Various character strings are repeatedly displayed on a graphics display. For example, strings such as "file", "edit", "view" and "help" are commonly displayed on nearly every screen. This redundancy of displayed character strings is exploited using a string cache and string caching method. A string cache stores a database of strings along with the rendered forms of the strings. The string cache stores the strings in a rendered form which for particular character strings and attributes and characteristics of the strings. The string cache is stored and accessed local to a graphics accelerator so that a single string request across a system bus activates the display of the entire string, including a display of the selected attributes and characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system including a graphical users interface (GUI). More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for caching character strings to improve the performance of the GUI during the display of text strings.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems generally include a graphical users interface (GUI) for displaying information on a display screen. The GUI supplies the drawing functions for lines and shapes, color management and font handling. One task of a GUI is the display of textual material on the screen. A glyph generation, the rendering and display of text characters on a display, is a time-intensive operation that often sets the pace of operation of many GUI operations. (A glyph is defined as an image, usually of a character, in a font, or a graphic symbol having an appearance that conveys information.) A rendering, as defined in the field of computer graphics, refers to the creation of an image on a display screen from data that describes the screen. Examples of rendering operations include the creation of a three-dimensional image that incorporates the simulation of lighting effects such as shadowing and reflections and in multimedia videotaping, the creation of a realistic image from objects and light data in a scene. Rendering of text includes the operations of forming text characters according to a specific defined font, coloration of the text character and background, positioning of the character on a display screen, and similar operations defining a character display.
Multimedia computer systems often include hardware accelerators to improve performance of media displays and other output devices. One common hardware accelerator is a graphics accelerator. A graphics accelerator is a hardware device dedicated to increasing the speed and performance of graphics. Graphics accelerators implement I/O-bound or computation-intensive tasks such as blits, polygons and text rasterization, freeing a central processing unit in a multimedia computer system for other operations Graphics accelerators are used to improve the performance of text displays by rapidly displaying text bitmaps on a monitor.
One technique which has been employed to improve the performance of text display in a GUI is the usage of a font cache. A font cache is a cache memory for storing individual characters in a defined font size and style. The rendering of a character is stored in the font cache as needed. When a character is requested for display, a hashing operation is performed on the character font to generate an index for accessing the character for display. A string of characters is displayed by individually dereferencing the input characters in the defined font and building a string display from pieces of the characters. A string is defined as a connected sequence of characters or bits treated as a single data item.
Usage of a font cache improves the performance of text displays and efficiently uses the cache memory. However, the display software includes an operating loop for individually displaying each character in the string in a pipeline manner. The individual display of each character hinders the performance of a text display. In GUI system using a graphics accelerator, a request to display each character is transferred to the graphics accelerator, generally via the system bus, and the font cache is accessed for each transferred character. Furthermore, spacing and orientation are calculated on a per-character basis. For each access of the font cache, an individual character bitmap is generated for display. The transfer of a request to display a character over the system bus is typically the operation which limits the performance of a computer system using a graphics accelerator. Text is generally displayed as a character string so that data is transferred over the system bus to the font cache in the graphics accelerator for each character of the character string.
Font caching typically includes the steps of finding a font corresponding to a requested display character and determining whether the character font is stored in the font cache. If the font character is not available in the font cache, the font character is placed in the font cache. Then, on a character-by-character basis, the font cache technique involves ascertaining whether the character is contained in the font cache. If the character is not cached, a bitmap character corresponding to the character and selected font is stored in the font cache. The position of the character in the font cache is determined and sent to the accelerator via the system bus. The accelerator receives the position of the character from the system bus, accesses the font cache using the received position of the character and displays the individual character using the accessed data from the font cache. The process is repeated for each character.
The font caching technique improves the performance of a computer system during display of characters because rendering of the individual characters is avoided after the cache is initialized. When a font modification is made the cache generally is reinitialized, thereby ensuring stability. Furthermore, many calculations are necessary to form a sequence of characters in a string. The position of each displayed character is calculated on a character-by-character basis. A sequence of characters is typically displayed by scanning from left-to-right across a line and, at the end of a line, down to a next line. Accordingly, no a priori information is known regarding the position of a character with respect to a previous character in a sequence. RAM is generally optimized for sequential transfer rather than an indeterminate "zig-zag" access that tends to result from operation using the font caching technique.
What is needed is a computer system and operating method for improving the performance of a graphical users interface (GUI) with respect to the display of textual characters.

Computing apparatus and operating method using string caching to improve graphics performance


A circuit (28) and method of sensing data stored in a memory circuit provide a reference current (I.sub.REF) that tracks memory cell current (I.sub.BIT) over a range of temperatures and power supply voltages. A comparator circuit (66) senses the memory cell current with respect to the reference current to produce the stored data (V.sub.DATA) By sensing current rather than voltage, the voltage swing on a high capacitance bitline (39) can be reduced to improve speed. The reference current is set during testing of the circuit by applying programming voltages (V.sub.WELL, V.sub.CG, V.sub.BL) to a reference device (52) that matches a storage device (36) in the memory cell (30).

The present invention relates in general to integrated circuits, and more particularly to sensing data stored in nonvolatile memory circuits.
Many wireless communications systems are using digital techniques to increase functionality and noise immunity while reducing cost. For example, cellular telephones and pagers receive radio frequency carrier signals modulated with digital data. A demodulator extracts the data and a digital signal processor executes a software program to convert the data to audio and display signals.
Portable wireless communications devices store the software program and other data in a nonvolatile memory circuit that operates from a low voltage battery, e.g., 1.8 volts, and has minimum current drain for extending the operating time between battery recharges. Data is stored in electrically erasable, floating gate storage transistors by applying high-voltage programming signals to induce a stored charge that controls the conduction of the transistor.
Prior art memory circuits read the stored data by driving a bitline with the storage transistor to produce a voltage swing that can be sensed and compared with a reference voltage to produce the data. However, bitline voltage transitions are slow and increase access time because of the need to discharge large bitline capacitances through the storage transistor. Such bitline discharging not only slows memory access, but also consumes power and reduces battery operating time.
Hence, there is a need for a memory circuit that can sense data stored in a memory cell while reducing bitline voltage swings in order to reduce power and improve performance.


Methods and apparatus for forming a semiconductor device package with a transmission line using a micro-bump layer are disclosed. The micro-bump layer may comprise micro-bumps and micro-bump lines, formed between a top device and a bottom device. A signal transmission line may be formed using a micro-bump line above a bottom device. A ground plane may be formed using a redistribution layer (RDL) within the bottom device, or using additional micro-bump lines. The RDL formed ground plane may comprise open slots. There may be RDLs at the bottom device and the top device above and below the micro-bump lines to form parts of the ground planes.

Electronics can be divided into a simple hierarchy consisting of devices such as integrated circuit (IC) chips, packages, printed circuit boards (PCB), and systems. The package is the interface between an IC chip and a PCB. IC dies are made from semiconductor materials such as silicon. Dies are then assembled into semiconductor packages such as quad flat packs (QFP), pin grid arrays (PGA), ball grid arrays (BGA), three dimensional integrated circuits (3DIC), wafer level packages (WLP), or package on package (PoP) devices, using wire bonding (WB), tape automated bonding (TAB), or flip chip (FC) bumping assembly techniques. The packaged die is then attached either directly to a PCB or to another substrate as the second level packaging.
3DIC technologies are known as vertical interconnect packaging technologies as they exploit the vertical dimension of the chip to reduce interconnect length and to achieve greater integration efficiency. The techniques for 3DIC package include wire-bonding, micro-bumps, through-vias, and more. A silicon interposer can be used to form a 3DIC package, where the interposer provides die-to-die interconnections for dies mounted on the interposer. For example, two dies may be bonded above each other by face-to-face or face-to-back stacking, with the lower die being coupled to the interposer by connectors such as micro-bumps. Alternatively, multiple dies may also be mounted in parallel above an interposer, and coupled to the interposer by connectors such as micro-bumps.
Semiconductor packages equipped with wireless data and communication systems comprise various RF (radio frequency) transmitting structures, which sometimes are built on chip or in-package. Electromagnetic RF waves or signals are conveyed through the packages or devices by conductive structures referred to as transmission lines. Transmission lines, as an example, may be used for interconnecting individual electrical elements together in a Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC), and for interconnecting MMICs together within microwave Multi Chip Modules (MCMs).
In general, a transmission line includes at least two electric conductors or lines wherein one of the lines forms a ground (also referred to as "ground plane") and the other forms a signal transmission line. The signal transmission line is variously arranged and combined with one or more ground planes or ground lines to form different types of conductive transmission lines such as microstrip, coplanar waveguide (CPW), grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) transmission lines to serve various RF signal applications. The signal transmission lines and ground conductors or planes are generally supported by some type of insulating substrate or material such as a dielectric.
As semiconductor technology continues to advance and chip package size shrinks, such as by employing 3DIC die stacking, the distance between metal layers in the conductive CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) structure becomes smaller, leading to increasingly larger capacitance between the metal layers and reduced performance of RF devices. In addition, designing and fabricating transmission lines on-chip in a single chip or die becomes increasingly difficult with shrinking die packages in advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology nodes like the 20 nm process. Methods and apparatus are needed for designing and fabricating transmission lines with improved performance.
Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the various embodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Methods and apparatus for transmission lines in packages

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A method for the solid phase preparation of an amine by a novel synthesis is described where a diol is monoalkylated with a chloromethyl resin followed by reaction with N,N'-carbonyldimidazole to afford a resin-bound tertiary-alkoxycarbonyl-imidazole which is subsequently N-alkylated and then sequentially treated with appropriate building blocks and reagents to afford a resin-bound amine which affords the desired amine after treatment with an acid as well as other valuable intermediates used in the process.

The present invention relates to a method for the solid phase synthesis of an amine, more particularly, the present invention relates to a method of synthesis of primary and secondary amines and .alpha.-amino esters useful as pharmaceutical agents.
Most of the existing resin attachment strategies used in solid phase organic synthesis (SPOS) have been determined by those specialties such as peptide, oligosaccharide, and oligonucleotide synthesis which have had the longest history in successful utilization of SPOS. For example, there are many resin attachment strategies for carboxylic acids that are attributable to solid phase peptide synthesis (Merrifield R. B., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1963;85:2149; Steward J. M., Young J. D., Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis, Pierce Chemical Co., Rockford, Ill. 1984:9-14). Similarly oligosaccharide chemistry has provided methods to attach alcohols to resins by forming an ether linkage (Gait M. J., ed., Oligonucleotide Synthesis, IRL Press, Oxford, 1984; Frechet J. M. J., in Polymer-Supported Synthesis of Oligonsaccharides, P. Hodge and D. C. Sherrington, eds., Wiley, N.Y.: 1980:407-34). Recently, solid phase methodology has been applied to the synthesis of a wide variety of non-oligomeric molecules (Terrett N. K., Gardner M., Gordon D. W., Kobylecki R. J., Steele J., Tetrahedron, 1995;51:8135; Thompson L. A., Ellman J. A., Chem. Rev., 1996;96:555) but often the synthesis of such small organic molecules is restricted by the availability of linking strategies. A number of articles describing new resin linker strategies, including tetrahydro-pyranyl- (Thompson L. A., Ellman J. A., Tetrahedron Lett., 1994;35:9333), silyl- (Routledge A., Wallis M. P., Ross K. C., Fraser W., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 1995;5:2059; Plunkett M. J., Ellman J. A., J. Org. Chem., 1995;60:6006; Randolph J. T., McClure K. F., Danishefsky S. J., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1995;117:5712), sulfonyl- (Backes B. J., Virgilio A. A., Ellman J. A., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1996;118:3055; Beaver K. A., Siegmund A. C., Spear K., Tetrahedron Lett., 1996;37:1145), benzyloxycarbonyl- (Pande C. S., Gupta N., Bhardwaj A., J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 1995;56:1127; Hauske J. R., Dorff P., Tetrahedron Lett., 1995;36:1589), and ADCC-linked solid supports (Bannwarth W., Huebscher, Barner R. W., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 1996;6:1525) have been published.
The object of the present invention is the use of a resin linker to which amino groups may be anchored for solid phase syntheses of a variety of heterocyclic molecules. Desirable properties of the linker include stability to strongly basic conditions, temperatures as high as 100.degree. C., and strong nucleophiles. Lastly, the linker should be cleaved under reasonably mild conditions.
We have found that the solid phase equivalent of a tertiary-butoxy carbonyl (t-Boc) protecting group fulfill these requirements. Thus, resin bound tertiary alcohols have been prepared by a two step synthesis from polystyrene-divinylbenzene (Wang S. S., Merrifield R. B., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1969;91:6488) and chloromethylpolystyrene-divinylbenzene (Merrifield resin) (Wang S. S., J. Org. Chem., 1975;40:1235). These have been elaborated to a phenyl carbonate derivative and reacted with hydrazine to give a solid supported tert-alkoxycarbonylhydrazide which is used in the synthesis of C-terminal hydrazides of peptides. The use of these literature methods in the Boc-like anchoring of amines to solid supports has not reported, presumably because of difficulties achieving quantitative loading of amines via the tert-alkyl-phenylcarbonate moiety which is a relatively unreactive acylating agent.


An example user terminal apparatus includes communication circuitry configured to be connected to a home network comprising a plurality of devices; a display configured to display a UI screen for managing the home network; a sensor configured to sense a user manipulation of the UI screen; and processing circuitry configured to change the UI screen displayed on the display according to the user manipulation. The UI screen is one of a plurality of service pages that are changeable according to a user manipulation in a first direction, the plurality of service pages being pages for respectively providing different home network management services. At least one of the plurality of service pages comprises an area that is displayable on the display according to a user manipulation in a second direction.

With the development of computer technologies, communication technologies, and home electronics technologies, a network management service for managing a home network to which apparatuses and systems in a home are connected has taken center stage as a future-oriented technology.
All types of information electronic appliances that are connected to one another through a home network in a home may transmit data to one another and communicate with various types of user terminal apparatuses. For example, a user may control all types of electronic appliances that are connected to one another through a home network in a home regardless of time and place, by using a UI installed in a user terminal apparatus such as a portable phone, a mobile phone, a smart phone or the like.
However, since ubiquitous service eXchanges (UXs), which are provided according to different types of businesses such as a manufacturer, a communication company, etc., are different, it is still difficult to provide a home network management service. For example, whenever a device is newly added to a home network, the user has no choice but to adapt to a new UI screen design or have the discomfort of a fixed UI screen that may not satisfy various tastes of the user.
Also, various services, such as controls, methods, energy management, and the like of home appliances, are provided in a home network system. However, it can be difficult for the user to check, in one view, various functions provided from various services through only an existing service UI screen.
The present application describes a user terminal apparatus that provides various user interface (UI) screens for managing a home network and a method of managing a home network thereof.
According to a non-limiting aspect of the technology described herein, there is provided a user terminal apparatus including: a communication unit configured to be connected to a home network comprising a plurality of devices; a display unit configured to display a UI screen for managing the home network; a sensing unit configured to sense a user manipulation of the UI screen; and a control unit configured to change the UI screen displayed on the display unit according to the user manipulation. The UI screen may be one of a plurality of service pages that are changeable according to a user manipulation in a first direction, and the plurality of service pages may be pages for respectively providing different home network management services, and at least one of the plurality of service pages may include an area that is displayable on the display unit according to a user manipulation in a second direction.
In response to one of the plurality of service pages being selected, the control unit may display a function area page subordinate to the service page on the display unit.
The first direction may be a horizontal direction, the second direction may be a vertical direction, and the control unit may sequentially display the plurality of service pages page by page in response to a flick or drag manipulation being input in the horizontal direction and display a function area included in the service page in response to a flick or drag manipulation being input in the vertical direction.
One of the plurality of service pages may be a main page, and the main page may include an information display area of the home network and at least one favorite function area that is displayable according to a user manipulation in the second direction.
In response to a new device being added to the home network, the control unit may add at least one of a new service page and a new function area.
The plurality of service pages may include at least one of a control service page providing a control menu for respectively controlling operations of the plurality of devices, an energy service page providing energy usage information of the plurality of devices, a monitoring service page providing a monitoring service by using a photographing device of the plurality of devices, a media service page providing a media service by using a media output device of the plurality of devices, and a mode service page for differently controlling the plurality of devices according to a home network mode.
A function area of the control service page may include the control menu, a function area of the energy service page may include periodical energy usage information of the plurality of devices, a function area of the monitoring service page may include data captured by one of the plurality of devices, a function area of the media service may include a menu for managing a file stored in at least one of the plurality of devices, a function area of the mode service page may include a mode execution menu for executing one mode, and in response to the mode execution menu being selected, the control unit may control devices included in a group corresponding to the mode execution menu at one time.
The plurality of service pages may respectively include service summary areas. In response to a service summary area of one service page being displayed and a user manipulation in the second direction being performed, the control unit may move and display at least one function area connected to the service summary area onto the service summary area.
In response to the at least one function area being displayed on the display unit and an enlarge menu icon of one function area being selected, the control unit may enlarge the one function area to a detailed function area and display the detailed function area in a whole area of the display unit.
In response to the at least one function area being displayed on the display unit and a pinch gesture being input, the control unit may reduce the at least one function area to corresponding objects and display the corresponding objects and, in response to one of the objects being selected, change the selected object to a function area and display the function area.
The user terminal apparatus may further include a rotation sensing unit configured to sense a rotation of the user terminal apparatus. The control unit may display the main page according to a first layout in response to the display unit being oriented in the vertical direction and display the main page according to a second layout in response to the display unit being oriented in the horizontal direction.
The first layout may be a layout in which the information display area of the home network and at least one favorite function area are connected in a second axis direction based on the information display area of the home network, and the second layout may be a layout that includes a plurality of state information areas indicating state information of respective rooms included in an environment managed by the home network.
According to another non-limiting aspect of the technology described herein, a method of managing a home network of a user terminal apparatus includes, in response to an application for managing the home network including a plurality of devices, being executed, displaying a first service page of a plurality of service pages for managing the home network; in response to the first service page being displayed and a user manipulation in a first direction being input, displaying a second service page connected to the first service page; and in response to the first service page or the second service page being displayed and a user manipulation in a second direction, displaying a function area comprised in the first service page or the second service page. The plurality of service pages may be pages for respectively providing different home network management services.
The method may further include: in response to one of the plurality of service pages being selected, displaying a function area subordinate to the service page on a display unit.
The method may further include: in response to a new device being added to the home network, adding at least one of a new service page and a new function area.
The one of the plurality of service pages may be a main page, and the main page may include an information display area of the home network and at least one favorite function area that is displayable on a display unit according to a user manipulation in the second direction.
The plurality of service pages may respectively include service summary areas and at least one function area connected to the service summary areas. The displaying of the at least one function area may include: in response to the at least one function area being displayed and a user manipulation in the second direction being performed, moving and displaying the at least one function area onto the service summary areas.
The method may further include: in response to the at least one function area being displayed and an enlarge menu icon of one function area being selected, enlarging the one function area to a detailed function area and displaying the detailed function area.
The method may further include: in response to at least one function area being displayed and a pinch gesture being input, reducing the at least one function area to corresponding objects and displaying the corresponding objects, and in response to one of the reduced objects being selected, changing the selected object to a function area and displaying the function area.
The method may further include: in response to the main page being displayed and a display unit of the user terminal apparatus being oriented in a vertical direction, displaying the main page according to a first layout, and in response to the display unit being oriented in a horizontal direction, displaying the main page according to a second layout.
According to various example embodiments as described above, a home network service user interface (UI) screen that reflects various needs of a user may be provided. Therefore, the user may further intuitively and efficiently use various services.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

User terminal apparatus and management method of home network thereof


A method of testing the coking qualities of sample quantities of coal in a test container and the structure of the test container are disclosed. A test container which is ideally reusable is adapted to receive one or more samples of coal to be tested and then the test container is inserted into a coking oven along with additional, conventional coal during a conventional coking operation. Following the completion or substantial completion of the coking operation, the test container is recovered and from the conventional converted coke and the sample(s) of coke are removed from the container for testing and evaluation. The container is recharged with one or more additional samples of coke and reused in another conventional coking operation.

The present innovations relate generally to the field of producing coke from coal and more particularly to a method and apparatus for testing and evaluating the coking quality of coal in a commercial coke oven.
Coke is a key ingredient used in the manufacture of steel and other commercial applications and coke is typically produced by heating coal in a controlled atmosphere for long periods of time to drive off volatile materials and impurities from coal and convert or reduce the coal to coke. Because coal is an organic material the components of coal can vary widely and this wide variation in components results in disparate coking capabilities for coal mined from different locations. Some coal can be converted into high quality, metallurgical coke and some lack the necessary components or have too many impurities and result in a poor quality coke. Due to the wide range of coking qualities of coke, it is necessary to test the coking performance of coal and test the coking performance of various blends of coal. Unfortunately, there is an inadequate supply of testing ovens for evaluating the coking performance of coal and blends of coal and therefore, there is a need for developing some means for testing the coking performance of coal and blends of coal as part of continuously operating commercial coke oven operation. In the past, expendable, single-use containers have been used during a commercial coke oven operation in order to test the coking performance of coal samples. However, the expendable, single-use containers such as cardboard have been consumed in the extreme environment of the commercial coke oven and once the container has been consumed, or otherwise destroyed, it can be difficult to recover the sample of coal which has been at least partially converted into coke and the consumed material may leave behind ash or undesirable impurities in the converted coke.

Method and apparatus for testing coal coking properties


A rod elevator including a first latching mechanism and a second latching mechanism connected to one another in a spaced apart relationship for connecting a pair of rods to one another in an axially aligned relationship. Each of the latching mechanisms has a rod receiving space axially aligned with a rod receiving space of the other latching mechanism.

In the production of hydrocarbons from subsurface formations, it is common to use a sucker rod to lift fluids to the surface. Typical sucker rod pumps include a string of sucker rods extending from the earth's surface down to a downhole pump. A pump jack located on the surface is employed to reciprocate the sucker rod string and thus the downhole pump. The pump jack typically is a beam that pivots in a vertical plane and which is provided with a horse head at one end. The horse head supports a pair of bridle cables and a carrier bar.
A polished rod is suspended from the carrier bar and extended through a stuffing box. The lower end of the polished rod is attached to the upper end of the sucker rod string. The polished rod has a polished exterior surface to serves to form a seal with the stuffing box and thus force formation fluid that is lifted to the earth's surface to flow from production tubing to a collection conduit by which the produced fluid is conveyed to a tank battery, pipeline or other system whereby the produced fluid is collected.
The sucker rod string is formed of a series of individual sucker rods which are connected to one another in an end-to-end fashion so as to work together to lift the fluid from the ground. At times, the need arises to service the well or replace or maintenance the downhole pump. To do so requires the sucker rod string be removed from the well.
Removal of the sucker rod string starts with the removal of the polished rod. Because polished rods are manufactured with a smooth, polished shaft having a uniform diameter, a pony rod is typically attached to the upper end of the polished rod to provide a location at which a rod elevator can be attached. Pony rods are provided with a recessed section consisting of a smaller diameter than the diameter at its ends. This recessed section allows the rod elevator to be attached to the pony rod so that the rod string can be lifted from the well.
After the polished rod is lifted and detached from the sucker rod string, the remaining sucker rods in the rod string are removed without the assistance of a pony rod because the sucker rods have a latching area for the rod elevator. Thus, only the polished rod requires the use of the pony rod to facilitate its removal from the rod string. Conventional rod elevators include a C-shaped or U-shaped body defining a rod receiving space. Two latch members are pivotally attached to the body to close on a rod automatically to securely lock the rod within the body. The rod can be released by thumb and finger pressure at either the front or rear of the body. A bail is connected to the body. The bail is a generally arched structure to permit the rod elevator to be suspended from a hook.
In practice, the rod elevator is suspended from a hook that is attached to the traveling block of a block and tackle assembly (i.e., an external hoist). During the process of connecting the rod elevator to the polished rod, the traveling block is typically positioned near the horsehead of the pump jack. Depending on the position of the horsehead and the traveling block, a problem may be encountered connecting the rod elevator to the polished rod due to contact between the horsehead and the traveling block interfering with the positioning of the rod elevator on the polished rod. For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an apparatus that prevent contact between the horsehead and traveling block thereby facilitating a safe and efficient positioning of the rod elevator on the polished rod.


Method and apparatus for carburizing, quenching and tempering workpieces, by which the step of carburizing can be incorporated into a machining and manufacturing process to be performed by an on-line machining and manufacturing system as one stage thereof, and by which high-quality treatment or processing can be achieved without occurrences of variation in quality among heat-treated products. In this apparatus, a preheating chamber (2), six carburizing chambers (5a to 5f), a cooling chamber (6), a reheating chamber (7), a quenching chamber (8) are placed around an intermediate chamber (4) having a transport device (12). Further, a high-frequency induction heating technique is used for heating each of major ones of the treatment or processing chambers. Moreover, a plasma carburizing method is performed in the carburizing chambers. Furthermore, workpieces, which are successively carried into this apparatus through a machining and manufacturing line, are assigned and distributed to the chambers, respectively, and are then treated or processed therein. Thus, the process of carburizing, quenching and tempering can be performed without stagnation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for carburizing, quenching and tempering, and, more particularly, to a method for carburizing, quenching and tempering, by which a step of carburizing can be incorporated into a machining and manufacturing process to be performed by an on-line machining and manufacturing system as one stage thereof, and to an apparatus therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, continuous gas carburize/quench furnaces of the tray pusher type or of the roller hearth type have been used as apparatuses for carburizing and quenching, so as to carry out the mass production of (steel) products. The continuous gas carburize/quench furnace of any of such types usually provides around-the-clock operation in what is called a heat-treating shop, which is away from a machining shop, by being made to be offline from a machining (process) apparatus. Further, the furnace has employed a producing method by which a heat treatment is performed according to a batch system that is adapted to set up a large number of workpieces (such as parts), which are to be processed, on trays, respectively.
Meanwhile, the process to be performed by such a conventional continuous gas carburize/quench furnace is composed of steps illustrated in FIG. 10.
Namely, the cutting of the workpieces are first performed in the machining shop. Subsequently, the cut workpiece is transported from the machining shop to the heat-treating shop which is made to be offline and is away therefrom. When the workpieces arrive at the heat-treating shop, the set-up step of setting up the workpiece on a tray is performed by jigs. After cleaning, the workpieces are loaded into the continuous gas carburize/quench furnace. Thence, the steps of carburizing and quenching are performed in the continuous gas carburize/quench furnace. Subsequently, the workpieces are cleaned and tempered. Upon completion of a sequence of heat-treating steps, a step of taking the workpiece out of the tray and further disassembling the workpiece is performed. The disassembled workpiece is transported to the machining shop which is made to be offline and is away from the heat-treating shop. Thereafter, in the marching shop, the grinding of the workpiece is performed.
The aforementioned process of FIG. 10, which is to be performed in the conventional continuous gas carburize/quench furnace, has the following problems.
i) Because the machining shop is placed apart from the heat-treating shop, a transport system and personnel therefor are needed. Moreover, it is necessary to stock workpieces, which are to be processed (or treated), for a time period having a predetermined length. PA1 ii) There is the necessity of the set-up step of setting a workpiece on a tray by using a jig so as to charge the workpiece into the furnace. Moreover, the disassembling step of taking out the workpiece, which has been set on the tray, therefrom is needed upon completion of the heat-treating step. PA1 iii) It takes time to raise and lower the temperature of the workpiece. The lead time of the heat treatment is long. Thus, the process from the step of inserting or charging the workpiece into the furnace to the step of extracting thereof from the furnace is time-consuming. PA1 iv) When starting up the furnace, it takes long time to perform seasoning for regulating (or controlling) the furnace atmosphere. PA1 v) Batch processing results in variation in quality among the heat-treated workpieces. PA1 Z.gtoreq.X/Y PA1 C.gtoreq.M/Y, H.gtoreq.N/Y PA1 Z.gtoreq.X/Y PA1 C.gtoreq.M/Y, H.gtoreq.N/Y PA1 W.gtoreq.L/Y
The present invention is accomplished to solve the aforementioned problems.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for carburizing, quenching and tempering workpieces, by which the step of carburizing can be incorporated into a machining and manufacturing process to be performed by an on-line machining and manufacturing system as one stage thereof, and by which high-quality treatment or processing can be achieved without occurrences of variation in quality among heat-treated products.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for such a method.


An airbag apparatus is installed in a vehicle having a three-seat-row arrangement, and includes a vehicle airbag having a plurality of sections and a gas supplying device. The vehicle airbag is installed on an upper sidewall of the vehicle, and inflated downwardly in passenger-protection regions located between passengers on the seats and a sidewall of the vehicle for protecting the passengers during an accident such as a side collision or roll-over. The gas supplying device is capable of generating an inflation gas for inflating the airbag. The sidewall constitutes a large area on a side of the vehicle at a left or right side of the passenger such as a side window or a door. The vehicle airbag is typically installed in an area between a side roof panel on an upper region of the sidewall and a ceiling panel.

The present invention relates to an airbag apparatus installed in a vehicle such as an automobile. More specifically, the present invention relates to an airbag apparatus for preventing a passenger from colliding against a sidewall of a vehicle in an accident such as a side collision or roll-over.
There have been proposed various airbag apparatus for protecting a passenger from colliding into a sidewall of a vehicle such as a side window and door upon a vehicle accident such as a side collision or roll-over. For example, an airbag apparatus including a vehicle airbag stored along a side roof rail of an automobile has been proposed (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-328504).
Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-328504 has disclosed a technology for reliably inflating an airbag in a vehicle having two rows of seats. However, for a large vehicle having at least three rows of seats, it is necessary to improve the technology so that a sufficiently large airbag can be inflated quickly and reliably in a passenger-protection region between a sidewall of the vehicle and a passenger.
In view of the problems mentioned above, an object of the present invention is to provide an airbag apparatus for safely protecting a passenger upon a vehicle accident.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.


Map updating systems, methods, and programs that store map information, including one or more pieces of difference update information, obtain the one or more pieces of difference update information used for updating a part of the map information to a new piece of map information, update the map information based on the one or more pieces of difference update information, and obtain total update information used for updating an entirety of the map information to a new piece of map information. The systems, methods, and programs perform a total update on the map information based on the total update information, update the map information on which the total update has been performed based on the one or more pieces of difference update information, and delete the one or more pieces of difference update information from the memory after the map information is updated by the re-updating means.

1. Related Technical Fields
Related technical fields include map updating systems that update a part of, or the entirety of, map information stored in a navigation apparatus or the like to new map information, based on difference update information or total update information.
2. Related Art
Recently, many vehicles have a navigation apparatus installed therein, the navigation apparatus being operable to provide driving guidance for the vehicle and to help the driver to easily reach a desired destination. In this situation, the navigation apparatus denotes an apparatus that is operable to detect a current position of the vehicle with the use of a GPS receiver or the like, obtain map data that corresponds to the current position from a recording medium such as a DVD-ROM or an HDD or via a network, and display the obtained map data on a liquid crystal display monitor. The map data that contains the current position of the vehicle is read from the recording medium or the like, and a map image of the current position of the vehicle is rendered based on the map data and displayed on the display apparatus. Also, a vehicle position mark (i.e., the vehicle location) is superimposed on the map image. The map image is scrolled according to the movement of the vehicle, or the vehicle position mark is moved while the map image is fixed on the screen, so that, the navigation apparatus allows the driver to understand, at a glance, where the vehicle is traveling at any given moment.
New roads (newly constructed roads) are constructed every year nationwide. Also, due to the construction of the new roads, some roads no longer exist, and the formation of existing roads is changed. Thus, it is necessary to update the map data stored in the navigation apparatus at certain intervals of time. In this situation, the map data is updated by buying a new DVD and replacing an old DVD with the new one, or rewriting the contents of the HDD based on map data distributed from a map information distribution center or the like. For rewriting the contents of the HDD, there are basically two types of updating methods as described below:
One method is, when there has been a change in the roads or the like, the map information distribution center creates difference update data used for updating only the changed part. When there is some difference update data related to a specific area (e.g. an area in the neighborhood of one's home that is registered) that needs to be updated in each navigation apparatus, the map data is updated to new map data with the use of the difference update data (Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-198841).
The second method is the map information distribution center creates total update data used for collectively updating, at regular intervals (for example, once every year), the nationwide map data to new map data that reflects the present road state, so that the map data is completely updated to the new map data by using the created total update data.


A portable shade. An illustrative embodiment of the portable shade includes a canopy; a plurality of generally elongated, curved, spaced-apart tent poles carried by the canopy; and a plurality of anchor units receiving the plurality of tent poles, respectively. Each of the anchor units comprises an anchor plate, a striker plate pivotally carried by the anchor plate and a pole receptacle pivotally carried by the striker plate and receiving a corresponding one of the tent poles.

Tents are commonly used to shade persons from the sun during outdoor events. However, many conventional tents are cumbersome and time-consuming to set up and take down and may require several persons for the purpose. Therefore, a portable shade is needed which is compact, lightweight and can be deployed and disassembled by one or two persons.


A contactless power feeding system includes a power transmitting device and a power receiving device. The power transmitting device includes a first AC power source configured to generate an AC power with a first frequency, a second AC power source configured to generate an AC power with a second frequency which is different from the first frequency, a first electromagnetic induction coil, and a first resonant coil. The power receiving device includes a second resonant coil, a second electromagnetic induction coil, and a power storage unit. Power is wirelessly supplied to the power storage unit at the second frequency by a magnetic resonance phenomenon which occurs between the first resonant coil and the second resonant coil.

1. Field of the Invention
One embodiment of the invention disclosed herein relates to contactless power transmitting devices, contactless power receiving devices, and contactless power feeding systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electronic appliances have spread, and a variety of products is shipped to the market. In recent years, portable electronic devices such as cellular phones and digital video cameras have widely spread. Further, electric propulsion machines that are powered by electric power, such as electric cars, appear on the market as products.
In such cellular phones, digital video cameras or electric propulsion machines, power storage units (referred to as batteries and storage batteries) are incorporated. Currently, such a power storage unit is charged in most cases by being directly connected to a household AC power source which is a power feeding means. In a structure which has no power storage unit or which does not use power stored in a power storage unit, a device is operated by power supplied directly from a household AC power source via a wire or the like.
On the other hand, methods by which power storage units are charged without making contact or power is supplied to loads without making contact have been researched and developed. Typical methods are an electromagnetic coupling method (also referred to as electromagnetic induction method, see Reference 1), a radio wave method (also referred to as microwave method), and a magnetic resonance method (also referred to as resonant method, see References 2 to 4).
As described in References 2 to 4, in a contactless power feeding technique using a magnetic resonance method, a device that receives power (hereinafter, referred to as power receiving device) and a device that feeds power (hereinafter, referred to as power transmitting device) each have a resonant coil. Further, in each of the power receiving device and the power transmitting device, an electromagnetic induction coil is provided. Feeding of power from a power source to the resonant coil in the power transmitting device and feeding of power from the resonant coil to a load in the power receiving device are conducted by the electromagnetic induction coils.
In the resonant coil of the power transmitting device and the resonant coil of the power receiving device, resonance frequencies (LC resonance) are adjusted so that a magnetic resonance phenomenon occurs at a particular frequency.
When the resonant coil of the power transmitting device and the resonant coil of the power receiving device face each other, they makes a magnetic resonance phenomenon, and thereby efficient power transfer is realized even when the distance between the resonant coils is large (see Reference 6).
In recent years, identification technologies in which ID (identification number) is assigned to an individual object to clarify the history of information thereof, which is utilized for production, management, or the like have attracted attention. In particular, RFID (radio frequency identification) technology for transmitting and receiving data by wireless communication has been widely used (see Reference 5). A wireless communication system using the RFID technology is a communication system including a wireless communication device (interrogator) and a data carrier (transponder) and communicating data wirelessly therebetween. The wireless communication device refers to a device capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving signals, such as a reader/writer, a cellular phone, or a personal computer. In this specification, the wireless communication device is typically referred to as a reader/writer. In addition, the data carrier is generally called an RFID, an RF tag, an ID tag, an IC tag, an IC chip, a wireless tag, an electronic tag, or the like. In this specification, the data carrier is typically referred to as an RFID.
Examples of RFIDs include passive RFIDs which do not have power sources and active RFIDs which incorporate power sources. The passive RFID has a function of converting a wireless signal (carrier wave or amplitude-modulated wave generated by superimposing modulation wave on carrier wave) transmitted from a reader/writer into a DC voltage by a rectifier circuit which is provided in the RFID, and circuits in the RFID operate using the DC voltage.

SEMICONDUCTOR ENERGY LABORATORY CO., LTD.


A fully differential amplifier includes an input stage and an output stage. The input stage has two differential pairs of n-type input transistors, and two differential pairs of p-type input transistors. The output stage has a first p-type output transistor and a second n-type output transistor, the first p-type output transistor having its source coupled to a first reference voltage node and having its drain coupled to a first output node for a first component of a differential output signal, and the second n-type output transistor having its drain coupled to the first output node and having its source coupled to a second reference voltage node. A p-type input transistor and an n-type input transistor influence operation of the first p-type output transistor such that current conducted by the p-type input transistor and current conducted by the n-type input transistor contribute to the output current conducted by the first p-type output transistor. Similarly, the output current conducted by the second n-type output transistor is influenced by one p-type input transistor and one n-type input transistor.

Transistors are the core building block of the vast majority of semiconductor devices and electronic circuits. Semiconductor devices, such as processor devices, memory devices, and data communication devices, can include millions of transistors. Such devices utilize various electronic circuits and transistor topologies to support their operation. For example, many electronic devices employ transistor-based differential amplifiers. Generally, a differential amplifier receives a differential input signal and generates a corresponding differential output signal. A differential operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is an amplifier that generates output current in response to a differential input voltage.
The prior art includes several fully differential OTA topologies, some of which address the issues of input/output dynamic range, constant transconductance (gm), and other operational aspects. Conventional differential amplifier topologies, however, remain sensitive to transistor mismatches, manufacturing processes, and/or process-voltage-temperature (PVT) variations. Consequently, conventional differential OTA circuits are susceptible to performance degradation caused by transistor mismatches and process variations.

Differential amplifier that compensates for process variations


A method is described which includes providing a semiconductor substrate and forming a trench in the semiconductor substrate. An epitaxy region is grown in the trench. An amorphous layer is deposited overlying the epitaxy region. The semiconductor substrate is then annealed. The anneal may convert a portion of the amorphous layer to crystalline material, as found in the epitaxy region. A chemical mechanical polish (CMP) is then performed, which may remove a portion of the amorphous layer which has not been converted. In an embodiment, the amorphous layer and epitaxy region are germanium and the semiconductor substrate is silicon. The formed crystalline region may be used to form a channel of a p-type device.

The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs having smaller and higher performing circuits than previous generations. One such advancement is the recognition of materials having higher hole mobility than that of silicon. Therefore, there is a desire to replace silicon as the p-channel material for future CMOS generations (e.g., technology nodes).
This desire to have a high mobility p-channel material must be balanced with the need and/or desire to maintain silicon substrates as a fabrication vehicle. Furthermore, silicon-based peripheral circuitry such as, I/O and ESD devices, are often desired. However, due to the lattice mismatch of the higher hole mobility p-channel material and silicon, integrating the materials can be challenging.
Thus, what is desired is a device and method of forming thereof that includes a low-defect, high hole mobility material disposed on a substrate (e.g., silicon wafer).

Method of fabricating a semiconductor device having an epitaxy region


A directional solidification furnace includes one or more movable cooling plates disposed beneath a crucible. In a first position, the cooling plates are free from contact with a crucible support positioned adjacent the crucible. In a second position, the cooling plates are in contact with the crucible support. A control system is used to control the amount of force exerted by the cooling plates against the crucible.

Directional solidification furnaces are used, for example, to produce multi-crystalline silicon ingots. These furnaces have a crucible into which raw poly-crystalline silicon is placed. The crucible is supported by a structure that adds structural rigidity to the crucible. The crucible is disposed within a containment vessel that forms part of the furnace and seals the crucible from the ambient environment.
During use, the raw silicon is melted and then cooled at a controlled rate to achieve directional solidification within the resulting ingot. The controlled rate of cooling is established by any combination of reducing the amount of heat applied by the heaters, movement of or opening of insulation surrounding the crucible, and/or the circulation of a cooling medium through a heat exchanger disposed adjacent the crucible and/or the crucible support. The ingot solidifies in the region closest to the cooler side of the crucible and proceeds in a direction away from the cooler side of the crucible.
The size of silicon ingots produced in these furnaces has been increasing in order to improve efficiency and reduce the cost required to produce the ingots. However, previous attempts to increase the mass of the silicon ingots over about 600 kg have proved unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. There exists a need for a silicon ingot having greater mass (e.g., greater than about 600 kg) and furnaces capable of producing these larger ingots.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

Directional solidification furnace having movable heat exchangers


A conferencing method for a telephone switch system for performing a conferencing function. In addition to a simple conferencing function, if there is a call request from a new subscriber, a conferencing function subscriber makes the existing subscriber wait, and communicates with the new subscriber or selects to communicate with the existing subscriber. Also, if it is desired to delete a specific subscriber, the specific subscriber can be deleted during conferencing communication, using a deletion key and a deletion code. If it is intended to delete some subscribers and add some subscriber during the conferencing communication, deletion and addition can be simultaneously performed, thereby achieving various conferencing services.

The present invention relates to a conferencing method for a telephone switch system, wherein a call waiting function and a subscriber deleting or adding function are offered to a subscriber equipped with a conferencing function so that a call waiting service is executed to communicate with a new subscriber if there is a call request from the new subscriber, and a specific subscriber is deleted or added on necessity during a conferencing communication, when the subscriber equipped with a conferencing function (conferencing function subscriber) attends the conferencing communication.
In accordance with the development of industrial technology, business affairs become complicated and varied, which requires increasingly much time for handling the business affairs.
Various efforts have been tried for attaining time for handling the business affairs at the maximum. A plurality of subscribers conduct a conference by communicating with one another over telephone, without gathering together at a particular site.
A conferencing function is generally provided in a telephone switch system.
However, according to the conventional conferencing method, a conferencing function subscriber simply communicates with his initially selected conferencing function subscriber. Thus, it is not possible for the conferencing function subscriber to communicate with a third party nor for another subscriber to attend the conference later, before the conference is over. A voice processing interface for a conference system is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,588, which provides a voice processing technology, but discloses a basic technology of conferencing services, involving limitation in providing various services, however.

Conferencing method for telephone switch system

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.


A dry moisture barrier film coating composition for forming a moisture barrier film coating for pharmaceutical tablets and the like comprises polyvinyl alcohol, soya lecithin, and optionally a flow aid, a colorant, and/or a suspending agent. A liquid coating solution or dispersion for forming a moisture barrier film coating for pharmaceutical tablets and the like comprises polyvinyl alcohol, soya lecithin, water, and optionally a flow aid, a colorant, and/or a suspending agent. A method of coating pharmaceutical tablets and the like with a moisture barrier film coating comprises forming a liquid coating solution or dispersion for forming a moisture barrier film coating for pharmaceutical tablets and the like comprising polyvinyl alcohol, soya lecithin, water, and optionally a flow aid, a colorant, and/or a suspending agent, applying the coating solution or dispersion onto the tablets to form a film coating on the tablets, and drying the film coating on the tablets.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of coating of substrates like pharmaceutical tablets, and it is specifically concerned with coating such substrates with a coating that acts as a moisture barrier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many medicinal substances and the dosage forms into which they are made undergo degradation during storage due to contact with moisture which has been absorbed from the atmosphere. To combat this degradation, it is frequently necessary for such moisture sensitive dosage forms to be packed in special containers to limit the exposure of the dosage forms to the atmosphere.
In territories where the climate is very humid, specialized packaging does not provide a totally satisfactory answer to moisture degradation.
Elimination of the need for the special packaging, or augmentation of the moisture protection provided by such packaging, may be achieved in the case of solid dosage forms, such as tablets, capsules and granules, by coating with materials which reduce the rate at which the dosage form absorbs atmospheric moisture. Moisture barrier coatings of this type have been employed previously. The traditional means of providing the moisture barrier characteristics required for moisture barrier coatings has been by the use of polymers which are soluble in organic solvents or are relatively insoluble in water. The disadvantages of this approach are 1) the need to use either organic solvents or difficult aqueous polymer dispersion techniques to apply these water-insoluble polymer materials, and 2) the reduced Aqueous solubility of the coating leading to prolonged disintegration time of the dosage form in the body when ingested, with consequent delayed or reduced activity of the medicinal substance in the tablet.
The use of the polymer polyvinyl alcohol, PVA, as a moisture barrier coating has been previously suggested. However, practical usage has been inhibited by the stickiness of grades of the polymer which have a fast enough rate of going into solution in water to make a dispersion to render them economical to use in making the coating. A further problem with the use of PVA is in identifying or selecting a plasticizer which does not compromise the moisture barrier properties of the final coating.

Moisture barrier film coating composition, method, and coated form


A silicon and silicon germanium based semiconductor MODFET device design and method of manufacture. The MODFET design includes a high-mobility layer structure capable of ultra high-speed, low-noise for a variety of communication applications including RF, microwave, sub-millimeter-wave and millimeter-wave. The epitaxial field effect transistor layer structure includes critical (vertical and lateral) device scaling and layer structure design for a high mobility strained n-channel and p-channel transistor incorporating silicon and silicon germanium layers to form the optimum modulation-doped heterostructure on an ultra thin SOI or SGOI substrate capable of achieving greatly improved RF performance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to silicon and silicon germanium based semiconductor transistor devices, and more specifically, to a device design including a grown epitaxial field effect transistor structure capable of ultra high-speed, low-noise for a variety of communication applications including RF, microwave, sub-millimeter-wave and millimeter-wave. Preferably, the epitaxial field effect transistor structure includes the critical device scaling and layer structure design for a high mobility strained n-channel transistor incorporating silicon and silicon germanium layers to form the optimum modulation-doped heterostructure on an ultra thin SOI or SGOI substrate in order to achieve fmax in excess of 200 GHz.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The attractiveness of substantial electron mobility enhancement (i.e. 3–5 times over bulk silicon) in modulation-doped tensile-strained Si quantum wells has inspired a long history of device development on Si/SiGe n-channel modulation doped filed-effect transistors (MODFETs). Subsequently, it has been demonstrated that SiGe MODFETs consume lower power and have lower noise characteristics compared to SiGe Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs). Similarly, when compared to RF bulk Si CMOS device, SiGe MODFETs still have lower noise characteristics, and higher maximum oscillation frequency (fmax). Consequently, Si/SiGe MODFETs are becoming more and more attractive devices for high speed, low noise, and low power communication applications, where low cost and compatibility with CMOS logic technology are required and often essential. Recently, n-channel MODFETs with long channel lengths ranging from 0.2 μm to 0.5 μm have demonstrated encouraging device performances.
Typically, a Si/SiGe MODFET device have an undoped, tensile strained silicon (nFET) or a compressively strained SiGe (pFET) quantum well channels whereby the induced strain is used to increase the carrier mobility in the channel, in addition to providing carrier confinement. The synergistic addition of modulation doping further improves the carrier mobility in the channel by reducing the ionized impurity scattering from the dopants and further reducing the surface roughness scattering in a buried channel. Record high room temperature mobilities of 2800 cm2/Vs have been achieved for electron mobilities in a tensile strained silicon channel grown on a relaxed Si0.7Ge0.3 buffer. Conversely, very high hole mobility of 1750 cm2/V-s in a pure Ge channel grown on a Si0.35Ge0.65 buffer has been achieved [R. Hammond, et al, DRC, 1999]. The highest fT that has been achieved for a strained silicon nMODFET is 90 GHz [M. Zeuner, 2002], and the highest fmax is 190 GHz [Koester, et al to be published]. So far, neither fT nor fmax has reached 200 GHz with Si/SiGe MODFETs.
As described in a simulation study conducted by the inventors, in order to achieve higher speed, the MODFET has to be scaled properly, both in the vertical dimensions and the horizontal (or lateral) dimensions. However, it turns out that the scaling of MODFETs is even more challenging than for CMOS scaling due to the following: 1) the horizontal scaling brings the source and drain closer, and, like the case in the CMOS, short-channel effects and bulk punchthrough become the major hurdles preventing the lateral scaling; and, 2) the vertical scaling of the layer structure turns out to be crucial. The lateral scaling alone cannot keep the scaling of the performance. However, the vertical scaling of the MODFET structures to reduce the depth of the quantum well (dQW) is quite challenging, particularly due to the scaling and abruptness of the n+ supply layer, which is typically doped with Phosphorus as explained in the Annual Review of Materials Science, vol. 30, 2000, pp. 348–355. FIG. 6 illustrates a graph 200 of the Phosphorus (P) doping profile for a G1 (generation) layer structure and the steady-state P doping 201 problem and transient P doping problems 202 associated with the Phosphorus doping in a CVD growth system.
It would be highly desirable to provide a scaling technique for MODFET device structures that overcomes the lateral and vertical scaling challenges in the manufacture of MODFET device structures.
It has been father been demonstrated in commonly-owned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/389,145 entitled "Dual Strain State SiGe Layers for Microelectronics" by J. Chu, et al, filed Mar. 15, 2003, the contents and disclosure of which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, that MODFETs on a thick Silicon-Germanium-on-Insulator (SGOI) substrate will behave like MODFETs on a bulk substrate. Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/389,145 particularly describes a generic MODFET layer structure on a SGOI substrate without specifying the critical layer structure for high performance.
It would be further highly desirable to provide a scaled MODFET device structure that is built on an ultra-thin SiGe-on-insulator (SGOI) substrate, wherein the MODFET device structure exhibits ultra-high speed device performance (e.g., fT, fmax>300 GHz) with better noise figures, acceptable voltage gain and good turn-off characteristics.

Ultra high-speed Si/SiGe modulation-doped field effect transistors on ultra thin SOI/SGOI substrate

International Business Machines Corporation


A connector family that has a central housing having a connector mating face and a board mounting interface. An outer shell is shaped to fit over the central housing. The outer shell at least partially encloses the board mounting interface and exposes the connector mating interface of the central housing. The outer shell has a cable interface that is configured to be joined to a cable. Contacts are held in the central housing. The contacts, central housing and outer shell are used in different configurations depending upon the application. In a first application, the outer shell is mounted over the central housing to form a first configuration. In a second application, the outer shell is removed to expose the board mounting interface on the central housing to form a second configuration.

The present invention generally relates to a modular connector family, and more specifically to a connector family having common components that may be used in both board mounting and cable applications.
A wide variety of connectors exist today for various applications. For example, connectors are used to join circuit boards, to join cables, to join cables and circuit boards and the like. In general, each type of connector is designed for a specific application, and the overall construction of a connector is both tailored and streamlined for use in a given application. Most applications have different physical design and performance requirements. Thus, a connector designed for a board mounting application is optimized for the constraints and performance requirements of the board mounting application. Separately, a connector intended for a cable application is optimized to satisfy the physical and performance requirements of the cable application.
Once a particular connector is designed for a given application, dedicated tooling is then constructed to produce the particular connector in large volume. In general, the tooling associated with conventional board mounted connectors will be quite different from the tooling associated with conventional cable connectors. Hence, separate tooling must be constructed and maintained for each type of connector. Separate tooling for each type of connector adds to the overall cost associated with production.
A need remains for a combination of connector components that form a connector family capable of satisfying diverse applications, such as board mounting and cable applications with numerous patterns of signal and power contacts.

Modular connector family for board mounting and cable applications


In response to a target port group state query from a host, the storage arrays that present a replicated volume to the host aggregate port group state of the storage arrays into a single logical target port group state that is provided to the host. The storage array that receives the query from the host may prompt other storage arrays to provide target port group state and combine the responses from all storage arrays. Port IDs may be translated into unique port IDs so that the logical target port group state does not include repeated port IDs.

The subject matter of this disclosure is generally related to data storage systems that can be used to maintain large data sets and support multiple concurrent users. The basic building blocks of the data storage system may include computing nodes that manage access to data storage components such as disk drives and flash drives. The computing nodes may be "vanilla" servers with storage management software or specialized hardware platforms such as storage engines or storage directors. A storage array may include multiple computing nodes, and a data storage system may include multiple storage arrays. Each storage array presents one or more logical volumes of storage which are abstractions of the data storage components. The data storage system may be accessed by, or via, a host device. For example, instances of an application running on the host device may access data, or applications running on other computers may prompt data access by sending IOs to the host device. The host device accesses data by communicating with the storage arrays with reference to the logical volumes. The computing nodes maintain the abstraction layer between the host and the data storage components.
SCSI (small computer system interface) is a set of standards for, among other things, data access between computers. For example, SCSI describes how the host device can learn the status of ports of the storage array with which the host is associated, which is helpful if some ports are inactive. However, the ports can only be designated as either active or inactive, which is problematic where the storage array has both primary and standby ports because although the standby ports are active, they are not optimized, and thus may provide poor performance. ALUA (Asymmetric Logical Unit Access) is a standardized protocol extension of SCSI. ALUA enables the host to learn which ports of the storage array are active optimized, active non-optimized, and inactive. For example, the host may send a TPG (Target Port Group) status query to the storage array to obtain an indication of which ports are optimized, non-optimized and inactive. The MPIO (Multipath Input-Output) framework can be used by the host to load balance IOs across the optimized ports.

Aggregating ALUA statuses from multiple arrays


A smart actuator that includes a driving device and an electric actuator such as a DC motor includes a driving current detecting circuit, a driving circuit connected to the electric actuator, a control circuit that controls the driving circuit according to current data provided by the current detecting circuit to supply the electric actuator with a set amount of driving current when the electric actuator has a designed operating condition and a correction circuit that corrects the current data of the driving current if the operating condition is shifted from the designed operating condition to supply the set amount of driving current to the electric actuator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and a method for driving an electric actuator such as a motor or a solenoid.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to make an actuator output a prescribed torque or output power, it is necessary to supply the actuator via a driving circuit with a prescribed amount of current. However, as the output power of the driving circuit is increased, the heat value of the driving circuit increases. Therefore, it is necessary to design a heat radiation structure that corresponds to the output power of the driving circuit.
An actuator and its driving circuit, such as disclosed in JP-A-2001-58578, are separately manufactured. When such an actuator and a driving circuit are picked up from production rots to be combined to put into operation, tuning is necessary so that the actuator can output a prescribed torque because of variations of the actuator in size, resistance, material, etc. In other words, the driving circuit is required to have an excessive amount of output power capacity for the electric actuator to operate as desired.
For example, driving current of a DC motor, as one of the above stated actuator, has a linear relationship with the driving force of the motor, as shown by dotted lines in FIG. 6. When a driving circuit is designed, a minimum amount of the driving current of about 1.7 amperes for a target driving force of about 3 kgf has to be taken into account. In other words, such a driving circuit is designed to provide, as a target driving force, about 5 kgf when driving current of about 2.1 amperes is supplied to the motor. Because it is necessary to have a tolerance in amount of the input current, the maximum amount of the input current may become about 2.5 amperes. In that case, because joule heat generated in the motor increases at a rate of (2.5/1.7)2, it is necessary to make the driving circuit have a large heat sink or a large heat radiation surface.

Device and method for driving electric actuator


Disclosed are a pixel structure and a display apparatus. The pixel structure includes a number of repeated units arranged in an array. Each repeated unit comprises one sub-pixel of a first color, two sub-pixels of a second color, and two sub-pixels of a third color. The first color, the second color, and the third color are different from one another, and on each side of the sub-pixel of the first color is arranged with one of the sub-pixels of the second color and one of the sub-pixels of the third color.

The Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) display apparatus is one of the research hotspots in the field of flat panel displays. Compared with the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), the OLED display apparatus has the advantages of a wide viewing angle, a high brightness, a high contrast, a low power consumption, being light and thin, and son on. At present, in the field of flat panel displays such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and digital cameras, the OLED display apparatus have begun to replace the traditional liquid crystal displays.
The structure of the OLED display apparatus mainly includes a substrate, and pixels manufactured on the substrate and arranged in an array. The pixels generally form an organic electroluminescent structure through organic materials penetrating a Fine Metal Mask (FMM) at the positions corresponding to pixel positions of an array substrate by using evaporation film forming technology. Since the organic light-emitting materials of the light-emitting sub-pixels of three primary colours, i.e. red, green and blue, are different, three different kinds of organic materials are respectively evaporated for the light-emitting sub-pixels of the three primary colours, i.e. red, green and blue, at corresponding positions through the FMM during the manufacturing process. Then, the color mixture ratio of the three colors is adjusted to produce true color. In this way, the three sub-pixels of red, green, and blue independently emit light to form a pixel unit.
However, at present, the blue sub-pixels in the OLED display apparatus are fluorescent materials, and the red sub-pixels and the green sub-pixels are phosphorescent materials. Due to the limitation of materials, the luminescence lifespan of the red sub-pixels is longer than that of the green sub-pixels, and the luminescence lifespans of both the red sub-pixels and the green sub-pixels are much longer than that of the blue sub-pixels. Therefore, the service lives of the materials of the three sub-pixels are unbalanced.
The existing pixel arrangement is also not conducive to the balance of the lifespans of current materials. Moreover, with the development of high resolution of the display panel, it is a technical problem to be solved by those skilled in the art of how to arrange pixels to improve the resolution as well as balance the material lifespans.

KUNSHAN GO-VISIONOX OPTO-ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.


A diagnostic device is provided that comprises a light source for transmitting a light beam through a blood sample to a light detector, and a permanent magnet, wherein one of the permanent magnet and blood sample is automatically movable relative to the other between a “HIGH” magnetic state position and a “LOW” magnetic state position, such that a substantially high magnetic field is applied to the blood sample causing any hemozoin in the blood sample to tend toward perpendicular orientation to the substantially magnetic field and the suppression, or enhancement of light based on its polarization, and a zero-to-near-zero magnetic field is applied to the blood sample causing the randomization of any hemozoin in the blood sample and a baseline amount of light to pass through the blood sample in the “LOW” magnetic state position.

More than three billion people live with the threat of malaria throughout the world, which results in a significant impact on economic global economic productivity. While significant progress against malaria has been observed in the past 5 years, strategies to quantify this progress are elusive because of the limitations of malaria diagnosis. The elimination of malaria in challenging endemic settings will require new approaches to understand the sustained transmission of Plasmodium. Efforts to eradicate malaria have been stymied because of an inability to screen populations efficiently and at an affordable cost in malarious regions which arguably contributes to a poorly directed parasite control effort and malaria resurgence.
Present methods for malaria diagnosis by microscopy take approximately 1 hour and are often confounded by the availability of expert microscopists, low parasitemia, and mixed Plasmodium species infections. The low sensitivity of light microscopy has been an issue for some time. Significant levels of error have been shown in the microscopic diagnosis of malaria with false positive rates and false negatives as high as 50. Antigen-based RDTs have made significant contributions to malaria epidemiological and clinical studies. Although the tests are relatively easy to perform and can provide a diagnostic result in 15-20 minutes in the setting where blood samples are collected (rural villages and health outposts to clinical laboratories), they are quite costly. The RDTs, however, do not reliably detect parasites at low parasitemia (<200 parasitized cells/μL), they are less sensitive in detecting P. vivax, and their detection of P. malariae and P. ovale is uncertain. Additionally, as with conventional microscopy, the utility of RDTs would only be useful in malaria elimination efforts during pre-elimination time periods.


A frequency synthesizer is provided having a fractional-N control circuit and method. The control circuit can operate as having a modulator that selectively applies any fractional ratio to a frequency divider within, for example, a feedback loop of a PLL. The modulator can be a delta-sigma modulator or any sequential state machine that can be implemented as the control circuit, and can select amongst a plurality of vector values. The vector values can be spaced relatively close to each other, and the incoming present vector values can each be added to a value chosen from the immediately preceding set of potential values. The selector circuit chooses from among the present set of vector values depending on whether the sum is nearest a target value. The sum nearest the target value is, therefore, selected as the present vector value, and the process is repeated in time for each vector value having a corresponding P value to form a pattern of P values sent to the divider of the PLL. The incoming frequency can therefore be synthesized based on the modulated P values used by the feedback divider to produce the appropriate fractional-N divide ratio for the synthesized frequency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic system and, more particularly, to a frequency modulator that can synthesize fractional-N frequency output using multiple vectors chosen to lower output jitter and increase selectivity and resolution of the fractional output.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following descriptions and examples are not admitted to be prior art or conventional by virtue of their inclusion within this section.
Within nearly every electronic subsystem is some form of generator that produces cyclical waveforms. The waveform generator is oftentimes referred to as an oscillator. Oscillators can be rated depending on their stability and accuracy, frequency adjustability (i.e., tunability), and power consumption. The output from an oscillator is referred to as the reference frequency Fx. This reference frequency can thereafter be tuned using, for example, a phase-locked loop (PLL). Usually FX is too high so the incoming signal is usually first divided down Q times by a reference frequency divider and becomes the reference frequency FR for the phase frequency detector (PFD). Thus, FR=FX/Q. The PLL then employs a divider within its feedback loop to selectively increase the PFD's reference frequency FR. The resonator output frequency can be tuned using what will henceforth be referred to as a "frequency synthesizer."
There are numerous ways in which to design a frequency synthesizer using a PLL. For example, the divider within the feedback loop of the PLL can be modified in integer increments. Thus, output from the frequency synthesizer will be in integer-N multiples of the reference frequency FR. In a traditional PLL implementation, the output will be represented as the voltage-controlled oscillator output, and will transition at a frequency of FVCO. Thus, FVCO=N*FR=N/Q*FX. An unfortunate aspect of integer-N frequency dividers is that the selectable discrete frequencies of FVCO is dependent on the value of N. The frequency spacing, oftentimes referred to as the minimum frequency resolution, or minimum channel spacing, using an integer-N divider can, in some instances, be too high for an intended application. Another issue is that for some applications, the integer N must be very large, and results in high phase noise.
Given that frequency synthesizers are used in a wide variety of applications, including FM radios, radar systems, cellular and PCS telephone systems, test equipment such as spectrum analyzers and signal generators, it would be desirable to implement a frequency synthesizer having a smaller minimum channel spacing. In order to achieve a smaller minimum channel spacing, fractional-N dividers are needed. In addition to achieving smaller channel spacing, fractional-N dividers allow small divide values to achieve the same channel spacing, which reduces the phase noise.
A fractional-N divider within the feedback loop can produce a synthesizer output of FVCO=FR(N+n/d). Thus, in addition to the integer divide factor N, a fractional-N divider will introduce fractions between integers set by a numerator value (n) divided by a denominator value (d). For example, when d=8, n may be an integer from 0 to 7. This example will increase the integer PLL resolution by a factor of 8 by adding 7 divide values between N and N+1. Thus the channel spacing is ⅛ of an integer PLL.
A fractional-N divider usually comprises a fractional-N control logic circuit and an integer-N divider. The divide value of the integer-N divider is switched between two integer values in a manner set by the fractional-N control logic circuit. Thus the average divide value is a fractional number. The way a fractional-N divider works causes signal spurs that are not usually seen on an integer divider, because each time the divide value changes, the PLL makes an abrupt phase correction. To minimize the spurs, the sequence of divide value should be carefully selected. One approach is delta-sigma modulation. To meet even higher performance requirement, compensation circuits should be used to cancel the signal spurs.
Therefore, a fractional-N divider is one that divides the reference frequency by a mixed number containing a fraction in order to achieve a synthesized frequency at the output of the PLL. A pattern of values are fed to the divider, and that pattern represents a modulated output. The output is typically modulated around two values. For example, if the fractional-N divider is 50.125, then the majority of the sequential pattern will be of 50 value with a periodic 51 value interspersed within the pattern. The number of 50 values to the number of 51 values is quite large. Using this example, a 51 value appears rarely in relation to 50 values within the modulated string or sequence of values. A low frequency spur may therefore arise, and cannot be easily removed by the low-pass filter of the PLL. This low frequency occurrence within the modulated output will produce substantial jitter in the pass band of the synthesized frequency.
It would be desirable to introduce a modulator and frequency synthesizer circuit that avoids low frequency jitter by giving greater selectivity to the modulated pattern input to the PLL divider. A lower jitter-producing pattern may be one that can beneficially achieve higher resolution for the average divide value, as well as providing an average divide value that can be substantially near an integer value. An improved modulator output is thereby one that can achieve high resolution changes in the average divide value, yet more often (and with higher frequency) modulate changes at that output. The higher frequency changes are more effectively removed by the low-pass filter of the PLL.

Frequency modulator, circuit, and method that uses multiple vector accumulation to achieve fractional-N frequency synthesis


A method for forming a light beam, and a light assembly having at least one light source with a fixed reflector which directs a beam of light light assembly having a front lens, and a light deflecting mechanism for changing the light angle of the light beam after passing through the front lens. The front lens has a central part that differs from the surrounding parts of the front lens, and the light deflecting mechanism, in a first position, concentrates the light beam into the central part of the front lens to generate a wide-angle light beam, and in a second position, distributes the light beam over the entire front lens to generate a narrow angle light beam. The light deflecting mechanism is connected with a first actuator, and is movable between the first and the second position.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,808,969 B2 concerns a first multiple lens array designed with positive-power lenses producing multiple bundles of converging light rays and a second multiple lens array designed with negative-power lenses producing multiple bundles of collimated light rays at a certain optimal separation between the two multiple lens arrays. As the axial separation between the two multiple lens arrays increases, the divergence of the entire beam of light increases. A black mask around the lenses reduces the effective light effect by converting the light into heat.
US20050135106A1 concerns a fresnel lens spotlight comprising an emergent light bundle having an adjustable aperture angle, a reflector, a lamp and at least one fresnel lens, wherein the at least one fresnel lens has a diffusing screen. The fresnel lens spot-light forms an adjustable aperture angle of the emergent light bundle. The fresnel lens spotlight preferably comprises an ellipsoidal reflector, a lamp and at least one fresnel lens to provide a homogeneously illuminated light field, where the fresnel lens has a diffusing screen.
To achieve a zoom effect, as described above, the reflector, the lamp or the front lens are movable. It is critical in a moving head light fixture to move heavy components because the centre of mass is moved during operation of the light assembly.
Movement of a front lens, a lamp or a reflector can lead to a change in the air flow inside the light assembly. Movement of the front lens can lead to a change of the air flow in the light assembly.