Embedded boundary scan testing apparatus and methodologies are disclosed for testing processor-based circuit boards without processor intervention. A boundary scan controller is embedded in a circuit board along with a boundary scan chain having JTAG devices connected with an electrical circuit of the board. Upon power up, the boundary scan controller holds an on-board processor system in reset, loads boundary scan test vectors and commands from an on-board non-volatile memory, and runs boundary scan testing while holding the processor system in the reset state. The boundary scan controller preferably includes a test access port controller that implements only a subset of the JTAG standard 16 machine states to optimize performance and minimize controller hardware. The test results may be stored in an externally accessible on-board memory for subsequent retrieval in order to facilitate board troubleshooting and/or repair, where the provision of on-board boundary scan testing allows testing of boards while installed in the field, and the embedded scan controller allows field testing of on-board processor systems and related circuitry to enhance the test coverage over processor-driven boundary scan testing.

Electronic circuits are typically constructed in the form of a printed circuit board (PCB) that includes a plurality of electronic components soldered to a circuit board substrate having conductive traces interconnecting various device terminals to form an electrical circuit. As PCBs and the implemented electrical circuits thereof are often complex, board testing at manufacture has become increasingly automated. In this respect, board testing apparatus has evolved from simple I/O functional testers that connect to I/O connectors of a populated PCB for high level automated functional testing, to so-called "bed of nails" test fixtures that include probe pins to make electrical contact with all or some circuit nodes of a tested board for performance of high level and some lower level testing, to integrated testing devices that provide for automated testing of a PCB without the need to externally probe individual circuit nodes. The Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) has developed a circuit board testing standard IEEE 1149.1 including Test Access Port (TAP) and boundary scan testing of hardware via test devices included on the tested boards. The boundary scan type testing involves controlling and monitoring boundary pins of a JTAG compatible device under control of software to provide test coverage beyond that which might be possible using ordinary bed of nails fixturing. This is particularly true of modern multi-layer boards with dense coverage of the top and bottom by fine-pitch components where there is often no external access to many circuit nodes routed through internal layers and underneath component parts, where boundary scan techniques have become widely accepted in industry.
The JTAG devices are connected via a serial data link providing commands to the devices so as to allow controlled temporary isolation of the pins of JTAG compatible devices. In this arrangement, the pin on one isolated JTAG device can be set to a known test state voltage and the voltage of a pin on another isolated JTAG compatible device can be measured to determine whether the monitored pin is in the correct state. Thus, the boundary scan technique can be employed in conjunction with a series of predetermined test vectors to test any number of circuit nodes on a PCB in automated fashion. The output tested node states can then be compared with the correct states to ascertain any circuit board failures, whether in the board itself or in one or more components soldered to a populated board.
Many modern circuit boards include processor systems, whether microprocessors, microcontrollers, programmable logic, DSPs, etc., and associated circuitry (processor, system controller, etc.). Testing of such processor-based PCBs using the IEEE 1149.1 TAP boundary scan techniques has heretofore been performed under control of the on-board processor to provide controlled boundary scan as a diagnostic feature upon powering up the board. In these implementations, the processor and associated components on the board must be functional to read test vectors from memory and to either shift the vectors out through a serial port or pass them to a hardware device that shifts them to the TAP system on the board. In this configuration, however, boundary scan testing is not possible if there are problems in the processor, memory, or other associated circuitry, as the testing is reliant upon the processor to manage the boundary scan devices. Furthermore, even if the processor-related circuitry is functional to allow the boundary scan tests to run, this testing cannot include the processor-related circuitry itself, whereby on-board processor controlled boundary scan testing provides less than complete test coverage. In a manufacturing setting, external boundary scan test controls can be connected to a PCB to implement testing of the processor and related circuits, with the processor being held in a reset state during testing. While this form of external boundary scan test control provides a higher level of test coverage, this feature does not aid in field diagnostic testing where PCBs must often be verified in a field installation with no access by external test equipment. Thus, there remains a need for improved boundary scan testing apparatus and methodologies by which better test coverage can be obtained for printed circuit boards without the need for external boundary scan test controllers.

Apparatus and method for embedded boundary scan testing


A heat recovery apparatus, system and method of using the same. The heat recovery apparatus includes a particulate inlet, a particulate distributor in fluid communication with the particulate inlet, a cavity in fluid communication with the particulate distributor, a plurality of pipes contained within the cavity and configured for transmission of a heat transfer fluid therethrough, and a particulate outlet in fluid communication with the cavity.

Recently, there has been a growing interest in the use of particulate matter for energy storage. Generally, particulate matter such as sand or ceramic particles can be heated by an energy source. The heated particulate matter can then be stored in an insulated container and the energy can be subsequently transferred from the particulate matter to another system for future use. For example, recent work has focused on heating ceramic particles using concentrated beams of sunlight. Using concentrated beams of sunlight, such particulate matter can be heated to about 700° C. Systems and apparatuses that can efficiently convert the energy stored in such particulate matter to other forms of usable energy is highly desired.
While some forms of particulate matter can intentionally be heated for subsequent energy conversion applications, as with the ceramic particulate as described above, other particulate matter, having a high temperature and thus large amount of stored energy, can be made as a by-product during regular industrial practices. For example, during smelting or refining processes to purify metal-containing ores or crude metals, respectively, a large amount of high temperature molten slag is produced as a by-product. The slag by-product is then separated from the desired metal product and generally allowed to cool naturally in an open environment or with the aid of water. Upon cooling, the slag forms into a solid which may be a mixture of, for example, silicates, sulfides, chlorides, fluorides, and other chemical components or compositions. The solidified slag may then be granulated for use in the production of, for example, ballast, concrete or glass compositions.
During the cooling process, a considerable amount of energy is released from the slag. The above referenced natural or water cooling methods are not advantageous however because the heat (that is, energy) released during the cooling process is not recovered for later use. Molten slag can have a temperature ranging from about 1200° C. to about 1600° C. depending on the compositions of the ore to be purified and the produced slag. As energy is released from the molten slag, it will begin to solidify and can be granulated by, for example, agitation. In general, solidification and/or granulation of molten slag can take place at temperatures ranging from about 700° C. to about 1100° C., depending on the composition of the slag.

Heat recover apparatus, system and method of using the same

ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA


A method and apparatus for controlling water flow in a wastewater treatment plant is provided. The method comprises the steps of providing a trickling filter effluent water basin having filter media provided over a storage space for water. Water outlet flow from the basin is controlled via a flow weir or other suitable structure, thereby enabling the trickling filter effluent water basin to fill with water and store water when desired. Such storage is particularly useful during wet weather and/or overflow events. A trickling filter effluent basin modified so as to accommodate water storage and methods of modifying existing trickling filter effluent basins are also provided.

Combined sewer systems are sewers that are designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage and industrial wastewater in the same pipe. Most of the time, combined sewer systems transport all of their wastewater to a wastewater treatment plant, where it is treated and then discharged to a water body. During periods of heavy rainfall or snowmelt, however, the wastewater volume in a combined sewer system can exceed the capacity of the sewer system or treatment plant. Thus, combined sewer systems are designed to overflow occasionally and discharge excess wastewater directly to nearby streams, rivers or other waterways.
The overflows, called combined sewer overflows (CSOs), contain not only stormwater but also untreated human and industrial waste, toxic materials and debris. Overflows are a major source of water pollution in communities with combined sewer systems.
The problems related to overflow and infiltration of untreated water into sewer systems also occur in closed (non-CSO or separate) wastewater systems. Due to deteriorating collection systems and illegal cross-connections, discharge of untreated wastewater is a common occurrence in closed systems as well. Excess flows in either system can take the form of infiltration into the system due to cracked pipes, offset pipe joints, and the like, or direct inflow into the system, such as with direct surface water connections, foundation drains, and the like.
The costs of remedying the wet weather overflow problem are not insignificant. In Pennsylvania alone, it was estimated in 2001 that over $4 billion would be needed to bring wastewater discharge into compliance with state and national water quality standards. Estimates of the repair costs for wastewater and drinking water systems statewide in Pennsylvania exceed $11 billion dollars.
One method of managing wet weather overflows is to build overflow tanks positioned outside the wastewater treatment plant, before the wastewater point of entry into the plant. When the flow rate into the plant is heavy, wastewater is diverted into the overflow tank(s), and the water is stored in the tank until levels within the plant subside and the plant can accommodate the additional flow. A problem with this method is that overflow tanks are very expensive to build. For example, the cost of building a 700,000 gallon capacity tank in 2005 is about $3.1 million dollars. Additionally, if the capacity of the overflow tank is exceeded, wastewater is diverted to surface waterways, bypassing the treatment process and degrading the water quality of the waterway. Most methods of control aimed at increasing the capacity of the plant are very expensive and are land intensive.
There remains a need for a cost-effective solution to the problem of reducing and managing wet weather overflow in the wastewater treatment process so that water discharged to surface waters meets the applicable state and national water quality standards.

Combination trickling filter and overflow tank for secondary treatment of wastewater, and associated method of managing wastewater overflow


A positive mobile iron contamination (PMIC) detection apparatus disposed on a semiconductor substrate. An active region is defined on the semiconductor substrate using field oxide layers, and an MOS transistor is disposed in the active region. The positive mobile iron contamination (PMIC) detection apparatus comprises a heating device, a temperature-taking device, and a gate. The heating device is disposed on the surfaces of the field oxide layers so as to heat the semiconductor substrate. The temperature-taking device is disposed on the surface of the heating device so as to take the temperature of the semiconductor substrate and further to be the base for adjustment. The gate is disposed above the heating device, so as to receive a bias. The heating device can be a polysilicon layer; the temperature-taking device can be aluminum wire of the Kelvin structure; the externally connected current meter can measure charge pumping currents under various conditions, so as to calculate the quantity of positive mobile iron contamination.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for positive mobile iron contamination (PMIC) detection.
One of the most serious problems encountered during early MOS technology development was an electrical instability now known as xe2x80x9cthe mobile ion problemxe2x80x9d. MOS transistor devices fabricated by using planar technology exhibit threshold voltages (VT) more negative than predicted by theoretical calculation. In addition, under a bias at elevated temperature, MOS transistor devices are extremely unstable. As the positive gate bias increases, the threshold voltages (VT) of MOS transistor devices will shift to more negative values. The magnitude and rate of the VT shift increases with temperature. On the other hand, a negative gate bias, without the shift effect of VT, produces stable device characteristics. It is now well-established that the instability in early planar processed MOS transistors was due to the drift of positive mobile irons(particularly Na+ and K+) in the gate oxide.
However, positive mobile ions are often introduced into the gate oxide during xe2x80x9cmetals and planarization etchingxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cphotoresist strippingxe2x80x9d, and these manufacturing processes are indispensable steps to multilayer metal processing (MLM processing). Therefore, as the dimensions of devices shrink, it takes a wafer level reliability(WLR) test to determine which manufacturing process has introduced PMIC, and further to seek the solution to reduce or eliminate PMIC.
Usually, the common strategies for reducing PMIC include reducing the PMIC concentration in the gate oxide, rendering the irons in the gate oxide immobile, neutralizing the irons in the gate oxide. For example, by depositing phosphorus silicon glass (PSG) over the surface of the gate oxide, implanting phosphorus ions in the polysilicon gate, and using PSG as interface dielectrics, the gettering of the positive mobile ions to the gate oxide is obtained. Or, by doping chlorine ions into Si/SiO2 interface during the gate oxide growth, and using chlorine ions during pre-oxidation cleaning of furnace tubes, the positive mobile ions in the gate oxide are neutralized. Or, by improving the impurities of the chemicals or gases, and improving the equipment and wafer cleaning technique, a cleaner fabrication line is provided.
For the present technique, the wafer level reliability (WLR) test usually measures the quantity and location of PMIC along with the apparatuses of SEM/EDS, XSEM, XTEM, and three-dimensional SIMS etc. These apparatuses may precisely detect the quantity and location of PMIC, but there are several drawbacks. First, these apparatuses are very expensive and need experts to operate and analyze the results. Secondly, all these apparatuses use destructive measuring methods, so the throughput is very low. It is therefore considered desirable to explore how to complete the WLR test under the conditions of non-destructivity, low cost, and high throughput.
During the fabricating process of integrated circuits, the concentration of PMIC is usually calculated by using the difference value of the flatband voltage when applying bias and temperature stress to an MOS capacitance to get a Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) curve.
FIGS. 1Axcx9c1D are schematic diagrams showing how PMIC is measured by using the bias and temperature stress(BTS) technique. Before any bias and temperature stress are applied, the positive mobile ions are evenly distributed in the gate oxide, as shown in FIG. 1A. First, a positive bias of magnitude about 1xcx9c2 MV/cm is applied to the polysilicon or metal gate in order to push the mobile positive ions in the gate oxide to the interface between the semiconductor substrate and the gate oxide, as shown in FIG. 1B. Then, the stress temperature is gradually raised to 100 xcx9c200xc2x0 C., and this temperature is maintained for 3xcx9c50 minutes. Then, the stress temperature is gradually decreasing to room temperature, and the positive bias is removed to measure an electric field change. Then, a negative bias of the magnitude about xe2x88x921xcx9cxe2x88x922 MV/cm is applied to the polysilicon/ metal gate, and all the positive mobile ions in the gate oxide are attracted to the interface between the polysilicon/metal gate and the gate oxide, as shown in FIG. 1C, and all the steps mentioned above are repeated to measure another electric field change. Thus, the concentration of PMIC can be calculated through the difference value of the flatband voltage, as shown in FIG. 1D; that is:       N    M    =                    C                  OX          1                          Δ                    xe2x80x83                          V                  FB          1                      q
However, this technique is applicable to thin oxide layers, but unable to monitor PMOS in thick oxide layers.
FIGS. 2Axcx9c2C are schematic diagrams showing that the triangular voltage scan(TVS) technique is used to measure PMIC. As shown in FIGS. 2Axcx9c2B, the TVS technique first applies a positive bias VG and a stress temperature T to the polysilicon/metal gate. Then, the stress temperature T is lowered drastically to a low temperature of about xe2x88x9220xc2x0 C. to trap the positive mobile ions into the interface between the semiconductor substrate and the gate oxide. At this stage, the positive mobile ions don""t have enough kinetic energy, so there is no current generated even though the electric field changes. Then, the stress temperature T is gradually rising from the low temperature at the rate of about 0.5xc2x0C./sec. When the stress temperature T rises, the positive mobile ions trapped into the interface between the semiconductor substrate and the gate oxide will be thermally excited out. In FIG. 2C, two peaks of the displacement current are the locations where Na+ and K+ are thermally excited out, respectively. Since the excited energy of Na+ is smaller than that of K+; that is E(Na+) less than E(K+), the displacement current peak of K+ will be on the right side of that of Na+. Further, the quantities of Na+ and K+ are respectively proportional to the areas under the current peaks of Na+ and K+.
However, a displacement current detected by using this technique is very weak, so it takes a larger chip area and the junction capacitance also causes a very large experimental error.
FIGS. 3Axcx9c3C are schematic diagrams of MPIC also measured by using the TVS technique. As shown in FIGS. 3Axcx9c3B, the TVS technique first applies the positive bias (VG) and the stress temperature T to the polysilicon/metal gate, so as to keep the PMIC in the interface between the semiconductor substrate and the gate oxide by using the electric field. Then, the positive bias (VG) is adjusted to the initial condition and then gradually decreased at the rate of 5xcx9c100 mV/s. When the electric field changes, the mobile positive ions will drift and diffuse into the interface between the polysilicon/metal gate and the gate oxide. In FIG. 3C, the two current peaks are the locations where Na+ and K+ are resolved respectively, and the quantities of Na+ and K+ are respectively proportional to the areas under the current peaks of Na+ and K+, as shown in FIG. 2C.
However, this technique is only applicable to thin oxide layers, and cannot be used to monitor PMIC in thick oxide layers.
Therefore, it is the principal object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method for measuring PMIC, wherein the location and quantity of PMIC can be rapidly measured during the WLR test.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method for measuring PMIC, wherein the kinetic energies of Na+ and K+ are raised by using the power dissipation produced by polysilicon resistance, so as to effect the measurement within a short time.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method for measuring PMIC, wherein the measurement of PMIC can be completed nondestructively with the advantages of low cost and high resolution.
To achieve the objects mentioned above and others, the invention provides an apparatus and method for measuring PMIC disposed on the semiconductor substrate. By using field oxide layers, an active region is defined on a semiconductor substrate, in which an MOS transistor is disposed. The apparatus for measuring PMIC comprises a heating device, a temperature-taking device, and a gate. The heating device is disposed on the surfaces of the field oxide layers so as to heat the semiconductor substrate. The temperature-taking device is disposed on the surface of the heating device so as to take the temperature of the semiconductor substrate and further to be the base for adjustment. The gate is disposed above the heating device so as to receive a bias. The heating device can be a polysilicon layer; the temperature-taking device can be aluminum wire of the Kelvin structure; the externally connected current meter can measure the charge pumping current of the semiconductor substrate under various conditions, so as to measure the quantity of PMIC.
Further, the invention also provides a method for measuring mobile positive ions. First, a semiconductor substrate is provided, wherein the PMIC is randomly distributed in the dielectric layer between the semiconductor substrate and the gate. Then, the negative bias of xe2x88x921xcx9cxe2x88x922V and the positive bias of +1xcx9c+2V are applied separately via the gate so as to attract PMIC to the interface between the dielectric layer and the gate and push it to the interface between the dielectric layer and the semiconductor substrate, and a current is applied to the polysilicon heater so as to heat the whole semiconductor substrate up to the temperature of 400xc2x0 C. for about one minute. When the negative bias is applied, the gate and the source/drain region are connected to the ground (0V), and the semiconductor substrate is also connected to the ground (0V). When the positive bias is applied, the gate of the MOS transistor and the semiconductor substrate are connected to the positive power supply (+5V), and the source/drain region of the MOS transistor is connected to the ground (0V). Then, the testing temperature is again lowered to room temperature, and the charge pumping currents are separately measured by using a current meter. Thus, the difference value of the two charge pumping currents can be used as the corresponding value for mobile ions, so as to calculate the quantity and location of PMIC.

Method of positive mobile iron contamination (PMIC) detection and apparatus of performing the same


Ceramics are or protected from high temperature degradation, including high temperature, oxidative, aeroconvective degradation by a high temperature and oxidation resistant coating of a room temperature curing, hydrolyzed and partially condensed liquid polyorganosiloxane applied to the surface of the ceramic. The liquid polyorganosiloxane is formed by the hydrolysis and partial condensation of an alkyltrialkoxysilane with water or a mixture of an alkyltrialkoxysilane and a dialkyldialkoxysilane with water. The liquid polyorganosiloxane cures at room temperature on the surface of the ceramic to form a hard, protective, solid coating which forms a high temperature, oxidation resistant ceramic upon exposure to a high temperature environment, and is also used as an adhesive for adhering a repair plug in major damage to the ceramic. This has been found useful for protecting and repairing porous, rigid ceramics of a type used on reentry space vehicles.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a high temperature and oxidation resistant organopolysiloxane coating useful for repairing, bonding and for protecting porous thermal insulation from aeroconvective thermal degradation. More particularly, the invention relates to a room temperature curing, liquid organopolysiloxane polymer which contains unreacted silanol groups useful for repairing, bonding and for protecting porous ceramic insulation from aeroconvective thermal degradation and to the repaired, bonded or coated ceramic as a composite. On exposure to a high temperature environment, the coating forms an oxidation resistant, protective ceramic. The organopolysiloxane polymer is formed by the hydrolysis and partial condensation of di- and trifunctional organoalkoxysilanes with water.
2. Background of the Disclosure
Reentry space vehicles, such as the space shuttle which must leave and reenter the earth's atmosphere, require exterior thermal protection. The successful operation of the space shuttle required the development of light weight and very thermally efficient exterior thermal protection systems which have to withstand a wide variety of environments. These thermal protection systems (TPS) are in the form of rigid surface insulation in areas of high temperature (1000-1400.degree. C.), flexible blanket insulation in areas of moderate high temperature (below 1000.degree. C.) and oxidation protected, reinforced, rigid carbon/carbon in areas of severe temperatures (1400-1600.degree. C.). Thermal protection systems employ both flexible and rigid ceramic insulation, with the flexible insulation often comprising various layers fabricated of ceramic fibers and which may or may not include layers of metal foil. The space shuttle requires a light weight and very thermally efficient, rigid and flexible exterior TPS which has to withstand a wide variety of environments, including temperatures of from 1000-1600.degree. C. Ceramic materials currently in use or in development for such (TPS) include high purity silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, aluminosilicates, aluminoborosilicates and zirconium diboride as illustrative, but nonlimiting examples. In order to be both light weight and thermally protective, these ceramics and ceramic composites are very porous, often having a void volume of over 90%.
This porosity creates problems. One problem relates to hot gas penetration into the ceramic in the high temperature aeroconvective environment encountered on reentry. If this occurs, it can fuse the substrate and overheat the outer skin of the vehicle under the insulation. Another problem relates to embrittlement of the insulation in the high temperature aeroconvective environment encountered during reentry, which makes it more susceptible to damage. Attempts to resolve these problems have included very costly, time consuming, difficult to apply and easily damaged glassy coatings of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,093,771 and 5,296,288 which cannot be applied to, and cured on, insulation while it is on a vehicle. Low density, porous and lightweight rigid silica tiles and rigidized refractory composites prepared from silica fibers, along with aluminosilicate and borosilicate fibers and the like, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,962, are used over much of the shuttle's surface. The light weight and concomitant low density of these tiles result from the porous structure. The outer surface of these tiles is sealed by applying a glassy coating of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,771 to the outer surface before they are attached to the space shuttle. This glassy coating has good resistance to devitrification and thermal shock, exhibits a low surface catalytic effect in a high temperature aeroconvective environment and can be made with either a high or low emittance. However, it is brittle and can be damaged by handling, hail, impact with space debris and the like. Attempts to resolve this problem have included costly, time consuming, difficult to apply and easily damaged glassy coatings of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,288 which has not yet met with much success. Therefore, a need exists for a better material to protect the thermal insulation and for a better method of repairing damage to both the glassy coating and to the insulation itself Therefore, there is still a need for a facile method and material for coating and also for sealing rigid porous insulation of a TPS against a high temperature aeroconvective environment.

High temperature resistant organopolysiloxane coating for protecting and repairing rigid thermal insulation

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration


A device for killing insects, such as bedbugs, with heat includes four side panels and two end panels. Each of the side panels is fixed to two adjacent side panels along complementary mitered edges provided with interlocking male protrusions and female indentations. The side panels are fixed to the end panels by portions of the side panels that mate with complementary channels provided by the end panels and locking mechanisms. The device further includes a mechanism located either inside or outside the device for providing heated air to the interior of the device and a mechanism for circulating the heated air inside the device for killing any insects that may be infesting items such as clothing and bedding placed inside the device. The interior of the device may be provided with mechanisms such as racks and hanger rods for supporting items placed inside the device. The interior of the device may be provided with mechanisms for directing the flow of hot air inside the device.

Infestations of damaging, annoying and dangerous insects, such as bedbugs, are a common problem related to clothing, bedding, books and other items. Fabric inhabiting pests, such as bedbugs, are making a comeback because most of the residual insecticides formerly used in their control such as dieldrin and DDT have been banned. Accordingly, as people travel there is a growing incidence of insect infestation of bedding and of garments transported in luggage. For example, bed bugs can be found in any hotel, motel, home, or other accommodation regardless of sanitation conditions. Bedbugs may be located for example in crevices associated with mattresses, box springs, sheets, upholstery, pillows, towels, garments of every type, or the like. Even when these items are examined, it is common for insects, or the eggs of insects, to go undetected and packed with garments and transported in luggage. Presently, conventional remedies appear to be limited to unpacking transported items and examining them in a remote location such as a garage or utility room prior to introducing the transported items into a residence area with treatment of infested items by dry cleaning, fumigation, or the like, to kill infestations of insects. Accordingly, the need exists for an effective and efficient device and method for killing bed bugs and other pests on and in infested items. Devices and methods for killing bed bugs and other pests, however, have proven inadequate in various respects.


Modular service unit (10A) comprising a pair of elongate light fitting EACH comprising a reflector housing (14) having one or more light tubes (24). Either a bridging plate, or an intermediate housing (26), is releasably attached to or supported by adjacent longitudinal side edges (34) of each reflector housing (14), and forms a structural part of an auxiliary service facility. The auxiliary service facility can include, for example, air conditioning ducts or diffusers, (17A), five alarm detectors, fire sprinklers with flexible pipe connections, speakers, security sensors, and secondary light fittings. A plurality of modular service units may be incorporated in a suspended ceiling.

This invention relates to a modular service unit for incorporation or installation in suspended ceilings or false ceilings.
Hitherto, suspended ceilings have been constructed on a basis wherein a grid of frame members or support members, often having a T-bar cross-section, were attached to overhead structures between side walls of a room of a building, and ceiling tiles or panels were then connected to the frame members so as to provide an aesthetic appearance. In the space between the frame members and a top wall or frame of the room were provided air conditioning ducts which were attached to plenum housings which expelled conditioned air into a room from outlets on grilles inclusive of air diffusers located in the ceiling tiles or panels. There were also provided fluorescent light fittings or troffers located at spaced intervals in the suspended ceiling as well as other service facilities such as fire alarm detectors, fire sprinklers, security equipment, speakers and spot light fittings or feature light fittings.
Troffers, when installed in a suspended ceiling were sometimes associated with plenum housings which were to be connected to air conditioning ducts and a first type of conventional service arrangement comprised a single troffer having a housing for one or more fluorescent light tubes whereby there was provided a pair of plenum housings or "air boots" as they are known in the art, wherein each air boot was supported on lower edge portions of the troffer housing and extended upwardly above the top of the troffer housing. Each air boot was interconnected by a hollow duct extending transversely to a longitudinal axis of the troffer housing. One of the air boots was provided with a hollow connection spigot for attachment to an air duct.
Disadvantages of the first type of conventional service arrangement described above was that it could only be efficiently used with a particular type of air diffuser for expulsion of conditioned air into the room. Thus it could only be used in an efficient manner with constant air diffusers and its use with variable air volume diffusers was restricted. It also could not be utilized with other service facilities, e.g., fire alarm detectors, fire sprinklers, speakers, spot light fittings, or feature light fittings, in an efficient manner.
In a second type of conventional service arrangement there was utilized a single light troffer which was located adjacent to an air conditioning apparatus which included a plenum housing, a base flange surrounding a bottom opening in the plenum housing and a connection spigot to an air duct. This second type of service arrangement was disadvantageous because installation was not only time consuming and expensive but it detracted from the overall appearance or aesthetics of a room to which it was installed. Also, like the first type of service arrangement described above, it could not be used in an efficient manner it utilized with other services such as those described above.
Reference may also be made to GB Patent 1 509 259 which refers to a combined illumination and ventilation device which comprises a plurality of profile elements. Each profile element has a reflector having a light tube combined therein. Each profile element also incorporated a trapezoidal channel which enclosed an elongate choke coil associated with the adjacent light tube. The trapezoidal channel is integral with the reflector. There is also provided a duct between each reflector and trapezoidal channel. Each reflector has a pair of integral bottom flanges one of which supports an air control flap which controls flow of air into or out of an adjacent duct.
The structure of GB Patent 1 509 259 is extremely complicated comprising a single modular unit which was the profile element as described above. Each of the profile elements are arranged in a side by side arrangement separated by each duct which has a button gap for entry or exit of air. In this arrangement there was also included a cover plant which interconnected each modular unit. Because of its complicated structure, the profile elements were only designed as a combined lighting and ventilation device and thus could not be adapted to incorporate other service facilities in lieu of ventilation.
Another disadvantage of the structure of GB Patent 1 509 259 was that it could not be utilized in conventional suspended ceilings having a grid of longitudinal T bars and transverse T bars.
Reference may also be made to other prior art references which combine an additional service facility with a lamp device and reference may be made to GB 864894, Japanese Patent Publication 04-188998, DE 3643075, U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,290 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,443,592, all of which suffer from the same disadvantages as GB 1 509 259, i.e., being of complicated construction and not being attachable to conventional suspended ceilings as described above.


A manufacturing method for molded glass articles including glass optical elements such as high precision lenses not requiring grinding and polishing after press molding. The manufacturing method according to the invention is a method for manufacturing the molded glass articles having a higher surface precision with a high productivity by pressing a glass material in a stepwise manner constituted of some steps depending on a temperature condition of the glass material.

Various molding methods for optical glass elements such as high precision lenses, using precisely fabricated molds made of a mold material, which can be finished to an optical surface, to which softened glass does not adhere, and which does not require grinding or polishing after press molding, have been developed recently. To obtain a required lens, the lens has to satisfy a specification such as lens thickness, outer diameter, eccentricity, as well as of surface shape precision and surface quality (smoothness on the surface). It is better for such a lens to have a good internal quality such as good refractive index and permeability as a matter of course.
To use such a molding method for glass optical elements as business, how much productivity would be gained may be a serious problem. That is, it is critical whether many glass optical elements can be produced in a short period.
One means to improve the productivity is to fabricate plural glass material pieces in parallel, and another means is to shorten the fabrication time per cycle. Various improved methods have been proposed, respectively. Shortening the fabrication time per cycle requires shortening heating and cooling periods of the molds, and therefore, various ideas are made to improve the glass material during molding and the temperature condition among the molding conditions.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-10,556 (hereinafter referred to as "Related art No. 1") describes a method for press-molding a glass material having a viscosity in a range of 10.sup.7 to 10.sup.9 poises with molds heated at a temperature that the glass material indicates a viscosity of 10.sup.10 to 10.sup.12 poises. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-12,317 (hereinafter referred to as "Related art No. 2") describes a method for press-molding a glass material having a viscosity in a range of 10.sup.5.5 to 10.sup.9 poises with molds heated at a temperature that the glass material indicates a viscosity of 10.sup.8 to 10.sup.12 poises (provided that the temperature of the molds is lower than that of the glass material).
Each method shortens the cycle time by shortening times for increasing and decreasing temperatures where the temperature of the mold is not raised more than a necessary temperature.
Moreover, in each method, to prevent the molding surface of the molds from becoming impaired, the glass material heated and softened at a place other than the molds is transferred into the molds before molding and is then molded.
Meanwhile, with such a method for molding glass optical elements, in addition to needs from production technology such as a shortened cycle time and prevention of impairments of molds, improved performance of the molded article is also sought. That is, there are also needs to provide optical elements having excellent optical property and meeting with needs.
Although the surface precision required for glass optical elements may vary depending on purpose of the glass optical elements or the like, power (Newton ring) as a scale of surface precision is required within.+-.four fringes for ordinary use, and more preferably, within.+-.two fringes, and irregularity (ASU) is required within one fringe, preferably, within 0.5 fringe.
With respect to the method set forth in an embodiment of Related art No. 1, surface precision of the molded glass optical element was measured. That is, where, after molded with pressure, a molded article is released without cooling down the article at the glass transition point or below (condition of Table 2 in Related art No. 1), it had power of 4 to 6 fringes and irregularity of 1 to 2 fringe and did not satisfy the above standard. In the case of Related art No. 2, it had power of 2 to 4 fringes and irregularity of 1 to 1.5 fringes and did not satisfy the above standard.
Furthermore, even under the same molding condition, the obtained surface precision might be different depending on the dimension of the glass molding material or the shape of the targeted molded article. Particularly, when the glass optical element relatively large whose outer diameter is 15 mm or more is molded, the method frequently failed to obtain a desired surface precision.

Manufacturing method for molded glass articles


In at least certain embodiments of the present invention, the present invention provides a plastic netting for use in various erosion control netting assembles. In at least one embodiment, the assembly comprises a first extruded plastic net, a second extruded plastic net secured to the first net, and a fiber matrix disposed between the nets. In at least another embodiment, the assembly comprises a first extruded plastic net, and a fiber matrix secured to and/or under the netting. In at least another embodiment, the net serves as a mulch control netting when secured to the ground over a mulch material. In yet another embodiment, the net serves as a turf reinforcement. In at least one embodiment, the net comprises a plurality of openings sufficiently sized, to enable small animals to traverse or weave through the erosion control netting assembly without getting trapped in the openings.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an extruded netting for use in erosion control net, mulch stabilization, and turf reinforcement which can be useful in reducing potential for animal entrapment and/or enhancing soil stabilization.
2. Background Art
The continuous extrusion of plastic netting started in the 1950s. Extruded netting is netting in which the strands are extruded from a die, the joints therebetween being formed either within the die or immediately outside the die. A variety of configurations are known, such as square, diamond, twill, etc. Some of the more common materials used to prepare extruded netting are polypropylene, polyethylene (particularly linear low grades, and ethylene copolymers), nylon, polybutylene, and blends thereof.
Currently, the extrusion process of choice for manufacturing plastic nets is one in which individual plastic strands are extruded in an interconnecting network to provide the net-like structure. Typically, either a rotary or a reciprocating extrusion process is employed. Methods for practicing the reciprocating technique are well known. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,700,521; 3,767,353; 3,723,218; 4,123,491; 4,152,479 and 4,190,692 show apparatus and methods for making nets by the continuous extrusion of individual plastic strands. The disclosures of the above-mentioned issued patents are incorporated by reference into the present application.
Plastic netting has found a number of uses in commerce. For example, these nets have found use as breathable packaging netting for produce and other perishable items, agricultural netting, such as bird and hail guard netting, and netting for industrial, filtration, and home furnishings applications.
Netting has also found use in certain composites. In such composites the netting is laminated or otherwise combined with one or more fabric overlays. Chief among such uses and composites are fabrics for disposable diapers, incontinent briefs, training pants, bandages, dressings, diaper holders and liners, feminine hygiene garments, medical gowns, medical drapes, mattress pads, blankets, sheets, clothing, consumer wipes and other like products, such as building and construction composites.
One specific use of plastic netting is to serve as at least one of the outer layers or a structural support for erosion control applications, such as erosion control blankets. Erosion control blankets are well known and are used to inhibit soil degradation and erosion due to water-runoff in surface areas prone to such environmental destruction such as highway embankments, water drainage ditches, channels, and landscaping.
Another use for the plastic netting is to serve as mulch control netting. These nettings are rolled out over the top of a seeded or mulched area and are staked into place in order to keep the mulch or seed into place, providing erosion control protection under the applied treatment. Typical mulch materials include straw and hay. This type of application is used where the mulch material may benefit from external stabilization, but does not demand the superior protection that is obtained through the use of an erosion control blanket.
Yet another use for the plastic netting is to serve as turf reinforcement either in the form of a field net or a turf wrap. Field net is a durable mesh that is laid down on a seedbed usually prior to or just after seeding to facilitate grass root consolidation. The netting helps allow the grass seedlings to germinate and grow while the roots intertwine with the mesh to create a reinforced uniform structure. Because of the stronger system, growers can usually harvest earlier with generally thinner slabs maximizing land utilization. Turf wrap is applied during harvest to reinforce large rolls of turf. The rolls are wrapped to protect the turf during harvest, transportation and installation to minimize turf loss and maintain roll quality. Turf wrap can remain on the rolls or be removed during installation based on customer needs.
There are many varieties of erosion control blankets that are used today. One such variety comprises two opposed netting materials, such as plastic netting, which sandwiches a loose fibrous material. Such loose fibrous materials are well known and can comprise natural fills such as straw, coconut, coir, wood fiber and excelsior as well as synthetic types of fills such as materials made of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester, polyvinylchloride, and nylon fibers. Another type of erosion control blanket comprises a loose fibrous fill material having a netting material embedded therein.
One drawback that has been discovered in using netting in erosion control assemblies, such as erosion control blankets and as a mulch control net, is that small animals such as snakes, lizards, and frogs tend to get stuck in the netting openings as they try to weave through the openings. When these animals become trapped, they can cause harm to the erosion control assembly and/or to themselves. For instance, the animals can damage the erosion control assembly and/or dislodge the erosion control assembly from its desired location while trying to dislodge themselves from the netting. Moreover, the animal could perish while trapped in the netting either by not being able to get to food and/or water or by being easy prey for other animals.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a netting for use in an erosion control blanket and other like erosion control applications, such as mulch control, that would help reduce the incidents of trapped animals in the netting.

Extruded plastic netting for use in erosion control, mulch stabilization, and turf reinforcement


The present invention provides a process for preparing a peptide of formula I):Sub-[L]-[N(R1)-A-C(O)]p—[NH-A-C(O)]n+m—OH  (I)                comprising:        (a) reacting an immobilized compound of formula (II):Sub-(L)-[N(R1)-A-C(O)]p—[NH-A-C(O)]n—OH  (II)                    with an amino acid ester or peptide derivative of formula (III):H—[NH-A-C(O)]m—O(tBu)  (III)            in the presence of a coupling agent to yield a peptide compound of general formula (IV):Sub-[L]-[N(R1)-A-C(O)]p—[NH-A-C(O)]n+m—O(tBu);  (IV)                        (b) removing the tBu (t-butyl) group to produce a solid-support bound carboxylic acid or peptide derivative of general formula (I);wherein n is a positive integer, e.g., 1–10, preferably 1–5; m is a positive integer, and P is 0–1.

The standard methods for the solid phase synthesis of peptides (SPPS) on beaded resins in the normal C-to-N direction are well developed, as they must be if long peptides are to be synthesized (reviewed in M. Bodanszky et al., "Peptide Chemistry: A Practical Textbook," Springer-Verlag, NY (2d ed., 1993) and M. Bodanszky et al., "The Practice of Peptide Synthesis," Springer-Verlag, NY (2d ed., 1993) S. A. Kates et al., Solid-phase peptide synthesis: a practical guide. Marcel Dekker, New York (2000)). These methods are based on attaching the carboxy terminus of an amino-protected amino acid to the resin. The amino protecting group is then selectively removed. A suitably amino-protected amino acid is coupled to the resin attached nascent peptide with a suitable coupling strategy, and the amino-protecting group of the newly attached residue is removed to complete the cycle. This process is repeated until the desired peptide sequence and length is completed, and the product peptide is then cleaved from the resin, and amino acid side chain protecting groups removed using suitable methods well known in the art. Suitable amino protecting groups in common usage include Boc and Fmoc protecting groups.
Standard peptide chemistry has served as a basis for the development of combinatorial methods for the solid phase synthesis of peptide libraries of tremendous diversity (H. M. Geysen et al., Molec. Immunol., 23, 709 (1986); R. A. Houghten et al., Nature, 354, 84 (1991); K. S. Lam et al., Nature, 354, 84 (1991); reviewed in J. Ellman et al., "Combinatorial thinking in chemistry and biology" Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94, 2779 (1997); R. A. Houghten, "Parallel array and mixture-based synthetic combinatorial chemistry: tools for the next millennium" Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol., 40, 273 (2000); K. S. Lam, et al., "Applications of one-bead one-compound combinatorial libraries and chemical microarrays in signal transduction research," Acc. Chem. Res., 36, 370 (2003)). Combinatorial methods are now widely used for drug and bioactive agent discovery.
Peptide mimetics are agents closely related to peptides but with key functional group modifications tailored for specific properties and applications. Peptide mimetics are of high interest as bioactive agents and drugs, and a number of drugs and bioactive agents in current use are peptide mimetics, including ACE inhibitors (M. Harrold et al., in Foye's principles of medicinal chemistry, D. A. Williams et al., eds., Lippincott, Philadelphia (2002) at pages 533–588), HIV protease inhibitors (M. L. Sethi et al., op. cit., at 952–979), and the anti-myeloma agent Velcade (J. Adams, Drug Disc. Today, 8, 307 (2003)). Many biological processes can conceivably be targeted through suitably designed peptide mimetics, and the development of general solid-phase approaches to such agents is expected to greatly facilitate efforts to develop and refine peptide mimetics for specific applications.
Peptide mimetic combinatorial libraries, based on the normal C-to-N direction of peptide synthesis, have been described. A peptide phosphinate library has been synthesized and used to find potent and selective inhibitors of zinc metalloproteases (J. Jiracek et al., J. Biol. Chem., 270, 21701 (1995); J. Jiracek et al., J. Biol. Chem., 271, 19606 (1996); V. Dive et al., PNAS USA, 96, 4330 (1999)). A (hydroxyethyl)amine library has also been synthesized and used to find inhibitors of the prototypical aspartyl protease Cathepsin D (E. R. Kick et al., Chem. Biol., 4, 297 (1997)).
Many peptide mimetic classes of interest as drugs and bioactive agents are modified on the C-terminus, or are derived from carboxyl group reactions. Simple C-terminal peptide mimetics include peptide trifluoromethylketones (M. H. Gelb et al., Biochemistry, 12, 1813(1985); D. Rasnick, Anal. Biochem., 149, 461 (1985); B. Imperiali et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 27, 135 (1986); peptide boronic acids (D. S. Matteson et al., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 103, 5241 (1981); C. A. Kettner et al., J. Biol. Chem., 259, 106 (1984); W. W. Bachovchin et al., Biochemistry, 27, 7689 (1988); M. P. Groziak Am. J. Ther., 8, 321 (2001); peptide hydroxamic acids (W. Zhang et al., J. Carb. Chem., 3, 151 (2001); peptide alcohols (D. S. Cafiso, Annu. Rev. Biophys. Biomol. Struct., 23, 141 (1994); J. K. Chugh et al., Biochem. Soc. Trans., 29, 565 (2001); and peptide aldehydes (H. T. Morishima, et al., J. Antibiot. (Tokyo), 23, 263 (1970); H. T. Umezawa et al., op. cit., at 259–62 (1970); R. C. Thompson, Biochemistry, 12, 47 (1973); K. L. Rock et al., Cell, 78, 761 (1994); D. Banerjee et al., Anticancer Res., 21 (6A), 3941 (2001)). Peptide mimetic classes which are accessible through carboxyl group chemistry include statine homologs (J. Marciniszyn, et al., Adv. Exp. Med. Biol., 95, 199 (1977); K. E. Rittle et al., J. Org. Chem., 47, 3016 (1982); M. H. Gelb et al., Biochemistry, 24, 8, 1813 (1985); J. A. Fehrentz et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 188, 873 (1992); J. A. Fehrentz op. cit., at 865; J. M. Travins et al., Org. Lett., 3, 2725 (2001); R. K. Hom et al., J. Med. Chem., 47, 158 (2004); and hydroxyethylene isosteres (G. B. Dreyer et al., Biochemistry, 31, 6646 (1992); J. J. Konvalinka et al., Eur. J. Biochem., 250, 559 (1997); M. S. Shearman et al., Biochemistry, 39, 8698 (2000); Hom et al., cited above).
Given the interest in these peptide mimetic classes, a number of approaches to C-terminally modified peptide mimetics have been described (J. Alsina et al., Biopolymers, 71, 454 (2003)). These approaches can be divided into several subcategories, including 1) attachment through the C-terminal functional group or precursor followed by standard C-to-N peptide synthesis, 2) attachment through the backbone followed by C-to-N peptide synthesis, and 3) attachment through the amino terminus followed by N-to-C (inverse) peptide synthesis (inverse solid phase peptide synthesis; ISPPS).
The first of these general approaches, based on C-terminal functional group specific attachment strategies, are limited to a specific functional group and do not allow further elaboration of the final functional group to be made on the resin, for example, to prepare additional derivatives of a solid phase attached C-terminal functional group such as an aldehyde or chloromethylketone. The second general approach does allow further reaction of the final functional group, but suffers, as does the first approach, from the limitation that the peptide chain is synthesized in the C-to-N direction, away from the C-terminal functional group. For split-pool combinatorial peptide mimetic synthesis followed by iterative deconvolution to obtain optimized agents, which is arguably one of the better approaches to combinatorial optimization, it is the last residues added to a molecule which are optimized first (D. A. Konings et al., J. Med. Chem., 40, 4386 (1997)). In both the first and second of the above cited general approaches these are the residues furthest away from the C-terminal functional group.
In contrast to the first two attachment approaches just discussed, the third approach based on ISPPS provides the C-terminus of the nascent peptide mimetic for elaboration into desired functional groups, and for further elaboration into further derivatives, and also allows the residues closest to the C-terminus to be optimized first when using split-pool/iterative deconvolution optimization strategy. There have been a number of efforts to develop effective ISPPS strategies. The first was suggested by R. L. Letsinger and M. J. Kornet, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 85, 3045 (1963) using amino acid ethyl esters. Merrifield et al., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 92, 1384 (1970), used protected amino acid hydrazides as building blocks for the C-terminal elongation of peptides, followed by deprotection and subsequent reaction of the hydrazide function with nitrite, allowed the next building block to be coupled by the azide method. However, the procedure is elaborate, requiring activation and coupling at low temperature with moderate yields.
Sharma et al. have described a few C-terminally modified tetrapeptide HIV-1 protease inhibitors, generated in the inverse direction. For example, see, R. P. Sharma et al., published PCT applications WO 93/05065 (18 Mar. 1993) and WO 90/05738 (31 May 1990) and Chem. Commun., 1449 (1998). Sharma's approach relies on the coupling of amino acid tri-tert-butoxysilyl (Sil) esters. More recently, A. Johannsson et al., J. Comb. Chem., 2, 496 (2000) described a modification of the method of Sharma et al. that involves the coupling of a photolabile resin-bound C-terminal amino acid with excess amounts of amino acid tri-tert-butoxysilyl (Sil) esters, using HATU as coupling reagent and 2,4,6-trimethylpyridine (TMP, collidine) as a base. The HATU/TMP coupling method gave levels of epimerization considerably lower than those reported for other N-to-C methods, usually a ca. 5% and occasionally even below 1%. Amino acid silyl esters are however not commercially available, and are difficult to prepare, unstable to store, and unstable under peptide coupling conditions.
Alternatively, amino acid 9-fluorenylmethyl (Fm) B. Henkel et al., Liebigs Annalen-Recueil, (10), 2161 (1997)), and amino acid allyl esters (N. F. Thieriet et al., Org. Letters, 2, 1815 (2000)) have also been used for ISPPS. The Fm ester approach appears attractive considering its similarity to standard Fmoc based C-to-N SPPS, but Fm esters are not as stable as Fmoc amino acids, and Fm ester based inverse peptide synthesis apparently suffers from this limitation. The allyl ester based approach is practicable, but allyl esters are not generally available, and deprotection requires the use of 20 mol % of Pd(PPh3)4, which is a heavy metal based reagent. These strategies therefore appear less than ideal, since suitable amino acid derivatives are not generally available commercially and can be difficult to prepare, due to instability of reactants and intermediates, and to toxicity and expense of reagents.
Thus, a continuing need exists for simple and efficient methods for the inverse (N-to-C) synthesis of peptides and peptide mimetics, particularly for the synthesis of oligopeptide mimetic libraries useful for high-throughput drug screening.

Attachment and elaboration strategies for inverse peptide synthesis

The Curators of the University of Missouri


Methods for altering the natural history of degenerative disc disease and osteoarthritis of the spine are proposed. The methods focus on the prevention, or delayed onset or progression of, subchondral defects such as bone marrow edema or bone marrow lesion, and subchondral treatment to prevent the progression of osteoarthritis or degenerative disc disease in the spine and thereby treat pain.

Human joints are susceptible to degeneration from disease, trauma, and long-term repetitive use that eventually lead to pain. In the spine, degenerative spine disease is a major cause of chronic disability in the adult working population. Spinal degeneration is a normal part of aging, and neck and back pain are one of life's most common infirmities.
There are many potential sources of back pain, and finding the specific cause is often a confounding problem for both patient and doctor. Pain can originate from bone, joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves and intervertebral disks, as well as other paravertebral tissues. For acute pain due to structural damage of the spine, treatments that repair the damaged area, such as by mechanical fixation devices like fixation plates or rods, have proven effective. These treatments generally involve the immobilization of the damaged area through spine restabilization, thus altering the load sharing of each segment. This is commonly performed by in situ, on lay, interbody, and other fusion procedures that improve loading of the diseased subchondral defects (e.g., edema or lesions), and load transfer to other areas and implantable devices. When fusion is not desirable, implantable motion preservation devices may accomplish this load transfer and improve stability while reducing pain.
Unlike acute injuries or trauma of the spine, current treatments for chronic back pain due to degenerative disc disease or osteoarthritis have not proven as reliable or effective. Many medical practitioners focus treatment on the intervertebral disc, because they have attributed disc degeneration, more specifically the initial delamination of the annulus, followed by nucleus dehydration and subchondral bone changes, as a continuum of events as the degenerative disease cascade progresses. Current treatments comprise, for example, partial or complete fusion to immobilize and/or isolate the damaged area, intervertebral disc repair or replacement, nucleus repair or replacement, and corpectomy.
The rationale for treating the disc as a pain source in the spine is similar to the popular theory within the orthopedic community that joint pain, such as that found in the knee or hip, results from bone-on-bone contact or inadequate cartilage cushioning. These conditions are believed to frequently result from the progression of osteoarthritis, which is measured in terms of narrowing of the joint space. Therefore, the severity of osteoarthritis is believed to be an indicator or precursor to joint pain. Most surgeons and medical practitioners thus base their treatments for pain relief on this theory. However, the severity of osteoarthritis, especially in the knee, has been found to correlate poorly with the incidence and magnitude of knee pain. Because of this, surgeons and medical practitioners have struggled to deliver consistent, reliable pain relief to patients, especially if preservation of the joint is desired. Likewise, in the spine, practitioners have not found long-term results from chronic back pain by treating the intervertebral disc as the source and solution of mechanical loading pain of a diseased spinal segment.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a medical procedure that addresses the pain associated with degenerative disc disease or osteoarthritis of the spine, and provides an alternative to a fusion or replacement surgery, which can be highly invasive, risky and irreversible.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Subchondral treatment of joint pain of the spine


Data query in a share-nothing database includes obtaining a query request and generating an optimized access plan with respect to the query request. The query request relates to external data stored in an external data source and contains a definition for expected distribution of the external data. The data query also includes obtaining data distribution information related to the expected distribution based on the optimized access plan, transmitting the data distribution information to the external data source so that the external data source splits and returns the external data in accordance with the data distribution information, and executing query-related processing of the split external data in accordance with the optimized access plan.

The present invention relates to database query, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for data query in a share-nothing database.
A database is used to organize, store and manage data in accordance with data structure. With the development of information technology, there is an increasing number of data to be stored and processed, which puts forward higher requirements for a database. To adapt for storage and management of mass data, composition of a database is expanded from a simple single storage to a cluster of a plurality of storages. Moreover, a database may also be combined with an external data source to provide storage, management and query of data collectively, so as to further expand the application of a database.
An external data source can be implemented through a variety of data storage systems including centralized data storage systems and distributed storage systems. Examples of distributed storage systems include Network File System (NFS), Hadoop File System (HDFS), and so on. Many external data sources do not support a standard application programming interface (API) to access data, and thus it usually needs a user defined function (UDF) to perform external data query, so as to fetch data from an external data source into a database.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic view of data query in a system with a database combined with an external data source. In FIG. 1, a Hadoop system is used as an example of the external data source. In order to perform data query in such a system, firstly, the user side issues a structured query language (SQL) query request to a database management engine. The code of the query request may be as shown on the right side. It can be seen from the right-side code that in order to fetch data from the Hadoop system, two UDFs are included in the query request, i.e., jaqlSumit and hdfsRead, to request and fetch data from the Hadoop system. The code segment of the middle part in the SQL query request is used for data query in the Hadoop. For such a query request, the database management engine first compiles and analyzes the code in the request. Specifically, for a UDF in the query request, the database engine opens a separate thread to run the UDF. Therefore, the program and thread running the UDF are also usually referred to as a UDF entity. In the example of FIG. 1, the database management engine then creates two UDF entities which read data from the external data source Hadoop system, respectively. Finally, the database management engine organizes the read data and returns them to a user interface.
On the other hand, as described above, the database may be composed of a cluster of a plurality of storage devices. Such a cluster may have many modes of sharing, for example, memory sharing in which CPUs of multiple devices share the same piece of memory and communicate with one another through an internal communication mechanism, disk sharing in which each CPU uses its own private memory area but accesses all disk systems directly through an internal communication mechanism, and share-nothing in which each device's CPU has a private memory area and a private disk space, and different CPUs cannot access the same disk space and may communicate with one another through a network connection. In the above modes of sharing, the non-sharing manner is a typical architecture commonly used by a database. For a database with a share-nothing architecture, if it is combined with an external data source to perform data storage and query, a problem of data redistribution may arise.
FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic view of data query in a system with a share-nothing database combined with an external data source. As shown in FIG. 2, the database is composed of a plurality of share-nothing devices, each having a separate CPU, memory, and disk for storing data. Typically, each device is also referred to as a node of the database, whereby the database of FIG. 2 contains share-nothing nodes N1-N4. In such a share-nothing database, in order to read data from the external data source, usually, a UDF entity is created at each node, and the created multiple UDF entities are used to execute external data reading in parallel. However, since the database does not recognize the distribution of data in the external data source and the external data source can not know the desired data distribution, after a database management engine fetches data from the external data source through UDFs, these data are required to be redistributed. By way of example, suppose it is desired to query information about a user and his recent transaction, wherein information related to the user is stored in a database local device while the transaction information is stored in the external data source. In such a case, the database management engine needs to fetch the transaction information from the external data source, and then join this transaction information with the corresponding user information. Since nodes of the database share nothing, the database engine needs to send respective transaction information to a particular node storing the corresponding user information before the joining. For example, assuming that user A's information is stored in the node N1 while the UDF entity on the node N2 obtains the user A's transaction information, the database engine needs to send the data obtained by the UDF entity on N2 to N1, so as to enable the joining of user A with his transaction information. It can be appreciated that, for a database with share-nothing architecture, communication between nodes can reduce the system performance significantly.

Database query in a share-nothing database architecture

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention is related to the field of bio/chemical sampling, sensing, assays and applications. Particularly, the present invention is related to how to make the sampling/sensing/assay become simple to use, fast to results, highly sensitive, easy to use, using tiny sample volume (e.g. 0.5 uL or less), operated by a person without any professionals, reading by mobile-phone, or low cost, or a combination of them.

In many bio/chemical sensing and testing (e.g. immunoassay, nucleotide assay, blood cell counting, etc.), chemical reactions, and other processes, there are needs for the methods and devices that can accelerate the process (e.g. binding, mixing reagents, etc.) and quantify the parameters (e.g. analyte concentration, the sample volume, etc.), that can simplify the sample collection and measurement processes, that can handle samples with small volume, that allow an entire assay performed in less than a minute, that allow an assay performed by a smartphone (e.g. mobile phone), that allow non-professional to perform an assay her/himself, and that allow a test result to be communicated locally, remotely, or wirelessly to different relevant parties. The present invention relates to the methods, devices, and systems that address these needs.

Bio/chemical assay devices and methods for simplified steps, small samples, accelerated speed, and ease-of-use


A micro-actuator for a head gimbal assembly includes a metal frame including a bottom support integrated with a suspension flexure of the head gimbal assembly, a top support adapted to support a slider of the head gimbal assembly, and a pair of side arms that interconnect the top support and the bottom support. The top support includes a rotatable plate, connection arms that couple the rotatable plate to respective side arms, and an electrical pad support plate that supports bonding pads. A PZT element is mounted to each of the side arms. Each PZT element is excitable to cause selective movement of the side arms.

One known type of information storage device is a disk drive device that uses magnetic media to store data and a movable read/write head that is positioned over the media to selectively read from or write to the disk.
Consumers are constantly desiring greater storage capacity for such disk drive devices, as well as faster and more accurate reading and writing operations. Thus, disk drive manufacturers have continued to develop higher capacity disk drives by, for example, increasing the density of the information tracks on the disks by using a narrower track width and/or a narrower track pitch. However, each increase in track density requires that the disk drive device have a corresponding increase in the positional control of the read/write head in order to enable quick and accurate reading and writing operations using the higher density disks. As track density increases, it becomes more and more difficult using known technology to quickly and accurately position the read/write head over the desired information tracks on the storage media. Thus, disk drive manufacturers are constantly seeking ways to improve the positional control of the read/write head in order to take advantage of the continual increases in track density.
One approach that has been effectively used by disk drive manufacturers to improve the positional control of read/write heads for higher density disks is to employ a secondary actuator, known as a micro-actuator, that works in conjunction with a primary actuator to enable quick and accurate positional control for the read/write head. Disk drives that incorporate a micro-actuator are known as dual-stage actuator systems.
Various dual-stage actuator systems have been developed in the past for the purpose of increasing the access speed and fine tuning the position of the read/write head over the desired tracks on high density storage media. Such dual-stage actuator systems typically include a primary voice-coil motor (VCM) actuator and a secondary micro-actuator, such as a PZT element micro-actuator. The VCM actuator is controlled by a servo control system that rotates the actuator arm that supports the read/write head to position the read/write head over the desired information track on the storage media. The PZT element micro-actuator is used in conjunction with the VCM actuator for the purpose of increasing the positioning access speed and fine tuning the exact position of the read/write head over the desired track. Thus, the VCM actuator makes larger adjustments to the position of the read/write head, while the PZT element micro-actuator makes smaller adjustments that fine tune the position of the read/write head relative to the storage media. In conjunction, the VCM actuator and the PZT element micro-actuator enable information to be efficiently and accurately written to and read from high density storage media.
One known type of micro-actuator incorporates PZT elements for causing fine positional adjustments of the read/write head. Such PZT micro-actuators include associated electronics that are operable to excite the PZT elements on the micro-actuator to selectively cause expansion or contraction thereof. The PZT micro-actuator is configured such that expansion or contraction of the PZT elements causes movement of the micro-actuator which, in turn, causes movement of the read/write head. This movement is used to make faster and finer adjustments to the position of the read/write head, as compared to a disk drive unit that uses only a VCM actuator. Exemplary PZT micro-actuators are disclosed in, for example, JP 2002-133803, entitled "Micro-actuator and HGA" and JP 2002-074871, entitled "Head Gimbal Assembly Equipped with Actuator for Fine Position, Disk Drive Equipped with Head Gimbals Assembly, and Manufacture Method for Head Gimbal Assembly." Other exemplary PZT micro-actuators are also disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,671,131 and 6,700,749.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional disk drive unit and show a magnetic disk 101 mounted on a spindle motor 102 for spinning the disk 101. A voice coil motor arm 104 carries a head gimbal assembly (HGA) 100 that includes a micro-actuator 105 with a slider 103 incorporating a read/write head. A voice-coil motor (VCM) is provided for controlling the motion of the motor arm 104 and, in turn, controlling the slider 103 to move from track to track across the surface of the disk 101, thereby enabling the read/write head to read data from or write data to the disk 101. In operation, a lift force is generated by the aerodynamic interaction between the slider 103, incorporating the read/write transducer, and the spinning magnetic disk 101. The lift force is opposed by equal and opposite spring forces applied by a suspension of the HGA 100 such that a predetermined flying height above the surface of the spinning disk 101 is maintained over a full radial stroke of the motor arm 104.
FIG. 2 illustrates the head gimbal assembly (HGA) 100 of the conventional disk drive device of FIG. 1 incorporating a dual-stage actuator. However, because of the inherent tolerances of the VCM and the head suspension assembly, the slider 103 cannot achieve quick and fine position control which adversely impacts the ability of the read/write head to accurately read data from and write data to the disk. As a result, a PZT micro-actuator 105, as described above, is provided in order to improve the positional control of the slider and the read/write head. More particularly, the PZT micro-actuator 105 corrects the displacement of the slider 103 on a much smaller scale, as compared to the VCM, in order to compensate for the resonance tolerance of the VCM and/or head suspension assembly. The micro-actuator 105 enables, for example, the use of a smaller recording track pitch, and can increase the "tracks-per-inch" (TPI) value by 50% for the disk drive unit, as well as provide an advantageous reduction in the head seeking and settling time. Thus, the PZT micro-actuator 105 enables the disk drive device to have a significant increase in the surface recording density of the information storage disks used therein.
As shown in FIG. 2, the HGA 100 includes a suspension 106 having a flexure 108. The flexure 108 provides a suspension tongue 110 to load the PZT micro-actuator 105 and the slider 103. Suspension traces 112 are provided to the flexure 108 and extend on opposite sides of the suspension tongue 110. The suspension traces 112 electrically couple the PZT micro-actuator 105 and the slider 103 with bonding pads 120 which connect to a control system.
Referring to FIG. 3, a conventional PZT micro-actuator 105 includes a metal frame 130 which has a top support 132, a bottom support 134, and two side arms 136, 138 that interconnect the two supports 132 and 134. The side arms 136, 138 each have a PZT element 140, 142 attached thereto. The slider 103 is supported on the top support 132.
Referring to FIG. 4, the PZT micro-actuator 105 is physically coupled to the suspension tongue 110 by the bottom support 134 of the frame 130. The bottom support 134 may be mounted on the suspension tongue 110 by epoxy or laser welding, for example. Multi balls for example three electrical connection balls 150 (gold ball bonding or solder ball bonding, GBB or SBB) are provided to couple the PZT micro-actuator 105 to the suspension traces 112 located at the side of each PZT element 140, 142. In addition, there are multi ball for example four metal balls 152 (GBB or SBB) for coupling the slider 103 to the traces 112 for electrical connection of the read/write transducers.
Referring to FIG. 5, the load beam 160 of the suspension 106 has a dimple 162 formed thereon that supports the suspension tongue 110. A parallel gap 170 is provided between the suspension tongue 110 and the PZT micro-actuator 105 to allow the PZT micro-actuator 105 and slider 103 to move smoothly and freely in use.
When power is supplied through the suspension traces 112, the PZT elements 140, 142 expand or contract to cause the two side arms 136, 138 to bend in a common lateral direction. The bending causes a shear deformation of the frame 130, e.g., the rectangular shape of the frame becomes approximately a parallelogram, which causes movement of the top support 132. This causes movement of the slider 103 connected thereto, thereby making the slider 103 move on the track of the disk in order to fine tune the position of the read/write head. In this manner, controlled displacement of slider 103 can be achieved for fine positional tuning.
FIG. 6 illustrates how the PZT micro-actuator 105 works when a voltage is applied to the PZT elements 140, 142. For example, when a positive sine voltage is input to the PZT element 140 of the micro-actuator which has a positive polarization, in the first half period, the PZT element 140 will shrink and cause the side arm 136 to deform as a water waveform shape. Since the slider 103 is mounted on the top support 132, this deformation will cause the slider to move or sway towards the left side. Likewise, when a negative sine voltage is input to the PZT element 142 of the micro-actuator which has a positive polarization, in the second half period, the PZT element 142 will shrink and cause the side arm 138 to deform as a water waveform shape. This deformation will cause the slider 103 to move or sway towards the right side. Of course, this operation may depend on the electric control circle and PZT element polarization direction, but the work principle is well known.
The PZT micro-actuator 105 works in a translational or sway-like manner in which the PZT elements 140, 142 undergo intermissive contraction and extension that causes the PZT micro-actuator to deform as a water waveform shape and move the slider in a sway-like manner. This intermissive motion will generate reaction forces in the suspension tongue 110 through the bottom support 134 mounted to the suspension tongue 110. These reaction forces will generate a suspension resonance, which limits the performance characteristics of the disk drive device, especially for the servo bandwidth.
For example, FIG. 7 illustrates testing data of the resonance of a prior PZT micro-actuator design. As illustrated, when the PZT micro-actuator is operated (exciting the PZT), a suspension resonance is generated due the relatively large reaction force of the suspension. The curve 160 illustrates a resonance when the suspension base plate is shaken or excited, and the curve 170 illustrates a resonance when the PZT element of the micro-actuator is excited. As illustrated, the curves 160, 170 have similar forms.
Thus, there is a need for an improved system that does not suffer from the above-mentioned drawbacks.

Rotational micro-actuator integrated with suspension of head gimbal assembly, and disk drive unit with the same


The user controller for a video game has a set of auxiliary buttons from which a user may input requests to store, request and execute stored sequences of user playing button settings. The auxiliary buttons are programmable and could be assigned to arbitrary special moves matching the needs of different games or of different stages of one game. The controller can store any arbitrary sequence of user play button settings to relieve the user from having to repeat inputting the sequence. The user may also add to a stored sequence during execution on the fly to form a merged sequence which may be stored. The controller also permits the user to override a stored sequence during execution. Special moves possible include a sequence of fast paced reproductions of predetermined moves. The controller also disregards unintended idle settings to provide more realistic rendition of stored sequences.

This present invention is directed to video game controllers, and more particularly to game controllers that store and execute arbitrary sequence of moves. (Even more particularly, it relates to game controllers which employ efficient storing methods).
Widely available Video Game Systems (VGS) comprise a Video Game Processing Unit (PU) and a User Controller (UC) having a set of user play buttons. The UC provides information about each user play button setting to PU.
A play button is said to be in its Idle state or setting if it is in its default or original position, and it is said to be in an Active state or setting if it is being set by the user. More generally, the user play buttons are in an idle setting if all the buttons are in idle states. And, the user play buttons are in a Single or a Multiple setting, if respectively, one or more of the buttons are in active states. The single setting of the user play buttons is aslo refered to as a trivial setting.
A Move is a change in game status or game position, on or off the screen. While playing a game, user asks for changes in the game position or status from PU using the user play buttons. Each single setting of the user play buttons is a Request for a certain change in the game status according to specific rules or instructions of the game.
A move requested by such a single setting of the user play buttons is called a Simple Single Move. As for the multiple settings of the user play buttons, in general, each is equivalent to a simultaneous request for changes or moves corresponding to the active buttons in the play buttons. Thus, by making both "move right" and "jump" requests, the screen character can be made to perform both movements at the same time.
In many games, to enlarge the dynamics of the play, in addition to the above moves, there are certain Special Moves introduced. The special moves differ from each other and from the above mentioned moves in the way they are to be requested.
A common special move is one which is requested by a multiple setting of the user play buttons. We call this a Simple Multiple Move. Note that it is understood based on game instructions that a multiple setting of the user buttons associated with a simple multiple move does not constitute a simultaneous request for moves corresponding to active buttons in the multiple setting. But instead is a request for the designated simple multiple move. Thus, for example in "Super Mario 3", a popular game designed for Nintando video game systems, by requesting both "move right" and "twist" moves, the character would accelerate.
Another special move, typically used, is one for which the request is a short sequence of simple and/or multiple settings of the user play buttons. We will refer to this as a Combination Move. Yet another special move is a "Combination with Last Play Buttons Hold" move. Here to maintain the move the user is required to hold the last button setting of the requesting sequence.
In addition to and sometimes in connection with all the moves noted above, there are the so called "Time Dependent" moves. In a time dependent move the change could evolve in size as a function of the time its requesting user button setting is sustained.
As already mentioned, special moves differ from simple or multiple moves in the way they are requested. Even though, these moves provide more dynamics to the play, their requests, nonetheless, due to limited play buttons on the user controller, could take on many different and often complicated forms as seen from the above few examples.
To make matters worse, the user button settings associated with these special moves are usually difficult to manage and can be frustrating to players. This is because the easier settings are justly set apart for use in connection with the more frequently used simple and multiple moves, so that the special moves are less convenient to the user and hence harder to request.
No satisfactory approach to alleviation of these problems, other than to encourage players to "practice" the special moves is known. Among available video game user controllers, one advertised as programmable (to store passwords), could save a sequence of single (trivial) settings of the user buttons, and upon request reproduces each single user setting in the same order as saved, for a predetermined duration, following each with the idle setting. This feature though useful for storing and retrieving passwords does not address or solve the more complex problem of storing and/or execution of any of the discussed special moves. The storage and reproduction of the special moves, in general require, not only true reproduction of arbitrary settings of the user play buttons, but also close or exact time span of each. A practical solution to this problem, for the special moves with moderately long sequences, would require finding an efficient data compression technique.

Game controller capable of storing and executing stored sequences of user playing button settings


The present invention provides a waveguide coupler configured to optically couple a strip waveguide to a first slot photonic crystal waveguide, wherein the slot photonic crystal waveguide has a lattice constant, an air hole diameter, a slot width and a first line defect waveguide width. The waveguide coupler includes a group reflective index taper having a second slot photonic crystal waveguide disposed between and aligned with the first slot photonic crystal waveguide and the strip waveguide. The second slot photonic crystal waveguide has a length, the lattice constant, the air hole diameter, the slot width, and a second line defect waveguide width that is substantially equal to the first line defect waveguide width adjacent to the first slot photonic crystal waveguide and decreases along the length of the second photonic crystal waveguide.

Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with photonic crystal waveguides (PCW). Introducing line defects into a photonic crystal lattice permits an electromagnetic wave having a frequency within the bandgap of the structure to be guided through the photonic crystal. The line defects resemble waveguides, and may be formed by either adding or removing dielectric material to a certain row or column along one of the directions of the photonic crystal lattice. Thus, PCWs can be used as an optical "wire" to guide an optical signal between different points, or devices, within an optical integrated circuit.
Slotted photonic crystal waveguides offer a unique platform that merges the best properties of slot waveguides and photonic crystal waveguides (PCW): strong optical confinement in slot waveguides [1] and slow light-enhanced light-matter interaction in photonic crystal waveguides. [2] In a W1 PCW, the optical mode profile spreads deeper into the photonic lattice with reduced group velocity. [3] This lateral spread reduces optical confinement and increases propagation loss for slow light modes, which can weaken some of the benefits derived from the slow light effect. By contrast, in slotted PCW, optical confinement does not decrease with increased group index, as a result of the high index contrast in silicon platform. In a high index contrast interface, a transverse electric (TE) guided mode is required to have much higher intensity in the low index region as stated by Maxwell's equations. Consequently, when approaching the edge of the photonic bandgap, the percentage of energy concentration in the low index slot will increase rather than decrease. [4] The increasing optical confinement with slower group velocity is a very advantageous property for compact optical communication [4-6] and sensor devices [7,8] that require strong light-matter interaction and high optical confinement simultaneously. Despite the benefits derived from strong confinement and slow light enhancement, optical coupling between a strip waveguide and a slotted PCW is more challenging than conventional PCW due to the exotic mode profile and slow group velocity in the slotted PCW. Without a properly designed interface between a strip waveguide and a slotted PCW, strongly confined guided mode profile with minimal overlap and large group index mismatch result in negligible coupling and a transmission spectrum that is nearly indistinguishable from noise [9]. Efforts to improve the coupling efficiency between a strip waveguide and a slotted PCW include using a multi-mode interference (MMI) coupler [9], changing the termination of the slot with respect to the coupler interface [10,11], and resonant coupling [15]. Using an MMI coupler to improve mode-matching yields less than 5 dB insertion at the peak wavelength. However, efficient coupling is achieved only within a narrow bandwidth. Changing the slot termination profile achieves good coupling with significantly better bandwidth [10], but the overall transmission is low, and Fabry-Perot fringes manifest due to significant reflections. Resonant coupler approach shows better coupling efficiency. However, the transmission dip below −10 dB in slow light region weakens the performance of slow light devices. By contrast, the theoretical study in [16] suggests that good coupling is achievable with good mode profile and group index matching.
As a result, photonic crystal waveguides are a very promising platform for ultra-compact optical devices with relatively low power consumption. However, optical loss in photonic crystal waveguides is the most significant stumbling block, and coupling loss in photonic crystal devices is the dominant optical loss.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,231,122 issued to Weisberg et al. (2007) features an apparatus that includes a photonic crystal fiber configured to guide a mode of electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength, λ, along a waveguide axis. The fiber includes a core extending along the waveguide axis, and a confinement region extending along the waveguide axis and surrounding the core. The confinement region includes alternating layers of a first and a second dielectric material having thicknesses d1 and d2 and different refractive indices n1 and n2, respectively. The thickness of at least one of the alternating layers of the first material differs from thickness d1QW or at least one of the alternating layers of the second material differs from thickness d2QW, where d1QW and d2QW correspond to a quarter-wave condition for the two dielectric materials given by d1QW=λ/(4√{square root over (n12−1)}) and d2QW=λ/(4√{square root over (n22−1)}), respectively. The photonic crystal fiber has an attenuation for the guided mode at the wavelength λ that is reduced by a factor of about two or more relative to an attenuation for a reference fiber that is identical to the photonic crystal fiber except that the reference fiber has alternating layer thicknesses corresponding to the quarter-wave condition.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,535,944 issued to Guilfoyle (2009) discloses a photonic crystal/waveguide coupler for VCSELS and photodetectors. The optical coupler of the Guilfoyle invention comprises first and second mirrors. The first mirror is positioned with respect to the second mirror so that a resonant cavity is defined between them. A waveguide structure is positioned in the resonant cavity and includes a photonic crystal coupler. A thickness of the resonant cavity is selected so that a phase matching condition is satisfied for resonance in the resonant cavity. At least one of the first and second mirrors may be formed from a structure in an optoelectronic device. Alternatively, at least one of the first and second mirrors is formed from a semiconductor layer. At least one of the first and second mirrors may be formed as a semiconductor distributed bragg reflector, or as a dielectric distributed bragg reflector. At least one of the first and second mirrors may be a mirror in a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) structure. The photonic crystal coupler structure may be shaped so that first order modes of light incident upon the photonic crystal coupler structure are coupled into the waveguide while zero-order modes are reflected out into the resonant cavity and reflected by the mirror.

Broadband, group index independent, and ultra-low loss coupling into slow light slotted photonic crystal waveguides

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