflecting film, and passes through the liquid crystal again, the polarization of the light beam is changed from the P polarization component to the S polarization component due to the birefringence and the resultant beam is then output.
The light beam (hereinafter, also referred to as a panel-output beam) output from the reflective liquid crystal panel 970 and spatially modulated on the basis of the image information SV becomes an optical image corresponding to the image signal SV and is input again to the polarizing beam splitter 942. Only the S polarization component (with respect to the polarization separating surface 942c of the polarizing beam splitter 942) of which the vibration direction of polarization has been rotated by the reflective liquid crystal panel 970 is reflected by the polarization separating surface 942c of the polarizing beam splitter 942 and travels to the projection lens 917.
Thereafter, an image is enlarged and projected onto a screen (not shown) by the projection lens 917. That is, an optical image formed by the variation in polarization of a light beam in the reflective liquid crystal panel 970 is enlarged and projected to the screen (not shown), thereby forming a projected image.
The P polarization component of which the polarization is not changed by the reflective liquid crystal panel 970 passes through the polarizing beam splitter 942 and returns to the light emitting unit 912.
As described above, by using the reflective liquid crystal panel 970, a large-sized image with high precision can be displayed by a relatively-small projection optical device 903. However, there is still a need for a small-sized projection display having high brightness and high contrast.
Here, the polarizing beam splitter 942 is formed by bonding the triangular glass prisms 942a and 942b to each other and a multi-layered optical film is deposited and stacked on the bonding surface to form the polarization separating surface 942c, thereby separating the polarization. For example, the polarization separating surface 942c is formed of a polarization separating film using a Brewster angle.
The polarizing beam splitter 942 employing the glass prisms 942a and 942b has great dependency of the P polarization spectrum transmittance and the S polarization spectrum reflectance on an incidence angle, does not provide a good polarization separating characteristic, and does not provide a projected image with a high contrast ratio. Accordingly, in order to obtain a projected image with a high contrast ratio, the incidence angle to the polarizing beam splitter 942 is, for example, in the range of 45±8 degree (air-converted angle) and thus a relatively-dark projection lens 917 having an F number of about F3.5 or more is necessary. That is, in order to improve the polarization separating characteristic (an extinction ratio of transmission or reflection of the P polarized beam and the S polarized beam), it is necessary to input a light beam having a large F number, that is, a light beam close to a parallel beam.
However, in the above-mentioned configuration, it is difficult to increase the brightness due to the restriction of the incident angle to the polarizing beam splitter 942, even using the reflective liquid crystal panel 970 having a small panel size but a high pixel aperture ratio.
Therefore, various suggestions for improving the polarization separating characteristic have been made to solve such a problem. For example, it can be considered that a Vikuiti (registered trademark and/or trademark) DBEF-D film is used in the polarization separating element. There has been suggested a structure in which a wire-grid polarization separating element separating the polarization by the use of a metallic grid formed in minute grid shapes out of metal is inserted between the triangular glass prisms (for example, see JP-A-2003-131212 and JP-A-2006-3384).
By using the wire-grid polarization separating element, a good polarization separating characteristic with respect to a variation in incidence angle of a light beam can be obtained (for example, to cope with 45±15 degree) and the F number of the light-emitting optical unit or the projection lens can be reduced to F2.0 without causing an optical loss or a decrease in contrast of the polarization separating prism, thereby constructing a projection display with high brightness, high contrast, and high precision.

Polarizing beam splitter, projection optical system, projection display


A database system comprised of a decoupled compute layer and storage layer is implemented to store, build, and maintain a canonical dataset, a temporary buffer, and an edits dataset. The canonical dataset is a set of batch updated data. The data is appended in chunks to the canonical dataset such that the canonical dataset becomes a historical dataset over time. The buffer is a write ahead log that contains the most recent chunks of data and provides atomicity and durability for the database system. The edits dataset is the set of data that contains edits such as cell mutations, row appends and/or row deletions. The database system enables users to make cell or row-level edits to tables and observe those edits in analytical systems or downstream builds with minimal latency.

A database system may store large quantities of data. For example, a database system may store on the scale of petabytes to exabytes worth of data. However, such big database systems often require specialized architecture, management, processing, and/or maintenance methodologies in order to maintain the big database system, and there may be tradeoffs between different approaches.
For example, some existing database systems, such as Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) database systems, are designed for applying complex queries to large amounts of historical data, for data mining, analytics, and business intelligence and reporting projects. These OLAP database systems may rely on a multidimensional data model to allow for complex analytical and ad hoc queries with a rapid execution time by multiple simultaneous users or perspectives. However, this emphasis on response time to complex queries means that these OLAP database systems may not be able to provide the same level of performance with regards to rapidly writing to and updating datasets.
In contrast, other existing database systems, such as Online Transactional Processing (OLTP) database systems, are designed for quickly processing a large volume of transactions that may comprise many different kinds of instructions (e.g., read, insert, update, and delete). In particular, databases configured for OLTP may be written to and updated frequently with low latency and high data integrity. Accordingly, OLTP database systems are not designed specifically to rapidly execute complex queries and instead prioritize the rapid updating of datasets. Due to these tradeoffs between query performance and write performance, a decision usually has to be made between low latency complex querying or low latency editing.


An error correction code system includes an error correction code generator for generating an error correction code based on a data unit and an error detector for detecting at least one bit error in the data unit based on the error correction code. The error correction code generator includes logic circuits for generating check bits in the error correction code. The error detector includes logic circuits for identifying any data bits of the data unit having a bit error based on the error correction code. The logic circuits in the error correction code generator and the error detector are derived from group codes separated from each other by a hamming distance and having a same population count. The error correction code system may also include an error corrector for correcting error bits in the data unit.

Error correction codes are often used in electronic systems for detecting and correcting data errors. Such an electronic system typically includes circuits for generating an error correction code based on data, detecting bit errors in the data based on the error correction code, and correcting bit errors in the data based on the error correction code. In many electronic systems, circuits for detecting and correcting bit errors based on error correction codes are in critical paths of the electronic systems. Consequently, these circuits for detecting and correcting bit errors limit data processing rates of the electronic systems.
In some electronic systems, circuits generate error correction codes based on a hamming code. In these electronic systems, circuits generate a minimum number of check bits of an error code for detecting a number of bit errors in data and correcting a number of the bit errors. For example, such a circuit may be capable of detecting and correcting a single bit error in the data as well as detecting a double bit error in the data. The number of bit errors detectable and correctable by these circuits depends on a minimum hamming distance between group codes associated with data bits of the data. The minimum number of check bits needed for detecting the number of bits errors in these electronic systems depends upon the number of data bits in the data and may also depend upon the minimum hamming distance. Although using a minimum number of check bits for detecting and correcting errors in data reduces storage requirements for an error correction code, faster circuits are needed to meet ever-increasing data processing rates of electronic systems.
In light of the above, a need exists for an improved error detection circuit. A further need exists for high-speed error detection and correction circuits.


A negative active material for lithium secondary battery contains a tin oxyhydroxide or a complex oxyhydroxide of tin and other elements such as Mg, Ca, Ni, Mn, V, Ti, Pb, Al, Ge, As, Si and/or Sb.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a negative active material for a lithium secondary battery and a producing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lithium secondary battery is generally composed of a positive electrode made of a compound which can accommodate and release lithium ions, a negative electrode made of carbon or the like capable of accommodating and releasing metallic lithium, lithium alloy or lithium ions and an organic electrolyte in which a lithium salt is dissolved in an organic solvent or polymer electrolytes, and shows remarkably high voltage and high energy density.
As a compound to be used as the positive electrode capable of accommodating and releasing lithium ions, lithium cobaltate (LiCoO.sub.2), lithium nickelate (LiNiO.sub.2), spinel type lithium manganese oxide (LiMn.sub.2 O.sub.4), vanadium oxide (V.sub.2 O.sub.5, V.sub.3 O.sub.11) and the like are well known.
As the negative electrode, the just described materials are well known, and other metal oxides capable of accommodating and releasing lithium have also been reported, such as a lithium titanium spinel oxide (LiTi.sub.2 O.sub.4 or Li.sub.4/3 Ti.sub.5/3 O.sub.4) (T. Ohzuku et al., JECS, 142, 1431 (1995)), an oxide mainly composed of tin (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publications (kokai) Nos. 7-12274, 7-201318, 7-288123), an oxide mainly composed of silicon (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-325765, EP 0615296 A1) and the like.
Lithium secondary battery can be classified into two types depending on the combination of positive and negative electrodes when the battery is firstly assembled. One is a combination of a positive electrode which does not contain lithium with a negative electrode comprised of a material that contains metallic lithium and metals (charged state), and the other is a combination of a positive electrode comprised of a material which contains lithium with a negative electrode comprised of a material that does not contain lithium (uncharged state). A typical example of the former case is a combination of a positive electrode comprised of vanadium oxide with a negative electrode comprised of metallic lithium. In this case, the following charge and discharge reactions occur, and discharge is firstly carried out when the battery is used for example, as indicated in the following formulae. ##STR1##
A typical example of the latter case is a combination of a positive electrode comprised of lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO.sub.2) with a negative electrode comprised of graphite (C). In this case, the charge and discharge reactions progress in accordance with the following formulas, and the charging reaction is firstly carried out after assembly of the battery. ##STR2##
In the metallic lithium battery based on the formulas (1) and (2), short circuit is apt to occur when the charging and discharging are repeated, due to lithium dendritic deposition on the surface of the electrode, and there is a danger of causing abnormal generation of heat and increment of pressure inside the battery, so that it has not been used practically. Substitution of metallic lithium by lithium alloy can hardly change the situation.
In the case of the battery based on the formulas (3) and (4), on the contrary, lithium is inserted in or released from the active material in the form of ions (because of this, this type of battery is particularly called lithium ion secondary battery), so that deposition of metallic lithium can be avoided, its charge and discharge cycle life becomes longer and high safety is ensured. Because of these reasons, lithium ion secondary batteries are now widely put to practical use.
It is desirable that the active materials of positive and negative electrodes have large capacity per unit weight or unit volume and high battery voltage (higher in the case of positive electrode and lower in the case of negative electrode based on Li/Li.sup.+).
As the negative active material, graphite or amorphous carbon is currently put into practical use, and it has been reported that, in the former case, 1 mole at the maximum of lithium is intercalated into 6 moles of carbon atoms (LiC.sub.6) and its theoretical capacity density becomes 372 mAh/g, while a capacity density of 500 to 600 mAh/g is obtained in the latter case, though not fully elucidated theoretically. However, in view of discharge voltage, graphite shows a flat potential of about 0.1 V (based on Li/Li.sup.+), while electric potential of amorphous carbon gradually becomes higher as the discharge progresses and reaches about 0.5 V in average with relatively low battery voltage.
On the other hand, when considered from the viewpoint of energy consumption at the time of producing these carbon materials, they are produced at relatively high temperatures of 2,000.degree. C. or more in the case of graphite and that of 800 to 1,000.degree. C. in the case of amorphous carbon Therefore, the amount of energy consumption is considerably large in both cases, particularly in the case of graphite. Further, from a different view point in terms of the quality control for producing these carbon materials, quality control can be made easily in the case of graphite because of its well developed crystals which make possible precise measurement of the crystal lattice constant by a powder X-ray diffraction as a relatively simple and easy method, while quality control is not easy in the case of amorphous carbon, because clear diffraction peaks cannot be obtained by the powder X-ray diffraction method.
Thus, though they are similar carbon materials, graphite and amorphous carbon have their own respective merits and demerits. Accordingly, when one of them must be selected as the negative active material for lithium ion battery use, the selection is based on their important properties. In any case, the negative electrode using a carbon material is not stable when lithium ions are accommodated in advance which is also a complicated step. Consequently, it is built into the battery generally under an uncharged state (a state of no insertion of lithium ions).
Of the aforementioned lithium titanium spinel type oxides, the material having a composition of Li.sub.4/3 Ti.sub.5/3 O.sub.4 has problems in that its capacity density is about 170 mAh/g which is small when compared with carbon materials, and its discharge potential is about 1.5 V (based on Li/Li.sup.+) which is considerably high. However, since lithium is included at the time of producing, these materials exert an advantage when they are made into charged state at the time of the battery assembly.
On the other hand, it has been reported that the aforementioned tin oxides (Sn(II)O having an .alpha.-PbO.sub.2 structure and Sn(IV)O.sub.2 having a rutile structure) have a capacity density of about 500 mAh/g which is almost the same as that of amorphous carbon (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication (kokai) No. 7-235293). The publication also describes methods of preparation in the case of SnO.sub.2 for example, it is produced by a method in which a precipitate obtained from a mixture solution of a tin salt and an alkali hydroxide is subjected to iD heat treatment at a temperature of 250.degree. C. or more, preferably 400.degree. C. or more. In this connection, the above report describes that sharp decrease in the discharge capacity density is not found by 10 cycles of the charge discharge cycle, but does not describe test results of more larger charge discharge cycles.
As described in the foregoing, there are a number of negative active materials for use in the lithium secondary battery, but when they are viewed in terms of their characteristics and producing steps, they are not excellent in all points because they have their own respective merits and demerits. In other words, the choices may vary depending on what points should come before all others as evaluation criteria of the negative active material.

Negative active material for lithium secondary battery and producing method thereof


A portable terminal includes a user interface, a memory, a network interface, and a controller, and performs operations including: performing a first acquiring processing of acquiring the content data, which is identified by the data identification information, and the operation identification information; performing, a second acquiring processing of acquiring operation information representing operations, which is able to be performed by the first device; performing, a first determining processing of determining whether the output operation, which is identified by the operation identification information, is represented by the operation information, and transmitting, in the output instructing processing in a case where it is determined that the output operation is represented by the operation information, a first output instructing information to the first device via the network interface, wherein the first output instructing information is output instructing information for outputting the content data by the output operation.

For example, a background art discloses a printing application which causes a user to designate image data, and the like, stored in a portable terminal and causes a printer to print images represented by the designated image data. Also, a background art provides an application which transfers image data to the printing application.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Non-transitory computer-readable medium storing output instructions to control portable terminal and portable terminal


A window insulation system includes a window installed in a wall of a house. The window includes an enclosed space defined between first and second window panes, and at least one opening located on a side of the enclosed space. An insulating material reservoir is adapted to store insulating material, and is coupled to the opening by one or more pipes. A pump system causes a first flow of air through the pipes, causing the insulating material to flow from the insulating material reservoir into the enclosed space, filling the enclosed space with insulating material. A second flow of air causes the insulating material to flow from the enclosed space to the insulating material reservoir, emptying the enclosed space of the insulating material. A controller causes the pump system to cause the first flow of air at a first predetermined time, causing the enclosed space to be filled with the insulating material, and causes the pump system to cause the second flow of air at a second predetermined time, emptying the enclosed space of the insulating material.

Heating systems, air conditioning systems, and other climate control systems are commonly used in homes today. However, in operation, many existing climate control systems suffer from a variety of inefficiencies that result in unwanted energy loss and therefore increased cost. One point of inefficiency in a home climate control system is the windows of the home. A typical glass-paned window (even a double-paned window) allows much more thermal energy (i.e., heat) to escape the house than a corresponding portion (with a similar surface area) of insulated wall. Thus, during the winter, when a home heating system is operating, thermal energy generated by the heating system escapes through a window more easily than through an insulated wall. Similarly, during the summer, when an air conditioner is operating, thermal energy enters the house more easily through the windows than through insulated walls. This undesirable flow of thermal energy through the windows of a house increases the cost of heating or cooling a home.

Window insulation system and method of operating the same


An apparatus and method for controlling the environmental conditions surrounding an integrated circuit device during performance testing is disclosed. The apparatus includes a housing having an inlet and outlet, a test assembly having a plurality of device test sites, a heat transfer medium source connected to the inlet, a negative pressure source connected to the outlet to promote flow of the heat transfer medium from the inlet to the outlet, and at least one flow resistance member positioned between the test sites and the outlet to control the flow of the heat transfer medium proximate to the test sites. In a preferred embodiment the flow resistance member is integral with the test assembly and the test sites have at least one flow path through each of the test sites serving as the flow resistance member and sized to provide for a uniform flow field in the vicinity of the test sites. In the practice of the invention, the resistance member is positioned such that upon the application of a negative pressure on the outlet of the housing a uniform flow and pressure field develops in the vicinity of the test sites and devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to controlling the environmental conditions surrounding a device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a uniform air flow and temperature near a plurality of semiconductor devices during performance testing.
2. Description of the Invention Background
An integrated circuit is a solid state device in which electrical components and electrical connections between the components are incorporated into a solid matrix by the strategic placement of various conducting, semiconducting and insulating materials to form and encapsulate the desired circuit in the composite solid matrix. The development of the integrated circuit has led to the miniaturization of electronics by providing a strong matrix to support and protect fragile miniaturized components and connections and facilitating the placement of the electrical components in close proximity. The integrated circuit has also served to increase the reliability of electronic devices by the elimination of moving parts and fragile wiring and electrical connections.
Integrated circuits are typically constructed by depositing a series of individual layers of predetermined materials on a wafer shaped semiconductor substrate, or "wafer". The individual layers of the integrated circuit are, in turn, produced by a series of manufacturing steps. The precise characteristics of the layers, such as composition, thickness, surface quality, uniquely determine the electronic properties and the performance of the integrated circuit. Testing of the integrated circuits is performed throughout the manufacturing process in order to ensure that the circuits perform within the design specifications and to serve as a quality control indicator for the preceding manufacturing steps.
In addition to the short-term performance testing described above, longer term performance tests are run to provide life estimations and compensation factors for performance variations. The conditions used in performance testing generally vary from normal operation to extreme condition testing typically ranging from -50.degree. C. to 150.degree. C. Extreme condition testing, such as burn-in testing, is used to identify seriously defective conditions in the circuit that would lead to early lifetime failures, while long-term normal operation testing is directed to identifying systemic problems in the circuit.
It is desirable to perform the testing of the circuits in a manufacturing process time scale to prevent the testing from forming a bottleneck in the manufacturing process and to quickly identify changes in the manufacturing process. Therefore, the integrated circuit devices are generally tested in bulk quantities of 8 to 64 devices at a time depending upon the particular test. However, the bulk testing of the devices causes problems with maintaining uniform environmental test conditions near each device, which can lead to erroneous test results. Because the test results are used not only to provide an indication of the quality of the individual device, but to form a statistical sampling for the determination of process control conditions, erroneous test results can have a substantial impact on the cost effectiveness and the quality of the manufacturing process. Generally, the bulk device performance test procedures are considered to be reliable and the testing in control if the temperature variation of the devices is within .+-.4.degree. C.
The variation in the environmental conditions near the devices under test (DUTs) is important because the performance and failure of the device is a strong function of the device temperature.
The testing of the devices is normally performed within a test apparatus having a contained environment to allow the test conditions to be varied depending upon the particular performance test being run. However, the devices under test will generate heat due to resistive losses that may not be freely transferred away from the device resulting in an increased local environmental temperatures and operating temperatures of the devices under test. This type of variation can be quantified to some extent and has been compensated for in the prior art through the use of weighting factors. A second type of variation occurs as a result of nonuniform air flow patterns within the apparatus that produce device to device variations in the amount of heat transfer from the device to the environment resulting in device to device temperature and performance variations. The second type of variation is not as easily quantifiable, if at all, due to the contributing factors of nonuniform air flow, nonuniform environmental temperatures and actual variations in the performance of devices. It is, therefore, very difficult to assess the variations in performance due to the manufacturing process or to determine the precise performance rating for the device in the bulk testing apparatuses of the prior art. While specific data can be obtained by performing individual testing of the devices, individual device test methods are not sufficiently rapid to allow more than a small sampling of the devices to be made without introducing a severe bottleneck into the manufacturing process.
One attempt to provide an integrated circuit device performance test apparatus that addresses the device to device variation is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,285 to Hashinaga et al. The Hashinaga patent requires that the integrated circuit to be tested contain a temperature sensing device that is used in conjunction with the apparatus. The apparatus includes a control device that is connected to the temperature sensing device and an air flow and direction controller. The control device is connected through a temperature detection device to the individual devices and the temperatures of the individual devices are monitored by the control device. In response to the temperature data, the control device adjusts the direction and flow rate of the air in the apparatus through a series of ports. The feedback loop operates to maintain the temperature of the devices under test within a prescribed temperature range.
A number of practical problems are encountered when using the apparatus of the Hashinaga patent. While, the incorporation of a temperature sensor into the chip provides a more precise way to determine the temperature of the actual device, it may not be practical, desirable or cost effective to incorporate a temperature sensor into each device. The embodiments disclosed in the Hashinaga patent also envision a limited number of directional air flow nozzles servicing a large number of devices, which appears to present control problems considering that the control device will be monitoring all of the devices to control the direction of the air flow. Also, in order to service a number of devices the air flow must be directed substantially parallel to the devices under test which will result in different devices experiencing different air flow patterns and temperatures. The aforementioned problems can be somewhat overcome, for instance, by providing an individual air flow nozzle for each device under test. This results in a very complex and cost ineffective system requiring experienced oversight at all times and an extensive requalification of the baffling used to control the air flow every time the system is taken down for repairs or preventive maintenance. Even if these problems can be addressed satisfactorily, a basic problem remains in the system. The Hashinaga patent attempts to provide a method and apparatus that allows for the performance testing of the devices at a prescribed temperature attributing all of the variation in the device temperature to the variations in the apparatus. However, a portion of the device to device variation observed is actually attributable to variations in the manufacture of the device, which provides important data on quality control of the manufacturing process in addition to the performance of the individual device.
Thus, it is apparent that a need exists for an improved integrated circuit device performance testing apparatus which overcomes, among others, the above-discussed problems so as to provide more reliable data on the performance of the individual devices and manufacturing process in a cost effective and reliable manner.

Apparatus and method of controlling the environmental temperature near semiconductor devices under test


A computer in a vehicle is configured to receive one or more data collector inputs, detect an object proximate to the vehicle based on the one or more inputs, determine a closure speed between the object and the vehicle, determine a change in speed of the object, compute an accountability factor; and determine whether to identify a potential incident based at least in part on the accountability factor and an incident value. The incident value is a function of at least one of the closure speed and a distance between the vehicle and the object. The accountability factor is based at least in part on the closure speed and the change in speed of the object.

A vehicle collision or vehicle crash incident may be more likely when a first vehicle approaches a second vehicle at a rapid rate of speed. However, a vehicle operator may not know that a rate of approach speed was dangerous, and/or the vehicle operator may ignore dangerous rapid approaches. In some cases, a vehicle operator may contribute to a potential or actual incident such as a collision by driving behavior, but in other cases another vehicle's operation, e.g., sudden braking, may be the sole or primary contributor to an incident. Unfortunately, mechanisms are presently lacking for identifying rapid approaches that may compromise vehicle safety and/or that may affect vehicle insurance rates, and for determining vehicle operator accountability for rapid approach incidents.


The present invention provides an acid anhydride ester obtained by esterifying cyclohexane-1,2,4-tricarboxylic acid-1,2-anhydride and a composition of the ester, and a heat-curable resin composition and a cured product of the composition. _Provided is an epoxy resin composition using the acid anhydride ester as a curing agent for an epoxy resin, the epoxy resin composition having, for example, the following properties (1), (2), and (3): (1) the epoxy resin composition has a low viscosity at room temperature, so the components of the composition can be favorably blended with each other, (2) the acid anhydride ester has a low vapor pressure at curing temperature, so no evaporation loss occurs after curing, and the intended design of blend is capable, and (3) a cured product to be made from the composition is colorless and transparent, and changes its color to a small extent even when the product is irradiated with light or heated for a long time period. The composition is suitably used as, for example, an encapsulant for a photoelectric conversion element such as a blue LED or a white LED, a molded article, a coating, or an adhesive.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel acid anhydride ester and a composition of the ester, and a novel heat-curable resin composition and a cured product of the composition, and more specifically, to an acid anhydride ester and a composition of the ester, and a heat-curable resin composition and a cured product of the composition each of which is useful as: an encapsulant for a photoelectric conversion element typified by a light emitting diode such as a blue or white light emitting diode (hereinafter, abbreviated as "LED"); a raw material for a coating, adhesive, molded article, curing agent, polyimide resin, or the like; a modifier; a plasticizer; a lubricating oil raw material; an intermediate for a drug or agricultural chemical; a raw material for a coating; a toner resin; or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, blue LED's and white LED's each having high luminance have been developed, and have been finding use in an expanded variety of applications including bulletin boards, full-color displays, and backlights for portable phones. An acid anhydride curable epoxy resin has been conventionally used as an encapsulant for a photoelectric conversion element such as an LED because the resin is excellent in colorless and transparent nature. An alicyclic acid anhydride such as methyltetrahydrophthalic anhydride, hexahydrophthalic anhydride, or tetrahydrophthalic anhydride has been generally used as a curing agent for an epoxy resin for use in such photoelectric conversion element. Of those, methylhexahydrophthalic anhydride, methyltetrahydrophthalic anhydride, or the like which is a liquid at normal temperature has been mainly used because of its ease of handling.
However, when the above alicyclic acid anhydride is used as a curing agent, a curing accelerator must be added to the alicyclic acid anhydride in order that the alicyclic acid anhydride may be sufficiently cured because the alicyclic acid anhydride has low curing reactivity.
For example, triphenylphosphonium bromide (JP2000-344868 A), 2-ethyl-4-methylimidazole (JP 2001-114868 A), an ethyl hexanoate of 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undecene-7 (JP2002-97251 A: Example 8), and tetraphenylphosphonium bromide (JP 2003-26763 A) have been used as curing accelerators each used in a curing agent made of an alicyclic acid anhydride.
An epoxy resin composition as an encapsulant for a photoelectric conversion element is exposed to the strong light emission energy of an LED at a high temperature for a long time period. Accordingly, the epoxy resin composition must show a colorless and transparent nature under heating for a long time period in order that the epoxy resin composition may find applications in blue LED's and white LED's. However, such curing accelerator as described above is not preferably used in an encapsulant for a photoelectric conversion element such as an LED because of the following reason: when the curing accelerator is used in a curing agent made of an alicyclic acid anhydride, the curing accelerator itself changes to a yellow color owing to heating for a long time period, with the result that the colorless and transparent nature of the encapsulant is impaired.
In addition, a conventional curing agent has a high vapor pressure, and part of the agent evaporates at the time of curing. Accordingly, the compounding ratio of the agent deviates from a target value, and it becomes difficult to obtain a cured product having target performance.
There has been proposed an epoxy resin composition using cyclohexane-1,2,4-tricarboxylic acid-1,2-anhydride as a curing agent (JP 2005-36218 A and WO 2005/49597). The composition has excellent curability without the use of any curing accelerator. A cured product of the composition is colorless and transparent, and changes its color to a small extent even when the cured product is irradiated with light having a high temperature and high energy. The composition can find applications in blue LED's and white LED's. However, the curing agent is a solid or a liquid having an extremely high viscosity at room temperature, so the ease with which the curing agent and any other component of the composition are blended with each other is problematic.

Acid anhydride ester and composition thereof, and heat-curable resin composition and cured product thereof


The present invention relates to a method for establishing or resuming a wireless communication connection in a wireless communication network. According to the method, a first message is transmitted from a first device to a second device. The first message includes a request for the second device to provide a data link layer communication forwarding between the first device and a base station. Furthermore, a connection between the first device and the base station is established or resumed via the data link layer communication forwarding of the second device.

Mobile and wireless communication is becoming more popular with new applications in the field of mobile autonomous reporting, like for example smoke alarm detectors, power failure notifications from smart meters, tamper notifications, smart metering reports for gas, water, and electricity, smart agriculture, smart environment, and in the field of network command and control, like for example home automation and vehicle tracking and monitoring. A lot of these applications may be implemented in compact battery-powered devices, so-called Internet of Things (IoT) devices or wearable devices. Preferably, for universal use, such devices may communicate via cellular wireless communication networks, for example LTE (Long Term Evolution).
A wireless communication of IoT devices within a cellular network is studied in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as disclosed for example in the Technical Report 3GPP TR 23.720 (release 13). In this context, IoT devices communicating within a cellular network are also called Cellular Internet of Things (CIoT) devices.
In particular in connection with CIoT terminal devices the following requirements may be considered. As these terminal devices are frequently battery-powered, a low power consumption may contribute to improve battery life time. Radio frequency signaling of a radio interface during connection setup and data communication may increase the electrical power consumption, in particular in case of a long distance between the CIoT device and a base station. A so-called device-to-device (D2D) may be utilized to reduce power consumption. Commonly, the device-to-device communication is used for a data communication and data exchange between two or more terminal devices via direct radio links. However, a device-to-device communication may also be utilized for communication with the cellular wireless communication network via another device. For example, a terminal device may not communicate directly with a base station, but indirectly via a so-called relay device, which may be another communication terminal device of the wireless communication network. A communication link, a so-called sidelink or D2D-link, is established between the terminal device and the relay device, and a further communication link is established between the relay device and the base station. This enables the terminal device to communicate with the wireless communication network using a short range radio frequency communication to the relay device, thus saving electrical energy.
However, when communicating data via a relay device, this may raise security problems, in particular as traditional device-to-device communication specifies the relay function as layer 3 relay (see for example 3GPP TS 23.303) or even as application layer relay.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and devices which address the above-described problems.

Establishing or resuming a wireless communication connection in a wireless communication network


A polymer electrolyte membrane for a fuel cell that can maintain a stable performance for a long time, a method of manufacturing the same, and a fuel cell employing the same. The polymer electrolyte membrane includes at least one kind of a basic polymer and an acidic dopant. A dimensional change in the planar direction of the electrolyte membrane between a wet state and a dry state is 5% or less.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a polymer electrolyte membrane for a fuel cell, a method of manufacturing the same, and a fuel cell employing the same. More particularly, aspects of the present invention relate to a polymer electrolyte membrane having excellent durability and that is adapted for a fuel cell that is operated at a temperature range of 100 to 200° C. without using a particular fuel gas humidifier, a method of manufacturing the same, and a fuel cell employing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polymer electrolyte membranes used in solid polymer fuel cells require high ionic conductivity, and at the same time, good long-term stability. U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,436 discloses an electrolyte membrane in which a polybenzimidazole film is doped with an orthophosphoric acid. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-281819 discloses a polymer electrolyte membrane having an improved mechanical strength, in which polybenzimidazoles are crosslinked by diepoxy compounds or the like. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-535734 discloses an electrolyte membrane in which a polymer blend including polybenzimidazoles is crosslinked by diepoxy compounds or the like. In summary, U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,436, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-281819, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-535734 relate to electrolyte membranes in which polybenzimidazoles, which are basic polymers, are impregnated with a dopant (e.g., an orthophosphoric acid). Membrane and electrode assemblies employing these electrolyte membranes tend to be unsatisfactory in view of long-term stability. The electrolyte membranes disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-281819 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-535734 have an improved mechanical strength provided by adding a crosslinking agent, but the long term stability of these membranes nevertheless tends to be insufficient. The cause of the lack of long term stability is that these kinds of electrolyte membranes undergo a large dimensional change between the wet state (moisture absorption state) and the dry state.
That is, an electrolyte membrane that includes a large amount of an acidic dopant exists in a wet state due to product water when a fuel cell containing the electrolyte membrane is in a closed circuit state, but the electrolyte membrane exists in a dry state due to leakage of water from the electrolyte membrane when the fuel cell is in an open circuit state or is operating at a low current density.
Due to absorption and desorption of water between the wet state and dry state of an electrolyte membrane, the electrolyte membrane undergoes a dimensional change. In particular, an electrolyte membrane, the edges of which are fixed in a cell, is subjected to tensile stress due to a dimensional change in the planar direction. In order to solve this problem, a method of enhancing the yield strength or fracture strength of an electrolyte membrane has been proposed, but there is much room for improvement.

Polymer electrolyte membrane for fuel cell, method of manufacturing the same, and fuel cell employing the same


A method and apparatus for discriminating between voice and voiceband data (fax/modem data) in an input signal from a voiceband channel, which is available by blocks (packets) of samples. Said discrimination is based upon the computation of two characteristics of the input signal: an autocorrelation function and a power variation function, the combination of which provides a discrimination factor which is highly accurate while requiring a low computing power.

The evolution of digital networks in the last past years caused a fundamental shift in the customer traffic profile. Now, using the new networking technologies e.g. high speed packet switching networks allows the customer to integrate data, voice and video information digitally encoded, chopped into small packets and transmitted through the network. An efficient transport of mixed traffic streams on very high speed lines means for these new network architectures a set of requirements in terms of performance and resource consumption. One major requirement is the efficient management of the bandwidth allocation since transmission costs are likely to continue to represent the major expense of operating future telecommunication networks, as the demand for bandwidth increases driven by new applications and new technologies.
In digital transmission of voiceband signals, two types of signal can be present on a standard 64 kbps (thousand bits per second) PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) encoded digital voice channel, depending on whether it is voice (speech) or FAX and/or modem data (commonly referred to as voiceband data). When the signal is voice, bandwidth can be saved by using voice compression algorithms capable of reducing significantly the data rate in voice circuits without measurable loss of quality. Many voice compression algorithms rely on the fact that a voice signal has considerable redundancy, and then, the characteristics of the next few samples can be predicted from the last few ones. One of the most common voice compression algorithm based on the prediction method is the GSM (Group Special Mobile) technique. Using GSM compression technique allows a speech data stream to be compressed at a rate of 13 kbps compared to the initial bit rate of 64 kbps. Unfortunately applying such a compression algorithm (i.e. GSM) to voiceband data signals would increase dramatically the bit error rate. Consequently voiceband data should be either encoded at a higher bit rate so as to keep the data error rate in a permissible limit, or demodulated to extract the data, or kept transmitted at the initial 64 kbps.
Therefore, the necessity to apply selectively a high compression technique for bandwidth saving purpose to signals from a digital voice channel depending on whether they are speech or voiceband data, implies the use of an accurate speech/voiceband data discriminator.
Such speech/voiceband data discriminators already exist in the background art.
Publication "IEEE Transactions Communications, Vol. COM-30, No. 4, April 1982--Highly Sensitive Speech Detector and High-Speed Voiceband Data Discriminator in DSI-ADPCM Systems" by Yohtaro Yatsuzuka describes a high speed voiceband data discrimination technique. The discrimination between voiceband data and speech is based on a short-time energy, a zero-crossing rate and coefficients of an adaptive predictor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,223 issued on Mar. 15, 1994 to Saito (Japan) entitled "Voice/voice band data discrimination apparatus" discloses an apparatus for discriminating voice data so as to create statistical data and for discriminating voice/voice band data in digital speech interpolation and digital circuit multiplication equipment. A comparison is made between the dead zone width and the amplitude of the input signal so as to count only how many times the input signal crosses the width of each dead zone as the number of zero crosses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,704 issued on May 24, 1994 to Shinta et al. (Japan) entitled "Speech/voiceband data discriminator" discloses an apparatus whereby input signals are processed to generate a plurality of signals having different features according to whether the input signals are speech signals or voiceband data signals, and these plural signals are entered into a neural network to be determined whether they have features closer to those of speech signals or of voiceband data signals. The classifying function of the neural network is achieved by inputting samples of speech signals and voiceband data signals and learning how to obtain correct classification results. Short time energies and zero crossing rates of input signals are both fed in parallel to the neural network for classification decision.
The prior art speech/voiceband data discriminators referred to above generally imply a complex processing and their discrimination accuracy is generally perfectible with maybe the exception of the last above mentionned prior art wherein a neural network is used for making the final decision but which is accordingly complex to implement.
The speech/voiceband data disclosed is the present application offers a high discrimination accuracy while requiring a low computing power, which makes it easy to implement and particularly suitable for applications wherein many voiceband channels have to be processed simultaneously.

International Business Machines Corporation


An upper end portion and a lower end portion of a second magnetic portion of a coil component are further away from a coil than when a third part and a fifth part are not present. For this reason, a magnetic flux is unlikely to be concentrated in the upper end portion and the lower end portion of the second magnetic portion, so that magnetic saturation is unlikely to occur. Therefore, improvement of direct current superimposition characteristics is realized in the coil component.

Regarding a coil component in the related art, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2016-195245 discloses a coil component including a coil portion, a metal magnetic plate that is disposed in a core portion, a magnetic body that covers the coil portion and the metal magnetic plate, and an external electrode that is provided on a side surface of the magnetic body and is electrically connected to the coil portion. The coil portion in this literature has a configuration provided with a coil pattern which is subjected to insulation coating on each of both surfaces of an insulation substrate. According to the coil component of this literature, a metal magnetic plate having high magnetic permeability causes a magnetic flux to flow smoothly, and an inductance is increased.


An assembly is provided including a mobile structure including a main pipe equipped with a first end intended to be connected to a water supply and a second end intended to be connected to a circuit connected to the primary circuit of the reactor, and including between these two ends in the direction of circulation of the water, a pump, a water heating device, an injector for continuously injecting the powdered neutron-absorbing element into the water of the main pipe, a first mixer for mixing and dissolving powder with water and a controller driving and controlling the flow rate of the water and the flow rate of the powder injected.

Pressurised-water nuclear reactors contain a tank enclosing the nuclear reactor core and a primary circuit ensuring the circulation and cooling of the pressurised water that comes in contact with the nuclear reactor core inside the tank.
The primary circuit of the nuclear reactor includes at least one loop on which a steam generator is arranged that is linked to the tank directly by a first pipe or hot leg, ensuring the supply of pressurised water heated on contact with the fuel assemblies of the core to the primary part of the steam generator The primary part of the steam generator is also connected to the tank via a primary pump, by means of linking pipes including, in particular, a second pipe, or cold leg, of the loop of the primary circuit connected to the tank.
The pressurised cooling water of the nuclear reactor ensures, within the steam generators, the heating and vaporisation of the water supplied in order to produce vapour that drives a turbine.
The regulation of the reactivity of the nuclear reactor core, i.e., the regulation of the density of neutrons produced in the nuclear reactor core when it is operating, may be carried out, in particular, by injecting into the primary circuit, an aqueous solution containing a neutron-absorbing element such as boron 10.
For example, a solution may be used that contains boron, such as a boric acid solution that is stored in the emergency accumulators of the safety injection system or in pressurised reservoirs connected to at least one of the cold legs of the primary circuit of the nuclear reactor via an injection pipe on which means of control or regulation, such as butterfly valves, and means of injection such as one or more volumetric pumps, are arranged.
When a nuclear reactor is powered down, whether this is normal or accidental, it is necessary to evacuate the residual power from the core in order to avoid the melting of the fuel assemblies.
Additionally, a borication of the powered-down primary reactor circuit is necessary to control the reactivity of the core.
These functions must be ensured even if the electrical power supplies of the nuclear plant are unavailable.
In the event of total loss of electrical power supplies and cooling systems, it is necessary to start up, as soon as possible, a means of continuous injection of water containing a neutron-absorbing element, e.g., one containing a minimum of 2500 ppm of boron that has a natural isotope content of boron 10, and a flow rate of between 20 and 90 m3/hour. This injection of water containing a neutron-absorbing element, and in particular boron 10, must occur very quickly after the reactor is powered down; if it is delayed, the meltdown of the fuel assemblies will have begun.
If the degradation of the fuel assemblies cannot be avoided, the injection of water containing a neutron-absorbing element remains necessary in order to maintain the core in a subcritical, cooled state. The necessary flow rate changes with the residual power present in the nuclear reactor core.
Accident management scenarios foreseen to date take into account the total loss of electrical power supplies in existing cooling systems, or the total loss of the heat sink, due, e.g., to a breach of the main primary circuit.
However, these scenarios do not take into account the combination of the two.
In order to remedy such a situation, it is necessary to evacuate the residual power from the core in order to avoid the meltdown of the fuel assemblies by means of continuous injection of water containing a neutron-absorbing element consisting of boron.
One solution is to use the tarpaulins present on the site and fill them continuously, in this emergency situation, with a mixture of water and boron.
However, the difficulty is the transportation of a substantial amount of water containing boron, prepared outside of the area of the nuclear reactor, in a crisis situation.

Assembly and method for injecting water containing a neurton-absorbing element to cool a nuclear reactor core in a crisis situation


A triggerable composition for two-stage, controlled release of a functional active chemical includes an encapsulation material for encapsulating a betaine ester or betaine ester derivative including a functional active. The encapsulation material is triggerable to release the betaine ester or betaine ester derivative at a first stage upon the occurrence with an environmental stimulus, such as a pH change, an enzymatic change, and a temperature change. The betaine ester or betaine ester derivative of a functional active with at least one hydroxyl group releases the functional active through a hydrolysis reaction upon contact with an aqueous medium.

A large number of functionally active chemicals are known for use with personal care and beauty products, hygiene products, health-care related products, and skin-contacting products. For example, such actives include antimicrobial or antibacterial agents, antioxidant agents, antiseptic-type agents skin repairing agents, and fragrances. Unfortunately, many of these functionally active chemicals are not stable under various environmental conditions. For example, if such actives include volatile components, such as those found in fragrances they may dissipate into the surrounding environment upon exposure to air and humidity conditions. Therefore such chemicals may demonstrate short shelf lives when in use, and present serious packaging/storage concerns. As a result, costly packaging requirements may be necessary for products incorporating such chemicals. This instability therefore creates a significant limitation on the wide adoption of the potentially useful chemistry, and limits the long-term efficacy of products incorporating such chemistry. Further, processing challenges such as elevated temperatures may exist, and as a result, may present a need to limit exposure to environmental stimuli during manufacture.
Additional challenges that use of such active chemicals presents include the difficulties involved with gradually controlling the release of such active chemicals, as well as the potential side effects/costs resulting from use of chemically degraded products. Other actives, such as antioxidants, are also often not stable when exposed to ambient conditions, such as the air of a user's pantry or storage closets. Antioxidants can readily be oxidized by oxygen in the air. Some skin repairing chemicals are also not stable when exposed to the surrounding environment. For example, the skin repairing agent retinol is not stable under ambient conditions without protection from the environment. In fact, it can become a skin irritant when its concentration is relatively high. A need therefore exists for a versatile composition that effectively stabilizes functional chemical actives, and releases such actives upon demand at a desirable rate and profile.
Certainly, attempts have been made to overcome the stability and storage limitations presented by such actives. For example, attempts have been suggested for stabilizing retinol by encapsulating it in pH sensitive polymers and then releasing it at a later time by changing the solubility of the encapsulating matrix through a pH change. The encapsulated retinol still suffers significant degradation, presumably from oxidation. Others have suggested in order to overcome such stability issues, to convert retinol into an ester as a proactive (a precursor to the retinol active) and then at a later time, to convert the ester into the active form by use of enzymes present in a user's body after delivery through a user's skin. However, with such methodology, only a small portion of the ester is used effectively by the skin layer and a majority of the esters are wasted by the system. Such a system may also actually lead to side effects when too much retinol ester is used to achieve effective dosages on the skin. Therefore, a need still exists for delivery compositions for skin repair actives.
In connection with the delivery of fragrances (such as in connect on with personal care absorbent products), it has been suggested to encapsulate fragrances in polymeric matrices for stabilization and delivery benefits. However, even with such encapsulation technology, there is a further need for fragrance encapsulation technology for use in consumer products which offers effective protection for such volatiles as well as a controlled release. Existing encapsulation chemistries for consumer products often leak or release prematurely. Therefore a continuing need exists for a material composition that both provides stability for unstable actives, and which also provides for release of actives in a controlled manner.

Triggerable compositions for two-stage, controlled release of active chemistry


A method and a device for reducing speckle formation on a projection display when working with a coherent light source. In this context, the light coming from the light source, before the projection, may strike an electrically controllable optical element having a spatially inhomogeneous refractive index, passing through the same, the refractive index being varied over time within the projection period. This may lead to an averaging out of the speckle pattern on the projection screen. For purposes of illumination, a multimode light source may be used, and/or the light coming from the light source is separated into a plurality of spatial modes, thereby reinforcing the effect. As an optical element, one may employ a liquid crystal element composed of at least two liquid crystal layers, to which a spatially dependent voltage is applied to generate a spatially dependent refractive index. Its birefringence may be compensated by orientating the layers to one another in appropriate fashion.

Speckle patterns are irregular, fine-grain light distributions which may occur when illuminating white walls, projection screens and other surfaces (hereinafter largely referred to as, for example, projection screens) using widened, coherent light, in particular laser light. The speckle pattern may be formed when a spot of light is imaged on the projection screen, due to the high coherence caused by interference of the light waves scattered at various points on the projection screen. The interference pattern may exhibit the stochastic fine structure of the reflecting screen. The average size of a speckle grain depends on the aperture of the coherently illuminated spot on the screen. The larger the light spot is, the finer is the graininess of the speckle pattern. The contrast in the speckle grains may be determined by the coherence of the light source. The speckle pattern may disappear when the coherence length of the light falls perceptibly below the average roughness of the screen.
It is believed that to optically reproduce images, laser-based projection methods are being used to an increasing degree. In contrast to image rendition using cathode-ray tubes or liquid-crystal displays, the laser projection technique may fundamentally enable a high-quality image to be attained with an unlimited image size. In this context, the laser beam for displaying the image to be rendered may be rasterized similarly to an electron beam in a picture tube via a projection screen.
The speckle formation encountered in projection methods using lasers or other coherent light sources is disadvantageous. Speckles can occur, in particular, when the image is built up from individual image points, line-by-line, and, to this end, laser beams are focused on the projection screen. Due to the small image points, the speckle pattern may be coarse-grained and perceived by the observer as a disturbing glittering of the individual image points.
It is believed that there are various basic approaches for suppressing speckle formation. The reference "Speckle Reduction in Coherent Information Processing", Toshiaki Iwai and Toshimitsu Asakura, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 84, no. 5, May 1996, pp. 765-780, may provide an overview of some basic approaches. The methods described can be broken down into methods for controlling spatial coherence, controlling temporal coherence, each implemented by manipulating the light source, spatial scanning, spatial averaging, and speckle reduction through digital image processing.
A pulsed laser light source having a small pulse length may be used, thereby reducing the coherence length of the laser light and minimizing speckle formation. However, this may only permit the use of laser systems, which are able to be simply modulated, externally or internally. Furthermore, the spatial coherence of the laser light can be reduced by passing the laser light through a rotating ground glass screen or by scattering it at one or a plurality of optical diffusers. Coherent laser light may be coupled into a multimode optical fiber and the fiber may be deformed by subjecting it to rotation or vibration. At the end of the fiber, the light may emerge, having been separated into a multiplicity of modes in the local space, each mode having traversed a different optical path and, therefore, having different phase positions. By vibrating or rotating the fiber, the mode distribution may be varied over time. Thus, a temporal and spatial average may be generated over the phase pattern being formed, and an incoherent, even if multimode, light source may be provided. This mechanical approach for thoroughly mixing the modes can adversely affect the stability of the overall arrangement.
To reduce the temporal coherence of the laser light, the wavelength of the laser light may be varied or a plurality of wavelengths may be used at the same time. For example, to reduce speckles, a method based on a change in the wavelengths of laser diodes caused by mode jumps may be used. Other lasers as well, which are subject to random fluctuations, come into consideration for this.
An alternative approach for reducing speckle formation is purportedly discussed in the reference German Patent No. 196 45 976. That reference discusses using a projection screen, whose projection depth is greater than the coherence length, so that the reflected or transmitted wave field becomes incoherent. This can entail that the image points are diffusely enlarged by the surface structure of the screen, as well as the limitation of always having to use a specially prepared screen for image rendition.
The reference PCT Patent Publication No. WO 96/21883 purportedly discusses a projection screen whose surface is formed in irregular fashion, inter alia, for purposes of reducing speckles, such that the Fourier spectrum of the surface exhibits higher frequencies than that of a pixel structure projected onto the screen.
The reference German Patent No. 195 08 754 purportedly discusses a method for reducing the interference of a coherent light beam, the light being polarized variably with respect to location, in a direction perpendicular to the direction of propagation. In this case, the circumstance is utilized that different polarization states of the light are no longer able to completely interfere with one another. It is believed that the required polarization states can be produced, for example, with the assistance of LCD matrices.
The reference German Patent No. 107 10 660 purportedly discusses a device for removing screen speckles when working with scanning laser-image projection, the laser beam being split with the assistance of an ultrasound cell in which density waves travel, by the diffraction of the density waves into various orders of diffraction of different frequencies. The beam components are superposed using a lens. In this manner, a moving system of interference patterns is apparently formed on the projection screen, so that the forming speckles overlap one another in the eye of the observer due to the integration process, and become averaged out in time and space.
The reference U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,456 A purportedly discusses a device for reducing granulation, which occurs when transmitting optical information using a high-grade, coherent light beam. The light beam propagates through an ultrasound cell in which, depending on the excitation, standing or traveling density waves may form. The density waves may influence the refractive index locally, so that the light beam propagates through zones having different refractive indices, resulting in a reduction in the granulation.
The reference "Perceived Speckle Reduction in Projection Display Systems", IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, U.S.A., IBM Corp., New York, vol. 40, no. 7, Jul. 1, 1997, pages 9-11, XP 000728388, ISSN 0018-8689, purportedly discusses reducing speckles in that the light beam propagates through a liquid crystal, whose refractive index is influenced by an electrical field.
The reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,158 purportedly discusses a method and a device used to convert a beam of coherent light using a controllable diffraction grating into a beam of incoherent light.

Method and device for reducing speckle formation on a projection screen


An electrode assembly includes first and second electrode plates respectively comprising first and second active material portions on which first and second active materials are coated and first and second non-coating portions on which the first and second active materials are not coated; a separator interposed between the first and second electrode plates; and first and second electrode tabs respectively coupled to the first and second non-coating portions. In the electrode assembly, portions of the first and second non-coating portions are opposite to each other but the first and second electrode tabs are not opposite to each other in the electrode plates. The electrode assembly is formed by winding the first and second electrode plates from the portion at which the first and second non-coating portions are opposite to each other. A secondary battery includes the electrode assembly and a case accommodating the electrode assembly therein.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an electrode assembly for a secondary battery and a secondary battery using the same.
2. Description of the Related Technology
In general, an electrode assembly typically includes a positive electrode plate, a negative electrode plate and a separator interposed therebetween, and a secondary battery is manufactured by accommodating the electrode assembly together with an electrolyte in an outer case.
An electrode assembly formed by winding a positive electrode plate, a negative electrode plate and a separator interposed therebetween may be used in a secondary battery. In a case where the number of windings is increased, the shape of the electrode assembly may be easily changed.

Electrode assembly and secondary battery using the same


The present disclosure provides a display device and a detection method for the display device. The display device includes a display area and a non-display area. The display device comprises: a pixel array at the display area, a plurality of switching transistors at the non-display area, and at least one detection line at the non-display area. The pixel array includes a plurality of sub-pixels. The plurality of switching transistors are electrically connected to a plurality of columns of sub-pixels of the pixel array in one-to-one correspondence. Each of the at least one detection line is electrically connected to a part of the plurality of switching transistors.

At present, the successful mass production of the flexible screen such as an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen is favorable for the manufacture of a new generation of high-end smartphones. Moreover, due to low power consumption and flexible properties of the flexible screen, its successful mass production also has a relatively significant impact on the application of wearable devices. In the future, the flexible screen will be widely applied with the continuous development of personal smart terminals. The OLED which is thin may be mounted on a flexible material structure such as plastic or metal foil. With the thin film encapsulation technology, a protective film is adhered to the back of a panel to make the panel become bendable.

Display device and detection method for the display device


A semiconductor device and its method of fabrication are provided. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, a patterning stop region, an insulating overlayer, a container region within the insulating overlayer, a charge storage lamina or conductive layer over an interior surface of the container region; a contact region defined by the charge storage lamina or conductive layer; and an electrical contact in the contact region, wherein respective portions of the electrical contact and the charge storage lamina or conductive layer occupy collectively substantially all of the container region. A bit line terminal is coupled to the charge storage lamina through a switching structure. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a central patterning stop region and a pair of lateral patterning stop regions are provided such that the container region defines a container cross section having an upper container portion and a lower container portion, wherein the lower container portion is positioned between the lateral stop regions, and wherein the upper container portion is wider than the lower container portion.

The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor manufacture and, more particularly, to a semiconductor device, e.g., a dynamic random access memory, incorporating an external electrical contact to a conductive layer, e.g., a cell plate of a capacitive storage cell, formed in the interior of the semiconductor device.
A dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip is an example of a semiconductor device where reliable electrical contacts to an internal conductive layer must be provided. A DRAM chip is a rectangular array of individual circuits organized to store binary information through storage of different levels of voltage in a capacitive charge storage region of the DRAM chip. A transistor structure, including a plurality of transistors, is provided in the DRAM chip to provide access to the charge stored in each charge storage region. Each transistor functions as an on-off switch to open the communication lines between the charge storage region and a microprocessor in communication with the DRAM chip.
A network of electrically conductive cell plate contacts must be provided within the structure of the DRAM chip to enable storage of non-zero voltage levels in each charge storage region. Reliable storage is directly dependent upon the integrity of the cell plate contact. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide cell or top plate contacts characterized by low contact resistance.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for semiconductor devices incorporating reliable electrical contacts to internal conductive layers.

Method for making semiconductor device incorporating an electrical contact to an internal conductive layer