In the case in which a film for a resist is formed by spin coating, there is a resist material to be wasted, and the process of edge cleaning is added as required. Further, when a thin film is formed on a substrate using a vacuum apparatus, a special apparatus or equipment to evacuate the inside of a chamber vacuum is necessary, which increases manufacturing cost. The invention is characterized by including: a step of forming conductive layers on a substrate having a dielectric surface in a selective manner with a CVD method, an evaporation method, or a sputtering method; a step of discharging a compound to form resist masks so as to come into contact with the conductive layer; a step of etching the conductive layers with plasma generating means using the resist masks under the atmospheric pressure or a pressure close to the atmospheric pressure; and a step of ashing the resist masks with the plasma generating means under the atmospheric pressure or a pressure close to the atmospheric pressure. With the above-mentioned characteristics, efficiency in use of a material is improved, and a reduction in manufacturing cost is realized.

A thin film transistor (TFT), which is formed using a thin film on an insulating surface, is widely applied for an integrated circuit and the like and is used as a switching element in many cases. Among the applications, since the application of a display panel using the TFT has been extended to, in particular, a large display apparatus, demands for high definition, a high aperture ratio, high reliability, and an increase in size of a screen have been increasing.
As a manufacturing method for wiring in such a thin film transistor, there is a method of forming a film of a conductive layer on an entire surface of a substrate and, thereafter, performing etching treatment using a mask. In addition, a lithography technique for forming a film of a photosensitive resin (photoresist) on a substrate and performing exposure and development using a mask, on which a pattern is drawn, and an ultraviolet ray. A resist pattern formed by this technique is used as a mask in performing etching treatment (see Patent Document 1). (Patent Document 1) JP-A-2002-359246
In addition, in recent years, spread of a liquid crystal television that realizes a reduction in thickness and weight, which is not realized by a CRT television, has been advanced. In realizing an increase in an added value for the liquid crystal television, a screen size is an important element. According to a composition ratio by inch in the present situation, a screen size of 20 inches or less occupies about 70% of the market. On the other hand, large liquid crystal televisions of 20 inches or more, for example, 40 inches have appeared.
Such an increase in a screen size has accelerated an increase in a substrate size, transmission has progressed to a fourth generation (680×880, 730×920) and a fifth generation (1000×1200), and high definition has also progressed with a resolution thereof at VGA (640×RGB×480), SVGA (800×RGB×600), XGA (1024×RGB×768), and SXGA (1280×RGB×1024).

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


Compositions and methods of the invention are directed to the removal of solid films, and particularly paint layers, from substrates, and particularly smooth, porous, and/or mineralogically fragile substrates such as sandstone. The compositions include cooked aqueous solutions of starch. The compositions can advantageously remove paints and other unwanted solid films from these and other substrates without damaging the substrate itself.

Removal of paint and other substances that form solid films on substrates is frequently necessary, in applications ranging from the repainting of the substrate for aesthetic purposes to the remediation of graffiti and other types of vandalism. Commonly used compositions and methods for removing these solid films, however, are often unsuitable for use on porous, mineralogically fragile, or otherwise difficult substrates, e.g. sandstone, and in these applications, painting over or otherwise obscuring the solid film may be the only presently available, cost-effective option. Such an option is frequently unacceptable, e.g. where the substrate is part of a natural rock formation or similar feature and the very motivation for removal is to preserve the natural aesthetic of the substrate.
Those removal compositions and methods that are available suffer from many drawbacks. By way of non-limiting example, some methods use abrasives to mechanically blast or scrape the film away from the surface of the substrate, which may damage a porous or mineralogically fragile substrate and be ineffective at removing those portions of the unwanted substance that have seeped into pores or otherwise penetrated below the immediate surface of the substrate. Other methods may remove solid film layers that a user may wish to leave in place, or use compositions that themselves leave an undesired film or coating on the substrate that must be removed or remediated by other means. Still other compositions and methods may require significant manual effort (e.g. agitating, brushing, scraping, scrubbing, washing, wiping, etc.) to take effect, and/or may include caustic, toxic, or otherwise dangerous or undesirable chemicals.
There is thus a need in the art for compositions and methods for removing paint or other unwanted solid films from porous and/or mineralogically fragile substrates that leave the structure and aesthetics of the substrate substantially intact, leave in place any desired film layers, do not deposit additional unwanted films or coatings, take effect with minimal manual effort, and do not employ toxic or otherwise dangerous or undesirable chemicals.

Removal of paint from porous, smooth, and mineralogically fragile surfaces


A vehicle brake booster apparatus includes a housing, a movable wall positioned within the interior of the housing to divide the interior into a constant pressure chamber and a variable pressure chamber, a power piston connected to the movable wall for moving in response to movement of the movable wall, an axially movable input rod extending outwardly from the power piston for connection to a brake pedal, and an axially movable valve plunger mounted within the power piston and operatively connected to the input rod. A control valve is positioned within the power piston for controlling communication of the variable pressure chamber with atmospheric air. The control valve includes an air control valve and a vacuum control valve, with the air control valve including an air control seal arranged between the valve plunger and a valve body portion of the control valve. The air control seal has a radially outwardly located peripheral portion which possesses an elasticity that is greater than the elasticity of a radially inwardly located portion of the air control seal to thereby provide an effective air-tight seal.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 8-113137 discloses a brake booster apparatus for a vehicle that is provided with a control valve to control the pressure balance between a constant pressure chamber and a variable pressure chamber. This apparatus includes a diaphragm that divides the interior of a housing into a constant pressure chamber and a variable pressure chamber, power piston, a valve plunger and a control valve. The control valve is defined by a vacuum control valve and an air control valve arranged in the axial direction. These control valves include a vacuum control seal (first seat portion) and an air control seal (second seat portion) respectively. The air control seal is interposed between a valve body and a valve seat which is formed at the input side edge portion of the valve plunger. The air control seal also includes a ring shaped plate.
When the air control seal is assembled into the valve body, the air control seal changes shape when it is mounted at a predetermined position. However, in this assembly process, the air seal is deformed and so a precise valve seat arrangement cannot be established. As a result, a reliable and effective air-tight arrangement cannot be produced.


The present invention relates to a cerebrovascular analysis system which enables early diagnosis of various incurable cerebrovascular diseases such as cerebral thrombosis by measuring an elastic coefficient, blood vessel compliance, blood flow resistance, and blood flow in each cerebrovascular branch. The measurement is achieved by biomechanically analyzing blood vessels in the brain using an electrocardiogram, phonocardiogram, electroencephalogram, pulse wave, and ultrasonic doppler signal as basic data in order to measure biomechanical properties and blood flow properties of blood vessels in the brain for the diagnosis of cerebrovascular diseases.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cerebrovascular analysis system for analyzing the cerebrovascular diseases by measuring a biodynamic property and a blood flow property in a cerebral blood vessel, more specifically to a cerebrovascular analyzer for an early diagnosis of a cerebral thrombosis and other cerebrovascular refractory diseases by defining a cerebrovascular system as the blood vessel system organized with an internal carotid artery branch, an anterior cerebral blood vessel branch, a middle cerebral blood vessel branch, a posterior cerebral blood vessel branch, a vertebral artery branch and a basilar artery branch and then by analyzing each cerebrovascular branch of the cerebrovascular system to show a organic change of blood vessel by calculating a elastic coefficient of blood vessel and to show a blood flow property and organic and functional changes of the cerebrovascular system simultaneously by measuring a compliance of blood vessel, a resistance of blood flow and a volume of blood flow.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the today's clinics, an ultrasonic Doppler system is used to early diagnose the cerebrovascular diseases. However, the ultrasonic Doppler system has a limit to apply in clinics due to the incapability to measure the property of blood vessel.
Several cerebrovascular disease analyzers are developed until now such as angiography, MRA, FMRI, SPET, TCD, TEE, TTE, QFM and CVD.
The advantage of the angiography among them is that it is able to directly observe the progress of the diseases of blood vessel itself, but a blood vessel invasive operation is basically needed to inject a contrast medium and the operation is complex.
MRA and FMRI are the analyzing system to overcome the defects of the angiography, but they are only used in a certain ward due to the high cost of manufacture and diagnosis.
Especially, MRA, FMRI and SPET are used to identify a distribution of blood vessel, a blood flow property, a region of low blood flow, etc., although some differences are existed each other, but the property of blood vessel is not identified by them.
The ultrasonic quantitative flow measurement system (QFM) and the cerebrovascular property measurement system (CVD) enable to calculate the volume of blood flow of the carotid artery and the compliances of the middle cerebral artery and the anterior cerebral artery with low cost.
However, in order to assess the organic and functional states of blood vessel characterizing the blood vessel property, it is needed to know information of the elastic coefficient of blood vessel, the compliance of blood vessel and the resistance of blood flow, etc., for reflecting the organic and functional states of blood vessel itself rather than information related to the blood flow state such as a volume of blood flow in blood vessel and a blood pressure acted on the blood vessel wall.
However, it is a very difficult problem to measure the elastic coefficient of blood vessel, the compliance of blood vessel, a diameter of blood vessel, the resistance of blood flow and the volume of blood flow in each blood vessel branch of the cerebrovascular system for reflecting the organic state of blood vessel.
It is caused by the facts that the cerebovascular system has a complex structure and the biodynamic actions of blood vessel branches are different each other in the cerebrovascular system. It is also caused by a practical impossibility of the most accurate method that measures the elastic coefficient as an indicator of the organic change of blood vessel in human body by pulling a blood vessel sampled from living body with a tension apparatus.
In 2002, Werner G, Marifan C, Tonny M, Jeffrey C, etc., professors of California University in U.S.A, studied on biodynamic property of cerebral blood vessel of human and published a paper as Mechanical and Failure Properties of Human Cerebral Blood Vessels which is related to the property of the cerebral blood vessel.
However, because the blood vessels of human were sampled and tested, the results of the experiment can't be used as the indicators to diagnose.
Various researches on the indirect measurements of the volume of blood flow, the compliance, the elastic coefficient, the resistance of blood flow, etc. in the cerebrovascular system have been going on.
From 1997 to 2004, the measurements of the compliance and the resistance of cerebrovascular system had been suggested by many researchers such as Biedma, Haoliu, Cwako shin, etc. in U.S.A.
However, the above research results only contained the general facts on the blood pressure, the compliance, the elastic coefficient, the resistance and the distribution of blood flow in the cerebrovascular system, but did not obtain contents to apply the clinics directly.
In 2006, KF-3000 apparatus to apply to the clinics was developed by Ding Guanghong, a professor of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, to calculate the blood flow volume of each blood vessel branch in the cerebrovascular system.
KF-3000 brought to the innovative results to obtain the property of blood flow in the cerebrovascular system, but KF-3000 did not develop TCD to early diagnose the cerebrovascular diseases due to the intangibleness of the property of blood vessel.
Unlike the study of Dr. Ding Guanghong, COLLIN in Japan suggested a ultrasonic quantitative flow measurement system, QFM-2000X, to assess the property of blood flow and the property of blood vessel in cerebrovascular system for early diagnosing the cerebrovascular diseases and also CVD-1000, as a similar apparatus to QFM-2000X, based on a pending patent, an apparatus measuring parameter of cerebrovascular and method thereof.
The features of the ultrasonic quantitative flow measurement system (QFM) and the pending patent, an apparatus measuring parameter of cerebrovascular and method thereof, are organized to show a possibility to early diagnose the cerebrovascular diseases by calculating the volume of blood flow of the internal carotid artery, the compliances of the middle cerebral blood vessel and the anterior cerebral blood vessel with low cost.
However, the features of the ultrasonic quantitative flow measuring instrument (QFM) and the above pending patent could not identify separately the organic change and the functional change as two basic properties of blood vessel by selecting the compliance of blood vessel and the blood flow indicator as basic measurement indicators.
Especially, the ultrasonic quantitative flow measurement system (QFM-2000X) and the cerebrovascular property measurement system (CVD-1000) showed several defects to calculate the compliance and the resistance of the cerebrovascular system.
QFM-2000X calculated the compliance C and the resistance R to assess a left cerebrovascular system and a right cerebrovascular system under the assumption that the cerebrovascular system is divided to left and right and the blood flow volume of the cerebrovascular system is the volume of blood flow which flows into the internal carotid artery.
Therefore, it was not able to assess each blood vessel branch of brain.
Also, to obtain the compliance and the resistance of the cerebrovascular system, the features of them considered a blood pressure waveform as a pressure pulse waveform and a blood flow waveform as an ultrasonic waveform and calculated C and R by adjusting the waveforms to coincide with each other, but the results of C and R had defects that the amplitude of vibration was large and the approximation of curve was largely different from real phenomenon.
In fact, when the blood flow waveform is measured by the ultrasonic Doppler, the measurement error is very large due to the error of horizontal level. Therefore, the coincidence of two waveforms with the errors is not real and has very low reproducibility. Additionally, the approximation of curve vs. curve creates a big error by very little waveform change.
Therefore, the compliance C and the resistance R measured by QFM-2000X does not an enough mortgage to use as the clinical indicators because the values of C and R are differed 10-100 times from each examiner due to the irreproducibility.
The configuration of the pending patent, an apparatus measuring parameter of cerebrovascular and method thereof, could not find an accurate clinic indicator by assuming that when the cerebrovascular system is modeled and analyzed, the volume of blood flow which flows into the brain is equal to k times of the volume of cardiac output instead of calculating the volume of blood flow which flows into the brain.
The configuration of the pending patent, an apparatus measuring parameter of cerebrovascular and method thereof, is suggested as followings.
Although the cross-unital area of the internal carotid artery is reduced to 80-90%, the blood flow volume which flows into the internal carotid artery does not changed. Accordingly, the blood flow volume of the internal carotid artery can be calculated by an equation Qc=KcSv, where, Sv is a cardiac output and Kc is a ratio coefficient.
However, the above assumption did not an enough mortgage as a medical diagnosis apparatus.
Also, the configuration of the pending patent, an apparatus measuring parameter of cerebrovascular and method thereof, reduced the correctness of disease diagnosis by assuming that the compliances and resistances of the anterior and posterior cerebral arteries were divided by a predetermined rate.
Specifically, QFM-2000X and the pending patent, an apparatus measuring parameter of cerebrovascular and method thereof, did not suggested a method to obtain the compliance and resistance of the posterior cerebral artery.
Accordingly, QFM-2000X and the pending patent, an apparatus measuring parameter of cerebrovascular and method thereof, did not obtained the elastic coefficient, but obtained the compliance and the resistance for assessing the property of the cerebrovascular system. However, the obtained compliance and resistance showed many defects.
Therefore, it is needed new solution to accurately calculate the elastic coefficient, the compliance, the resistance, and the volume of blood flow of each blood vessel branch in the cerebrovascular system.


An increase in cost is minimized while realizing larger capacity. An optical disc 102 includes, from the bottom of the drawing: a substrate 104; a first information recording layer 108 formed on the substrate 104; and a first light transmission layer 110 having a thickness of about 20 μm formed on the first information recording layer 108. A second information recording layer 114 is formed on the first light transmission layer 110, and a second light transmission layer 116 having a thickness of about 90 μm is formed on the second information recording layer 114. A laser beam La is irradiated from the side of the second light transmission layer 116 to allow recording and/or reading of an information signal on/from the first and second information recording layers 108 and 114.

As a form of optical recording media for audio and video and other optical recording media for recording various information, for example, an optical disc, on which information signals are written by embossed pits, is widely used. The most basic form of optical disc is shown in FIG. 12. This optical disc 2 comprises an information recording layer 8 having a reflective film 6 on a light transmission molded substrate (supporting plate) 4. A protective layer 12 made of an UV curable resin or the like is formed thereon. For this optical disc 2, a laser beam La is irradiated on the side of the molded substrate 4 acting as a light transmission layer so as to read an information signal from the information recording layer 8.
A recording density of the optical disc 2 can be increased as a spot diameter of the used laser beam La is reduced. The spot diameter is proportional to: λ/NA (λ: a wavelength of a laser beam, NA: a numerical aperture of an objective lens). Therefore, in order to reduce the spot diameter, it is necessary either to reduce the wavelength λ of the laser beam La or to increase the numerical aperture NA of the objective lens.
As the wavelength λ of the laser beam La, a wavelength of 780 nm is used for CDs, whereas a wavelength of 650 nm is used for DVDs. For the future, a wavelength in the vicinity of 400 nm corresponding to a blue laser is expected for use. The spot diameter is reduced by the amount of a decrease in wavelength, so that a recording density is increased.
On the other hand, coma aberration is increased as the numerical aperture NA is increased. In order to keep coma aberration small even with the increased numerical aperture NA, it is necessary to reduce a thickness of the light transmission layer (the molded substrate 4) through which the laser beam La passes.
Conventionally, as the light transmission layer (the molded substrate 4) of the optical disc 2, a molded product made of a resin formed by injection molding or the like is frequently used. By this fabrication method, however, it is difficult to fabricate the molded substrate 4 to have a smaller thickness than that of the currently used DVDs with good accuracy using the current technique. More specifically, in the optical disc 2 having a structure using the molded substrate 4 as a light transmission layer as shown in FIG. 12, a technique of increasing a recording density with a higher NA of the laser beam La to increase the capacity reaches the limit in the present state in view of the fabrication technique.
To cope with this, two approaches of improvement techniques have been proposed.
The first approach of improvement consists in increase in capacity by multiplication of the number of information recording layers.
For example, a DVD-9 has a double-layered information recording layer in a structure as shown in FIG. 13. More specifically, a first information recording layer 32 is formed on an upper surface of a first molded substrate (light transmission layer) 30 and then is covered with a translucent film (translucent reflective layer) 34. In the completely same manner, a second information recording layer 38 is also formed on an upper surface of a second molded substrate 36 (in the drawing, being oriented downward) and is then covered with a reflective film (reflective layer) 40. The first substrate 30 and the second substrate 36 are bonded with each other through transparent bonding means (light transmission layer) 42. By irradiation of the laser beam La, an information signal is read from the first and second information recording layers 32 and 38 through the first molded substrate 30. As a result, the capacity can be increased by increasing the number of information recording layers (doubling a substantial area of the information recording layers).
On the other hand, the second approach of improvement mainly consists in further increasing the NA of the laser beam to increase a recording density of information signals in the information recording layer, thereby increasing the capacity. For example, the related art is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications Nos. 1997-235638, 2000-203724, and the like. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 14, a molded substrate 50, which does not required to transmit any light, is formed by injection molding to have a large thickness as a base of a disc body. Next, an information recording layer 54 having a reflective layer 52 is formed on the molded substrate 50. An extremely thin (at the maximum, about 300 μm) light transmission layer 56 is deposited thereon by means such as attachment of a light transmission sheet, resin coating through spin coating or the like.
The laser beam La is irradiated on the side of the thin light transmission layer 56 to record and/or read information on and/or from the information recording layer 54. In this manner, it is possible to form the thinner light transmission layer 56 while ensuring the entire strength on the side of the molded substrate 50. Therefore, a higher density (larger capacity) can be achieved by the approach of further increasing the NA of the laser beam.
Under the actual conditions, however, each of the above-described first and second approaches of improvement techniques still has various problems.
For example, in "multiplication of the number of information recording layers" corresponding to the above-described first approach of improvement, it is certain that substantial enlargement of the area of the information recording layers is made possible owing to multiplication of the layers. However, access to each of the information recording layers is achieved through the thick molded substrate 36 as in the conventional case. Therefore, the problem that it is hard to achieve a higher density for each layer still subsists. More specifically, capacity is expected to be increased only by the amount of increase in area achieved by multiplication of the layers.
On the other hand, for the approach of improvement that "density (capacity) for each layer is increased by increasing NA through a thin light transmission layer" corresponding to the second approach of improvement, various problems still remain in a concrete way to form thin light transmission layer.
Generally, as a method for forming the thin light transmission layer, a method of bonding a transparent sheet onto a molded substrate (or a supporting plate), a method of applying (coating) a resin by spin coating and the like have been proposed.
However, the method of bonding a transparent sheet is likely to have elevated fabrication cost because strict optical characteristics of the sheet itself and thickness accuracy are required. Moreover, even if the thickness accuracy of the transparent sheet is good, an uneven thickness or uneven application of an adhesive changes the optical characteristics to degrade the disc characteristics in some cases. Thus, high accuracy is also required for the application of an adhesive. Accordingly, under the actual conditions, many problems remain in this method.
The method of forming a thin light transmission layer by application of a resin through spin coating specifically consists in making a liquid UV curable resin (liquid to be applied) flow on a surface of a molded substrate (supporting plate) while rotating the molded substrate with a spindle so that the resin is uniformly extended in accordance with the rotation of the molded substrate to coat the resin layer. Thereafter, the coated resin is irradiated with ultraviolet rays so as to be cured. According to this method, the conditions such as a thickness of the coating can be adjusted by controlling a rotation speed of the spindle, application time and a viscosity of the application liquid.
However, this method has a problem in that the uniformity of the surface of the coating film is difficult to keep in such a way that a concentration (raise) of the application liquid is likely to occur, in particular, in the vicinity of the outer periphery. The raise does not become a serious problem in the case where there is a relatively large distance between a laser optical system and a disc such as a conventional CD or DVD. However, under the conditions where a gap between a laser optical system and a disc is reduced by a higher NA, it becomes an unignorable obstacle.
In the case where a relatively thick (for example, 100 μm) coating layer is formed, in particular, a thickness or a radial width of the raise becomes remarkably large to penetrate into an information recording area in some cases. Therefore, there is a possibility that a recordable area may be decreased to impair the recording/reading of information signals if no countermeasure is taken. Moreover, it also causes the collision of a laser optical system against a disc in some cases.
Regarding a treatment of the raise or the maintenance of smoothness of the coating surface, various proposals for ways of coping with them have been made in many documents, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications Nos. 1999-203724, 1999-86355, 1999-86356, and the like. However, this signifies, in other words, "some measure" is necessarily needed irrespective of a concrete method thereof. Correspondingly, a fabrication process is complicated while cost is increased.


An image forming system including an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet and for ejecting the sheet, a plurality of post-processing apparatuses for receiving the ejected sheet on which an image has been formed and for applying post-processing to the sheet, and a transfer device for transferring the plurality of post-processing apparatuses relative to the image forming apparatus and for connecting one of the plurality of post-processing apparatuses to the image forming apparatus.

The present invention relates to an image forming system that is structured by connecting a post-processing apparatus to an image forming apparatus.
A post-processing apparatus having functions to conduct various types of post-processing is connected to a high speed image forming apparatus as in the case of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
In post-processing apparatuses, there is one, for example, wherein plural post-processing functions are provided in one apparatus such as a post-processing apparatus equipped with a punching function and a folding function. However, for the purpose of allowing various post-processing to be possible, it becomes difficult to make one apparatus to have many types of post-processing functions, and plural post-processing apparatuses are connected to an image forming apparatus to construct an image forming system, to realize a multifunctional image forming system.
For example, in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 2005-206264 an image forming system is disclosed, wherein three post-processing apparatuses are connected to an image forming apparatus, and book binding processing and stitching-processing including punching processing, various types of folding processing and cutting, are conducted for the sheet on which an image has been formed.
In the structure of a conventional image forming system, it is unavoidable that a sheet conveyance path of the post-processing apparatus becomes long because plural post-processing apparatuses are connected to an image forming apparatus in series, and this long conveyance path causes various points to be improved.
Main points are as follows. (1) Electric power is consumed wastefully, which is not preferable from the viewpoint of energy saving, and running cost is increased. For example, even in the case of a print job requiring no post-processing, all conveyance devices of the system are driven to eject the sheet to a sheet ejection section of the post-processing device on the rearmost part. (2) Since the conveyance path becomes long, the probability of an occurrence of conveyance troubles is enhanced, and stability and reliability of the conveyance system are declined. (3) When conveyance troubles such as jamming are caused, the system is stopped, and this stop increases the number of sheets remaining in the conveyance path, resulting in an increase of waste of sheets, and workability of jam recovery such as removal of sheets is lowered. (4) A trouble of a single apparatus makes the total system to break down, which causes the system to be fragile. (5) Because of a restriction for sheet conveyance, the number of post-processing apparatuses is limited, which limits the realization of the multifunctional image forming system.
The image forming system formed by connecting plural post-processing apparatuses to an image forming apparatus has many points to be improved as stated above, and it is considered to connect various combinations of an image forming apparatus and a post-processing apparatus to a network. In this case, an image forming apparatus is connected to each post-processing apparatus, thus, image forming apparatuses of the same number as that of post-processing apparatuses are required, resulting in problems in terms of installation space and installation cost, which makes it difficult to put the image forming system to practical use.
Further, it is extremely difficult to maintain evenly output functions between each unit of the image forming apparatuses, and the image forming system formed through network connection is insufficient for needs for high level image quality such as a field of POD (POINT ON DEMAND).

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A B1 protein, its isoforms, analogs, fragments and derivatives, DNA encoding it and recombinant production are provided. The protein is useful in the modulation of intracellular inflammation, cell death and/or cell survival pathways.

The Tumor Necrosis Factor/Nerve Growth Factor (TNF/NGF) receptor superfamily is defined by structural homology between the extracellular domains of its members (Bazan, 1993; Beutler and van Huffel, 994; Smith et al., 1994). Except for two receptors, the p55 TNF receptor and Fas/APO1, the various members of this receptor family do not exhibit clear similarity of structure in their intracellular domains. Nevertheless, there is much similarity of function between the receptors, indicating that they share common signaling pathways. One example for this similarity is the ability of several receptors of the TNF/NGF family to activate the transcription factor NF-κB. This common ability was ascribed to a capability of a cytoplasmic protein that activates NF-κB, TNF Receptor Associated Factor 2 (TRAF2) to bind to the structurally-dissimilar intracellular domains of several of the receptors of the TNF/NGF family. By what mechanisms TRAF2 acts and how its responsiveness to the different receptors to which it binds is coordinated, is not known.
TRAF2 is a member of a recently described family of proteins called TRAF that includes several proteins identified as, for example, TRAF1, TRAF2 (Rothe, M., Wong, s.c., Henzel, W. J. and Goeddel, D (1994) Cell 78:681-692; PCT published application WO 95/33051), TRAF3 (Cheng, G. et al. (1995)), and TRAF6 (see Cao et al., 1996a).
All proteins belonging to the TRAF family share high degree of amino acid identity in their C-terminal domains, while their N-terminal domains may be unrelated. As shown in a schematic illustration of TRAF2 (FIG. 1), the molecule contains a ring finger motif and two TFIIIA-like zinc finger motifs at its C-terminal area. The C-terminal half of the molecule includes a region known as the "TRAF domain" containing a potential leucine zipper region extending between amino acids 264-358 (called N-TRAF), and another part towards the carboxy end of the domain between amino acids 359-501 (called C-TRAF) which is responsible for TRAF binding to the receptors and to other TRAF molecules to form homo- or heterodimers.
Activation of the transcription factor NF-κB is one manifestation of the signaling cascade initiated by some of the TNF/NGF receptors and mediated by TRAF2. NF-κB comprises members of a family of dimer-forming proteins with homology to the Rel oncogene which, in their dimeric form, act as transcription factors. These factors are ubiquitous and participate in regulation of the expression of multiple genes. Although initially identified as a factor that is constitutively present in B cells at the stage of IgK light chain expression, NF-κB is known primarily for its action as an inducible transcriptional activator. In most known cases NF-κB behaves as a primary factor, namely the induction of its activity is by activation of pre-existing molecules present in the cell in their inactive form, rather than its de-novo synthesis which in turn relies on inducible transcription factors that turn-on the NF-κB gene. The effects of NF-κB are highly pleiotropic. Most of these numerous effects share the common features of being quickly induced in response to an extracellular stimulus. The majority of the NF-κB-activating agents are inducers of immune defense, including components of viruses and bacteria, cytokines that regulate immune response, UV light and others. Accordingly, many of the genes regulated by NF-κB contribute to immune defense (see Blank et al., 1992; Grilli et al., 1993; Baeuerle and Henkel, 1994, for reviews).
One major feature of NF-κB-regulation is that this factor can exist in a cytoplasmic non-DNA binding form which can be induced to translocate to the nucleus, bind DNA and activate transcription. This dual form of the NF-κB proteins is regulated by I-κB—a family of proteins that contain repeats of a domain that has initially been discerned in the erythrocyte protein ankyrin (Gilmore and Morin, 1993). In the unstimulated form, the NF-κB dimer occurs in association with an I-κB molecule which imposes on it cytoplasmic location and prevents its interaction with the NF-κB-binding DNA sequence and activation of transcription. The dissociation of I-κB from the NF-κB dimer constitutes the critical step of its activation by many of its inducing agents (DiDonato et al., 1995). Knowledge of the mechanisms that are involved in this regulation is still limited. There is also just little understanding of the way in which cell specificity in terms of responsiveness to the various NF-κB-inducing agents is determined.
One of the most potent inducing agents of NF-κB is the cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF). There are two different TNF receptors, the p55 and p75 receptors (p55-R and p75-R). Their expression levels vary independently among different cells (Vandenabeele et al., 1995). The p75 receptor responds preferentially to the cell-bound form of TNF (TNF is expressed both as a beta-transmembrane protein and as a soluble protein) while the p55 receptor responds just as effectively to soluble TNF molecules (Grell et al., 1995). The intracellular domains of the two receptors are structurally unrelated and bind different cytoplasmic proteins. Nevertheless, at least part of the effects of TNF, including the cytocidal effect of TNF and the induction of NF-κB, can be induced by both receptors. This feature is cell specific. The p55 receptor is capable of inducing a cytocidal effect or activation of NF-κB in all cells that exhibit such effects in response to TNF. The p75-R can have such effects only in some cells. Others, although expressing the p75-R at high levels, show induction of the effects only in response to stimulation of the p55-R (Vandenabeele et al., 1995). Apart from the TNF receptors, various other receptors of the TNF/NGF receptor family: CD30 (McDonald et al., 1995), CD40 (Berberich et al., 1994; Lalmanach-Girard et al., 1993), the lymphotoxin beta receptor and, in a few types of cells, Fas/APO1 (Rensing-Ehl et al., 1995), are also capable of inducing activation of NF-κB. The IL-1 type I receptor, also effectively triggering NF-κB activation, shares most of the effects of the TNF receptors despite the fact that it has no structural similarity to them.
The activation of NF-κB upon triggering of these various receptors results from induced phosphorylation of its associated I-κB molecules. This phosphorylation tags I-κB to degradation, which most likely occurs in the proteasome. The nature of the kinase that phosphorylates I-κB, and its mechanism of activation upon receptor triggering is still unknown. However, in the recent two years some knowledge has been gained as to the identity of three receptor-associated proteins that appear to take part in initiation of the phosphorylation (see diagrammatic illustration in FIGS. 2a and 6). A protein called TRAF2, initially cloned by D. Goeddel and his colleagues (Rothe et al., 1994), seems to play a central role in NF-κB-activation by the various receptors of the TNF/NGF family. The protein, which when expressed at high levels can by itself trigger NF-κB activation, binds to activated p75 TNF-R (Rothe et al., 1994), lymphotoxin beta receptor (Mosialos et al., 1995), CD40 (Rothe et al., 1995a) and CD-30 (unpublished data) and mediates the induction of NF-κB by them. TRAF2 does not bind to the p55 TNF receptor nor to Fas/APO1, however, it can bind to a p55 receptor-associated protein called TRADD and TRADD has the ability to bind to a Fas/APO1-associated protein called MORT1 (or FADD—see Boldin et al. 1995b and 1996). Another receptor-interacting protein, called RIP (see Stanger et al., 1995) is also capable of interacting with TRAF2 as well as with FAS/APO1, TRADD, the p55 TNF receptor and MORT-1. Thus, while RIP has been associated with cell cytotoxicity induction (cell death), its ability to interact with TRAF2 also implicates it in NF-κB activation and it also may serve in addition to augment the interaction between FAS/APO1, MORT-1, p55 TNF receptor and TRADD with TRAF2 in the pathway leading to NF-κB activation. These associations apparently allow the p55 TNF receptor and Fas/APO1 to trigger NF-κB activation (Hsu et al., 1995; Boldin et al., 1995; Chinnaiyan et al., 1995; Varfolomeev et al., 1996; Hsu et al., 1996). The triggering of NF-κB activation by the IL-1 receptor occurs independently of TRAF2 and may involve a recently-cloned IL-1 receptor-associated protein-kinase called IRAK (Croston et al., 1995).
By what mechanism TRAF2 acts is not clear. Several cytopiasmic molecules that bind to TRAF2 have been identified (Rothe et al., 1994; Rothe et al., 1995b). However, the information on these molecules does not provide any clue as to the way by which TRAF2, which by itself does not possess any enzymatic activity, triggers the phosphorylation of I-κB. There is also no information yet of mechanisms that dictate cell-specific pattern of activation of TRAF2 by different receptors, such as observed for the induction of NF-κB by the two TNF receptors.
In addition to the above mentioned, of the various TRAF proteins, it should also be noted that TRAF2 binds to the p55 (CD120a) and p75 (CD120b) TNF receptors, as well as to several other receptors of the TNF/NGF receptor family, either directly or indirectly via other adaptor proteins as noted above, for example with reference to the FAS/APO1 receptor, and the adaptor proteins MORT-1, TRADD and RIP. As such, TRAF2 is crucial for the activation of NF-κB (see also Wallach, 1996). However, TRAF3 actually inhibits activation of NF-κB by some receptors of the TNF/NGF family (see Rothe et al., 1995a), whilst TRAF6 is required for induction of NF-κB by IL-1 (see Cao et al., 1996a).
Accordingly, as regards NF-κB activation and its importance in maintaining cell viability, the various intracellular pathways involved in this activation have heretofore not been clearly elucidated, for example, how the various TRAF proteins, are involved directly or indirectly.
Furthermore, as is now known regarding various members of the TNF/NGF receptor family and their associated intracellular signaling pathways inclusive of various adaptor, mediator/modulator proteins (see brief reviews and references in, for example, co-pending co-owned Israel Patent Application Nos. 114615, 114986, 115319, 116588), TNF and the FAS/APO1 ligand, for example, can have both beneficial and deleterious effects on cells. TNF, for example, contributes to the defense of the organism against tumors and infectious agents and contributes to recovery from injury by inducing the killing of tumor cells and virus-infected cells, augmenting antibacterial activities of granulocytes, and thus in these cases the TNF-induced cell killing is desirable. However, excess TNF can be deleterious and as such TNF is known to play a major pathogenic role in a number of diseases such as septic shock, anorexia, rheumatic diseases, inflammation and graft-vs-host reactions. In such cases TNF-induced cell killing is not desirable. The FAS/APO1 ligand, for example, also has desirable and deleterious effects. This FAS/APO1 ligand induces via its receptor the killing of autoreactive T cells during maturation of T cells, i.e. the killing of T cells which recognize self-antigens, during their development and thereby preventing autoimmune diseases. Further, various malignant cells and HIV-infected cells carry the FAS/APO1 receptor on their surface and can thus be destroyed by activation of this receptor by its ligand or by antibodies specific thereto, and thereby activation of cell death (apoptosis) intracellular pathways mediated by this receptor. However, the FAS/APO1 receptor may mediate deleterious effects, for example, uncontrolled killing of tissue which is observed in certain diseases such as acute hepatitis that is accompanied by the destruction of liver cells.
In view of the above, namely, that receptors of the TNF/NGF family can induce cell death pathways on the one hand and can induce cell survival pathways (via NF-κB induction) on the other hand, there apparently exists a fine balance, intracellularly between these two opposing pathways. For example, when it is desired to achieve maximal destruction of cancer cells or other infected or diseased cells, it would be desired to have TNF and/or the FAS/APO1 ligand inducing only the cell death pathway without inducing NF-κB. Conversely, when it is desired to protect cells such as in, for example, inflammation, graft-vs-host reactions, acute hepatitis, it would be desirable to block the cell killing induction of TNF and/or FAS/APO1 ligand and enhance, instead, their induction of NF-κB. Likewise, in certain pathological circumstances it would be desirable to block the intracellular signaling pathways mediated by the p75 TNF receptor and the IL-1 receptor, while in others it would be desirable to enhance these intracellular pathways.
Recently, the present inventors have isolated a kinase called NIK (Israel Patent Application Nos. 117800, 119133 and WO 97/37016) which is capable of binding to TRAF2 and is directly involved in the phosphorylation reactions leading to induction of NF-κB activation.
In addition, a number of caspases have recently been isolated by a number of researchers (including the present inventors (see co-pending, co-owned Israel Patent Application No. IL 120759)), which interact with the above noted adaptor proteins (e.g. MORT-1/FADD) or with complexes between the adaptor proteins and the various receptors of the TNF/NGF receptor family and which effect the proteolytic reactions leading to apoptotic cell death. Thus, direct modulation of these caspases would be desired in the situations noted above when it is desired to inhibit or enhance cell death, for example, when it is desired to inhibit cell death it would be desirable to inhibit the activity of these caspases. In this respect it has been reported (see review in Hofmann et al., 1997) that there exists a region called a prodomain in many of these caspases that is also present in a number of adaptor proteins such as, for example, RAIDD (which interacts with RIP, TRADD and thereby with MORT-1/FADD, the p55-TNF-R and FAS/APO1), an adaptor protein of the cell death pathway; and c-IAP1, c-IAP2, two proteins which appear to be inhibitors of apoptosis and which themselves interact with TRAF2, and thereby may be inhibitors of caspases or may otherwise stimulate TRAF2 involvement in the cell survival pathway resulting in induction of NF-κB activation. As such this prodomain has also been designated as CARD for 'caspase recruitment domain' (see Hofmann et al., 1997). This prodomain (CARD) therefore represents another target for modulation of the intracellular signaling pathways associated with cell death induction.
Moreover, recently there has been described (see Review by Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996) another family of proteins, called the BCL2 protein family, of which the proteins BCL2, its homolog BCL-X including the two forms thereof being BCL-XL and the alternatively spliced BCL-XS, MCL1, A1, BAK, BAD, BAG1, BAX, the adenovirus E1B-19k, and the Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) CED-9 protein are all members. Of these proteins it has been observed that BCL2, BCL-XL, E1B-19k and CED-9 function to inhibit apoptosis, or to protect against apoptosis induced by various intracellular signaling pathways (see Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996). BCL2 and BCL-XL are also apparently intracellular membrane-bound proteins localized to mitochondria, as well as smooth endoplasmic reticulum, and the perinuclear membrane, the C-terminus of these proteins having a signal anchor sequence responsible for targeting and insertion thereof into the outer mitochondrial membrane and the other, above noted, intracellular membranes. Once anchored in the various intracellular membranes the BCL2 and BCL-XL proteins are exposed to the cytosol where they can interact with various other intracellular proteins.
How BCL2, BCL-XL, E1B-19k and CED-9 protect cells has not yet been fully elucidated, but it appears that their effect is apparently upstream of the cell death effectors being the various caspases noted above, such as, for example ICE and ICE-like proteases of the ICE/CED-3 family including CPP32/Yama, ICE-LAP3 (Mch3), ICH-1 and others. In fact, CED-9 was found to be a specific inhibitor of the C.elegans death effector proteases CED-3 and CED-4, and BCL2 is apparently an inhibitor of ICH-1 (also called NEDD2), in particular, the ICH-IL form which promotes cell death. Thus, while the precise mechanism of inhibition of apoptosis by BCL2, BCL-XL, CED-9 and E1B-19k, is not clear, it is apparently upstream of the ICE-CED-3 proteases which are the death effectors (see review of Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996, as well as Chinnaiyan et al., 1996).
As regards the other BCL2 family members noted above, BAX is a cell death promoter. BAX binds to itself and in the form of such BAX homodimers it promotes apoptosis. BAX also binds to BCL2 and BCL-XL and such heterodimers are associated with BCL2's protective effect against apoptosis. Thus the balance between the amounts of BAX/BAX homodimers and BAX/BLC2 heterodimers determines whether cells will be susceptible to apoptosis or whether they will be protected against apoptosis. BAX is also apparently an intracellular membrane-bound protein also being localized to a large degree to the outer mitochondrial membrane (for above mentioned concerning BAX, see also review by Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996). Further, the above noted BAK and BAD proteins also act as negative regulators of BCL2 and BCL-XL activity, namely, they repress the ability of BCL2 and BCL-XL to protect cells from apoptosis. It appears that both BAK and BAD bind BCL2 and BCL-XL and thereby prevent BAX from binding to BCL2 and BCL-XL resulting in increased amounts of BAX/BAX homodimers and subsequently increased cell death (see review by Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996). In this regard it also appears that BAK functions to block the death-repressor activity of BCL2 and BCL-XL directly as BAK/BCL2 and BAK/BCL-XL heterodimers lack the ability to protect cells from apoptosis. BAD appears to act more like a competitive inhibitor for BAX binding to BCL2 and BCL-XL, as BAD may replace BAX from BAX/BCL2 and BAX/BCL-XL heterodimers, thereby providing for increased amounts of death-promoting BAX/BAX homodimers. While BAK also appears to be an intracellular membrane bound protein localized to, amongst others, mitochondrial outer membranes, BAD, however, is apparently devoid of a membrane anchor sequence and as such is not a membrane-bound protein (see review by Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996).
Another of the above members of the BCL2 family is BAG1 (see Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996) which is a positive modulator of BCL2 activity leading to enhanced BCL2 protective activity against apoptosis and even providing for BCL2 protective activity against apoptosis in cells induced to undergo apoptosis by signals not usually suppressed by BCL2.
It should also be noted that the above mentioned alternatively spliced form of BCL-XL, namely the BCL-XS protein is also an antagonist of BCL-XL and BCL2 activity, and blocks their protective activity against apoptosis (see also review of Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996).
In view of the above mentioned it appears that the BCL2 family of proteins play a role in regulating cell death or cell survival pathways intracellularly and a shift in the balance from proteins of this family that actively block apoptosis to those that promote apoptosis or inhibit anti-apoptotic activity may result in increased cell death, and likewise, a shift in the balance the other way may result in increased cell survival.
Accordingly, when it is desired to increase cell death by increasing apoptosis in cells under the circumstances noted above, it would be desirable to block the activity of BCL2, BCL-XL and other members of this family which suppress or inhibit apoptosis, or to increase the activity of BAX, BAK, BAD, BCL-XS and other members of this family which promote apoptosis or inhibit anti-apoptotic activities of BCL2 or BCL-XL. Likewise, when it is desired to increase cell survival in cells by decreasing apoptosis, it would be desirable to increase the activity of BCL2, BCL-XL and other members of this family which suppress or inhibit apoptosis, or to decrease the activity of apoptosis promoters of this family as noted above.
It is an object of the present invention to provide novel proteins, including isoforms, analogs, fragments or derivatives thereof which are capable of modulating the intracellular signaling pathways leading to inflammation, cell death or cell survival, this modulation being possibly via the prodomain (CARD) of the various caspases or via kinase domains of the various kinases involved in NF-κB activation. Such novel proteins of the invention would therefore possibly be direct modulators of caspase activity (cell death pathway) and/or NF-κB activation via kinase activity (cell survival pathway). Likewise, the novel proteins of the invention are possibly indirect modulators of the intracellular biological activity of a variety of other proteins involved in the inflammation, cell death or survival pathways (e.g. FAS/APO1, p55 TNF-R, p75 TNF-R, IL-1-R, MORT-1, TRADD, RIP, TRAF2, NIK, and others). Likewise, this modulation may also possibly be by direct or indirect interaction with members of the BCL2 family of proteins, the novel proteins of the present invention may be able to modulate the activity of BCL2 or other proteins of this family and in this sense the novel proteins of the invention may be indirect modulators of the various caspases, which, in turn, are modulated by members of the BCL2 family of proteins.
Another object of the invention is to provide antagonists (e.g. antibodies, peptides, organic compounds, or even some isoforms) to the above novel proteins, including isoforms, analogs, fragments and derivatives thereof, which may be used to inhibit the inflammation, cell death or survival signaling processes, when desired.
A further object of the invention is to use the above novel proteins, isoforms, analogs, fragments and derivatives thereof, to isolate and characterize additional proteins or factors, which may be involved in regulation of the inflammation, cell death or survival pathways and influence their activity, and/or to isolate and identify other receptors or other cellular proteins further upstream or downstream in the signaling process(es) to which these novel proteins, analogs, fragments and derivatives bind, and hence, in whose function they are also involved.
A still further object of the invention is to provide inhibitors which can be introduced into cells to bind or interact with the novel proteins and possible isoforms thereof, which inhibitors may act to inhibit inflammation, cell death or survival processes when desired.
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to use the above-mentioned novel proteins, isoforms and analogs, fragments and derivatives thereof as antigens for the preparation of polyclonal and/or monoclonal antibodies thereto. The antibodies, in turn, may be used, for example, for the purification of the new proteins from different sources, such as cell extracts or transformed cell lines.
Furthermore, these antibodies may be used for diagnostic purposes, e.g. for identifying possible disorders related to abnormal functioning of cellular effects mediated directly by caspases, kinases, proteins belonging to the BCL2 family, or TRAF proteins or mediated by the p55 TNF receptor, FAS/APO1 receptor, or other related receptors and their associated cellular proteins (e.g. RAIDD, MORT-1, TRADD, RIP), which act directly or indirectly to modulate/mediate intracellular processes via interaction with TRAF proteins, caspases, kinases, or members of the BCL2 family of proteins.
A further object of the invention is to provide pharmaceutical compositions comprising the above novel proteins, isoforms, or analogs, fragments or derivatives thereof, as well as pharmaceutical compositions comprising the above noted antibodies or other antagonists.

Modulators of intracellular inflammation, cell death and cell survival pathways


In a semiconductor device, source/drain layers have a low resistivity region and an extension region extending from the low resistivity region toward the channel region. The extension regions are lower in impurity concentration and shallower in depth than the low resistivity regions. The device also has a first impurity-doped layer formed in the channel region between the source/drain layers, a second impurity-doped layer formed under the first impurity-doped layer, and a third impurity-doped layer formed under the second impurity-doped layer. The first impurity-doped layer is equal or less in junction depth than the extension regions. The second impurity doped layer has impurity concentration and thickness to be fully depleted due to a built-in potential as created between the first and third impurity-doped layers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to semiconductor devices using bulk semiconductor for achievement of highly miniaturized transistors with enhanced performance. The invention also relates to a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Today, metal insulator semiconductor field effect transistors (MISFETs) using silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates with a fully depleted channel region are under diligent research and development at some leading companies and laboratories, for use as transistors suitable for microfabrication and performance enhancement schemes. The MOSFETs of this type will be referred to as fully depleted SOIFETs or simply FD-SOIFETS. Typically these FD-SOIFETs are designed to have a specific thickness and impurity concentration low enough to permit a silicon layer overlying an oxide film for use as a channel region to be fully depleted.
In such FD-SOIFETs, a vertical electric field from a gate electrode is partly allotted by a buried oxide film at the bottom of a channel region, resulting in a likewise decrease in vertical electric field being applied to the channel region. As a result of such decrease or "relaxation" of this channel region's vertical electric field, the channel region increases in carrier mobility, leading to an advantage or merit as to the obtainability of higher current driving ability or "drivability."
Unfortunately in view of the quest for higher integration and miniaturization, the advantage of FD-SOIFETs does not come without accompanying several penalties. Examples of the penalties are as follows. First, in order to suppress the so-called "short channel" effect, it becomes inevitable to employ SOI substrates with ultra-thin silicon layers. Second, the use of such ultrathin silicon layers would result in an unwanted increase in parasitic resistance values. Third, as a channel region surrounded by oxide films which are ordinarily less in thermal conductivity than silicon, the conductivity of heat generated in self-heatup regions near a drain is made inferior, resulting in an increase in degradation of performance. Another penalty is a problem that the SOI substrates are relatively less in quality whereas gate dielectric films stay less in reliability, causing possible plasma damages to increase accordingly. A further penalty lies in high price of the SOI substrates at least at the present time.
In contrast, attempts are made to avoid the above-noted problems or demerits of FD-SOIFETs by employment of bulk semiconductors while letting them offer similar effects to the FD-SOIFETs. An example of this approach proposed today is to realize a pseudo-SOIFET by use of a "p/n−/p" multilayer structure including a p-type channel region and its underlying lightly-doped n (n−) type layer depleted due to a built-in potential. Examples of the p/n−/p structure are found in several documents—for example, 1) T. Mizuno et al., 1991 Symp. on VLSI Tech. at page 109 (1991), 2) M. Miyamoto et al., IEDM Tech. Digest, p. 411 (1998), and 3) Ishii and Miyamoto, Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 7-335837.
The proposed pseudo-SOIFET structures are still encountered with many problems to be solved, one of which is the difficulty in obtaining any sufficient performance on the order of submicrons of minimum feature size. More specifically, the pseudo-SOIFETs as taught from the above-identified three documents ("D1-D3") are arranged so that a channel region is greater in depth (thickness) than its associated source and drain diffusion layers. This is a serious bar to suppression of short-channel effects in the case of further miniaturization or shrinkage. Additionally if a semiconductor layer of such channel region is formed of an impurity-doped layer low in impurity concentration enough to realize a fully depleted element, then punch-through can disadvantageously take place in cases where the gate length (channel length) is shortened to be on the order of submicrons. And, in order to prevent this punch-through, complicated drain structures should be required, such as the ones as disclosed in the documents D2-D3.
It is also noted that with the structures as taught by D2-D3, the bottom portions of source/drain diffusion layers to be fabricated by counter-doping techniques are made deep enough to reach the p-type layer beneath the n−-type layer. This would result in an undesired increase in junction capacitance of the source/drain, thereby making difficult achievement of high-speed operabilities.
Further note that the documents D2-3 merely suggest the use of ion doping or implantation methods as the method of obtaining the p/n−/p structure of the channel region. Simple use of such ion implantation methods for obtaining the p/n−/p channel structure can reach a limit in further reduction of channel region impurity concentration and thickness.

Semiconductor device realizing characteristics like a SOI MOSFET


A system, device, and method for managing connection quality in an optical communication system ascertains high-level communication requirements and non-requirements of the network user, determines a set of lower level communication services for the network user based upon the high-level communication requirements and non-requirements of the network user, and obtains the lower-level communication services for the network user.

In today's information age, communication networks are increasingly used for transferring information among a multitude of communication devices. As demand for communication services continues to grow, the demand on these communication networks for carrying increasing amounts of information at increasing speeds continues to grow. Therefore, communication networks are evolving to handle these increased demands.
One way in which communication networks are evolving is through the use of optical communication facilities. Optical communication facilities transport information over optical communication media (such as optical fibers). Such optical communication networks provide vast amounts of bandwidth over short and long distances.
The optical communication network is capable of providing various communication services to its users. Traditionally, such communication services have been very expensive, and need to be planned and scheduled well in advance. This is due in part because changes to the optical communication network, such as provisioning and switching optical communication paths, required substantial human intervention.

Automatic provisioning of network services based on user application requirements


An improvement in a method of controlling lasing in a semiconductor laser fabricated in a photonic crystal laser having a plurality of holes into which a birefringent material with low refractive losses and low optical loses with controllable spatial refractive index orientation has been infiltrated comprises the step of rotating the molecular orientation or changing the physical orientation of the birefringent material infiltrated into the holes of the photonic crystal laser to switch cavity modes. The liquid crystal is aligned by use of an alignable photo addressable polymer layer adjacent to the liquid crystal. The cavity modes are optically switched within the laser without any requirement of external energy to maintain the lasing state of the laser, which allows its use as a memory element.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of wavelength and polarization tunable photonic crystal (PC) lasers and methods of switching the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Optics and fluidics have been historically integrated within systems that combine separate light sources, fluidic reservoirs and filters. Integration on a sub-millimeter scale has resulted in spectroscopic tools and liquid crystal (LC) displays. With the advent of photonic crystals (PCS) it has recently become possible to further integrate sources, filters and fluidic reservoirs and to define monolithic micrometer sized "opto-fluidic" devices". With their intrinsically porous nature and ability to confine and manipulate optical fields, photonic crystals are ideally suited for nanoscale opto-fluidic integration. This miniaturization enables a much more efficient interaction between the optical field and the injected fluids and is leading to the emergence of a new class of functional opto-fluidic devices in which the optical functionality is controlled through the introduction of liquids.
Previous efforts in tuning photonic crystal laser emission have included tuning the emission by lithographically controlling the cavity size, infiltrating the photonic crystal with liquids of different refractive indices, and also by electrostatically rotating infiltrated liquid crystal. All three methods tune emission by changing the effective cavity optical path length.
The major drawback of lithographic tuning is that it is static, because a given fabricated laser has a set emission wavelength. Tuning is achieved by fabricating multiple lasers with different cavity geometries.
The second method, namely infiltrating a photonic crystal laser with liquids featuring different refractive indices, can yield large tuning ranges but the tuning of the laser is a tedious process involving extraction of the infiltrated liquid and replacing it with another possessing a different refractive index.
The third method of tuning, namely via rotation of infiltrated liquid crystal, is limited by the relatively small effective cavity optical path length change achieved by rotating liquid crystal. Due to screening by the semiconducting slab and strong surface anchoring effects within the holes of the photonic crystal, the liquid crystal orientation can only be effectively controlled in the top cladding layer, thus greatly limiting the achievable tuning.
What is needed is an optically tunable laser and a method of tuning a laser which would be adaptable to functional opto-fluidic devices in which the optical functionality is controlled through the introduction of liquids.

Optically triggered Q-switched photonic crystal laser and method of switching the same


A method for crystallizing an amorphous multicomponent ionic compound comprises applying an external stimulus to a layer of an amorphous multicomponent ionic compound, the layer in contact with an amorphous surface of a deposition substrate at a first interface and optionally, the layer in contact with a crystalline surface at a second interface, wherein the external stimulus induces an amorphous-to-crystalline phase transformation, thereby crystallizing the layer to provide a crystalline multicomponent ionic compound, wherein the external stimulus and the crystallization are carried out at a temperature below the melting temperature of the amorphous multicomponent ionic compound. If the layer is in contact with the crystalline surface at the second interface, the temperature is further selected to achieve crystallization from the crystalline surface via solid phase epitaxial (SPE) growth without nucleation.

Considerable effort has been devoted to the synthesis of crystalline complex oxides using methods that provide low defect densities while simultaneously providing control over the shape, crystallographic orientation and elemental composition of nanomaterials. The creation of thin layers of oxide single-crystals largely employs epitaxial growth techniques from the vapor phase, which relies on elevated surface temperatures to favor kinetic processes including long-range surface diffusion. (D. G. Schlom, L. Q. Chen, X. Q. Pan, A. Schmehl, M. A. Zurbuchen, "A thin film approach to engineering functionality into oxides," J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 91, 2429-2454 (2008) and J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, "Self-Assembled Heteroepitaxial Oxide Nanocomposite Thin Film Structures: Designing Interface-Induced Functionality in Electronic Materials," Adv. Funct. Mater. 20, 2035-2045 (2010).) Growth via epitaxial techniques based on elemental or chemical sources is, however, constrained to planar substrates by line-of-sight geometric considerations, yielding two-dimensional thin-film heterostructures.
The three-dimensional integration of complex oxide crystals in intricate nanoscale geometries can enable new applications of complex oxides in oxygen transport, in single crystal composites for the control of thermal properties, and by yielding complex oxides in sufficient volume or numbers of nanostructures in which mechanical, optical, and electronic effects are modified by size effects.4-5 The promising properties of nanoscale complex oxide materials have been discovered and studied at the scale of individual structures,6 but at present routes to the areas on the order of square centimeters incorporating a large number of nanostructures required for applications are lacking. In addition, two-dimensional electron gases have potentially widespread applications in nanoscale geometries, but can presently be synthesized only in two-dimensional geometries in epitaxial systems based on complex oxide single-crystal substrates.7,8 Controlling the nucleation and growth of complex oxides, in sophisticated geometries, remains an open challenge.

Crystallization of amorphous multicomponent ionic compounds


In a webbing retractor, a winding shaft has both ends rotatably supported by a frame and serves to wind-up an occupant securing webbing in a layer fashion. A lock ring is supported relatively rotatably with the winding shaft. The lock ring is usually rotated according to the winding shaft, and operated to block a rotation of the winding shaft in a webbing drawing-out direction when relatively rotated with the winding shaft. An inertial mass body is integrally secured to the lock ring so as to rotate the lock ring relatively with the winding shaft by inertial force when rapidly rotating the winding shaft. A restricting member is provided for the inertial mass body so as to engage the winding shaft, and serves to restrict relative rotation between the winding shaft and the lock ring within a predetermined range.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a webbing retractor which instantaneously stops the rotation of a winding shaft in the webbing drawing-out direction when a vehicle rapidly decelerates. In particular, the invention relates to a webbing winding apparatus including a webbing sensitive inertia reel in which the winding shaft is stopped from rotating by sensing a rapid rotation of the winding shaft in the webbing drawing-out direction.


The present invention relates to a protection element (1) in papercraft material for protecting one or more objects (B), in particular for protecting one or more bottles (B), comprising two support elements (2, 3) connected by a connection element (4), wherein each support element (2, 3) has an upper wall (5; 6) and two support walls (7, 8; 9, 11) associated with the respective upper wall (5; 6) to support it. A first support wall (8; 9) of each support element (2, 3) is arranged at said connection element (4) and has a shaped opening (16; 17) for each object (B) to be protected. Furthermore, said connection element (4) has two shaped flaps (18; 19) for each object (B) to be protected, each shaped flap (18; 19) being arranged at the respective support element (2; 3) and projecting on the respective upper wall (5, 6) of the respective support element (2; 3) and on a respective shaped opening (16; 17) of the respective first support wall (8; 9), each shaped flap (18; 19) being arranged so that when the respective object (B) to be protected is arranged on said protection element (1) resting on the respective shaped flaps (18; 19), the weight of said object (B) acts on the respective shaped flaps (18; 19) to insert in the respective shaped openings (16; 17) of said support walls (8; 9) and lock the object (B) in position. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a blank (10) for obtaining the protection element (1) according to the invention.

The present invention relates to a protection element for bottles and the relative blank.
More precisely, the present invention relates to an element capable of housing at least one bottle and of being inserted in a box for the transport and protection of the bottle housed therein.
The scope of the present invention specifically relates to the protection and transport of glass bottles, however, the protection element according to the invention can also be used to protect and transport other fragile or other type objects.
At the state of the art, protection elements are known for bottles, obtained from sheets of papercraft material which wrap the upper and lower portions of the bottles to protect them once they have been inserted inside a container or box for the transport thereof. An example of such a solution is described in international patent application no. WO 2015/049702 A1.
However, such types of protection elements involve the use of several differently shaped blanks to obtain the tubular protection elements capable of protecting the different portions of the bottle.
Furthermore, such protection elements can ruin the label, as the locking system generally consists of circular holes in which the bottle is housed. Such holes can mark the label, or the flaps of such holes can get caught on the edges of the label, ruining it.
Further, such types of protection elements oblige opening the container in which they are arranged, only on one side. For example, if placed vertically, the bottles must be extracted only from the neck, or if placed horizontally, they do not allow opening both on one side and on the other of the box.
From prior art documents DE 89 10 314 U1 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,426,899 A, further protection elements for bottles are known, obtained from blanks in papercraft material. However, such known solutions are not capable of adequately cushioning from shocks.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the protection elements of the prior art in order to be modular and to be able to use the same type of modules to wrap the bottles.
Furthermore, an object of the present invention is to ensure greater protection of the objects contained and to be protected.
A still further object of the present invention is to speed up the assembly of the protection element by the user.
Lastly, an object of the present invention is to be capable of transporting the bottles in an appropriate manner, to preserve the contents thereof and to adequately cushion them from any impacts.

Protective element for bottles and related blank


There is provided a process for producing polydienes, such as polybutadiene and polyisoprene, in a gas phase fluidized bed reactor using a pre-activated nickel catalyst which is highly active for cost effective production of these dienes in gas phase.

Nickel and rare earth metal containing catalysts have been widely used commercially to make polybutadiene (BR) in solution and slurry polymerizations. Commercial facilities employ solution and slurry processes which are energy intensive. These processes produce polymer in a bale-like form which must be subsequently pulverized or ground.
More recently, it has been discovered that polydienes such as polybutadiene and polyisoprene can be produced in gas phase, e.g., fluidized bed, reactors. Such processes are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,994,534 and 5,453,471; and in WO 96/04322 and 96/04323. These processes operate at lower cost as compared to solution and slurry processes and produce a polymer which is granular and flowable upon leaving the gas phase reactor. The polymer does not require subsequent pulverization steps. The gas phase production is also more environmentally acceptable due to the absence of a solvent removal step.
Compared to rare earth metal catalysts, such as neodymium metal containing catalysts, nickel catalysts are inexpensive and readily available. However, nickel catalysts which are sometimes employed to produce polybutadiene and polyisoprene in solution and slurry processes have not been sufficiently active for the production of these polymers in gas phase, fluidized reactions. They can have long induction periods and short life spans for producing polymer, and can produce a product such as polybutadiene having less desirable levels of 1,4-cis butadiene units (i.e., less than 90%).
Accordingly, there is a need to increase the productivity of these nickel catalysts such that they can be used cost-effectively in gas phase reactions.

Gas phase production of polydienes with pre-activated nickel catalysts

Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology Corporation


A method of concentrating and/or producing lithium hydroxide in an evaporator entails feeding a stream comprising lithium, hydroxide and carbonate to the evaporator. In the evaporator, the feed is concentrated to form lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate crystals. Further, the method entails reducing the tendency of lithium carbonate to scale the evaporator by increasing the concentration of lithium carbonate crystals in the evaporator by: (1) clarifying at least a portion of the concentrate in the evaporator to form a clarified solution; and (2) discharging the clarified solution as a clarified solution stream from the evaporator.

Lithium hydroxide monohydrate is an important component in storage batteries, among other applications. Battery grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate, however, is complicated and costly to produce. For example, these systems utilize evaporation systems to concentrate lithium hydroxide. In many cases, the lithium hydroxide brines used in these processes further include carbonate. Because the solubility of lithium carbonate decreases as temperature increases, the evaporation systems experience significant fouling and scaling on the heat transfer surfaces. The scaling and fouling is substantial and forces evaporator systems to frequently cease their operations for cleaning.
If fouling could be reduced, the evaporation systems could be run for significantly longer periods of time. This would, in turn, reduce operating costs and allow for greater lithium hydroxide recovery. There is, therefore, a need for methods of controlling scaling and fouling while allowing sufficient recovery of lithium hydroxide.

Process for reducing fouling in evaporators in lithium hydroxide recovery


Embodiments of systems and methods are described for allowing a user to purchase a ticket. In some implementations, a system comprises a data store and a processor. The data store stores one or more program instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform several functions. For example, the processor constructs first data configured to cause an application executing on a computing device to generate a three-dimensional graphical representation of a venue in a first view, receives a selection of a section of seats in the venue from the application, and constructs second data configured to cause the application to generate a graphical representation of the selected section in the first view. The graphical representation of the selected section comprises a graphical representation of rows of seats in the selected section and an image representative of a view from a selected row.

Currently, a consumer may electronically purchase tickets to attend an event at a venue through the Internet. A web-based system may allow the consumer to choose an event from a variety of events and to choose a date that the consumer would like to attend. In addition, the consumer may be able to view a high-level floor plan of the venue where the venue is divided into sections. The web-based system may indicate the sections in which seats are available and the consumer may be able to purchase tickets for any of the available seats. These web-based systems may be useful for those consumers who previously have attended a venue. However, consumers who have never attended the venue or consumers who have never sat in the particular section are not sure exactly what their seats offer.

Method and system for generating 3D seating maps


A positioning system, device, and method are provided to facilitate the in-flight positioning of two aircraft relative to one another such that a second aircraft is guided to an in-flight refueling position relative to a first aircraft. The system, device, and method of the present invention provide a signal emitted from a positioning device carried by the first aircraft, wherein the signal defines a signal envelope containing the in-flight refueling position. The signal is adapted to be receivable by the second aircraft such that the signal may guide the second aircraft to the in-flight refueling position relative to the first aircraft.

In-flight refueling (or air-to-air refueling) is an important method for extending the range of aircraft traveling long distances over areas having no feasible landing or refueling points. Although in-flight refueling is a relatively common operation, especially for military aircraft, precise positioning of a second aircraft (the receiver aircraft, for example) with respect to a first aircraft (the tanker aircraft, for example) is required in order to provide a safe engagement of the first aircraft with the second aircraft for the dispensing of fuel. The requirement of precise relative spatial positioning of two rapidly moving aircraft, makes in-flight refueling a challenging operation.
There are currently two primary systems for in-flight refueling. One system is the boom refueling system. The boom refueling system typically comprises a rigid boom extended from a refueling aircraft. At one end of the boom is a refueling nozzle and adjacent the refueling nozzle are airfoils, which are controlled by a boom operator on the refueling aircraft. The airfoils provide maneuverability of the boom with respect to an aircraft that is to be refueled. For the aircraft that is to be refueled, the second aircraft, the operator of the second aircraft must maneuver the second aircraft to within an in-flight refueling position, below and aft of the first aircraft. Upon maneuvering into the in-flight refueling position, the boom operator controls the airfoils to position and mate the boom into a refueling connection on the second aircraft.
Another type of refueling system is the probe and drogue system. In the probe and drogue system, a refueling hose having a drogue disposed on one end is trailed behind first aircraft (the tanker aircraft). The second aircraft has a probe that is flown by its operator into the drogue. As the drogue typically moves away from the second aircraft as it approaches, great skill and maneuvering ability is required by the operator of the second aircraft to mate the probe with the drogue. It is preferable, in the probe and drogue system, for the second aircraft to approach and enter the in-flight refueling position relative to the first aircraft as in the boom system, except in this case, the operator of the second aircraft is also responsible for "flying" the second aircraft's probe directly into the trailing drogue, because the drogue lacks the control surfaces that are provided on the refueling boom.
Thus, for both types of in-flight refueling systems, the operator of the second aircraft must maneuver the second aircraft to the in-flight refueling position (IFRP) and maintain the second aircraft's position in the IFRP relative to the first aircraft for the duration of the fueling operation. The approach and positioning of the second aircraft must be precise in order to avoid potentially dangerous areas of air turbulence that may be created in the wake of the first aircraft by, for instance, the first aircraft's engines and control surfaces. To avoid areas of potential turbulence, the second aircraft, in many cases, approaches the first aircraft from the aft and from below so that it intercepts the IFRP as described more fully herein. Thus, a positioning system for guiding a second aircraft to the IFRP relative to a first aircraft is needed.
Optical systems have been disclosed for positioning refueling drogues with respect to refueling probes attached to receiver aircraft. As refueling drogues, however, have proven relatively unmaneuverable, these systems have not been operationally viable. One such optical system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,052 to Krispin et al. Other optical systems for positioning objects with respect to reflectors and retro-reflectors have not been easily adapted for use in all types of in-flight refueling systems. In addition, optical landing aids, such as visual approach slope indicator (VAST) systems, are useful for providing optical glide slope information for aircraft approaching a fixed runway, however such systems have not yet been successfully adapted to position two moving objects relative to each other. Also, radio-signal positioning systems, such as the instrument landing system (ILS), provide radio signals to laterally position aircraft approaching a fixed runway along a suitable approach glide slope, but such systems are also not tailored for use in situations where the positioning device is located on a moving aircraft, nor where an upward glide slope is required to guide a second aircraft up and forward into the IFRP relative to a first aircraft (such as a tanker aircraft).
Therefore, there exists a need for an in-flight refueling positioning system that provides a positioning device to guide a second aircraft into the in-flight refueling position with respect to a first aircraft. This need extends to in-flight refueling operations using both a boom in-flight refueling system and a probe and drogue in-flight refueling system. There also exists a need for a positioning system that is compatible with receiver devices sometimes installed in the second aircraft and using a signal that may be recognizable by an operator of the second aircraft. There also exists a need for an in-flight refueling positioning system that is functional in an in-flight refueling operation taking place at night or in inclement weather.

Positioning system, device, and method for in-flight refueling


A vibration damping device for use in a automotive suspension system, adapted to be disposed at a linking portion between a body of the vehicle and a suspension member that connects and supports a wheel on the body is disclosed. The vibration damping device comprises a load sensing unit adapted to sense a signal corresponding to a load exerted between the body and the suspension member. A suspension system equipped with the same is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a vibration damping device for use in an automotive suspension system, and a suspension system using the device. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with such a vibration damping device equipped with a sensing member providing signals usable as sensor signals for control in a control system for vehicle driving conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the goal of improving drive stability of automotive vehicles, mechanically assisted driver control has been studied as a way to reduce uncontrolled vehicle behavior, such as skidding. Specifically, antilock braking systems (ABS) has already come into use as means for preventing locking of the wheels during braking. Additionally, there are proposed vehicle control systems such as traction control, which reduces wheel spin during acceleration, or vehicle stability control, which affords overall control of stabilization of vehicle behavior.
These vehicle control systems as discussed above are typically carried out utilizing sensor signals of various kinds which reflect driving conditions of the vehicle. As one design for sensing such signals, there have proposed to date several mechanisms for sensing external forces acting on the wheels (road surface friction, vertical force, etc) or road surface frictional coefficient. These include, for example, the mechanisms taught in Citations 1, 2, and 3.
[Citation 1]JP-B-2628444[Citation 2]JP-A-2001-191767[Citation 3]JP-A-2002-316502
Citation 1 teaches a mechanism constructed with a strain gauge embedded in a hole made in the axle. This mechanism, however, makes a practical implementation difficult owing to axle strength and construction as well as a low manufacturability. In actual practice, it would be necessary to make a number of holes the axle in order to be able to sense in a number of different directions, making practical implementation even more difficult.
Citation 2 teaches another mechanism constructed with sensed elements disposed in the tires, whereby tire deformation, rotation, or the like can be sensed from the outside. This mechanism, however, may possibly suffer from deterioration in tire performance owing to the added sensed elements that are disposed in the tire, as well as damage of the sensed elements by flying pebbles or mud thrown up from the road surface. While it is easy for this mechanism to sense wheel rotation speed, it is exceptionally difficult to calculate external force acting on a wheel using such sensor values.
Citation 3 teaches yet another mechanism constructed with a rim wheel elastically coupled to a disk part, whereby displacement of the rim wheel relative to the disk part is sensed by means of a position sensor or the like. In this mechanism, however, the need to elastically couple the rim wheel to the disk part would deteriorate a rigidity of the wheel per se, with adverse effects on driving stability. Additionally, since the sensor is disposed at a location very close to the tire, it is susceptible to be struck by a flying pebble or the like.

Vibration damping device for use in automotive suspension system and suspension system using the same


A new holographic substrate utilizing flexible, optically transparent fluorinated polyimides. Said substrates have extremely low birefringence which results in a high signal to noise ratio in subsequent holograms. Specific examples of said fluorinated polyimides include 6FDA+APB and 6FDA+4BDAF.

Typical materials which are used as substrates for holographic emulsions include glass and polyester film material. Glass, an amorphous material, has optical properties which make it an excellent substrate for holography. Glass, however, is costly, fragile, and cannot be used in processes which require a flexible substrate, such as embossed holography.
MYLAR.TM., Kapton.RTM. and other organic film materials are used as flexible substrates for holographic emulsions but they have a birefringent property that changes the polarization of laser light used in making holograms. Such birefringence causes unwanted "noise" in the final hologram.

Substrate material for holographic emulsions utilizing fluorinated polyimide film

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


A semiconductor memory apparatus includes an input buffering block configured to buffer an input signal transmitted from an input pin, a latch block configured to latch the input signal buffered by the input buffering block, a defect discriminating block configured to discriminate whether or not the input signal latched by the latch block is defective signal in response to a test mode signal, and a data output buffer configured to buffer an output signal of the defect discriminating block to transmit it to a data output pin, wherein the input signal is one of an input command signal and an input address signal.

1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein relate to a semiconductor memory apparatus, more particularly, to a circuit for testing command or address input in a semiconductor memory apparatus.
2. Related Art
Generally, a semiconductor memory apparatus utilizes boundary scan tests as a data input test for determining a pin and an input buffer that receive data. A plurality of input data is input in one bit unit through the input pin, and then buffered and latched to be transmitted to the inside of the semiconductor memory apparatus. Accordingly, the boundary scan test is utilized to determine whether or not the data has been precisely transmitted up to a latching step.
The semiconductor memory apparatus also utilizes a compress test mode to test the input data and shorten the time required for the test by simultaneously testing a plurality of data bits through a compress test. This method of testing the input data is commonly utilized to determine whether or not an input pin of a data input circuit or a latch circuit is defective since a result of the test can be verified through a data input/output buffer.
However, technical problems exist when the method of testing the input data is applied to an input test of an input signal, such as a command signal or an address signal. Since a pin for verifying a result of the input test is required for the input test of the input signal, a test pin is added in a wafer state, thereby decreasing the yield of a wafer. Even though the test pin was necessary in order to perform a test for the input pin of the input signal or the latch circuit in the wafer state, it is difficulty to easily test the input signal due to the decreased yield. For example, the input circuit of the input signal does not easily provide improved reliability, thereby lowering the productivity of the semiconductor memory apparatus.


The present invention relates to a data storage device and a support therein. The support is provided with a hollow portion. The hollow portion is provided with a damping spacer therein for attenuating vibration, thereby to reduce the lateral space occupied by the lateral sides of the support, and to increase the usable lateral space for accommodating electronic device and thus to increase the number of the accommodated electronic devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data storage device and a support thereof, and in particular, to a data storage device provided with a support for supporting an electronic device module and the support thereof.
2. Description of Prior Art
The interior of the housing of the conventional data storage device is provided with a plurality of supports for supporting an electronic device such as a disk drive that is mounted therein. In order to increase structural rigidity and conductivity, the support and the cartridge of the electronic device are mostly made of metal materials, and thus it is necessary to provide a vibration-attenuating means between the cartridge of the electronic device and the support. The vibration-attenuating means is usually made of a sheet-like resilient material. The resilient patch disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,445,587 is stuck onto the support and the lateral side adjacent to the cartridge of the electronic device, so that the elasticity of the resilient patch can absorb the vibration between the support and the cartridge of the electronic device. In this way, the vibration and the noise can be reduced.
However, the conventional resilient patch needs to have a significantly large thickness. When the resilient patch is stuck onto the lateral side of the support, it is necessary for the resilient patch to occupy the space between the supports so as to reduce the remaining space. That is to say, the usable space in the housing for mounting the electronic device is reduced, so that the number of the accommodated electronic devices is relatively reduced. Especially, with regard to the data storage device having limited accommodating space, it is undoubtedly a big problem. In general, the housings of the data storage devices are usually set in a server rack, and the width of the standard server rack in a transverse direction is 450 mm, so that the housings of the data storage devices having a maximum transverse width of 450 mm can be positioned in the server rack, and the transverse width of the housings of the data storage devices is mostly made to be 445 mm or less; otherwise, it is not easy for the housings of the data storage devices to be positioned into the server rack. Therefore, the housing of the conventional data storage device is designed to accommodate at most five 2.5″ hard disk drives that are positioned horizontally in the transverse direction.

Data storage device and a support thereof