Tailgate assemblies that are easier to use than tailgate assemblies of the prior art are provided. The tailgate assemblies comprise one or more torsion springs having a first leg attached to a tailgate support and a second leg attached to the tailgate. The legs of the torsion spring can be removably attached for easier replacement. The torsion springs are actuated in a winding direction as the tailgate is opened, making the tailgate easier to open and close.

It is well known in the art that vehicles, such as trucks and station wagons, frequently have a tailgate pivotally mounted between body side panels at the rear of the vehicle. The tailgate typically pivots about a hinge axis between horizontally open and vertically closed positions. The hinge axis typically comprises one or more rods or pins about which the tailgate pivots. For instance, in a pickup truck, a tailgate in the closed or up position serves as the rear wall of the cargo bed of the truck. In the open or down position, the tailgate is out of the way to enable loading and unloading of the cargo bed.
Tailgates for pickup trucks typically range in weight from about 40 pounds to about 70 pounds. Accordingly, the weight of the tailgate precludes one-handed operation for any but the strongest individuals. People of normal or slight build must use their second hand, a shoulder, or a knee to support the tailgate in an effort to keep it from dropping too quickly. The weight of the tailgate can cause an individual to lose control of the tailgate while opening, allowing the tailgate to open rapidly and possibly injure the operator or others standing nearby. Similarly, the existing tailgates can be very difficult to close due to the weight of the tailgate.
The prior art teaches various mechanisms that attempt to counterbalance the weight of a tailgate to make it easier to operate. However, these prior art mechanisms contain numerous parts making them more susceptible to breakdown and making them more expensive to manufacture, repair, and replace.


Apparatus for continuously making a multilayered, flat workpiece includes a press having with two press belts which are spaced from each other to define a reaction zone for passage of a workpiece in a conveying direction. A pressure element comprised of a pressure plate and a pressure pad defining at least one pressure compartment acts on at least one press belt for exerting pressure onto the workpiece. In order to completely seal the pressure compartment off from the pressure plate and the press belt, the pressure pad is formed by an elastically deformable material such as elastic hoses arranged side-by-side and communicating with each other, or an elastic membrane which extends at a distance to the pressure plate and is tightly secured on its free edge to the pressure plate. Suitably, a slip sheet is disposed between the pressure pad and the press belt.

The present invention refers to an apparatus for continuously making a multilayered, flat workpiece, and in particular to an apparatus in which the layer materials for the workpiece are conducted through a reaction zone formed between two press belts, heated there, with pressure being exerted on the layer materials by at least one press belt, and with at least one pressure compartment, which cooperates with a pressure plate situated on the press belt distant side, being associated to this press belt in the reaction zone at the layer-distant side thereof and filled with a gaseous or liquid pressure fluid.
German Pat. No. 33 13 406 describes continuously operating presses with at least one continuous belt which is pressed by a pressure fluid against the workpiece. A pressure fluid is introduced into a rectangular pressure compartment which is situated adjacent the press belt on the side of a pressure plate facing the press belt and is sealed by a circulating sealing strip. The sealing strip is connected with a correspondingly rectangular mounting frame which is guided in a groove of the pressure plate for movement therein and pressurized in direction towards the press belt which slides along this sealing strip.
A drawback of this conventional press is the resulting loss of pressure fluid through the gap between the sealing strip and the circulating press belt in cases of trouble such as uneven wear of the sealing strip, jamming of the mounting frame in the groove of the pressure plate, change of width of the workpiece, or the like, and thus surface defects of the finished product are experienced.
German Pat. No. 29 379 72 discloses an apparatus for applying a surface pressure on advancing workpieces by at least one circulating press belt which is forced onto the workpiece by a pressure fluid contained in pressure compartments arranged successively on the inside of the press belt along the effective pressure surface of the press belt and sealed by respective sealing strips.
This apparatus, too, results in case of trouble during operation in a loss of pressure fluid which escapes through the gap between the sealing strip and the press belt.


A method for estimating the size and location of couplings within a waveguide directional coupler is provided. The method is applied to a waveguide directional coupler having a main transmission waveguide connected to an auxiliary transmission waveguide by a plurality of bore hole couplings. The bore hole couplings are in the interior of the waveguide directional coupler and, therefore, are not easily measurable. The invention provides a simple and inexpensive method for measuring the size and location of the couplings without dismantling or destroying the waveguide directional coupler. The method generally includes the steps of applying a two-sided tape to a member, inserting and securing the member within the main transmission waveguide, with the two-sided tape adjacent to the bore hole couplings, pouring a fine particulate substance such as talc into the auxiliary transmission waveguide such that a portion of the talc enters the bore hole couplings and adheres to the two-sided tape, and withdrawing the member such that the size and location of the bore hole couplings can be determined by measuring the size and location of marks on the two-sided tape caused by the fine particular substance adhering to the two-sided tape. In this manner, the dimensions of the bore hole couplings within the waveguide directional coupler are easily determined without the need for dismantling or destroying the waveguide coupler, and without the need for any expensive X-ray techniques.

In order to determine the transmission characteristics of a waveguide directional coupler, it is necessary to first determine the size and location of couplings within the waveguide. Often the size and location of such couplings are unknown. However, the couplings are in the interior of the waveguide and are obscured from view and, hence, the size and location of the couplings cannot be visually determined.
Conventionally, the size and location of waveguide couplings are determined by X-ray techniques. However, such X-ray measurements are expensive to obtain and time consuming to perform, and often do not reliably determine the absolute size and location of the waveguide couplings.

Method for non-destructive estimation of waveguide directional coupler dimensions

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration


An etch stop layer (22) for permitting distinguishing between two similar layers (20, 24), such as two oxide layers, during etching is provided. The etch stop layer comprises a silicon-oxyhalide polymer, preferably a silicon-oxyfluoride polymer. Use of the polymer as an etch stop layer permits closer placement of metal conductor surfaces (12, 12') and contacts (14').

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the fabrication of integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to an etch stop layer in MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) device processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
The formation of via contacts between two conductors in MOS processing by etching requires an increased amount of area than the contact itself. This is due to nature of the etching process, and becomes ever more critical as scaling of ICs enter the sub-micrometer domain. Accordingly, process engineers continue to develop new processes in an attempt to reduce the amount of area required for making contacts.
One problem for which a solution has long been sought is the tendency of gouging an oxide lying under a metal as the contact is misaligned with the underlying metal layer.
Problems in the past when making a contact to a first level interconnect have necessitated the formation of a "dogbone"-shaped contact where the contact is to be made to the interconnect, so that a misaligned contact would not short to the underlying structures. This is especially a problem where the depths of the oxide to be etched are variable. For example, in a field effect transistor (FET), a contact to a first level interconnect over field oxide is different than a contact to a first level interconnect over a source or drain region.

Etch stop layer using polymers for integrated circuits


A carrier head for a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus includes a flexible membrane with an expandable lip portion to engage a substrate for improved chemical mechanical polishing. The lip portion can form or break a seal with the substrate in response to pressure changes in a chamber in the carrier head.

The present invention relates generally to chemical mechanical polishing of substrates, and more particularly to a carrier head for chemical mechanical polishing a substrate.
Integrated circuits are typically formed on substrates, particularly silicon wafers, by the sequential deposition of conductive, semiconductive or insulative layers. After each layer is deposited, it is etched to create circuitry features. As a series of layers are sequentially deposited and etched, the outer or uppermost surface of the substrate, i.e., the exposed surface of the substrate, becomes increasingly nonplanar. This nonplanar surface presents problems in the photolithographic steps of the integrated circuit fabrication process. Therefore, there is a need to periodically planarize the substrate surface.
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is one accepted method of planarization. This planarization method typically requires that the substrate be mounted on a carrier or polishing head. The exposed surface of the substrate is placed against a rotating polishing pad. The polishing pad may be either a "standard" or a fixed-abrasive pad. A standard polishing pad has durable roughened surface, whereas a fixed-abrasive pad has abrasive particles held in a containment media. The carrier head provides a controllable load, i.e., pressure, on the substrate to push it against the polishing pad. A polishing slurry, including at least one chemically-reactive agent, and abrasive particles, if a standard pad is used, is supplied to the surface of the polishing pad.
The effectiveness of a CMP process may be measured by its polishing rate, and by the resulting finish (absence of small-scale roughness) and flatness (absence of large-scale topography) of the substrate surface. The polishing rate, finish and flatness are determined by the pad and slurry combination, the relative speed between the substrate and pad, and the force pressing the substrate against the pad.
One problem encountered in CMP is that a central portion of the substrate is often underpolished. This problem, which may be termed the "center slow effect", may occur even if pressure is uniformly applied to the backside of the substrate.
Another problem is the difficulty in removing the substrate from the polishing pad surface once polishing has been completed. As mentioned, a layer of slurry is supplied to the surface of the polishing pad. When the substrate is placed in contact with the polishing pad, the surface tension of the slurry generates an adhesive force which binds the substrate to the polishing pad. The adhesive force may make it difficult to remove the substrate from the pad.
Typically, the substrate is vacuum-chucked to the underside of the carrier head, and the carrier head is used to remove the substrate from the polishing pad. When the carrier head is retracted from the polishing pad, the substrate is lifted off the pad. However, if the surface tension holding the substrate on the polishing pad is greater than the vacuum-chucking force holding the substrate on the carrier head, then the substrate will remain on the polishing pad when the carrier head retracts. This may cause the substrate to fracture or chip. In addition, failure to remove the substrate can cause a machine fault requiring manual intervention. This requires shutting down the polishing apparatus, decreasing throughput. To achieve reliable operation from the polishing apparatus, the substrate removal process should be essentially flawless.
Several techniques have been employed to reduce the surface tension between the substrate and the polishing pad. Once such technique is to slide the substrate horizontally off the polishing pad to break the surface tension before vertically retracting the carrier head. This technique may, however, scratch or otherwise damage the substrate as it slides off the edge of the polishing pad. The mechanical configuration of the CMP apparatus may also prohibit use of this technique.
Another technique is to treat the surface of the polishing pad to reduce the surface tension. However, this technique is not always successful, and such treatment of the pad surface may adversely affect the finish and flatness of the substrate and reduce the polishing rate.
Another technique is to apply a downward pressure to the edge of the substrate to create a seal that prevents ambient atmosphere from interfering with the vacuum-chucking process. However, this technique may require complex pneumatic controls for the carrier head. In addition, the structure of the carrier head may prevent the application of pressure to the edge of the substrate.

Carrier head for chemical mechanical polishing a substrate


The disclosure is directed to broadband, glass optical polarizers and to methods for making the glass optical polarizers. The glass optical polarizer includes a substantially bubble free fusion drawn glass having two pristine glass surfaces and a plurality of elongated zero valent metallic particle polarizing layers.

Glass optical polarizers are made by a number of different corporations using different methods. Among these glass optical polarizers are the Polarcor™ (Corning Incorporated, Corning, N.Y.) glass polarizing products which are formed by heat treating a glass containing silver and halide ions to precipitate silver halide particles, which particles are then stretched in a redraw step which is followed by a reduction step in which the silver halide particles are reduced to form anisotropic silver particles in the glass. Other polarizers are made from sodium silicate (soda lime) glass by ion exchanging silver ions for sodium ions near the glass surface, followed by heat treating and drawing the soda lime glass to elongate silver particles in the glass.
While the presently available polarizers have served industry well, with increasing miniaturization, particularly in the telecommunications industry, there is a need for glass optical polarizers that are both thin and strong. The present disclosure is directed to such polarizer products and to a method for making the same.

Broadband polarizer made using ion exchangable fusion drawn glass sheets


A method for forming a FDSOI device with channel length less than 50 nm with good short channel control. The gate has a tapered polysilicon spacer and a dielectric spacer. A polysilicon gate feature is formed and dielectric sidewall spacers are formed thereon. The polysilicon gate feature is then etched to form tapered poly features separated by a gap. A gate dielectric is deposited at low temperature, then metal is deposited into the gap to form the metal gate.

As integrated circuit dimensions decrease and circuit speed increases, new transistor structures have been developed in order to yield good performance at the smaller dimensions. In particular, Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) devices are known and are generally undoped or very lightly doped silicon on a low K dielectric. SOI devices are characterized by having the active device region insulated from the bulk substrate, generally by a buried oxide layer. The active device region is thereby said to be floating. SOI devices have been developed which consume less power than do bulk CMOS devices, and which operate at higher speeds than do bulk CMOS devices. FIG. 1 shows a prior art SOI device, including bulk substrate 2, buried oxide layer 4, SOI silicon layer 6, field oxide regions 7, gate dielectric layer 8, conducting gate 10, gate sidewall spacers 11, doped source and drain regions 12, and channel region 14. Source and drain regions may overlap the gate region, or gate sidewall spacer technology may be used to provide separation, or underlap, between the gate and the source-drain regions.
For SOI devices having channel lengths below about 50 nm, in particular Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator (FDSOI) devices, it is very difficult to achieve good short-channel control, i.e., to effectively shut off the transistors in the off state, without significantly thinning down the thickness of the buried layer and the thickness of the SOI silicon layer, which is difficult to reliably achieve with available processes. For a device with SOI silicon thickness of less than 20 nm, an underlap of the source/drain regions with the gate is needed in order to be able to turn off the device. Accordingly, the details of the gate sidewall spacer technology used in the fabrication of such devices are critical to their performance. By way of example, it is known that if doped polysilicon spacers are used in place of nitride spacers (termed a "straddled gate device"), the device DC characteristics improve significantly. The polysilicon spacer which is also doped during source/drain implant serves as a side gate with a lower work function. It behaves like a longer gate when there is no bias applied on the gate (i.e., in the Ioff condition). The polysilicon side gate causes the surface beneath it to invert at much lower applied voltage than the voltage necessary to invert the main channel region, due to the lower work function of the polysilicon. This causes the device to behave like a very short channel device during Ion conditions. The result is a much improved Ion and Ioff. However, when single layer polysilicon gate sidewall spacers are used, the source/drain extension regions reach under the poly spacers and cause an increased overlap capacitance which slows down the AC device performance.
The formation of multiple sidewall spacers, including an inner polysilicon spacer and an outer oxide or nitride spacer, over a metal gate with CD's less than 50 nm, has not to the best knowledge of the inventors been achieved in the prior FDSOI art, but would achieve the desired DC and AC characteristics.

Method for making an ultra thin FDSOI device with improved short-channel performance


Provided is a magnetic stimulation device, which does not feel hot to the user. The magnetic stimulation device (1) comprises: a contact plate (2) to be disposed near the user's head; an exciting coil (3) to be held above the contact plate (2); a casing (4), which covers at least the upper side of the exciting coil (3), in which openings (17, 18) are provided above the center of the exciting coil (3) winding, and in which a gap that is open on the outside of the exciting coil (3) is formed between the casing and the contact plate (2); and a suction fan (5) for drawing out air between the contact plate (2) and the casing (4) from the openings (17, 18) of the casing (4).

Non-invasive methods of treatment of, for example, intractable disease such as nerve damage include repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). The repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is a method of treatment in which a symptom is ameliorated by giving a magnetic stimulation to a certain site (motor area) of the brain from the outside with a magnetic field generated by applying an electric current to a conductive coil brought closer to the head of a patient.
The repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation requires the magnetic field allowed to act on the motor area of the brain corresponding to a disease. The coil is desirably disposed in as close contact as possible with the patient in terms of energy efficiency. For example, Patent Document 1 describes that a magnetic stimulation device used in the repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation has a coil fixed to a shell like a cap or a helmet put on the head of a patient.
Because the coil generates heat due to energization and the magnetic stimulation device becomes hot when the device is continuously used, a patient may feel heat. Also, a patient may feel uncomfortably hot due to air heated by heat generation of the magnetic stimulation device and the patient may avoid the treatment.
To solve these problems, Patent Document 2 describes a method of cooling a coil by sending an air current in a direction so that the air current is not directly applied to a patient in a magnetic stimulation device fortreatment of urinary incontinence having a magnetic stimulation unit disposed in a seating part.
Patent Document 3 describes a position setting method and a cooling mode in a transcranial magnetic stimulation system including a helmet. This document describes several techniques with respect to how to release heat generated from a magnetic coil giving stimulation to a treatment part mostly on the head. Specifically, the techniques include a cooling mode utilizing the heat of vaporization of Freon gas, a water-cooling mode utilizing water stored in a separate unit, and an air-cooling mode utilizing air. Among these, the water-cooling and air-cooling modes are described as bringing a radiator system into contact with a coil to stabilize the temperature of the coil. However, the cooling mode using Freon gas is not appropriate from the viewpoint of environment pollution. The water-cooling mode may lead to a considerably large-scale device because of use of a tank. Moreover, the water-cooling and air-cooling modes using the radiator system lead to an increase in size of a coil unit and generate a pressure loss and noise in the radiator, and it is not practical to use an device having such problems near the head (near the ears) of a patient. As the device is used for a longer time, the radiator may deteriorate and cause liquid leakage and, therefore, the device has a safety problem in terms of using the device near the top of the head of a patient for a long period.
Patent Document 4 discloses a cooling technique in which a coil and a fan are arranged inside a housing including a patient interface plate in this order from the interface plate so that air sucked from an inlet in a housing rear portion separate from a patient is brought into contact with the interface plate and the coil in series based on the drive of the fan. However, since the inlet is formed in the vicinity of the outer circumference of the housing (on the outside of the fan) in this cooling technique, the air sucked into the housing first cools a housing circumferential wall surrounding the circumference of the coil, then cools the interface plate, and finally cools the coil before being discharged from a center portion of the housing. Thus, when reaching the interface plate, the air is already warmed and, therefore, this cooling technique cannot achieve the original purpose of cooling the interface plate brought closest to the patient. Additionally, since a portion of the air sucked into the housing may immediately be discharged outside by the fan without cooling the interface plate or without cooling the coil, this cooling technique has a problem of inability to achieve sufficient cooling efficiency.


A method for thermal storage using an apparatus including an outdoor temperature sensor and at least one indoor zone temperature sensor, includes the steps of: estimating an average on-peak outdoor temperature for tomorrow by adding the average on-peak outdoor temperature for today to the current outdoor temperature minus the outdoor temperature at the same time yesterday; estimating the temperature difference in each zone between the outside on-peak temperature and the indoor on-peak temperature for that zone for tomorrow by subtracting the estimated average on-peak outdoor temperature for tomorrow from the average set point temperature in the respective zone for today; calculating the thermal charge by multiplying yesterday's actual off-peak charge by the estimated temperature difference in each zone divided by the average actual temperature in each zone for today's on-peak period; and charging the thermal storage system. The thermal charge is reduced by 50% if the zone sensor reads a temperature greater than 4.degree. F. above the set point. The charge is 100% of the maximum charge if the temperature falls below 40.degree. F. The charge is 100% of the maximum charge if the temperature falls 4.degree. F. or more below the set point temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a heating system, and more specifically, to a method for storing a thermal charge for use in such a system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Storage heaters are available commercially which allow for an energy charge and then for later radiation of heat. In order to maximize the potential for energy savings using these storage heaters, a system is necessary which can anticipate the amount of heat which will be needed during on-peak utility hours and control charging of the heaters during off-peak utility hours when the energy is less expensive.
Conventional heating control systems, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,332,013 to Chelcum et al. and 4,217,646 to Caltagirone et al., control temperature in response to sensor inputs, but do not anticipate energy needs and charge heater storage units during off-peak hours in anticipation of those needs.

Thermal storage control logic for storage heaters


An imaging device includes an imaging element that acquires a first image based on signal charge generated during a first accumulation time, and a second image based on signal charge generated during a second accumulation time relatively longer than the first accumulation time and synchronized with the first image during a synchronization period including the first accumulation time, and a moving image file generating unit that generates a moving image file including a first moving image based on the first image, a second moving image based on the second image, and synchronization information for synchronizing the first moving image and the second moving image frame by frame.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging device having an image playback function, and a playback device.
Description of the Related Art
If a moving image and a still image can be shot at the same time with one camera, not only can a shooting scene be viewed as a moving image, but also a decisive scene in the moving image can be seen as a still image for fun. This can significantly enhance the values of shot images. Further, if a moving image at a normal frame rate and a moving image at a high frame rate can be shot at the same time with one camera, a specific scene can be switched to a slow-motion moving image to enjoy the image as a high-definition moving image. This can give a viewer an uplifting feeling.
In the meantime, when a phenomenon, so-called jerkiness, like a kind of frame-by-frame advance happens to a moving image played back, it is common that the quality of the moving image is largely degraded. In order to suppress the jerkiness, there is a need to set an accumulation time close to one frame period in a series of shooting processes. In other words, if the frame rate is 30 fps, a relatively longer accumulation time, such as 1/30 second or 1/60 second, will be adequate. Particularly, in such a situation that the attitude of a camera is instable such as a helicopter shot, this setting is important.
On the other hand, since a still image is required to have the sharpness of shooting a moment, there is a need to set a short accumulation time, for example, about 1/1000 second, in order to obtain a stop motion effect. Further, in the case of a moving image at a high frame rate, one frame period is short. Therefore, for example, when the frame rate is 120 fps, a short accumulation time such as 1/125 second or 1/250 second is inevitably set.
Shooting two images at the same time through a single photographic lens, such as a moving image and a still image, or a moving image at a normal frame rate and a moving image at a high frame rate, means that the aperture values used to shooting these images are the same. Even in this case, it is desired that similar levels of signal charge should be obtained in an imaging element while shooting two images in different accumulation time settings to obtain noiseless images having excellent S/N ratios.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-048459 discloses an imaging device including a pair of photodiodes having the shape of pupils asymmetric with respect to each pixel. In the imaging device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-048459, the light-receiving efficiency of one of the pair of photodiodes is high and the light-receiving efficiency of the other photodiode is low. Two signals from the pair of photodiodes are used as separate pieces of image data so that the two images can be shot at the same time.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-125344 discloses an imaging device that shoots a high-resolution image (an image having a quality enough for viewing as a still image) during moving image shooting, and a method of processing the shot image. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-125344 teaches that images are reproduced up to a predetermined resolution (high-resolution images up to the same resolution as the moving image) by a progressive method during moving image playback to enable viewing as a moving image, while the high-resolution image is extracted and transferred as a still image in the case of a still image application.
Although such an imaging device capable of shooting two images at the same time as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-048459 can be expected to improve convenience by presenting two images properly, there is no specific mention on a useful presentation method.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-125344 does not present a preferred playback mode of switching between the moving image and the still image at arbitrary times.


A drain for gravity removal of water from the deck of a floating roof in a tank. The drain comprises a flexible coiled hose having a lower outlet end in communication with a conduit inlet in a lower portion of the tank, and an upper inlet end in communication with a sump space on the floating roof deck. The coiled hose is extensible in length for a distance at least equal to the height the floating roof is vertically displaceable in the tank when it is full and empty of liquid.

Floating roof tanks are quite generally employed for the storage of volatile liquids, particularly petroleum products, where it is desired to minimize evaporation losses. In this form of tank, the top closure or roof floats upon the surface of the stored product and rises and falls with the level of liquid within the tank. As the normal position of the floating roof is below the top edges of the tank, it is clear that means must be provided for draining rain water from the surface or deck of the roof to preserve its stability and buoyancy. Accordingly, it is customary to pitch the roof deck toward one or more sumps in which rain water is collected and to provide a conduit connected to the sump and leading downward therefrom through the liquid in the tank, to dispose of the collected water. The drain may be connected to an outlet in the tank wall or bottom so as to dispose of the water.


Aspects of the disclosure relate to virtual reality systems (and/or augmented reality systems) that facilitate visualization of replacement and/or additional items for rebuilding a damaged room. The system may provide a virtual representation of a subject real world room. A user may select items, such as appliances and furniture, for placement in the virtual room and the system may update the virtual room to include a representation of the items. In some embodiments, the system may utilize information about the user to provide recommendations regarding items that may be placed in a virtual room. For example, the system may utilize one or more service records to identify items covered under a service associated with the user. In some embodiments, the system may apply a monetary settlement to the cost of the real world items to facilitate the replacement of damaged items.

Virtual reality systems may provide a user with a virtual environment based on a real world environment. Virtual reality systems may provide a user interface allowing a user to interact with the virtual environment. For example, the user may manipulate electronic representations of objects in the virtual environment. Virtual reality user interfaces may be displayed on display interfaces such as user computing devices.
Some companies offer tools that generate a virtual room and allow customers to place virtual objects in the virtual room to see how they may be arranged in the virtual room. Once a customer has configured their virtual room to their liking using products sold by the store, the customer may be able to purchase the real world counterparts to the virtual objects and install them in their home.
When a home or other structure is damaged, homeowners may submit claims under homeowner's insurance policies that cover the damage. As part of these claims, homeowners may seek reimbursement or replacement of damaged items and/or appliances in the home. The homeowner may fill out a claim form listing the damaged items and an insurer may evaluate the damage against the coverage of an insurance policy. The insurer may provide reimbursement in the form of a settlement, allowing the homeowner to purchase replacement items at a local retailer.
Although existing tools may allow users to view a virtual room and place virtual objects therein, significant difficulties exist in accurately representing a real world room on a virtual reality system. Further, the user experience may suffer in instances where the system provides users an uncurated catalog of virtual objects for inclusion in the room, potentially overwhelming the user with choices. Further still, users are often unaware of the impact that the installation of new objects in a home may have on premiums associated with homeowner's insurance policies.

Virtual reality visualization system with object recommendation engine


A method for forwarding a remote control signal and a signal forwarding node using the same are disclosed. Herein, the signal forwarding node includes a laser light receiver configured to detect laser light, an Infra Red (IR) light receiver configured to receive a remote control signal, a wireless communication module configured to transmit and receive data to and from an external signal forwarding node, and a controller configured to control the wireless communication module, when laser light is detected through the laser light receiver, and when the remote control signal is received, so as to forward control information included in the received remote control signal to the external signal forwarding node.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal forwarding node, which receives and forwards a signal so that the signal can reach a location where a remote control signal cannot be easily forwards, and a method for controlling the same.
Discussion of the Related Art
Electrical appliances (or devices), such as a TV, an air conditioner, a fan, and so on, may receive a user command through a remote controller. For example, in case of a remote controller controlling a TV, diverse keys, such as a power key, channel switching keys, volume control keys, number keys, an external input key, and so on, may be assigned to the remote controller.
Generally, a remote controller transmits a user control command to an electrical appliance by using an Infra Red (IR) signal. In case of the IR signal, due to its linearity (or straightness), since the control command is inputted while the remote controller is pointing at the electrical appliance, which is intended to be controlled, it is advantageous in that its usage is intuitive. However, such IR signal is disadvantageous in that, in case the path of the signal is blocked by a wall or door existing in-between rooms, the signal cannot be delivered to the intended electrical appliance.
Conversely, in case of a remote controller that is based on wireless communication, indoor electrical appliances may also be controlled outdoors via remote control (or long-ranged control) by using a frequency that can pass through walls or doors. However, in case of performing such remote control (or long-ranged control) based on wireless communication, it may be disadvantageous in that the control cannot be intuitively performed by the user. This is because such control does not require a control signal to be delivered by directly pointing at the electrical appliance, which is intended to be controlled.
Therefore, a control method that can supplement the disadvantages of both of the above-described methods is being required to be researched and developed.

Method for forwarding remote control signal and signal forwarding node using the same


The amount of dust particles deposited on a semiconductor wafer during plasma etching or CVD in manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit is decreased by second plasma generating electrode 28 disposed around a lower electrode 15 in a plasma etching chamber 4a. High frequency voltage is applied to the second plasma generating electrode 18 just before the stop of plasma discharge to form a sub-plasma of high density along the outer periphery of the lower electrode 15, there is formed a sub-potential distribution acting to push out negatively charged dust particles stagnating near the main surface of a semiconductor substrate 7 toward the outer periphery of the wafer. The negatively charged dust particles thus pushed out from the vicinity of the main surface of the wafer 7 are moved to the second plasma generating electrode 28 and exhausted by a vacuum pump through an exhaust port 25.

The present invention relates to plasma processing, particularly to plasma processing in the production of a semiconductor integrated circuit device.
In the manufacturing process for semiconductor integrated circuit devices there are various plasma chemical reactions. For example, plasma etching and plasma CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) have already been established as manufacturing techniques for semiconductor integrated circuit devices.
According to the plasma processing, reaction gas is discharged under reduced pressure to generate such reaction seed as electrons, ions and radicals, which are not stable under atmospheric pressure, thereby accelerating a predetermined chemical reaction to effect the aforesaid etching or CVD. The plasma processing can be a low-temperature process, a dry process, etc. and this is very desirable in the manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuit devices.
In the case of plasma processing, however, since the processing is carried out by utilizing a chemical reaction, dust particles, for example reaction product, are produced during the processing, and such dust particles are deposited on a semiconductor wafer and the inner wall of a processing chamber in the plasma processing equipment. It is known that this causes various problems.
For example, in the case of patterning a laminate film by plasma etching, separate processing chambers are sometimes used for upper and lower layers of the laminate film, that is, patterning is performed twice, separately, in view of the difference of etching gases, etc. In this case, dust particles deposited on a semiconductor wafer during the plasma etching of the upper layer undesirably act as an etching mask (hereinafter referred to simply as "mask") in the plasma etching of the lower layer, thus causing various problems, for example change in shape and size of pattern and short-circuit of the conductor patterns in the longitudinal and transverse directions.
For example, in Japanese Patent Laid Open Nos. 20321/87 and 258048/90 there are described techniques for removing dust particles in plasma processing.
According to the technique described in the Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 20321/87, a reaction product collector capable of moving into a load-lock chamber is disposed around a semiconductor wafer table in a plasma reaction chamber, to remove dust particles produced during plasma processing.
According to the technique described in the Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 258048/90, an electrostatic attractor for the attraction of dust particles is disposed around a semiconductor wafer in a plasma processing chamber to remove dust particles produced during plasma processing.

Method and equipment for plasma processing


A method for manufacturing a plurality of glass microspheres comprises: melting a batch into a first glass melt in a melter system, processing the first glass melt into a second glass, pulverizing the second glass into a plurality of glass fragments, thermally processing the plurality of glass fragments into a plurality of glass microspheres, providing at least one of a plurality of redox reactions and a plurality of events in at least one of the first glass melt and a melt of the second glass, and the plurality of redox reactions and the plurality of events are induced by a plurality of redox active group (RAG) components.

Various methods are already known in the art for the manufacture of glass microspheres.
In accordance with the methods available in the art, pre-formed glass particles may be converted into glass bubbles or micro-balloons. To create the glass bubbles the glass particles have to be post modified to contain the ingredients necessary for their expansion.
As known from the art, a silicate glass with over 14 wt % sodium oxide and 0.1 Fe2O3 is initially treated with high temperature steam and is used to form glass bubbles at about 1150-1200° C. In another known example, a silicate glass having a sodium oxide concentration of 13.5 wt % and a potassium oxide concentration of 3.2 wt %, with 0.2 wt % of sulfur in the form of SO4 is melted and pulverized. The so formed cullet is dropped through a flame at about 1150-1200° C. to create a glass microsphere.
In accordance with other methods known in the art of glass microsphere production, a pre-melted glass frit is used to produce glass micro-bubbles with a chemical composition, expressed in weight percent, of at least 67% SiO2, 8-15% RO, 3-8% R2O, 2-6% B2O3, and 0.125-1.50% SO3. The RO:R2O weight ratio is in the range of 1.0-3.5.
From further art references, similar techniques to manufacture glass spheres are also known. These techniques employ a powdered glass with a glass composition comprising ranges of SiO2 of 50-57%, R2O of 2-15%, B2O3 of 0-20%, S of 0.05-1.5%, RO of 2-25%, R2O3 of 0-5%, and R2O5 of 0-5. From further yet art references, the use of an essentially borosilicate glass composition is known to manufacture glass spheres having an oxide range of SiO2 of 60-90 wt %, an alkali metal oxide range of 2-20 wt %, a B2O3 range of 1-30 wt %, a sulfur range of 0.005 to 0.5 wt %, and other conventional glass-forming ingredients.
A particulate solid feed material having an average particle size of up to 25 microns is introduced at the top of a heating chamber into a "wall free" heated zone, according to a method known in the art for the manufacture of glass microspheres. The particles are transported to at least one flame front by a carrier gas comprising a fuel gas and air. The carrier gases maintain the particles in a dispersive state while the particles are heated to a temperature where at least partial fusion occurs, while the agglomeration of particles during fusion is inhibited. The resulting spherical particles are cooled and separated from the gas stream by a hot cyclone.
Yet another process for producing hollow microspheres know in the art comprises treating glass feed particles at a temperature above the working temperature of the glass. The particles are suspended in a gaseous current and passed through a burner for treatment. The particles are rapidly heated to about 1500 to 1700° C. for a residence time of less than about 0.1 seconds, and are cooled suddenly to below 750° C. The burner is operated such that the air factor, that is, the ratio of the amount of air introduced into the burner to the amount of air necessary to produce a stoichiometric combustion, is between about 0.75 and 1.1, or preferably 0.8-0.95. The particles are passed first through a reducing atmosphere and then through a non-reducing atmosphere.
Other known techniques for the manufacture of glass microspheres provide for a method in which feed material, in the form of solid glass particles, is introduced near the bottom of a furnace into an ascending column of hot gases. The feed material is entrained in an upward moving hot gaseous stream. The residence time of the particles within the furnace becomes a function of the mass of the particle, as the larger particles ascend through the hot zone of the furnace more slowly than the small particles due to the force of gravity acting on the particles. As a result, the residence time of the particles in the furnace is in direct relationship to the heat requirements necessary to expand the solid glass particles into hollow spheres.
Further technologies available in the art for manufacturing hollow microspheres employ a downward furnace suitable for heating discrete clay particles into hollow spherical particles. The particles are fed with a vibrating feeder into a hopper of a burner from where they are entrained in a stream of gas and passed through a flame front inside the furnace. The particles, in expanded state, are carried along with the flow of combustion gases and by gravity into a container. The container is at a sufficient distance from the combustion zone to provide a cooler zone, and solidification of the particles occurs before the particles hit any hard surfaces or before encountering each other to avoid agglomeration. A ratio of air to natural gas of about 2:1.1 was found to be suitable for raising the temperature of the particles to a range of 1350° C. to 1500° C., and to create the hollow microspheres.
A low cost method of converting solid glass or ceramic micro-particles into hollow microspheres, is also known in the art, and consists of feeding the solid glass or ceramic micro-particles, along with pulverized coal, into a coal-burning boiler. According to the known method coal-burning boilers generally produce micro-sized fused particles of ash, e.g. fly ash. A very small percentage of fly ash particles (about 1% and less) may be hollow, and these particles are commonly referred to as cenospheres. According to the known method the yield of hollow micro-particles is slightly increased by co-feeding fly or coal ash along with the pulverized coal.
Based at least on the above enumerated known methods and techniques, it is evident that there is still a need in the art for methods to manufacture hollow glass microspheres that have the following attributes:
high chemical durability in aqueous alkaline and acidic environments;
high crushing strength;
high hydrostatic pressure rating;
high specific strength;
are an eco-friendly product, able to utilize in their make-up industrial waste byproducts, converting waste materials into highly value added products; and
are produced by sustainable (energy efficient) methods via fast manufacturing.

Glass microspheres comprising sulfide, and methods of producing glass microspheres


A method in a wireless communications assembly having an antenna, a transceiver and a baseband processor, includes: at the transceiver: receiving, from the antenna, a modulated carrier signal having a carrier frequency and containing payload data; demodulating the carrier signal to extract a baseband signal having a baseband frequency and containing the payload data; generating from the baseband signal, at a converter, a digital baseband signal containing the payload data; at an encoder: receiving the digital baseband signal from the converter; generating an encoded digital baseband signal encoding the payload data for transmission at an operating frequency; the encoded digital baseband signal having at least a threshold proportion of signal level transitions that, when transmitted at the operating frequency, have transition frequencies outside a predefined restricted frequency band; and transmitting the encoded digital baseband signal to the baseband processor via an interface at the operating frequency.

Various wireless communications standards, each employing different frequency bands, may be implemented within a single communication device. Such a device typically includes, for each implemented wireless standard, a transceiver connected to one or more antennas. Incoming signals are received at the antenna, demodulated by the transceiver, and transmitted at a baseband frequency to downstream processing hardware for further treatment. However, baseband transmissions from a transceiver corresponding to one standard may generate undesirable interference detectable by the antenna corresponding to another standard.

Method and system for interference mitigation in wireless communications assemblies


The safety bumper is useable with a child's bed. The safety bumper is receivable by and placeable on a mattress, and comprises a fitted mattress engaging portion and a bumper portion. The mattress engaging portion includes a ring-like underside surface engaging portion for engaging the underside surface of the mattress. The mattress engaging portion defines an opening. An endless side surface engaging portion is provided for engaging each of the first and second opposed side surfaces, and the first and second opposed end surfaces of the mattress. An elastic member is capable of extending chordally along the underside surface of the mattress between a pair of opposed points of the endless side surface engaging portion. The bumper portion comprises an endless ring capable of being disposed adjacent to the first and second opposed side surfaces, and the first and second end surfaces of the mattress. The upstanding bumper portion is configured for extending in planes generally coplanar with the first and second opposed side surfaces, and the first and second end surfaces of the mattress, above the upper side surface of the mattress.

Individuals often use baby cribs as a way of keeping a child safe when the child is sleeping. Like an adult bed, a baby crib includes a frame that includes a generally horizontally disposed mattress frame having an upper surface upon which a mattress rests. A headboard is connected at one end of the mattress frame, and a footboard is connected at the other end of the mattress frame. Also similar to an adult bed, the mattress is often overlain with sheets, blankets, and other accessories that may be primarily decorative in nature.
However, a crib differs substantially from a normal adult bed in other important respects. One way in which they differ is that a crib is often designed to have the mattress elevated at a level that is substantially higher than a normal bed, in order to make it easier for a parent to attend to a baby sleeping in the crib. Another difference is that both the headboard and footboard of a crib usually extend upwardly to a position substantially above the top of a mattress surface. This feature is provided for serving as a barrier, for preventing the baby within the crib for falling out of the crib.
Another important difference between an adult bed and the crib, is that a crib will often have side rails that, similar to the headboard and footboard, extend substantially above the level of the mattress. The distance to which the side rails, headboard and footboard extend above the level of the mattress is usually a matter of personal choice, and is often determined by the age and activity level of the child. For example, as newborns are generally immobile, the top of the rail may only extend a foot or so above the level of mattress. However, as toddlers are substantially more active, and have usually acquired sufficient mobility skills to pull themselves upright, a mattress will be positioned to have its upper surface often placed at a level of 18 to 30 inches below the upper surface of a rail, to prevent the toddler from injuring himself. At this level, the side rails and headboards become a tall enough "fence" to keep the toddler from hoisting himself over the top of the rails and falling to the ground.
On many cribs, the side rails are slideable upwardly and downwardly, to facilitate the placement of a baby into the crib and the removal of the baby from the crib. Even though cribs often provide a safe place for a child to sleep that helps to prevent the child from becoming injured, room for improvement exists in helping to keep a child safe within a crib. One way that a child can become injured in a crib is by the child being caught between the mattress and the bed rails of the crib.
Many cribs currently on the market have vertical side rails that, as discussed above, help prevent the child from falling out the crib while sleeping. Unfortunately, most rail containing side rails are designed to have spaces between adjacent rails. A child's head, arms or legs can gain access to these spaces between the rails, and become caught therein. Additionally, children can have their head, arms or legs caught in the space that exists between the side edge of the mattress and the rails. Usually, the rails are made a fairly stiff and unyielding material, such as metal or wood, that may enable a child to become injured, should the child fall against them.
To overcome this problem, several persons have introduced and produced baby crib bumpers. The purpose of these bumpers is to help prevent the baby from banging their head against the rail and then becoming injured. Additionally, bumpers are usually designed to help prohibit the child from being able to put his head, arms and/or legs through the spaces between the rails. Most prior art bumpers known to Applicant are typically anchored to the rails with ties, that can be tied around the rails. Unfortunately, many of these bumpers suffer the drawback of not being able to be securely positioned. As such, the bumpers often can move, to thereby allow an access space between the mattress and the underside of the bumper pad. Additionally, many bumper pads do not fit properly, thus increasing the possibility that the child can place his hand, arm or leg in the space between the mattress and the bumper pad, to thereby injure himself, or permit his arm or hand to be caught between the mattress and the rail.
Other baby crib bumpers of which the Applicant is aware are designed so that the bumper pad is affixed to the crib itself by a plurality of fasteners, as opposed to being affixed to the mattress within the crib. Although this type of bumper pad has the advantage of enabling the parent to change the baby crib sheet without having to remove the bumper pad, it creates a new set of problems since the multiple fasteners have the propensity to increase the risk of choking, should the child be able to access one of the many fasteners. Additionally, crib bumpers of this type often require multiple steps to position the bumper properly within the mattress, and may require the use of an additional padded sheet.
Still other baby crib bumpers known to the Applicant are attached to a fitted sheet, that then fits into the crib over the mattress. The problem created by these types of bumper pads, is that since the baby bumper pad is manufactured as an integral part of the fitted sheet, the bumper pad must be removed and washed whenever the fitted sheet requires laundering.
An additional disadvantage of this type of bumper pad is that it limits the decorative choices of the parent, since the crib sheet used by the parent must be the one that accompanies the bumper. As such, a parent cannot choose to use a separate type fitted sheet without foregoing the use of the bumper pad.
Although the above described bumper pads, in many cases, serve their intended functions well, room for improvement exists. In particular, room for improvement exists in providing a baby bumper pad that securely attaches to a crib mattress in a way that securely positions the bumper pad in the crib. Additionally, room for improvement exists in providing a baby bumper pad that reduces the ability of the baby to get its arm, leg or head caught in the rail, or in the space between one of the side and/or head rails and the mattress. Still another area in which room for improvement exists is in providing a bed sheet that can be securely attached to a crib mattress without being an integral part thereof, so as to afford the user greater flexibility in choosing sheets, without the need to purchase integral bumpers; and to be able to change and launder sheets without also being required to launder the attached bumper.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a baby bumper that improves over the known prior art, and addresses one or more of the issues discussed above.

Safety bumper for use with a child's bed


A messaging system (10) includes a voice mail system (VMS) (20) in communication with a telecommunications switch (22). The VMS (20) includes a call processor (28) and a message mailbox (30). The mailbox (30) includes a message queue (32) and a pointer (34). The call processor (28) is capable of transferring a user call and generating a re-call protocol element in response by transfer request received during message playback. The telecommunications switch (22) can reconnect the transferred call after termination thereof to the call processor (28) according to the re-call protocol element. The reconnected call accesses the voice message stored at a return position indicated by the pointer. The call transfer feature can also be used with shared mailboxes.

The present invention generally relates to voice mail systems, and in particular, to a messaging system that automatically permits a user to return to a predetermined position in a message queue.
xe2x80x9cVoice mailxe2x80x9d is a common feature in many telecommunication systems. In a conventional telecommunication system, the voice mail feature is provided by a voice mail system (VMS), which is a computerized device for automatically storing audio messages left by callers, for later retrieval by VMS users. Typically, the VMS includes a multitude of xe2x80x9cvoice mailboxesxe2x80x9d, each storing messages for a particular user. A mailbox is a essentially a designated area of memory that is writable by any caller, but readable only by the owner of the mailbox. This arrangement permits a degree of privacy for users by limiting access to individual mailboxes. Messages are stored in a mailbox in the order they are received, creating a message queue. Typically, messages are played back in last-in-first-out (LIFO) fashion; thus, the most recently left message is the first heard during playback. Many prior art voicemail systems permit users to skip over messages by entering specific touch tone keystrokes during playback.
A user can access his/her stored messages any time by placing a telephone call to the VMS and then providing specific user information, such as a mailbox identifier (ID) and a mailbox password. Typically, the mailbox ID corresponds to the user""s telephone number and is used by the VMS for both storing and retrieving messages. The mailbox password, however, is the key to accessing messages stored in the mailbox, and is generally held in confidence and known only to the user.
In contrast to the individual mailbox, some voice mail systems also include xe2x80x9csharedxe2x80x9d mailboxes, which allow multiple users to access messages stored in a single mailbox. Shared mailboxes are useful in settings such as sales offices, where a number of sales people are responsible for responding to a common pool of incoming calls. To support shared mailboxes, a VMS typically includes a mechanism for mapping multiple user phone numbers to a single mailbox ID. The users of shared mailboxes are provided with the common mailbox ID and a common password.
A known feature of many voice mail systems is the ability of users to transfer out of the voice mail system while listening to messages. To transfer out of the VMS, a user typically inputs a predetermined command, such as one or more keystrokes from a touch tone phone or hang up. In response to the user command, the VMS causes the user to disconnect from the VMS and then connect to another terminal device, such as the telephone of another party.
Unfortunately, once a user disconnects from the VMS, his/her place in the message queue of the VMS is lost. Consequently, when a user transfers out of the VMS and then wishes to return, it is not only necessary for him to repeat the task of logging onto the VMS, but it is also necessary for him to manually skip through messages in order to return to the place in the queue where he/she left off. To complete this task, it generally requires many keystrokes and a degree of patience.
Therefore, there is a need for a messaging system that frees users from the tedious task of returning to their voice mailbox after performing a routine transfer to another terminal device.
It is an advantage of the present invention to overcome the limitations of prior art voice mail systems. It is also an advantage of the present invention to provide a system and method that permits users to automatically return to a predetermined position in a voice mail message queue without having to repeat the task of logging into the VMS and bypass previously heard messages.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a messaging system includes a call processor and a message mailbox for storing a sequence of voice messages in a queue. A pointer is used to indicate a return position in the message queue. In response to a user request during message playback, the call processor transfers the user""s call to another terminal device and generates a re-call protocol element. A telecommunications switch, which is responsive to the re-call protocol element, connects the call to the terminal device. After the transferred call has terminated, the switch reconnects the transferred call to the VMS. The re-call protocol element is used to identify the re-connected call as a returned call. Upon identifying the returned call, the call processor automatically reconnects the call to the voice message stored at the return position indicated by the pointer. This arrangement enables a user to forego inconvenience of having to re-log into the messaging system and manually skip previously heard messages.

System and method for automated return to messaging mailbox

Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc.


A system is disclosed for obtaining read/write head positioning movement and control for a storage disc drive. The rotational energy source for the disc is also utilized for the additional task of indexing the read/write head assembly, thereby eliminating need for a second drive source and associated circuitry. Solenoid actuating means are employed to engage one of two driven rollers with a track position wheel to cause said wheel to rotate in one of two opposite directions. This rotational movement is converted into indexing movement of the read/write head assembly.

A need exists at the present time for a simple low-cost method of controlling the position of the read/write heads in information storage systems. A number of different disc drive systems are available in the market which incorporate two prime movement sources, of which one supplies rotational energy to the storage disc, and the other supplies energy and control for movement and positioning of the read/write head, which are required for selection of storage locations on the disc.
Examples of prior art disc drive head control systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,922,718 and 4,034,413.
The present invention eliminates the need for a separate prime movement source for movement and positioning of the read/write head, and utilizes the storage disc prime movement source for this purpose.

Information storage position control apparatus


A method and apparatus for transmitting registered data onto a PCI bus is provided, which can reduce the delay time of manipulating the outgoing signals without greatly increasing the circuit complexity. The apparatus employee a 2R1W data buffer to send a current phase data and a next phase data one clock cycle ahead of the actual AD activity on PCI bus and use a multiplexer to select the current phase data or the next phase data according to a select signal. The select signal is outputted by a OR gate with IRDY# and TRDY# signals as its inputs. Then, the apparatus use a flip-flop to toggling the output signal of the multiplexer to the PCI bus at the actual AD activity. Therefore, the apparatus of the present invention not only reduce the delay time of manipulating the outgoing signals, but also is implemented with simple architecture.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for data transmission, and more particularly relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting registered data onto a PCI bus, which can reduce the delay time of manipulating the outgoing signals without greatly increasing the circuit complexity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems commonly employ one or more peripheral buses that enable communications among a variety of devices. The communications between these devices, which are so-called xe2x80x9cagentsxe2x80x9d, generally are performed according to protocols. One of the protocols is the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) published bus specification, which allows data communication bandwidth up to 266 megabytes per second when the clock frequency is 66 MHz.
Typically, there are many agents coupled to the PCI bus. A data transfer on a PCI bus is performed when one requesting agent issues a bus transaction to another receiving agent. The requesting agent is referred to as the xe2x80x9cmasterxe2x80x9d agent, and the receiving agent is referred to as the xe2x80x9ctargetxe2x80x9d agent. The master agent drives address/command to a target agent and, if the command is xe2x80x9cwritexe2x80x9d, further drives a set of data following the address/command. Then, the target agent decodes the address and accepts the data if the command is xe2x80x9cwritexe2x80x9d, or returns some data if the command is xe2x80x9creadxe2x80x9d. A bus transaction thus consists of an address phase followed by one or more data phases.
FIG. 1 is a functional block-diagram illustrating the output control logic of a conventional master agent coupled to a PCI bus 100. Note that the PCI bus 100 defined in the specification has more than 47 pins, but in this figure, only the AD bus AD[31:0] 101 are specified for clarity. The internal control signals, current phase data pointer 105, current phase address pointer 106 and address phase selector 107 are internal state signals of the agent. The current phase data pointer 105 and current phase address pointer 106 are two pointers controlled by the ongoing transaction to switch the data and address signals stored in the buffers 113 and 112, respectively. The address phase selector 107 is used to select the address phase or the data phase. A multiplexer 111 and an I/O buffer 110 are used to transmit signals onto the PCI bus 100. Note that the actual implementation of the data buffer and the address buffer can be any form.
PCI data transfers are controlled by three signals, including FRAME#, IRDY# and TRDY#. The signal FRAME# is driven by the master to indicate the beginning and the end of a transaction. The signal IRDY# is driven by the master to indicate that the master is ready to transfer data. And the signal TRDY# is driven by the target to indicate that the target is ready to transfer data. The interface is in the Idle state if both the FRAME# and IRDY# signals are de-asserted. When the FRAME# signal is asserted, it is referred to as the address phase, and the address/bus command code are transferred on the first clock edge data is then transferred during the following data phase while both the IRDY# and TRDY# are asserted. As the master finishes transferring the final data, the FRAME# signal is then de-asserted. After the target agent completes transferring the final data, the IRDT# signal is also de-asserted and the interface returns to the Idle state.
FIG. 2 is a timing diagram of the operation of the conventional master agent illustrated in FIG. 1. The upper half of this diagram shows the waveforms of the internal signals of the master agent, and the lower half shows the waveforms of outgoing signals driven onto the PCI bus 100 by the master agent. In the third clock cycle, the address phase selector 107 chooses the address Aj from address buffer 112, and drives the address signal onto PCI bus 100 after some delay D2 produced by the multiplexer 111 and the I/O buffer 110. In the next clock cycle, the address phase selector 107 is de-asserted and the multiplexer 111 selects the data Di, which comes from the data buffer 113 and is pointed by current phase data pointer 105 (with index i). Since no data transfer occurs in this clock cycle, Di is kept on driving onto PCI bus 100 in the sixth clock cycle. After the sixth clock cycle, while both TRDY# and IRDY# are asserted, the index i of the current phase data pointer 105 will shift to i+1. Besides the output delay produced by the multiplexer 111 and the I/O buffer 110, data phase switching from Di to Di+1 also results in some delay.
Thus, the master agent as shown in FIG. 1 will induce lots of delays, such as D1 and D2, before driving AD signals onto the PCI bus. This delay will reduce the time budget of the target agent that receives the signals on the same PCI bus. When the clock cycle becomes shorter and shorter, it would be difficult for the target agent to manipulate the signals well. For example, when the clock frequency is up to 66 MHz and a cycle time is reduced to 15 ns, it is frustrated to handle the signals in such a short or even a shorter time period.
In order to solve the delay issue described above, another circuit with two-level pipelined stages is illustrated in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram illustrating the output control logic of a conventional pipelined agent. In this circuit structure, output signals are registered before transmitting onto the PCI bus 300, and data prepared by the 1R1W (one read ports and one write port) data buffer 310 is done one clock before the signal is transmitted, which relates to a next data 321 preparation in the agent. Obviously, this circuit must employee another pipelined stage (register) for storing the initial data phase before the first data transfer occurs on the PCI bus 300. As shown in FIG. 3, the circuit employees two multiplexers 311 and 312, and flip-flop 313 and 314 to sustain the initial data until a successful data transfer occurs. However, this circuit illustrated in FIG. 3 is much complex.
It would be desirable to provide a simple method and apparatus in which the agent can output signals with a higher speed without greatly increasing the circuit complexity, thus can conform with the timing requirements defined in the PCI specification.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for transmitting registered data onto a PCI bus, which can reduce the delay time of manipulating the outgoing signals without greatly increasing the circuit complexity.
An apparatus according to the present invention comprises a data buffer for storing a plurality of registered data and outputting a current data signal and a next data signal according to a current phase data pointer and a next phase data pointer, respectively. The apparatus further comprises an address buffer for storing address signals and outputting current address signal according to a current phase address pointer. Besides, the apparatus also comprises a first multiplexer coupled to the data buffer and the address buffer for selecting the current data signal or the current address signal according to an address phase Select signal. A OR logic gate is employed for receiving an IRDY# signal and a TRDY# signal from the PCI Bus and outputting a data Transfer Select signal. A second multiplexer couples to the data buffer and the first multiplexer for selecting the output of the first multiplexer or the next data signal according to the data Transfer Select signal. A flip-flop couples to the second multiplexer for toggling the output signal of the second multiplexer to the PCI Bus according to a reference clock.
The apparatus further comprises a first I/O buffer coupled to the flip-flop for transferring the output signal of the flip-flop to the PCI Bus, a second I/O buffer coupled to the logic gate for transferring the IRDY# signal from the PCI Bus to the logic gate, and a third I/O buffer coupled to the logic gate for transferring the TRDY # signal from the PCI Bus to the logic gate.
The method according to the present invention comprises the steps of:
a) output a current data signal and a next data signal by a data buffer to a first multiplexer and a second multiplexer, respectively;
b) output an address signal by an address buffer to the first multiplexer;
c) select the current data signal or the address signal by the first multiplexer according to an address phase Select signal;
d) select the next data signal or the output signal of the first multiplexer by the second multiplexer according to a data Transfer Select signal, which is the output signal of a logic gate with IRDY# and TRDY# signals as inputs; and
e) send the output signal of the second multiplexer to the PCI bus by a flip-flop.

Method and apparatus for transmitting registered data onto a PCI bus


A microelectronic die assembly including a heat dissipation device serving as a support structure for the assembly is described. A first microelectronic die is attached by a back surface to a first surface of the heat dissipation device. A first plurality of interconnects are disposed on an active surface of the first microelectronic die. A second microelectronic die is attached by a back surface to the first microelectronic die active surface. A second plurality of interconnects are disposed on an active surface of the second microelectronic die. Any appropriate number of microelectronic dice may be stacked in a like fashion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for fabricating microelectronic packages. In particular, the present invention relates to low profile microelectronic packages, which are fabricated without a substrate.
2. State of the Art
Higher performance, reduced cost, increased miniaturization of integrated circuit components, and greater packaging densities of microelectronic devices are ongoing goals of the microelectronics industry. One method of increasing the density of microelectronic device packages is to stack the individual microelectronic dice within the packages. Furthermore, low-profile (thin) microelectronic packages are in high demand for use in small electronic devices, such as cell phones. Thus, the microelectronics industry fabricates a variety of thin, stacked packages.
FIG. 8 illustrates one such package known as an Ultra Thin Molded Matrix Array Package (UTMMAP). The UTMMAP 200 comprises a first microelectronic die 202 (such as a microprocessor, a chipset, a memory device, an ASIC, and the like) attached by its back surface 204 to a first surface 206 of a carrier substrate 208 (such as an interposer, a motherboard, a back surface of another microelectronic die, or the like). A first plurality of bond wires 212 extend from bond pads (not shown) on an active surface 214 of the first microelectronic die 202 to land pads (not shown) on the carrier substrate first surface 206 to make electrical contact therebetween, as will be understood by those skilled in the art. A second microelectronic die 216 is stacked by its back surface 218 on the first microelectronic die 202 with an appropriately sized spacing device 220 disposed therebetween to allow clearance for the first bond wires 212. The second microelectronic die 216 makes electrical contact with the carrier substrate 208 through a second plurality of bond wires 222 extending between bond pads (not shown) on an active surface 224 of the second microelectronic die 216 and land pads (not shown) on the carrier substrate 208. The stacked microelectronic dice are then encapsulated with a molding compound 226. The carrier substrate 208 also includes a plurality of external contacts 228 attached to a second surface 232 thereof. These external contacts 228 are used to connect the package to an external component (no shown), as will be understood to those skilled in the art.
Another thin, stacked package configuration is known as a Foiled Flex Ball Grid Array (FF-BGA). Such a package includes the use of a flexible substrate to route electrical traces from the second microelectronic dice stack to a position between the first microelectronic dice stack and the carrier substrate to make electrical contact therewith. FIG. 9 shows such an FF-BGA package 240, wherein a first microelectronic dice stack 242 and a second microelectronic dice stack 244 are attached to and in electrical contact with a first surface 248 of a flexible substrate 246 through wire bonds 252 and 254, respectively. The first microelectronic dice stack 242 and second microelectronic dice stack 244 may be fabricated in a manner discussed above with regard to the UTMMAP 200 of FIG. 8. A molding compound 256, 258 is dispersed proximate each of the first microelectronic dice stack 242 and the second microelectronic dice stack 244, respectively.
The flexible substrate 246 includes conductive traces (not shown) disposed therein, thereon, and/or therethrough, which make contact with an array 264 of external interconnects 266 (such as solder balls) disposed on a second surface 262 of the flexible substrate 246 proximate the first microelectronic dice stack 242. Thus, both the first microelectronic dice stack 242 and the second microelectronic die stack 244 have external interconnects 266 within the array 264. The flexible substrate 246 is bent such that a back surface 272 of the first microelectronic dice stack 242 can be attached to a back surface 274 of the second microelectronic dice stack 244 with a layer of adhesive 276. The external interconnects 266 are attached to a substrate 278 using a C4 (controlled collapse chip connect) process.
Although such approaches result in effective thin, stacked packages, these packages have poor thermal performance (i.e., do not dissipate heat well from the microelectronic dice therein) due to the poor thermal conductivity of the molding compound and carrier substrates used by these packages. Therefore, it would be advantageous to develop a thin, stacked package that is capable of effective thermal dissipation.


A coupling assembly for connecting adjacent ends of conduits, primarily used for aircraft fuel, water and oxygen lines having redundant locking features is provided. This coupling can be manipulated with one hand and includes laterally spaced locking tines which engage a mating channel for locking the coupling in secured relationship. The coupling assembly can be manipulated with one hand and has viewing ports to ensure that all parts are in place. A pivotal locking member is provided to supply additional redundancy. The locking member has at least one fin which is received between the locking tines and snaps into locking position when the coupling is securely fastened. If the coupling is not securely fastened, the fin will not fit between the tines, thereby preventing the locking member from snapping into locked position. Thus, the mechanic will know that the coupling is not securely fastened and will take steps to remedy the problem. When snapped into locked position, the pivotal locking member also serves to prevent the locking tines from accidental disengagement. The pivotal locking member provides full redundancy so that if the locking tines are damaged or broken, the pivotal locking member provides full strength in locking the coupling halves together.

Because of the space confinements within an aircraft, coupling assemblies for interconnecting tubular conduit members are often located at places within the aircraft which are difficult to reach, to see and to service. Thus, it is desirable to have couplings which can be easily manipulated with one hand by the mechanic for closure and which can be visually and tactilly inspected easily to ensure that closure has in fact occurred. In addition, it is necessary that the fastening device used on the coupling have redundancy features to minimize inadvertent opening of the coupling should a latch become damaged.
The latching or locking art is well developed. There are many examples of latching devices having a central tine for guiding the latching mechanisms together and spaced outer tines which are resilient or bendable for moving them between latched and unlatched position for separating and connecting the latching members. Examples of these are U.S. Pat No. 3,181,189 to Leyden which shows a latching mechanism for connecting a toothbrush shank to an electric motor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,464 to Tracy; U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,787 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,982, both to Kasai; U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,040 to Terrell, et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,280 to Fildan each show buckles for straps wherein one of the members has a central flexible tine spaced on either side of the central tine for receipt in a suitable receiving member. Although each of these devices is satisfactory for its intended purpose, none provides an arrangement wherein the tines are as readily accessible as is desirable in an aircraft configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,090 to Skobel discloses a latching mechanism having a pair of tines with curved ends which reduces the surface in engagement with the receiving member which will lower the frictional forces on the device when it is being connected or released. However, it has none of the other features of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,377 to Kasai and U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,337 to Dillner, et al., each disclose a female member having tapered side edges which engage the outer surfaces of the flexible tines. However, the geometry of the devices is not such that once they are released, they will tend to be urged apart by the reactive forces within the devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,760 to Runkles, et al., discloses a pair of arcuate coupling halves pivotally joined together at first adjacent ends. A central longitudinal channel is formed at the other end of one of the coupling halves with a pair of locking channels formed respectively on opposite sides of the central channel. A central tine is extendable longitudinally from the outer surface of the end of the other of the coupling halves and a pair of resilient locking tines extend respectively from the outer surface of the opposite end of the other coupling halves on opposite sides of the central tine. When closed, the resilient locking tines snap into engagement with the locking surfaces of the respective channels to releasably hold the coupling halves in closed position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,070 to Runkles, et al., is similar to the previous patent but has rigid tines which are pivoted at one end and are moved from a predetermined position during closing against the force of a spring. While each of these inventions are suitable for their intended use, sometimes only one tine is completely locked. Since the coupling is often in a location where it cannot be easily viewed, the mechanic will hear or feel one tine snap into place and will believe that both tines are locked when, in fact, they are not. Thus, the redundancy feature is not effective.


An improved vise and an attachment for a conventional vise is disclosed that permits a user of the vise to machine all sides of a workpiece gripped between the jaws of the vise without having to remove the workpiece from the vise and incur operational downtime and expense. A plurality of grip blocks are removably attached either to the vise directly, or to a grip set attachment for the vise. The grip blocks may be selectively installed on either the vise or grip set at those areas which require holding power, and not installed from those areas along the gripped sides of the workpiece that the user desires to access. With a portion of the grip blocks selectively removed from the vise or grip set, the user can machine all sides of a gripped workpiece, including substantial portions of the sides of the workpiece gripped by the vise.

1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates generally to a vise, and more particularly, to an improved grip set for an adjustable vise having a plurality of removable grip blocks, which allow a machinist, manufacturer, or hobbyist to efficiently and economically machine irregularly shaped parts by permitting access to all sides of a workpiece gripped between the jaws of the vise.
Vises are commonplace in both commercial manufacturing and residential settings, and are used to hold objects to be worked upon in a fixed position. Generally, a vise grips an article between a pair of cooperating jaws to allow a machinist, manufacturer, or hobbyist to cut, bore, or perform other mill work on the article's ungripped surfaces. For example, when a flat, square block is placed between the cooperating jaws of the vise, two sides of the block are gripped by the vise leaving the two remaining sides and the top exposed for machining and other mill work. The problem with and disadvantage of this conventional vise is that a user of the vise cannot machine or perform other mill work on the gripped sides of the workpiece without first repositioning it in the vise. This results in lost time and decreased efficiency, and, ultimately, represents increased expense to the manufacturer.
Often, an attachment is fixed to the face of each cooperating jaw, the attachment being used to either grip the workpiece held between the jaws, or to increase the maximum distance between the jaws of the vise to hold larger objects. Such attachments used to grip workpieces between the jaws are usually flat, but can also have a L-shaped ledge which allows a workpiece to rest upon a flat surface while being held between the opposing faces. An example of such an attachment is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,949, to Dossey et al., which discloses the use of interchangeable attachments that may be attached to the jaws of a vise to hold irregularly shaped workpieces and perform different machining operations.
However, the Dossey et al. patent and other such attachments known in the art are troublesome to use because the attachments mounted on the cooperating jaws completely engage two entire sides of the gripped workpiece, thus preventing a machinist from accessing those sides. For instance, when the vise grips the generally flat, square workpiece previously described, only two sides and the top are accessible for machining or other mill work. Each of the attachments mounted on the cooperating jaws would cover each remaining two sides. Again, if such a workpiece required machining on all four sides, the machinist would need to release the article from the vise, rotate the article ninety degrees and then reinsert the article into the vise resulting in lost time and money.
Others have developed vise attachments that permit the clamping of workpieces of varying size. An example of such a product is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,629, to Carlson, which discloses the addition of accessory members for attachment to the jaws of a vise. The accessory members allow a vise to grasp a workpiece the size of which otherwise exceeds the maximum distance between the jaws of the vise. Indeed, the Carlson patent and other similar attachments taught in the art do not overcome the disadvantages mentioned above, because single piece grip attachments that span the entire grip face prevent access to the gripped sides of a workpiece held by the vise.
To overcome the problems and disadvantages associated with the prior art, it is a primary objective of the present invention that it provide a vise for gripping a workpiece or the like that offers ready access to substantial portions of the gripped sides of the workpiece. It is a related objective that the gripping be facilitated by a plurality of gripping members, selective ones of which may be removed from the vise jaws, with the remaining gripping members holding the workpiece firmly in place.
It is a further objective of the present invention that it provide a mechanism for attaching the plurality of gripping members to a vise for gripping articles. The mechanism should allow access to the gripped sides of a workpiece and should be affixed to the vise jaws in a manner that allows for quick and efficient installation and removal.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention that the plurality of gripping members be easily installable and removable from either the vise jaws or the mechanism for attaching the plurality of members to the vise jaws. This objective should be accomplished in a manner that allows a user of the vise to access substantial portions of the gripped sides of the workpiece, without having to remove the workpiece from the vise.
Finally, it is also an objective of the improved grip set of the present invention that all of the aforesaid advantages and objectives be achieved without incurring any substantial relative disadvantage.


A formable wiring structure, an interposer with the formable wiring structure, a multichip module including the interposer and in particular a microprocessor and L2, L3 cache memory mounted on the interposer. The formable wiring structure includes wiring layers separated by dielectric layers. Attachment locations for attaching to module substrates, printed circuit cards or for mounting chips (microprocessor and cache) are provided on at least one interposer surface. The microprocessor is centrally located opposite a module attach location and the cache chips are on portions that are bent away from the module attach location to reduce and minimize module real estate required.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to integrated circuit packaging and in particular, to a conformable multilayered wiring structure for connecting one or more integrated circuit chips mounted thereon together or to a module substrate or a printed circuit card.
2. Description of the Related Art
Performance and signal density demands are forcing single chip modules (SCMs) and, especially, multi-chip modules (MCMs) to become more and more complex with an ever-increasing number of wiring layers. Typically, each chip, some >4 centimeters (cm) on each side, may have a grid of chip input/output (I/O) pads with a solder ball located on each, also called a ball grid array (BGA). State of the art SCMs include a single chip mounted on a relatively simple substrate that may reroute chip I/Os and expands the chip I/O pitch from the closely spaced chip pad pitch (e.g., 100 micrometer (μm or micron) square or less signal pads on 200 micron centers) to the more coarsely spaced module I/O pin spacing, e.g., 1 millimeter (mm). State of the art MCM substrates (typically ceramic) are much more complex because, in addition to fanning individual chip I/O signals out from chip pad pitch to module pad pitch, the substrate contains multiple layers of wiring for common chip I/O signals, power, ground and for inter-chip signals between MCM chips. Thus, because of the need for additional wiring, substrate complexity is directly related to the number of chips mounted on the substrate. Each wiring layer increases the substrate cost. So, typically MCMs are much more expensive than SCMs.
SCM and MCM modules are attached to printed circuit boards, which are assembled into a system. Generally, reducing collective board space reduces system size. Board size is directly related to the number and size of the board modules. Board complexity is a function of the number of each module's I/Os. The number of I/Os for each module is determined by the number of chip signals that must be passed to other units (chips, display drivers, etc.) and cannot be contained within the module substrate as inter-chip substrate wiring.
Thus for example, newer generations of microprocessors (μPs), such as the Pentium IV from Intel Corporation or the Athlon XP from AMD Corporation, each include both on-chip (level 1 or L1) and off-chip (level 2 or L2) memory caches. These L1 and L2 caches are closely integrated with the particular μPs, interfacing each with high speed local memory and provide a significant performance advantage for any routines, subroutines or instructions that can be contained within the caches. To contain μP packaging costs, typically, relatively cheap, lower density packaging (an opposed to much more expensive ceramic MCMs), is used to include cheap memory chips with a much more expensive μP. These cheaper packages usually trade performance for cost but, still realize a major performance improvement because the L2 cache memory is placed (electrically) so much closer to the μP than other system memory. As described herein above, any execution that requires the μP to access main memory, i.e., out of module or off board, incurs a notable performance hit.
So, just as with packaging closely integrated L2 caches with μps, designers attempt to minimize out of module communications by increasing module density, i.e., by increasing the number of chips on each MCM. The simplest way to increase overall module density is to push module chips closer together. However, once chips butt up against each other, they can't be pushed any closer. Also, adding chips increases wiring complexity, typically by requiring additional wiring layers. Another way density may be increased is by mounting a number of chips on cheaper multilayer interposers and attaching the interposers to the much more expensive MCM substrate. Typically, interposers have multiple wiring, power and ground layers separated by an inexpensive dielectric material, such as a resin composite material of resin epoxy and fiberglass, namely Fire Retardant-4 (FR-4), or a nonconductive organic insulator material. Usually, the chips are attached to the interposer and the interposer is attached to the substrate, adding a layer of chips above substrate mounted chips.
Thus, there exists a need for increased module density and more particularly for increasing available cache memory and decreasing the distance between microprocessors and cache memory.

Integrated circuit chip package with formable intermediate 3D wiring structure