An instrument for inserting, adjusting and engaging an implant, such as a polyaxial screw of a spinal fixation system, includes at least one retratractable tab for engaging a corresponding recess on the implant and a shaft that moves relative to the retractable tab. The movable shaft selectively moves the tab between an expanded position for engaging the recess and a retracted position out of engagement with the recess. The shaft selectively engages a portion of the implant to rigidify the implant after the retractable tab engages the recess. The axially extending shaft may be disposed within an axially extending passageway of a body assembly. A rotatable collar surrounding the body assembly is coupled to the shaft for moving the shaft relative to the retractable tab.

Spinal fixation systems may be used in orthopedic surgery to align, stabilize and/or fix a desired relationship between adjacent vertebral bodies. Such systems typically include a spinal fixation element, such as a relatively rigid fixation rod or plate, that is coupled to adjacent vertebrae by attaching the element to various anchoring devices, such as hooks, bolts, wires or screws. The spinal fixation element can have a predetermined contour that has been designed according to the properties of the target implantation site and, once installed, the spinal fixation element holds the vertebrae in a desired spatial relationship, either until desired healing or spinal fusion has occurred, or for some longer period of time.
Spinal fixation elements can be anchored to specific portions of the vertebra. Since each vertebra varies in shape and size, a variety of anchoring devices have been developed to facilitate engagement of a particular portion of the bone. Pedicle screw assemblies, for example, have a shape and size that is configured to engage pedicle bone. Such screws typically include a threaded shank that is adapted to be threaded into a vertebra, and a head portion having a spinal fixation element receiving element, which, in spinal rod applications, is usually in the form of a U-shaped slit formed in the head for receiving the rod. In many pedicle screws, the head is movable and preferably pivotable in all directions, relative to the shaft. The ability to move the head relative to the anchoring portion of the screw facilitates alignment and seating of a rod connecting a plurality of screws
A set-screw, plug, cap or similar type of closure mechanism is used to lock the rod into the rod-receiving portion of the pedicle screw. In use, the shank portion of each screw is then threaded into a vertebra, and once properly positioned, a fixation rod is seated through the rod-receiving portion of each screw and the rod is locked in place by tightening a cap or similar type of closure mechanism to securely interconnect each screw and the fixation rod. Other anchoring devices include hooks and other types of bone screws
Polyaxial screws and other implants having movable components are often difficult to handle. To insert and remove the screw, the components of the implant must be made rigid relative to each other, to enable rotation of the shaft in a desired direction by engaging the head. Current drivers for inserting polyaxial screws are incapable of also unscrewing the polyaxial screw. For example, while conventional polyaxial screw drivers are able to maintain the screw rigid while rotating the shaft in a direction for insertion, the rotation in the reverse direction fails to maintain a rigid screw, causing the head to rotate around the shaft without rotating the shaft.

Instrument for inserting, adjusting and removing pedicle screws and other orthopedic implants


A method of sealing a generator stator bar and a stator bar end fitting receiving the end including the steps of: brazing the fitting to the end of the stator bar with a braze material; applying a powder coating material to the end of the stator bar in the fitting; and curing the powder coating material to form a barrier coating on the end of the stator bar and the adjoining interior surfaces of the fitting.

The present invention relates to seals between generator stator bars and their end fitting connections, and to a method for sealing a stator bar end fitting to prevent or reduce corrosion due to coolant water flowing through the fitting and the stator bar.
Water-cooled stator bars for electrical generators are comprised of a plurality of small rectangular solid and hollow copper strands brazed to one another to form a bar. The ends of the strands are brazed to an end fitting, typically referred to as stator bar clip. The end fitting serves as both an electrical and a cooling flow connection for the stator bar.
The hollow end fitting typically includes an enclosed chamber for ingress or egress of stator bar cooling liquid, typically deionized water. At one end, the end fitting receives the ends of the strands of the stator bar. The fitting and the peripherally outermost copper strands of the stator bar are brazed to one another. The opposite end of the fitting is connected to a stator cooling conduit.
Liquid cooled stator bar clips have gone through design changes over the years. However, all of them contain solid strands brazed to hollow strands. During operation, the hollow strands carry water to cool off the bar. Water can corrode the copper alloy. Also, over time, leaks can develop about the connection between the stator bar ends and the stator bar fitting as well as between adjacent strands. It is believed that the leak mechanism is due to a two-part corrosion process which initiates in the braze alloy at the interior surface of the braze joint. Stagnant water in the chamber of the fitting is in contact with the braze alloy and the copper strands. This coolant contact with the braze joint and copper strands is believed to cause corrosion and consequent leakage.
Field repair of coolant leaks through the stator bar end connections has been moderately successful. A leak site is identified by external visual examination of where the strands enter the end fitting. External visual leak detection indirectly identifies the leak site because the visible external leak on the outside of the bar and/or fitting may be a considerable distance away from a point within the fitting where the leak begins. This is particularly true if the leak is occurring between the strands of the stator bar.
An epoxy barrier coating method has been used as a leak repair and prevention method. An example of an epoxy barrier coating method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,590, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference. This epoxy barrier coating has been applied to provide protection against water initiated corrosion mechanisms along the brazed length of the strand package. Epoxy coating is manually injected. As a result, the process lends itself to human error. If the coating is applied to thick, it can crack. Moreover, visibility is impaired when looking into the clip of a stator bar. The voids and air pockets are possible during injection. In addition, plugged cooling strands may possibly result. Thus, the process is labor intensive and requires 100% inspection. Moreover, the epoxy is challenged by the extreme temperature conditions during assembly, transportation and operational faulted condition. In this regard, during faulted condition, the temperature of the cooling water applied to the exterior of the bar may change rapidly which applies significant thermal stress to the coating. Also, it is difficult with certain clip designs to achieve visual and injection access. As a result, the process can be labor intensive, takes a long time to complete, and produces a high rate of defects.
There is a need for an improved barrier coating for stator bar clips. In particular there is a need for corrosion protection between the stator bars and their clips. The corrosion protection should be robust and be applicable to various stator bar clip designs, including clips for raised hollow strand stator designs.

Powder coating for generator stator bar end fitting and method for applying the powder coating


A child resistant package includes a snap-on closure of rigid and stiff material on a container having a neck finish with an annular locking rib having at least one notch. The closure has a locking lug extending radially inwardly from its skirt in alignment in a fire position with the notch upon rotation of the closure to permit removal of the closure when in the fire position. A finger tab extends radially outwardly from the skirt in alignment with the locking lug, and the skirt has rib structure extending radially inwardly from the skirt circumferentially spaced from the locking lug. The locking rib and rib structure having coacting cams for resiliently expanding the skirt upon snap locking the closure to the neck finish and upon removal of the closure. The locking lug and the rib structure are interengaged with the locking rib upon snap locking and the rib structure becomes disengaged from the locking rib upon removal of the closure. The improvement comprises the provision of at least one non-frangible disruption in the skirt for permitting at least one segment of the skirt adjacent such disruption to flex from an initial unflexed position thereof radially outwardly and back to its initial position as the rib structure disengages from the locking rib upon the removal of the closure and as the rib structure engages the locking rib upon the snap locking of the closure to the neck finish.

This relates to a snap-on closure adapted for use with a container available as a child-resistant package. More particularly, the improved snap-on closure of the invention has a feature which retains the integrity of the seal and snap-on fitment with the container neck finish while rendering the closure easier to open in the unlocked position of the closure.
Child resistant snap closures are widely known and are of many different varieties. In its simpliest form, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,627,160, the closure skirt has an inner locking lug adapted to be aligned upon closure rotation with a notch located in an annular locking rib on the neck finish of the container to permit closure removal. In such position, known as the "fire" position, the closure is effectively unlocked to facilitate its removal. The closure skirt likewise has a pair of circumferentially extending snap beads on its inner wall with the midpoint diametrically opposite the lug for snap locking engagement with the annular locking rib. The locking lug lies in the same plane as the locking beads to likewise snap fit beneath the locking rib when the cap is manually pressed down over the container neck.
The closure skirt has an outer finger tab in alignment with the locking lug to provide a bearing surface for the operator's thumb or finger in lifting off the closure when the thumb tab and locking lug are oriented into alignment with the notch in the annular locking rib. Indicia which may be in the form of a triangle serving as a pointer is normally provided on the container neck to indicate when the locking lug is accurately in registry with the notch or gap of the annular locking rib, referred to as the "fire" position.
The closure skirt is relatively stiff and rigid although sufficiently resilient such that it flexes radially outwardly upon closure removal as coacting cam surfaces between the snap beads and the locking rib permit the beads to ride upwardly over the major diameter portion of the locking rib in the process of disengaging the beads from the rib during closure removal in the fire position. The inherent hoop strength offered by the closure skirt limits its resilient expansion thereby rendering the closure oftentimes difficult to remove by especially elderly people or those having finger dexterity or strength problems because of the necessary force required particularly for the removal of small-sized snap-on closures from small-sized containers Because of their smaller size, such closures resist flexing to a greater extent compared to larger-sized closures, hence requiring a greater force to remove from its container.
Also, during closure removal, the locking lug impacts against the outer peripheral edge of the neck finish, despite the unobstructive passage of the locking lug through the notch in the annular locking rib. Since the locking lug is located at a spaced axial distance from the closure end wall, in the same plane as the snap beads so as to underlie the locking rib in the snapped-on position, the lug strikes the upper peripheral edge of the neck finish at the container opening as the closure is tilted upwardly while swinging an arc using the opposite side of the closure as a fulcrum. This impact against the neck finish peripheral edge offers some resistance in the process of closure removal as the lug rides upwardly over such edge. During this process the closure skirt at the finger tab elastically expands radially outwardly as limited by the inherent hoop strength of the skirt.
This resistance may be overcome by those having the strength and finger dexterity to remove the cap in the fire position without much difficulty, although it may present a problem for others.

Child-resistant closure with easy opening feature


In order to divide a memory addressed unidimensionally into a plurality of memory areas and to manage efficiently these memory areas, the address to be accessed inside the memory is determined on a software basis by a computer instruction by use of the value of a first pointer designating each memory area and the value of a second pointer designating the relative address in the designated memory area.

This invention relates to an access mechanism for making access to a memory such as a large capacity register file by use of a pointer, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for memory access which can simplify a pointer (address) generation circuit and improve its operation speed and is suitable for making an access method versatile.
In conventional systems such as Sword 32, an activation record (context) as data having high access frequency is allocated to a register file to which access can be made at a high speed, as described, for example, in Proceeding of the International Conference on Fifth Generation Computer Systems, (1984), p.p. 389-397.
In accordance with a method of keeping the activation records by an ordinary software, they are linearly allocated on one stack and access to all the data in the activation records is made in correspondence to a pointer. However, the activation records consist of an area which contains control information for procedure execution which has the same size and a stack area whose size is not always constant.
In Sword 32 described above, the system has a function of making it possible to use part of the register file as a bank register and the area which contains control information for procedure execution for each activation record is allocated to each bank. Furthermore, the system includes a hardware which permits the access of data in the control information for procedure execution corresponding to the activation record which is being activated at the address inside the bank in order to improve the access speed.
The Sword 32 system is designed to execute particularly efficiently a program described by Smalltalk-80 language. In a program of this Smalltalk-80 language, a compiler guarantees that no stack overflow occurs so long as the stack is pushed or popped. For this reason, the Sword 32 system is not particularly equipped with a hardware for checking the stack overflow.
In accordance with the prior art technique described above, the number of activation records allocated to register files and the number of specific registers of each register file are fixed, and no consideration is given to the fact that the ratio of the optimum number of data in the register file varies with a programming language applied and with an application program. For this reason, there is the problem as to the versatility of a microprocessor.
A program described by an ordinary programming language must detect a stack overflow during execution as to the operation of a stack push and pop and if a microprocessor is not equipped with such a detection mechanism, detection must be made by means of software causing execution efficiency to drop.
Furthermore, the prior art technique described above is not equipped with a mechanism for efficiently processing a plurality of stacks and saving and restoring processing of all the contents of a large capacity register file is necessary for every task switch causing execution efficiency to drop even further.
Depending upon application programs, on the other hand, high speed execution can be accomplished by realizing a plurality of stacks or queues for independent data management by use of register files capable of high speed access. In accordance with the prior art technique, however, no method has yet been developed which realizes a plurality of independent memory areas whose data handling is managed by pointers such as stacks, and which have freedom capable of designating a desired size by software and can efficiently realize an overflow detection mechanism by use of a memory such as a register file which is addressed unidimensionally.

Data processing system having a plurality of register groups and a logical or circuit for addressing one register of one of the register groups


A heating apparatus including a process tube in which the target objects are arranged in an internal heating area and a multilayer insulating structure arranged so to enclose the process tube. At the inner face of an inorganic molded structure of bulk density 0.3-0.8 g/cm.sup.3, an inorganic insulating layer of bulk density 1.0-2.0 g/cm.sup.3 covered on the inner face or all faces thereof by inorganic cloth is provided to form the multilayer insulating structure. The inner face of the inorganic insulating layer is used to support a heat generating means. A cooling means is also provided for cooling the flat heating area of the process tube. As a result, a heating apparatus of the present invention is provided that features excellent endurance against spalling, deterioration and chemical reaction, and which is capable of long term stability with respect to temperature increase and decrease.

This invention pertains to a heating apparatus. Heat treatment of such target objects as semiconductor wafers is involved among the numerous processes in semiconductor device manufacturing. Examples of such treatment are oxidation treatment, scattering treatment, CVD treatment, epitaxial treatment, doping treatment and others.
The heating apparatus employed for such heat treatment typically consists of a processing vessel such as a reaction tube, in which the semiconductor wafer target objects are placed, heat insulating material enclosing this processing vessel, and a heat generating means located at the inner wall of this heat insulating material.
Conventionally, ceramic fiber is utilized as this heat insulating material, while the heat generating means typically consists of Kanthal (tradename) wire, an alloy of iron (Fe), chromium (Cr) and aluminum (Al) or similar resistance type heat generating material.
Recently, a heating apparatus capable of high speed temperature increase and decrease has been sought for the purpose of improving semiconductor device manufacturing efficiency. However, since a heat generating means composed of Kanthal wire has a low permissible current density, achieving a sufficiently fast temperature rise is difficult.
Studies were undertaken by the inventors involving the use of molybdenum disilicide (MoSi.sub.2) as a material for the heat generating means. If MoSi.sub.2 is used, the heat capacity is small and high speed temperature rise is possible.
MoSi.sub.2 is difficult to oxidize in comparison to Kanthal and other conventionally used heat generating means. The power making amount (watts or amperes per square cm) is about 10 times, enabling large heat application. But conversely, sudden heating subjects the insulating material to large heat shock and, for example, when using a double insulator in which the outer density is small and the inner density is large, cracks are easily produced.
Consequently, when using a heat generating means made of MoSi.sub.2 for repeated processes that involve high speed temperature rise, cracks are easily produced in a ceramic fiber insulator due to spalling and powdering occurs due to thermal deterioration of the materials composing the insulator.
Another problem occurs in the cooling process required after semiconductor wafer heat treatment. Cooling medium is employed in order to quickly reduce the temperature in the processing vessel heated area. But when this is repeated, the insulator material deteriorates, peeling occurs and particles are produced which form a cause of contamination.
Chemical reaction occurs at the points of contact between a heat generating means formed from MoSi.sub.2 and an insulator made of ceramic fiber, the problem of open wiring is encountered.

Heating apparatus with multilayer insulating structure


Shared compositional resources are described. In one or more implementations, a global composition system may be configured to perform rendering for a plurality of processes, e.g., applications. For example, the global composition system may be configured to expose one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) that are accessible to the processes. The APIs may then be used to cause a single composition engine to perform the rendering for the plurality of applications. Thus, the single composition engine may be leveraged to support a variety of functionality, such as to manage sharing of compositional resources by a plurality of processes. This sharing may be performed in a variety of ways, which may include use of a writer/reader paradigm.

A wide variety of elements may be rendered on a computing device, such as icons, windows, animations, and so on. Further, the numbers of applications typically executed on the computing device continues to increase as well as the number of elements each of the applications typically provides, such as to provide additional functionality and a richer user experience.
However, this increase in elements may consume a significant amount of resources of the computing device, such as processor, memory, graphics hardware, and other resources. Accordingly, this consumption may also have an effect on execution of the applications themselves, responsiveness of the computing device to a user, and so on.


A circuit breaker operator handle apparatus means and system for use with a circuit breaker assembly having a linearly movable actuator for actuating the circuit breaker assembly to at least an ON position and an OFF position. The circuit breaker operator handle apparatus, means and system includes a housing adapted for mounting on the circuit breaker assembly, a movement translation assembly adapted to be mounted on the housing, an operator handle assembly adapted to be connected to the movement translation assembly and adapted for operator handle rotatable movement. The movement translation assembly is further adapted to provide a linear movement action for linearly moving the linearly movable actuator of the circuit breaker assembly using the rotatable movement of the operator handle assembly. The movement translation assembly includes a thermoplastic cam lever for operating the circuit breaker assembly actuator. The operator handle assembly includes a pivotally mounted latch for latching the handle in off position.

Certain industrial applications may require circuit breakers in which the toggle handle or other linearly movable actuator may be closed in its ON position or opened in its OFF position more easily. For example, this feature may be desirable when the circuit breakers are mounted relatively high in circuit breaker control centers so that the circuit breaker may be more difficult to reach and operate. This feature may also be desirable when the circuit breakers are installed along the horizontal plane, rather than the vertical plane, such that the toggle handles operate side to side along the horizontal plane rather than up and down along the vertical plane. There are various approaches in this area, as are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,906, assigned to Siemens AG, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,302,925; 5,219,070; 3,192,334; 5,493,084; 5,493,083; and 5,288,958. It is believed, however, that these other approaches may have certain disadvantages or other limitations. It may also be desirable to provide for features such as operator handle padlocking, enclosure door interlocking and cylinder locks.
The system of the present invention is believed to provide a better and different approach in this area. Also, the present system may be configured to provide for enclosure door interlocks and cylinder locks. Moreover, the circuit breaker operator handle of the present system allows the use of padlocks having shackle diameters ranging from three (3) to eight (8) millimeters.

Circuit breaker handle operator apparatus and system


As an improvement for eliminating lingering bathroom odor, a few drops of an appropriate fluid mixture such as a chlorinated hydrocarbon containing a small amount of a volatile fragrant fluid is added to water in a toilet bowl prior to the use of the toilet. A unique property of the first fluid causes the resultant mixture to spread quickly over the entire surface of the water, forming a nonpermeable film across which the odor emanating from unflushed feces cannot pass. The second fluid quickly vaporizes from this film allowing the resulting concentrated fragrance to neutralize within the toilet bowl the flatulence odor produced during a bowel movement. A person sitting upon the toilet seat actuates a semiautomatic fluid dispenser.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an improved method of eliminating bathroom odor by trapping and neutralizing it at its source within the toilet bowl.
2. Description of Prior Art
Bathroom odor is currently reduced by exhausting the foul smelling air out of the building by means of an exhaust fan and associated duct work, or by neutralizing the odor through the use of air fresheners which release into the air a stronger less obnoxious scent, or by adding a pleasant scent to the toilet flushing water using slowly dissolving solids.
The exhaust fan method requires expensive installation, generates considerable noise when in operation, requires the toggling of an on-off switch for operation, and is not available in older houses or in all bathrooms in many newer houses. Exhausting the air requires either heating or dehumidifying and cooling the incoming replacement air. The fan uses electric power during its operation. Normally neither the fan shutters or exhaust ducts are insulated, and there is a small amount of air leakage through the shutters, all of which constitute additional energy loss. So this odor handling method is both inconvenient and uses energy for its operation.
Spraying a perfumed mist into the air is also inconvenient and the strong scent required to cover the odor can be almost as offensive as the original odor it attempts to cover. This heavy perfume drifts into other rooms when the bathroom door is left ajar to dissipate it.
Perfumes from evaporating solids produce an unnecessary constant background scent and require frequent replacement if the evaporation rate is set high enough to adequately cover the odor. This floods adjacent rooms with an unneeded scent when the bathroom door is left open for any length of time.
Slowly dissolving scented solids placed in a toilet water reservoir add perfume to water used for flushing as a means of neutralizing bathroom odor. Most of this treated water is lost during flushing. The small amount of treated water remaining in the toilet bowl is diluted considerably by untreated water added to bring the water level up to the proper height during a reservoir refilling cycle. As a result, the small amount of perfumed water remaining in the toilet bowl is insufficient to adequately cover either odor in the water or odor escaping into the air during a bowel movement. Another additional means of odor control is therefore required for complete control of bathroom odor. This is an inefficient, inadequate and expensive means of odor control.
Since my invention uses an entirely different means of odor control than those described above, listing prior art on these odor control methods is not deemed necessary.
The use of oil as a flushing means is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,747. Since odor control is not the purpose of this type of prior art, my invention does not infringe.


In an example, a system includes a plurality of acoustically coupled nodes. Each of the nodes includes a transducer, a communication circuit and a controller. The transducer is adapted to be mechanically coupled to a medium. The communication circuit is coupled to the transducer to send and receive acoustic signals via the medium according to at least one communication parameter. The controller is to adaptively configure the at least one communication parameter of the communication circuit based on an acoustic signal received from at least one other of the nodes.

An acoustic network may be formed of a collection of two or more nodes that communicate using modulated signals carried by elastic body or surface waves. For example, acoustic networks have been implemented in water (e.g., oceans) where acoustic nodes are distributed throughout the body of water and communicate using acoustic signals that propagate through the water as body waves.
Ultrasonic guided waves have also been used for nondestructive testing (NDT), structural health monitoring (SHM), and other applications. Lamb waves are elastic guided waves that propagate on and through large areas of structures (e.g., thin plates or shells) with low attenuation and are thus the most widely used ultrasonic guided waves for NDT and active SHM, e.g., for testing pipelines, rails, ship hulls, and aircraft. Data transmission between such nodes is also important in enabling information sharing and sensor networking for SHM and other applications. Wires provide robust connections but face the challenge of exponentially-increasing routing/weight/size when scaling to very large networks. By contrast, wireless networking can eliminate wired interfaces and bulky batteries, thus maintaining flexibility and scalability of large sensor sheets. Wireless communications based on radio frequency (RF) or infrared (IR) are not applicable to embedded sensors in complex structures, particularly if they are electrically conductive and/or optically opaque.

Acoustic sensing nodes and related systems and methods


Disclosed herein is a method of determining a characteristic of radiation detected by a radiation detector via a multiple-pixel event having a plurality of radiation interactions. The method includes determining a cathode-to-anode signal ratio for a selected interaction of the plurality of radiation interactions based on electron drift time data for the selected interaction, and determining the radiation characteristic for the multiple-pixel event based on both the cathode-to-anode signal ratio and the electron drift time data. In some embodiments, the method further includes determining a correction factor for the radiation characteristic based on an interaction depth of the plurality of radiation interactions, a lateral distance between the selected interaction and a further interaction of the plurality of radiation interactions, and the lateral positioning of the plurality of radiation interactions.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates generally to radiation detection and, more particularly, to three-dimensional, ionization-based radiation detection.
2. Brief Description of Related Technology
In view of the variety of ways in which radiation is generated and encountered, radiation detectors have been used to determine a number of different characteristics of the radiation, including radiation type, energy, source (e.g., the isotopes emitting the radiation), source intensity, and source location. The two main types of radiation—neutral particles such as photons (x-rays and gamma rays) and neutrons, and charged particles such as fast moving electrons and protons—have generally been detected with three types of radiation detectors, namely gas, scintillation and semiconductor detectors.
When gamma rays interact with a detector medium, charge carriers (e.g., electrons) are generated via electron ionization. The initial kinetic energy of the electrons equals the energy loss of the gamma ray. Furthermore, the number of created charge carriers is proportional to the energy deposition of each interaction. Both negative and positive charge carriers, such as electrons and holes in a semiconductor device, then move toward, and are eventually collected by, an anode (a positively biased electrode) and a cathode (a negatively biased electrode), respectively. The induced signals on the electrodes are proportional to the number of charge carriers. As a result, the amount of energy deposition has generally been determined by measuring the amplitude of the induced signal on an electrode.
Semiconductor detectors are favorable in gamma ray detection for their high atomic number, high density and low ionization energy for generating each free-moving charge carrier. Unfortunately, each currently available semiconductor medium presents limitations. Silicon detectors, for instance, have fairly low atomic number and the typical thickness is only a few millimeters. With the resulting low detection efficiency for gamma rays, silicon detectors are normally used to detect x-rays and charged particles. Other options include high-purity germanium detectors, which present a modest atomic number and good density, and can be produced in large sensitive volumes. While achieving excellent energy resolution and high detection efficiency for gamma rays, germanium detectors unfortunately require operation at liquid nitrogen temperatures to avoid spurious signals arising from a small band-gap energy.
Wide band-gap semiconductor materials, especially CdZnTe (CZT), have potential for both good energy resolution and compatibility with room-temperature operation. However, a number of challenges are presented by these room-temperature semiconductor detectors. Holes in CdZnTe move very slowly and are easily trapped, and thus contribute little, if at all, to the induced signal. As a result, the induced signal is mainly contributed by the movement of electrons, which, in turn, makes the signal amplitude dependent on the drift length of the electrons. Even for the same energy deposition, the induced signal then has a different amplitude depending on where the electrons are created. Various methods have been proposed and evaluated to overcome this problem, such as pulse shape discrimination, pulse compensation, and single-polarity charge sensing techniques. Unfortunately, the electrons can also be trapped during their drift to the anode, causing a deficit in the induced signal amplitude. Techniques using an optimized relative gain between two anodes and depth sensing have been proposed to address this electron trapping effect. Unfortunately, the energy resolution has remained far worse than the theoretical limit due to material non-uniformity.
Single-polarity charge sensing techniques, such as coplanar or pixellated anodes, have been utilized to minimize the hole-trapping problem and improve the energy resolution for larger volume detectors. Unfortunately, these techniques were still limited by problems arising from material non-uniformity and spatially varying electron trapping, thereby limiting the energy resolution of, for instance, co-planar grid detectors.
More recently, the foregoing challenges were addressed in the development of three-dimensional CZT spectrometers by He et al. and Li et al. See, for example, Z. He, et al., "3-D position sensitive CdZnTe gamma-ray spectrometers," Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A, vol. 422, pp. 173-178 (1999) and W. Li, et al., "A data acquisition and processing system for 3-D position sensitive CZT gamma-ray spectrometers," IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 46, pp. 1989-1994 (1999). By determining the three-dimensional (3-D) position information for a single-pixel event, the material non-uniformity and varying electron trapping effects were addressed. Unfortunately, these devices were incapable of correctly determining the information for multiple-pixel events.

Three-dimensional, position-sensitive radiation detection

The Regents of the University of Michigan


There is disclosed a semiconductor device which includes a semiconductor substrate having an element region and source and drain regions, a gate dielectric film containing nitrogen formed in the element region of said semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode formed on the gate dielectric film, a first dielectric film formed adjacent to the gate electrode so as to define a side wall therefor, a second dielectric film formed so as to cover the gate electrode and the first dielectric film, the second dielectric film being doped with nitrogen, and a third dielectric film formed so as to cover the second dielectric film, the third dielectric film being formed of silicon nitride. A method for manufacturing such a semiconductor device is also described.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly to the improvement in the resistance to hot carriers and variation of characteristics due to slow-trapping in MOS-type semiconductor devices.
2. Related Art
FIG. 5 depicts an example of a conventional MOS-type semiconductor device, which comprises a semiconductor substrate 101 having isolation regions 102 formed thereon, a well region 103 formed at the areas other than the isolation regions 102, source and drain regions 107 formed in the vicinity of the substrate surface, a gate oxide 104 disposed above these regions, and a gate electrode 105 of polysilicon formed on the gate oxide 104. Formed at the lateral sides of the gate electrode 105 are first oxide films 106 defining side walls for the gate electrode 105, and a second oxide film 108 is formed as an interlayer dielectric film covering the entire surface, while a BPSG (boron-phosphorous silicate glass) layer 110 is further provided thereon. Furthermore, the second oxide film 108 and the BPSG layer 110 selectively have contact openings 111 in which a barrier metal 112 and tungsten 113 are embedded. Moreover, first layer wirings 114 each formed of an aluminum-including alloy are present at the regions which include at least the areas above the contact openings 111. An interlayer dielectric film 115 formed of SiOF is formed on the first layer wirings 114, and a via hole 116 is selectively opened therethrough. Formed at the side walls of the via hole 116 are titanium nitride films 117 extending from a second layer wiring 119, and tungsten 118 is embedded therein. Moreover, second layer wirings 119 are formed at the areas including a portion above the via hole 116, and a cover film 120 formed of a plasma SiON is present thereon.
The method for manufacturing this semiconductor device will now be described with reference to FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b).
First, as shown in FIG. 6(a), isolation regions 102 are formed on the semiconductor substrate 101 by means of a selective oxidation process, and a well region 103 is then formed by means of a conventional ion-implantation process. Thereafter, the surface of the semiconductor substrate 101 is subjected to oxidation to form a gate oxide 104, and after polysilicon is formed thereon, these are formed into a desired pattern to produce a gate electrode 105. Subsequently, an oxide film is caused to grow over the entire surface, and is subjected to an anisotropic etch-back working to leave a first oxide film 106 only at the lateral sides of the gate electrode 105. Then, source and drain regions 107 are formed by means of ion implantation and activation thermal annealing, and a second oxide film 108 is formed over the entire surface thereof so as to have a film thickness of about 100 nm.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 6(b), BPSG 110 is formed by means of an atmospheric CVD process so as to have a film thickness of around 1200 .mu.m, and a surface thereof is polished by means of a CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) method to be flattened. Subsequently, after forming contact openings 111 selectively, a barrier metal 112 is provided, and the inside of each contact opening 111 is embedded with tungsten 113 deposited by CVD process, following which a first layer wiring 114 of an aluminum-containing alloy having a thickness of 0.4 .mu.m is formed and subjected to patterning. Thereafter, an interlayer dielectric film of SiOF is formed by means of a bias ECR (electron cyclotron resonance) plasma CVD process so as to have a film thickness of 0.8 .mu.m on the wiring. Further, a via hole 116 is selectively opened, and titanium nitride film 117 is deposited by a spattering method only with a small film thickness such as 50 nm, and tungsten 118 is deposited in the via hole 116 by a blanket CVD process, embedding the inside of the via hole 116 by effecting an etch-back working. Thereafter, a second layer wiring 119 is formed to effect a patterning, and a cover film 120 of SiON is finally deposited by means of a plasma CVD process so as to have a film thickness of about 1 .mu.m.
In the semiconductor device of the aforesaid structure, however, BPSG is employed in order to ensure the flatness of the interlayer dielectric film, and a film, such as SiON, which is susceptible to the inclusion of water is used in order to reduce wiring volume. Therefore, there are problems of reliability, such as relatively poor resistance to hot carriers and variation of characteristics due to slow-trapping. Furthermore, the poor resistance to hot carriers and variation of characteristics due to slow-trapping will be more significant when dielectric films such as coated films having a further reduced dielectric constant are selected as the interlayer dielectric films in order to reduce the wiring time loss to obtain higher speed for circuit. This is because such an interlayer dielectric film is more susceptible to the inclusion of water.
In order to avoid such lowering of the reliability in MOS transistors, a technique which involves imparting resistance to the formation of surface level by incorporation of nitrogen in the gate oxide has been proposed. Referring to FIG. 7, the technique described in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 5-283679, will be explained for the purpose of illustration. This technique is similar to that described above in that isolation regions 202, a well region 203 and a gate electrode 205 are formed in or on a semiconductor substrate 201, and in that first oxide films 206 serving as side walls, source and drain regions 207 and a second oxide film 208 are formed. However, the gate oxide film 221 has a two-layered structure consisting of a nitride oxide film 222 containing no less than 10.sup.19 cm.sup.-3 of nitrogen atoms and constituting an interface with the channel regions and a silicon oxide film 223 containing nitrogen atoms in a concentration of no greater than 10.sup.19 cm.sup.-3 and disposed on the nitride oxide film 222. With this construction, the nitride oxide film 222 of higher nitrogen concentration provided at the interface of the low concentration region exhibits a high resistance to the formation of surface level due to drain-avalanche-hot carrier implantation, whereas the silicon oxide film 223 of a lower nitrogen concentration lowers the average concentration of the entire dielectric film, reduces the fixed charge, and reduces oxide film-trapping, so that electric field modulation at the low concentration regions can be prevented.
Furthermore, another conventional technique, proposed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 7-176743 and shown in FIG. 8, is also similar in that isolation regions 302, a well region 303 and a gate oxide 304 are formed in or on a semiconductor substrate 301, and in that first oxide films 306 serving as side walls, source and drain regions 307 and a second oxide film 308 are formed. However, the gate oxide film 304 is doped with nitrogen, and includes, as the gate electrode, a region 321 which is doped with nitrogen and a region 322 which is not doped with nitrogen. Therefore, the resistance to hot carriers can be improved. In addition, it is possible to prevent impurities within the source and drain regions 307 from diffusing longitudinally and transversely by doping nitrogen within the source and drain regions 307.
Thus, with the conventional techniques described in these publications, it is possible to impart the resistance to the formation of surface level by incorporating nitrogen in the gate oxide and gate electrode. However, nitrogen leaves outwardly by diffusion from the gate oxide and the gate electrode during a thermal process mainly at a wiring process. As a result, the advantages expected by the incorporation of nitrogen reduce or even diminish, and a sufficient performance regarding the resistance to hot carriers and variation of characteristics due to slow-trapping cannot be obtained.

Semiconductor device having a gate electrode film containing nitrogen


The invention is intended to provide a backup control technique for protecting the safety of data stored in a storage system while minimizing the processing load in the storage system. A storage system 10 receives a command from a host computer 50 to write data control limitation data stipulating backup limitations, the data control limitation data is written to an expanded VTOC part where a storage area protected as the VTOC among the storage areas in the volume has been expanded, and backup is controlled based on the data control limitation data written to the expanded VTOC part.

The present invention relates to a backup control technique for controlling the backup of data stored in a storage system.
A conventional technique of backup control for protecting the safety of data is to encrypt data using an encryption key when backing up data stored in a storage system, and to decrypt the data using the encryption key when restoring the backed up data. A conventional backup control technique is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Application 2002-351747, for example.

System and method for controlling data backup by user authorization


The present invention is directed to a process for amplifying and detecting any target nucleic acid sequence contained in a nucleic acid or mixture thereof and for assembling large polynucleotides from component polynucleotides, each involving generating concatemers formed by PCR amplification of overlapping fragments.

The present invention relates generally to the field of recombinant DNA technology and, more particularly, to improved methods for producing amplified heterogeneous populations of polynucleotides from limited quantities of DNA or RNA or other nucleic acids. The invention provides compositions and methods for a chain reaction amplification of a target polynucleotide species using a thermostable polymerase or other suitable polynucleotide polymerase compatible with the method.
Selective amplification of polynucleotides represents a major research goal of molecular biology, with particular importance in diagnostic and forensic applications, as well as for general manipulations of genetic materials and laboratory reagents.
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method by which a specific polynucleotide sequence can be amplified in vitro. PCR is an extremely powerful technique for amplifying specific polynucleotide sequences, including genomic DNA, single-stranded cDNA, and mRNA among others. As described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,683,202, 4,683,195, and 4,800,159 (which are incorporated herein by reference), PCR typically comprises treating separate complementary strands of a target nucleic acid with two oligonucleotide primers to form complementary primer extension products on both strands that act as templates for synthesizing copies of the desired nucleic acid sequences. By repeating the separation and synthesis steps in an automated system, essentially exponential duplication of the target sequences can be achieved.
A number of variations of the basic PCR methodology have been described. U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,584 discloses a method wherein single stranded DNA can be generated by the polymerase chain reaction using two oligonucleotide primers, one present in a limiting concentration. U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,728 discloses an improved method for performing a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a targeted piece of DNA, wherein by controlling the annealing times and concentration of both the outer and the inner set of primers according to the method disclosed, highly specific and efficient amplification of a targeted piece of DNA can be achieved without depletion or removal of the outer primers from the reaction mixture vessel. U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,632 discloses recombination PCR (RPCR) wherein PCR is used with at least two primer species to add double-stranded homologous ends to DNA such that the homologous ends undergo in vivo recombination following transfection of host cells.
Horton et al. (1989) Gene 77: 61, discloses a method for making chimeric genes using PCR to generate overlapping homologous regions. In the Horton method, fragments of different genes that are to form the chimeric gene are generated in separate polymerase chain reactions. The primers used in these separate reactions are designed so that the ends of the different products of the separate reactions contain complementary sequences. When these separately produced PCR products are mixed, denatured and reannealed, the strands having matching sequences at their 3xe2x80x2-ends overlap and act as primers for each other. Extension of this overlap by DNA polymerase produces a molecule in which the original sequences are spliced together to form the chimeric gene.
Silver and Keerikatte (1989) J. Virol. 63: 1924 describe another variation of the standard PCR approach (which requires oligonucleotide primers complementary to both ends of the segment to be amplified) to allow amplification of DNA flanked on only one side by a region of known DNA sequence. This technique requires the presence of a known restriction site within the known DNA sequence and a similar site within the unknown flanking DNA sequence which is to be amplified. After restriction and recircularization, the recircularized fragment is restricted at an unique site between the two primers and the resulting linearized fragment is used as a template for PCR amplification.
Triglia et al. (1988) Nucl.Acids Res. 16: 8186, describe an approach which requires the inversion of the sequence of interest by circularization and re-opening at a site distinct from the one of interest, and is called xe2x80x9cinverted PCR.xe2x80x9d A fragment is first created in which two unknown sequences flank on either side a region of known DNA sequence. The fragment is then circularized and cleaved with an unique restriction endonuclease which only cuts within the known DNA sequence creating a new fragment containing all of the DNA of the original fragment but which is then inverted with regions of known sequence flanking the region of unknown sequence. This fragment is then utilized as a PCR substrate to amplify the unknown sequence.
Vallette et al. (1989) Nucl.Acids Res. 17: 723 disclose using PCR in a specific approach which involves using a supercoiled plasmid DNA as a template for PCR and a primer bearing a mutated sequence which is incorporated into the amplified product. Using this method, DNA sequences may be inserted only at the 5xe2x80x2-end of the DNA molecule which one wishes to alter. Mole et al. (1989) Nucl.Acids Res. 17: 3319, used PCR to create deletions within existing expression plasmids. However, PCR was performed around the entire plasmid (containing the fragment to be deleted) from primers whose 5xe2x80x2-ends defined the region to be deleted. Self-ligation of the PCR product recircularized the plasmid.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,952 discloses a method for using PCR to generate mutations (e.g., deletions) and chimeric genes by forming head-to-tail concatemers of a known starting sequence and employing at least two PCR primers to amplify a DNA segment which is altered as compared to the known starting sequence.
Jones and Howard (1990) BioTechniques 8: 178, report a site-specific mutagenesis method using PCR, termed recombinant circle PCR (RCPCR). In RCPCR, separate PCR amplifications (typically two) of a known polynucleotide generate products that, when combined, denatured, and annealed, form double-stranded DNA with discrete, cohesive single-stranded ends designed so that they may anneal and form circles of DNA.
Oliner et al. (1993) Nucl. Acids. Res. 21: 5192, report a method for engineering PCR products to contain terminal sequences identical to sequences at the two ends of a linearized vector such that co-transfection of the PCR product and linearized vector into a recombination-competent host cell results in formation of a covalently linked vector containing the PCR product, thus avoiding the need for in vitro ligation.
In spite of such recent advances, including PCR and its various modifications noted above, there exists a need for improved methods of identifying and cloning polynucleotides, for accurate in vitro amplification of selected polynucleotides, and for facile assembly of polynucleotides from a mixture of component oligonucleotides or polynucleotides without necessitating the use of DNA ligase. In particular, there is a need for a PCR amplification method which can be performed with (1) only a single primer species, or (2) with multiple overlapping polynucleotide fragments (or oligonucleotides) in the absence of a conventional PCR primer, and which can result in formation of an amplified product which can be a concatemer and/or which can be a covalently-closed circle. The present invention fulfills these and other needs.
The references discussed herein are provided solely for their disclosure prior to the filing date of the present application. Nothing herein is to be construed as an admission that the inventors are not entitled to antedate such disclosure by virtue of prior invention. All publications cited are incorporated herein by reference.
A basis of the present invention is the use of polymerase-mediated chain extension, such as for example PCR, in combination with at least two polynucleotides having complementary ends which can anneal whereby at least one of said polynucleotides has a free 3xe2x80x2-hydroxyl capable of polynucleotide chain elongation by a DNA polymerase, such as a thermostable polymerase (e.g., Thermus apuaticus (Taq) polymerase or Thermococcus litoralis (Vent(trademark), New England Biolabs) polymerase or TthI polymerase (Perkin-Elmer). Although the method can be practiced using PCR, in some embodiments either a single primer species or no primer whatsoever is required, and hence PCR is not a necessary component of the general method.
In one embodiment, a target polynucleotide is contacted with a xe2x80x9cbivalent primerxe2x80x9d typically comprising an oligonucleotide having two regions of complementarity to the target polynucleotide: (1) a first portion which is in the 5xe2x80x2 portion of the primer and which is substantially complementary to a sequence in the 5xe2x80x2-portion of the sequence to be amplified (target sequence) in the target polynucleotide, and (2) a second portion which is in the 3xe2x80x2 portion of the primer and which is substantially complementary to a sequence in the 3xe2x80x2-portion of the sequence to be amplified (target sequence) in the target polynucleotide. The contacting is performed under conditions suitable for hybridization of the bivalent primer to the target polynucleotide, most often following thermal denaturation of the target polynucleotide if it is initially present as a double-stranded form. The target polynucleotide may be substantially homogeneous or may be present in a mixture of polynucleotide species (e.g., in a genome, biological sample, or mixture of synthetic polynucleotides). Subsequent or concomitant with the contacting of the bivalent primer to the target polynucleotide, a polynucleotide polymerase, such as a thermostable DNA polymerase, catalyzes, under suitable reaction conditions, polynucleotide synthesis (chain elongation) primed from the 3xe2x80x2-hydroxyl of the annealed bivalent primer to form a strand complementary to the target sequence, thereby forming a nascent complementary strand. Following completion of the nascent complementary strand spanning the target sequence, the target polynucleotide and the nascent strand are denatured, typically by elevation of temperature, and allowed to reanneal, typically by reduction of temperature, with another molecule of the bivalent primer species or with a complementary strand of a target polynucleotide or an amplified copy thereof. The denatured nascent strand species following the first elongation cycle will contain a copy of the target sequence and has a terminal repeat of its 5xe2x80x2-terminal sequence at the 3xe2x80x2 terminus, resulting from the bivalent primer, and wherein the terminal repeat is of sufficient length to support annealing under PCR conditions to an overlapping complementary strand in a head-to-tail arrangement (see, FIG. 1). Following reannealing, the described polymerase elongation/denaturation/reannealing cycle is repeated from 1 to about 100 times as desired, resulting in formation of amplified product which comprises head-to-tail concatemers of the target sequence. The concatemers typically increase in length as the number of amplification cycles increase and as the amount of bivalent primer decreases. Following amplification forming concatameric head-to-tail repeats of the target sequence, the concatemer(s) can optionally be resolved, such as (1) by cleaving with a restriction endonuclease which cuts within (or at the termini of) the concatemeric unit(s), (2) by homologous recombination between concatemer units to form covalently closed circles, or (3) by cleavage with a restriction endonuclease followed by ligation with DNA ligase to form covalently closed circles and/or by direct transformation into host cells for in vivo ligation.
Often, a target polynucleotide sequence which is amplified as described above will form amplification intermediates in the form of cyclized DNA or spiral DNA (see, FIG. 2), as a result of the 3xe2x80x2 terminus of an overlapped nascent strand annealing to the 3xe2x80x2 terminus of an overlapped complementary strand forming a cyclized structure similar to a gapped circle; the cyclized structure has a strand with an extendable 3xe2x80x2-hydroxyl which can be extended with a DNA polymerase substantially lacking exonuclease activity (e.g., a thermostable polymerase such as Vent(exoxe2x88x92)(trademark) or Klenow fragment, etc.) in a rolling circle format whereby the leading terminus of the nascent strand continually displaces the lagging portion of the nascent strand (see, FIG. 2) producing a concatemeric single strand emanating from the rolling circle intermediate. Most often, such rolling circle intermediates will form under dilute conditions more favorable to intramolecular cyclization of overlapped strands. Once a rolling circle intermediate is established, the template need not be denatured in order to continue amplification of the target sequence as in conventional PCR, thus avoiding the necessity of multiple thermal cycles of PCR to denature template (and the resultant time loss needed for heating and cooling). Often, however, the template is repeatedly denatured, annealed, and extended with polymerase in the presence of ribonucleotide or deoxyribonucleotides under suitable reaction conditions.
Furthermore, whether the method generates a rolling circle intermediate or linear concatemers, an advantage of the method is that it requires a substantially reduced amount of primer (bivalent primer) as compared to conventional PCR, since following the initial cycle(s) an increasing percentage of the priming of nascent strand synthesis is primed from 3xe2x80x2-hydroxyl groups of the amplified strands, rather than from the oligonucleotide primer(s). In the case of a rolling circle intermediate, theoretically only a single bivalent primer molecule is necessary to generate the rolling circle which then can produce multiple concatenated copies by rolling circle-style polymerase catalysis using a polymerase capable of strand displacement of the lagging edge of the nascent strand as replication proceeds around the cyclized template.
In an embodiment, a product polynucleotide is assembled from a plurality of component polynucleotides by formation of overlapped strands of alternating polarity and having substantially complementary termini (see, FIG. 3). This method employs a series of overlapping substantially complementary termini to determine the linear order of component sequences in the final product. Concomitant with or subsequent to formation of the overlapped strands of the component polynucleotides in a reaction, a polynucleotide polymerase (e.g., a thermostable DNA polymerase) under suitable reaction conditions catalyzes strand elongation from the 3xe2x80x2-hydroxyl portions of the overlapped (annealed) joints, filling in the portion between joints and processively displacing or processively degrading exonucleolytically the 5xe2x80x2 termini of downstream component strands of the same polarity as the nascent strand elongates. After a cycle of chain elongation forming substantially double-stranded polynucleotides, the reaction conditions are altered (typically by increasing the temperature) to effect denaturation of the double-stranded polynucleotides, followed by altering the reaction conditions to permit reannealing of complementary strands or portions thereof (i.e., overlapping termini) to form molecules having overlapped termini (joints), and chain elongation by a polynucleotide polymerase under suitable reaction conditions catalyzes strand elongation from the 3xe2x80x2-hydroxyl portions of the overlapped (annealed) joints, as in the first cycle. One to about 100 cycles of denaturation/annealing/polymerization can be performed to generate a product comprising the component polynucleotide sequences covalently linked in linear order according to the order of the overlapping joints. In this embodiment, a product polynucleotide can be constructed from a plurality of smaller component polynucleotides (typically oligonucleotides) and enables assembly of a variety of products with alternate substitutable polynucleotide components at a given position serving as structural xe2x80x9callelesxe2x80x9d (see, FIG. 4). The component polynucleotides are often provided in single-strand form, but may initially be present in double-strand form and be denatured (typically by elevated temperature) for the assembly of the product by PCR amplification. Substantially any type of product polynucleotide can be assembled in this way, including cloning and expression vectors, viral genomes, gene therapy vectors, genes (including chimeric genes), polynucleotides encoding peptide libraries, protein libraries, vector libraries, viral libraries, and the like. In a variation, one or more of the component polynucleotides represents a site-directed mutation or variable-sequence kernel. In a variation, PCR employing a low-fidelity polymerase is used to introduce additional sequence variation into the product polynucleotide(s) during amplification cycles. The method can be used to produce a library of sequence-variant product polynucleotides, if desired.
In an embodiment of the invention, very long distance PCR is provided, wherein PCR or other suitable amplification method is used to generate, in a single reaction or in parallel reactions which are subsequently pooled, a set of overlapping large DNA fragments which can be denatured and annealed to form very large (e.g., greater than 25 to 50 kilobases) DNA structures composed of overlapped single strands of DNA having alternating polarity with each overlapped joint providing an extendable 3xe2x80x2-hydroxyl group for forming phosphodiester bonds catalyzed by a polynucleotide polymerase in the presence of free ribonucleotide or deoxyribonucleotides. Typically, the method comprises forming at least three overlapping polynucleotides, wherein the 3xe2x80x2 terminus of a first single-stranded polynucleotide is substantially complementary to the 3xe2x80x2 terminus of a second single-stranded polynucleotide of the opposite polarity, and wherein the 5xe2x80x2 terminus of said second single-stranded polynucleotide is substantially complementary to the 3xe2x80x2 terminus of a third single-stranded polynucleotide having polarity identical to said first single-stranded polynucleotide, thereby generating an overlapped structure capable of chain elongation by a suitable polymerase to generate a double-stranded product spanning the three initial overlapped polynucleotides. With such a method, polynucleotides of 50 kb to 100 kb or more can be generated by a facile amplification method capable of generating amplification products much longer than is possible with conventional long-range PCR methods. The method can comprise parallel processing PCR reactions, wherein a plurality of primer sets are employed in a single reaction or multiple reactions which are subsequently pooled, each primer sets priming the PCR amplification of a polynucleotide sequence which comprises terminal sequences which are complementary to terminal sequences in at least one other amplification product produced by a different primer set, thus generating a set of overlapping PCR products with which a large product spanning the entire set of PCR products is generated by end-complementary polymerase reaction.
In some embodiments of the invention, the polynucleotides product(s) generated thereby are labelled, such as with radioisotopic, biotinyl, or fluorescent label moieties, by incorporation of labelled ribonucleotide or deoxyribonucleotides or the like into nascent polynucleotide by polymerase-mediated catalysis.
The invention also provides kits comprising a bivalent primer polynucleotide and/or a plurality of component polynucleotides and instructions for use describing the present end-complementary amplification method disclosed herein. Frequently, a polynucleotide polymerase, such as a thermostable DNA polymerase (Taq or Vent(trademark) polymerase) is also present in the kit. Optionally, one or more target polynucleotides may be provided in the kit, such as for calibration and/or for use as a positive control to verify correct performance of the kit.
In an embodiment, the invention provides a method termed continuous multiplex amplification which affords amplification of a plurality of initially unlinked polynucleotide species at substantially comparable amplification rates by forming a linked amplification product wherein the plurality of initially unlinked polynucleotide sequences are linked by end-complementary amplification. An amplification unit, termed an amplicon, comprising at least one copy of each member of the plurality of initially unlinked polynucleotide species is formed by one or more cycles of end-complementary amplification. From one to about 100, typically three to 35, amplification cycles can be conducted and result in formation of a population of linked amplification products, which can comprise concatemers of said amplicon. The amplification products can be linear or circular, as desired, based on appropriate selection of the bivalent primers. In a variation, the amplification product is cleaved with a nucleolytic agent, such as a restriction enzyme which cuts at least one restriction site present in the amplicon, DNase, nuclease S1, bleomycin, ionizing radiation, or the like or by other suitable cleaving means.
A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the invention will become apparent by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and drawings.


A robust and redundant status link is established by a first multi-channel optoelectronic device with a second multi-channel optoelectronic device in a multi-channel communication link. Transmitter bias currents are effectively modulated with a status link modulation signal representative of status data and subsequently modulated with primary data modulation signals. The resulting signals are transformed into optical signals and transmitted over the link as main communication links combined with a status link. At the second device, the optical signals are received and converted to electrical signals. The receipt of the optical signals creates multiple receiver bias currents, which may be monitored to detect the status link modulation signal. The second device may adjust various operating parameters in response to the information conveyed by the status link. For instance, devices can use status links to operate above nominal eye safety limits and/or to adjust transmit power to compensate for degradation effects.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems, methods, and devices for high speed data transmission. More particularly, embodiments of the invention concern systems, methods, and devices for providing a redundant and robust status link in a multi-channel optical communication system and applications thereof.
2. The Relevant Technology
Computing and networking technology have transformed our world. As the amount of information communicated over networks has increased, high speed transmission has become ever more critical. Many high speed data transmission networks rely on optoelectronic devices for facilitating transmission and reception of digital data embodied in the form of optical signals over optical fibers. Optical networks are thus found in a wide variety of high speed applications ranging from modest Local Area Networks (LANs) to backbones that define a large portion of the infrastructure of the Internet.
Typically, data communication in such networks is implemented by way of an optoelectronic device, such as a transceiver or transponder, that includes an optical transmitter for optical data transmission and an optical receiver for optical data reception. As demands for higher data transmission speeds between points in optical networks have increased, optoelectronic devices have been developed with multiple optical transmitters and multiple optical receivers to transmit and receive optical signals over multiple signal channels. These multi-channel optoelectronic devices often utilize one of several different types of signal channels, such as multiple ribbon fibers, multiple wavelengths or in-phase and quadrature-phase channels. Every signal channel requires its own transmitter and receiver. To support N duplex channels, a multi-channel optoelectronic device therefore requires at least N transmitters and at least N receivers.
It is often desirable in optical networks to implement a status link between optoelectronic devices, whether the devices are multi-channel or single-channel. The status link can be used to provide information to the devices about each device and/or the physical link between the devices. Conventional status links are often implemented by signaling between optoelectronic devices over spare fibers and/or by superimposing the status link out-of-band (OOB) on a single signal channel. These schemes require additional components and/or are subject to the same failure modes as the signal channel.
Additionally, one of the problems associated with multi-channel optical links is that of eye safety. Consider a multi-channel optical link that includes a first multi-channel optoelectronic device at one location and a second multi-channel optoelectronic device at another location. One or more first fibers couple the transmitters of the first device to the receivers of the second device while one or more second fibers couple the transmitters of the second device to the receivers of the first device. If either of the first or second fibers is removed from the first or second device, one or more transmitters may still be transmitting, either over a fiber(s) or into free-space, exposing emitted optical signals to view. At certain frequencies, the exposed optical signals can cause minimal to severe damage to a human eye if viewed. The potential damage may increase as the number of transmitters emitting optical signals increases, thereby posing an eye safety risk even if each individual transmitter's power is well below what is considered safe.
Conventional solutions for ensuring eye safety limit the optical link budget or implement mechanical interlocks or shutters in the optical fibers. In the case of the former, the limited optical link budget limits the distance over which information can be transmitted and/or the maximum number of transmitters that can be implemented before the aggregate power of the link exceeds the nominal eye safety limit. In the case of the latter, the mechanical interlocks/shutters are ineffective if an opening occurs at a point other than at the interlock or shutter trigger points. Additionally, both conventional solutions may require the use of additional components in the optical link, increasing its cost and/or complexity.
Additionally, multi-channel optical links are typically required to meet one or more specifications over the lifetime of the hardware. Age and other factors can degrade the performance of certain components, degrading in turn the quality of the optical signals transmitted over the optical links. For example, the optical signals emitted by a transmitter often attenuate as the transmitter ages, even though the transmitter bias current remains constant. This degradation in signal strength can increase bit error rates and ultimately result in loss of the signal. For this reason, optoelectronic devices and other hardware must be designed to operate at the worst operating point at the end of life for the hardware, which may produce operating inefficiencies at the beginning of life of the hardware.
In some cases, degradations in optical signal quality may be compensated for by adjusting one or more parameters. For instance, increasing the transmit power of an aging transmitter can compensate for age-attenuation. Some optoelectronic devices implement digital monitor and control techniques with a controller to identify degradation effects and compensate accordingly. However, not all degradation effects can be identified, in which case some may remain untreated. For example, an optoelectronic device may be unable to identify degradation effects outside of the device which nonetheless affect optical signal quality, such as the degradation of the optical medium over which a transmitter emits an optical signal or degradation of the mechanical connection between the device and the optical medium. Because the device is unable to identify the problem, the device does nothing to compensate for it.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.

Status link for multi-channel optical communication systems


Means for preventing a split brain scenario during high availability requests by providing a communication link between a switching control device operating on the application level and the module operating on the protocol level are provided. Quitting of the correct physical address is shifted to the application level via the communication link.

In the prior art, redundant resources are provided in reliable computer systems such as those used in communication systems. These may take the form for example of computer capacity, storage capacities or input/output capacities, the resource being provided by a platform or device. When a device fails, a redundant device immediately takes over the functions of the failed device so that, viewed from the outside, function and availability are only minimally impaired.

Method and apparatus for assigning packet addresses to a plurality of devices


A method and a system for dispensing bolts are provided. The system includes a dispensing cartridge including a dispensing tube and a dispensing section. The dispensing tube includes a first end, a second end, and a passage provided between the first end and the second end. The passage is configured to store a plurality of bolts to be supplied to the dispensing tube through the first end such that the bolts are moved through the passage. The dispensing section is located near the second end of the dispensing tube and is configured to dispense the bolts one at a time from the second end.

The present disclosure relates to methods and an apparatus for dispensing bolts and, more particularly, methods and systems for dispensing bolts into apertures formed on a work piece.
One manner of manufacturing a product in mass is through the use of an assembly line in which a work piece is moved through a number of stations and a specific set of components are mounted onto the work piece at each station. Such a manner of manufacturing involves moving the components from a feeder to the work piece at each station. While a single trip from the feeder to the work piece by an automated apparatus such as a robot may be sufficient to carry and mount one type of component on the work piece, it may not be possible to carry and mount a variety of components in a single trip, and thus using conventional manufacturing techniques, multiple trips may be necessary. For example, it may be difficult or impossible to configure the robot to carry and mount bolts or screws of different sizes or shapes onto the work piece efficiently in a single trip.
Thus, there is a need for a method and an apparatus allowing components of different sizes and shapes to be carried and mounted onto the work piece in a more efficient manner.


A gas analyzer for continuously determining the concentration of a gas in a gas mixture, having a measuring cell, a radiation source, a detector and signal processing facilities, characterized in that the radiation source is slidingly arranged in the measuring cell.

The present invention relates to a gas analyzer for continuously determining the concentration of a gas in a gas mixture, the analyzer consisting of an energy source, a measuring cell, a radiation source, a detector and signal-processing devices. The present invention relates furthermore to a measuring cell for the photometric measurement of a gas in a mixture of gases.
The analysis of gases by measuring devices operating on the principle of non-dispersive infra-red spectroscopy (NDIR) has long been known. It has a wide range of applications, including flue gas analysis, process metrology in the field of chemical process engineering, and also recently to an increasing extent the measuring and regulating of air and air quality in buildings.
The fundamental design for a gas analyzer is substantially the same in all cases. The radiation emitted by a radiation source passes through a measuring cell containing the gas to be measured and impinges on a detector. As the radiation travels through the cell, its initial intensity, as emitted by the source, is attenuated by absorption processes. The relationship between the gas concentration to be determined and the attenuation of the intensity is governed by the Lambert-Beer law. The generation of a detector signal with an adequate signal/noise ratio requires modulation of the radiation emitted by the radiation source. The gas to be measured enters the measuring cell either by diffusion or with the help of a pump.
Measuring devices of the above-mentioned type are known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,332 and GB Patent 1 398 97. The U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,332 describes an NDIR single beam gas analyzer having a measuring cell which can be operated in the diffusion mode. The cell consists of a closed tube having several discrete gas access openings distributed over the length of the tube. The gas exchange takes place via a membrane which covers the gas openings. The radiation source and the detector are mounted at both ends of the tubular measuring cell. The membrane system makes for a relatively complicated design of the measuring device. GB Patent 1 398 977 also describes a single-beam infra-red photometer for measuring gases, in which the lamp used as a radiation source is supplied with timing pulses by means of an oscillator. The radiation, which is thus modulated with a clock frequency of several Hz, travels along the gas-measuring path and passes through an optical filter, which is transparent to a certain wavelength, before arriving at a radiation-sensitive detector. The measuring cell consists of a tube, closed all round, having a reflecting inner surface. The radiation source and the detector are positioned at the respective ends of the tube. Gas is permitted to enter through a small opening near the optical filter or near the detector. The advantage of using a pulsed light source of this kind is that it permits small, lightweight, cheap, in principle battery-operated and portable but nevertheless efficient gas analyzers to be designed and built.
It is, however, disadvantageous that the known cells can only be used for a narrow measuring range, because the relationship between the concentration of the gas to be measured and the output signals is not linear and the measurement becomes inaccurate with increasing concentration.

Endress + Hauser Conducta Gesellschaft fur Mess- und Regeltechnik mbH + Co.


An adapter frame has channels that hold multiple die carriers in each channel. The die carriers, such as 2″×2″ or 4″×4″ waffle packs or GEL-PAK die carriers, slide into the channels and are secured by a spring clip retention mechanism. In other embodiments, the adapter frame has molded individual cavities to hold single die carriers. The adapter frame has the same exterior dimensions as a conventional wafer frame. This allows the adapter frame to be handled at the die sorter output in the same or similar manner as output wafer frames, thereby eliminating the need to change handlers when switching the output from a wafer frame to a specific die carrier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor manufacturing, and in particular, to semiconductor die sorting.
2. Related Art
One of the steps used during manufacturing of semiconductor dice is sorting die from a wafer or other platform. During a typical manufacturing process, the dice are first fabricated onto a semiconductor wafer, which is typically comprised primarily of silicon, although other materials such as gallium arsenide and indium phosphide are also sometimes used. Each semiconductor wafer has a plurality of integrated circuit semiconductor dice and/or circuitry, arranged in rows and columns with the periphery of each integrated circuit being substantially rectangular in shape, the integrated circuits of the semiconductor die being formed through a combination of deposition, etching, and photo-lithographic techniques. The inactive silicon backsides of the wafers are typically thinned (i.e., have their cross sections reduced) by a mechanical and/or chemical grinding process, and the wafers sawed into substantially rectangular-shaped discrete integrated circuit semiconductor dice.
During the fabrication and/or sawing process, individual dice may be damaged or defective. To prevent shipment or usage of defective dice, each of the dice is tested or probed to determine the level of functionality of the die. The die sorting, which can be in-situ with the testing, sorts the die identified from the testing step. For example, testing may identify a die as "good" or "bad", depending on the level of performance required by the die. Identification typically involves marking bad dies with a probe, ink mark, or other identifier. The dice are then sorted accordingly, such as placement into appropriate carriers so that the same types of dice, functionally, are grouped together. Depending on the type of output desired, different carriers can be used to hold the sorted die, depending on the requirements of the end customer. Some current output carriers include waffle packs, GEL-PAK die carriers, tape or adhesive mounted frames, and JEDEC trays.
The die sorting is usually performed with an equipment called a die sorter. The die sorter typically receives a wafer containing the dice to be sorted. Individual die are then selected from the wafer and placed into an output carrier. However, because the output carriers are different (e.g., different sizes, die trays, and/or handling procedures), the die sorter needs to be flexible to accommodate the different output carriers. Thus, die sorters should be able to be changed (e.g., mechanically and/or to software) each time a different output carrier is used to adjust for those differences. For example, the die sorter may first sort the dice onto a tape. If the die sorter is to next sort the dice onto a waffle pack, a different handler for the output carrier will be needed, as well as possible changes to the software and handling procedure. This need to change the die sorter results in added time and costs, as well as lower throughput due to increased downtime, for the overall die sorting processes.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved die sorter that overcomes the deficiencies in the prior art as discussed above.

Die sorter with reduced mean time to convert


According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes: an indicator configured to indicate an operation status of a device; a switch configured to receive an input; a time determination module configured to determine whether an input time during which the input is continually received by the switch exceeds a predetermined first time; a lighting controller, when the time determination module determines that the input time passes the first time, configured to control the indicator so as to be turned on in a first lighting pattern; a detector configured to detect an end of the input received by the switch; and a processor, when the time determination module determines that the input time is greater than or equal to the first time and the detector detects the end of the input received by the switch, configured to perform predetermined first processing.

1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to an electronic apparatus that performs processing based on a user input, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, digitalization of television (TV) broadcasting has been in progress, and a digital TV broadcasting receiver having a decoder and the like for processing a digital signal of a digital broadcasting is widespread.
In the digital TV broadcasting receiver, decoder process becomes unstable for some reasons while the decoder processes the digital signal. For example, the decoder becomes uncontrollable when the communication fails between the decoder and a microcomputer (TV microcomputer) that controls a system.
In order to fix operation of the digital TV broadcasting receiver having the unstable decoder, the decoder should be initialized.
However, power supply to the conventional digital TV broadcasting receiver cannot be stopped even when a power button on a main body of the digital TV broadcasting receiver is pressed down, or in other words, even when the main power of the receiver is shut down. For example, the TV microcomputer that controls a remote controller, a switch provided on a front panel, and the like, supplies power to the decoder based on a state of the digital TV broadcasting receiver, and the TV microcomputer communicates with the decoder to power on and off the decoder.
Therefore, when the communication between the TV microcomputer and the decoder fails as mentioned before, the TV microcomputer may not be able to initialize the decoder. Hence, the receiver is required to be unplugged to entirely shut down the power supply and initialize the digital TV broadcasting receiver.
However, in some cases it is difficult to unplug the receiver because, for example, the plug of the receiver is hard to distinguish from other plugs. Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) No. 2002-367270 therefore discloses a technique to reset (initialize) the microcomputer when a certain button is kept pressed down for a predetermined time length.
However, the conventional technology does not provide any information during the time from when the button is pressed until when the initialization starts. Hence, it is difficult to know the time it takes from when the button is pressed, and it is also difficult to know if the processing (resetting) is to be performed.


The invention provides a coating composition comprising a thermal plastic resin selected from the group consisting of a polycycloolefin resin, polyester resin, polyacrylate resin, and a mixture thereof; and a radiation curable resin comprising a radiation polymer containing at least one mono- or multi-functional acrylic acid based monomer as a polymerization unit, an oligomer containing an ethylenically unsaturated functional group, and a photoinitiator, wherein the radiation curable resin is used in an amount of 220-1000% by weight on the basis of the weight of the thermal plastic resin. The invention improves the hardness of the coating composition, prevent the coated substrate from being scratched or impaired, and impart the substrate with high transparency without causing warping problem.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coating composition. The inventive composition can be applied to a substrate, particularly a plastic substrate for optical applications, to enhance the hardness of the substrate and prevent the substrate from being scratched.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Due to careless operations, the surfaces of substrates are easily be scratched or worn, which adversely affects the appearance and properties of the substrates. Particularly, optical substrates are often impaired by the vibration during transportation. Presently, the solution adopted in the industry is to adhere a protective film to the surface of a substrate. Nevertheless, the utilization of a protective film will increase the cost. To overcome the above drawback, a helpful approach would be to apply a coating to the surface of a substrate to enhance the hardness of the substrate and prevent the surface of the substrate from being scratched. In the past, UV curable resins were normally used as scratch-resistant coatings because they can react in a short time and achieve a degree of crosslinking. However, the utilization of UV curable resins is limited by insufficient UV light transmission, which may result in a non-cure or an incomplete cure. Moreover, due to a crosslinking reaction, UV curable resins are subject to inconsistent stresses or shrinkage rates and easy to warp or crack.
In order to address the problems associated with the UV light transmission and non-cure or incomplete cure in conventional photo-curing techniques, and due to the fact that thermally curable resins cure in a prolonged time, CN10106347A (US2007/0066698 A1) discloses a dual cure composition which comprises at least one filler, at least one curable monomer comprising at least one of an ethylenic unit or cyclic ether unit or mixture thereof, at least one photoinitiator; and at least one thermal initiator. CN10106347A discloses exposing the dual cure composition to radiation to at least partially photocure, and providing sufficient heat to initiate thermal curing so as to obtain a cured composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,297 also discloses a dual cure binder system to address the problems associated with conventionally used phenolic resin that has excellent adhesion property but needs a prolonged heating to achieve thermal curing, and to obviate the above-mentioned drawbacks associated with the photocure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,297 discloses a coated abrasive with a binder coat which comprises a compound having at least one function that is radiation curable and at least one function that is polymerizable under thermally activated conditions to achieve the desired effects.
Incorporating a certain amount of a thermally curable resin into a coating that contains a UV curable resin and utilize a dual cure process to effectively generate a coating with a low degree of crosslinking is already known in the art. For example, DE 19920799, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,025,407, and 6,835,759 have disclosed such technique. Normally, the thermally curable resins used are thermal setting resins. These thermal setting resins have a great internal stress and cannot fully solve the problem associated with warping. In addition, the curing of a thermal setting resin normally requires a curing agent (or a crosslinker). However, curing agents react with the thermal setting resin easily, thereby increasing the molecular weight of the resin over time or resulting in different extents of reaction, and changing the properties of the resin. In this case, the resin should be consumed in a limited period and is not suitable for long-time coating.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,835,759 discloses a coating composition comprising a radiation curable component (a1), a thermally curable binder component (a2), a thermally curable crosslinking compound (a3), and optionally, one or more reactive diluents (a4) in a ratio that is obtained by the following equation: UV/TH=[a1+a4]NV/[a2+a3]NV. wherein [a1+a4]NV refers to the total nonvolatile weight of components (a1) and (a4). and [a2+a3]NV refers to the total nonvolatile weight of components (a2) and (a3). In a preferred embodiment, when UV/TH is from 0.25 to 0.50, most preferably from 0.30 to 0.45, the surface defects caused by vaporous emissions can be reduced and a desirable adhesion, particularly an especially desirable balance between porosity sealing and adhesion, can be further obtained. However, when the ratio UV/TH is within the above-mentioned ranges, the hardness and thus the scratch resistance of the coating composition may not be sufficient for practical applications.
Moreover, for easy processability, commonly used dual cure resins have a lower glass transition temperature, which is normally lower than 70° C. Although the resins with a lower glass transition temperature can be processes more easily, they exhibit poor heat resistance. Compared with the resins with a lower glass transition temperature, those with a higher glass transition temperature are more stable and more heat resistant, particularly when the resins are used in optical films or other components that will be affected by the light or heat from a lamp. When the temperature is up to 80° C., the form of the material is changed. Consequently, it is necessary to use the resins that have a higher glass transition temperature and a better heat resistance.

Coating compositions and curing method thereof


The disclosure concerns a capacitor including a trench; an insulation layer; a first polysilicon layer; a first patterned dielectric layer; a second polysilicon layer patterned into a plurality of vertical bars in the trench; a second dielectric layer along surfaces of the first dielectric layer and the second patterned polysilicon layer; and a third polysilicon layer on the second dielectric layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a capacitor and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Capacitors used in semiconductor devices have either polysilicon-insulator-polysilicon (PIP) or metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structures. Since PIP capacitors may have a plan or platform shape, they generally occupy a large area, making it difficult to reduce the chip size.
A PIP capacitor according to the prior art will be described with reference to FIG. 1, which is a sectional view.
In FIG. 1, a field oxide layer 11 is formed on a silicon substrate 10 and the lower electrode 12 of the capacitor is formed on the field oxide layer 11. The lower electrode 12 is formed by depositing and patterning a polysilicon layer. Then, a dielectric layer 13 and an upper electrode 14 of the capacitor are formed on the lower electrode 12. The dielectric layer 13 and the upper electrode 14 are formed by patterning and depositing an oxide or nitride layer (e.g., SiO2 or Si3N4) and a polysilicon layer, respectively.
After an inter-layer dielectric layer is deposited on the overall structure and selectively etched, contacts 16 (which are connected to either the upper or lower electrodes 12 and 14 of the capacitor) and metal wiring 17 (connected to contact 16) are formed thereon.
As described above, because conventional PIP capacitors have a plan or platform shape, the area occupied by the capacitor on the chip is large, which is an obstacle to reduction of chip area.

Capacitor and manufacturing method thereof