In a power supply circuit, upon turning on of a switching element, a sinusoidal resonance current flows through a series resonance circuit and a smoothing capacitor of a dc output circuit is thereby charged. This resonance current is reversed after a half cycle and a rectifying diode is thereby reversely biased whereby the resonance path is cut off and the resonance current is automatically ceased. While the switching element is on, exciting of an inductance and charging of a capacitor are made in a parallel resonance circuit, though resonance is not made therein. By turning off the switching element in a current zero state thereafter, a parallel resonance by the parallel resonance circuit is started. The switching element is turned on at a timing when voltage of the parallel resonance circuit has returned to a power source voltage. A power supply circuit performing all switching operations at a voltage zero state or a current zero state is realized with a single power source and a circuit design thereby can be simplified.

This invention relates to a power supply circuit of a switching inverter type and, more particularly, to a power supply circuit of this type capable of reducing switching loss to the maximum and improving conversion efficiency by utilizing both voltage resonance and current resonance.
As a power supply circuit intended to reduce switching loss to the maximum and improving conversion efficiency by utilizing both voltage resonance and current resonance, there is the applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/896,214.
Description will be made about this power supply circuit below. This power supply circuit aims at reducing switching loss to the maximum and improving conversion efficiency by utilizing both voltage resonance and current resonance as well as reducing noise by enabling operation waveforms of voltage and current appearing at respective component parts of the circuit to simulate a sine wave to a maximum degree.
This power supply circuit includes, as shown in FIG. 2, a dc power source 1, switching means 2 including switching elements which are turned on and off at desired timing, switching a dc input from the dc power source 1 to convert it to ac and providing it as an ac output from an output terminal thereof, series resonance means 4 provided in series to current flowing, from the output terminal of the switching means 2, parallel resonance means 5 provided in parallel to voltage produced at the output terminal of the switching means 2, dc output means which full-wave rectifies and smoothes an ac input supplied through the series resonance means 4 and the parallel resonance means 5 to provide a dc output, and switching control means 6 which controls the switching elements of the switching means 2 so that the switching elements turn on respectively intermittently.
FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing the basic construction of the power supply circuit of the invention shown in FIG. 2 somewhat more specifically. The operation of the basic construction of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 4.
When switching elements S1 and S2 are being turned on and off repeatedly at a timing shown in (f) and (g) of FIG. 4, power source voltages +VI, -VI are converted into ac having substantially a peak valve of VI at a point A of the circuit of FIG. 3. This ac is rectified by diodes D1 and D2 through an inductance L2 and a capacitor C2. The rectified signal is smoothed by capacitors C3 and C4 to become dc and the dc current flows through a load RL. As the diodes D1 and D2 and the capacitors C3 and C4, the elements of substantially the same characteristics are used.
When the switching element S1 is in the on state, the diode D1 is in a forward direction so that charge current iD1 flows to the capacitor C3. Since a relation that the capacitor C3 is much larger than the capacitor C2 (C3>>C2) and impedances of the switching element S1 and the diode D1 are sufficiently small is established, this current iD1 becomes series resonance current of a sine waveform due to the inductance L2 and the capacitor C2 (see (b) of FIG. 4). Since reverse voltage is applied to the diode D1 and the diode D1 is turned off when the direction of reverse current is reversed upon lapse of half cycle, series resonance is stopped. In other words, when the resonance current has finished its half cycle and has become zero, the resonance is automatically stopped.
At this time, charge corresponding to the resonance current which has flown to this time point has been accumulated in the capacitor C2 and voltage VC2 across the capacitor C2 remains (see (e) of FIG. 4). Since this charge QC2=C2.multidot.VC2 is discharged to the load during a next cycle during which the switching element S2 is on state and, therefore, there is no energy loss. Since energy stored in inductance is proportional to current flowing through the inductances, energy stored in the inductance L2 is zero when the resonance has stopped at the current zero state. This signifies that generation of harmfull noise in this circuit portion is very small and also signifies an important condition under which a voltage resonance mode is established.
In order to reduce the magnetic energy of the inductance L2 completely to zero, it is necessary to keep the switching element S1 in the on state until the resonance current has become zero. It will be no use to keep the switching element S1 in the on state after the resonance current has become zero but it will be inefficient to simply prolong a time period during which energy is not transmitted. The switching element S1 therefore may be turned off with some allowance of time (TQ1-Ti). Since the resonance time (a cycle of resonance current) by the inductance L2 and the capacitor C2 is constant, a time period during which the switching element S1 is on state may also be a constant value.
When the switching element S1 is turned off, the current resonance has already finished and the current becomes zero and, therefore, current flowing through the switching element S1 at this time is only current flowing to the inductance L1. The value of the inductance L1 can be set independently from the values of the inductance L2 and the capacitor C2 and, by establishing a relation that inductance L1 is much larger than inductance L2 (L1>>L2), current flowing through the inductance L1 can be of a value sufficiently smaller than the resonance current of the inductance L2 and the capacitor C2 and, therefore, the switching element S1 is turned off in a nearly zero current state and, as a result, loss in turning off of the switching element S1 is extremely small. When the switching element S1 is turned off (since the switching element S2 has not been turned on, both switching elements S1 and S2 are off), the diodes D1 and D2 are also off and, therefore, the elements which are in electric operation at this time are only the inductance L1 and the capacitor C1.
Magnetic energy (current) stored in the inductance L1 during the on state of the switching element S1 constitutes energy which operates parallel resonance with the capacitor C1 which causes voltage at the point A to drop in a sine wave form and approach the potential -VI exceeding the zero point. The operation performed during this time period is the voltage resonance mode. The voltage resonance waveform in principle assumes a form as shown in (a) of FIG. 4 which is a vertically symmetrical form with respect to a point crossing the reference potential (i.e., the potential designated by "0" in (a) of FIG. 4). Depending, however, upon an actual circuit design, deformation in the waveform will take place (e.g., a case where a timing control circuit to be described later consumes a part of energy of voltage resonance through its windings).
When the potential at the point A has dropped to nearly -VI (i.e., below the potential at one end of capacitor C4), the diode D2 is turned on and thereby causes energy charged in the capacitor C4 to discharge to inductance L1 through the diode D2, the capacitor C2 and the inductance L2. Since the current flowing through the inductance L1 is set a small value, a large change in the current value does not take place but the potential at the point A remains at a value near -VI. If the switching elements S1 and S2 are kept in the off state, the magnetic energy (current) of the inductance L1 will be reduced to zero in a time length which is about half of the time period during which the switching element S1 is on and voltage across the inductance L1 (or capacitor C1) drops from the potential near -VI to zero. Alternatively stated, since the point A can be held at the potential near -VI by the magnetic energy of the inductance L1 during about half of the time period during which the switching element S1 is on, if the switching element S2 is turned on within this time period, it can perform a switching-on operation in a state where voltage across the switching element S2 is extremely small. Loss during the switching-on of the switching element S2 therefore is extremely small.
The voltage across the switching element S2 when it is turned on (i.e., difference between the above described potential near -VI and -VI) is exactly not zero but there exists voltage due to Vc2 (which is voltage across the capacitor C2) left after the current resonance during the on state of the switching element S1. The voltage Vc2 becomes a different value depending upon the value of the capacitor C2. Since the value of C2 can be set with a relatively large degree of freedom in relation to the inductance L2 and loss is generally smaller when the value of C2 is large and the value of L2 is small within a range in which series resonance can take place, the value of voltage VC2 consequently becomes small which can be almost neglected as compared with the voltage VI.
Upon turning on of the switching element S2, current resonance on the negative side takes place with a result that charge current flows to the capacitor C4. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 3, the above operation is repeated with the switching elements S1 and S2 taking their place in turn.
Time between turning off of the switching element S1 and turning on of the switching element S2 may be set at a slightly longer time length than a time period during which the point A reaches the potential near -VI due to the voltage resonance by the inductance L1 and capacitor C1 after turning off of the switching element S1. It will be inefficient as well to take a longer time. This time period need not be set so strictly but a certain fixed value may be used.
Some more consideration will be given for the time period during which the switching elements S1 or S2 is on and the time period from turning off of the switching element S1 or S2 till turning on of the switching element S2 or S1. It may be basically said that the on period of each switching element should be set to a longer period than half cycle of resonance of the series resonance means and the off period of both switching elements should be set to a shorter period than half of the resonance period of the parallel resonance means. In this case, consideration should however be given to the amount of energy which is previously given to the voltage resonance circuit of the inductance L1 and the capacitor C1 before starting the voltage resonance mode. Consideration should also be given to the manner of determining values of the inductance L1 and the capacitor C1 even when the parallel resonance frequency is set at a certain value. The on period of each switching element determines the amount of the given energy and the off-period of both switching elements should be limited to determine by the given energy (i.e., the value corresponding to the on period). According to analysis made by the inventor, it has been found that, in actuality, once the on period and the off period have been determined, the switching frequency is determined at this time and the parallel resonance (voltage resonance) frequency satisfying the operation of this invention and a usable portion of the parallel resonance waveform are solely determined. When, for example, the on period is set to infinite small (substantial zero), the voltage resonance waveform in this case seems to change substantially in the shape of a sine waveform with substantially the same frequency as the switching frequency. It should be noted, however, that, in some cases, a desired output terminal voltage change of 2 VI is not realized notwithstanding that the voltage resonance has reached its peak value.
Further, as will be apparent from the above description, it is desirable that there should be the relations L1>>L2 and C2>>C1 as condition for setting the values of the respective resonance circuits. The rectification should be made by the full-wave rectification system. As the smoothing system, a capacitor input system should be used for the current resonance. The capacity of the smoothing capacitors C3 and C4 should be much larger than the capacitor used in the series resonance means 4 so as to prevent decrease in Q of the current resonance.
In realizing the above described basic construction as a specific circuit, as will be apparent from the above described principle, the relations L1>>L2 and C2>>C1 are desirable as actual condition for setting values of the respective resonance circuits. For satisfying these relations, primary self inductance of the transformer is effectively used as L1, an independent inductance or leakage inductance between the primary and the secondary of the transformer is used as L2. Since the rectifying circuit is positioned on the secondary side of the transformer, either a center tap type rectifying circuit or a bridge type one may be used. In any case, it must be a full-wave rectifying circuit because the current resonance must be performed with both positive and negative currents. As the smoothing circuit, a capacitor input type circuit is used for the current resonance and the relation C3>>C2 is maintained so as to prevent drop of Q (quality) factor in the current resonance.
The transformer viewed from the primary side is shown in FIG. 5. Since the transformer has self inductance and leakage inductance, these inductances may be utilized as L1 and L2 of FIG. 2 by properly setting the values of these inductances in the circuit design. In a general transformer, the relation L1>L2 is satisfied.
The basic circuit of FIG. 3 can be modified in the form shown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, the current resonance is performed by the inductance L2 and the capacitor C2 which is divided in two capacitors whereas the voltage resonance is performed by the inductance L1 and the capacitor C1 which is divided in two capacitors and the inductance L1. The circuit of FIG. 5 may seem to be different from the circuit of FIG. 2 in that the loop of the voltage resonance includes both the inductance L2 and the capacitor C2 but since there are the relations L2<<L1 and C2>>C1, the presence of L2 and C2 does not substantially affect the voltage resonance and, accordingly, the voltage resonance is virtually performed by the capacitor C1 and the inductance L1 in the same manner as in the circuit of FIG. 3.
FIG. 7 shows a more specific circuit using a transformer T1 having self inductance L1 and leakage inductance L2. In this circuit, a center tap type output circuit is used as the output circuit. The center tap winding is adopted because the number of diodes in the rectifying path in each rectifying cycle thereby can be reduced and, as a result, loss due to these diodes can be held to the minimum and efficiency of the circuit as a whole can be improved. Further, two transistors are utilized as the switching elements S1 and S2. Each transitor is switched by a driving circuit having a fixed switching timing as shown in (f) and (g) of FIG. 4. Accordingly, a power supply circuit with low noise and high efficiency can be realized by a simple construction.
Benefits derived from the above described power supply circuit are summarized as follows:
First, as an advantageous result of the current resonance, noise due to current is reduced. The current noise is particularly produced when a large amount and an abrupt change in current takes place in a portion where a large current flows. The current resonance automatically stops when the current which changes in the shape of a sine wave has been reduced to zero and, therefore, very little noise is generated. As to the improvement of efficiency, the switching elements S1 and S2 are turned off at the current zero state and voltage through the diodes D1 and D2 is also reversed after the current has been reduced to zero, so that the adverse effect to the efficiency during the recovery time is reduced.
Advantageous results of the voltage resonance also are reduction of noise and improvement of efficiency of the circuit as a whole. Since parts such as semiconductors used in the power supply circuit are mounted on a chassis through an insulating material for heat radiation, electrostatic capacity may be formed by electrode-s of the parts and the chassis. The part electrode is provided with an ac signal and, accordingly, current flows to this capacity which becomes a main cause of a common mode noise. The semiconductors have also a junction capacity by itself and the inductances and transformer also have line capacity. These capacities do not appear in the circuit diagram but actually exist in the respective parts and the circuit board and, therefore, current flows to all these capacities when the circuit is in operation. Since this current is one flowing to the capacity, it becomes larger when change in the voltage (dV/dT, i.e., ratio of change in voltage V to time T) is larger. When switching is made with a square wave, this current becomes a pulse-like current generates a current noise and current flowing to the chassis causes a pulse-like common mode noise. Since this pulse-like current is supplied by the switching transistors, loss in the switching transistors is produced with resulting decrease in the efficiency. Besides, since voltage having a large dV/dT contains a high frequency component, a radio wave radiated directly from the circuit (unnecessary radiation) also becomes large.
By using the voltage resonance producing a waveform approximating a sine wave and thereby reducing dV/dT, these problems can be overcome. According to the invention, the voltage resonance is performed by the inductance L1 and the capacitor C1 only when both the switching elements S1 and S2 are on and, therefore, loss in the switching elements S1 and S2 is not produced. The current flowing through the inductance L1 and the capacitor C1 is mere transfer of mutual energy so that only reactive power is consumed and loss due to the voltage resonance is very small (theoretically zero).
For reducing a voltage type noise, it is important that dV/dT of voltage waveforms at all terminals of the circuit is neglibly small. If there is a square wave at one terminal only, it will become a noise source. Power supply circuits of a conventional voltage resonance type mostly contain square waves (e.g., in circuit portions other than a transformer output), though they have a sine wave at one spot in the circuit (e.g., in the transformer output). It is a final object of this invention to realize a practical low-noise power supply circuit and it is a feature of the invention that all voltage waveforms are similar to the voltage resonance waveform by the inductance L1 and the capacitor C1. This is achieved by performing the voltage resonance at a different time from the current resonance. That is, after reducing currents of the switching elements S1 and S2 and the diode D2 to zero and reducing also the magnetic energy of the inductance L2 to zero by the current resonance, the voltage resonance is started and, by bringing the switching elements S1 and S2 and the diodes D1 and D2 in an off state and thereby reducing current in the inductance L2 and the capacitor C2 in the voltage resonance mode to zero, the waveform at the point A and the waveform at the point A' become similar to each other. The terminal voltage waveforms of the inductance L1 and the capacitor C1 thereby become similar to the terminal waveforms of the switching elements S1 and S2, inductance L2, capacitor C2, and diodes D1 and D2 and a square wave disappears from the circuit.
The above described power supply circuit actually uses two powers and therefore requires at least two switching elements with the result that this circuit requires a complex circuit design. It is therefore difficult to apply this circuit to a switching power source of a single power source used for relatively low power applications.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a power supply circuit capable of realizing turning on at a voltage zero state and turning off at a current zero state in the same manner as in the above described power supply circuit in a switching power source of a single power source thereby achieving improvement in efficiency and reduction of noise in such power supply circuit.

Power supply circuit utilizing voltage and current resonance for reducing switching loss


A plurality of sensors are utilized to record operating conditions of the machine, element, environment, and lubricant. The apparatus is controlled either manually or with the aid of a controller unit such as a microprocessor. A stand-alone humidity sensor mechanism is disclosed, in which signal process circuitry is electrically coupled to a humidity sensor, designed to be attached to the mechanism to be monitored so that it is juxtaposed in the atmosphere above the lubricant material that is being monitored.

Lubrication is an important aspect of maintaining machinery in proper operating condition. Machine elements such as bearings, journals, shafts, and joints require proper lubrication between their moving surfaces to decrease friction, prevent contamination, reduce wear and dissipate heat. Improper lubrication is likely to lead to premature component wear and component or system failure.
When determining the optimal lubrication between moving machine elements, many factors should be considered. These factors include the mode of operation of the machine, the type of machine element to be lubricated, the environment of the machine, the operating speed of the machine, the lubricant's viscosity, the lubricant's temperature, the lubricant's ingredients, and the lubricant's condition.
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying an optimum amount of lubricant to a machine element in order to achieve peak lubrication. Prior art lubricators, such as the TRICO OptoMatic oiler, supply a constant level of lubricant within a lubricant reservoir to a machine element. The lubricant level is predetermined for the particular application and cannot be changed during the operating time of the machine to which the constant level lubricator is attached. Although this type of lubricator provides reasonable performance in many steady-state operations, multiple variables can create unacceptable operating conditions and lead to premature wear, or even failure, of machine elements. The variables include "on" and "off" operating modes (machine cycling), oil viscosity, machine speed, lubricant temperature, lubricant condition, and lubricant vessel pressure.
The present volumetric lubricant dispenser controls all of the above variables to provide optimum operating conditions. An automatically controlled system is adjusted by means of a microprocessor that receives input from various system sensors and adjusts the lubricant level accordingly. In the automatic mode, the entire system is constantly monitored. The machine operator, based upon external measurements such as temperature, pressure, electrical current draw, etc, adjusts the manually controlled system.
Additionally, it is important to note that a distinction should be made between qualitative and quantitative control of lubricant condition. Quantitative control of lubricant condition is concerned with delivering or removing precise quantities of lubrication; i.e. volumetric control. Qualitative control is concerned with maintaining and monitoring the preferred characteristics of the lubricant.
The present invention is directed at two systems: A system for quantitative control and a system for qualitative control. Each system may be used independently of the other or in combination with the other.

Apparatus and method for lubricant condition control and monitoring


A method for managing a wireless system area, a terminal and a base station are provided. A new location management area for the terminal in an inactive connection state/RRC idle state is defined. The process of moving among different nodes in the area is simplified.

A plurality of terminal states, such as a radio resource control idle state (RRC_IDLE), a radio resource control connection state (RRC_CONNECTED), a light connection, and the like, are defined in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system. With the development of wireless communication systems, terminal types and service types are diversified. The terminal is required to save power, save network resources and meet the needs of various service types. In order to achieve the power saving and the fast data transmission of the terminal at the same time, a terminal state, Inactive state is introduced, which is also called an inactive connection state. In this state, the terminal (UE) maintains the core network connection, but does not perform the normal operation of the radio interface connection state (such as handover, uplink timing update, radio link monitoring, etc.), and does not allocate directly the terminal identifier used for the radio interface transmission (such as C-RNTI), therefore it is not able to directly perform radio interface scheduling transmission. The inactive connection state has the following characteristics:                the terminal is in a connected state from the perspective of the core network;        the mobility is performed by the terminal, and is performed by cell reselection in the radio access network (RAN) tracking area preconfigured on the network side, instead of the handover process;        the terminal is allocated with a unique user identity within the RAN tracking area preconfigured by the network side;
In the inactive connection state, the network side allocates a RAN identifier valid in a certain area for the terminal. The identifier is used to identify the terminal in the inactive connection state. The identifier can be used as identification for the terminal to turn to the connection state when network side seeks the terminal or the terminal initiates the uplink access. The identifier may be referred to as an Inactive UE ID, and may also be referred to as a resume UE ID. The identifier is different from the globally unique IMSI or the connected terminal identifier C-RNTI, and the length of identifier is between the two (for example, the length of the Inactive UE ID is 40 bits, and the length of the C-RNTI is 16 bits), and the identifier is only valid in a certain area including the multiple cells or base stations (eNBs). If the area is exceeded, the terminal needs to update the Inactive UE ID.
In the related art, a single node or a small number of nodes of an ideal backhaul connection constitutes one cell (Cell). For a terminal in the connected state, the terminal handovers among cells needs to perform a handover process and update security parameters. In the case of a large number of network nodes in the future and each node having a small coverage, if the Inactive UE still operates according to the conventional cell settings and cell operations, the mobility process will occur very frequently, the user experience may be bad, and the network efficiency may be relatively low. Similarly, the above problem also exists for terminals in the RRC idle state.

Method for managing wireless system area, terminal and base station

China Academy of Telecommunications Technology


An apparatus combining a high-speed high-precision characteristic equivalent to that of a die bonder and a flexibility of coping quickly with a process variation and product variation along with size reduction and economics. This apparatus comprises a base unit including a body containing a device to be used in common among a plurality of processes for mounting and assembling parts, a mechanism for conveying a workpiece in a predetermined conveying direction and a mechanism for positioning the workpiece, a dedicated unit including an end effector, and a selected mechanism unit including a mechanism for moving the end effector in two axial directions perpendicular to the predetermined conveying direction to adjust a relative position between the end effector and the workpiece or a part. The moving mechanism is interchangeably attached on the base unit, and the end effector is interchangeably attached on the moving mechanism.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parts mounting and assembling apparatus for use in integrated (full-scale) manufacturing of small-sized parts including micro sensor devices, such as MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) gyro sensors.
2) Description of the Related Art
In general, for the integrated manufacturing of small-sized parts including micro sensor devices, such as MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) gyro sensors, there is a need to realize, in addition to a high-precision machining technique and a mounting technique, a fine low-vibration handling technique between processes in a limited space and at a high order.
In the recent years, along with the progression of modularizing and size-reduction of facilities, in addition to the attempts to achieve the space and energy reduction and short-term startup, there has been a requirement to develop a high-precision and small-sized mounting and assembling apparatus applicable in common to study/experiment to quantity production factories.
Moreover, on the study/experiment level, there is a need to flexibly cope with a change of mounting and assembling process stemming from a frequent element change while on the quantity production level there is a requirement for high throughput and high extensibility. Still moreover, the size and cost reduction are required on either level.
So far, in general, for the mounting/assembling of sensor devices, a die bonder system has been put to use, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. SHO 57-145334 and HEI 10-308404. This die bonder system is suitable for the mass production, for that it achieves the fast high-precision mounting/assembling. On the other hand, it is unsuitable for the large item small volume production because of requiring a high initial investment and a long time length for startup before stable operation. Moreover, a current small-sized modularized facility line considering the large item small volume production cannot satisfy the speed and accuracy requirements (high speed and high accuracy) required in a field of sensor devices.
The problems of the current large item small volume production system are the following (1) to (3).
(1) So far, a product development department manufactures trial models once or twice for quantity production. The facility for the production of the trial models uses a simple jig principally operated in a manual fashion, and the manufacturing condition or the like depends upon this jig. At the quantity production, there is a need to further determine a manufacturing condition suitable for the quantity production facility, which requires much time for the startup for the quantity production of products. Therefore, there is a requirement to develop a parts mounting apparatus whereby the facility at the product test production is directly usable as a quantity production facility.
(2) Since a short-term mass production (a small life production quantity in the same model) is required for the current large item small volume production, there is a requirement to develop a parts mounting apparatus capable of coping flexibly with a variation of model while maintaining the high-speed performance.
(3) A further requirement is to develop a small-sized parts mounting apparatus having a high space productivity and applicable over the multi-generational products.


A clip device for holding together a plurality of spaced plastic conduits containing optical fibers wherein one-piece first and second cover members are assembled about the conduits with integral male connectors fitted within female slots in the respective cover members to hold them snugly together.

This invention relates to plastic conduits within which a multiplicity of optical fibers are housed. More particularly, the invention concerns a clip device for holding the respective conduits apart from one another in a predetermined spaced relation within a fiber optic system. The clip device also facilitates appropriate branching of the conduits from one another.
Holding devices are known in the prior art for locating optical fibers themselves in spaced relation to one another, as opposed to holding apart in spaced relation separate conduits which contain optical fibers. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,146,532 and 4,744,627 are typical of such prior art devices.
Devices for holding optical fibers as described in those prior patents are not well suited to the mounting of conduits containing optical fibers, principally in that they lack the simplicity required of holders for conduits of optical fibers. For example, in the optical fiber holder of U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,627, separate screws are relied upon to secure the parts of the assembly together. Such relatively complicated attachment means are avoided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,532 by the use of resilient strip members or keys which fit into corresponding keyways. However those systems are far from ideal for spacing conduits containing optical fibers because the grasped keys are not prevented from sliding laterally perpendicular to axis of movement into and out of their keyways.
It is a general purpose of the present invention to provide an improved clip device for conduits containing optical fibers in which one-piece male connectors and female slot-defining members interfit to hold the parts of the assembly closely together without the use of separate attachment means, and do so in a manner such that all substantial relative movement of each male connector in its associated female slot is prevented except movement into and out of engagement. No significant sideward back and forth movement perpendicular to that in and out movement is to be permitted between the male connectors and female slots as in the keys and keyways of certain of the prior art referred to above.

Clip device for conduits containing optical fibers


Disclosed is an apparatus for performing power control on a reverse channel quality indicator channel (CQICH) received from a mobile station by a base station in a mobile communication system including the base station for transmitting a power control bit for power control on reverse channels and the mobile station for controlling transmission power of the reverse channels according to the power control bit. An erasure detector determines whether to perform an erasure process by measuring reception power of the reverse channel quality indicator channel. An erasure rate calculator accumulates the erasure-determined result for N slots and calculates an erasure rate for the N slots. A control bit generator determines a ratio control bit to be transmitted to the mobile station according to the erasure rate, to issue a command to increase or decrease a CQICH traffic-to-pilot ratio.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication system, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for controlling transmission power of a reverse channel quality indicator channel.
2. Description of the Related Art
An IS-2000 CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) mobile communication system, a typical mobile communication system, supports only a voice service. However, with the development of the communication technology and at the request of users, research has been carried out on a mobile communication system for supporting a data service. For example, an HDR (High Data Rate) communication system has been proposed to support only a high-speed data service.
The existing mobile communication systems are classified into one mobile communication system for supporting only the voice service and another mobile communication system for supporting only the data service. That is, although the mobile communication system is required to support both the voice service and the data service, the conventional mobile communication system is designed to support only one of the voice service and the data service. Therefore, there have been long demands for a mobile communication system capable of supporting both the voice service and the data service. To meet the demands, a 1×EV-DV (Evolution in Data and Voice) mobile communication system has been recently proposed.
A mobile communication system divides its whole service area into a plurality of cells, and manages the divided cells with their associated base stations (BSs). The base stations are centrally managed by a mobile switching center (MSC) so that a mobile station (MS) can continue a call while on the move between the cells. The base stations communicate with the mobile station over radio channels.
Unlike a land (or wired) communication system, the mobile communication system may have many transmission errors under the influence of fading and interference. A typical method for preventing the transmission errors is to increase transmission power high enough to cover the fading and interference. However, the increase in transmission power may interfere with radio channels of adjacent users. That is, in a mobile communication system, power control on a radio channel exerts a great influence on system performance. Commonly, a base station and a mobile station perform mutual power control. A procedure for controlling transmission power of a channel transmitted from the base station to the mobile station is called "forward power control," while a procedure for controlling transmission power of a channel transmitted from the mobile station to the base station is called "reverse power control."
In addition, a CDMA system can simultaneously connect a plurality of encoded channels through one frequency channel in the same time slot. By using this characteristic, a mobile station located in an overlapping region (or soft handoff region) between two adjacent base stations can simultaneously connect separate channels to the base stations in order to continue a call. This is called "soft handoff." In this case, power control must be performed on all the base stations in communication with the mobile station.
FIG. 1 illustrates a method for performing reverse power control on a mobile station in a soft-handoff state in a conventional mobile communication system. Here, a mobile station 103 in a soft-handoff state communicates with two neighboring base stations (or sectors) 101 and 102.
A reverse power control procedure will be described with reference to FIG. 1. A sector #1 101 and a sector #2 102 each measure a reverse pilot channel (R-PICH) from the mobile 103 to estimate a signal-to-interference ratio Ep/Nt (i.e., a ratio of signal power of a pilot channel to interference power), and compare the Ep/Nt with a reference value (or outer loop set point) set for outer loop power control. If the estimated signal-to-interference ratio is larger than or equal to the reference value, the sectors 101 and 102 transmit power-down commands for a reverse channel to the mobile station 103 over a forward common power control channel (F-CPCCH). Otherwise, if the estimated signal-to-noise ratio is lower than the reference value, the base stations 101 and 102 send power-up commands for a reverse channel to the mobile station 103 over the forward common power control channel. The power control commands are transmitted by transmitting power control bits (PCBs) over a common power control channel (CPCCH) in the forward direction (i.e., F-CPCCH).
The mobile station 103 receives PCB1 and PCB2 over CPCCH1 and CPCCH2 from the sector #1 101 and the sector #2 102, respectively. If any one of the PCB1 and the PCB2 is a power-down command, the mobile station 103 decreases transmission power of a reverse channel, and if both of the PCB1 and the PCB2 are a power-up command, the mobile station 103 increases transmission power of the reverse channel.
Next, a forward power control procedure will be described. Transmission  power of a forward channel is determined using channel quality information received over a reverse channel quality indicator channel (CQICH). The channel quality indicator channel is used by the mobile station to measure a received signal strength indicator (e.g., carrier-to-interference ratio (C/I)) of forward common pilot channel transmitted from a specific sector, and transmit the C/I value to the sector.
In general, the mobile station measures C/I values of common pilot channels transmitted from neighboring sectors, and transmits quality information (e.g., the measured C/I value) of a sector (hereinafter, called a "best sector") having the highest C/I value among the measured C/I values to the best sector (sector #1 101 in the case of FIG. 1) over the channel quality indicator channel. The best sector then transmits forward packet data to the mobile station.
Conventionally, transmission power of a channel quality indicator channel is set to maintain a specified ratio of a reverse pilot channel and a reverse traffic channel. That is, when transmission power of the reverse pilot channel and the reverse traffic channel is decreased, transmission power of the channel quality indicator channel is also decreased in a specific ratio. In contrast, if transmission power of the reverse pilot channel and the reverse traffic channel is increased, transmission power of the channel quality indicator channel is also increased in a specific ratio.
However, unlike the reverse pilot channel or traffic channel, the channel quality indicator channel is not a target of the soft handoff. That is, the channel quality indicator channel is received at only a specific sector having the best forward channel quality among the sectors neighboring to the mobile station. In contrast, since the reverse pilot channel and traffic channel are transmitted to two or more sectors in a soft handoff state, they can guarantee good reception performance. In addition, reception performance of the traffic channel can be improved through selection diversity or combining.
When power control on the channel quality indicator channel is performed in the same way as power control on the reverse pilot channel and traffic channel, reception performance of the reverse pilot channel and traffic channel satisfies a desired level, but there is a high possibility that reception performance of the channel quality indicator channel will be lower than the desired level. This will be explained further below with reference to FIG. 2.
In addition, in the case of the channel quality indicator channel, a sector measures reception power of the channel quality indicator channel, and performs an erasure process on the channel quality indicator channel if the measured reception power is not high enough to guarantee stable transmission. When the channel quality indicator channel is erased, a received signal on the channel quality indicator channel is not decoded. The sector then cannot acquire forward channel quality information, so the sector cannot normally perform forward power control. In addition, in a mobile communication system performing forward packet data transmission by consulting forward channel quality information like the 1×EV-DV system, frequent occurrence of the erasure process on the channel quality indicator channel causes a decrease in forward capacity. Therefore, there have been demands for power control on the reverse channel in order to improve performance of the channel quality indictor channel.

Apparatus and method for controlling power of reverse channels in a mobile communication system


A graphene semiconductor including graphene and a metal atomic layer disposed on the graphene, wherein the metal atomic layer includes a metal, which is capable of charge transfer with the graphene.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a graphene semiconductor and electrical devices including the same, and more particularly, to graphene having semiconducting properties, thereby allowing for use in various electrical devices, such as transistors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, graphite is an allotropic form of carbon having a structure in which two-dimensional ("2D") graphene sheets are stacked. There are two allotropic forms of graphite having different stacking arrangements: hexagonal and rhombohedral. The carbon atoms of the graphene sheets are connected to each other in an extended array of hexagonal rings. Recently, one or more graphene sheets were removed from graphite to study the characteristics of a single graphene sheet, and it was observed that a single graphene sheet has very useful characteristics as compared to other materials.
For example, the single graphene sheet has metallic properties, and thus, is a conductor. Thus, a single graphene sheet does not have a band gap, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Accordingly, there remains a need for a graphene having semiconducting properties.

Graphene semiconductor and electrical device including the same


In order to obtain a thin-film transistor having high characteristics using a metal element for accelerating the crystallization of silicon, a nickel element is selectively added to the surface of an amorphous silicon film (103) in regions (101) and (102) and regions (108) to (110), and a heat treatment is carried out to grow crystals (horizontal growth) in directions parallel to the substrate as indicated by arrows (104) to (107). At this point, the regions (108) to (110) having a width of 5 μm or less serve as stopper regions so that horizontal growth starting from the regions (101) and (102) stops there. In this way, the horizontal growth regions can be formed with high controllability. Then a circuit such as a shift register can be constructed with a region having the same crystal growth form.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device using a crystalline silicon film, and to a method of manufacturing the same. More specifically, it is directed to a thin-film transistor using a crystalline silicon film formed on a glass substrate or a quartz substrate, and to a method of manufacturing the same. It also relates to the configuration of a semiconductor device using a crystalline silicon film and to a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, there has been known a technology for fabricating a thin-film transistor using a silicon film which is formed on a glass substrate or a quartz substrate by plasma CVD or low-pressure thermal CVD. This technique is utilized not only when a glass substrate or a quartz substrate is used but also when a multi-layer structure is realized in an integrated circuit using a monocrystal silicon wafer.
Studies have been conducted on a technique for using this thin-film transistor in an active matrix type liquid crystal display (LCD) device in particular.
Generally speaking, it is difficult to obtain a monocrystal silicon film by a vapor phase method or deposition method (a technique for forming a monocrystal silicon film on an extremely small region is available but it is not common).
Then, there has been used a technique for forming an amorphous silicon film by plasma CVD or low-pressure thermal CVD and crystallizing the film by heating or irradiating with laser light.
A generally used method for obtaining a crystalline silicon film is a technique for crystallizing an amorphous silicon film formed on a quartz substrate by heat. In this method, heating is carried out at a temperature of 900 to 1,100° C. to modify the amorphous silicon film into a crystalline silicon film.
However, the quartz substrate is expensive and involves a problem when it is used in a liquid crystal display device whose cost reduction has been desired. There is also known a technique in which a glass substrate is used as the substrate. However, since the glass substrate has low heat resistance, it cannot be subjected to the above high-temperature treatment and hence, a required decree of crystallinity cannot be obtained.
The heat resistance temperature of the glass substrate, which differs depending on its type, is in the range of 600 to 750° C. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain a crystalline silicon film having required characteristics through a process at a temperature below that temperature range.
Also, there is known a technique for modifying an amorphous silicon film into a crystalline silicon film by application of laser light. According to this technique, the amorphous silicon film can be modified into a crystalline silicon film without causing thermal damage to the substrate. However, it has problems with the stability of a laser oscillator and uniformity on the illuminated surface. Therefore, it cannot be used on an industrial scale.
As a method for solving the above problem, there is a method in which both a heat treatment and irradiation with laser light are used to increase a process margin. However, when a heat treatment is used, the above treatment temperature problem is encountered, making it difficult to use a glass substrate as well.
As a solution to this problem, there is known a technique disclosed in Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 7-074366. This technique uses a metal element for promoting the crystallization of silicon to crystalize an amorphous silicon film at a process temperature of 600° C. or less.
In this technique, there are two crystal growth forms: one is vertical growth (crystal growth in a direction perpendicular to the substrate) which occurs in a region where a metal element is added and the other is horizontal growth (crystal growth in a direction parallel to the substrate) which starts from the region and proceeds around the region.
The vertical growth is characterized in that a crystalline silicon film can be obtained at a lower temperature (crystallizing temperature can be reduced by 50° C.) than heating and that the process is relatively simple. However, since the concentration of the metal element is inevitably high, it has such a problem as the segregation of the metal element.
The segregation of the metal element causes great fluctuations in the characteristic properties of a semiconductor device obtained and an increase in leak current when a thin-film transistor is fabricated.
On the other hand, the horizontal growth is useful because the quality of the resulting film is good and the concentration of the metal element contained therein is low. (this means relatively low). However, when a plurality of horizontal growth regions are selectively formed, they may collide with one another, form a grain boundary or impede the growth of crystals in other regions.
Particularly, since a nickel silicide component is formed in the grain boundary, when the region overlaps with the active layer of a thin-film transistor, the characteristic properties of the thin-film transistor are greatly impaired. It has been discovered that the horizontal growth region which is different from the vertical growth region in the dimension of growth is different in crystal growth form, for example, signal strength indicating each crystal orientation, according to X-ray diffraction measurement.
This causes such problems that, when a large number of thin-film transistors must be formed on a substrate, there are the differences of characteristic properties among the thin-film transistors and that, when a circuit is constructed, an operation failure occurs.
Since a circuit configuration will be integrated more and more highly in the future, the collision or interference between the above horizontal growth regions will become a big problem.
When the direction of growth is different, there will be easily produced differences in the characteristic properties of devices obtained. Therefore, when a circuit having a predetermined function is constructed with a plurality of devices, the difference of growth direction will become a problem to be solved.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A transmission base flow control device including a first credit counter, shared by an active system and a preparatory system of a reception device, managing a credit value of the active system; a second credit counter and a third credit counter counting the credit values for each system of the active system and the preparatory system of the reception device; a differential counter holding a difference between the credit value counted by the second credit counter and the credit value counted by the third credit counter; and a control unit matching, according to the difference held by the differential counter, the credit values of the first credit counter and the second credit counter or the credit values of the first credit counter and the third credit counter with a credit value corresponding to the reception device of a new active system after switching the system of the reception device.

The present invention relates to a flow control technique in data transmission/reception between a transmission device and a reception device, and more particularly to a flow control technique of credit base in data transmission/reception between a transmission device and a reception device having a redundant structure.
In general, a flow control in data transmission/reception between a transmission device and a reception device implies an operation of the reception device (reception side) to stop data transmission from the transmission device (transmission side) before the reception side becomes at a reception disable state, when the transmission side transmits data, for example, in a packet form of a fixed length or variable length to the reception side.
As kinds of the flow control, there are: a flow control of reception base where a state of the reception side (for example, a data accumulation state) is self-monitored, and the reception side notifies the transmission side of a data reception enable state or data reception disable state by using a resumption signal or transient stop (wait) signal (Rdy/Full, XON/XOFF, or the like); and a flow control of transmission base such as a credit base flow control, to which the present invention relates.
In the case of the flow control of the reception base (refer to FIG. 1), the reception enable state or reception disable state of the reception side is notified to the transmission side through a different line (a line different from a packet transmission route) or through in-band transmission (any field of a packet).
In this flow control, a state of the reception side shows that data can be transmitted from the transmission side or not. As long as any report is continuously transmitted from the reception side, the flow control functions without any problem in spite of the employment of the redundant structure. Also, since the operation is also simple, this flow control is often used in a data transmission device such as a router and a switchboard.
However, in the flow control of the reception base, the reception side needs to self-monitor and control a threshold of a buffer (buffer memory, Buff). Thus, the reception side needs to include a buffer having a memory capacity large enough therefore, and the latency of a state report is also required to be considered as the buffer endurance. Hence, an increase in the memory capacity of the buffer cannot be avoided.
On the other hand, in the flow control of the transmission base, to which the present invention relates, namely, in the credit base flow control (FIG. 2), the control is performed such that, each time the transmission side carries out data transmission, a credit value is subtracted by "1", and when the credit value becomes "0", the data transmission is not executed any longer. The reception side instructs the transmission side to carry out the operation of a credit update and add "1" to the credit value, when the process of data transmitted from the transmission side is ended.
In this flow control, since the credit value of the transmission side is set and controlled, a buffer amount in the reception side can be decreased. Also, the transmission side can easily limit on traffic. Thus, there is a merit where the compatibility with an application of a band control is high.
However, unlike the flow control of the reception base, the credit value is required to be managed, which makes the control complex. When the credit value is used between the transmission and reception devices employing a redundant structure, at a time of system switching, the credit values of the reception devices may be different depending on the degree of reading data from the buffer in each system. Because of such problems, the credit value is not applied to the flow control of a redundant structure device.
Note that conventionally, in a duplex ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) switch and the like, there are techniques for switching a system without generating a cell loss. However, they are just proposals of a method of preventing the cell loss.
Here, assuming that the credit base flow control is applied to an edge router serving as a data transmission device of N (N=2) multiplexed configuration, a cell as a fixed length packet is copied from a traffic manager side serving as the transmission side to a main switch side of the N-multiplexed configuration serving as the reception side.
At this time, the cell transmission situation is different between an ACT system (active system) and an SBY system (preparatory system/standby system) due to the congestion state of the cell inside the main switch, a frequency error of an oscillator in each main switch, and the like.
This results in a difference in the credit value between the ACT system main switch and the SBY system main switch. However, when the system switching occurs in this condition, since a credit value of the traffic manager is originally synchronous with a credit value of an old ACT system main switch, a mismatching with a credit value of a new ACT system main switch is induced. The mismatching with this credit value brings about problems of the drop in the throughput inside the main switch after the system switching, and the overflow or underflow of a FIFO (First in First out) buffer memory.
The following are related arts to the present invention.
[Patent Document 1]
                Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 03-128547[Patent Document 2]        Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 05-56065


The present invention is directed to the provision of an intraocular lens delivery device having a plunger with a multi-part plunger tip. The plunger tip includes a first part and a second part wherein the first part releases from the second part during travel of the plunger through the body of a delivery cartridge.

The human eye functions to provide vision by transmitting and refracting light through a clear outer portion called the cornea, and further focusing the image by way of a lens onto the retina at the back of the eye. The quality of the focused image depends on many factors including the size, shape and length of the eye, and the shape and transparency of the cornea and lens.
When trauma, age, disease or other malady cause an individual's natural crystalline lens to become less transparent, vision deteriorates because of the diminished light which can be transmitted to the retina. This deficiency in the lens of the eye is often referred to as a cataract. The treatment for this condition is surgical removal of the natural crystalline lens and implantation of an intraocular lens (IOL).
While early IOLs were made from hard plastic, such as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), soft, foldable IOLs made from silicone, soft acrylics and hydrogels have become increasingly popular because of the ability to fold or roll these soft lenses and insert them through a smaller incision. Several methods of rolling or folding the lenses are used. One popular method is an injector cartridge that folds the lenses and provides a relatively small diameter lumen through which the lens may be pushed into the eye, usually by a soft tip plunger. One commonly used injector cartridge design is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,102 (Bartell), and includes a split, longitudinally hinged cartridge. Other designs are illustrated in U.S. Patent Nos. 5,494,484 and 5,499,987 (Feingold) and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,616,148 and 5,620,450 (Eagles, et al.), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Still other cartridges are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,604 (Rheinish, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,715 (Reich, et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,876 (Van Noy, et al.), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
At least a portion of the lumen of the cartridge typically becomes progressively smaller (i.e., smaller in cross-sectional area) closer to the nozzle or exit point of the cartridge and the IOL typically becomes rolled, folded and/or compressed as it travels along this portion of the lumen. To foster the movement of the IOL along the lumen, it is generally desirable for the tip of plunger to substantially fill the cross-sectional area of the lumen as the plunger is moved along the length of the lumen. By substantially filling the cross-sectional area, the plunger tip helps ensure that an IOL is reliably pushed along the lumen without a portion of the IOL becoming undesirably trapped between the plunger tip and the cartridge.
To allow the plunger tip to move along the progressively smaller cross-sectional area while continuing to substantially fill the cross-sectional area of the lumen, the plunger tip would traditionally be formed of a soft compressible material that is compressed as it travels along the lumen. This approach can be problematic however. The amount of compression of the plunger tip can become undesirably high particularly toward the nozzle of the cartridge where the cross-sectional area of the lumen can become quite small. In turn, such compression can cause undesirable resistance to travel of the plunger along the lumen as well as other undesirable effects.
Thus, it would be quite desirable to provide an intraocular lens delivery device having a plunger that includes a plunger tip wherein the plunger tip can compress as it moves along a lumen that is becoming progressively smaller and wherein the plunger tip avoids the development of undesirably high forces associated with conventional soft tips.

Intraocular lens delivery device with a multi-part plunger tip


A weighing unit includes a mounting fastener member including a vertical portion; a load cell disposed at the one side of the vertical portion and including an elastic body of a rectangular frame shape including a fastened portion fastened to a vertical surface and a movable portion opposite to the fastened portion. A plurality of strain gauges are bonded to the elastic body, a weighing hopper disposed at an opposite side of the load cell with respect to the vertical portion, and has a discharge gate, a coupling member is fastened at one end to the movable portion, and a hopper retaining section including receivers and protrusions, for retaining the weighing hopper, extends from the one end portion to the other end portion in a downward direction to a location below the elastic body; and a gate opening/closing mechanism attached to the coupling member.

Conventionally, a combination weigher uses a plurality of weighing units each of which holds objects and weighs a weight of the objects held therein. Each weighing unit includes a weighing hopper which holds the objects for a specified time and discharges the objects and a load cell which supports the weighing hopper and weighs the weight of the objects inside the weighing hopper. As the load cell, for example, a Roberval-type load cell is used.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a weighing unit of a first prior art example which is used in the combination weigher. This weighing unit includes a weighing hopper 53 and a load cell 51 supporting the weighing hopper 53. The weighing hopper 53 and the load cell 51 are arranged at both sides of a mounting fastener member 52 so as to sandwich the mounting fastener member 52 between them. The mounting fastener member 52 corresponds to a side wall portion of a center base body 17 (see FIG. 1) of the combination weigher. The load cell 51 is disposed inside of the center base body 17. The weighing hopper 53 is disposed outside of the center base body 17. A fastened portion 51a of the load cell 51 is fastened to the mounting fastener member 52 via a L-shaped support member 54. A movable portion 51b opposite the fastened portion 51a is coupled to the weighing hopper 53 via a coupling member 55 inserted into a through-hole 56 provided in the mounting fastener member 52.
In the weighing unit of the first prior art example, a stiffness of the L-shaped support member 54 must be increased to suppress reduction in weighing accuracy, and a size of the support member 51 must be increased. Accordingly, the present inventors proposed a weighing unit disclosed in Patent Literature 1 to suppress reduction in weighing accuracy, provide a compact configuration, etc. This weighing unit will be described as a second prior art example.
FIG. 5 is a side view showing a weighing unit of a second prior art example. In this weighing unit, also, a weighing hopper 63 and a load cell 61 are arranged at both sides of a mounting fastener member 62 so as to sandwich the mounting fastener member 62 between them. The mounting fastener member 62 corresponds to the side wall portion of the base body 17 (see FIG. 1) of the combination weigher. The load cell 61 is disposed inside of the center base body 17. The weighing hopper 63 is disposed outside the center base body 17. In this weighing unit, a fastened portion 61a of the load cell 61 is directly fastened to the mounting fastener member 62. One end of a coupling member 65 is fastened to an inner peripheral surface of a movable portion 61b of the load cell 61, while the other end thereof is coupled to the weighing hopper 63. The coupling member 65 is inserted into a through-hole 67 provided in the fastened portion 61a and a through-hole 66 provided in the mounting fastener member 62 and coupled to the weighing hopper 63.

Weighing unit and combination weigher using the same


A current limiting device utilizes an electrically conductive composite material and an inhomogeneous distribution of resistance structure. The current limiting device has a conducting filler and at least two electrodes, where at least one of the electrodes comprises a grooved electrode structure. The grooved electrode structure maintains contact between the electrodes and the composite material, even with consumption of the composite material and production of residue during a high current condition.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to current limiting devices for general circuit protection including electrical distribution and motor control applications. In particular, the invention relates to current limiting devices that are capable of limiting the current in a circuit when a short-circuit or high current condition occurs.
2. Description of Related Art
There are numerous devices that are capable of limiting the current in a circuit when a high current condition occurs. One known limiting device includes a filled polymer material that exhibits what is commonly referred to as a PTCR (positive-temperature coefficient of resistance) or PTC effect. U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,938, U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,184, and European Published Patent Application No. 0,640,995 A1 each describe electrical devices relying on PTC behavior. The unique attribute of the PTCR or PTC effect is that at a certain switch temperature the PTCR material undergoes a transformation from a basically conductive material to a basically resistive material. In some of these prior current limiting devices, the PTCR material (typically polyethylene loaded with carbon black) is placed between pressure contact electrodes.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/514,076, filed Aug. 11, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,881, issued Mar. 25, 1997, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference, discloses a current limiting device. This current limiting device relies on a composite material and an inhomogeneous distribution of resistance structure.
Current limiting devices are used in many applications to protect sensitive components in an electrical circuit from high fault currents. Applications range from low voltage and low current electrical circuits to high voltage and high current electrical distribution systems. An important requirement for many applications is a fast current limiting response to minimize the peak fault current that develops.
In operation, current limiting devices are placed in a circuit to be protected. Under normal circuit conditions, the current limiting device is in a highly conducting state. When a high current condition occurs, the PTCR material heats up through resistive heating until the temperature is above the "switch temperature." At this point, the PTCR material resistance changes to a high resistance state and the high current condition current is limited. When the high current condition is cleared, the current limiting device cools down over a time period, which may be long, to below the switch temperature and returns to the highly conducting state. In the highly conducting state, the current limiting device is again capable of switching to the high resistance state in response to future high current condition events.
Known current limiting devices comprise conductive composite material and standard flat electrodes that have generally planar surfaces, a low pyrolysis or vaporization temperature polymeric binder and an electrically conducting filler combined with an inhomogeneous distribution of resistance structure. The switching action of these current limiting devices occurs when joule heating of the electrically conducting filler in the relatively higher resistance part of the composite material causes sufficient heating to cause pyrolysis or vaporization of the binder.
During operation of known current limiting devices, at least one of material ablation and arcing occur at localized switching regions in the inhomogeneous distribution of resistance structure. The ablation and arcing can lead to at least one of high mechanical and thermal stresses on the conductive composite material. These high mechanical and thermal stresses often lead to the mechanical failure of the composite material. For a reliable operation, it is desirable to reduce high mechanical and thermal stresses.
Further, the ablation and arcing often produce a non-conducting, or at least a poorly conducting, residue from the expended filler. This residue, comprises various ablation products, and is located at an interface between the standard flat electrode and conductive composite material of the current limiting device after a switching event. This residue is undesirable since it is believed to increase the overall resistance of the current limiting device. The residue is distributed over the interface, so as to impair the overall operation of the current limiting device due to the added resistance. Since a current limiting device should have as low a resistance as possible, especially after a switching event, and have small an area as possible, the increased resistance, due to the residue, limits uses of current limiting devices with standard flat electrodes.

Current limiting device with grooved electrode structure


A mechanism for feeding a core material such as a stick type cosmetic material includes an internal thread member having a spirally grooved inner surface and a push rod provided with a group of protrusions which engage with the spiral groove of the internal thread member; wherein the push rod is advanced or retracted by turning the internal thread member and the push rod engaged therewith relative to each other to feed the core material housed in a container to be slidably moved the push rod. Since the protrusions on the surface of the push rod can be of a simple shape, the push rod can be produced easily, and this effect manifests particularly in a comparison with the case where a thread must be formed on the push rod over the entire length thereof, requiring laborious thread machining or die making. Depending on the grouping (selection) of the protrusions provided on the outer surface of the push rod so as to occupy partially at strategic positions an imaginary continuous spiral space, the pitch, lead and direction of torsion of the resulting "screw" can arbitrarily be selected within a certain range. Further, since the push rod itself has a spiral function, the diameter of the push rod and that of the main body of the container can be reduced.

This invention relates to a mechanism for feeding a stick type cosmetic material (lipstick, eye liner, etc.), etc. and to a container employing the same. More specifically, this invention relates to a mechanism for feeding a stick type cosmetic material utilizing a push rod having a group of protrusions which function as an external thread and, as necessary, rotation-stop ribs, which has a simple structure and can be produced easily, as well as, to a container for feeding a stick type cosmetic material, etc., utilizing such mechanism.
Examples of prior art mechanism and container for feeding a stick type cosmetic material will now be described. Containers for feeding stick type cosmetic materials include those of cartridge type and non-cartridge type. In the cartridge type container, cartridges respectively containing different colors of core materials (hereinafter referred to as stick type cosmetic materials) are provided, and a user selects and replace the desired cartridge and sets it in the body of the container.
FIG. 12 shows in cross-section the structure of the body of a prior art cartridge type container disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 50814/1991. In a main body 200 are housed a push rod 201 and an inner barrel 207. The push rod 201 is provided on the circumference at the rear end portion thereof with an external thread 205, while the rest of the portion on the circumference of the push rod 201 is provided with elongated ridges 206. Meanwhile, the inner circumference of the inner barrel 207 is provided over the entire length thereof with an internal thread 209 which is engaged with the external thread 205. The inner barrel 207 is also provided with elongated ridges 213 on the outer surface thereof, which engage with grooves 211 formed on the inner surface of an outer barrel 215.
After a cartridge is inserted through the tip opening 217 of the outer barrel 215 of the main body 200 and the rotation-stop section of the cartridge and the elongated ridges 206 of the push rod 201 are engaged, the cartridge and the main body 200 are turned relative to each other (e.g. one is immobilized, and the other is turned), whereby the push rod 201 can be advanced or retracted in the axial direction. On the other hand, in a non-cartridge type container, the stick type cosmetic material is inserted to a chuck provided at the tip of the push rod 201, and the push rod 201 (external thread 205) and the inner barrel 207 (internal thread 209) are turned relative to each other using some means, for example, a cylinder disposed around the stick type cosmetic material which is designed to be engaged with the elongated ridges 206 of the push rod 201. In any case, the push rod 201 is designed to be advanced or retracted in the axial direction of the main body to allow the stick type cosmetic material to be fed out or retracted.
In the prior art feeding mechanisms, the external thread and the rotation-stop section (ribs etc.) formed on the push rod, and the internal thread formed in the main body are essential elements. Accordingly, a complicated design or working has been required so as to form these elements into respective parts. For example, the feeding mechanism disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 50814/1991 (FIG. 12) involves the following problems.
(1) Since the internal thread 209 of the inner barrel 207 is long, molding and working take much time and labor; PA1 (2) The diameter of the internal thread 209 cannot be reduced due to the limitation in molding and working thereof (e.g. strength of injection molding core pin and working thereof), so that the diameter of the container itself cannot be reduced; PA1 (3) If the push rod 201 is provided on the outer circumference substantially over the entire length thereof with the external thread, the length of the internal thread to be engaged therewith can be short. However, elongated ridges or grooves as a rotation-stop mechanism must be provided on the surface of the external thread of the push rod, inevitably making the shape of the push rod complicated, as shown in FIG. 13. In FIG. 13, a push rod 305 is provided on the circumference with an external thread substantially over the entire length thereof, and ribs 321 are provided at the crest of the external thread 323. The external thread 323 is engaged with the internal thread 311 of the main body 301, while the ribs 321 are engaged with the engagement grooves 351 formed in the cartridge 341, whereby the cartridge and the push rod can be turned synchronously. Contrary to the constitution shown in FIG. 13, grooves may be formed on the crest of the external thread of the push rod, and ribs may be formed in the cartridge; and PA1 (4) If a push rod having an external thread formed on the outer circumference thereof is to be formed by injection molding using a split mold, there are strict limitations on the diameter and the pitch of the thread so as to prevent undercut which is liable to occur in mold releasing, and thus the resulting thread inevitably comes to have a short pitch, giving rise to a problem in the operability of the feeding mechanism.

Mechanism for feeding stick type cosmetic materials, container employing the same and cartridge employed therein


A centralizer comprises two annular bands which are spaced apart by a plurality of members extending there-between. The members are inclined to the longitudinal axis of the centralizer by an angle a of typically 30.degree. to 45.degree..

During the construction of oil and gas wells a borehole is drilled into the ground. A string of casing is then lowered down the borehole and the annular space between the casing and the borehole filled with cement.
It is important to ensure that the casing is held centrally in the borehole during cementation and it is usual to provide the casing with a plurality of centralizers which act between the casing and the borehole.
Various types of centralizer are known. One type comprises two annular bands which are spaced apart by a plurality of longitudinally extending members. These members can comprise spring bows or rigid members. They share the common feature that, in use, the members extend parallel to the longitudinal axis of the casing on which they are mounted.
Another type of centralizer, often referred to as a "solid centralizer", comprises a casting having a solid central section on which are formed a plurality of fins. In some embodiments the fins are disposed so that, in use, they extend parallel to the longitudinal axis of the casing on which they are mounted. In other embodiments the fins are disposed at an angle so that, in use, when circulating fluid is pumped through the annular space between the casing and the borehole prior to introducing the cement the circulating fluid is encouraged to swirl around the casing. In many situations this also enhances the distribution of cement when it is subsequently injected into the annular space.


Disclosed is a container for storing, transporting, and dissociating hydrate pellets, the container comprising: a first container (100) made up of a plurality of frames; a second container (200) which is rotatably installed inside the first container (100), stores hydrate pellets therein, and has an internal surface to which a heat insulating member is attached; and a refrigerating machine (300) which is installed inside the first container (100) and refrigerates the second container (200), wherein the second container (200) is equipped with a heating wire (210), which is heated to dissociate the hydrate pellets by being supplied with power, or with a hot water tube (220), through which hot water flows to dissociate the hydrate pellets, on the internal surface thereof.

A hydrate is a solid substance, water ice, composed of water molecules and gas molecules. Hydrates are formed by brining gas molecules into contact with water at a predetermined pressure and temperature, and the hydrates can be dissociated back into water and gas molecules by changing the pressure or temperature.
Hydrates have attracted attention as an alternative means for transporting and storing natural gas, which can substitute for LNG, due to its high gas-retaining property.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional gasifying apparatus for gasifying hydrates of natural gas back into gas.
For example, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0077592 discloses a gasifying apparatus for gasifying hydrates of natural gas. According to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0077592, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the gasifying apparatus includes at least one inlet 102, through which hydrates are continuously introduced, a guide member 104, which guides hydrates so that the hydrates are brought into contact with a heating means to be gasified, a gas outlet 106, which is disposed at an upper end of the apparatus and through which gasified natural gas is discharged outside, and a drain which is installed at the bottom and through generated water is drained.
Generally, Natural Gas Hydrates (NGHs) are stored and transported in the form of NGH pellets in a large volume tank. In this case, there is a problem that hydrate pellets adhere to each other due to their own weights.
For gasification or dissociation (hereinafter, collectively referred to as dissociation) of hydrate pellets, there are two conventional dissociation methods: a method of fracturing the adhered hydrate pellets on a ship, transporting the fractured hydrate pellets to land, and dissociating the fractured hydrate pellets on land; and a method of directly dissociating hydrate pellets by heating the tank by means of hot water or heating wire on a ship.
Both of these methods have a problem that the ship, on which a hydrate storage tank is mounted, needs to be docked in a port for a long period of time either while the hydrate pellets, which are adhered to each other in a tank during storage and transportation of the hydrate pellets, are being fractured or pulverized and are then being moved to facilities for dissociation on land; or while the hydrate pellets are being directly dissociated by heat on the ship.
Long lay-over time which is required for loading/unloading and dissociation of hydrates is the main factor which decreases ship operation efficiency. Furthermore, a ship which sails back to a site where hydrate pellets are loaded on a ship, usually sails back with an empty cargo tank.
Generally, when hydrate pellets are just loaded in a cargo tank on a ship, the hydrate pellets are separated from each other so that grain stability is used to assess the ship stability. However, since hydrate pellets come to adhere to each other over time due to their own weights, this adhesion negatively influences ship's behavior and stability, depending upon the adhesion state within the tank.
In addition, when a ship uses a Dual Fuel Engine (DFE) to use Boil Off Gas (BOG) generated from hydrate pellets as a fuel when transporting hydrate pellets stored in a large volume tank, the characteristics of the fuel vary, because propane happens to evaporate earlier than methane in some cases, depending on the compositions of the hydrate pellets. Furthermore, when unloading the hydrate pellets from a ship, the energy and composition of dissociated gas are likely to be non-uniform.
In addition, when melting and dissociating hydrate pellets stored in a large volume tank, hot water may be used. In this case, surfactants are usually added to the hot water to prevent formation of ice within the tank. Since the surfactant-containing hot water causes environmental pollution, additional facilities to treat wastewater are needed in the process of dissociation of hydrates, resulting in an increase in cost.

Container for storing, transporting, and disassociating hydrate pellets and method for storing, transporting, and disassociating hydrate pellets by using same

KOREA INSTITUTE OF OCEAN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


This invention relates to nonferrous metallurgy, namely to manufacture of near-beta titanium alloys containing titanium and such alloying elements as molybdenum, vanadium, chromium, zirconium, iron and aluminum. The provided alloy contains the following components, in weight percentages: molybdenum—25 to 27; vanadium—25 to 27; chromium—14 to 16; titanium—9 to 11; with balance aluminum and iron and zirconium in the form of commercially pure metals. The technical result of this invention is capability to produce a near-beta titanium alloy with high chemical homogeneity alloyed by refractory elements and having aluminum content ≦6 wt %, wherein the alloy is characterized by a combination of stable high strength and high impact strength.

There are known alloys that contain the specified elements (RF patents No. 2283889 and No. 2169782). Invention of these alloys has been preconditioned by the current trends to increase weight-and-size characteristics of commercial airplanes, which resulted in the increase of sections of highly loaded components such as landing gears. At the same time material requirements has become more strict enforcing good combination of high tensile strength and high impact strength. These structural components are made either of high-alloyed steels or titanium alloys. Substitution of titanium alloys for high-alloyed steels is potentially very advantageous, it helps to achieve at least 1.5 times reduction of component's weight, minimize corrosion and functional problems. However, despite beneficial specific strength behavior of titanium alloys as compared with steel, their use is limited by processing capabilities, in particular, difficulties with uniform mechanical properties for sections sizes exceeding 3 inches in thickness. The said alloys overcome this conflict and can be used to manufacture a wide range of critical components including large forgings and die forgings with section sizes over 150-200 mm and also small semi-products, such as bar, plate with thickness up to 75 mm, which are widely used for the aircraft application including fastener application.
The available methods of melting of homogeneous ingots containing high amounts of refractory β stabilizers, which are characteristic of these alloys, do not meet current requirements to the full extent.
It is well known, that α+β alloy containing 7% aluminum and 4% molybdenum with balance titanium can be easily produced with homogeneous chemistry by melting Al—Mo master alloys and titanium sponge. There are also widely known similar double and triple master alloys, such as Al—V, Al—Sn, Al—Mo—Ti and Al—Cr—Mo, which can be used together with pure metals, as applicable, to melt any low- and medium-alloyed titanium alloys ("Melting and casting of titanium alloys", A. L. Andreyev, N. F. Anoshkin et al., M., Metallurgy, 1994, pg. 127, table 20 [1]).
However, these and similar master alloys cannot be used for melting of high-alloyed alloys with the relatively low (5%) content of aluminum and high content of refractory, strongly segregating and volatile elements (Mo, V, Cr, Fe, Zr).
There is a known master alloy (RF patent No. 2238344, IPC C22C21/00, C22C1/03) used for melting of titanium alloys, which contains aluminum, vanadium, molybdenum, iron, silicon, chromium, zirconium, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen in the following weight percentages:
Vanadium 26-35
Molybdenum 26-35
Chromium 13-20
Iron 0.1-0.5
Zirconium 0.05-6.0
Silicon 0.35 max.
Each element in the group
containing Oxygen,
Carbon and Nitrogen 0.2 max.
Aluminum balance.
Pilot ingot heats melted (double vacuum-arc remelt (VAR)) using similar master alloy enabled production of high-alloyed titanium alloys with controlled content of aluminum and high chemical homogeneity of the ingot.
Comprehensive mechanical testing of melted alloys revealed instability of properties and relatively low impact strength, which is detrimental to commercial value of these alloys and prevents their application in the aerospace sector.
The major root cause of the above is formation of thin oxide layers at the boundaries of matrix grain, which is the result of presence of oxygen in master alloy constituents and also of silicon, but to a considerably lesser extent, which deteriorates ductility.
There is a known method for melting of titanium alloy ingots, which includes master alloy preparation, weighing, blending and portion-by-portion compaction of solid and loose constituents comprising titanium sponge, master alloy and recyclable scrap to make a consumable electrode for its subsequent double vacuum-arc remelting or a single scull melting followed by a single vacuum-arc remelting ("Melting and casting of titanium alloys", A. L. Andreyev et al., M., Metallurgy, 1994, pgs. 125-128, 188-230)—prototype.
The known method has a certain drawback, i.e. the introduction of refractory alloying elements in the form of pure metals during melting of titanium alloys (molybdenum in particular), no matter how finely crushed they are, might lead to inclusions that can survive even the second remelt. That is why these elements are introduced in the form of intermediate alloys—master alloys. Manufacture of such master alloys for commercial melting of titanium alloys is cost effective only when done by aluminothermic process. Here a complex master alloy contains considerable amounts of oxygen, which adds to oxygen in other components of the blend and also in the residual atmosphere of vacuum-arc furnace, which leads to critical deterioration of mechanical behavior of titanium alloy. Oxygen is absorbed by titanium and promotes formation of interstitial structures at the grain boundaries having high strength, hardness (maybe twice as high as that of titanium) and low ductility. Specialists are aware of the fact that fracture toughness considerably increases with decreasing oxygen content in titanium matrix.

Method for the melting of near-beta titanium alloy consisting of (4.0-6.0) wt % Al-(4.5-6.0) wt % Mo-(4.5-6.0) wt % V-(2.0-3.6) wt % Cr-(0.2-0.5) wt % Fe-(0.1-2.0) wt % Zr

Public Stock Company, “VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation ”


In an assembly for supporting an article on a support surface, a suction cup mounting arrangement is provided including a plastic disc having a smooth unyielding surface on one side for holding a suction cup on the one side and a structure for mounting the support plate to the support surface where a suction cup could otherwise not be attached.

The invention relates to a suction cup mounting arrangement for mounting devices requiring the use of a suction cup to surfaces not generally amenable to the direct application of a suction cup.
Many devices, for the purposes of versatility or portability, require the use of a suction cup for temporary, yet firm, mounting. Suction cups require a smooth, unyielding surface in order to create a tight seal for suction. Sometimes, such surfaces are not available or just not convenient for mounting a suction cup wielding device. In particular, automobiles, for which quite a few such devices are made, generally have no smooth surface other than a windshield. Windshields are, however, often inconvenient for mounting such a device since they are sometimes too far in front of the driver for a convenient reach. Also, mounting such a device on the windshield can block the driver's view. Dashboards, as well as other locations, are usually an ideal location to mount the device, however, their surfaces are often textured and are not ideal for holding suction cups.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a mounting surface arrangement for suction cups to permit their mounting on surfaces to which suction cups could not normally be attached.


The invention relates to an apparatus for location of an instrument or appliance having at least one magnet which produces a magnetic moment at right angles to the appliance shaft and can be rotated independently of the instrument or appliance. This results in a location system which allows precise location at an accurate time, determination of the axis direction and control of an appliance which is being operated in a channel or medium.

The invention relates to an apparatus for location and control of an appliance, as is preferably used for endoscopy or microsurgery.
Microsurgical and endoscopic instruments which are used in medicine are used in particular for diagnosis and during operations on sensitive tissues and organs to which access is difficult. These actions are generally computer-controlled and/or camera-controlled and normally require a very high degree of precise location, positioning and movement of the instruments. Probe systems such as magnetic or electromagnetic probes are used for this purpose. By way of example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,836,869 and 6,248,074 disclose fixed magnetic field sources and magnetic field sensors, respectively, which measure the three spatial coordinates of a moving magnetic field by means of a three-axis configuration of the magnet or, respectively, of the sensor. However, this does not allow spatially exact location of the endoscopic appliance at an accurate time. This is explained by the fact that the determination of the magnetic field co-ordinates as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,869 necessitates the measurement of three different magnetic fields for a three-axis magnet which, in order to avoid superimposition, must be measured successively at different times, by the individual axes producing electromagnetic signals at different times. The measurement is in this case carried out outside the patient and also requires a conversion operation in order to make it possible to estimate the position of the endoscope in the body.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,248,074 discloses a magnetic field source being mounted outside the patient; the location process is in this case carried out by determination of the relative position of the detector with respect to the external magnetic field by means of a magnetic field sensor which is fitted to the distal end of the endoscope. In this case as well, only a relatively inaccurate measurement is possible, since the endoscope and sensor are moved with respect to the fixed magnetic field, so that there is no exact relationship between the fixed magnetic field co-ordinates and the variable spatial alignment of the sensor. Furthermore, there are additional impeding factors which adversely affect the accuracy, for example the problem of measuring regions at different distances from the body surface, or the adverse effect on measurement accuracy resulting from external magnetic fields. In contrast, probes which are introduced into the body interior are often very sensitive, but require complicated electrical cable systems or the continuous use and replacement of the batteries.

Method and apparatus for control and location of an instrument or appliance