A rechargeable battery according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include an electrode assembly which can charge and discharge a current, a lead tab which is electrically connected to the electrode assembly, and a pouch case including an accommodation unit in which the electrode assembly is accommodated, and of which at least a portion of an edge side is formed to be curved, and a bonding unit which is formed to be extended from the edge side of the accommodation unit and seals the accommodation unit, wherein the bonding unit may include an upper bonding unit from which the lead tab is drawn out and a side bonding unit which is bent in a thickness direction of the accommodation unit and enables a support space to be formed between the side bonding unit and the accommodation unit.

A rechargeable battery is a battery which can be charged and discharged, differently from a primary battery which is incapable of being charged. The rechargeable battery has been used in a portable small electronic device such as a mobile phone, a notebook, or a camcorder, or has widely been used as a power supply for driving a motor for a hybrid vehicle or the like.
The rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly including a cathode and an anode, and a separator which is interposed between the cathode and the anode. The electrode assembly is accommodated in a case so as to perform charge and discharge, and the case includes a terminal to supply or receive current. The case may be formed of a metal plate or a pouch.
When it is used in a portable small electronic device, a rechargeable battery with various shapes corresponding to a size of a battery accommodating unit formed in the electronic device is required. Such a rechargeable battery requires a shape that can be more stably mounted inside the battery accommodating unit, and requires more improved capacity and more improved short-circuit preventing performance for stability of the rechargeable battery.
Such a rechargeable battery has a problem that there is a limitation in improving capacity of the rechargeable battery since it is inevitably formed in a curved shape, and creases are formed on a curved pouch case. Further, since an internal space of the battery accommodating unit is generally very small, a short circuit of the rechargeable battery may easily occur.


A processor is described that includes a plurality of processing cores. The processor includes an interconnection network coupled to each of said processing cores. The processor includes snoop filter logic circuitry coupled to the interconnection network and associated with coherence plane logic circuitry of the processor. The snoop filter logic circuitry contains circuitry to hold information that identifies not only which of the processing cores are caching specific cache lines that are cached by the processing cores, but also, where in respective caches of the processing cores the cache lines are cached.

FIG. 1 shows the architecture of a standard multi-core processor design 100 implemented in a semiconductor chip. As observed in FIG. 1, the processor includes: 1) multiple processing cores 101_1 to 101_N; 2) an interconnection network 102; 3) a last level caching system 103; 4) a memory controller 104 and an I/O hub 105. Each of the processing cores 101_1 to 101_N contain one or more instruction execution pipelines for executing program code instructions. The interconnect network 102 serves to interconnect each of the cores 101_1 to 101_N to each other as well as the other components 103, 104, 105, 106.
The last level caching system 103 serves as a last layer of cache in the processor before instructions and/or data are evicted to system memory 108. The memory controller 104 reads/writes data and instructions from/to system memory 106. The I/O hub 105 manages communication between the processor and "I/O" devices (e.g., non volatile storage devices and/or network interfaces). Port 106 stems from the interconnection network 102 to link multiple processors so that systems having more than N cores can be realized. Graphics processor 107 performs graphics computations. Other functional blocks of significance (phase locked loop (PLL) circuitry, power management circuitry, etc.) are not depicted in FIG. 1 for convenience.

Snoop filter having centralized translation circuitry and shadow tag array


Methods and apparatus are disclosed for dispensing a consumable energy soe, such as electrical power or liquid fuel, to a vehicle. A vehicle includes apparatus for coupling the vehicle to a dispenser of the consumable energy source. The vehicle further includes a memory and a coupler for bidirectionally coupling the memory to the dispenser of the consumable energy source for transferring information therebetween. Embodiments of the invention describe the transfer of an indicia from the memory to a remote site for use in accounting for an amount of the consumable energy source that is input to the vehicle. Messages and other information, such as advertisements, can be input to the vehicle while coupled to the dispenser. A display is provided for displaying the information to an operator. A data entry device, such as a keyboard, may also be provided for originating information within the vehicle for transmission to a remote site.

Advances in battery technology are expected to provide reliable power sources for electrically operated passenger vehicles. One requirement for such vehicles is the provision of battery recharging apparatus. The recharging of a vehicle's battery when parked at the owner's home may be achieved in a relatively straight forward manner. However, the widespread use of battery powered vehicles necessitates that recharging also be accomplished at other locations. By example, it may often be required to recharge a vehicle's battery while parked at a remote location, such as an office building, factory, hotel, shopping center, airport, or train station. To accomplish recharging of the vehicle's battery at a remote location there must also be provided a reliable and accurate method of accounting for the power consumed in recharging the battery.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,418, entitled "Microprocessor Electric Vehicle Charging and Parking Meter System Structure and Method" Meese et al disclose a system for charging an electric vehicle at a parking location. The system may be operated by a charge card.
Meese et al. do not teach the use of a data entry means, such as a keypad, that permits manual data entry from a user of the battery charger. A manual data entry means would be useful for entering, by example, an account number or an authorization number, such as a Personal Identification Number (PIN). A manual data entry means could also be employed to enter other information, such as a battery type or characteristic. Furthermore, the system of Meese et al. does not appear to require any authorization prior to charging a battery. Instead, this system appears to store credit card charges for subsequent transfer, with a central processor unit validating the customer account number. Furthermore, the teaching of Meese et al. is not seen to permit the use of a card containing a memory device. Instead, this system requires two insertions of a card to achieve proper operation by locking and unlocking the charging cable.

Methods and apparatus for dispensing a consumable energy source to a vehicle

Intellectual Property Development Associates of Connecticut, Inc.


An arrangement for reducing the occurrence of harmful cross-site scripting is provided by segregating on-line content or other resources so that they are accessible at different domains or subdomains, each of which corresponds to a set of users, called a “sharing set,” where each user in the set has identical access privileges to certain resources. The sharing set is provided with an identifier (which may or may not be unique), so that the identifier may be used as the name of the domain or subdomain for which any member of the sharing set is authorized to access the resources located there. In this way, script that is embedded with the content can only be executed among members of the sharing set. Users who are not members of the sharing set are unable to invoke cross site-scripting attacks that would allow them to gain access to data from sharing set members.

The Internet, which includes a large number of networked computers distributed throughout the world, has become an extremely popular source of virtually all kinds of information. Increasingly sophisticated computers, software, and networking technology have made Internet access relatively straightforward for end users. For example, conventional browser software allows a user to request information or items such as a web page from a network location such as a web site on one or more remote computers. To this end, the user provides the address of the web page (e.g., a uniform resource locator, or "URL") in some manner to the browser software, and the browser software transmits the request using a communication protocol such as HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol). The request is then routed to the destination computer or web site based on the address.
When the request is received, the remote web site evaluates the request and returns an appropriate response, which may include the information requested in some formatted content, for example using HTML (HyperText Markup Language). The browser software parses and interprets the returned content to render a page or pages of content on the user's computer display.
When accessed, some web sites attempt to store information on the user's computer, in a small text file referred to as a cookie. Cookies provide for HTTP state management, by which a server may correlate multiple requests coming from the same client. Many times this is desirable to the user, for example, so that the user does not have to repeatedly resubmit information manually to the remote computer hosting the web site, but instead can automatically provide the information as stored in the cookie.
For example, a user can allow cookies to be stored on his or her computer so as to be able to view some web sites, and/or to take advantage of desirable customization features, such as local news and weather, or stock quotes. As can be appreciated, cookies may include sensitive and personal information, or the keystrokes needed to get to a user's sensitive and personal information. For example, a cookie may be used as an authenticator where a cookie may contain a ticket that grants the user access to some restricted resource, such as a personal account at an online brokerage.
Because of the ability to store and exchange sensitive and personal information, Internet security has become a significant concern to individual users, software manufacturers and providers of Internet content.
One way in which Internet security is provided on the client side is via cross domain access rules, which generally ensure that for any received content, that content can only interact with content from the same web domain. For example, a typical page on www.1a2b.com can freely script content on any other page on www.1a2b.com, but cannot script to pages that are located on a different web domain. An enforcement mechanism ensures that only pages with identical domain properties are allowed to freely interact on the client side.
A relatively recent but common security problem is cross-site scripting. Cross-site scripting is a server-side vulnerability that enables malicious script (e.g., written by a hacker) to execute on a client machine. Such vulnerability allows an attacker to inject a piece of script (e.g., JavaScript) into a web page produced by a trusted web server. A browser executes the injected script as if it were provided by the server. Since the security restrictions of a browser are based on the origin of the web page, the script is executed by the browser under the same permission as the domain of the web application, by-passing the security restrictions.
For example, consider a web site that, after a user logs in, redirects the user to a welcome page that returns content based on information passed in the URL (e.g., www.1a2b.com/defaultasp?name=username) that when rendered at the client, greets the user by the username that was provided. However, if a script instead of the username is provided, vulnerable servers will pass back the script, and when the welcome page is rendered, the script will be executed on the client side. Thus, if a hacker tricks the user into clicking on a link to that site with a malicious script (instead of the username) sent to the server, such as www.1a2b.com/default.asp?name=<script>evilScript( )/script>, the web site passes back the script embedded into its content, as if it was the username.
When the browser interprets this part of the content as script, the browser automatically runs the script, which is normal browser behavior. However, because the script came from the web site, the script is able to instruct the browser to perform operations in that site's domain, including sending that site's cookie or cookies to another computer, such as the hacker's computer. In this manner, cross site-scripting can steal cookies, and thus a hacker can obtain a user's sensitive information. The problem is difficult to detect at both clients and servers, since servers often return content based on information passed with a URL, and clients often run scripts returned from a server.
Current web browser security models allow script executing on a web page to make HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) requests to interact with other HTTP resources on the same domain. If some of these resources require cookie-based authentication, it is possible for someone to stage a cross-site scripting attack to gain access to a victim's data as long as both resources are on the same domain.
One solution to the problem of cross-site scripting attacks includes generating a new publicly-accessible time-expiring URL (uniform resource locator) for each resource whenever it is needed instead of using cookies for authentication. However, this solution enables the URL to be given to unauthorized parties, who then have temporary access to the resource before the URL expires. Another solution involves using a different domain for every resource owner. For example, a script on alice.server.com cannot communicate with bob.server.com. But here too, the cross-site scripting attack problem can still exist when multiple resources within the same subdomain have different access control lists. And using a different domain for every resource suffers from being overly restrictive—no script is able to make HTTP requests to other resources, even when desired.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.

Reducing cross-site scripting attacks by segregating HTTP resources by subdomain


In a method of separating gaseous pollutants from hot process gases, the process gases are passed through a contact reactor (22), in which an absorbent material in a moistened state is introduced to convert the gaseous pollutants into separable dust. The dust is separated in a dust separator (10). The separated dust is cooled in a first step by being brought into direct contact with a cooling fluid. In a second step, the cooled dust is mixed with a gas containing water vapour, said gas having a saturation temperature that is higher than the temperature of the cooled dust. The dust moistened by condensation of the water vapour is introduced into the contact reactor (22) to be mixed with the process gases. A mixer (24) for moistening of absorbent material has a first end (26) and a second end (28) and is divided into two zones. A first zone is a cooling zone (68) located at the first end (26). A second zone is a moistening zone (80) located at the second end (28).

When separating gaseous pollutants from process gases, such as flue gases from a coal- or oil-fired fired power plant, a method is frequently used, in which a lime-containing absorbent material is introduced into the process gas to react with the gaseous pollutants. When the absorbent material reacts with the gaseous pollutants, the gaseous pollutants are converted chemically or physically into dust, which is then separated in a filter.
WO 96/16722 discloses a method, in which lime-containing dust is mixed with water in a mixer and then introduced into a contact reactor to react with gaseous pollutants in a flue gas. Then the dust is separated in a filter and recirculated to the mixer to be mixed once more with water and subsequently again be introduced into the contact reactor. Thus, the dust will be circulated through the mixer several times. In each circulation, a small amount of dust is removed from the filter, and a small amount of fresh lime-containing material, for instance burnt lime, CaO, or dust containing a certain amount of burnt lime, is supplied to the mixer.
It has now been found that the above method results in a low degree of utilisation of the burnt lime supplied, i.e. that also the dust removed from the filter contains some burnt lime, in certain types of absorbent material. This increases the consumption of burnt lime and implies that the dust removed from the filter will contain a great deal of burnt lime that has not reacted. The low degree of utilisation of the burnt lime increases the costs of operating the plant and makes the handling of removed dust difficult.

Method and device for separating gaseous pollutants from hot process gases by absorption and a mixer for moistening particulate dust


A thin electromagnetic transducer includes a permanent magnetic plate, a vibratory diaphragm disposed in opposing relation to the permanent magnetic plate, a resilient buffer member interposed between the vibratory diaphragm and the permanent magnetic plate, and a support member for regulating the position of the vibratory diaphragm relative to the permanent magnetic plate. The permanent magnetic plate is of rigid structure, having a parallel striped multipolar magnetized pattern and a plurality of air-discharge through-holes are arranged in neutral zones of the magnetized pattern. The vibratory diaphragm is formed of a thin and soft resin film on which a coil is formed by printing. A linear portion of the conductor pattern is disposed in a position corresponding to the neutral zones of the permanent magnetic plate, and the vibratory diaphragm is supported such that the vibratory diaphragm can displace in a thickness-wise direction. The resilient buffer member is formed of generally same sized sheets as the vibratory diaphragm, which are soft and have high air-permeability.

Planar electromagnetic transducers comprised of a combination of a permanent magnet (s) and a vibratory diaphragm are known.
An electromagnetic transducer of this type normally includes a permanent magnet assembly, a vibratory diaphragm disposed in opposing relation to the permanent magnet assembly, and a support member for fixing the vibratory diaphragm to the permanent magnet assembly at a peripheral region thereof.
A permanent magnet assembly used in the conventional electromagnetic transducers of this type has a plurality of elongated permanent magnets each having two opposite poles (vertical magnetizing of the assembly) on the surface of both sides thereof, which magnets are arranged in parallel relation such that N-poles and S-poles appear alternately and fixedly jointed together by a non-magnetic component member. The vibratory diaphragm is a thin resin film, on a surface of or within which a coil comprised of a serpentine conductor pattern is formed. The vibratory diaphragm is combined with the permanent magnet assembly such that a linear portion of the conductor pattern will be located right on the central region between the elongated permanent magnets which are arranged in parallel relation. In actual practice, the vibratory diaphragm is fixed to the permanent magnet assembly at a peripheral region thereof through a spacer (s).
A magnetic line of force runs between magnetic poles of two adjacent elongated permanent magnets, and a magnetic field is developed in such a manner as to transverse the linear portion of the conductor pattern of the vibratory diaphragm. When the coil of the vibratory diaphragm is energized, an electromagnetic force is generated in accordance with Fleming's left-hand rule and the vibratory diaphragm is displaced in a thickness-wise direction thereof. According to this rule, vibrations corresponding to the drive current to the coil are generated to create an acoustic wave. This acoustic wave passes through the elongated permanent magnets so as to be radiated outside.
In the conventional permanent magnet assembly, it is desirable to arrange the elongated permanent magnets as densely as possible in order to enhance the efficiency. However, in case the permanent magnet to be used is a sintered magnet (ferrite magnet), for example, the more the effort to form the permanent magnet into an elongated design is increased, the more difficulty is encountered to form it with a precise accuracy (deformation such as warp tends to occur during sintering). Also, it becomes increasingly difficult to provide a sufficient mechanical strength. Moreover, since a large magnitude of magnetic force interacts between the elongated permanent magnets, an extremely difficult work is accompanied in bringing the elongated permanent magnets closer to each other for an accurate assembly. There is another problem in that since the individual elongated permanent magnets are held in their separated states, magnetic poles appear not only on the thickness-wise both sides thereof but also edge portions between the upper and lower surfaces and the side surfaces and a part of the side surfaces, and a magnetic flux jumps laterally between the approaching elongated permanent magnets, with the result that the number of the magnetic lines of force interlinked with the coil of the vibratory diaphragm (that is, a linear portion of the conductor pattern) is undesirably reduced and the driving efficiency is degraded.
As a consequence, the large number of elongated permanent magnets must be mutually arranged at large spaces. For this reason, it becomes necessary to form a large space between the permanent magnet assembly and the vibratory diaphragm. This again degrades the transforming efficiency and increases the thickness of the electromagnetic transducer as a whole.
In the conventional technique, since there is employed a construction in which the vibratory diaphragm is firmly pressed at its peripheral region with a spacer(s), a support point (fulcrum) is created at the peripheral region. As a consequence, somewhat awkward vibrations are generated. This makes it difficult to reproduce high fidelity sounds with respect to the drive current. Moreover, a large amplitude is difficult to obtain.


Computer method and system improves implementation of modeling language profiles. The invention method and system enables user definition of an extension and application of the defined extension to a model element. During runtime, a metamodel object is dynamically created for representing the defined extension, and a link is dynamically generated. The link provides a reference between the metamodel object and the model element.

With the proliferation of software products and services, attempts have been made to codify and/or standardize the designing of software and software architecture. Examples include:
The Booch Method and Modeling Language (see "Object Oriented Analysis and Design" by Grady Booch);
James Rumbaughand associates' Object Modeling Technique (OMT);
the Object Oriented Software Engineering (OOSE) method by Ivar Jacobson; and
the Unified Modeling Language (UML) which combines the foregoing and industry best practices.
The UML is a visual modeling language (with formal syntax and semantics) for communicating a model or conceptionalization. Thus the modeling language specification specifies modeling elements, notation and usage guidelines and not order of activities, specification of artifacts, repository interface, storage, run-time behavior and so forth. In general, at the modeling level a "problem" is posed in terms of a customer's needs and requirements and may be referred to as the business problem system. The software designer develops a "solution" software product and or service that addresses the problem. The UML syntax enables software designers to express (specify and document) the subject problems and solutions in a standardized manner, while the UML semantics enable knowledge about the subject system to be captured and leveraged during the problem solving phase. See "UML in a Nutshell" by Simon Si Alhir, published by O'Reilly & Associates, September 1998. As such, the UML enables the sharing of information (including prior solution portions) and extension (without reimplementation) of core object oriented concepts (analysis and design) during the iterative problem-solving process for designing software products.
In one example, UML2 profiles provide a mechanism that allows metaclasses from an existing metamodel to be extended in order to adapt them for different purposes. For instance, the UML2 metamodel can be tailored to different platforms, such as J2EE or the .NET framework.
However, the UML2 specification for profiles and stereotypes, while technically complete, offers little guidance with regard to implementation. As it happens, implementing support for UML2 profiles using the Java language and a meta-modeling framework such as the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) is not trivial. There are two basic questions that arise within the problem domain:
1. How are profiles created? (Refers to the syntax of the solution)
2. How are stereotypes applied to a model? (Refers to the semantics of the solution)
One solution to the problem is to actually represent stereotype application completely using M1 (See Table 1) concepts, which has been used in the past; however, this technique suffers from a number of limitations:
1. There are issues of scalability. This technique requires many additional object creations at run-time because access to stereotype properties requires creation of instance specification objects
2. Properties are bound to standard UML2 types. There is no provision to support language-specific types such as standard Java types.
3. It requires meta-level mixing (M2 concepts defined using M1 objects), which may be confusing to tool developers attempting to use the metamodel.
4. Model eventing limitations. Since the stereotype is defined using pure UML concepts, it requires one to listen for data change at several different points in the model (e.g. property, slot, instance value).
A second solution to the problem is to employ statically generated metaclasses based on the profile's stereotype extensions. The most significant problem with this approach is the requirement to generate code and compile it in order to provide the extension. If a stereotype is modified the code must be regenerated and reapplied to the model. Additionally it is possible to create incompatible schemes if multiple users generate the static metaclass extensions using different techniques or different profile versions. This results in model incompatibility.

Method and system for improved modeling language profile

International Business Machines Corporation


A synchronizer ring performing synchronous sliding operation with and separating operation from a rotating object member, is composed of an Fe sintered alloy. The Fe sintered alloy comprises carbon of from 1.2 wt. % to 2.0 wt. %, copper of from over 15.0 wt. % to 25.0 wt. %, and the balance being iron and incidental impurities. A free Cu phase is precipitated in a matrix of the synchronizer ring. The synchronizer ring has a high scuffing resistance, an excellent friction characteristic, and sufficient abrasion resisting property and strength, and moreover, provides an easy manufacture thereof by means of a size working and is stable in quality.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a synchronizer ring, and more specifically to a synchronizer ring which has a high scuffing resistance, an excellent friction characteristic, and improved abrasion resisting property and durability, and moreover, provides an easy manufacture thereof and is stable in quality.
2. Description of the Related Art
A synchronizer ring has conventionally been utilized, for example, for a synchromesh transmission.
The synchronizer ring acts as a friction ring performing a synchronous sliding motion with a rotating opposite object member such as a taper cone of a clutch gear and a separating motion from the taper cone, thus significantly serving as a member for rendering equal peripheral speeds of two gears which are to be engaged with each other. There has conventionally known a synchronizer ring having a structure as shown in FIG. 1, in which a plurality of gear teeth 100 to be engaged with a rotating object member are formed on an outermost peripheral surface of the synchronizer ring with equally spaced relationship in the circumferential direction thereof, and a plurality of annular grooves 102 are formed on the inner peripheral surface 101 thereof, which is to be brought into contact with the taper cone, for imparting friction force to the inner peripheral surface 101. Longitudinal grooves 103 for escaping lubricant oil may be formed on the inner peripheral surface 101 of the synchronizer ring so as to intersect the annular grooves 102 as an occasion demands. The synchronizer ring is provided on its outer peripheral surface with key grooves 104 to which a synchronizer key is fitted. Such a synchronizer ring is generally made of brass (Cu--Zn alloy).
In general, the synchronizer ring having such a structure is required to have high mechanical strength and accuracy, and moreover the inner peripheral portion thereof which is to be brought into contact with the rotating object member is required to have an excellent friction characteristic as well as sufficient abrasion resisting property and scuffing resistance. Particularly, in the field of a transmission mechanism for automobiles, it has been required for the synchronizer ring to have further improved friction characteristic and abrasion resisting property, since there has been a demand for reliable operability and high grade and sporty-operational feeling of the transmission mechanism for an automobile along with a recent requirement of the transmission mechanism itself with high grade and high performance.
In accordance with such a requirement, various studies have been made for providing a synchronizer ring having an inner peripheral portion having further improved friction characteristic and abrasion resisting property in comparison with the conventional synchronizer ring made of brass (Cu--Zn alloy).
For example, there is known from Japanese Patent Publication No. 46-15043 a synchronizer ring having an inner peripheral portion on which a layer formed of a composite material in which metal, ceramics and oxide are uniformly mixed, is formed through fusion bonding by means of a thermal spraying method. Furthermore, as a method usable for manufacture of the synchronizer ring, there is also known from German Patent No. 3705661 a method for manufacturing a friction ring having an inner peripheral portion on which there is formed by a flame jetting method a friction lining composed of a sintered powdery material including for example metallic powdery component of 80 wt. % and non-metallic powdery component of 20 wt. %.
Furthermore, there has also been studied a synchronizer ring composed of an Fe sintered alloy, a matrix of which comprises bainite and pearlite, and a free Cu phase.
However, the two conventional synchronizer rings described above (i.e., the conventional synchronizer ring having the inner peripheral portion on which the layer formed of the composite material in which metal, ceramics and oxide are uniformly mixed, is formed through fusion bonding by means of the thermal spraying method, and the other conventional synchronizer ring obtained by the application of the method for manufacturing the friction ring having the inner peripheral portion on which there is formed by the flame jetting method the friction lining composed of the sintered powdery material including metallic powdery component of 80 wt. % and non-metallic powdery component of 20 wt. %.) have not as yet been improved to an extent that necessary friction characteristic and abrasion resisting property could be obtained. Further, in the conventional synchronizer rings, there are problems of degradation of strength due to insufficient diffusion of the respective metallic components, and of unstable quality due to unevenness of quality of materials of the flame-coated film. Moreover, incompletely fused particles, or scattering or rebounding particles in the flame may often be entangled in the surface layer of the flame-coated film, and the adhesion of these particles on the surface layer thereof coarsens the surface of the flame-coated film, with the result that the friction characteristic may easily be changed in the lapse of time, abrasion of parts or elements of a transmission system of an automobile may be caused by particles dropped down from the flame-coated film, and scuffing may easily be caused, thus leading to unfavorable problems. In view of these problems, a grind working or a cut working has been applied to the surface of the flame-coated film for the purpose of improving the surface coarseness or roughness of the flame-coated film to make it smooth. Such workings however have disadvantage of much cost required and uneconomical use of raw materials due to ground or cut portions of the flame-coated film.
The above-described synchronizer ring composed of the Fe sintered alloy which comprises the matrix comprising the bainite and the pearlite, and the free Cu phase, has a higher hardness of at least HRB90 since it contains the bainite, thus making it difficult to apply the synchronizer ring to a size working. In addition, coefficient of dynamic friction of the synchronizer ring should further be improved.


Tumor growth in a mammal is inhibited by the administration of an effective amount of xanthocillin X dimethylether. The xanthocillin X dimethylether is administered in a range of 10-3,000 milligrams per day for an average adult human patient. The xanthocillin X dimethylether can be administered orally, by direct application into a neoplastic lesion, or by other parenteral forms of administration including intravenous, subcutaneous, or intramuscular injections. Also, suppository forms can be used.

Malignant tumors are the primary cause of death among the Japanese and are a significant cause of death among other people of the world. To control this dreaded disease, remarkable progress has been made using various types of therapy encompassing chemotherapy, surgical therapy, and radiotherapy. Recently chemotherapy has begun to gain ground in the control of specific types of cancer, including leukemia among relatively young patients. For solid tumors, however, surgical treatment is considered first and is the treatment of choice in most instances. Only a very few patients having solid tumors recover with chemotherapy alone.
The potency of most chemotherapeutic agents is insufficient to suppress cellular proliferation of solid tumors. Furthermore, various adverse effects associated with these chemotherapeutic agents pose a significant limitation to the application of chemotherapy.
A class of chemotherapeutic agents of special interest is antibiotics. A number of U.S. patents are known which disclose antibiotics having antitumor effects. In this respect, the following U.S. patents are disclosed along with the respective antibiotic:
______________________________________ Ohba 4,994,578 duocarmycin Saito et al. 4,946,957 DC-52 derivatives Horton et al. 4,870,058 14-acyloxy-2'-halo- anthracycline Stefanska et al. 4,824,944 enamine derivatives of daunorubicin and adriamycin Schmitz 4,302,470 acanthifolic acid Pinnert et al. 3,997,663 daurorubicin and derivatives ______________________________________
None of the above U.S. patents disclose the use of a xanthocillin to inhibit tumor growth.

Method of inhibiting tumor growth using xanthocillin X dimethylether


The present invention relates to an apparatus and a process for the high-throughput, quick screening, optimization, regeneration, reduction and activation of catalysts. More specifically, the present invention is a method and apparatus to quickly screen, optimize and regenerate multiple fast deactivating catalysts while maintaining a predefined range of time-on-stream.

While many methods have been developed for high throughput screening of catalysts, not one of these previous apparatus or methods have provided the ability to test one catalyst or set of catalysts while simultaneously treating a different catalyst or set of catalysts with a different treat gas. In fast deactivating catalyst, the present invention significantly improves and reduces catalyst screening and optimization times. Although not as critical in stable catalysts with very long deactivation times, the apparatus and method of the present invention still could provide for improvements in catalyst screening and optimization.
In many industrially important reaction systems, the catalysts deactivate on a time scale that is shorter than or comparable to the reaction time scale. The present invention is designed for high-throughput evaluation of fast-deactivating catalysts such as those used in cracking of naphtha and gas oils, methanol to olefins processes, hydrocarbon dehydrogenation over noble metal catalysts, partial oxidation with metal oxides among many others. The deactivation is caused by such nonlimiting mechanisms as coking, fouling, poisoning, reduction or phase transformations among others. The time scales of deactivation range from milliseconds to minutes.
Previous high throughput catalyst systems are inadequate for fast deactivating catalysts because they cannot measure the catalyst performance in the reactor under the same time on stream (TOS), a prerequisite for comparing fast deactivating catalysts. Further, they are also inadequate in that fast-deactivating catalysts require pretreatment, regeneration, reactivation and reduction under proper conditions. This method is applicable to any standard definition of TOS, for example, clock time, weight of reactant processes per weight of catalyst, volume of reactant processed per volume of catalyst, gram of desired products produced per gram of catalyst, among many others. One of ordinary skill in the art would be familiar with other standard forms of TOS.
The patent literature abounds with high-throughput catalyst testing reactor designs. Many of these designs feature parallel reactors able to provide a common feed to the reactors sequentially or in parallel. Many previous inventions, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,297 and WO 00/29844, present catalyst screening methods placing numerous small samples on a very thin substrate. While this method was adequate for stable catalysts, these methods were not suitable for fast deactivating catalysts as the samples were not tested at the same TOS. Also, these substrates do not allow for reaction at one substrate site while regeneration, reduction or some other processes occur at a second substrate site. Moreover, substrate designs would not allow for the careful individualized control of high temperatures and high pressures necessary for many catalytic systems.
Another problem of the above inventions is that they would not be effective for fast deactivating catalysts as their reactant recovery systems were not sensitive enough to recover sufficient product over very short exposure periods. WO 98/15969 solved this problem by proposing feed and recovery tubes that securely attached themselves sequentially to each element of the substrate. However, this invention still could not control the TOS and space velocity precisely enough necessary for fast-deactivating catalysts, nor would they have the ability for a second process to proceed on other substrate members.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,923 solved the high pressure and high temperature problems by sending a common feed to numerous parallel reactors. U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,882 developed a parallel reactor system that ensured the same flow rate through a catalyst by placing balancing flow restrictors between the common feed and the reactors and then sending the output to parallel detectors.
However, the '882 invention would not be effective for fast deactivating catalysts. With additional restrictions and balancing efforts, the TOS for each reactor could theoretically be controlled by using the '882 patent invention sequentially, as opposed to the parallel operations suggested. However, the device taught by the '882 invention still would not be useful for fast deactivating catalysts because the catalysts not actually being tested was not maintained in an initialized state (or individually optimized states) by a treatment gas other than the feed gas.
Although many high throughput catalysts screening systems have been developed, none of them would be effective for fast deactivating catalysts as they did not simultaneously control TOS and maintain the other catalysts in a ready condition to be tested. Further, these systems were inflexible even for stable catalysts in that they would not allow treatment of different catalysts in the parallel arrays by different feeds or treat streams.

Method and apparatus for high throughput catalysts screening and optimization

ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company


A vehicle has a hybrid drive including an internal combustion engine and at least one electric motor. The hybrid drive has a charging device for generating an air flow. A charge air path guides the air flow from the charging device to the internal combustion engine. A charge air cooler is arranged in the charge air path between the charging device and the internal combustion engine. The hybrid drive has an electric battery for supplying electric power to the at least one electric motor. The effort involved in cooling the battery is reduced if the battery is incorporated into the charge air path between the charge air cooler and the internal combustion engine in such a way that the air flow can flow through and/or around it.

A hybrid vehicle is known from DE 10 2010 049 918 A1, which is incorporated by reference herein, for example. The hybrid drive of this vehicle comprises an internal combustion engine and at least one electric motor, each for driving the vehicle. Furthermore, the hybrid drive is equipped with a charging device for generating a pressure-charged air flow. A charge air path guides the air flow from the charging device to the internal combustion engine. A charge air cooler is arranged in the charge air path between the charging device and the internal combustion engine. The hybrid drive is furthermore equipped with an electric battery for supplying electric power to the at least one electric motor.
In the known vehicle, the charging device is formed by an exhaust gas turbocharger, and the charge air cooler is formed by an absorption refrigeration device. In this case, this absorption refrigeration device is incorporated into a refrigeration circuit, which is coupled via a heat exchanger to a cooling circuit, into which the battery is incorporated.
Another hybrid vehicle is known from US 2018/0163607 A1, which is incorporated by reference herein, in which the internal combustion engine, the charge air cooler and the battery, as well as power electronics, are incorporated into a common cooling system.
DE 10 2013 208 181 A1, which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses a common cooling system for a battery and an exhaust gas turbocharger.
A similar cooling system is also known from CN 106 762 088 B, which is incorporated by reference herein.
CN 111 347 929 A, which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses a heat exchanger arrangement which comprises a battery heat exchanger and a charge air heat exchanger.


To provide a connector that enhances the reliability of connection between the ground and a shield constituting a shell. A socket constitutes the connector together with a header which is mounted on a different printed wiring board. The socket includes a socket body which is provided with a connection recess, a plurality of socket contacts which are held by the socket body, and a pitch direction shield and a terminal direction shield constituting the shell which surround the connection recess and which prevents electromagnetic noise from coming in and out. The pitch direction shield and the terminal direction shield are provided with terminals soldered to conductive pattern of the ground.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a connector which electrically connects printed wiring boards to each other, there is a known connector including a header mounted on a first printed wiring board and a socket mounted on a second printed wiring board which is opposed to the first printed wiring board.
As a connector of this kind, there is one having a socket 2 as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-59589).
The socket 2 includes a socket body 5 which is made of insulation material and provided with a connection recess 20. A header is inserted into and pulled out from the connection recess 20 in a predetermined insertion/withdrawal direction ID (vertical direction in FIG. 1B). The socket 2 also includes a plurality of socket contacts 6 held by the socket body 5 such that the socket contacts 6 come into contact with and brought into conduction with header contacts 4 which are conductive members on the side of the header when the header is inserted into the connection recess 20. The socket contacts 6 come into contact with the header contacts inside the connection recess 20. Each socket contact 6 includes a terminal 61 electrically soldered to the second printed wiring board. The socket 2 is provided with a plurality of pairs of socket contacts 6 having the terminals 61 projecting (vertical direction in FIG. 1A, "terminal direction TD", hereinafter) from the socket body 5 in opposite directions from each other in a direction (lateral direction in FIG. 1A, hereinafter, "pitch direction PD") intersecting with the insertion/withdrawal direction ID and the terminal direction TD.
Pitch direction shields 81 are held at both ends of the pitch direction PD of the socket body 5, and terminal direction shields 82 are held at both ends of the socket body 5 in the terminal direction TD.
The pitch direction shields 81 and the terminal direction shields 82 are made of metal plates and electrically grounded. The pitch direction shields 81 and the terminal direction shields 82 constitute an annular shell surrounding the connection recess 20 as viewed from the insertion/withdrawal direction ID, and the pitch direction shields 81 and the terminal direction shields 82 prevent electromagnetic noise from being mixed into electrical signals sent through the socket contact 6. If the shell is made up of the pitch direction shields 81 and the terminal direction shields 82 as described above, there is a merit that it is only necessary to change the terminal direction shield 82 in a connector having different number of pairs of the socket contacts 6, the pitch direction shields 81 can commonly be used, and as compared with a case that the shell is made up of only one part, it is easy to produce the connector.
More specifically, the terminal direction shield 82 includes a body portion 82a whose thickness direction is oriented in the terminal direction TD, and a terminal 82c projecting outward in the terminal direction TD from a lower end of the body portion 82a. The terminal direction shield 82 is soldered to a conductive pattern ("ground pattern", hereinafter) which is provided on the second printed wiring board and electrically grounded. With this arrangement, the terminal direction shield 82 is electrically grounded.
Each pitch direction shield 81 includes a body portion 81a whose thickness direction is oriented in the pitch direction PD, and an arms 81f projecting inward in the pitch direction PD from both ends of the body portion 81a in the terminal direction. The arms 81f come into elastic contact with the body portions 82a of the terminal direction shield 82, and the pitch direction shield 81 is electrically grounded through the terminal direction shield 82.
However, since the pitch direction shield 81 is grounded through the terminal direction shield 82, the reliability of connection between the pitch direction shield 81 and the ground is poor.


Embodiments of the disclosure provide systems and methods for identifying hierarchically related files stored in a database. According to one embodiment, this can be accomplished using a pipeline of worker applications which each use a specific table stored in the database 35 and a sequence or series of queues. Generally speaking, each worker application can read a message identifying tasks to be performed from one queue in the sequence of queues, perform those tasks using the appropriate table from the database to identify a set of files, and write one or more messages to a subsequent queue in the sequence or series of queues to pass results and/or further tasks to be performed to a subsequent worker application in the pipeline of worker applications.

A database such as used by a cloud-based storage system or online collaboration environment can store a large number of files for any number of different enterprises or other entities. These files can be arranged hierarchically. For example, the files belonging to and/or associated with each enterprise or other entity can be further owned by and/or associated with any number of different users. These user files can further be organized hierarchically by file and version. In some cases, such as when performing a data migration or other maintenance functions, all files owned by and/or associated with a specific enterprise or other entity need to be identified and retrieved. However, doing so is burdensome and time consuming and typically requires manual execution of a series of queries at various levels of the hierarchy. Hence, there is a need for improved methods and systems for identifying and retrieving hierarchically related files stored in a database.

Methods and systems for identifying and retrieving hierarchically related files


A device for equally-spaced in-line transportation of randomly arranged incoming products, such as packets of cigarettes, whereby the products traveling successively and in randomly arranged manner along a first path are brought into engagement with a braking device and fed, in an orderly line, to a transfer device defined by two lobed wheels located on either side of the first path and operating in time with each other, with the braking device and with a conveyor for transporting the products in equally-spaced manner along a second path located in series and in line with the first path.

The present invention relates to a device for transporting randomly arranged incoming products in equally-spaced in-line manner.
Here and hereinafter, the term "in-line" is intended to mean that the products received in randomly arranged manner are equally spaced as they travel along a path involving substantially no or, conversely, substantially continuous variations in the output as compared with the input traveling direction of the products.
The present invention is particularly suitable for packing machines in general, and cigarette packing machines in particular, to which the following description refers purely by way of example.
On cigarette packing machines, the problem of transporting randomly arranged incoming products, in this case packets of cigarettes, in equally-spaced manner is normally solved using devices comprising a first and second conveyor perpendicular to each other; and a transfer device located over the point at which the two conveyors meet, and which provides, at a constant rate, for transferring the packets traveling in randomly arranged manner on the first conveyor from the output end of the first conveyor to the input end of the second conveyor. As they are transferred, the packets are rotated 90.degree. in relation to the traveling direction, so that, if they are traveling, for example, along the first conveyor with the larger side facing forward, they are fed with the smaller side or the end surface facing forward along the second conveyor.
In other words, on known devices of the aforementioned type, equally spacing the randomly arranged incoming packets necessarily involves a 90.degree. variation in the traveling direction of the packets, and, consequently, 90.degree. rotation of the packets in relation to said traveling direction.
Such variations in both the traveling direction and the position of the randomly arranged incoming products in relation to the traveling direction are not always desirable, and pose serious problems as regards the size and overall design of the packing machine.

Device for equally-spaced in-line transportation of randomly arranged incoming products


A process for making an all-plastic rod end to enable an articulated linking of two members. The process includes providing first and second split bearing raceway members each of which defines one-half of an annular bearing raceway and a stem having an open ended semi-cylindrical recess. A spherical ball dimensioned to fit in the annular bearing raceway also is provided. The spherical ball is placed into the first split bearing raceway member, and the second split bearing raceway member is placed over the first split bearing raceway member to define a complete annular bearing raceway that encases the ball. The process continues by molding a plastic housing around the split bearing raceway members but spaced from the spherical ball to enable free movement of the spherical ball therein.

Spherical rod ends provide an articulated linkage between the connection of two separate assemblies. Spherical rod ends can be easily adapted for many different types of applications. In use, the spherical rod end enables the linkage of two separate assemblies, such that the linkage is articulated between the two separate assemblies. The articulation of the linkage is provided through the spherical ball of the spherical rod end. In use, the spherical ball engages a first separate assembly, while an elongated cylindrical member of the spherical rod end engages a second separate assembly. Thus, the spherical rod end operates to articulately link two separate assemblies.
The prior art spherical rod end comprises a metallic housing and a metallic ball. The metallic ball is provided with a central hole for engaging a separate assembly. The metallic housing is molded to form a spherical race around the metallic ball such that the metallic ball is generally able to move freely within the metallic housing. The metallic housing also forms an elongated cylindrical member. The prior art metallic spherical rod end quite often was able to sufficiently support loads in excess of one thousand pounds.
The prior art spherical rod end possesses distinct disadvantages. Since the prior art spherical rod end is constructed entirely of a metallic substance, it is prone to be heavy and is expensive to manufacture as it requires a protective, non-corrosive secondary finishing to avoid the effects of oxidation and corrosion. Additionally, quite often the spherical ball requires lubrication in order to maintain its free movement within the race of the metallic housing. Secondly, when both the spherical ball and housing are fitted together, the metallic embodiments of the ball and housing produce a loose tolerance with a high wear factor between the spherical ball and metallic housing. Further, since the metallic housing is directly molded around the metallic ball, quite often this tends to fuse the ball to the housing inhibiting the spherical ball's ability to move freely, therein requiring an additional manufacturing process to free the ball from the metallic housing. Furthermore, if the metallic ball is not perfectly round, the ball typically will be locked into place in the housing, devoid of any movement. Still further, in order to provide the elongated cylindrical member with a threaded portion, the threading of the elongated cylindrical member has to be formed either through a secondary process or through the molding process, requiring still another additional monetary expense. In conclusion, the prior art spherical rod end has numerous setbacks, and any attempt to overcome any of these setbacks, had to be performed at a considerable monetary expense.
An example of a metallic spherical rod end is manufactured by Superior Linkage Products of New Haven, Indiana. The Superior Linkage device included a metallic ball and a metallic housing, both of which are plated for corrosion resistance. Additionally, the metal used for both the ball and housing is of a low carbon steel having the surface hardened for wear resistance. The Superior Linkage Products device is further provided with a bearing raceway constructed of a self-lubricating, reinforced nylon. In the process of manufacturing the Superior Linkage Products spherical rod end, first a metallic ball is formed with a central hole. The metallic housing is then molded to form a metallic raceway around the metal ball, with a cylindrical member extending away from the metallic raceway. Next, a self-lubricating, reinforced nylon is injected into the metallic raceway to provide for a bearing raceway. The cylindrical member may or may not be formed with an outer circumferential surface and/or an inner circumferential surface. However, even though the Superior Linkage Products spherical rod end is able to overcome some of the shortcomings of the prior art, the Superior Linkage Products device is expensive to manufacture. Additionally, the Superior Linkage Products device is primarily constructed of a metallic substance, and thus it is heavy.
An attempt has been made in the prior art to manufacture an all-plastic rod end. Adams et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,148 teaches of a method for making a non-metallic, fiber reinforced rod end bearing assembly. This method provides an all-plastic rod end comprising; two discrete races, a spherical ball and a housing cover. The two races operate to support the spherical ball while they are in face-to-face alignment with one another. The two race members threadingly engage the housing, therein providing a means to gain access to the spherical ball while it is contained in the rod end. However, since the two races members are only threadingly engaged with the housing, and are not encased by the housing, this makes the Adams et al. rod end particularly the threaded engagement portion of the race members and housing, susceptible to fatigue and breakage when in use for a prolonged period of time.
Accordingly, it is an object of the subject invention to provide a new and improved spherical rod end without the shortcomings as forementioned.
Another object of the subject invention is to provide a new and improved spherical rod end which is constructed entirely of a lightweight material, such as plastic.
An additional object of the subject invention is to provide a new and improved spherical rod end which is constructed entirely of a corrosion resistant material.
Still a further object of the subject invention is to provide a spherical rod end which can be easily manufactured for various types of applications.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide a new and improved process for manufacturing a spherical rod end that enables a spherical rod end to be formed at a reasonable cost, and which is capable of linking separate assemblies, with an articulated linkage between the two separate assemblies.

Process for making an all-plastic rod end


A high temperature superconductor lead assembly for reducing the heat leak into a cryocooled system features a shroud configured for at least partial submersion in a cryogenic fluid contained within a bath chamber, and a high temperature superconductor lead element at least partially contained within the shroud. In use, a portion of the high temperature superconductor lead element contained within the shroud extends below a fluid level of the cryogenic fluid in the bath chamber. The portion of the high temperature superconductor lead element is thermally shielded by the shroud such that it is maintained at a temperature higher than the temperature of the cryogenic fluid. The shroud is a double-walled vacuum structure with a sealed end and an open end. In use, the open end is submerged in the cryogenic fluid.

The invention relates to high temperature superconductor current leads, and particularly to high temperature superconductor leads for carrying current to a device housed in a stratified fluid cryogenic system.
A major source of heat escaping into a cryogenic system typically occurs at the connection of the cryogenic system to the outside world. When the cryogenic system houses an operative superconducting device immersed in a cryogenic fluid, the "connection" is typically through the current leads, through which electrical energy passes to and from the device. The escape of heat through this connection is often referred to as "heat leak".
The chief mechanism of heat leak in a high temperature superconductor (HTS) current lead is generally conduction from the current lead to the cryogenic fluid. This is particularly true of leads made from composite high temperature superconductors. The rate of heat leak W of the superconductor lead can be approximated for design purposes as a function of thermal conductivity (k) averaged over the thermal length of the lead, cross-sectional area (A), temperature change (.DELTA.T) between the warm end HTS temperature and the cold end cryogenic fluid temperature, and thermal length (L) spanning the two temperatures, as described by the following relation: EQU W.apprxeq.kA.DELTA.T/L
As used herein, "thermal length" means the lead length over which the temperature gradient occurs, which can be less than the physical length of the lead. Heat leak from an HTS current lead can thus be reduced by decreasing k, A, and .DELTA.T, and by increasing L.

Thermally shielded superconductor current lead


Exemplary embodiments are related to a switching voltage regulator. A switching voltage regulator may include a current limit detector configured to detect an over-current condition. The switching voltage regulator may further include a pulse-width modulation (PWM) module coupled to the current limit detector and configured to convey a PWM signal based on a programmed switching frequency and an output voltage and in response to the over-current condition.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to switching voltage regulators. More specifically, the present invention relates to embodiments for operating a switching voltage regulator at or near a current limit with enhanced efficiency, and without impacting regulation.
2. Background
An electronic device, such as a mobile telephone, may include a voltage regulator that receives an input voltage from a power supply and generates an output voltage for a load. An integrated circuit may include a voltage regulator for providing a stable voltage reference for on-chip components such as a digital component, an analog component, and/or a radio-frequency (RF) component.
A voltage regulator may comprise a switching voltage regulator, which rapidly switches a power transistor between triode (i.e., completely on) and cutoff (i.e., completely off) with a variable duty cycle. A resulting rectangular waveform is low pass filtered in order to produce a nearly constant output voltage proportional to the average value of the duty cycle. One advantage of a switching voltage regulator compared to a linear voltage regulator is greater efficiency because the switching transistor dissipates little power as heat in either a saturated state or a cutoff state.
As understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art, limiting an output current of a switching voltage regulator is important to protect from output short-circuit conditions, which can cause almost immediate permanent damage to an associated device. Conventional devices and methods for reducing output current may cause a severe and immediate reduction in the output current when an over-current condition is detected, even transiently, thus causing an output voltage to fall out of regulation.
A need exists for an enhanced switching voltage regulator. More specifically, a need exists for embodiments related to operating a switching voltage regulator at or near a current limit with enhanced efficiency and regulation.


A bipolar OTA having an improved S/N level is provided, which includes first, second, and third balanced differential pairs. The first balanced differential pair is formed by first and second bipolar transistors whose emitters are connected to one another through a common emitter resistor. The first and second transistors are driven by corresponding constant current sources/sinks, respectively. The second balanced differential pair is formed by third and fourth transistors whose emitters are coupled together to be connected to a collector of the first transistor. The third balanced differential pair is formed by fifth and sixth transistors whose emitters are coupled together to be connected to a collector of the second transistor. The third and fourth balanced differential pairs are driven by the collector currents of the first and second transistors, respectively. A control voltage is applied across bases of the third and fourth transistors and bases of the fifth and sixth transistors. A balanced differential input voltage is applied across bases of the first and second transistors. An OTA output is derived from at least one of the collectors of the third and fifth transistors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a differential amplifier circuit comprised of bipolar transistors and more particularly, to an operational transconductance amplifier using bipolar transistors, which has an improved signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) and which is suitable for a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC), and an output circuit used for the amplifier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A differential amplifier circuit having a superior transconductance linearity within a comparatively wide input voltage range has been known as an "Operational Transconductance Amplifier (OTA)".
A conventional bipolar OTA is shown in FIG. 1, which is termed the "Gilbert gain cell,". This conventional OTA was disclosed in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. SC-3, No. 4, December 1968, which was written by B. Gilbert.
As shown in FIG. 1, a first balanced differential pair is formed by two npn bipolar transistors Q101 and Q102. An emitter of the transistor Q101 is connected to one terminal of a constant current sink 101 sinking a constant current I.sub.0. An emitter of the transistor Q102 is connected to one terminal of another constant current sink 102 sinking the same constant current I.sub.0 as that of the current sink 101 for the transistor Q101. The other terminals of the two current sinks 101 and 102 are connected to the ground. The two transistors Q101 and Q102 are driven by the corresponding current sinks 101 and 102, respectively.
The emitters of the transistors Q101 and Q102 are coupled together through a common emitter resistor R101 having a resistance R.
A differential input voltage V.sub.i as an input signal to the conventional OTA is applied across bases of the transistors Q101 and Q102.
Two diode-connected npn bipolar transistors Q103 and Q104 are provided to serve as loads of the transistors Q101 and Q102, respectively. Specifically, emitters of the transistors Q103 and Q104 are connected to collectors of the transistors Q101 and Q102, respectively. A bass and a collector of the transistor Q103 are coupled together to be applied with a power supply voltage V.sub.CC. A base and a collector of the transistor Q104 are coupled together to be applied with the same power supply voltage V.sub.CC.
A second balanced differential pair is formed by two npn bipolar transistors Q105 and Q106. Emitters of the transistors Q105 and Q106 are coupled together to be connected to one terminal of a constant current sink 103 sinking a constant current I.sub.1. The other terminal of the current sink 103 is connected to the ground. Bases of the transistors Q105 and Q106 are connected to the collectors of the transistors Q102 and Q101 serving as output terminals of the first balanced differential pair, respectively.
Here, a differential output current .DELTA.I.sub.C, which is an amplified output signal of the OTA, is defined as the difference between collector currents I.sub.C105 and I.sub.C106 of the transistors Q105 and Q106, i.e., .DELTA.I.sub.C =I.sub.C105 -I.sub.C106. Then, the differential output current .DELTA.I.sub.C is derived from the collectors of the transistors Q105 and Q106.
Next, the operation of the conventional Gilbert gain cell shows in FIG. 1 is explained below.
Here, supposing that the base-width modulation (i.e., the Early voltage) is ignored and that the common-base current gain factor of a bipolar transistor is equal to unity, a collector current I.sub.C a bipolar transistor is typically given as the following expression (1a). ##EQU1##
In the expression (1a) V.sub.BE is a base-to-emitter voltage of the bipolar transistor, and I.sub.S is the saturation current thereof. Also, V.sub.T is the thermal voltage defined as V.sub.T =kT/q, where k is the Boltzmann's constant, T is absolute temperature in degrees Kelvin, and q is the charge of an electron.
The expression (1a) can be rewritten to the following form (1b). ##EQU2##
When the differential input voltage V.sub.i is applied across the bases of the transistors Q101 and Q102 of the first balanced differential pair, the following relationship (2) is established around the loop consisting of the input voltage and the two base-emitter junctions of the transistors Q101 and Q102 because of the Kirchhoff's voltage law EQU V.sub.i =V.sub.BE101 -V.sub.BE102 +Ri (2)
where V.sub.BE101 and V.sub.BE102 are base-to-emitter voltages of the transistors Q101 and Q102, and i is a current flowing through the common emitter resistor R101.
Supposing that a relationship of Ri>>(V.sub.BE101 -V.sub.BE102) is established, the current i is expressed as follows using the above relationship (2). ##EQU3##
The relationship (3) means that the current i is approximately proportional to the differential input voltage V.sub.i.
The current i flowing through the emitter resistor R101 further flows the diode-connected transistors Q103 and Q104 as a differential current. Thus, if collector currents of the transistors Q101 and Q102 are defined as I.sub.C101 and I.sub.C102, respectively, the collector currents I.sub.C101 and I.sub.C102 are expressed as EQU I.sub.C101 =I.sub.0 +i (4) EQU I.sub.C102 =I.sub.0 -i (5)
Therefore, the following relationships, (6) and (7) are established using the above expression (1b). ##EQU4##
Thus, from the relationships (6) and (7), the difference .DELTA.V.sub.BE between the base-to-emitter voltages V.sub.BE101 and V.sub.BE102 is given by the following expression (8). ##EQU5##
It is seen from the expression (8) that the voltage difference .DELTA.V.sub.BE is in a logarithmically compressed form of the current i. This means that the voltage difference .DELTA.V.sub.BE is logarithmically proportional to the current i.
The voltage difference .DELTA.V.sub.BE is then applied across the bases of the transistors Q105 and Q106 of the second balanced differential pair and is amplified. Thus, the differential output current .DELTA.I.sub.C of the second balanced differential pair, which is an amplified output signal of .DELTA.V.sub.BE, is given as ##EQU6##
The relationship (9) is obtained by the known result that a differential output current .DELTA.I of a balanced differential pair of two emitter-coupled bipolar transistors driven by a constant current I.sub.x is expressed as ##EQU7## where V.sub.IN is a differential input voltage applied across the bases of the two bipolar transistors.
It is seen from the relationship (9) that the differential output current .DELTA.I.sub.C is in an exponentially expanded form of the inputted voltage difference .DELTA.V.sub.BE.
The above relationship (9) is rewritten to the following expression (10a) using the above expression (8). ##EQU8##
This expression (10a) can be further rewritten to as follows. ##EQU9##
Thus, it is seen from the expression (10b) that the output current .DELTA.I.sub.C is proportional to the current i flowing through the emitter resistor R101. This means that the current i can be derived from the collectors of the transistors Q105 and Q106. On the other hand, as described previously with reference to the expression (3), the current i is approximately proportional to the differential input voltage V.sub.i.
Accordingly, the output current .DELTA.I.sub.C is proportional to the differential input voltage V.sub.i. This means that the circuit in FIG. 1 has a linear transconductance and is capable of an OTA function.
With the conventional Gilbert gain cell in FIG. 1, using the above expression (10b) the collector currents I.sub.C105 and I.sub.C106 of the transistors Q105 and Q106 are expressed as the following equations (11) and (12), respectively. ##EQU10##
On the other hand, from the above relationships (4) and (5), collector currents I.sub.C101, and I.sub.C102 of the transistors Q101 and Q102 are expressed as ##EQU11##
Therefore, it is seen from the equations (11), (12), (13), and (14) that the collector currents I.sub.C105 and I.sub.C106 of the transistors Q105 and Q106 are equal to the results obtained by multiplying I.sub.C101 and I.sub.C102 by (I.sub.1 /2I.sub.0), respectively. This means that no improvement is realized for the transconductance linearity in the conventional Gilbert gain cell.
Further, the conventional Gilbert gain call contains the arithmetic approximation as shown in the above equation (3), and as a result, a completely linear transconductance is unable to be realized. Satisfactory linearity in the OTA behavior can be realized only when the value of the resistance R of the emitter resistor R101 and the values of the constant currents I.sub.0 and I.sub.1 are suitably designed.
A significant problem of the conventional Gilbert gain cell is that the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) is remarkably degraded, which is due to the logarithmic compression and exponential expansion of the input voltage V.sub.i.
An OTA is an essential, basic function block in analog signal applications. Recently, fabrication processes for large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs) have been becoming finer and finer and as a result, the supply voltage for the LSIs has been decreasing from 5 V to 3 V, or lower. This tendency has been lowering the input signal level and necessitating the higher S/N level.

Bipolar operational transconductance amplifier and output circuit used therefor


A film thickness measuring apparatus of the present invention includes: a light source that emits white light to be irradiated onto a multilayer thin film; a spectroscope that disperses reflected light obtained as a result of irradiating the white light onto the multilayer thin film in order to obtain reflectance spectrums; and a computation section, said computation section including: a setting section that sets a plurality of wavelength ranges for the reflectance spectrums; a first conversion section that obtains wavenumber range reflectance spectrums by re-sequencing, among the reflectance spectrums, reflectance spectrums in the plurality of wavelength ranges set in said setting section at equal intervals, respectively; a second conversion section that converts the wavenumber range reflectance spectrums in the plurality of wavelength ranges obtained in said first conversion section into power spectrums, respectively; and a calculation section that obtains a film thickness of the multilayer thin film based on the power spectrums.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a film thickness measuring apparatus and method for measuring the film thickness of a multilayer thin film.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-115488, filed on Apr. 25, 2007, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
A film thickness measuring apparatus is used for measuring the film thickness distribution and the film thickness error of a multilayer thin film including a flexible substrate, a multilayer composite film sheet, and other kinds of multilayer thin films. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional film thickness measuring apparatus. As shown in FIG. 5, a conventional film thickness measuring apparatus 100 is provided with a white light source device 101, an irradiation fiber 102, a light receiving fiber 103, a spectroscope 104, and a computation section 105. The film thickness measuring apparatus 100 measures the film thickness of a film 200 formed with a plurality of layers 201 to 203.
The white light source device 101 is a light source that emits white light. The irradiation fiber 102 is a light guiding member that guides the light emitted from the white light source device 101 to the film 200 so as to irradiate the light onto the film 200. The light receiving fiber 103 is a light guiding member that guides reflected light from the film 200 to the spectroscope 104.
The spectroscope 104 disperses the reflected light from the film 200 that has been guided by the light receiving fiber 103, and further converts it into electrical signals to obtain reflectance spectrums.
The computation section 105 performs a predetermined computation for the reflectance spectrums obtained in the spectroscope 104 to measure the film thickness of the film 200. Specifically, the computation section 105 performs a computation to select one predetermined wavelength range among the reflectance spectrums obtained in the spectroscope 104, and a computation to obtain wavenumber range reflectance spectrums by re-sequencing the reflectance spectrums within the selected wavelength range at equal intervals. Next, the computation section 105 performs a computation to obtain a power spectrum by performing a Fourier conversion on the signals that indicate the wavenumber range reflectance spectrums. Next, the computation section 105 performs a computation to detect peaks in the power spectrum.
In the above configuration, the white light emitted from the white light source device 101 is guided by the irradiation fiber 102 so as to be irradiated from the layer 201 side onto the film 200. Among the reflected light obtained as a result of irradiating the white light onto the film 200, the reflected light that has been incident on the light receiving fiber 103 is guided to the spectroscope 104 by the light receiving fiber 103. This reflected light is dispersed in the spectroscope 104, and furthermore it is photoelectrically converted. The electrical signal obtained as a result of the photoelectric conversion is inputted to the computation section 105, and is subjected to the various computations mentioned above. As a result of these computations, the film thickness of the film 200 is found.
The white light reflected on each interfacial surface of the respective layers 201 to 203 that form the film 200 has an optical path difference according to the distance between the respective interfacial surfaces (film thickness). Since the white light having optical path differences mutually interferes with each other, a cyclical interference pattern emerges in a wavenumber range reflectance spectrum. A power spectrum that is obtained as a result of performing a Fourier conversion on this cyclical interference pattern has a peak at a frequency according to the optical path difference. Therefore, by detecting this peak, an optical path length difference (optical film thickness) can be found.
FIG. 6 shows an example of a power spectrum obtained by the film thickness measuring device 100. The film thickness measurement result shown in FIG. 6 is a result of measuring the film 200 formed with the layer 201, the layer 202, and the layer 203. The refraction factor of the film 201 is 1.6 and the film thickness of the layer 201 is 5 μm. The refraction factor of the film 202 is 1.7 and the film thickness of the layer 202 is 12 μm. The refraction factor of the film 203 is 1.6 and the film thickness of the layer 203 is 3 μm. The optical film thicknesses of the layers 201 to 203 are found as a product of the film thickness and the refraction factor, and they are 8.0 μm, 20.4 μm, and 4.8 μm. Moreover, in the graph shown in FIG. 6, the horizontal axis represents the optical film thickness, and the vertical axis represents the intensity (arbitrary units).
Referring to FIG. 6, it can be seen that there is a plurality of peaks emerging. The horizontal positions of these peaks indicate the optical distance between the respective interfacial surfaces, and the heights of the peaks indicate products of amplitude reflectances on the two interfacial surfaces. Specifically, in FIG. 6, there are six peaks emerging. The first peak P101 emerges at 4.8 μm indicating the optical film thickness of the layer 203. The second peak P102 emerges at 8.0 μm indicating the optical film thickness of the layer 201. The third peak P103 emerges at 20.4 μm indicating the optical film thickness of the layer 202.
The fourth peak P104 emerges at 25.2 μm indicating the sum of the optical film thickness of the layer 202 and the optical film thickness of the layer 203. The fifth peak P105 emerges at 28.4 μm indicating the sum of the optical film thickness of the layer 201 and the optical film thickness of the layer 202. The sixth peak P106 emerges at 33.2 μm indicating the sum of the optical film thicknesses of the layers 201 to 203 (that is, the optical film thickness of the film 200). Thereby, based on the position of the peak of the power spectrum, the optical film thicknesses of the respective layers 201 to 203 forming the film 200 and the optical film thickness of the film 200 can be found.
For the detail of the conventional apparatus and method for measuring film thickness, refer for example to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2005-308394, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 11-314298.
The positions of the peaks of the power spectrum obtained in the above mentioned conventional apparatus and method for measuring film thickness indicate the optical distances between the respective interfacial surfaces. Therefore, there is a problem that the position of the interfacial surface on which the peak has been obtained with respect to the top most surface (the interfacial surface between the layer 201 and air) cannot be directly found from the power spectrum. That is to say, in the example shown in FIG. 6, the film thicknesses and the refraction factors of the layers 201 to 203 were previously known. Therefore, it was possible to determine that the peak emerging at 4.8 μm indicates the optical film thickness of the layer 203. However, in the case where the film thicknesses and the refraction factors of the layers 201 to 203 are unknown, it cannot be identified that the peak emerging at 4.8 μm indicates the optical film thickness of the layer 203.
In the conventional apparatus and method for measuring film thickness, in the case of measuring a multilayer thin film having a plurality of layers with substantially equal optical film thicknesses, the peaks of the power spectrum overlap with each other. Therefore, the conventional apparatus and method for measuring film thickness has a problem that it is not possible to measure the optical film thickness of only one layer. FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B are graphs showing another example of power spectrums obtained by the conventional film thickness measuring apparatus 100. FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B show results of measuring the optical film thickness of the film 200 formed with the layer 201, the layer 202, and the layer 203. The refraction factor of the film 201 is 1.6 and the film thickness of the layer 201 is 3 μm. The refraction factor of the film 202 is 1.7 and the film thickness of the layer 202 is 12.7 μm. The refraction factor of the film 203 is 1.6 and the film thickness of the layer 203 is 3.2 μm.
Referring to FIG. 7A, reflected light from the interfacial surface related to the layer 201 and reflected light from the interfacial surface related to the layer 203 interfere with each other. This interference generates a peak P201 which is substantially an average of the peak indicating the optical film thickness of the layer 201 and the peak indicating the optical film thickness of the layer 203. Similarly, the interference generates a peak P203 which is substantially an average of: the peak indicating the sum of the optical film thickness of the layer 201 and the optical film thickness of the layer 202; and the peak indicating the sum of the optical film thickness of the layer 202 and the optical film thickness of the layer 203. Referring to FIG. 7B, reflected light from the interfacial surface related to the layer 201 and reflected light from the interfacial surface related to the layer 203 mutually cancel each other. As a result, peaks P301 and P303 with extremely small values are obtained. If a film thickness is measured using such peaks P201, P203, P301, and P303, there will be a problem that a significant measurement error may occur.
In recent years, for high function films and the like, a structure that is symmetric about the center (hereinafter, referred to as symmetric structure) is often used. For example, the following structure is often used. That is to say, a structure "ABA" with the center layer as "B" and with the layer "B" sandwiched by layers "A" of the same film thickness, or a structure "ABCBA" with the center layer as "C". When the film thickness of a multilayer thin film having such a symmetric structure is to be measured using the conventional apparatus and method for measuring film thickness, there is often a problem in the measurement due to the reason described with reference to FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B. Therefore, there is urgently needed a development of a technique for online-measuring the film thickness of each layer of a symmetrically structured multilayer thin film.
If a manufactured multilayer thin film is extracted and is offline-measured using a vertical scanning type white light interferometer, it is still possible to measure the film thickness of each layer of the multilayer thin film even with a symmetric structure. However, this measuring method has a problem that a measurement at one point requires a period of time ranging from several tens of seconds to several minutes. Moreover, since the measurement takes a long period of time, there is a problem that an error may occur in the measurement result due to vibrations of the multilayer thin film during the measurement, and the error becomes more significant for a thinner multilayer thin film.

Apparatus and method for measuring film thickness


A process for forming a semiconductor integrated circuit with a core area densely populated with active devices and with a periphery area less densely populated with active devices as compared to the core area, comprising the steps of: forming a first layer of first insulator material above a semiconductor substrate having a core area and a periphery area, wherein the first insulator material constitutes a polish stop for polishing processes and also as an oxidation barrier; patterning the first layer of first insulator material to expose first portions of the semiconductor substrate substantially only in the core area while using the first insulator material to substantially mask the periphery area; forming a plurality of trenches into the exposed first portions of semiconductor substrate in the core area; filling the plurality of trenches with an insulator; polishing down to the first layer of first insulator material; removing the first layer of first insulator material; forming a second layer of first insulator material over the core and periphery areas; forming openings down into the second layer of first insulator material to expose second portions of the semiconductor substrate substantially only in the periphery area while using the second layer to substantially mask the core area; and forming an isolation region in the exposed second portions of the semiconductor substrate.

The present invention relates generally to methods for forming integrated circuit chips, and more particularly, to a method for simplifying the processing of core and periphery isolation regions.
An integrated circuit chip comprises an array of devices formed in a semiconductor substrate, with the contacts for these devices interconnected by patterns of conductive wires. As the density of devices fabricated on a given chip increases, problems arise in providing reliable isolation between devices. Additionally, the core area on a chip may utilize different device dimensions than the periphery area on the chip. These different device dimensions necessarily require different isolation techniques which further complicate the processing of the overall chip.

Core array and periphery isolation technique


The present invention relates to a temporary rail structure that includes a series of vertical posts that are interconnected by horizontally extending side rails. Each post is designed to clamp around the top portion of a band that extends around floor joist that support a sub-floor thereabove. Around the entire floor structure is formed a series of spaced apart openings, each opening cut in the sub-floor adjacent the inside of the band. Each temporary post includes a U-shaped yoke that includes one leg that is inserted downwardly through the opening formed in the sub-floor such that this leg extends adjacent the inside of the band. A screw-type tightener is secured to another leg of the yoke and is screwed from the outside so as to tighten down on the band.

For many years it has been recognized that buildings under construction present a safety problem. In particular, it is not uncommon for young children to come onto the property of a building that is under construction and to climb and move throughout the building during periods of time when the construction site is unattended. In this same regard, it is not unusual for children and adults as well to stumble, fall or trip while moving through and around the building site, often resulting in serious bodily injury. One particular area of a building that is under construction that presents a special problem is the floor of the building before the walls are actually erected. This is especially true with floors that extend high above the surrounding ground area such as second floor areas.
Beginning in 1993, OSHA will require some type of temporary railing structure around floor areas that are disposed a certain height above the surrounding ground.
There have been attempts at designing temporary rail structures for buildings under construction. For example, see the disclosures found in the following U.S. Patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,747,898; 3,756,568; 3,881,698; 3,901,481; 3,920,221; 3,938,619; 3,995,833; 4,236,698; and 4,363,467.
However, to a large extent, most of these temporary rail structures are impractical and difficult to use. One of the main problems with temporary rail structures of the past is that they are difficult to handle and hard to attach to the floor structure. Temporary rail structures that are difficult to apply or attach to the open sided floor of a building under construction will not be used efficiently by building framers.
Therefore, there is a need for a reasonably inexpensive temporary rail structure for use by residential builders that is easy to erect and easy to disassemble.