A vane assembly for a gas turbine is described wherein the vane assembly comprises a first vane and a second vane connected together by a plurality of flanges, at least one fastener, and at least one spring plate. The fastener and hole diameters in the respective flanges are sized such that the first vane and second vane are essentially pinned together along their inner flanges and allowed to adjust due to thermal growth along their outer flanges, while maintaining a constant seal along both inner and outer platform edges. The thermal growth along the outer flanges is made possible by oversized flange holes relative to the diameter of the fastener.

A gas turbine engine typically comprises a compressor, combustion system, and turbine, for the purpose of compressing air, mixing it with a fuel and igniting this mixture, and directing the resulting hot combustion gases through a turbine for creating propulsive thrust or rotational energy used for electrical generation. Turbine sections comprise a plurality of stages, where each stage includes a row of stationary airfoils followed by a row of rotating airfoils, where the row of stationary airfoils direct the flow of hot combustion gases onto the row of rotating airfoils at a preferred angle. The rotating airfoils of the turbine are driven by the pressure load from the hot combustion gases passing along the airfoil surface. While the rotating airfoils, or blades, are each individually attached to a turbine disk, which thereby allows each blade to move as necessary due to thermal gradients. However, stationary airfoils, or vanes, are often times manufactured in doublets or triplets, where two or three airfoils are interconnected by common platforms, which also serve as radial seals, such that hot combustion gases cannot leak out of the turbine and are directed towards the turbine blades, thereby increasing the overall turbine efficiency. An example of a prior art turbine vane doublet in accordance with this design is shown in FIG. 1. Turbine vane 10 includes a first airfoil 11, second airfoil 12, each of which are fixed to inner platform 13 and outer platform 14. A plurality of these vane doublets are assembled together in the engine case to form a stage of stationary airfoils.
While this arrangement is desired to prevent leakage of hot combustion gases into the region of turbine cooling air, often times adjacent turbine vane airfoils 11 and 12 have different operating temperatures and temperature gradients depending on the flow of hot combustion gases onto the vane airfoils. These temperature gradients are further affected by the cooling fluid passing through the airfoil section. As a result of this multi-vane configuration, the airfoils cannot respond as individual components thus creating high thermal stresses in vane assembly 10 resulting in severe cracking of airfoils 11 and 12 in a relatively short period of time.
What is needed is a turbine vane assembly arrangement that provides the sealing benefit of a multi-vane configuration while allowing individual airfoils to respond to varying thermal gradients.


An elevator governor capable of setting first overspeeds different between a rising time and a descending time by a simple configuration and at a low cost without the need for electric power supply from the outside. For this purpose, a weight that is moved in a predetermined direction by receiving a centrifugal force according to a travel speed at the rising time and the descending time of a car, an elastic body urged by movement of the weight having received the centrifugal force, and an actuating device actuates a stop switch when the weight having received the centrifugal force moves to a predetermined position against an urging force of the elastic body are provided, and also a switching device driven by the rising/descending operation of the car is provided. By the switching device, the length of the elastic body at the time when the actuating devices actuates the stop switch is switched to a length different according to the rising/descending direction of the car.

An elevator has a governor that constantly monitors the rising/descending speed of a car and emergency stops the car when the car falls into a predetermined overspeed state. Specifically, when the rising/descending speed of the car exceeds the rated speed and reaches a first overspeed (usually, about 1.3 times the rated speed), the governor shuts off the power supply of a driving device for driving the car and the power supply of a control unit for controlling the driving device. Also, when the descending speed of the car exceeds the first overspeed and reaches a second overspeed (usually, about 1.4 times the rated speed) from any cause, the governor activates a safety gear device provided on the car to emergency stop the car mechanically.
On the other hand, in the case where the rated speed at the descending time must be equal to or lower than a predetermined value due to the restriction of shaft pit depth, in the case where the rated speed at the descending time cannot be increased to restrain a sense of discomfort caused by sudden pressure fluctuations in the car at the time of high-speed operation, or in the like cases, it is also demanded that the elevator be provided with rated speeds different between the rising time and the descending time. To meet such a demand, there has also been proposed a governor capable of providing first overspeeds different between the rising time and the descending time (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1 describes the following governors as specific examples.
(1) A governor in which a fly ball type governing mechanism and a fly weight type governing mechanism each having a different first overspeed are provided, and when the elevator car rises, the fly ball type governing mechanism in which the first overspeed is set on the low speed side is separated by a clutch mechanism.
(2) A governor in which two fly weight type governing mechanisms having different first overspeeds are provided, and when the elevator car rises, one governing mechanism in which the first overspeed is set on the low speed side is separated by a clutch mechanism.
(3) A governor in which two fly ball type governing mechanisms having different first overspeeds are provided, and when the elevator car rises, one governing mechanism in which the first overspeed is set on the low speed side is separated by a clutch mechanism.
(4) A governor in which one governing mechanism is provided with a stop switch that is actuated at the first overspeed on the high speed side and a stop switch that is actuated at the first overspeed on the low speed side, and when the elevator car rises, the stop switch set to the low speed side is inactivated by an electric circuit.
(5) A governor in which a moving mechanism for moving the position of a stop switch according to the rising/descending direction of the car is provided, and when the elevator car rises, the stop switch is placed so as to be actuated at the first overspeed on the high speed side, and when the elevator car descends, the stop switch is placed so as to be actuated at the first overspeed on the low speed side.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-327241

Elevator speed governor and elevator device


A semiconductor device in which mutual diffusion of doped impurities occurring through an upper silicide electrode layer is prevented. A silicide electrode layer is doped with both the same degree of p-type impurities as the concentration of p-type impurities of the lower gate electrode layer and the same degree of n-type impurities as the concentration of n-type impurities. As a result, the concentration of doped impurities of the gate electrode layer is balanced at the two sides of the interface of the pMOS side and nMOS side. Therefore, heat diffusion caused by subsequent heat treatment is prevented and the problem of mutual diffusion can be solved. The present invention is also suitable for the SALICIDE process. Even when the silicide electrode layer is formed simultaneously on an extremely shallow source or drain region, since the concentration of the impurities of the silicide electrode layer was initially high, the lower impurities will not be drained so the contact resistance will not be made to deteriorate. As a result, it becomes easy for the SALICIDE process to be applied to submicron devices. In the method of production of the present invention, the silicide electrode layer is formed by the CVD method or the sputtering method and the impurities doped during this process, so no special step has to be provided for introducing the impurities.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of production of the same, more particularly the present invention relates to a so-called dual gate construction complementary metal oxide (CMOS) semiconductor device which has both a p-type conductivity and n-type conductivity and prevents mutual diffusion of impurities doped into the gate electrodes and to a method of production of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
At the present time, many CMOS large-scale integrated circuits (LSI) adopt a "polycide" gate electrode structure comprised of a high melting point metal silicide layer and a polycrystalline silicon layer so as to reduce the resistance of the gate electrodes. The above-mentioned polycrystalline silicon layer normally is the same in conductivity at the pMOS side and the nMOS side. As such a polycrystalline silicon layer, use is made for example of an n-type polycrystalline silicon layer doped with phosphorus etc. to a high concentration.
The difference in the work function between n-type polycrystalline silicon and the silicon substrate side however differs depending on whether the conductivity of the substrate side is the n-type or the p-type. Further, the difference in the absolute values of the threshold values (Vth) of the PMOS side and nMOS side is also large. Therefore, before forming the gate electrodes, boron or other p-type conductivity impurity ions are injected into the surface of the semiconductor substrate forming the channel region so as to preadjust it so that the absolute values of the threshold values of the nMOS and pMOS sides become substantially the same.
Accordingly, a MOS transistor fabricated by this method is a surface channel type at the nMOS side and is a buried channel type with a shallow pn junction and a channel somewhat to the inside of the substrate from the surface at the pMOS side.
The higher degrees of integration achieved in recent years, however, has led to shorter lengths of gate electrodes even in CMOS LSIs. Along with this, suppression of the short channel effect has become a major problem.
In such current day CMOS LSIs, it has long been pointed out that buried channel type pMOSs are particularly susceptible to the short channel effect. This has become a major problem along with the advances made in shortening gate lengths. To overcome this problem, it is desirable to make both the pMOS and nMOS sides the surface channel type. Therefore, dual-gate electrode constructions giving the same conductivity for the channels and gate electrodes have come into use.
In such a surface channel type dual-gate electrode construction, a p-type or an n-type impurity is selectively doped into the lower layer of polycrystalline silicon separately for the pMOS side and nMOS side. These different conductivity impurity regions are connected with each other through a tungsten silicide (WSi.sub.x) or other silicide electrode layer provided at the top for reducing the resistance.
In the above-mentioned surface channel type dual-gate electrode construction, however, the later heat treatment such as the annealing for activating the source and drain regions causes the doped impurities with the different conductivities to diffuse in the lateral direction toward the opposite conductivity gates primarily through the upper silicide electrode layer. If this mutual diffusion occurs, this changes the work functions of the gate electrodes and causes a shift in the threshold voltages (Vth) which had been adjusted so give substantially the same absolute values. The so-called depletion of the gates causes an increase in the value of the static capacitance and obstructs the high speed operation of the LSI.
Various proposals have been made to deal with this.
For example, IEEE 1994 Symposium on VLSI, Digest of Technical Papers, pp. 117-118, describes a method of changing the composition of the silicide electrode layer (WSi.sub.x layer) on the gate electrodes to make the silicon concentration higher.
Further, Fujii et al., Spring 1994 41st Seminar on Applied Physics, Preprints of Papers, No. 2, p. 675, "Effect of Suppression of Lateral Diffusion of As by PolySi/WSix/PolySi Construction", described a method of forming a further polycrystalline silicon layer on the WSi.sub.x layer to form a PolySi/WSix/PolySi construction.
These methods, however, merely improve the construction or characteristics to make it difficult for the impurities to diffuse in the WSi.sub.x layer, that is, the path of diffusion of the impurities. They cannot really be said to fundamentally overcome the disadvantage of the occurrence of mutual diffusion. Accordingly, if higher degrees of integration are achieved and annealing conditions become further severer, there is a chance that this disadvantage will arise again.
Further, in the former method of changing the composition of the WSi.sub.x layer, the sheet resistance rises in value along with the increase of the ratio of the silicon. This is not desirable for a semiconductor device.

CMOS semiconductor device having dual-gate electrode construction and method of production of the same


A polymer comprising repeat units having formula (1) wherein R1 and R2 are hydrogen or C1-C12 alkyl, or R1 and R2 may bond together to form a ring, and R30 is hydrogen or methyl is used to formulate a resist protective coating material. A protective coating formed therefrom on a resist film is water-insoluble, dissolvable in alkali aqueous solution or alkaline developer, and immiscible with the resist film so that the immersion lithography can be conducted in a satisfactory manner. During alkali development, development of the resist film and removal of the protective coating can be simultaneously achieved.

In the recent drive for higher integration and operating speeds in LSI devices, the pattern rule is made drastically finer. The photolithography which is currently on widespread use in the art is approaching the essential limit of resolution determined by the wavelength of a light source. As the light source used in the lithography for resist pattern formation, g-line (436 nm) or i-line (365 nm) from a mercury lamp was widely used. One means believed effective for smaller the feature size is shorter the wavelength of exposure light. For the mass production process of 64 M-bit dynamic random access memory (DRAM, processing feature size 0.25 μm or less), the exposure light source of i-line (365 nm) was replaced by a KrF excimer laser having a shorter wavelength of 248 nm. However, for the fabrication of DRAM with a degree of integration of 256 M and 1 G or more requiring a finer patterning technology (processing feature size 0.2 μm or less), a shorter wavelength light source is required. Over a decade, photolithography using ArF excimer laser light (193 nm) has been under active investigation. It was expected at the initial that the ArF lithography would be applied to the fabrication of 180-nm node devices. However, the KrF excimer lithography survived to the mass-scale fabrication of 130-nm node devices. So, the full application of ArF lithography started from the 90-nm node. The ArF lithography combined with a lens having an increased numerical aperture (NA) of 0.9 is considered to comply with 65-nm node devices. For the next 45-nm node devices which required an advancement to reduce the wavelength of exposure light, the F2 lithography of 157 nm wavelength became a candidate. However, for the reasons that the projection lens uses a large amount of expensive CaF2 single crystal, the scanner thus becomes expensive, hard pellicles are introduced due to the extremely low durability of soft pellicles, the optical system must be accordingly altered, and the etch resistance of resist is low; the postponement of F2 lithography and the early introduction of ArF immersion lithography were advocated (see Proc. SPIE Vol. 4690 xxix).
In the ArF immersion lithography, the space between the projection lens and the wafer is filled with water. Since water has a refractive index of 1.44 at 193 nm, pattern formation is possible even using a lens with NA of 1.0 or greater. Theoretically, it is possible to increase the NA to 1.44. The resolution is improved by an increment of NA. A combination of a lens having NA of at least 1.2 with ultra-high resolution technology suggests a way to the 45-nm node (see Proc. SPIE Vol. 5040, p 724).
Several problems associated with the presence of water on resist were pointed out. For example, profile changes occur because the acid once generated from a photoacid generator and the amine compound added to the resist as a quencher can be dissolved in water. The pattern collapses due to swelling. It was then proposed to provide a protective coating between the resist and water (see the 2nd Immersion Workshop, Jul. 11, 2003, Resist and Cover Material Investigation for Immersion Lithography).
In the lithography history, the protective coating on the resist layer was studied as an antireflective coating. For example, the antireflective coating on resist (ARCOR) process is disclosed in JP-A 62-62520, JP-A 62-62521, and JP-A 60-38821. The ARCOR process involves forming a transparent antireflective coating on top of a resist film and stripping it after exposure. Despite its simplicity, the process can form a micropattern at a high degree of definition, precision and alignment. When the antireflective coating is made of perfluoroalkyl compounds (e.g., perfluoroalkyl polyethers or perfluoroalkyl amines) having a low refractive index, the light reflection at the resist/antireflective coating interface is minimized so that the dimensional precision is improved. In addition to these materials, the fluorinated materials proposed thus far include amorphous polymers such as perfluoro(2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxol)-tetrafluoroethylene copolymers and cyclic polymers of perfluoro(allyl vinyl ether) and perfluorobutenyl vinyl ether as disclosed in JP-A 5-74700.
Because of their low compatibility with organic substances, the foregoing perfluoroalkyl compounds must be diluted with fluorocarbon solvents such as Freon for controlling a coating thickness. As is well known in the art, the use of fluorocarbons now raises an issue from the standpoint of environmental protection. The perfluoroalkyl compounds are awkward to form uniform films, and are not regarded satisfactory as antireflective films. Additionally, the antireflective films must be stripped with fluorocarbon solvents prior to the development of photoresist. These factors lead to serious practical disadvantages including a need to add an antireflective film-stripping unit to the existing system and the increased cost of fluorocarbon solvents.
If the antireflective film is to be stripped without adding an extra unit to the existing system, it is most desirable to carry out stripping in the development unit. The solutions used in the photoresist development unit are an alkaline aqueous solution as the developer and deionized water as the rinse. It would be desirable to have an antireflective coating material which can be readily stripped with such solutions. For this reason, there were proposed a number of water-soluble antireflective coating materials and patterning processes using the same. See, for example, JP-A 6-273926 and Japanese Patent No. 2,803,549.
The water-soluble protective coatings, however, cannot be used in the immersion lithography because they are dissolved away in water during light exposure. On the other hand, water-insoluble fluoro-polymers pose a need for special fluorocarbon strippers and an exclusive stripping cup for fluorocarbon solvents. It was thus desired to have a resist protective coating which is water insoluble, but can be readily stripped.
Studies have been made to use methacrylate polymers having hexafluoroalcohol groups as a resist protective coating for the immersion lithography because of their alkali solubility and high water repellency (see Journal of Photopolymer Science and Technology, Vol. 18, No. 5 (2005) p 615-619). For example, JP-A 2003-040840 describes acrylate derivatives having hexafluoroalcohol. JP-A 2005-316352 describes resist protective coatings using (meth)acrylate or norbornene derivatives having hexafluoroalcohol.
There exists a demand for a resist protective coating which is more hydrophobic and alkali developable.
Another problem is that the resist undergoes changes in sensitivity while it is held in vacuum for a long time during electron beam exposure for mask image writing or the like. The resist sensitivity changes due to evaporation of the acid generated during image writing, evaporation of vinyl ether produced by deprotection of acetal protective groups by the acid, or the like, as discussed in JP-A 2002-99090. Resists for use with mask blanks must be stable for several months after coating. It is desired to have a resist for use with mask blanks which remains stable in the environment.

Polymer, resist protective coating material, and patterning process


The present invention is directed to a bipolar ion detector capable of detecting both positive and negative ions in a single configuration. The invention uses either a single microchannel plates or a stack of microchannel plates to convert the ion signal into an amplified electron signal. Circuitry allows the anode to be biased (floated) to a positive high voltage and efficiently couple the signal from the anode out to recording electronics at ground.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bipolar ion detector. More specifically, it relates to a bipolar ion detector capable of detecting both positive and negative energetic ions in a single configuration, without the need to change the electrical configuration, or use electro-optical isolation, to switch from detecting one polarity to detecting the other.
2. Description of the Related Art
A microchannel plate (MCP) detector consists of a two-dimensional array of very small diameter glass capillaries or channels, also called pores, which are fused together and sliced into a thin plate. A single incident particle, which may be an ion, electron, photon, etc., enters a channel. Upon impact with a channel wall, the collision dislodges an electron. The dislodged electrons are accelerated by an electric field developed by a voltage applied across both ends of the MCP. They travel until they strike the channel wall, thus producing more secondary electrons, with the cascade process yielding a cloud of several thousand electrons, which emerge from the rear of the plate. If two or more MCPs are operated in succession, a single input event will generate 100 million or more electrons at the output. The output signals are detected in a number of ways, including metal or multimetal anodes, resistive anode, wedge and strip anode, delay-line readout, and others.
Such standard MCP ion detectors are typically used to detect positive ions, due to the way in which they are electrically biased. For positive ions, the collection anode can be at ground potential which makes it very easy to electrically couple to high speed electronics. For negative ions, the entire analyzer has to be floated to high negative voltage or the anode must be floated to a high positive voltage (or a combination of both). Neither of these methods is easy to implement, thus stimulating a need to modify this design for the detection of both positive and negative ions.
In order to detect both positive and negative ions in a single detector, present technology utilizes electro-optical isolation. In this approach, ions enter the detector through a wire mesh grid where they are generally post-accelerated into the face of a MCP. The MCP serves to convert the ions into electrons. The primary electrons are multiplied as they move down the pores of the MCP where the gain is controlled by the voltage difference across the MCP. The electrons exit the MCP and are further accelerated by an electric field into a scintillator plate. The scintillator plate serves to convert the electrons into photons, where the gain of the conversion process is controlled by the voltage difference between the scintillator plate and the rear of the MCP. Then the photons are detected by a photomultiplier tube (PMT), with the gain on the PMT being controlled by the voltage applied to the PMT.
While these ion detectors accomplish their intended purpose, they suffer from a number of drawbacks. For the first standard MCP detector described above, it is necessary to change the electrical bias of the detector in order to switch between detection of positive and negative ions. The second technique of electro-optical isolation requires an intermediate step of using a scintillator plate to convert the ions into photons, then directs the photons into a PMT, which converts the photons back to electrons at ground potential. The hardware necessary to do this usually adds undesirable complexity, weight and length to the detector.
A related aspect of these designs is the use of post-acceleration to draw the ions into the front face of the MCP. The use of post acceleration makes it necessary to change the electrical configuration of the unit to accommodate the detection of positive and negative ions.
In order to overcome these problems, what is needed is a bipolar ion detector, which permits direct conversion of the ion signal into an amplified electron signal, without the need for changing the electrical bias or using electro-optical isolation, thus addressing and solving problems associated with conventional systems.


A focus detecting device includes a plurality of focus detecting systems each having a condenser lens, an aperture stop with pairs of apertures, a reimaging optical system, and light receiving element arrays. The pairs of apertures in the aperture stop are arranged in different directions. The magnifications, focal length and principal points of the reimaging optical systems differ from one another such that images are reformed on the same plane. Thus, the focus detecting device extends the focus detecting area, improves the focusing accuracy, and allows focus detection irrespective of the directions of contrast.

a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a focus detecting device for use in cameras.
b) Description of the Prior Art
As an example of conventional focus detecting devices, an arrangement is made such that an image formed by a photographic lens is divided into two by a reimaging optical system, which are re-formed on light receiving element arrays (photoelectric converting element arrays), and the positional shift of the two images is detected, thereby allowing focus detection to be made. For such a device, various proposals have been made in the past as set forth, for example, in Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication Nos. Sho 55-118019, Sho 58-106511, and Sho 60-32012. Any of these proposed devices is adapted to use light receiving element arrays in a line for focus detection and has the following characteristics.
In a focus detecting (optical) system, the size of a focus detecting area is usually incompatible with focusing accuracy. That is, the light receiving element array is such that light receiving elements are generally arrayed at equal spaces and, when the space between two light receiving elements adjacent to each other is taken as one pitch, focusing accuracy is usually represented as a measure relative to one pitch. Now, when focusing accuracy is assumed to be 1/M (M is a constant) of one pitch and the amount of defocus per pitch at the image plane is taken as .alpha., a focusing accuracy .DELTA. at the image plane is defined as EQU .DELTA.=.+-.(1/M).alpha. (1)
Here, if the value .DELTA. is large, focusing accuracy will be poor, while if it is smaller, focusing accuracy will be improved.
When the number of light receiving elements of the light receiving element array is taken as N (constant), a detectable defocus area Z at the image plane is given by EQU .SIGMA.=.vertline..+-.N.alpha..vertline. (2)
Here, if the amount of defocus is increased, the focus detecting area .SIGMA. will be large but the focusing accuracy .DELTA. will be poor. Conversely, if the amount of defocus .alpha. is decreased, the focusing accuracy .DELTA. will be improved but the focus detecting area .SIGMA. will be diminished, and thus both are incompatible with each other. Hence, the use of the devices of the above mentioned prior art makes it impossible to satisfy the conditions of the focus detecting area and the focusing accuracy at once and to perform complete focus detection.
Further, the conventional device of the type is constructed so that light receiving element arrays are made in a line as a focus detecting system and the amount of defocus of the photographic lens is detected from contrast information only in one direction of an object corresponding to the light receiving element arrays, with the result that focus detection cannot be performed with respect to an object having no contrast in the directions in which the light receiving elements are arrayed.
In order to obviate these drawbacks, a focus detecting device provided with a plurality of focus detecting systems, which will be described below, is proposed. An example of such a device is shown in Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication No. Sho 63-88511. This focus detecting device is designed so that the extension of the focus detecting area and the improvement of the focusing accuracy are satisfied at once and focus detection can be effected irrespective of the directions of contrast of the object.
FIG. 1 shows a camera body, on the bottom of which a focus detecting device 1 is arranged. FIG. 2 shows an optical arrangement of the focus detecting device 1 including two focus detecting systems A and B perpendicular to each other. For these systems, FIG. 3 depicts the focus detecting system A, and FIG. 4 the focus detecting system B, perpendicular to the focus detecting system A, in a state where the system B is rotated 90.degree. about the optical axis with respect to FIG. 3. In the figures, for the focus detecting device 1, a condenser lens 5 is disposed behind and adjacent to a preset imaging plane 4 of a photographic lens 2, and an aperture stop 6 is disposed behind the condenser lens 5 as shown in FIG. 5, two pairs of apertures are punched in aperture stop 6 in directions perpendicular to each other, and two apertures having a space sufficient to ensure focusing accuracy for each pair. A separator lens 7 is disposed behind the aperture stop 6 and has two pairs of reimaging lenses perpendicular to each other, and as illustrated in FIG. 6 corresponding to individual apertures. Behind the separator lens 7, two pairs of light receiving element arrays 8 and 9 are disposed in directions normal to each other. As shown in FIG. 7, light receiving element arrays 8 and 9 are disposed at imaging positions of individual beams of light emerging from the separator lens 7. Individual light beams passing through the apertures of the aperture stop 6 are independent of one another. The two focus detecting systems A and B perpendicular to each other consist of a first focus detecting system A and a second focus detecting system B, respectively. The amounts of defocus to be detected in terms of the first and second focus detecting systems A and B are determined as follows: EQU D.sub.1 =(F.sub.W1 /.beta..sub.1) P.sub.1 ( 3) EQU D.sub.2 =(F.sub.W2 /.beta..sub.2) P.sub.2 ( 4)
where D.sub.1 is the amount of defocus to be detected in the first focus detecting system A, D.sub.2 is the amount of defocus to be detected in the second focus detecting system B, P.sub.1 is the amount of phase difference of the images on the light receiving element arrays 8 of the first focus detecting system A, P.sub.2 is the amount of phase difference of the images on the light receiving element arrays 9 of the second focus detecting system B, .beta..sub.1 is the imaging magnification of the first focus detecting system A, .beta..sub.2 is the imaging magnification of the second focus detecting system B, F.sub.W1 is the F number of the barycentric beam to be detected in the first focus detecting system A, and F.sub.W2 is the F number of the barycentric beam to be detected in the second focus detecting system B. Here, the term "barycentric beam" means the light beam defined by rays passing through the center of each aperture of the aperture stop.
In Equations (3) and (4), the amounts of defocus D.sub.1 and D.sub.2 are determined by properly setting the F numbers F.sub.W1 and F.sub.W2 and the magnifications .beta..sub.1 and .beta..sub.2 of the first and second focus detecting systems A and B. Then, in connection with Equations (1) and (2), for example, the first focus detecting system A can be constructed as an optical system which is somewhat low in focusing accuracy but large in detectable defocus area, while the second focus detecting system B as another optical system which is smaller in focus detecting area but higher in focus accuracy. Thus, the focus detecting device can be derived which satisfies the conditions of the extension of the focus detecting area and the improvement of the focusing accuracy at once. In this optical system, however, the positional relationships between the primary imaging plane 4, the condenser lens 5, the separator lens 7, and the light receiving element arrays 8 and 9 and the configuration of the condenser lens 5 are the same in the first and second focus detecting systems, because the imaging magnifications .beta..sub.1 and .beta..sub.2 must be equal in order to dispose the light receiving element arrays on the same plane. For this purpose, it is required that the difference between the F numbers F.sub.W1 and F.sub.W2 is increased to fully satisfy the conditions of the extension of the focus detecting area and the improvement of the focusing accuracy at once. If the first focus detecting system A has low contrast in the directions of the light receiving element arrays, focusing can be performed by the second focus detecting system B.
For at least one of the plural focus detecting systems, according to this suggestion, two beams leaving the photographic lens for entering a pair of light receiving element arrays 8, as shown in FIG. 8, are incident at different angles .theta..sub.B and .theta..sub.C on a quick-return mirror 10 constructed from a half mirror. The two beams are therefore subjected to different refracting actions, and the spectral transmittance of the half mirror varies with the incident angle, so that the characteristics of spectra incident on the sensors for the two beams are also different. This makes it impossible to effect accurate focus detection. On the contrary, Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication Nos. Sho 63-118112 and Sho 64-56407 each propose the method of correcting the different refracting actions attributable to the half mirror by designing the separator lens asymmetrically. Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication No. Hei 2-132407 discloses the technique of evaporating a dielectric multilayer film such that the spectral transmittance of the half mirror does not vary with the incident angle.
By the means mentioned above, the focus detecting device can be designed which satisfies the conditions of the extension of the focus detecting area and the improvement of the focusing accuracy at once. Further, the focus detecting device detectable, irrespective of the directions of contrast of the object, can be constructed. Provisions have also been made for the difference between the refracting actions and the variation of the spectral transmittance of the half mirror with the incident angle where two beams are incident at different angles on the quick-return mirror using the half mirror. The method of configuring the separator lens asymmetrically, however, requires correction for errors produced on assembling the optical system in order to cancel securely the different refracting actions caused by the quick-return mirror and the disadvantage in manufacture and assembly of the optical system. When the separator lens of plural focus detecting systems is integrally constructed in particular, this tendency becomes pronounced. In order that the spectral transmittance of the half mirror does not vary with the incident angle, it is necessary to be severe on the tolerance of thickness of the dielectric multilayer film. Nevertheless, the variation of the spectral transmittance with the incident angle cannot be made to vanish completely.
Another detecting device satisfying the condition of both the focus detecting area and the focusing accuracy is proposed by Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication No. Sho 63-264715. The optical system shown in FIG. 9 is directed to a focus detecting device in which two focus detecting systems are juxtaposed which is based on a TTL phase difference technique used in one embodiment of the proposed device. In this figure, a half mirror 11 for splitting an optical path and a reflecting mirror 11' are placed behind the condenser lens 5. On the optical path reflected from the half mirror 11 are arranged in order an aperture stop 12 having a pair of apertures Juxtaposed, normal to the plane of the figure, at a distance sufficient to ensure focusing accuracy; a pair of reimaging lenses 13 located behind the apertures; and light receiving element arrays 14 placed at imaging positions of beams of light passing through the reimaging lenses 13. On the optical path transmitted through the half mirror 11 and reflected from the mirror 11', on the other hand, are arranged in order an aperture stop 15 having a pair of apertures juxtaposed, normal to the plane of the figure, at a distance sufficient to ensure focusing accuracy; a pair of reimaging lenses 16 constructed integral with, but different in location from, the reimaging lenses 13; and light receiving element arrays 17 situated at imaging positions of beams of light passing through the reimaging lenses 16.
An optical system lying on the optical path reflected from the half mirror 11 is to be the first focus detecting system A and another optical system lying on the optical path reflected from the mirror 11' is to be the second focus detecting system B. In this case, the amounts of defocus to be detected in terms of the focus detecting systems A and B are calculated from Equations (3) and (4) mentioned above.
Even in the case where the light receiving element arrays 14 and 17 are arranged on the same plane, the focus detecting device, unlike the prior art device early described (JP 63-88511), is designed to be able to set arbitrarily the spaces between the condenser lens 5 and the reimaging lenses 13 and 16, and between the reimaging lenses 13 and 16 and the light receiving element arrays 14 and 17, respectively, so that the imaging magnifications .beta..sub.1 and .beta..sub.2 can be made different from each other.
However, in the type of focus detecting devices such as JP 63-88511, the magnifications of the first and second focus detecting systems A and B need to be made equal and hence, must be intended for the extension of the focus detecting area and the improvement of the focusing accuracy according to the difference between the F numbers F.sub.W1 and F.sub.W2 of the barycentric beams. If the difference between the F numbers F.sub.W1 and F.sub.W2 is largely set, the F number of the photographic lens will be excessively small which is detectable in the focus detecting system intended for the improvement of the focusing accuracy, of the two focus detecting systems, and the photographic lens will be strictly limited in application. Alternatively, it is necessary to reduce the sizes of the apertures of the aperture stops in the focus detecting systems, with the resultant defect that a sufficient amount of light is not introduced to the light receiving element arrays and focus detection becomes difficult or impossible with respect to the object of low luminance.
Judging from the constructions the inventor worked out as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, if the directions of the light receiving element arrays 14 and 17 of the focus detecting systems A and B are different, focus detection can be performed irrespective of the directions of contrast of the object. But the inventor found out that this constructions had defects as stated below.
Although the preceding problem is obviated because the difference between the magnifications is brought about by the two focus detecting systems, the images of the two focus detecting systems are formed farther away from each other and hence the area required for all the light receiving elements increases. Consequently, the defects are developed that the favorability of the light receiving elements is reduced and oversizing of the entire focus detecting system is brought about to adversely affect the compactness of the camera. Further, the mechanism is complicated and the assembly is incomplete, since adjustments are required for the half mirror 11 splitting the optical path into two focus detecting systems A and B and for the focus detecting systems A and B.


A slide disc seal for use in a roll of a paper or board making machine or finishing apparatus, which roll comprises a stationary axle (1) and a rotatable shell (2) with an end element (8) at each end and bearing elements (3) at each end of the roll. The slide disc seal comprises a circular sliding surface (10) on the end element (8), a chamber (18) on the other of the components (1) placed axially on the area of the sliding surface (10) and extending radially in relation to the sliding surface (10), and a ring-shaped sliding seal disc (15) having an inner edge, an outer edge and a lip seal (16) on one of the edges, the seal disc (15) being slidingly fitted within the chamber (18) so that the edge having the lip seal (16) is against the sliding surface (10) and the other edge of the seal disc (15) is within the chamber (18).

Several types of rolls are needed in paper making industry and oftentimes heavy loads are applied on the rolls. The load on the elements changes for several reasons and pulsates because of the rotation of the element. This causes displacements between the roll and the elements carrying the roll, and in some cases there is even need to move the axle of the roll in relation to the housing of the bearing element or an other frame element carrying the roll. If roller or ball bearings are used, the the sealing requirements are not as high as those of the seals of the slide bearings since the oil flow and pressure is less than in roller and ball bearings. In pressurized slide bearings, pressurized oil is pumped between the sliding surfaces, and the oil flows are notable. The pressure of the oil is normally low outside the bearing, but may in some cases exceed the normally used oil pressure in a lubrication oil circulation.
At present, most dynamic seals available allow some movement in radial or axial direction, but few designs allow combination of both movements at the same time, and the movements are usually limited to a few millimeters. However, in highly loaded rolls, the axles of the rolls bend during operation, and both radial and axial displacement occurs due to the angular displacement of the ends of the roll. Radial and axial displacement may occur also for different operational reasons, for example in some novel designs the position of the slide bearing within the bearing box may be changed to control a nip or gap formed by two adjacent rolls. When the position of the axle of the roll changes, its position in the bearing box changes, thereby causing the clearance between the axle and its seat in the bearing box to change. Presently available seals cannot accommodate such changes if displacements are large.
One known sealing structure for sealing the ends of rolls having a rotating shell mounted on slide bearings comprises a slide ring seal that is pressed against the end wall of the end plate of the roll shell by a spring loaded piston. The sealing structure also comprises a ring-formed conventional lip seal mounted on the end wall of the roll shell, and a backing ring. The backing ring forms a sliding surface for the rotating lip seal, and the ring is attached to the sliding ring seal, whereby the piston of the ring seal presses the backing ring against the lip seal and contact between the lip seal and the backing ring is maintained. The sealing contact is maintained during the radial movement between the roll shell and the roll axle by a wide sliding surface of the backing ring. This arrangement provides a reasonably wide radial movement area over which a good seal is maintained. However, the axial movement area is only a few millimeters and is determined by the movement range of the piston loaded ring seal. The ring seal has to be very precisely set against its sliding surface on the end plate of the roll shell. Therefore, the movement of the ring seal is limited. Especially angular movements of the roll axle are problematic to the ring seal and the lip seal that are attached together in the above described manner, since if the angle of the end plate changes in relation to the ring seal the backing ring attached to the ring seal may detach from the lip seal. Angular displacement may even cause the ring seal to loose its sealing contact.
As described above presently available seal constructions do not allow simultaneous relative movement in an axial and radial direction of two rotating components. However, in modern paper making machines such movents do occur in several elements, for example in rolls of film transfer coaters.

Slide disc seal arrangement for a roll of a paper making or finishing machine or the like


Endovascular stents capable of being cut from a flat piece of material are described. The endovascular stents may be bioabsorbable, multilayered and may have structural configurations allowing them to maintain low profiles in vivo. Methods of manufacturing endovascular stents and methods of using endovascular stents are also described.

Balloon angioplasty is a medical procedure to widen obstructed blood vessels narrowed by plaque deposits. The procedure may be used in coronary or peripheral arteries. In an angioplasty procedure a catheter having a special inflatable balloon on its distal end is navigated through the patient's arteries and is advanced through the artery to be treated to position the balloon within the narrowed region (stenosis). The region of the stenosis is expanded by inflating the balloon under pressure to forcibly widen the artery. After the artery has been widened, the balloon is deflated and the catheter is removed from the patient.
A significant difficulty associated with balloon angioplasty is that in a significant number of cases the artery may again become obstructed in the same region where the balloon angioplasty had been performed. The repeat obstruction may be immediate (abrupt reclosure) which is usually caused by an intimal flap or a segment of plaque or plaque-laden tissue that loosens or breaks free as a result of the damage done to the arterial wall during the balloon angioplasty. Such abrupt reclosure may block the artery requiring emergency surgery which, if not performed immediately, may result in a myocardial infarction and, possibly, death. This risk also necessitates the presence of a surgical team ready to perform such emergency surgery when performing balloon angioplasty procedures. More commonly, a restenosis may occur at a later time, for example, two or more months after the angioplasty for reasons not fully understood and which may require repeat balloon angioplasty or bypass surgery. When such longer term restenosis occurs, it usually is more similar to the original stenosis, that is, it is in the form of cell proliferation and renewed plaque deposition in and on the arterial wall.
Various types of endovascular stents have been proposed and used as a means for preventing restenosis. The stents typically are tubular devices capable of maintaining the lumen of the artery open. The stent is placed inside the blood vessel after the angioplasty has been performed. A catheter typically is used to deliver the stent to the treated arterial region.
A number of patents have issued pertaining to various types of endovascular stents. Kreamer (U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,207 issued Apr. 26, 1988) discloses a radially expandable tubular stent having a latch mechanism by which a free longitudinal edge of the stent engages a longitudinally extending retaining ledge. The retaining ledge protrudes inwardly from the inner surface of the stent adjacent the opposite, free longitudinal edge of the stent. The stent has several disadvantages. First, the retaining ledge of the latching mechanism protrudes into the lumen of the stent, causing at least some obstruction to blood flow through the stent. Second, the bulk of the latching mechanism increases the profile (effective diameter) of the device when in the radially collapsed configuration. It is important for the collapsed stent to have a minimal collapsed profile allowing for easier advancement of the stent through tortuous or small diameter arteries. Third, that type of stent must be molded from a polymer in a procedure such as injection or compression molding, both of which have severe restrictions.
Such stents formed by injection molding may have wall thicknesses of the order of 0.010 inches to about 0.012 inches. Such wall thicknesses may occupy a significant portion of the lumen of the artery thereby causing potential difficulties in placement of the stent as well as potential reduction in the flow area through the artery. Additionally, such injection molded stents may require a reduction in the molecular weight of the polymer from which the stent is formed which may enhance the brittleness of the stent. Further, the injection molding process may cause warping or distortion of the stent.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,733,665; 4,739,762 and 4,776,337 to Palmaz disclose another type of expandable intraluminal vascular stent which, in an unexpanded configuration, can be mounted over the balloon on the distal end of a dilatation catheter. Expansion of the balloon causes a corresponding expansion of the stent. The stent is formed from metal and constructed to deform plastically and yieldably so that the stent will remain in its permanently deformed state after removal of the balloon.
European Patent Application 382,014 (Sigwart) discloses an intravascular stent in the form of a lattice-like member rolled into a small diameter spiral around the balloon of a catheter. It is retained in its small diameter configuration by a holding wire that is woven through the openings in the lattice and which can be pulled to release the rolled lattice so that it can be radially expanded by inflation of the balloon. One edge of the rolled-up lattice is provided with a plurality of outwardly projecting holding flaps that engage the lattice to prevent the device from collapsing after expansion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,771 (Walsten) discloses a stent formed from a tubular braided mesh that is placed in the blood vessel in an elongated contracted configuration and self-expands when released to a larger diameter.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,922 (Wiktor) discloses a helical spring stent for implantation in an artery in which the stent is inserted in a contracted configuration. When released in the artery, the metallic stent springs open to its expanded larger diameter.
German Patent Application Publication No. 3640745 published Jun. 4, 1987 (Strecker) discloses a stent that can be locked in variable diameters in several successive steps.
Although many proposals have been made and considerable research is believed to have been undertaken to develop a satisfactory endovascular stent usable as an adjunct to angioplasty, no effective, satisfactory and generally accepted endovascular stent is believed to have been developed. Accordingly, there remains a need for such an effective device.


An image processing apparatus includes a first input unit which scans an original image and generates a first image signal, and a second input unit which inputs a second image signal from an external apparatus. An edition unit performs an edition by combining the first and second image signals, and a color gamut mapping device performs a color gamut mapping on an input image signal. An image forming device forms a color image according to the color gamut mapped image signal, wherein the edition is executed by the edition unit before the color gamut mapping is performed by the color gamut mapping device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method for performing a color space compression.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, a color space compressing technique has been considered for converting input color signals to optimum color signals in a color reconstructing range in which an original expressed by the input color signals, including signals out of the color reconstructing range of an output device, can be reconstructed by the output device.
The conventional color space compressing technique, however, has a problem such that a desired color space compression based on various input image signals cannot be efficiently processed at a high speed together with a series of other image processes such as input, edition, output and the like of the image signal.
In a case where color space compression is performed, there is a problem due to the input color signals being converted, a feature of an image is changed and it is impossible to judge at a high fidelity of an original in judging processes such as black character judgment, pattern recognition, judgment about black and white/color of the original and the like.


An apparatus and method for translating a virtual address to a physical address utilizing an address translation unit implemented within a network interface card is described. The address translation unit of the present invention is utilized in a computer system. The computer system comprises a first bus; processors with embedded caches and memory coupled to the first bus; a second bus; a network logic coupled to the second bus, wherein the network logic includes an address translation unit; and a bus bridge coupled to the first bus and to the second bus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of data transfer. More particularly, the present invention relates to the architecture of an address translation unit that is implemented within network logic and a method of using the address translation unit.
2. Description of Art Related to the Invention
For over a decade, a number of system architectures have been developed with input/output ("I/O") devices accessing main memory through direct virtual memory accesses ("DVMAs") using virtual addresses, instead of direct memory accesses ("DMAs") using physical addresses. One advantage associated with DVMA systems has been the simplification of data accesses by the I/O device. For example, I/O devices accessing memory through DMAs ("DMA I/O devices") must be controlled to "scatter" (i.e., allocate) data to a number of potentially discontiguous physical pages as well as to "gather" data. Gathering data that exceeds one page in length is normally accomplished by accessing a group of potentially discontiguous physical pages. In contrast, I/O devices that access main memory through DVMAs ("DVMA I/O devices") do not require such control because data accesses are made through contiguous virtual pages.
Although the DVMA systems simplified this "scatter-gather" problem, these systems required that the virtual addresses issued by the DVMA I/O devices be translated into physical addresses before data could be accessed from main memory. As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional DVMA system 100 utilizes an I/O Memory Management Unit ("I/O MMU"), sometimes referred to as an I/O Translation Lookahead Buffer 110, to translate virtual addresses to physical addresses utilized by main memory 120. As shown, the I/O MMU 110 is implemented within a bridge element 130 that couples an I/O bus 140 and a system bus 150. Normally, the I/O MMU 110 is often configured to contain a limited number "r" of address mappings (e.g., 16 fully-associative entries) to increase system performance with minimal additional costs. Thus, a plurality of I/O DVMA devices 160.sub.1 -160.sub.i ("i" being a whole number, i.gtoreq.2) are restricted to collectively use at most "r" virtual pages without mitigating system performance. If a requested address mapping is not contained within I/O MMU 110, resulting in an I/O MMU "miss", then I/O MMU 110 must engage in a table walk in order to obtain (fetch) the requested address mapping from main memory 120 which contains all potential address mappings. "Table walking" is defined as utilizing sequentially indexed tables in memory in order to find a particular translation. Thus, it may take the I/O MMU 110 much longer to execute a transaction when there is an I/O MMU "miss" compared to a "hit." Thus, overall system 100 performance is degraded when the frequency of I/O MMU misses is high.
With the emergence of multi-media communications, networks are now being required to support multiple data types. As a result, network manufacturers are tending to concentrate their efforts toward asynchronous transfer mode ("ATM") networks. In ATM networks, a large number of virtual channels, perhaps tens or hundreds, can be in operation simultaneously. Hence, if the DVMA system 100 is configured to support an ATM network coupled to I/O network interface logic 170, it would experience significant performance degradation caused by excessive fetching of address mappings from main memory. For example, an ATM link intended to sustain 622 megabits per second ("Mbs") unidirectional may decrease to a rate considerably less than 622 Mbs because of the Network Interface Logic's inability to transfer data to or from memory at that rate with excessive I/O MMU "misses" and resulting table walks.
Hence, it would be advantageous to develop an address translation unit ("ATU") implemented within and operating in cooperation with a Network Interface Card ("NIC") coupled to the I/O bus 140 such that the need for I/O MMU 110 to engage in table walking is mitigated. The NIC is used to interconnect the ATM network environment to the DVMA system.

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) segmentation and reassembly unit virtual address translation unit architecture


A stroller includes a handle, a foldable mechanism securely connected with the handle, a pair of rear supports pivotally connected with the foldable mechanism and a pair of front supports pivotally connected with said foldable mechanism. The foldable mechanism has an upper controlling member having a pivotal switch received therein and a channel for receiving a coil spring therein and a lower controlling member having a stepped engagement surface provided thereon. A stepped engagement surface is formed on the switch such that the stepped engagement of the switch will match with the stepped engagement surface of the lower controlling member and provide a strong construction configuration when the stroller of the invention is in use and therefore is able to prevent accidental collapse when the stroller is receives a great impact.

Strollers having a braking system for parking safely, wheels for steering, and foldable means for storage have been widely used all over the world. By means of the above mentioned improved devices, a user can provide a comfortable environment to a baby and convenience for herself/himself while walking outdoors.
Most of the devices are designed to provide a better environment for babies while walking outdoors, especially on paved roads. Yet, for the reason of convenience of storage, most strollers have foldable mechanisms provided therein, therefore, a user will have no trouble to store the stroller in the trunk of a car while the stroller is no longer in use.
Most foldable mechanisms designed in strollers are provided to have a switch actuating the folding and unfolding process of the stroller. The switch controls two engagement members each respectively configured as an "L" and detachably connected with each other, with one of the two members being in an inverted position. It is to be noted that this kind of connection is not safe for babies especially when the stroller is accidentally in a collision of a great impact. When the stroller receives great impact, the two engagement members of the foldable mechanism of the stroller may thus be accidentally separated from each other and cause a crisis.
From the previous description, it is noted that unless the foldable mechanism is redesigned to have a better connection between the two engagement members, accidents will be inevitable when the stroller receives great impact.
Thus, a stroller constructed in accordance with the present invention tends to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.

Foldable mechanism for use in a stroller


A method of handling device to device communication for a first user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system includes establishing a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection to a network of the wireless communication system; performing a proximity-based services (ProSe) communication with a second UE of the wireless communication system; and transmitting a first message to the network when the first UE detects a radio link failure in the ProSe communication; wherein the first message indicates the radio link failure to the network or requests changing to a UE-to-network communication mode from a ProSe communication mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method utilized in a wireless communication system and communication device thereof, and more particularly, to a method for handling device to device communication in a wireless communication system and communication device thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A long-term evolution (LTE) system supporting the 3GPP Rel-8 standard and/or the 3GPP Rel-9 standard are developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as a successor of a universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) for further enhancing performance of the UMTS to satisfy increasing needs of users. The LTE system includes a new radio interface and a new radio network architecture that provides high data rate, low latency, packet optimization, and improved system capacity and coverage. In the LTE system, a radio access network known as an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) includes multiple evolved Node-Bs (eNEs) for communicating with multiple user equipments (UEs), and communicating with a core network including a mobility management entity (MME), a serving gateway, etc., for Non-Access Stratum (NAS) control.
An LTE-advanced (LTE-A) system, as its name implies, is an evolution of the LTE system. The LTE-A system targets faster switching between power states, improves performance at the coverage edge of an eNB, and includes advanced techniques, such as carrier aggregation (CA), coordinated multipoint transmission/reception (CoMP), uplink (UL) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), etc. For a UE and an eNB to communicate with each other in the LTE-A system, the UE and the eNB must support standards developed for the LTE-A system, such as the 3GPP Rel-10 standard or later versions.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system 10 according to the prior art. The wireless communication system includes a network 100 and two UEs 102 and 104. The network 100 may include one or more eNBs 1002 and 1004 which connect the UEs 102 and 104, respectively. In an LTE or LTE-A system, when two UEs communicate with each other, their data path (user plane) goes via the network, even if the two UEs are in close proximity. For example, when the UE 102 needs to transmit data to the UE 104, the UE 102 sends data via the network 100 and the UE 104 receives data via the network 100. In other words, the network 100 receives data from the UE 102 and transmits data to the UE 104. Such procedure is similar to forwarding operation. The typical data path for this type of communication is shown in FIG. 1, where eNB(s) (e.g. eNBs 1002 and 1004) and/or gateways (e.g. serving gateway/packet data network gateway (SGW/PGW) 1000) are involved. UEs which perform this type of communication are said to be in a UE-to-eNB (i.e. UE-to-network) communication mode. However, when the UE 102 and the UE 104 are in close proximity, forwarding data through the network 100 is unnecessary, which wastes the radio resource and causes signal overhead in the network 100.
The specification of 3GPP Rel-11 defines that if UEs are in proximity of each other, they may be able to use a direct data path or a locally-routed data path to communicate with each other. The UEs which perform this type of communication, i.e. a Proximity-based Services (ProSe) communication or a device to device communication, are said to be in a ProSe communication mode or a UE-to-UE communication mode. In the direct data path, the user plane data between the UEs is not traversing any network node. Examples of the direct data path and the locally-routed data path are shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, respectively.
However, there are some issues regarding the ProSe communication in the prior art. First, for a first UE communicating with a second UE each other via a ProSe communication in a data path and/or a control path and having a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection to an eNB, the first UE may lose communication with the second UE due to radio link problems in the ProSe communication. These radio link problems may happen when, for example, the first UE moves out of transmission coverage of the second UE, or the first UE does not detect any transmission from the second UE. In these situations, the second UE may keep transmitting to the first UE without being aware of this radio link problem and thus drain unnecessary battery power.
Secondly, when a first UE is configured to perform a ProSe communication with a second UE and the first UE has an RRC connection with an eNB, the first UE may encounter a radio link failure or lose communication with the eNB while the first UE still has good radio link with the second UE. In this situation, the first UE may keep communicating with the second UE without the control of the eNB, which causes the first UE to waste power. In addition, the first UE may keep monitoring signal sent by the second UE but cannot receive scheduling command (e.g. uplink grant) from the eNB, which also causes the first UE to waste power. Moreover, the prior art does not deal with the ProSe communication when the first UE recovers the radio link with the eNB.
Thus, how to handle the device to device communication appropriately when a radio link problem occurs is a topic to be addressed and discussed in the industry.

Method of handling device to device communication and related communication device


A semiconductor device includes alignment marks that are aligned with device features. The semiconductor device includes a device feature, a pair of first alignment marks, a pair of second alignment marks, and a pair of third alignment marks. The first alignment marks are aligned along a first direction with the device feature and adjacent to opposite sides of the device feature. The second alignment marks are aligned along a second direction with the device feature that is substantially perpendicular to the first direction, and adjacent to opposite sides of the device feature. The third alignment marks are aligned with the first alignment marks in the first direction and adjacent to opposite sides of the device feature, wherein the third marks are between the first alignment marks and the device feature, and each of the third marks have a shorter length along the first direction than each of the first alignment marks.

Semiconductor memory devices generally include arrays of cells that form memory units. Each of the cells can include a transistor pattern having a gate and source/drain regions. To obtain ever higher integration density in the memory devices, gate lengths and intervals between gates are continuing to be reduced. For example, in some memory-devices the source/drain regions can have a width of less than several tens of nanometers.
The small size of some transistor patterns may cause them to be difficult to observe with an optical microscope. Consequently, it can be difficult to detect and identify a particular failed cell in a memory device. For example, it may not be feasible to optically count numerous small cells in a memory device in an attempt to determine an address of a failed cell. Moreover, when a cell region has failed because of a doping abnormality, such a failure may be difficult to optically observe because the region may appear optically identical to other normal regions.
One approach to analyzing memory cells or other device features is to expose a vertical profile of a cell that is to be analyzed. For example, it can be desirable to obtain a vertical profile of a failed cell address in a memory device by grinding a side face of the memory device to expose regions of the failed cell address. However, it may not be feasibly to optically identify a failed cell address with the memory device, and then to expose regions of that particular cell address so that they may be further analyzed.
A cell region can be inspected with a scanning microscope (SCM). A SCM can include a capacitance sensor and a probe. The capacitance sensor is electrically connected to the probe for measuring a capacitance between the probe and the cell region. The probe and cell region may, for example, have nanometer feature sizes. The capacitance sensor includes a high-frequency oscillator and an electrical resonator. The capacitance, which can have a very low value, is measured by varying a resonance frequency that is based on the capacitance. For example, a high frequency measured signal can be modulated onto a low frequency signal. A differential value of the capacitance relative to a voltage may be measured using a lock-in amplifier. The SCM can measure carrier concentrations and second dimensional doping profiles of the cell regions.
Accordingly, if a failed cell region can be exposed for analysis by a SCM, the doping profiles measured by the SCM may provide an answer as to why the cell region failed.

Methods for exposing device features on a semiconductor device


A self adhering wrapper including a gift box. The gift box has a bottom wall and a top wall. The top wall and bottom wall have a pair of planar vertical long walls with a pair of opposed planar vertical short walls extended therebetween. A sheet of material is included. The sheet of material has a front surface and a back surface, and is sized to conform to the top wall when positioned over the bottom wall. Included is a pressure sensitive adhesive material. The adhesive material is adhered to the back surface of the sheet material, and forms a continuous adhesive frame about the sheet and with a hollow rectangular interior. Wherein the adhesive material when attached to the gift box, wraps around the top wall and over the bottom wall. This causes portions of the adhesive material to engage and attach to portions of the wrapping material for generally detachably securing the sheet of material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self adhering wrapper and more particularly pertains to allowing an item to be placed therein and concealed when the self adhering wrapper is placed in an operable configuration and further allowing reuse of the self adhering wrapper when the adhesive material engages a polymerized strip.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of wrapping material is known in the prior art. More specifically, wrapping material heretofore devised and utilized for the purpose of wrapping a variety of items are known to consist basically of familiar, expected, and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which has been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,638 to Weder discloses a method for wrapping an object with a material having pressure sensitive adhesive thereon. U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,229 to Weder discloses a cling material connected to a portion of the sheet of material so that at least a portion of the cling material extends beyond the outer peripheral surface of the sheet of material. U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,509 discloses a gift wrapping assembly that comprises a box, bow, and ribbon. U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,223 discloses a preformed pot cover package, for slidably receiving a plurality of columns of nested preformed pot covers in slots formed therein. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. Design 272,103 discloses a sheet of gift wrapping paper showing a specific print design.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe self adhering wrapper that is pre-sized and comes with a container and a sheet of material with an adhesive strip for wrapping a variety of items.
In this respect, the self adhering wrapper according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of allowing an item to be placed therein and concealed when the self adhering wrapper is placed in an operable configuration and further allowing reuse of the self adhering wrapper when the adhesive material engages a polymerized strip.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved self adhering wrapper which can be used for allowing an item to be placed therein and concealed when the self adhering wrapper is placed in an operable configuration and further allowing reuse of the self adhering wrapper when the adhesive material engages a polymerized strip. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


A novel head device generally consisting of at least one aperture that is capable of excepting different sizes of safety wire, at least one cam-locking lever, which may incorporate a spring return mechanism, is disclosed. The body may be rotated by a mechanical means which twists the safety wire. In preferred embodiment, the various elements of the safety wire twister device are each configured with means of limiting torque or twists of safety wire to eliminate possibility of over torqueing or twisting of safety wire.

The aircraft industry along with many other industries are required to utilize various forms of safety measures to prevent loosening of critical components such a fastening mechanisms due to vibration or other factors. One of the safety measures employed is the use of safety wire to insure that fasteners, such as cap screws, studs, nuts, bolts, turn buckle screws etc. are safely and securely installed. Examples of such fastening mechanisms are shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B (Prior Art).
The current method of applying safety wire requires a pair of manually operated safety wire pliers, an example of which is shown in FIG. 7C. Unfortunately, this method is time consuming, requires repetitive motion and does not produce consistent results.
To address these and other problems, the embodiments herein are safer, faster, provide consistent results, save valuable time, and provides better application of safety wire, and greatly reduces repetitive-motion, repetitive-stress, and carpal-tunnel types of injuries to mechanics.


Apparatuses, systems, and methods for sketch circuits for refresh binning. The rows of a memory may have different information retention times. The row addresses may be sorted into different bins based on these information retention times. In order to store information about which row addresses are associated with which bins a sketch circuit may be used. When an address is generated as part of a refresh operation, it may be used to generate a number of different hash values, which may be used to index entries in a storage structure. The entries may indicate which bin the address is associated with. Based on the binning information, the memory may refresh the address at different rates (e.g., by determining whether to provide the address as a refresh address or not).

This disclosure relates generally to semiconductor devices, and more specifically to semiconductor memory devices. In particular, the disclosure relates to volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Information may be stored on individual memory cells of the memory as a physical signal (e.g., a charge on a capacitive element). The memory may be a volatile memory, and the physical signal may decay over time (which may degrade or destroy the information stored in the memory cells). It may be necessary to periodically refresh the information in the memory cells by, for example, rewriting the information to restore the physical signal to an initial value.
Different memory cells may lose information at different rates (e.g., different rates of memory decay). To preserve information, the rate at which memory cells are refreshed may be based on the rate of the memory cells with the fastest anticipated information decay. However, this may be inefficient, as some memory cells may be over refreshed, and the memory may spend time refreshing which is not necessary, and which could have been spend performing other functions.

Apparatuses and methods for sketch circuits for refresh binning


An electronic device includes a plurality of layers formed on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The SOI substrate includes a support substrate, a buried insulating layer formed on the support substrate, and a silicon layer formed on the buried insulating layer. A membrane structure of the electronic device includes the plurality of layers, the buried insulating later and the silicon layer but does not include the support substrate. A passivation film covers an upper surface and a side surface of the membrane structure.

In recent years, attention has been drawn to techniques for fabricating a membrane structure using a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, and forming sensors, resonators, and communication devices using such membrane structures. A membrane structure is a thin film element including a silicon layer formed by a portion where a thick support substrate in the SOI substrate is removed. The membrane structure also includes what is called a MEMS element.
Examples of such an electronic device (a gas sensor) having such a membrane structure are described in WO2015/017794 (Patent Document) and 02007/026177 (Patent Document 2). In these gas sensors, a part of a support substrate in an SOI substrate is removed to form a membrane structure including a transistor and a wiring layer, so as to constitute a gas sensor element by the membrane structure.
In the techniques disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the membrane structure is fabricated by patterning a wafer from above and below after a fabricating method equivalent to that of ordinary Si-CMOS is performed, but in the structure at this time, on a side surface of the membrane structure, an interlayer insulating film remains exposed. Since the interlayer insulating film is not only a film for insulating between wiring layers but is also required to reduce a step, a film exhibiting an effect of smoothing a step portion, such as SOG, BPTEOS, BPSG, or the like, is used. On the other hand, such an interlayer insulating film is liable to absorb water components in gas and air, and repeats separation and suction/absorption of gas and water components depending on the temperature.
In this way, when gas or moisture enters through a side surface of the membrane structure during operation of the electronic device, problems possibly occur, such as corrosion of the wiring layers, peeling of the interlayer insulating film, and characteristic fluctuation due to change in motion of the membrane structure. Furthermore, when the interlayer insulating film peels off, the peeling off also leads to destruction of the membrane structure, which adversely affects device reliability.
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an electronic device and a method of manufacturing the same, which can prevent, or at least reduce, entrance of gas and moisture through a side surface of the membrane structure.

Electronic device and method of manufacturing the same


The invention relates to an apparatus (1) for culturing anchorage-dependent cells. The apparatus (1) comprises a housing (2) with an inlet (4) and an outlet (5), and a plurality of culture plates (6) removably stacked within the housing (2). The housing (2) has a circumferential wall (7), a base (8) and a top wall (9). The base (8) comprises the inlet (4) and the top wall (9) comprises the outlet (5). The circumferential wall (7) of the housing (2) defines a longitudinal axis thereof, as well as an inner cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. Shape and dimensions of the inner cross section are essentially uniform along the longitudinal axis. The culture plates (6) are arranged at least essentially parallel to each other. Each plate (6) is mounted and sealed to the circumferential wall (7) of the housing (2). Plates (6) are arranged at a distance from each other. Each culture plate (6) has a through hole (14), so that inlet (4) and outlet (5) are in fluid communication. Each through hole (14) is positioned at an outer end of the respective culture plate (6), proximate the circumferential wall (7). Through holes (14) of adjacent culture plates (6) are distally positioned in the plane of the inner cross section of the housing (2).

Acute liver failure is a disease with a mortality of 60-90% depending on the cause, despite maximal supportive intensive care treatment. Even though liver transplantation remains the main curative option for patients suffering from acute liver failure, it is constrained by cost, donor scarcity and donor compatibility. A high incidence of patients with acute liver failure is dying on the transplantation waiting list. Artificial liver assist devices are particularly useful to sustain patients with acute and chronic liver failure that are awaiting liver transplantation or recovery/regeneration of their liver, but are ideally also capable of improving a patient's condition and converting patients from a non-transplantable to a transplantable state. Such devices ideally have to fulfil a variety of functions such as detoxification, regulation and synthesis of molecules in a manner resembling a healthy liver.
Devices for artificially providing liver functions can be grossly divided into non-biological and biological liver support. Early attempts of treating liver failure focused on non-biological means, using of hemodialysis and/or plasmapheresis for detoxifying the patient's blood through action of adsorption, filtration or centrifugation separation of the blood elements. Such approaches of developing non-biological liver support therapies have, however, yielded only limited or no success. The development of bio-artificial liver devices capable of supporting multiple liver specific functions began to gather speed as advances made in liver biology revealed the liver as a complex organ supporting multiple synthetic and metabolic functions. It thus became clear that replacement of a single hepatic function such as blood detoxification is not sufficient. Recent years have accordingly witnessed the advent of the bioartificial liver assist devices (BLADs) as a promising therapeutic for the treatment of acute liver failure. These BLA-type devices include mammalian cells and serve as an extracorporeal support for liver failure patients. Unlike a membrane-based liver dialysis system that provides passive detoxification treatment for patients with liver failure, BLADs set out to take over most if not all of the liver functions in the patient. This is achieved through the integration of isolated hepatocytes (liver cells) either of allogeneic or xenogeneic origin (e.g. porcine hepatocytes) with the ex vivo perfusion membrane-based bioreactors and perfused with either patients's plasma or blood. By using hepatocytes the BLAD not only performs blood detoxification but also provides liver-synthetic functions. Accordingly, the basic design consideration for BLADs is to ensure the maintenance of cell viability and functions with optimal control of nutrient and gases, coupled with metabolites exchanges, within the bioreactor cell culture.
Currently bio-artificial liver support systems of several alternative designs are either under development or undergoing pre-clinical/clinical trials. These BLADs can be classified into four basic designs according to the method of cells immobilization and the mode of perfusion used: 1) semi-permeable hollow fiber membranes, 2) encapsulations, 3) flatbed, and 4) perfused bed or scaffolds. In these configurations, the cells can be immobilized by Means of a micro-carrier or be seeded in a collagen gel matrix or polymeric scaffold to form a 2D or 3D culture. Among the numerous BLAD designs, the hollow-fiber based liver support system, has been the most intensively studied and reviewed. Hollow fiber based BLAD configurations provide the ease of scaling up and the cells embedded within the hollow fiber are protected from the direct effect of the fluid shear as a result of the semi-permeable hollow fiber membrane. Certain difficulties nevertheless remain with this architecture, such as achieving uniform cell distribution within the luminal or capillary spaces of the hollow fiber and an inadequacy of the oxygen supply to the cell surfaces. The latter problem leads to the buildup of the non-physiological gradients in the bioreactor. In addition, hepatocytes are polarized cells and the liver specific functions are highly depends on cell polarity. During isolation, hepatocytes quickly lose their functions since cell polarity is disrupted. The lack of a cellular microenvironment to re-establish hepatocyte polarity in these configurations results in the deterioration of hepatocyte in vitro functions, thereby compromising the effectiveness of these BLADs.
An alternative architecture used is the flatbed bioreactor, mostly based on monolayer or sandwich culture. Such a design generally provides better control in terms of the uniformity of cell distribution and the regulation of micro environments mimicry of that found in vivo. Hepatocytes seeded as a monolayer on a substrate such as a collage gel form good cell-cell interaction as well as cell-matrix interaction. In the sandwich culture, the overlay of another collage gel layer on the top of the monolayer further stabilizes the structure. Hepatoycte polarity is re-established in sandwich culture, characterized by the exhibition of tight and gap junction, the formation of bile canalicular network, and the localization of sinusoidal and biliary transporters on the cell membrane, so that in vitro hepatocyte functions can be long-term maintained. Difficulties arising with this flatbed architecture include dead volume, regulation of the shear stress level on the cell surfaces, scalability of the bioreactor or low surface area to volume ratio. These problems have not been adequately addressed in many existing designs.
Thus on a general basis, the major drawback for many of the BLADs currently undergoing preclinical and clinical trials is the long-term maintenance of cell viability and functions as a result of inadequate cellular microenvironment and bidirectional mass transport. Indeed, research has shown that these bioreactors suffer from the rapid decline of cell functions due to poor maintenance of microenvironment cues, the inefficiency of nutrients and gas transport, and the inadequacy of the removal of accumulated toxic metabolites from the cells.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a device or apparatus that overcomes at least some of these drawbacks. This object is solved by providing an apparatus according to claim 1.

Apparatus for culturing anchorage dependent cells

AGENCY FOR SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH


In a digital camera, it is checked whether a stored image file belongs to an image file group including a pre-development RAW file and a JPEG file generated by developing the RAW file. When the storage image file belongs to an image file group, an image belonging to the image file group and an image of a single image file not belonging to any image file group are displayed in distinguishable modes in an image selection screen so that a user can select either one of these images. Furthermore, text representing information regarding the image file group or the single image file is displayed, such as information indicating a file type that a displayed image corresponds to, or information including a name of a developing device. As described above, only an image among images of an image file group is displayed, and information regarding the image file is displayed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image display controlling devices, imaging devices, and image display methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a type of proposed imaging device, a lossless-compressed RAW file and a JPEG file generated from the RAW file and lossy-compressed are stored in a memory and these files are displayed (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-33468).

Image display controlling device for displaying an image belonging to a file image group, imaging device for displaying an image belonging to a file image group, and image display method for displaying an image belonging to a file image group


Provided is a bias tire including: bead cores; a bead filler disposed outward of each of the bead cores in a radial direction; and a carcass layer stretching between the bead cores, wrapping around end portions of the bead cores, the carcass layer having opposite ends turned back to be fixed, wherein in a cross section in a meridian direction, a cord on an innermost side of the carcass layer in a tire lateral direction has a curved shape projecting laterally outward at a height from 0.9 times to 1.6 times a height of a flange of a rim on which the bias tire is assembled, and in the cross section in the meridian direction, a cord on an outermost side of the carcass layer in the lateral direction has a curved shape projecting laterally outward at a height from 1.1 times to 1.6 times the height of the flange.

In general, an industrial vehicle tire receives a high load and is set at high pressure. For example, a heavy-duty bias tire used for a gantry crane or the like used in a port or the like has high load setting and a high center of gravity. As a result, a bias tire as described above is likely to receive an uneven load, so that vehicle drifting or tire failure may occur due to excessive deflection. However, it is difficult to apply higher pressure setting due to wheel strength and an operation management issue.
Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-17692 discloses a radial tire. The radial tire of Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-17692 includes a bead portion and a carcass ply, each having curvature or the like that is set to an appropriate value to improve durability of the bead portion.
In a heavy-duty bias tire, a load on a carcass around a bead tends to increase as torque increases due to recent vehicle evolution. In particular, a bias tire in a wide base (WB) size with a low aspect ratio, being used under an overload condition, cord broken up or ply separation may occur. The cord broken up, which is referred to below as CBU, is caused when a carcass ply is brought into contact with a turned end of a steel wire of a bead core at the innermost point in a tire axial direction. The CBU is caused by excessively pulling a bead and a carcass on an innermost surface side in the tire lateral direction.
The ply separation is separation fracture between a bead filler and a carcass provided in contact with the bead filler. The ply separation is caused in the tire lateral direction due to strain between an inner carcass layer close to a tire equatorial plane and an outer carcass layer farther away from the tire equatorial plane.
Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-17692 discloses a technique for a passenger vehicle tire of a radial tire. Thus, it is inappropriate to apply the technique disclosed in Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-17692 to a heavy-duty bias tire.