The present invention provides an image display device capable of freely changing a scanning direction of an image display medium including support plates, first and second electrode groups provided at the plates and colored particles provided between the plates, including first and second electrode-driving components which receive electrode-designation signals and apply voltages to the designated electrodes in the first and second electrode groups, and which can apply voltage to plural electrodes simultaneously, a line-image-data generation component which generates line-image-data for line images to be displayed along scan electrodes in accordance with a scanning direction, and a signal-output-destination-switching component, in accordance with the scanning direction, which outputs a first electrode designation signal for designating a scan electrode of a line image and a second electrode designation signal for designating an electrode to be driven for displaying the line image, to the first electrode driving component or the second electrode driving component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display device, and more specifically relates to an image display device which displays an image at a repeatedly rewritable image display medium which, by the application of voltages, moves colored particles between support plates for displaying the image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, as repeatedly rewritable image display mediums with memory characteristics, image display mediums which employ colored particles (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2001-312225) and image display mediums which employ electrophoresis (see, for example, JP-A No. 2004-45976) have been known. Such an image display medium has a structure which includes, for example, a pair of plates (substrates) and particle groups of a number of varieties differing in color and electrostatic polarity, which are sealed between the plates to be movable between the plates by applied electric fields. Hence, the particles are moved by the application of voltages, which correspond to an image, between the pair of plates, and the image is displayed.
"Simple matrix driving" may be employed as a driving system of such an image display medium. In simple matrix driving, positions of intersection between, for example, a number of linear row electrodes provided at a display plate side of the image display medium and a number of linear column electrodes provided at a rear face plate side, which are perpendicular with the row electrodes, serve as pixel positions. Voltage is sequentially applied by a common driver IC to the column electrodes, which serve as scan electrodes, and, contemporaneously therewith, voltage is sequentially applied with a segment driver IC to the row electrodes, which serve as data electrodes, in accordance with a line image corresponding to the column electrode to which voltage is applied. Thus, an image is displayed.
At the common driver IC and the segment driver IC, the scanning directions of the electrodes are usually specified in advance. Thus, circuit structures are simplified and costs are reduced, and stable circuits with high output capabilities are structured.
Now, in an image display medium which employs colored particles as described above, a speed of response of the colored particles is slow, and when a line image corresponding to a column electrode that has been selected by the common driver is written by the row electrodes being sequentially scanned by the segment driver IC, a long scanning time is required, in comparison with liquid crystal devices. For example, a scanning time for a colored particle display medium is 1 to 10 ms/line, compared with 0.01 to 0.5 ms/line for a liquid crystal device. Accordingly, when a number of scanning lines is increased in order to raise resolution of images, the time to complete scanning of each frame is correspondingly lengthened. As a result, a user viewing the image display medium will be aware of directions of progress of scanning (in particular, a direction of sub-scanning) as directions of changes in rewriting of images.
A direction of reading of a document is generally determined by the document. For example, an English document is written horizontally from left to right, a Japanese document is written vertically from top to bottom, and an Arabic document is written horizontally from right to left. Directions of reading of information will also vary in accordance with arrangements of images, tables and the like.
A common driver IC and segment driver IC or the like which are employed in a liquid crystal device are structured such that scanning proceeds in essentially predetermined scanning directions. Consequently, scanning is always conducted in the same direction, regardless of details such as which direction the contents of the display will be read in. Hence, because a state of progress of scanning is more obvious with a display medium which employs colored particles than with liquid crystals or the like, a very irritating effect will be produced when, for example, scanning proceeds in the vertical direction during reading of a horizontally written document. This is not confined only to rewriting of display contents. An observer will also feel a sense of wrongness at a time of re-display for refreshing a display state.
Further, when a horizontally long display medium is turned to the left by 90° for use in a vertically long manner, if the medium has, for example, circuit structure such that a scanning direction sequentially scans toward the right before this rotation, scanning will be performed from bottom to top after the rotation, and a viewer's sense of wrongness will be greatly reinforced. In such circumstances, changing the driver IC, to which a large number of wires are connected, each time the orientation is changed would be difficult.
Accordingly, a display device which enables viewing by a viewer of a display medium employing colored particles without any sense of oddness, regardless of details of displays, orientation and the like, has been desired.


A semiconductor device allowing simplification of a fabrication process is provided. This semiconductor device comprises a first insulator film, consisting of a single material, formed to be in contact with the upper surface of a semiconductor chip including a circuit, a first wire formed to be in contact with the upper surface of the first insulator film and a second wire formed to extend along the side surface and the lower surface of the semiconductor chip and connected to the lower surface of the first wire exposed by partially removing the first insulator film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating a semiconductor device, and more particularly, it relates to a semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor chip including a circuit and a method of fabricating a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Background Art
A semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor chip including a circuit is known in general, as disclosed in Japanese National Patent Publication Gazette No. 2002-512436, for example.
The aforementioned Japanese National Patent Publication Gazette No. 2002-512436 discloses a structure of a semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor chip (die) including a circuit, an extension pad (metallic pad) connected to a circuit part of the surface of the semiconductor chip and a wire (metallic contact) connected to a conductive terminal (solderable bump) set under the semiconductor chip while connecting the wire to a side end surface of the extension pad exposed by machining.
In the structure of the semiconductor device disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese National Patent Publication Gazette No. 2002-512436, however, the surface of the side end of the extension pad exposed by machining is disadvantageously roughened. Further, chips resulting from the machining disadvantageously adhere to the side end of the extension pad. When the surface of the side end of the extension pad is roughened or chips adhere to this side end, it is disadvantageously difficult to excellently connect the wire to the side end of the extension pad.
In order to solve the problem of the semiconductor device disclosed in the aforementioned National Patent Publication Gazette No. 2002-512436, therefore, a structure of a semiconductor device obtained by removing an insulator film covering the lower surface of an extension pad by etching thereby exposing the lower surface of the extension pad while connecting a wire to the lower surface of the extension pad is proposed in general.
FIG. 36 is a side elevational view showing the overall structure of the aforementioned conventional proposed semiconductor device 150. FIG. 37 is a sectional view showing a structure in the vicinity of an end of the conventional proposed semiconductor device 150. In the conventional proposed semiconductor device 150, a glass substrate 103 is mounted on a semiconductor element 101 through a resin layer 102, as shown in FIG. 36. A plurality of semispherical conductive terminals 104 are provided on the lower surface of the semiconductor element 101. The semiconductor element 101 comprises a semiconductor chip 105, as shown in FIG. 36. This semiconductor chip 105 has a structure obtained by forming a circuit (not shown) on a silicon substrate. An insulator film 106 of SiO2 is formed on the upper surface of the semiconductor chip 105. A plug electrode 107 is formed to be embedded in the insulator film 106. This plug electrode 107 is connected to the circuit (not shown) formed on the upper surface of the semiconductor chip 105.
An insulator film 110 of SiN is formed to cover the upper surface of the insulator film 106. A contact hole 112 is formed in a region of the insulator film 110 corresponding to the plug electrode 107. An extension pad 113 is formed on a prescribed region of the insulator film 110. A wire 114 is formed at a prescribed interval from the extension pad 113. This wire 114 is connected to the plug electrode 107 through the contact hole 112 of the insulator film 110. An insulator film 115 is formed to cover the overall surface. The insulator film 115 has an irregular upper surface reflecting the shapes of the extension pad 113 and the wire 114 formed at the prescribed interval. The resin layer 102 (see FIG. 36) is formed to fill up the irregular upper surface of the insulator film 115, and bonds the glass substrate 103 as an adhesive.
An insulator film 117 is formed to cover the side surface and the lower surface of the semiconductor chip 105 and a prescribed region of the lower surface of the insulator film 106. A buffer member 118 is provided on a prescribed region of the lower surface of the insulator film 117 corresponding to the lower surface of the semiconductor chip 105. A wire 116 is formed on the insulator film 117 and the buffer member 118 to extend along the side surface and the lower surface of the semiconductor chip 105. This wire 116 is connected to the lower surface of the extension pad 113 exposed by partially etching the insulator films 106 and 110. Each of the aforementioned semispherical conductive terminals 104 is provided on the lower surface of a region of the wire 116 corresponding to the buffer member 118. Thus, the extension pad 113 and the conductive terminal 104 are connected with each other through the wire 116. A further insulator film 108 is formed to cover a prescribed region of the wire 116 while a protective film 109 is formed to cover the insulator film 108.
FIGS. 38 to 54 are sectional views for illustrating a fabrication process for the conventional proposed semiconductor device 150 shown in FIG. 37. The fabrication process for the conventional proposed semiconductor device 150 shown in FIG. 37 is now described with reference to FIGS. 37 to 54.
As shown in FIG. 38, a semiconductor wafer 105a formed with circuits (not shown) on the upper surface thereof is prepared. The insulator film 106 of SiO2 is formed on the semiconductor wafer 105a while plug electrodes 107 to be connected to the circuits (not shown) of the semiconductor wafer 105a are formed to be embedded in the insulator film 106. The insulator film 110 of SiN is formed to cover the insulator film 106 and the upper surfaces of the plug electrodes 107.
As shown in FIG. 39, contact holes 112 are formed in the regions of the insulator film 110 corresponding to the plug electrodes 107 by photolithography and etching.
As shown in FIG. 40, a metal layer 113a is formed to fill up the contact holes 112 of the insulator film 110 while covering the upper surface of the insulator film 110.
As shown in FIG. 41, the metal layer 113a is patterned by photolithography and etching thereby forming a plurality of extension pads 113 and a plurality of wires 114 at prescribed intervals.
As shown in FIG. 42, the insulator film 115 is formed to cover the overall surface.
As shown in FIG. 43, the resin layer 102 is formed to cover the upper surface of the insulator film 115 while bonding the glass substrate 103 as the adhesive.
Thereafter wet etching is performed from the lower surface of the semiconductor wafer 105a thereby separating the semiconductor wafer 105a into a plurality of semiconductor chips 105 as shown in FIG. 44.
As shown in FIG. 45, the insulator film 117 is formed to cover the lower surfaces and the side surfaces of the semiconductor chips 105 and the lower surface of the region of the insulator film 106 located between the adjacent pair of semiconductor chips 105.
As shown in FIG. 46, resist films 119 are formed to cover regions of the insulator film 117 corresponding to the side surfaces and the lower surfaces of the semiconductor chips 105 and partial regions located under the extension pads 113. The resist films 119 are employed as masks for performing wet etching from under the insulator film 106 with hydrofluoric acid thereby partially removing the insulator films 117 and 106 of SiO2. Thus, the lower surface of a prescribed region of the insulator film 110 consisting of SiN is exposed as shown in FIG. 47. Further, wet etching is performed from the side of the exposed lower surface of the prescribed region of the insulator film 110 with hot phosphoric acid thereby removing the prescribed region of the insulator film 110 consisting of SiN. Thus, partial regions of the lower surfaces of the extension pads 113 and the region of the lower surface of the insulator film 115 located between the adjacent pair of extension pads 113 are exposed as shown in FIG. 48.
As shown in FIG. 49, buffer members 118 are formed on the regions of the insulator film 117 corresponding to the lower surfaces of the semiconductor chips 105.
As shown in FIG. 50, a metal layer 116a is formed to cover the exposed partial regions of the lower surfaces of the extension pads 113, the region of the lower surface of the insulator film 115 located between the adjacent pair of extension pads 113, the buffer members 118 and the insulator film 117.
As shown in FIG. 51, a region of the metal layer 116a located under the space between the adjacent pair of extension pads 113 is removed by photolithography and etching. Thus, the metal layer 116a is divided for the respective semiconductor chips 105, thereby forming two wires 116 connected to the lower surfaces of the extension pads 113 respectively.
As shown in FIG. 52, insulator films 108 are formed to cover prescribed regions of the wires 116 and prescribed regions of the lower surface of the insulator film 115. Thereafter the protective film 109 is formed to cover the insulator films 108 and the region of the lower surface of the insulator film 115 located between the adjacent pair of extension pads 113.
As shown in FIG. 53, the semispherical conductive terminals 104 are formed on the lower surfaces of regions of the wires 116 corresponding to the buffer members 118.
As shown in FIG. 54, dicing is performed from the lower side along the center line of the region located between the adjacent pair of semiconductor chips 105. Thus, the conventional proposed semiconductor device 150 is formed as shown in FIG. 37.
In the conventional proposed semiconductor device 150 shown in FIG. 37, however, the extension pad 113 for electrically connecting the semiconductor chip 105 and the external wire 116 with each other is formed to be in contact with the upper surface of the insulator film 110 of SiN formed on the insulator film 106 of SiO2, and hence the insulator film 106 of SiO2 and the insulator film 110 of SiN must disadvantageously be individually wet-etched with different etching solutions (hydrofluoric acid and hot phosphoric acid) respectively when the lower surface of the extension pad 113 is exposed for connecting the wire 116. Thus, the step for exposing the lower surface of the extension pad 113 is so complicated that the fabrication process for the semiconductor device 150 is also complicated.


This invention discloses a corner peeling device, a film peeling apparatus, and a film peeling method, and relates to the technical field of liquid crystal panel manufacture, for the purpose of solving the problem concerning low efficiency in film peeling. The corner peeling device comprises: a movable rack; a roller pivoted on the upper part of the rack; an evacuating device in communication with the air channel; and an automatic revolving device, which is connected to the roller so that at the beginning of corner peeling and after corner peeling, the opening of the same sucking hole at one end of the plurality of the sucking holes arranged at intervals is upward. The corner peeling device is used for peeling a corner of a release film adhered to a plate-like substrate. The film peeling apparatus comprises the corner peeling device mentioned in the technical solution described above.

In the process of manufacturing liquid crystal panels, before adhering a polarizing plate to a substrate of a liquid crystal panel, it is demand that a release film on a polarizing plate is removed and then the polarizing plate whose release film has been removed is adhered to the substrate of the liquid crystal panel.
At present, methods of manual ripping are commonly used to remove release films on polarizing plates. In particular, a corner of a release film is first peeled away, and then V-shaped ripping is performed to allow the entire release film to be separated from a polarizing plate. However, due to the relatively thin thickness of the polarizing plate and the release film, it is caused that it is difficult to peel the corner of the release film, thereby resulting in the relatively low efficiency in film peeling.

Corner peeling device, film peeling apparatus and film peeling method

BEIJING BOE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A controller for electrically adjustable furniture includes a main-voltage area and a low-voltage area that are electrically isolated from one another. A rectifying power supply unit, which is located in the main-voltage area, serves to generate a rectified voltage available at power supply terminals from an alternating main voltage. The rectified voltage present at the power supply terminals can be delivered to a first motor terminal located in the main-voltage area depending on a first control signal. The controller furthermore includes a first control unit that is located in the main-voltage area and which incorporates an operating terminal and a first control output for the supply of a first control signal. An operating unit located in the low-voltage area is connected via an electrically isolating coupling to the operating terminal.

Many tables, in particular writing desks with table-tops on which the height of the table-top can be adjusted by means of a special drive are available on the market nowadays. The height or inclination of beds such as recliner beds or hospital beds may also be adjusted by means of electrical drives.
It is possible to use DC motors for the drive, operating from a low voltage of about 12 V up to 24 V. For this purpose the main voltage, which in Europe is typically around 230 V, is reduced by a transformer to the lower voltage range of the DC motors, and converted to a DC voltage by a rectifier circuit. The motors can be driven through controlled connection of the motors to the low DC voltage. A controller circuit board, coupled to operating elements, may be used for this and may, for instance, be arranged together with a transformer and the rectifier circuit. It is, however, necessary for this kind of controller to incorporate one or more transformers which, due to the high power consumption of the electric motors, have correspondingly large dimensions and therefore represent a not insignificant cost factor in the manufacture of controllers of this type.
Another option for the drive of electrically adjustable furniture consists in the use of AC motors that can be powered from the alternating main voltage. Here, the AC motors are not regulated, and are simply connected to their supply voltage from the alternating main. In this case, however, the option of regulating the drive is not available. This is particularly problematic if a number of motors need to be operated at the same time and must therefore be synchronized.

Controller for electrically adjustable furniture

LOGICDATA Electronic & Software Entwicklungs GmbH


Query results and statistics regarding them are generated using a novel representation of an n-attribute relation as an order n relational tensor. Orders of the relational tensor respectively correspond to each of the attributes, and each coordinate along an order relates to a key value of the corresponding attribute. Numeric values are stored in the relational tensor, each numeric value representing a count of tuples having the attribute key values that correspond to the coordinate of the numeric value along the orders of the relational tensor. This storage representation is useful in a variety of contexts for enhancing the performance of a RDBMS system. Specifically, a data-representing relational tensor can be used to produce results for tuple grouping operations such as the SQL operations COUNT . . . GROUP BY, SUM . . . GROUP BY, AVG . . . GROUP BY, MIN . . . GROUP BY and MAX . . . GROUP BY.

The present invention relates to generation of union query results in the management and execution of relational database queries.
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) software using a Structured Query Language (SQL) interface is well known in the art. The SQL interface has evolved into a standard language for RDBMS software and has been adopted as such by both the American Nationals Standard Organization (ANSI) and the International Standards Organization (ISO).
In RDBMS software, all data is externally structured into relations, each relation dealing with one or more attributes and comprising one or more tuples of data, each tuple associating attribute values with each other. A relation can be visualized as a table, having rows and columns (indeed, the relations in a particular database are often referred to as the xe2x80x9ctablesxe2x80x9d of the database). When a relation is visualized as a table, the columns of the table represent attributes of the relation, and the rows of the table represent individual tuples or records that are stored using those attributes. To aid in visualizing relations in this manner, In the following, the relations in an RDBMS system will frequently be referred to as that system""s xe2x80x9ctablesxe2x80x9d.
An RDBMS system may be used to store and manipulate a wide variety of data. For example, consider a simple RDBMS system for storing and manipulating name and address information. In such a system, a xe2x80x9cName/Addressxe2x80x9d table storing name and address attributes might have a first column xe2x80x9cLast Namexe2x80x9d for the last name, a second column xe2x80x9cFirst Namexe2x80x9d for the first name, a third column xe2x80x9cM.I.xe2x80x9d for middle initial, and further columns for addresses. Each row in the table would include the name and address data for a particular individual.
Often, columns in different tables are related. Thus, in the above example, the xe2x80x9cName/Addressxe2x80x9d table might have a column for a street address, and a column for a ZIP code or other postal code (i.e., a unique identifying index number or character string that identifies a general location of a street address). In this example, each row of the xe2x80x9cName/Addressxe2x80x9d table identifies a postal code for the individual described by that row, but does not identify a city. A second xe2x80x9cCityxe2x80x9d table might store city names; in two columns, a first column for the city name and a second column for the postal code of the city. Note that there may be multiple persons in each postal code and so the xe2x80x9cName/Addressxe2x80x9d table is likely to have multiple entries identifying the same postal code. Furthermore, there are likely to be multiple postal codes in the same city, so the xe2x80x9cCityxe2x80x9d table is likely to have multiple rows for the same city.
It should be noted that the order of tuples in a relation is not considered a feature of the relation; that is, two relations having the same tuples, but in a different order, are entirely equivalent to the RDBMS system. Tuple order is determined by user commands, if any, that specify a manner in which to sort the tuples. Absent a specified sort order, the order of the tuples in a relation is not defined, and tuples from the relation may be reported in any order.
An overall database organization is typically referred to as a schema for the database. A database schema is often compactly expressed using table names and names of columns in the table. Thus the simple schema including xe2x80x9cName/Addressxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cCityxe2x80x9d tables described in the above example, could be expressed as:
Name/Address(LastName,FirstName,M.I.,Postal Code, . . .) City(City,PostalCode)
Database schema often take the form of a xe2x80x9cstarxe2x80x9d, where there is one very large xe2x80x9cmotherxe2x80x9d table and many small detail tables. Queries typically involve selections based on the attributes of the detail tables, e.g. the City table storing city names, followed by retrieval of information for the selected tuples from the mother table, e.g. the Name/Address table storing names and addresses for persons. From the foregoing description, it can be seen that to find the persons in a particular city, the rows in the xe2x80x9cCityxe2x80x9d table would be scanned to find those rows having the desired city name, and then the postal codes in those rows would be retrieved. Then, the xe2x80x9cName/Addressxe2x80x9d table would be scanned to locate all rows from the table having the postal code in the postal code column. The names and addresses for the selected rows are the individuals residing in the desired city.
A typical way of looking up information in tables uses indexes. For example, there may be an index into the Name/Address table identifying all of the rows that have a particular value for a postal code. This index is stored separately from the table and must be updated each time the table itself is updated. Accordingly, indexes introduce a substantial increase in storage requirements. However, if no index is available, a query into a table can only be satisfied by scanning each row of the table, which requires substantially longer processing time. In an environment such as decision support, where selections may be on an arbitrary number of detail tables, maximum speed requires indices on most or all columns of some tables, making such applications space-intensive. Typically, in other environments, performance is compromised to reduce storage requirements, by not providing a column index for at least some columns of a table.
One type of index is a bitmap index, which indicates whether a specific value exists for each row in a particular column. One bit represents each row. Thus, in the bitmap index for the value xe2x80x9c45246xe2x80x9d in the column xe2x80x9cPostal Code,xe2x80x9d the nth bit equals 1 if the nth row of the Name/Address table contains a postal code of xe2x80x9c45246xe2x80x9d, or 0 if that row holds a value other than xe2x80x9c45246xe2x80x9d. Typically there are multiple bitmap indexes for each column, one for each of several values that may appear in the column (e.g., one index for the value xe2x80x9c45246xe2x80x9d, a second index for the value xe2x80x9c45202xe2x80x9d, and so on). Another type of index is an encoded vector index (EVI), disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,495, issued Jan. 6, 1998 to Chadha et al., entitled ENCODED-VECTOR INDICES FOR DECISION SUPPORT AND WAREHOUSING, which is incorporated by reference. An EVI serves a similar purpose as a bitmap index, but only one index is necessary to account for all the values occurring in the column (whether they be xe2x80x9c45246,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c45202,xe2x80x9d or any other). In an EVI on the xe2x80x9cPostal Codexe2x80x9d column, the nth position of the EVI contains a bit code, that can be decoded using a lookup table to produce the value xe2x80x9c45246xe2x80x9d, which is the postal code in the nth row of the table. Thus, whereas a separate bitmap index is required to map each particular key value in a database field, only one EVI is required to represent the same information. Thus, an EVI saves computer memory by including all possible key values for a given field in one database index. Notably, however, both a bitmap index and EVI index indexes only information relating to a single column of the table. These indexes do not reflect the relations between values in multiple columns.
Turning now to a description of SQL, the main RDBMS operation described in the preceding examples is known as a JOIN, in the illustrated case, between the xe2x80x9cCityxe2x80x9d table and xe2x80x9cName/Addressxe2x80x9d table. This is one example of the many operators that are provided by an SQL interface to RDBMS software. The SQL interface allows users to formulate relational operations on tables either interactively, in batch files, or embedded in host languages such as C, COBOL, etc. Operators are provided in SQL that allow the user to manipulate the data; each operator operates on either one or two tables and produces a new table as a result. The power of SQL lies on its ability to link information from multiple tables or views together to perform complex sets of procedures such as the simple procedure in the above example, with a single statement.
The operators provided by SQL are derived from an original set of eight operators:
RESTRICT Extracts specified tuples from a specified relation (i.e., retrieves specified rows from a table) using a specified condition;
PROJECT Extracts specified attributes from a specified relation (i.e., retrieves specified columns from a table);
PRODUCT Builds a relation from two specified relations containing all possible combinations of tuples, one from each of the two relations (i.e., builds a table with rows created by combining all rows of two tables);
UNION Builds a relation consisting of all tuples appearing in either or both of two relations (i.e., builds a table having all rows appearing in either table);
INTERSECT Builds a relation consisting of all tuples appearing in both of two specified relations (i.e., builds a table having all rows appearing in both tables);
DIFFERENCE Builds a relation (table) consisting of all tuples (rows) appearing in the first and not the second of two specified relations (tables);
JOIN Builds a relation (table) from two specified relations (table) consisting of all possible combinations of tuples (rows), one from each of the two relations (tables), such that the two tuples (rows) contributing to any given combination satisfy a specified condition;
DIVIDE Builds a relation (table) from a first relation (table) having first and second attributes (columns) and a second relation (table) having one attribute (column), by selecting from the first table, values of the first attribute (column) of tuples (rows) whose second attribute (column) matches a value in the second table.
With respect to these basic operations, and the more detailed operations derived from them that form the entirety of SQL, it is notable that the result of each operation is a relation that is equivalent in structure to the relations that are used by the operation. This is an important feature in that it permits SQL operations to be written as nested relational expressions, where the output of one operation is used as the input to the next operation. The power of SQL arises in no small part from the ability to string SQL operations together in any desired order to perform a desired function.
As an example of this ability, we can expand the above example to illustrate a three-way table join. For this, assume a Population table is available, which identifies city populations, e.g., the Population table has a first column for a city name and a second column for the population of the city. Given the Name/Address, City and Population tables, it is possible to identify those persons living in cities with populations greater than a given threshold, by JOINing the Population and City tables with a population threshold criterion, and then JOINing the result with the Name/Address table.
At this point, it should be noted that an RDBMS system implementing an SQL query need not materialize the result of every individual SQL operation in its entirety. For example, the foregoing example seeking every address in the database that is in a particular city, formally involves performing a RESTRICT operation (restricting to the desired city) upon the results of a JOIN operation acting on Name/Address and City tables. It would be inefficient to compute the results of the JOIN operation, which would be a table of every address in the Name/Address table expanded to include city names, and then select only those addresses in the desired city. The more efficient approach, as described in the preceding example, would be to apply the restriction to each tuple of the JOIN operation as it is generated, keeping only those which meet the restriction and discarding the remainder. This way, an equivalent result is produced without materializing the result of the JOIN.
To achieve optimizations of this sort, an RDBMS system often includes substantial logic to avoid materializing intermediate results. For such optimizations, an RDBMS system utilizes statistics describing the data upon which SQL operations operate. Two such statistics pertinent to the described examples are a key range estimate and a join fanout estimate. A key range estimate estimates the number of rows in a given table that match a given condition. A join fanout estimate estimates the number of records likely to be produced by a JOIN operation. In the last described example, such statistics would indicate whether there are a large number of postal codes in the database for cities meeting the population criterion, and whether the Name/Address records are grouped in a few cities or spread across a large number of cities. These statistics would then be useful in determining whether it would be more efficient to (a.) join the Name/Address table with the City table before joining the Population table, by building an intermediate result with the name, address and city for every individual, and then selecting from this intermediate result, those individuals in cities meeting the population criterion, or (b.) join the City and Population tables before joining the Name/Address table, by building an intermediate result with the postal codes in the cities meeting the population criterion, and then selecting those individuals in the Name/Address table having the postal codes in the intermediate result. Typically, the most efficient approach is the approach that produces the smallest intermediate result.
Statistics of this form are frequently generated using available indeces for the tables upon which SQL operations will be performed. For example, a key range estimate can be formed from a bit mapped index by totaling the number of xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d bits in the index under the identified key value(s). Unfortunately, because many columns in modern RDBMS systems are not indexed, key range and join fanout statistics are often unavailable or inaccurate, resulting in substantial inefficiencies because queries are performed in other than the optimal manner due to the missing or inaccurate statistics.
As will be appreciated from the foregoing, modern RDBMS systems suffer from a number of drawbacks that render their operation less than optimal; key among these are the space requirements associated with generating indexes and, due to the consequent lack of complete indexing, the lack of speed in executing RDBMS operations. What is needed is a alternative representation of data in a RDBMS system that facilitates the generation of SQL results regarding such results without consumption of inordinate storage space.
In accordance with principles of the present invention, these needs are met by a novel representation of an n-attribute relation as an order n relational tensor, thereby facilitating the generation of query results.
Specifically, in accordance with principles of the present invention, a relational database system stores a plurality of tuples formed over a plurality of attributes, in a multi-order relational tensor. Orders of the relational tensor respectively correspond to each of the attributes, and each coordinate along an order relates to a key value of the corresponding attribute. Numeric values are stored in the relational tensor, each numeric value representing a count of tuples having the attribute key values that correspond to the coordinate of the numeric value along the orders of the relational tensor. This storage representation is useful in a variety of contexts for enhancing the performance of a RDBMS system.
Specifically, in the disclosed aspect of the invention, a data-representing relational tensor is processed to produce results or statistics for an operation combining two relations, such as the SQL UNION or UNION ALL operations. In accordance with this aspect, a relational database system processes a data-representing relational tensor to produce a result relational tensor identifying the results of the relation combining operation.
These and other features and advantages, which characterize the invention, are set forth in the claims annexed hereto and forming a further part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, and of the advantages and objectives attained through its use, reference should be made to the Drawing, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is described exemplary embodiments of the invention.

Generating union queries using tensor representations

International Business Machines Corporation


A system for analysis of gaps between modeled parts of an assembly to be produced is provided. The system generates a three-dimensional (3D) visualization environment of 3D models of a plurality of parts in the assembly and performs an analysis of those of the 3D models within a given proximity to each other to determine gaps therebetween, including any non-acceptable gaps with gap distances that exceed an acceptable gap threshold. The system generates, for a non-acceptable gap, an instruction and automatically implements the instruction to correct the non-acceptable gap and confirms that the non-acceptable gap as corrected does not have a gap distance that exceeds the acceptable gap threshold. The system generates an output of a 3D model of the assembly populated with the 3D models and with the non-acceptable gap as corrected for use in connection with production of the assembly.

Unintended gaps between structural components or parts of an assembly, e.g., an aircraft, require expensive custom shims or fillers to be manufactured and installed to correct the unintended gaps. Unintended gaps can be one of the most costly types of defects on an aircraft. The undue stresses on parts of the aircraft deformed due to the unintended gaps can result in cracking and unsafe flight conditions.
One solution to detect unintended gaps is to visually inspect an area of the assembly using a digital pre-assembly environment, e.g., fly-throughs, to find erroneous or unintended gaps between structural parts of the assembly. However, there is a large number (e.g., millions) of parts of an assembly such as an aircraft and the parts may have small gaps between them. Thus, it may be impractical to find all the erroneous or unintended gaps using visual inspection. Also, visual inspection is time consuming. Moreover, some gaps may not be found via visual inspection until manufacture of the assembly. Some gaps may never get detected via visual inspection which can lead to critical safety problems on aircraft and other structural products.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have an automatic gap detection system and method that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.


Halogen-containing waste gases resulting from the dry etching step of the process of fabricating semiconductor devices are rendered harmless by removing the halogen compounds concomitant with said waste gases. Waste gases containing halogen compounds are treated by bringing them into contact first with activated carbon and then into contact with a member selected from the group consisting of an alkali agent and a ferric oxide, at a linear velocity of about 3-50 cm/min at ambient temperature, volume ratios of said activated carbon to the alkali agent or the ferric oxide in terms of a substantially dried base being about 2-4, and said alkali agent being selected from a group consisting of calcium hydroxide, calcium oxide, magnesium hydroxide and magnesium oxide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of treating waste gases containing halogen compounds. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method by which halogen-containing waste gases resulting from the dry etching step of the process of fabricating semiconductor devices are rendered harmless by removing the halogen compounds concomitant with said waste gases.
2. Prior Art
Many kinds of deleterious gases are employed in the process of fabricating semiconductor devices and they are potential pollutants of the environment. Halogen-containing gases that are present in the waste gases from the dry etching step are very toxic to the human body and it is strongly desired to establish a method by which those gases can be removed effectively.
While several methods for removing halogen-containing gases have so far been proposed, "dry systems" employ the following treating agents: (1) metal oxides; (2) activated carbon or a chemical supported on activated carbon; (3) an alkali agent; and (4) an oxidizing agent. Included within the class of (1) are oxides of various metals; included within the class of (2) are absorbents having chlorides or hydroxides of alkaline earth metals supported on activated carbon; known examples of alkali agents (3) include Ca(OH).sub.2, Mg(OH).sub.2, CaO and MgO; and a known example of oxidizers (4) is KMnO.sub.4.
The halogen-containing gases that are discharged from the dry etching step are classified as the following three types; (1) oxidizing gases (e.g. Cl.sub.2 and Br.sub.2); (2) acidic gases (e.g. HCl and SiF.sub.4); and (3) organic chlorine-containing gases (e.g. CCl.sub.4 and CHCl.sub.3). In practice, these gases are rarely discharged individually and a plurality of gases having different properties are discharged simultaneously.
In the prior art, there is no single treating agent that is effective in treating all of those halogen-containing gases. For example, metal oxides, alkali agents and oxidizing agents are not capable of removing all oxidizing and organic chlorine-containing gases whereas activated carbon is not capable of removing all acidic gases. In the absence of a single agent that is capable of treating all halogen-containing gases, it is necessary to select an appropriate agent for each waste gas to be treated but this is not only a difficult and cumbersome task; the throughput of the treatment is also small.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 121621/1987 and 289222/1987 disclose the use of soda lime as an alkali agent but this has the following problems.
If wafers are contaminated by Na, the electrical properties of semiconductors become very unstable to lower the yield of acceptable products. Under these circumstances, utmost care is taken in semiconductor shops to prevent wafer contamination by requiring that the operating personnel wash their hands and wear masks, gloves and other protectors. Equipment for removing deleterious gases is not an exception. If Na-based treating agents are used, a Na-containing waste gas may flow back in an accident to potentially contaminate wafers. Hence, the use of Na-based treating agents is avoided as much as possible in semiconductor shops.
Furthermore, when a strong alkali agent such as soda lime is used, it reacts with a halogen gas and the resulting heat will cause water to be formed in a large amount, whereupon the individual particles of the agent will cohere together. If this occurs, the resistance to gas flow will increase and, in an extreme case, clogging occurs and the gas will no longer flow. For these reasons, the use of soda lime as an alkali agent is not preferred.

Method of treating waste gases containing halogen compounds


The invention concerns a system for transmitting information in a digital radio network system (12) between at least two modes of operation, which may be—a direct mode operation (DMO) between two terminal devices (10.1, 10.2) operating independently of the physical radio network system (21) and—a trunked mode operation (TMO) supporting distribution of network resources and operating in the physical radio network system (21). The transmission takes place with the aid of a special gateway unit (22), wherein the gateway unit (22)—listens to each or to a chosen mode of operation (DMO, TMO),—receives the transmission occurring in one mode of operation (TMO, DMO), and—transmits the received transmission to the other mode of operation (DMO, TMO). The gateway unit (22) is formed of two terminal devices (12.1, 12.2) supporting each mode of operation, and whose data transfer interface (23.3*, 23.3′) have an audio input (AUDIO In) and output (AUDIO Out) as well as a receiving indication output (RX On) and a transmission connection input (PTT). The terminal devices' (12.1, 12.2) receiving indication output (RX On) is connected to the other terminal device's (12.2, 12.1) transmission connection input SIT), and wherein the terminal devices' (12.1, 12.2) audio output (AUDIO Out) is connected to the other terminal device's (12.2, 12.1) audio input (AUDIO In).

Different modes of operation of terminal devices are known from the radio telephone network according to the TETRA (TErrestrial Trunked Radio) standard. Modes of operation are e.g. the so-called direct mode operation, that is, the terminal device's DMO (Direct Mode Operation) function, which means direct communication taking place between terminal devices independently of the TETRA network proper. The DMO function is utilised especially e.g. in peripheral areas of the coverage area of the TETRA network or outside this, where the network's field strength is weak or the network is not at all available. The DMO function may also be used within the coverage area of the network, if the group of users wishes e.g. to communicate only internally and does not wish that its communication is audible to all others communicating in the network.
Furthermore, in the TETRA network a so-called mode of operation supporting distribution of network resources, that is, the terminal device's TMO (Trunked Mode Operation) function, is available in the coverage area of the physical network formed by base transceiver stations (generally at least in densely populated areas). Use of this function is possible for all users of terminal devices located within the coverage area of the TETRA network. Besides transmission of voice messages, it is possible in the TMO function e.g. to form groups of users, whereby messages may be allocated to the relevant group. In addition, in the physical TETRA network transmission of so-called status and SDS (Short Data Service) messages is possible as well as transmission of group settings, for example, by units forming a group or by a dispatcher, who usually is an operation leader on duty at a piece of fixed terminal device. Such messages include e.g. short messages and alarms, and settings include forming and management of groups performed by an operator over the air.
However, problems in smooth communications are caused by e.g. the edges of the TETRA network's audibility coverage area and by the areas remaining outside the coverage area. Maintaining communication ability between units would be priceless, for example, in remote areas, where the actual physical TETRA network is not available due to its limited coverage area and where a group using the DMO function would nevertheless have a significant need to communicate, for example, with an operation leader working at a fixed terminal or with a mobile operation leader.
Examples of typical situations where functionality of the described kind in message transmission would often be needed are various kinds of rescue duties to be performed outside the TETRA network's coverage area, and in densely populated areas e.g. operations to be performed in basements and in parking halls of buildings made of concrete, where problems may occur with the covering ability of the actual physical TETRA network. Even within the coverage area of the actual physical TETRA network such situations may occur, when e.g. the operation leader would need to communicate from his terminal device with a group, which has chosen the DMO function and which is "isolated" in terms of communication. Furthermore, message transmission between groups operating in the same mode of operation within the TETRA network's coverage area is difficult, which is due, for example, to the different access permissions granted to the units, because it must in most cases be handled at the operational centre through the person on duty.
Some such gateway solutions of the TETRA network are known previously, where e.g. a special gateway device is arranged in a vehicle. Using this device it is possible e.g. from outside the coverage area of the actual physical TETRA network to transmit communication of all terminal devices using the DMO function to terminal devices located within the coverage area of the actual TETRA network. However, the implementation of the device is quite complicated, disadvantageous and specific. In addition, a device of the described kind transmits not only communication in speech form, but in practice also all the data to be transferred in the TETRA network, that is, e.g. the status messages of groups etc. For example, in the situations described above it would be sufficient to transmit communication only in speech form between units, for example, from groups using the DMO function of their terminal devices to a group located in the coverage area of the actual TETRA network and using the terminal device's TMO function, and vice versa.
WO publication 96/11554 presents a TMO-DMO relaying station using two receiver units and one transmitter unit as well as a special management unit to control these. The first receiver unit receives radio messages from a base transceiver station and the second receiver unit receives radio messages from terminal devices transmitting as a DMO function. However, such use of two receiver units makes the solution complex and disadvantageous.
Other solutions known from the analog technology side are various solutions of the gateway type. WO publication 94/28641 presents a relaying station suitable e.g. for an analog mobile telephone system (e.g. NMT). Here the connection from the receiving side to the transmitting side is in the audio frequency mode. The solution is purely of the repeater type, which cannot thus be used for relaying communication e.g. between terminal devices operating in different modes of operation.
In view of the known technology there are no advantageous and simple ways in a radio network system according to the TETRA standard e.g. of implementing communication in the described kind between the TETRA direct mode operation DMO and the TMO mode of operation supporting distribution of network resources.

System for transmitting information in a digital radio network system


A beam of a main antenna is scanned at a constant speed in the direction of compression of the beam width over the range of from (c-a) degree to (c+a) degree with an arbitrary angle c set as a reference angle, and a beam of a sub antenna is scanned by using a phase shifter at a constant speed in the direction of compression of the beam width over the range of from (c-b) degree to (c+b) degree where b represents an angle corresponding to the first zero point of a pattern of the sub antenna and larger than the 1/2 scan angle a of the main antenna. Received signals of both the antennas obtained by the beam scans are subjected to an in-phase multiplication process in a multiplying circuit for beam compression of the received pattern of the main antenna.

The present invention relates to a beam compression process for compressing a beam width of an antenna pattern of antennas.
Generally, a beam width is one of indices representing quality of antenna patterns of receiving antennas and so forth. The smaller the beam width, the higher is performance of the antenna pattern. However, the beam width and the size (length) of an antenna are inversely proportional to each other. Thus, a reduction in the beam width increases the antenna size, while a reduction in the antenna size increases the beam width.
In an attempt to double power of discriminating an object, i.e., resolution, in a radar antenna, for example, the beam width must be halved, which results in doubling of the antenna size. The doubled antenna size raises various drawbacks such as an increase in not only the area occupied by the antenna, but also weight of the antenna and dimensions of an antenna support structure. Conversely, if the antenna size is halved, the beam width is doubled and the discriminating power deteriorates down to a half level.
It is well known that the beam width and the antenna size are contradictory to each other as mentioned above. Since actual antennas are subjected to limitations in the area occupied by the antenna and other factors in most cases, a point of compromise is found in practical use at some extent of the beam width under such limitations.
For the purpose of improving the above problem, there has been conventionally known a beam compressing process using the principle of a multiplicative array that the beam width is reduced by multiplying received signals of a plurality of antennas by each other. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an antenna arrangement for carrying out such beam compression. Denoted by reference numeral 101 is a main antenna constituted by, for example, an array antenna comprising a plurality of radiation elements arrayed into the rectilinear form with equal intervals, and 102 is a sub antenna. The sub antenna 102 is arranged at a position spaced from the main antenna 101 in the X direction, i.e., the direction where a beam width is to be compressed. 103 is a multiplying circuit for multiplying a received signal of the main antenna 101 by a received signal of the sub antenna 102. In the antenna device thus arranged, the signals received by the antennas 101, 102 are input in phase to the multiplying circuit 103 and subjected to a multiplication process. As a result, a directional characteristic of the main antenna and a directional characteristic of the sub antenna are multiplied to give a synthetic directional characteristic with the beam width compressed therein.
However, the above-explained conventional beam compression process for an antenna pattern has the problem that because the angle corresponding to the first zero point of the sub antenna pattern is about 1/2 of the angle corresponding to the first zero point of the main antenna pattern, the beam width of the main antenna is only compressed to about a half and cannot be compressed to less than a half.

Beam compression process for antenna pattern


Synthetic polymeric filaments containing SAP particles adhered to the filament surfaces by an nylon binder which is soluble in alcohols (e.g., lower C1-C3 aliphatic alcohols). Such SAP-coated filaments may then be incorporated into telecommunications cables as a component part thereof to achieve enhanced water-blocking functions. In preferred embodiments, the SAP particles include homopolymers, copolymers, and/or mixtures of sodium and potassium polyacrylates, starch grafted sodium polyacrylates and partial sodium salts of polypropenoic acid which are bound to the yarn surfaces by the nylon binder. Most preferably, the coated multifilamentary yarns of the present invention are made by bringing an uncoated yarn into contact with a nonaqueous liquid coating material comprised of the nylon binder dissolved in an alcohol solvent containing a dispersion of the SAP particles for a time sufficient to coat the yarn with the liquid coating material. Thereafter, the xe2x80x9cwetxe2x80x9d coated yarn is dried at an elevated temperature above the melting point of the nylon binder but below the melting point of the SAP particles for a time sufficient to evaporate the alcohol solvent. The SAP particles will therefore be bound to the yarn surfaces by the residue of the nylon binder that remains following drying.

The present invention relates generally to water-blocking yarns. In especially preferred embodiments, the present invention relates to telecommunications cables (e.g., optical fiber cables) which include a multifilament water-blocking yarn.
Telecommunications cables have traditionally been provided with internal components which serve to minimize entry and migration of water which could catastrophically damage electronics connected to the cable as well as the cable itself. In this regard, the interstices within the cables have previously been flooded with a petrogel filler compound in an effort to minimize water entry and migration. More recently, superabsorbant polymers (SAP) have been employed for such purposes. See generally, Bringuier et al, Reliability of Dry Waterblocking Materials, EuroWire, pp. E60-E64 (March 1999), Patel, Functional Performance of Ocean Water-Blocking Tapes, EuroWire, pp. E94-E97 (September 1999), and Czupryna, Water Blocking Yarns and Tapes, Wire and Cable Technology International, pp. 43-44 (November 1999).1
1 The entire content of each cited printed publication and U.S. Patent is hereby expressly incorporated herein.
Recently, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,264,251 and 5,342,686 disclose aramid yarns coated with SAP that may be employed in optical communications cables. U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,713 discloses water-swellable fiber coatings whereby the coatings are semi-gel dispersions of SAP in a polyvinyl chloride plastisol. The dispersion may then be applied as a coating onto a fiber substrate and then heat cured to the semi-gel state. U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,215 discloses SAP particles bound to cellulosic fibers by means of a water-soluble polymeric binder having hydrogen bonding functionality or coordinate covalent bond forming functionality on each repeating unit of the polymer.
While the prior proposals have advanced the art of water-blocked cables to some extent, continual improvement is sought. Particularly, solutions to provide enhanced water-blocking functions for telecommunications cables (i.e. higher absorption capacity as well as faster swell rates) without appreciably increasing the size and/or weight of the finished cable are especially desired. It is towards fulfilling such solutions that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention is embodied in synthetic polymeric filaments containing SAP particles adhered to the filament surfaces by a nylon binder which is soluble in alcohols (e.g., lower C1-C3 aliphatic alcohols). Such SAP-coated filaments may then be incorporated into telecommunications cables as a component part thereof to achieve enhanced water-blocking functions. In preferred embodiments, the SAP particles include homopolymers, copolymers, and/or mixtures of sodium and potassium polyacrylates, starch grafted sodium polyacrylates and partial sodium salts of polypropenoic acid which are bound to the yarn surfaces by the nylon binder.
Most preferably, the coated multifilamentary yarns of the present invention are made by bringing an uncoated yarn into contact with a nonaqueous liquid coating material comprised of the nylon binder dissolved in an alcohol solvent containing a dispersion of the SAP particles for a time sufficient to coat the yarn with the liquid coating material. Thereafter, the xe2x80x9cwetxe2x80x9d coated yarn is dried at an elevated temperature above the melting point of the nylon binder but below the melting point of the SAP particles for a time sufficient to evaporate the alcohol solvent. The SAP particles will therefore be bound to the yarn surfaces by the residue of the nylon binder that remains following drying.
These and other aspects and advantages will become more apparent after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.

Water-blocked telecommunications cables, and water-blocking yarns usefully employed in same


A method for forming a plurality of holes, creating profiles, in a plurality of vinyl layers using a hollow portion of an RF sealing die and for removing the profiles from the die using a base plate punch and a removal means. The method includes providing a base plate support having a first hole for receiving the punch and a support surface, stacking the layers into a stack on the surface over the first hole where there is provided under the stack a layer of dielectric material having a receiving hole symmetrically aligned with the first hole, pressing the die through each of the layers of the stack to form the profiles received within the hollow portion of the die and to seal together portions of the layers of vinyl material which surround the outer surface of the die, sliding the punch through the first receiving holes and into the hollow portion of the die to push the profiles further into the die where the diameter of the receiving hole is substantially the same as the diameter of the punch to minimize the area between the punch and the dielectric material as the punch passes through the receiving hole and into the contact with the profiles to prevent arcing of the profiles during movement of the profiles through the die, and removing the profiles from the die using a removal means connected to the die.

This invention pertains to the art of removing cut out profiles of vinyl, plastic or other material. The invention is particularly useful in a system where layers of material are sealed using radio frequency, thermal or ultrasonic sealing, however it is not limited to these materials or sealing.
For example, in a radio frequency (RF) sealing system, sealing occurs by the joining of thermal plastic film or sheet materials with heat that is produced by radio frequency energy. This heating is typically done in a press containing an electrode (die) that is shaped to the configuration desired in the finished product. As in other molding processes, the variables are heat, pressure, and time. Heat is produced by the reaction of the plastic to the high frequency energy from the RF generator. The amount of heat is proportional to the amount of RF power applied and the heatability of the plastic. Often a heated platen is used to stabilize the temperature. The pressure is typically supplied by a pneumatic system and is varied by changing the air pressure in the pneumatic: system. Time is controlled by electric timer built into the machine.
Typical machines include a pre-seal timer to allow full pressure of the electrode against the material before the RF power is applied. A heat or seal timer controls the length of the RF power cycle. A dwell or cool timer is used to allow the material to cool and set while pressure is still applied.
In the RF sealing process, shown in FIG. 5a, the sealing bar and the ground are separated by a buffer (FIG. 5b), both of which are electrically conducting. The press is electrically connected to the ground of the RF frequency generator. The RF signal is applied between the sealing bar and the ground. It is seen then that a requirement is that the sealing bar and ground be electrically separated else a short is created and the system fails. A buffer is used to enhance the RF sealing process preventing loss of heat, requiring less power, helping to prevent; arcing due to over sealing, concentrating heat and eliminates the sticking of materials.
In a system where the sealing bar seals two or more materials together in a contiguous seal, and where profile created by seal, is to be punched out, it is necessary in the prior art to first seal the materials using the RF method, then in a later step in the process punch the hole using the typical hole punch and in a still final step, remove the insert (sometimes referred to as a "cut out", "hole", "dot", or "profile"). Some unconventional systems use vacuum removal but because of the size of the vacuum needed, and because of the nature of a punching system having a plurality of holes allowing for vacuum leaks, such a system is often impractical and uneconomical.
Consequently, it is an object of this invention to remove profiles cleanly and economically. It is further an object to combine the sealing, punching, and profile removing steps into the production line of the aforementioned sealing processes, and to do so economically, and in an RF system to do so without arcing.
To do so during the process requires that the punch fit inside the sealing electrode die. However the resulting gap can still be problematic in that air gap arcing often occurs effectively shorting the RF circuit resulting in a lack of sealing and other problems.
One method used is to allow the profiles to build up inside the receiving RF sealing cylinder, which cylinder directs the profile to a hole in the side of the cylinder for the profiles to eventually fall out; however in such a system, the profiles don't always fall out and will sometimes jam up. Moreover, the profiles that do fall out the side fall onto the material and work surface area.
The invention is directed primarily to achieving these objectives in a system utilizing a plurality of hole punches in an RF sealing process so as to punch at one time a plurality of holes at the time the RF sealing die is still pressed against the materials. The invention apparatus in one form is comprised of a die being the RF electrode, which die has therein a plurality of cylinders for receiving the base punches. The cylinders are connected to a plenum having both an air jet to create high speed airflow over the hole, and a vacuum so as to remove the profiles upon punching following the RF sealing. During the RF sealing process, a thin moving secondary disposable buffer is introduced, not static, to fine tune an existing buffer system, such as a reusable thicker buffer. The buffer is comprised of a dielectric or other insulating material, usually paper, so as to block the punch/electrode gap and prevent the arcing that otherwise might occur.
Other objects and features of the invention and the manner in which the invention achieves its purpose will be appreciated from the foregoing and the following description and the accompanying drawings which exemplify the invention, it being understood that changes may be made in the specific method and apparatus disclosed herein without departing from the essentials of the invention set forth in the appended claims.

Method and apparatus for removing profiles


A method for producing X-ray optics includes providing a wafer of crystalline material having front and rear surfaces and a lattice spacing suitable for reflecting incident X-rays of a given wavelength. A thin film is deposited on the front surface of the wafer so as to generate compressive forces in the thin film sufficient to impart a concave curvature to the rear surface of the wafer with at least one radius of curvature selected for focusing the incident X-rays.

Doubly-curved crystals are commonly used for focusing monochromatic radiation beams, particularly in the X-ray range, and for wavelength dispersion in X-ray spectrometers. To produce such devices, the crystal curvature must be carefully controlled to give the desired focusing properties. Exemplary methods for forming doubly-curved crystals of this sort are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,807,268, 4,780,899, 4,949,367, 6,236,710 and 6,498,830, whose disclosures are incorporated herein by reference.
When a thin film is deposited on a substrate, compressive or tensile stresses may be created in the film, depending on the conditions of deposition. These stresses cause tensile or compressive internal forces in the substrate/thin film assembly, which may cause bending moments in the assembly. Hoffman et al. studied and reported on these stress phenomena in an article entitled, "Internal Stresses in Cr, Mo, Ta, and Pt Films Deposited by Sputtering from a Planar Magnetron Source," Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology 20:3 (March, 1982), pages 355-358, which is incorporated herein by reference. The authors found that when the pressure of argon process gas was below a certain level during sputter-deposition of the films, the stresses tended to be compressive.
Shen et al. described the evolution of stresses and the accompanying changes in overall curvature due to patterning of silicon oxide lines on silicon wafers in an article entitled, "Stresses, Curvatures, and Shape Changes Arising from Patterned Lines on Silicon Wafers," Journal of Applied Physics 80:3 (August, 1996), pages 1388-1398, which is incorporated herein by reference. The authors developed a parametric numerical model for the stresses created in SiO2 lines of different dimensions and used the model to predict the curvature caused by these stresses in silicon wafers on which the lines were deposited.


In accordance with the purpose(s) of the present disclosure, as embodied and broadly described herein, embodiments of the present disclosure, in one aspect, relate to methods of making a structure including nanotubes, a structure including nanotubes, methods of delivering a fluid to a cell, methods of removing a fluid to a cell, methods of accessing intracellular space, and the like.

Delivery of small molecules, proteins, and genetic material across the cell membrane barrier and into the cytosol is a critical step for molecular biology and cell reprogramming techniques, yet efficient, non-disruptive delivery is still often a rate-limiting step.
Methods for cytosolic delivery of biomolecules are essential for a broad range of modern biological techniques, including siRNA knockouts, cell reprogramming, intracellular imaging and pharmaceutical therapeutics. Biological mechanisms are often harnessed to transfer reagents across the cell membrane barrier. Many of these methods are hampered by lysosomal degradation, cell-type specificity, low efficiency, expense, and/or toxicity concern. This has led to more physical approaches to directly breach the cell membrane, such as electroporation or micropipetting, yet these suffer from their own drawbacks. Despite significant advances in bio-active reagent development for biological procedures, effective cytosolic delivery to a significant number of cells is still often a prohibitive step. Thus there is a need to overcome these and other difficulties encountered in delivery of material across the cell membrane barrier.

Nanotube structures, methods of making nanotube structures, and methods of accessing intracellular space

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


An output video is created by at least two cameras recording respective source videos, each having multiple video frames containing video objects imaged by the cameras corresponding to multiple instances of one or more respective source objects traversing the site. Output video objects having a new start display time are computed such that a total duration of display times of all video objects from all source videos is shorter than a cumulative duration of the source videos. The output video objects or graphical representations thereof are rendered at new display times over a background image such that (i) instances imaged by different cameras at different times are represented simultaneously; (ii) at least two output video objects originating from a common camera have different relative display times to their respective source objects; and (iii) in at least one location there are represented instances imaged by two different cameras.

Reviewing scene activity by watching video clips from surveillance cameras is boring and time consuming. In many cases the activity is sparse, and time compression can be achieved by extracting the moving objects from the original video and reviewing only these objects. Video Synopsis [1, 2, 3, 4] makes the review faster by re-arranging the extracted objects in time so that high temporal compression is achieved. The re-arranged objects are usually displayed on a synthetic background image that is learned statistically from the original video.
While allowing fast review of long videos with sparse activity, Video Synopsis has several significant limitations: (i) Video Synopsis is based on the assumption that the camera is static; (ii) Video Synopsis is limited to the camera viewpoint; and (iii) the extracted objects should be segmented accurately to avoid displaying artifacts while stitching them on the background image. The segmentation may be performed incorrectly in many scenarios such as mutually occluding objects, hardly visible objects, etc.
Video Synopsis
Video Synopsis as described in [1, 2, 3, 4] relates to a video recorded by a single stationary camera. Moving objects are first extracted from the original video, and then temporally re-arranged and displayed on the original background. The result is a shorter video, showing all the activity in the scene in shorter time.
Extensions of Video Synopsis include presentation of clustered objects [5] and ordering the displayed objects by their relevance to a predefined objective function [6]. In [7] an attempt is made to use synopsis in a multi-camera case, by arranging a synopsis of the objects in one camera based on objects that appear in another camera.
All the above-mentioned works generate video clips which display the extracted objects in their original surrounding, i.e., on a background image learned from the same camera in which the objects appeared. Other display modes, such as displaying icons or using background unrelated to the original camera, have not been used.
Object Extraction
Spatio-temporal rearrangement of the scene objects, as done by Video Synopsis, requires a preliminary stage in which the objects of interest are detected and tracked in the original video. In [1, 3], the scene background model is learned statistically, and moving objects are extracted by their difference from the background model. Such a background subtraction method is applicable as long as the recording camera is static. An alternative method is executing an object detector such as Faster-RCNN [8] or SSD [9] over the input video frames, providing the bounding box locations of the scene objects. Pixel level object masks can be computed using instance segmentation methods such as Mask-RCNN [10]. These methods are applicable also for video frames recorded by a moving camera.
Multiple object tracking methods such as reviewed in [11] connect the detections of each individual object in different video frames, based on appearance and motion similarity. This provides the trajectories of the different scene objects.
Any of the existing methods for background subtraction, moving object segmentation, and objects tracking, known by people skilled in the art, is possible. The result after applying these methods is a "tube" representing a single object: a sequence of locations of this object in successive frames, from its earliest appearance to its last appearance.
Camera Parameters
For each camera there are associated internal and external parameters. Internal parameters include optical parameters such as focal length and lens distortion. External camera parameters include 3D pose of the camera (i.e. pan, tilt, roll angles) and its 3D spatial location. Estimation of internal and external camera parameters is described in [12].
It is also possible to calibrate the camera with a 2D or 3D surface without estimating all the camera parameters. Calibration of a planar surface in two views can be done by matching at least four corresponding points [12]. This calibration can be used for mapping object trajectories from the image plane into 2D reference models such as a map or a diagram.
The 3D pose of a camera relative to a ground surface can be estimated from the angles measured by an accelerometer attached to the camera. In [13, 14], a method is proposed to calibrate a camera with a reference 3D model using a 3D pose estimation module. For fixed cameras, the pose is estimated once. For moving cameras (e.g. Pan/Tilt/Zoom and aerial cameras), pose can be estimated every frame. This allows the object trajectories inside the 3D model to be located.
Object Matching
Multiple instances of an object can be recognized using several approaches. If the object is visible simultaneously by two calibrated cameras, matching can be done by determining whether the two instances occupy the same space at the same time. In other cases, pairs of video objects can be matched by their similarity, such as appearance and/or motion similarity. This technology is called object re-identification [15, 16, 17, 18].

Computer-implemented method for generating an output video from multiple video sources


A method for recovering much of the carbon and chlorine value in the heavy ends and other undesired by-products formed during the production of a C3 or higher polychlorinated alkane through the reaction of carbon tetrachloride with an olefine or chlorinated olefine, the improvement comprising the step of first separating the heavy ends and any other higher or lower boiling chlorohydrocarbon impurities from most of the desired product, and subjecting the separated heavy ends and impurities therewith to a high temperature exhaustive chlorination to produce carbon tetrachloride, tetrachloroethene, and minor amounts of hexachlorobutadiene and hexachlorobenzene by-products.

The formation of polychlorinated hydrocarbons containing three or more carbon atoms by the addition of a chlorinated alkane to an alkene is a process well documented in the art. For example, Wilson et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,893) describe the manufacture of 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexachloropropane by the addition of carbon tetrachloride to 1,1-dichloroethene using a catalyst comprising copper and a solvent selected from a C3 to a C5 alkanenitrile. Wilson et al (U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,360) teach the manufacture of 1,1,1,3,3-pentachloropropane by the addition of carbon tetrachloride to vinyl chloride in the presence of a catalyst mixture comprising organophosphate solvent, iron metal and ferric chloride. These addition reactions in general are referred to as telomerization reactions.
While telomerization reactions can generally be made to proceed with high selectivity to the desired products, invariably some unwanted by-products are also produced. Sometimes an isomer of the desired polychlorinated alkane is formed. Heavy end by-products are usually present that result at least partially by the addition of the desired product with unreacted olefine feed still present in the reaction media. For example, in the production of 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexachloropropane by the addition of carbon tetrachloride to 1,1-dichloroethene, several percent 1,1,1,3,3,5,5,5-octachloropentane is also produced by the addition of the hexachloropropane to unreacted 1,1-dichloroethene. Similarly, in the production of 1,1,1,3,3-pentachloropropane by the addition of carbon tetrachloride to vinyl chloride, several percent 1,1,3,3,5,5- and 1,1,1,3,5,5-hexachloropentane are also formed. These compounds have higher boiling points than the desired products, and thus are typically removed from the process as heavy ends. Due to limitations in the distillation process, often some of the desired C3 or higher polychlorinated alkane product may also be present in this heavy ends stream. Normally, these heavy ends would be disposed of as waste by incineration or other environmentally acceptable methods, and thus are an inefficiency in the utilization of the starting materials.

Method for reusing heavy end by-products in the manufacture of polychlorinated alkanes


A method and system of cardiac pacing is disclosed. A baseline rhythm is determined. The baseline rhythm includes a baseline atrial event and a baseline right ventricular RV event from an implanted cardiac lead or a leadless device, a pre-excitation interval determined from the baseline atrial event and the baseline RV event, and a plurality of activation times determined from a plurality of body-surface electrodes. A determination is made as to whether a time interval measured from an atrial event to a RV event is disparate from another time interval measured from the atrial event to an earliest RV activation time of the plurality of activation times. A correction factor is applied to the pre-excitation interval to obtain a corrected pre-excitation interval in response to determining the RV event is disparate from the earliest RV activation time. The processor is configured to signal the pulse generator to deliver electrical stimuli to a left ventricle (LV) using the corrected pre-excitation interval before RV sensing time.

The beat of the heart is controlled by the sinoatrial node, a group of conductive cells located in the right atrium near the entrance of the superior vena cava. The depolarization signal generated by the sinoatrial node activates the atrioventricular node. The atrioventricular node briefly delays the propagation of the depolarization signal, allowing the atria to drain, before passing the depolarization signal to the ventricles of the heart. The coordinated contraction of both ventricles drives the flow of blood through the body of a patient. In certain circumstances, the conduction of the depolarization signal from the atrioventricular node to the left and right ventricles may be interrupted or slowed. This may result in a dyssynchrony in the contraction of the left and right ventricles, which may lead to heart failure or death.
Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) may correct the symptoms of electrical dyssynchrony by providing pacing therapy through medical electrical leads to one or both ventricles or atria to encourage earlier activation of the left or right ventricles. By pacing the contraction of the ventricles, the ventricles may be controlled so that the ventricles contract in synchrony. One form of CRT is fusion pacing. Fusion pacing typically involves left ventricle (LV) only pacing with an electrode on the LV medical electrical lead in coordination with the intrinsic right ventricle (RV) activation. Effective fusion requires, for example, that the timing of the LV pacing be in synchrony with the earliest activation on the RV chamber. Fusion pacing can also involve pacing the RV with an electrode on the RV medical electrical lead in coordination with the intrinsic LV activation; however, RV only pacing is avoided because it can be arrhythmogenic in some patients and LV heart failure is more common than RV heart failure.
Achieving a positive clinical benefit from CRT is dependent on several therapy control parameters including the relative timing of pacing pulses delivered to effectively capture the right or left ventricles. Presently, CRT algorithms rely on a pre-excitation interval (e.g. 50-60 milliseconds (ms)). Pre-excitation interval is the time-interval that occurs before RV sensing in which pacing pulses are delivered to the LV. Conventional CRT algorithms do not take into consideration the fact that physicians may not consistently place the RV lead in the same or similar location for each patient. Consequently, in some cases, the RV sense time may significantly differ from the time of the onset of activation or the time of the earliest activation. For example, if the RV lead is in an electrically late area (e.g. RVOT), the time of the onset of activation occurs late (e.g. 70-80 ms after onset of depolarization). The timing of the delivery of LV pacing is calculated as 70-80 ms minus 50-60 ms which means the pacing stimulus can be delivered at 20-30 ms after onset of depolarization. The QRS complex on an electrocardiogram or an electrogram represents a summation of the advancing depolarization wavefronts through the ventricles. Pacing into the QRS complex or after onset of the QRS complex is not ideal for effective capture and does not provide the patient with full benefit of CRT. It is therefore desirable to develop additional methods or systems that are able to address the limitations associated with conventional CRT algorithms.

Method and system for improved estimation of time of left ventricular pacing with respect to intrinsic right ventricular activation in cardiac resynchronization therapy


Disclosed are an apparatus for detecting touch and a method for detecting touch with reduced effect of noise. The apparatus includes a signal source configured to generate a variable frequency signal changed from a starting frequency to an ending frequency, a touch panel including a plurality of driving electrodes and a plurality of sensing electrodes, wherein the variable phase signal is applied to one of the plurality of driving electrodes, and the sensing electrode outputs a touch signal that is modulated by the variable frequency signal, a demodulation unit configured to demodulate the touch signal using the variable frequency signal, and an accumulation unit configured to accumulate the demodulated touch signal to detect the touch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for detecting touch and an apparatus for detecting touch using the same.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As detection methods currently used in touch screens, a resistance film method, a surface ultrasound method, and a capacitance method are mainly used, and the capacitance method makes multi-touch detection possible and has excellent durability, visibility, and the like, and therefore there is a trend of adapting the capacitance method as a main input means of portable mobile devices.
A touch screen of the capacitance method recognizes a user input by detecting changes in an electric charge amount that is charged into capacitive sensors on a touch screen panel by user interference, and is classified as a self-capacitive touch screen or a mutual-capacitive touch screen in accordance with an electric charge storage method. The self-capacitive touch screen includes a single conductor for each capacitive sensor so as to form a charged surface with a reference ground outside the touch screen panel, whereas the mutual-capacitive touch screen enables two electric conductors on the touch screen panel to mutually form a charged surface so as to function as a single capacitive sensor.
A general self-capacitive touch screen uses an X/Y orthogonal type conductor arrangement, and in this case, each capacitive sensor functions as a line sensor, and therefore only one piece each of X-detection information and Y-detection information is provided from each of an X-line sensor group and a Y-line sensor group when detecting the touch screen. Therefore, the general self-capacitive touch screen makes detection and tracking of a single touch possible, but cannot support a multi-touch. The mutual-capacitive touch screen also uses an X/Y orthogonal type conductor arrangement but each capacitive sensor is configured in the form of a grid sensor for each position orthogonal to the conductor. The mutual-capacitive touch screen is different from the self-capacitive touch screen in that reactions of all grid sensors are independently detected when detecting a user input on the touch screen. Each grid sensor corresponds to one pair of X/Y coordinates and provides mutually independent reaction results, and therefore, in a mutual-charged touch screen, a multi-touch of a user may be detected and tracked by extracting user input information from an X/Y-detection information set provided from a set of X/Y grid sensors.
A configuration of a conductor of a general mutual-capacitive touch screen panel and a detection method thereof are as follows. First electrodes including conductors extending in any one direction and second electrodes including conductors extending in a direction orthogonal to the first electrodes form a mutual-capacitive sensor by a dielectric material between the two electrodes. A capacitance C of the mutual-capacitive sensor is defined as C=∈*a/d when a distance between two electrodes is "d," an area of a charged surface is "a," and an equivalent dielectric constant of all dielectric materials between the charged surfaces is "∈," and has a relationship of Q=CV with an electric charge amount Q charged into the sensor and a potential difference (voltage) V applied to two electrodes/charged surfaces. When a user approaches the sensor, interference with respect to an electric field formed between the two electrodes occurs to prevent electric charge from being stored in the sensor, and therefore an electric charge amount charged into the sensor is reduced resulting in a reduction in capacitance. This may be understood as being caused by changes in the capacitance due to changes in the equivalent dielectric constant between the charged surfaces by the user's approach, but a reduction in electric charge amount/storage amount due to a part of the electric field between the charged surfaces being shunted by the user's approach is an actual physical phenomenon. When an AC voltage source is connected to the first electrode to apply an AC waveform to one charged surface of the sensor, variation (ΔQ) in the charge amount corresponding to ΔQ=CΔV with respect to C which varies in accordance with a degree of the user's approach occurs, and a read-out circuit connected to the second electrode converts the variation into a current or a voltage. Such converted information is generally subjected to signal processing operations such as noise filtering, demodulation, digital conversion, accumulation, and the like to be used in a coordinate tracking algorithm and a gesture recognition algorithm. As a prior patent concerning such a capacitive touch-sensitive panel, U.S. Pat. No. 7,920,129 is disclosed.
A signal source applies electric signals to a driving electrode of a touch panel so that an object shunts an electric field flux formed in the driving electrode and a sensing electrode, and a change in a current occurs in the sensing electrode in accordance with a change in the electric field flux due to the shunt. A signal conversion unit connected to the sensing electrode detects the change in the current to determine presence/absence of touch by the object. When noise flows into the current which is required to be detected in order to detect the touch, it may affect information detection such as touch coordinates and the like, resulting in occurrence of an error in information such as detected coordinates and the like.
Various kinds of noises flow into the touch panel. As an example, when an LCD display is disposed below the touch panel, LCD noise due to a Vcom voltage of the LCD may affect the touch panel. Noise radiated from the LCD display may be prevented from flowing into the touch panel by connecting the remaining driving electrodes other than the driving electrode to which electric signals are applied to a low impedance source to form the electric field flux among the driving electrodes formed in the touch panel. In addition, various kinds of noises flow through an object that applies a touch input, and the noises flowing through the object are radiated from a large number of noise sources such as fluorescent lights, lighting equipments and the like and collected by human bodies to be applied to a panel. Noise radiated from a common electrode of the above-described LCD is shielded by the driving electrodes to minimize effects of the noise, but noise flowing through the object cannot be shielded.
In addition, noise having a large frequency difference with signals which are applied in order to drive the touch panel may be removed by performing filtering on the noise, but noise having the same frequency as or an adjacent frequency to the signals which are applied in order to drive the touch panel cannot be removed by performing the filtering on the noise.
In the related arts, touch coordinates are obtained by driving the touch panel using three mutually different signals having three discrete frequencies which are arbitrarily extracted, the obtained touch coordinates are arithmetically operated by performing median filtering in which an intermediate value is used by discarding a maximum value and a minimum value of the obtained result, majority selection filtering in which a result exhibited most frequently in the obtained touch coordinates is used, average selection filtering in which an average value from the obtained result is used, or the like is performed, and then further processing is performed. However, in such related arts, signal processing should be performed by the number of selected frequencies, and therefore power consumption is increased in the signal processing several times, and a time required for obtaining the touch coordinates is increased.

Method of detecting touch and apparatus for detecting touch using the same