A light-emitting diode bulb with loudspeaker function includes a bulb head, a drive power assembly, a heat radiator, a light-emitting diode module, a loudspeaker assembly, and a cover covered on the heat radiator. The drive power assembly is assembled to an upper portion of the bulb head, and is electrically connected with the bulb head. The drive power assembly includes a power supply circuit board assembly and a wireless module. The heat radiator is mounted to the upper portion of the bulb head. The drive power assembly is received in the heat radiator. The light-emitting diode module is mounted on the heat radiator, and is electrically connected with the power supply circuit board assembly. The loudspeaker assembly mounted on the light-emitting diode module, the heat radiator and the drive power assembly includes a fastening holder, an audio circuit board, a fastening bracket and a speaker unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light-emitting diode bulb, and more particularly to a light-emitting diode bulb with loudspeaker function.
2. The Related Art
As is known to all, a light fixture is one of household articles which are indispensable in people's daily lives. Nowadays, with the progress of science and technology, and the improvement of people's living standard, people's requirement for the light fixture is correspondingly improved, in order to satisfy the people's requirement for the light fixture, a variety of excellent light fixtures, such as light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs are emerged at the right moment. The light-emitting diode bulb has become the widely-used light fixture on account of the light-emitting diode bulb being far superior to the traditional light fixture in the light principle, energy saving, environmental protection etc.
A current light-emitting diode bulb includes a bulb head, a power supply circuit board assembly, a heat radiator, a light-emitting diode module and a cover. The power supply circuit board assembly is assembled to the bulb head. The heat radiator is of hollow shape with a middle of a bottom end thereof being opened. The heat radiator is mounted to the bulb head, and the power supply circuit board assembly is received in the heat radiator. The light-emitting diode module is mounted to the heat radiator. The cover is covered on the heat radiator to make the light-emitting diode module located between the cover and the heat radiator.
However, the current light-emitting diode bulb can only realize the illuminating function to make the light-emitting diode bulb just have the single function. Furthermore, in the place of assembling the light-emitting diode bulb, when people listen to music without an earphone, it usually needs to use an external sound box for playing the music outside, in the process of using the external sound box to play the music, it needs to proceed a complex connection of cables that affects a use convenience of the light-emitting diode bulb.

Light-emitting diode bulb with loudspeaker function


A computer system is selectively powered up so as to plays only an audio compact disk contained therein under the condition that the main power for the entire computer system remains turned-off. The computer system includes: a keypad having a plurality of keys for producing control signals; a microcontroller for producing PMS-control signals and compact disk-control signals according to the control signals of the keypad; a power supply for receiving AC power and for producing the main power for the entire computer or for producing the compact disk-power according to the PMS-control signals; a compact disk drive for receiving the compact disk-power, and for reading a compact disk contained therein, and for outputting audio signals according to the compact disk-control signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process and computer system for playing an audio compact disk (CD) and, more particularly, to a process and computer system for selectively powering up the system to play an audio compact disk under the condition that the main power for the entire computer system remains turned-off.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a computer which has a compact disk driver (CDD) and a video board for playing motion pictures is known as a multimedia computer. Nowadays, almost all of the computers on the market have the compact disk drive for reading or playing a compact disk-title, an MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) video compact disk and an audio compact disk. In the conventional computer system, main power must be supplied to the entire computer system for driving the compact disk drive therein and playing an audio compact disk. Exemplars of typical designs of computer systems and process able to play audio compact disks may be found in such recently issued references as U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,798 to Suh, entitled Compact Disk Player-Incorporated Television Receiver Having A Monitor Power Control Function, U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,854 to Kadowaki et al., entitled Power-Saving Control For A control Unit In A Computer System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,908 to Ikeda, entitled Power Saving Control System For Computer System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,571 to Tanaka, entitled Method For Controlling Power To Individual Audio-Video Units Making Up An Audio-Video System, U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,041 to Engel et al., entitled Automatic Power Control System Which Automatically Activates And Deactivates Power To Selected Peripheral Devices Based Upon System Requirement, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,203 to Wisor et al., entitled Power Management System Distinguishing Between Primary And Secondary System Activity.
Earlier computer systems for playing audio compact disks typically used a system bus, a central processing unit, a random access memory, a read only memory, a video controller, an input/output controller, an IDE controller, an hard disk drive, a compact disk drive, an audio card, speakers, a microcontroller and a switching mode power supply. The system bus interfaces data, commands and interrupt signals among the various devices of the computer system. The I/O controller is connected to the system bus and controls signal input/output operations of the variable peripheral devices such as floppy disk drives, serial ports, parallel ports, and infrared ports. The IDE controller is connected to the system bus controls signal input/output of the hard disk drive and compact disk drive. The hard disk drive and compact disk drive are controlled to read or write data thereon by the IDE controller. Conventionally, the IDE controller is a device for interfacing disk drivers with a computer. In a computer system using the IDE controller, additional boards for interfacing the drivers and the computer are not required since the disk drivers contain disk driver control circuits therein. The audio card receives and manipulates the audio signal from the compact disk drive. The speaker outputs voice signals upon receiving the audio signals. The microcontroller outputs PMS control signals for controlling the power supply according to the control signals generated from the keyboard and the mouse or according to software stored therein. The power supply receives AC power and supplies main power to the entire computer system according to the PMS control signals.
The compact disk drive related parts of the earlier computer system for playing an audio compact disk comprises the power supply for supplying main power to the entire computer system. The power supply is turned on by the operation of a switch. The computer system further includes the compact disk drive. The audio card receives and manipulates the audio signals from the compact disk drive and speakers output voice signals upon receiving the audio signals from the audio card. In operation, a user turns on the power supply by pressing the switch to play an audio compact disk. Then, the main power is supplied to the entire computer system. After supplying the main power, a software for playing an audio compact disk is operated by the user and the compact disk drive outputs the audio signals according to the control signals of the IDE controller. Then, the audio card receives and manipulates the audio signals and the speakers output voice signals upon receiving the audio signals.
I have noticed that in the designs for these earlier systems, the compact disk drive can be operated after supplying the main power to the entire computer system and after executing an operating system for the computer and a software program for playing the audio compact disk. In addition, the microcontroller can not control the switching mode power supply in such a manner that only the compact disk drive can be operated. Therefore, even when the user want to play only the audio compact disk in the computer system, the entire computer system must be turned-on. Thus, approximately 100 Watts of power are needed to play the audio compact disk in the computer system. Namely, many devices which are unnecessary for playing the audio compact disk must be operated. Therefore, if a device of the computer system has malfunctioned, the user can not play the audio compact disk. In addition, it takes a great deal of time to start the compact disk drive since the operating system for the computer must be executed before playing the audio compact disk. Furthermore, the audio quality of the audio compact disk is deteriorated due to the noise generated by the operation of various cooling fans for the CPU and SMPS.

Computer system for playing an audio compact disk and a playing method thereof


Selecting an active one of a plurality of screen areas of one or more applications presented to a user on a screen includes determining properties of the screen areas corresponding to brightness, playing audio, displaying an avatar, transparency of an avatar, timing of new content, intensity of content change, number of objects, number of objects in an intersection of multiple areas, and/or speed of objects in a particular area, setting one or more rules for choosing one of a plurality of the screen areas for a plurality of applications based on at least one of the properties, and selecting a particular one of the screen areas to be the active one of the plurality of screen areas based on the rules, the properties, and location of a pointer or touch area. The avatar may be located, at least partially, within an intersection of different ones of the screen areas.

Important trends in business and consumer computing are causing an upsurge in downloads and in the simultaneous use of multiple applications by an average mobile and desktop user. These trends include increasing size and enhanced resolution of computer screens, the arrival of retina and 4K/5K displays, a constantly growing raw computing power and multi-tasking capabilities of mobile devices, notebooks, and desktops, combined with the expansion of application stores for significant computing platforms.
According to industry statistics, the largest application store is Google Play with over 2.7 million Android applications. The second-largest is the Apple App Store, which carries 1.82 million iOS applications. In 2019, global downloads of mobile applications to connected user devices reached 204 billion copies. An average mobile user has 20 downloaded applications installed and 25% of users have over 30 installed applications, with an average of 25 downloaded and pre-installed applications per month. For the most part, an average user works with 10 applications simultaneously running at any given time. Notebooks and desktops on major platforms, such as MacOS, Windows, Linux, Chrome, and combined multi-platform installations may run simultaneously dozens of applications, some of which may be in multi-instance modes; the latter is illustrated by office and communication applications with multiple documents and messages open at the same time.
From a geometrical standpoint, a computer screen during an intense user working session represents a densely covered space with multiple overlapping screen areas (windows), controlled by different applications. For the most part, the screen areas have rectangular shapes, but some of the areas, such as user masks in video capturing applications and other accessibility contours, whether predefined by an application or customized by a user, may be non-rectangular; for example, the mmhmm video communication and recording application allows circular user masks. Obtaining access to frequently changing screen areas, controlled by various simultaneously running applications, is done predominantly by a pointing device, such as computer mouse, touchpad, trackpad, digital pen, game console, user fingers performing multi-touch gestures on a touch screen, etc.

Rule-based prioritization and activation of overlapping screen areas using pointing device


An system IC is partitioned into test ICs that have a sub-set of the functionality of the system IC. The test ICs have chip I/O pads conforming to a sub-set arrangement of the system IC chip I/O pads. A packaging module is designed to accept means for attaching and fanning-out the system IC chip I/O pads to lower density packaging I/O pads. A test IC is electrically coupled to the packaging module and tested by programming signals and power to the signal and power pads on the module packaging I/O pads corresponding to chip I/O pads for the test IC. Functionality of the system IC may be partitioned into a plurality of test ICs, each with chip I/O pads that conform to an individual sub-set of the system IC I/Os. Two or more of the plurality of test ICs are coupled to the system IC packaging module for testing.

Modern processor system IC chips have a large number of circuits which require a corresponding large number of input/output (I/O) pads for coupling signals from the circuits to other system ICs or devices. Because the wiring density on a system IC is much greater than is possible with printed circuit boards (PCBs) used to interconnect system IC devices and other system components, second level packages are required to fan-out the I/Os to a lower density compatible with the wiring capacity of the PCB. Wiring capacity of a PCB is dictated by the number of lines per channel (between vias) and the number of wiring layers. This requires that the pads on the system IC be coupled to the pads on the second level package with some conductive structure (e.g., wires, tape automated bonding (TAB) traces, solder balls, etc.). Modern system ICs also operate with high frequency I/O driver circuits which require the inductance of the conductive structure to be low so that power connections as well as I/O driver connections have minimum transients caused by the fast changing currents that may occur. For this reason, most system ICs with a large number of high performance circuits use small solder balls to connect to the second level package (module) and likewise use an array of solder balls to connect from the module to the PCB. The array of solder balls is termed "ball grid array" (BGA).
During the design phase of a system IC, it is often necessary to have sockets for the BGA modules housing the system IC so that it may be temporarily coupled to various test fixtures for functional, performance, and failure analysis. Therefore, most system IC manufacturers have invested in test fixtures compatible with the various BGA modules that it uses to package the system ICs that it manufactures. These standard BGAs may come with various numbers of I/Os as well as have a variety of configuration patterns for the solder balls themselves.
Since a multiple processor or even a single processor system IC may have millions of transistors and very complex circuitry, it is often desirable to make test ICs that test a subset of the circuitry. These test ICs have fewer transistors, may be smaller, and would naturally have a requirement for fewer I/Os. Since their I/O count is reduced, many times these test ICs are packaged in different modules. Since the test ICs are not going to be used in a product, their I/O structure is designed for convenience. For added flexibility, the I/Os are typically wire bonded to a second level packaging module. This may be simple and flexible, however, the test modules may no longer be compatible with the test fixtures and the programs used to couple signals to the production level modules. Likewise, if wire bonding is used, signal frequencies may be less than is possible with production level circuits. This may reduce the amount of information about the operation of production level circuits that may be acquired from operating the test ICs.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus that allows test ICs and their second level packaging modules to more nearly match their production counterparts. This will result in test and debug of test ICs under conditions closer to the conditions that will be experienced by production level system ICs to which they correspond. Also production level test fixtures and programs may be employed when operating the test ICs.

Method and apparatus for packaging test integrated circuits


The present invention is an apparatus and method for invasive bodily fluid pressure measurements using a pressure sensing assembly that is partially reusable. An embodiment includes a system for measuring a bodily pressure level having a support structure that includes at least one reusable pressure transducer that has a sensing face positioned on an exterior portion of the support structure, and a disposable pressure plenum having an inlet in fluid communication with a selected location within the body of a living being that is configured to be removably and slidably engaged with the support structure.

Certain medical procedures require a bodily fluid pressure to be measured and monitored. For example, it is often desirable to measure and monitor an amniotic fluid pressure in a neonatal procedure, or to measure and monitor a pressure of an intracranial fluid in a neurological procedure. Most commonly, it is desirable to measure and monitor a blood pressure at a selected internal location in a patient. For example, in order to monitor the heart function in a patient, it is often advantageous to measure and monitor the blood pressure within the chambers of the heart. In all of the foregoing examples, the bodily fluid pressure is measured and monitored with a medical pressure transducer that is generally spaced apart from the body of the patient and fluidly coupled to a selected location in the patient's body by a catheter that is introduced into the body and positioned in a bodily region of interest. The fluid pressure in the selected region is then communicated to the medical transducer through the catheter.
In general, to measure and monitor a selected bodily pressure, the catheter is first filled with a sterile saline solution and de-bubbled. A hypodermic needle is then inserted into a selected portion of the body, such as a blood vessel. The catheter is then threaded through the hypodermic needle and directed into the body until the tip of the catheter is positioned at a location where the bodily pressure measurement is desired. When the catheter is suitably positioned, the needle may be removed, and the opening may be taped to secure the catheter tip at the selected location. The opposing end of the catheter is coupled to pressure tubing that is also similarly filled with a saline solution, which is then coupled to the pressure transducer. The pressure transducer may also be coupled to an external monitoring device and/or other devices, such as a visual display that permits the bodily pressure waveform of the patient to be viewed directly.
In the foregoing description, it is apparent that the various components of the bodily pressure measurement apparatus are exposed to the bodily fluid of the patient. Heightened concerns relating to the transmission of blood-borne pathogens, including hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have spurred the development of medical instruments, devices, and other items that are disposable to minimize the likelihood of transmitting infectious diseases between patients. Accordingly, disposable devices that are configured to measure and/or monitor a bodily pressure have been developed. Such disposable devices typically include a pressure sensor having an attached electrical cable, and an attached plastic housing that includes a valve device and associated tubing, which are generally fabricated as a single unit and provided to a medical provider as a single unit in a sterile package. Since a disposable pressure sensing assembly is intended to be used to measure and/or monitor a bodily pressure in a single patient and discarded afterwards, the cost associated with the use of such disposable assemblies may be relatively high. In particular, the pressure transducer and the associated electrical cable generally constitute the most costly components of the disposable assembly.
What is needed is a pressure sensing assembly for use in a patient monitoring system having a disposable first portion that is exposed to the patient-contacting fluid path, and a reusable second portion that remains isolated from the patient-contacting fluid path that includes the relatively costly components, such as the pressure transducer and the associated electrical cable.

Reusable invasive fluid pressure monitoring apparatus and method


This invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing passive shimming for a superconducting magnet of the type that has a relatively small imaging volume. Such structures of this type, generally, provide the proper amount of passive shimming for a relatively small imaging volume.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing passive shimming for a superconducting magnet of the type that has a relatively small imaging volume. Such structures of this type, generally, provide the proper amount of passive shimming for a relatively small imaging volume.
2. Description of the Related Art
In magnetic resonance (MR) imaging systems, the magnetic field inhomogeneities have to be less than a few parts per million (ppm) for producing good images. Therefore, a superconducting magnet is designed for a homogeneous field distribution of only a few (ppm) within the imaging volume. However, once built, due to the manufacturing tolerances, lead routings, and other manufacturing difficulties, the ppm inhomogeneities are usually in the range of hundreds. Active or passive shimming needs to be used to homogenize the magnetic field.
In recent years, due to its lower cost, simplicity, and capabilities, passive shimming has been the preferred method of field inhomogeneity correction. Exemplary of such passive shimming systems are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,698,611 and 4,771,244 entitled "Passive Shimming Assembly for MR Magnet" and "Method for Passively Shimming Magnetic Resonance Magnet", respectively, both to M. E. Vermilyea and both assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. While these prior passive shimming assemblies have met with a modicum of success, due to the compact nature of an imaging system which images only the limbs, the space available for passive shimming is extremely limited. In order to keep the length of the MR system down and the inside diameter of the MR system large, the magnet coils and the gradient coil need to be physically very close. This is in fact the area where passive shims need to be placed. Therefore, a passive shimming systems needs to be designed which will occupy the least amount of physical space.
It is apparent from the above that there exists a need in the art for a passive shim/gradient coil assembly which is light weight and compact through simplicity of parts and uniqueness of structure, and which at least equals the shimming and gradient coil characteristics of known shimming and gradient coil systems, but which at the same time is capable of providing passive shimming and a gradient coil for a relatively small imaging volume. It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill this and other needs in the art in a manner more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the following disclosure.

Apparatus and method for passive shimming of a superconducting magnet which images human limbs


A hybrid vehicle having a power-transferable combination of an engine and a motor-generator is controlled to prevent a vehicle vibration while preventing an over-revolution of the engine when the engine is started. In such control, while the engine is determined to be in a starting state, an instruction value correction is performed for correcting a per-unit-time change amount of an actuator instruction value, such as a target air intake amount and/or a target air load amount, according to a target output of the engine so that a steep increase of the engine revolution speed is prevented. With such a correction of the instruction value, an air intake amount of the engine and the engine revolution speed is gradually increased, thereby preventing the over-revolution of the engine and a steep increase of a load torque of the motor-generator, which prevents vehicle vibration when the engine is started.

As disclosed in a patent document 1 (i.e., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. JP-A-2004-324589), a vehicle having an idle-stop function may have an over-revolution prevention function to prevent an over or excessive revolution speed of the engine by applying a load torque from the motor-generator to the engine when the engine is re-started. In such configuration, the load torque from the motor-generator is proportionally increased when the engine revolution speed becomes high.
In the technique of the patent document 1, the load torque from the motor-generator is increased in proportion to the level of the engine revolution speed at the engine start time. However, when the load torque from the motor-generator is steeply increased, such a steep load torque increase may cause vibration of the vehicle. A steep increase may be a sharp, immediate, sudden, or abrupt torque increase or torque spike.
Further, in the technique of the above-mentioned patent document 1, since the load torque from the motor-generator is increased only when an accelerator opening is fully closed at the engine start time for the prevention of the over-revolution of the engine, the over-revolution of the engine at a certain engine start time, such as when the accelerator opening is not fully closed or when the accelerator is open even in a little degree, will not be prevented. More practically, when the engine in the hybrid vehicle is started in response to an acceleration request during a travel of the vehicle, excessive engine speed may not be prevented by the technique in the patent document 1.


In an electric power steering system, a vehicle reactive force model computes a correction spring reactive torque in such a manner that an elasticity component included in a steering reactive force is increased with an increase in a lateral acceleration. As the lateral acceleration increases, an increase in a basic drive torque is suppressed by a larger amount. By an amount by which the magnitude of the basic drive torque is suppressed, a target pinion angle computed by a target pinion angle computing unit decreases and a correction component for a basic assist component is decreased. A steering assist force is decreased, and a steering reactive force is increased with a decrease in the steering assist force. Thus, it is possible to obtain an appropriate steering reactive force based on the magnitude of the lateral acceleration.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electric power steering system.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there is an electric power steering system (hereinafter, referred to as "EPS") that assists a driver's steering operation by supplying power generated by an electric motor to a steering mechanism of a vehicle. For example, a controller of an EPS described in Japanese Patent No. 4453012 controls an electric motor based on a steering torque, a steering angle, and a wheel steered angle acquired by various sensors.
The controller has first and second normative models (models in which the purpose of the control is formulated). The first normative model defines a relationship between a steering angle and a target steering torque. The second normative model defines a relationship between a steering torque and a target steered angle. The controller executes proportional-integral-derivative control (PID control) that is a kind of feedback control based on the target steering torque and the target steered angle that are respectively determined by the first and second normative models.
The controller computes a deviation of an actual steering torque from the target steering torque determined by the first normative model and a deviation of an actual steered angle from the target steered angle determined by the second normative model. Then, the controller controls the electric motor so as to eliminate the deviations. The controller controls the electric motor to cause the actual steering torque and the actual steered angle to follow the target steering torque and the target steered angle, respectively.
The second normative model defines the target steered angle that is an ideal steered angle corresponding to the steering torque. Through the feedback control of the steered angle executed based on the second normative model, it is possible to reliably obtain a rigid steering feel, but a driver's sense of unity with a vehicle may be insufficient depending on driving conditions. For example, when a steering wheel is turned largely, the driver senses a lateral acceleration corresponding to the operation amount of the steering wheel, but the response (steering reactive force) that the driver senses at his/her hands from the steering wheel does not change. This is because the steering reactive force corresponds only to the target steered angle defined by the second normative model. As a result, the driver may feel uncomfortable due to an imbalance between the magnitude of the lateral acceleration actually sensed by the driver's body and the response that the driver senses at his/her hands from the steering wheel.


A policy management system is described herein which generates rules based, at least in part, on reputation information provided by at least one reputation source and client event information forwarded by filtering logic. The policy management system then deploys the rules to the filtering logic. The filtering logic, which resides in-network between clients and at least one service, uses the rules to process client event information sent by the clients to the service(s). In one illustrative environment, the service corresponds to an ad hosting service, which uses the policy management system and filtering logic to help prevent malicious client traffic from reaching the ad host service, or otherwise negatively affecting the ad hosting service.

Online services are subject to various threats. For example, a malicious entity may orchestrate a click fraud campaign by using a collection of software agents (commonly referred to as BOTs) to automatically click on advertisements. In another case, a malicious entity may perform a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack by sending a large amount of bogus traffic to a service. In another case, a malicious entity may attempt to steal information from a service by repetitively attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in the service. In another case, a malicious entity may direct fake traffic to its own site for the purpose of elevating its ranking score in a search engine. These examples are cited by way of illustrative, not limitation; many other types of malicious activity are prevalent in today's network environments.
In some cases, an administrator of a service can manually correct or ameliorate the damage caused by an attack that has already occurred, once discovered. This approach, however, is neither efficient nor fully effective in all situations.

Reputation-based in-network filtering of client event information


A light polymerization device particularly suitable for the polymerization of dental material. The device includes a housing, a fan installed in the housing, the fan being in particular an axial fan, and a light source which emits polymerization radiation. The rotational axis of the fan extends transversely to the emission axis of the light source, and the air outlet of the fan can be on a side of the housing.

Light polymerization devices of the type which are operated as hand-held devices typically include a substantially strong light radiation source which emits light radiation that subsequently passes through a light guide, such light polymerization devices serving to polymerize dental materials. The light radiation source is, typically, a light source which is also, however, partially a heat source, whereby the term "light" also comprises ultraviolet radiation.
Such light sources and light radiation sources typically give off heat in the form of heat loss, which must be conducted away from the decidedly compact hand-held device.
In fact, it has already been suggested to provide substantially large cooling ribs around the light source and to rely upon natural convection to ensure the conducting away of heat.
It is precisely with respect to high performance halogen light sources, however, that a cooling approach of this type is not sufficient, whereby, in all such cases, a cooling operation by a fan is provided.
In the prior art, such a fan cooling involves an axial fan deployed for the cooling, whose dimensions are selected in correspondence with the diameter of the housing of the hand-held device so that the cooling air stream flows through the hand-held device substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis thereof. Since it would not be acceptable for a fan to blow air onto the patient treatment location, the air outlet is most often provided on the back side of the housing.
DE-OS 34 11 996 discloses an approach to prevent the result that the fan directly blows onto the dentist applying the treatment or, as the occasion arises, onto the attending dental technician, wherein the air outlet is somewhat downwardly inclined so that the cooling airflow at least is not directed toward the face of the dentist or the dental technician.
The heretofore conventional light polymerization devices having forced cooling characteristically produce, across the full range of such products, an airflow from the patient to the dentist. This means, however, on the one hand, that a significant risk of infection exists for the dentist; at the least, the exhalations of the patient are directly guided toward the dentist.
In order to reduce the risk of infection somewhat, many dentists wear a mouth protector at least during the time of the light polymerization device treatment. This, however, is frequently perceived as unpleasant so that this precautionary measure is, in many instances, not undertaken.
A further problem is the creation of noise from the hand-held device due to the fan operation. With respect to a hand-held device, compact dimensions are desired. Correspondingly, there remains only a decidedly small gap available for the fan airflow. A particular problem is the reflector associated with the light source of the light polymerization device. The reflector has a conventionally known conical form and its outer diameter is only somewhat relatively smaller than the inner diameter of the housing.
At the particular location of the reflector, only a small annular gap is available which thus raises the necessity of a high flow velocity and, consequently, the creation of a comparatively large noise condition. Moreover, a substantially strong fan must be deployed in order to achieve a sufficient cooling in spite of this flow resistance. This fan brings with it not only the necessity of a rapid discharge of the storage battery power supply but, additionally, brings with it the generation of a decidedly strong noise condition.
In order, nonetheless, to make possible a practical working time, it is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,129 to use a substantially large storage battery power supply which, at the same time, is user-friendly in that it lowers the center of mass of the hand-held device, the storage battery power supply being received in the pistol grip of the hand-held device.
Such an approach, in fact, reduces the disadvantage of shortened storage battery power supply time associated with other conventional light polymerization device hand-held devices. The hand-held device is, however, significantly heavy and, consequently, less amenable to a user-friendly hand-held device operation.
A further problem of the known light polymerization devices, which is linked with the afore-described problems, lies in the comparatively reduced effective cooling efficiency. While the cooling air passing through the annular gap around the reflector—that is, around the outer circumference of the reflector—exhibits a substantially high flow velocity, the respective flow velocity and, consequently, the respective cooling effectiveness, is lower at precisely the location of the highest temperature—namely, in the vicinity of the filament.
In order to compensate for this disadvantageous impact, two measures had been suggested: on the one hand, cooling ribs for the cooling body have been extended around the entire reflector so that they reach even to the annular gap. This approach improves, in fact, the cooling effectiveness substantially but, however, requires the production of a difficult to manufacture and comparatively heavy reflector.
The other approach provides for a reduction in the flow cross-section in the region of the filament—namely, on the back side of the reflector. In this manner, the flow velocity is also comparatively high at that location and an improved cooling is possible. A disadvantage of this approach is, however, that the flow resistance in total increases still further so that, while the cooling effectiveness improves, the flow resistance also, however, increases.


The arrangement of a magnetic coupling coil (2) and a transponder circuit (1) on a vehicle wheel (5) allows wireless data communication with an interrogation circuit (3) arranged on a fixed structure of the vehicle on which the wheel is mounted so as to be able to rotate about at least one rotational axis (9). The magnetic coupling coil is mounted coaxially to the rotational axis of the wheel and defines a closed loop. This coupling coil acts as an inductive coupling interface between an antenna coil (10) of the transponder and an excitation coil (4) of the interrogation circuit. This magnetic coupling coil comprises a loop portion (2″) oriented such that the magnetic field (11′) in the magnetic coupling coil, which is induced by a primary magnetic field (8) generated by the interrogation circuit excitation coil, is directed in this loop portion in a substantially perpendicular direction to the primary magnetic field. The antenna coil (10) of the transponder circuit, which is arranged in a winding (2″) of the coupling coil loop portion, is oriented so that only the magnetic field induced in the coupling coil loop portion passes therethrough without being influenced by the primary magnetic field.

Wireless data communication using inductive signals between an antenna coil of a transponder circuit arranged on a vehicle wheel and an excitation coil of an interrogation circuit mounted on the vehicle body is well known. An arrangement of the transponder circuit with its antenna coil on the wheel can be chosen such that data communication is, if possible, independent of the position of the transponder on the tyre in relation to the interrogation circuit. Data communicated between the transponder circuit and the interrogation circuit can be identification data and/or data concerning measurements carried out by one or several of the transponder circuit sensors.
As can be seen with reference to FIGS. 1a and 1b, transponder circuit 1 is for example mounted on an inner wall of tyre 6 of vehicle wheel 5 with a magnetic coupling coil 2. An interrogation circuit 3 fixed onto a fixed structure of the vehicle communicates data to the transponder circuit via a primary magnetic field 8 generated by an excitation coil 4.
The magnetic coupling coil 2 is mounted coaxially to the rotational axis that passes through the centre of the wheel rim 7 such that data communication with interrogation circuit 3 is, if possible, independent of the position of the transponder circuit on the wheel. This coupling coil can define a closed loop in order to act as an inductive interface between excitation coil 4 of interrogation circuit 3 and an antenna coil of the transponder circuit, which is not shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b. The magnetic coupling coil can also be directly connected to the transponder to act as the transponder circuit antenna coil.
In the example shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b, transponder 1 is directly connected to magnetic coupling coil 2 which thus acts as the transponder circuit antenna coil. Coupling coil 2 is preferably arranged at the periphery of the vehicle tyre, as described generally in DE Patent No. 199 24 830, which shows this embodiment. The primary magnetic field 8 originating from excitation coil 4 of interrogation circuit 3 induces a current in the antenna coil. This induced current also induces a secondary magnetic field 11 in an opposite direction to the primary magnetic field.
Since transponder 1 is directly connected to the magnetic coupling coil as the transponder circuit antenna coil, it can be integrated in the tyre structure in an initial phase of the tyre manufacturing steps. However, it may undergo mechanical stresses, which are linked to the temperature increase, and to the bending or compression of certain parts of the tyre when the vehicle is moving, which is a drawback, since in the event of a failure, it is relatively difficult to change the transponder circuit.
Transponder 1 can also be connected to the magnetic coupling coil after the tyre manufacturing steps by using a specific connector. However, with a connector of this type, over time and with the various stresses to which the tyre is subjected, a poor connection has been observed between the transponder and the antenna coil.
In the example shown in FIGS. 3a and 3b, transponder circuit 1 comprises its own antenna coil 10. A coupling coil 2 in the form of a closed loop acts as the inductive coupling interface between the transponder circuit antenna coil and an excitation coil 4 of interrogation circuit 3.
As can be seen in FIGS. 3a and 3b, when transponder circuit 1 is in proximity to excitation coil 4, induced magnetic field 11 of the coupling coil and primary field 8, which is opposite to induced magnetic field 11, passes through its antenna coil 10. Consequently, since the direction of the primary magnetic field is opposite to the direction of the induced magnetic field in closed loop coupling coil 2, a loss of data or energy can be observed at the moment when transponder circuit 1 is opposite excitation coil 4 of the interrogation circuit.
When transponder circuit 1 is far from excitation coil 4, only induced magnetic field 11 in coupling coil 2 transmits energy and data thereto. Despite the presence of the coupling coil, the transmission of energy or data is dependent upon the rotation of vehicle wheel 5 and thus upon the position of the transponder circuit on said wheel, which is a major drawback. This problem can also be observed when the transponder circuit communicates with the interrogation circuit.
In this regard, EP Patent No. 1 354 729 can be cited, which describes the arrangement of a transponder circuit with a magnetic coupling coil as described with reference to FIGS. 3a and 3b. However, the coupling coil and the tyre identification and monitoring transponder circuit are preferably mounted in a tyre tread. However, such an arrangement is also dependent upon the position of the transponder in relation to the excitation coil of an interrogation circuit, which is a drawback.
By way of alternative embodiment shown in FIGS. 4a and 4b, the magnetic coupling coil 2 can comprise a loop portion 2′ surrounding antenna coil 10 of transponder circuit 1. This has the effect of increasing the intensity of induced field 11 penetrating antenna coil 10 without modifying the dependence of the position of transponder 1 as indicated hereinbefore. When transponder circuit 1 is in proximity to excitation coil 4 of interrogation circuit 3, the resulting field penetrating the antenna coil is the sum of the primary magnetic field and the opposite sign induced field of the coupling coil, which is a drawback for data and electrical energy transmission.

Arrangement of a magnetic coupling coil and a transponder circuit on a vehicle wheel


Methods and apparatuses for testing image sensors are disclosed. Desirable apparatuses of the present invention include image sensor testing devices comprising a digital light projection system capable of projecting static or dynamic images onto an image sensing device under test and an image sensor signal detection means for analyzing the output of said image sensing device under test. The digital light projection system comprises a light source, collimating optics, a digital micromirror device, and focusing optics. Other desirable methods and apparatuses of the present invention include image sensor testing devices employing a digital light projection system capable of simultaneously testing a plurality of image sensors. According to the present invention, the light source is calibrated and converted to a desired test image by the digital micromirror device. The test image is then focused onto an image sensor, the output of which is read by a detector and correlated with the input digital test image.

A conventional image sensor is composed of an array of individual light sensitive circuits called pixels that are organized in rows and columns. A row of pixels has a common line connecting the control gates of their respective access transistors. Data is passed from a pixel through its access transistor to a data line. Each column of pixels is connected to a common data line.
There are a number of different types of semiconductor-based imagers including charge coupled devices (CCD), photodiode arrays, and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imagers. A CMOS imager circuit, for example, includes a focal plane array of pixel cells; each cell includes a photosensor, for example, a photogate, photoconductor or a photodiode overlying a substrate for producing a photo-generated charge in a doped region of the substrate. A readout circuit is provided for each pixel cell and includes at least a source follower transistor and a row select transistor for coupling the source follower transistor to a column output line. The pixel cell also typically has a floating diffusion node, connected to the gate of the source follower transistor. Charge generated by the photosensor is sent to the floating diffusion node. The imager may also include a transistor for transferring charge from the photosensor to the floating diffusion node and another transistor for resetting the floating diffusion node to a predetermined charge level prior to charge transference.
In a CMOS imager pixel cell, for example, a four transistor (4T) pixel, all the active elements of a pixel cell perform the necessary functions of (1) photon to charge conversion; (2) transfer of charge to the floating diffusion node; (3) resetting the floating diffusion node to a known state before the transfer of charge to it; (4) selection of a pixel cell for readout; and (5) output and amplification of a signal representing a reset voltage and a pixel signal voltage based on the photo converted charges. A three transistor (3T) pixel circuit operates similarly, but omits a transfer transistor for transferring charge from the photosensor to the floating diffusion region and couples the floating diffusion region and photosensor together.
CMOS imagers are generally known and are discussed, for example, in Nixon et al., "256×256 CMOS Active Pixel Sensor Camera-on-a-Chip," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 31(12) pp. 2046-2050, 1996; Mendis et al, "CMOS Active Pixel Image Sensors," IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 41(3) pp. 452-453, 1994 as well as U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,263 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,515, all of which are herein incorporated by reference.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional CMOS imager device 908 having an array 200 of pixel cells, which may be 3 transistor, 4 transistor or pixels using other numbers of transistors. Pixel cell array 200 comprises a plurality of pixel cells arranged in a predetermined number of columns and rows. The pixel cells of each row in array 200 are all turned on at the same time by a row select line, and the pixel cells of each column are selectively output by respective column select lines. The row lines are selectively activated by the row driver 210 in response to row address decoder 220 and the column select lines are selectively activated by the column driver 260 in response to column address decoder 270. The CMOS imager is operated by the control circuit 250 that controls address decoders 220, 270 for selecting the appropriate row and column lines for pixel operation and readout, and row and column driver circuitry 210, 260 that apply driving voltage to the drive transistors of the selected row and column lines. The pixel column signals, which typically each include a pixel reset signal Vrst and a pixel image signal Vsig, for a pixel cell selectively connected to a column line are read by a sample and hold circuit 265 associated with the column driver 260 and are subtracted by amplifier 267 to form a differential signal Vrst−Vsig for each pixel cell which is amplified and then digitized by analog to digital converter 275. The analog to digital converter 275 converts the received analog pixel signals to digital signals, which are fed to an image processor 280 to form a digital image.
The operation of the charge collection of the CMOS imager is known in the art and is described in several publications such as Mendis et al., "Progress in CMOS Active Pixel Image Sensors," SPIE Vol. 2172, pp. 19-29 1994; Mendis et al., "CMOS Active Pixel Image Sensors for Highly Integrated Imaging Systems," IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 32(2), 1997; and Eric R, Fossum, "CMOS Image Sensors: Electronic Camera on a Chip," IEDM Vol. 95 pages 17-25 (1995) as well as other publications. These references are incorporated herein by reference.
Exemplary CMOS imaging circuits, processing steps thereof, and detailed descriptions of the functions of various CMOS elements of an imaging circuit are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,140,630 to Rhodes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,376,868 to Rhodes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,366 to Rhodes et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,652 to Rhodes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,524 to Rhodes, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,333,205 to Rhodes. The disclosures of each of the forgoing are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Image sensor pixel arrays, such as the CMOS imager described above, are subject to various failing mechanisms, which ultimately result in a defective imagers. For example, pixel arrays can be short circuited or open circuited during fabrication and therefore may not perform their proper function. In order to overcome these problems and select arrays that are acceptable for use, defects in the array must be detected.
Image sensor arrays, such as the CMOS imager described above, have traditionally been tested using a calibrated, static light source. Typically, during production testing, an image sensor would be exposed to light of varying intensity ranging from black to white. Measurements are taken to determine the response of the array. The accuracy of this method of testing image sensors, however, is a concern. For example, if two neighboring pixels were shorted together during the manufacturing process, the measured output would be the same as if the pixels were not shorted together. This occurs because both pixels have been exposed to the same intensity of light during the test. The defect may go undetected until the device is placed in a system and tested under "real world" conditions.
Defect detection is especially difficult when it is dependent on human observation of the output as displayed on the viewing device (e.g. a cathode ray tube or liquid crystal display panel). For example, when photons strike an image sensor, such as the CMOS imager described above, the photosensitive region of the sensor converts the photons into current that is subsequently converted via a digital to analog converter into a 10 bit word for viewing by an observer. As the number of pixels on an integrated circuit expands, it becomes increasingly difficult for a human to detect faults. Special training is required for the human observers; and even then, human interpretation plays a major role in the determination of acceptable products. Unfortunately, humans lack consistent observational skills due to their very nature and varying levels of alertness throughout the day. Therefore, this type of testing is not acceptable for high volume, cost sensitive, image sensor products.
Other image sensor testing techniques have problems as well. For example, when image sensors are tested using static test images, care must be taken to align adjacent light and dark potions of the test images with adjacent rows or columns of pixels. This alignment process can be difficult and time consuming. Furthermore, static test images are not capable of testing an image sensor for various failing mechanisms across the entire pixel array.
Therefore, there is a need and desire for an automated apparatus and method of efficiently testing an entire array of image sensors that overcomes the shortcomings of conventional testing techniques.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for testing image sensors


An in-plane switching mode liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel. The liquid crystal panel includes first and second substrates and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second substrates. The first substrate includes a common electrode and a pixel electrode thereon. A top case is mounted over the second substrate and covers the second substrate. A driving unit is connected to the first substrate and outputs a common voltage. At least one common voltage transmission wire is configured to contact an inner surface of the top case and connected to the driving unit. At least one common voltage applying conductor is connected to the common voltage transmission wire and the common electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly, to an in-plane switching (IPS) mode liquid crystal display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal display (LCD) devices include an upper substrate, a lower substrate, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the substrates. The LCD devices further include polarizers and retardation films at outer surfaces of the upper and lower substrates. The polarizers and retardation films are selectively used to change polarization, transmittance and/or refraction direction of a light. Thus, LCD devices having high brightness and contrast may be achieved. The LCD devices may be widely used for notebook computers because of a slim structure and low power consumption.
A twisted nematic ("TN") mode is one type of the LCD devices. The TN mode LCD devices are frequently used but they may not be suitable for a large size display device because a light transmittance in a gray scale varies according to viewing angles. Further, in the TN mode LCD devices, the light transmittance is almost symmetric over a broad range of viewing angles from left and right directions with respect to a center portion of the devices. On the other hand, the light transmittance may not be symmetric at viewing angles from upper and lower directions with respect to the center portion of the devices. Therefore, images may be reversed in a certain range at viewing angles from the upper and lower directions, and viewing angles of the device may be narrowed.
In-plane switching mode liquid crystal display ("IPS-LCD") devices may provide an improved viewing angle. In the IPS-LCD devices, electrodes for driving liquid crystal molecules are formed on the same substrate, and the liquid crystal molecules are driven by an electric field parallel to the substrates. The IPS-LCD devices have improved viewing angle characteristics such as contrast, gray inversion and color shift.
FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view illustrating a pixel of an IPS LCD device 10 according to the related art. In FIG. 1, a gate line 13 and a data line 15 are formed on a substrate and cross each other to define a pixel region P. A pixel electrode 17 and a common electrode 19 are formed in the pixel region P. The pixel electrode 17 and the common electrode 19 are disposed in an alternate pattern as shown in FIG. 1. Although not shown, a thin film transistor is formed at a crossing portion of the gate line 13 and the data line 15. Liquid crystal molecules 21 are driven by an electric field 23 induced between the pixel electrode 17 and the common electrode 19 when voltage is applied to the pixel electrode 17 and the common electrode 19. The electric field 23 is parallel to the substrate.
In the IPS LCD device, the liquid crystal molecules 21 are arranged along the same direction due to the electric field 23 between the pixel electrode 17 and the common electrode 19. The arranged liquid crystal molecules 21 form a domain and multi-domains are formed in one pixel region. As a result, the IPS LCD device may have a wide viewing angle.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating an IPS LCD device of FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, an upper substrate 29 and a lower substrate 33 are attached with the liquid crystal molecules 21 disposed therebetween. The upper substrate 29 includes a color filter layer (not shown) on an inner surface thereof, and the lower substrate 33 includes pixel and common electrodes (not shown) on an inner surface thereof. A rear electrode 27 is formed on an outer surface of the upper substrate 29, and an upper polarizer 31 is disposed over the rear electrode 27. The rear electrode 27 is formed of a transparent conductive material such as indium tin oxide. The rear electrode 27 cuts off static electricity from the outside and prevents deterioration of image quality.
A lower polarizer 35 is disposed over an outer surface of the lower substrate 33, and a backlight unit 37 is disposed over the lower polarizer 35. The backlight unit 37 includes several optical films such as a diffusion sheet and a prism sheet so that light is uniformly provided all over the surface of the lower substrate 33.
FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view illustrating the IPS LCD device of FIG. 2. In the IPS LCD device, a common voltage, which is also provided to a gate driving unit, is applied to a lower substrate including thin film transistors through a tape carrier package (TCP). In FIG. 3, upper and lower substrates 29 and 33 are attached such that peripheral portions at adjacent two sides of the lower substrate 33 are exposed by the upper substrate 29. A data driving unit 40 and a gate driving unit 42 are connected to the peripheral portions of the lower substrate 33 through tape carrier packages (TCPs) 44 and provide signals to elements of the lower substrate 33. The data driving unit 40 and the gate driving unit 42 may be formed on printed circuit boards (PCBs). The TCPs 44 are flexible and include driver integrated circuits (ICs) 50. The driver ICs 50 output image signals and/or scan signals. In addition, dummy lines may be formed in the peripheral portion of the lower substrate 33.
The data and gate driving units 40 and 42 are folded toward and placed on an outer surface of a top case (not shown) when the top case is combined with the attached substrates 29 and 33.
The data driving unit 40 includes a common voltage generating circuit (not shown). A common voltage Vcom is generated from the common voltage generating circuit and is output to a common voltage output node 52. The common voltage Vcom is applied to the common electrode 19 of FIG. 1 on the lower substrate 33 through the TCP 44. When the top case is combined with the substrates 29 and 33 and the data and gate driving units 40 and 42 are folded toward the outer surface of the top case, the common voltage output node 52 is connected to a common voltage input node 54 of the gate driving unit 42. The common voltage Vcom is also applied to the common electrode 19 of FIG. 1 on the lower substrate 33 through the gate driving unit 42 and the TCP 44.
In the IPS LCD device 10, the TCPs may be disconnected or mismatched with the common electrode during the manufacturing process. Furthermore, contact resistance exists between the TCPs and the lower substrate. Therefore, when the common voltage is applied to the common electrode, signals may be distorted. The distortion of the signals may exacerbate due to parasitic capacitances in pixels on the lower substrate, and a greenish phenomenon or shutdown cross-talk may occur because of imperfect response of the liquid crystal molecules.

In-plane switching mode liquid crystal display device with common voltage transmission wire


A fluid powered vehicle seat adjustment system comprising a fluid actuator a source of pressurized hydraulic fluid and a controller. The fluid actuator including first and second inlet/outlet conduits, and the controller selectively controlling and directing pressurized fluid selectively to either the first or second inlet/outlets of the actuator. The actuator further comprising actuator isolation valves associated with each of the first and second inlet/outlets of the actuator. Each actuator isolation valve allowing a flow of fluid from the actuator only when pressurized fluid is supplied to the actuator and other isolation valve in order to prevent movement of the actuator except when pressurized fluid is supplied to the actuator.

The present invention relates to a vehicle seats, and in particular to hydraulically or fluid powered adjustable automotive vehicle seats.
Adjustable vehicle seats are provided to comfortably accommodate various sizes and shapes of vehicle occupants. Typically at least the fore and aft position of the seat along with the angle of the seat back are adjustable via suitable adjustment and locking mechanisms. Other adjustment of the seat position, and/or parts of the seat, for example adjustment of the seat height and/or tilt, or of the headrest or lumber support position, may also be provided. The seat adjustment mechanisms may be manually operable, or increasingly some or all may be power operated. Conventionally such power operated adjustment mechanisms comprise separate individual electric motors mounted within the seat driving each adjustment mechanism though suitable gearing.
Hydraulic or fluid powered seat adjustment mechanisms in which pressurised fluid provided from a pump, is supplied via a control valve to piston/cylinder actuators to adjust the position of the seat or portions of the seat, have been proposed instead of electric powered systems. Indeed the earliest of such proposals date back a number of years. An example of such a powered hydraulic adjustment systems is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,625. A simple telescopic powered hydraulic seat height adjustment arrangement is briefly described in GB 2,167,494.
Hydraulic or fluid powered arrangements offer the prospect of extremely quiet, near silent, operation, without the noisy mechanical gearing. Smooth and almost infinitely variable adjustment is also possible with such hydraulic powered arrangements.
In spite of these, and other, advantages of hydraulically powered seat adjustments have not been adopted for widespread automotive vehicle seat use over the considerable number of years since they have initially been proposed. Overall, and although hydraulics are used in other areas in automotive vehicles (for example braking systems), and also in non automotive fields, those skilled in the art of vehicle seat design would not generally from a practical stance consider using hydraulic powered seat adjustment systems. Indeed the conventional trend is away from hydraulics in general in automotive applications and to electric powered systems. A distinction should also be drawn between hydraulic or fluid powered adjustment systems, and the more basic and simple hydraulic locking systems and/or damper arrangements.
A particular problem with seat adjustment arrangements, and in particular fluid powered arrangements, for automotive use is to provide adequate locking of the seat adjustment. For automotive use it is a requirement that the seat and seat portions once set are securely locked and fixed under all operating conditions and especially in the event of a vehicle crash. In a vehicle crash or impact large forces can be applied to the seat and seat portions which can generate extremely high pressures within a hydraulic adjustment system, which are significantly above the normal operating pressures and for example may be in the region of 1700 bar. The adjustment system must be capable of withstanding these pressures and maintain the locked position of the seat or seat portion. As a result the pipework, pump, actuators, and control valve need to be significantly oversized, and built to a much higher quality, than is required to simply withstand the normal operating conditions and pressure. This increases the resultant costs. In addition even under normal operating conditions leakage from or within the pipework, control valve and pump can undesirably result in movement of the set seat positions. To prevent this the seals within the pump, pipework and control valves must be built to a high quality and standard with resultant cost implications.
To address the problems associated with crash loading and the high pressures generated in fluid powered adjustment systems it has been proposed in co-pending UK patent application number 0324558.6, in the name of Lear Corporation, to incorporate system protection valves within the actuator. These system protection valves are adapted to be activated in the event of the pressure within the actuator exceeding a predetermined level and close off the inlet and outlet of the actuators. This isolates or limits the transmission of high pressures from the actuator to the remainder of the hydraulic system to protect the remainder of the hydraulic system from the excessive pressure which may be generated in the actuators in the event of crash loading. Whilst such system protection valves provide an improvement, and limit the pressures to which the remainder of the hydraulic system is subjected, thereby reducing costs, they do not address the potential problems of locking the actuators during normal use when leakage through the control valves or other associated parts may allow the actuator to undesirably move.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,743,591, 3,760,911, 3,860,098 and 6,161,633 all disclose various manually operated, unpowered, hydraulic adjustable seat locking arrangements incorporating various manually activated control valves. U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,591further includes a crash sensing system which is normally open and closes in a crash condition. None of these prior proposals however address the above described specifc problems. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,015,130 and 3,777,617 described non automotive hydraulically adjustable chair arrangements which are very different from automotive adjustable seats and automotive seat requirements. U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,647 discloses a relief valve although this is for a brake system.

Vehicle seat adjustment with actuator isolation valves


A CMOS to PECL voltage level converter includes a pad driver containing drive compensation circuitry and a feedback circuit for sensing the output drive level and providing control signals to the drive compensation circuitry for compensating for temperature and process variations while minimizing power consumption.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voltage level converter for interfacing signals between different families of logic circuits. In particular, this invention relates to an improved voltage level converter for converting from Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) to Positive Emitter Coupled Logic (PECL) logic levels, that is insensitive to process and temperature variations and has low power consumption.
2. Description of Related Art
Positive Emitter Coupled Logic (PECL) is used to transmit data at high speeds. PECL logic was initially implemented using bipolar devices. However these devices consumed a significant amount of power and this technology required a complex fabrication process. BICMOS devices were then introduced to improve speed and reduce power consumption. Subsequent advances in NMOS and CMOS technologies have made it possible to implement PECL in these technologies and further reduce power consumption and reduce cost. However, the logic levels of conventional CMOS logic devices and PECL logic devices are very different. This necessitates the use of special logic voltage level converters when interfacing between CMOS and PECL devices. The situation is further complicated by the increased propagation delay in the converter and lower signal fidelity of the CMOS circuitry. As PECL devices are essentially used in high-speed applications, use differential signals and operate with relatively small signal swings the voltage level converter must provide high switching speed and introduce minimal noise and signal skew. The situation is compounded by the fact that in a PECL device fabrication processes produce large variations in logic levels thereby adversely affecting the noise margin. Existing CMOS to PECL voltage level converter do not provide desired compensation for parameter variations arising out of process tolerances.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,602 describes a voltage converter for CMOS to PECL logic levels. This patent teaches a constant current source for providing an initial current to sustain a PECL low logic level. A voltage divider, coupled to the constant current source, stabilizes the initial current provided from the constant current source. A switchable constant current source provides an additional current to the initial current from the constant current source to sustain an ECL high logic level. A biasing means, coupled to the constant current source and the switchable constant current source, provides a voltage offset to the initial current from the constant current source and the additional current from the switchable current source. This arrangement consumes significant power owing to continuous current through the voltage divider. Also, a desired output voltage level variation tracking the supply voltage variations does not exist as in logic low state the gate to source voltage of the pull up transistor changes with voltage variation whereas its drain to source voltage remain constant. Since the compensation is particularly required when the output of the driver achieves a high logic level thus, the compensation provided by the constant current is not very effective owing to output voltage variations as a result of process parameter spreads and temperature. A further disadvantage is that the switchable constant current source (source follower) needs to be sized larger than the constant current source (pull up transistor) to achieve an adequate high logic level, resulting in increased area.


Network traffic flow records received from a network probe are recorded in multiple sets of buckets of different granularity, optimized for the purpose of almost instant analysis and display as well as for longer term report generation. The flow data is pre-processed and stored redundantly in parallel in multiple bucketized data base tables of different time window sizes. Denormalized tables keyed on different combinations of traffic flow attributes are precomputed and stored in parallel tables redundantly to facilitate a near real time display of summarized network traffic data, and a capability to rapidly generate reports for different monitoring periods.

In computer networks, it is frequently of interest to monitor and analyse network traffic flows for any number of purposes, such as network capacity planning, user billing, or security reasons for example.
In Internet Protocols (IP) networks, a network traffic flow may be defined as a unidirectional sequence of packets that all share a number of attribute values such as IP source and destination address, port numbers, etc. An article at Wikipedia entitled "Netflow", cited in the information disclosure statement for this application, describes a network traffic flow reporting protocol that was originally introduced by Cisco Corporation under the name NetFlow.
Methods for recording and displaying such network traffic flow information are described in the prior art, for example in US patent application 2012/0310952 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,510,830. Because of the increasingly high volume of network traffic flows, the implementation of efficient monitoring and analysis poses unique challenges, requiring optimizations which depend on the purpose of obtaining the network traffic flow information and analyzing or displaying it. Because of the large amount of network traffic to be analyzed, efficient near real-time processing of network traffic flow data continues to be a problem.

Method and system for processing network traffic flow data


In response to a readout instruction, tone reproducing digital data are read out which include information indicative of tone generating events and time lengths. Then, degrading processing is performed to change the information indicative of tone generating events and time lengths, included in the read-out tone reproducing digital data, in accordance with payment of a necessary charge for the digital data, and then the changed tone reproducing digital data are output. By thus performing the degrading processing on the read-out tone reproducing digital data in accordance with the payment of the necessary charge when the digital data are to be transferred or reproduced, there can be achieved an advantageous effect of reliably preventing unauthorized use of the digital data.

The present invention relates to a technique for intentionally degrading tone reproducing digital data, such as those of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) format, to cope with unauthorized use of the digital data when the digital data are transmitted via a wireless or wired transmission path, reproduced or copied.
To date, there have been developed various systems which allow tone reproducing digital data, such as those of the MIDI format, to be downloaded, via communication networks like the Internet, from servers to portable phones, personal computers, karaoke devices, etc. Generally, in these systems, data providers etc., each including a server computer, present users with charges for tone reproducing digital data to be provided, and tone reproducing digital data are delivered or sold from the server to a user terminal that has paid a predetermined charge.
Further, by virtue of short-range communication techniques known today, such as the "IrDA" and "Bluetooth" techniques, tone reproducing digital data, such as those of incoming-call signaling melodies (ring melodies), can also be communicated directly between portable phones without intervention of a server. Such tone reproducing digital data can be transmitted with an almost 100% reproducibility because of the digital nature. Thus, if the tone reproducing digital data are communicated between portable phones, the data, practically equal in data quality to the corresponding chargeable regular content sold through a regular route, may be copied free of charge. Therefore, in such cases, the data provider is unable to collect the charge for the tone reproducing digital data, which can be very great damage to the data providers. Further, copying of the tone reproducing digital data free of charge may constitute infringement on the copyright of the data.

Apparatus and method for processing tone reproducing digital data against unauthorized use


Provided is a cleaning processing device that is for a biological implant and that is capable of quickly eliminating ozone generated by ultraviolet-ray radiation after completion of ultraviolet-ray radiation towards the biological implant. The cleaning processing device for a biological implant performs cleaning processing of the biological implant by means of radiating ultraviolet rays at the surface of the biological implant and by causing ozone to contact the surface of the biological implant, and the cleaning processing device is characterized by being provided with a housing, an ultraviolet-ray radiating lamp that is disposed within the housing and that radiates ultraviolet rays at the biological implant, an ozone-removing filter disposed within the housing, and a fan that introduces the ambient gas within the housing to the ozone-removing filter, and is further characterized by the fan being driven in response to the end of cleaning processing of the biological implant.

Dental implants are implanted into the jawbone so as to substitute for lost teeth. Further, in a dental implant surgery, it is important for a dental implant to be sufficiently coupled to the bone (osseointegration). To this end, it has been proposed to remove organic matter from a dental implant by radiating ultraviolet rays onto the dental implant (see, patent document 1).
On the other hand, in a cleaning processing device used for UV cleaning operation, if oxygen is present in the atmospheric gas within a processing chamber in which a subject to be processed (hereinafter, simply referred to as "a subject") is disposed, radiated ultraviolet rays result in the generation of ozone. Thereby, the subject is subjected to both the ultraviolet-ray radiation and the ozone treatment, so that the organic matter can be very efficiently removed from the subject due to a synergy effect resulting from the ultraviolet-ray radiation and the ozone treatment.
Moreover, the cleaning process using the ultraviolet rays and the ozone is considered to be capable of very efficiently eliminating organic matter from a biological implant other than a dental implant, for example, a femur implant or the like.

Cleaning processing device for biological implant


Intercalation cathode materials especially suited for use in high-voltage, high-energy lithium rechargeable batteries, having the formulae Li[Li(1-2x)/3MyMn(2−x)/3Ni(x-y)O2, where 0<x<0.5, 0<y≦0.25, x>y, and M is one or more divalent cations from Ca, Cu, Mg, and Zn. A process for making such materials is also provided.

Lithium ion batteries are of great technological interest for application in a variety of contexts, ranging from cell phones, laptop computers, and electric vehicles, to use in energy backup systems. Their broadest usage at present is in portable electronic devices.
Lithium ion batteries consist of two lithium intercalation electrodes (an anode and a cathode) and an ionically-conducting electrolyte. A suitable cathode material should have a high potential versus lithium, reversibly insert lithium ions without losing structural integrity, and not induce reactions with the electrolyte. Candidate materials for lithium ion battery cathodes are typically lithiated transition metal oxides. The most commercially used cathode materials are described by the formulae LiCoO2 and LiCoxNi1−xO2(x<0.3), and deliver moderate capacity and good cyclability. However, the cost and safety concerns (notably, the tendency toward instability at low lithium contents) associated with these compounds make them less than ideal. Thus, much research has taken place to find alternatives to LiCoxNi1−xO2 cathode materials.
One widely studied species is LiMn2O4 and its derivatives, also known as spinel. Unfortunately, these materials experience Mn2+ dissolution into the electrolyte, producing rapid capacity loss on cycling or storage above room temperature. Substitution of a portion of the Mn by other elements (Li, Mg, Zn, or Al, for example) creates compositions with greater stability, but the initial reversible capacity is reduced substantially.
Another alternative which has been suggested, and which possesses the same layered structure as LiCoxNi1−xO2, is LiMnO2 and its derivatives, in which the Mn is partially replaced with a stabilizing cation. U.S. Pat. No. 6,214,493 to Bruce et al. discloses in this regard that laminar LiyMnO2, a material inherently unstable when delithiated, is much less susceptible to structural degradation when another metal replaces a minority portion of the Mn. The stabilizing element may be any metal, but is most typically a transition metal in its +3 oxidation state, including Co, Al, and Fe. A further refinement taught by Bruce is the addition of 'excess' lithium (i.e., y>1) to strengthen the lattice.
Patent Cooperation Treaty Application No. PCT/US02/24684, published as WO 03/015198A2 (Dahn et al), describes materials with the formula Liy[M1−bMnb]O2, where 0≦y<1,0<b<1 and M is Ni, Co or Fe, and wherein the layered O3 crystal structure is maintained (identical to Li[Li1/3Mn2/3]O2). Materials are described as attaining a capacity of 130 mAh/g when charged t 4.3V, similar to spinel and LiCoxNi1−xO2, while charging above 4.5V leads to capacities exceeding 225 mAh/g.
Li2MnO3 (Li[L1/3Mn2/3]O2) and its structural derivatives have also been investigated. Thus, Numata et al. in Solid State Ionics, no. 117, pp. 257-263 (1997) describe a stable, battery-active solid solution of LiCoO2 and Li2MnO3 having the layered structure of the Co compound. Still other references describe layered lithium manganese nickel oxide cathode materials derived from Li2MnO3 and which have the formulae Li[Li(1-2x)/3Mn(2−)/3Nix]O2, see, for example, Lu et al., Electrochemical and Solid State Letters, vol. 4, no. 11, pp A191-A1094 (2001), Lu et al., Journal of the Electrochemical Society, vol. 149, no. 6 pp A778-A791 (2002), and Shin et al., Journal of Power Sources 112, pp 634-638 (2002).
More recently, EP 1 189 296A2 relates the finding by Paulsen et al. that replacing a fraction of the Ni2+ with Co3+ produces intercalation compounds with greater rate capability than the parent LMN family or LiMO2 end members. Both the MnNi and CoMnNi series have significant capacities above 4.2V, but this is a voltage region incompatible with organic electrolyte solvents (including polymers). At such elevated potentials, current flow is forced by electrochemically decomposing solvent molecules into ionic species, most notably producing protons, which may dissolve some of the transition metal out of the cathode. The dissolved species and molecular fragments from the electrolyte subsequently accumulate on the electrodes (typically the anode) and interfere with lithium ion transport, reducing cell capacity.

High voltage laminar cathode materials for lithium rechargeable batteries, and process for making the same


A method for machining a ceramic substrate containing Al, including providing a solution containing a phosphorus compound on the ceramic substrate; and machining the substrate with an abrasive.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to machining ceramic substrates.
2. Description of the Related Art
Machining operations, broadly including grinding, lapping and polishing operations, are widely used throughout various industries in order to obtain desired surface finishes and to shape components. Machining operations are widely utilized in the context of non-metal, inorganic components, such as glass, glass-ceramic and ceramic components, which are deployed in a wide variety of end uses. For example, glass and glass-ceramic components are utilized widely as building materials in both commercial and residential applications. Also, glass materials are widely utilized in electronic packaging, optical applications, and solar applications, and as advanced materials in lighting and architectural applications, and increasingly as flat panel displays.
Machining, and in particular, polishing of substrates is widely used for formation of various devices, including microelectronic devices. For example, during wafer processing to form integrated circuit devices, wafers are subjected to chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) to remove layers and planarize the wafer. In the area of magneto-resistive (MR) head manufacture, aluminum alloy substrates are polished to form jigs, and air-bearing surfaces of read/write heads for hard disk drives (HDD's) are polished and planarized.
In the context of machining, abrasive slurries are commonly used in lapping operations as well as polishing operations. Lapping generally denotes processes utilizing fairly large abrasive particles (e.g., 2-10 microns), and associated high material removal rates. Polishing, on the other hand, generally takes advantage of smaller abrasive particles, yields fairly low material removal rates, and superior surface finishes. Typically, one of the goals of a polishing operation is to provide a planar surface having relatively low surface roughness, free of defects such as scratches, "orange peel," and "pull-out" of material along the exposed surface of the substrate. In addition, with respect to substrates having multiple phases of materials that are being polished (e.g., a hard ceramic portion and a soft conductive layer, such as in the case of HDD recording heads), it is also important to engineer a polishing operation which has a consistent material removal rate across different materials, so as to prevent selective polishing of soft materials of the substrate.
In an effort to increase polishing rates, reduce material removal selectivity, and reduce defects, polishing technology has evolved to combine mechanical removal (i.e., abrasion) of substrate material, along with a chemical reactive process. Such processes have been described in the industry as chemical-mechanical polishing, CMP, as noted above. The development of CMP processes and slurries containing such chemical and mechanical components have been intensely studied in certain areas such as semiconductor processing. However, a need continues to exist in the art for improved machining operations and slurries for carrying out such operations, and in particular, slurries and operations intended to polish aluminum-containing ceramics, such as alumina, alumina composites, non-oxide aluminum containing ceramics and the like.
Other technologies focus on use of a fixed abrasive, in which the abrasive particles are fixed in position. Here, a fixed abrasive is generally defined as one of two types of abrasive components, a bonded abrasive or a coated abrasive component. Coated abrasives generally have a flexible backing to which abrasive particles are bonded, while bonded abrasives are generally composed of abrasive particles that are bonded together such as by a matrix that forms an intergranular bonding phase. Such fixed abrasives should be contrasted against free abrasives or abrasive slurries, in which the abrasive particles are generally loose, often times in a fluidic suspension, such as an aqueous suspension. Fixed abrasives provide numerous advantages during machining operations including potentially improved planarity and improved process control. However, a need continues to exist in the art for improved machining operations utilizing fixed abrasive components, particularly in the context of glass, glass-ceramic and ceramic components


A thermodynamic system that produces mechanical, electrical power, and/or fluid streams for heating or cooling. The cycle contains a combustion system that produces an energetic fluid by combustion of a fuel with an oxidant. A thermal diluent may be used in the cycle to improve performance, including but not limited to power, efficiency, economics, emissions, dynamic and off-peak load performance, and/or turbine inlet temperature (TIT) regulation and cooling heated components. The cycle preferably includes a heat recovery system and a condenser or other means to recover and recycle heat and the thermal diluent from the energetic fluid to improve the cycle thermodynamic efficiency and reduce energy conversion costs. The cycle may also include controls for temperatures, pressures, and flow rates throughout the cycle, and controls power output, efficiency, and energetic fluid composition.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to methods of performing thermodynamic cycles for generating mechanical and electrical power, heating, or cooling.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art includes combustors and combustion systems that use diluents to cool combustion with relatively poor control over the peak temperature and little spatial control over the transverse temperature profile. Cooling of the combustion products has commonly been done with excess air. Pressurizing this excess air along commonly consumes 40% to 70% (from large turbines to microturbines) of the gross turbine power recovered resulting in low net specific power. I.e., the gross power less compressor and pump power produced per mass flow through the compressor(s) or turbine(s).
Relevant applications of diluent have particularly focused on controlling emissions, flame stability and flame quenching, especially when using ultra-lean mixtures and operating near the combustion limit. (E.g., see Lefebvre, 1998, section 5-7-3; Bathie, 1996, p 139; Boyce, 2002, p 62; Lundquist, 2002, p 85). Some relevant efforts to reduce the use of excess air as diluent have used forms of thermal diluent, such as steam and water, that can remove more heat with less compression work (E.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,651,641, U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,719, U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,080, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,666 to Ginter, U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,215 to Guillet, U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,862 to Cheng).
Temperature control throughout the thermodynamic cycle is important for efficient operation. Controlling the peak temperature and profile of the energetic fluid delivered to an expander results in better efficiencies of the cycle (Gravonvski, 2001). It is difficult to control the temperature profile using excess air or steam as commonly used to cool cycle components and special mixing devices. The irregularities in the spatial and temporal temperature distribution of flows require greater design margins than preferred to compensate for the uncertainties in the temperature profiles. (E.g., Malecki et al, "Application of and Advanced CFD-Based Analysis System to the PW600 Combustor to Optimize Exit Temperature Distribution—Part 1", 2001). The problem of temperature irregularities is heightened by changes in work load.
Various thermodynamic cycles have been proposed to improve heat recovery and system efficiency. The conventional Combined Cycle (CC) utilizes a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) to generate steam which is expanded through a second (steam) turbine. This results in high capital costs. Consequently combined cycles are mostly used in base load applications. In the Steam Injected Gas Turbine (STIG) cycle, steam is generated in a similar HRSG and is injected upstream of the expander. This uses the same gas turbine with a higher mass flow. By only being able to deliver steam, the STIG cycle is limited in its ability to recover lower temperature heat. High water treatment costs and water availability are often stated as a major objections to more widespread use of the STIG. The CHENG cycle is similar to the STIG cycle. Similar objections have been raised for it as the STIG cycle.
The Recuperated Water Injection (RWI) cycle utilizes a recuperator to recover heat from expanded fluid into incoming compressed. It uses water injection on the intake of the recuperator to improve heat recovery. This is similarly limited by the air saturation limit. The Humidified Air Turbine (HAT) cycle humidified intake air through a saturator. The Evaporated Gas Turbine (EvGT) is a similar cycle. While utilizing lower quality water, the HAT and EvGT cycles are limited in the amount of deliverable diluent by air saturation limits. An EvGT cycle has been demonstrated at LUND University in Sweden. Otherwise these RWI, HAT, and EvGT cycles have been little used, possibly because of relatively high capital costs. The HAWIT cycle has been proposed to reduce capital costs. It utilizes direct contact heat exchangers to reduce the cost of surface heat exchangers used in the HAT cycle. It has lower costs but lower efficiency than the HAT cycle. The relative efficiency and internal rate of return for these cycles were compared by Traverso (2000).
Conventional heat recovery methods have particular difficulty in recovering useful heat below the temperature of steam formed from the expanded fluid with sufficient pressure to reinject upstream of an expander, or within a steam expander. Much heat energy continues to be lost as the expanded is exhausted. Conventional methods of recovering heat from the expanded fluid (after the hot energetic fluid has been expanded to extract mechanical energy) often seek to use high temperature recuperators to heat the large volume of excess cooling air. E.g. air to air recuperators approaching 700° C. These result in high cost and expensive maintenance, where the recuperator alone may exceed 30% of system costs and 80% of the maintenance in micro-turbines.
Using diluents other than air have resulted in further expenses in diluent supply and recovery in relevant cycles for power generation such as "wet" cycles like STIG and HAT. Relevant cycles with typical heat and diluent recovery systems typically need to add "make-up" diluent to compensate for inefficiencies of the system and to reduce operation costs.
Thermodynamic cycles that use a diluent beyond the oxidant containing fluid often need to recover that thermal diluent for pollution and/or economic reasons. (For example, Italian Patent TO92A000603 to Poggio and Agren, "Advanced Gas Turbine Cycles with Water-Air Mixtures as Working Fluid", 2000). Such processes have been expensive. Make-up diluent is commonly needed because of inefficiencies in the recovery process (Blanco, 2002).
In the addition of a thermal diluent, fluid filtering and cleanup has been required to prepare the diluent to be delivered to the thermodynamic cycle system (Agren, "Advanced Gas Turbine Cycles with Water-Air Mixtures as Working Fluid", 2000; SPE "Mashproekt", "Aquarius Cycle", http://www.mashproekt.nikolaev.ua). Such conventional methods add substantial expenses.
Pollutants are becoming a common concern throughout the world and their control is becoming more important. Relevant art methods of adding water often exacerbate formation of some pollutants such as while decreasing others. (e.g. See Lefebvre, 1998, p 337 on CO vs NOx). Control of pollutants to stringent legislated methods has often required additional components at substantial further capital and maintenance costs. Many of these pollutant control devices have short lives compared to the overall plant life resulting in further maintenance expenses. Major firms appear to have made a concerted effort to shift to dry excess air to achieve low NOx emissions and to avoid the use of steam as diluent.
Lefebvre (1998, p 337) demonstrates that conventional wisdom discourages water injection into turbine power systems. The cost of providing and treating water is frequently noted as a substantial hindrance. Commentators expect efficiencies to drop as more water or steam is added to the cycle (Pavri and Moore 2001, p 18).
Thermodynamic cycles are sometimes used for both mechanical work and heating. The heat produced by the combustion process may be used for heat in assorted applications from steam production to district heating. These "combined heat and power" (CHP) applications have been limited by the design of the CHP device. If the demand for heat or power deviates from the design of the CHP system, the efficiencies are greatly reduced, especially when providing hot water.

Thermodynamic cycles using thermal diluent