The present invention provides a downhole cementing apparatus run into a borehole on a tubular. The apparatus is constructed on the pipe in such a way that pressure surge during run-in is reduced by allowing fluid to enter the pipe and utilize the fluid pathway of the cement. In one aspect of the invention, an inner member is provided that filters fluid as it enters the fluid pathway. In another aspect of the invention, various methods are provided within the cementing apparatus to loosen and displace sediment in the borehole prior to cementing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a downhole surge pressure reduction apparatus for use in the oil well industry. More particularly, the invention provides a surge pressure reduction apparatus that is run into a well with a pipe string or other tubular to be cemented and facilitates the cementing by reducing surge pressure and inner well sediments during run-in.
2. Background of the Related Art
In the drilling of a hydrocarbon well, the borehole is typically lined with strings of pipe or tubulars (pipe or casing) to prevent the walls of the borehole from collapsing and to provide a reliable path for well production fluid, drilling mud and other fluids that are naturally present or that may be introduced into the well. Typically, after the well is drilled to a new depth, the drill bit and drill string are removed and a string of pipe is lowered into the well to a predetermined position whereby the top of the pipe is at about the same height as the bottom of the existing string of pipe (liner). In other instances, the new pipe string extends back to the surface of the well casing. In either case, the top of the pipe is fixed with a device such as a mechanical hanger. A column of cement is then pumped into the pipe or a smaller diameter run-in string and forced to the bottom of the borehole where it flows out of the pipe and flows upwards into an annulus defined by the borehole and pipe. The two principal functions of the cement between the pipe and the borehole are to restrict fluid movement between formations and to support the pipe.
To save time and money, apparatus to facilitate cementing are often lowered into the borehole along with a hanger and pipe to be cemented. A cementing apparatus typically includes a number of different components made up at the surface prior to run-in. These include a tapered nose portion located at the downhole end of the pipe to facilitate insertion thereof into the borehole. A check valve at least partially seals the end of the tubular and prevents entry of well fluid during run-in while permitting cement to subsequently flow outwards. Another valve or plug typically located in a baffle collar above the cementing tool prevents the cement in the annulus from back flowing into the pipe. Components of the cementing apparatus are made of plastic, fiberglass or other disposable material that, like cement remaining in the pipe, can be drilled when the cementing is completed and the borehole is drilled to a new depth.
There are problems associated with running a cementing apparatus into a well with a string of pipe. One such problem is surge pressure created as the pipe and cementing apparatus are lowered into the borehole filled with drilling mud or other well fluid. Because the end of the pipe is at least partially flow restricted, some of the well fluid is necessarily directed into the annular area between the borehole and the pipe. Rapid lowering of the pipe results in a corresponding increase or surge in pressure, at or below the pipe, generated by restricted fluid flow in the annulus. Surge pressure has many detrimental effects. For example, it can cause drilling fluid to be lost into the earth formation and it can weaken the exposed formation when the surge pressure in the borehole exceeds the formation pore pressure of the well. Additionally, surge pressure can cause a loss of cement to the formation during the cementing of the pipe due to formations that have become fractured by the surge pressure.
One response to the surge pressure problem is to decrease the running speed of the pipe downhole in order to maintain the surge pressure at an acceptable level. An acceptable level would be a level at least where the drilling fluid pressure, including the surge pressure is less than the formation pore pressure to minimize the above detrimental effects. However, any reduction of surge pressure is beneficial because the more surge pressure is reduced, the faster the pipe can be run into the borehole and the more profitable a drilling operation becomes.
The problem of surge pressure has been further addressed by the design of cementing apparatus that increases the flow path for drilling fluids through the pipe during run-in. In one such design, the check valve at the downhole end of the cementing apparatus is partially opened to flow during run-in to allow well fluid to enter the pipe and pressure to thereby be reduced. Various other paths are also provided higher in the apparatus to allow the well fluid to migrate upwards in the pipe during run-in. For example, baffle collars used at the top of cementing tools have been designed to permit the through flow of fluid during run-in by utilizing valves that are held in a partially open position during run-in and then remotely closed later to prevent back flow of cement. While these designs have been somewhat successful, the flow of well fluid is still impeded by restricted passages. Subsequent closing of the valves in the cementing tool and the baffle collar is also problematic because of mechanical failures and contamination.
Another problem encountered by prior art cementing apparatus relates to sediment, sand, drill cuttings and other particulates collected at the bottom of a newly drilled borehole and suspended within the drilling mud that fills the borehole prior to running-in a new pipe. Sediment at the borehole bottom becomes packed and prevents the pipe and cementing apparatus from being seated at the very bottom of the borehole after run-in. This misplacement of the cementing apparatus results in difficulties having the pipe in the well or at the wellhead. Also, the sediment below the cementing apparatus tends to be transported into the annulus with the cement where it has a detrimental effect on the quality of the cementing job. In those prior art designs that allow the drilling fluid to enter the pipe to reduce surge pressure, the fluid borne sediment can fowl mechanical parts in the borehole and can subsequently contaminate the cement.
There is a need therefore for a cementing apparatus that reduces surge pressure as it is run-into the well with a string of pipe. There is a further need, for a cementing apparatus that more effectively utilizes the flow path of cement to transport well fluid and reduces pressure surge during run-in. There is a further need for a cementing apparatus that filters sediments and particles from well fluid during run-in.

Downhole surge pressure reduction and filtering apparatus


A calendar is provided on a telephone card to enhance its usefulness. A telephone set displaying the calendar allows a user to refer to it during a telephone call. A telephone card reader, a telephone card insertion slot, and a number-of-calls counting apparatus constitute a separate, unitary telephone card accepting apparatus. This improves handling characteristics and reduces the weight of the telephone set. A storage box within the telephone set provides a disposal system for used cards.

Telephone cards, which have been widely used recently, are sold and used with a variety of designs, etc. printed thereon. Such telephone cards as having scenery pictures printed thereon as they are and as having specific information of each shop printed thereon for advertising the shop are sold and used. Now, a mechanism of an ordinary telephone set 16 will be explained using FIG. 17 and FIG. 18. A telephone card inserted through a telephone card insertion slot 6 is transferred through a first transfer means 10 to a telephone card fixing part 8. A remaining number-of-calls (messages) of the telephone card is counted by a number-of-calls counting means 12 at the telephone card fixing part 8 and that remaining number-of-calls is displayed by a number-of-calls display means 14. When this remaining number-of-calls is not zero and a receiver 62 is off a receiver receptacle 64, a state capable of number designation is secured by a means 28 to allow an acceptance of a designated number. Ordinarily, continuous sounds, "pi, . . . " are generated. When a number to be called is designated by a number designating means 30 with dial or push button, etc. under such state, the telephone set is placed in a state where speaking with the party called can be made as the party called picks up the telephone set by an action of a circuit coupling means 32. And when the remaining number-of-calls in the telephone card becomes zero or the receiver 62 is placed onto the receiver receptacle 64, the speaking with the other party becomes impossible by an action of a circuit breaking means 38.
In general, telephone cards are consumable commodity made of flexible rigid material, therefore they are ordinarily discarded when used up. Telephone cards discarded can be seen around a public telephone and it is not desirable from the stand point of keeping clean environment.
Also, the trend of providing a variety of elaborate design or pattern printed on telephone cards for securing greater sales is rapidly increasing, therefore telephone cards which have direct and concrete benefits for daily life is rather scarce.
Further, as these telephone cards are made of flexible rigid material being different from paper, they do not easily undergo permanent deformation or destruction.
Under the circumstance, the present invention is made to solve the above mentioned problems while using said special features of telephone cards, and is intended to supply such telephone cards as directly useful for daily life by providing a calendar function on the telephone cards, and to enhance the usefulness of the used telephone cards, and at the same time to provide an advantageous system for using telephone cards.

Telephone card having calendar function and system for using same


A data bus sense amplifier circuit can include a first sense amplifier block configured to provide first amplified signals by sensing inputted signals, a second sense amplifier block configured to provide second amplified signals by sensing the first amplified signals, and a sense amplifier control unit configured to provide first and second enable signals which control activations of the first and second sense amplifier blocks, respectively, wherein the sense amplifier control unit controls the first enable signal to be synchronized with the second enable signal so that the first enable signal is inactivated.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure herein relates to a data bus sense amplifier circuit and, more particularly, to a two-stage data bus sense amplifier circuit.
2. Related Art
A conventional semiconductor memory device latches cell data, which corresponds to a word line activated by a row address, through a bit line sense amplifier. Then, when a column address is received, the information of the bit line sense amplifier is amplified again in a data bus sense amplifier. In order to improve the sensing ability of such a data bus sense amplifier, a two-stage sense amplifier is used.
FIG. 1 is a conceptual block diagram of a conventional two-stage data bus sense amplifier circuit. The conventional data bus sense amplifier circuit includes a first sense amplifier block 10, a second sense amplifier block 20 and a delay unit 30.
In the data bus sense amplifier circuit, when a predetermined potential difference exists between the levels of signals sensed in the first sense amplifier block 10, the second sense amplifier block 20 starts sensing operation. That is, inputted bit line signals (BL) and (BLB) are amplified through both the first sense amplifier block 10 and the second sense amplifier block 20 to be provided as output signals (DOUT) and (DOUTB).
More specifically, the bit line signals (BL) and (BLB) are sensed by the first sense amplifier block 10 to be provided as the first amplified signals (OUT) and (OUTB). The first amplified signals (OUT) and (OUTB) are sensed again by the second sense amplifier block 20 to be provided as the output signals (DOUT) and (DOUTB). The output signals (DOUT) and (DOUTB) are provided to a global data line.
Meanwhile, the delay unit 30 provides first and second enable signals (S1) and (S2) to the first sense amplifier block 10 and the second sense amplifier block 20, respectively. Although the first and second enable signals (S1) and (S2) respond to a column control pulse signal (Y_pulse), they can have different activation timings with different delay amounts. Nevertheless, they have the same pulse width as the column control pulse signal (Y_pulse). Thus, a section in which the first enable signal (S1) is activated can overlap with a section in which the second enable signal (S2) is activated. Since the first sense amplifier block 10 can operate even during the sensing operation of the second sense amplifier block 20, the current consumption can be increased.


A silicone compound of the rational formula: ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are independently a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon radical free from acetylenic unsaturaiton; Z is --O--, --S-- or --NH--; Y is a divalent organic group; R.sup.3 is a hydrogen atom, an akyl, alkenyl, alkoxy or phenyl group; and m and n are rational numbers satisfy the ration of 4>m+n.gtoreq.2. The compound is useful as a precursor of nonemanating, self-curing and heat resistant silicone resins.

This invention relates to a novel silicon compound having a self-reactive acetylenic function which is useful as a precursor of self-curing, nonemanating resin compositions.
Siloxane compounds are well-known in the art as a precursor of silicone resins having heat resistant, water-resistant, anti-weathering and other benefical properties including electrical characteristics.
It is also well-known that certain compounds having an acetylenic function may be polymerize into polymers having a conjugated diene system through cleaving the acetylenic function. Because of the unique polymerization mechanism and the unique electrical and physical properties of their polymers, such compounds are attracting a great interest in the paint and electronic industry as a precursor of self-curable, nonemanating resins. Japanese Patent Kokai No. 108213/89, for example, discloses a propargyl ether of cresol-novolac resin as one of such compounds.
The present invention provides a novel class of silicone resin precursors which are polymerizable through acetylenic function into a modified silicone resin having excellent heat-resistance, water-resistance, weatherability, electrical and other properties.

Polymerizable silicones having acetylenic unsaturation


A semiconductor device includes first and second MIS transistors and a dummy element. The first MIS transistor includes a first gate insulating film which includes a first high-k insulating film formed on a first active region and contains an adjusting metal. The second MIS transistor includes a second gate insulating film which includes a second high-k insulating film formed on a second active region and is free of the adjusting metal. The dummy element includes a dummy gate insulating film which includes a dummy high-k insulating film formed on a dummy active region and at least a portion of which is free of the adjusting metal. The first active region is formed in a second conductivity type first well region. The second active region is formed in a first conductivity type second well region. The dummy active region is formed in a second conductivity type third well region.

The present disclosure relates to semiconductor devices and methods for fabricating the same, and specifically to a semiconductor device including a metal insulator semiconductor field effect transistor (MISFET) having a gate insulating film including a high dielectric constant insulating film (high-k insulating film) containing an adjusting metal and a method for fabricating the same.
In order to achieve increased speed and reduced power consumption which have been required for semiconductor integrated circuits in recent years, both increasing gate capacitance and reducing leakage currents are required. Thus, it has been attempted to use, as gate insulating films, high-k insulating films such as Hf-based oxide films containing hafnium (Hf) instead of conventional silicon oxide films to reduce the electrical thickness of the gate insulating films and to increase the physical thickness of the gate insulating films so that leakage currents are reduced with increased gate capacitance.
However, using the high-k insulating films as the gate insulating films causes a problem where a phenomenon called Fermi level pinning increases threshold voltages of MISFETs (hereinafter referred to as "MIS transistors"). Thus, using Hf-based oxide films containing, for example, lanthanum (La) as the gate insulating films has been considered to reduce threshold voltages of n-type MIS transistors. Note that using the Hf-based oxide films containing La as the gate insulating films can reduce the threshold voltages of the n-type MIS transistors based on the following reasons. When Hf-based oxide films contain La, flat band voltages are shifted in the negative direction, so that effective work functions of n-type MIS transistors are shifted to a band edge, which can reduce threshold voltages of the n-type MIS transistors.
Therefore, a method for fabricating a semiconductor device including an n-type metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor using a Hf-based oxide film containing La as a gate insulating film and a p-type MOS transistor has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication 2009-194352). A method for fabricating a conventional semiconductor device will be described below with reference to FIGS. 9A-9D. FIGS. 9A-9D are cross-sectional views illustrating process steps of the method for fabricating the conventional semiconductor device in the gate length direction in a sequential order. In FIGS. 9A-9D, the term "nMOS region" refers to a region in which an n-type MOS transistor is formed, and the term "pMOS region" refers to a region in which a p-type MOS transistor is formed.
First, as illustrated in FIG. 9A, SiO2 films 202x, 202y are formed on active regions 200a, 200b surrounded by an element isolation region 201 in a semiconductor substrate 200. After that, a HfSiO film 203 and a Si film 204 are sequentially formed above the semiconductor substrate 200. After that, only portions of the Si film 204 and the HfSiO film 203 located in the pMOS region are nitrided, thereby forming a HfSiON film 205 and a SiN film 206. After that, a La(O) film 207 is formed on the Si film 204 and the SiN film 206.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 9B, a W film 208 and a TiN film 209 are sequentially formed on the La(O) film 207.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 9C, a thermal treatment is performed. Through the thermal treatment, La in the La(O) film 207 is diffused into the HfSiO film 203, thereby forming a HfSiO film 210 containing La. On the other hand, the SiN film 206 prevents La in the La(O) film 207 from being diffused into the HfSiON film 205. Additionally, reaction is caused between the Si film 204 and the W film 208, thereby forming a WSi film 211.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 9D, a polycrystalline Si film is formed on the TiN film 209. After that, patterning is performed. Through the patterning, on the active region 200a, a gate insulating film 210A composed of a SiO2 film 202a and a HfSiO film 210a containing La; and a gate electrode 212A composed of a WSi film 211a, a TiN film 209a, and a polycrystalline Si film 212a are sequentially formed. On the other hand, on the active region 200b, a gate insulating film 205B composed of a SiO2 film 202b and a HfSiON film 205b; a SiN film 206b; a La(O) film 207b; and a gate electrode 212B composed of a W film 208b, a TiN film 209b, and a polycrystalline Si film 212b are sequentially formed.
The conventional semiconductor device is thus fabricated.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A process for preparing methacrolein by catalytic reaction of propionaldehyde with formaldehyde is disclosed wherein the catalyst comprises a mixture of secondary amine and organic carboxylic acid with up to 8 carbon atoms.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a new process for preparing methacrolein (2-methylpropenal) from propionaldehyde and formaldehyde.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Methacrolein is an important intermediate in the preparation of various organic compounds, in particular in the fields of perfumes and fragrances, pharmaceuticals, and polymers.
Numerous methods are already known for preparing methacrolein. Thus, for example, methacrolein can be obtained from isobutene by catalytic oxidation. The olefin is passed at 300.degree. to 600.degree. C. over suitable catalysts, in particular those containing vanadium, tungsten or molybdenum. The yields are between 40 and 80 percent referred to converted isobutylene. The use of high temperatures and sensitive catalysts raises a number of chemical engineering and technical problems that restrict the applicability of this method of preparation.
Reference may also be made to the preparation of methacrolein by oxidizing isobutyraldehyde on a catalyst containing molybdenum or uranium. (See French No. 13 40 385). The required reaction temperature is 275.degree. C. to 375.degree. C. The disadvantage of this process is the low yield, which is only about 25 percent.
A further group of processes for preparing methacrolein start from propionaldehyde and formaldehyde. One such process is based on the condensation of the starting aldehydes at 275.degree. C. using catalysts containing sodium oxide and silicic acid. Methacrolein is obtained in a yield of about 46 percent by this process (sec. C.A. Vol. 56 (1962) 2321 and 2322).
Methacrolein can be prepared from propionaldehyde by means of a Mannich reaction, i.e., the condensation of ammonia or a primary or secondary amine, normally present as a salt, with formaldehyde and a compound containing a reactive hydrogen atom. Corresponding processes are described in C.A. Vol. 59 (1963), 393, 394, and also in U.S. Patent Specifications 144,164 and 2,848,499.
Despite the good methacrolein yields that can be obtained by the Mannich reaction, this process is not widely used industrially. A drawback is the necessity to use amines in stoichiometric amounts. In addition, the use of hydrochlorides, in which form the amines are generally employed, has considerable disadvantages. Thus, halogen-resistant apparatus must be used in order to prevent the occurrence of stress crack corrosion, which is a danger particularly when operating under elevated pressure.
Attempts have been made to circumvent these difficulties by carrying out the reaction between propionaldehyde and formaldehyde in the liquid phase using sulphuric acid or p-toluenesulphonic acid as catalysts (see Japanese No. 23 159). However, this reaction produces methacrolein in a yield of only about 60 percent.
To summarize, it may be said that the heretofore known processes for preparing methacrolein have considerable disadvantages, particularly as regards the low yields or difficulties experienced in the technical implementation.
It therefore became desirable to provide a process that avoids the afore-mentioned disadvantages and produces methacrolein in high yields without great technical expense or effort.


The invention relates to an amplification circuit (100), comprising: a VGA (2), an AGC loop (10) for automatically controlling the gain of the VGA (2), a switching circuit (14) for switching between an AGC mode, in which the gain of the VGA (2) is automatically controlled by an output signal of the AGC loop (10) and a manual gain control, MGC, mode, in which the gain of the VGA (2) can be manually controlled by an input signal, and a read/write circuit (30) with a contact (31) for connection to a peripheral system, wherein the read/write circuit (30) is configured, in the MGC mode, to provide the input signal from the contact (31) via a write-mode path (32) to the VGA (2), and, in the AGC mode, to provide the output signal of the AGC loop (10) via a read-mode path (33) on the contact (31).

Variable gain amplifiers (VGAs) are important building blocks in systems where amplification and processing of analog signals with low distortion over a high input dynamic range is required. FIG. 1 (a) shows schematically and exemplarily an amplification circuit 1 comprising a VGA 2 and an automatic gain control (AGC) loop 10 that shall ensure that only minimal distortion is introduced by the VGA over a wide dynamic range of the input. The AGC loop 10 comprises a peak detector 11, which outputs a DC signal proportional to the amplitude at the output voltage Vout of the VGA 2. The output of the peak detector 11 is compared with a desired output amplitude provided on the pin OA through an operational amplifier (OpAmp) 12 and the error signal at the output of the OpAmp 12 is used to automatically set the gain of the VGA 2 to maintain the amplitude of the output voltage Vout at a constant level, even if the input amplitude to the VGA 2 changes. When the amplification circuit 1 is embedded in a larger system, it is usually beneficial to have two switchable modes of operation: an AGC mode, in which the gain of the VGA 2 is automatically set by the
OpAmp 12 and a manual gain control mode (MGC), in which the gain can be set manually by controlling the input via the pin GC (gain control). In both modes, the output of the peak detector 11 is available through a buffer 13 on a pin PKD as an output to a peripheral system (not shown in the figure). The pin MS (mode selection) can be used to switch between the two modes through a switching circuit 14, wherein when MS is logic zero, the MGC mode is activated, and when MS is logic one, the AGC mode is activated.
A detailed view of an exemplary implementation of the switching circuit 14 is shown in FIG. 1 (b). The switching circuit 14 is formed by two complementary transmission gates and comprises a selection signal input 15 connected to the pin MS, a first signal input 16 connected to the pin GC, a second signal input 17 connected to the output of the OpAmp 12 and an output 18 connected to the gain control setting input of the VGA (VGAGC). The two complementary transmission gates comprise an inverter 19, a first pair of an NMOS transistor 20 and a PMOS transistor 21 (first transmission gate) and a second pair of an NMOS transistor 22 and a PMOS transistor 20 (second transmission gate). The first transmission gate 20, 21 is configured to allow signals to pass through from the first signal input 16 to the output 18 in response to the selection signal input 15 being driven low (logic zero) and the second transmission gate 22, 23 is configured to allow signals to pass through from the second signal input 17 to the output 18 in response to the selection signal input 15 being driven high (logic one). Thus, in the first case (MGC mode), the signal from the pin GC is available at the output 18 of the switching circuit 14, and in the second case (AGC mode), the output of the OpAmp 12 is available at the output 18 of the switching circuit 14.
Normally, in the MGC mode, the pin GC is used as an input pin, i.e., the peripheral system can write the value of the desired gain on the pin GC. However, the inventor has realized that in some peripheral systems, when the AGC mode is activated, it is also required that the value at the output of the OpAmp 12 is read out by the system.

Amplification circuit with read/write circuit

IHP GMBH—INNOVATIONS FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE MICROELECTRONICS/LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUR INNOVATIVE MIKROELEKTRONIK


In a starter unit, the internal gear frame of an epicycle reduction gear is set rotatable with respect to the front bracket, and a first over-running clutch is made up of a clutch outer fixed to the front bracket, and a clutch inner which is the front end portion of the internal gear frame, and a second over-running clutch which is a conventional over-running clutch is mounted on the output shaft. The provision of the two over-running clutches eliminates the difficulty that, when the start switch is turned on during the inertial rotation of the engine or starter unit, the pinion is reengaged with the ring gear, so that abnormal shock is applied to the side of the starter unit to damage the rotation transmitting members.

This invention relates to a starter unit in which the rotation of the armature shaft of a DC motor is transmitted through an epicycle reduction gear to the output shaft, and the rotation of the output shaft is transmitted to an over-running clutch to start the engine.
One example of a conventional starter unit is shown in FIG. 5.
In FIG. 5, reference numeral 1 designates a DC motor with an armature 2 from which an armature shaft 5 is extended. A small gear, namely, a sun gear 5a is formed on the front end portion of the armature shaft 5. The DC motor 1 includes a yoke 6, on the inner cylindrical wall of which field magnets are mounted. The yoke 6 is coupled to a front bracket 8 and a rear bracket 9.
Further in FIG. 5, reference numeral 10 designates an output shaft which is coupled through a steel ball 11 to the armature shaft 5 in such a manner that it is in alignment with the armature shaft 5. More specifically, the front end portion of the armature shafts is engaged, through a bearing 13, with a hole formed in the end face of the rear end face portion of the output shaft 10. The starter unit further comprises: an epicycle reduction gear 15 which is designed as follows: A plurality of planet gears 16 are mounted through bearings 18 on supporting pins 17, respectively, and engaged with the sun gear 5a. The supporting pins 17 are embedded in a carrier 10a which is in the form of a flange formed at the rear end of the output shaft 10. An internal gear frame 19 is secured to the inner cylindrical wall of the front bracket 8. An internal gear 19a a is formed in the inner cylindrical wall of the internal gear frame 19. The internal gear 19a is engaged with the planet gears 16 to revolve around the latter. The rear end portion of the output shaft 10 is supported through a bearing 21 on the inner cylindrical wall of the front end portion of the internal gear frame 19.
The starter unit further comprises: an over-running clutch 22 which is designed as follows: The over-running clutch 22 has a clutch outer member 23 and a clutch inner member 24. The clutch outer member 23 has a helical spline gear 23a formed in its inner cylindrical wall in such a manner that the helical spline gear 23a is engaged with a helical spline gear 10b forme on the output shaft 10. The clutch inner member 24 transmits rotation through rollers 25 to the clutch outer member 23 in one direction, and is mounted through a bearing 29 on the output shaft 10. The front end portion of the clutch inner member 24 is formed into a pinion 26, which is engaged with the ring gear of the engine as the over-running clutch 22 is moved forwardly. Engaging rings 27 and 28 are secured to the clutch outer member 23. A stopper 30 is mounted on the output shaft 10, to regulate the forward position of the over-running clutch 22.
An electromagnetic switch 31 is mounted on the front bracket 8. A hook 33 is fixedly inserted into a plunger 32, which is the movable iron core of the electromagnetic switch 31, in such a manner that the front end portion of the hook protrudes outside of the electromagnetic switch 31. A shift lever 34 in the form of a fork is engaged with the hook 33 and the aforementioned engaging rings 27 and 28. More specifically, the two prongs of the shift lever 34 are engaged with the hook 33, and the base of the two prongs is engaged with the engaging rings 27 and 28 in the axial direction. The shift lever 34 has a protruded middle portion 34 a which is supported on the front bracket 8 in such a manner that the shift lever can be pivoted about the middle portion 34a. An elastic closing member 35 is fitted in a cut formed in the front bracket 8.
The operation of the conventional starter unit thus constructed will be described with reference to the engine on a motor vehicle. When the engine start switch is turned on, the exciting coil (not shown) in the electromagnetic switch 31 is energized to retract the plunger 32 inwardly. The retraction is transmitted, through the hook 33 to the shift lever 34, so that the shift lever 34 is swung counterclockwise in FIG. 5 thereby to move the over-running clutch 22 forwardly. As a result, the pinion 26 is engaged with the ring gear of the engine. At the same time, or when the plunger is retracted as described above, a movable contact (not shown) is moved backwardly to engage with a pair of stationary contacts (not shown) thereby to complete the armature circuit in the DC motor 1. As a result, the armature 2 is rotated. The rotation of the armature 2 is transmitted through the epicycle reduction gear 15 to the output shaft 10. The rotation of the output shaft 10 is transmitted through the over-running clutch 22 to the pinion 26, to rotate the ring gear of the engine.
When the engine is started, the high speed rotation drives the pinion 26 in the same direction; however, it is not transmitted to the armature shaft because the over-running clutch is interposed therebetween.
The above-described conventional starter unit suffers from the following difficulty: If, during the inertial rotation of the engine or starter unit, the start switch is turned on to operate the electromagnetic switch 31, the pinion is engaged with the ring gear again, thus applying an abnormal shock to the starter unit. In this case, the rotation transmitting members may be damaged because the over-running clutch 22 is insufficient in shock absorbing capacity.


A sampling rate allocation method for a wireless sensor network is provided. In this method, a distributed computing method is adopted to allow each node to calculate and obtain its decision table and energy table and upload its energy table to its parent node, and finally, the number of samples to be provided by all the child nodes is determined according to the decision table of the root node and a total sample number. Compared to the conventional techniques, the present invention provides a wireless sensor network which has longer life time and can meet the requirements to both the total number of samples and the fairness.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a wireless sensor network and a sampling rate allocation method thereof, in particular, to a wireless sensor network which has long life time and meets the requirements to both total sample number and fairness, and to a sampling rate allocation method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
A wireless sensor network is composed of a plurality of wireless sensors, and which can be used for environment monitoring by periodically sensing various samples (for example, temperature, humidity, sound, radio frequency, and atmospheric pressure) via these wireless sensors. The number of samples sensed by the wireless sensors in a specific time interval is referred as sampling rate. In addition, besides being applied to environment monitoring, a wireless sensor network may also be applied to various aspects in our daily life or industrial processes, such as speech recognition, object localization, and system modeling etc.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless sensor network 10. Referring to FIG. 1, the wireless sensor network 10 includes a plurality of nodes 100, 101, . . . , 107 and a host 108, wherein the nodes 100, 101, . . . , 107 and the host 108 are connected to each other and communicate through radio wave or infrared light so as to send sensed samples and parameters for allocating the sampling rate. The nodes 100, 101, . . . , 107 and the host 108 may have sensors for obtaining samples; however, some of the nodes 100, 101, . . . , 107 or the host 108 may have no sensor but simply receive and send samples (P.S. the host 108 does not send samples). The nodes 100, 101, . . . , 107 of the wireless sensor network 10 may be wireless communication units with sensors, and the host 108 may be referred as a root node. The host 108 receives and analyzes samples sensed by each of the nodes 100, 101, . . . , 107.
The quality of samples sensed by the wireless sensor network 10 is related to the total number of samples and the source of the samples. Generally speaking, to ensure the reliability of the samples sensed by the wireless sensor network 10, the total number of samples in a specific time interval is increased and different sampling rates are allocated regarding to the significances of different nodes, so as to meet the requirements to both total sample number and fairness. However, an over-large total sample number won't increase the quality of the sensed samples drastically. To truthfully reconstruct the monitored phenomenon, the sampling rate of the wireless sensor network must be at least twice the highest frequency of the original signal, according to the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem (Refer to A. J. Jerri, "The Shannon Sampling Sheorem—Its Various Extensions and Applications: A Tutorial Review.", Proceedings of the IEEE, 65(11):1565-1596, 1977.). Taking a sound capturing system as an example, the quality of the samples is not increased obviously when the total number of samples is about 3000 samples per second.
The life time of the wireless sensor network 10 refers to the time when the energy of a particular node (one of the nodes 101˜107) is used up, and the monitored phenomenon cannot be reconstructed. Generally speaking, the sampling rate of the node is related to the life time of the wireless sensor network. This is because that the energy of a node is consumed whenever the node senses, sends, or receives a sample. Accordingly, the more samples the node senses, sends, or receives, the more energy of this node will be consumed, and which will shorten the life time of the entire wireless sensor network 10. Thus, the higher sampling rate a node has, the shorter the life time of the node is. The sampling rate of a node is increased along with the total number of samples. As a result, over sampling cannot increase the quality and reliability of the samples; instead, additional energy is consumed and the life time of the wireless sensor network 10 is even shortened.
Several sampling rate allocation methods for wireless sensor networks have been disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 20060206857, U.S. Patent No. 20070058664, U.S. Pat. No. 7,002,501, European Patent. No. 20050250440, and some other articles. According to these methods, a host is allowed to receive the most samples before the energy of a node is used up first. However, in these methods, the samples may all come from some particular nodes and induce bias in data analysis. According to these methods, nodes having more energy are used for sensing more samples so that the life time of the wireless sensor network can be prolonged. However, in the worst case, all the samples may come from the same node, and since the samples obtained from the same node cannot represent the characteristic of the entire network, analysis error may be caused. A host should be able to receive samples from different nodes so as to avoid bias in data analysis.
Articles for providing foregoing methods include: [1] J. H. Chang and L. Tassiulas, "Maximum lifetime routing in wireless sensor networks," IEEE Trans. on Networking., vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 609-619, August 2004. [2] J. Park and S. Sahni, "An Online Heuristic for Maximum Lifetime Routing in Wireless Sensor Netzvorks," IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 12(4):609-619, 2004. [3] K. Kar, M. Kodialam, T. V. Lakshman, and L. Tassiulas., "Routing for Network Capacity Maximization in Energy-constrained Ad-hoc Networks," In INFOCOM '03: Twenty-Second Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE computer and Communications Societies, pages 673-681. IEEE Press, 2003. [4] Madan, R. Lall, S., "Distributed Algorithms for Maximum Lifetime Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks," IEEE Transaction on Wireless Communications, 5(8):2185-2193, 2006. [5] A. Sankar and Z. Liu., "Maximum Lifetime Routing in Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks," In INFOCOM '04: Twenty-Third Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE computer and Communications Societies, pages 1089-1097. IEEE Press, 2004.
In addition, another type of sampling rate allocation methods is disclosed in some other articles. According to these methods, a utility function is allocated to each node, wherein the value of the utility function increases along with the sampling rate of the node, and the increment thereof is reduced along with the increasing of the sampling rate. In these methods, the sampling rate of each node is allocated such that the total value of the utility functions of all these nodes can be maximized before a node runs out of its energy. Through these methods, the problem of lack of fairness in foregoing patents and articles can be resolved; however, a host may not be able to receive enough number of samples, namely, the requirement of total sample number cannot be met.
Articles for providing foregoing methods include: [1] Y. Cui, Y. Xue, and K. Nahrstedt, "A Utility-based Distributed Maximum Lifetime Routing Algorithm for Wireless Networks," in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 55(3):797-805, 2006. [2] Y. T. Hou, Y. Shi, and H. D. Sherali, "Rate allocation in wireless sensor networks with network lifetime requirement," in Proceedings of ACM International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing (MobiHoc), pp. 67-77, May 24-26, 2004, Tokyo, Japan. [3] V. Srinivasan, C. F. Chiasserini, P. Nuggehalli, and R. R. Rao., "Optimal Rate Allocation for Energy Efficient Multipath Routing in Ad Hoc Wireless Net-works," IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, Vol. 3, May 2004. [4] J. H. Zhu, Shan Chen, B. Bensaou, and K. L. Hung, "Tradeoff between Lifetime and Rate Allocation in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Cross Layer Approach," in IEEE INFOCOM 2007, May 2007.
In short, even though the sampling rate allocation methods disclosed in foregoing patents and articles can prolong the life time of the entire wireless sensor network, they cannot meet the quantity and fairness requirements. In addition, the collected samples may not be able to reconstruct the monitored phenomenon.

Wireless sensor network and sampling rate allocation method thereof

Industrial Technology Research Institute


The present disclosure relates to a thin film type controlled viewing window back light unit and a thin flat type Controlled Viewing window Display using the same. The present disclosure suggests a thin film type back light unit which can include: a base film having a width and a length, and including a high refractive film and a low refractive film stacked on the high refractive film; an incident pattern disposed at one side of a bottom surface of the base film; a reflective pattern disposed at an opposite side apart from the one side with the length of the bottom surface of the base film, and covering the width of the opposite side; a light radiating pattern disposed on an upper surface of the base film; a holographic film for controlling a viewing-window disposed on the light radiating pattern; and a light source being apart from the incident pattern, and providing an incident light to the incident pattern.

Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a thin film type controlled viewing window back light unit and a thin flat type Controlled Viewing window Display (or 'CVD') using the same. Especially, the present disclosure relates to a thin film type controlled viewing window back light unit adopting the holography technology and a thin flat type controlled viewing window display using the same.
Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, many technologies and researches for making and reproducing the 3D (Three Dimensional) image/video are actively developed. As the media relating to the 3D image/video is a new concept media for virtual reality, it can improve the visual information better, and it will lead the next generation display devices. The conventional 2D image system merely suggests the image and video data projected to a plan view, but the 3D image system can provide the full real image data to the viewer. So, the 3D image/video technologies are the True North image/video technologies.
Typically there are three methods for reproducing 3D image/video: the stereoscopy method, the holography method and the integral imaging method. Among them, the holography method uses laser beams so that it is possible to observe the 3D image/video with naked eyes. The holography method is the most ideal method because it has an excellent visual stereoscopic property without any fatigue of observer.
To produce a recording of the phase of the light wave at each point in an image, holography uses a reference beam which is combined with the light from the scene or object (the object beam). If these two beams are coherent, optical interference between the reference beam and the object beam, due to the superposition of the light waves, produces a series of intensity fringes that can be recorded on standard photographic film. These fringes form a type of diffraction grating on the film, which is called the hologram. The central goal of holography is that when the recorded grating is later illuminated by a substitute reference beam, the original object beam is reconstructed (or reproduced), producing a 3D image/video.
When a display system is implemented using a holography technology according to the related art, it is very hard to get evenly distributed brightness because the intensity of the light radiated from the light source follows the Gaussian Profile. In addition, when the incident light form the light source has the inclined incident angle in order to reduce the high order diffraction components causing the image noise, the collimation degree of the laser may be lowered.
In order to solve or address the drawbacks of the related art, there are some researches for providing the back light unit BLU which can maintain the collimation degrees of the incident light even though the incident light has the inclined angle for reducing the high order diffraction components. For example, the system using the collimation lens was presented. FIG. 1A is a figure illustrating a schematic structure of the back light unit BLU suggesting a collimated light beam using the collimation lens, according to a related art.
Referring to FIG. 1A, disposing a point light source 30 at the position of the light source and positioning a collimation lens CL at the focal length position apart from the light source 30, the lights radiated from the point light source 30 may be formed as the collimated beam light by the collimation lens CL. This collimated light beam can be used as a reference light beam in the non-glasses type display system.
However, in the most cases of the holographic display system, it is preferred that the reference light beam is incident into the diffraction optical element with an inclined angle from the vertical direction to the incident surface of the element. The reason is that, as the diffraction element like the holographic film may generate the 0th mode image and/or 1st mode image and they may work as noises in the holographic image, the 0th mode and/or 1st mode should be reduced or eliminated. To do so, it is easy way for reducing or eliminating these noises to make an incident angle to the incident reference light beam.
For example, the position of the point light source 30 may be shifted at any one side to make the incident angle in the back light unit shown in FIG. 1A. FIG. 1B is a figure illustrating a schematic structure of the back light unit BLU generating a collimated light beam using the collimation lens in which the collimated light beam has an incident angle, according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1B, the point light source 30 may be shifted or moved to upside from the light axis 130 so that the incident angle from the light axis forwarding to the center of the lens CL may be α. Then, theoretically, as the dotted line in FIG. 1B, the collimated light beam has the incident angle α from the light axis 130. However, in actual case, by the physical characteristics such as the spherical aberration, the real light path may not be collimated and/or paralleled with the incident angle α, as the solid line in FIG. 1B. As a result, the light beam from the back light unit BLU may not be incident into the wanted area and/or wanted direction evenly but be unevenly distributed over the incident surface of the diffraction element.
As one method for solving this problem, by combining the prism sheet with the collimation lens, the back light unit of which the light direction can be controlled is suggested. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 2, we will briefly explain about the light direction controllable back light unit. FIG. 2 is a figure illustrating a schematic structure of the back light unit suggesting a collimated light beam which direction can be controllable according to the related art.
The light direction controllable back light unit BLU according to the related art comprises a collimated lens CL, a point light source 30 disposed one side of the collimation lens CL and a prism sheet PS disposed at the other side of the collimated lens CL. The point light source 30 may be any type of light source which can radiate lights to radial directions from one point. In order to radiate most of all lights from the point light source 30 to the collimation lens CL, a mirror (not shown) may be further included at the back side of the point light source 30.
The point light source 30 can be preferably disposed at the focal plane of the collimation lens CL. Especially, the point light source 30 can be more preferably positioned on the light axis 130 connecting between the center point of the collimation lens CL and the center point of the forcal plane of the collimation lens CL.
The collimation lens CL may change the lights radiated from the point light source 30 into a collimated light beam 100. That is, the collimated light beam 100 may radiate to one direction parallel to the light axis 130. The collimation lens CL may include any one of the optical lenses such as the fresenl lens.
It is preferred that the prism sheet PS is positioned as being opposite the point light source 30 across the collimation lens CL. The prism sheet PS may refract the light direction with certain angle α as being inclined to the light axis 130. By the prism sheet PS, the parallel property of the collimated light beam 100 may be maintained and the propagation direction of the collimated light may be redirected to downward with angle of a from the light axis 130. As a result, the prism sheet PS can change the collimated light beam 100 into the controlled collimated light beam 200. The prism sheet PS may include a Fresnel prism sheet.
The holographic display system using these back light units can be applied to the hologram 3D display or the controlled viewing-window display and so on. Particularly, the controlled viewing-window display can be applied to the various display systems.
For one example, as the viewing window can be controlled, it can be applied to the security display system in which the display information is presented to the specific persons only. For another example, it can be applied to the multi-viewing display system in which different video data can be provided to different positions (or 'viewing areas'). Further, as the left eye image and the right eye image can be provided to the left eye and the right eye, respectively without any interference, a good 3D display can be designed.
FIG. 3 is a figure illustrating the schematic structure of the controlled viewing-window display according to the related art. Referring to FIG. 3, the controlled viewing-window display according to the related art comprises a display panel LCP representing video data and a back light unit BLU. The display panel LCP may be a flat panel display using a back light system, such as the liquid crystal display panel. The controlled viewing-window display suggests the display information represented on the display panel LCP into the certain area (or 'the specific viewing window'). In order to control the viewing window, the back light unit BLU in which the radiating area of the back light can be controlled is required. For example, the back light unit BLU may be a system adopting light control system as shown in FIG. 2.
In detail example, the back light unit BLU for the controlled viewing-window display according to the related art may include a light source LED, a lens LEN, a reflection plate REF and a holographic film HOE. In order for applying the holographic technology, it is preferable to use the highly collimated light beam. Therefore, it is preferable that the light source LED may be a laser or a light emitting diode laser. For the case that the light source LED is the general light emitting diode, a collimation lens LEN may further included in order to get the collimated light beam. The holographic film HOE is for making the back light radiating to a specific viewing area using the collimated light. By radiating the back light as a reference light beam to the holographic film HOE, the back light of which radiating area can be controlled according to the recording pattern of the holographic film HOE may be provided to the display panel LCP.
In order to develop the large area controlled viewing-window display, a large area holographic film HOE corresponding to the large area of the display panel LDP should be disposed at the back side of the large area display panel LDP. Further, a reflection plate REF may be included to send the back light radiated from the light source LED and collimated by the collimation lens LEN to the large area holographic film HOE.
As mentioned above, the controlled viewing-window display should include the lens LEN and the reflection plate REF for optically converging and diversing the light. Therefore, in order to provide the highly collimated light, there should be a physical space for ensuring enough light paths. That is, the back light unit BLU should require a large volume space. However, as the controlled viewing-window display according to the related art would have volumatic space and heavy weight, it is hard to apply the backlight unit of the related art to various display systems.

Thin film type controlled viewing window back light unit and thin flat type controlled viewing window display using the same


An optical reflective device for homogenizing light including a waveguide having a first and second waveguide surface and a partially reflective element is disclosed. The partially reflective element may be located between the first waveguide surface and the second waveguide surface. The partially reflective element may have a reflective axis parallel to a waveguide surface normal. The partially reflective element may be configured to reflect light incident on the partially reflective element at a first reflectivity for a first set of incidence angles and reflect light incident on the partially reflective element at a second reflectivity for a second set of incident angles.

Optical waveguides have a physical structure that guides electromagnetic waves in the optical spectrum (e.g., light). In some cases, an optical waveguide can be an optical fiber or a planar waveguide structure. An optical waveguide can use total internal reflection (TIR) to guide light to an output. Depending on an incidence angle of light with respect to surface normal of a TIR surface, the intensity or power distribution of the light may vary. Thus, an area of an optical waveguide may receive more or less energy from the light being guided due to the incidence angle of the light. In some cases, this spatially-inhomogeneous power distribution is irrelevant to the operation of the optical waveguide. In other cases, however, inhomogeneity of light propagated through a waveguide can result in performance deficits for certain TIR device applications. Accordingly, it may be beneficial to homogenize the power distribution of light for a particular area of an optical waveguide or TIR device.
A TIR imaging device may suffer performance deficits due to mode inhomogeneity of light propagated through a waveguide. For example, light may enter a waveguide, propagate through the waveguide, and reflect towards an exit pupil to form a projected image. The waveguide may include a light coupling device (e.g., an input coupler, cross coupler and/or output coupler). However, light propagated through the waveguide may exhibit spatially-inhomogeneous power distribution within the coupled modes. This spatially-inhomogeneous power distribution may also lead to a non-uniform intensity profile at the light coupling device. Accordingly, this non-uniform intensity profile may broaden a point spread function associated with an output beam reflected towards the exit pupil thereby reducing a resolution of the projected image and resulting in non-uniform brightness of the projected image.


A method for wireless communication utilizes available channel bandwidth when multiplexing a plurality of user signals over a communication channel. The method utilizes signal power characteristics as a signature to multiplex and de-multiplex the plurality of signals applied to the communication channel. Many wireless communication applications are required to utilize a limited, assigned frequency range. Modulation of digital information in such a limited bandwidth is a critical factor in determining the data transferred through the wireless communication channel. The present invention provides for multiplexing of a plurality of digital data sequences over a wireless communication channel having a fixed frequency range. The method provides for a base station which dynamically assigns signaling power parameters to each remote device which is optimally bandwidth-efficient for present signal traffic loads and for present received power conditions. Depending upon a number of factors, the method improves channel bandwidth utilization by factors of two to three over presently known methods. The communication method may be applied to many communication applications wherein a plurality of diverse user signals are multiplexed onto a single communication channel. Exemplary of such applications are wireless voice communication, e.g. digital cellular telephony and wireless data communications, e.g. wireless computer networking.

The present invention generally relates to wireless communication and, in particular, to a method for multiplexing a plurality of user signals over a communication channel having a fixed frequency range in an efficient manner with -respect to channel bandwidth utilization.
It is known in the art to utilize radio frequency communication channels to transfer digital data between devices. Digital data is encoded on the channel such that a parameter of the communication channel is modulated in accordance with the values of the digital data bit sequence to be transferred. Many applications of such communication channels permit multiple, simultaneous access to the channel by a plurality of digital data streams, for example, a plurality of digitized voice data streams or a plurality of computer digital data streams. The plurality of digital data streams is multiplexed over the communication channel by subdividing the channel into a plurality of subchannels each characterized by unique communication parameters which may be de-multiplexed at the opposite end of the communication channel.
A variety of communication parameters is known to be useful for such subdivision of the communication channel. For example, time division multiple access, also referred to herein as TDMA, multiplexes the subchannels onto the channel by assigning each subchannel a period of time during which the subchannel uses the channel exclusively. Frequency division multiple access techniques, also referred to herein as FDMA, assign each subchannel a sub-range of the fixed frequency range. Code division multiple access techniques, also referred to herein as CDMA, assign a signature to each subchannel which describes the pulse amplitude modulation, also referred to herein as PAM, to be used by the subchannel for communication. Well-known digital signal processing techniques may be applied to de-multiplex such multiplexed signals on the communication channel.
A variety of techniques have been applied to many of these known modulation methods to further improve the utilization of the channel bandwidth. It is a continuing problem to improve the bandwidth utilization of a channel so as to maximize the data throughput over the channel. In particular, it is a continuing problem to dynamically adjust the multiplexing techniques to adapt to particular signaling patterns, usage, and power. As mobile transmitters and receivers are moved relative to one another, channel bandwidth utilization efficiency may change. It is a problem to adapt presently known multiplexing techniques to such dynamic environmental factors.

Method for bandwidth efficient multiple access wireless communication


The railway crossover includes two main tracks and a third track running between the main tracks and having an axis inclined to respective parallel axes of the main tracks, a plurality of ties each having a relatively long tie and a relatively short tie forming a respective pair of ties and having respective inner ends neighboring one another, inner ends of long ties of subsequent pairs of ties are arrayed alternately on both sides of an axis of the third track at least three subsequent long ties being connected rigidly to one another by connecting joint bars.

Tracks of the type to be described are laid at small variable distance from one another and utilized primarily at track sections adjacent to switches and crossings in the entrance regions of railroad stations. The distances i.e. distance between tracks minus gage distance; between adjacent rails of the main through-tracks and the connecting and branch tracks vary between a maximal value to the value 0. From a certain minimum distance between rails the provision of separate single ties for each track becomes impossible, since the distance from the margin is insufficient for the proper installation of the means of fastening of the rails. The ties must then be lengthened at least in the region of the adjacent connecting tracks. Since the ties also serve to assure the gage distance, a tie cannot be discontinuous between the two rails of a track without additional means of gage-holding being provided.
Up until now, this gage holding was attained so that every or every other tie extends under three adjacent tracks. The disadvantage of this solution is that very long ties are needed which require much effort in handling and furthermore that during installation of a connecting or branch track, the two main tracks must be taken out of service.

Procedure for installation, stable with respect to gage distance, of at least three tracks lying closely spaced to one another


A crane having a toolless removable battery includes a crane and a removable battery. The crane preferable includes a lengthwise structural member, a pair of front wheels, a turnable rear wheel, a boom mount and a crane boom. A battery slot is created between the turnable rear wheel and the pair of front wheels and adjacent the turnable rear wheel. The removable battery includes at least three wheels. Four retention hooks are retained on opposing sides of the removable battery. Four retention posts extend from opposing sides of the battery slot for engagement with the four retention hooks. One end of a pair of lift straps extend from opposing ends of the removable battery and the other end of the pair of lift straps are secured to opposing sides of the crane boom. The crane boom is raised to lift the four retention hooks off the four retention posts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to automated lift devices and more specifically to a crane having a toolless removable battery and progressive function control, which allows a battery to be replaced without additional tools and prevents a user from tipping the crane during use.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,063 to Reed discloses a vehicle battery changing device. Patent application no. 20100230188 to Nguyen discloses an electric vehicle having exchangeable battery modules and method of resupply therefor.
Accordingly, there is a clearly felt need in the art for a crane having a toolless removable battery and progressive function control, which allows a battery to be replaced without additional tools and prevents a user from tipping the crane sharp steering angles, increased boom heights or heavy loads.

Crane having a toolless removable battery and progressive function control


A storage canister apparatus (10,110) particularly useful for housing a Protective Breathing Equipment (PBE) device therein, is described. A first embodiment of the storage canister comprises a container (12) provided with a removable closure means in a vacuum sealed relationship therewith to prolong the useful life of the PBE device housed therein. The closure means is secured to the container by a gasket seal (44) such that a pulling force on a handle (64) causes the closure means to move with respect to the container to release a plug (44) provided in an inner cover (16) to thereby break the vacuum seal to access the PBE device. A second embodiment comprises a "peel top" closure means that is peeled from the container in response to a pulling force applied to a handle (156) to release the vacuum sealed relationship between a container (114) and the closure means to thereby access the PBE device housed therein. Both embodiments of the storage canister provide for instant access to the PBE device which is important when the breathing equipment must be donned quickly in an emergency situation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage container, and in particular, a vacuum sealed canister apparatus that preferably provides for holding a Protective Breathing Equipment (PBE) device,
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, a PBE device for airplane crews is packaged in a clear, partially evacuated bag openable by a tear strip. The bag is placed in a fire-proof, hard shell container closed by a lid, which must first be opened to access the bag holding the PBE device. Such a system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,700 to Rohling et al. which comprises a double-shell housing containing an evacuated, flexible envelope or pouch holding a respirator as the PBE device. The problem is that fast donning time for the PBE device is important. The use of a flexible pouch provided inside a container necessitates opening two packages to access the PBE device.
Another packaging device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,365 to Jablonski which discloses a rip-open, thin-section pouch holding a disposable air filtration mask. The pouch includes a transparent or semi-transparent front panel through which the mask is visible and a pull tab that enables the pouch to be opened by tearing along a seam. This device does not have a hard-shell container and is not particularly adapted for use in low pressure high altitude environments. Also, the pouch is susceptible to inadvertent tearing, puncturing and like damage.
A hard-shell storage container is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,189 to Molzan which describes a waterproof container having an upper body portion sealed to a lower body portion. The upper body portion is provided with a pressure relief valve that allows air to escape from the interior of the container under high-altitude conditions. A screw type vacuum relief valve eliminates the vacuum inside the container after the container has been collapsed under the force of external pressure to facilitate entry into the container. The problem is that the screw-type relief valve is unacceptably time consuming when fast donning time of the PBE is required.
There is thus a need for a canister for holding a PBE device that prevents unwanted and inadvertent breaching of the canister integrity while providing instant access to the contents held therein. This requires that the canister have a lid that is quickly and easily removed from the container portion of the canister while being protected from inadvertent breaching when the canister is not intended to be opened.

Storage canister for protective breathing equipment


This invention relates to an automatic transmission for a motor vehicle. A plurality of brakes and clutches have heretofore been independently provided in the axial direction and engaging or disangaging has been made independently when a gear stage for each range is selected, so that the size in the axial direction could not be shortened. The present invention intends to resolve the above-described problem and provides an automatic transmission in which the size in the axial direction is shortened, so that two multi-disc clutches(C3, C0) indenpendently engageable with or disengageable from an outer cylinder(108) are provided in series in the axial direction, and grooves(125), through which penetrate upline tubes(126) extending between a first piston(110) and the clutch(C0), are provided at a plurality of positions in the clutch(C3). When a second piston(112) is operated, the clutch(C3) is engaged or disengaged. Furthermore, when the first piston(110) is operated, the upline tube(126) extending between the first piston(110) and the clutch(C0) is operated togather with the first piston(110), whereby the clutch(C0) is engaged or disengaged. For this reason, according to the present invention, no interference takes place between the both clutches(C0, C3) when one clutch(C0) is released in a state where the other clutch(C3) is engaged.

In the prior art, an automatic transmission for an automobile has a plurality of planetary gear sets and frictional engagement components such as brakes or clutches connected with the individual components of the planetary gear sets, so that it can establish a plurality of gear stages by engaging the individual frictional engagement components selectively. Moreover, each of the brakes and clutches is composed of a hydraulic servo and a plurality of discs to be engaged or released by the hydraulic servo. This hydraulic servo is composed of an annular cylinder and an annular piston, slidably mounted in the annular cylinder. The discs are engaged by introducing the working oil into the cylinder chamber formed between the cylinder and piston and released by draining the working oil.
The aforementioned plural brakes and clutches are arranged in the axial direction within the transmission casing of the automatic transmission.
In the automatic transmission thus constructed, however, the individual brakes and clutches have to be engaged or released independently of one another, in selecting a gear stage within a range, so that they have to be arranged independently of one another.
This arrangement has made it impossible to shorten the axial size of the automatic transmission.

Nested piston hydraulic operator for automatic transmission


Complimentary metal oxide silicon transistors fabricated on silicon-on-insulator substrates are configured to allow separately controllable and independent backgate bias for adjacent complimentary devices on the same substrate. By means of deep implantation of boron, a backgate bias P- well (26,126) is positioned on the N-substrate (17,117) at a front surface of the N- substrate behind the N channel transistor of a complimentary pair. The backgate bias P- well (26,126) is provided with an electrical contact (48,148) at the front of the device, as is the N- silicon substrate to enable independent application of separate bias voltage of different polarities and appropriate magnitude.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor devices and more specifically to complementary devices fabricated on a common silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate and configured for minimizing leakage currents.
2. Description of Related Art
Complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) devices fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates have advantages of high speed, high circuit packing density, latch up freedom and radiation hardening. Nevertheless, as device geometries are scaled down to one micron and sub-micron levels, leakage greatly increases. Floating substrates, impact ionizations, bi-polar effect, punch throughs, body effect, back channel turn-ons, zener diode breakdowns, hot electron degradation and the like all contribute to the high leakages in such devices. Leakages on high speed sub-micron silicon-on-insulator devices are much higher because of likelihood of back channel device turn-ons with a fixed substrate bias. By more heavily doping the depletion area between the source and drain, leakage can be reduced. However, this makes the transistor more difficult to turn on, and, in addition, provides lower operating voltages. It also may require a thinner depletion layer and decrease speed of the devices.
In devices of this type the complementary transistors are fabricated on a common substrate, such as, for example, a silicon N-substrate. Backgate biasing of such devices, as by application of voltage to the N-substrate, is desirable to minimize leakage and prevent soft turn-ons.
In attempting to reduce leakage in the CMOS/SOI devices, a positive voltage applied directly to the Nsilicon substrate, which is separated from the depletion region of the P channel transistor by a silicon oxide layer, can provide a voltage of a magnitude appropriate for control of leakage of the P channel device. However, because the adjoining N channel device is on the same N-silicon substrate, a positive voltage applied to the substrate will tend to cause conduction rather than reduced leakage of the N channel transistor. Thus it is common to reduce the desired level of positive backgate bias of the P channel transistor as a compromise with the desire to avoid unwanted conduction of the N channel transistor. Moreover, this necessity of balancing backgate bias for the two complementary adjacent transistors imposes limitations on processing conditions which increase the difficulty of the processing if the unwanted leakage is to be minimized.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide CMOS devices fabricated on silicon-on-insulator substrates that minimize or eliminate above mentioned problems.

Control of backgate bias for low power high speed CMOS/SOI devices