A Schottky barrier diode includes a first semiconductor layer, a LOCOS layer arranged in contact with the first semiconductor layer, a Schottky junction region provided on a contact surface between the first semiconductor layer and a first electrode, a second semiconductor layer connected to the first semiconductor layer and having a higher carrier concentration than that of the first semiconductor layer, and a second electrode forming an ohmic contact with the second semiconductor layer. In this case, the Schottky junction region and the LOCOS layer are in contact.

Technical Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to Schottky barrier diodes and particularly relate to a Schottky barrier diode which oscillates or detects an electromagnetic wave in a frequency band within a frequency region from a millimeter-wave band to a terahertz band (equal to or higher than 30 GHz and equal to or lower than 30 THz) (hereinafter, called a terahertz-wave) and an apparatus using the same.
Description of the Related Art
A frequency region of terahertz-waves has an absorption peak derived from the structure and/or state of a biological material, pharmaceutical, electronic material, and many other organic molecules. Terahertz-waves are highly transmissive to materials such as paper, ceramics, resins, cloth. In recent years, imaging technologies and sensing technologies making use of such characteristics of terahertz-waves have been studied and developed. For example, their applications to safe fluoroscopic apparatuses alternative to X-ray apparatuses and in-line nondestructive inspection apparatuses in manufacturing processes are being expected.
Well known terahertz-wave detecting devices may include thermal detectors and quantum detectors. Examples of such a thermal detector may include a VOx microbolometer, TGS (Triglycine Sulphate) pyroelectric element, and a Golay cell using thermal expansion of gas. A thermal detector converts energy of an electromagnetic wave to heat and captures a change in heat electromotive force or resistance of a material due to a change in temperature to detect an electromagnetic wave. These devices may not necessarily be cooled but are slower to respond because of use of heat exchange. Examples of such a quantum detector may include an intrinsic semiconductor device (such as an MCT (HgCdTe) and a photoconductor) and a QWIP (Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector). A quantum detector captures an electromagnetic wave as a photon to detect a photovoltaic or resistance change in a semiconductor having a small band gap. Such a device is faster to respond but requires cooling because thermal energy at room temperature in the frequency region above is significant.
A terahertz-wave detecting device using a Schottky barrier diode has been developed which is faster to respond and does not require cooling. This detecting device captures an electromagnetic wave as a high frequency electric signal and rectifies with a diode the high frequency electric signal received through an antenna for detection. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-162424 discloses a detecting device using a vertical Schottky barrier diode having two electrodes in a longitudinal direction on a substrate. The detecting device detects an approximately 28 THz electromagnetic wave (having a wavelength of 10.6 μm) from CO2 laser. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-18959 discloses a rectifier using a horizontal Schottky barrier diode having tow electrodes on a surface of a substrate. The rectifier includes a Schottky electrode having a guard ring at its edge to increase its reverse bias resistance. US Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0181909 discloses a Schottky barrier diode which detects a microwave and has a Schottky barrier having a silicon oxide at its edge to increase its reverse bias.
However, since a vertical Schottky barrier diode as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-162424 uses its substrate as an earth electrode, limited types of antenna may be integrally formed. In such a horizontal device in the past as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-18959, a semiconductor interface exposes to an element structure between two electrodes or in the vicinity of a diode on a semiconductor surface, larger leak current is generated by formation of a parasitic current path and/or larger noise may occur due to a state of the interface.
In a structure (FIG. 9) disclosed in US Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0181909, noise may occur due to lack of an interface between a semiconductor 901 and a silicon oxide 900. The disclosed device may detect microwaves at partial frequency bands, but its application to highly sensitive detection of terahertz-waves has been difficult.

Schottky barrier diode and apparatus using the same


A system and method is described for an automated RFID quality control process. The method may include configuring an RFID manufacturing press with quality control specifications, manufacturing a batch of RFID inlays, executing a performance test on each RFID inlay, comparing the results of the performance test to the quality control specifications, and determining a pass or fail status for the batch of RFID inlays based on the results of the performance test. The system may include an RFID manufacturing press having at least one lane, at least one interrogator antenna, and programmable control logic for the RFID manufacturing press, wherein the programmable control logic is adapted to execute a performance test on each RFID relay of a batch of RFID relays output by the manufacturing press, compare the results of the performance test to user-configurable quality control specifications, and determine whether the batch of RFID relays meets the specifications.

The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track, identify and locate goods has grown significantly in recent years. RFID tags allow manufacturers, distributors and retailers, amongst others, to regulate products and inventory, quickly determine production, manufacture, distribution or retail needs and efficiently intake and outtake items utilizing RFID tags. The RFID tags themselves can provide any desired product data and may be scanned or read in any of a variety of manners.
After the manufacturing process, RFID tags may go through one of several packaging processes. For example, certain types of RFID tags may be packaged into rolls for convenient bulk shipment to the customer. Prior to shipment, however, RFID tags may go through a quality control process, wherein it is determined whether the particular roll of RFID tags meets customer specifications as to yield and consecutive defects. For example, a customer may require that each roll of RFID tags has a 98% yield of working tags, and that no more than five consecutive tags be defective. To determine whether a roll of RFID tags meets customer requirements, each roll can be inspected by going through an editing process. This process typically takes place after the RFID tag roll exits the manufacturing press. Typically the roll of inlays would be taken off of a line and visually inspected, and the defective inlays would then be cut out of the web before the roll was ready for shipment. This process can be time consuming and labor intensive relative to the other steps of the manufacturing process, resulting in bottlenecks prior to shipment.
As RFID manufacturing techniques improve, the yield percentages have increased and the numbers of consecutive defective tags have decreased. In many instances, more than 90% of RFID rolls have met customer requirements. It has thus become desirable to bypass the editing processes so as to streamline the manufacturing process, minimize bottlenecks, and reduce costs.

System and method for automated RFID quality control

AVERY DENNISON RETAIL INFORMATION SERVICES, LLC


A system and method for determining which of several possible cable lengths has been used by reversing the end-to-end correspondence of at least two conductors in the cable. A different two conductors are selected to identify respective different cable lengths. Each input pin is connected to a correspondingly identified output pin, except for the pair with the outputs reversed, which pair signifies the cable length.

The usefulness of software driven emulators has increased enormously with growth in the complexity of integrated circuits. Basically, an emulation engine operates to mimic the logical design of a set of one or more integrated circuit chips. The emulation of these chips in terms of their logical design is highly desirable for several reasons. The utilization of emulation engines has also grown up with and around the corresponding utilization of design automation tools for the construction and design of integrated circuit chip devices. In particular, as part of the input for the design automation process, logic descriptions of the desired circuit chip functions are provided. The existence of such software tools for processing these descriptions in the design process is well suited to the utilization of emulation engines which are electrically configured to duplicate the same logic function that is provided by a design automation tool.
Utilization of emulation devices permits testing and verification via electrical circuits of logic designs before these designs are committed to a so-called "silicon foundry" for manufacture. The input to such foundries is the functional logic description required for the chip and its output is initially a set of photolithography masks which are then used in the manufacture of the desired electrical circuit chip device. Verifying the logic designs are correct in the early stage of chip manufacturing eliminates the need for costly and time-consuming subsequent passes through a silicon foundry.
Another advantage of emulation systems is that they provide a device that makes possible the early validation of software meant to operate the emulated chips. Thus, software can be designed, evaluated and tested well before the time when actual circuit chips become available. Additionally, emulation systems can also operate as simulator-accelerator devices thus providing a high-speed simulation platform.
Emulation engines of the type contemplated by this invention contain an interconnected array of emulation processors (EP). Each emulation processor (hereinafter also sometimes simply referred to as "processor") can be programmed to evaluate logic functions (for example, AND, OR XOR, NOT, NOR, NAND, etc.). The program-driven processors operate together as an interconnected unit, emulating the entire desired logic design. However, as integrated circuit designs grow in size, more emulation processors are required to accomplish the emulation task. An aim, therefore, is to increase the capacity of emulation engines in order to meet the increasingly difficult task of emulating more and more complex circuits and logic functions by increasing the number of emulation processors in each of its modules.
For purposes of better understanding the structure and operation of emulation devices generally, and this invention particularly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,013 and patent application Ser. No. 09/373,125 filed Aug. 12, 1999, both of which are assigned to the assignee of this application, are hereby incorporated herein by reference. The teachings of the pending application improve the basic design of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,013 patent by interconnecting processors into clusters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,013, shows an emulation module having multiple (e.g. 64) processors. Multiple modules are mounted on printed circuit boards, and the boards are interconnected by cables. All processors within the module are identical. The sequencer and the interconnection network occurs only once in a module. The control stores hold a program created by an emulation compiler for a specified processor and the stacks hold data and inputs previously generated, which are addressed by fields in a corresponding control word to locate the bits for input to the logic element. During each step of the sequencer, an emulation processor emulates a logic function according to the emulation program. A data flow control interprets the current control word to route and latch data within the processor. The node-bit-out signal from a specified processor is presented to the interconnection network where it is distributed to each of the multiplexers (one for each processor) of the module. The node address field in the control word allows a specified processor to select for its node-bit-in signal the node-bit-out signal from any of the processors within its module. The node bit is stored in the input stack on every step. During any operation the node-bit-out signal of a specified processor may be accessed by none, one, or all of the processors within the module.
A bus connected to the processor output multiplexers enables an output from any emulation processor to be transferred to an input of any other of the emulation processors. As explained in the copending application Ser. No. 10/373,125, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,698, clusters of processors are advantageously interconnected as an emulation engine such that the setup and storing of results is done in parallel, while the output of one evaluation unit is made available as the input of the next evaluation unit. For this purpose, processors share input and data stacks, and have a set of 'cascade' connections which provides access to the intermediate values. By tapping 'intermediate' values from one processor, and feeding them to the next, significant emulation speedup is achieved.
At the operating speeds contemplated for the next generation emulator processor chip (ET4), a signal traveling in an interconnecting cable between two printed circuit boards experiences a propagation delay that must be accounted for in the operation of the system. A number of conductors (e.g. 64) are bundled into each cable, with all conductors in a given cable the same length. Each conductor in the cable is connected at one end to the pin or terminal of an input connector and at its other end to a pin or output terminal. The corresponding input and output pins are identified in a sequential order (e.g. input pin 0 is connected to output pin 0, input pin 1 to output pin 1, and so on). In general, a short cable is desirable because the propagation delay is a function of the cable length. However, because of the physical separation of the various boards that must be interconnected, it is advantageous to use cables of more than one length; shorter cables where possible and longer cables where necessary. While the propagation delay for a given cable length is known, in a completely assembled emulator engine, the user can not readily determine the length of the cable that has been used. While there have been proposals in the prior art for determining cable lengths in situ, these prior art methods are inefficient.

High speed software driven emulator comprised of a plurality of emulation processors with improved board-to-board interconnection cable length identification system


A stereophonic audio signal processing arrangement for variably enhancing a stereo image, wherein the stereo image enhancement is reduced at high signal levels so as to reduce distortion. The arrangement is used in a stereophonic audio reproduction system for enhancing the stereo image, which system may be part of an audio-visual reproduction system.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a stereophonic audio signal processing arrangement comprising:
signal processing means, including a stereo enhancement circuit for processing a stereo input signal, PA1 signal amplifying means for amplifying a stereo output signal supplied by the signal processing means, PA1 said stereo enhancement circuit comprising: PA1 generating a stereo output signal having an enhanced stereo image from the stereo input signal, and PA1 controllably combining the stereo input signal and the stereo output signal to provide a processed stereo output signal.
first means having a first and a second input for receiving a left channel and a right channel signal of the stereo input signal and a first and a second output for supplying a left channel and a right channel signal of a stereo signal having an enhanced stereo image, and PA2 second means for controllably combining the stereo input signal and the stereo output signal of the first means for varying the stereo image enhancement.
The invention further relates to a stereophonic audio reproduction system including such a stereophonic audio signal processing arrangement, and left channel and right channel loudspeakers for reproducing the amplified stereo signal supplied by the signal amplifying means.
The invention also relates to an audio-visual reproduction system including such a stereophonic audio reproduction system, a cabinet in which a picture display screen and the left channel and right channel loudspeakers are installed.
The invention relates to a stereo enhancement circuit.
The invention also relates to a method for enhancing a stereo image of a stereo input signal, comprising the steps of:
2. Description of the Related Art
Such an arrangement, such systems and such a circuit are known from the European Patent Application EP-A 664661, corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/371,187, filed Jan. 1, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,687. In the known arrangement the enhanced stereo signal can be mixed with the input stereo signal, for example, in a ratio (1-.alpha.):.alpha.. By varying a between 0 and 1, the amount of stereo image enhancement can be varied from conventional, or normal, stereo to fully enhanced stereo. A drawback of the known stereo image enhancement is that the amplitude of the enhanced stereo signal can be more than 10 dB larger than the amplitude of the normal, unenhanced, stereo signal, even though the loudness of the resulting acoustical signals is perceived as substantially the same. At high signal levels, this larger amplitude of the enhanced stereo signal may give rise to distortion in an amplifier following the arrangement.

Arrangement, a system, a circuit and a method for enhancing a stereo image


A communication device for use in a base station of a portable telephone system has a radiation section including a spiral projection formed on an external surface of a casing to define a spiral air passage on the casing, a fan disposed on the casing inside a central space of the spiral passage, and a motor disposed inside the casing to drive the fan through a shaft penetrating the wall of the casing. A spiral air flow generated by the fan functions for efficient heat radiation through the casing. The spiral projection is formed by drawing the wall of the casing.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device having an efficient heat radiation casing and, more particularly, to a device having an efficient radiation casing of a closed structure, for use as a communication device in a base station of a portable telephone system.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Telecommunication devices for use in base stations of a portable telephone system have been remarkably reduced in their dimensions, resulting from the recent development of the semiconductor technology. Accordingly, the amount of heat generated per unit area inside the communication device is significantly increased, which requires an efficient heat radiation from the device. On the other hand, the number of closed type telecommunication devices including waterproofing has increased because these devices are installed outside more and more frequently with the reduction of the dimensions.
Referring to FIG. 1 showing a conventional communication device mounted on a pole 12 with a pair of straps 13, the communication device 30 has a casing 31 with a radiator 32 mounted on the back surface thereof. Referring additionally to FIG. 2 showing a partial sectional view of the communication device of FIG. 1, taken along a horizontal plane, the radiator 32 is attached to the casing 31 for radiating the heat generated in a heat source 26 toward outside the casing 31. A gasket 33 is inserted between the casing 31 and the outer periphery of the radiator 32 for assuring a waterproof function.
The radiator 32 is generally made by machining a drawn aluminum bar, which raises the cost of the device. The natural radiation of the device through the radiator 32 and the casing 31 requires a large external surface area of the device, which raises the external dimensions and the weight of the device. In particular, the radiation efficiency depends on the wind velocity around the device, wherein a small wind velocity reduces the radiation efficiency.
The radiator 32 has a plurality of grooves for air flow, which limits the allowable posture of the casing 31 so that the grooves of the radiator 32 extend in the vertical direction.
Referring to FIG. 3 showing a sectional view of another conventional communication device, the communication device has a casing 41 separated by a heat insulator plate 42 into two chambers 43 and 44. The chamber 44 receives therein a main power circuit 52 which radiates a large amount of heat, whereas the chamber 43 receives therein a control circuit 51 such as a printed circuit board, which radiates a smaller amount of heat and is less heat-resistant compared to the main power circuit 52. A fan 53 is installed in the chamber 44, with a radiator 54 such as a fin attached to a portion of the casing 41 for the chamber 44. The communication device of FIG. 3 is described in JP-A-4-32300.
The proposed device, however, requires a large external surface area for heat radiation, and the fan 53 and the radiator 54 increase the dimensions of the communication device. In addition, the control circuit 51 is significantly affected by the heat generated in the main power circuit 52 notwithstanding the improved structure.

Device having an efficient heat radiation casing


Provided is a chemical analysis device to analyze a chemical composition of a sample, including a main body including a laser light source, a chemical analysis unit, and a housing; an optical head that is arranged to be faced to the sample; and a pressureproof-feedthrough-equipped fiber that is extended from the housing to the optical head to guide laser light emitted from the laser light source to the optical head. The housing houses the laser light source and the chemical analysis unit as having a pressure-resistant function. The optical head includes a mirror system that causes the sample to be irradiated with laser light outgoing from the pressureproof-feedthrough-equipped fiber and to cause plasma emission light occurring at the sample owing to irradiation with the laser light to reenter to the pressureproof-feedthrough-equipped fiber. The chemical analysis unit performs spectroscopic analysis on the plasma emission light that reentered to the pressureproof-feedthrough-equipped fiber.

The surface of the earth is covered with water at 70% or more thereof. Therefore, our life is closely related to underwater environment. To comprehend problems relating to energy resources, mineral resources capable of being used and environment pollution, it is important to perform investigation at a sea bed, a lake bed, and a river bed.
It has been required in many fields to analyze the chemical composition of water and solid material in water. Currently, a sample is taken from an investigation area and chemical analysis of the sample is performed on land. However, such method is time-consuming and costly and analysis results cannot be obtained in real time. Further, there may be a risk that impurities are mixed to a sample when the sample is taken out of water onto land.
Considering the above, it is required to perform investigation in water. However, such investigation in water is associated with difficulties for the following reasons.
[Difficulty 1]
Since water pressure is high in deepwater environment, water-resistant and pressure-resistant properties are required. Further, owing to high water pressure, physical conditions in deepwater environment is different from that on land. Accordingly, there arises a case that a measurement method and device specifications in deepwater environment are required to be varied from those on land.
[Difficulty 2]
Since areas where people can directly perform investigation are limited in water, it is required in many cases to perform investigation using a submersible. Here, it is required that operations of devices and equipment and collection of information can be performed with remote control or direct robot action.
[Difficulty 3]
Since radio waves cannot travel far in underwater environment such as at a sea bed, cables or sound waves are to be adopted as communication tools. Accordingly, it is required that operations, measurement, and data collection can be performed within an investigation device in a self-sustaining manner to some extent.
Conventionally, in general, chemical analysis of a sample has been performed on land using a mass analyzer and the like after water, deposition substances or rocks in water and the like are taken as the sample. On land, since chemical analysis with high accuracy such as inductively coupled plasma (IPC) emission spectroscopic analysis and mass analysis can be performed, chemical analysis of a sample can be performed in detail.
However, to take a sample onto land, an area for investigation is limited. Further, it is time-consuming and costly. In addition, since the chemical composition of a sample are unknown at the time when the sample is taken, information feedback thereof cannot be provided to an investigation plan. Therefore, it is difficult to effectively perform investigation. Furthermore, there may be a risk that impurities are mixed to a sample when the sample is taken onto land.
In view of the above, as an analysis technology substituting as the sampling method, there has been proposed a device capable of performing on-site measurement of a multi-element analysis of chemicals contained in liquid such as water and in solid material in liquid using a method of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).
Chemical analysis using the LIBS has advantages described below. As being based on emission spectroscopic analysis, it is possible to simultaneously detect a plurality of elements. Further, since liquid and solid material can be directly analyzed, pretreatment of a sample is not required to be performed. Further, analysis measurement equipment can be compactified. Thus, a great advantage of the LIBS is that chemical analysis can be performed on site even for investigation in water. However, in underwater environment being at a sea bed, a lake bed, or a river bed, there have been a number of problems of being incapable of measuring unless factors of the difficulties in underwater investigation are overcome.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventionally typical LIBS analysis device (devise based on Non-Patent Document 1 described below).
A laser beam emitted from a pulse laser 1 (with a beam emission time of the pulse laser being about 10 nsec) passes through a half mirror 7, is collected by a collecting lens 8, and passes through a window 9. Thus, a sample 10 is irradiated with the laser beam and plasma emission occurs at the sample 10. The emission light passes through the window 9 and is approximately collimated by the collecting lens 8. Then, a part thereof is reflected by the half mirror 7 and enters to a spectroscope 4 after being collected by an incident lens 11. Spectral resolution is performed at the spectroscope 4 and the spectral-resolved light enters to an ICCD camera 5 that is attached to the spectroscope 4. A computer 6 reads out a signal from the ICCD camera 5 to obtain spectral information associated with plasma emission at the sample 10.
In this specification, spectral information obtained by a LIBS analysis device (chemical analysis device) as being associated with plasma emission due to irradiation to a sample with laser light is called a LIBS signal.
Since the emission time of the pulse laser is extremely short, normally, the computer 6 reads out a signal from the ICCD camera 5 with a delay time after a timing signal generator 3 outputs an ON signal of a Q-switch to the pulse laser 1.


A constant-velocity universal joint including a generally cup-shaped outer joint member and an inner joint member that define first and second groove portions. A pinch angle by which a ball is pinched in the first groove portion is open toward an opening of the outer joint member. A pinch angle by which the ball is pinched in the second groove is open toward a bottom of the outer joint member. An absolute value of the pinch angle in a larger-pinch-angle groove portion that is one of the first and second groove portions, is larger than an absolute value of the pinch angle in a smaller-pinch-angle groove portion that is the other of the first and second groove portions in a reference state. A radial clearance in the smaller-pinch-angle groove portion is larger than a radial clearance in the larger-pinch-angle groove portion when torque is not transmitted in the reference state.

There is known a constant-velocity universal joint including (a) a generally cup-shaped outer joint member having a plurality of outer track grooves provided in an inner circumferential surface thereof, (b) an inner joint member having a plurality of inner track grooves provided in an outer circumferential surface thereof, and disposed inside the outer joint member; (c) a plurality of balls interposed between the outer track grooves and the inner track grooves, so as to transmit a torque between the outer joint member and the inner joint member; and (e) a generally annular-shaped cage disposed between the outer joint member and the inner joint member, and having a plurality of pockets holding therein the balls. The known constant-velocity universal joint is widely used as, for example, a drive-force transmitting device for as a front wheel axle of a vehicle and a rotation transmitting device for various kinds of machines other than a vehicle. As such a constant-velocity universal joint, there is proposed a constant-velocity universal joint of so-called "counter-track type" in which the outer track grooves and the inner track grooves cooperate to define a plurality groove portions, such that each of the balls is disposed in a corresponding one of the groove portions and is pinched between a corresponding one of the outer track grooves and a corresponding one of the inner track grooves, wherein each of the balls is substantially in contact at outer and inner contact points with a corresponding one of the outer track grooves and a corresponding one of the inner track grooves, respectively, wherein an outer tangent plane that is tangent at the outer contact point and an inner tangent plane that is tangent at the inner contact point cooperate with each other to define a pinch angle. The groove portions include at least one first groove portion in which a radial distance between a corresponding one of the outer track grooves and a corresponding one of the inner track grooves in a radial direction of the outer joint member is generally increased in a direction toward an opening end of the outer joint member in a reference state in which centerlines of the outer joint member and the inner joint member lie in a straight line with a joint angle defined by the centerlines being 0 degree. The groove portions include, in addition to the at least one first groove portion, at least one second groove portion in which a radial distance between a corresponding one of the outer track grooves and a corresponding one of the inner track grooves in the radial direction is generally reduced in the direction toward the opening end of the outer joint member in the reference state. The at least one first groove portion and the at least one second groove portion are alternately arranged about the centerlines in the reference state (see JP2004-169915A). It is noted that the outer joint member and the inner joint member are also known as "outer race" and "inner race", respectively.


A hand-held, non-invasive cutting device is configured to cut a fiber-like element, such as animal or human hair projecting from the surface of a medium, such as body skin, without exposing the user to the cutting beam. The device exterior is shaped to be readily placed against the surface of the body and has an aperture that accommodates passage of the hair to be cut into an interior region of the housing. The housing includes an optical energy beam director that directs a beam of optical energy, such as a laser beam generated by an external or internal laser, through an interior cutting zone, and onto the inserted element, thereby severing or vaporizing the element. Because the laser beam is aligned with and parallel to the longitudinal direction of the cutting window, then regardless of where it is inserted in the cutting window, the element will be cut by the laser beam. In addition, the beam cannot exit the cutting window, so that the invention is non-invasive and safe for consumer use.

Conventional methods of cutting or removing relatively fine fiber-like elements, such as but not limited to human and animal hair, clothing and carpet threads and the like from a support medium, such as body skin, clothing, matting etc. include both mechanical schemes, such as electric shavers, and chemical treatments, such as dissolving creams and the like. In addition, there are a number of laser hair removal devices that direct laser energy into the surface of the skin from which the hair, for the purpose of causing the hair follicle to absorb energy and thereby effectively destroy the hair root. As such, these laser schemes proposals are potentially harmful to humans and animals.
In the first place, like chemical treatments (and in some instances mechanical razors), these systems may be undesirably invasive, as their functionality is to penetrate/damage skin tissue (rather than simply cut the hair projecting from a follicle in the skin). Secondly, since they are configured to direct the laser beam directly upon the skin, they are `open` systems, and expose the subject (as well as the operator) to the potential danger of having the laser beam incident upon a portion of the body, such as the eyes, other than the (hair follicle) region of interest. In addition, present laser hair removal systems require the skill of a medical professional, such as a plastic surgeon or trained nurse.

Non-invasive laser cutting device and method


The invention relates to a retaining fastening for a flap pivotable around a horizontal swivel axis hinged to a top panel of a cupboard and having a lever pivotably connectable to a body part of the cupboard. A free end of the lever is guided in a rail which can be fixed to an inside of the flap at right angles to the swivel axis. The lever is acted upon by a spring-loaded device preferably having a rod which can be travelled into or out of a spring housing by pneumatic or elastic force.. In accordance with the invention, the lever is a two-armed bent lever (8) whose swivel axis (7) is situated between the lever arms (9, 10), whose longer lever arm (10) is guided in the rail (17) and onto whose shorter lever arm (9) extending into the inside of the cupboard in the closed state of the flap (16, 32), one end of the spring-loaded device (5, 12) is hinged with other end being pivotably connected to the furniture body.

The invention relates to a retaining fastening for a flap pivotable around a horizontal swivel axis hinged to a top panel of a cupboard comprising a lever pivotably connectable to the body part of the cupboard, said lever's free end being guided in a rail which can be fixed to the inside of the flap at right angles to the swivel axis and said lever being acted up by a spring-loaded means preferably comprising a rod which can be travelled into or out of a spring housing by pneumatic or elastic force.
In a retaining fastening of this type known from utility model DE-GM 77 05 285 the end of the rod guided in the spring housing is pivotably connected to the extreme end section of the lever, this pivotable connection and the bearings of the lever and of the spring housing forming the comer points of a triangle on one side panel of the body part. As flaps provided with retaining fastenings are normally positioned at the user's head height, the flap provided with the known retaining fastening can swivel out in a dangerous manner with the support of the spring force so that there is a risk of injury for the user.
A retaining fastening for a flap is known from the German published application DE-OS 26 48 085 which comprises on the one hand a guide whose one end is pivotably connected to the upper edge section of the flap and whose other end is pivotably connected at a recessed point to the top side of the cupboard and on the other hand a lever arm hinged under a spring load with one end to a side panel, the other end of which lever arm is pivotably connected to the flap at a distance to the hinge position of the guide so that the flap is connected to the cupboard body via four hinges through the guide and the lever arm and thus can be pivoted out of its vertical closed position into an open position in which it is located diagonally above the body part. Apart from the complicated pivot mechanism, when the flap is hinged with this known retaining fastening, there must still be sufficient room above the cupboard to permit the flap to be pivoted into its open position.
From the German published application DE-OS 36 05 637 a retaining fastening for a flap is known in which the flap on the one hand is guided in a movable manner by a guide with the upper part of the cupboard in its middle section and on the other hand by two guides in lateral guide rails of the side panels of the body part with its lower section so that the flap can be pivoted outwards with its upper end. This retaining fastening also comprises a complicated hinge system with a weight compensation additionally needing to be provided for the flap pivoting outward over the head of the user.

Retaining fastening for a flap hinged around a horizontal swivel axis to a top panel of a cupboard


An ink-jet recording apparatus including: (A) an ink-jet head which includes: a channel unit having a plurality of nozzles and a plurality of pressure chambers that respectively communicate with the plurality of nozzles; and an actuator unit which is disposed on the channel unit and to which drive signals are applied, thereby changing a volume of the plurality of pressure chambers; (B) a driver IC which is disposed on the ink-jet head and which includes: a drive-signal generating portion for generating the drive signals and applying the generated drive signals to the actuator unit; and a temperature sensor for detecting an environmental temperature of the actuator unit; and (C) a control device arranged to execute a low-temperature-condition control by controlling the drive-signal generating portion to generate the drive signals so as to change the volume of the plurality of pressure chambers, where the environmental temperature detected by the temperature sensor is not higher than a prescribed first temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an ink-jet recording apparatus which performs recording by ejecting ink to a recording medium.
2. Discussion of Related Art
An ink-jet recording apparatus such as an ink-jet printer includes: an ink-jet head in which are formed a multiplicity of nozzles and which includes actuators respectively corresponding to the nozzles; and a driver IC which generates drive signals for driving the actuators. By applying, to the actuators, the drive signals generated by the driver IC, the actuators are driven, whereby ink is ejected from the nozzles for recording images and the like on a recording medium such as a recording sheet.
Representative examples of the actuator include an electrostatic actuator produced by a silicon process and a piezoelectric actuator including a piezoelectric element. Various other actuators utilizing energy transducing principle are also used. In particular, the piezoelectric actuator is widely used for the following reasons: Because the amount of deformation of the piezoelectric actuator is proportional to a voltage applied thereto, it is possible to eject ink droplets of various sizes or volumes by varying the voltage. Further, the piezoelectric actuator permits use of comparatively large sorts of inks.
The actuator, however, has a characteristic that the amount of deformation changes depending upon an environmental temperature. This characteristic is outstanding particularly in the piezoelectric actuator mentioned above. Due to this characteristic, the ejection of the ink may become unstable, causing a risk of deteriorating the print quality. In view of this, there are employed measures for stabilizing the ejection of the ink by changing the waveform and the voltage of the drive signal to be applied to the actuator, for instance. JP-A-2001-1516 discloses a technique to calculate temperature of the actuator based on the waveform of the drive signal of the actuator and correct ejection amount data in accordance with the calculated temperature. The ejection amount data is a basis for the drive signal to be applied to the actuator, and the waveform and the voltage of the drive signal are changed by correcting the ejection amount data.

Ink-jet recording apparatus with environmental temperature based drive-signal generation


Embodiments may relate to a universal serial bus (USB)-enabled apparatus that includes one or more USB devices that are coupled with a USB host controller by a persistent connection. The USB host controller may identify that the USB device is persistently coupled and then identify USB device information related to the USB device, wherein the USB device information is stored prior to the identification of the USB device. The USB host controller may then use that identified information to perform USB enumeration. Other embodiments may be described or claimed.

When a universal serial bus (USB) device is connected to an electronic device such as a computing system, enumeration may be performed. Enumeration may be considered to be the process of determining which device has been connected to the bus, and what parameters may be required to support the device. Example parameters may include power consumption, number or type of endpoints, class of product, etc. The host controller of the electronic device may then assign the USB device an address and enable a configuration that allows the USB device to transfer data on the bus.

Persistent universal serial bus (USB) device enumeration


A data collection scheme with an improved data collection efficiency. In order to collect data from many terminals to a center having a plurality of center service ports through a public network, terminal data are transmitted from the terminals to the center through the public network by carrying out a calling operation to call up the center at each terminal, and the terminal data received at the center service ports are collected together. At the same time, a congestion state of the center service ports is measured, and a control data for controlling the calling operation at each terminal in order to improve the measured congestion state is generated and broadcast from the center to the terminals. Then, the calling operation at each terminal is controlled according to the control data broadcast from the center. The control data indicates at least a call probability by which the calling operation at each terminal is carried out probabilistically.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data collection scheme, and more particularly, to a method and a system for collecting data from unspecified number of many terminals to a center through a public network efficiently, by fully utilizing a processing capacity of center service ports, without exerting unnecessary processing load on the public network.
2. Description of the Background Art
A conventional data collection system has a schematic configuration as shown in FIG. 1, which comprises a center 10, a plurality of terminals 20, and a public network 30 by which the center 10 and the terminals 20 are connected. The center 10 receives data from individual terminals 20, and collects these data together as a collected data. The terminals 20.sub.1 to 20.sub.n transmit the data to the center 10 through the public network 30.
Here, the center 10 has an internal configuration as shown in FIG. 2, which comprises a plurality of data reception units 11, a data collection unit 12 connected with the data reception units 11, and a collected data transmission unit 13 connected with the data collection unit 12. The data reception units 11.sub.1 to 11.sub.n receive data arriving from the individual terminals 20 through the public network 30. The data collection unit 12 collects the data obtained by the data reception units 11.sub.1 to 11.sub.n together. The collected data transmission unit 13 transmits the collected data obtained by the data collection unit 12.
On the other hand, each terminal 20 has an internal configuration as shown in FIG. 3, which comprises a terminal data input unit 21, a terminal data storage unit 22 connected with the terminal data input unit 21, a terminal data transmission unit 23 connected with the terminal data storage unit 22 and a communication line of the public network 30, a busy line handling unit 24 connected with the communication line connected to the terminal data transmission unit 23, and a calling operation command unit 25 connected with the terminal data storage unit 22, the terminal data transmission unit 23, and the busy line handling unit 24.
The terminal data input unit 21 enters data into the terminal 20. The terminal data storage unit 22 stores the data entered from the terminal data input unit 21 until the transmission of the data is completed. The terminal data transmission unit 23 calls up the center 10 through the public network 30, and transmits the data stored in the terminal data storage unit 22. The busy line handling unit 24 judges whether the line is connected as a result of the calling from the terminal data transmission unit 23, and controls the calling operation command unit 25 to repeat the calling operation when the line is busy. The calling operation command unit 25 activates the calling operation at the terminal data transmission unit 23.
In this configuration of FIG. 3, the data entered from the terminal data input unit 21 is stored in the terminal data storage unit 22. When the storing of the data to be transmitted is completed, the terminal data storage unit 22 notifies the calling operation command unit 25 that the data is ready for transmission, and await for a timing to supply the data to the terminal data transmission unit 23. The calling operation command unit 25 issues a command for calling to the terminal data transmission unit 23 when a timing for calling is given. When this call command is received from the calling operation command unit 25, the terminal data transmission unit 23 calls up the center 10 through the public network 30, and when the line is successfully connected, the terminal data transmission unit 23 reads out the data stored in the terminal data storage unit 22 and transmits the data to the center 10 through the public network 30. The busy lie handling unit 24 monitors a state of the communication line connected to the terminal data transmission unit 23, and when a busy line state is detected in response to the calling from the terminal data transmission unit 23, the busy line handing unit 24 notifies a need of re-calling to the calling operation command unit 25.
In this terminal 20 of FIG. 3, the calling operation command unit 25 and the busy line handling unit 24 have internal configurations as shown in FIG. 4, where the calling operation command unit 25 has a wait time determination unit 251 for determining a wait time until the calling, while the busy line handling unit 24 has a busy state detection unit 241 for checking whether the communication line is in a busy state or not in response to the calling, and a re-calling command unit 242 for notifying a need of re-calling due to the busy line to the calling operation command unit 25.
When a notice from the terminal data storage unit 22 indicating that the data is ready for transmission is received, the wait time determination unit 251 of the calling operation command unit 25 determines an appropriate time interval, and issues the call command to the terminal data transmission unit 23 after awaiting for the determined time interval. Subsequently, when the busy state detection unit 241 of the busy line handling unit 24 detects the communication line in the busy state, and a notice from the re-calling command unit 242 of the busy line handling unit 24 indicating the need of re-calling is received, the wait time determination unit 251 of the calling operation command unit 25 determines an appropriate time interval again, and issues the call command to the terminal data transmission unit 23 again after awaiting for the determined time interval.
In this conventional data collection system, the center 10 does not have a list of addresses of individual terminals 20, so that the center 10 cannot collect the terminal data by the polling from the center 10 side in a case of collecting unspecified number of many terminal data, and it is necessary for each terminal 20 to call up the center 10 through the public network 30. However, conventionally, there has been no way of notifying how busy the center 10 is to unspecified number of many terminals, so that each terminal 20 calls up the center 10 through the public network 30 according to its own convenience, totally unsystematically.
Now, when many terminals call up the center in excess to a processing capacity of the center service ports, it becomes necessary for the network to carry out the call loss processing with respect to the overflowing calls, so that a processing load due to a processing which is not directly related to the data transmission and reception will be exerted on the network.
For this reason, each terminal 20 has a locally predetermined wait time interval, such that the calling operation is repeated at this wait time interval until the call is connected. However, in this conventional scheme, it is necessary for each terminal 20 to have a locally predetermined wait time interval, and besides, each local terminal 20 cannot know a total number of terminals which are potentially trying to call up the center 10, so that it is difficult to control a total number of calls which are simultaneously made from a number of terminals 20 to a level close to a processing capacity of the center service ports. In other words, it is difficult to control this total number of calls at a level which can fully utilize the processing capacity of the center service ports while not exerting any extra processing load on the network.
On the other hand, unless the center service ports are operated near their processing capacity limit, the data collection time becomes long. On the contrary, when the processing capacity of the center service ports is exceeded considerably to exert the extra processing load to the network, it becomes impossible for the network to concentrate on the connection processing related to the data collection, and for this reason the data collection time also becomes long.

Method and system for data collection using public network and broadcasting

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


The beam method and the “slice” method for ship modeling are melded. The method uses a detailed ship model in the ship section immediately surrounding the system or equipment under study and a beam model for the portions of the ship away from the detailed ship section. This combined method has the advantage of providing a detailed section of the ship in the area of interest which allows for good system and equipment level modeling, and a course beam model of the ship everywhere else, which, in turn, allows for the ships mass and stiffness and hence frequency spectrum to be accurately represented.

There are three predominant methods used for the modeling of ships. First a detailed section of a ship can be represented. In this method, essentially, a "slice" out of the ship is modeled in detail and loads and boundary conditions are applied to the ship structure and/or keel surrounding this detailed section of the ship. The primary disadvantage of this method is that the entire ship is not represented in one activation of the model. Therefore, gross ship motions cannot be represented and the ship-wide mass and stiffness are not accounted for. This can lead to incorrect representations in the frequency spectrum.
The second modeling method represents the ship as a beam. This method works fairly well in obtaining gross motions since most ships are significantly longer than they are wide, and thus resemble a beam from a mathematical standpoint. The advantages of this method are that gross ship motions are represented quite well and the ship's actual mass and stiffness can be accounted for leading to good representations in the frequency spectrum. The primary disadvantage of this method is that fine details of the ship cannot be represented. Thus, internal ship spaces and equipment cannot be represented. The way that the beam model is connected to the ship's hull is through a series of stiff connections from the hull to the main beam model of the ship. This series of stiff connections or webs is used to transfer the applied loads from the hull representation to the beam model. This web technique is a fairly typical approach for transferring hull loads to the beam model. Additionally, since the desire has been to represent the internal ship spaces and equipment, the beam method is not sufficient and the ship section does not provide the appropriate ship motions to the modeling and simulation.
The final approach has been to extend the detailed "slice" of the ship to the entire ship, essentially creating a ship model with every ship space contained in the model. This has the significant disadvantage of resulting in mathematical models that cannot be solved on most currently commonly available computer systems. Other disadvantages are the significant amounts of time that are required to build the mathematical model and the fact that shipboard frequencies tend to be "under predicted" using this method.

Technique for modeling shipboard systems and equipment

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


The inventive concept relates to a thin film transistor and a thin film transistor array panel and, in detail, relates to a thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor. A thin film transistor according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept includes: a gate electrode; a gate insulating layer positioned on or under the gate electrode; a first semiconductor and a second semiconductor that overlap the gate electrode with the gate insulating layer interposed therebetween, the first semiconductor and the second semiconductor contacting each other; a source electrode connected to the second semiconductor; and a drain electrode connected to the second semiconductor and facing the source electrode, wherein the second semiconductor includes gallium (Ga) that is not included in the first semiconductor, and a content of gallium (Ga) in the second semiconductor is greater than 0 at. % and less than or equal to about 33 at. %.

(a) Field of Disclosure
Embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a thin film transistor, a thin film transistor array panel, and a manufacturing method of a thin film transistor, and in detail, relates to a thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor and a manufacturing method of a thin film transistor.
(b) Description of Related Technology
Electric elements such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, and thin film transistors (TFT) are used in various fields. Among these, the thin film transistors (TFT) in particular is often used for defining switching and driving elements in a flat panel display apparatus such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting device (organic light emitting diode (OLED) display), and an electrophoretic display. Within the structure of the TFT, the semiconductive portion thereof is an important part for determining behavior characteristics of the TFT. Currently, silicon (Si) is widely used as the semiconductor in the TFT and other electric elements that need a semiconductive portion. The utilized silicon may be an amorphous silicon type or a polysilicon type or a monocrystalline type depending on the crystallization micro-structure of the semiconductive material. Monocrystalline silicon tends to be the most difficult to mass produce whereas the amorphous silicon type has a comparatively simpler manufacturing process. However, the amorphous silicon type has a comparatively and undesirably low, charge-carrier mobility such that there is a limit to using it for manufacturing a high performance (e.g., high switching speed) thin film transistor. Between the relatively poor performance of the amorphous silicon type and the relatively superior performance of the monocrystalline silicon type, there is the polysilicon type which has higher charge-carrier mobility than that of amorphous silicon. However, the process of crystallizing amorphous silicon to form polysilicon requires a great deal of time, energy and manufacturing cost. Also, because the crystallizing step increases process complexity, the possibility of defects during mass production that employs such a crystallizing step may increase. Thus, semiconductive oxides which use a metal oxide having semiconductive properties are coming into favor because it does not require the process of crystallization to get the higher charge-carrier mobility. Semiconductive oxides require a lower cost and higher uniformity as compared with polycrystalline silicon as well as higher charge-carrier mobility and a relatively high ON/OFF ratio as compared with amorphous silicon. The electrical characteristics of thin film transistors of the semiconductive oxide type may be greatly affected by the micro-structure and uniformity of the semiconductive oxide material, where the latter may be affected by the process used to make the semiconductive oxide material. Accordingly, research on the micro-structure and the process of forming thin film transistors using the semiconductive oxide material has been ongoing. It is to be understood that this background of the technology section is intended to provide useful background for understanding the here disclosed technology and as such, the technology background section may include ideas, concepts or recognitions that were not part of what was known or appreciated by those skilled in the pertinent art prior to corresponding invention dates of subject matter disclosed herein.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Thin film transistor, thin film transistor array panel, and manufacturing method of thin film transistor


According to one embodiment, a controller executes a first process such that writing is performed in an order of page numbers in the memory chip. The first process includes a second process to be executed in an order of group units. The second process includes a process of writing data to the lower pages of the memory chips belonging to the banks in one group, and subsequently writing data to the upper pages of the memory chips belonging to the banks in the group.

Bank interleaving achieves a high-speed process by driving a plurality of memory chips in parallel, the plurality of memory chips being connected to one common IO bus. The plurality of memory chips belongs to different banks.
In an MLC (Multiple Level Cell) flash memory, the time required to write an upper page is several times longer than the time required to write a lower page.
In scheduling of bank interleaving, the order of writing between banks and the order of writing between pages are determined. An increase in the usage ratio of a plurality of banks is important to increase the write throughput. Hence, such scheduling of bank interleaving as to increase the usage ratio of the plurality of banks as high as possible is desired.

Memory system controlling interleaving write to memory chips


A process for a pre-concentration unit including: a sorbent material coated passage-way having an entrance for receiving a hydrocarbon-containing groundwater sample and for pre-concentrating the hydrocarbons in a hydrocarbon-containing groundwater sample by successive sorption/desorption cycles, and having an exit for discharging the pre-concentrated hydrocarbons; a heating unit for heating the sorbent material coated passage-way; and; an array of shear horizontal-surface acoustic wave sensors with coatings adapted for detecting and quantifying the pre-concentrated hydrocarbons, disposed at the exit of the sorbent material coated passage-way; and a housing for enclosing the pre-concentration unit and the array of shear horizontal-surface acoustic wave sensors, adapted for continuous use at a body of hydrocarbon-containing groundwater, and coupled to mathematical methods for generating concentrations of specific analytes from both transient and steady-state signals.

Underground storage tanks ("USTs") for fuel and oil are commonly used, and from time to time may be prone to unintended leakage. Nearly 600,000 federally regulated USTs exist in the United States, and approximately 6,000 leaks are recorded annually as reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As such, it is desirable to detect and monitor groundwater in situ in the vicinity of USTs.
Detection of organic compounds can be performed using various sensor technologies, including acoustic-wave, optical and resistive technologies. However, when used without pre-concentration, real-time sensor technologies can detect only some relevant analytes at the required concentration levels, but others are hard to detect, such as benzene which may require detection at levels in the order of 5 ppb (5 μg/L). While sample pre-concentration in the gas phase is a well known, a need remains for pre-concentration of volatile organic compounds in the aqueous phase.
Sensors are known for determining benzene concentrations at low levels is the gas phase, but not in water. The use of traditional analysis methods requires technicians to visit the field, preserve the samples and then ship samples to a lab. Typically, results for these traditional analyses are not reported for two or more weeks. An improved method of monitoring dissolved hydrocarbons in groundwater is desired.

Detection of hydrocarbons in aqueous environments


A portable directional multi-channel receiver comprises a non-visual communicator, a self-contained source of electrical energy, a detector for receiving an amplitude modulated lightwave signal with at least two different frequency modulated subcarrier frequencies, and electronics converting the received signals into intelligible non-visual communication emanating from the communicator both in the presence and in the absence of an ambient background of light energy, such as sunlight. The device is adapted for use by the visually impaired, as well as those who are not fluent in the relevant printed language, in finding desired locations from which suitable modulated infrared signals are emitted.

Until relatively recently, persons who are blind, have low vision or are learning disabled or otherwise print handicapped are denied access and orientation that the general population takes for granted in every day life. Finding their way is a challenging event often ending with asking strangers' help. Whether getting on the right bus, finding a restroom or a telephone, determining directions to elevators or exits, crossing streets or understanding directories in public places, these populations are placed at a great disadvantage and often in danger. Directional "wayfinding" devices have not existed to provide them the ability to "read and see" remote signs, much less utilize interactive signs, automatic teller machines, informational and commercial kiosks, vending machines, and the like. In addition, tourists and other visitors who are not fluent in the local language are often at a similar disadvantage since the relevant printed signs or displays employ a language which is not intelligible to them.
In recent years an information and wayfinding system has been developed for assisting blind, low-visioned and otherwise print-handicapped individuals. The system, marketed under the trademark Talking Signs, consists of single channel infrared transmitters and receivers. Transmitters are placed on key signs in the environment which continually transmit the message of the sign. The receiver is carried by the person who activates it when direction or information is desired.
Under many circumstances, the foregoing system provides excellent results in use. However when used in the presence of an ambient background of light energy such as sunlight, difficulties may be encountered, such as difficulty or, possibly, inability to detect the intended signal. Thus a need exists for a way of nullifying the adverse effect of such background light energy so that detection units can be utilized effectively both in the presence and in the absence of an ambient background of intense light energy such as sunlight. In addition, a need exists for a way to receive signals transmitted at various carrier frequencies, thereby enabling transmission and reception of multiple messages or multiple versions (e.g., different languages) of the same message.
This invention is deemed to fulfill these needs in a highly efficient manner.

Discrimination multi-channel infrared signal detector and systems utilizing the same


A system and method are provided for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit having overshoot and undershoot voltage protection during a power supply ramp-up of the circuit. In a specific embodiment, the ESD protection circuit of the present invention includes an ESD discharge circuit coupled between a power supply node and a ground supply node, a trigger circuit coupled to the ESD discharge circuit, the trigger circuit to turn the ESD discharge circuit on in the presence of a voltage spike during the power supply ramp-up and to turn the ESD discharge circuit off in the absence of a voltage spike during the power supply ramp-up, and a delay circuit coupled between the discharge circuit and the trigger circuit, the delay circuit to slow down the turn-off of the discharge circuit to prevent an overshoot or undershoot voltage condition during the power supply ramp-up of the circuit.

With advances in technology and the miniaturization of device elements in semiconductor integrated circuits, integrated circuits are becoming more susceptible to damage due to electrostatic discharge (ESD). In many applications, device elements have reached the submicron level in size, and correspondingly, MOS gate oxide films have become increasingly thin. As a result, the internal circuitry of an integrated circuit device is easily damaged by an ESD event. As semiconductors continue to shrink in size and become increasingly more complex, significant Electrical Overstress (EOS) and Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) become a greater challenge for both designers and manufacturers.
Electrical overstress (EOS) is a thermal overstress event that is introduced when a product is exposed to a current or voltage beyond its maximum rating, usually from power supplies or test equipment. The duration of EOS events ranges from milliseconds to seconds (typical >50 μsec). An EOS failure is typically catastrophic and causes permanent, irreparable damage to the integrated circuit device. An ESD event is a transfer of electrostatic charge between bodies or surfaces at different electrostatic potentials, either through direct contact or through induced electrical fields. ESD is considered to be a subset of EOS and is usually caused by static electricity. The duration of ESD events ranges from nanoseconds to microseconds.
Protection circuits are known in the art for protecting the circuitry of an integrated circuit from EOS and ESD event damage. It is known in the art to employ an active clamp with an R-C sense for ESD protection. With this system, an R-C sensing element formed by a capacitor and a resistor is used to sense the ESD pulse and actively drive the gate of a clamping transistor through an inverter. With the clamping transistor turned on, the excess voltage is shunted to ground and the core circuitry is protected from the ESD pulse. The clamping transistor will remain conductive for a period of time which is determined by the RC time constant of the trigger circuit. As a result, this RC time constant should be set long enough to exceed the maximum expected duration of an ESD event, typically three to five hundred nanoseconds, while short enough to avoid false triggering of the clamp circuit during normal ramp-up of the VDD power rail. This VDD ramp-up during normal operation typically requires two to five milliseconds. Note that once VDD reaches a constant power supply level, the circuit is biased in a nonconductive state as required for normal operation. It is also known in the art to replace the resistor in the R-C sensing element with a transistor, such as a grounded-gate p-channel transistor.
While such an active ESD-protection circuit is useful, it may be susceptible to noise, especially during power-up of the chip. If the active ESD-protection circuit triggers during power-up, the quick turn off of the ESD clamping device may cause a power bus overshoot or undershoot. The stress on the circuitry results from this overshoot or undershoot voltage can damage the ESD-protection circuit during power-up and cause power shorting through the damaged device.
In light of the above, a need exists in the art for an active ESD-protection circuit that prevents an overshoot or undershoot condition when the ESD-protection circuit is unintentionally triggered during power-up of the integrated circuit.

Electrical overstress (EOS) and electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit and method of use


New solder compositions having enhanced mechanical properties are disclosed. Relatively inert particles having a diameter of 2000 nm or less are dispersed in a solder material having an average grain size of 500 nm or less to produce such solder compositions. The dispersed particles act as physical barriers substantially impeding the motion of grain boundaries and inhibiting grain growth during thermal and stress cycling which substantially inhibits coarsening. As a consequence, the solder composition exhibits an advantageous level of superplasticity that is substantially resistant to joint failure. Methods for forming articles using such solder compositions is also disclosed.

Modern electronic products including, for example, consumer electronics, computers, telecommunication equipment and automobile electronics require electrical device interconnection and packaging. Typically, solder joints are used to interconnect packaged or unpackaged integrated circuit devices to printed circuit boards or substrates. Conventional methods for forming such solder joints include wave soldering or the use of solder paste. Reduction in the size and cost of electronic component has been a general goal of the electronic industry.
However, the reduction in electronic component size generally requires an increase in the density of component interconnections and a reduction in the size and height of corresponding solder joints. Stress cycling due to thermal expansion mismatch between two interconnected components and thermal cycling during the operation of electronic components causes local recrystallization and microstructure coarsening in associated solder joints. This coarsening in combination with the increased shear strain experienced by smaller solder joints increases the likelihood of thermal fatigue crack growth and solder joint failures. Such behavior has been observed with conventional Pb--Sn solders as described in D. R. Frear et al., Solder Mechanics, ch. 6, p. 239 (1990), which is incorporated by reference herein, and has undesirably limited the reduction in solder joint size and corresponding electronic component size.
The previously cited Solder Mechanics book and Inoue et al, "Pb--Sn Solder for Die Bonding of Silicon Chips", IEEE Trans. on Components, Hybrids, and Manufacturing Technol., vol. 9, p. 190-194 (1986), have recognized that solders with fine grains, such as grains having a diameter in the range of 1 to 5 .mu.m are somewhat resistant to coarsening and correspondingly provide a somewhat improvement in the long term reliability of solder joints. However, conventional solders with such fine grains are not sufficiently stable, and still experience undesirable coarsening from thermal and stress cycling during the useable life of typical electronic components.
As a result, a recognized need exists for solder joints that are substantially resistant to coarsening and fatigue from thermal and stress cycling.

Article comprising fine-grained solder compositions with dispersoid particles


A method for verifying a consistency of snapshot metadata maintained in an ordered data structure for a plurality of snapshots in a snapshot hierarchy is provided. The method includes identifying a first plurality of nodes maintained in a first ordered data structure for a first snapshot that is a child of a second snapshot; for a first node of the first plurality of nodes, verifying the first node by checking for the first node in a second node map maintained in memory for the second snapshot, wherein the second node map includes a plurality of verified nodes in a second ordered data structure; and based on whether the first node is in the second node map: adding the first node to a first node map maintained in memory for the first snapshot, wherein the first node map includes verified nodes of the first plurality of nodes; or triggering an alarm.

In the field of data storage, a storage area network (SAN) is a dedicated, independent high-speed network that interconnects and delivers shared pools of storage devices to multiple servers. A virtual SAN (VSAN) may aggregate local or direct-attached data storage devices, to create a single storage pool shared across all hosts in a host cluster. This pool of storage (sometimes referred to herein as a "datastore" or "data storage") may allow virtual machines (VMs) running on hosts in the host cluster to store virtual disks that are accessed by the VMs during their operations. The VSAN architecture may be a two-tier datastore including a performance tier for the purpose of read caching and write buffering and a capacity tier for persistent storage.
The VSAN datastore may manage storage of virtual disks at a block granularity. For example, VSAN may be divided into a number of physical blocks (e.g., 4096 bytes or "4K" size blocks), each physical block having a corresponding physical block address (PBA) that indexes the physical block in storage. Physical blocks of the VSAN may be used to store blocks of data (also referred to as data blocks) used by VMs, which may be referenced by logical block addresses (LBAs). Each block of data may have an uncompressed size corresponding to a physical block. Blocks of data may be stored as compressed data or uncompressed data in the VSAN, such that there may or may not be a one to one correspondence between a physical block in VSAN and a data block referenced by an LBA.
Modern storage platforms, including the VSAN datastore, may enable snapshot features for backup, archival, or data protections purposes. Snapshots provide the ability to capture a point-in-time state and data of a VM to not only allow data to be recovered in the event of failure but restored to known working points. Snapshots may not be stored as physical copies of all data blocks, but rather may entirely, or in part, be stored as pointers to the data blocks that existed when the snapshot was created.
Each snapshot may include its own snapshot metadata, e.g., mapping of LBAs mapped to PBAs, stored concurrently by several compute nodes (e.g., metadata servers). The snapshot metadata may be stored as key-value data structures to allow for scalable input/output (I/O) operations. In particular, a unified logical map B+ tree may be used to manage logical extents for the logical address to physical address mapping of each snapshot, where an extent is a specific number of contiguous data blocks allocated for storing information. A B+ tree is a multi-level data structure having a plurality of nodes, each node containing one or more key-value pairs stored as tuples (e.g., <key, value>). A key is an identifier of data and a value is either the data itself or a pointer to a location (e.g., in memory or on disk) of the data associated with the identifier.
In certain embodiments, the logical map B+ tree may be a copy-on-write (COW) B+ tree (also referred to as an append-only B+ tree). COW techniques improve performance and provide time and space efficient snapshot creation by only copying metadata about where the original data is stored, as opposed to creating a physical copy of the data, when a snapshot is created. Accordingly, when a COW approach is taken and a new child snapshot is to be created, instead of copying the entire logical map B+ tree of the parent snapshot, the child snapshot shares with the parent and, in some cases, ancestor snapshots, one or more extents by having a B+ tree index node, exclusively owned by the child, point to shared parent and/or ancestor B+ tree nodes.
In certain embodiments, to manage nodes shared between a parent snapshot and its descendant snapshot(s) (e.g., child snapshots, grandchild snapshots, etc.), each node in each logical map B+ tree is stamped with a monotonically increased sequence number (SN) when the node is created. Accordingly, nodes owned by a child snapshot (e.g., not shared with an ancestor snapshot, such as a parent snapshot, a grandparent snapshot, etc.) may have a larger SN than nodes owned by an ancestor snapshot. Each snapshot may also be assigned a minimum SN (referred to herein as "min SN"), where the min SN is equal to a smallest SN value among all nodes owned by snapshot.
Thus, a node, in the logical map B+ tree of a snapshot, whose SN is smaller than the min SN assigned to the snapshot, is a node that is not owned by the snapshot, but instead shared with an ancestor snapshot. This may be true for all nodes belonging to each of the snapshots created. However, a violation of this invariant may indicate an inconsistency in the snapshot logical map metadata. Detecting such invariant violations may be necessary to fix such inconsistencies in the snapshot metadata and, in some cases, avoid returning corrupted data to a user.
Traditional approaches for identifying snapshot metadata inconsistencies in the buildup of B+ tree logical maps (e.g., built up using COW techniques), include traversing the B+ tree logical map of each snapshot. In particular, a snapshot hierarchy may include a plurality of snapshots connected in a branch tree structure. The top snapshot of the hierarchy may be referred to as a root snapshot, which has no parent snapshot. Traditional approaches for identifying metadata inconsistencies may begin by traversing the B+ tree logical map of the root snapshot, and traversing through the tree to each child snapshot until all snapshots have been analyzed for inconsistencies. Thus, when analyzing a child snapshot of a parent snapshot which has previously been traversed, one or more nodes in the child snapshot may be determined to have SNs less than a min SN of the child snapshot being analyzed. Based on the structure of the B+ tree, each of these identified nodes may be expected to be found in the parent snapshot of the child snapshot.
To verify these nodes are present in the parent snapshot, the metadata of the parent snapshot may again be re-loaded into memory and traversed to verify this logic. Although the metadata of the parent snapshot may have been previously loaded into memory and traversed, verifying metadata of the child snapshot may require nodes of the parent snapshot to be re-analyzed, thereby duplicating efforts needed to verify snapshot metadata contained in the hierarchy of snapshots. Further, additional resources and processing power may be needed to lookup in the parent snapshot B+ tree logical map, each node of the child snapshot B+ tree logical map expected to be found in the parent snapshot B+ tree logical map, which may adversely affect the performance of the system.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved techniques to verify consistency of snapshot metadata.
It should be noted that the information included in the Background section herein is simply meant to provide a reference for the discussion of certain embodiments in the Detailed Description. None of the information included in this Background should be considered as an admission of prior art.

Verification of metadata consistency across snapshot copy-on-write (COW) B+tree logical maps


One or more system, apparatus, method, and computer readable media is described for reducing the GOP length during a direct pass-through of an encoded video stream format that is supported by the decoder at the sink. In some embodiments, the encoded video stream is decoded on the source device and employed to generate and insert supplemental intra-predicted frames (I-frames) at shorter intervals allowing for faster recovery in the event of lost packets/frames when transmitted to a sink display. In some embodiments, Residual Artifact Suppressed (RAS) inter-predicted frames are further created and inserted in place of any frames that reference a frame converted to a supplemental I-frame. The encoded video stream passed through will consist of all the original frames except for the supplemental I-frames reducing the GOP, and RAS inter-predicted frames modified to prevent propagation of residual induced artifacts.

With the increase in mobile devices and the prevalence of wireless networking, wireless display capability is experiencing rapid growth. In wireless display technology, a wireless link between a source device and sink display device replaces the typical data cable between computer and monitor. Wireless display protocols are often peer-to-peer or "direct" and most usage models have a mobile device transmitting media content to be received and displayed by one or more external displays or monitors. In a typical screencasting application for example, a smartphone is wirelessly coupled to one or more external monitors, display panels, televisions, projectors, etc.
Image frames may be encoded where a wireless or wired data channel has insufficient bandwidth to timely send the frame data in an uncompressed format. Depending on the available channel bit rate, a given frame may be compressed to provide a higher or lower quality representation. Wireless display specifications (e.g., WiDi v3.5 by Intel Corporation, and Wi-Fi Display v1.0 or WFD from the Miracast program of the Wi-Fi Alliance) have been developed for the transmission of compressed graphics/video data and audio data streams over wireless local area networks of sufficient bandwidth. For example, current wireless display technologies utilizing WiFi technology (e.g., 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands) are capable of streaming encoded full HD video data as well as high fidelity audio data (e.g., 5.1 surround).
Wi-Fi Display v2.0 includes a mode that allows streaming of content in the form of stored files on the Miracast source to the Miracast sink. This is called Miracast direct streaming mode or content pass through, which proposes streaming of stored content in its already encoded format, or transcoding the content into a format that is supported by the Miracast link and sink. Often, the video content stored on the sink is in a format that has very long GOP (Group of Pictures) for optimal compression. FIG. 1A illustrates an exemplary encoded video stream 107. Video stream 107 includes a long GOP 108 comprising many inter-predicted frame (P-frames) 108 between intra-predicted frames (I-frame) 1, 30. Very long GOP sizes are not friendly to wireless streaming as lost packets and frames will result in an incorrectly decoded video stream at the sink, as further shown in FIG. 1B, 1C. During transmission of encoded stream 104 between source and sink, data packets corresponding to pictures 141 are lost from sink received encoded stream 140. Sink decoding then generates an decompressed stream 168, repeating one or more frame 142 to maintain synchronization in response to missing pictures 141. Because of the frames lost in transmission, subsequent frames in the GOP 108 may be decoded incorrectly. Depending on the position of the lost frame(s) and the length of GOP 108, incorrectly decoded video frame set 109 may be significant and result in a slow recovery. Visual artifacts may then be apparent to a viewer as the content stream is rendered and presented on a display at the sink.
One conventional approach to enable direct streaming of content encoded with long GOP streams is to transcode the stream into a format with small GOP before transmission so that any lost frames are recovered quickly. FIG. 1A for example, illustrates a direct streaming system 101 including a source device 105 and a sink device 150. Transcoding generally entails decoding an encoded content file 107 and re-encoding the decoded data into a second encoded bitstream for transmission to sink 105. However, a transcoding pipeline includes at least a demultiplexer 110 to separate audio and video data streams, video transcoder 116, and/or audio transcoder 117 to decode all the pictures in the long GOP stream and re-encode all the decoded frames into a short GOP small GOP stream, and a multiplexer 122 to recombine the audio and video data streams. The transcoded AV stream is then output to a wireless transceiver 128 and compressed frame payloads 140 are wirelessly transmitted to sink device 150.
Transcoding content is resource expensive and consumes significant power at the source device. Although transcoding might be needed when a source is requested to pass through stream formats that are not supported by the sink, it would be advantageous to minimize transcoding where the stream format is supported by the sink while still providing GOP sizes of desirable length.

Reliable large group of pictures (GOP) file streaming to wireless displays