A circuit for monitoring the recorded state of audio signals from a microphone on a magnetic tape. The circuit comprises an additional head having only a playback function. The head functions to detect an audio signal recorded on the magnetic tape. The detected audio signal is then applied to an outer speaker, via a switch. Accordingly, the user can monitor completely the recorded state of the audio signal on the magnetic tape in the record mode operation of audio device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an audio device, and more particularly to a circuit for monitoring the recording state of audio signals in a magnetic tape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a widely used method for recording audio signals on a certain medium and for playing back the recorded signals, there is a method in which electric audio signals are stored in a magnetic tape as magnetic signals by using an audio head, and if necessary, the magnetic signals are converted into electric audio signals by the audio head again.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a circuit diagram of a conventional audio device in an audio head and a magnetic tape are utilized for recording audio signals on the magnetic tape and playing back the recorded audio signals. The audio device comprises an audio signal record and detect circuit 100, a first amplifying circuit 200, a second amplifying circuit 300, and a third amplifying circuit 400.
The audio signal record and detect circuit 100 which is adapted to selectively record audio signals on a magnetic tape or detect them. That is, the audio signal record and detect circuit 100 includes a mixer 10 to which the output from the third amplifying circuit 400 is applied. The mixer 10 comprises an oscillator 11 for oscillating a bias signal and an adder 12 for mixing the output from the third amplifying circuit 400 and the output from the oscillator 11. The audio signal record and detect circuit 100 also includes a switch SW2 to which the mixer 10 is connected so that its output is selectively applied to an audio head AHD, according to the switching operation of the switch SW2. The circuit 100 also comprises an audio head AHD for detecting signals recorded on the magnetic tape.
The first amplifying circuit 200 comprises a switch SW1 for selectively connecting the output of the audio signal record and detect circuit 100 and the first amplifying circuit 200 and an OP amplifier OP1 for amplifying the output sent from the circuit 100 via the switch SW1.
The third amplifying circuit 400 comprises a switch SW3 connected at its fixed terminals P and R with the output of the first amplifying circuit 200 and the output of the second amplifying circuit 300, respectively, and OP amplifiers OP2, OP3 and OP4. In particular, the OP amplifier OP4 is connected at its input and output to the OP amplifier OP2 and the mixer 10, respectively.
All of switches SW1 to SW3 are operatively connected with one another, as shown in FIG. 1.
This device having the above-mentioned arrangement is operated in a record mode for recording audio signals received from a microphone MIC on a magnetic tape or in a playback mode for playing back the audio signals recorded on the magnetic tape, for their listening. Now, the operation of the device will be described in conjunction with respective modes.
1) RECORD MODE
When the audio device should be operated in its record mode, the user operates switches SW1, SW2 and SW3 operatively connected with one another so that their movable terminals are connected to the corresponding fixed terminals R, respectively. Accordingly, an audio signal from the microphone MIC is sent to the second amplifying circuit 300 and amplified by the second amplifying circuit 300. The amplified audio signal is then applied to the third amplifying circuit 400, via the switch SW3. The audio signal applied to the third amplifying circuit 400 is amplified in the OP amplifier OP2 which is a linear amplifier and then applied to OP amplifiers OP3 and OP4.
The OP amplifier OP3 is a monitor amplifier which functions to amplify the audio signal to the level suitable for driving an outer earphone EP or a speaker SPK. On the other hand, the OP amplifier OP4 amplifies the audio signal to the level suitable for recording it on the magnetic tape by an audio head and applies the amplified audio signal to the mixer 10. The adder 12 of mixer 10 mixes the output from the oscillator 11 generating a bias signal with a certain frequency and the output from the OP amplifier OP4. As a result, the audio signal from the microphone can be stored in the magnetic tape by the audio head AHD and via the switch SW2 of the audio signal record and detect circuit 100.
Since the audio signal from the microphone MIC is also sent to the outer earphone, via the OP amplifier OP3, the user can check whether the audio signal received from the microphone MIC is good, by listening to the sound from the earphone.
2) PLAYBACK MODE
When the audio device should be operated in its playback mode, the user operates switches SW1, SW2 and SW3 so that their movable terminals are connected to the corresponding fixed terminals P, respectively. Accordingly, an audio signal by the audio head AHD is sent to the first amplifying circuit 200 via the switch SW1 and amplified by the OP amplifier OP1 of the first amplifying circuit 200. The amplified audio signal is then applied to the third amplifying circuit 400, via the switch SW3. Thereby, the user can listen to the sound played back from the audio signal recorded on the magnetic tape.
During the operation of the audio device in the playback mode, an audio signal possibly sent from the microphone MIC is prevented from being applied to the third amplifying circuit 400, by virtue of the switch SW3. The switch SW2 functions to prevent the output from the mixer 10 to be applied to the audio head AHD.
According to the arrangement of the conventional audio device, the user can monitor whether an audio signal is outputted from the microphone, in that in record mode operation, the third amplifying circuit amplifies the audio signal from the microphone and sends the amplified audio signal to the earphone. However, it is impossible to confirm whether the received audio signal is correctly recorded on the magnetic tape by the audio head. If an abnormality occurs at the mixer or the audio head, the audio signal can not correctly recorded on the magnetic tape. In spite of this, the user continuously attempts to operate the audio device in its record mode for recording the audio signal on the magnetic tape, since he can not recognize the abnormality by monitoring only the audio sound from the earphone. As a result, he can recognize the record of no audio signal, only under the playback mode operation of the audio device.

Circuit for monitoring the recorded state of audio signal


A beam exposure writing strategy method and system are disclosed for exposing a desired pattern on a substrate, by raster scanning a beam such as a particle beam, across a major field on the substrate. The beam is also vector scanned across a minor field of the substrate superimposed along the major field raster scan. The beam is selectively blanked and unblanked as the beam is being scanned. The unblanked flashes of the beam are modulated in coordination with the raster and vector scanning to expose the desired pattern on the substrate. The disclosed system and method generating an adjustable length microvector having a maximum range of at least about M times a nominal length λ, where M is equal to at least four and λ is substantially equal to a dimension of a nominal flash area, the nominal flash location dimension being substantially greater than a field cell dimension.

There is no admission that the background art disclosed in this section legally constitutes prior art.
In certain types of beam writing systems, such as systems used for lithography, beams of energy are directed onto a coated substrate for interacting with it to form desired patterns. During a scan sequence of the beam, the pattern exposure is divided into discreet flashes, which are directed onto selected pattern areas of the substrate. The manner in which the dose, exposure sequence and shape of the flash are applied is referred to as a writing strategy.
There have been basically two types of writing strategies; namely, raster scan and vector scan systems. Prior known raster Gaussian beam writing strategies, for example, have been used in connection with particle beams such as electron beams, wherein the beam is scanned in raster manner over a field of view such as on a substrate. The beam is selectively blanked and unblanked as it is being scanned over the field. During the unblanking of the beam, a flash of the beam is directed onto the substrate and is modulated in coordination with the scanning in order to generate a pattern. The flash size is approximately the size of the address unit of the printing grid (set by the beam modulation). The flash has a substantially Gaussian profile in order that adjacent flashes blend smoothly together. The limited flash profile limits feature resolution and critical dimension (CD) uniformity.
A raster Gaussian beam has the advantage of an excellent pattern placement accuracy, and has a readily predictable writing speed. However, improving the resolution requires reducing the basic address unit. Such reduction results in the lengthening of the printing time quadratically.
The raster Gaussian beam method has been improved by permitting overlapping flashes and gray modulation for finer edge placement. However, the fundamental limitations (feature resolution and CD uniformity) have not been alleviated thereby.
A vector shaped beam strategy method is another writing strategy and includes a variable shape scanned in a vector fashion. The flash is modulated in coordination with the vectoring in order to generate a pattern. The flash size is independent of the addressing of the vector. The flash profile for a given flash size is much steeper than that of a correspondingly sized raster Gaussian beam flash. This improves feature resolution and critical dimension uniformity.
A vector shaped beam method may have the disadvantage for some applications of slow flash rate. The slow flash rate may be due to the use of high precision digital to analog converters (DAC) required for vectoring the beam.
A further writing strategy technique is a raster shaped beam method, which is a hybrid technique. In this regard, reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,876,902 and 6,262,429. It employs a raster scanned, shaped beam. As in the case of a vector shaped beam, a flash profile is steep, yielding good resolution and CD uniformity. As is the case for raster Gaussian beam, the scan is rastered, yielding excellent placement accuracy. Furthermore, the flash rate can be much higher than that employed in a vector shaped beam system, because only low resolution DACs are required.
A raster shaped beam system unfortunately may retain the disadvantage for some applications of the raster Gaussian beam system. In this regard, further improvements to the feature resolution may, for certain applications, quadratically lengthen printing time, or at least lengthen it significantly. This is as a result of each flash being confined substantially within a grid cell.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,902, a horizontal line shaped beam flash, having a maximum length of one flash origin field cell, can be exposed from a single raster scan origin only. Thus, the patented technique is designed to overlap flash exposures of the beam in the X coordinate. With such a technique, while being successful for certain applications, with patterns which have adjacent flash locations in the X direction, the patented method would require the adjacent flash location to be exposed during a subsequent scan line. Because of this operation, unwanted high frequency noise due to the deflection of the beam can be introduced for certain patterns.

Beam exposure writing strategy system and method


A sintered silicon oxide for film vapor deposition having a density of 1.0 to 2.0 g/cm3, three-point flexural strength of at least 50 g/mm2, and a BET specific surface area of 0.1 to 20 m2/g is provided. When this sintered silicon oxide is used for evaporation source of a film, pin holes and other defects of the film caused by the problematic splash phenomenon can be reliably prevented and stable production of a reliable package material having excellent gas barrier property is been enabled. This invention also provides a method for producing such sintered silicon oxide, and this method can be used in a large scale production without requiring any special technology, and therefore, this method is capable of supplying the market with the sintered silicon oxide at reduced cost.

In the field of foods, prevention of quality decline due to oxidation caused by oxygen and water vapor passing through the packaging material has been required to thereby prevent deterioration of the fat/oil and proteins. In the field of medical supplies and medicine, quality change and deterioration of the content in the package should be prevented at an even higher level. Packaging materials including an aluminum foil or an aluminum vapor deposition film have been used for the packaging material in such field. Use of such materials, however, has become problematic due to the adverse environmental effects associated with the discarding of such materials.
In view of such situation, a wide attention is being given to a silicon oxide vapor deposition film comprising a polymer film having silicon oxide formed thereon by vapor deposition, as a packaging material having a high gas barrier property which is not associated with any particular problem in the course of incineration. This silicon oxide vapor deposition film having excellent gas barrier properties is produced by evaporating a silicon oxide evaporation source by resistance heating, electron-beam heating, or the like to thereby evaporate the silicon oxide and deposit the silicon oxide vapor deposition film on the film substrate.
The silicon oxide which is used for the evaporation source has been produced by various methods. For example, JP-A 9-110412 discloses a method in which the silicon oxide is produced by depositing the silicon oxide on a surface-roughened metal substrate. JP-A 2002-97567 discloses a silicon monoxide material having an average bulk density of at least 2.0 g/cm3 and a Vickers hardness of at least 500 as well as its production method. These prior art technologies are respectively an attempt to prevent formation of pin holes on the film caused by a "splash" (splashing of the material in the heating) which had been the problem associated with the vapor deposition of the silicon oxide.
However, while these conventional methods have been effective in reducing the degree of splash, and hence, in reducing the defects such as pinholes formed on the film, such improvement has still been insufficient, and the inventors believe that there is still room for further improvements. More specifically, the silicon oxide produced by such conventional technology had mainly been the one produced by precipitating the silicon oxide vapor on the substrate and peeling the deposited silicon oxide from the substrate, and accordingly, inconsistent in shape, size, thickness, and other physical properties. Use of such material for the evaporation source resulted in the considerable lot-to-lot variation in the course of the vapor deposition, and stable reduction of the splash was difficult. In addition, insufficient strength of the silicon oxide often resulted in the generation of fine powder, and this powder often caused the splash.

Sintered silicon oxide for film vapor deposition, its production method, and method for producing silicon oxide vapor deposition film


A user experience analysis system to measure a user experience associated with a computer desktop may include an event capture subsystem and a duration analysis subsystem. The event capture subsystem may capture videos of the desktop before and after an infrastructure change. The duration analysis subsystem may analyze the videos to determine and compare durations of events occurring in the desktop that are captured in the videos, and determine changes in user experience based on the analysis.

Computer infrastructure components providing applications for end users may vary widely. Many different variables related to different infrastructure components may impact application performance. For example, in a distributed computing environment, applications may be executed on one or more servers in geographic locations that are remote from the end user. Variables, such as server workload, network bandwidth, workstation processor utilization, etc., may impact application performance. In another environment, a user may execute an application locally on their personal computer but use data stored on a server accessed via a local area network, or the data for the application may be stored locally. In this environment, variables, such as processor and memory utilization, bandwidth in a local area network, or other variables may impact application performance. In yet another environment, where an application and all data for the application are stored locally, an upgrade in software, memory, etc., may impact application performance.
It is sometimes necessary to change computer infrastructure components in any of the environments described above. For example, a hard drive or motherboard may fail in a server or personal computer, which requires these components to be changed. In another example, a router may fail which may cause an end user to use a different router to access a network. In another example, a new version of an operating system may be available and thus a software upgrade may be needed. In another example, applications may be moved from one backend server to another backend server. A change in computer infrastructure may cause a change in application performance. A reduction in application performance can negatively impact the end user experience. After completing a computer infrastructure change, administrators may measure resource utilizations, such as central processing unit (CPU) utilization, memory utilization, bandwidth, etc., to test the impact of the computer infrastructure change. However, in many cases, even if CPU utilization, memory utilization, or bandwidth is sufficient, applications may run slower than prior to the change.

User experience analysis system to analyze events in a computer desktop


In one embodiment, a television set having remote control signaling to a controlled device has a data communication interface for communication of data, said data communication interface having a connection reserved for DC power. A remote control interface that receives commands from a remote control device. A circuit determines whether a command received at the remote control interface is destined for the television set or for the controlled device. The controlled device is connected to the television set via the data communication interface. A modulator modulates a signal representing a command destined for the controlled device onto the DC power connection in order to convey the command to the controlled device. In another embodiment a television accessory device that is interconnected to and controllable by the television has a data communication interface for communication of data, said data communication interface having a connection reserved for DC power. The accessory device is connected to the television via the data communication interface. A demodulator is coupled to the DC power connection and demodulates a signal representing a command that is modulated onto the DC power connection in order to receive a command from the television. A processor implements the command in the accessory device. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Set Top Boxes (STBs) or Set Back Boxes (SBBs) are usually shipped with an Infra Red (IR) remote controller to control the STB/SBB. However, the physical location of the STB/SBB may be such that its IR receiver may not be in a direct line of sight of an IR transmitter of the remote controller (e.g., the user may desire to hide a STB from sight). Reliable communication using infrared signaling generally requires a direct path of light between the transmitter and the receiver (although communication can be carried out via repeaters or via reflected light. If there is no good path for the transmission of light, this might result in an unreliable operation the STB or SBB or inability of the remote controller to control the STB or SBB. The terms STB and SBB, while representing different physical devices, relate to devices serving similar purposes and can be used interchangeably for purposes of the present discussion.


A system and method for filtering a frame, the method includes: (i) processing, by a processing unit executing instructions, at least one portion of a frame to provide at least one processed frame portion; (ii) performing, by a hardware filter, deblocking filtering of the at least one processed frame portion to provide at least one filtered frame portion; and (ii) storing the at least one filtered frame portion in a memory unit that is accessible by the processing unit; whereas the stage of processing is responsive to previously filtered frame portions. The system includes: (i) a processing unit, adapted to execute instructions such as to process at least one portion of a frame to provide at least one processed frame portion; (ii) a hardware filter, connected to the processing unit, adapted to deblocking filter the at least one processed frame portion to provide at least one filtered frame portion; and (iii) a memory unit, connected to the processing unit, adapted to store the at least one filtered frame portion; whereas the processing unit is adapted to process the at least one portion in response to previously filtered frame portions.

Methods and systems for compressing and transmitting media signals are known in the art. Compressed digital video is largely becoming the preferred medium to transmit to video viewers everywhere. Parts of the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) specifications are standardized methods for compressing and transmitting video. The Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) also defines various compression standards including H.261, H.263, H.264 and the like.
In general, MPEG as well as ITU-T standards are used today for transmitting video over terrestrial, wireless, satellite and cable communication channels and also for storing digital video.
Some standardized compression/encoding standards utilize various compression schemes, such as adaptive quantization, intra-frame encoding, inter-frame encoding, run length encoding and variable length coding. Intra-frame coding takes advantage of spatial redundancies in a picture. Inter-frame coding takes advantage of temporal redundancies from picture to picture in a video sequence. Inter-frame coding involves motion estimation and motion compensation. Motion estimation involves searching, for each block (including N×M pixels, whereas N usually equals M), within a predefined area, a best matching block. The relative positions of these blocks are referred to as motion vector. Motion compensation involves calculating the differences between each block and the best matching block and encoding said difference by a spatial transformation, such as a Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT).
The block-based encoding has resulted in blocking artifacts. These artifacts appear at the boundary of adjacent blocks. This problem is usually more acute in low bit rate transmission systems, in which substantially strong quantization operation is applied.
In order to overcome these blocking artifacts two type of deblocking filters were introduced. The first type is known as a post filter and the second type is known as a loop filter (or in-loop filter). The first type is applied after the encoding process ends while the loop filter is applied as a part of an encoding scheme. Encoders that include loop filter are characterized by better image quality.
Deblocking filters of the first and second types are described at U.S. patent application 20040076237 of Kadono et al., titled "Coding distortion removal method, moving picture coding method, moving picture decoding method, and apparatus for realizing the same, program", which is incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. patent application 20010020906 of Andrews at al., titled "deblocking filter for encoder/decoder arrangement and method for divergence reduction", which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a loop filter.
"Adaptive Deblocking Filter", by P. List, A. Joch, J. Lainema, G. Bjontegaard and M. Karczewicz, IEEE transactions on circuits and systems for video technology, Vol. 13, No. 7, July 2003, which incorporated herein by reference, describes a H.264/MPEG-4 compliant adaptive deblocking filter.
A typical deblocking filter, and especially an H.264/MPEG-4 compliant deblocking filter can apply different filtering operation (in other words—operate in various filtering modes) in response to a boundary strength parameter. The different filtering modes differ by the strength of deblocking filtering applied to the image data.
The deblocking filtering is very complex and requires many computational resources. Typically, a processor that executes dedicated software implements the deblocking filtering process. This approach has two main disadvantages—the processor is relatively power consuming and is also occupied with many tasks that are halted during the whole encoding process.
There is a need to provide an efficient system and method for performing deblocking filtering, especially in cellular phones.

Method and system for performing deblocking filtering


A ceramic foam filter and a manufacturing method thereof. The ceramic foam filter comprises the following materials provided in respective weight percentages: 20-50% of a silicon carbide, 20-55% of a zirconium oxide, and 10-36% of a silicon oxide, wherein all figures are based on the total weight of the ceramic foam filter. The method for manufacturing the ceramic foam filter comprises the following steps: (a) providing a slurry comprising a silicon carbide, a zirconium oxide or zirconium oxide precursor, a silicon oxide or silicon oxide precursor, a binder, an optional additive, and a fluid carrier medium; (b) applying the slurry to perform surface ornamentation of a perforated organic foam; (c) drying the perforated organic foam surface ornamented with the slurry to obtain a green body; and (d) sintering the green body in oxygen-containing air to obtain the ceramic foam filter.

The purification of metal liquids plays an important role in improving the mechanical properties of castings. At present, the filter device for purification of metal liquids is mainly a ceramic filter, which can effectively intercept harmful impurities in the metal liquids and make the metal liquids convert into a laminar flow from a turbulence flow, thoroughly remove large inclusions from the metal liquids as well as remove fine inclusions therefrom, improve the organizational structure, effectively reduce the gases and harmful elements in the metal liquids, and purify and homogenize the metal liquids.
Chinese Patent Application CN101164655A relates to a silicon carbide ceramic foam filter, in which a slurry is prepared from silicon carbide (60%-65%), aluminum oxide (30%-35%), silicon oxide (2%-5%), talc (0.5%-2.5%) and water, and carboxymethyl cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol and silica sol as binders, resulting in an oxide-bonded silicon carbide ceramic filter.
Chinese Patent Application CN1700948A discloses preparing an oxide-bonded silicon carbide ceramic filter with a ceramic slurry containing silicon carbide (40%-60%), a colloidal silicon dioxide binder (5%-20%) and at least 10% of fumed silica. The ceramic filter of CN1700948A was tested only at 1428° C.
Chinese Patent CN101708402B (Application NO. 200910227626.5) discloses preparing a multiphase silicon nitride-bonded silicon carbide filter. Although the silicon nitride-bonded silicon carbide filter has excellent performances such as high thermal stability and strong oxidation resistance, it can be infiltrated and eroded by molten liquids such as magnesium, nickel-chromium alloy and stainless steel.
Chinese Patent CN102173856A (Application No. 201010596190.X) discloses a filter, in which the mullite phase content is not less than 50 wt % and the chemical composition contains 40-80 wt % of Al2O3, 10-50 wt % of SiO2 and 1-10 wt % of alkaline earth metal oxide. CN102173856A can only treat molten metal below 1550° C.
Chinese Patent CN102503520B (Application No. 201110371525.2) prepares a slurry comprising: 100 parts by weight of SiC, 5-8 parts by weight of silica powder, 10-13 parts by weight of aluminum oxide powder; 10-15 parts by weight of lithium bentonite, 5-20 parts by weight of a binder and 40-55 parts by weight of water, immerses an activated ceramic carrier in the slurry to sufficiently absorb the slurry; dump dries the ceramic carrier sufficiently absorbing the slurry to remove excess slurry so as to form a green body; and dries and sinters the green body to produce a SiC ceramic foam filter.
Chinese Patent CN100536987C provides a zirconium oxide ceramic foam filter, in which a ceramic powder composed of zirconium oxide (75%-80%), aluminum oxide (10-15%), calcium oxide (5%-10%), yttrium oxide (0.5%-2%) is prepared, then methyl cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol and water are added to the ceramic powder to prepare a slurry; flexible polyurethane foam is used as a carrier to impregnate the slurry, and extruded into a green body; after drying, a zirconium oxide ceramic foam filter is obtained by sintering at a high temperature of 1700-1800° C. Wherein, calcium oxide and yttrium oxide are added as a volume stabilizer to stabilize the crystal form. At 1500° C. or higher, the tetragonal zirconium oxide with the added calcium oxide and yttrium oxide form a cubic solid solution, which can be maintained after cooling with no reversible transformation of crystal forms and thus no volume effect, avoiding cracking during sintering.
At present, the filters for filtering metal liquids generally employ materials such as silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide and carbon. The former two cannot meet the filtration of molten steel, while the latter two are more expensive. It is therefore necessary to develop a filter that is moderately priced and can filter molten steel.
In view of this, the present invention has been specifically proposed.

Ceramic foam filter and manufacturing method thereof


A method and apparatus for processing position information from satellite positioning system satellites and from cellular based communication signals. In one example of a method according to the invention, a SPS receiver receives SPS signals from at least one SPS satellite. This SPS receiver is coupled to and typically integrated with a communication system which receives and transmits messages in a cell based communication system. In this method, a message is transmitted in the cell based communication signals between a communication system and a first cell based transceiver. A time measurement which represents a time of travel of a message in the cell based communication signals between the cell based transceiver and the communication system is determined. Another time measurement which represents a time of travel of the SPS signals is also determined. A position of the SPS receiver is determined from a combination of at least the time measurement which represents the time of travel of a message in the cell based communication signals and from a time measurement which represents a time of travel of the SPS signals. The cell based communication signals are capable of communicating data messages in a two-way direction in one embodiment between the cell based transceiver and the communication system.

The present invention relates to satellite positioning systems which are combined with wireless communication systems and also relates to radio location techniques.
Wireless communications are rapidly augmenting conventional telephone communications. Wireless cell telephones or cellular telephones, as they are sometimes referred to, are a form of cell based or cellular based communication systems. These systems are capable of being used in many different locations. In conventional telephone communications, emergency 911 service has been in existence for a number of years and has evolved and been upgraded over time. Currently, for most wired telephone systems, an enhanced 911 service is available. In this service, the emergency center receiving the call automatically from the telephone system learns the phone number, location and identity of the calling party without having been provided this information by the calling party. In the case of a cell telephone, such enhanced 911 service is normally not possible. At the current time, an emergency center which receives a call dialed from a cellular telephone has no idea where the party is calling from. One proposed solution to provide an enhanced 911 service for cell telephones is to use the overlay of the cells in a cell based communication system. This overlay arises from the fact that the effective radio communication distances from one cell site to the next overlap to some extent. This is shown in FIG. 1. The cell based communication system 10 includes four cells 12, 14, 16, and 18 which overlap to the extent shown in FIG. 1. Each of these cells has been drawn around its respective wireless cell based transceiver which are shown as transceivers 21, 22, 23, and 24. These transceivers transmit and receive wireless cell based communication signals to and from the wireless mobile cell based communication systems, such as the wireless cell based mobile communication systems 26, 27, and 28 shown in FIG. 1. As is well known in the art, there are numerous cell based communication systems, such as the AMPS system and the CDMA system as well as the TDMA, GSM, PCS, and the ISM systems. Each of these systems share the basic cell based communication wireless approach that consists of base sites (also referred to as cell sites) transmitting signals and deployed in the cellular topology where each cell is defined by the coverage zone of signals to and from its cell site (wireless cell based transceiver) and with some cells possibly overlapping other cells. The overlap of the cells typically will allow a radio position operation to be performed at least in the overlap areas. For example, the position of the wireless cell based mobile communication system 27 shown in FIG. 1 may be determined by determining the time of travel of communication signals between the cell site 22 and the mobile system 27 and similarly the time of travel of wireless cell based communication signals between the mobile system 27 and the transceiver 23. If certain assumptions (such as approximate altitude) are made and an angle of arrival (AOA) technique is used, the position of a mobile cell based system may be determined with as few as two wireless cell based transceivers being in radio communication with the mobile unit. Typically, however, at least three radio communication links with three different wireless cell based transceivers are required in order to obtain a two-dimension position solution. There are numerous examples in the prior art which describe the use of the cellular overlay as a way to provide radio position operations for mobile cellular based communication systems. One approach is referred to as a time of arrival (TOA) technique and another approach is referred to as a time difference of arrival (TDOA) technique.
While the infrastructure may to some extent already exist for the use of the cellular overlay to provide radio position, it turns out that the overlay is typically too small among cells in order to provide adequate coverage over the various possible positions of a mobile unit. This can be seen in FIG. 1 where the mobile unit 28 may only receive and transmit signals with one wireless cell based transceiver, the transceiver 22, and not receive signals from (or be able to transmit signals to) the other transceivers or cell sites. In this situation, the position of the wireless unit 28 can be defined no better than a circle surrounding the cell site 22 and this in fact may not be possible due to errors in the system and due to the inability to determine time accurately enough at the transmitting and receiving systems.
Another approach to determining the position of a mobile communication system is to incorporate a satellite positioning system (SPS) such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) into the same enclosure or coupled tightly with the communication system. Numerous references have described this approach in which the GPS system by itself is used to determine the position of the integrated unit. An example of such an integrated unit is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,734 by Norman F. Krasner. In many such integrated systems which include a GPS receiver and a wireless communication system, the GPS receiver is a conventional correlator based receiver which often has difficulty collecting GPS signals from enough GPS satellites to determine a position of the GPS receiver. GPS receivers typically do not perform well in environments where there is blockage of the GPS signals from the GPS satellites. This blockage may be only a tree overhead, and yet the GPS receiver may not be able to acquire and track GPS satellites in such an environment. Consequently, there are many situations where an integrated GPS receiver and communication system will not be able to provide a position which could then be transmitted through the communication system back to a 911 operator at a public safety answering point (PSAP).
Another approach in the prior art which attempts to provide a position for a wireless communication system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,765. This patent discloses a technique of embedding a CDMA navigation signal into the existing wireless communication system in order to provide navigational capability. The mobile unit includes a GPS receiver and also includes a communication system which can receive GPS-like navigation signals which have been embedded into communication broadcasts from cellular and/or other wireless basestation transmitters. In this technique, a mobile system can utilize both the GPS system and the communication system. That is, the communication system, when there is blockage of the GPS satellites, may use the embedded GPS-like signals in the cellular communication signal to augment or replace the GPS signals from the GPS satellites in order to provide a position. While this technique described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,765 provides an advantage over a cell phone which uses merely the cellular overlay to perform radio positioning and also provides an advantage over a mobile unit which merely uses the GPS system to provide a position, this technique of embedding a GPS-like signal into the wireless cellular signals requires modifications to the existing broadcast signals and thus would require considerable modification of the infrastructure of a cell based communication system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,144 describes another positioning system which uses cellular transmissions of a cellular telephone to determine the time difference of arrival (TDOA) of the transmitted signals; these time differences are obtained by using a GPS receiver to time stamp the cellular transmissions in order to measure the time differences between cellular transmissions between the cellular telephone and several cell sites. However, the GPS receiver is not used to determine pseudoranges between a GPS receiver in the cellular telephone and GPS satellites. U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,908 also describes a TDOA system which uses cellular transmissions to measure the cell phone's location from the time differences of arrival of the cellular transmissions; again, GPS signals are used in the cell sites to time stamp the signals in order to measure the time difference in signal travel time. The GPS signals are not used to determine pseudoranges between a GPS receiver in the cellular phone and GPS satellites. U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,703 describes a positioning system in a cellular communications system based on round trip signal time measurements. U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,660 describes a method for determining a position of a cellular telephone by measuring the signal strength of cellular transmissions between the telephone and cell sites; this position is then compared to a position determined from a GPS receiver which separately attempts to determine a position. Thus, this patent determines a position by comparing a position derived from signal strength measurements to a position derived from GPS measurements.
Thus it is desirable to provide a system which is capable of position determination in a variety of wireless environments and which may use both the global satellite navigation system, such as the GPS system, and a wireless system deployed in a cellular configuration.

Satellite positioning system augmentation with wireless communication signals


An optical amplification apparatus includes a polarizing beam splitter for reflecting a portion of an incident light and transmitting a remaining portion of the incident light, depending upon a polarized state of the incident light, at least two optical amplification means each including a first polarizing plate which makes polarized states of the light before and after the light reflected from the polarizing beam splitter reciprocatingly passes through the first polarizing plate, to be orthogonal to each other, an amplitude division plate for amplitude-dividing the light having passed through the first polarizing plate, into first and second lights, and optical amplifiers for respectively amplifying the first and second lights which are amplitude-divided by the amplitude division plate. The optical amplification means are located such that the light output from upstream optical amplification means is incident upon the polarizing beam splitter included in downstream optical amplification means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an optical amplification apparatus and, more particularly, to an optical amplification apparatus which employs a plurality of optical amplification stages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a stimulated brillouin scattering-phase conjugate mirror (SBS-PCM) reflects a phase conjugated wave to compensate for the distortion of a laser beam which occurs in a laser amplification procedure. Further, since the SBS-PCM ensures easy arrangement of an optical system, the SBS-PCM is used for a light splitting laser having a high output.
An optical amplification system employing such an SBS-PCM is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 318520.
Hereafter, a conventional optical amplification system will be described with reference to FIG. 1a.
FIG. 1a illustrates a conventional optical amplification apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1a, a light 505, which is output from a laser oscillator 500, is amplified into a gradually increasing number of laser lights while passing through a first optical amplification stage 510, a second optical amplification stage 540, and a third optical amplification stage 570. In detail, the light 505 is reflected by a polarizing beam splitter (PBS), is incident upon a first optical isolator 520, is reflected by an SBS-PCM, is transmitted through the PBS, and is incident upon a first optical amplifier 530. Then, the light which is incident upon the first optical amplifier 530 is amplified while being transmitted through the amplifier, is reflected by an SBS-PCM, and is incident upon the PBS. The light which is incident upon the PBS is reflected and output toward a beam expander (BE) 535. The beam expander 535 enlarges the size of the incident light and outputs the incident light to the second optical amplification stage 540. The second optical amplification stage 540 comprises a second optical isolator 550 which is constructed in the same manner as the first optical isolator 520 of the first optical amplification stage 510 to perform the same function. The second optical amplification stage 540 additionally includes a wavefront division type beam splitter 562 positioned at the front end of a second optical amplifier 560 which forms 2×2 arrays. Here, the wavefront division type beam splitter 562 is used to deliver lights to the respective 2×2 arrays of the second optical amplifier 560. That is to say, before the light is incident upon the second optical amplifier 560, the light is wavefront-divided by the wavefront division type beam splitter 562. These lights are amplified by respective amplifiers arranged along optical axes, are reflected by SBS-PCMs, are re-coupled with each other, and are incident upon a PBS. The PBS reflects and outputs the incident light to a beam expander 565. The beam expander 565 enlarges the size of the incident light and outputs the enlarged incident light to the third optical amplification stage 570. In the third optical amplification stage 570, a third optical amplifier 590 forms 4×4 arrays, and a third optical isolator 580 forms 2×2 arrays. Here, wavefront division type beam splitters 582 and 592 are used to deliver lights to the respective arrays.
Due to the fact that the optical amplification system is constructed in this way, by adding one or more optical amplification stages as desired, output energy can be increased and repeatability can be maintained as it is without causing damage to an optical system. In this regard, when the energy density of a laser light increases due to continuous amplification, if the energy density is not prevented from increasing, damage to the optical system and a laser gain medium is caused. Thus, when it is necessary to enlarge the size of the laser light, the size of the laser gain medium must simultaneously be enlarged. This results in retardation of the cooling velocity of the laser gain medium, and actually makes it impossible to create a laser light having high repeatability. In this consideration, the optical amplification apparatus capable of re-coupling lights shown in FIG. 1a, which can increase the size of the laser light and maintain the size of the gain medium, is used.
The beam splitter employed in the optical amplification apparatus capable of re-coupling the lights as shown in FIG. 1a comprises a wavefront division type beam splitter which is shown in FIG. 1b.
Referring to FIG. 1b, the wavefront division type beam splitter divides an incident light 'a' into two output lights 'b'. Namely, in the wavefront division type beam splitter, a laser light is divided into two small-sized laser lights.
In addition to the wavefront division type beam splitter, an amplitude division type beam splitter has also been disclosed in the art, which is shown in FIG. 1c.
Referring to FIG. 1c, the amplitude division type beam splitter divides an incident light 'a' into two output lights 'b' in a manner such that one output light is transmitted through the beam splitter and the other output light is reflected by the beam splitter. That is to say, in the amplitude division type beam splitter, the size of a laser light is not changed and only energy is shared by the two output lights. In comparison with this amplitude division type, in the wavefront division type which is adopted by the conventional optical amplification apparatus, since the shape of a laser light cannot be the same as that of a light from a main resonator, difficulties are caused in that a cross-section of a gain medium of an amplifier must be formed in the shape of a laser light. The reason for this is that, when a cross-sectional shape of the gain medium is different from the shape of the laser light, amplification efficiency decreases. Further, since a spatial frequency is included in the spatial distribution of a laser light, when reflecting the laser light using an SBS-PCM, breakage of a phase conjugate phenomenon results in. Also, when re-coupling lights after amplification, in the case that phases of two lights at a position where one light meets the other light are different from each other, an intensity spike occurs, which deteriorates the spatial distribution of the lights.

Amplitude dividing type laser amplification apparatus

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)


Thermal heater chip (1) is located within an opening of TAB circuit tape (5) and the TAB leads (3) are welded to the chip. This assembly is turned so that the underside of the leads face upward, and a curable, electrically insulative liquid is applied and cured to form a solid (11). The bottom of the chip is then attached to a heat radiating support (7) using heat conductive adhesive. The cured solid on the leads prevents any adhesive reaching the leads from causing an electrical shunt. The resulting printhead dissipates excess heat from the chip well from the support.

The accumulation of excess heat is a major constraint in the design of thermal inkjet printheads capable of high speed printing. The printheads have semiconductive silicon chips in which a large number of heaters are embedded elements in the chips. The heaters are selectively driven with electric current to vaporize water in the inkjet ink and thereby expel drops of ink by the force of such vapor action. As the number and speed of repetition of such operations is increased, removal of excess heat from the printhead becomes a major design objective.
This invention removes excess heat by attaching the chip to a radiator body using a thermally conductive adhesive. However, electrical leads of an electrical circuit tape (commonly known as a TAB circuit, for tape automated bonding) are also connected to the chip. Since a thermally conductive adhesive is typically electrically conductive to a significant extent, the TAB leads are first undercoated along their entire length with an insulative material.


A dry etching method enabling etching of a layer of a copper (Cu) based material at a wafer heating temperature lower than heretofore, and a practically useful method for detecting the end point of etching. If the Cu layer is etched using an etching gas including a compound containing chlorine (Cl) and oxygen (O) as component elements or an etching gas including a compound containing Cl and a compound containing O as component elements, respectively, the Cu layer is removed not only in the form of copper chloride CuCl.sub.x but in the form of copper oxychloride CuCl.sub.x O.sub.y, where x is 1 to 2 and y is 1 to 8. Since CuCl.sub.x O.sub.y has a vapor pressure lower than that of CuCl.sub.x, a conventional etching reaction product, it is unnecessary to heat the wafer to higher temperatures as in the conventional practice, while there is no risk of a copper oxide film being formed on the surface of the Cu layer. The end point of etching may be detected by detecting a decrease in emission peak intensities in the molecular spectrum of CuCl appearing the specific wavelengths, such as 402 nm or 433 nm.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a dry etching method used for etching of a layer of a copper-based material in the preparation of a semiconductor device. More particularly, it relates to a method for lowering the range of the etching temperature and detecting the etching end point.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In keeping up with the tendency in recent years towards a higher degree of integration and higher performance of semiconductor devices, as with VLSIs or ULSIs, the design rule of metal interconnections tends to be refined to an order of submicrons or even to an order of quarter microns. Up to now, the metal interconnections in semiconductor devices are predominantly formed of aluminum-based materials. However, with the aluminum-based metal interconnections, if the design rule becomes finer than 0.5 .mu.m, not only is the reliability of the interconnection deteriorated due to electromigration or the like, but the aspect ratio becomes as large as 1 to 2 on account of the necessity of maintaining a lower resistance value. This presents difficulties in a series of subsequent process steps such as formation of insulating films or planarization.
Under these circumstances, attention is directed to formation of the interconnection with copper-based metallic materials. Copper has a high resistance to electromigration and a low resistivity of ca. 1.4.mu..OMEGA.cm which is only about half of that of aluminum. Thus it becomes possible to reduce the thickness of the metal interconnection layer without deterioration in reliability, while the aspect ratio may also be diminished.
However, as to etching of the copper-based metallic materials, its potential is simply searched at the present stage, and many technical problems remain to be solved.
In the first place, since copper is highly susceptible to oxidation, the surface of the copper-based metallic materials is perpetually coated with copper oxide and thereby passivated. The presence of a copper oxide film is inconvenient in that not only is the chemical reaction between the etching gas and copper suppressed to lower the etchrate, but also the layer of the metallic material below the copper oxide film functioning as a mask may not be removed so that residues tend to be produced on a wafer.
On the other hand, it is well-known that copper may scarcely be etched with a halogen-based gas which is extensively utilized for etching other metal interconnection layers. It is because copper halides as reaction products are extremely low in vapor pressure at room temperature. For example, CuCl and CuCl.sub.2 melt at 430.degree. and 620.degree. C., respectively. Thus, unless a wafer is heated to higher temperatures for raising the vapor pressure, prompt vaporization of the reaction products can not be expected.
For this reason, in an etching process of eliminating copper in the form of chlorides, the wafer temperature has hitherto been set to approximately 200.degree. to 400.degree. C. For example, according to a technique reported in Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 28, No. 6, pages L1070 to L1072, 1989, reactive ion etching of a thin copper film is effected with a SiCl.sub.4 -N.sub.2 mixed gas while the wafer is heated to approximately 250.degree. C.
On the other hand, there is disclosed in JP Patent KOKAI Publication No. 2-83930 (1990) a technique of patterning a layer of a copper-based material by the combination of dry etching and wet etching. Specifically, the layer of the copper-based material is etched by ion milling using a gas mixture of CCl.sub.4 and Ar, after which the wafer is dipped in ethanol to dissolve and eliminate copper hydrochloride reaffixed to the pattern sidewall.
However, many problems remain to be solved with the above described prior-art techniques, which have not yet been put to practical use.
With the technique of heating the wafer for raising the vapor pressure of copper chloride as a reaction product, problems are raised in that, not only an etching mask need to be produced using a highly heat-resistant material, but also the formation of copper oxide tends to be accelerated due to residual oxygen in the etching chamber.
On the other hand, with the technique of using dry etching and wet etching in combination, although the deficiencies due to heating may be obviated, problems are raised in that the number of process steps is increased, a separate treatment vessel for wet etching is necessitated, and in that it is only CuCl.sub.2 that may be dissolved and removed by ethanol, while CuCl.sub.2 which is insoluble in ethanol, can not be removed.
Besides, the method for end point detection at the time of removal of copper as a halide by etching is currently not known, which also is inconvenient if the technique is to be put to practical use.


An invalidation bit pattern (IBP) for maintaining transaction cache consistency in a wireless communication system is provided. The IBP comprises at least one bit corresponding to at least one cached data stored on a cache of a mobile communication terminal, wherein the bit value represents whether the corresponding cached data was updated in a communication server during a first broadcast period, said first broadcast period associated with a first time stamp; and an IBP time stamp representing time the IBP was broadcast; wherein if the difference between the IBP time stamp and the first time stamp is larger than a threshold value, then all cached data stored on the cache is replaced with updated data from the communication server; and wherein if the difference between the IBP time stamp and the first time stamp is not larger than a threshold value, then updating the corresponding cached data with updated data from the communication server, if the bit value represents that the corresponding cached data was updated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and particularly, to a system and a method for maintaining cache consistency in a wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Background Art
Due to development of wireless communication technology and popularization of portable communication devices, many wireless communication environments are introduced.
Mobile transactions in a wireless communication environment, typically, are comprised of multiple sub-operations. The successful execution of a mobile transaction is therefore dependent on successful execution of all its sub-operations.
Execution of a transaction in a wireless communication environment is limited by mobility of the mobile communication terminal, disconnection frequency, limited bandwidth, battery capacity, etc. Therefore, in order to efficiently use the limited bandwidth and to improve response time, a caching method is used.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical wireless communication system comprises a mobile communication terminal 10 for caching data which is accessed frequently; and a communication server 20 for wirelessly communicating with the mobile communication terminal 10.
In case that the data is updated in the communication server 20, the communication server 20 broadcasts an invalidation report (IR) to update the cached data to maintain the consistency of the cached data. Since the wireless communication network has limited bandwidth, it is desirable that the communication server 20 notifies the mobile communication terminal 10 of the data update as little as possible. Therefore, the communication server 20 does not transmit the IR to the mobile communication terminal 10 whenever the data is updated, but it broadcasts the IR in certain intervals.
However, the mobile communication terminal 10 and the communication server 20 are frequently disconnected due to the mobility of the mobile communication terminal and the limited battery capacity. Therefore, since the mobile communication terminal 10 cannot receive the IR broadcasted from the communication server 20 due to the frequent disconnections, the cache consistency is not maintained. Thus, a system and method for maintaining cache consistency between the mobile communication terminal 10 and the communication server 20 is needed.
FIG. 2 shows a method for maintaining cache consistency in a general wireless communication system. FIG. 3 shows a method when the IR is broadcast regularly from the communication server to the mobile communication terminal for maintaining the cache consistency.
Generally, the communication server 20 broadcasts data which can be used in mobile transaction process by the mobile communication terminal 10. When the entire data reaches the mobile communication terminal 10, the mobile communication terminal 10 caches the data which is accessed frequently in the entire data, in the cache (i.e., transaction cache).
The communication server 20 broadcasts information (i.e., invalidation report and entire data) during several broadcasting periods (w) at each broadcast period (L). The invalidation report and the entire data may be broadcast simultaneously, or the entire data may be broadcast right after the invalidation report, in case that one forwarding channel is used. Whether or not the IR and the entire data are broadcast simultaneously is not important.
The IR includes broadcast time stamp (Ti) representing the time of present broadcast period and update list (j, tj). j represents updated data item (identifier of the data) and tj is updated time stamp representing the last updating time of the data (j). Several broadcast periods w (w>1) can be set to be maximum interval through which the mobile communication terminal 10 can endure the disconnection.
The mobile communication terminal 10 receives the entire cache data and update history that occurred during the previous several broadcast periods w by way of periodical broadcasts from the server 20 (S11). The mobile communication terminal 10 then determines whether or not there was a disconnection within a range which the mobile communication terminal 10 could not endure (S13). The mobile communication terminal 10 has a last receive time stamp tslb representing the latest reception time of the IR, and compares the last receive time stamp to the broadcast time stamp Ti of the received IR.
If the time difference between the broadcast time stamp Ti and the last receive time stamp is not larger than above w, the mobile communication terminal 10 decides that there was not a disconnection that the mobile 10 communication terminal 10 could not endure, and updates the corresponding data of the cache by the received IR to maintain the cache consistency (S15). Additionally, the mobile communication terminal 10 assigns the last receive time stamp as the broadcast time stamp Ti of the received IR.
However, if the time difference between the broadcast time stamp Ti and the last receive time stamp is larger than w, the mobile communication terminal 10 decides that there was a disconnection that the mobile communication terminal 10 could not endure, and drops all data cached on the cache (S17). In addition, the mobile communication terminal 10 requests the communication server 20 to provide the entire cache data, and updates the entire cache data (S19).
As described above, according to the general method for maintaining the cache consistency, the mobile communication terminal is able to deal with the disconnection for a predetermined period (w) by broadcast periodically the update history during the previous several broadcast periods. According to the above method, the information (i.e., IR and entire data) occurred during the several broadcast periods is broadcast periodically, and thereby, the narrow bandwidth is not used efficiently. Also, the IR includes the update time stamp and the identifier of the updated data, and thereby, the information bits included in the IR are increased.

System and method for maintaining cache consistency in a wireless communication system


A transceiving device includes a calibration signal generation unit, a phase adjusting unit, a transmission unit, a receiving unit, and a calibration unit. In a calibration mode, the calibration signal generation unit generates an in-phase (I) test signal and a quadrature (Q) test signal. The phase adjusting unit adjusts the I test signal and the Q test signal to generate an adjusted I test signal and an adjusted Q test signal according to a phase controlling signal. The transmission unit generates a radio frequency (RF) signal according to the adjusted I test signal and the adjusted Q test signal. The receiving unit receives the RF signal so as to generate an I receiving signal and a Q receiving signal. The calibration unit generates the phase controlling signal according to the I test signal, the Q test signal, the I receiving signal, and the Q receiving signal.

Transceiver devices may suffer from an IQ mismatch issue, and hence, an IQ calibration is required. Before performing IQ calibration, the receiver performs analog-to-digital conversion on the signal. In order to obtain a digital IQ signal with a high signal-to-noise ratio, the receiver must effectively utilize the dynamic range of the analog-to-digital conversion, and the receiver performs another analog-to-digital conversion after adjusting the analog signal before the analog-to-digital converter according to the power of the IQ signal. However, when the transmitter transmits the IQ signal, the phase rotation of the IQ signal may occur due to the transmitter's non-ideal effects. The phase rotation changes the phase of the IQ signal and affects the receiver's power adjustment of the IQ signal, which in turn affects the dynamic range usage efficiency of the analog-to-digital conversion and the signal-to-noise ratio of the resulting digital IQ signal. Therefore, the transceiver requires a phase calibration method for the IQ signal to address these issues.

Transceiving device and calibration method thereof


Dynamic materials might be integrated into articles to provide various adjustable physical characteristics, such as aesthetic and functional characteristics. For example, in response to a human body heat, a dynamic material may change shape to allow additional permeability in an article of clothing. Similarly, in response to the presence of moisture, an article of clothing may close a vent to prevent the introduction of rain into an internal portion of the article. The shape-changing material may change shape that merely affects a feature formed by the shape changing material. Additionally, it is contemplated that the shape-changing material may change shape that affects a geometric structure of the article as a whole, such as through protrusions, dimples, and vents.

Dynamic materials are materials that are able to alter shape in response to a stimulus. The stimulus may be in the form of thermal energy (or the lack thereof), moisture content (or the lack thereof), light (or the lack thereof), electrical current (or the lack thereof), magnetic influence (or the lack thereof), and other forms of stimulus.

Dynamic materials integrated into articles for adjustable physical dimensional characteristics


An input surge suppression device and method that uses a simple JFET structure. The JFET has its gate clamped to a predetermined value, its the drain receives the input voltage from an input power source, its source is connected to the input of a down-stream device, and a resistor connected between the drain and the gate or between the source and the gate. Thus, when the drain voltage approximates the clamped gate voltage, the source voltage nearly equals the drain voltage. When the drain voltage rises above the clamped gate voltage, the source voltage is lower than the drain voltage. The downstream device may be a DC-DC converter and the gate is biased by the enable (EN) pin of a DC-DC converter.

Power adapters or converters can be damaged by over voltage appearing at the input resulting from, for example, lightning, high voltage disturbance, power source instability, load dump, etc . . . . For automotive cigarette lighting adapters (CLA) or other car battery powered electronic devices, a load dump is a severe transient encountered where the battery is disconnected. As seen in FIG. 1, a load dump is generated with a time duration from several milliseconds to several hundred milliseconds and a voltage spike of 25V to 90V in a 12V system. This may damage the adapters or converters. Thus, the input voltage applied to those devices should be limited to protect them from over voltage damage.
There are generally two ways to achieve the input surge protection. Turning to FIG. 2, a first method has an input surge protection circuit 10 that uses a high voltage MOSFET Q working as a source follower. Its gate is clamped by a zener diode D to a set clamp voltage so that the source voltage will follow the gate. This approach requires external components that are difficult to be integrated into a single package. Turning to FIG. 3, a second approach adds an expensive Transient Voltage Suppressive (TVS) device at the input rail to absorb any over voltage transient. Both approaches have high cost.

Input surge protection device using JFET


Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for generating personalized tag recommendations using speech analytics. The system first analyzes an audio stream to identify topics in the audio stream. Next, the system identifies tags related to the topics to yield identified tags. Based on the identified tags, the system then generates a tag recommendation for tagging the audio stream. The system can also send the tag recommendation to a device associated with a user for presentation to the user.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to tagging audio content and more specifically to generating personalized tag recommendations for tagging audio content.
2. Introduction
When listening to an audio conversation or participating in the audio conversation, users often annotate the audio conversation with tags to provide additional information about the audio conversation. The tags can include information about a topic in the audio conversation, the quality of the discussion in the audio conversation, the speakers in the audio conversation, information about a segment in the audio conversation, etc. For example, the tags can identify a subject of discussion in the audio conversation. As another example, the tags can describe the discussion in the audio conversation. This information about the audio conversation provided by the tags can then help the users identify which audio conversations or segments are of interest to them, for example. The tags can also make the audio conversation searchable, so users can search information associated with the audio conversation based on the tags in the audio conversation.
Not surprisingly, the information provided by the tags in an audio conversation increases as more tags are added to the audio conversation. Unfortunately, users often limit the amount of tags they provide during an audio conversation. This is largely because creating different tags throughout an audio conversation can be an onerous task for the user. Moreover, the user can easily get interrupted or distracted when creating tags in an audio conversation. As a result, users are reluctant to create and add tags for an audio conversation. Consequently, the benefit and amount of information provided by the limited tags diminish.
To increase the amount of tags in an audio conversation, some systems try to automatically tag the audio conversation with tags generated by the system. However, these tags typically do not include any user input, and, therefore, are not personalized and are often inaccurate and imprecise. Some systems try to obtain user input by presenting tag recommendations to the user for the user to select the most accurate and useful tags. This allows the user to add tags to an audio conversation by simply accepting tag recommendations. Moreover, the user is more likely to add tags to the audio conversation when the process is simplified in this manner. As a result, the tag recommendations often yield a greater number of tags added to the audio conversation. However, such tag recommendations do not use the audio content and other useful information to determine which tags to recommend. Rather, such tag recommendations are typically based on the user's history, which does not provide a complete and accurate representation of the most relevant and useful information for recommending tags to the user.

System and method for generating personalized tag recommendations for tagging audio content


A system and method for performing a transaction can allow a user to perform a multi-step process on a single web page. The system can receive an initiate-application command from a user at an application server and, in response, initiate an application for facilitating a transaction. The system can present a parameter-request panel, including a set of parameter-request fields, to the user at a client. The system can receive transaction parameters from the user via the set of parameter-request fields. In response to receiving the transaction parameters, the system can present a transaction-options panel, including a set of transaction options associated with the transaction parameters, to the user without obscuring the parameter-request panel. The system can receive from the user a transaction-option selection associated with the set of transaction options and, in response, present a transaction-completion panel to the user without obscuring the parameter-request panel or the transaction-options panel. The transaction-completion panel can include a set of transaction-completion fields associated with the transaction-option selection. The system can receive from the user transaction-completion information via the transaction-completion fields and, in response, complete the transaction.

Product transactions can occur via electronic commerce ("eCommerce"). Typically, eCommerce involves a user accessing a product website, browsing a set of available products, and then completing the product transaction by selecting a product and providing payment information. However, typically only a small number of users who access the product website complete the product transaction. One reason for a user to drop off the product website is his frustration or impatience with navigating a complex product website. Even users who do complete a product transaction on the product website may be bothered by a cumbersome product website such that the user does not return to the product website, thereby resulting in reduced repeat business.
Many product websites use discrete web pages to present users with information relating to the product transaction. Each of these discrete web pages may include different types of information, or may request different types of data from a user. For example, one website may present one web page with a list of available products to a user. Upon the user, selecting an available product, the website may then present the user with a second web page, which includes information relating to the selected product. If the user wants to examine a different product, the user must then traverse back to the first web page to see the list of available products again. Each web page can present a perceptible delay to the user as data that will reside on that page is 'served' from the backend. The user can experience a distinct "timeout" period as he progresses through the transaction when the previous page is discarded and a new one is loaded.
A second problem with current product websites is that it can be difficult to compare products. For most users, it can be challenging to remember the details of different products when comparing a large number of products.
Hence, what is needed is an improved method and apparatus for performing a product transaction.

Method and apparatus for performing a transaction


A privacy film includes a first conductive layer; an emitting angle limiting spacer layer on the first conductive layer; a second conductive layer on a side of the emitting angle limiting spacer layer away from the first conductive layer; and a plurality of light diffuser particles in a space between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer. The emitting angle limiting spacer layer includes a plurality of spacers defining a plurality of light emitting regions. The second conductive layer is spaced apart from the first conductive layer by a first distance. A maximum height of the plurality of spacers relative to a surface of the first conductive layer facing the second conductive layer is less than the first distance. The second conductive layer is spaced apart from a surface of a respective one of the plurality of spacers facing the second conductive layer by a second distance.

Display apparatuses such as mobile phones have been developed to provide many functions. A user may use a display apparatus to access various private information. For example, the user may use the display apparatus to access bank accounts, pay bills, carry out on-line purchases, and access various password-protected websites. Personal information of these types is private and is often subject to identity theft and invasion of privacy. Thus, in recent years, privacy protection has become a focus of research and development in display technology.

Privacy film, display apparatus, and method of displaying image in display apparatus

Chongqing BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


A method of producing an organic silicon compound includes a step of reaction of the following: (A) a reactive silane compound represented by General Formula (1) below: R1mSiY(4-m) (wherein R1 is a monovalent organic group (except for the group represented by Y) or a hydrogen atom; Y indicates a chlorine atom or a group represented by —OR2; R2 indicates a monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 30 carbon atoms; and m is a number in the range of 0 to 3), (B) a halogenated organic compound represented by General Formula (2) below: R3—X (wherein R3 indicates a monovalent organic group; and X is a halogen atom), and (C) metallic magnesium (Mg) in the presence of (D) an organic solvent containing at least one type of ether type compound.

Organic silicon compounds such as organoalkoxysilanes, organochlorosilanes, or the like having organic groups and alkoxy groups bonded to silicon atoms or having chlorine-bonded silicon atoms are used widely for various types of industrial applications such as electronic materials, construction materials, or the like. A previously known method of producing organic silicon compounds (such as organoalkoxysilanes, organochlorosilanes, or the like) performs synthesis by causing reaction between a reactive organosilane as a raw material (i.e., alkoxysilanes, chlorosilanes, or the like) and a corresponding Grignard reagent in the presence of an ether type solvent such as diethyl ether or tetrahydrofuran. Rather than just diorganodialkoxysilanes, this method is widely used as a method for synthesis of general organoalkoxysilanes. Moreover, a method is known for the production of a phenyl-containing organosilicon intermediate using a phenyl Grignard reagent as a method of producing a phenyl-containing organosilicon intermediate for introduction of an aryl group such as the phenyl group.
For example, although a large amount of ether type solvent (diethyl ether, tetrahydrofuran, or the like) is generally used in order to increase stability of the Grignard reagent, such ether type solvents will readily be oxidized due to atmospheric oxygen to generate peroxides, and the safe handling of such solvents is difficult. Reduction of the utilized amount of ether type solvent is desired even in a large volume industrial production process, and the use of a large amount of ether type solvent has been a problem from the standpoint of safety.
Next, the aforementioned reaction between the Grignard reagent and the reactive silane compound is performed through two reaction steps, i.e. a step (first reaction vessel) for preparation of the Grignard reagent and a step (second reaction vessel) for reaction of the aforementioned Grignard reagent and the organosilane. There have thus been problems in that multiple reaction facilities are required, the time required for synthesis is prolonged, the return rate on reaction (production) facility resources declines, and running costs increase.
Moreover, the conventional generally used production method prepared the Grignard reagent beforehand in the first reaction vessel, transferred the Grignard reagent from the first reaction vessel to the second reaction vessel, and reacted the Grignard reaction with the organosilane. The target organic silicon compound was produced by trickling addition of the organosiloxane to the Grignard reagent to cause reaction between the organosilane and Grignard reagent.
However, when the Grignard reaction is prepared beforehand, the Grignard reagent prepared in the first reaction vessel is unstable. Since the Grignard reagent reacts with moisture and generates heat, the large volume preparation, storage, and liquid transfer of a Grignard reagent have been problematic from the standpoint of safety.
On the other hand, if the reaction is advanced by trickling addition of the organosilane into the Grignard reagent within a solvent such as ether or the like, the reaction occurs by trickling addition of a small amount of organosilane to an excess of Grignard reagent. Thus selectivity of the reaction is lowered, and byproducts thus become readily generated. As a result, the resultant generated product is a mixture of compounds corresponding to values of 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 for m+n in the compound indicated in the following compounds of General Formula (3). Thus there has been a problem in that the yield of the target organosilane compound decreases.
In addition, after the coupling reaction between the Grignard reagent and the organosilanes, there is a need for removal of the byproduct magnesium salt by centrifugal separation or filtration. However, the salt obtained by separation by filtration includes a large amount of the ether type solvent, and such processing has been accompanied by the danger of exposure of workers to ether type solvent during disposal of the byproduct salt or the like. Although the ether type solvent remaining in the filtrate liquid after filtration may be separated from the target substance by distillation or the like, due to poor stability in the aforementioned manner, this has been accompanied by danger of explosion or fire when the ether based solvent is recycled or discarded. Furthermore, the byproduct salt that is generated when a Grignard reagent is used has high solubility in the ether type solvent. Thus when the ether solvent is removed from the filtrate liquid, there have been problems in that the dissolved byproduct salt precipitates out within the solution of the target substance, separation operations must be performed several times, and productivity and yield of the target organic silicon compound decline.

Method of producing an organic silicon compound


In a magnetic disk glass substrate manufacturing method, a main surface of a glass substrate is polished using a polishing liquid containing colloidal silica abrasive particles as polishing abrasive particles and a surface plate with a polishing pad, then the glass substrate is brought into contact with a liquid containing a coagulant so that the colloidal silica abrasive particles are coagulated, and then the colloidal silica abrasive particles coagulated are removed.

As an information recording medium adapted to be mounted in a magnetic disk device such as a hard disk drive (HDD), there is a magnetic disk. The magnetic disk is produced by forming a thin film such as a magnetic layer on a substrate and, conventionally, an aluminum substrate has been used as such a substrate. Recently, however, in response to the pursuit of higher recording density, the occupation ratio of glass substrates, which can shorten the distance between a magnetic head and a magnetic disk as compared with the aluminum substrate, has been gradually increasing. In order to minimize the flying height of the magnetic head, a glass substrate surface is precisely polished, thereby achieving higher recording density. In recent years, the demand for an increase in HDD recording capacity and a reduction in HDD price has been increasing more and more. In order to achieve this, higher quality and lower cost are required also for magnetic disk glass substrates.
High smoothness of a magnetic disk surface is essential for a reduction in the flying height of a magnetic head which is necessary for achieving higher recording density as described above. In order to obtain the high smoothness of the magnetic disk surface, a highly smooth substrate surface is, after all, required and thus it is necessary to precisely polish a glass substrate surface.
A conventional glass substrate polishing method is carried out using polyurethane-based polisher polishing pads while supplying a slurry (polishing liquid) containing a polishing abrasive of metal oxide such as cerium oxide or colloidal silica. A glass substrate with high smoothness can be obtained, for example, by polishing using a cerium oxide-based polishing abrasive and then by finish polishing (mirror polishing) using colloidal silica abrasive particles. Herein, for example, it is proposed to use a colloidal silica slurry, which is pH-adjusted to be acidic, for polishing a magnetic disk substrate (see JP-A-H7-240025 (Patent Document 1)). It is also proposed to use a colloidal silica slurry, which is adjusted to have a pH more than 10.2 and not more than 12 by adding alkali to a polishing liquid, for polishing a magnetic disk glass substrate (see JP-A-2003-173518 (Patent Document 2)).

Method of manufacturing a glass substrate for a magnetic disk and method of manufacturing a magnetic disk


A door lock unlockable electro-magnetically and with a key consists of an inner plate, a control device, a drive mechanism, a housing, a handle and a locking mechanism. The control device has a control block engaging a post of the inner plate, and the control block has an outer end engageable with the drive mechanism. An IC key card can power the control device to unlock the door lock, and a key can also be used to rotate the locking mechanism for rotating the drive mechanism which moves inward to engage the control block of the control device. Then the handle can be rotated to rotate the shaft of a deadbolt to disengage from a deadbolt hole in a door frame to unlock the door lock for preventing from being unlocked by prying or breaking said lock mechanism illegally.

This invention relates to a door lock unlockable magnetically and with a key, particularly to one provided with both an electro-magnetic device for unlocking and a common lock structure able to be unlocked with a key, preventing the door lock from illegally pried open or broken open.
Common traditional door lock includes a locking means to be locked and unlocked with a key, and those door locks of mechanical structure may become not so smooth in locking and unlocking function due to loosened condition between the key and the locking means and tired resilience of springs, with pins unable to be moved, after a period of using. If worse, the key may not rotate the locking means. Further, some conventional door locks are made to be too complicated, causing difficulty in copying its key, and still may be pried open illegally.

Door lock unlockable electro-magnetically and with a key

No. 10, Alley 2, Lane 107, Shih-Tung Road


A terminal for an antenna connector has a soldering base, two wings, a resilient electric contacting arm, and two pre-pressing elements. The wings are formed on the soldering base, and each wing has an opening. The resilient electric contacting arm is formed on and protrudes from a rear end of the soldering base and has an extension section, a resilient section, and an electronic contacting section. The pre-pressing elements are located respectively in the openings of the wings, pre-press the resilient section of the resilient electric contacting arm toward the soldering base, and limit the resilient section to sway in an extent from an inner upper edge of each opening to the soldering base. The terminal with the pre-pressing elements performs an excellent electrical contacting effect to improve signal transmission of the antenna connector and a corresponding antenna module.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal and, more particularly, to a terminal for an antenna connector that is mounted in a portable electronic device and is able to be engaged with a corresponding connector of an antenna module. Furthermore, the terminal has a pre-pressing structure to improve electronic contact and conducting functions, avoid poor contacting problems, and provide stable signal transmission.
2. Description of Related Art
Portable electronic devices such as cell phones and tablets have 3rd-generation (3G) or Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) wireless signal transmission modules. A conventional wireless transmission module has an antenna module mounted therein, so that the portable electronic device is able to implement wireless signal transmission through the antenna modules. The portable electronic device also has an antenna connector mounted securely therein to be engaged with a corresponding connector mounted securely in the antenna module.
A conventional antenna connector of a portable electronic device has a printed circuit board (PCB) and multiple terminals mounted securely on the PCB by surface mount technology (SMT). Each terminal has a soldering section and a resilient electric contacting arm. When the antenna module is installed in the portable electronic device and engaged with the antenna connector, the resilient electric contacting arms of the terminals respectively and tightly contact pad contacts on the antenna module.
However, the aforementioned terminal has no pre-pressing structure to force and tension the resilient electric contacting arm in a tension configuration. Therefore, the resilient electric contacting arm has a metal fatigue problem after repeated engagements and disengagements between the antenna connector and the antenna module. The fatigued resilient electric contacting arm contacts the pad contact loosely and has less contacting area with the pad contact, which makes signal transmission between the antenna module and the PCB of the electric device unstable or failed.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a terminal for an antenna connector to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.


A safety buckle includes an intermediate buckle member, which has two opposite receiving holes and two smoothly arched grooves on the top and bottom sides in each receiving hole, and two connecting buckle members each having a plug insertable into the receiving holes of the intermediate buckle member and raised portions protruded from the top and bottom sides of the plug for engaging the smoothly arched grooves to secure the respective connecting buckle member to the intermediate buckle member for allowing the connecting buckle members to be biased relative to the intermediate buckle member within a predetermined angle. In an alternate form of the safety buckle, the locations of the raised portions and the locations of the smoothly arched grooves are exchanged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to buckles and more particularly, to a safety buckle that can be automatically unlocked when received a stretching force within a predetermined range of angles.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,069,625 discloses a safety buckle 60. According to this design, the safety buckle 60 comprises a first female buckle member 80a, a second female buckle member 80b, and a male buckle member 70. The male buckle member 70 has two plug units 71a and 71b respectively inserted into the receiving open chamber 81a of a first female buckle member 80a and the receiving open chamber 81b of a second female buckle member 80b. Each plug unit 71a and 71b has two raised engagement portions 72a and 72b respectively protruded from the top and bottom sides for engaging respective recessed engagement portions 82a and 82b of the respective female buckle members 80a and 80b respectively.
The aforesaid safety buckle 60 is for use in a collar for cat. The collar can automatically be unfastened if the collar is detained by an object during jumping of the cat, preventing a hurt to the cat. In other words, the safety buckle is automatically unlocked to unfasten the collar from the cat for letting the cat go freely without hurt when the collar received a stretching force over the limited range (normally about 10 lbs or 5 kgs). A collar for cat is normally used for holding a nameplate, bell, or any of a variety of ornamental devices.
Because the female buckle members 80a and 80b of the aforesaid safety buckle 60 are not rotatable relative to the male buckle member 70, the safety buckle 60 can be easily unlocked only when the collar receives a stretching force in parallel to the direction of the central axis 75 extending through the safety buckle 60, i.e., the safety buckle 60 can be unlocked only when stretched in a particular angle. Therefore, the safety level of this design of safety buckle is not high.


An electromagnetic relay and a terminal block each include a voltage converter. The voltage converter is located adjacent to a coil and electrically connected to first coil terminals and second coil terminals. The voltage converter converts a power supply voltage input through one of the first coil terminals to a set value different from the input power supply voltage and outputs the power supply voltage to an electromagnet through one of the second coil terminals.

Patent Literature 1 describes an electromagnetic relay including a base, an electromagnetic device and a contact mechanism mounted on the base, and a case attached to the base to cover the electromagnetic device and the contact mechanism. The electromagnetic device in the electromagnetic relay includes a spool including a substantially cylindrical body and flanges on both ends of the body in the length direction and a coil wound around the body of the spool.

Electromagnetic relay and terminal block


A plurality of helical groove sections are provided on outer peripheral surfaces of press rollers provided in a curl elimination mechanism. Each of the groove sections assumes a shape extending in the circumferential direction of the respective press rollers; that is, a direction oblique to a transport direction of paper. Hence, when compared with a case where the groove sections are aligned in the transport direction of the paper, the paper is less susceptible to traces of the groove sections. Since the groove sections are provided on the press rollers, an attempt can be made to enhance dimensional accuracy of or reduce the weight of the press rollers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a laser printer or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus using electrophotography, such as a copier or a laser printer, has hitherto adopted a heat-roller-type fuser which transports a sheet material having an unfixed toner image formed thereon while heating the sheet material, to thus fix a toner image. In such an image forming apparatus, a curl arises during the course of the sheet material passing through the fuser, which may exert an adverse effect, such as deterioration of ease of stacking of sheet materials on an output tray. For this reason, as described in JP-A-9-188458 which will be described below, an image forming apparatus equipped with a curl elimination mechanism for straightening a curl of a sheet material has already been put into practice. This curl elimination mechanism is disposed downstream of the fuser and includes a curl-straightening roller to be rotationally driven and a pair of press rollers which oppose the curl-straightening roller and are rotationally driven so as to follow the curl-straightening roller. Grooves are formed in a circumferential direction in the outer peripheral surfaces of the respective press rollers. The sheet material is transported along an outer peripheral surface of the curl-straightening roller while being nipped between three rollers, whereby the sheet material is curled in a direction opposite that in which the sheet material has been curled by the fusing means, to thus eliminate the curl.