A method by a wireless device (110) includes determining that the wireless device has data to transmit on at least one logical channel of a priority N. The logical channel is associated with at least one logical channel group. The method further includes generating, by the wireless device, a buffer status report of type N, BSR N, for the at least one logical channel of the priority N and prioritizing a transmission of the BSR N for the at least one logical channel of priority N over a data transmission for at least one other logical channel that has a priority that is higher than the priority N.

Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) verticals are identified as one of the use cases for 5G. In particular, one area of focus is that of integrating Ethernet Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) traffic with 5G systems which serve to relay TSN traffic it receives from TSN networks to end-stations and vice-versa. This requires that 5G systems should support ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) traffic.
Such enhancements to support URLLC can be addressed from several communication layers in the overall protocol stack, among which is the medium access control (MAC) layer. One main issue to be addressed is the logical channels (LCH) prioritization (LCP) procedures which occurs at the MAC layer. Such procedures help MAC layer to prioritize LCHs (associated with radio link control protocol data units (RLC PDUs)) to be packed in the MAC protocol data unit (PDU). After several selection steps in the legacy MAC LCP, in New Radio (NR), the data (traffic) for logical channels and control information (MAC CEs) are prioritized in accordance to the following priorities (lowest number means highest priority), as discussed in 3GPP TS 38.321 as follows:                1. C-RNTI MAC CE or data from uplink common control channel (UL-CCCH);        2. Configured Grant Confirmation MAC CE;        3. MAC CE for buffer status report (BSR), with exception of BSR included for padding;        4. Single Entry power headroom (PHR) MAC CE or Multiple Entry PHR MAC CE;        5. Data from any Logical Channel, except data from UL-CCCH;        6. MAC CE for Recommended bit rate query;        7. MAC CE for BSR included for padding.
This legacy solution for prioritization does not enable a high enough priority to be placed on the URLLC traffic supported by one or more LCHs to ensure its latency performance will be sufficient for supporting Industrial IoT applications. This is due to concern for cases where the MAC PDU might be small enough to only accommodate the first four priorities of information (all MAC Control Elements (MAC CEs) for different LCHs), i.e., Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) MAC CE+Configured Grant (CG) MAC CE+Buffer Status Report (BSR) MAC CE+Power Headroom (PHR) MAC CE. If such a case occurs when the network adopts time division duplexing (TDD), then the latency impact on URLLC traffic is even larger due to user equipments (UEs) operating without the possibility of overlapping transmission (TX) and reception (RX) in the time domain. To overcome this problem, WO2018/141952 has proposed to dynamically assign the priorities among LCHs and some MAC CEs, which allows the option of configuring URLLC LCH's priority above that of MAC CE BSRs.
In WO2018/141952, a dynamic priority list, transmitted in IE MAC-DynamicPrioConfig, can be configured to support a higher priority for the critical LCH traffic (e.g., URLLC traffic), see below (with minor changes),
MAC-DynamicPrioConfig ::= SEQUENCE { CRNTICE_or_ULCCCH_IND INTEGER CGCE_INDINTEGER, BSRCE_INDINTEGER, PHRCE_INDINTEGER, SIDEBSRCE_INDINTEGER, LCH1_INDINTEGER, LCH2_INDINTEGER,...... LCHN_INDINTEGER, BRQ_INDINTEGER, PADDBSRCE_INDINTEGER,  }
The above dynamic assignment of priorities can be reflected in the standard static form as follows:                1. C-RNTI MAC CE or data from UL-CCCH;        2. Configured Grant Confirmation MAC CE;        3. data from critical Logical Channel;        4. MAC CE for BSR, with exception of BSR included for padding;        5. Single Entry PHR MAC CE or Multiple Entry PHR MAC CE;        6. data from any (non-critical) Logical Channel, except data from UL-CCCH;        7. MAC CE for Recommended bit rate query;        8. MAC CE for BSR included for padding.
This dynamic assignment of priorities (per WO2018/141952) targets the situation where the uplink (UL) grant cannot accommodate all MAC CEs and all the critical LCHs. This could happen because of the change in fading channel, which impacts the Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) table index, and hence for deteriorating radio conditions it reduces the size of the MAC PDU.
However, designing the network to meet only the URLLC traffic requirements is not good enough for supporting industrial verticals as non-URLLC traffic still has delay requirements that can be violated if it experiences repeated instances of down-prioritization by the LCP procedure. Industrial verticals also need to support a mixed-traffic with Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and URLLC. This mixed-services situation occurs in industrial robot arms or other scenarios, where one robot arm has a single radio module and multiple nodes of different priority traffic, i.e., critical, monitoring, and sensing traffics. Mixing URLLC with the existing enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) (and conventional) traffic add more challenges to the existing problem.
Certain problems exist, however. For example, NR rel-15 is not able to efficiently accommodate mixed URLLC and eMBB services. This is especially relevant for industrial IoT cases. This efficiency problem exists whether or not the solution called for by WO2018/141952 is considered. For example, when excluding the dynamic priority assignment of WO2018/141952, there is the case where MAC CE for BSR takes precedence over critical URLLC data which can lead to excessive delays in sending critical URLLC data. As another example, when including the dynamic priority assignment of WO2018/141952, there is the case where critical URLLC data takes precedence over MAC CE for BSR which can lead to excessive delays in sending eMBB traffic.
One scenario includes a mix of services/LCHs traffic coming to the MAC LCH buffer continuously. In such scenario, medium/low priority traffic might be punished by increasing the priority of a critical LCH, because if channel is in deep fading, and MAC PDU barely accommodates the critical LCH, then medium/low LCHs BSRs will be ignored and never transmitted, especially because BSR might be triggered without the knowledge of gNB. This situation become worse if the periodicity of the critical LCH is very short (very frequent transmissions), in some realistic scenarios a 0.5 msec periodicity of critical data is faced [3GPP TR 22.804]. In this case, punishment of medium/low traffic, e.g., eMBB, will be severe.
In 3GPP TS 38.321, a regular BSR is triggered if                the MAC entity has new UL data available for a logical channel which belongs to a logical channel group (LCG); and either                    1. the new UL data belongs to a logical channel with higher priority than the priority of any logical channel containing available UL data which belong to any LCG; or            2. none of the logical channels which belong to an LCG contains any available UL data.
The above condition means that an arrival of new UL data in a low priority LCH does not trigger a regular BSR, if high priority LCH also has data available for transmission. As used above, the term "available UL data" refers to UL data available to the MAC entity.
Secondly, applying the aforementioned (i.e. WO2018/141952) prioritization techniques of having critical LCH's priority higher than that of the MAC CE might also starve non-critical LCH, even if the BSR is triggered (for example, periodical BSRs may be sent for a non-critical LCH but the transmission of the non-critical LCH data may be deferred excessively).
One solution would be to always send a large grant to accommodate more than the (estimated) critical LCH data and so that padding BSR can be sent. But that would not be spectrally efficient, considering especially the cost of resource usage for URLLC, where very robust transmissions are required, i.e. it is infeasible to consistently provide larger grants just in case an unexpected increase of non-critical LCH payload occurs.

Methods of conveying buffer status with mixed critical and non-critical traffic


A method of determining at least one characteristic parameter of a resonant structure (4) comprising the following steps: firstly placing the resonant structure (4) at a location, said location being located in the far field of a first antenna (2) and in the far field of a second antenna (5), and secondly emitting electromagnetic waves (EEW) with different frequencies in a given frequency range by means of the first antenna (2) such that the emitted electromagnetic waves (EEW) are modified by the resonant structure (4) and modified electromagnetic waves (MEW) are achieved, and thirdly determining during a first determining step a first electric power-value being representative of the power associated with the emitted electromagnetic waves (EEW), and fourthly receiving the generated modified electromagnetic waves (MEW) by means of the second antenna (5) and fifthly determining during a second determining step a second electric power-value being representative of the power associated with the received modified electromagnetic waves (MEW), and sixthly determining the at least one characteristic parameter by using the first and second power-values determined during the first and second determining steps.

The invention can be used to test and tune resonant electric structures such as antenna or transponders, particularly transponders for "Radio Frequency Identification" systems, shortly RFID systems.
Automatic and wireless identification systems such as transponder systems are more and more important and gradually replace well-known barcodes. Such a transponder system comprises a reader and at least one transponder. A transponder comprises firstly a chip comprising e.g. all relevant data identifying a product and secondly a transponder antenna capable to operate in the relevant frequency band. The transponder antenna is part of a resonant electric structure realized by a resonant electric circuit. In this respect ISM bands such as the American UHF band ranging from 902 MHz to 928 MHz can be used. A reader comprises a reader antenna. By means of the transponder antenna and the reader antenna a bi-directional and wireless communication between the transponder and the reader is enabled.
An exchange of information with a transponder being a few meters away from the reader needs processing means operating in the radio frequency range, particularly above 800 MHz. These systems are as already mentioned commonly called "Radio Frequency Identification" systems, shortly RFID systems.
In order to obtain desired information from a passive transponder the reader initiates the reader antenna to emit electromagnetic waves having a wavelength λ wherein said emitted electromagnetic waves cause an electromagnetic field. The resonant electric structure of the transponder is designed to have a resonance frequency corresponding to the wavelength λ and thus absorbs energy from the electromagnetic field. The energy absorbed is used to operate the chip. Switching a load-modulation switch on and off results in an amplitude modulation of the electromagnetic waves generated and emitted by the reader and transmitted to the transponder. If this switching procedure of the load-modulation switch being controlled by data stored in the transponder, these data will be transmitted to the reader. This way of data transmission is called load modulation.
In the patent document DE 101 17 249 A1 a wireless test device for a coil being disclosed that coil being provided for usage in a transponder. The coil is subjected to a radio frequency (RF) field of varying frequency. The RF field is influenced and modified by the coil resulting in a modified RF field and the modified RF field being detected by an antenna. As the coil is located very close to the antenna the coil is positioned in its near field.
In the patent document U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,291 a method to test RFID tags being disclosed. The RFID tag is positioned in the near field of a reader antenna to communicate with the reader. Various commands and functions of the RFID tag are tested and information such as programming, identification, and the like are transmitted to the tag.

Method of and device for determining at least one characteristic parameter of a resonant structure


A metallurgical unit for smelting metal charge material and for post-treatment of the molten metal, which is tiltable from a starting position in a positive tilting direction (8) about a tilt axis (7), includes a melting vessel (1), with a furnace hearth (12) for receiving the molten metal (13), and a treatment vessel (2) disposed laterally on the melting vessel for metallurgical treatment of the molten metal. The molten metal (13) which flows away out of the melting vessel (1) upon tilting of the unit in the positive direction (8) can be transferred into the treatment vessel (2) by way of a passage (26) connecting the furnace hearth of the melting vessel (1) to the receiving chamber of the treatment vessel (2).

The invention concerns a tiltable metallurgical unit for smelting metal charge material, in particular ferrous material, and for post-treatment of the molten metal.
EP-0 240 485-Bl discloses an installation for the production of steel from scrap and possibly additive materials, comprising a blast furnace portion which has a bottom for receiving a liquid sump of pre-molten material and heating devices which open laterally into the lower portion of its interior, and with a hearth furnace portion which is integrally interconnected with the blast furnace portion and into which the pre-molten material can be transferred from the blast furnace portion. The hearth furnace portion directly adjoins the lower part of the blast furnace portion. Disposed between the lower blast furnace portion and the hearth furnace portion is an overflow weir by way of which pre-molten material which has collected in the trough or basin of the blast furnace portion continuously flows away into the hearth furnace portion, the bottom of which is arranged lower than the bottom of the blast furnace portion. The entire unit consisting of the blast furnace portion and the hearth furnace portion is tiltable, more specifically perpendicularly to a horizontal axis connecting the centre of the blast furnace portion to the centre of the hearth furnace portion. The hearth furnace portion has an eccentrically arranged bottom tapping for the steel and, in the side wall, a working door for drawing off the slag. Both the lower part of the blast furnace portion and also that of the hearth furnace portion have an interior which is circular in plan view, wherein the interior of the blast furnace portion is approximately tangential to the interior of the hearth furnace portion in plan and the transition from one interior into the other is of a reduced configuration. The heating means for the hearth furnace portion is an arc unit while the heating means for the blast furnace portion is a plurality of plasma burners which are arranged in the lower region of the shaft furnace portion distributed along the periphery thereof.
The bottom depression of the blast furnace portion is of a relatively shallow configuration and the upper edge of the overflow weir is of low height in relation to the bottom depression so that, at the beginning of a melting operation, only a small amount of the pre-molten material is retained in the bottom depression of the blast furnace portion and, after sump formation, the pre-molten material flows away continuously into the hearth furnace portion over the overflow weir. In order to prevent the molten material from congealing in the region of the overflow weir, on the one hand the inclination of the plasma burners is so set that the pre-molten material is overheated in a direction towards the overflow weir and on the other hand there is also a plasma burner between the blast furnace portion and the hearth furnace portion so that the pre-molten material can be overheated in the region of the overflow weir and a continuous discharge flow of the pre-molten material is guaranteed.
The metallurgical treatment in the hearth furnace portion begins as soon as half the bath depth is reached here. The molten material is heated to the tapping temperature by the additional supply of electrical energy. During that procedure pre-molten material continuously flows thereto from the blast furnace portion. When the tapping weight is reached in the hearth furnace portion, the material is tapped off in a slag-free condition by tilting of the unit, by way of an eccentric bottom tapping opening.
In the known installation, additional heat energy has to be supplied in the region of the overflow weir in order to prevent the premolten material from congealing in that region. In addition, during the treatment of the pre-molten material in the hearth furnace portion it is continuously supplied with pre-molten material which is subject to serious fluctuations in regard to its composition and temperature so that the treatment procedure in the hearth furnace is adversely affected thereby. Finishing of the molten material (deoxidation, further desulphurisation and alloying) is therefore to be effected outside the hearth furnace portion, for example during tapping into a ladle.
DE-25 04 911-A1 discloses an apparatus for smelting scrap, sponge iron or the like in a blast furnace by means of a fuel-oxygen flame from below and with an outlet for the molten material in the bottom of the blast furnace for the continuous production of steel, in which a heating vessel which is mounted laterally in relation to the blast furnace is integrated therewith. At the lowest point of its bottom the blast furnace has an outlet for molten metal which is connected to the superheating vessel by way of a passage and also a slag discharge in the side wall. The superheating vessel is provided with an overflow means which is disposed slightly beneath the level of the slag outlet. The liquid metal which is superheated in the superheating vessel flows away continuously by way of the overflow means and is continuously replaced by the liquid metal which is melted in the blast furnace, by way of a connecting passage to the blast furnace. The superheating vessel is heated by means of arcs.
The object of the present invention, in a metallurgical unit of the kind described in the opening part of this specification, is to prevent congealing of the molten material in the transfer region between the melting and the treatment vessels without additional heat energy having to be supplied to that region. The invention further seeks to provide that an adverse effect on the treatment procedure on the molten material in the treatment vessel, which is caused by a continuous feed flow of pre-molten metal which fluctuates severely in terms of its composition can be prevented. The invention further seeks to provide that the melting vessel and the treatment vessel can be of an optimum configuration and mode of operation, independently of each other, in terms of their aim. Finally the invention seeks to provide that the energy consumption of the unit per tonne of metal produced is minimised and the hot waste gases from the treatment vessel as well as the melting vessel can be put to use for preheating the charge material.

Tilting metallurgical unit comprising several vessels


Disclosed herein is a method comprising reacting a metal borohydride with a metal chloride composition that comprises magnesium chloride in a solvent to form a reaction mixture; wherein either the metal borohydride, the metal chloride composition or both the metal borohydride and the metal chloride composition are soluble in the solvent and a formed metal chloride is insoluble in the solvent; removing the solvent from the reaction mixture to produce a borohydride complex; treating the borohydride complex to obtain magnesium borohydride; extracting magnesium borohydride solvate; and desolvating the magnesium borohydride solvate to form magnesium borohydride.

This disclosure is related to methods for the manufacturing of magnesium borohydride.
Hydrogen is a "clean fuel" because it can be reacted with oxygen in hydrogen-consuming devices, such as a fuel cell or a combustion engine, to produce energy and water. Virtually no other reaction byproducts are produced in the exhaust. As a result, the use of hydrogen as a fuel effectively solves many environmental problems associated with the use of petroleum based fuels. Safe and efficient storage of hydrogen gas is, however, essential for many applications that can use hydrogen. In particular, minimizing volume and weight of the hydrogen storage systems are important factors in mobile applications.
Several methods of storing hydrogen are currently used but these are either inadequate or impractical for widespread mobile consumer applications. For example, hydrogen can be stored in liquid form at very low temperatures. However, the energy consumed in liquefying hydrogen gas is about 30% of the energy available from the resulting hydrogen. In addition, a standard tank filled with liquid hydrogen will become empty in about a week through evaporation; thus dormancy is also a problem. These factors make liquid hydrogen impractical for most consumer applications.
An alternative is to store hydrogen under high pressure in cylinders. However, a 100 pound steel cylinder can only store about one pound of hydrogen at about 2200 psi, which translates into 1% by weight of hydrogen storage. More expensive composite cylinders with special compressors can store hydrogen at higher pressures of about 4,500 psi to achieve a more favorable storage ratio of about 4% by weight. Although even higher pressures are possible, safety factors and the high amount of energy consumed in achieving such high pressures have compelled a search for alternative hydrogen storage technologies that are both safe and efficient. In view of the above, there is a need for safer, more effective methods of storing and recovering hydrogen.
Magnesium borohydride [Mg(BH4)2] is a promising material for hydrogen storage and recovery. It comprises up to about 14.8 weight percent (wt %) of hydrogen that can be liberated upon heating. The use of magnesium borohydride is limited by the absence of convenient methods for its manufacture. It is therefore desirable to have a convenient method for manufacturing magnesium borohydride.

Method for manufacturing magnesium borohydride


A vacuum manifold having a rectangular opening with vacuum access bores connected into the rectangular opening for an illumination field to be projected there through. A vacuum manifold is placed between a photosensitive resist covered wafer and a lens element in a photolithographic tool. The relatively high illumination energy in an illumination field used for projecting an image of a reticle onto a photosensitive resist covered wafer often results in ablated, evaporated, and effused material being coated on the lens element. The vacuum manifold placed between the lens element and the photosensitive resist covered wafer creates an airflow for removing debris or contamination preventing coating of the lens surface. This prevents image quality from degradation over time, as well as reduces downtime needed for cleaning or maintenance of the photolithographic tool.

In the manufacture of semiconductor devices, the image of a reticle is projected onto a photosensitive resist covered wafer. In order to obtain the high resolutions desired, it is necessary to bring a lens element or other element, that is part of the projection optics close to the surface of the photosensitive resist covered wafer. This distance may be as small as three mm. This, in combination with high energy illumination systems sometimes used to project the image of a reticle may result in ablated, evaporated, or effused material from the photosensitive resist covered wafer in the process of exposure and/or by background effusion with time of the material being inadvertently deposited on the lens element. This reduces system performance and is undesirable. Often, the lens element is difficult access and to clean, and results in undesirable downtime of the photolithographic tool or system. Additionally, the lens element may be damaged during cleaning. While vacuum debris removal or forced air systems have been used in very high laser cutters and ablating systems, they are not applicable in photolithographic systems where image quality must not be affected by the air flows involved. Accordingly, there is a need for a system to prevent the undesirable coating of a lens element with debris or contamination materials in a photolithographic system.


Some embodiments provide a media editing application that uses metadata or metadata tags associated with media content to facilitate editing operations. In some embodiments, the editing operations are performed on the media content at various different stages of the editing process in order to create a composite presentation. In creating the composite presentation, one or more effects are associated with a metadata tag. Once the effects are associated, the media editing application applies the effects to different pieces of media content tagged with the metadata tag in order to create the composite presentation.

To date, many media editing applications exist for creating a composite media presentation by compositing several pieces of media content such as video, audio, animation, still image, etc. In some cases, a media editing application combines a composite of two or more clips with one or more other clips to output (e.g., play, export) the composite presentation.
There are a number of different problems that can occur when outputting such a composite presentation. For example, some movie studios require a particular content (e.g., dialog content, music content) of a composite presentation to be separate from other content. The content separation allows the movie studios to easily replace the composite presentation's dialog in one language with a dialog in another language. The problem with providing separate content is that, once several pieces of media content are mixed as one mixed content, the mixed content cannot be un-mixed to provide the separate content.
As another example, displaying the audio levels of different media clips during playback of a composite presentation is useful as the audio levels indicate how much audio one or more of the different media clips are contributing to the overall mix. The problem with this is similar to the example described above. That is, a mix of the different media clips cannot be un-mixed during playback to provide metering information for the different media clips.
In addition, some media editing applications apply one or more different effects (e.g., reverb effect, echo effect, blur effect, distort effect, etc.) to a set of clips when outputting a composite presentation. Several of these effects are applied using a "send" (i.e., "send and return") that entails routing audio signals of different clips over an auxiliary ("aux") bus to an effects unit. For a typical media editing application, a "send" effect is applied with the user manually adding an input aux track, specifying an effect for the aux track, specifying an input bus for the aux track, creating the "send", and identifying the specified bus to route the audio signals of different clips. In this manner, several audio signals of different clips can be routed over one aux bus in order to apply a same effect (e.g., an echo effect) to a combined audio signal of the different clips. However, the "send" technique becomes increasingly complicated as additional aux buses are added to route audio signals of multiple different clips.
Furthermore, several of the media editing applications described above allow users to view metadata associated with media content and/or perform organizing operations using the metadata. However, these media editing applications lack the tools or the functionality to perform different editing operations by using one or more pieces of metadata that is associated with the media content.
The concepts described in this section have not necessarily been previously conceived, or implemented in any prior approach. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any concepts described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Editing operations facilitated by metadata


A method for designing an interpolation filter begins by partitioning interpolation filtering into a plurality of interpolation filtering stages that are cascaded together. Each of the plurality of interpolation filtering stages includes an up sampling stage and a filtering stage. The method continues by manipulating a first one of the interpolation filtering stages based on a first digital signal processing identity to produce a first equivalent interpolation filtering stage. The method continues by manipulating a second one of the interpolation filtering stages based on the first digital signal processing identity to produce a second equivalent interpolation filtering stage. The method continues by simplifying the first and second equivalent interpolation filtering stages to produce at least a simplified portion of the interpolation filter.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wireless communication systems and more particularly to filtering that may be used in such wireless communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-home wireless networks. Each type of communication system is constructed, and hence operates, in accordance with one or more communication standards. For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, home entertainment equipment, et cetera communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-point communications), the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between the wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate with each other directly, via a system controller, via the public switch telephone network, via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.
For each wireless communication device to participate in wireless communications, it includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiver and transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g., a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, RF modem, etc.). As is also known, the receiver is coupled to the antenna and includes a low noise amplifier, one or more intermediate frequency stages, a filtering stage, and a data recovery stage. The low noise amplifier receives inbound RF signals via the antenna and amplifies then. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the amplified RF signals with one or more local oscillations to convert the amplified RF signal into baseband signals or intermediate frequency (IF) signals. The filtering stage filters the baseband signals or the IF signals to attenuate unwanted out of band signals to produce filtered signals. The data recovery stage recovers raw data from the filtered signals in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard.
As is known, the transmitter includes a data modulation stage, one or more intermediate frequency stages, and a power amplifier. The data modulation stage converts raw data into baseband signals in accordance with a particular wireless communication standard. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals with one or more local oscillations to produce RF signals. The power amplifier amplifies the RF signals prior to transmission via an antenna. In one embodiment, the transmitter may be implemented as a translational loop transmitter.
A translational loop transmitter includes a digital processor, digital to analog converter (DAC), low pass filter, and a phase locked translational loop. The digital processor, in general, produces a digital version of the desired RF spectrum at some intermediate frequency (e.g., 26 MHz for GSM). The DAC converts the digital signals into the analog domain, which are subsequently filtered by the low pass filter. The phase locked translational loop translates the frequency of the analog signals outputted by the low pass filter to the desired radio frequencies.
For example GSM utilizes a modulation format of binary phase modulation with Gaussian pulse shaping. In this instance, the binary baseband data is transmitted at a rate of 270.833 kilobits-per-second and is pulse-shaped using a Gaussian filter (GF) clocked at 3.25 MHz, the resulting, which produces a 12-fold up-sampling. In general, when up-sampling (e.g., by 12), from a sequence X[n] to a sequence Y[n], zeros are inserted between the samples of the sequence X[n] to form Y[n]. For example, for up-sampling by 12, eleven zeros are inserted between the sampling sequence of X[n].
      y              [      n      ]        =      {                                                      x                                            [                                  n                  /                  12                                ]                                      ,                                                n            =                          i              ×              12                                                            0                          else
For example, assume x[n]= . . . 3,5,1,7,8, . . .
For this value of X[n], the 12-fold up-sampled sequence Y[n] is x[n]= . . . 3,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,5,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,7,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,8,0,0 . . .
In general, when up-sampling by an arbitrary factor N,
      y              [      n      ]        =      {                                                                      x                                                  [                                      n                    /                    N                                    ]                                            ,                                                          n              =                              i                ×                N                                                                          0                                else                              .      The combined block consisting of an up-sampler and a filter is referred to as an interpolation filter. The filter portion is needed since N-fold up-sampling creates N−1 undesired images of the signal at evenly spaced frequency intervals.
Interpolation filters may be used within radio frequency transmitters and have a significant role in the modulation performed by such transmitters. As such, an interpolation filter should be designed to be frequency selective while maintaining linear phase response in order not to cause distortion of the transmitted signal. A popular class of filters for this application is finite impulse response filters because of their inherent linear phase response. In addition, an interpolation filter should also be of sufficiently wide bandwidth to avoid significant magnitude distortion. If the filter "droops" over the signal band, magnitude distortion occurs and this may lead to modulation errors. While FIR filters are typically used as interpolation filters, they require a large number of multiplications and additions to perform narrow band frequency selective low pass filtering as typically required by high performance interpolation filters. As is generally known, the number of multiplications and additions needed per clock cycle of an FIR filter is directly related to power consumption and required chip area. For low power and low cost radio frequency transmitters, it is desirable to reduce the hardware complexity of interpolation filters.
As is generally understood in the wireless communication art, wireless communication devices, since they are battery powered, have strict minimal power consumption requirements. Further, the performance requirements for wireless communication devices are ever-increasing, which is typically at odds with the low power consumption since higher performance typically means more circuitry that consumes more power. This is true for interpolation filters that include a relatively large number of multipliers to provide the desired level of filtering.
Therefore, a need exists for a low power interpolation filter design that is capable of performing narrow band frequency selective filtering without using a large number of multipliers.

Interpolation filter design and application


Most semiconductor devices manufactured today, have uniform dopant concentration, either in the lateral or vertical device active (and isolation) regions. By grading the dopant concentration, the performance in various semiconductor devices can be significantly improved. Performance improvements can be obtained in application specific areas like increase in frequency of operation for digital logic, various power MOSFET and IGBT ICS, improvement in refresh time for DRAM's, decrease in programming time for nonvolatile memory, better visual quality including pixel resolution and color sensitivity for imaging ICs, better sensitivity for varactors in tunable filters, higher drive capabilities for JFET's, and a host of other applications.

Bipolar Junction transistors (BJT) are minority carrier devices as the principle device conduction mechanism. However, majority carriers also a small yet finite role in modulating the conductivity in BJTs. Consequently, both carriers (electrons and holes) play a role in the switching performance of BJTs. The maximum frequency of operation in BJTs is limited by the base transit time as well as the quick recombination of the majority carriers when the device is switched off (prior to beginning the next cycle). The dominant carrier mechanism in BJTs is carrier diffusion. Carrier drift current component is fairly small, especially in uniformly doped base BJTs. Efforts have been made in graded base transistors to create an 'aiding drift field', to enhance the diffusing minority carrier's speed from emitter to collector. However, most semiconductor devices, including various power MOSFETs (traditional, DMOS, lateral, vertical and a host of other configurations), IGBT's (Insulated Gated Base Transistors), still use a uniformly doped drift epitaxial region in the base. FIG. 1 shows the relative doping concentration versus distance in a BJT. FIG. 2 shows the 'uniformly doped epi region' in a IGBT. In contrast to BJTs, MOS devices are majority carrier devices for conduction. The conduction is channel dominated. The channel can be a surface in one plane in planar devices. The surface can also be on the sidewalls in a vertical device. Other device architectures to combine planar and vertical conductions are also possible. The maximum frequency of operation is dictated primarily by source-drain separation distance. Most MOS devices use a uniformly doped substrate (or a well region). When a MOSFET is optimally integrated with a BJT in a monolithic fashion, an IGBT results. The IGBT inherits the advantages of both MOSFET and BJT. It also brings new challenges because the required characteristics (electron transit and hole recombination as fast as possible in the case of an n-channel IGBT) require different dopant gradients either in the same layer at different positions, or at the interfaces of similar or dissimilar layers.
'Retrograde' wells have been attempted, with little success, to help improve soft error immunity in SRAM's and visual quality in imaging circuits. FIG. 3(a) shows a typical CMOS VLSI device employing a twin well substrate, on which active devices are subsequently fabricated. FIGS. 3(b), 3(c), and 3(d) illustrate device cross sections, as practiced today. 'Retrograde' and 'halo' wells have also been attempted to improve refresh time in DRAM's (dynamic random access memories), as well as, reducing dark current (background noise) and enhance RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color resolution in digital camera Ics. Most of these techniques either divert the minority carriers away form the active regions of critical charge storage nodes at the surface, or, increase minority carrier density locally as the particular application requires.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semiconductor devices with graded dopant regions


A method for shipping a retractable cover system include pre-assembling the cover system to include the flexible cover and enough components to support the cover on guide rails mounted to a trailer or other transport vehicle. At least two pre-assembled cover systems are compressed along their length and then loaded sequentially onto the guide rails of the same trailer. In certain embodiments, four compressed partially pre-assembled cover systems are loaded onto a single trailer. The trailer is then transported to one or more customer sites where one or more of the compressed cover systems are unloaded. The cover systems may be only partially pre-assembled, with the remaining components placed on the trailer within the compressed cover system when it is loaded on the trailer. The cover systems may be maintained in their compressed state by a tension element or tensioned apron wrapped around the compressed cover system.

The present invention relates to cover systems for hauling vehicles, and particularly to extendible/retractable tarping systems for flatbed vehicles.
Retractable covers for load-carrying vehicles have been known for nearly a century. A folding wagon top was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 905,571 in which a flexible cover was folded forward across the load bed to provide easy access for loading and unloading goods from the bed. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,263,759, a retractable vehicle cover was disclosed in which the cover was supported on U-shaped bows that were slidably mounted on bars along opposite sides of the vehicle body. These concepts were adapted to a retractable cover for use on a flatbed tractor-trailer system in U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,598.
In spite of this long history, the extendable-retractable cover system did not achieve commercial viability and success until the CONESTOGA® tarping system was introduced by Aero Industries, Inc. in the late 1980's. Details of this tarping system are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,711,484, 4,902,064 and 5,538,313, each disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In general terms, the CONESTOGA® tarping system 10 is configured to be mounted onto the flatbed 12 of a hauling vehicle T, as shown in FIGS. 2–3. The tarping system 10 includes a flexible cover or tarpaulin 14 with a top panel 15 and opposite side panels 16 configured to cover the flatbed 12. A series of bows 18 support the top panel 15 of the tarp and provide means for integrating the tarping system with the vehicle flatbed. A front bulkhead 20 closes the front end of the trailer, while a retractable flap 21 may be provided to close the back end of the load bed.
The tarping system 10 is configured to be retracted or compressed into a short space, such as the tarping system 10′ depicted in FIG. 2. The tarping system includes a front bow arrangement 22′ and a rear bow arrangement 24′ that sandwich the tarp 14′ therebetween, folded like an accordion. The tarping system may be extended so that the tarp 14″ spans the entire flatbed 12. In this extended position, the front bow arrangement 22′ is connected to the front bulkhead 20, while the rear bow arrangement 24″ is locked to the rear of the flatbed.
One configuration of the tarp support structure is shown in FIG. 3. The structure includes a series of bows 18 that support the tarp 14 between the front and rear bow arrangements 22, 24, respectively. The bows are connected to a carriage assembly 32 that is configured to ride within guide rails 30 attached to the opposite sides of the flatbed 12. With this arrangement, the load surface 13 of the flatbed 12 is not interrupted by the tarping system itself, thereby maximizing the load space on the flatbed.
The tarp support structure may also include uplift bow assemblies 19 that are situated between successive U-shaped bows 18. These uplift bow assemblies help maintain the tarp in tension when the cover system 10 is in its extended load-covering position shown in FIG. 1. The tarp support structure is configured so that the bows 18 and 19 can collapse onto each other when the cover system is retracted to the configuration 10′ shown in FIG. 2. The front bow arrangement 22 is connected or locked to the bulkhead 20 by a front locking mechanism 26. The front locking mechanism allows the front end of the cover system to be disengaged and the tarp 14 retracted toward the rear of the trailer, rather than to the front of the trailer as depicted in FIG. 2. The rear bow arrangement 24 includes a rear tensioning and locking mechanism 28 that pulls the tarp 14 into tension when the system is extended and locks the rear bow arrangement to the rear of the trailer 12. Details of the tarp support structure, the locking and tensioning mechanisms, and other components of the tarping system 10 may be obtained from the '484, '064 and '313 identified above and incorporated herein by reference.
The retractable tarping system 10 is adapted to be mounted on an existing trailer, such as trailer 12, without substantial modification to the trailer. In order to support the tarp supporting bows, guide rails 30 are mounted to the sides of the flatbed. While that part of the installation is relatively easy, the construction of the remainder of the cover system 10 is often very involved. The construction and installation of the cover system 10 is not conducive to being performed by the ultimate customer. Typically, installation of a retractable tarping system on a customer's flatbed occurs at pre-determined installation sites. Accuracy of the installation is important to the proper functioning of the tarping system, so complete system installation is usually reserved to trained technicians.
However, in many instances, the customer is not able to part with a trailer for an extended period of time for the installation of a cover system. Moreover, approved installation sites are frequently swamped by demand, where several tarping systems are to be installed, such as when a customer is converting a fleet of trailers to a retractable tarping system. In this instance, the often lengthy installation time for a single cover system 10 can frustrate the desire for rapid turnaround so the flatbed fleet can return to work.
Consequently, there is a need for a shipping method that allows for pre-assembly of at least a significant portion of a retractable cover system. With this novel method, the bulk of the complicated installation and assembly can occur where the system components are manufactured. Moreover, this method eliminates, or at least significantly reduces, the number of trained installation technicians that must be available off-site from the manufacturing facility.


A lead frame separating and conveying device used with, for instance, a wire bonding apparatus, including a frame separating assembly that includes frame guides which support lead frames that are lined up with the flat surfaces in a vertical direction, frame suspension guides which are installed above the front ends of the frame guides in the feeding direction of the lead frames, and a frame pusher which pushes the rear end of the lead frames lined up on the frame guides so as to convey the lead frames onto the frame suspension guides. The frame suspension guides supports the lead frames in a suspended fashion and have frame separating sections which are inclined upward.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lead frame separating and conveying apparatus used for semiconductor devices.
2. Prior Art
There are two types of known systems for storing large numbers of plate-form workpieces such as lead frames, etc.
The first type is a horizontal positioning system (stacking system) in which a plurality of plate-form workpieces are stored one on the other with the workpieces being placed in a horizontal attitude or the flat surfaces being set in the horizontal direction. This system further includes two types: an uppermost-rank separating type, in which the plate-form workpieces are removed starting with the uppermost workpiece, and a lowermost-rank separating type, in which the plate-form workpieces are removed beginning with the lowermost workpiece.
An example of the uppermost-rank separating type is described in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication (Kokoku) No. 63-42529, and an example of the lowermost-rank separating type is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication (Kokoku) No. 6-76146.
In these types of plate-form workpiece storing systems, lead frames are placed one on the other so that their positions are shifted in the form of a staircase. Thus, the lead frames are prevented from sticking together and are separated reliably one lead frame at a time.
The second type of system is a vertical positioning system in which plate-form workpieces are lined up in the conveying direction with the width directions of the workpieces (or the surfaces of the workpieces) being oriented in a vertical direction.
Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 58-20230 discloses an example of this system.
In this system, plate-form workpieces are lined up in the conveying direction and set on an inclined stand with the flat surfaces thereof oriented in a vertical direction, and the rear end of the line of plate-form workpieces is pushed by an inclined slider, so that the workpieces are dropped one at a time onto a belt conveyor.
In the case of the horizontal positioning system (stacking system), the overall weight of the stacked plate-form workpieces is concentrated in the lower portion of the stack; accordingly, parts having a sufficient strength must be used for supporting the workpieces, and as a result the cost of the apparatus tends to be high. Furthermore, especially in the lowermost-rank separating system, all of the plate-form workpieces must be removed at one time if there is a trouble with parts such as claws used for removing the workpiece, etc. or if plate-form workpieces with a defective shape are mixed with the non-defective workpieces.
In this regard, with the vertical positioning system, the removal of defective plate-form workpieces onto the belt conveyer is easier. However, since the plate-form workpieces are merely caused to slide over the inclined stand, plate-form workpieces that are stuck together are sometimes not separated. Furthermore, when the plate-form workpieces are pushed by the inclined slider, the bottom surfaces of the plate-form workpieces rub against the surface of the inclined stand so that frictional resistance is generated. As a result, a driving means that pushes the plate-form workpieces with a driving force which exceeds the combined force of this frictional resistance plus the weight of the plate-form workpieces due to the inclined stand is required. Thus, the cost of the apparatus increases for this reason as well.
Furthermore, when the plate-form work pieces on the inclined stand are dropped onto the belt conveyor so as to be conveyed by the belt conveyor, each plate-form workpiece is dropped onto the belt conveyor while the end portion of such plate-form workpiece is in contact with another plate-form workpiece on the inclined stand. As a result, the plate-form workpieces are scratched. Moreover, the plate-form workpieces on the inclined stand are pushed by the inclined slider and dropped naturally onto the belt conveyor by their own weights; accordingly, there is a danger that two or more plate-form workpieces are dropped continuously. Furthermore, since the plate-form workpieces are naturally dropped by the gravity, only the plate-form workpieces that are flat with no projections can be used in this vertical positioning system.

Lead frame separating and conveying apparatus


A method for routing a communication connection request includes the steps of obtaining context information from a communication connection requester in response to a communication connection request. The steps further include using the context information to determine a communication connection action, and connecting the communication connection requester based upon the connection action.

Traditional telephony relies on the use of telephone numbers to route call requests to a desired recipient. 800 numbers, 900 numbers, group pickup, call forwarding, all allow a specific desired recipient or group of recipients, to be reached based on digits dialed by the calling party, which then undergo number translation (e.g. to a regional 800 destination), or predetermined fan-out (as in group pickup).
800 numbers are implemented in the Public Switched Telephone (PSTN) system via a lookup on a database resident on a Signaling Control Point (SCP). This database maps an 800 number to a physical telephone number. This is accomplished through Signaling System 7 (SS7) signaling which takes the digits entered by the user, and invokes a lookup on the number translation database. The physical PSTN number that is returned is used to do the connection setup. Lookup for 900 calls is similar except for the charging mechanism. Both 800 and 900 number translations rely on a pre-determined (ignoring dynamic personal state) translation. 800 numbers and 900 numbers require that the calling party dial the digits associated with the desired call recipient.
Call forwarding is a service whereby the terminating switch on the path to the called party replaces the original number with a second number that is programmed by the owner of the original number. Call forwarding is thus another form of number translation that is programmed by the end user. Call forwarding requires that calling party dial the digits associated with the desired call recipient.
Call centers are a way that many operators can respond when customers dial a single phone number. Offered by enterprises, or as a telecom service, an incoming call is routed to an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) which can then routed the call to one of many physical telephones. The selection of a target telephone may be done by one of many algorithms including longest idle, or skills based routing. Target phones traditionally have been collocated with the ACD, but advances in communication have made distributed call centers feasible. Call centers are generally employed by enterprises or by carriers (e.g. for directory assistance). Call centers are reached when the calling party dials the digits associated with that termination.
Traditional telephony requires that the calling party enter an identification indicating the desired recipient in order to make this connection—either a telephone number, a speed dial sequence such as *n where n is a digit or digit string (usually only one or two digits), a spoken name previously associated with a dial number (e.g. as in voice activated dialing), etc. The advent of VoIP protocols such as H323 and SIP (session initiation protocol) allows this to be extended past the traditional PSTN to internet protocol (IP) addresses or other allowed designations; VoIP protocols extend the telephony paradigm to the IP world. To reach an IP destination, a calling user must provide an indication of the desired party to be reached.
The Telephone Number Mapping standard, called ENUM, is a specification to map telephone numbers from the Internet. For a "voice over IP" (VoIP) call, (which by definition originates on the Internet side) that aims to reach a PSTN user, the VoIP call must terminate at a IP-PSTN gateway. ENUM allows for dynamic selection of such a gateway based on the destination PSTN Number. ENUM lookups are accomplished via DNS; in this case, the DNS (Domain Name System), which is the host/service naming and lookup scheme used in the Internet, maps a PSTN number to the name of the Internet host that serves as a gateway to the desired PSTN number.
CTI or computer-telephony integration refers to programming a PSTN interface connected to a computer; a computer is typically connected to a data network, and thus providing a PSTN interfaced card allows a computer to interact with the PSTN network. CTI basically enables a computer to act as an endpoint of the PSTN network, i.e. it appears to be a phone to the PSTN network. The aim of CTI, as the name suggests, is to enable computer applications to be extended to use services from the PSTN network.
The use of a person's location in communications and computer applications is not uncommon today. Users of cell phones are offered services tailored to the location of the cell phone. Examples include emergency 911 calls, movie listings for local theaters, traffic conditions, nearby gasoline sales, etc. The Hertz Company equips some of its rental cares with an interactive device that uses the rental car's location to offer navigation clues to the driver. Research labs have prototyped electronic tour guides on mobile devices for museums, small cities, and retail stores that also use device location to tailor end user services.
We're also used to communications applications that use the context of the person who is the intended target of a communiqué to influence a communications request. A simple example is the busy signal that we've all heard with we attempt to phone someone who's already on the phone. Newer variations on that theme can be experienced when one attempts to contact a person's mobile communication device. For example Nextel's so called DirectConnect® phones chirp in different ways depending on the state of the target person's device.
Communications applications can also show some information about the calling party. For example many phone services offer a feature known as caller ID that provides the calling parties telephone number.
Data from a myriad of physical sensors can extend context beyond location and device activity. Examples include atmospheric measurements, light level, sound pressure level, audio feature analysis, weight and pressure, motion detectors, magnetic door and window switches, etc. Personal medical sensors can also provide data on a variety of physiological measures including pulse rate, blood pressure, body temperature, electronic impulse activity and resistance, etc. A familiar example of such an application is the so-called lie detector machine.
Context-aware computing has included message and call delivery, based on recipient (eg called party). Two examples are the Etherphone system from Xerox® Parc and Active Badge system from Olivetti®, both of which route an incoming call based on the called party's location. The Active Messenger system (AM) from MIT routes an incoming message to a suitable device near the called party, e.g. pager, phone, fax. However, the routing in these cases is not done based on attributes of the caller.
Traditional telephony requires that the calling party recall numbers or access codes for desired called parties. With many potential called parties this becomes difficult. Speed dialing provides simple access, but still requires that the calling party recall access codes and further requires a prior number selection and association with the speed dialing code. What is needed is a way to simplify access for the calling party to reach appropriate called parties, responsive to current calling party status, such as expected appointments.
Voice calling requires that the calling party recall names or designations of called parties. With many potential called parties, this becomes difficult. What is needed is a way to simplify access for the user to appropriate recipients.
Calendars may be available on different devices including paper calendars, PDA based calendars and so on. These can allow a user to determine the appropriate person to call based on expected appointments, but these may require reading, reentering numbers into a phone, and so on. What's needed is a way of reaching people based on caller context (eg expected appointments).
Further, determining an appropriate person may require an understanding of roles and assignments. What's needed is a way of reaching such called parties based on their roles, independent of their phone number or IP address.
Rules based routing—Calls once received (e.g. at a help desk) may be routed to an appropriate destination (e.g. operator) based on rules such as time of day (for night shutdown), based on perceived content of the call (e.g. based on origination, route to appropriate operator with correct linguistic skills), based on calling line id (eg route to assigned CRM rep for this customer). This mechanism is all called side determined. What is needed is a way to determine a called objective based on callers context.
What is needed is a method and system which makes it easier to use corporate data, such as calendar information, assignment lists, etc. to make more effective voice calls; and which uses the context to both the called and calling parties.

Method, system and service for achieving synchronous communication responsive to dynamic status

International Business Machines Corporation


A line cutting device for use with a hydrodynamic propeller has a blade (5) fixed to a vessel having the propeller. Three rotating blades (22) extend from a hub fixed around the propeller's shaft. The fixed and rotating blades are arranged for line shearing action. Each of the rotating blades has four apertures (21) extending from front to back through the blade for passage of water therethrough towards a respective blade of the propeller. The apertures are arranged to alleviate cavitation on the propeller blades.

Ships and boats can be immobilised by ropes fouling their propellers. In my British patent No. 2,204,549, I have described a line cutter having:
a rotatable cutting blade assembly mountable for rotation with the propeller shaft and including at least one rotatable cutting blade extending generally radially of the propeller shaft and having a cutting edge provided between an axially directed face and a circumferentially directed face; and
a stationary cutting blade assembly adapted to be restrained against rotation by cooperation with the shaft bearing and including a stationary cutting blade extending generally radially of the propeller shaft, having a cutting edge provided between an axially directed and a circumferentially directed face and arranged for cutting action of its cutting edge in conjunction with the cutting edge of the or each rotatable cutting blade on rotation of the propeller shaft with the axially directed faces passing opposite each other during such rotation;
wherein the cutting edge of the or each rotatable cutting blade and/or the cutting edge of the stationary cutting blade is/are provided with serrations, and the cutting edges are shaped for cutting action of radially inner ones of the serrations prior to such action of radially outer serrations on continued rotation of the propeller shaft.
Cavitation of propellers has been an acknowledged problem for many years. It occurs when the pressure on the forward face of the propeller blades drops below the vapour pressure at the ambient temperature for the occurrence of boiling of water in which the propeller is working. Vapour bubbles form in the water due to the pressure reduction. The pressure reduction is a transitory effect and the vapour bubbles implode, eroding the propeller. Propellers are designed to work close to the threshold of cavitation over their entire surface, which results in the maximum amount of thrust being developed by the propeller at its design speed. Rotational speeds have increased with high speed engines.
A line cutter disturbs the water flow to its propeller and reduces the water pressure locally. This aggravates cavitation of the propeller.

Cavitation alleviation and line cutting device


A system and method for filling hydrodynamic bearings with fluid are disclosed. The fluid filling system of the present invention includes a fluid storage tank to store fluid therein, a vacuum vessel to receive a hydrodynamic bearing therein, a fluid dispenser for connecting the fluid storage tank to the vacuum vessel and dripping the fluid into a micro-gap of the hydrodynamic bearing, a pump connected both to the fluid storage tank and to the vacuum vessel and separately exhausting air from both the fluid storage tank and the vacuum vessel to the outside, and a nitrogen storage tank for separately controlling pressure in both the fluid storage tank and the vacuum vessel, wherein the fluid storage tank is pressurized using nitrogen such that the pressure in the fluid storage tank becomes higher than the pressure in the vacuum vessel, thus causing the fluid to move to the vacuum vessel and to be dripped into the hydrodynamic bearing received in the vacuum vessel. The fluid filling system further includes an ultrasonic generator for applying ultrasonic waves to the fluid storage tank, thus removing air bubbles from the fluid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a system and method for filling hydrodynamic bearings with fluid and, more particularly, to a system and method for filling hydrodynamic bearings with fluid, which can be used to fill the hydrodynamic bearings with fluid without requiring the use of a pumping unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, hydrodynamic bearings are devices used in motors of Hard Disk Drives or CD-Drives. The hydrodynamic bearing includes a shaft and a sleeve to support the shaft, with a micro-gap defined between the shaft and the sleeve and filled with viscous fluid, such as oil, thus permitting free rotation of the shaft due to dynamic pressure formed in the micro-gap caused by the fluid during relative rotation of the shaft and the sleeve.
During a process of filling the hydrodynamic bearing with fluid, it is necessary to prevent the formation of air bubbles in the micro-gap between the shaft and the sleeve. However, it is very difficult to prevent the formation of air bubbles in the micro-gap during the process of filling the bearing with fluid, and a complicated procedure is required.
A conventional fluid filling method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2005-114051, entitled Method for Manufacturing Hydrodynamic Bearings and Motor using the Hydrodynamic Bearings, and is schematically shown in FIG. 4 of the accompanying drawings.
As shown in FIG. 4, a conventional system for filling hydrodynamic bearings 10 with oil comprises an oil tank 210, an air bubble removing means H and S, a vacuum vessel 220 and a needle valve 230.
The oil tank 210 stores oil with which a hydrodynamic bearing 10 is to be filled. The oil tank 210 is connected to a vacuum pump P1 through a pipe having a valve B1, and is connected through a pipe 212 to the needle valve 230 placed in the vacuum vessel 220.
The vacuum pump P1 exhausts air from the interior of the oil tank 210 to the atmosphere until the pressure in the oil tank 210 is reduced to a predetermined vacuum level P1.
The air bubble removing means H and S removes air bubbles from oil stored in the oil tank 210 and comprises a heating unit H and a stirring unit S.
The heating unit H is placed beneath the oil tank 210 and heats the oil to a predetermined temperature, thus removing air bubbles from the oil. The stirring unit S is installed in the oil tank 210 such that the unit S is immersed in the oil inside the oil tank 210. The stirring unit S stirs the oil in the oil tank 210, thus removing air bubbles from the oil.
The vacuum vessel 220 receives the hydrodynamic bearing 10 therein, and is connected to a vacuum pump P2 through a pipe having a valve B2, and communicates with the atmosphere through another pipe having a valve B3.
The vacuum pump P2 exhausts air from the interior of the vacuum vessel 220 until the pressure in the vacuum vessel 220 is reduced to a predetermined vacuum level P2. In the above state, the pressure in the vacuum vessel 220 is reduced such that the vacuum level P2 is lower than the vacuum level P1 of the oil tank 210. Described in detail, the pressure in the oil tank 210 is higher than that in the vacuum vessel 220.
The valve B3 opens the pipe to supply atmospheric air to the vacuum vessel 220, thus the pressure in the vacuum vessel 220 becomes equal to atmospheric pressure.
The needle valve 230, which drips oil onto the hydrodynamic bearing 10, is connected to the oil tank 210 through the pipe 212. The outlet nozzle of the needle valve 230 is located at a position around a tapered seal part 8 of the hydrodynamic bearing 10, thus easily dripping the fluid onto the hydrodynamic bearing 10.
The conventional system for filling hydrodynamic bearings 10 with oil, which has the above-mentioned construction, fills a hydrodynamic bearing 10 with oil while removing air bubbles from the oil, as will be described herein below.
First, the conventional oil filling system removes air bubbles from oil stored in the oil tank 210. The oil stored in the oil tank 210 under atmospheric pressure is heated by the heating unit H and is stirred by the rotating stirring unit S, and thus air bubbles are removed from the oil. At the same time, the pressure in the oil tank 210 is reduced by the vacuum pump P1 to the predetermined vacuum level P1 and is maintained at that vacuum level P1.
Thereafter, the hydrodynamic bearing 10 is received in the vacuum vessel 220, and the pressure in the vacuum vessel 220 is reduced by the vacuum pump P2 to the predetermined vacuum level P2. In the above state, air which remains in the tapered seal part 8 between the shaft and the sleeve of the hydrodynamic bearing 10 is removed in the form of air bubbles. The interior of the tapered seal part 8 is maintained at the vacuum level P2.
Thereafter, oil is dripped onto the tapered seal part 8 of the hydrodynamic bearing 10 due to the difference between the vacuum levels P1 and P2 (P1>P2).
After dripping the oil, the valve B3 is opened to introduce atmospheric air into the vacuum vessel 220, thus gradually returning the internal pressure of the vacuum vessel 220 to atmospheric pressure. In the above state, oil is pressurized by the atmospheric air flowing into the vacuum vessel 220 and is forced into all of the corners of the tapered seal part 8, thus filling the entire tapered seal part 8.
However, the conventional oil filling system and method is problematic in that, in order to drip oil onto the hydrodynamic bearing 10, the respective vacuum levels of the oil tank 210 and the vacuum vessel 220, which are reduced to create an almost perfect vacuum, must be controlled and maintained carefully such that the pressure difference between the oil tank 210 and the vacuum vessel 220 is precisely controlled.
Furthermore, to remove air bubbles from oil stored in the oil tank 210, the conventional system and method requires additional devices, such as the heating unit H and the stirring unit S, thereby complicating the construction of the system.

System and method for filling hydrodynamic bearings with fluid


The driving voltage of a liquid crystal display can be adjusted by irradiating the liquid crystal fluid in the display with ultraviolet light. After the fluid is placed in the display, it is exposed to a predetermined dose of high intensity ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet light alters the chemical composition of the fluid, thus changing the switching voltage of the fluid and the driving voltage of the display.

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) employ a fluid disposed between two substrates. Each of the substrates has a transparent electrode on them. The fluid, i.e., the liquid crystal medium, is made up of various materials, such as cholesterol, cyano-biphenyl groups and so on. The chemical makeup and composition of the liquid crystal fluid is the critical element that determines the level of the applied voltage that is required to be applied to the electrodes in order to effect a change in the arrangement of the liquid crystal molecules. The applied voltage at which the liquid crystal fluid first starts to change from one state to another is known as the "off" or "threshold" voltage, and the voltage at which the change becomes complete is known as the "on" or "saturation" voltage. The various vendors of liquid crystal fluids take great care in order to precisely formulate the composition of each fluid to meet specific threshold and saturation voltages for various LCD applications. For example, an LCD used in a watch that is powered by a tiny single cell battery may have a very low driving voltage whereas an LCD used in a fixed appliance such as a refrigerator or a video cassette recorder having a much larger capacity power supply would operate at a higher driving voltage. In order to create LCDs that need this wide range of properties, the LCD manufacturers must not only stock a wide range of liquid crystal fluid compositions but each of these compositions must be carefully monitored and controlled in order to prevent any contamination that may inadvertently modify the driving voltage.
Traditionally, this problem of creating a variety of driving voltages has been solved by carefully blending various types of liquid crystal fluids together in precise formulations. Although the modern practice of chemistry is such that these formulations can be carefully controlled, this entire formulation process still contains a significant degree of art. Clearly, an improved method of providing liquid crystal LCDs with varying driving voltages would be an addition to the industry.

Method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display


An apparatus and method for determining the time at which a plasma etching process should be terminated. The process generates at least one etch product species and a continuum plasma emission. The apparatus monitors the optical emission intensity of the plasma in a narrow band centered about a predetermined spectral line and generates a first signal indicative of the spectral intensity of the etch product species. The apparatus further monitors the optical emission intensity of the plasma in a wide band and generates a second signal indicative of the spectral intensity of the continuum plasma emission. The apparatus further monitors the magnitudes of the first and second signals and generates a termination signal when the magnitudes diverge.

Determining the time at which an etching reaction should end is very important for process control in the fabrication of micro-electronic devices. In particular, in plasma etching processes, optical emission spectroscopy has often been used to detect the products formed by the etching reaction. This technique has been useful in oxide, nitride, and metal etching operations. Heretofor, however, when the amount of exposed material on a semiconductor wafer being etched falls to about one percent of the surface area of the wafer, optical emission spectroscopy ceases to provide sufficient detection sensitivity for detecting such products. In oxide etching processes which use halocarbon gases in the generation of the etching plasma, a carbon monoxide etch product is formed and is often used to detect the time at which the process should be terminated, more commonly referred to as the end point. However, as was the case above, when very small patterns are etched on a wafer, the background levels of carbon monoxide evolved from outgassing, etching of the resist material, etching of quartz fixtures in the chamber and desorption from surfaces in the etch chamber make end point detection very difficult. In a typical manufacturing process, an end point detection apparatus consists of a monochromator tuned to monitor the etch product emission by means of a photo detector. The photo detector signal is frequently delivered to a low-pass filter or an integrator to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the end point signal. While low-pass filtering has been shown to effectively limit the system band-pass to that required to pass the slowly varying end point signal, response time is often unacceptable. In addition, both RC low-pass filtering and signal integration techniques are adversely affected by the fact that such measurements are centered at a direct current level, which is the region of maximum 1/f noise. Thus, both of these techniques may be adversely affected by long term drifts in the plasma generation or the optical detection systems. The above problems have been addressed in several prior patents.
Japanese Patent No. 0081929 describes the use of two optical signals to improve end point detection sensitivity in an SiO.sub.2 etching process. One optical signal is derived from a molecular CO etch product of the etching reaction which decreases at end point. The other optical signal is derived from the atomic He buffer gas in the plasma. The He atom signal increases at end point. This patent teaches that by comparing these signals throughout the course of the etching reaction, the end point signal is enhanced as the signals diverge.
Japanese Patent No. 59-61036 also describes the use of two optical signals to improve end point detection sensitivity. This patent describes the etching of Si in a CCl.sub.4 plasma. Optical signals at 400 nm and 510 nm are taught to diverge at the end point of the etching process. This patent teaches that by computing the ratio of the signals throughout the course of the etch process, the end point signal amplitude is enhanced.
Japanese Patent No. 0120674 teaches the use of phase sensitive detection to improve end point detection sensitivity. This patent further teaches the comparison of two optical signals for signal-to-noise improvement purposes. Such noise improvement is accomplished in part by the use of an external chopper or modulator in the phase sensitive detection circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,499 to Jerde, et al shows a method and apparatus for optical emission end point detection. The technique disclosed therein measures the optical emission intensity of the plasma in a narrow band centered about a predetermined spectral line, for example, of one reactant species, and also measures the intensity of the plasma in a wide band centered about that same predetermined spectral line indicative of a background emission signal. The background signal is developed to derive a correction factor to thereby gain a more accurate indication of the intensity of the narrow band signal.
Applicants have discovered that the continuum plasma emission contains valuable information which may be detected and utilized in the end point detection process, unlike the prior systems wherein the continuum plasma emission, if recognized at all, is used to develop a correction factor so that its effects may be minimized or eliminated. Unlike the discrete atomic or molecular emission lines used to detect plasma etching end point in the prior art, the continuum plasma emission is a broad band spectral signal which arises from processes such as the radiative recombination of electrons with ions, the radiative attachment of electrons with neutral species or from the acceleration of electrons. Such a signal occurs at ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wave lengths. It is observed as a continuum between discrete emission lines. Such a continuum signal is inherent in all discharges and is sensitive to the electron density, electron temperature, and other electrical properties of the plasma which may change at end point as the nature of the exposed film changes.

Method and apparatus for optical emission end point detection in plasma etching processes

International Business Machines Corporation


A multi-winged flying toy includes a handle with a wing attachment at the upper end and a plurality of wings, each with a center hole for attachment. The attachment mechanism allows pivoting of the wings. The handle includes positioning and torque resisting formations for arranging the wings in a first position, where the wings are in alignment with one another, and a second flyable position. The handle has a centrally bored passage, and attachment shank having expanded width head, connected at its end opposite the head, to a tension mechanism located within the passage so as to maintain the shank tensed against the wings to retain the wings in first or second positions.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a flying toy device, and more particularly, that is, hand thrown objects designed to sail up in the air and return to the thrower in a complex flight path, first, in an initial flight path in a boomerang pattern, and, second, in a final flight path in a spirally helicopter pattern.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
The most common and universally recognized boomerangs are formed of curved wood or plastic. Thrown with force and developed skill, they return to the user with significant reliability. Many improvements and designs have more recently been developed which are intended to improve the reliability of return and reduce the strength and skill required to achieve reliable flight and return. One such improvement is the multi-wing boomerang which has two or more wings centrally pivoted by a bolt and nut. The wings are positioned in their desired angular relationship and the nut tightened to frictionally secure the wings in that relationship.
On returning to earth, the boomerang sometimes inadvertently strikes an object or a person. A correctly adjusted multi-wing boomerang will collapse on striking an object or person, thereby minimizing the inertial effect, and minimizing damage or injury. In collapsing, the wings rotate at the pivot, thereby absorbing much of the striking impact. Additionally, many prior art boomerangs with multiple wings rely upon bolts and nuts which frequently are tightened to the point where excessive force is required to cause collapse, thereby increasing the probability of damage or injury to a struck object or person. They are over-tightened to better ensure against an inadvertent collapse during the throwing operation. If the pivot nut is under-tightened, the wings may collapse from the torque arising from the throwing motion thereby aborting or causing an erratic or unpredictable flight.
Additionally, these prior art multi-winged devices have somewhat unpredictable flight paths and are not aerodynamically maximized with respect to shape and weight distribution. The following are representative of the prior art:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,035,629 to Russell T. Wing describes a boomerang comprising freely rotatable blades and a car swivelled to the blades and adapted to follow the line of flight while the blades rotate. The rotatable blades project so that they serve as handles by which the device may be thrown. It also has blades which give a rotary motion on the swivelling connection between the same and car.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,431 to Paul J. Callahan describes a toy plastic boomerang having two interconnected wings arranged for free rotation on a vertical hollow handle with ballast therein to control the speed of descent. To propel, the user grasps one wing between the fingers so that the wings extend vertically with the handle extending laterally and throws the boomerang forward and vertically at a slight upward arc of approximately 45.degree..
U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,962 to Stephen J. Flemming describes a boomerang comprising a pair of elongated, airfoils coupled together at their midsections to form a cross. Mechanism is provided for releasably coupling the midportions of the airfoils for separation under a predetermined force to normally prevent relative rotation of the airfoils.
Notwithstanding the prior art, the present invention is neither taught nor rendered obvious thereby.


The present invention provides a cationically curable resin composition for assembling hard disk devices which comprises a resin having a cationically polymerizable functional group (a component A) and a cationic polymerization initiator (a component B), the component B being at least one selected from the group consisting of X+(SbF6)−(B1), X+(B(C6F5)4)−(B2) and X+((Rf)nPF6-n)−(B3) (in the formulae, X+ is iodonium or sulfonium, Rf is a fluorinated alkyl having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, and n is an integer of 1 to 6). The invention also provides a hard disk device manufacturing method using the composition, and a hard disk device assembled with the composition.

Assembling of hard disks essentially involves steps for fixing a magnetic head periphery with an adhesive. For example, such steps include fixing of piezoelectric elements, fixing of magnetic heads, and fixing of a magnetic head with a suspension (a head gimbal assembly (HGA)). The adhesives used in these steps require low-outgassing properties to prevent the occurrence of reading and writing errors ascribed to the outgas components being attached to the disk surface or the magnetic head. Such low-outgassing adhesives have been sought for. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses an epoxy resin composition which contains an epoxy compound, a partially (meth)acrylated epoxy compound, a (meth)acrylic compound, an amine curing agent and a photoinitiator.

Cationically curable resin composition for assembling hard disk devices


A valve system includes a load holding valve, a feed balancing valve, and a fast feed differential valve. The load holding valve may be in fluid communication with the load holding valve. The fast feed differential valve is configured to move between an engaged state and a disengaged state. In the engaged state the fast feed differential valve fluidly couples a ring side of a feed cylinder, the load holding valve, and a piston side of the feed cylinder to allow fluid to flow from the ring side to the piston side.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hydraulic control systems for drilling systems and to valve systems in particular.
2. The Relevant Technology
Drilling rigs are often used for drilling holes into various substrates. Such drill rigs often include a drill head mounted to a mast. The rig often includes mechanisms and devices that are capable of moving the drill head along at least a portion of the mast. The drill head often further includes mechanisms that receive and engage the upper end of a drill rod or pipe. The drill rod or pipe may be a single rod or pipe or may be part of a drill string that includes a cutting bit or other device on the opposing end, which may be referred to as a bit end.
The drill head applies a force to the drill rod or pipe which is transmitted to the drill string. If the applied force is a rotational force, the drill head may thereby cause the drill string to rotate within the bore hole. The rotation of the drill string may include the corresponding rotation of the cutting bit, which in turn may result in cutting action by the drill bit. The forces applied by the drill head may also include an axial force, which may be transmitted to the drill string to facilitate penetration into the formation.
The axial force, the drill head exerts on the drill strings may be controlled by a plurality of valves coupled to a feed cylinder. Often, the connections between the valves and associated controls and between the valves and the cylinder can be complicated.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.


A technique for determining an adaptive quantization parameter offset for a block of encoded video includes obtaining a rate control factor for the quantization parameter, determining a content-based quantization parameter factor for the quantization parameter, determining an adaptive variance based quantization offset based on content-based quantization parameter factors for a frame prior to the current frame, and combining the rate control factor, the content-based quantization parameter factor, and the adaptive offset to generate the quantization parameter.

One aspect of video encoding involves conversion of pixels in a frame of video into groups of pixels, often known as blocks. A lossy compression step downgrades the fidelity of the representation of the blocks. The amount of data used for any particular block is based at least in part on a quantization parameter set for that block. Techniques for setting the quantization parameter for blocks are constantly being developed.

Adaptive offset for variance based quantization


A fluid-tight vial comprising a locking, flip-top cap and an open-ended cylindrical container is disclosed.

The use of buffered and microbiological growth media for microbiological assays is widespread. To obtain accurate assays, it is important that the volume of the fluid be exact to obtain proper dilution of, for example, a bacteria-containing sample, and of paramount importance that its sterility is ensured. It is also important that the concentration of the buffer or growth media components have a predetermined known value. This may be achieved by the preparation of fresh batches of the assay fluids, measuring and/or adjusting the concentration of the components, then using the assay fluids promptly thereafter. The chief drawback of this approach is that it is both time-consuming, labor-intensive and subjects the assay fluid to the possible introduction of sterility-destroying microorganisms.
An alternative, simpler approach has been to use premade sterile microbiological assay fluids that come in specific volumes and concentrations. However, in order to maintain sterility and the proper volume and concentration during storage and shipping, such premade fluids must be contained in fluid-tight containers that prevent the entry of microorganisms and that permit essentially no loss of fluid either through leakage or evaporation. This may be achieved by the use of a container having, for example, a molded breakable seal formed essentially integrally with the container's opening. The drawback of such an approach is that, once the seal is broken, the fluid must be used immediately and any remainder discarded.
The achievement of absolutely fluid-tight reusable containers has been difficult, with even the most fluid-tight containers exhibiting leakage when they are shipped by air, where the lower atmospheric pressure existing at high altitudes, coupled with a lowered vapor pressure of the fluid combine to create a higher relative pressure inside the container, thereby tending to force the liquid out of the container.
There is therefore a need in the art for a fluid-tight container that exhibits essentially no loss of fluid during storage and shipping, including shipment by air, that remains sterile until it is used and that, once opened, may again be sealed to maintain sterility and the predetermined volume and concentration of the assay fluid's components, and which permits retesting of the assay fluid in a simple and convenient manner.
The foregoing need is met by the present invention, which is summarized and described in detail below.