A power consumption reducing apparatus and method are provided wherein the apparatus includes a periodic active state conversion unit which converts an inactive state into an active state; a beacon frame reception unit which, in an active state, receives a beacon frame; an awake window setting unit which sets the awake window; an awake window interval counting unit which counts the interval value in the awake window; and an inactive state conversion unit which converts the awake window into an inactive state. According to the apparatus, an active state needs to be maintained only during a window interval such that power consumption can be reduced during an inactive interval. In addition, an ATIM window is replaced by an awake window such that an ATIM message that has been regarded as a network overhead, and an acknowledgement response frame to the message are removed, that is, the network overheads are removed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power consumption reducing apparatus and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Power management is one of the most important issues in all types of wireless network environments. This is because devices forming a network are battery-powered mobile terminals. In the prior art, in order to maximize the throughput of a network, power consumption has been ignored to some extent and only those products that work in a full-powered state have been developed. However, transmission of multimedia data is expected to grow exponentially in the near future, the transmission of this huge volume of multimedia data demands much faster transmission speed, and in line with the higher transmission speed, power consumption also increases in proportion to the speed. Accordingly, development of a low power protocol is more important than ever.
FIG. 1 is a format of an element traffic indication message (TIM) of a beacon frame.
A wireless network is broken down to an infrastructure network and an ad-hoc network. The infrastructure network, or the infra network, is constructed by expanding from an existing wire LAN to a wireless LAN after building access points (AP). The ad-hoc network refers to a LAN constructed only by wireless terminals. In the infra network, all stations in an inactive state moves into an active state temporarily in order to receive a beacon frame. Though the information in 'partial virtual bitmap' field of the TIM shown in FIG. 1, a station which receives a beacon frame checks whether or not an AP has data to be transmitted to the station. For example, if this field is set to 1, it means that the AP has buffered data. If through the field it is confirmed that the AP has buffered data, the station maintains the active state in order to receive the data. If it is confirmed that the AP does not have buffered data, the station sets network information and then returns to the inactive state such that power consumption is reduced. Meanwhile, since there is no AP in the ad-hoc network, power consumption is reduced by using an ATIM window and a management frame referred to as an ad-hoc traffic indication message (ATIM).
FIG. 2 is a format of an element independent basic service set (IBSS) of a beacon frame.
An ATIM window is an interval through which an active state of all stations is maintained and the interval is defined in the ATIM window field of the IBSS element included in a beacon frame.
FIG. 3 is a format of an ATIM message.
During an ATIM window interval, the management frame called an ATIM message is exchanged and the message is to indicate to a station in an inactive state that there is data to be transmitted by a source station. As shown in the ATIM message format of FIG. 3 (the ATIM message is a message in which the frame body part of an ordinary management frame is null), the frame has no special meaning and is only to indicate to a destination station that there is buffered data such that even after the ATIM window closes the active state of the station is maintained.
FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram of signals used in a power consumption reducing apparatus using the prior art ATM window.
With a beacon frame transmitted in each target beacon transmission time (TBTT), that is, a beacon frame transmission period, as a starting point, all stations receive network information and enter into an active state for a new setting, and at the same time an ATIM window begins in step 41.
A first station transmits an ATIM message to a second station during an ATIM window interval so as to inform the second station that there is buffered data in step 42. The second station informed of the buffered data remains in an active state until the next ATIM window closes in step 43. Accordingly, the first station can transmit data to the second station. A third station which does not receive an ATIM message returns to an inactive state if the ATIM window closes such that power consumption is reduced in step 44.
In transmission of an ATIM message, successful transmission is confirmed by whether or not an acknowledgment frame (ACK frame in IEEE 802.11a standard) is received. If an acknowledgment frame is not received, the transmission is regarded as a failure and after a time period allocated by a back-off timer by a back-off algorithm, retransmission is tried. If an ATIM message cannot be transmitted in a given ATIM window, it will be tried in the next ATIM window. ACK frame is not needed for an ATIM message that is multicasted. Since a medium is accessed through a distributed coordination function (DCF) method that is an IEEE 802.11 method, transmission of an ATIM message is based on channel contention. Accordingly, stations are using channels through contention and stations that fail in the contention have to wait for a time period allocated by a back-off timer and then contend again. If a given window closes, basically, stations return to an inactive state to reduce power consumption and only those stations which receive an ATIM message remain in an active state even when the ATIM window closes and receive transmitted data. If an ATIM window closes, a period for actual transmission of data remains as shown in steps 42 and 43. A station that receives an ATIM message can exchange data only in the transmission period for actual data transmission and remain in an active state until the next ATIM window closes. Generally, the ratio of an ATIM window and the actual data transmission period is about 1:4. Even in the actual data exchange period, the DCF method that is an IEEE 802.11 standard, is used and stations are contending for a channel. Accordingly, only those stations which win in the contention can transmit data through a selected channel and the loser stations have to wait for a predetermined time period by the back-off algorithm and again contend for a channel. If a station cannot transmit data in a given period due to continuous failure in the channel contention, the station can transmit data in a data transmission period of a next ATIM window.
Accordingly, in the power consumption reducing method using the prior art ATIM window, the frame payload of an ATIM message frame which is transmitted during an ATIM window interval has a null value and no data information. It is only to maintain the active state of a station that received an ATIM message and therefore is a clear network overhead.
FIG. 5 is a table showing a variety of modes of IEEE 802.11a physical layer.
Generally, in order to analyze the performance of a network, a network throughput is calculated. When calculating the throughput, management and control frames are not considered and only data frames corresponding to actual data are used for calculation.Throughput=MPDU payload length/periods used for successful data transmission  (1)
Here, MPDU stands for a Mac protocol data unit and indicates an actual data frame. When IEEE 802.11a is used, in order to identify the duration for data transmission, the number of data symbols should be identified. If an obtained number of symbols is multiplied by 4 μs that is an interval between symbols used in WEEE 802.11a, the length can be identified.Number of symbols=Ceiling((16+8*MPDU length+6)/BPS)  (2)
BPS, or bits per second, of Equation 2 can be obtained using the table of FIG. 5. Assuming the data rate is 54 Mbps and all conditions are idealistic, if the network throughput is obtained using the Equation 1, the maximum throughput can be obtained as up to 30.8087 Mbps.
                                                                                Average                                                                                back                                                                                -                                                                              off                                                                                interval                                                                          (                          I                          )                                                                                =                                                                                (                                                                                2                            ^                            I                                                    *                                                      (                                                                                CW                                                                                min                                                            +                              1                                                        )                                                                          -                        1                                            )                                        /                    2                                    *                  Slot                                                                                Time                                            ,                                                                                0                <=                I                <=                6                                                                                =                                                                                (                                              CW                                                                                max                                            )                                        /                    2                                    *                  SlotTime                                            ,                                                          I                >=                6                                                                        (        3        )
Here, I denotes the number of continuous retransmission due to the failure in channel contention.
One of the most ordinary factors affecting the throughput of a network is transmission delay due to an occurrence of an error. A representative case can be a back-off timer and retransmission. First, as for a back-off timer, whenever there is a failure in a contention, a back-off interval is newly given. Using the Equation 3, the back-off interval due to each failure is calculated. When the maximum throughput is 30.8087 Mbps that is idealistic, network contentions should not be considered and calculation is performed using the average back-off interval value that corresponds to a time when a back-off interval is not given. That is, in the Equation 3, value I is set to 0 and then calculation is performed. When there is one contention, that is, when value I is set to 1, the throughput obtained by the calculation decreases by 4.8065 Mbps, a 15.60% decrease from the maximum throughput. As for retransmission, when 10 frames are desired to be transmitted, and if an error occurs in one frame among the frames and 10% of the entire amount is retransmitted, the throughput decreases by 2.5035 Mbps, an 8.13% decrease from the maximum throughput. Accordingly, it can be shown that one of the most important factors affecting the network throughput is the back-off interval.
Therefore, in the power consumption reducing method using the prior art ATIM window, since this back-off interval is used in two places, including an ATIM window and a data transmission period, the network throughput is affected as much.

Apparatus and method for reducing power consumption in ad-hoc network


A transmitter for a digital transmission signal includes a pre-distorter to improve linearity of a power amplifier. An amplified transmission signal is conditioned into a narrowband feedback signal that is responsive to a logarithm of the power appearing in out-of-band components of the amplified transmission signal. The feedback signal is processed in a pre-distortion processor that implements a genetic algorithm to adapt pre-distortion functions implemented in the pre-distorter and improve linearity over time. The genetic algorithm tests a population of randomly-generated pre-distortion functions for fitness. A baseline component of the coefficients from pre-distortion functions used in a subsequent population tracks the best-fit pre-distortion function from the current population, allowing the use of a limited search space. New populations are generated from old populations using an elitism process, and randomized crossover, and mutation processes.

Power amplifiers are one of the most expensive and most power-consuming devices in communication systems. Digital pre-distortion is a technique that reduces power amplifier cost while improving efficiency. Pre-distortion refers to distortion intentionally applied to a transmission signal prior to amplification in a power amplifier. The distortion is desirably configured to be the inverse of unwanted distortion introduced by the power amplifier, so that the resulting amplified transmission signal comes out as nearly linear as possible.
With the use of pre-distortion, the linearity is improved and extended so that the power amplifier can be operated at a higher percentage of its power rating. This means that a lower-power, lower-cost linearized power amplifier can be used in place of a higher-power, higher-cost power amplifier that must be operated at a lower percentage of its power rating to achieve a desired linearity. Furthermore, the linearized power amplifier operates more efficiently. For a given output power level a lower-power amplifier operating more efficiently consumes substantially less power than an inefficient higher-power amplifier. Moreover, these benefits are even more pronounced for multicarrier applications where peak-to-average ratios tend to be large.
In general, gain and phase transfer characteristics of a typical power amplifier change as a function of the magnitude of the transmission signal being amplified. In particular, gain tends to droop and phase shift tends to increase as transmission signal magnitude approaches a saturation point for the power amplifier. Accordingly, a typical linearizer will implement pre-distortion functions that amplify the transmission signal by an amount which is a function of magnitude to compensate for gain droop, and apply an opposing-polarity phase shift as a function of magnitude to compensate for the power amplifier-induced phase shift.
Adaptive pre-distortion utilizes a feedback signal to determine the characteristics of the pre-distortion functions applied to the transmission signal by the pre-distorter. Gradient techniques have been used to compare pre-distorter input and power amplifier output values on a sample-by-sample basis in both amplitude and phase and thereby adapt the pre-distortion functions implemented by the pre-distorter over time to improve linearity. Unfortunately, the poor linearity which is inherently exhibited prior to adaptation of a pre-distorter can lead to extensive intermodulation products and significant spectral regrowth. This necessitates processing a wideband feedback signal having a bandwidth that can be many times the bandwidth of the transmission signal itself. A very expensive, high performance, analog-to-digital converter is therefore used in the feedback signal path. Such a high performance analog-to-digital converter can end up being the most expensive component in the transmitter and can greatly diminish any power amplifier cost savings gained by using pre-distortion.
Narrowband feedback results from processing only out-of-band emissions. The use of a narrowband feedback signal would permit the use of a less expensive and more desirable analog-to-digital converter in the feedback signal path. But conventional attempts at implementing adaptive pre-distortion using narrowband feedback have provided unsatisfactory results. Conventional techniques have attempted to use gradient adaptation methods similar to those used for wideband feedback. But these methods are able to converge in only specialized situations, and they tend to converge slowly. Consequently, the conventional narrowband feedback methods produce an undesirable amount of adjacent channel power.

Transmitter with limited spectral regrowth and method therefor


A dilator/sampler for sampling materials and fluid from a body cavity, the device comprising: a shaft having a distal end, and a proximal end; a Z-shaped sampler having a first sampling surface and a second sampling surface parallel to each other joined by a diagonal connector, the first sampling surface and the second sampling surface corresponding to the parallel bars of the Z shaped sampler where the first sampling surface is attached to the distal end of the shaft; and a conical dilator having a tip and a base attached at the base to the second sampling surface. The invention also comprises a sheath having a distal edge and a proximal end surrounding the dilator/sampler. In another embodiment of the invention, the base of the conical dilator is shaped to function as a sampler.

The detection of abnormal cell growth in the cervix is important for detecting a number of disease conditions from precancerous atypical dysplasia to invasive cancer. This procedure begins by first obtaining a pap smear of the area. If the pap smear is positive, or abnormal, a physician usually examines the patient further. The physician typically uses a magnifying colposcope to identify and examine suspicious areas in the transitional zone and takes biopsies of these areas with the aid of a colposcope. Alternately, if the upper areas of the cervix at or beyond the internal os are involved, the physician will typically take a blind biopsy using a device such as a Cell Sweep.RTM. (described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,408 and U.S. Pat. No. De 335,706 to Mohajer) and using a curette to make an endocervical curettage (ECC) around the entire area.
The cervix presents problems for the physician, particularly in the area up to the anatomical internal os. This is an area that it is difficult for the physician to observe directly even with the aid of instruments. It follows therefore that biopsy sampling and curettage is problematic. The ECC procedure is very important. Approximately 14% of lesions picked up by a pap smear occur up to the internal os area, beyond the area seen in a colposcopic examination.
Endometrial tissue sampling devices for securing and removing endometrial tissue are typically terminated at the distal end by a scraping member. Some kind of suction is usually included with the sampling device or some kind of suction probe inserted into the uterus following scraping to gather loosened tissue.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,643 to Binard et al, describes an endometrial sampler comprising a rigid hollow tube having a sampling end with a plurality of sampling ports communicating with the interior of the tube. Essentially, the sampler is a flexible plastic rod with a stainless steel probe that is manipulated with a syringe to gather fluid samples from the uterus. The probe does not have a cutting port.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,066 to Shah describes an instrument having a longitudinal chamber with a slot and a transverse slot. The handle is connected to a syringe and the physcian uses the entire probe to scrape and gather tissue samples.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,879 to Milgrom discloses a curette with a tissue-scraping device such as a spoon at one end. The handle member is operated by utilizing both hands to produce a sucking action to collect the tissue samples.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,022 to Marx describes an endometrial tissue sampling apparatus that includes a probe made of stainless steel for scraping and removing endometrial tissue. The probe is covered in a sheath. The user inserts the probe into the endometrial cavity and begins blindly scraping and cutting tissue samples. A syringe is attached to the sheath, and it is utilized to create a vacuum so the tissue samples can be sucked into the shaft and then into the syringe.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,444 to Booker describes a device for sampling tissues and fluids from body cavities. This device has a tube within a tube, with a retrieval line, multiple cutting edges, a protective sleeve, a stop sleeve, a plug and a cap. The catheter has integral parts and appears to be a rather difficult instrument to use. After insertion, the protective cap or tip is dislodged into the patient and the probe or curette includes a plurality of notches for blindly scraping tissue samples from the cavity walls. A syringe is attached and provides suction to collect the scraped tissue samples.
The devices described in the above references illustrate a variety of approaches to retrieving endometrial tissue samples. However, all of these devices are relatively complicated and fall short of attaining the most accurate sample possible.
In addition, every cervix differs in size according to a number of factors such as age and the number of births. The insertion of prior art ECC devices typically involve dilating the cervix using a separate dilator. This procedure can vary from uncomfortable to painful. Frequently the dilator used must be larger than the ECC device because the dilator must be removed and the ECC inserted. The time involved obviously increases the period of time discomfort or pain must be endured by the patient.
For some women the pain is significant enough that they refuse an ECC despite the risk of missing an invasive cervical cancer. The results of this can be fatal. and radiation therapy or radical surgery, even if successful in stopping the cancer, can still result in loss of sexual function and fertility.

Dilator/sampler for sampling materials and fluid from a body cavity


A semiconductor substrate includes a dielectric insulation layer and a structured metallization layer having at least five separate sections attached to the dielectric insulation layer, a first switching element having first emitter and collector terminals, a second switching element having second emitter and collector terminals, a first diode element having first anode and cathode terminals, and a second diode element having second anode and cathode terminals. The switching and diode elements are arranged on a first section of the metallization layer, with the collector and cathode terminals electrically coupled to the first section. The first anode and emitter terminals are electrically coupled to second and third sections. The second anode and emitter terminals are electrically coupled to fourth and fifth sections. The first section separates the second and fourth adjacent sections from the third and fifth adjacent sections.

Power semiconductor module arrangements often include at least one semiconductor substrate arranged in a housing. A semiconductor arrangement including a plurality of controllable semiconductor elements (e.g., two IGBTs in a half-bridge configuration) is arranged on each of the at least one substrate. Each substrate usually comprises a substrate layer (e.g., a ceramic layer), a first metallization layer deposited on a first side of the substrate layer and a second metallization layer deposited on a second side of the substrate layer. The controllable semiconductor elements are mounted, for example, on the first metallization layer. The second metallization layer may optionally be attached to a base plate. The controllable semiconductor devices are usually mounted to the semiconductor substrate by soldering or sintering techniques.
Electrically conducting terminal elements are usually provided that allow to electrically contact the semiconductor elements from outside the housing. Such electrically conducting terminal elements often include one or more conductor rails, for example. Due to the size of such power semiconductor module arrangements, which are generally designed as small as possible, high stray inductances may occur which may negatively affect the operation of the semiconductor module.
There is a need for a semiconductor substrate and a semiconductor arrangement comprising a plurality of semiconductor substrates with a low stray inductance.

Semiconductor substrate and semiconductor arrangement


The invention uses a PRBS pattern generated by transmitter (serializer) as training. At the receiver side, following receiver outputs, a synchronous capturing module is used to capture multiple lanes simultaneously. The captured data is used to calculate the PRBS distance for different lanes. After the distances are obtained, the one with largest latency is used as a reference, to calculate the relative latency with each other lane. This relative latency is further used to calculate the number of shifts for Barrel Shifter and word shifter.

The present invention relates generally to optics, and more particularly, to bit alignment method for high data rate multi-lane data exchanging, for either inter-device or inter-system interfaces.
The present invention is related to Because of the factors like higher processing capacity of a single device, larger volume of network data throughput, and the innovations in data acquisition/waveform generation, data exchanging rate is much higher than before, that easily goes up to hundreds-Gigabit per second per device. For example, a 6 bit, 56 Gsample/second (56 GS/s) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) will generate 56 G*6 bit=336 Gb/s from a single channel.
Due to limited number of I/Os, higher interface capacity is usually achieved by increasing the data rate of each lane. The common data rate currently in use is 10.3˜13 Gb/s per lane, and looking forward to 25˜28 Gb/s. Such data rate is not possible by using the conventional source synchronous approach which requires the signals aligned to each other and latched in receiver device by a single clock. Instead, a clock/data recovery (CDR) unit is always included in the receiver interface for each lane, to recover both the clock and data signal from input data stream with provided reference clock. Serial-to-parallel converter (for transmitter) or parallel-to-serial converter (for receiver) is used to bridge the high-speed interface and lower speed processing, so such interface is also called SerDes (Serializer/Deserializer). Three factors make random delay from transmitter input to receiver output: 1) the nature of CDR causes random phase in the recovered data, which makes the data up to one UI (unit interval) earlier or later after each reset; 2) without serializer/deserializer synchronous reset, there will be bit skew up to parallel word width among different lanes; 3) PCB trace skew because of material and trace length.
When multiple high-speed SerDes lanes are used as a bundle, applications usually have data aligned among the lanes at transmitter, and require same pattern/alignment outputted from receiver. For another application, not only the bits among different lanes need to be aligned, but also that the receiver parallel data output shall be word-aligned with transmitter side. The solution to guarantee these alignments at receiver outputs is the problem that the present invention attempts to solve.
So far there are two categories of approaches available: one for packet interface such as 40 G/100 G Ethernet (IEEE 802.3ba-2010, "Amendment 4: Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers, and Management Parameters for 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s Operation", section 82.2) and Interlaken ("Interlaken Protocol Definition", Cortina Systems and Cisco Systems, rev. 1.2, section 5.4), and another for data stream interface such as receiver at digital-to-analog converter (DAC).
We use Interlaken as example to explain the widely used approach for packet case. There are two steps for lane alignments: first step is to find word boundary, and second step is for overall alignment. The first step is achieved by using 64B/67B encoding, through which the receiver (in particular 64B/67B decoding unit) looks for the control or flag code of the 3-bit overhead, to determine the word boundary. The second step is using synchronization pattern for overall alignment, which is identified by a special flag in the 3 bit overhead field. This solution not only guarantees bit-level alignment for all the lanes, but also achieves word-alignment with transmitter. The problem for this solution is that it requires additional overhead which increases data rate.
One solution for data stream alignment is seen in MICRAM's company confidential document, which aligns every two lanes using identical pattern. One suggested solution is using PRBS (Pseudo-Random Bit Sequence), and then to shift one lane bit-by-bit until it is aligned (no difference detected) or reaches a threshold (the maximum number of shifts). When threshold is reached, it requires tuning the other lane or reversing the tuning direction. This solution requires bit-by-bit adjustment, which is only possible using hardware implementation to achieve acceptable aligning speed. Moreover, this approach is not reliable when the signal received is not error free, for which case "unmatch" may always be encountered even when the two lanes are actually aligned.
Accordingly, there is a need for a latching WSS/WB the can be used in reconfigurable BU in submarine network, that overcomes the shortcomings of prior efforts.

Receiver bit alignment for multi-lane asynchronous high-speed data interface


A turbine blade is cooled by cooling air that flows through a radial cooling channel. The turbine blade includes a root and an airfoil. The flow of cooling air into the cooling channel is limited by a pre-meter orifice to provide a reduced pressure within the cooling channel. The pressure drop results from the cross-sectional area of the pre-meter orifice being less than the cross-sectional area of the adjacent cooling channel. After flowing through the cooling channel, the cooling air exits the cooling channel through a film hole to form a film layer over the airfoil to cool and insulate the turbine blade.

The present invention relates to gas turbine engines, and more particularly to cooled turbine blades for a gas turbine engine.
Gas turbine engines, such as an axial-flow turbine engine, include rotor assemblies with a rotating disk and a number of rotor blades circumferentially disposed around the disk. Rotor blades include a root portion for engaging with the disk and an airfoil portion for positioning within the gas path of the engine. The temperature within this gas path is very high, resulting in the heating of the rotor blades. If the rotor blades become too hot, the durability of the airfoil will be adversely affected. Therefore, various methods of cooling turbine blades have been used to improve the longevity and durability of the turbine blades.
One method of cooling rotor blades is known as simple radial flow film cooling. In this method, internal passages are formed in the rotor blade by drilling straight holes from the base to the tip. The internal passages are cylindrical passages having a single diameter from base to tip, due to the fact that they are formed by drilling. Film holes are then drilled through the side walls of the rotor blade to adjoin with the internal passages. Cooling air is then forced through the passages, which flows out of the film holes. Cooling occurs both as the cooling air passes through the internal passages, and also as it flows out and around the turbine blade. Simple radial flow film cooling was largely abandoned because the method resulted in the release of too much cooling air into the engine. It is undesirable to overcool the engine, because cooling air reduces the pressure within the engine, thereby decreasing the efficiency and thrust of the engine.
To alleviate this problem, airfoil designs began to include complex internal passageways such as serpentine designs. In these airfoils, internal passages were formed to direct cooling air first from the base to the tip of the airfoil. The passage would then turn sharply to direct the cooling air from the tip back to the base. The passage would then turn again directing the cooling air back toward the tip, and so on until it had gone through the entire serpentine passageway.
Serpentine designs present numerous problems. One of the challenges is the difficulty of predicting and modeling the air flow and pressure distribution through a serpentine system while it is rotating. In particular, rotational forces resist the flow of cooling air in the direction from the tip to the base of the airfoil. Predicting and modeling the precise effect of the rotational forces on the cooling air is very difficult. In order to overcome the rotational forces resisting the flow of cooling air from the tip to the base of the airfoil, a sufficient pressure must be present at the tip of an internal passage to force the air back down to the base of the airfoil. If sufficient pressure is not present, cooling air will not flow through the desired serpentine path, resulting in inadequate cooling of the turbine blade.
Furthermore, insufficient pressure within the cooling channel can result in backflow. Backflow occurs when hot gases from the gas path flow into film holes of the airfoil, rather than cooling air flowing out. This leads to undesired heating of the turbine blade. On the other hand, if too much cooling air is present in the cooling channels, too much cooling air will escape from the film holes, resulting in overcooling of the engine.

Turbine blade with radial cooling channels


A magnetoresistive sensor and method for forming the magnetoresistive sensor. The magnetoresistive sensor includes a first layer and an antiparallel free layer disposed on the first layer. The antiparallel free layer includes a first free layer disposed on the first layer and a first ferromagnetic coupling free layer disposed on the first free layer. The first ferromagnetic coupling layer is configured to provide increased coupling between the first free layer and an antiferromagnetic coupling layer. The antiparallel free layer also includes the antiferromagnetic coupling layer disposed on the first ferromagnetic coupling free layer, a second ferromagnetic coupling free layer disposed on the antiferromagnetic coupling layer, and a second free layer disposed on the second ferromagnetic coupling free layer. The second ferromagnetic coupling layer is configured to provide increased coupling between the second free layer and the antiferromagnetic coupling layer.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to magnetoresistive sensors. Specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to magnetoresistive sensors, methods for manufacturing magnetoresistive sensors, and apparatuses using magnetoresistive sensors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern computer systems typically include a hard drive which may be used as mass storage for the computer system. Information in the hard drive is typically stored by changing the magnetization of areas on one or more magnetic disks within the hard drive. To read the information, the hard drive typically includes a magnetoresistive sensor which senses the magnetic fields from the magnetized areas as the magnetic disks spin beneath or above the magnetoresistive sensor.
Modern magnetoresistive sensors typically include several layers of material deposited on a base layer. As the magnetoresistive sensor passes over a magnetized area of a magnetic disk, the magnetic field from the magnetized area may induce a detectable change in the layers of material in the magnetoresistive sensor. For example, during a read operation, a current may be applied to the layers of material in the magnetoresistive sensor. The current applied to the layers of material may create a voltage across the layers of material which is proportional to the resistance of the layers of material. As the sensor passes over a magnetic field of a magnetized area on the magnetic disk, the magnetic field may cause a change in the combined resistance of the layers of material (e.g., an increase or decrease in the resistance of the layers of material). The magnetic field of the magnetized area may then be measured via a corresponding change in the voltage across the layers of material (e.g., a corresponding increase or decrease in the voltage resulting from the current applied to the layers of material).
In some cases, the magnetic field within a magnetoresistive sensor may experience instability due to operating conditions (e.g., the current applied to the sensor, the temperature of the sensor, and/or previous magnetic fields applied to the sensor) in which the sensor is used. Instability in the magnetic field of the sensor may degrade read operations performed with the sensor by increasing noise in the read signals obtained from the sensor. Accordingly, to improve operation of the sensor, there may be a desire to improve the magnetic stability of a magnetoresistive sensor. However, increasing the magnetic stability of the magnetoresistive sensor may also reduce the sensitivity of the magnetoresistive sensor by reducing the ability of the magnetoresistive sensor to respond to magnetized areas of a hard drive disk.
Therefore, what is needed is a magnetoresistive sensor which provides increased magnetic stability without reduced sensitivity and a method for making the magnetoresistive sensor.

CPP Magnetoresistive head with different thickness free layers for improved signal to noise ratio

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.


A method is disclosed for uniquely determining the position of a mobile earth station in a mobile satellite communication system which employs a non-geostationary satellite with a multi-spot beams. A given point of a preknown position on the earth surface is defined as the center coordinate of a three-dimensional coordinate axis, information on the measured distance and Doppler shift amount between a mobile earth station of an unknown position and a non-geostationary satellite is used to repeat the estimation of the position of the mobile earth station a plurality of times, thereby obtaining the position of the earth station with high accuracy. Furthermore, by observing the estimated positions of the mobile earth station obtained as a plurality of solutions at proper time intervals, comparing with one another the movements of the respective estimated positions occurring with the local time proceeds and selecting the estimated position of the minimum movement, the estimated position of the mobile earth station is uniquely determined relative to its true position.

The present invention relates to a method for determining a position of a mobile earth station for use in satellite communication systems such as fixed-satellite communication systems using a non-geostationary satellite, a mobile-satellite communication system and a personal-satellite communication system.
In recent years, there have been made many proposals and studies in the United States and European countries for commercial services using non-geostationary satellites intended primarily for mobile-satellite communication services.
In the United States, Motorola Inc. has proposed, with the aim of its commercial inauguration in 1998, an IRIDIUM project that implements a worldwide scale personal satellite communication system with a total of 66 LEO (Low Earth Orbiting) satellites flying at an altitude of about 780 km. Furthermore, there have been proposed in the United States a Global Star system by Qualcom Inc. that is a mobile-satellite communication system which continuously covers the whole world with a total of 48 LEO satellites flying at an altitude of 1,289 km and an Odyssey system by TRW Inc. which aims to set up a global network which covers nine main areas of the world, and moves toward realization of these systems are now growing more and more brisk.
On the other hand, European countries are also interested in these mobile satellite communication systems using non-geostationary satellites; especially, ESA (European Space Agency) has proposed and is now making study of an ARCHIMEDES project utilizing a highly elliptical orbit (HEO) that is suitable for areas in higher latitudes. Moreover, INMARSAT, an international mobile satellite communication organization, is proceeding briskly with research and development work on an INMARSAT-P system which is intended to provide, from 2000 up, a global-scale personal-satellite communication services via portable terminals through the use of 10 satellites placed in the medium earth orbit of an 10,355 km altitude. In the above-mentioned satellite communication systems using non-geostationary satellites, it is assumed that each portable terminal exists within the coverage of any spot beam of at least one non-geostationary satellite.
The mobile satellite communication system using non-geostationary satellites utilizes multi-spot beam satellites of the type that the beam coverage by one satellite is formed by a plurality of spot beams. In the multi-spot beam satellite, communication channels of different frequencies are usually allocated to adjacent spot beams so as to increase the efficiency of frequency by communication channels. Hence, in the mobile satellite communication system using non-geostationary satellites, the points listed below are important when getting position datas of users.
(1) To Minimize the Number of Spot Beams Which are Transmitted Over a Channel to Call a Mobile Earth Station.
That is to say, when the precise position of the mobile earth station to be called from a terrestrial network is unavailable, it is necessary that control signals for calling be transmitted over a wide beam areas. This impairs the utilization factor of frequency by the control channels, resulting in limitations being imposed on the maximum traffic volume of the control signals and transmitting power being wasted.
(2) To Utilize the Position Data on the Mobile Earth Station as Information Auxiliary to a Criterion for Starting a Spot Beam Handover and a Satellite Handover
That is to say, when a mobile earth station continues communication across a global beam coverage by two satellites or two different spot beam, it is necessary to effect a handover (switching of a satellite beam for communication) between spot beams or global beams; in this instance, if the precise position of the mobile earth station is available, it is possible to perform the handover while keeping the communication link in a high quality state. An error in the timing of starting the handover will result in a cutoff of the communication link or degradation of its quality.
(3) To Assign a Proper Land Earth Station at the Time of Connecting a Call Between a Mobile Earth Station and a Land Earth Station
That is to say, when a mobile earth station and a terrestrial network are connected via a land earth station, the service area coverage is allowed is limited to a certain range around the land earth station, but in the case of connecting a communication link between a mobile earth station and a land earth station, it is necessary to select a land earth station that maximizes the call duration. This requires precise position data of the earth station; if the precise position of the mobile earth station cannot be detected, then a wrong land earth station will be selected, incurring the possibility of the link being cutoff during communication.
(4) To Distinguish Borders.
That is to say, in a mobile-satellite communication system capable of providing global-scale personal communication services, it is possible to achieve communications from anywhere in the world, but in the case of establishing communications from an area near the border with a country where such global-scale personal communication services are prohibited, it is necessary to recognize the precise position of the mobile earth station and judge whether communications are possible or not.
(5) To Confirm the Position of a User in Emergency and Distress Call
That is to say, when a user is in a state of emergency such as an accident, if the precise position of the user can be detected on the part of a ground station, the user can be promptly rescued from danger.
(6) To Provide Additional Services (to Offer Position Data to Users)
If the precise position of a user, i.e. a mobile earth station can be detected, a position data service such as a navigation service can be offered to the user by presenting the information to the mobile earth station.
There have been proposed the following methods for determining a position of a mobile earth station.
(a) The position of the mobile earth station is estimated from area information of a mobile-location or existing-zone spot beam of the mobile earth station. In this instance, the position determination accuracy corresponds to the radius of the spot beam and the position of the mobile earth station can usually be estimated with an accuracy of hundreds to thousands of kilometers. PA1 (b) In a three-dimensional or geocentric coordinate system wherein the center of gravity of the earth is at the origin, the equatorial plane or zone is in the x-y plane, a longitude of zero degree is in the positive orientation of the x-axis and an east longitude of 90 degrees is in the positive orientation of the y-axis, the position of a mobile earth station can be detected by calculating points of intersection of circular surfaces about a satellite through the use of data on a distance between the satellite and the mobile earth station measured a plurality of times (twice or more), or calculating points of intersection of conical surfaces about the satellite through the use of data on the Doppler shift amount between the satellite and the earth measured a plurality of times (twice or more), or calculating points of intersection of spherical surfaces and conical surfaces about the satellite through the combined use of such data. In this instance, there are two points of intersection, and this phenomenon is called ambiguity of solution; usually, the true position of the mobile earth station can be uniquely determined from the area code of the spot beam corresponding to the mobile earth station. Furthermore, it is customary in the art to adopt a scheme that expresses the position of the mobile earth station as an unknown variable and calculates it by the least mean square technique, instead of directly seeking a solution to simultaneous equations. PA1 (c) The mobile earth station detects the position of its own through utilization of the existing satellite navigation or positioning system such as GPS (Global Positioning System or GLONASS (GLObal Navigation Satellite System), or such an existing radio navigation system as loran C, and sends the position data to the land earth station.
Incidentally, the distance between the satellite and the mobile earth station can be measured by providing both of a land earth station and the mobile earth station with timing-synchronized clocks, then measuring the propagation time of a signal sent from the land earth station or the mobile earth station in the latter or former, and multiplying the measured propagation time by the velocity of light. To measure the Doppler shift amount between the satellite and the mobile earth station, both of the land earth station and the mobile earth station are provided with frequency-synchronized frequency oscillators, then the amount of frequency offset of a signal sent from the land earth station or the mobile earth station is measured in the latter or former and the amount of frequency offset between the satellite and the mobile earth station is subtracted from the measured value, by which the amount of frequency offset or the Doppler shift amount between the satellite and the mobile earth station can be obtained.
Of the above-described mobile earth station position determination methods (a) to (c), it is the method (c) that is the most stable in positioning accuracy. With the method (b), the positioning accuracy is likely to vary materially from tens of meters to thousands of kilometers according to orbital parameters of the satellites used, the number of satellites that can be used for positioning, the distance to be measured, the accuracy of measuring the Doppler shift amount and the time intervals between individual position determinations. The method (a) can be applied only to rough positioning of the mobile earth station and, as a general rule, cannot be used for high accuracy positioning.
The above-mentioned mobile earth station position determining methods (a) to (c) for the satellite communication systems using non-geostationary satellites each have such problems as mentioned below. That is, in the method (a) of position determinating the mobile earth station on a spot-beam basis, the position determination accuracy scatters largely from hundreds to thousands of kilometers; hence, to ensure calling the mobile earth station from the terrestrial network side, it is necessary to do simultaneous transmission using all spot beams adjacent to the spot beam of the existing zone of the mobile earth station. This decreases the utilization factor of frequency by the signalling channel, presenting problems that the maximum traffic volume of the signalling traffic is limited and that the transmitted power is wasted. In a case where a mobile earth station needs to continue communication between spot beams or global beams, since the precise position of the mobile earth station is unavailable, it is necessary, for effecting the handover with the communication link in its high quality state, that the overlapping area of adjacent spot beams be extended to leave an extra link margin at the spot beam edge. As the result of this, spot beams cannot efficiently be located and expensive satellites with a high-output power transmitter are needed. Furthermore, an appropriate land earth station cannot be assigned at the time of call connection between a mobile earth station and a land earth station; hence, a wrong land earth station is selected and the link is likely to be disconnected during communication. Besides, this method can neither identify a border, nor confirm the position of a user in emergency and distress call, nor offer the navigation service.
Next, the method (b) has the following problems with the position determination procedure. That is, in the method of estimating the position of the mobile earth station in the geocentric coordinate system, appropriate values need to be set as initial values for the least mean square method so as to obtain the estimated position of the mobile earth station without divergence of the least mean square method. To meet with this requirement, however, it is necessary that all points on the earth surface expressed by the geocentric coordinate system be prepared as candidates for the initial values. If the initial values for the least mean square method are set wrong, the least mean square method converges to a different solution in which its error approaches zero, incurring the possibility of detecting an incorrect position of the mobile earth station. Moreover, when a plurality of solutions obtainable with the least mean square method are present in the same spot beam, it is impossible to apply the conventional method of identification according to the area code of each spot beam and the position of the mobile earth station cannot uniquely be determined. This phenomenon will hereinbelow be described with reference to FIG. 9. For the sake of brevity, however, the description will be given of a positioning scheme which measures twice the distance between a satellite and a mobile earth station through the use of one non-geostationary satellite.
FIG. 9 illustrates a scheme which performs position determination using the distances, r.sub.k (112) and r.sub.k+1 (113), between the satellite and the mobile earth station measured at times t.sub.k and t.sub.k+1. Intersections of circles, which are centered at intersections Q(t.sub.k (110) and Q(t.sub.k+1) (111) of a perpendicular dropped from the satellite to the earth surface and the latter at the times t.sub.k and t.sub.k+1 and have radii r.sub.k (112) and r.sub.k+1 (113), respectively, are obtained as two solutions A (116) and B (117) for the estimated position of the mobile earth station; in this instance, the two points A (116) and B (117) are symmetrically located with respect to a straight line n (115) passing through points Q (t.sub.k) (110) and Q (t.sub.k+1) (111). That is, one of the two points coincides with the true position of the mobile earth station, whereas the other is a falsely estimated position; in such a case, it is impossible to determine the truly estimated position from the results measured once. In consequence, as is the case with the scheme (a), the positioning accuracy of the mobile earth station scatters a largely as hundreds to thousands of kilometers. Hence, to ensure calling the mobile earth station from the terrestrial network side, it is necessary to perform simultaneous transmission for calling with all spot beams adjacent to the spot beam of the existing-zone of the mobile earth station, and accurate handover and the assignment of an appropriate land earth station cannot be done; furthermore, this scheme is incapable of identifying borders, confirming the position of a user in emergency and distress call and providing the navigation service.
In the case of the scheme (c), a receiver needs to be provided solely for utilizing the existing satellite positioning system or radio naviation system. This is likely to pose problems such an increase in the cost of mobile earth station terminal equipment, an increase in power consumption and limitations on the miniaturization of each terminal equipment. Besides, since the satellite positioning systems such as GPS and GLONASS are systems built primarily for military purposes, there is no absolute guarantee of receiving the positioning service at all times. Thus, it is considered to be risky that the position determining method of mobile earth stations depends on such conventional systems.

Method for determining position of mobile earth station in satellite communication system


An aquatic device is usable in an aquatic environment for a variety of purposes, such as physical therapy, rehabilitation, and/or exercise. The aquatic device permits a person to simulate a walking or running gait cycle in the aquatic environment, reducing the stress/strain associated with walking or running on the ground. An aquatic device includes a foot-receiving member rotationally coupled to a fin member. The fin member, when in an extended position, provides increased resistance as the person attempts to walk or run in the aquatic environment. During a walking or running gait, the fin member moves into a folded position, thus reducing the resistance of the water on the aquatic device. The aquatic device is adaptable and modifiable to have varying shapes, designs, sizes, resistance levels, and/or other aspects.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to an aquatic device for use in an aquatic environment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Swimming appliances with extended fins for propelling a swimmer faster and more efficiently through the water have existed for years. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,745,280 discloses a devise having a fin or blade attached to the bottom of each foot. The device cooperates with the movement of the feet up and down in the water to propel the swimmer, similar to the function of a fish's tail.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,094,532 discloses a swimmer's appliance or shoe that employs a blade or fin coupled to a sole piece. A coiled spring and flexible cords cooperate to control the movement of the blade as the water pressure on the blade fluctuates during swimming. For this particular swimmer's appliance, the water pressure on the blade increases as the swimmer moves his or her foot forward through the water.
More recently, swimming appliances have been developed, not with the goal of making the swimmer go faster in the water, but with the goal of providing rehabilitative resistance when a wearer of the device moves in the water. U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,647 discloses a platform, a foot restraint attached to the platform, a first side wing pivotally attached to the platform, a second side wing pivotally attached to the platform opposite of the first side wing, a first end wing pivotally attached to the platform between the first side wing and the second side wing, and a second end wing opposite of the first end wing. During downward movement within the water, the wings are extended outwardly to create an increased surface area, which increases the resistance to the downward movement. During upward movement within water, the water pressure collapses the wings to make the device more hydrodynamic and thus reduce the resistance to the upward movement. The described device is a water rehabilitation device that mimics the up and down resistance of a stair-stepper machine without the bodily impacts and forces.
At least one drawback of the aforementioned appliances is that they only provide a training or rehabilitative benefit to the person as long as the person is either swimming or moving their legs directly up and directly down (i.e., stair stepping) in the water. This restricted range of motion limits the types of training and/or rehabilitative activities that can be done in the water. Consequently, it would be desirable to provide a training and/or rehabilitative device that could be used in combination with or as an alternative to other types of swimming appliances while providing a variety of new and different ways to train and/or do rehabilitative therapy in the water.

Variable resistance aquatic device and methods of using the same


A photographing optical lens assembly includes, in order from the object side to the image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element, a fifth lens element and a sixth lens element. The first lens element, the second lens element and the fourth lens element have positive refractive power. The third lens element has refractive power. The fifth lens element has negative refractive power. The sixth lens element with refractive power has an image-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof and having at least one convex shape in an off-axis region thereof. An object-side surface and an image-side surface of the sixth lens element both are aspheric. Both of an absolute value of a focal length of the fourth lens element and that of the fifth lens element each are greater than those of the other lens elements.

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a photographing optical lens assembly, an image capturing unit and a mobile device, more particularly to a photographing optical lens assembly and an image capturing unit applicable to a mobile device.
Description of Related Art
In recent years, with the popularity of mobile terminals having camera functionalities, the demand of miniaturized optical systems has been increasing. The sensor of a conventional optical system is typically a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) or a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) sensor. As the advanced semiconductor manufacturing technologies have allowed the pixel size of sensors to be reduced and compact optical systems have gradually evolved toward the field of higher megapixels, there is an increasing demand for compact optical systems featuring better image quality.
A conventional optical system employed in a portable electronic product mainly adopts a five-element lens structure. Due to the popularity of mobile terminals with high-end specifications, such as smart phones, tablet personal computers and wearable apparatus, the requirements for high resolution and image quality of present compact optical systems increase significantly. However, the conventional optical systems cannot satisfy these requirements of the compact optical systems.
Other conventional compact optical systems with six-element lens structure enhance image quality and resolution. However, in order to keep the optical system compact, the refractive power of the first lens element and the refractive power of the second lens element are enhanced. Therefore, it is unfavorable for correcting the aberration of the optical system, thereby leading to worse image quality.

Photographing optical lens assembly, image capturing unit and mobile device


A communication network element or part and a method for operating a communication network part are disclosed. The communication network part includes a first layer for transferring signalling information assigned to a telephone call being processed in the network and a second layer for transferring payload information assigned to the telephone call. An interface couples the network to a further network and includes a signalling information exchange function and user or payload information exchange function between the network and the further network. The second layer generates an information frame which includes user information of the telephone call being transferred to and from the interface on a direct route assigned to the telephone call within the second layer and selectively suppresses the transfer of an information frame within the second layer if the information frame does not include any user information.

There have been significant attempts more recently, to couple and to integrate a mobile cellular telephone network, for instance, a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) network that is generally a circuit switched network to a another kind of network, known as a packet switched network, for instance, an internet protocol network or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) network, wherein call information is transferred in the form of "packets" between the called member and the calling member and vice versa. The packet switched network uses several different ways or through-connections to transfer the packets between the users, whereas in the circuit switched world, for instance, the GSM network, a through-connection is established within the network and, as long as the through-connection is maintained, the whole call information including signalling and payload information is transferred via the through-connection in the circuit switched network between the users.
A through-connection in a communication network that comprises, for instance, a GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) network or a similar cellular telephone network and packet switched network being coupled with each other by interface means, is established in the conventional cellular telephone network via a base transceiver station, a base station controller and a mobile services switching centre to the interface that in turn is coupled to the internet protocol network or packet switched network.
Each node in a packet switched network which processes the payload information causes some delay in the payload transfer. Further, the transport of payload information over a combined circuit switched network with packet switched network requires high bandwidth for every allocated channel. It means that in some cases 64 kbps for every channel has to be allocated, which causes a significant waste of transmission resources. This means the known architecture of the GSM telephone network is deficient in some respects, or not very well suited for coupling to a packet switched network. The present invention intends to overcome the foregoing disadvantages of GSM networks.

Handling of circuit-switched data services in IP-based GSM networks


A method, system or computer usable program product for authenticating a fingerprint by aggregating samples on a digital touch screen including capturing multiple data samples of a finger swipe across the touch screen, wherein the touch screen is used both for fingerprint recognition and manipulation of a user interface; utilizing a processor to aggregate the multiple data samples to form a combined sample fingerprint of the finger; and responsive to detecting the combined sample fingerprint matching a predetermined allowed fingerprint, providing a signal indicating the fingerprint is authentic.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to utilizing a touch screen as a biometric device, and in particular, to a computer implemented method for authenticating a fingerprint by aggregating samples with a touch screen.
2. Description of Related Art
Biometrics refers to the field of technology where an individual is identified using biological traits. Biometrics has been utilized to verify or otherwise authenticate the identity of a user for security purposes such as for controlling access to devices or information. Many types of biometrics may be utilized such as facial recognition, voice recognition, retinal and iris recognition, and fingerprints.
The identification of an individual by fingerprints, known as dactyloscopy, dates back as far as the Babylonians, but did not become commonplace until the 20th century. The use of digital fingerprints to identify an individual by a computer or other computing device is much more recent, and is a growing field of technology. However, there are many barriers to the acceptability of this technology including speed, accuracy and cost.

Utilizing a touch screen as a biometric device

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The invention provides a high-quality SiC single-crystal substrate, a seed crystal for producing the high-quality SiC single-crystal substrate, and a method of producing the high-quality SiC single-crystal substrate, which enable improvement of device yield and stability. Provided is an SiC single-crystal substrate wherein, when the SiC single-crystal substrate is divided into 5-mm square regions, such regions in which dislocation pairs or dislocation rows having intervals between their dislocation end positions of 5 μm or less are present among the dislocations that have ends at the substrate surface account for 50% or less of all such regions within the substrate surface and the dislocation density in the substrate of dislocations other than the dislocation pairs or dislocation is 8,000/cm2.

SiC semiconductors utilizing SiC single-crystal are viewed as promising candidates for next-generation power devices to replace Si transistors. Applications as substrates for blue light-emitting diodes and laser diodes are also expected.
In addition to being physically and chemically stable, SiC single-crystal is a material that can withstand high temperature and radiation. It is therefore thought to have potential for application as an environment-resistant semiconductor material. Moreover, SiC power devices are also attracting attention, particularly as energy-saving devices, because the power loss in the device can be reduced greatly in comparison with that in a conventional Si device.
However, no crystal growth technology has yet been established that can provide a stable supply of high-quality SiC single crystal of large surface area on an industrial scale. SiC has therefore not been put to extensive practical use in spite of being a semiconductor material having the numerous merits and high potential explained in the foregoing.
As a currently available method for obtaining high-quality SiC single crystal of relatively large diameter, there is known the modified Lely process, which conducts sublimation recrystallization using an SiC single-crystal substrate as a seed (Yu. M. Tairov and V. F. Tsvetkov, Journal of Growth, vol. 52 (1981) pp. 146-150). Owing to its use of a seed crystal, this process can control the crystal nucleation process and, by controlling the ambient inert gas pressure, can control crystal growth rate with good reproducibility. The modified Lely process makes it possible to grow SiC single crystal while controlling its polytype (6H, 4H etc.), carrier type and concentration. Currently, 2-inch (about 50 mm) to 3-inch (about 75 mm) SiC single-crystal wafers are being produced by the process, processed into substrates and subjected to epitaxial thin film growth and device fabrication.
However, current commercially available SiC single-crystal substrates have many quality problems, and crystal quality improvement is essential for making SiC single crystal and SiC single crystal devices suitable for practical use in the future.
Elimination of the leak current and other unstable characteristics arising in the SiC semiconductor is indispensable for realizing high-performance SiC power devices with stable characteristics. The cause of the unstable characteristics is thought to be related to the quality of the SiC single-crystal substrate. The degradation of the quality is thought to be caused mainly by crystallographic defects formed in the substrate, namely, micropipe defects, dislocation defects and the like. Various efforts have been made regarding micropipe defects, particularly with regard to reducing them, and fabrication of substrates with no micropipes has been reported to be possible. However, methods available for reducing dislocation defects are almost all ones that rely on special processes such as converting the growth crystal surface, as taught by, for example, Japanese Patent Publication (A) Nos. H5-262599, H8-143396, and 2003-119097, and no simple industrially effective means is known.
Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. H5-262599 teaches a method for obtaining good quality SiC single crystal. Specifically, it teaches that in a sublimation recrystallization process for growing SiC single crystal on a seed crystal of an SiC single-crystal substrate, it is effective to use as the seed crystal one composed of SiC single crystal in which a crystal plane at an offset angle of about 60° to about 120° from the {0001} plane is exposed. Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. H8-143396 teaches a method in which a first SiC single crystal is grown using as a first seed crystal a crystal plane of an SiC single crystal inclined about 60° to about 120° from the {0001} plane, a wafer having a {0001} plane is newly taken from the first SiC single crystal, and crystal is grown using the new wafer as a second seed crystal. Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2003-119097 teaches a method of producing low-defect crystal. In each of a first growth process, (n−1)th growth process, and nth growth process, a different crystal plane is cut, and cut as a seed crystal that is grown.
In the case of producing a final device, the general practice is to use a plane near the {0001} plane, and in the sublimation recrystallization processes, which fundamentally always grow crystal on a seed crystal, it is considered that the methods, which all cut a different plane, grow it as a seed, and again conduct final growth on the {0001} plane, are unsuitable as processes intended for mass production.
As a result, the situation today is that the market is being supplied with almost no products of a dislocation density lower than 8,000/cm2.
Moreover, although device properties are thought to be affected by dislocation pairs, dislocation rows and the like formed during growth near the {0001} plane by convergence of dislocations believed to be formed at high temperature owing to interaction between displacements, no effective method of suppressing them has been reported.
Evaluation of SiC single crystal is set out in The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, Electronic Materials Research Group, Document No. EFM-88-24, p. 24, Sep. 5, 1988. According to this reference, examination of a crystal for defects by molten KOH etching causes many etch pits to occur in correspondence to the dislocations.

SiC single-crystal substrate and method of producing SiC single-crystal substrate


In a method of producing a chassis control arm, at least one end of a blank is provided with at least two webs which are arranged in spaced-apart relation and define a clearance there between. Each of the webs is formed with a bearing opening, with the bearing opening of one web and the bearing opening of the other web aligned in coaxial relation to provide a bearing zone. A bearing sleeve is placed into the bearing openings, and the bearing sleeve is peripherally expanded at least in one region such as to project radially into the clearance. The at least one peripheral expansion can be formed to directly abut at least one of the webs in an axial direction.

The present invention relates to a method of producing a chassis control arm for use in a vehicle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
A chassis control arm, also referred to as transverse link or simply control arm, finds application in the automotive industry as part of the wheel suspension to connect the wheel with the vehicle body and to ensure a guiding of the wheel with certain degrees of freedom. The control arm is provided with a bearing for swingable securement of the control arm to the body or to a wheel carrier. Control arms of this type may be made from blanks of formed steel sheets or formed extrusion profiles and are provided with bearing openings for receiving a bearing, for example a rubber-metal bearing, via which the control arm is connected to a wheel carrier or body or subframe of a vehicle.
It would be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved method of producing a chassis control arm and to provide a chassis control arm to obviate prior art shortcomings and to ensure a lastingly firm seat of the bearing.

Method of producing a chassis control arm, and control arm for a vehicle


An airborne money exchange and point of sale system including a support located within an aircraft and containing at least one good for sale which is associated with a machine readable product code, and multi-purpose financial services apparatus mounted on the support including a computer including a display, the computer being programmed to perform money exchange and point of sale functions, the computer including a user input interface enabling a user to select money exchange and point of sale functions, a product code reader suitable for reading the product code and providing a product input to the computer, and a banknote acceptor operative to accept banknotes in a plurality of currencies and providing a payment input to the computer, the computer being operative in response to the product input and the payment input and to user selection of the product input function for computing change due to a purchaser of a product in a first currency, and the computer also being operative in response to the payment input and to user selection of the money exchange function for computing an exchange payment due to a person changing money in a second currency.

The use of computer controlled machines to perform financial transactions such as recording sales transactions, dispensing cash, and to changing money from one currency to another has become widespread in recent years. Such machines are normally dedicated to a single one of these functions and are generally located at fixed locations, such as outside banks or in shopping centers.
Applicant/assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,768 is believed to be representative of the state of the art.
The disclosures of all publications mentioned in this specification and of the publications cited therein are hereby incorporated by reference.

Apparatus and methods for providing financial services


A device is capable of connecting to both a WLAN and a cellular data network. Preference is given to using the WLAN. However, prior to connecting to the WLAN, the cellular data network is used to connect to a remote portal from which the device receives parameters to connect to the WLAN. The portal initiates prompts to receive the WLAN parameters that it provides to the device. Upon successfully connecting to the portal the device deactivates the cellular data connection. Upon there being network path errors on the preferred network connection, the device is capable of activating the secondary cellular data connection to the portal to report errors.

Increasing numbers of devices are being deployed on home networks by users with little networking or computer expertise. Many such devices do not have a keyboard or display, yet the device may require certain configuration information in order to access the local network. For example, in order to access a WLAN (Wireless LAN) a device must be configured with the service set identifier (SSID) of the network so that it accesses the proper network. Moreover, it is prudent for WLANs to be secured, yet this requires devices to be configured with the network's password.
Even after they are configured and the device successfully connects to the WLAN, challenges remain for the deployment of these networked devices. There may be various network errors, sometimes as simple as the local network going down. In another example, the local network may remain up, but the device may suddenly find that it cannot access the network. In yet other examples, the connection to the internet may be down or a remote server itself may be down.
Due to increasing number of devices being deployed and also their increased importance, there is a continuous desire for methods that ease their deployment and management.

Device management using a secondary cellular data connection


A method for the simultaneous and quantitative, flow cytometric analysis of nucleated red blood cells (NRBC), white blood cells (WBC), damaged white blood cells and a white blood cell subclass differential (WBC/Diff) is provided. The method includes mixing an aliquot of a whole blood sample with a reagent system comprising a red blood cell (RBC) lysing component which lyses RBCs and NRBCs while minimizing damage to WBC cellular membranes and a membrane-impermeant nucleic acid stain which stains exposed NRBC nuclei and damaged WBCs, subjecting the stained aliquot to flow cytometric light measurements, obtaining at least one signal for the parameters of fluorescence (FL) and scattered light at a first and a second range of scatter angles, qualifying the obtained signals using AND/OR logic wherein to be qualified, a signal must be greater than the second scatter signal threshold AND also greater than either the first scatter signal threshold OR the FL threshold, constructing a three-dimensional plot of qualified intensity signals of fluorescence and scattered light from the detected signals, and differentiating the NRBC, WBC, damaged WBC and WBC/Diff from the constructed three-dimensional plot and determining the number of cells of each.

This invention relates to a method for the simultaneous and quantitative analysis of damaged white blood cells (WBC), nucleated red blood cells (NRBC) and white blood cell sub-populations (WBC/Diff). More particularly this invention relates to differentiating WBC, NRBC, damaged WBC a WBC subclass differential (WBC/Diff) in a whole blood sample by the use of multi-dimensional light scatter and fluorescence analysis and a lysing reagent capable of lysing red blood cells (RBC) without damaging WBC cellular membranes.
NRBC counts are conventionally determined by means of blood smear morphology. A stained blood smear is examined under the microscope and the NRBC are manually counted. In general, an NRBC concentration is reported as number of NRBC per 100 white blood cells ("WBC"). Normally, 200 WBC and the number of NRBC present in the same region on a patient blood smear are counted and the numbers are divided by 2 to express the NRBC concentration as the number of NRBC/100 WBC. The major drawback to this type of manual microscopic method is that it is very labor intensive, time-consuming, subjective and inaccurate due to poor statistics. Therefore, an accurate automated NRBC method has long been sought after by pathologists and laboratory technicians.
A major problem in automating a NRBC method for use on a clinical flow cytometer has been that since NRBC are rare events and RBC populations are so numerous, NRBC populations are not easily detected among the red blood cell ("RBC") population by either the differences in the cell's electrical resistivity (impedance measurements) or its light scattering characteristics (optical measurements). Although many attempts have been made to count NRBC among WBC populations, instead of among RBC population, these efforts have not generally been successful.
NRBC populations are not easily distinguished from WBC populations since NRBC do not form a well defined cluster among the WBC in the usual two dimensional space differentiation methods utilized on flow cytometers. One is usually not able to separate NRBC populations from the lymphocyte populations when the detected signals are viewed on the generally accepted, two-dimensional light scatter (forward vs. side) or light scatter vs. absorption, dot plots. The signals from the majority of the NRBC population is usually mixed in with the signals for RBC stroma and platelets ("PLT"), and the upper-end of NRBC cluster most often will extend into the space occupied by the lymphocyte population.
Automated clinical hematology instruments, such as the Technicon H*1.RTM., Coulter STK.RTM. S and Abbott Cell-Dyn.RTM. 3000 and 3500 instruments only "flag" samples for the possible presence of NRBC if the sample dot plot shows increased noise signals below the lymphocyte cluster. This type of flagging very often produces false positive results since the elevated noise level could be due to PLT clumps, giant PLT or incompletely lysed RBC. In addition, it is extremely difficult to obtain an accurate Total WBC count and WBC Differential ("WBC/Diff") on samples containing NRBC because of the interference. Additionally, blood smears of the flagged samples must be examined and counted under the microscope by a skilled technician to obtain accurate WBC differential and NRBC counts. This is a very labor-intensive and subjective process.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, the identification and quantitation of damaged cells among intact cells in a sample may be of importance for accurate characterization of cell populations exhibiting spontaneous cell death or cells affected by cytotoxic agents or cancer drugs. Nonviable cells may bind antibodies or other cellular markers non-specifically, and therefore should be identified and quantified in immuno-phenotyping as well as from hematology analysis.
In vivo, there are two different forms of cell death: apoptosis and necrosis. Apoptosis, the term introduced by Kerr et al., is a genetically programmed cell death which takes place during metamorphosis, embryogenesis, and morphogenesis. neutrophils undergo apoptosis during the inflammatory reaction, lymphocytes in the regulation of the immune system. Cell injury due to a variety of agents including chemotherapeutic cytotoxic insults may also lead to apoptosis. Apoptosis has also been demonstrated in premalignant and malignant tissues. During the process of apoptosis, the cell membrane remains intact and the cell breaks into apoptotic bodies which are then phagocytosed. Necrosis, or accidental cell death, on the other hand, occurs in response to harmful insults such as physical damage, hypoxia, hyperthermia, starvation, complement attack and chemical injury. These cells lose ability to selectively permeate extracellular materials and leak, finally losing their plasma membrane. Cells that have lost plasma membrane integrity become permeable to external compounds such dyes that normally will not penetrate the intact cell membrane are considered to be "nonviable" or damaged. Damaged cells which have lost their plasma membrane integrity also do not function metabolically.
In vitro, a similar phenomenon, cell death, occurs as a blood sample ages or during cell preparation procedures that damage the cell prior to flow cytometric analysis. Current cell preparation procedures subject the cells to a long process including labelling cells with monoclonal antibodies (Mab), lysing of red blood cells (RBC) and fixing of the white blood cells (WBC) to prevent further destruction.
The combination of 90.degree. and forward light scatter techniques have been used in the art to discriminate damaged cells from intact cells. It has been found however, that light scatter alone is not sensitive enough to clearly separate and quantitate the damaged or nonviable cells from the viable or intact cells. This is particularly true if a sample contains heterogenous cell populations such as a blood sample. Use of a fluorescent nucleic acid stain in addition to multi-angle light scatter dramatically increases the sensitivity of the detection for dead cells.
Currently a variety of techniques exist utilizing light scatter and fluorescence techniques for determining whether a cell in a sample is intact or damaged. According to the art viable, intact cells can be distinguished from dead cells by using either fluorescein diacetate (FDA) or propidium iodide (PI). In these methods, the sample is treated with either FDA or PI. The cells which stain with FDA are considered viable and the cells which stain with PI are considered "dead". However, these methods are limited in that the cells cannot be fixed since fixed cells generate autofluorescence. In addition, fluorescein, which is a product of FDA post hydrolysis by intracellular esterase, is so bright that it overwhelms the immunofluorescence signals from other stains such as FITC or phycoerythrin (PE).
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,661,913 and 4,284,412 describe methods of differentiating WBC subpopulations by light scatter analysis on a flow cytometer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,110 describes a method of differentiating heterogenous leukocyte populations by immuno-phenotyping using a combination of light scatter and fluorescence. Each of the above described methods require manual sample preparation and incubation time much too long to be incorporated on a rapid multi-parameter hematology analyzer of today. Additionally, these references do not appear to teach how to discriminate damaged cells from intact cells.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,188, to Valet, describes a method which is based on the principle that cellular components can be stained by dyes and measured simultaneously with cell volume, for example in a flow cytometer. According to the patent a complete blood count can be produced within a few minutes. In this method, a blood sample is manually prepared by a procedure that comprises the steps of: making a 1:250 dilution of the sample with buffered isotonic saline; adding 5 microliters of a predetermined concentration of a stock solution which contains a fluorescent RNA/DNA stain, a fluorescent membrane-potential-sensitive stain, fluorescing monodisperse calibration particles and an organic solvent in which the dyes dissolve; and incubating the mixture at room temperature for 3 to 5 minutes. The dyes are stored in an organic solvent such as DMSO or DMF as a stock solution and only a very small amount of these stock dye solutions are added directly to the cell suspension to stain the cells. The prepared cell suspension is then aspirated through flow cytometer flow cell for measurement. In this method, a DNA/RNA stain is used. This DNA/RNA stain is either acridine orange (AO), quinacrine (QA), or pyonine Y (PY) and the membrane-sensitive stain is 3,3-dehexyl-oxacarbocyanine (DiOC6). Additionally, at least one additional stain is used, being selected from the group of: cell protein stains; lipid stains; enzyme stains; intracellular pH stains; and SH group stains. The methodology of Valet, as described in this patent: 1) is not fully automatable because of the step required for manual addition of a very small volume of dye dissolved in organic solvents; 2) is relatively long, as the amount of time necessary to complete the blood cell counts; 3) requires at least two dyes to characterize the blood cell this may produce a problem of quenching; 4) the requirement of making a 250 fold dilution of a blood sample does not provide enough WBC's to produce statistically satisfactory results unless the counting time is much prolonged; 5) does not demonstrate that it is possible to separate monocytes, eosinophils and basophils, suggesting that the teachings of Valet can only produce an incomplete WBC differential results (only two WBC subpopulations, granulocytes and lymphocytes, are shown in the figures and examples).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,413, to Terstappen, discloses a flow cytometric method for discriminating between intact and damaged cells. In this method both intact and damaged cells in a sample are stained. The teachings of Terstappen are based upon the principle that there is a sufficient difference in the fluorescent intensity of the stained intact cells and that of damaged cells. A further stated objective of the disclosure is to use the differentiation methods of the art in conjunction with monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) fluorescently labelled with FITC or PE to simultaneously identify cellular antigens, intact cell and damaged cells, wherein the peak emission spectra of each fluorescent label must be distinguishable from each other and from a nucleic acid dye. In this method, RBC's are lysed with ammonium chloride for 3 to 5 minutes, and centrifuged at 200 g for 5 minutes. The pellet was washed twice with RPMI 1640 culture medium, each time centrifuging at 200 g for 5 minutes. And then the cells were resuspended in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) with 1% bovine serum albumin (BSA). When Mabs are added to the sample, incubated 20 minutes on ice, the cells were washed twice with the PBS solution and the cells were resuspended in 1 ml of 1% paraformaldehyde in PBS. A stock solution of LDS-751 was made in methanol and the working solution was prepared by diluting the stock solution in PBS. Ten microliters of this working solution is added to the prepared cell suspension. In another experiment, unfixed WBC's, post ammonium chloride lyse of RBC's, were resuspended and kept in RPMI solution for 1 hour before analysis in order to obtain optimal light scattering properties of the cells.
The Terstappen method has several problems in that may variable in the fixation process, such as temperature, concentration of the fixative(s) and the duration of the fixation, can change the permeability of the cell membrane and thus the intensity of the staining. The hard fixed, originally intact cells may have the same staining intensity as that of the hard fixed, damaged cells since the DNA content of all cells of the same individual is the same (proliferating hyperploidy tumor or leukemic cells are exceptions). In addition, if any DNA fragmentation occurs at the late stage of cell death, then the damaged cells will contain less DNA and the staining intensity will decrease. The Terstappen method is also long and cumbersome making it an difficult, if not impossible to incorporate onto a fully automated hematology instrument of today. The results reported in the patent also indicate that a large portion of the damaged cells may have occurred during the required long and torturous sample preparation procedure.
Recently, U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,426, issued on Mar. 29, 1994, to Inami et al. for the detection of NRBC. This patent teaches a two-step method comprising the staining of WBC and NRBC by specific nuclear stains. In this patented method, a blood sample is first mixed with an acid hypotonic solution containing a fluorescent nuclear dye. Then, a solution comprising an alkaline salt buffer, to adjust pH and Osmolarity, is mixed with the sample/first reagent solution. This final solution is then loaded into a flow cytometer to detect and count NRBC along with other nucleated cells.
There are several reasons why the Inami et al. approach is not acceptable, especially for an automatable method. First, an acidic-hypotonic solution damages all cell membranes making the WBC leaky and therefore selective staining of NRBC nuclei by a nuclear stain is not possible. There are no known dyes which stain only NRBC nuclei and not WBC nuclei since the nuclear material (DNA) is the same. The nuclear stain claimed by Inami et al., is Propidium Iodide, a commonly used nucleic acid stain.
Additionally, the Inami et al. method does not separate or distinguish the fluorescent signals of the NRBC nuclei from that of other nuclear remnants such as Howell-Jolly Bodies, Basophilic Stippling, RNA from lysed reticulocytes and reticulated platelets, and DNA from WBC and Megakaryocytic fragments. Third, the Inami et al. method requires that the sample be pretreated, off-line, using several reagents to "prep" the sample before the prepped sample/reagent solution can be loaded into the instrument.
The problems in the existing art described above have been resolved in the present invention.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an accurate method of distinguishing damaged WBC's from intact WBC's, and for rapidly quantitating the WBC differential (WBC/Diff), NRBC's, and damaged WBC's in a whole blood sample.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a fully automatable method for distinguishing damaged WBC's from intact WBC's, and for rapidly quantitating the WBC/Diff, NRBC's, and damaged WBC's in a whole blood sample.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an automated method for distinguishing damaged WBC's from intact WBC's, and for rapidly quantitating the WBC/Diff, NRBC's, and damaged WBC's in a whole blood sample and for immuno-phenotyping.

Method for simultaneous analysis of cell viability, nucleated red blood cells and white blood cell differentials


A vehicle includes a vehicle wheel, a vehicle frame and an adjustment mechanism configured to move the vehicle wheel relative to the vehicle frame. The adjustment mechanism includes a cam stud and a cam spacer. The cam stud extends at least partially through the vehicle frame. The cam spacer is rotationally fixed to the cam stud. Rotating the cam spacer moves the vehicle wheel relative to the vehicle frame.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure and is not necessarily prior art.
A vehicle includes wheels that can be aligned relative to a vehicle frame to improve performance of the vehicle. Each wheel can be coupled to a link, which, in turn is coupled to a vehicle frame via an adjustment mechanism. The adjustment mechanism can be actuated to align the vehicle wheel. The adjustment mechanism needs to be accessed from both sides of the link (or vehicle frame), which facilitates assembly and adjustment of the adjustment mechanism. The teachings of the present disclosure provides an adjustment mechanism that allows for assembly and adjustment from a single side of the link (or vehicle frame).


A communication method can include the step of establishing a communication session between two endpoints based upon the real-time transport protocol (RTP). During the communication session, discrete packets containing digitally encoded audio can be exchanged between the two endpoints resulting in a continuous audio flow being established in real-time between the two endpoints. During the communication session, one or more of the two endpoints can convey RTP data to a remotely located RTP audio processor. The RTP data can include information necessary for the RTP audio processor to establish an audio stream with the one of the two endpoints that did not convey the RTP data to the RTP audio processor. The RTP audio processor can establish the audio stream without terminating the communication session between the two endpoints.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of media communications, and, more particularly, to a Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) processing component that performs one or more audio processing tasks during an RTP-based communication system between two communication endpoints.
2. Description of the Related Art
Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) is an Internet-standard protocol for the transport of real-time data, including audio and video. RTP is used in virtually all Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) architectures, for videoconferencing, media-on-demand, and other applications. RTP can be used over multicast or unicast network services. RTP is an end-to-end transport protocol that provides services such as payload type identification, sequence numbering, time stamping, lost packet detection, timing reconstruction, and delivery monitoring. When RTP is used to stream video, a video server can maintain session states in order to correlate requests with a stream. Unlike the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) that is basically an asymmetric protocol where a client issues requests and a server responds, RTP allows both a video server and client to issue requests to the other.
Conventional implementations of RTP can establish full duplex audio streams between a video server and a caller, where the streams are transmitted over an Internet-protocol (IP) network through a VOIP gateway. During transmission, RTP audio can be compressed, decompressed, packetized, depacketized, and otherwise processed. These processing activities consume CPU cycles, network bandwidth, and utilize Input/Output ports of numerous computing devices of the IP network through which the audio is conveyed. Because RTP is a real-time protocol where packet transfer rates for audio packets of approximately 20 milliseconds between sender and receiver can be necessary, timely delivery and processing of the streamed audio can be essential.
Using conventional techniques, resource scarcity is common at the server and the client endpoints participating in the RTP communication. Intermittent resource shortfalls can result in quality compromises that can be perceived at either end of the transmission. A technique is needed that permits clients and video servers to utilize the RTP in a fashion where resource shortfalls can be gracefully accommodated.

Real time transport protocol (RTP) processing component

International Business Machines Corporation