Disclosed herein is footwear having an ankle support. The footwear has a sole, an upper, and a heel section. The ankle support is worn to surround part of the foot and part of the leg between which an ankle joint is located, wherein a lower portion of the ankle support is secured to an interior of the footwear. According to this invention, the wearer's ankle joint moves together with the ankle support without being constrained by the footwear, thus ensuring the flexible movement of the ankle, therefore allowing unrestricted motion. Further, the lower portion of the ankle support is attached to the interior of the footwear, thus allowing the wearer's ankle to be supported by both the footwear and the ankle support, therefore efficiently supporting the ankle, even when large shocks are applied to the ankle due to intense activity.

Generally, footwear has a sole, an upper, and a heel section. The footwear is typically classified into a shoe whose heel section does not extend above the ankle joint, and a boot whose heel section extends higher than the ankle joint.
Boots are suitable for a wearer who must work in relatively inhospitable surroundings. Boots include work footwear, safety footwear, military footwear, etc. In this case, the work footwear or the safety footwear need only prevent foreign objects from contacting a wearer's leg or entering the interior of the footwear. Thus, the work footwear or the safety footwear is worn to loosely surround the wearer's leg. On the other hand, the military footwear or the like must prevent a wearer from being injured, for example, to prevent the wearer's ankle from being sprained, due to excessive twisting, rotation, or bending of a leg portion and a foot portion between which the ankle joint is positioned, when the wearer is active with the footwear on. Thus, the military footwear or the like is worn to be in close contact with the wearer's leg.
The boot has many advantages, that is, it prevents foreign objects from entering the interior of the boot, in addition to preventing a wearer from being injured. However, the boot has a drawback in that it hinders the natural motion of the wearer's foot or ankle joint.
Therefore, for general footwear or athletic footwear, the shoe is preferable to the boot.
The shoe allows a wearer to move quickly. However, the shoe has no means to prevent the foot or the ankle joint from being excessively twisted, rotated, or bent.
Hence, the boot is preferred as athletic footwear for activities that do not require much natural motion of the ankle joint, especially riding boots. Meanwhile, in cases where it is required to allow active motion and prevent injuries to the ankle joint, like basketball shoes, a compromise between the shoe and the boot, namely, semi-boots are utilized.
However, shoes must be inevitably used as athletic footwear for sports requiring much activity, such as soccer shoes or baseball shoes. Thus, the wearer is always exposed to the danger of injury.
Taking activity into consideration, attempts have been made to develop semi-boot-style athletic footwear. For example, Korean U.M. Appln. No. 1998-5838 and Korean U.M. Appln. No. 2003-16830 have been proposed. The U.M. Appln. No. 1998-5838 was filed by the inventor of this invention, and is titled "ATHLETIC FOOTWEAR HAVING IMPROVED SAFETY AND LIFE SPAN". Further, the U.M. Appln. No. 2003-16830 was filed by the inventor of this invention, and is titled "ATHLETIC FOOTWEAR HAVING ANKLE PROTECTOR".
In addition, the semi-boot-style athletic footwear has been proposed in Japanese U.M. Laid-Open Publication No. Sho57-34804 which is titled "ATHLETIC FOOTWEAR", U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,960 which is titled "LIGHTWEIGHT ATHLETIC SHOE WITH FOOT AND ANKLE SUPPORT SYSTEMS", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,793 which is titled "SHOE OR BOOT WITH ADJUSTABLE ANKLE COLLAR".
The above-mentioned semi-boot-style athletic footwear includes an ankle protecting part, which extends from an upper end of a heel section to a leg portion above the wearer's ankle joint, and is worn to surround the leg portion above the ankle joint.
Although the conventional semi-boot-style athletic footwear is provided with various means to afford unrestricted motion to a wearer, the semi-boot-style athletic footwear other than basketball shoes does not appeal to consumers.
In order to reduce the danger of injury, an ankle protector of FIG. 1 has come onto the market. Many athletes frequently put on footwear with such an ankle protector on.
However, the ankle protector 100 merely surrounds a leg portion extending from the heel of the foot to a portion above the ankle joint. That is, the ankle protector 100 is separate from the footwear, so that the ankle protector 100 may move relative to the footwear without constraint.
Therefore, although a person wears the ankle protector 100, the wearer's ankle joint may be excessively twisted, rotated, or bent, due to force exerted on the footwear.
Further, Korean U.M. Appln. No. 1989-5433 discloses an ankle protector, which is attached to footwear and worn, and is titled "ATHLETIC FOOTWEAR WITH DETACHABLE ANKLE PROTECTOR".
The conventional ankle protector is configured such that it is fastened to an upper end of a heel section of a shoe using a zipper. When the ankle protector is fastened to the shoe, the shoe assumes the shape of the conventional semi-boot-style athletic footwear.

Ankle support to be attached to footwear and footwear equipped with it


According to various embodiments, a regional oximetry sensor may include a light emitting element configured to emit light, a light detector configured to receive the light, and a memory device configured to store a baseline. The baseline stored by the memory device enables a regional oximetry monitor to display the baseline on a display of the regional oximetry monitor.

The present disclosure relates generally to sensors and, more particularly, to sensors configured to store and provide patient-related data.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
A wide variety of devices have been developed for non-invasively monitoring physiological characteristics of patients. For example, an oximetry sensor system may non-invasively detect various patient blood flow characteristics, such as the blood-oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in blood, the volume of individual blood pulsations supplying the tissue, and/or the rate of blood pulsations corresponding to each heart beat of a patient. During operation, the oximeter sensor emits light and photoelectrically senses the absorption and/or scattering of the light after passage through the perfused tissue. A photo-plethysmographic waveform, which corresponds to the cyclic attenuation of optical energy through the patient's tissue, may be generated from the detected light. Additionally, one or more physiological characteristics may be calculated based upon the amount of light absorbed or scattered. More specifically, the light passed through the tissue may be selected to be of one or more wavelengths that may be absorbed or scattered by the blood in an amount correlative to the amount of the blood constituent present in the blood. The amount of light absorbed and/or scattered may then be used to estimate the amount of blood constituent in the tissue using various algorithms.
For example, a reflectance-type sensor placed on a patient's forehead may emit light into the site and detect the light that is "reflected" back after being transmitted through the forehead region. The amount of light detected may provide information that corresponds to valuable physiological patient data. The data collected by the sensor may be used to calculate one or more of the above physiological characteristics based upon the absorption or scattering of the light. For instance, the emitted light is typically selected to be of one or more wavelengths that are absorbed or scattered in an amount related to the presence of oxygenated versus de-oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood. The amount of light absorbed and/or scattered may be used to estimate the amount of the oxygen in the tissue using various algorithms.
The sensors generally include one or more emitters that emit the light and one or more detectors that detect the light. The emitters and detectors may be housed in a reusable or disposable oximeter sensor that couples to the oximeter electronics and the display unit (hereinafter referred to as the monitor). The monitor may collect historical physiological data for the patient, which may be used by a clinician or medical personnel for diagnostic and monitoring purposes. Patients are often moved to various locations during treatment. For example, a patient may be transported in an ambulance, delivered to an emergency room, moved to an operating room, transferred to a surgical recovery room, transferred to an intensive care unit, and then moved to a nursing floor or other locations. Thus, the patient may be moved between various locations within the same hospital, or between different hospitals. The sensor employed to monitor the condition of the patient may be adhesive in its attachment and remain with the patient. The monitors, however, may be local to particular locations within a facility or vehicle. Thus, the sensor may be disconnected from the monitor at a departure site and reconnected to another monitor at a destination site. Consequently, patient-related data (e.g., historical physiological data) collected by the monitor at the departure site may be unavailable to the clinician attending the patient at the destination site.

System and method for storing and providing patient-related data


A resist transfer pad and method of use are described for forming a uniform photoresist on the surface of a workpiece such as a slider. The resist transfer pad includes a layer of cured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on a cushioning layer, e.g. silicone rubber, and an optional stiffening layer. The sliders are preferably mounted on a carrier or pallet. In one preferred embodiment the loaded resist transfer pads are applied to the slider surface by roll lamination where the loaded resist transfer pad is transported by a roller system using a cover-tape and pressed against the slider surface. Subsequently the cover-tape and the resist transfer pad are lifted off and the photoresist remains on the transducer. An alternative embodiment uses a vacuum, piston laminator to press the loaded resist transfer pad onto the surface of the transducer.

In a typical prior art head and disk system a magnetic transducer is supported by the suspension as it flies above the disk. The magnetic transducer, usually called a "head" or "slider" is composed of elements that perform the task of writing magnetic transitions (the write head) and reading the magnetic transitions (the read head). The surface of the slider which confronts the media is patterned with features that control the air-bearing characteristics. The disk is attached to a spindle that is driven by a spindle motor to rotate the disk at sufficient speed to develop the air-bearing. In the typical process of fabricating thin film magnetic transducers, a large number of transducers are formed simultaneously on a wafer. After the basic transducer structures are formed the wafer may be sliced into rows or individual sliders which typically are further processed by lapping and formation of the air-bearing surface features by lithographic etching techniques.
FIG. 1 illustrates the ABS of slider 20 which is conventionally fabricated with a pattern of rails 26, 27 that extend toward the media from the slider body to determine the aerodynamics and serve as the contact area should the slider come in contact with the disk either while rotating or when stationary.
In prior art stamp lithography, stamps have been fabricated by casting polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on a master with a negative of the desired pattern. The PDMS stamp is peeled away from the master after curing and exposed to an "ink" transferred to the substrate by transient contact with the stamp. The elastomeric nature of the PDMS allows contact even on rough or curved surfaces. According to this method, features between 1 and 100 microns are achieved. For larger stamps and larger features (1 cm to 200 microns), the pattern is directly etched into the stamp by conventional UV lithography using a mild soap solution for dissolving those regions previously exposed to the UV light. When applying this method to lithography with submicron features, it was found that no reproducible results necessary for mass-production of ICs were attainable with a type of stamp as propagated by Kumar et al. A major limitation of this method of pattern transfer is the elastomer used as the carrier of the pattern. This material is deformable so that repeated, accurate transfer of the pattern to the substrate with high resolution, as necessary for practical lithography, is not possible.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,242 to Biebuyck, et al. use of a composite stamp is described that includes a deformable or elastic layer for conformal contact, accommodating the fluctuations of the thickness of the substrate and impurities on its surface, and a second (patterned) layer, which carries the desired pattern. Suitable materials for the deformable or elastic layer are said to be polybutyldiene, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyacrylamide, polybutylstyrene and co-polymers of these types. The patterned layer should easily adhere to or absorb a specific "ink" material. Suitable materials could be organic, such as polystyrene or polymethylmethacrylate, metallic, such as gold, platinum, palladium, nickel, titanium and oxides thereof, or inorganic insulators like alumina, silicon, silica, or perovskites, depending on the desired properties and application. In a further preferred embodiment, the stamp comprises means for achieving a self-alignment. The means could either comprise key-and-lock type topological features, e.g. cone- or pyramid-shaped protrusions and holes, which after a sufficiently accurate pre-positioning by stepping drives guide the stamp into the desired final position. A preferred means for self-aligning the stamp and the substrate however exploits surface tension gradients provided on the surface of the stamp and/or substrate.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,805 to Iijima, et al., a method for manufacturing a magnetic head is described using a resist sheet (an organic resist film on a supporting body) which is placed on the air bearing surface to transfer the resist film on to the air bearing surface, after which, the supporting body is removed. The supporting body is a flexible film, constituted of polyethylene terephthalate or the like.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,585 to Balske, et al., a process for applying photoresist to a row of sliders is described. The row of sliders is mounted in a fixture by bonding with an adhesive. The slider row extends 1 mil. above the fixture surface. The fixture and row are inserted between two rollers of a laminating machine. The upper roller pressure applies a sheet of dry film photoresist material so that it adheres as a layer on the row.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.


The system allows the generation and distribution of energy on board a motor vehicle provided with a propulsion unit, a tank for fuel at least one distribution network or line for electric energy, electrical energy generation devices connected to the at least one distribution network or line, and a plurality of selectively activatable electrical utiliser devices or apparatus connected or connectable to the at least one distribution network or line. The electrical energy generator devices includes (at least) a microcombustor electricity generator matrix or battery connected to the fuel tank, and a supervision and control unit associated with this generator matrix or battery and coupled to the distribution network or line and arranged to control the operation of the said generator matrix or battery in a predetermined manner as a function of the electrical power required or consumed by the said network or line.

The subject of the present invention, is in general, innovative architecture for systems of generating and distributing energy on board motor vehicles.
More specifically, the invention relates to a system for generation and distribution of energy on board a motor vehicle provided with                a propulsion unit,        at least one fuel tank,        at least one distribution network or line for electrical energy,        means for generation of electrical energy connected to the said at least one distribution network or line; and        a plurality of selectively activatable electrical consumer devices or apparatus, connected or connectable to the said at least one distribution network or line.
The architecture of the system most currently used in the automobile field for generation of mechanical and electrical energy envisages the use of a propulsion unit, typically an internal combustion engine, with an associated electrical starter motor, an electricity generator driven to rotate by the propulsion unit, and at least one accumulator battery, typically of the lead-acid type. The on-board electrical consumer devices and apparatus, such as, for example, the engine control system, the lighting installation, the ABS system etc, are supplied with electrical energy rendered available by the generator and/or the accumulator battery.
In this architecture the electricity generator, typically a three-phase alternator with associated bridge rectifier circuit, is driven to rotate by the propulsion unit. This creates problems in that this arrangement does not easily allow optimisation of the control and management strategies for operation of the propulsion unit for the purpose of reducing fuel consumption and the emission of pollutants, a decoupling of the function of the propulsion unit from that of the electrical apparatus or devices being, on the other hand desirable for this purpose. This problem is more important if it is considered that in the future a significant increase in the demand for electrical power on board vehicles from the current 2-3 kw to levels of the order of 10 kw are envisaged.

Innovative architectures for systems for generation and distribution of energy on board motor vehicles


Mobile device users may be tracked either via mobile-signal triangulation or via Global Positioning Satellite information. A mobile device user's recent movements may be analyzed to determine trails or traffic patterns for device user among various locations. Mobile device trail information, either for an individual user or aggregated for multiple users, may be analyzed to determine a next destination for the user. Electronic advertising content, such as advertisements, coupons and/or other communications, associated with the next destination may be sent to an electronic device likely to be viewed by the mobile device user. Additionally, the identity of the mobile device user may be known and the advertisements or coupons may be tailored according to demographic information regarding the mobile device user. In addition, destinations may be recommended to mobile device users based on the recent locations the users have visited.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to mobile device user traffic patterns and, more particularly, to directing advertising to mobile device users corresponding to predicted future destinations of the mobile device users.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile phones have gone from being rare and expensive pieces of equipment used primarily by the business elite, to a pervasive low-cost personal item. In many countries, mobile phones now outnumber land-line telephones, with most adults and many children now owning mobile phones. In the United States, 50% of children own mobile phones. It is not uncommon for people to simply own a mobile phone instead of a land-line for their residence. In some developing countries there is little existing fixed-line infrastructure and consequently mobile phone use has become widespread. In general, a mobile or cellular telephone is a long-range, portable electronic device for personal telecommunications over long (or short) distances. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception are satellite phones).
With high levels of mobile telephone penetration, a mobile culture has evolved, where the phone becomes a key social tool, and people rely on their mobile phone address book to keep in touch with their friends. Many phones offer text-messaging services to increase the simplicity and ease of texting on phones. Many people keep in touch using text messaging, such as SMS, and a whole culture of "texting" has developed from this.
Traditionally, commercial advertising has been concerned with attempting to get the most consumers as possible to see the particular advertisement. Various media have been used for advertising over the years, such as, billboards, printed flyers, radio, cinema and television ads, web banners, web popups, magazines, newspapers, and even the sides of buses, taxicab doors and roof mounts. Advertisers generally must select a static location at which to place their advertisement and hope that consumers happen upon them.
Recently modern mobile phones or other mobile devices may be located either by cell-signal triangulation or through Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) tracking. In general, mobile device service providers are increasingly required to provide positioning information to support emergency services. When using cell-signal triangulation, mobile device users can be tracked at all times regardless of whether a cell call is underway. This is because the mobile device performs a periodic connectivity check to the service provider. This check registers the device relative to cell towers.

System and method for providing advertisement based on mobile device travel patterns


A candle snuffing apparatus and method are disclosed in the form of tongs having wettable snuffing surfaces and means for wetting the snuffing surfaces. Operation of the tongs upon a candle flame extinguishes the flame and simultaneously cools the wick, preventing smoking of the wick.

Prior candle snuffers utilize some means for smothering a candle flame, either by capping or covering the end of the wick, or by pinching the wick itself. In each of these cases, oxygen is excluded from the wick for a sufficient period of time or sufficient heat is withdrawn from the flame to extinguish the flame. In these cases, however, distillation continues to occur at the wick until the wick has cooled, resulting in smoking of the candle wick after the flame is extinguished, and the attendant burning smell.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for extinguishing the flame while simultaneously cooling the wick. Immediately cooling the wick will terminate combustion at the wick, with the advantage of ending the smoking of the candle wick, and thus eliminating the undesirable after smell at the time the flame is extinguished.

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Embodiments of the invention provide memory devices and methods for forming such memory devices. In one embodiment, a method for fabricating a non-volatile memory device on a substrate is provided which includes depositing a first polysilicon layer on a substrate surface, depositing a silicon oxide layer on the first polysilicon layer, depositing a first silicon oxynitride layer on the silicon oxide layer, depositing a silicon nitride layer on the first silicon oxynitride layer, depositing a second silicon oxynitride layer on the silicon nitride layer, and depositing a second polysilicon layer on the second silicon oxynitride layer. In some examples, the first polysilicon layer is a floating gate and the second polysilicon layer is a control gate.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to electronic devices and methods for forming electronic devices, and more particularly, in one embodiment, to memory devices and methods for forming memory devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flash memory has been widely used as non-volatile memory for a wide range of electronic applications, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, MP3 players, USB devices, and the like. As flash memory is typically used for portable recording devices to store large amounts of information, a reduction in power consumption and cell sizes, along with increased operational speed, are very desirable.
A flash memory device 100, as depicted in FIG. 1, includes a floating gate electrode 102 for storing electrical charge. The floating gate electrode 102 is located on a tunnel oxide layer 104 which overlies a channel region 106 located between source and drain regions 108. Electrons are transferred to the floating gate electrode 102 through the tunnel dielectric layer 104 overlying the channel region 106. Electron transfer is generally initiated by either hot electron injection or Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. An overlying control gate electrode 110, which is capacitively coupled to the floating gate electrode 102, applies a voltage potential to the floating gate electrode 102. The floating gate electrode 102 is separated from the control gate electrode 110 by an inter-poly dielectric 112 which generally contains an oxide-nitride-oxide structure ("ONO"). However, as device dimensions are reduced and the corresponding thickness of the ONO structure is reduced leakage currents through the thinner ONO structure have increased.
Therefore there is a need for a device and methods for forming a device that allow for a reduction in device dimensions while also maintaining or reducing leakage current with high charge carrier mobility for electronic devices, such as memory devices.

Atomic layer deposition processes for non-volatile memory devices


A electronic design automation tool, apparatus, method, and program product by which design requirements for an intended semiconductor product and the resource definitions of a semiconductor platform are input. From the design requirements and the resource definitions, parameters specific to clocking are derived, e.g., clock property information, clock domain crossing information, and clock relationship specification. The tool and method embodied therein validates the clocking parameters of the design requirements with the resource definitions and invokes errors if the parameters are not realizable. Once the desired clocking parameters are consistent with the actual clocking parameters, correct physical optimization constraints and timing constraints are generated for the clocks. An iterative process can achieve correct and minimal clocking constraints.

Integrated circuits and chips have become increasingly complex with the speed and capacity of chips significantly increasing about every eighteen months because of advances in design software, fabrication technology, semiconductor materials, and chip design. The increased density of transistors per square centimeter and more sophisticated clocking schemes required to effectively utilize all of those transistors, however, make it increasingly difficult to create minimal yet sufficient clock related design constraints. The proper specification of these constraints is essential in order to ensure that the circuits perform as desired. Unanticipated and sometimes subtle interactions between different clocks and the circuits that use them can lead to issues in design closure as well as the correct operation of the circuits themselves. These difficulties increase the expense and risk of designing and fabricating chips whether they be platform ASICs, ASICs, FPGAs, or fully custom semiconductor products. Indeed, despite the complexity and expense, the demand for custom-designed integrated circuits increases. A key problem in the delivery of these circuits is that of design closure, and a key component of design closure is creating the constraints for the tools that perform design closure, and among the most important constraints are the clocking constraints. The clocking constraints, moreover, should be just enough and no more, i.e., correct and minimal. Every unnecessary constraint burdens the design system with unnecessary restrictions that are harder to resolve and close. At the same time, however, any missing clocking constraints can result in circuit failure.
Clock constraints are a key constituent of logical and physical optimization and static timing analysis. In a synchronous design, data is "launched" from a storage element based on the transition of a clock and data is captured in a storage element based on the transition of a clock. The launch and capture clock may be the same clock or may be different clocks. A set of minimal clock constraints describe the nature of the interaction in either case. For example if a clock has a ten nanosecond period and the launch and capture clock are shared then the time available to perform an operation on the data is ten nanoseconds less aggregate clock uncertainty. There are many factors that affect the aggregated clock uncertainty but the net effect of the sum of all the uncertainties is a reduction in the amount of time a circuit has to complete its operation on the data in question. If the circuit cannot deliver the data from one stage to the next during the allotted time then the circuit does not operate as intended, the data is lost, and the cost for the design, development, and production of the semiconductor product is wasted. This is a simple example. There are more complex scenarios but the net effect is the same: if the data fails to propagate correctly, the circuit effectively fails. If the design closure tools do not have a correct clocking constraints, it is very likely that failing circuits will be produced.
At the same time creating overly restrictive constraints often results in a case where the design tools cannot close the design without significant rework that is also time consuming and expensive. If there were only one or two clocks in a semiconductor product, the problem would be simple but today chips such as those referred to as "systems-on-a-chip" may have hundreds of clocks with a great many clock domain crossings. In addition the logic involved in domain crossing may serve more than one function and performance level. The result is a complex collection of clocks and clock interactions that is very difficult to unknot. Manually unknotting these interactions is difficult, time consuming and error prone.
In the design, a clock will clock memory elements within part of the design. The section of logic driven by a clock is called a clock domain. The interface boundaries between clock domains are called the clock domain crossings (CDC). When data passes from one clock domain to another, key questions need to be answered. Do the clocks involved share a common source clock somewhere in the system; for example, do the clocks share the same phase locked loop (PLL) or primary input/output (I/O) as a clock source? If so, must specific phase relationships between the common source and/or the clocks be maintained? If not, then does an asynchronous domain crossing circuit that offers appropriate predictability need to be placed at the interface of the clock domain crossing?
The answers to these kinds of questions have direct implications for design closure and design functionality. In the case of an asynchronous domain crossing design, closure is more relaxed. This relaxation, however, comes at a price, typically at the expense of logical signal/data latency. This occurs because there is no way to know which exact cycle information will cross an interface. This may result in cycles of delay. So while design closure is easier, the efficiency of the logic is reduced which is often a critical factor in many interfaces. On the other hand, when clocks are related by definition, design closure is more difficult and the optimization tools have a much harder problem to solve. Interface latency, however, can be minimized given the nature of the relationship and, indeed, should be faster than the case where the clocks are not related. As the number of relationships increase, the degree of difficulty in solving the problem increases significantly because solving one case may actually harm another case.
Today the creation of these constraints is an intensive, slow, iterative process requiring much analysis; the process is very error prone. The technique usually involves generating a trial set of constraints, trying these constraints in the closure tools, and then analyzing the results. The constraints are then modified and the cycle repeats. The run time for creating and analyzing the results can range from hours to days and the process may need to be repeated many many times. In addition it is very possible to introduce an error that is undetectable until after the silicon has been fabricated, such as when a false path is set where it shouldn't be or when an asynchronous domain fails to have a correct domain crossing circuit. The result is a set of paths that pass through the design closure process but fail to function as intended. Such errors typically require a "respin" of the chip that sends a chip back to the drawing board, requiring new masks and costing millions. So, in the end, both too many and too few clocking constraints can cause failure. In addition these constraints are created over time through an iterative process, so it is possible to have the clocking constraints be correct for some period of time and then later be incorrect because of logic changes. So there is also regular maintenance aspect as well. Keeping track of all the possibilities and changes can be daunting, especially if there are hundreds of clocks in the design.
There is thus a need in the industry to automate and streamline the process of finding and calculating the proper minimal set of clocking constraints across an integrated circuit product. In addition, developers need a tool that can design these clocking constraints solutions and be compatible with a myriad of electronic design automation (EDA) tools.

Automatic generation of correct minimal clocking constraints for a semiconductor product


A method and a display system for dynamically activating a night-vision mode. The display system comprises a processor module that further comprises an image generator module. The processor module is for determining at least a head position of a user in the display system, the head position being used at least for geometry-correction purposes and, while determining the head position, determining that a night-vision-enhancer device is activated by the user. The processor module is further for activating the night-vision mode of the display system and the image generator module, upon activation of the night-vision mode of the display system, renders night-vision-enhanced images of a computer generated environment for display. The night-vision-enhanced images present a night-mode-adapted wavelength spectrum.

In computer simulation, an important aspect is to credibly replicate an actual environment, which facilitates and helps maintaining immersion. In order to remain credible, the image generation in the computer simulation should adapt in a realistic manner to changes in the physical environment. In particular, the image generation should consider whether a night-vision mode is relevant.
The present invention aims at considering when the night-vision image generation mode should be switched on.

Night vision detection enhancements in a display system


A system and method for laser light amplification provides amplification of a laser light beam emitted from a laser light source as low-amplification seed laser light signal. The low-amplification seed laser light signal is transmitted to an amplification component. The amplification component amplifies the low-amplification seed laser light signal by stimulating emissions of the population inversion provided by a pumping diode to generate an amplified laser light signal. The system and method further directs the amplified laser light signal to an output destination. The result of the present invention is a system and method of operation providing higher pulse rates, improved pointing stability, and optionally variable pulse rates for a variety of uses, including for non-destructive laser ultrasonic testing of materials.

The present invention relates generally to a system and method for laser light amplification and, more particularly, to a system and method for providing amplification of a laser beam emitted from a solid state laser that provides higher pulse rates, improved pointing stability, and optionally variable pulse rates for a variety of uses, including for non-destructive laser ultrasonic testing of materials.
Amplification of laser light is required for a variety of applications. Long haul telecommunication applications, such as those employing single mode optical fiber, often require optical repeater/amplifiers to boost sagging signal levels. Material processing applications may require very high power laser light to perform functions such as cutting of various materials and preparation of material surfaces. Applications requiring intense energy pulses of laser light employ some configuration for providing either time-varying optical amplification or intensity modulation of laser light.
One method for amplifying a laser beam is to employ a laser medium whose optical gain may be controlled by optical pumping. Optical pumping of a solid state laser medium is a common and conventional method used to create a population inversion of energy states for laser applications requiring high-gain. The laser medium providing high-gain, when optically pumped, may comprise a material such as neodymium yttrium-aluminum garnet (Nd3+:YAG), neodymium glass (Nd3+:glass), Erbium doped optical fiber (Er3+:silica), or Ruby rods (Cr3+:Al2O3). These materials are merely exemplary candidates for high-gain laser media, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that any suitable material capable of maintaining an inverted population of energy states when optically-pumped may serve as an optical amplifier. Those laser media utilizing Nd3+:YAG are common, given the substantial optical gain near desired wavelengths near the 1.064 xcexcm range. Additionally, Nd3+:YAG laser media provide linearity of pumping rate with respect to inverted population given its four-level transition system that is also well known to those skilled in the art.
To saturate an entire laser medium with an inverted population through optical pumping, a conventional method is to distribute a large array of laser diodes across the surface of the laser medium to form a pumping array. The light emitted from the individual laser diodes of the pumping array excites the laser medium and provide a very high optical gain for the energy transition level of the optically-pumped, inverted population within the high-gain laser medium, e.g., near the 1.064 xcexcm range for Nd3+:YAG, near the 1.06 xcexcm range for Nd3+:glass, near the 0.6943 xcexcm range for Cr3+:Al2O3, near the 1.55 xcexcm range for Er3+:silica, etc.
An integrated approach to performing laser light amplification and generating optical pulses utilizes gain switching of a laser medium. In this method of providing a high energy pulsed laser beam, the optical pumping of a high-gain laser medium itself is pulsed to generate a time varying gain of the high-gain laser medium through which a laser beam is propagating. This results in a pulsed output laser beam after an original laser light source has traveled through the high-gain laser medium that is being optically pumped in a time varying manner.
Each optical pumping cycle takes the high-gain laser medium through a transition which consists essentially of generating a sufficient energy state population through optical pumping to reach threshold for amplification. Before the optical pumping begins, the population of energy states is initially below threshold and optical amplification does not occur. After the high-gain laser medium has operated in an amplification mode for some time, then optical pumping is switched off, and the energy state population is subsequently depleted. By turning off the optical pumping, the population falls below threshold and the optical amplification is interrupted until the optical pumping again resumes and the population of energy states again reaches threshold. Such a method provides for a pulsing of the conditions in which laser light amplification may occur. Such a method is preferable to a method which merely blocks a highly amplified laser beam in that design considerations need not include the potentially loss energy due to the dumping of electromagnetic energy into a shutter assembly. Many other advantages are inherent to the fact that the solution is electronic, not incorporating any mechanical components for a mechanical shutter system.
Another method for providing an electronic solution is to generate a high energy pulsed laser beam to maintain continuous optical pumping of the high-gain laser medium and to modulate the high-gain laser medium""s loss coefficient. One method to perform such loss switching is to electronically modulate an optical absorber that is placed within the optical resonator cavity next to the high-gain laser medium. Such a configuration will permit the user to control the loss of the laser light traveling through the high-gain laser medium as opposed to controlling the rate at which optical pumping occurs. Those skilled in the art will recognize a variety of methods for performing loss switching of laser light contained within a the highgain laser medium including electrical modulation of an electro-optic crystal to perform intensity modulation of the laser beam.
Such a method is an extension of the gain switching method as an optical resonator""s threshold energy state population difference is proportional to the resonator""s loss coefficient. In this method, the loss coefficient is modulated to provide intermittent periods when the optical loss of the high-gain laser medium is prohibitively high to maintain oscillation. This results is creating an increased energy state threshold population to sustain oscillation, given the increased loss of the high-gain laser medium. Even though the energy state population would be sufficiently high for oscillation were the loss coefficient of the high-gain laser medium not increased, no optical amplification can occur during the period when the loss coefficient is elevated.
When the loss in suddenly decreased during the transition of a pulsing cycle the loss coefficient, the energy state population begins to deplete resulting from the decreased optical losses. The high-gain laser medium will amplify the laser light during the period when the energy state population exceeds the threshold condition for oscillation during the period that the loss coefficient is minimum. However, as the population continues to decrease, the population will eventually fall below the newly established energy state threshold for oscillation corresponding to the period of time when the loss coefficient is at its minimum during a modulation cycle.
These methods of performing electronic switching of either the gain or loss coefficients of the highgain laser medium often employ flashlamp optical pumping. The use of such a light source for performing the optical pumping presents some undesirable effects which significantly limit performance of the high-gain laser medium in providing pulses of laser light including the maximum pulse rate of the laser beam and the intensity with which the optical pumping must be performed. Such inherent problems may present significant problems for applications which require high pulse rates and suffer from limited power budgets.
Another problem that is introduced by the utilization of flashlamps to provide optical pumping is the broad spectral width of flashlamp produced light may prove very inefficient in that a large proportion of the light produced by the flashlamp does not serve to generate the inverted population of energy states. Flashlamp light outside of the spectral density range required for generating the inverted population is simply lost into the high-gain laser medium in the form of thermal heating. This heating of the high-gain laser medium may itself produce undesirable effects including beam pointing errors and self-focusing. The heating of the high-gain laser medium may increase to such levels that fracture of the solid-state crystals will limit the maximum peak or average power.
The pulse rate at which the laser amplifier may be switched is also limited by the physical properties of the flashlamps which provide the optical pumping. The electrical switching of the flashlamps is often associated with the thermal heating problems associated with the flashlamps themselves. This upper limit of pulse rate may also be determined in part by the intensity level at which the flashlamps must operate to generate an inverted energy state population above threshold. For example, if the energy transition of interest is near the periphery of the spectral density of the flashlamp, the flashlamp may necessitate operation at a very high power level to generate the inverted population. Such a situation may at the very least limit the duty cycle of the pulse rate to avoid overheating of the flashlamps themselves.
Additionally, the flashlamps intrinsically possess a start up time constant before they begin optical pumping. They do not respond instantaneously with the vertical transition of the electric signal which drives them. Consequently, the maximum pulse rate of the optical amplifier may be limited by the time constant corresponding to the start up of the flashlamps. Another consequence of the intrinsic response limitations of the flashlamps is a lower limit on the width of the pulse which may be generated using such a laser amplification system. Such a problem stems from the similar characteristic of the flashlamps in that they are limited in the speed with which they may switch on and off. The minimum pulse width which may be generated is often dictated by the minimum time in which the flashlamps may turn on and then turn off, including considering of the start up time constant of the flashlamps and evanescent decay of radiation from the flashlamps when turned off.
The present invention overcomes or eliminates the problems and limitations of known systems and methods for detecting high-speed laser-induced ultrasound to provide a system and method for laser beam amplification from a solid state laser that yields high pulse rates, improved pointing stability, and optionally variable pulse rates for non-destructive laser ultrasonic testing of materials, as well as a variety of other uses.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for generating an amplified laser beam at a high pulse rate that includes generating a low-amplification seed laser light signal. The method further includes transmitting the lowamplification seed laser light signal to an amplification component. The low-amplification seed laser light signal is amplified in the amplification component by stimulating emissions of the population inversion that a pumping diode provides. The result of this amplifying step is to yield an amplified laser light signal. The amplified laser light signal is then directed to an output destination.
The present invention provides a system and method for providing amplification of laser light from a solid state laser while maintaining the physical properties of the laser light by minimizing amplification induced distortion. A seed laser possessing desired physical properties including a single longitudinal mode with a desired linewidth is passed through a high-gain laser medium. The high-gain laser medium is optically pumped using a pumping array of laser diodes distributed across the high-gain laser medium. The electric current which drives the pumping array may be a timevarying signal which consequently provides time-varying optical gain and lasing conditions within the laser medium. The amplified laser beam may then be pulsed at a pulse rate corresponding to the frequency of the time-varying signal comprising the electric current which drives the pumping array of laser diodes.
The present invention may be employed in applications which require a particularly narrow or pure spectral density such as applications involving optical interferometry which often require a single longitudinal mode having a very stable center frequency and linewidth. For such applications in which the purity of the initial seed laser is amplified to generate a pulse stream of laser light having a desired intensity level, duty cycle and pulse rate, an optical isolation assembly may be used to minimize back reflection of the laser light into the seed laser light source. Undesirable parasitic feedback may corrupt the seed laser source resulting in deleterious performance of the seed laser including amplitude noise and multimode operation. Such effects may be disastrous for those applications requiring a spectrally pure laser source. One conventional method, well known to those skilled in the art, for providing optical isolation of a laser beam which minimizes back reflections into the original light source comprises a Faraday rotator and two polarizers which provide for light propagation in only one direction through the optical isolation assembly by using the non-reciprocal rotation of a polarized lightwave provided by a Faraday rotator.
Additional optical isolation assemblies may be included in the invention for providing beam splitting of the original laser beam for directing the amplified, pulsed output laser beam or directing of the original laser beam through the high-gain laser medium multiple times for even greater amplification than a single pass through the high-gain laser medium.
The present invention generates an amplified and pulsed laser beam which possesses similar physical properties of the original seed laser including a desired center frequency and linewidth for use within an optical interferometer to perform ultrasonic detection. Additionally, the output intensity of the pulsed, amplified laser beam may be modulated to extend the dynamic range of detection within an optical interferometric system. Electro-optic modulators comprising Pockels or Kerr effect crystals are well known to those skilled in the art for providing intensity modulation of a laser beam.
The present invention provides an important technical advantage by performing optical pumping of a high-gain laser medium using a pumping array of laser diodes. This method permits optical pumping within a very narrow wavelength regime selected by the use of appropriate laser diodes to minimize optically-induced thermal heating of the laser medium. This advantage is provided primarily by the fact that the appropriate choice of laser diodes which comprise the pumping array may be chosen to optically pump within a specific wavelength regime thereby not incurring significant thermal heating by radiation bombardment of the highgain laser medium with optical pumping outside of the energy transition level of interest.
The present invention provides another technical advantage by providing for maximizing the pulse rate and controlling the pulse width of the resulting amplified pulsed laser beam by performing the optical pumping using a pumping array comprising a multiplicity of laser diodes. The maximum pulse rate for the present invention will be determined largely by the speed at which the laser diodes may be turned on and turned off and the allowed duty cycle.
The present invention provides another technical advantage by minimizing amplification induced distortion of a seed laser beam. Many applications, including optical interferometry, require a highly amplified beam with a uniform wavefront and good pointing stability.
The present invention provides another technical advantage by providing for intensity modulation of the output laser beam thereby expanding the detection dynamic range within interferometric systems.

System and method for high-speed laser detection of ultrasound


A power transistor is disclosed. In one embodiment, the power transistor has a cell array including a semiconductor body having a plurality of transistor cells with gate electrodes and with body and source electrode regions and at least one temperature sensing device integrated in the semiconductor body. The temperature sensing device is formed in a selected sense zone within the cell array, and the transistor cells lying in at least one zone of the cell array that is directly adjacent to the sense zone have an increased W/L ratio of their channel width (W) to their channel length (L) compared with the other transistor cells of the cell array.

Previous DMOS transistors have a cell array formed as homogeneously as possible. Since slight manufacturing fluctuations are always present, however, the cells of a large cell array are never perfectly identical. This has the effect that in operating states in which instances of current splitting can occur, such as, for example, in applications in linear controllers (SOA area) or in the case of avalanche effects (switch-on of the parasitic bipolar transistor or temperature increase up to intrinsic conduction), the most unfavorable (weakest) cells always form the current filament in a very locally delimited manner. In this case, the precise location of the occurrence of the weakest cell or of the current filament is not predictable and is thus statistically randomly distributed in the large cell array.
In order to form an overload protection for power transistors, previous concepts provide temperature or current sensors positioned at the edge or centrally in the cell array of the power transistor. Since, in most planar components, for example diodes or bipolar transistors of temperature sensing devices, both fully blocking edge terminations of the power transistor cell array and of the temperature sensing structure and an additional guard ring are necessary in order that the transistor cell array and the temperature sensing structure are not coupled electrically but rather only thermally. The customary temperature sensing device and the cell array in which the heat is generated are usually at a distance of approximately 70 to 100 μm from one another. This has the consequence that a large temperature gradient builds up over this distance and, as a result, rather than the true temperature in the cell array, a significantly lower temperature is detected in the temperature sensing device. This in turn frequently leads to delayed turn-off, so that the component is either already totally destroyed or incurs damage leading to reliability problems.
In order to improve this situation, DE 38 31 012 A1 proposes positioning a polysilicon resistor as temperature sensing device as centrally as possible in the cell array. Proximity to the heat source is directly afforded here. However, the polysilicon resistor, if it is formed in a trench, is subject to large manufacturing fluctuations in the region of approximately ±30%, so that it is necessary here to work with a reference polysilicon resistor in the edge region of the chip. This requires additional space, causes further costs and can also only ever detect relative changes in temperature between chip edge and cell array. If operating conditions are present which heat the cell array relatively slowly (for example over several 100 μs), then the chip edge is also no longer at the cold reference temperature, but is also already heated to an unknown extent. This results in great uncertainty with regard to the "true" temperature in the cell array.
By virtue of the instances of current splitting described above, a temperature sensor positioned in the cell array always has the major disadvantage that a current filament that occurs randomly somewhere in an unpredictable manner in the cell array is detected only with a very great delay or is not detected at all by said temperature sensor, as a result of which the component can no longer be turned off in a timely manner and is destroyed.
The present invention provides an effective overload protection for field effect power transistors which can very rapidly detect the reaching of a critical temperature/of a critical current intensity, so that the power transistor can be turned off in a timely manner prior to its thermal self-destruction, even when the potential location of overheating (current splitting) is inhomogeneous and occurs statistically in the cell array.


Embodiments relate to a system, program product, and method for use with a physical computing device to process a data access request. The requested data is encrypted with two keys, including a physical device authentication key and a transient key. Access to the data requires authentication on both the device level and situational level. Device situational data is monitored, which includes selectively enabling access to the requested data and de-activation of the transient key in response to a change in the monitored situational data. The transient key de-activation removes access to the requested data.

The present embodiments relate to management and delivery of encrypted data to a destination device. More specifically, the embodiments relates to a platform to incorporate bi-level authentication and decryption of the encrypted data, including employment of a transient situational authentication key.
Use of computing devices has evolved from desktops to laptops, and now to tablets and mobile telephones. It has become commonplace for tablets and mobile telephones to be transported across platforms, such as between work and home. With this transportation, it has become common for employees to transport and use their own mobile telephones and tables into the workplace, thereby creating new security and management challenges for information technology. Such challenges include, but are not limited to, theft of such devices, securing corporate data on personal devices, preventing unauthorized access to data from the personal devices. One lost device could put sensitive or private data into the wrong hands. Accordingly, there is a need for a solution for mobile device management that includes security and application management.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Transient management of data encryption and authentication

International Business Machines Corporation


A separable rotary tool adapter consists of a low-speed rotary unit (A) having casings (1, 2); a first rotary shaft (3) in the casing connectable to a driving shaft of the machine tool and a second rotary shaft (5) orthogonally drivingly connected to the first shaft; a high-speed rotary unit (B) having a casing (15) detachable to the casing of the low-speed rotary unit (A); a rotary shaft (20) in the casing of the high-speed unit having a free end portion (23) connectable with a rotary tool; and a planetary roller mechanism having two parts engageable with and disengageable from each other in the axial direction, each part being cooperatively associated with one of the high-speed rotary shaft and the second rotary shaft. In the low-speed rotary unit (A), a first part of the planetary roller mechanism is attached to the second rotary shaft (5) engaged with the first rotary shaft (3) at right angles via a transmission mechanism and includes planetary roller driving retainers (9) or shaft pins (10). In the high-speed rotary unit (B), a second part of the planetary roller mechanism is engageable with and disengageable from the first part. The separable rotary tool adapter in which the low-speed rotary unit (A) and high-speed rotary unit (B) are unitarily combined is mounted on a rotary tool mounting portion of a turret in a machine tool, e.g., a turret lathe.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rotary tool adapter to be attached to a machine tool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional bent rotary tool adapter used for a turret lathe, first and second rotary shafts 42, 43 are inserted in the shape of the letter "T" through a hollow of a T-shaped cylindrical casing 41 and supported on ball-and-roller bearings 44, 45 respectively as shown in FIG. 6, in such a manner that these shafts 42, 43 can be rotated. A bevel gear 46 mounted fixedly on the free end portion of the first rotary shaft 42 and bevel gear 47 mounted fixedly on the second rotary shaft 43 are meshed with each other.
The base end portion of the first rotary shaft 42 projects outward from the casing 41 so as to be connected to a driving shaft in a head of a machine tool, and the free end portion of the second rotary shaft 43 also projects outward therefrom and is provided with a socket 48 with which a rotary tool is to be engaged.
This rotary tool adapter is set on a rotary tool mounting portion of a head of a machine tool. During this time, the first rotary shaft 42 is joined to a driving shaft in the head, and a suitable rotary tool is engaged with the socket 48 formed at the free end portion of the second rotary shaft 43. When the driving shaft in the head is rotated, the first rotary shaft 42 is rotated, and then the second rotary shaft 43 via the bevel gears 46, 47, so that the rotary tool processes a workpiece as it is rotated.
In a conventional straight speed-increasing rotary tool adapter, an input shaft 52 and an output shaft 53 are inserted from the opposite ends of a cylindrical casing 51 thereinto and supported rotatably on ball-and-roller bearings 54, 55 respectively as shown in FIG. 7. The inner end portion of the input shaft 52 is formed cylindrically, and a suitable number of planetary roller insert holes are formed in the cylindrical wall of the inner end portion, in such a manner that these holes are spaced at regular intervals in the circumferential direction thereof. A fixed race 56 is attached to the portion of the inner circumferential surface of the casing which is opposed to the planetary roller insert holes, and the inner end portion of the output shaft 53 is inserted into the interior of the cylindrical portion of the input shaft 52 to form a sun roller 57. The planetary rollers 58 inserted rotatably in the holes in the input shaft 52 contact the fixed race 56 internally, and the sun roller 57 externally.
The outer end portion, which projects outward from the casing 51, of the input shaft 52 is formed so as to be joined to the driving shaft in the head of a machine tool, while the front end portion, which projects outward from the casing 51, of the output shaft 53 is provided with a socket 59 with which a rotary tool is to be engaged.
This rotary tool adapter is set on a rotary tool mounting portion of a head of a machine tool. During this time, the input shaft 52 is joined to a driving shaft in the head, and a suitable rotary tool is engaged with the socket 59 formed in the output shaft 53. When the driving shaft in the head is rotated, the output shaft 53 is rotated at an increased speed via the input shaft 51 and a planetary roller mechanism (fixed race 56, planetary rollers 58 and sun roller 57), so that the rotary tool processes a workpiece as it is rotated at a high speed.
This conventional bent rotary tool adapter is incapable of cutting a workpiece at a high speed when the workpiece consists of aluminum or brass, and it requires a rotary tool having a speed increasing mechanism. A straight speed-increasing rotary tool adapter is incapable of processing a surface parallel to the driving shaft in the head of a machine tool.
According to the conventional techniques, it is necessary to prepare a lot of rotary tool adapters of various specifications in accordance with the directions in which surfaces to be processed extend, dimensions of the spaces in tool heads, dimensions of rotary tools and rotational speeds of rotary, tools. Providing comparatively expensive speed increasing mechanisms for each model of rotary tool causes an extraordinary high cost increase.


A motorcycle includes a guard frame provided near an upper portion of a vehicle body of the motorcycle that is arranged to reduce or prevent damage to the components of the motorcycle in the event of an overturn of the motorcycle. The guard frame includes a pair of guard frame rails, each rail extending in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle body. A connecting portion connects the rear end portions of the rails. The front end portion of each rail is fixed to a body frame of the motorcycle. The connecting portion is supported by the body frame for pivotal movement about a pivot axis. The rails have a normal bow shape that projects outwardly. In some arrangements, an intermediate portion of each rail is formed of a material having lower rigidity than a material of the front and rear end portions of the rail.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motorcycle with a guard frame that inhibits or prevents damage to outward-facing components of a vehicle body of the motorcycle in the event an overturn of the motorcycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
As disclosed in Japanese Publication No. 08-198158, for example, a motorcycle is provided with protectors for preventing damage to an outermost part of a vehicle body in the event of an overturn of the motorcycle. The protector of the motorcycle disclosed in Japanese Publication No. 08-198158 is attached to an outermost part of a body frame in a vehicle width direction to project toward the lateral side. In an overturn of the vehicle body, the protector will contact a road surface to support the vehicle body, thereby preventing damage to the other parts of the vehicle body due to their contacting the road surface. The protector can be formed of iron-based materials, aluminum alloys or synthetic resin-based materials.
Both lateral sides of the body frame with the protectors extend in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body on both lateral sides of a cylinder head of an engine, and are connected to both lateral sides of the cylinder head. That is, both lateral sides of the body frame are connected to one another via the engine.
In such a motorcycle, the protector will contact the road surface to support the vehicle body in an overturn of the motorcycle. The reaction force applied to the protector from the road surface will be transmitted from the ground side to the opposite side of the body frame via the cylinder head. Thus, this motorcycle can receive the above reaction force from the road surface on both lateral sides of the body frame.


A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is described using a sub-wavelength grating (SWG) structure that has a very broad reflection spectrum and very high reflectivity. The grating comprises segments of high and low refractive index materials with an index differential between the high and low index materials. By way of example, a SWG reflective structure is disposed over a low index cavity region and above another reflective layer (either SWG or DBR). In one embodiment, the SWG structure is movable, such as according to MEMS techniques, in relation to the opposing reflector to provide wavelength selective tuning. The SWG-VCSEL design is scalable to form the optical cavities for a range of SWG-VCSELs at different wavelengths, and wavelength ranges.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to broadband mirrors, and more particularly to high reflectivity gratings.
2. Description of Related Art
Semiconductor light emitting diodes and lasers are used in a wide range of applications, such as telecommunication, display, solid-state lighting, sensing, surveillance and imaging. For many of these applications it is desirable to have devices having light emission normal to the surface of the wafer. The surface emitting topology facilitates array fabrication, integration with other devices and wafer-scale testing during and after processing. One form of these light emitting devices requires integration of mirrors with high reflectivity.
Broadband mirrors (Δλ/λ>15%) with very high reflectivity (R>99%) are essential for numerous applications, including telecommunications, surveillance, sensors and imaging, ranging from 0.7 μm to 12 μm wavelength regimes. For example, in optical integrated circuits, electro-optic modulators play an important role in switching and signal encoding. Ideally, electro-optic modulators have low insertion loss and wide bandwidth. Mirrors are key components and the performance of many modulators would be substantially improved if they incorporated a low insertion loss, broad bandwidth, mirror. In the case of surface-emitting semiconductor light-emitting diodes and lasers, the broadband mirrors are required in the construction of optical cavity resonators to achieve large quality (Q) factors.
Among the candidates for mirrors are metal mirrors and dielectric mirrors. Metal mirrors have comparatively large reflection bandwidths but lower reflectivities (R), as they are limited by absorption loss. As a result, they are not suitable for fabricating transmission-type optical devices such as etalon filters.
Dielectric mirrors on the other hand have a lower loss than metal mirrors and therefore can achieve a higher reflectivity. However, the available deposition methods are often not precise enough to readily provide these high reflectivities. It should be appreciated that dielectric mirrors are composed of multi-layer dielectric materials with different dielectric indices. Distributed Bragg Reflectors (DBR) consist of multiple periods of alternating high and low refractive index layers. The tuning range for a tunable filter made with DBR mirrors is determined by the DBR mirror bandwidth and the maximum allowable mechanical movement, whichever is smaller. These mirrors have low absorption loss, but the modulation depth, bandwidth and band location depend on the refractive index contrast of the constituent materials as well as on the control over the layer thickness.
In order to minimize interface disorder and strain in the multilayer structures, typical combinations of materials often have small refractive index differences, thus resulting in very limited bandwidths (Δλ/λ≈3-9%). As a result of this narrow bandwidth, the tuning range of electro-optic modulators, such as etalon type devices, has been severely limited.
For tunable etalon type devices, such as micro-electro-mechanical (MEM) vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL), filters and detectors, the tuning range is often limited by semiconductor based distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) to Δλ/λ≈3-9%. Conventional designs have not provided a mirror with broadband reflection, low loss and compatibility with optoelectronic processing. Semiconductor-based DBRs have been widely used for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL), detectors, and filters because of their higher thermal and electrical conductivities. A typical VCSEL requires an optical resonant cavity having two DBRs, wherein one DBR is positioned on each side of a cavity layer. In the center of the cavity layer resides an active region. In one implementation the active region comprises at least one layer of quantum wells or quantum dots. Current is injected into the active region through a current guiding structure such as provided by either an oxide aperture or proton-implanted surroundings. The laser emission wavelength of the structure is determined by the Fabry-Perot resonance wavelength of the cavity and DBRs, as well as the active region gain bandwidth. The use of semiconductor DBRs within devices limits the emission wavelength, wherein a mirror with high reflectivity and broad bandwidth is desired.
One of the major difficulties in the current status of VCSEL fabrication, especially for long wavelength components around 1.55 μm regimes, concerns the realization of high quality reflective p-type VCSEL mirror. This fabrication difficulty is primarily a result of the limited choice of materials available for the material growth process. In conventional semiconductor-based DBR (e.g., AlxGa1-xAs) devices, the refractive index contrast is low, such as somewhere between the high and low index material. Consequently, an excess number of DBR pairs is required to achieve >99% reflectivity, thus increasing the difficulty in achieving high quality material growth. This has been a major bottleneck for 1.3-1.55 μm VCSEL fabrication and remains a problem for blue-green and 2-3 μm wavelength regimes. The shortcomings of this prior approach are even more pronounced with regard to the fabrication of wavelength-tunable VCSELs, in which the requirements on mirror bandwidth and reflectivity become even more stringent.
Accordingly, there is a need for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers which can be readily fabricated across a range of wavelengths as well as for wavelength-tunable devices. The present invention satisfies that need, as well as others, and generally overcomes the limitations of the art.

The Regents of the University of California


Disclosed is a preparation method of weakly basic, ionized, mineralized and healthy drinking water including purifying the tap water by precipitation, filtration and other conventional methods to obtain clean water; and getting the said clean water through reverse osmosis (RO) membrane to obtain RO pure water; heating the said RO pure water to 35-100 degrees celsius by magnetic oscillation or by heating, and then making the RO pure water through weak alkaline, ionized, and mineralization composition, and then filtering the RO pure water by coconut carbon cartridge and PP cotton filter element in turn. The water prepared by the method of the present invention is beneficial to the health of human body and suitable for long-term consumption.

The present invention relates generally to drinking water, and more particularly to a preparation method of healthy drinking water which is rich in anion, minerals and oxygen.
Tourmaline, a kind of silicate minerals, is a multi-element natural mineral, which contains at least 10 trace elements beneficial to human body, such as magnesium, aluminum, iron and boron. Tourmaline was first discovered in Sri Lanka, and was regarded as precious as diamond and ruby. It was noticed that tourmaline would take charge when heated, and this phenomenon was known as the pyroelectric effect, and that is why it was called "tourmaline". Korean sweat steaming originated in South Korea, and it experienced several times to evolve from the old Wong Nai Khan into today's high-tech, high-performance, multi-purpose new generation of tourmaline Khan steam. Tourmaline Khan steam is a kind of high-fever physical therapy which uses tourmaline and infrared reflection principle to heat people sweat. By absorbing far-infrared rays, anion, metastable ion and mineral elements released by tourmaline after heating, people's skin metabolizes hazardous substance to improve skin elasticity and promote blood circulation and metabolism, so as to achieve the role of beauty, body and treatment of some chronic diseases. In short, tourmaline has a very obvious effect on improving human health, beauty and diet.
Inorganic microporous compound component containing a certain number of holes in the solid is called porous material, and it is a kind of materials which have network structure of interconnected or closed holes, and the boundary or surface of the holes is constituted of pillar or tablet. Two-dimensional network structure is one of the typical network structure, which is formed by a large number of polygonal holes gathered in the plane, and materials with these structures is known as "honeycomb" material as its shape is similar to the honeycomb's hexagonal structure. Three-dimensional network structure is a more common network structure, which is formed by a large number of polyhedron-shape holes gathered in space, and materials with these structures are often called foam material.
At present, only natural water, mineral water and pure water can be use as drinking water. Tap water is a kind of natural water, which is safe, consistent with body functions and contains beneficial mineral substance. However, the tap water has some problems, such as pipe network's aging, residual chlorine and other secondary pollutions. Anyway, if it can be purified deeply, the tap water can make a more popular and healthy water. The mineral water contains more minerals, but more is not better, and it is not suitable for long-term consumption. In recent years, the mineral water's poor taste and few species cause the recession of its market share. Some mineral water even contains a high level of harmful components, such as light metal and heavy metal, and some even has a high redox potential. The pure water is very different from the traditional drinking water, and it contains a very small amount of trace elements. It has many advantages, such as no bacteria, no virus and clean. However, as the body fluids is slightly alkaline, if people drink slightly acid pure water for a long term, the in vivo environment of the body will be damaged, so people need to choose weak base pure water.
Chinese Pat. No. 95108667.7 discloses a preparation method of high oxygen content drinking water. The water passes through the following device in turn: the raw water inlet device, which includes a dress water container; filtration device, which is located after the raw water inlet device and can use its internal filled filter to remove the sludge, limestone, iron and harmful heavy metals from the water; water softener device, which is located after the aforementioned filtration devices and can use its internal filled material to soften water; deodorizing device, which is located after the aforementioned water softener device and can use its internal filled material to remove the smell; filtration membrane device, which is located after the aforementioned deodorizing device and can take advantage of the fine pore of the filter membrane to remove organics from drinking water; catchment reactor, which is located after the aforementioned Filtration membrane device and can gather up the pre-processing drinking water; ozone sterilization device, which can inject ozone quantitatively into the drinking water within the foregoing catchment reactor, so that the ozone dissolved in the water can sterilize fully and continuously in the subsequent treatment period; precision filtering device, which is located after the aforementioned catchment reactor and can take advantage of the fine pore of filter material to filter the drinking water before the water supply; liquid oxygen supply device, which is located after the aforementioned precision filtering device to improve the oxygen content of the drinking water; and water supply device, which is located after the foregoing liquid oxygen supply device and can supply water in a variety of different ways according to the need.
Chinese Pat. No. 98100621.3 discloses a preparation method of mineral water, which uses pure water as the raw material and adds at least three kinds of mineral salts listed in the following to the pure water to make the mineral water. The species of the mineral salts and its corresponding proportion are shown below: calcium citrate 30.0-869.0 mg/L, calcium gluconate 88.9-2222.0 mg/L, calcium hydrogen phosphate 34-869.0 mg/L, calcium chloride 29-732.0 mg/L, magnesium sulfate 40-808.0 mg/L, potassium chloride 1.9-152.0 mg/L, zinc gluconate 0.36-36.0 mg/L, zinc sulfate 0.22-22.0 mg/L, ferrous sulfate 0.5-2.0 mg/L, ferrous gluconate 0.8-3.3 mg/L, ferric citrate 0.6-2.5 mg/L. The manufacturing process of the mineral water includes the following steps: first, dissolving the previously mentioned mineral salts in a small amount of pure water, respectively, and then adding them to the mixing tank one by one when the water temperature is 25-40 degrees celsius, stirring uniformly until the conductivity of aqueous solutions is 450-520 μs/cm, then stopping and adding ozone to get an ozone concentration in the aqueous solution of 0.2-0.4 mg/L, and then making the aqueous solution pass through the water filter with a pore size of 3-10 micron to remove the possible impurities brought in the production process; at last, making the aqueous solution filtered out pass through the water supply pipe equipped with a UV lamp, and then getting into the canned processes.
Chinese Pat. No. 99105060.6 discloses a preparation method of pure mineralized water. The manufacturing process of the mineral water includes the following steps: a. purifying ordinary clean water after precipitation, filtration and cooling by conventional methods to obtain pure water; b. transporting the above pure water into the mineralization device, at the same time, transporting the purified gas mixture of carbon dioxide and air into the mineralization device, among which, the volume ratio of carbon dioxide and air is 1:3 to 2:1, respectively, and the internal temperature of the mineralization device is controlled between 45-99 degrees celsius, while the pressure is controlled between 2-20kg/cm2, and the mineralization time can be controlled according to the water speed of the mineralization device; c. making the mineralized water which meets the salinity requirements precipitate for 6-12 hours, and then filtering it; d. making the mineralized water after filter pass through the activated carbon filter device; e. taking some mineralized water to do sampling tests, so as to detect the content of the master element, and then comparing to the requirement, and adding coordination compounds to make up the difference between the element content; f. filtering the mineralized water after coordination by silicon dry and then by sand filter unit; g. heating the above-mentioned filtering mineralized water to a temperature of above 85 degrees celsius, and insulating for half an hour for sterilization; and h. filling the water under the ultraviolet radiation.

Preparation method of weakly basic, ionized, mineralization and healthy drinking water

GUANGDONG PINSHINE ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD


A system, method and computer program product are provided for efficiently updating a scanning subsystem of a mobile communication device. Initially received is a first portion of an update adapted for updating a scanning subsystem of a mobile communication device. Further, more portions of the update are received in addition to the receipt of the first portion of the update. The update is then installed with the scanning subsystem.

The last decade has seen a rapid growth in the number and use of mobile cellular telephones. More recently, wireless devices have been introduced which combine the functionality of mobile telephones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). It is expected that this area will undergo massive growth in the near future as new cellular telecommunication standards (i.e. GPRS, UMTS, and WAP) make possible the high speed transfer of data across the wireless interface.
It can be expected that such platforms will be susceptible to attack from so-called "malware" such as viruses, Trojan horses, and worms (referred to collectively hereinafter as "viruses"); and other unwanted/harmful content in much the same way as present day personal computers and workstations are susceptible. A number of mobile telephone viruses have already been identified.
In order to resist virus attacks, anti-virus software must be deployed into mobile platforms in much the same way as it has been deployed in the desktop environment. A number of different desktop anti-virus applications are currently available. The majority of these applications rely upon a basic scanning engine which searches suspect files for the presence of predetermined virus signatures. These signatures are held in a database which must be constantly updated to reflect the most recently identified viruses.
Typically, users download replacement databases every so often, either over the Internet, from a received e-mail, or from a CDROM or floppy disk. Users are also expected to update there software engines every so often in order to take advantage of new virus detection techniques which may be required when a new strain of virus is detected.
Mobile wireless platforms present a series of problems for software developers (including developers of anti-virus software). Chief among these are the limited memory and processing power of mobile platforms, and the limited input/output capabilities which they possess (i.e. no CDROM or floppy drive, and no high bandwidth fixed line network or Internet connectivity). Unfortunately, this drawback makes any updating of mobile communication devices difficult.

Update system and method for updating a scanning subsystem in a mobile communication framework


A metallic biomedical article, preferably an orthopaedic implant, instrument or tool, for use in contact with internal human body tissue, having a first silver containing metal nitride coating thereon, and process for making the same, is provided.

Metal articles are often used in contact with internal human or animal body tissue for a wide range of uses. However care must be taken, particularly if such articles are implanted into the human or animal body, that they are long-lasting, non-corrosive and do not leach metal ions into the body.
Orthopaedic implants (such as a replacement hip) conventionally employ a metal-on-polymer arrangement, but suffer from the disadvantage of wear-induced osteolysis associated with polyethylene debris, even with improved modern polyethylenes. Metal-on-metal prostheses offer an alternative without these disadvantages, potentially providing greatly increased dislocation resistance and a longer service life, opening up the technique for the young active category. However, because of the stresses encountered in orthopaedic implants, particularly in articulating orthopaedic implants, it would be beneficial to use coatings to reduce wear.
Additionally, the use of metal-on-metal orthopaedic implants can result in undesirable wear debris, at levels such that they are detectable in blood. For example, cobalt/chromium has been shown to provide a ten-fold increase in these potentially carcinogenic metal ions in the blood of a patient, compared to normal healthy subjects.
A coating for an articulating orthopaedic implant, must satisfy a number of additional demanding requirements, e.g. it must be hard, have low surface friction and also be tough enough to withstand potentially high impact forces over a long period of time. Coatings which are not tough enough (i.e. too brittle) or hard wearing enough may have a short service life or may even become detached, which could be catastrophic. It would be additionally advantageous if such coatings had anti-microbial properties.
It is becoming generally accepted that silver in ionic form has antimicrobial properties. Also very fine particles of silver e.g. nano-particles, have a surface area to volume ratio such that they can readily oxidise to form the ionic compound silver oxide which provides an antimicrobial effect. However, larger silver structures tend to be ineffective antimicrobials. It is therefore not simply a matter of using silver as a coating in order to provide an antimicrobial effect. In any case, silver is too soft for use as a coating in applications where a significant amount of stress is encountered, e.g. in articulating orthopaedic implants.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,567 discloses a process of forming an anti-microbial coating on a surface of a medical implant, which involves incorporating silver into a diamond-like carbon coating. However, whilst diamond-like carbon is very hard and has a low friction, it is often a brittle material. It is therefore not ideal for use as a coating especially in articulated prosthetic implants.


A system including an associative memory. A first input device in communication with the associative memory is configured to receive comparison criteria associated with a first entity stored in the associative memory. A search engine is configured to acquire, using a processor in conjunction with the associative memory and also using the comparison criteria, an attribute category of the first entity and an attribute value of the first entity. A second input device is configured to input, using the processor in conjunction with the associative memory, the attribute category and the attribute value into a worksheet of the associative memory. A comparator is configured to compare, using the processor in conjunction with the associative memory, the first entity and a second entity. The comparator is further configured to apply the worksheet as part of comparing the first entity and the second entity.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to associative memories and, in particular, a system and method for narrowing comparison results of associative memories.
2. Background
When using associative memories to perform entity comparisons, a difficulty can arise when attempting to narrow down search criteria in order to obtain specific results. For example, when searching for applicants within a technical domain, the task of narrowing the search down to a specific skill is difficult. For example, a user may have difficulty using the entity comparison capabilities of an associative memory to find an applicant having a certain number years of experience in a specific programming language.
The reason for this difficulty is that entity comparisons rely on attribute categories, like "Skill" and "Experience". However, entity comparisons do not consider the attribute values until a breadth-wide search is performed first, as the search pertains to the sought entity. Furthermore, the user is limited as to what information can be included within the comparison criteria. Thus, finding the desired specific information using an entity comparison can be difficult. However, the ability to find specific information using an entity comparison of an associative memory is desirable. In addition, since associative memory and entity analytics deal with both tangible and intangible data, in order for a comparison to be valid, the intangible attributes should be in the correct context when compared.

Narrowing comparison results of associative memories


A method enables a gas turbine engine compressor including a stator assembly and a rotor assembly to be assembled. The method comprises providing a casing formed from a plurality of rings, and coupling a first of the casing rings around the rotor assembly such that a radially inner surface of the first casing ring is axially aligned with, and radially outward from, a row of rotor blades extending from the rotor assembly. The method also comprises coupling a second of the casing rings to the first casing ring with a fastener assembly, such that the first casing ring radially inner surface facilitates insulating the fastener assembly from the compressor flowpath.

This invention relates generally to gas turbine engines, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for assembling gas turbine engine compressors.
At least some known gas turbine engines include a compressor, a combustor, and at least one turbine coupled in a serial axial-flow relationship. The compressor compresses air which is then channeled to the combustor. The compressed air is mixed with fuel and ignited within the combustor to generate combustion gases which are channeled to the turbine. The turbine extracts energy from the combustion gases to power the compressor, as well as to produce useful work to propel an aircraft in flight or to power a load, such as an electrical generator.
Known compressors include a rotor assembly and a stator assembly. The rotor assembly may include a plurality of rotor blades extending radially outward from a shaft. The stator assembly may include a plurality of stator vanes which are coupled between adjacent rows of rotor blades to form a nozzle for directing combustion gases passing therethrough to downstream rotor blades. More specifically, the stator assembly is coupled to the rotor assembly with a fastener assembly or a controlling mass. Maintaining clearances between tips of the rotor blades and the surrounding casing facilitates increasing the operating efficiency of the compressor. However, controlling tip clearances may be difficult because the stationary stator assemblies may thermally expand at a quicker rate than the rotating rotary assembly.
To facilitate controlling flowpath deflection, at least some known compressors use either a split casing, a stacked continuous ring casing, or a continous casing with a segmented flowpath surface coupled to it. Each compressor casing offers advantages and disadvantages. For example, the split casing includes a pair of longitudinally split halves that are bolted together around the rotor assembly. The flowpath surface is then formed after liners are coupled to the split halves. Although the liners insulate the controlled mass from the flowpath, assembly costs are typically higher because of the milling, and pressure deflections and thermal gradients may cause out-of-roundness. In contrast, the stacked continuous ring configuration includes a series of annular rings that are coupled together around the rotor assembly. However, because the flowpath surfaces are integral to the rings, the rings may experience additional thermal growth because they are directly exposed to the flowpath. Within the continuous casing configuration, all of the stator vanes are initially installed around the rotor assembly before a single continuous casing is coupled around them. Each stator vane assembly is then coupled to the casing for retention. Although the controlling mass is insulated from the flowpath, the compressor is much more complicated to assemble, and as such may be more costly than the previously described compressor casing assemblies.

Methods and apparatus for controlling gas turbine engine rotor tip clearances


The invention relates to an apparatus and method for augmenting the 3 dimensional position information obtained from the NAVSTAR satellite-based global positioning system (“GPS”) system. Such systems can be impacted by physical obstacles that prevent the receipt of the satellite signals or as a result of sun spot activity that introduces noise into the signals thus causing them to become intermittently unavailable and/or making them less accurate in the course of normal operation. Therefore, an improved positioning solution that can operate under such poor GPS operational conditions is needed. The apparatus and method of the invention augments GPS with dead reckoning techniques when GPS signals are unavailable or inaccurate. The apparatus and method of the invention demonstrates highest value when applied to blasthole drill positioning applications in open-pit mines.

Dead reckoning is a navigational technique which has been in use for centuries. Dead reckoning calculates the current position of an object based on a previous position of the object in view of the speed and direction traveled from the previous position. Disadvantageously, dead reckoning is subject to significant error, particularly when speed and direction are not measured accurately.
The NAVSTAR (US government owned and operated) GPS constellation comprises a network of 27 Earth orbiting satellites. A complementary space-based network called. GLONASS (Russian government owned and operated) consists of an additional 24 satellites. In order to determine the position of an object using GPS/GLONASS, a GPS, GLONASS or combined GPS/GLONASS receiver on the object must determine the location of at least four GPS/GLONASS satellites and the distance between the object and each of the at least four satellites. Disadvantageously, the GPS/GLONASS system cannot be used to calculate position when the GPS/GLONASS receiver does not receive signals from at least four GPS/GLONASS satellites.
The introduction of high-precision global positioning systems ("HPGPS") to the surface mining industry has resulted in significant improvements in productivity, and is expected to take an essential role as an enabling technology in future efforts to automate mining activities. In a standard system, GPS/GLONASS output is used directly for positioning. However, such systems can be impacted by physical obstacles that prevent the receipt of the satellite signals or as a result of sun spot activity that introduces noise into the signals thus causing them to become intermittently unavailable and/or making them less accurate in the course of normal operation. Therefore, an improved positioning solution that can operate under such poor GPS operational conditions is needed. The apparatus and method of the invention augments GPS with dead reckoning techniques when GPS signals are unavailable or inaccurate.

Dead reckoning-augmented GPS for tracked vehicles