A faucet includes a logical control, a spout, a hub, a handle, and a touch control operably coupled to at least one of the spout, the hub, and the handle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of automatic faucets. More particularly, the present invention relates to an automatic faucet that uses both proximity and contact sensors in conjunction with logic that responds to various actions to provide easy and intuitive operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automatic faucets have become popular for a variety of reasons. They save water, because water can be run only when needed. For example, with a conventional sink faucet, when a user washes their hands the user tends to turn on the water and let it run continuously, rather than turning the water on to wet their hands, turning it off to lather, then turning it back on to rinse. In public bathrooms the ability to shut off the water when the user has departed can both save water and help prevent vandalism.
One early version of an automatic faucet was simply a spring-controlled faucet, which returned to the "off" position either immediately, or shortly after, the handle was released. The former were unsatisfactory because a user could only wash one hand at a time, while the later proved to be mechanically unreliable.
A better solution was hands-free faucets. These faucets employ a proximity detector and an electric power source to activate water flow, and so can be operated without a handle. In addition to helping to conserve water and prevent vandalism, hands-free faucets also had additional advantages, some of which began to make them popular in homes, as well as public bathrooms. For example, there is no need to touch the faucet to activate it; with a conventional faucet, a user with dirty hands may need to wash the faucet after washing their hands. Non-contact operation is also more sanitary, especially in public facilities. Hands-free faucets also provide superior accessibility for the disabled, or for the elderly, or those who need assisted care.
Typically, these faucets use proximity detectors, such as active infrared ("IR") detectors in the form of photodiode pairs, to detect the user's hands (or other objects positioned in the sink for washing). Pulses of IR light are emitted by one diode with the other being used to detect reflections of the emitted light off an object in front of the faucet. Different designs use different locations on the spout for the photodiodes, including placing them at the head of the spout, farther down the spout near its base, or even at positions entirely separate from the spout. Likewise, different designs use different physical mechanisms for detecting the proximity of objects, such as ultrasonic signals or changes in the magnetic permeability near the faucet.
Examples of a hands-free faucets are given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,702 to Philippe, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,394 to Vincent, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,549 to Humpert, which are hereby incorporated herein in their entireties.
Although hands-free faucets have many advantages, depending on how they are used, some tasks may best be accomplished with direct control over the starting and stopping of the flow of water. For example, if the user wishes to fill the basin with water to wash something the hands-free faucet could be frustrating, since it would require the user to keep their hand continuously in the detection zone of the sensors. This is especially likely with a kitchen sink faucet, which may be used in many different tasks, such as washing dishes and utensils. Due to its size, the kitchen sink is often the preferred sink for filling buckets, pots, etc. Thus, there is a need for a kitchen faucet that provides water savings, but which does not interfere with other tasks in which a continuous flow is desired.
Each of these control methods has advantages for a particular intended task. Thus, what is needed is a faucet that provides both conventional, touch control, and hands-free operation modes, so that a user can employ the control mode that is best suited to the task at hand. The present invention is directed towards meeting this need, among others.

Resistive coupling for an automatic faucet


A multi-platform television production process that results in an almost completely viewer-guided television episode. The production process begins at an online website where criteria for a first portion of the episode are selected by the public. Production commences on this portion of the episode, based on the criterion chosen by the online users, and the first portion of the episode is aired online. Viewers of this online airing of the initial production of the episode provide feedback on the first portion of the episode and are able to vote on criteria for the second portion of the episode. The second portion of the episode is produced, based on the criterion chosen by viewers. Then, the full episode, incorporating viewer feedback received during the production process) is aired on television. The full episode may also include content received from the online viewers.

Television programs have been a popular form of entertainment for decades; however, the advent of the Internet is affecting their popularity. With the increasing popularity of the Internet, television networks have noticed increased competition from other forms of entertainment, as opposed to the competition being limited to that from other competing television networks. More and more Americans are looking to the World Wide Web to fulfill their desire for entertainment, drastically reducing ratings and causing shows to be canceled. This change in the public's viewing habits is not only affecting television stations, production companies, and actors, but advertising agencies as well. With new technologies such as the digital video recorder (DVR), Netflix® (and other internet movie rental companies), and on-demand television, the television viewing public is no longer "forced" to watch television commercials, which were once the primary medium for advertising during a television show. In response, advertising agencies are increasingly focusing on the Internet as their primary medium of exchange and promotion of products.
Traditionally, television episodes are produced, filmed and broadcast without the opinions of the viewing public. This typical production process 100 is illustrated in FIG. 1. At step S11, the production and filming is completed on the full episode. Then, at step S12, the completed episode is aired on television. Finally, at step S13, feedback is received through ratings and reviews. A major disadvantage of production process 100 is that the production of an episode is based solely on the ideas and opinions of producers, directors, and writers and this production fails to integrate any feedback from the viewing public until after the money has been spent on the entire production process and the show has aired. There is no opportunity after airing of the episode to go back and change the episode based on the feedback received at step S13 of the process 100. Other disadvantages of this typical production process 100 include an audience that is restricted to those with availability during the scheduled air time of the episode; a viewing public does not feel a sense of ownership over the final product, resulting in a lower probability of them making time to watch the program; and advertising that is limited to television commercials and brand placement within the episode, which may be less effective than other forms of advertising as previously noted.
In response to the increased competition and other disadvantages faced by the traditional production methods, many television programs have evolved to more interactive models that include viewer feedback, integrated advertising and informational websites. One such example is the popular television program American Idol® which encourages higher ratings through audience interaction in the form of voting. The production process 200 of such an integrated reality TV show is illustrated in FIG. 2. At step S21, the production and filming is completed on the first half (Part 1) of each episode. Then, at step S22, the first half (Part 1) of the episode is aired on television. Either during or after airing, viewers are able to vote, for example for winners, via telephone, text messages or online, at step S23. Finally, at step S24, the winners (which are a result of the viewing voting) are announced during a live "results" show which is aired later, typically the next night. This production process 200 still includes the disadvantages of production process 100 of an audience that is restricted to those with availability during the scheduled air time of the episode and advertising that is mainly limited to television commercials and brand placement within the episode, which may be less effective than other forms of advertising as previously noted.
Although some viewer interaction is available via the production process 200 illustrated in FIG. 2, these currently available television production processes 100, 200 fail to adequately integrate the viewing public, provide a sense of ownership or take advantage of the unique exposure provided by the World Wide Web. Further, there are currently no television programs that have based the entire production of a television episode around viewer interaction.

Multi-platform television episode production process


A polymeric based composite bearing is injected molded of a thermoplastic material reinforced with a high strength fiber and reinforcing beads. Typically, the high strength fiber is selected from the group consisting of aromatic polyamide fiber, high strength/high purity glass fiber, carbon fiber, boron fiber, and metallic fibers. The reinforcing spheres are selected from the group consisting of glass beads, boron nitride beads, silicon carbide beads and silicon nitride beads. The thermoplastic matrix material may consist of polyamide, polyacetal, polyphenylene sulfide, polyester and polyimide. Preferably, the composite bearing comprises between about 5 to about 35 percent weight of the high strength fiber, between about 5 to about 15 percent weight percent of the reinforcing spheres, and between about 50 to about 90 weight percent of the thermoplastic matrix material. The bearing may be injection molded by blending the composite material, heating the composite material to a temperature above its melting temperature, injecting the composite material into a mold cavity, and demolding the bearing after the temperature of the bearing drops substantially below the melting temperature.

Bearings have been made with polymeric materials. In industrial applications bearings sometimes function in hostile environments of heat and vibration. Suitable bearing materials for use in such hostile environments are restricted to thermoset polymers which must be processed by casting or machining. The use of a casting or machining process is time consuming and can be carried out only at high manufacturing cost. Therefore, the process is not suitable for large volume, low cost industrial applications.
Others have attempted the use of thermoplastic polymeric materials in the making of plastic bearings. The heat generated in the operation of a bearing causes many problems for a thermoplastic bearing, including thermal distortion and loss of dimensions. To solve these problems, others have designed plastic bearings with a molded-in metal structural enforcement. For example, one known bearing includes a polymeric matrix material used as a coating on a steel mesh frame. The steel mesh frame provides the structural integrity of the bearing while the polymeric matrix material provides the desirable frictional properties of the sliding surface. Unfortunately, the method required to produce such a bearing is labor intensive and requires complicated processing steps. Therefore, it is not suitable for low cost, high volume industrial applications.
In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, it is desirable to provide a polymeric based composite bearing that can be injection molded of a thermoplastic material, with improved strength and frictional properties, and that can be produced in a low cost, high volume industrial process. It is also desirable that such a bearing be injection molded of a homogeneous material and not require a metal enforcement for structural support.


This invention relates generally to cryopreservation and a method for preventing injury caused by cooling and warming of tissue and for reducing the toxicity of vitrification solutions. The present method achieves reduction or elimination of injury by increasing the tonicity of the medium to greater than isotonic prior to cooling. The method was developed by attempting to simulate without freezing, the events that take place during freezing living cells and/or tissue. A further benefit of the method is that, since the cryopreservation medium is hypertonic, it can be diluted to a more extreme degree in one step once the system is rewarmed, without engendering the degree of cell swelling that would attend the same dilution factor when diluting an isotonic cryopreservation medium.

During the cooling and warming of tissues or cells in cryoprotective solutions, the cells and tissues are often injured. Adding and removing the cryoprotectant can also induce damage, particularly if the addition and washout process is prolonged but also if dilution is too rapid. It would be desirable in the art to provide a method that allows a) rapid addition of cryoprotectant, b) rapid or slow cooling without cold shock or chilling injury, and c) rapid dilution of the cryoprotectant without osmotic shock after rewarming of the living system.
There are many ways for living systems to be injured by cooling to subzero temperatures and subsequently warming from subzero temperatures. If the system is frozen, it may be damaged mechanically from intracellular or extracellular ice, or by consequences of changes in the composition of the unfrozen portion of the semi-frozen environment. If the system is vitrified, these sources of injury may disappear, but other forms of injury are possible.
"Thermal shock" (also sometimes called cold shock) is injury caused by rapid cooling per se, and is reduced by reducing the cooling rate. Thermal shock injury has been stated to exist (see Fahy et al., in Cell Biology of Trauma, J. J. Lemasters and C. Oliver, Eds, CRC Press, 1995, pp. 333-356) within a narrow temperature window between 0° C. and about −20° C. in rabbit renal cortex, but not below, but is currently believed not to be a major issue, even though rapid cooling rates are desirable for vitrification to reduce the likelihood of ice formation and cryoprotectant toxicity.
Another possible source of injury is "chilling injury," which is a poorly-understood form of damage caused by exposure to low temperatures per se. Chilling injury is, for practical purposes, essentially not cooling rate dependent (except for small systems, which may escape from chilling injury at very rapid cooling rates), but instead is dependent primarily on the absolute temperature to which the system is cooled. Stated in another way, thermal shock is caused by rapid cooling and is reduced or eliminated by slow cooling, and chilling injury is caused by slow cooling and is not eliminated by rapid cooling, except perhaps possibly at very high cooling rates.
Another form of injury pertinent to vitrification (cryopreservation without ice formation on cooling) is devitrification. As the temperature in a vitrifiable system is brought close to the glass transition temperature, nucleation can generally occur. When the system is warmed up, nuclei formed in the vicinity of the glass transition temperature (Tg), which are unable to grow while the system remains below Tg, can grow and produce injury both intracellularly and extracellularly.
Another way of referring to injury that takes place upon cooling per se and that is not formally characterized as representing either thermal shock or chilling injury is to simply term such injury as being "cooling injury."
The primary barriers to cryopreservation by vitrification are cryoprotectant toxicity, chilling injury, and devitrification. Cryoprotectant toxicity has been greatly reduced by recent inventions involving the use of weak glass-forming agents and qv* analysis and is no longer a major limiting factor for cellular systems. Because devitrification can be reduced using low-toxicity cryoprotectants, ice blockers, and rapid warming, it is also currently of diminishing concern. Chilling injury, however, remains a substantial and largely intractable problem which is difficult to address in part because of its unknown origin. Although there have been studies on the biochemistry of chilling injury in natural systems, nothing is known about the sources of chilling injury in cells that do not suffer from chilling injury at 0° C. and that have been loaded with vitrifiable concentrations of cryoprotectants and cooled to subzero temperatures. Therefore, it would be particularly valuable to be able to circumvent cooling injury in order to improve the results of vitrification.
One patented method is known in the art for dealing with chilling injury in such systems (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,962,214 and 5,723,282). Fahy showed that kidneys or kidney slices exposed to high but sub-vitrifiable concentrations of cryoprotectant at 0° C. were severely damaged by cooling to −20 to −30° C. He found that by using lower concentrations of permeating cryoprotectants prior to cooling, the sensitivity to chilling injury could be eliminated at these temperatures. Additional cryoprotectant could then be introduced by diffusion or by perfusion at −20 to −25° C., with reduced or eliminated toxicity (see also Fahy et al., in Cell Biology of Trauma, J. J. Lemasters and C. Oliver, Eds, CRC Press, 1995, pp. 333-356, but especially FIG. 8, pg. 353, and discussion thereof; and Khirabadi et al., Cryobiology 31: 597, 1994, and Cryobiology 32: 543-544, 1995.)
Surprisingly, this prior art method was later found to have a fatal flaw: when tissues protected at about −25° C. using the method were subsequently cooled to Tg, they actually suffered dramatically more severe injury than if they had been cooled directly from 0° C. (Khirabadi et al., Cryobiology 37: 447, 1998). Lack of permeation of the extra cryoprotectant at −25° C. was ruled out as a cause of the cooling injury, since doubling the equilibration time at −25° C. had minimal if any effect on cooling injury although it greatly exacerbated toxic injury at −25° C. Therefore, whatever its virtues may have been, this prior art method is untenable.
Fahy et al. explained the basis of their prior art method as follows (see the Cell Biology of Trauma reference above, pp. 351-352). "Human erythrocytes do not normally experience cold shock when cooled to 0° C., but are rendered susceptible to cold shock by exposure to hypertonic solutions prior to cooling . . . If the same hypertonicity is introduced at a temperature below 10° C., the cells remain uninjured either at the temperature of exposure or upon subsequent cooling. The method for avoiding cold shock, then, is to cool through the critical temperature range in the presence of low concentrations [low tonicity] and to increase concentration [tonicity] only after this critical temperature interval has been safely traversed."
"In the case of the rabbit kidney, we were aware that osmotic shrinkage of tubular cells is induced by exposure to VS4 and V52, and that cell shrinkage appears to be required for cold shock injury in red cells. Since kidneys cooled to −30° C. in VS4 supported life about 60% of the time and kidneys cooled to −30° C. in V52 supported life 0% of the time, it seemed that a concentration not much below the 49% w/v concentration of VS4 should avoid cold shock entirely."
In discussing the results of an experiment designed to test the analogy between thermal shock injury in red blood cells and cooling injury in rabbit kidney slices, Fahy et al. conclude (from the same reference): "It thus appears that the analogy between cooling injury in rabbit kidney tissue and cold shock in human erythrocytes is valid."
Thus, it is clear that although much attention has been given to the problem of obviating cooling injury in the past, a method for preventing such injury is still needed.


A rubber comprising a silane, a filler and at least one rubber selected from the group consisting of solution polymerization-derived styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) having from about 10 to about 80 percent vinyl content; (ii) emulsion polymerization-derived rubber; and (iii) butadiene rubber having from about 5 to about 99 percent cis content and from about 0 to about 60 percent vinyl content.

There are different processes for making α,β-unsaturated cyclic imidoalkoxysilanes that are known in the art. These processes are based on the condensation of anhydride precursors with primary aminoalkoxysilanes, and produce water as one of the reaction by-products. Typically, the water produced is scavenged from the reaction using one or more chemical desiccants, for example hexamethyldisilazane (HMDZ) or trimethylsilyl chloride (TMSCI). These chemical desiccants must be used in at least stoichiometeric amounts, which makes these processes economically unfeasible when used to produce α,β-unsaturated cyclic imidoalkoxysilanes on a large commercial scale.
An object of the invention is directed to specific rubber compositions comprising at least one α,β-unsaturated cyclic imidoalkoxysilanes of the present invention. This and other objects are further described below.

Rubber compositions comprising unsaturated imidoalkoxysilanes


A flexible, scalable hardware and software platform that allows a service provider to easily provide internet services, virtual private network services, firewall services, etc., to a plurality of customers. One aspect provides a method and system for delivering security services. This includes connecting a plurality of processors in a ring configuration within a first processing system, establishing a secure connection between the processors in the ring configuration across an internet protocol (IP) connection to a second processing system to form a tunnel, and providing both router services and host services for a customer using the plurality of processors in the ring configuration and using the second processing system. a packet routing system and method is described that includes a processor identifier in each packet to route the packets to a physical processor, and a logical queue identifier to route the packets to the destination object within that processor.

The service provider game has grown extremely crowded and fiercely competitive, with numerous players offering similar products and services. While having a large number of comparable services is arguably beneficial to the enterprise, it poses a host of potentially disastrous consequences for a service provider. If all competitors in a given market are offering services that are indistinguishable by the customer base, the burden of differentiation falls squarely on cost, with the least-cost competitor emerging "victorious". Jockeying for the cost-leader position rapidly drives down service pricing, reducing margins to rubble and rendering the service a commodity. Furthermore, numerous offerings that are similar in attributes and cost make it very difficult to lock in customers.
Operational costs also present a significant challenge to service providers. Cumbersome, manual provisioning processes are the primary culprits. Customer orders must be manually entered and processed through numerous antiquated back-end systems that have been pieced together. Once the order has been processed, a truck roll is required for onsite installation and configuration of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), as well as subsequent troubleshooting tasks. This is a slow and expensive process that cuts into margins and forces significant up-front charges to be imposed on the customer. In order to be successful in today's market, service providers must leverage the public network to offer high-value, differentiated services that maximize margins while controlling capital and operational costs. These services must be rapidly provisioned and centrally managed so that time-to-market and, more importantly, time-to-revenue are minimized. Traditional methods of data network service creation, deployment, and management present significant challenges to accomplishing these goals, calling for a new network service model to be implemented.
Basic Internet access, a staple of service provider offerings, has been commoditized to the point that margins are nearly non-existent. This fact has driven service providers to look for new value-added features and services to layer over basic connectivity so that they are able to differentiate on factors other than cost. The most significant opportunity for differentiation is found in managed network services. Managed network services enable enterprise IT organizations to outsource time-consuming tactical functions so that they can focus strategic core business initiatives.
Enterprise customers are now demanding cost-effective, outsourced connectivity and security services, such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and managed firewall services. Enterprise networks are no longer segregated from the outside world; IT managers are facing mounting pressure to connect disparate business units, satellite sites, business partners, and suppliers to their corporate network, and then to the Internet. This raises a multitude of security concerns that are often beyond the core competencies of enterprise IT departments. To compound the problem, skilled IT talent is an extremely scarce resource. Service providers, with expert staff and world-class technology and facilities, are well positioned to deliver these services to enterprise customers.
While IT managers clearly see the value in utilizing managed network services, there are still barriers to adoption. Perhaps the most significant of these is the fear of losing control of the network to the service provider. In order to ease this fear, a successful managed network service offering must provide comprehensive visibility to the customer, enabling them to view configurations and performance statistics, as well as to request updates and changes. Providing IT managers with powerful Customer Network Management (CNM) tools bolsters confidence in the managed network service provider and can actually streamline the service provisioning and maintenance cycle.


The present disclosure provides a method for forming a Lateral Double-Diffused MOSFET (LDMOS). The method includes providing a semiconductor substrate having a first conductivity type; forming a first shallow trench isolation (STI) structure in the semiconductor substrate; and applying a first ion implantation to form a drift region of a second conductivity type into the semiconductor substrate with the drift region surrounding the first STI structure. The method also includes applying a counter-doping implantation to form a counter-doped region having the first conductivity in the drift region and forming a body region on one side of the drift region in the semiconductor substrate. The method further includes forming a gate structure on the semiconductor substrate, wherein one end of the gate structure extends to an area on the body region another end of the gate structure extends to an area on the first STI region.

Power field-effect transistors mainly include vertical double-diffused field-effect transistors (e.g., VDMOS or vertical double-diffused MOSFETs) and lateral double-diffused field-effect transistors (e.g., LDMOS or lateral double-diffused MOSFETs). Compared to a VDMOS, an LDMOS has many advantages such as better thermal stability and frequency stability, higher gain and better durability, lower feedback capacitance and lower thermal resistance, constant input impedance, and simpler biasing circuits.
FIG. 1 illustrates structure of a conventional N-type LDMOS. The LDMOS includes a semiconductor substrate (not shown), a P-well region 100, an N-type drift region 101 in the P-well 100, a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure 104 in the N-type drift region 101, and a P-type body region 106 on one side of the N-type drift region 101 in the P-well 100. The LDMOS also includes a gate structure 105 on the semiconductor substrate, a source region 102 in the P-type body region 106 on one side of the gate structure 105, and a drain region 103 in the N-type drift region 101 on the other side of the gate structure 105.
The shallow trench isolation (STI) structure 104 in the N-type drift region 101 of the LDMOS is configured to extend the conductive path of the LDMOS and increase the breakdown voltage of the LDMOS.
The gate structure 105 of the LDMOS includes a gate dielectric structure, a gate electrode on the gate dielectric, and sidewalls on both sides of the gate electrode and the gate dielectric. Also, the gate structure 105 extends from the P-type body region 106 to the N-type drift region 101 and partially covers the STI region 104.
The source region 102 and the drain region 103 are N-type doped. There is a need to improve performance of the conventional LDMOS devices.

Lateral double-diffused MOSFET and fabrication method thereof

SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING INTERNATIONAL (SHANGHAI) CORPORATION


A train control apparatus includes a setting reception unit that receives setting information regarding a temporary speed limit section and a speed limit. A control unit generates temporary speed limit information for the trains. A communication unit transmits the temporary speed limit information to the trains. If information regarding all temporary speed limit sections cannot be included in the temporary speed limit information, the control unit includes, in the temporary speed limit information, information regarding a specified number of temporary speed limit sections located on a traveling direction side, and changes a speed limit in one or more temporary speed limit sections included in the temporary speed limit information on the basis of a speed limit set in a temporary speed limit section that is adjacent to a temporary speed limit section included in the temporary speed limit information, and is not included in the temporary speed limit information.

Conventionally, a ground apparatus may set a temporary speed limit for temporarily limiting a speed of a train in a construction section, a bad weather section, or the like. The section where the temporary speed limit is set is defined as a temporary speed limit section. When the train acquires temporary speed limit information which is control information indicating the content of the setting of the temporary speed limit from the ground apparatus, the train decelerates to the set speed limit and travels in the set temporary speed limit section. Such a technique is disclosed in Patent Literature 1.

Train control apparatus and train control method


A secure method of accessing a computer facility is provided within the data communications equipment (DCE), e.g., a modem or a terminal server, by the use of Calling Party Directory Number (CPDN). In particular, a telephone line from the local public switched telephone network is configured to provide CPDN information. This telephone line terminates in the DCE, which stores a plurality of lists, each list comprising a plurality of CPDN numbers. Upon receiving a telephone call from a calling party, the DCE takes one of three courses of action depending on the calling party's CPDN: 1) the DCE can answer the telephone call if the calling party's CPDN is on the "caller pays" list; 2) the DCE can refuse to answer the telephone call and then return the telephone call if the CPDN is on the "we pay" list; or 3) the DCE can simply not answer, or return, the telephone call if the calling party's CPDN is not found on any of the plurality of lists.

The present invention relates to data communications equipment (DCE) and to computer systems. In particular, this invention relates to the use of data communications equipment to provide secure access to a computer system.
The use of computers in today's world is continually on the increase, from main-frames to personal computers, more and more people are using computer systems. In fact, it is the accessibility of a computer itself, via a modem and the public switched telephone network (PSTN), that allows almost anyone to benefit from the use of a computer. Unfortunately, this accessibility also seems to attract "intruders," i.e., illegitimate users of a computer system. As a result, the security of a computer system, or even a network of computers, as to both the integrity and distribution of the information stored on a computer, is an item of continuing concern to the legitimate users, owners, and operators of computers. In response to this need of providing some type of access security to a computer system a number of alternatives have been proposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,595, issued to Collins et al. on Mar. 26, 1991, uses the automatic number identification (ANI) of the calling party to determine if the calling party is allowed to access a computer system. In particular, a private branch exchange (PBX) detects and separates, from a calling party's telephone call, the calling party's ANI. The PBX sends the calling party's ANI to an adjunct processor, which is a computer that is designed to work in conjunction with the PBX, for analysis. The adjunct processor compares the calling party's ANI to a list of numbers that includes the automatic number identifications of all authorized users of the respective computer system that the calling party is trying to access. If the calling party's ANI is on the list of numbers for the respective computer system, then the call is completed. However, if the calling party's ANI is not on the list of numbers, the call is not answered.
U.S,. Pat. No. 4,876,717, issued to Barron et al. on Oct. 24, 1989, also uses an adjunct processor in association with a PBX for providing secure access to a computer system. In this system, an incoming telephone call is answered and the calling party is prompted, via a voice recording, to enter identifying information, which can either be a voiceprint or a touch-tone signal. If there is a match between the identifying information, entered by the calling party, and respective identification information in the adjunct processor, the telephone call is terminated and the adjunct processor calls back the original calling party to establish a data call between the original calling party and the desired computer system. However, if the adjunct processor can not match the stored identification information with the calling party's identifying information, the telephone call is just terminated with no further action being taken by the adjunct processor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,233, issued to Smith on May 28, 1985 uses a separate box called a "secure access unit," which is connected between the called party's modem, e.g., the computer's modem, and the central office. In particular, the secure access unit answers any incoming telephone call and waits for the additional entry of touch-tone information representing a 5 digit security code. If this security code is not detected within a particular time-frame, e.g., 23 seconds, the incoming telephone call is disconnected. However, if the secure access unit detects the correct security code, then the called party's modem is connected to the calling party's telephone call to allow access to the respective computer system.
The above-mentioned prior art, while providing secure arrangements to access computers, are not the complete answers to the problem. For example, the Collins et al. and Baton et al. patents both require the use of an adjunct processor, in conjunction with a PBX, a solution that appeals more to a medium, or a large, size business customer. On the other hand, the Smith patent, albeit providing a service more in tune to the small business and residential markets, requires that the incoming telephone call be answered in order to enter the appropriate security code and that the called party purchase an additional piece of equipment.

Data communications equipment security device using calling party directory number


A tunable wellbore pulsation valve reduces drillstring friction in a wellbore. An upper valve plate and a lower valve plate, and upper valve plate orifice and lower valve plate orifice enabling throughflow. A Moineau motor rotates the upper valve plate while the lower valve plate remains stationary. Fluid flow causes a first fluid state of fluid passing through both the upper valve plate and the lower valve plate when the fluid passing causes rotation of the upper valve plate to align the upper valve plate orifice with the lower valve plate orifice. Increased flow efficiency produces more powerful fluid pressure pulsations and axial vibrations without increasing pump pressure at the surface of the wellbore, yielding increased wellbore friction reduction while expending the same or less energy at the surface pump than would be expended in the absence of the reduced turbulent and shear conditions and increased laminar conditions.

During the drilling of an oil and gas wellbore, the drillstring, and downhole tools connected to the drillstring, encounter friction against the wellbore wall. The friction inhibits the advancement of the drill bit, also known as "Rate of Progress" (ROP) in the industry. This ROP-limiting friction is encountered in both conventional drilling, with a rotating drill string, and also in drilling methods employed on coiled tubing, with a rotating bit at the distal end of non-rotating tubing. In order to ameliorate this situation, the industry employs a variety of friction reducing tools, sometimes referred to as vibration, oscillation or agitation tools.
All wellbore friction reduction tools seek to advance a drill bit, mill or BHA through a binding wellbore, and often, additionally, through obstructing, impeding matter. This obstruction will often be formation rock, but can also be cement or a device previously placed in the wellbore, such as a frac plug. The rate of progress (ROP) can be greatly slowed or halted during an operation, especially in the case of modern horizontal wells that extend laterally for very long distances, creating great frictional forces. Additionally, drill pipe or coiled tubing can encounter irregular wellbores that are not "straight" holes, but rather bores that deviate considerably from axial concentricity, with such bores spiraling or otherwise straying from a straight course. The force of gravity accentuates frictional issues in a long lateral bore. The industry faces great challenges, and experiences failures, when attempting to advance the drill bit farther and farther into long laterals plagued with somewhat crooked bores and the ever-present gravitational force weighing down the drillstring.
While friction reduction tools attempt to address this problem, they can have varying degrees of success. Some tools do not function well with drilling mud or dirty fluid containing a lot of particulate matter, including sand, debris and bits of formation rock. These tools may rapidly clog. Many tools exhibit wear issues, with erosion destroying internal components and reducing the effectiveness or functionality of the tool. Additionally, the pressure pulse in some tools may create shocks that are so severe that they can damage the tools or adjacent components.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 2,780,438 teaches a method of varying fluid flow inside the drill string by utilizing a two-plate valve system. Much like with modern positive displacement mud motors, the U.S. Pat. No. 2,780,438 embodiment includes a helically-vaned member attached to the top valve plate, causing this valve plate to rotate during flow. Each valve plate has orifices, and with the lower, distal plate being stationary, the rotating plate above it causes a variation in flow of drilling fluid. This variation in flow creates fluid pulsations that transmit vibration downward through the drill string to aid in advancement of the drill bit. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,670 describes a method of flow pulsing in a downhole tool also utilizing two valve plates with orifices. The top valve plate rotates during flow due to being connected with a positive displacement motor, the bottom valve plate remaining stationary. Flow through the orifices varies as the top valve plate rotates, and fluid pulses are created as openings through the valve come into alignment. These fluid pulses energize a separate component capable of extending and retracting axially so as to deliver an axial mechanical shock that vibrates the drill string. Variations of this method are still commonly practiced in the industry.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,637,976 shows valve plates, or "flow heads," that contain multiple round-hole ports in multiple sizes. As rotation of the linked rotor rotates the first flow head, a varying, polyrhythmic or arrhythmic fluid pulse pattern is achieved.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,237,701 and 9,279,300, both by the same applicant, explain a different method for creating fluid pulses in a wellbore friction reduction tool. A poppet, which contains a pilot valve, moves reciprocally between an open and closed position. In the open position, fluid passes through the throat of the poppet seat, and in the closed position, when the poppet seats, flow is closed. This reciprocal, axial movement generates the fluid pulses due to the poppet's reciprocation causing rapid drops in pressure.
Incorporating some similar concepts as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,701, published U.S. Patent Application 2019/0100965 A1 utilizes an axially-reciprocating "leaky shuttle valve" to achieve pressure drops and wellbore friction reduction.
Referring again to U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,670, this patent details the principles of a rotor disposed within a stator, operating as a Moineau motor, with this rotor being linked to a valve plate with a flow port. A second valve plate is located immediately below, or downstream from, the upper valve plate. The second valve plate remains stationary while the upper valve plate, being linked to a rotor rotating during fluid flow, rotates. Through-ports exist in both valve plates and are designed so that flow will pass through both valve plates when the ports rotationally pass into alignment. These principles and U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,670 are hereby incorporated by reference.
The tuning of the valves can address specific wellbore conditions, when information on wellbore conditions is known or can be anticipated. For example, some wellbores may be known in advance to have some problem areas, i.e. areas in which the drillstring or BHA may tend to bind and limit, or stop, forward progress. This can be the case when drilling out frac plugs in long lateral sections of a wellbore.
An operator may desire to run a less aggressive, flow smoother pulsing agitation system in such conditions, knowing that a more aggressive pulse may damage mechanical parts and cause a failure, requiring a trip out of the wellbore for repairs. Under better and simpler conditions, in which no substantial wellbore problem areas are anticipated, an operator might desire to run an aggressively pulsing system, possibly with a higher frequency of pulses, in order to maximize ROP. Increasing fluid flow through the tool can increase the pulse frequency. However, limited pumping capacity at the surface can be a practical limitation on altering the downhole function of agitation tools.
In the prior art, many valve plates are formed with orifices comprised of straight, circular bore holes through the plates at 90 degrees in relation to the faces of the plates. When the holes align, a fluid pulse occurs. U.S. Pat. No. 9,637,976 shows a plurality of straight holes rather than a single straight hole, but many tools on the market utilize a single straight hole in each plate.
The industry seeks to produce rapidly rising and high-cresting pulse waves that would deliver greater axial shocks. In challenging, high-friction wellbores, in which it is difficult to advance the drillstring or BHA, stronger shocks created by such strong pulses are desirable and even essential to ROP.
The valve plates in the instant disclosure, combined with a Moineau motor, may be placed anywhere in the drillstring. These valve plates may be used with a shock tool in conventional rotary mud drilling, or without a shock tool in coiled tubing applications, causing an expansion and contraction of the coil itself as pressure pulses spike and drop.
In contrast to orifices comprised of straight, circular holes through valve plates, it is possible, and often desirable, to utilize some different orifice shapes that allow more flow to pass through the orifice in a single pulse during alignment of the plates. Additionally, it can be desirable to maintain some amount of throughflow passing through the plates at all times by placing a portion of a contiguous orifice of some shape in the center of each plate, allowing a constant throughflow of fluid.

Tunable wellbore pulsation valve and methods of use to eliminate or substantially reduce wellbore wall friction for increasing drilling rate-of-progress (ROP)


A lighting device is provided for the uniform illumination of curved, uneven, or polyhedral surfaces. The lighting device has a plurality of flat chip-on-board LED modules, which are arranged adjacent to each other at least in pairs. Each chip-on-board LED module has a plurality of light-emitting LEDs. The lighting device is characterized by at least one pair of the adjacent chip-on-board LED modules being arranged at an angle greater than 0° with respect to the surface normals of the modules.

The invention relates to a lighting device for the uniform illumination of curved, uneven, or polyhedral surfaces, comprising a plurality of flat chip-on-board LED modules, which are arranged adjacent to each other at least in pairs, wherein each chip-on-board LED module has a plurality of light-emitting LEDs. The invention further relates to an lighting unit and a use.
One field of application that requires a uniform illumination of curved, polyhedral, or uneven surfaces is the curing and light exposure needed for drying, hardening, or exposure of lacquers, adhesives, resins, and other light-reactive materials, with which the insides or outsides of uneven bodies are coated.
One example here is duct relining, where it is known to provide the inside of pipes with a light-curable coating or substance in the form of a hose. For curing a so-called "pipe liner," a resin-saturated glass-fiber fabric having protective plastic films on the outer surfaces, a lamp is forced through the hose or through the pipe for the duct relining, in order to progressively dry and cure the coating material section by section by an intensive illumination. Suitable lamp systems ideally have a curved shape for bends up to 90°. Typical diameters of corresponding coated pipes and hoses are in the range of a few centimeters up to several meters.
This procedure requires a uniform exposure to light, in order to achieve a uniform drying and curing of the coating material on all sides. Typical homogeneity tolerances for the illumination lie in the range of less than +15% with respect to a defined average. For this application, the illumination intensities on an illuminated inner wall are a few μW/cm2 up to 100 W/cm2.
In order to achieve a high light power, corresponding known lamp systems are provided with a diameter that is only a few millimeters less than the inner diameter of the pipe that they are designed for. However, the lamp could also be located up to a few meters from the surface to be illuminated.
Similar requirements are known for the interior illumination of other radially symmetric, convex hollow bodies. This applies, for example, in the field of lighting equipment, e.g., for architectural lighting, for UV curing, and for the exposure to light of elongated bodies or hollow spaces having specified cross-sectional geometries. Suitable geometries are, for example, pipes, cones, spheres, polyhedral bodies, or the like.
For the application example of the light-curing duct relining, gas-discharge lamps until now have usually been used that provide an intensive light output. The traditionally used gas-discharge-based lamps develop strong heat emissions or infrared emissions that heat up the object and the coating to be cured if the lamp comes too close to the object to be illuminated or if the illumination lasts too long. For UV curing processes, this means that the polymers to be cross-linked can disassociate. In duct relining, this can result in thermal damage in the liner material to be cured.
The known lamps are suitable, above all, for larger pipe diameters, but due to their overall size are less suitable for smaller pipe diameters, for example in building connections, having typical pipe diameters corresponding to a nominal diameter of 160 mm or smaller. There are no gas-discharge lamp systems of this size available, that can be pulled through curves having angles of 45° or 90°.
For small overall sizes, the traditional UV lamp technology is limited by the achievable minimum size of the lamps. Another limitation in this respect is also due to the requirement for a mechanically robust holder and protective device for the lamps, which usually consist of a glass enveloping body filled with a substance, in which the gas discharge takes place between two opposing electrodes or by an electrode-less excitation with microwaves. With a suitably mechanically robust holder or protective device, for example in the form of metal rods surrounding the lamp, shadows in the emitted radiation must be reckoned with. These inhomogeneities in the emissions are disadvantageous, if a uniform irradiation is required, for example in UV curing.
In particular, the use of several traditional glass bulb lamps for achieving high irradiation intensities makes it more difficult to achieve a homogeneous illumination due to the significant geometric expansion of these lamps, when these are arranged one next to the other in the peripheral direction, for example of a pipe. This results from the fact that a good overflow of the emitted radiation fields takes place only at a geometric spacing corresponding to the spacing of the emission centers, so that drops in the radiation intensity due to the lack of emissions between the emission centers of the lamps lead to strong inhomogeneities in the peripheral direction. In this case, possibly expensive optics must be used for the homogenization of the illumination.

LED lamp for homogeneously illuminating hollow bodies


Systems, computer program products, and methods are described herein for system for dynamic generation of a transmission interface bridge for computing platforms. The present invention is configured to retrieve information associated with a first user interface associated with a first computing device; initiate a GCN algorithm on the first user interface; generate a graphical representation of the first user interface; transform the graphical representation of the first user interface into one or more code blocks associated with HTML and/or CSS; load the one or more code blocks on a cross-platform GUI platform logic; initiate an embedding of the cross-platform GUI platform with an emulator high level language application programming interface (EHLLAPI) to emulate the first user interface by superimposing the second user interface over the first user interface; transmit control signals configured to cause a second computing device to display, using the cross-platform GUI platform logic, the second user interface.

Legacy environments (such as mainframe environment) include computing systems that are capable of handling and processing very large amounts of data very quickly. Most entities still use mainframe computing systems to process large amount of data efficiently. But analyzing this data by directly querying the mainframe computing system can be complex and resource heavy, with transactions being executed based on MIPS (millions of instructions per second). To meet evolving business needs, there is a need to leverage the processing capability of the mainframe computing systems while making their user interfaces accessible to modern computing platforms.
There is a need for a system for dynamic generation of a transmission interface bridge for computing platforms.

System for dynamic generation of a transmission interface bridge for computing platforms


An antenna for a radar sensor includes an emitter element, a receiver element, and an anti-reflection element. The emitter element is configured to direct the emitted signal along a boresight that intersects a fascia. The receiver element is configured to detect a reflected signal reflected by an object located beyond the fascia. The anti-reflection element is configured to reduce reflection by the antenna of an early-reflection portion reflected by the fascia.

It is known to place a radar sensor behind a fascia of a bumper of a vehicle for detecting objects proximate to (i.e. in front of or behind) the vehicle. As used herein, the fascia is a decorative cover placed over the impact absorbing portion of a modern bumper assembly. The fascia is generally for making the vehicle more attractive. Such a fascia is typically formed of a polymeric compound so that an emitted signal output by the radar sensor can propagate through the fascia toward an object proximate to the vehicle, and a reflected signal reflected by that object can propagate back through the fascia to be detected by the radar sensor. The configuration (e.g. material(s), thickness, orientation) of the fascia is typically selected to minimize interference with the electromagnetic signals propagating through the fascia. However, some reflection of the emitted signal by the fascia may be unavoidable for a number or reasons. This form of signal reflection is sometimes characterized as an early reflection by the fascia of the emitted signal output by the radar sensor. This early reflection may reflect back and forth between the antenna and the fascia, and possibly interfere with the detection of the reflected signal reflected by an object on the other side of the fascia. It has been proposed to place or apply electromagnetic energy absorbing material proximate to the antenna at the locations that don't interfere with transmitting or receiving electromagnetic signals, but do help to absorb this early reflection. However, adding such absorbing material adds undesirable cost to the radar sensor.

Radar sensor antenna with anti-reflection element


A weed puller for gathering weeds at the interstices between the weed foliage above the ground and the weed root below the ground includes a handle for being held by a standing operator at one end and supporting a body at the bottom distal end. The body defines two blunted prongs on either side of a central axis on the body extending away from the attachment to the handle through the body. The two prongs define therebetween a V-shaped gathering gap with blunted opposed V-shaped edges on either side of the axis. There is a second body portion including portions of the two prongs, the first portion being divided from the second portion along a bending axis normal to the central axis of the body. The second body portion includes portions of the two prongs bent upwardly and away towards the handle at an obtuse angle along the bending axis to form a weed pulling cradle area in the body. When a weed is gathered between the V-shaped gathering gap between the weed foliage and the weed root, the weed is pulled at the weed root immediately underlying the weed foliage between the first body portion and the second body portion to center in the weed pulling cradle area when the handle is withdrawn from the ground towards the standing operator. Weed removal with the attached root and undisturbed seeds can result.

This invention relates to an implement for weeding, commonly referred to as a hoe. The implement herein disclosed gathers weeds between the foliage and the root, abuts and gathers to the weed at the root immediately below the foliage with a non-cutting edge, and enables pulling and dislodgement of the weed with an essentially shock-free movement by pulling the tool handle toward the user with a simple continuous motion.
Weeds, for example puncture vines, sand burrs, and other ground-hugging weeds, have two methods of survival. First, when the weed is dislodged, as being eaten by an animal or pulled from the ground by a gardener, the plant undergoes a jarring shock-like motion. This jarring shock-like motion on the plant dislodges multitudes of mature seeds. Although the plant may be entirely gone (including the root), the seeds are not gone. As a result, and on a long-term basis, the seeds germinate, new weeds grow, and the weeds return.
Second, in the usual case when the weed is dislodged, the root remains behind. It is well known that weeds regenerate rapidly from roots remaining after the bulk of the plant is "weeded". Such regeneration is fast, as the weed already has an established root system ready to supply a full stream of nutrients to the new rapidly growing weed foliage.


A rigging system includes a lever arm permitting all speakers supported by the speaker whose rigging is adjusted to be angularly reoriented to focus the system, even out the coverage and fine tune the coverage. Multiple pivot attachment points for the moment arm are provided to enable an enhancement of the angular adjustment provided. A dozen or more angular positions can be provided for the lever arm to facilitate the trial-and-error method of optimizing the sound quality within the house.

The present invention is directed to the field of sound systems. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a rigging system for forming speaker arrays which includes a lever arm which facilitates the movement of a portion of the array to improve sound quality of the sound system.
When sound systems are "built" in a large amphitheater or auditorium, the use of multiple speakers has the potential to create acoustical problems. Speaker arrays are focused to provide even coverage in the audience area and fine tune the sound distribution, avoiding bouncing the sound off the ceiling and walls. The sound will be focused, directed, toward the rear of house with lesser amounts of concentrated sound energy aimed at the front of the house, due to the audience's proximity to the speakers.
It is often the case that speakers are stacked 6, 8 or 12 or more, high. These stacks may be floor mounted or suspended from a ceiling bracket or mount. (Typically floor mounted stacks will not exceed 6 speakers, for safety reasons.) Use of spacers or shims is problematic, at best, and the need to move the speaker stack to accommodate such wedges increases the difficulty. Some rigging systems afford the ability to more easily adjust the angularity of adjacent speakers by relocating fasteners in the sides of the cabinet to permit tilting of one speaker relative to another. This is obviously a step up from the use of shims. However, the movement of a stack of speaker is still an issue; the stack, whether ground mounted or suspended, must be dismounted and laid down on its side to permit splay angles to be adjusted by pulling the securement pin and positioning it in an alternate hole. This is not just an operational headache. Movement of these stacks to lay them down and stand them up, present significant safety issues for the rig hands. Further, repeated adjustments necessary to focus the system and fine tune the coverage is made all the more difficult in the trial-and-error process.
The present invention seeks to address this problem. The rigging itself incorporates a lever arm which facilitates the pivotal movement of one or more speakers to readily permit focusing or re-aiming the system. The present invention comprises a rigging system for speaker cabinets in a stack comprising a) a generally rectangular bracket having means to attach the bracket to a side panel of a first one of the speaker cabinets; b) a rear tie bar pivotally attached to an upper, rear portion of the bracket with a first arm extending upwardly for attachment to a second adjacent speaker cabinet above the first speaker cabinet in the stack; c) a front tie bar pivotally attached to an upper, forward portion of the bracket with a second arm extending upwardly for attachment to the second adjacent speaker cabinet above the first speaker cabinet in the stack; d) a lever arm having a first upper end which can be secured to a number of different arcuately spaced positions on a forward portion of the bracket and a second lower end which is pivotally attached to a lower rear portion of the bracket at a first pivot point and attachable to said rear tie bar of a third adjacent speaker cabinet below the first cabinet in the stack at a second pivot point axially spaced from the first pivot point creating a moment arm such that when the lever arm is pivoted downwardly relative to said bracket from a first arcuately spaced position to a second arcuately spaced position, the moment arm enables the first speaker cabinet and all cabinets supported thereby to be rotated around a front edge by a first desired angular amount.
The rigging system employs both a first bracket for a first side as well as a second bracket attachable to a second side of the speaker cabinet. The bracket may more accurately be described as substantially trapezoidal. The first arm of the rear tie bar preferably has at least one additional pivot attachment point which adds angular adjustment when the second end of said lever arm is pivotally attached thereto. When the stack of speaker cabinets is suspended from a ceiling mount, all the cabinets supported by the first cabinet are those cabinets below the first speaker cabinet. When the stack of speaker cabinets is attached to a floor mount, all the cabinets supported by the first cabinet are those cabinets above the first speaker cabinet. It is an additional feature of the rigging system of the present invention that the front tie bar includes means to angularly adjust the position of the second speaker positioned above the first speaker cabinet to which it is attached.
Various other features, advantages and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after a reading of the following specification.


A multi-stage read only memory (ROM) device and a method for fabricating the same. The device includes a source/drain pole and a gate in a trench, wherein the gate intersects the source/drain pole at an angle to form a number of memory cells. The fabrication of the multi-stage ROM includes two encoding processes. The first encoding process includes implantation of impurity ions in a portion of memory cells to adjust the threshold voltage, so that some of the memory cells have a first threshold voltage and the others have a second threshold voltage. The second encoding process includes forming a number of dielectric remainders at the bottom of the gate trench of a portion of the memory cells, so that some of the memory cells have a first effective channel width and the others have a second effective channel width. As a result, the memory cells of a ROM are of four types with different combinations of threshold voltages and effective channel widths.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a structure of a multi-stage read only memory (ROM) and a method of fabricating the same, and more particularly to a structure of a multi-stage ROM including memory cells with different threshold voltages and different effective channel widths and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Read only memory (ROM) has been widely used in minicomputers, microprocessors and other digital hardware similar in kind. A ROM can be used to store information of a system, for example, a basic input output system (BIOS). Because of the complexity of processes for manufacturing ROM, much time is spent in each of the manufacturing steps and the pretreatment. Therefore, customers usually deliver programming data to the factory for fabricating the ROMs, where partially completed ROMs are programmed to produce a finished product.
Because most devices of a ROM have the same structure, except for data stored in the programming step, in most integrated circuit (IC) factories, mask ROMs are partially produced without performing programming, and are stocked. After receiving an order for special programming from a customer, a mask is produced to perform a programming step and finish the production, so that the lead time can be reduced to bring better service to customers. Therefore, post-programmed mask ROM is commonly used in the art.
Generally, a channel transistor is used as a memory cell for ROM. In the programming process, a number of channel transistors have impurities selectively implanted into specific channel regions to modify the threshold voltages of the transistors. In this way, the conductivity of the memory cells can be controlled. FIG. 1 is a top view of the integrated circuit layout of memory cells labeled 10, 11, 12 in a ROM. A polysilicon word line (WL) bestrides a polysilicon bit line (BL). The channel 13 of the memory cell 10 is formed under the word line and between the bit lines. The data in binary form is stored in the memory cell by the implantation of impurities in the channel 13.
Presently, for multi-stage read only memory, double code implanting is used to produce different threshold voltages of memory cells to construct a multi-stage logic stage. As shown in FIG. 2, the memory cells are provided with different threshold voltages V.sub.T, V.sub.T1, V.sub.T2 by implanting ions into specific channel regions.
The conventional ROM described above makes use of different threshold voltages to control the logic state of the memory cell simply by implanting ions into the specific channel regions. Because of the capacity limitation of binary programming and the difficulty increasing the density of cells to reduce the overall footprint of the IC, performing a multi-stage process is the only way to improve the memory capacity.

Multi-stage ROM structure and method for fabricating the same


According to an aspect of the invention, a semiconductor device comprises: a N-channel MIS transistor comprising; a p-type semiconductor layer; a first gate insulation layer formed on the p-type semiconductor layer; a first gate electrode formed on the first gate insulation layer; and a first source-drain region formed in the p-type semiconductor layer where the first gate electrode is sandwiched along a direction of gate length. The first gate electrode comprises a crystal phase including a cubic crystal of NiSi2 which has a lattice constant of 5.39 angstroms to 5.40 angstroms.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having a field-effect transistor and to a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
An ultra-integration silicon circuit is one of the basic technologies that are expected to support a future advanced information society. Higher functionality of an integrated circuit entails higher performance of semiconductor elements which are constituent elements of the integrated circuit; namely, a MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor), a CMOSFET (Complementary MOSFET), and the like. Higher performance of the element has been basically achieved according to a proportional scaling rule. However, various limitations on physical properties have recently come to pose difficulty in ultra-miniaturization of an element which contribute to higher performance.
For instance, problems are pointed out in connection with a gate electrode using silicon; namely, manifestation of gate parasitic resistance caused by an increase in the operating speed of an element; an reduction in the effective capacitance of an insulation film attributable to depletion of carriers in an interface of the insulation film; and variations in a threshold voltage attributable to punch-through of impurity additives into a channel region. In order to solve these problems, metal gate materials are proposed.
One of the techniques for forming a metal gate electrode is a full silicide gate electrode technique for silicidizing all gate electrodes with Ni or Co. The metal gate electrode requires a work function which varies according to a conductivity type, in order to operate a device at an optimal operation threshold voltage.
The reason for this is that the operation threshold voltage of the MIS transistor is modulated in accordance with variations in the work function (Φeff: an effective work function) of the gate electrode in the interface between the gate electrode and the gate insulation film. Consequently, variations in the work function of the gate electrode in the vicinity of the interface appear in unmodified form as variations in the operation threshold voltage.
For instance, an attempt has been made to control the work function by adjusting the composition of silicide or a crystalline structure (Please refer K. Takahashi et al., "Dual Workfunction Ni-Silicide/HfSiON Gate Stacks by Phase-Controlled Full-Silicidation (PC-FUSI) Technique for 45 nm-node LSTP and LOP Devices," IEDM 2004, 4.4.1-4.4.4 (hereinafter, referred to as "K. Takahashi et al."), and N. Biswas et al., "Workfunction turning of nickel silicide by co-sputtering nickel and silicon," Applied Physics Letters 87, 171908 (2005) "hereinafter referred to as N. Biswas et al.").
"K. Takahashi et al" discloses that a work function pertaining to the composition of NiSi2 lies in the vicinity of about 4.4 eV and is appropriate for NMOS metal and that a work function pertaining to the composition of Ni3Si lies in the vicinity of about 4.8 eV and is appropriate for PMOS metal. Consequently, these gate electrodes involving composition control show that the effective work function Φeff varies by about 0.1 eV, which in turn induces variations in the threshold voltage. This is considered to be attributable to the fact that the crystal phase of the gate electrode is not a single phase but a mixed phase. Therefore, a single crystal phase is desired for controlling a work function.
In "K. Takahashi et al", an attempt is made to induce a solid phase reaction in the interface between an Ni layer/a polycrystalline Si layer by varying a thickness ratio of an Ni layer/a polycrystalline Si layer (a composition ratio of NiSi) and a heat treatment temperature (ranging from 350° C. to 650° C.). The document describes that a mixed phase between the NiSi phase and an Ni3Si phase, a mixed phase between the Ni3Si phase and an Ni31Si12 phase, and a mixed phase between the NiSi phase and the NiSi2 phase are consequently generated. However, for instance, when a single phase; e.g., an NiSi2phase, is formed, heat treatment at 650° C. or more is required. When silicidation is performed at such a high heat treatment temperature, the gate insulation film is deteriorated, which in turn leads to an increase in a leakage current.
In JP-A-20005-129551, an attempt is made to change the ratio of the thickness of the Ni layer to the thickness of the polycrystalline Si layer, and to subject the layers to heat treatment at 400° C. in a vacuum for one minute, thereby inducing a solid-phase reaction in the interface between the Ni layer and the polycrystalline Si layer. The resultantly-produced (Ni+Si) layer exhibits a work function from about 4.4 eV to about 4.9 eV. However, the layer is considered to be a mixed phase consisting of Ni, Si and various species of NiSix, and the work function is expected to vary.
K. Takahashi et al. discloses that a work function from about 4.3 eV to about 4.9 eV is exhibited when the silicide composition of NiSix is varied. However, various crystal phases are observed from the result of XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) of NiSix, and a mixed phase is understood to be formed.
Forming Ni silicide having a single-phase crystal structure is difficult. Therefore, variations in threshold value cannot be diminished. Moreover, even when Ni silicide having a single-phase crystal structure can be formed, a silicide reaction induced by high-temperature heat treatment is required, as in the case of the NiSi2 phase, which in turn causes an increase in leakage current. Consequently, Ni silicide of single phase cannot be used for gate electrodes of both conductivity types (particularly type "n").
A known approach is to silicidize single crystal Si and amorphous Si by low-temperature heat treatment at 350° C. to 400° C., thereby generating NiSi2 (see O. Nakatsuka et al., "Low-Temperature Formation of Epitaxial NiSi2 Layers with Solid-Phase Reaction in Ni/Ti/Si (001) Systems," Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 44, No. 5A, 2005, pp. 2945-2947 (hereinafter, referred to as "O. Nakatsuka et al."), and C. Hayzelder et al., "Silicide formation and silicide-mediated crystallization of nickel-implanted amorphous silicon thin films," J. Appl. Physics. 73(12), 15 Jun. 1993, pp. 8279-8289. )(herein after referred to as "C. Hayzelder et al.").
"O. Nakatsuka et al." discloses that a multilayer consisting of Ni, a thin layer of Ti, and monocrystal Si is subjected to heat treatment at 350° C. for 30 minutes, to thus produce a multilayer structure consisting of TiSi2, NiSi2, and monocrystal Si. However, an interface between NiSi2/monocrystal Si forms a (111) facet, which in turn induces roughness.
"C. Hayzelder et al." discloses that Ni is ion-implanted into amorphous Si and the amorphous Si is subjected to heat treatment at 400° C. for three hours, to thus generate an NiSi2 crystal seed. However, heat treatment which is as long as three hours is not realistic in processes for manufacturing an LSI.

Semiconductor device, and method for manufacturing the same


The present invention relates to methods of treating a disease, and methods for reduction of the formation of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) in response to the administration of a therapeutic agent. The invention further relates to methods of treating a disease, particularly a B-cell proliferative disorder, and methods for reduction of adverse effects in response to the administration of a therapeutic agent, particularly a T-cell activating therapeutic agent.

The number of biotechnology-derived therapeutic agents available for use in clinical settings has dramatically increased in recent years, and includes recombinant human cytokines (e.g. α and β interferon, interleukin-2), cellular growth factors (e.g. GM-CSF), hormones (e.g. glucagon), neuromuscular antagonists (e.g. botulinum toxin), blood products (e.g. clotting factor VIII), recombinant receptors (e.g. etanercept) and monoclonal antibodies. Although therapeutic proteins are generally considered safe and non-toxic, antibodies against these therapeutic agents, known as anti-drug antibodies (ADAs), can develop during treatment.
ADAs have been observed in connection with various therapeutic agents, such as erythropoietin, factor VIII, insulin, immunotoxins and monoclonal antibodies (Schellekens and Casadevall, J Neurol (2004), 251 [Suppl 2]II/4-II/9; Mossoba et al., Clin Cancer Res (2011) 17(11): 3697-3705; Hsu et al., British Journal of Dermatology (2014) 170, 261-273). ADA formation is frequent for example in autoimmune patients treated with TNF blockers and impacts clinical outcome (Schaeverbecke et al., Rheumatology (2015) doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kev277).
The development of ADAs may influence serum concentrations and function of therapeutic agents. The presence of ADAs may increase clearance of the therapeutic agent through formation of immune complexes between therapeutic agent and antibody (neutralizing, non-neutralizing or both), thus reducing the therapeutic agent's half-life. Furthermore, the activity and effectiveness of the therapeutic agent may be decreased through binding of antibody to the therapeutic agent. ADAs can also be associated with allergic or hypersensitivity reactions and other adverse events. Since these adverse events associated with immune responses can influence the safety and efficacy profile of therapeutics, identification and development of strategies to overcome or inhibit ADAs is of great interest.
Several protein engineering approaches have been investigated to reduce the immunogenicity of protein therapeutics, including for example masking or alteration of protein B cell epitopes or modification of protein T cell epitopes. However, clinical safety and success of these approaches has not been tested and will require a significant degree of time to evaluate. Therefore, there exists an immediate need to develop new interventions using FDA-approved reagents to prevent ADA responses.
Chemotherapy-based approaches aimed at host immune suppression have been reported (Mossoba et al., Clin Cancer Res (2011) 17(11): 3697-3705).
The anti-CD20 antibody rituximab has been used in combination with methotrexate and intravenous immune globulin to achieve tolerance to enzyme replacement therapy in a Morbus Pompe patient (Mendelsohn et al., NEJM (2009) 360:2, 194-195). However, in a clinical trial, host pretreatment with rituximab did not inhibit the human immune response against the immunotoxin LMB-1 (Hassan et al., Clin Cancer Res (2004) 10, 16-18).
B-cell proliferative disorders describe a heterogeneous group of malignancies that includes both leukemias and lymphomas. Lymphomas develop from lymphatic cells and include two main categories: Hodgkin lymphomas (HL) and the non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). In the United States, lymphomas of B cell origin constitute approximately 80-85% of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases, and there is considerable heterogeneity within the B-cell subset, based upon genotypic and phenotypic expression patterns in the B-cell of origin. For example, B cell lymphoma subsets include the slow-growing indolent and incurable diseases, such as Follicular lymphoma (FL) or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), as well as the more aggressive subtypes, mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
Despite the availability of various agents for the treatment of B-cell proliferative disorders, there is an ongoing need for development of safe and effective therapies to prolong remission and improve cure rates in patients.
A strategy currently being investigated is the engagement of T cells against malignant B cells. In order to effectively engage T cells against malignant B cells, two recent approaches have been developed. These two approaches are: 1) the administration of T cells engineered ex vivo to recognize tumour cells (also known as chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cell therapy [CAR-T cells]) (Maude et al., N Engl J Med (2014) 371, 1507-1517); and, 2) the administration of agents that activate endogenous T cells, such as bispecific antibodies (Oak and Bartlett, Expert Opin Investig Drugs (2015) 24, 715-724).
An example of the first approach is reported in the study by Maude et al., in which 30 adult and pediatric patients were treated with autologous T cells transduced with a CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor lentiviral vector (CTL019 CAR-T cells). The result was a sustained remission based upon a 6-month event-free survival rate of 67% and an overall survival rate of 78%. However, all patients had cytokine release syndrome (CRS) (associated with tumour burden), with 27% of patients having severe CRS. Central nervous system toxicities of unknown cause were also noted at high frequencies.
In contrast, the second approach, which involves activating endogenous T cells to recognize tumour targets, bypasses this hurdle of scalability, and can also provide competitive efficacy, safety data and potentially long term durations of response. In different CD20+ hematologic malignancies, this approach is best exemplified by blinatumomab, a CD19 CD3 targeting T cell bispecific molecule (Bargou et al., Science (2008) 321, 974-977) that was recently approved for patients with minimal residual disease-positive acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). This compound, which is composed of two single chain Fv fragments (the so called BiTE® format), directs the lysis of CD19+ cells by cytolytic T cells. The primary constraint of blinatumomab is its short half-life (approximately 2 hours), which necessitates continuous infusion via a pump over 4-8 weeks. Nonetheless, it has potent efficacy in patients with both relapsed/refractory Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (r/r NHL) and ALL, with step-up dosing (SUD) required to mitigate severe cytokine release syndrome and CNS toxicities (Nagorsen and Baeuerle, Exp Cell Res (2011) 317, 1255-1260).
The CD20 CD3 targeting T cell bispecific molecule, CD20XCD3 bsAB, is another example of a next generation of B cell targeting antibody. CD20XCD3 bsAB is a T cell bispecific (TCB) antibody targeting CD20 expressed on B cells and CD3 epsilon chain (CD3e) present on T cells. The mechanism of action of CD20XCD3 bsAB comprises simultaneous binding to CD20+ B cells and CD3+ T cells, leading to T-cell activation and T-cell mediated killing of B cells. In the presence of CD20+B cells, whether circulating or tissue resident, pharmacologically active doses will trigger T-cell activation and associated cytokine release. CD20XCD3 bsAB has shown enhanced potency in nonclinical models over competitive T cell engaging agents and, having an IgG-based format, has a greatly improved half-life over blinatumomab.
Cytokine release is the result of activation of T cells. In a phase 1 study conducted by TeGenero (Suntharalingam et al., N Engl J Med (2006) 355, 1018-1028), all 6 healthy volunteers experienced near fatal, severe cytokine release syndrome (CRS) rapidly post-infusion of an inappropriately-dosed, T-cell stimulating super-agonist anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody. More recently, in the above-mentioned study by Maude et al. of CD19-targeting, chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T cell) treatment of patients with relapsed ALL, all 30 patients had cytokine release, which was categorized as severe in 27% of the patients. CRS is a common but severe complication of CAR-T cell therapy (reviewed in Xu and Tang, Cancer Letters (2014) 343, 172-178).
Severe CRS and CNS toxicity have also been frequently observed with the CD19-CD3 T cell bispecific agent, blinatumomab (Klinger et al., Blood. 2012; 119(26):6226-6233). In patients receiving blinatumomab in all clinical trials, neurological toxicities have occurred in approximately 50% of patients, and the types of toxicities observed are well-defined in the package insert.
It is not well understood if or how CNS toxicity is related to earlier cytokine release or T cell activation. Similar to blinatumomab, CNS AEs (ranging from delirium to global encephalopathy) were reported for 43% (13/30) of the patients with r/r ALL treated with CD19-targeting CAR-T cells (Maude et al., N Engl J Med (2014) 371, 1507-1517; Ghorashian et al., Br J Haematol (2015) 169, 463-478). Neurologic toxic effects typically occurred after symptoms of CRS had peaked and started to resolve; however no direct, unequivocal association with severe CRS was found. The authors proposed that the mechanism of neurotoxicity could involve direct CAR-T-cell-mediated toxicity or it could be cytokine-mediated. In contrast, an association between severe CRS and neurotoxicity (e.g., encephalopathy) has been suggested in another study of CD19-targeting CAR-T cell therapy (Davila et al., Sci Transl Med (2014) 6, 224ra25) and speculated to be due to general T cell activation, versus direct CAR-T-induced damage.
Cytokine release and/or CNS-related toxicities are particularly pronounced in T cell bispecific antibodies that link CD3+ cells to B cells, as compared to other T cell bispecific antibodies that link CD3+ cells to tissue-restricted (i.e., non-circulating) target cells.
There is thus a need for methods to reduce or prevent such adverse effects of these promising agents which have the potential to significantly contribute to the treatment of patients with B-cell proliferative disorders such as NHL and CLL.


In order to prevent, among other things, fatigue failures in squirrel-cage rotors of electrical machines, the invention provides that the squirrel-cage winding is comprised of flexible conductors.

The invention relates to an electric machine with a squirrel-cage rotor.
Asynchronous machines typically have rotors in form of a cage winding, whereby a respective rod is inserted in each of the slots, with the rods being connected at their respective end faces on the rotor by cage rings. Rods and cage rings are fabricated from aluminum or aluminum alloys by die casting, and have a higher resistance. However, copper, bronze or brass can also be used as electric conductors. The solid rods of the cage winding are typically inserted in the rotor without insulation and joined with the cage rings by soldering.
Disadvantageously, the cage rods have to be connected with the cage rings in a separate manufacturing step. Moreover, the projection of the rods at the end faces of the rotor does not contribute to torque generation. In addition, vibration fatigue frequently occurs due to the relatively rigid construction of the squirrel-cage, in particular at the solder joints.


Multiple video game apparatuses are connected to a game server apparatus. This network game progresses when players of the respective video game apparatuses exchange messages via the game server apparatus. When a predetermined event is generated by processing in the game server apparatus, a specific message is transmitted to each video game apparatus. In a chat window provided on a display screen of each video game apparatus, the message sent from the game server apparatus is scrolled and displayed from the bottom to the top. When the specific message reaches an uppermost portion of the chat window, a lock window is set and the specific message is displayed therein. The specific message in the lock window is not erased by the reception of a next message.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network video games. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques of controlling display of messages at each player's terminal in a network game in which multiple players participate.
2. Description of the Related Art
The network game is one in which multiple players participate and progress the game. Some network games are designed such that the respective players perform communications through chat. Messages, which are input by the respective players and collected to a server apparatus, are sent to each player's video game apparatus and displayed in a chat window formed at a part (e.g., bottom) of a screen of the video game apparatus.
When an amount of messages sent to each player's video game apparatus increases, and all messages cannot be displayed in the chat window, the messages in the chat window are scrolled to display a new message in the chat window. All of the messages input by the respective players or specific messages to be inevitably displayed according to the progress of the game are displayed on a limited area of the chat window of the screen.
However, in the case where multiple players transmit the messages to the server apparatus during a short period of time and many messages are sent to each player's video game apparatus from the server apparatus, the respective messages are erased from the screen in a short period of time. In such a case, the players may fail to recognize all of the messages. Unless the players can recognize the messages that are important to the progress of the game, troubles occur in the progress of the game.
The player can check the messages erased from the chat window by scrolling and displaying the respective messages in a direction opposite to the general direction. In the case of general chat outside the network game, no big influence occurs even if such a method is used. In contrast, according to the network game, the game advances even while the player checks the messages once erased. At this time, in some cases, the player, who is checking the erased messages, is left behind in the progress of the game.
The scroll-display is applied to not only the display of a chat message in the network game but also the general display of the processing result using the computer. For example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication 2001-5444 discloses a scroll-display method in fields other than network games.
According to the method disclosed in this publication, when displaying and scrolling a table composed of multiple cells, a special row or special column, which is located near a row or column designated by a user, is left on a display screen. In the case of the table, the user can set the special row or special column at a predetermined position. However, it is not certain for the player what message was sent in the network game and in what order the message was sent. There is difficulty in grasping the messages in the network game based on the concepts of the special row and special column as in the above publication. Accordingly, the technique described in the above publication cannot be applied to the network game.

Method for controlling display of messages transmitted/received in network game


A wavefront aberration measuring method forms a plurality of spot images by causing light, which is transmitted through a test optical system, to be incident on a lenslet array, and measures positions of the spot images. Optical paths from the positions of the measured spot images toward a light source are calculated, parameters of the test optical system when light rays from the positions of the spot images converge at the light source are specified, and a wavefront aberration of the test optical system corresponding to the parameters of the test optical system is calculated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to optics and, more particularly, to a wavefront aberration measuring method and a wavefront aberration measuring device that measure wavefront aberrations of optical systems. In particular, the wavefront aberration measuring method and the wavefront aberration measuring device may be used for detection of a manufacturing error of an optical system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Shack-Hartmann method is known as a method of measuring a wavefront aberration of an optical system. The Shack-Hartmann method forms a plurality of spot images by causing light, which is transmitted through a test optical system, to be incident on a lenslet array, reconfigures a transmitted wavefront of the test optical system based on the positions of the plurality of spot images, and hence measures a wavefront aberration.
Referring to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-98933, the focal length of a collimator lens is changed in accordance with the magnitude relationship between the F-number of the test optical system and the F-number of the collimator lens, to increase the spatial resolution of aberration measurement.
When the wavefront aberration of the optical system is measured by the Shack-Hartmann method, the measurement result of the wavefront aberration may be changed depending on an arrangement error of the optical system with respect to a measuring device, and hence the wavefront aberration of the optical system may not be correctly measured.

Method and device of measuring wavefront aberration, method of manufacturing optical system, and recording medium


A free piston engine has a pair of pistons opposing to each other and movable in a cylinder, to form a combustion chamber between the pistons. A mixed gas of air and fuel is supplied into the combustion chamber and the mixed gas is auto-ignited when it is compressed by the pistons. A temperature and/or an air-fuel ratio of the mixed gas, and/or a pressure in the combustion chamber is detected to control displacements of the pistons, so that the mixed gas is auto-ignited at an optimum timing to efficiently operate the free piston engine.

An electric power generator using a free piston engine is known, for example, in a PCT JP-Publication No. 2003-519328 (which corresponds to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,397,793 and 6,276,313).
The electric power generator disclosed in this publication has the free piston engine and a power generation means. The free piston engine includes two opposed pistons in a cylinder and back pressure chambers as air spring means respectively arranged at back sides of the pistons, and the power generation means has an electromagnet for transforming kinetic energy of the pistons into electric energy.
In the free piston engine, mixed gas in a combustion chamber formed between the pistons is auto-ignited by being compressed when the pistons move closer to each other. An explosion of the ignited gas generates a driving force to push the pistons in directions in which the pistons move away from each other. At this time, back pressure chambers are compressed and then the pistons are pushed back in the opposite directions, that is, directions in which the pistons move closer to each other. Repetition of these movements causes back-and-forth movements of the pistons, and the power generation means produces electric power by transforming the kinetic energy of the back-and-forth movements of the pistons to the electric energy.
In the electric power generator, the power generation means applies a force to each of the pistons so that the pistons move synchronously, that is, the heading directions of the pistons are always opposite and a phase difference of their back-and-forth movements is 180 degrees.
In the free piston engine, a combustion condition (e.g. a combustion timing) changes depending on a temperature, an air-fuel ratio, and a density distribution of the mixed gas, because the mixed gas is auto-ignited as a result of the compression of the mixed gas, unlike an engine in which the mixed gas is ignited by a spark plug.
Therefore, depending on the temperature, the air fuel ratio of the mixed gas and so on, the mixed gas may be auto-ignited in advance of an optimum timing during a compression stroke (i.e. a timing for most efficiently transforming the energy of fuel to the driving force of the pistons), even if the synchronization of the pistons is achieved. In other cases, the mixed gas may not be auto-ignited even when the compression stroke has ended and the pistons start getting away from each other (that is, misfires of the free piston engine). Therefore, it is difficult to operate the conventional piston engine with constant efficiency. In other words, it is difficult to make the pistons efficiently move back-and-forth. The inefficient operation of the free piston engine would result in the inefficient generation of the electric power using the free piston engine.

Control device for free piston engine and method for the same


A stage lighting system with a digital and analog part. The digital part is used to form the image, which can be, for example, a full brightness image. The analog part is used to dim the image, and to carry out failsafe operation. If an error occurs in the digital part, then the analog part prevents the image from being shown.

Stage lighting control can be extremely complex. A control console can be used to control a number of different lights which collectively form a show. Each of the lights can be controlled to move in different ways and to project different effects including shapes for light, video effects, color, and other things. Digital techniques have enabled stage lights to produce many different effects, however they have also produced complexities. As the capabilities increase, the control becomes more complex.

Interface computer for a stage lighting system