A method of operating a system (e.g., an industrial pant) that runs a physical process involving a console operator and a plurality of field operators including a first field operator. The first field operator sends a wireless message that reaches the console operator. Responsive to receiving the wireless message, selected information is read from a system database including information for equipment in the system and process event data obtained from or relating to the equipment. The selected information includes the equipment which is proximate to a current location of the first field operator (proximate equipment) and process related data from the proximate equipment. The selected information is displayed on the display device viewable by the console operator. To complete a collaboration, the console operator can provide information relevant to the current location to the first field operator.

Physical systems involve at least the transport of a tangible (i.e. real) product, while physical processes further involve the manufacture of a tangible product from one or more materials. The physical system may be a large geographically dispersed system (e.g., a gas pipeline) or complex multi-step process (e.g., for a large oil refinery). Physical systems may be contrasted with virtual systems which lack association with movement or processing of any tangible (i.e. real) materials.
The physical system, typically an industrial plant, may comprise a process automation system which refers to a monitoring and control system, running a set of industrial processes that generate a physical (tangible) product, in which a distributed control system (DCS) may utilize controller elements to monitor and control the industrial processes. Field operators are within the plant around the equipment (sometimes referred to as "assets") within the system. With regard to monitoring, sensors for the industrial processes generate process data (e.g., temperatures, pressures) that is transmitted to the DCS, often in real time. The DCS subsequently displays the process data for human operators generally referred to as "console operators" which monitor and control the industrial process via graphical user interfaces (GUIs) displayed in a console of a control room. The components of the process automation system may be connected by a process control communications network.
Successful operation and management of a physical system, such as an industrial plant, requires collaboration between console operators working in a control room and field operators out within the system/plant. A challenge faced by console operators is that they generally support a plurality of field operators, and are tasked with collaborating with each of them as necessary.
Often such a collaboration will begin with a field operator calling a console operator to request help with a task in the field, such as providing the field operator with directions or additional information (e.g., directing an operator to the correct valve to open). In order to provide the requested directions or additional information, the console operator has to call up information relevant to the particular part of the system in which the field operator is currently located. This collaboration process generally involves the console operator manually and serially selecting and displaying the needed information, then reviewing the information including process schematics, alarm summaries, maintenance data, and information from a variety of sources (e.g., process data, such as sensor data) to enable providing the field operator with directions or additional information relevant to the task at hand. This collaboration process is time consuming due to its manual and serial nature. A related problem concerns a console operator attempting to gain situational awareness for a field operator.

Common collaboration context between a console operator and a field operator


A tape recorder used in a telephone message recorder, etc. includes a mode switching mechanism which switches over electrically between various working modes. The mechanism utilizes the operation of one solenoid and the rotational force of a motor, in which the operation of the solenoid is used as a trigger for the mode switching over and the sliding of a head base plate and gear switching are effected by the rotational force obtained through an assist gear.

Remotely controlled tape recorders used, for example, in a telephone message recorder, are generally provided with a mechanism which switches the recorder electrically between its different modes of operation. For example, in one known tape recorder, the magnetic head is displaced directly by a solenoid while the recorder is in the record/playback mode, whereas the switching between its fast forward mode and its re-wind mode is effected by changing the rotational direction of the motor. In such a recorder, the magnetic head is continuously attracted by the solenoid. However, a solenoid which is sufficiently powerful to directly drive the magnetic head is expensive and must be large, with the result that the electric power consumption is great. Furthermore, a reversible motor which can be switched to rotate in two directions requires complicated controls and is expensive. For this reason, it is difficult to reduce the size of such tape recorders and to lower their cost.

Kabushiki Kaisha Sankyo Seiki Seisakusho


In order to measure a scanning light cut-off region, an output of a light receiving element and a threshold value set by an MPU are compared by a comparator and a region where the former is smaller than the latter is measured as the scanning light cut-off region. During one cycle of optical scanning, this threshold value is switched in a plurality of stages according to the scanning angle. By accurately measuring the scanning light cut-off region, the correct position and size of an indicator such as a finger or pen are calculated.

The present invention relates to an optical scanning-type touch panel for optically detecting the position and size of an indicator on a display screen of a display device on which information is displayed by a computer system, etc.
With the spread of computer systems, mainly personal computers, a device for inputting new information or giving various instructions to a computer system by pointing at a position on a display screen of a display device on which information is displayed by the computer system, with a person""s finger or a specific object, has been used.
In order to perform an input operation with respect to the information displayed on the display screen of the display device of such a personal computer or the like by a touching method, it is necessary to detect a touched position (indicated position) on the display screen accurately. As a method of detecting the indicated position on such a display screen serving as a coordinate surface, the xe2x80x9cCarol methodxe2x80x9d (U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,443) has been known. According to this method, light emitting elements and light receiving elements are arranged to face each other on the frame of the front surface of the display screen so as to construct an optical matrix on the front surface of the display screen, and a position where light is cut off by the touch of a finger or pen is detected. According to this method, a high S/N ratio is obtained, so the application of this method can be extended to a large-sized display device, but since the resolution of detection is in proportion to the arrangement intervals of the light emitting elements and light receiving elements, it is necessary to reduce the arrangement intervals in order to increase the resolution of detection. Therefore, in order to accurately detect a touched position even when a large-sized screen is touched by a thin object such as a point of a pen, such problems arise that the number of light emitting elements and light receiving elements to be arranged is increased and thus the structure becomes bulky, and signal processing becomes complicated.
In addition, another optical position detecting method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-211637/1982. According to this method, a focused light such as a laser beam is scanned angularly from the outside of a display screen, an angle of a position where a special pen exists is calculated from two timings of reflected light from the special pen having a reflecting member, and the resultant angle is applied to the triangulation principle so as to detect the coordinate of the position by calculation. This method can reduce the number of parts significantly, and can provide high resolution. However, there are problems in the operability, for example, a special reflecting pen must be used, and the position of a finger, an arbitrary pen or the like cannot be detected.
Still another optical position detecting method is suggested in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-5428/1987. According to this method, a light retro-reflector is arranged on frames on both sides of a display screen, return light from the light retro-reflector of an angularly scanned laser beam is detected, an angle of a position where a finger or pen exists is calculated from the timing that the light beam is cut off by a finger or pen, and the coordinate of the position is detected from the resultant angle according to the triangulation principle. In this method, detecting accuracy can be maintained with a small number of parts, and the position of a finger, arbitrary pen or the like can be detected.
Moreover, an optical detecting method capable of detecting not only the position but also the size of a finger, arbitrary pen or the like is proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 9-254220/1997 by the same applicant of the present invention. In this method, at least two light transmitting and receiving sections for angularly scanning laser beam in a plane substantially parallel to a display screen are disposed in the corners of the display screen, a light retro-reflector is arranged along at least three sides of the display screen, a scanning light cut-off region by an indicator such as a finger and pen in a scanned plane is measured, and the position of the indicator in the scanned plane is calculated according to the principle of triangulation and also the size of the indicator is calculated.
According to the above-described three conventional examples in which light is angularly scanned, the light emitting element and the light receiving element for receiving reflected light are juxtaposed so as to construct the light transmitting and receiving section in a small size, and there is a possibility that a part of the foot of laser beam emitted from the light emitting element to perform optical scanning is directly incident on the light receiving element at a position where the scanning angle is small. When the laser beam from the light emitting element is directly incident on the light receiving element, the output level of the light receiving element varies, the directly incident light is mistakenly recognized as reflected light, the scanning light cut-off region is not calculated accurately, and consequently such a problem arises that the correct position or size of the indicator cannot be calculated.
A main object of the present invention is to provide an optical scanning-type touch panel, capable of accurately measuring a scanning light cut-of region and thereby calculating the correct position or size of an indicator, by switching a threshold value with respect to an output of a light receiving element for judging whether a region is a cut-off region, in a plurality of stages according to the scanning angle.
An optical scanning-type touch panel according to the present invention comprises a light retro-reflecting member disposed outside a predetermined area; at least two light transmitting and receiving sections, each having an optical scanner for angularly scanning light in a plane substantially parallel to the predetermined area and a light receiving element for receiving reflected light from a portion of the light retro-reflecting member, which portion was illuminated with light; a measuring section for measuring a scanning light cut-off region formed in the predetermined area by an indicator, according to the scanning angle of the optical scanner and the result of receiving light by the light receiving element; a calculating section for calculating the position and size of the indicator based on the result of the measurement performed by the measuring section; an angle detecting section for detecting an angle of the scanning light; and a memory section for storing a plurality of reference values of different levels, wherein the measuring section measures the scanning light cut-off region by comparing the result of receiving light by the light receiving element with one reference value selected from the plurality of reference values stored in the memory section according to the angle of the scanning light detected by the angle detecting section.
Another optical scanning-type touch panel according to the present invention has the above-described structure, and is designed to select a large reference value when the angle of the scanning light is small and to select a small reference value when the angle of the scanning light is large.
Still another optical scanning-type touch panel according to the present invention has the above-described structure, and is designed such that the angle detecting section includes an optical scanning start detector for detecting the start of optical scanning and a timer having the function of measuring time, and the optical scanning start detector detects the angle of the scanning light according to an elapsed time measured by the timer from a time at which the start of optical scanning was detected by the optical scanning start detector.
Yet another optical scanning-type touch panel according to the present invention has the above-described structure, and is designed such that the optical scanning start detector detects the timing of starting reception of light of not lower than a predetermined level by the light receiving element as the optical scanning start timing.
In the optical scanning-type touch panel of the present invention, when the level of light received by the light receiving element is greater than a predetermined threshold value, it is judged that the scanning light was reflected by the light retro-reflecting member and received by the light receiving element, and the region is judged not to be the scanning light cut-off region formed by the indicator, while when the level of light received by the light receiving element is smaller than the predetermined threshold value, it is judged that the scanning light was cut off by the indicator, the region is measured as the scanning light cut-off region formed by the indicator, and the indicator""s position and size are calculated according to the results of the measurement.
Here, in the optical scanning-type touch panel of the present invention, the threshold value used as the reference in judging whether the region is the cut-off region is varied according to the scanning angle. In other words, the threshold value is set to a large value for a small scanning angle at which there is a possibility that a part of the scanning light is directly incident, while the threshold value is set to a small value for a large scanning angle. With this settings, since the threshold value is set in consideration of the direct incident light, the accurate cut-off region can be measured, thereby obtaining accurate values for the position and size of the indicator which are calculated based on this cut-off region.
Further, if the angular velocity of rotation of an optical scanner (for example, polygon mirror) is constant, since the scanning angle is proportional to the rotation time, the scanning angle is detected based on the elapsed time from the start of scanning, and thus the accurate scanning angle is readily detectable.


An engine start controlling system for an engine of the vehicle, makes an authentication for a user ID received from a mobile device and authentications for respective device IDs received from respective electrical devices. The system allows, based on a first operation, the engine to start, in a case that all of the authentications for the user ID and the device IDs are successful, and prohibits the engine from starting, in a case that the authentication for the user ID is unsuccessful, irrespective of results of the authentications for the respective device IDs. The engine start controller further allows, based on a second operation, the engine to start, in a case that all of authentications belonging to a selected group are successful and that one authentication belonging to a second group is unsuccessful.

In JP-8-133016A, an engine start system (also called as an immobilizer) for a vehicle is described which controls an engine of the vehicle based on result of comparison between two IDs, one of which is an authentication ID stored in a wireless mobile communicator (which also serves as a vehicle entrance key) and the other one of which is a master ID stored in a device in the vehicle. The engine start system includes an engine control unit for controlling the engine and an immobilizing control unit for controlling the engine control unit based on the result of the comparison. The immobilizing control unit allows the engine control unit to start the engine when the two IDs are identical, that is, when an authentication of the authentication ID is successful. In contrast, the immobilizing control unit prohibits starting the engine when the two IDs are not identical, that is, when the authentication of the authentication ID fails. Thus, the engine start system rejects an improper request for starting the engine which is made by an unauthorized person.
Some criminal acts may be made which compromises the engine start system by replacing the immobilizing control unit with another control unit. As a measure against the criminal acts, an advanced engine start system is provided in which a controller is connected through an on-board communication network with on board electrical device. In the advanced engine start system, a device ID is stored in each of on-board electrical devices having a risk of replacement. In addition, master device IDs for comparison with the respective device IDs are in the controller. The advanced engine start system performs a device individual authentication function (also referred to as multi-device authentication function) in which the controller makes authentications between the device IDs and the respective master device IDs by means of communication through the on-board communication network. The controller allows the engine to start only when the authentications of the device IDs are successful, that is, the electrical devices are legitimate.
The device individual authentication function can be applied to not only to the immobilizing control unit but also security devices (for example, a door lock controller) which do not have close relation with a starting operation of the engine. The device individual authentication function is applied to electrical devices (for example, a vehicle air conditioning system, a vehicle audio system or a vehicle navigation system) which have no relation with the starting operation of the engine, in order to prevent replacing a legitimate electrical device with a not-legitimate electrical device.
In the device individual authentication function, the engine is prohibited from starting when at least one of the authentications of the device IDs fails. In addition, each of the authentications of the device IDs fails not only when a legitimate device is replaced with another device but also when a trouble occurs in which the legitimate device cannot output its device ID because of, for example, malfunction. The engine is therefore prohibited from starting even when an electrical device which has no relation with the engine is malfunctioning. Such a problem puts a user of the vehicle in a serious situation in which the user cannot move the vehicle to a repair plant by himself/herself and is therefore obliged to have the vehicle towed. In addition, the user may not be able to turn on an air conditioning system of the vehicle. The conventional engine start controlling system does not take any measure against the problem.


Provided are methods of forming a more highly-oriented silicon thin layer having a larger grain size, and a substrate having the same. The methods may include forming an aluminum (Al) layer on a base substrate, forming a more highly-oriented Al layer by recrystallizing the Al layer under vacuum, forming a more highly-oriented γ-Al2O3 layer on the more highly-oriented Al layer and/or epitaxially growing a silicon layer on the more highly-oriented γ-Al2O3 layer. The method may be used to manufacture a semiconductor device having higher carrier mobility.

1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to methods of forming a more highly-oriented silicon layer and a substrate having the same. Other example embodiments of the present invention relate to methods of forming a more highly-oriented silicon layer having a larger grain size on an insulation substrate.
1. Description of the Related Art
In the field of display devices, flat panel displays are increasingly being used. Representative flat panel displays may be liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs) and/or organic light emitting devices (OLEDs). The development and production OLEDs is becoming increasingly common. LCDs and OLEDs driven by thin film transistors (TFTs) may have higher image quality and/or higher resolution. Larger-sized LCDs and OLEDs are also being developed. LCDs and OLEDs are also increasingly used in smaller size mobile displays (e.g., cellular phones).
Thin film transistors based on either amorphous silicon (A-Si) or polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) are commonly used as switching devices.
Mobility of A-Si TFTs may be less than 1 cm2/Vsec. A-Si TFTs may be used as pixel transistors and driver integrated-circuits (ICs) may be externally mounted, increasing the cost and/or volume of the display system. Low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) TFTs and system on glass (SOG) having no external driver ICs have increasingly been researched. If all external driver ICs are integrated on a glass substrate (e.g., a panel), connection wires between the panel and the external driver ICs may be unnecessary, decreasing defects generated in a TFT LCD and increasing the reliability of the TFT LCD. It may be a desired objective to manufacture a SOG having a panel in which a display system including data driver ICs, gate driver ICs and/or controllers are integrated. To obtain such an objective, it is desirous to obtain an LTPS having a mobility higher than 400 cm2/Vsec and a desired uniformity. However, the LTPS formed using conventional methods (e.g., excimer laser annealing (ELA), sequential lateral solidification (SLS) or metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC)) may not achieve the desired quality.
Methods of forming polycrystalline silicon include a method of directly depositing polycrystalline silicon and a method in which amorphous silicon may be deposited and crystallized to form polycrystalline silicon.
Methods of directly depositing polycrystalline silicon may include a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) or similar method. In the PECVD method, the deposition may be performed using a mixed gas at a temperature lower than 400° C. The PECVD method may not control grain characteristics of the polycrystalline silicon film. In particular, the orientation of grains of the polycrystalline silicon may not be uniform using the PECVD method such that the characteristics of a resulting polycrystalline silicon thin film may be degraded.

Method of forming a more highly-oriented silicon layer and substrate having the same


A high resolution clock circuit apparatus and a method of generating a high resolution clock output from a lower resolution clock input utilizes conventional technology. A standard clock generates a clock frequency which is divided by a flip-flop circuit and is applied to a low skew differential clock driver which distributes the clock into a plurality of separate outputs, each output is applied to a different length delay line. The output of each delay line is applied to a latching circuit, such as a low power octal ECL/TTL bidirectional translator. Each of the plurality of delay lines is sampled and a time word is latched when a time measurement is to be made. In this event, a control signal toggles from low to high which latches a digital word representing that subnanosecond interval of time. A shift register also receives the input clock frequency and includes a feedback loop and is applied to the latch circuit. The output of the two latches are input into a PROM used to convert the input code into a binary coded decimal.

The present invention relates to a high resolution clock circuit and to a method of generating a high resolution clock output from a lower resolution clock input and especially to a clock circuit using conventional technology and a plurality of delay lines. Many conventional clock circuits are based on the frequency of an accurate crystal oscillator. When using conventional digital circuits with a crystal oscillator to measure time, the shortest length of time that can be resolved is the period of the clock. Some military applications require high resolution to within 0.5 nanoseconds (nsec.). If conventional circuits, such as counters or shift registers are used to generate the time codes, then the clock frequency should be 2 GHz. Crystal controlled, 2 GHz frequency sources are readily available. The only kind of logic circuits that can operate at 2 GHz are those using the gallium arsenide (GaAS) process. GaAs technology is expensive because a custom circuit must be designed and fabricated on a single chip. This requires a large investment of money and time. The fastest conventional logic family is the F100K emitter coupled logic (ECL) and can operate at speeds of 0.2 GHz over the military temperature range. This is a factor of ten too slow to construct a conventional clock with a 0.5 nsec. resolution.
Prior U.S. patents of interest include the Butcher U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,870, for a high resolution digital phase-lock loop circuit which is implemented with an input clock reference frequency which is approximately the same as the output frequency of the phase-lock loop. The output is derived from delaying the input clock a variable number of gate delays ranging from no delay to one period of the input clock. A shift register controls the number of gate delays. The Shaffer et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,699, is a circuit that controls, calibrates, and monitors critical timing parameters in a computer system or a network to prevent loss of or inaccurate data when transferring the data. The Kabuo et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,656, is a method and apparatus for controlling a clock signal for data processing devices and includes first and second blocks which have different processing times and which operate in synchronism with a clock signal. A period of the clock signal is changed in accordance with the clock change signal. The Boris et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,175, is a high speed on-chip clock phase generating system for mainframe computers and is incorporated into very large scale integrated logic chips. Each logic chip is controlled by off-chip control signals. The off-chip phase generator includes a start shift register, a stop shift register, clock shift registers to provide the phase of the clock, and start/stop run controls, all of which are coupled to off-chip control signals and synchronized to eliminate distortion and skew between phase generators on different logic chips.
The present invention is for a delay line clock with sub-nanosecond resolution from a low resolution clock frequency using a set of different length delay lines to subdivide the low resolution clock period. The different length delay lines and ECL circuit can generate a sub-nanosecond resolution from a 100 MHz. clock input using conventional technology.

Clock circuit for generating a high resolution output from a low resolution clock


A package for a combination of a hat and garment is disclosed, wherein the package supports a contour of the hat as it would appear when worn by a user, and additionally, the package is configured so that the hat and garment remain in their desired displayable positions and orientations substantially regardless of how the package is handled under normal retail sales handling conditions. In particular, the package of the present invention can be made of molded plastic that is reinforced by various walls and contours to inhibit denting and folding of the package and thereby prevents inappropriate deformation of the hat and garment therein. More particularly, the package is reinforced to prevent the folding or creasing of the brim of the hat, wherein such reinforcements also maintain the brim in a predetermined desirable position.

Various types of packages for clothing and related articles are known. In many cases, packages containing clothing have the shape of a box. In most cases, a box configuration is satisfactory in that the clothing and any related items can be folded appropriately so that when viewed through any transparent portions of the box, the items therein appear to be neatly folded and orderly packaged. However, such simple packaging becomes less advantageous when the items enclosed therein are desired to be displayed in ways where the shapes or contours of the items are sufficiently different so that an enclosing package having a simple box shape would be inordinately large and consequently likely to have a large internal unfilled volume. Accordingly, to position items in such an interior volume so that they are attractively displayed and remain in place becomes difficult.
The above notions are particularly pronounced with combinations of items such as, for example, a hat and a shirt, wherein it is desired that the hat be displayed in a manner similar to how it would be worn. That is, it would be desirable to provide a package that provided support for maintaining the contour of a hat and at the same time also provide an area for a shirt so that both are attractively displayed and remain in their desired display positions through various types of handling and shipping.

Combination package for a hat and garment


Text information analysis apparatus arranges a plurality of texts according to the content of each text. In the text information analysis apparatus, a category decision unit classifies text to one of a plurality of predetermined categories. A cluster generation unit clusters texts having similar contents from the plurality of texts. A control unit controls the category decision unit and the cluster generation unit to simultaneously execute a category decision and clustering for the plurality of texts.

Recently, in proportion to the increase in electrical text information, a text information analysis technique to classify or arrange a plurality of texts according to the content of each text attracts a user's attention. The text information analysis technique includes a text classification technique (categorization/classification) and a text clustering technique. In the text classification technique, N units of categories are previously determined and each text is classified to at least one of the plurality of texts. In the text clustering technique, categories are not previously determined, a similarity degree between texts is determined, and a plurality of texts are classified to arbitrary units according to the similarity degree.
In the text classification technique, suitability between each text and N units of categories is decided. Accordingly, the processing of each text comprises N steps and relatively executed at high speed. However, if the content of the text is not similar to a feature of one category, the text is not classified. Especially, in case that new text content occurs daily, i.e., if tendency of text content changes daily, classification using predetermined categories is often impossible. In this case, it is necessary that a new category is set automatically or by hand.
On the other hand, in the text clustering technique, the content of the text drives the analysis. Accordingly, this technique is effective for text with unknown content. However, in general, the computational cost is enormous. In case of clustering of m units of text, a similarity degree between each pair of texts in m units of text is calculated and processing steps of a square of m is necessary.
In a text information analysis system, only one of the text classification technique and the text clustering technique is used. However, both techniques include defects. On the other hand, a large number of unknown texts appear daily. The unknown texts are not always classified to a predetermined category. Accordingly, it is difficult to satisfy actual needs that the unknown texts are quickly classified and arranged.

Text information analysis apparatus and method


An exhaust pipe structure has, under a floor of a vehicle, an exhaust passage for exhaust gas discharged from a vehicle-installed engine, and at least one muffler is provided on an intermediate portion of the exhaust passage. The at least one muffler includes a main muffler having the greatest muffler capacity. An external cylinder forming an outer shell portion of the main muffler has a circular sectional shape having a diameter of 100 mm to 150 mm, or a sectional shape that is substantially equal to an area of the circular sectional shape. The external cylinder has a length of 800 mm to 12000 mm. The main muffler is disposed in a tunnel portion that is formed between the front wheels and the rear wheels.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an exhaust pipe structure in which an exhaust passageway of exhaust gas discharged from a vehicle-installed engine is provided with at least one muffler (silencer).
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles are equipped with an exhaust apparatus for discharging exhaust gas produced in association with the operation of an engine. Such an exhaust apparatus generally adopts an exhaust pipe structure in which a catalytic converter, a subsidiary muffler, and a main muffler are disposed on an exhaust passage in that order from the engine side toward a downstream side, and adjacent components are interconnected by a small-diameter exhaust pipe (e.g., see the 4th to 5th columns and FIG. 1 in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-4501). As for the components forming the exhaust pipe structure, the catalytic converter is used for purification of exhaust gas, and the subsidiary muffler and the main muffler are used to reduce the exhaust gas temperature and pressure and to reduce the exhaust noise. The subsidiary muffler is employed for the purposes of, for example, solving the problem of insufficient silencing capability of the main muffler in the case of a long exhaust passageway or the like. The main muffler normally adopted has an outer cylinder that forms an outer shell portion, and that has a large sectional area and a short length.
However, if the above-described exhaust pipe structure is applied to a low-floor vehicle, the location of installation of the main muffler is limited to a rearward portion of the vehicle. That is, the main muffler having the above-described configuration inevitably has a large sectional area and therefore a large size so as to achieve a sufficiently high silencing capability. It is difficult to install the large-size main muffler at a site other than a rearward portion of the vehicle. Thus, although the large-size main muffler can be installed a rearward portion of the low-floor vehicle in a tolerable fashion, the height of the floor of the main muffler-installed location (the rearward portion of the vehicle) cannot be reduced substantially to the same level of the floor of the other portions. Since the installation of the main muffler requires a relatively high floor level as mentioned above, it becomes difficult, for example, in the case of a low-floor sedan, to provide in a rearward portion of the vehicle a large luggage space that has a sufficiently great dimension in the vertical direction. Furthermore, in the case of a low-floor minivan equipped with a third row seat, it is difficult to provide a large third row seat-mounting space having a sufficiently great dimension in the vertical direction in a rearward portion of the vehicle. Therefore, it is difficult to provide a third row seat with spacious comfort.
In the above-described exhaust pipe structure, vibration in a vibration mode in which nodes exist in heavy components, such as the catalytic converter, the subsidiary muffler, the main muffler, etc., and loops exist in the exhaust pipe (exhaust pipe elastic resonance) occurs at about 150 to 200 Hz, due to vibration produced in association with the operation of the engine. The vibration is likely to cause concentration of stress in junctions between the heavy components and the exhaust pipe since, in the junctions, the sectional shape sharply changes. In order to prevent the stress concentration from causing deformation or the like, it is necessary to increase the strength of the junctions. Measures for increasing the strength of junctions are needed particularly if the exhaust pipe is welded to a heavy component.


A high speed serializer-deserializer (SerDes) that passes significantly more data through a channel for a given analog bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio. This SerDes technique involves converting a plurality of bits to be transferred to positions of edges of a waveform that is transmitted over at least one transmission wire from a source to a destination. The plurality of bits are converted to edges in order to position edges such that more than k inter-edge spacings are possible over a range of spacings between T and kT, where k is a real number greater than 1 and T is the minimum spacing between consecutive edges. An edge position translation scheme that maps patterns in a stream of input bits to a corresponding spacing between a rising edge and a falling edge of the waveform, or between a falling edge and a rising edge of the waveform. The bits are recovered at the destination by detecting the edges in the received waveform at the destination and driving a stream of binary numbers representing time intervals between detected consecutive edges (inter-edge spacings). The stream of binary numbers is decoded according to the edge position translation scheme to recover corresponding bits.

Serial transfer of digital data has a long history but recently the interest in improving this technology has heightened. As data words and data busses grow wider and processing cheaper, it becomes increasingly desirable, indeed vital, to move digital data in serial form from one system to another, from one board to another within a system, from one chip to another on a board, and even from one core to another within a chip. In current Serializer-Deserializer (SerDes) transmitter practice, the parallel source data is loaded into a shift register and shifted out at high speed. At the receiver the reverse process takes place: data is shifted at high speed into a shift register and offloaded in parallel. This seemingly simple process has evolved into elaborate systems as more and more data are packed onto a wire.
Differential signaling is used to reduce noise and increasingly elaborate "analog front ends" (AFEs) are used to control noise and reflections on the transmission lines. Special dielectrics are used to reduce high-frequency losses. Clock phase and jitter are critical and feedback circuits are used to exactly "recover" and phase-align the desired clock. Error-correcting codes are required to achieve acceptable Bit Error Rates (BER) and these codes extract an overhead in reduced data throughput. An additional layer of coding, such as the so-called "8B/10B" code, is modulated onto the data stream to prevent excessive stretches without a transition (which would interfere with clock recovery) and to guarantee equal numbers of zeros and ones within a given interval (which removes low frequencies, improves noise immunity, and simplifies analog design). The latter codes also reduce data throughput. 8B/10B, for instance, encodes eight bits into ten bits and therefore reduces throughput 20%. On top of this, spread-spectrum clocking is used to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI).
Current SerDes practice, for all its complications, is still basically a serial bit stream. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a zero or one lasts one clock period (T) and is followed by a zero or one in the next clock period. If there is no transition between bits on a given clock, the waveform must wait for the next clock before there can be a transition for transmission.


A connection head structure of a high pressure fuel injection tube is provided to avoid an interference between an annular flange and an opposing part by sufficiently maintaining an tube axial direction length of the connection head and to obtain a good sealability to prevent leaking during autofrettage processing with a high pressure of not less than 300 MPa. A connection head structure of a high pressure fuel injection tube includes, on a connection end portion of a thick walled fine steel tube, a spherical seat face, an annular flange, and a circular conic face that continuously extends from the seat face, wherein a washer and a fastening nut are assembled, characterized in that when a thick walled fine steel tube has t (wall thickness)/D (outer diameter)<0.3, an tube axial direction distance L1 from a connection head end to the back face of the annular flange is from 0.38 D to 0.7 D, a spherical body radius R of the seat face is from 0.45 D to 0.65 D, and an outer diameter D1 of the annular flange is from 1.2 D to 1.4 D, wherein an inner circumferential face of the connection head includes a two stage tapered face having a cross section outline in a tube axial direction of the steel tube that broadens toward the aperture of the tube.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connection head structure of a high pressure fuel injection tube including a relatively thin-diameter thick-walled steel tube multifariously arranged as a supply path of fuel and the like for, as an example, a diesel internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a high pressure fuel injection tube having such a connection head, as illustrated in FIG. 5, it is known to comprise a connection head 112 defined, on a connection end portion of a relatively thin-diameter thick-walled steel tube 111, by a spherical seat face 113, an annular flange 115 provided at an interval from the seat face 113 in a tube axial direction, and an arcuate face 114 that tapers toward a tip and continuously extends from the seat face 113 to the annular flange 115 (refer to FIG. 4 of Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-336560). Such a connection head 112 is formed by working with buckling using pressure of a punch member from the exterior in a tube axial direction, and accordingly, an expansion occurs toward the exterior of a circumferential wall due to the working with buckling using the pressure and thereby creates a pocket (annular recessed portion) 116 on the head inner circumferential face having an enlarged inner diameter and an increased tensile stress of the inner surface due to stress concentration; and the connection head 112 is submitted for use in such a state; but problems such as cavitation erosion occurs proximal to the pocket portion due to the high pressure fluid when arranged and used; and unfortunately radial cracks in the connection head occur in the radial direction due to fatigue rupture with starting points in the pocket, and cracks occur in the circumferential direction due to fatigue rupture around the pocket.
As a countermeasure for such problems, the applicant first proposed, for example, a high pressure fuel injection tube including a connection head defined on a connection end portion of a relatively thin-diameter thick-walled steel tube by a spherical seat face, an annular flange provided at an interval from the seat face in a tube axial direction, and a circular conical surface that tapers toward a tip and continuously extends from the seat face to the annular flange, characterized by a method for making a shallow annular curved groove recess in a portion of the circular conical surface and thereby making the pocket shallow and smooth when formed on the head interior due to formation of the connection head (refer to FIG. 1 of Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-336560), a method for covering the pocket created on the head interior when forming the connection head wherein an exterior circumferential face defines a truncated circular conical or truncated arcuate seat face for fitting to the opposing seat portion with a metal cylindrical member fitted into the head interior (Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2005-180218), and the like.
Further, the applicant proposed a connection head structure of a high pressure fuel injection tube to obtain substantially similar or better effects than the technology first proposed, by proposing a means of preventing the occurrence of cracks in the recessed portion of the pocket due to creation of the pocket when forming the head, the occurrence of cracks due to cavitation erosion occurring proximal to the pocket due to the flow of high pressure fluid when arranged and used, and the phenomena of a diameter enlargement of the inner diameter and an increase of tensile stress of the inner surface due to stress concentration resulting from creation of the pocket when forming the head (Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-61085).
This connection head structure of the high pressure fuel injection tube is characterized in that when a thick-walled thin-diameter steel tube has t (wall thickness)/D (outer diameter)<0.3, a tube axial direction distance L1 from a connection head end to the back face of the annular flange is from 0.38 D to 0.6 D, a spherical body radius R of the seat face is from 0.45 D to 0.65 D, an outer diameter D1 of the annular flange is from 1.2 D to 1.4 D, and the head inner circumferential face is formed as a substantially flat cylindrical face and/or a conical surface having a cross section outline in a tube axial direction which has a diameter nearly the same as that of the inner circumferential face of the steel tube; and when a thick-walled thin-diameter steel tube has t (wall thickness)/D (outer diameter)≧0.3, a tube axial direction distance L1 from a connection head end to the back face of the annular flange is from 0.38 D to 0.7 D, a spherical body radius R of the seat face is from 0.45 D to 0.65 D, an outer diameter D1 of the annular flange is from 1.2 D to 1.4 D, and an inner circumferential face of the connection head is formed as a substantially flat cylindrical face and/or a conical surface having a cross sectional outline in a tube axial direction which has a diameter nearly the same as that of the inner circumferential face of the steel tube; and further for the connection head, an angle θ of an apical angle of a circular conical surface (pressurized seat face) that tapers toward a tip and continuously extends from spherical seat face to the annular flange or to a proximity of the annular flange is from 50 to 60 degrees, a maximum diameter D3 of the circular conical surface is from 1.03 D to 1.09 D, and a circular conical surface, a circular conical surface having a protruding or recessed outline, or a cylindrical face extends from the maximum diameter portion of the circular conical surface to the annular flange.
For the connection head structure of the high pressure fuel injection tube according to Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-61085 recited above, the connection head inner circumferential face has a substantially flat face having a cross section outline in a tube axial direction nearly the same as the inner circumferential face of the steel tube, and therefore almost no pocket (annular recessed portion) is created by plastically working the interior of the connection head; and therefore, excellent effects are provided such as eliminating the occurrence of cracks in the recessed portion of the pocket portion when forming the head, concerns of cracks occurring due to cavitation erosion by fluid pressure inside the head, and phenomena of a diameter enlargement of the inner diameter and an increase of tensile stress of the inner surface due to stress concentration resulting from creation of the pocket when forming the head; drastically reducing the possibility of the connection head inner circumferential face serving as a starting point of fatigue rupture, and the like.
However, it was ascertained that for the connection head structure of the high pressure fuel injection tube according to Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-61085 recited above, an axial direction length of the connection head cannot be sufficiently maintained; and unfortunately, there are concerns that the annular flange may interfere with the opposing part; a risk exists of deterioration of the sealability due to axial misalignment of the nozzle (seal plug) and the tubular body in the case where autofrettage processing is performed on the high pressure fuel injection tube; and in particular, for autofrettage processing with a high pressure of not less than 300 MPa, there are concerns that leaking unfortunately may occur.

Connection head structure of high pressure fuel injection tube


An earth mover provided with a continuous bucket-type loader which lifts earth onto a screen on the earth mover which vibrates in order to separate soil from rocks and other debris with the soil being collected in the earth mover as the earth mover moves along and the rocks and other debris being discharged from the rear of the earth mover on ground over which the earth mover has just moved.

Earth movers of the type comprising a tractor pulling an earth carrier which is provided with a scoop therebelow which can scoop up earth into the carrier or alternatively scoop up earth which is dumped into the carrier by means of an endless belt are well known and made by a number of different manufacturers. The earth thus scooped up often times can have a significant amount of rock and other debris therein. In order to separate this from the soil in the earth, the present state of the art involves collecting the earth in the soil carrier, going to a stationary screen and dumping the earth containing the rocks therein. Then a track hoe is used to load the earth thus collected onto the screen and an end loader is used to stockpile the screened soil which is separated from the rocks and other debris in the earth. Thus, four pieces of equipment and four operators are used to collect the earth and separate the rocks and other debris from the soil.

Earth mover and attached vibratory screen


Disclosed herein are an apparatus and method for reconstructing a three-dimensional (3D) face based on multiple cameras. The apparatus includes a multi-image analysis unit, a texture image separation unit, a reconstruction image automatic synchronization unit, a 3D appearance reconstruction unit, and a texture processing unit. The multi-image analysis unit determines the resolution information of images received from a plurality of cameras, and determines whether the images have been synchronized with each other. The texture image separation unit separates a texture processing image by comparing the resolutions of the received images. The reconstruction image automatic synchronization unit synchronizes images that are determined to be asynchronous images by the multi-image analysis unit. The 3D appearance reconstruction unit computes the 3D coordinate values of the synchronized images, and reconstructs a 3D appearance image. The texture processing unit reconstructs a 3D image by mapping the texture processing image to the 3D appearance image.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for reconstructing three dimensional (3D) faces based on multiple cameras and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method that are capable of effectively reconstructing 3D face images using color and depth images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional 3D face reconstruction systems are chiefly intended for movies. Since the conventional 3D face reconstruction systems aim to reconstruct objects that are most similar to actual objects, almost all equipment is expensive, the installation of the systems is complicated, and the installation and use of the systems require experts. Conventional face reconstruction systems for medical applications are each equipped with multiple DSLR-class cameras and an expensive structured-light projector.
Furthermore, cameras and projectors used in such systems are of synchronous type, so that problems arise in that an additional device is required to achieve synchronization and in that reconstruction performance is rapidly deteriorated when synchronization is not established.
Meanwhile, recently, with the development of computer vision technology, there have been increasing attempts to reconstruct faces in three dimensions using inexpensive cameras such as mobile phone camera and web cameras. This technology has the advantage of being convenient, and may be used for applications for amusement because it is focused on entertainment. However, this technology is disadvantageous in that it cannot be used in the beauty and medical fields because of its low reconstruction quality.
A variety of experiments and research for acquiring the 3D depth information of an object using one or more depth cameras have been actively conducted. Since a low-price depth camera cannot receive synchronizing signals, a synchronization problem occurs when multiple heterogeneous depth cameras are used or one or more depth cameras are used along with another type of camera.
Conventional approaches for solving the problem of the synchronization between heterogeneous cameras include a scheme for performing synchronization using sound, and a scheme for indicating time codes in captured image frames and then performing synchronization. However, the scheme for performing synchronization using sound is disadvantageous in that it is difficult to automate the scheme and synchronization should be performed after the capturing of images by manually comparing sound with image signals through post processing. The scheme for performing synchronization using time codes is also performed by comparing time codes through post processing step and aligning images having the same time code. However, this scheme can be automated because comparing only time codes or time stamps is sufficient. Accordingly, in order to acquire images while automatically synchronizing the images during capturing and reconstruct the 3D appearance of an object using the acquired images, it is difficult to use the conventional schemes.
Meanwhile, in order to create 3D content for stereoscopic TV such as 3D TV or multi-view TV, a scheme was proposed for constructing a heterogeneous multi-camera system using a depth camera and a high-resolution camera together and improving a low-resolution depth map acquired by the depth camera using information acquired by the high-resolution camera.
In the above applications, synchronization is essential when heterogeneous cameras are used together, and a depth camera capable of supporting synchronization is very expensive. Accordingly, the system is very expensive, and the installation and environmental settings of the system require a long time and professional knowledge.
Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2007-0009899 discloses an apparatus for creating a 3D model on the assumption that synchronized images are received via multiple stereo cameras. The technology disclosed in the publication has some limitations in that it is impossible to use an asynchronous camera and received images should have the same resolution.
Accordingly, there is an urgent need for a new technology that can reconstruct 3D images.

Apparatus and method for reconstructing three dimensional faces based on multiple cameras

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


From a fluctuation of pulse periods of a subject continuously measured by a pulse period measuring device, a first pulse period fluctuation signal HFC.sub.RR which corresponds to a first pulse period fluctuation component produced in substantial synchronism with a respiration of the subject and a second pulse period fluctuation signal LFC.sub.RR which corresponds to a second pulse period fluctuation component having a predetermined frequency lower than a frequency of the first pulse period fluctuation component are extracted by a pulse period fluctuation signal extracting means. Then, based on a ratio (HFC.sub.RR /LFC.sub.RR) of the first pulse period fluctuation signal HFC.sub.RR to the second pulse period fluctuation signal LFC.sub.RR, an anesthetic depth of the subject is calculated by an anesthetic depth calculating means. Thus, the present apparatus can objectively or quantitatively calculate the anesthetic depth of the subject. Additionally, the apparatus can accurately measure the anesthetic depth of the subject without needing operator's skill or the like.

When a patient is anesthetized for a surgery or the like, it is required to maintain a suitable anesthetic depth so as to protect the patient from stress or pain due to the surgery. Conventionally, for example, an anesthetic depth has been subjectively or empirically recognized by monitoring a change of a blood pressure, a heart rate or a respiration rate of the patient, resulting from a stimulation of the surgery, or observing a reflex of eyelashes, a dimension of a pupil, a hue of a limb or a body temperature of the patient.
However, since the anesthetic depth recognition based on the change of the blood pressure, the heart rate or the respiration rate, or based on the reflex of the eyelashes, the dimension of the pupil, the hue of the limb or the body temperature is performed depending on a subjective judgement of anesthetists or the like, the anesthetists are required to have a long-time experience and a skill. In addition, it is not easy to objectively or accurately recognize the anesthetic depth. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an anesthetic depth measuring apparatus for objectively measuring an anesthetic depth of a living subject.
The inventors of the present invention have continued their study in the background of the above described situation, and they have found that a magnitude of a pulse period fluctuation component produced in synchronism with a respiration of a subject, a magnitude of a blood pressure fluctuation component having a frequency lower than a frequency of the respiration of the subject or a rate of change of the pulse period to the blood pressure of the subject has a close relation to an activity level of subject's parasympathetic nerve or sympathetic nerve, whereby an anesthetic depth of the subject can be objectively measured on the basis of the magnitude of the above mentioned fluctuation component, when the subject is anesthetized.
Moreover, the present inventors have found that the influences of the anesthesia on a peripheral body temperature and a deep body temperature are different from each other, and a difference between the peripheral body temperature and the deep body temperature has a close relation to an activity level of a nerve of the subject, whereby an anesthetic depth of the subject can be objectively measured on the basis of the difference. The present invention has been developed based on those findings.


In accordance with a first preferred embodiment, a control method comprises monitoring a position of a motion control axis and controlling an output device responsive to the position of the motion control axis. The controlling step further includes latching a cam element that controls the output device, and unlatching the cam element that controls the output device. The, manner in which the latching step is performed and the manner in which the unlatching step is performed are configurable in a programming interface. The programming interface is capable of receiving a latch position for the cam element and an unlatch position for the cam element. The programming interface is further capable of receiving additional configuration information to configure the manner in which the latching step is performed and different additional configuration information to separately configure the manner in which the unlatching step is performed. The latching step and the unlatching step are performed in the manner configured in the programming interface. In accordance with another preferred embodiment, a programming interface for a control system comprises an axis motion control instruction and an output cam instruction. The axis motion control instruction is executable to control movement of a motion control axis. The output cam instruction is executable to control a state of an output device responsive to a position of the motion control axis. The programming interface permits the axis motion control instruction and the output cam instruction to both be used in a common user program.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to output cam systems and methods that control output devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Cam systems are used in a wide variety of different systems to control output devices. For example, in industrial control systems, cam systems are commonly used to control the operation of one or more output devices responsive to the operation of one or more other devices. For example, in one configuration cam systems are used to control output devices responsive to the operation of a motor. In such a configuration, the cam system may be used to synchronize the operation of the output devices to the operation of the motor, such that the output devices assume different output states in accordance with the real time position of the motor shaft. Therefore, for example, as a product moves on a conveyor belt, a cam system may be used to control the output devices responsive to motor position so as to cause certain actions to be taken at predetermined locations along the conveyor belt. Rather than use motor position as the motion control axis, another motion control axis may also be used, such as an axis more directly associated with the device driven by the motor. Other configurations are also possible.
Early cam systems were mechanically implemented, such as a camshaft used in an internal combustion engine system. With the development of digital signal processing technology, including microprocessor technology, cam systems are now widely electronically implemented. Electronic implementation of cam systems is advantageous because it allows more complex relationships between a larger number of devices to be defined. However, as the complexity of cam systems increases, there is an increased need for improved cam systems and related programming tools that are easy to use, flexible, and/or capable of allowing increasingly complex relationships to be defined and monitored. Output cam systems and methods that preferably meet one or more of these needs would be highly advantageous.


A battery pre-charging circuit includes a pre-charging path, a pre-charging switch and a low-voltage pre-charging circuit. The pre-charging path is coupled between a charger and a battery for providing a pre-charging current from the charger to the battery. The pre-charging switch is coupled to the pre-charging path for conducting along the pre-charging path. The low-voltage pre-charging circuit is coupled to the pre-charging switch for controlling the pre-charging switch. The low-voltage pre-charging circuit is configured to switch on the pre-charging switch when the battery voltage is below a first battery voltage level.

In a typical high power battery protection circuit, a charging switch and a discharging switch are employed to control the charging loop and the discharging loop, respectively. In addition, an external resistor and a pre-charging switch are used for pre-charging purposes.
Prior Art FIG. 1 shows a typical battery protection circuit 100 able to perform pre-charge, in accordance with the prior art. The discharging switch 112 controls the discharging loop and the charging switch 110 controls the charging loop. The pre-charging switch 214 controls the pre-charging loop.
During pre-charging, the controller 102 sinks a current through the PCHG pin to switch on the switch 116. Therefore, the gate of the pre-charging switch is coupled to the positive terminal of the battery. As such, the pre-charging switch 214 is switched on accordingly to pre-charge the battery.
However, when the battery voltage is too low, the controller is not operable and is not able to sink enough current to switch on the switch 116. In other words, the pre-charging switch can not be switched on to pre-charge the battery when the battery voltage is too low or zero.

Battery pre-charging circuit comprising normal voltage and low voltage pre-charging circuits


There is provided a configuration in which a lead-out electrode that extends out from an excitation electrode provided on a lower surface of a crystal piece facing an inner bottom surface of a container main body, is connected to a crystal terminal of an IC chip via a conducting path provided on the inner bottom surface of the container main body, and the conducting path is superimposed, in plan view, on the excitation electrode of the lower surface of the crystal piece, and the excitation electrode of the lower surface and the conducting path have the same electric potential, to thereby suppress the occurrence of stray capacity therebetween. As a result, stray capacity occurring in the conducting path that connects the excitation electrode and the IC terminal is made small, thereby preventing variations in oscillating frequency.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a surface mount type crystal oscillator (hereunder, referred to as a "surface mount oscillator") in which a crystal element and an IC chip are arranged in parallel, and in particular, to a surface mount oscillator in which the occurrence of stray capacity between an excitation electrode and a conducting path is suppressed.
2. Background of the Invention
A surface mount oscillator, because of its small size and light weight, is built-in as a source of frequency reference or time reference, particularly in portable electronic devices. For one such conventional example, a crystal piece and an IC chip are arranged within a container in parallel in the horizontal direction, and used for a thin electronic card including, for example, a SIM card (subscriber identity module card).
3. Prior Art
FIG. 3 is a drawing for describing a conventional example of a surface mount oscillator, wherein FIG. 3A is a plan view with cover removed, and FIG. 3B is a sectional view thereof.
As shown in FIG. 3, in the conventional surface mount oscillator, a crystal piece 2 and an IC chip 3 are housed within a sectionally concave-shaped container main body 1, and a metallic cover 4 is joined to an opening end surface 1c of the container main body 1 to thereby seal-enclose them therein. On this opening end surface 1c there is provided, for example, an annular metallic ring 5, and the metallic cover 4 is joined thereon by means of seam welding.
The container main body 1 comprises laminated ceramics 1a and 1b having a rectangular outer shape in plan view, and the four corner sections of an outer bottom surface 1d thereof have mount terminals 6 for a power supply terminal, an output terminal, a ground terminal, and a function terminal (for example, AFC terminal). Moreover, as necessary, on the external surface of the container main body 1 including the outer bottom surface 1d, there are provided communication terminals (not shown in the drawing) such as a crystal inspection terminal and a temperature compensation data writing terminal.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the crystal piece 2 is of a rectangular shape in plan view, excitation electrodes 7a and 7b are provided on the center area of both principle surfaces 2c and 2d thereof, and lead-out electrodes 8a and 8b extend out on both sides of one lengthwise end section of the crystal piece 2. Both sides of the one end section of the crystal piece 2 where the lead-out electrodes 8a and 8b extend out, are a corner section on one lengthwise side of the crystal piece 2 and a corner section on the other side. Here, each of the lead-out electrodes 8a and 8b respectively has a folded section 8c (refer to FIG. 4) that is folded toward the opposite surface of the principle surface of the crystal piece 2. Moreover, with the widthwise direction of the container main body 1 taken as the lengthwise direction of the crystal piece 2, the crystal piece 2 is arranged on an inner bottom surface 1e of the container main body 1. On this inner bottom surface 1e there are arranged crystal retention terminals 9a and 9b, and both sides of the one end section of the crystal piece 2 where the lead-out electrodes 8a and 8b extend out, are fixed to the crystal retention terminals 9a and 9b by means of electrically conductive adhesive agents 10a and 10b.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the IC chip 3 is of a rectangular shape in plan view. On this IC chip 3 is integrated an oscillating circuit (not shown in the drawing) and, as necessary, a temperature compensation mechanism, and one principle surface thereof serving as a circuit forming surface, has IC terminals 11. One side 3a of the IC chip 3 is made adjacent to and opposed to the one lengthwise side 2a of the crystal piece 2, and is fixed onto circuit terminals 12 provided on the inner bottom surface 1e of the container main body 1 by means of ultrasonic thermal bonding, for example, with use of bumps 15a and 15b (so-called flip-chip bonding). Thereby, the crystal piece 2 and the IC chip 3 are arranged in parallel in the horizontal direction and housed on the inner bottom surface 1e of the container main body 1.
Here, the crystal retention terminals 9a and 9b are connected, via conducting paths 13a and 13b, to circuit terminals 12a and 12b, onto which the crystal terminals 11a and 11b in the IC terminals 11 are joined by means of the bumps 15. Moreover, a power supply terminal, an output terminal, a ground terminal, and a function terminal in the IC terminals 11 are respectively connected electrically, via conducting paths (not shown in the drawing), to the aforementioned mount terminals 6 corresponding thereto. In this case, for example, from one end section of the IC chip corresponding to one end section of the crystal piece 2 where the lead-out electrodes 8a and 8b extend out, on one side of the IC chip 3 opposed to one side of the crystal piece 2, there are sequentially arranged the crystal terminals 11a and 11b of two of the IC terminals 11 of the IC chip 3. Thereby, the distance of the conducting paths 13a and 13b between the crystal retention terminals 9a and 9b and the crystal terminals 11a and 11b of the IC terminals 11, is reduced, and the wiring capacity thereof is made small. (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-83248)


A method of characterizing linewidth errors in a lithography system 30 used to delineate a desired pattern onto an exposure site of a wafer 32. The pattern of a reticle 34 is transferred onto an exposure site 56 of a wafer 32 by projecting a slit of light extending in a slit direction y through the reticle while scanning the reticle and the wafer in a scanning direction x relative to the lens. The exposure site 56 is conceptually divided into a grid having one series of lines extending in the scan direction x and another series of lines extending in the slit direction y whereby points corresponding to perpendicular intersections of the lines may each be assigned a pair of coordinates (x,y). The linewidths of the pattern are measured for each of the points (x,y) and a linewidth error value ERROR (x,y) is generated for each of the points (x,y). An ERROR.sub.optical (y) value for each y coordinate is calculated by averaging the ERROR (x,y) values for each group of points (x,y) having a common y coordinate. In this manner, the contribution of optical aberrations to linewidth errors may be determined.

Integrated circuit fabrication techniques vary greatly depending on the specific chip structure being made, the exact processes being used, and/or the available equipment. However, almost all fabrication methods include a lithography process during which certain portions of a wafer (i.e., a silicon slice coated with a photoresist material) are exposed to radiation to delineate a latent image corresponding to the desired circuit pattern. Specifically, radiation is passed through a reticle having clear portions and opaque portions corresponding to the desired pattern and the radiation passing through the reticle's clear portions passes to the wafer. If reduction optics are employed, the imaging portions of the reticle reflect an enlarged version of the desired pattern, such as four times (4.times.) the desired pattern, onto an exposure site on the wafer.
A lithography process may be performed by one of several available lithography systems. Of particular relevance to the present invention is a scanning lithography system, such as a step-and-scan lithography system. A scanning lithography system typically includes an illumination source and a projection assembly. The illumination source provides a narrow slit of light corresponding to that section of the light beam having minimal aberrations. In a reflective scanning system, the slit of light is in the form of a narrow ring concentric with the optical axis of the system's reflecting mirrors. In a purely refractive scanning system, the slit of light is the form a linear band. In a catadioptric scanning system, the slit of light may be in the form of either a ring or a band.
The slit of light illuminates a certain slit-shaped region of the reticle. Radiation passing through the clear portions of the reticle are projected by the projection assembly onto the wafer to delineate a slit-shaped region of the wafer. If reduction optics are employed, the projection assembly includes a reduction lens and the slit-shaped region of the wafer is a demagnified version of the reticle region. For example, if the projection assembly introduces a 4:1 demagnification factor, the reticle region will be four times larger than the wafer region.
The illumination slit extends entirely across the imaging surface of the reticle in one direction and is scanned across the imaging surface of the wafer in a transverse direction. For the purposes of the present discussion, the direction the slit extends will be called the "slit direction" and the direction of scanning will be called the "scan direction."
Scanning is accomplished by relative movement between the optical elements (i.e., the illumination source and the projection assembly) and the imaging elements (i.e., the wafer and the reticle). For example, the illumination source and the projection assembly may remain stationary and the wafer and the reticle may be moved relative thereto. To this end, the lithography system could include stages that support the wafer and the reticle, respectively, and a scanning assembly which moves the stages in the scan direction. If the system employs reduction optics, the wafer must move at a slower rate than the reticle. Thus, if the projection assembly introduces a 4:1 demagnification factor, the scanning assembly must move the reticle stage four times faster than the wafer stage.
A lithography system must have the consistent ability to print features having a certain minimum size. This feature size is measured in terms of "linewidth." Typically, during the set-up of the lithography system, an actual linewidth is measured and compared to a target value to obtain an error factor. If the error factor is within an acceptable tolerance, the lithography process may proceed. If the error factor is too great, adjustments are made to the lithography components to obtain acceptable linewidth tolerances before proceeding with the lithography process.
In a reduction scanning lithography system, linewidth errors may be caused by optical aberrations and/or other non-optical factors. As such, the absolute value of a linewidth error itself does not provide any insight as to whether the errors are caused by the system's optical components, its scanning components, or both. While adjustments may be made to, for example, the system's scanning assembly, to reduce linewidth errors to an acceptable tolerance, these adjustments will not cure the contribution of the error caused by optical aberrations.
Accordingly, the inventor appreciated that a need remains for a method of characterizing the contributions to linewidth errors.

Method of characterizing linewidth errors in a scanning lithography system


A substrate holding apparatus capable of reducing an amount of deflection of a substrate, such as a wafer, is disclosed. The substrate holding apparatus includes: a plurality of chucks configured to hold a peripheral edge of a substrate; at least one support member disposed below the substrate; and an actuating device configured to bring the chucks into contact with the peripheral edge of the substrate while elevating the support member to bring the support member into contact with a lower surface of the substrate, and configured to move the chucks in a direction away from the peripheral edge of the substrate while lowering the support member to separate the support member away from the lower surface of the substrate.

A substrate cleaning apparatus for processing substrates, such as wafers, has a substrate holding device for holding and rotating a substrate. The substrate holding device is configured to hold a peripheral edge of a substrate with a plurality of chucks. While a wafer (or substrate) is held and rotated by the chucks, a cleaning tool, such as a roll sponge or a pen sponge, is brought into contact with a surface of the wafer in the presence of a cleaning liquid, thereby cleaning the surface of the wafer.
Wafers having a diameter of 300 mm are expected to be replaced with wafers having a diameter of 450 mm in the near future. However, the increase in wafer size may cause the following problems. When four equally-spaced chucks grip a wafer having a diameter of 450 mm, the wafer bends between adjacent two of the chucks and an amount of deflection reaches about 0.5 mm. This amount of deflection is about five times the amount of deflection when a wafer having a diameter of 300 mm is held by the four chucks. If the cleaning tool is pressed against the surface of the wafer that bends largely while it is in rotation, the cleaning tool does not uniformly contact the wafer and is unable to clean the surface of the wafer uniformly. Moreover, the contact with the cleaning tool may cause the wafer to further bend, and may possibly result in a crack in the wafer.
It is possible to reduce the amount of wafer deflection by using an increased number of chucks. However, the increase in the number of chucks may give rise to a new problem that a hand of a transfer robot is likely to contact the chucks when the transfer robot transports the wafer. Moreover, it is difficult to reduce the size of the hand and it is also difficult to provide a recess in the hand for making the hand stay clear of the chucks because it is necessary to ensure a mechanical strength of the hand that bears the weight of the wafer with a diameter of 450 mm.

Substrate holding apparatus and substrate cleaning apparatus


Hollow RX-08HD cylindrical charges were loaded with boron and PTFE, in the form of low-bulk density powders or powders dispersed in a rigid foam matrix. Each charge was initiated by a Comp B booster at one end, producing a detonation wave propagating down the length of the cylinder, crushing the foam or bulk powder and collapsing the void spaces. The PdV work done in crushing the material heated it to high temperatures, expelling it in a high velocity fluid jet. In the case of boron particles supported in foam, framing camera photos, temperature measurements, and aluminum witness plates suggest that the boron was completely vaporized by the crush wave and that the boron vapor turbulently mixed with and burned in the surrounding air. In the case of PTFE powder, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of residues recovered from fragments of a granite target slab suggest that heating was sufficient to dissociate the PTFE to carbon vapor and molecular fluorine which reacted with the quartz and aluminum silicates in the granite to form aluminum oxide and mineral fluoride compounds.

Several proposed new types of high explosive devices involve burning boron, or other light metals. (See U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/293,659) Magnesium and aluminum have low melting points about 920-930K, and are relatively easily ignited, whereas boron melts at 2350K, vaporizes at 4140K, and has a dry air ignition temperature of about 1950K. (See H. L. Besser and R. Strecker, "Overview of Boron Ducted Rocket Development During the Last Two Decades" in Combustion of Boron-Based Solid Propellants and Solid Fuels, edited by K. K. Kuo, and R. Pein, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1993, which is hereby incorporated by reference.) Boron also has a high heat of vaporization, 480-kJ/mol, or 10.6 kcal/g. Explosive initiation of a boron burn will probably require either the presence of a catalyst or some means of heating the boron to very high temperatures. Shocking boron particles with a high explosive detonation wave will not produce temperatures high enough to cause melting because boron is a relatively incompressible brittle substance with a bulk modulus of about 2.6 Mb. Although temperatures attained within the reaction zone of a detonating high explosive are high, about 3000-4000K depending on the explosive, they are maintained only for short intervals, of the order of hundreds of nanoseconds.

Explosively driven low-density foams and powders

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC


The present disclosure provides a display method of a curved display panel, and a curved display device. The display method of the curved display panel according to the present disclosure includes: obtaining a radius of curvature of the curved display panel and acquiring image data, wherein the image data includes a gray scale corresponding to each sub-pixel; and determining a data voltage output to each sub-pixel according to the radius of curvature and a gray scale corresponding to the sub-pixel.

An existing type of curved display panel is formed by bending a flat display panel into a curved surface having a certain radius of curvature. This leads to a change in an illumination area of a sub-pixel in the display panel, which in turn leads to a change in brightness of light emitted by the sub-pixel. An existing display method of the curved display panel includes: determining a data voltage corresponding to each gray scale for each sub-pixel of the display panel in a flat state such that display effect of the entire display panel in the flat state conforms to a desired index, such as a gamma value of 2.2, the maximum brightness and color temperature meet certain requirements, or the like; and then directly driving each sub-pixel to emit light according to a gray scale of the sub-pixel specified in image data by using the data voltage corresponding to the gray scale and determined for the curved display panel in the flat state.

Display method of curved display panel, and curved display device

CHONGQING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


The invention relates to a canister (1) for final repository of spent fuel elements from a nuclear reactor, comprising an insert (2) that contains said spent fuel elements, an inner copper casing (4a, 4b, 4c) that encloses the insert (2), and at least one outer casing (5a, 5b, 5c) that encloses the copper casting and that consists of a passive-film-forming metal or metal alloy, the passive film on the casing being constituted by an essentially oxidic film that is rich in one or more of the metals in the group of metals that consist of the metals zirconium, chromium and titanium.

No prior art exists today for rendering spent nuclear fuel harmless in large scale. Hence, various concepts have been developed in order to bury the spent nuclear fuel in primary rock. The spent nuclear fuel may have to rest in the primary rock for hundreds of thousands of years before the radioactivity has abated to a level that is harmless to man and animal. It is important during this long period of time to ensure that the fuel does not dissolve such that radioactive particles rise to ground surface via the ground water.
Water is needed in order for the spent fuel to dissolve and spread. It is hence important for the final repository to ensure that the spent fuel is maintained encapsulated in a tight canister and thereby is prevented from contacting the surrounding water until the radioactivity has abated to a low level. In most of the hitherto developed concepts the final repository comprises a system of barriers (canister, buffer and rock) that together are intended to prevent the radioactive species of the fuel from reaching ground surface. If one barrier does not work as planned, the other barriers will nevertheless guarantee safety, according to SKB, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co (www.skb.se). The canister (with an insert) is closest to the fuel. It is this barrier that is primarily intended to isolate the fuel from the surroundings. The objective of the canister in the repository is to completely encapsulate the spent fuel for a very long time, since no radioactive species can reach ground surface as long as the canister is tight.
The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co has developed a concept, the KBS-3 method, that is based on encapsulation of spent nuclear fuel in a protective copper casing that is thereafter embedded in bentonite clay at a depth of 500 meters in the primary rock. Hereby, the bentonite clay acts as a buffer against mechanical stress in the canister caused by rock movements and will also limit the ground water flow. Inside the protective copper casing there is a nodular iron insert in order to increase strength.
The copper casing is joined together by e.g. friction welding or electron beam welding or some other welding method. Countries such as Sweden, Finland and Canada are planning to deposit their spent nuclear fuel according to this concept or a similar one.
Copper is classified as a corrosion allowing metal in water that contains O2. SKB is of the opinion that the rate of corrosion in anoxic (free from gaseous oxygen) ground water only depends on accessible sulphur and that it hence is extremely low. It is thereby considered that the copper will give a perfect protection against corrosion until the radioactivity has abated. On page 28, second paragraph of the SKB report Encapsulation—When, where, how and why? (SKB Art. 141 2008) the following statement can be read: Today we really know all we need to know about corrosion in order to design the canister and the respitory to be safe for much more than 100,000 years. The present consensus about copper corrosion is also summarised in SKB Technical report Tr-01-23.
Other countries have chosen another concept according to which a corrosion resistant metal such as titanium, titanium alloys, high-alloy stainless steel or nickel alloys has been chosen for the casing, instead of a corrosion allowing metal. It is characteristic for such alloys that their excellent resistance to corrosion is achieved by the formation of a thin passive layer of oxide (so called passive film) that forms on the outer surface of the metal.
Irrespective of the choice of material for the canister casing, the demands are very high since they will be exposed to hard environments for a long time, such as:                ground water that contains sulphide and chloride.        ground water that contains O2 (oxidising) for 1-3,000 years.        Anoxic environment for the following 100,000-1,000,000 years.        Elevated temperatures (30-100° C.) for 10,000 years due to radioactive decay of the fuel.
For the alloys that form passive films there is a certain risk of pitting corrosion, particularly if the chloride content of the ground water gets very high. This is a problem for the concepts based on the corrosion resistance of a passive layer. Accordingly, there is a risk that the barrier that is to be constituted by the canister is prematurely penetrated.
The applicant has surprisingly found that copper is not immune in water free from O2 (anoxic water). This means that the rate of corrosion of copper in contact with anoxic ground water is much higher than previously assumed. Moreover, it has surprisingly been found that the rate of corrosion of copper in an anoxic water environment is very temperature sensitive and completely unacceptable rates of corrosion are achieved at 60-90° C. with the formation of a high hydrogen-containing, porous and non-protective oxide. Such temperatures may exist for up to 10,000 years due to the activity of the fuel.
This means that none of the above mentioned concepts will result in a corrosion protection that, with adequate safety margins, will cope with the conditions that the canisters may be exposed to, until the radioactivity has abated to levels that are harmless to man and animal.
It should also be noted that the canisters in question for spent nuclear fuel are relatively large. The canisters according to the KBS-3 method are almost five meters high and have a diameter of slightly more than one meter. The casing consists of copper with a thickness of five centimeters. In order to enhance strength, it has an insert of nodular iron which is a type of cast iron, on the inside. When the canister is full of spent fuel it will weigh between 25 and 27 metric ton.
SE 425,707 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,917 are both based on hot isostatic pressing (HIP) of copper powder for the manufacturing of the outer canister. However, hot isostatic pressing of copper powder for this purpose has several drawbacks:                1) A HIP:ed copper powder may result in worse corrosion and mechanical properties than the KBS-3 method with hot formed (forged) OFP copper alloy as suggested by the SKB.        2) It is expensive and technically difficult to HIP such large canisters as are required by the KBS-3 concept (diameter of about 1 m, height of about 5 m).        3) All methods that require for the radioactive material to be positioned inside the inner canister during the sintering process/HIP are completely out of the question in order to achieve an improvement over the KBS-3 concept, since the fuel rods do not withstand high temperatures. That is because it is very hard to avoid oxidation of the main component of the spent nuclear fuel pellets, UO2, to higher oxides at elevated temperatures. Such a conversion is risky since it may result in a 35% volume expansion and pulverization of the pellets. In addition, the solubility of the higher oxides is too high in this context.        4) It is estimated that a certain percentage of the fuel rods (zircaloy tubes with uranium dioxide pellets) will contain water absorbed/adsorbed in the porous UO2 pellets during the interim storage that takes place in a water reservoir for 30-40 years (alternatively from the time period in the reactor). It is not considered to be technically/economically possible to dry the fuel rods after the interim storage, to a guaranteed dryness. This means that if the UO2 pellets are exposed to heat treatment they will rapidly react with moisture and water during heating, which must not take place (see paragraph 3).
SE 509,177 shows an example on how to produce a canister for the KBS-3 method, i.e. a canister comprising an inner steel canister and an outer copper canister. The outer copper canister is formed by electrolytic copper coating of the inner steel canister.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,001 shows a container that comprises at least three layers of different metals, which, from the outside inwardly, are always more noble. In one example, the outer layer consists of cast iron, the intermediate layer consists of nickel or a nickel alloy, and the inner layer consists of copper or a copper alloy. The problem of having an outermost non-noble metal such as cast iron or carbon steel, is the strong development of gaseous hydrogen due to anoxic corrosion. In this corrosion reaction, the thermodynamic equilibrium pressure of hydrogen is about 700 bar (Thermo Calc software, SSUB-database 2006).
In all repository methods in which bentonite clay is to be used as external buffer around the metal canister (such as in KBS-3), there must not be any build-up of hydrogen gas pressure since that may ruin the buffer protection by the formation of holes and channels in the bentonite clay, which in turn results in far too fast transport paths for gas, water and ions in the same. The hydrogen released from anoxic corrosion of iron furthermore results not only in hydrogen gas (H2) but also in a considerable amount of atomic hydrogen (H) that migrates into the metal. This electrochemical hydrogen load due to corrosion of iron is harmful also to nickel and copper alloys that are not per se classified as particularly hydrogen sensitive alloys. The problem is that hydrogen load due to corrosion of iron can be said to correspond to a hydrogen gas pressure in the magnitude of 700 bar. A strong hydrogen activity will degrade virtually all metals (including copper and nickel alloys) in terms of mechanical properties (strength, creep ductility, toughness, etc.), and in addition the corrosion resistance will decrease for copper and nickel alloys at the same time as the risk of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and hydrogen embrittlement increases.
Contrary to U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,001, the applicant's patent is based on a copper canister with an outer metal alloy that forms a passive film based on chromium oxide, zirconium oxide or titanium oxide. Note that copper is less noble in the electromotive series than the oxide forming alloys containing Zr, Ti, Cr in their passive state (normal state).

Canister for final repository of spent nuclear fuel


A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for optimizing SQL queries in a relational database management system uses hash star join operations. A hash star join operation is performed in place of the star join operation when the query includes the star join operation on a base table and the plurality of dimension tables. The base table is hash partitioned into a plurality of distinct and separate sub-portions thereof. Selecting and projecting rows from all of the dimension tables to separate temporary dimension tables. The query is split into a plurality of sub-queries, wherein each of the sub-queries comprises a hash star join operation on the temporary dimension tables and one or more of the distinct sub-portions of the base table. Each of the sub-queries are then performed independently of one another to create intermediate result tables. The intermediate result tables from each of the sub-queries are then merged together to create an output table.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to databases management systems performed by computers, and in particular, to the optimization of SQL queries in a relational database management system using hash star join operations.
2. Description of Related Art
Relational DataBase Management Systems (RDBMS) using a Structured Query Language (SQL) interface are well known in the art. The SQL interface has evolved into a standard language for RDBMS software and has been adopted as such by both the American Nationals Standard Organization (ANSI) and the International Standards Organization (ISO).
In RDBMS software, all data is externally structured into tables. The SQL interface allows users to formulate relational operations on the tables either interactively, in batch files, or embedded in host languages such as C, COBOL, etc. Operators are provided in SQL that allow the user to manipulate the data, wherein each operator performs functions on one or more tables and produces a new table as a result. The power of SQL lies on its ability to link information from multiple tables or views together to perform complex sets of procedures with a single statement.
A table in a relational database system is two dimensional, consisting of rows and columns. Each column has a name, typically describing the type of data held in that column. As new data is added, more rows are inserted into the table. A user query selects some rows of the table by specifying clauses that qualify the rows to be retrieved based on the values in one or more of the columns.
One of the most important operations in the execution of SQL queries is the join of two or more tables. A user can specify selection criteria from more than one table by specifying how to join the tables. This is normally done by a conditional operator on the columns of the tables.
However, join operations can be quite costly in terms of performance. In joins that involve two tables, each row of the first table might be joined to many rows of the second table. Joins that involve more than two tables are usually resolved by joining two tables at a time. In this case, the order that the tables are joined is extremely important.
Although techniques have been developed for optimizing SQL query expressions involving joins, there is still a need in the art for additional optimization techniques for join operations.

Optimization of SQL queries using hash star join operations