There are provided a method of processing an amorphous material which is capable of forming surface projections of uniform height in desired positions on the amorphous material, and a magnetic disk substrate using the amorphous material. A predetermined pressure is applied to selected parts of a surface of an amorphous material using fine particles having a hardness higher than that of the amorphous material to form high-density compressed layers, and a surface layer of the amorphous material is removed using a treatment agent that has a different removal capacity in the compressed layers and a remaining uncompressed layer, thus making the compressed layers project out. For example, the treatment agent may be an etching solution having a different etching rate in the compressed layers and the uncompressed layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of processing an amorphous material such as an inorganic glass material.
2. Prior Art
As an amorphous material, glass has a high hardness and homogenous physical properties, and is also cheap, and hence is used in a variety of fields.
For example, if a glass substrate having minute projections formed on a surface thereof is used in a liquid crystal display element, then the projections fulfill a role of determining the length of the so-called cell gap in the liquid crystal display element. Without using glass beads for adjusting the cell gap, therefore, a liquid crystal display element having a desired cell gap can be manufactured.
Moreover, if a glass substrate having such minute projections or minute undulations formed on a surface thereof is used in an optical disk or a magnetic-optical disk, then the minute projections or minute undulations fulfill an important role in signal reading. Moreover, such a glass substrate is an important component in the manufacture of an optical diffraction grating having regularly arranged projections.
Furthermore, such glass substrates are also widely used as magnetic disk substrates in hard disk drives (HDDs).
In an HDD, a driving method called the CSS (contact start stop) method is commonly adopted. In this method, a magnetic head of the HDD contacts the disk surface when the disk is stationary, and then when the HDD is started up, the magnetic head is made to rise up slightly from the disk surface and the disk is rotated at high speed.
When an HDD is driven using the CSS method, it is common to form minute undulations referred to as texture on a surface of the glass substrate, to prevent the magnetic head from sticking to the disk when the magnetic head is made to rise up during startup and reduce friction during startup and stopping. Although glass is a brittle material and hence shape processing is much more difficult to carry out than with a plastic material, because glass is useful as a disk substrate, various methods of forming such minute undulations on a surface of a glass substrate have been developed and put to practical application in the past.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 64-42025 discloses art in which minute undulations are formed on a glass substrate by etching using a fluorine-containing liquid or hydrogen fluoride gas (prior art 1).
Moreover, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 7-296380 discloses art in which a glass substrate is subjected to crystallization treatment and a surface of the glass substrate is mirror polished, and then treatment is carried out using an etching solution prepared by adding sulfuric acid or ammonium fluoride to hydrofluoric acid, thus forming minute undulations on the surface of the glass substrate (prior art 2).
Furthermore, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 8-249654 discloses art in which ultrafine particles are applied in a mono-dispersed state onto a surface of a substrate, a surface protecting layer is next etched by dry etching, and then the ultrafine particles are removed, thus forming minute undulations on the surface of the substrate (prior art 3).
Moreover, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications (Kokai) Nos. 7-182655 and 9-194229 disclose art in which a laser beam of a predetermined energy is irradiated onto a surface of a glass substrate to cause the surface to rise up at the places of laser beam irradiation, thus forming projections on the surface of the glass substrate (prior art 4).
However, in the case of the above-mentioned prior art 1, etching is merely carried out on a glass having a predetermined chemical composition using a fluorine-containing liquid or hydrogen fluoride gas. There is thus a problem that a rough surface is formed with the surface undulations having an uneven projection height; it is difficult to obtain a texture having a uniform projection height.
Moreover, in the case of the above-mentioned prior art 2, a glass substrate is subjected to crystallization treatment to form a crystallized layer and an amorphous layer, and surface undulations are formed on the glass substrate by utilizing the difference in etching rate between the crystallized layer and the amorphous layer. There is thus a problem that the method cannot be applied to a normal homogenous glass material.
Furthermore, in the case of the above-mentioned prior art 3, ultrafine particles are coated onto a substrate, dry etching is next carried out, and then the ultrafine particles are removed. As is different to normal etching treatment in which masking is carried out using a metallic mask, it would appear that minute surface undulations can be formed, but there is a problem that dry etching is slow, resulting in high costs and in the method not being suited to mass production.
Moreover, in the case of the above-mentioned prior art 4, a laser is irradiated onto a surface of a glass substrate, and hence there is a problem that the method can only be applied to a glass material that has a large absorption coefficient at a particular wavelength of the laser light. Moreover, the height of the projections formed is very sensitive to the output power of the laser, and hence there is a problem that it is difficult to obtain uniform projections of a desired height.
All of the prior art described above thus suffers from the problem that it is still not possible to form minute undulations having a uniform projection height, or to carry out mass production. Furthermore, in recent years there have been calls in the HDD field for disks of ever higher density. As the density of disks is increased, it becomes necessary to make the projection height of the surface undulations of glass substrates as low as possible and as uniform as possible.


An XML client abstraction layer for providing an XML page description as an abstraction of an HTML page at design time. A style sheet XSLT translator is used to derive the run time code from the XML page. Additional features or improvements may be added through an XML parser.

Web-based application development may entail many different HTML pages. When designing such applications, it could be a tremendous investment of time and resources to separately code each page. This investment is wasteful, especially when many similar or identical elements appear in multiple pages.
Additionally, web developers who are developing HTML templates are not usually forced to use existing functions and design interfaces. Thus, several different templates could end up being developed to perform the same functions. Each of these templates may well be unique because different programmers program with their own unique styles. Because of this uniqueness, central design changes are not practical. Thus, not only are development costs high for such applications, support costs are also.
It would therefore be beneficial to develop a library of elements that are reusable in design time. A need exists for a framework for creating and using reusable elements in design time to generate HTML pages. This framework would preferably be runtime and device independent.


This application discloses a signal transmission method. The method may include: generating, by a terminal, a first bit(s), where the first bit(s) is used to indicate scheduling requests associated with a first scheduling request configuration, and the first scheduling request configuration is at least one of a plurality of scheduling request configurations; generating, by the terminal, a hybrid automatic repeat request bit(s); and sending, by the terminal, the hybrid automatic repeat request bit(s) and the first bit(s) in one time unit. In the foregoing solution, a plurality of scheduling request configurations can be supported, so as to adapt to a multi-service scenario in a future communications system.

In a Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) system, as shown in FIG. 1, a process from a time when a terminal device has no to-be-scheduled resource to a time when the terminal device sends an uplink channel may include: UE waits a time for sending a scheduling request (SR), and sends the SR; an enhanced NodeB (eNB) receives the SR and generates a scheduling grant, and sends the scheduling grant; the UE receives the scheduling grant and sends an uplink channel; and if a data volume of the UE is not completely sent, the UE further needs to wait for a next scheduling grant.
In the LTE-A system, as shown in FIG. 2, if a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) subframe in physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format 3/PUCCH format 4/PUCCH format 5 used by the terminal device and an SR subframe configured by a higher layer for the terminal are a same subframe, there is one scheduling request bit. Otherwise, if they are not a same subframe, there are zero scheduling request bit. The one scheduling request bit is added after consecutive HARQ bits. Specifically, when a bit state of the bit is 1, it indicates a positive scheduling request (positive SR), and the positive scheduling request indicates that there is currently uplink data for the terminal, or a network device currently needs to allocate a resource used for transmission to the terminal. When the bit state of the bit is 0, it indicates a negative scheduling request (negative SR), and the negative scheduling request indicates that there is currently no uplink data for the terminal, or there is currently no need to allocate a resource used for transmission to the terminal.
In a fifth-generation mobile radio technology (NR) system, there are a plurality of service types, and the plurality of service types correspond to different service requirements. For example, ultra-reliable low-latency communication (uRLLC) requires a short latency and high reliability, and, to be specific, a successful transmission within 1 ms; enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) requires high spectral efficiency but has no latency requirement; and massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) requires periodic sending at low power. For different services, the terminal device needs to request for resources of different attributes (Numerology/Transmission Time Interval (TTI)), to satisfy service requirements of the different services.
However, the one scheduling request bit in LTE-A does not support a multi-service scenario in future 5G, and this problem needs to be urgently resolved currently.

Signal transmission method, related apparatus, and system


A method and apparatus for cooling different media which separately control the temperature of a plurality of chambers. A common refrigerant is used for cooling the different media.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for temperature control. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for temperature control in an exposure apparatus having a plurality of chambers and utilizing a common refrigerant.
In recent years, the trend toward higher integration of semiconductor integrated circuits has highlighted a projection-exposure apparatus having a high resolution reduction projection lens, wherein a pattern formed on a reticle is projected and transferred onto a wafer. Also, this major trend was enhanced by a stepper which moves a wafer by a step-and-repeat method to project and transfer a pattern onto a plurality of exposed areas on the wafer one after another.
Such a high resolution projection-exposure system, however, generally requires the project lens resolution level of the image alignment precision of one-fifth to one-tenth of the minimum line width of the projection lens. Therefore, a slight temperature change due to changes in exposure conditions can directly deteriorate the alignment precision. For example, a lens which resolves a 0.8 .mu.m width pattern for manufacturing an ultralarge scale integrated circuit (ULSI) requires an alignment precision of 0.8-0.16 .mu.m. Therefore, changes in temperatures in air in an optical path of a projected beam can change the refractive index of the projection lens, thereby deteriorating the alignment precision.
For this reason, in a conventional projection-exposure apparatus, a mechanism which controls temperature in each section or enclosure of the apparatus is provided to perform a highly precise alignment. One of the mechanisms uses air as a medium; another mechanism uses liquid as a medium. In a conventional projection-exposure apparatus, the air is used for controlling temperatures in the entire apparatus or in a local section, such as an interferometer. The liquid medium is used for controlling temperature of a projection lens. Note that air as a medium is cooled by a common refrigerant supplied from a freezer. Its temperature is independently controlled by a heater. Also, the temperature of liquid as a medium may be controlled by an electronic cooler.
In the conventional projection-exposure apparatus having such a configuration, a temperature-control system must be constructed for each of the media. This, unavoidably, results in an undesirably large apparatus.

Temperature-control method and apparatus


The present invention is drawn toward latex particulates in ink-jet inks having a surface dielectric constant from 2.0 to 3.0.

Though there has been great improvement in ink-jet printing technology, there is still improvement that can be made in many areas. With respect to ink-jet ink chemistry, the majority of commercial ink-jet inks are water-based. Thus, their constituents are generally water-soluble, as is the case with many dyes, or water dispersible, as is the case with pigments. Furthermore, ink-jet inks have low viscosity (typically 5 cps or less) to accommodate high frequency jetting and firing chamber refill processes common to ink-jet pens.
In addition to the typical color and general image fade issues that occur in many ink-jet ink systems, ink-jet prints have also been known for poor durability when exposed to water or high humidity. This results from the use of water-soluble and water dispersible colorants within the water-based ink. There has been great improvement in the area of water durability of ink-jet inks through incorporation of certain ink-jet compatible latex polymers. The latex can consist of small micron or submicron hydrophobic polymeric particles of high molecular weight that are dispersed in the aqueous ink-jet ink. When printed as part of an ink-jet ink, a latex component of the ink can form a film on a media surface, entrapping and protecting the colorant within the hydrophobic print film. However, such latex compositions can create problems with respect to pen reliability, as well as with respect to settling of the latex over time.
Polymers that form durable films are typically made from copolymers having bulk densities on the order of 1.15 g/cm3 or greater, which is appreciably greater than water, the primary component of thermal ink-jet ink. As such, conventional latex particles are normally designed to flocculate so that latex precipitate may be easily shaken or stirred back into dispersion without agglomeration. Such flocculation behavior is well known with latex paints. Unfortunately, these conventional teachings do not address the unique needs of ink-jet printing applications. For example, the micro-channel ink feeds in ink-jet pens are easily clogged with precipitant, particularly when a pen is stored or otherwise unused for prolonged periods of time. Such precipitation is not easily redispersed by pen shaking, as flow constriction prohibits adequate mixing within micro-channels of pen architecture. Additionally, micro-channels used for jetting can house some of the ink over prolonged periods in preparation for firing, and settled latex can cause further constricting of the micro-channels. This can result in ink-jet pen failure due to clogging of the micro-channels. Further, the micron-order settling distances found in the fluid channels of thermal inkjet pens exacerbate the problem.

Low bulk density, low surface dielectric constant latex polymers for ink-jet ink applications

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


One embodiment provides a system and method for facilitating expedited delivery of media content to a node over a network. During operation, the system communicates a request to a media server to present media content. The system then presents the media content based on the data received from the media server. In addition, the system communicates requests to a plurality of peer nodes within the network for the media content at a same proximate time. Next, the system discontinues receipt of data from the media server and presents the media content based on data received from at least one peer node without significant interruption in presentation.

Presently, the ubiquity of Internet connectivity and an unprecedented growth in data communications access bandwidth has been fueling the demand for more versatile forms of on-line content. In particular, there has been an increasing demand for multi-media content, such as audio and video. Existing Internet applications have yet to provide effective delivery of bandwidth-intensive multi-media content to end-users.
Currently, video is one of the most bandwidth-demanding forms of on-line content. Traditionally, video, particularly live video, as well as audio, have been broadcast over cable programming networks. As a result, bandwidth-demanding video signals, such as TV channels, have only been offered to end-users by the cable programming networks. Although broadband cable service can provide both digital data and cable programming to end-users, cable programming is often provided on cable media that is physically separate from the cable media used for providing Internet connectivity, such as DSL or Ethernet network services. End-users are not able to enjoy audio or video content over broadband cable networks that offer only Internet connectivity and not cable programming.
Delivering video content over an Internet connection hinges upon several constraints. Traditionally, access bandwidth has presented one bottleneck. For example, dial-up Internet services generally limit access bandwidth to 56 Kbps. Fortunately, recent developments in access technologies, such as ADSL, VDSL, direct Ethernet connection, and WLAN, have largely removed this bottleneck by bringing multi-Mbps connections to end-users. Despite these advances, server overloading and network congestion still pose potential constraints.
Conventionally, media content is delivered based on a client-server model. An end-user starts a client program, which contacts a server where the content is stored and downloads the content from the server. Although the end-user's Internet connection may provide sufficient bandwidth to accommodate one or more video channels, the server may be overloaded if a large number of other end-users are simultaneously requesting streaming video. In addition, the connection between the server and the network may be congested with other network traffic. High-performance servers and high-bandwidth network connections can mitigate these problems, but such solutions inevitably increase the costs of providing Internet service to the end-users.
Recently, peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay networks have attracted growing interest as one possible solution. A P2P network is typically formed as a logical layer operating over a conventional network infrastructure, such as implemented in the Internet. In a P2P network, peer machines are aware of the states of other peer machines and a group of peer nodes can directly exchange data or services among themselves. The task of content delivery is not undertaken by one particular server. Thus, P2P networks provide a favorable environment for delivering streaming data, such as video, because server overloading is avoided and network congestion is reduced.
Nevertheless, reducing content-switching time remains a key challenge in P2P content delivery. Typically, a peer machine first gathers information about the other peer nodes that store the media content. Next, the peer machine contacts selected peer nodes and requests the content. Once received, the peer machine often stores the content into a buffer before presenting the content with, for example, media-content presentation software, such as a media player. The process can consume significant time. For example, up to one minute may be needed to switch channels when viewing television (TV) programs delivered as streaming video over a P2P network. The experience can be frustrating for end-users accustomed to the fast channel-switching time afforded by cable programming networks.
Hence, there is a need for a system and a method for facilitating expedited content delivery with reduced content-switching time.

System and method for facilitating expedited delivery of media content


A CPU cooling arrangement includes a CPU receptacle holding a CPU, a heat sink attached to the CPU in the CPU receptacle, the heat sink having two symmetrical mounting rods respectively inserted through respective through holes at the CPU receptacle, and a retainer plate mounted on the mounting rods at one side of the CPU receptacle opposite to the heat sink and pulled sideways to secure the heat sink and the CPU receptacle together.

The present invention relates to a CPU cooling arrangement, in which a retainer plate is attached to the back side of a CPU receptacle to secure a heat sink to the CPU receptacle, enabling the heat sink to be firmly maintained in contact with the CPU in the CPU receptacle.
When the CPU of a computer is operated, it produces much heat. During the operation of the CPU, heat must be quickly carried away. Various heat sinks have been disclosed for use to dissipate heat from a CPU, and have appeared on the market. When a heat sink is attached to a CPU module, or a CPU receptacle which holds a CPU, retainer or fastener means must be used to fix the heat sink and the CPU module or CPU receptacle together.


A compression molding tool comprises an upper part (3) and a lower part (2) connected by guides (4). A die (5) arranged in the lower part (3) of the tool cooperates with a force plug (6) arranged on the upper part (2) of the tool. The die (5) contains a mold cavity (7) the side walls of which are formed by two regions (12, 13). The outer region (13) of the side walls is inclined outward, i.e., divergent. A frame (14) guided on the columns (4) can be connected to the force plug (6) via a coupling device (15). Mounted on the frame (14) are spring-loaded elements (16) the free ends (17) of which cooperate with the inclined region (13) of the side walls of the mold cavity (7) in the die (5). The spring-loaded elements serve to produce a circular folded seam around the multilayer molded plates.

Pressing tools of this kind are generally known and are used, for example, in areas of sheet metal working, especially in the vehicle industry. The flat objects formed with these tools may include flat, curved or any desired combination of flat and curved surfaces. Multilayer formed plates which include, for example, two outer layers of sheet metal and an intermediate layer of insulation material, must be produced with several tools and in several work steps. The production of such multilayer formed plates is known in which a metal sheet, a covering foil, and the intermediate layer of insulation material are cut to the desired outer form. Each is prepared in separate work steps into a flat surface. These cut pieces are laid, in the desired construction order, into the forming hollow of a pressing tool and pressed into the desired form. Both outer layers of metal are cut larger than the insulation layer to produce a perfect joining in the rim portion of the formed plate between the individual layers of the formed plate. A metal cover foil overlaps the outer layer lying opposite. After the end of the form process, the metal cover foil must be laid manually around the outer layer lying opposite and pressed against the latter. Formed plates of this kind are used, for example in vehicle construction, as motor or exhaust pipe coverings. The production process described which requires, on the one hand, several tools, and on the other hand, a final manual finishing, is extremely costly and time-consuming. The use of automatic finishing instead of manual finishing of the rims is only possible to a limited extent, namely, only where a large enough number of pieces are needed. This is because multilayer formed plates of this kind have rim portions which are bent or curved in all spatial directions.

Pressing tool for the production of multilayer formed plates


A method for classifying passengers comprises the steps of providing a plurality of load sensors disposed in a passenger seat of an automobile for measuring a load applied to the passenger seat; obtaining a sum by summing respective values obtained by multiplying respective load values measured from the plurality of load sensors by weighted load values of the respective load sensors; and comparing the sum with a reference value to classify a passenger on the passenger seat.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for determining whether to deploy an airbag cushion, which is an impact safety device, for each passenger in order to protect a passenger more safely in a vehicle crash, and its method.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
An airbag device is a device for protecting a passenger by absorbing a physical shock caused by a vehicle crash by using the elasticity of an airbag cushion. Such an airbag device may be classified into a driver seat airbag device, an assistant driver's seat airbag device, a side airbag device and so on.
By the way, an airbag cushion deployed by introducing gas into the airbag cushion is deployed at a high speed for the protection of passengers. Thus, if a passenger is an infant or a lightweight person, they may be instead injured by an impact caused by the deployment of the airbag cushion. Accordingly, whether to deploy the airbag cushion needs to be determined in consideration of the weight of a passenger. In consideration of this, the legislation of standards for restricting the deployment of an airbag cushion depending on the weight of a passenger weighed at a passenger seat under various conditions is in progress in North American regions. Therefore, airbag device manufacturers must prepare means to satisfy these conditions for enhancement of the performance of airbag devices and for export to North American regions. For this, conventionally, four or more load sensors are installed on a passenger seat to weigh the passenger according to the seated state of the passenger, and the sum of the load values measured by the respective load sensors is compared with a reference value, to thus determine whether to deploy the airbag cushion. However, an increase of the number of load sensors leads to the problem of increasing the cost of the airbag cushion and decreasing price competitiveness. Thus, the efforts for solving this problem are in progress, but the results of research are insignificant due to technical difficulties.


A semiconductor device (20) is formed on a substrate (21) that has first and second well regions (25, 26) formed at a surface (18) of the substrate. A control electrode (34) extends over the surface to activate a first channel (42) with a control signal (V14) for routing a current (IN) from a first node (13) of the semiconductor device to an edge (43) of the first well region. The control signal further activates a second channel (46) for routing the current from an edge (45) of the second well region to a second node (15) of the semiconductor device.

The present invention relates in general to semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to integrated circuits having a high voltage stage formed with low breakdown voltage transistors.
Many integrated circuits use physically small transistors to achieve a high functional density while maintaining a small die size and low cost. For example, some integrated circuits are formed with metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETS) whose source and drain diffusions are formed as shallow, heavily doped junctions with small feature sizes. The source and drain diffusions are disposed in a well region of the opposite conductivity type and typically have low drain to well region avalanche breakdown voltages.
An integrated circuit formed with low drain to well region breakdown voltage transistors has a disadvantage of being limited to operating with low supply voltages in order to avoid damage to the integrated circuit. However, some applications require signals generated by the integrated circuit to operate at a voltage level greater than the drain to well region breakdown voltage of the individual transistors of the integrated circuit.
Some previous integrated circuits increase a transistor""s breakdown voltage by increasing the complexity of the fabrication process. For example, some processes add photomasking and/or diffusion steps to form a lightly doped drain region between the channel region and the heavily doped drain electrode in order to increase the breakdown voltage. However, the additional processing steps increase the cost of the integrated circuit. Moreover, these lightly doped drains increase the on resistance of the transistor, which degrades performance. Other schemes use circuit techniques to increase the breakdown voltage of a stage, but such schemes require a large die area, and therefore result in a high fabrication cost.
Hence, there is a need for a device and method which increases the operating voltage of a portion of an integrated circuit while maintaining a small die area and avoiding the need for additional processing steps in order to maintain a low manufacturing cost.


An apparatus for driving an interlaced plasma display panel (PDP), including a delay device, an image upper and lower edge detection device, an image border processing device, an image processing and analog control loop. The delay device receives an image signal, delays the image signal for two fields and outputs the delayed image signal. The image upper and lower edge detection device receives and analyzes the image signal, outputs the image upper and lower edge positions, saves and provides the odd field upper and lower edge data of the image signal. The image border processing device outputs the image signal after border processing according to the delayed image signal, the image upper and lower edge positions, the odd field upper and lower data. The image processing and analog control loop outputs a driving signal according to the image signal after border processing and the image upper and lower edge positions.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for driving an interlaced plasma display panel (PDP). In particular, it relates to an apparatus and a method for driving an interlaced PDP capable of reducing flickers at the upper edge and the lower edge of an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the time for displaying images of an interlaced plasma display panel (PDP) can be divided into an even field and an odd field. The even field displays the image signal of even scan lines, and the odd field displays the image signal of odd scan lines. The even field and the odd field are displayed one after the other.
Referring to FIG. 1, it is a timing chart of even field signal in a conventional PDP. Wherein, Scan0, Scan2 and Scan4 are scan signals from a scan side driver, corresponding to the scan lines 0, 2 and 4, respectively. Scani indicates a scan signal of odd scan lines, and Scanj indicates a scan signal of even scan lines. Common indicates a common signal from a common side driver. Data indicates a data signal from a data side driver. The axis of time in FIG. 1 is divided into three periods by four vertical dotted lines, namely a reset period 101, an address period 102 and a sustain discharge period 103, respectively. As shown in FIG. 1, since the address period 102 is an even field, scan pulses appear in the scan signals of even scan lines only. Thus, the even scan lines light up, and the odd scan lines don't.
FIG. 2 is a timing chart of odd field signal in a conventional PDP. Since the address period 202 in FIG. 2 is an odd field, scan pulses appear in the scan signals of odd scan lines only. Thus, the odd scan lines light up, and the even scan lines don't.
In a conventional interlaced driving mode, the alternate display of odd scan lines and even scan lines would result in flickers at the upper edge and the lower edge of an image to affect the visual effect. Please refer to FIG. 3. Suppose the PDP has 720 scan lines, marked with numbers 0 to 719, then the first scan line 304 (number 0) only lights up in an even field, and the last scan line 303 (number 719) only lights up in an odd field. Consequently, the even field image 301 and odd field image 302 are alternatively displayed, so human eyes would detect flickers.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,527 introduces a method, where black, opaque shades are added at the uppermost area and the lowermost area of a display region to prevent the flickers in the interlaced driving mode. But, when the upper edge and the lower edge of the image are not the upper edge and the lower edge of the panel, for example, when displaying the popular 16:9 images by 4:3 displays, the flickers remain.
Thus a better method is desired to prevent the above-described flickers when the upper edge and the lower edge of the image are not the upper edge and the lower edge of the panel.

Apparatus and method for driving an interlaced plasma display panel


A filter cell for use as all or as part of a filter panel includes an upper face 1 and a lower face 2. The upper face 1 and lower face 2 includes a set of parallel ribs 3 interconnected across one end by a further rib 4 orthogonal to the ribs 3. A mesh panel 5 is provided between each of the ribs 3 to define a flat surface through which air or gas can flow. The ribs on the upper face 1 cooperate with the ribs on the lower face 2 to define a plurality of open ended compartments spacer frame 6 which increase the size of the compartments by extending the ribbing 3 on the upper 1 and lower 2 faces are provided between upper face 1 and lower face 2. The upper face 1, spacer frames 6 and lower frame 2 are assembled by snap-fit using corresponding male 10 and female 11 lugs. A filter medium is inserted through the open ends into the compartments and a slide plate is used to close the ends.

The use of a chemisorption type filtering media to remove contaminants from air or gas is well known. Typically, the media is held within compartments in filter trays or panels which are mounted in a stack in a housing. For optimum filtering, it is desirable to provide as large a surface area of filtering media to the flow of air or gas as possible. It is known to achieve this by stacking the filter panels in a zigzag or concertina formation, so that one end of each of the panels contacts a respective end of the panel above whilst the other end of the panel contacts an end of the panel below. The flow of air or gas to be filtered is then orientated to flow from one end of the panels to the other (i.e. at a normal to the stack of panels). This provides a large exposed surface area in a relatively small space.
A typical housing comprises a box unit having first and second opposed open ends, and a removable front face. The filter panels can then be stacked in the housing with the ends of the panels locating on grooves or protrusion's in the housing so that each panel is slightly tilted relative to the housing and the panels together form a stack.
It is known to provide filter panels which are formed of a metal or opaque plastics material. The filter media is trapped between upper and lower mesh panels to allow a relatively free flow of air or gas through the filter media.
For maximum operational efficiency of the filter units, it is important that the chemisorption media is renewed before it becomes saturated. The condition of the filter media can be checked by removing it from the filter panels and performing a chemical analysis, but this is costly, messy and time consuming. The media may need to be sent away for specialist checking, which is disadvantageous.
A simple way of checking the condition of the filter media is to use chemisorption type media which changes color, for example, as it is oxidised. The color change produces a simple indication of filter media condition. Nevertheless, when used with prior art metal or opaque plastic filter panels, it is still necessary to dismantle the filter unit and panels in order to check the condition of the filter media.


The present invention relates to an antibody specifically binding to the peptide of SEQ ID NO: 1, and specifically, to an antibody specifically binding to an isolated peptide of SEQ ID NO: 1 or a fragment binding to the peptide specifically binding to the peptide, a polynucleotide encoding the antibody or the fragment binding to the peptide, a vector containing the polynucleotide, a cell introduced with the vector, a method of producing the antibody or the fragment binding to the peptide using the cell, an antibody or a fragment binding to the peptide produced by the method, an antiviral composition containing the antibody or the fragment binding to the peptide, a composition for preventing or treating inflammatory diseases containing the antibody or the fragment binding to the peptide, and a method of treating infectious viral diseases or inflammatory diseases using the composition.

Unlike bacterial diseases, viral diseases are difficult to treat because antibiotics are not particularly effective against viruses, and viral diseases are consistently emerging as one of the main causes of diseases and deaths in humans. Additionally, infectious viral diseases induce inflammation, thereby causing various inflammatory diseases.
The therapeutic agents developed for the treatment of such infectious viral diseases may be categorized into chemical materials and bio-derived materials, and most of the chemical materials are developed to be effective only against specific viral diseases, exhibiting various adverse effects and disadvantages such as the frequent emergence of resistant viruses.
Meanwhile, well-known examples of the bio-derived materials may include cytokines such as interferon (IFN). Of these, interferon was first discovered among the cytokines produced in virus-infected cells and is known as the cytokine which has the superior antiviral activity. It has been reported that interferon can be used for treating various diseases such as chronic hepatitis B or C, blood cancer, multiple sclerosis, etc. Recently, the effect of IFN on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients has been reported. As such, in an attempt to develop antiviral agents and immune booster, for the past several years, research on genetic engineering or bioengineering methods has been ongoing for the mass production of interferon, and recently, research has been actively conducted to search for compounds which can induce interferon expression from natural or synthetic materials (Alcaro S et al., Bioorg Med Chem. 2005, 13 (10), 3371-3378). As a result, a strong interferon inducer named Imiquimod was developed by 3M Pharmaceuticals, but its development has been discontinued due to various adverse effects observed during clinical trials.
Although interferon is known to be a strong antiviral agent, interferon has a disadvantageous in that it cannot be used for more than 6 months, because it induces inflammatory responses such as infiltration of immune cells, etc.; almost all cells express receptors for interferon at all times, showing various adverse effects such as an anti-cellular effect; and it requires large amounts to treat at clinical trials.
Accordingly, there is a need for the development of a therapeutic agent which can selectively act on virus-infected cells rather than normal cells; which is applicable in small amounts and to various types of viruses rather than specific types of viruses; and which simultaneously has both antiviral and anti-inflammatory activity by suppression of the infiltration of immune cells.

Antibody specifically binding to an isolated peptide derived from vimentin or a fragment binding to the peptide


A sensor device has a sensing portion, a connector terminal, and a case housing the sensing portion therein and forming a terminal fixing portion. The connector terminal has a fixed portion fixed in the terminal fixing portion of the case. The connector terminal is electrically connected to the sensing portion through a lead for allowing signal transmission between the sensing portion and an external device. A ratio of the volume of the fixed portion of the connector terminal to the volume of the fixing portion of the case is equal to or greater than a predetermined ratio.

Sensor devices that detect physical displacement are for example used in a vehicle air bag system for detecting an impact applied to a vehicle at a time of collision. Air bags of the air bag system are triggered based on detection signals produced from the sensor devices, thereby protecting passengers. This kind of collision detecting sensor device is for example disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-294419 (US 2004/0201464 A1).
In the above publication, the sensor device includes a G sensor that produces a signal in response to acceleration due to the collision impact. The G sensor includes a detecting portion, a communication portion, a power source circuit and the like. These elements are packaged. The G sensor is housed in a sensor housing portion of a resinous case. In the resinous case, a connector terminal is integrally fixed such that an end of the connector terminal extends into the sensor housing portion. The G sensor is connected to the end of the connector terminal through a metal lead so as to be electrically connected to an external device through the connector terminal.
In a vehicle, such a collision detecting sensor device is generally located at a position affected by heat such as in an engine compartment. If a temperature largely changes, respective elements of the sensor device thermally expand or contract. In particular, the resinous case has a coefficient of linear expansion generally larger than those of other elements. Namely, the size of the case relatively largely changes with temperature. When the size of the case changes, the connector terminal fixed in the case displaces. As a result, a connecting portion between the connector terminal and the lead and a connecting portion between the lead and the G sensor are likely to receive excessive stress, resulting in breaks in these connecting portions.


A nonvolatile memory device having a self reprogramming function is provided. The nonvolatile memory device includes a memory cell, a first transistor, a second transistor, and a latch circuit. The memory cell is for data storage. The first transistor receives a reading control signal at a gate. And a first source/drain is electrically coupled to the memory cell. The second transistor receives a reset control signal at a gate. A source/drain is electrically coupled to a second source/drain of the first transistor, and a second source/drain of the second transistor is grounded. In addition, the electrical characteristics of the second transistor are opposite to that of the first transistor. The latch circuit includes a latch input terminal and a latch output terminal. In which, the latch input terminal is electrically coupled to the second source/drain of the first transistor and the first source/drain of the second transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile memory, and more particularly, to a nonvolatile memory having a reprogramming function.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 schematically shows a flow chart illustrating a conventional method for fabricating a nonvolatile memory. Referring to FIG. 1, a plurality of steps are required for fabricating a nonvolatile memory. First, in step S101, the fabrication process is performed. Then, in step S103, a test process is performed on the nonvolatile memory. When the test result is indicated that the nonvolatile memory is good (i.e. "good" as indicated in step S103), a packaging process is performed in step S11. Otherwise, if it is found that a defect exists in the nonvolatile memory during the fabrication process of S101 (i.e. "fail" as indicated in step S103), an E-fuse technique is performed to repair the nonvolatile memory during step S105. In step S107, the fabrication process is performed. Then in step S109, the testing process is performed on the repaired nonvolatile memory. If the repaired nonvolatile memory is made to be a good product (i.e. "good" as indicated in step S109), the packaging process is performed in step S111. However, if there is still some defects in the repaired nonvolatile memory (i.e. "fail" as indicated in step S103), the nonvolatile memory is scrapped.
Referring to FIG. 1, after the packaging process is completed on the nonvolatile memory, a program code is recorded into the memory in step S113, and a final testing is performed in step S115. Then, in step S117, it is determined whether the memory has passed the final testing of step S115. If the memory has passed the final testing in step S115 (i.e. "yes" as indicated in step S117), a final testing is directly performed on the memory in step S121. Otherwise, if the memory does not pass the final testing in step S115 (i.e. "no" as indicated in step S117), the E-fuse technique is performed to repair the nonvolatile memory in step S119. Then the final testing is performed again on the memory in step S121. Afterwards, in step S123, it is determined whether the memory has passed the final testing in step S121. If the memory does not pass the final testing in step S121 (i.e. "no" as indicated in step S123), the memory is scrapped. Otherwise, if the memory has passed the final test of step S121 (i.e. "yes" as indicated in step S123), the memory is ready for shipment.
In general, the final testing in the steps S115 or S121 mentioned above may include a temperature test, that is to test the operation of the memory under different temperature environments. In such cases, various thermal intensities having different temperatures are applied on the memory. However, the charges inside the memory are easily lost under exposure to elevated temperatures. And the program code could be messed up if the memory is used for an extended period of time under such elevated temperature conditions. Accordingly, a nonvolatile memory having a self-refreshing function is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,486.
The technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,486 is suitable for larger capacity memory devices. Since its circuit structure is more complicated, it is not as suitable for application in the smaller sized circuit. However, micro circuit is widely used in different applications such as the RFID (radio frequency identification) circuit where the memory device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,486 is not as suitable.

Nonvolatile memory device having self reprogramming function


It is an object to provide a planar illumination device that is thin and light weight, and can emit uniform illumination light with little brightness unevenness and can be enlarged in size. It is to provide a planar illumination device comprising: a first light source and a second light source which are arranged at predetermined intervals; and a light guide plate which is arranged between the first light source and the second light source and has: a light exit surface; a first light incident surface which is opposed to the first light source and includes a side of the light exit surface; a second light incident surface which is opposed to the second light source and includes an opposite side to the side; and a rear surface which is formed to be opposed to the light exit surface, wherein a cross section on a plane perpendicular to the side, of the rear surface of the light guide plate has a curved line in which a distance from the light exit surface increases with a shift from the first light incident surface and the second light incident surface to a center, an inclined angle relative to the light exit surface reduces with a shift from the first light incident surface or the second light incident surface to the center, and the inclined angle relative to the light exit surface is zero degrees at the center.

For a liquid crystal display device, a backlight unit that emits light from a backside of a liquid crystal display panel to illuminate the liquid crystal display panel has been used. The backlight unit is configured by using a light guide plate for diffusing light emitted from a light source for illumination to illuminate the liquid crystal display panel, and optical members such as a prism sheet and a diffusion film for uniformizing the light emitted from the light guide plate.
The current mainstream of a backlight unit of a large-size liquid crystal television set is a so-called direct type system in which the light guide plate is not provided and an optical member such as a diffusion plate is provided just above a light source for illumination. In the system, a plurality of cold cathode tubes serving as light sources are arranged to a rear surface of the liquid crystal display panel and a white reflection surface is provided in an inner portion to ensure a uniform light amount distribution and necessary brightness.
In order to obtain the uniform light amount distribution in the direct type backlight unit, a thickness in a direction perpendicular to the liquid crystal display panel is required to be a predetermined thickness, for example, approximately 30 mm. A thinner backlight unit may be desired in the future. However, according to the direct underneath type, in view of light amount unevenness, it may be difficult to realize a backlight unit having a thinner thickness, for example, a thickness equal to or smaller than 10 mm.
Therefore, a backlight unit using a light guide plate in which scattering particles for scattering light are mixed into a transparent resin is proposed (see, for example, JP 07-36037 A, JP 08-248233 A, JP 08-271739 A, or JP 11-153963 A).
For example, JP 07-36037 A discloses a light scattering guide light source device characterized by including: a light scattering guide having at least one light incident surface region and at least one light extraction surface region; and a light source means for causing light to be incident on the light incident surface region, in which the light scattering guide has a region whose thickness is reduced with an increase in distance from the light incident surface region.
JP 08-248233 A discloses a plane light source device which includes: a light scattering guide; a prism sheet provided on a light extraction surface side of the light scattering guide; and a reflector provided on a rear surface side of the light scattering guide. JP 08-271739 A discloses a liquid crystal display provided with a light exit direction adjustment element which includes a light incident surface having prism-row-shaped repeated unevenness and a light exit surface with light diffusion and is made of a plate-shaped optical material. JP 11-153963 A discloses a light source device which includes a light scattering guide whose inner portion has scattering power and a light supply means for supplying light from an end surface portion of the light scattering guide.
In the planar illumination devices as described above, light which is emitted from the light source and enters the light scattering guide from the light incident surface undergoes a single or multiple scattering action at a constant rate while the light propagates through the inner portion thereof. A substantial part of the light which reaches both surfaces of the light scattering guide or a surface of the reflector undergoes a reflection action to return to the inner portion of the light scattering guide.
During such a complex process, a light beam emitted from the light extraction surface at high efficiency is produced with the directivity to a forward oblique direction as viewed from a direction of the light source. In other words, the light emitted from the light source is emitted from the light extraction surface of the light scattering guide.
As described above, it is disclosed that the uniform light may be emitted at high emission efficiency when the light guide plate mixed with the scattering particles is used.
A planar illumination device is disclosed in which, in addition to a light guide plate having a region whose thickness is reduced with an increase in distance from the light incident surface, a flat-shaped light guide plate, or a light guide plate fit to the light guide plate having the region whose thickness is reduced with the increase in distance from the light incident surface is used as a light guide plate.
Patent Document 1: JP 07-36037 A
Patent Document 2: JP 08-248233 A
Patent Document 3: JP 08-271739 A
Patent Document 4: JP 11-153963 A

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, which is capable of effectively forming high reliability contacts in a plurality of regions to be contacted which are formed at different depths. The method includes the steps of: forming an etching stopper layer on an insulating layer covering a plurality of the regions to be contacted and having a stepped shape; selectively forming, in a lower height area of the insulating layer having the stepped shape, a conductive plug layer connected to a deeper region to be contacted which is formed under the lower height area of the insulating layer; forming a planarization layer on the lower height area of the insulating layer, followed by planarization over the entire surface; and selectively forming contact holes reaching the plug layer and other shallower regions to be contacted, simultaneously.

The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a semiconductor device having at different depths a plurality of regions to be contacted.
In recent years, reduction in DOF (Depth of Focus) margin in a lithography step has become increasingly important with the trend of the reduced design rule, and to extend such a DOF margin in a lithography step, an underlying layer has been required to be subjected to global planarization. However, when different polysilicon (polycrystalline silicon) interconnection layers are respectively provided in a cell region and a peripheral region, for example, in the case of a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), the depths of contact holes formed in both the regions are made different from each other by global planarization. For example, an aspect ratio (depth/diameter) of a substrate contact hole formed in a peripheral region might be 4 or more under a design rule of 0.25 .mu.m. In this case, there is a possibility that the depth of the contact hole formed in the peripheral region is different from that of a contact hole formed in a cell region by about 1 .mu.m. For this reason, it has become still more difficult to form a conductive plug layer in the contact holes formed in both the regions in the same processing step. Hereinafter, a related art method of fabricating a semiconductor device will be basically described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 2E.
As shown in FIG. 2A, an insulting layer 12 made from silicon oxide or the like, which has a stepped surface, is formed on a P-type or N-type semiconducting substrate 11, and a polysilicon layer 13 as an interconnection layer is formed in an intermediate portion of a higher region of the insulating film 12. Here, as shown in FIG. 2B, an interlayer insulating film 14 made from silicon oxide or the like is formed over the entire surface of the insulating film 12 to a thickness of about 300 nm, and as shown in FIG. 2C, the entire surface is polished by a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) process or the like to be planarized. After that, as shown in FIG. 2D, a photoresist 15 having a contact hole forming pattern is formed over the entire surface by lithography, followed by anisotropic etching using the photoresist 15 as a mask, to simultaneously form both a contact hole 16 reaching the polysilicon layer 13 and a contact hole 17 reaching the original semiconducting substrate 11 in the lower region. At this time, as shown in FIG. 2D, since the depth from the surface to the polysilicon layer 13 is different from the depth from the surface to the semiconducting substrate 11, when the etching is effected such that the deep contact hole 17 reaches its underlying layer (semiconducting substrate 1), the underlying layer (polysilicon layer 13) of the shallow contact hole 16 is cut by the etching.
Next, as shown in FIG. 2E, the photoresist 15 is removed, and a barrier metal layer 18 is formed by sputtering and a tungsten layer 19 is formed by a BLK-W-CVD (blanket-tungsten-chemical vapor deposition) process in the contact holes 16, 17. More specifically, the barrier layer 18 for improving adhesion strength and the conductive tungsten layer 19 are formed, followed by etching-back over the entire surface, to remove the barrier metal layer 18 and the tungsten layer 19 excluding the interiors of the two contact holes 16, 17. At this time, since an aspect ratio of the contact hole 17 is excessively larger, a void 20 is formed in the tungsten layer 19.
In this way, according to the related art method, when deep and shallow contact holes 17, 16 are simultaneously formed, the underlying layer (polysilicon layer 13) of the shallow contact hole 16 is cut and in the worst cases, it may be pierced. To cope with such an inconvenience, the thickness of the underlying layer (polysilicon layer 13) of the shallow contact hole 16 must be made sufficiently thick, which causes another inconvenience that the height of the stepped portion of the insulating layer 12 is further increased.
The related art presents another disadvantage that it is difficult to form an interconnection at a high reliability because the barrier metal layer 18 is not contact hole 17 and also the void 20 is formed in the tungsten layer 19.

Method of fabricating a semiconductor device including a plurality of contact regions disposed at different depths


There is provided an ophthalmologic apparatus having a tracking function that can select a fundus image that is less affected by eye motion to reduce burdens on an operator/a patient in fundus imaging, wherein the ophthalmologic apparatus picks up a first fundus image (202), extracts a characteristic point as a template from the first fundus image (203), executes pattern matching on a second fundus image (205) to determine presence/absence of eye motion, and decides a tracking template image (207).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ophthalmologic apparatus and a control method thereof, and more particularly to an ophthalmologic apparatus that evaluates a fundus image used for extracting a template image in the case where pattern matching of a fundus image is executed in detection of biological motion, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, ophthalmologic images typified by fundus images have been used in medical practice as medical images for early detection of diseases. However, in medical practice using ophthalmologic images, the influence of eye movement during photographing has been recognized as a serious problem for long years. Specifically, eye movement may reduce clarity of ophthalmologic images to prevent an increase in accuracy of diagnosis or treatment. Human eyes are repeating involuntary slight vibration even during fixation on one point. This is referred to as involuntary eye movement. Since a patient cannot consciously stop involuntary eye movement, the influence of involuntary eye movement needs to be eliminated on the side of a medical practice tool or an operator in diagnosis or treatment of eyes.
For medical practice with high quality, it is important to eliminate involuntary eye movement without depending on operator's skills. For this purpose, a medical practice tool needs to have measures against eye movement. For example, as disclosed in a document "Daniel X. Hammer, R. Daniel Ferguson, John C. Magill, and Michael A. White, 'Image stabilization for scanning laser ophthalmoscopy', OPTICS EXPRESS 10(26), 1542-1549 (2002)", a tracking technique of applying a light to optic disk in a circular motion, and detecting and correcting eye movement by variation of reflection.
However, the technique disclosed in the document troublesomely requires addition of hardware for detecting eye movement besides an ophthalmoscope. Thus, a tracking method that can be realized without additional hardware for detecting eye movement is suggested as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-234674. This is a method of detecting movement of fundus in a lateral direction (a direction perpendicular to an eye depth direction) using a fundus observation apparatus, which is generally included in an ophthalmoscope for alignment, and executing tracking.
Also, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 04466968, a method is also proposed of scanning fundus to pick up tomographic images of fundus in a vertical direction (an eye depth direction) in positions shifted with time, and detecting eye movement using three-dimensional images synthesized from the tomographic images in a tomographic imaging apparatus.
Generally, in executing tracking, a small area having a certain characteristic is extracted from an entire fundus image, and movement of the small area between a plurality of continuous fundus images can be detected to detect movement of the entire fundus. With this method, a smaller amount of calculation is required than that in detecting movement of the entire fundus, thereby efficiently detecting movement of the fundus. An image of a small area having a certain characteristic used at this time is referred to as a template image, and a technique of pattern matching is used to detect movement of the template image. The pattern matching is a technique of searching an area most similar to the template image from the entire image to be referred to.
In detecting movement of fundus in pattern matching using a template image, a selected template image does not match an area to be detected or matches an area that is not to be detected in some cases, thereby causing false detection. Thus, a template image has to be properly selected. Also, in order to properly select a template image, it is important that a fundus image from which a template image is extracted is a proper image including no eye motion.
As described above, for the tracking technique by pattern matching, selection of a fundus image for extraction of a template image is very important. However, in the conventional method, whether a fundus image is a proper image is not determined in extraction of a template image. Thus, if pattern matching is not completed, a template image needs to be again extracted during imaging, which increases time and work for extracting a template image, and inevitably places burdens on an operator and a patient.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-234674 above, a method is disclosed of selecting a plurality of small areas having a characteristic from a fundus image and executing matching on fundus images picked up thereafter to detect changes of the fundus images with time. However, determining whether a fundus image from which a small area is selected includes eye motion is not disclosed. Thus, it cannot be determined whether the small area is proper, and a small area needs to be again selected when matching is not completed, which increases burdens on an operator and a patient.
According to Japanese Patent No. 04466968, a technique is disclosed of synthesizing a plurality of tomographic images of fundus picked up in positions laterally shifted with time to once configure a three-dimensional image, and acquiring a lateral two-dimensional image of the fundus from the three-dimensional image to detect movement of the fundus. However, since a step is necessary of acquiring and synthesizing a plurality of tomographic images and further converting the images into a lateral image of the fundus, the movement cannot be detected at high speed during imaging. Also, Japanese Patent No. 04466968 does not disclose a technique of extracting a template image to execute tracking.

Ophthalmologic apparatus and control method of the same


A fabric attaching clip (10) consisting of a garter grip button end (20) attached to a loop tape strap (24) positioned on an outer surface of a fabric (26). A garter grip wireform (22) is attached to a hook and loop tape strap (30) that is positioned on an inner surface of the fabric, aligning with the garter grip button end (20) and tightly engaged with the fabric drawn compressably between. The fabric attaching clip (10) permits fabric, to be swagged by gathering the fabric with the loop tape strap, which has the end threaded into the wireform and by pulling the extending end for adjustment. The loop tape strap (24) is joined to the hook and loop tape strap (30) for closure therebetween. A theme decoration (38) having a hook tape segment (40) is attached on a front surface of the loop tape strap (30), providing both a decorative effect to a table and covering the clip (10).

Previously, many types of clips have been used to provide an effective means for altering the response of fabric, such as a swag in a drape, or a tablecloth, and to attach items such as decorative renditions of skirts and flowers to a tablecloth.
The prior art listed below did not disclose any patents that possess the novelty of the instant invention, however the following U.S. patents are considered related:
U.S. Pat. No.InventorIssue Date5,275,225Marasco et al.Jan. 4, 19945,287,614EhrlichFeb. 22, 19945,996,190PetersonDec. 7, 19996,477,751Baumdicker et al.Nov. 12, 20026,705,380ScollettaMar. 16, 2004
Marasco et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,225 discloses a swag support consisting of a rod with a longitudinal slot at the rear. A head portion is mounted in the slot, with an arm extending upward and a C-shaped front extending over the top of the rod, thereby allowing a fabric swag scarf to be introduced from below the rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,614 issued to Ehrlich discloses a method for attaching a decorative skirt around a tablecloth using spring clips with VELCRO patches. The spring clips are spaced apart and are engaged to extend radially from the tablecloth, as allowed by the flexibility of the cloth, such that the patches face outward and are attached to a mating VELCRO strip on the decorative skirt.
Peterson in U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,190 discloses a retainer to attach a cover and a skirt to a table. C-clamps hold the cover in place and provide a connection for a supporting pin and loop. The pin supports the skirt and the loop accepts wire or string to bind a floral arrangement.
Baumdicker et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,477,751 discloses a swag tether clip with a base for gathering a tablecloth. The base has an arm that pivots with male and female members. The method of using the clip includes the steps of fastening the clip to a tablecloth, gathering the cloth, engaging the clip, inserting the male member into the female member.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,380 issued to Scolletta discloses a fabric retainer having a decorative body with movable appendages extending therefrom. A portion of at least one of the appendages extends from and is connected to the body such that a passage is formed in which a fabric may be positioned. The decorative body may represent animate or inanimate objects or characters.
For background purposes and as indicative of the art to which the invention is related reference may be made to the remaining cited patents issued to Fogelman in U.S. Pat. No, 4,947,526 and Lightfoot in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,393.


A disk medium, an information recording device, and an information reproducing device are provided, which are capable of efficiently recording sub-information such as security data and, if the sub-information is set as the security information, enhancing a security performance. The disk is divided into a plurality of zones in radial directions. A logical zone count in each zone is obtained by dividing a total recordable frame count in each zone by a frame count in a unit logical zone. For example, a logical zone count N1z in a zone i is given by:N1z=Fzi/F1zwhere Fzi is the total frame count in the zone i, and F1z is a frame count in the logical zone. However, a value given by the formula (1) is not always an integer depending on the zone, and there might exist a frame (gap region) not used for the logical zone. Accordingly, the security data are recorded in this gap region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a disk medium, an information recording device and an information reproducing device, and more particularly to a disk medium, an information recording device and an information reproducing device which are capable of efficiently recording and reproducing security information, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have hitherto been proposed a variety of methods of recording sub-information such as security information on a disk.
For example, according to the invention disclosed in JP 8-147767 A, a track for security data is separately provided in a track pitch region between spiral tracks for main information, and the security data are recorded on this security track.
According to this prior art, the security data are recorded in a region separate from that for the main data, and hence, even if the data are reproduced from the main data recording track and copied to other disks, the security data are safeguarded against simultaneous copying. The security performance can be enhanced as compared with a case where the security data are simply embedded in the track for the main data.
According to the prior art described above, however, there arises a problem in that a recording density of the main data on the disk decreases. Namely, when the track for the security data is provided between the tracks for the main data, it is required that a fixed gap be ensured between the tracks for the main data, and therefore the track pitch of the tracks for the main data can not be reduced. Hence, even when trying to increase the recording density of the main data, there is a limit.

Disk medium, information recording device and information reproducing device


An oil flow control valve (10) for a cam phaser is described comprising a spool (18), a spool housing (16) and a check valve (40), wherein the spool (18) comprises a throughbore (60) and the check valve (40) is mounted in the spool housing (16) in that it extends through the throughbore (60) allowing the check valve (40) to be integrated in the housing (16) of the oil flow control valve (10), with the spool (18) reciprocally moving around the check valve (40), in order to avoid any influencing of the equilibrium of a spool (18) when the oil pressure is suddenly changing in the oil flow control valve (10) due to varying efforts in the cam phaser caused by the valve train.

Cam phasers are used to control the angular relationship of the pulley/sprocket to the camshaft of an engine. A variable cam phaser (VCP) allows changing the phase relationship while the engine is running. Typically, a cam phaser is used to shift the intake cam on a dual overhead cam engine in order to broaden the torque curve of the engine, to increase peak power at high rpm, and to improve the idle quality. Also, the exhaust cam can be shifted by a cam phaser in order to provide internal charge diluent control, which can significantly reduce HC and NOx emissions, or to improve fuel economy.
Cam phasers are controlled by hydraulic systems, which use pressurized lubrication oil from the engine in order to change the relative position between camshaft and crankshaft, thus altering the valve timing. The advance or retard position of the camshaft is commanded via an oil flow control valve. The oil flow control valve (OCV in the following) controls the oil flow to different ports entering a cam phaser, thus controlling the angular position of the camshaft relative to pulley or sprocket. However, the pressure of the oil contained in the chambers of the cam phaser is affected by the motion of the valve train such that the oil pressure inside the cam phaser reaches peaks, which can be higher than the oil control supply pressure, i.e., the oil pressure supplied by the engine. This can lead to a certain amount of reverse oil flow across the OCV, diminishing the phase rate performance of the cam phasing system.
To avoid the reverse oil flow under the above mentioned circumstances, a check valve has been integrated in the oil passage of either the cylinder head or the crankcase. Such a check valve also ensures that the cam phaser does not empty out in cases when the oil pressure is reduced, for example when the engine is stopped. However, this approach adds significant cost to the cylinder head or engine block. Also, the implementation of the check valve can be difficult because of oil routing. Furthermore, the check valve should not be placed too far away from the cam phaser in order to be still effective.
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,860 or EP 1 447 602 to integrate a check valve into the OCV.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,860 the check valve is integrated into the spool of the OCV. In EP 1 447 602 the check valve is integrated into the side walls of the housing of the OCV. The check valve is a spring blade having a cylinder portion shape. When the pressure in the oil channel leading to the check valve is higher than the spring force of the spring blade, oil can enter the OCV. If, on the other hand, the oil pressure in the OCV reaches a pressure higher than the pressure in the relevant oil channel, the oil in the OCV will tend to push against the inner side of the spring blade which will be forced into a closed position thereby preventing the return flow of oil in the oil channel.


Cooling systems and vehicles containing cooling systems are disclosed. A cooling system may include an evaporator, a condenser positioned downstream from the evaporator, a pump positioned downstream from the condenser, and a two phase cooler positioned downstream from the pump and in series upstream from the evaporator. The two phase cooler may receive thermal energy from a heat generating device to preheat a working fluid and directs the preheated working fluid to the evaporator.

Electronic components, such as, for example, electronic circuits and components thereof, semiconductor chips, and/or the like from power electronics devices generate heat under normal operation. The generated heat can be detrimental to the electronic components and/or surrounding components if it is not appropriately dissipated. Certain existing systems and methods may incorporate various cooling apparatuses for cooling the electronic components. However, such systems and methods are inefficient and do not sufficiently cool the electronic components to avoid heat related damage. Moreover, certain systems require additional components that are difficult to integrate and/or consume excessive amounts of energy to function. In addition, certain systems may waste the heat that is generated by the electronic components.
Accordingly, a need exists for cooling systems that provide an efficient means of thoroughly cooling electronic components that is easily integrated with existing cooling systems, does not require extra energy to function, and does not waste the heat that is generated by the electronic components.

Power electronics cooling system with two-phase cooler

TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC.


Methods are provided to classify and identify features in mass spectral data using neural network algorithms. A convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained to identify amino acids from an unknown protein sample. The CNN was trained using known peptide sequences to predict amino acid presence, diversity, and frequency, peptide length, subsequences of amino acids classified by features include aliphatic/aromatic, hydrophobic/hydrophilic, positive/negative charge, and combinations thereof. Mass spectra data of a sample unknown to the trained CNN was discretized into a one-dimensional vector and input into the CNN. The CNN models can potentially be integrated to determine the complete peptide sequence from a spectrum, thereby improving the yield of identifiable protein sequences from mass spec analysis.

Mass spectrometry is used, for example, in protein profiling. De novo sequencing and sequencing matching using a database are current methods for identification of proteins. In database matching, a theoretical sequence is needed in order to match what is being measured or observed. Sequencing databases are primarily comprised of canonical sequence data. A protein mutation, for example caused by a DNA mutation, would not be found in canonical data. In the study of cancer, mutations are ubiquitous. Current methods of database matching are unable to draw conclusions as to whether there is a mutation in the sample being matched. If the sequence is not already in a database, the search engine will not find a match in the database. Post translational modifications (PTMs), for example phosphorylation, may alter the size, shape, weight and/or function of the protein. There are many possible mutations and PTMs for a given peptide or protein. Using conventional methods, search engines and databases are limited in ability to efficiently search for, recognize, and match mutations and PTMs. This is because the computational search space is multiplied by the potential mutations and PTMs, and is too large to be efficiently searched.
Thus, current database methods are unable to recognize proteins having unknown (not previously sequenced) mutations, chemical variations, PTMs, etc. On average, 80% of spectra in a proteomics dataset are not matched in a database. Thus, conventional mass spectra analysis methods only retain approximately 20% of spectra from a sample.

Methods of profiling mass spectral data using neural networks

The Translational Genomics Research Institute


Carboxyl-containing lactone compounds having formula (1) are novel wherein R1 is H, F, methyl or trifluoromethyl, R2 and R3 are H or monovalent hydrocarbon groups, or R2 and R3 may together form an aliphatic ring, W is CH2, O or S, k1 is an integer of 0 to 4, and k2 is 0 or 1. They are useful as monomers to produce polymers which are transparent to radiation≦500 nm. Radiation-sensitive resist compositions comprising the polymers as base resin exhibit excellent properties including resolution, LER, pattern density dependency and exposure margin.

The recent drive for higher integration and operating speeds in LSI devices makes it necessary to further reduce the pattern rule. Deep-ultraviolet lithography was developed as an essential technology for micropatterning to a feature size of 0.3 μm or less. Among others, the KrF excimer laser lithography has been fully recognized as a commercial scale production technology.
With respect to chemically amplified resist compositions adapted for the photolithography using ArF excimer laser light of 193 nm wavelength as a light source, the primary requirement is, of course, a high transparency at that wavelength. They are also required to meet a high etch resistance sufficient to comply with film thickness reduction, a high sensitivity sufficient to minimize the burden to expensive optical materials, and among others, a high resolution sufficient to form an exact fine pattern. The key toward these requirements is to develop a base resin featuring high transparency, high rigidity and high reactivity. Active efforts have been devoted for such development.
Typical resins known to be highly transparent to ArF excimer laser light are copolymers of acrylic or methacrylic acid derivatives as disclosed in JP-A 4-39665.
One of the (meth)acrylic resins proposed thus far is a combination of (meth)acrylic units having methyladamantane ester as acid labile group units with (meth)acrylic units having lactone ring ester as adhesive group units as disclosed in JP-A 9-90637. Acid labile groups of exo form are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,448,420 (JP-A 2000-327633). These groups have so high an acid elimination ability and require a low level of activation energy for acid elimination, affording a high resolution and low dependence on post-exposure bake (PEB). Norbornane lactone is also proposed as an adhesive group having enhanced etching resistance as disclosed in JP-A 2000-26446 and JP-A 2000-159758. These studies have achieved significant improvements in the resolution of ArF resists.
However, in an attempt to form a fine pattern having a pitch of less than 200 nm, prior art resist materials are difficult to form patterns and the patterns, if formed, have insufficient rectangularity and substantial roughness on their surface and sidewalls, and are hardly believed to clear the practically acceptable level. Of the problems associated with prior art resist materials, the most serious problem is the unevenness of fine line size, which is generally referred to as "line edge roughness" (LER). Since the LER has a substantial impact on the performance of semiconductor devices being fabricated, it is strongly desired to overcome this problem. Introducing many acid labile units is advantageous for achieving a higher sensitivity and higher contrast, but entails an enlargement of LER. An approach of reducing the amount of acid labile groups introduced and instead, introducing carboxylic acid units such as (meth)acrylic acid is successful in reducing LER to a certain extent while maintaining a resolution. The introduction of carboxylic acid units, however, gives rise to a new problem of surface roughening due to swelling. This approach does not lead to an essential reduction of LER.

Carboxyl-containing lactone compound, polymer, resist composition, and patterning process


There is provided a camera module including: a lens barrel including at least one lens disposed along an optical axis; a housing in which the lens barrel is disposed; and an infra-red (IR) filter adhesively bonded to an inner surface of the housing and disposed below the lens barrel, wherein protective tape is adhered to a contact surface of the IR filter in contact with the inner surface of the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera module.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, it is becoming common to transmit image data in addition to text or voice data with a general portable communications terminal such as a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable computer, or the like.
Therefore, in order to perform image data transmission, or the like, camera modules have come to be installed in portable communications terminals as basic elements thereof.
An infra-red (IR) filter may be used in this camera module.
Since the camera module is able to recognize a wider range of wavelengths of light than the human eye, the camera module may recognize light within the infra red (IR) range that cannot be registered by the human eye as light.
Therefore, in the case in which the camera module outputs image information containing light as it is recognized by the camera module, since images having different colors from those actually seen by the human eye may be output, there is a need to filter IR light using an IR filter.
In this case, when the IR filter is fixed to a housing of the camera module, light, having passed through a lens may be irregularly reflected by an inner wall of the housing, or the like, to thereby be introduced to an image sensor.
In this case, a flare phenomenon such as light spreading, or the like, may be generated, which may have a negative influence on image quality. Therefore, there is a need to prevent light, irregularly reflected in the camera module, from being introduced to the image sensor.
Further, a fine cracking phenomenon may be generated in a cutting plane of the IR filter during a process of manufacturing the IR filter. In this case, foreign objects may be generated, to thereby be introduced in the camera module.

Camera module configured to prevent introduction of foreign objects and to prevent irregularly reflected light from being introduced to image sensor


A method for diagnosis includes receiving from a sensor coupled to a body of a sleeping patient a photoplethysmograph signal. The photoplethysmograph signal is processed independently of any other physiological measurements in order to identify sleep stages of the patient.

Human sleep is generally described as a succession of five recurring stages (plus waking, which is sometimes classified as a sixth stage). Sleep stages are typically monitored using a polysomnograph to collect physiological signals from the sleeping subject, including brain waves (EEG), eye movements (EOG), muscle activity (EMG), heartbeat (ECG), blood oxygen levels (SpO2) and respiration. The commonly-recognized stages include:                Stage 1 sleep, or drowsiness. The eyes are closed during Stage 1 sleep, but if aroused from it, a person may feel as if he or she has not slept.        Stage 2 is a period of light sleep, during which the body prepares to enter deep sleep.        Stages 3 and 4 are deep sleep stages, with Stage 4 being more intense than Stage 3.        Stage 5, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, is distinguishable from non-REM (NREM) sleep by changes in physiological states, including its characteristic rapid eye movements.Polysomnograms show brain wave patterns in REM to be similar to Stage 1 sleep. In normal sleep, heart rate and respiration speed up and become erratic, while the muscles may twitch. Intense dreaming occurs during REM sleep, but paralysis occurs simultaneously in the major voluntary muscle groups.
Sleep apneas commonly occur in conjunction with a variety of cardiorespiratory disorders. The relationship between sleep apnea and heart failure, for example, is surveyed by Bradley et al. in two articles entitled "Sleep Apnea and Heart Failure," including "Part I: Obstructive Sleep Apnea," Circulation 107, pages 1671-1678 (2003), and "Part II: Central Sleep Apnea," Circulation 107, pages 1822-1826 (2003), which are incorporated herein by reference. The authors define "apnea" as a cessation of airflow for more than 10 sec. This term is distinguished from "hypopnea," which is a reduction in but not complete cessation of airflow to less than 50% of normal, usually in association with a reduction in oxyhemoglobin saturation (commonly referred to as "desaturation").
Sleep apneas and hypopneas are generally believed to fall into two categories: obstructive, due to collapse of the pharynx; and central, due to withdrawal of central respiratory drive to the muscles of respiration. Central sleep apnea (CSA) is commonly associated with Cheyne-Stokes respiration, which is a form of periodic breathing in which central apneas and hypopneas alternate with periods of hyperventilation, with a waxing-waning pattern of tidal volume. CSA is believed to arise as the result of heart failure, though obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may also occur in heart failure patients.
Both OSA and CSA increase the strain on the cardiovascular system and thus worsen the prognosis of the heart failure patient. In some cases, both types of apneas may occur in the same patient, even at the same time (superposition). Classifying respiratory events as central or obstructive is considered to be a critical point, since treatment may differ according to the type of events, as pointed out by Pepin et al. in "Cheyne-Stokes Respiration with Central Sleep Apnea in Chronic Heart Failure Proposals for a Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategy," Sleep Medicine Reviews 10, pages 33-47 (2006), which is incorporated herein by reference. Both CSA and OSA can be manifested in periodic breathing patterns.
Various methods have been proposed in the patent literature for automated apnea detection and diagnosis based on patient monitoring during sleep. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2004/0230105 A1 describes a method for analyzing respiratory signals using a Fuzzy Logic Decision Algorithm (FLDA). The method may be used to associate respiratory disorders with obstructive apnea, hypopnea, central apnea, or other conditions. As another example, U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2002/0002327 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,839,581 describe methods for detecting Cheyne-Stokes respiration, which may be used on patients with heart failure. The methods involve performing spectral analysis of overnight oximetry recordings, from which a classification tree is generated. Another method, based on monitoring oxygen saturation and calculating the slope of desaturation events, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,760,608. Yet another method for classifying sleep apneas is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,856,829. In this case, pulse waves from the body of a patient are detected, and the envelope of the pulse waves is created by connecting every peak of the pulse waves. The normalized amplitude and period of the envelope are used in determining whether the patient has OSA, CSA, or mixed sleep apnea syndrome. The disclosures of the patents and patent applications cited above are incorporated herein by reference.
It has been suggested that sleep monitoring can be used for assessing cardiorespiratory risk. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,250, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a home-based, wearable, self-contained system that determines sleep-state and respiratory pattern, and assesses cardiorespiratory risk. A respiratory disorder may be diagnosed from the frequency of eyelid movements and/or from ECG signals. Cardiac disorders (such as cardiac arrhythmia or myocardial ischemia) that are known to be linked to certain respiratory disorders also may be inferred upon detection of such respiratory disorders.
Photoplethysmograph devices, known commonly as pulse oximeters, provide instantaneous in vivo measurement of arterial oxygenation by determining the color of blood between a light source and a photodetector. To determine the blood oxygen saturation, light absorption measurement is carried out at two wavelengths in the red and infrared ranges. The difference between background absorption during diastole and peak absorption during systole at both wavelengths is used to compute the blood oxygen saturation.
Photoplethysmograph signals provide information not only on blood oxygenation, but also on other physiological signs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,425 describes the use of a pulse oximeter in validating the heart rate and/or R-R intervals of an ECG, and for discriminating between sleep and wakefulness in a monitored subject. It also describes a method for distinguishing between valid pulse waveforms in the oximeter signal. U.S. Pat. No. 7,001,337 describes a method for obtaining physiological parameter information related to respiration rate, heart rate, heart rate variability, blood volume variability and/or the autonomic nervous system using photoplethysmography. U.S. Pat. No. 7,190,261 describes an arrhythmia alarm processor, which detects short-duration, intermittent oxygen desaturations of a patient using a pulse oximeter as a sign of irregular heartbeat. An alarm is triggered when the pattern of desaturations matches a reference pattern. The disclosures of the above-mentioned patents are incorporated herein by reference.

Sleep monitoring using a photoplethysmograph


A golf club head having a plurality of slots that are strategically placed on its sole to enhance sound and reduce weight is disposed herein. In particular, the slots are disposed in a triangular pattern or around a triangular panel proximate the face.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf club head with acoustic voids. More specifically, the present invention relates to a golf club having slots disposed at certain locations on its crown and/or sole to improve the overall sound of the golf club head during use.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art discloses many different types of golf clubs with sound enhancing features, such as ribs. Ribs can be problematic, however, because they add unwanted mass to the golf club head. There is a need for golf club heads having both improved sound and a low weight to allow for the use of weight adjustment technologies.


An ITO layer and a first metal layer is patterned on a glass substrate. A first silicon nitride layer, a silicon layer and a second silicon nitride layer are formed on the substrate. A back-side exposure is introduced using the gate electrodes as a mask. The second silicon nitride layer that is not covered by a positive photoresist is etched. A heavily doped silicon layer is formed over the substrate. A negative photoresist is formed over the heavily doped silicon layer. Then, a further back-side exposure is employed. The heavily doped silicon layer over the etched second silicon nitride layer is removed. Via holes are created to expose a portion of the first metal layer. A second metal layer and a third metal layer are respectively formed. Next, a thermal annealing is performed for forming silicide. Subsequently, a third metal layer and the second metal layer are patterned. Then, the island pattern is defined. Subsequently, a passivation layer formed of silicon nitride layer is deposited on the island pattern.

Thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is known as the display required for the high pixel density and quality. In general, the TFT-LCD includes a bottom plate formed with thin film transistors and pixel electrodes and a top plate formed with color filters. The liquid crystal is filled between the top plate and the bottom plate. In each unit pixel, a capacitor and a further capacitor are provided which are formed by virtue of the TFT serving as the switching element of the unit pixel. In the operation, a gate signal voltage is applied to the TFT that is the switching element of each unit pixel. The TFT receives the gate signal voltage, it is turn on so that data voltage carrying image information can be applied to the corresponding pixel electrode and the liquid crystal via the TFT. When the data voltage is applied to the TFT, the arrangement of the liquid crystal moleculers is change, thereby changing the optical properties and displaying the image.
A conventional method for forming a TFT will be described in conjunction with FIGURES 1A-1L.
In accordance with the prior method, an opaque metal layer such as Al, Ta, or Cr is formed on a substrate 2. The metal layer is patterned to serve as a gate electrode 4 and a metal interconnection (MI) 3. A stacked layer consisted of a first silicon nitride layer 6, an amorphous silicon layer 8 and a second silicon nitride layer 10 are formed on the substrate 2. A positive photoresist 12 is patterned on the second silicon nitride layer 10. Next, an exposure indicated by 16 is performed from the back side of the substrate 2 using the gate electrodes as a mask. Then, the portion 10a covered by the gate electrode is left after the steps. The portion on the MI 3 can be removed by masking and etching procedures.
Subsequently, a doping area 18 is performed by using implanting ions into the amorphous silicon layer 8. Next, turning to FIG. 1E to FIG. 1F, a metal layer 20 is formed on the doping area 18. An annealing step is used to react the silicon layer 10 and the metal layer to generate metal silicide layer 22 on the amorphous silicon layer 8. A second photoresist 24 is patterned over the gate electrode 4 using photo-lithography method, as shown in FIG. 1G. Then, the source and drain regions are defined by etching the silicide layer 22 and the amorphous silicon layer 8 exposed by the second photoresist 24. The result is shown in FIG. 1H. The source and drain regions are separated by the structure 10a. The second photoresist 24 is removed.
Referring to FIG. 1I-1L, an indium tin oxide (ITO) 26 is patterned on the first silicon nitride layer 6 adjacent to the source and drain regions. The first silicon nitride layer 6 over the MI 3 is removed, then a metal connection 28 are formed over the MI 3, the source and drain regions 22. Typically, the metal connection 28 is formed of Cr/Al. Finally, a passivation layer 30 is formed to cover the metal connection 28 and the source and drain regions 22.
The conventional method uses the ion implantation to form the source and drain silicide 22 and also act as n+ source. After the step, various steps, such as ITO pattern, contact etching and source and drain pattern are need for forming the TFT. However, these steps that involves the oxygen plasma or BOE (buffer oxide etching) etching will increase the resistance of the silicide 22, thereby reducing the performance of the TFT device. Further, the method needs implanter for doping and the method mentioned above needs at least seven masking processes. What is required is a new method for forming the TFT device.

Method of fabricating a fully self-aligned TFT-LCD

Industrial Technology Research Institute