The present invention provides an improved heat transferable inked ribbon for preparing pressure transferable laminates. The inked ribbon includes a film base coated with an ink layer, which has high pressure sensitive adhesiveness, and further with a control layer, which includes a colorant and has high heat sensitive adhesiveness, viscosity, cohesive forces and hardness. Alternatively, the inked ribbon includes a film base coated with an incident rays reflecting layer, which contains white pigment and has high pressure sensitive adhesiveness, with an ink layer, which has high pressure sensitive adhesiveness, and further with a control layer, which has high heat sensitive adhesiveness, viscosity, cohesive forces and hardness. The inked ribbon thus constructed is efficiently and effectively transferred onto a sheet or film with poor wetting properties upon the application of heat; and the heat transferred image is also efficiently transferred from the sheet or film onto an article upon the application of pressure. The incident rays reflecting layer or addition of the colorant to the control layer enables the transferred image to possess increased hiding power.

The present invention relates to a heat transferable inked ribbon for providing a pressure transferable laminate, and more particularly to a heat transferable inked ribbon for use in heat transfer printing devices, e.g., printers, typewriters or word-processors, which is efficiently and effectively transferred onto a sheet or film with release properties and poor wetting properties upon application of heat to provide a composite laminate, which is transferred from the sheet or film onto an article upon application of pressure.
Heat transfer printing devices like printers, typewriters, or word-processors have been developed and widely applied to individual and office use. In such printing devices, as specific heat elements on a thermal head are heated, part of a thermoplastic ink layer of an inked ribbon corresponding to the specific heat elements softens and is transferred onto a sheet of paper or film. Here, the thermoplastic ink layer is in contact with the heat elements of the thermal head via a heat transferable ribbon base.
A general heat transferable ribbon includes a base or support coated with a thermoplastic ink layer, which contains a colorant and a binder mainly composed of wax. The general inked ribbon is transferred only onto ordinary printing or typing paper upon application of heat.
The owner of this invention has already disclosed an improved heat transferable inked ribbon, which is transferred onto a sheet or film with release properties and poor wetting properties as well as onto an ordinary sheet, in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Sho-61-275538, No. Sho-61-275539 and No. Sho-62-85350, and also disclosed a heat transferable inked ribbon with improved heat sensitivity in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Sho-62-80126.
In a general heat transfer system, as a thermal head moves, ribbon is continuously drawn out from a ribbon cassette by friction between an ink layer of the ribbon and a printing sheet and is wound up in due course.
The surface of a sheet or film with release properties and poor wetting properties has small friction and may thus not give sufficient forces to draw out and feed a ribbon. In this case, the ribbon is not sufficiently fed and the head strikes the same part of the ribbon many times; in other words, the head slips on the ribbon. On the other hand, when only a small force is required for drawing out the ribbon, the ribbon is not stretched sufficiently and thus does not run straight. The force for drawing out the ribbon varies depending on storage conditions including temperature and period.
Also already disclosed is a heat transferable inked ribbon, which is unchangeably and stably stored and runs straight without causing a slip in a printing device, in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Applications No. Sho-62-255761, No. Sho-62-255762, No. Sho-62-262348 and No. Sho-62-297155.
The heat transferable inked ribbon is generally transferred onto a white sheet, where only a low hiding power is required. However, when the inked ribbon is transferred onto a sheet or film of various properties and colors to provide a pressure transferable laminate, a high hiding power is required. The hiding power of colorants except black is not sufficiently high, and hence a transferred image does not have a sufficient hiding power, either; that is, the transferred image on the sheet is not clear. No prior publications have dealt with inked ribbons from this aspect.
One objective of the invention is accordingly to provide an improved heat transferable inked ribbon for preparing a pressure transferable laminate.
Another objective of the invention is to provide a heat transferable inked ribbon which is effectively and efficiently transferred onto a sheet or film with poor wetting properties to form a pressure transferable laminate.
A further objective of the invention is to provide a heat transferable inked ribbon, wherein the heat transferred image or composite laminate is easily and completely transferred from a sheet or film onto an article upon application of pressure.
Another important objective of the invention is to provide a heat transferable inked ribbon which is easily stored and maintained.
Still another objective of the invention is to provide a heat transferable inked ribbon which runs straight without causing slipping when used in a printing device.
A still further objective of the invention is to provide a heat transferable inked ribbon which is efficiently and firmly transferred onto a sheet or film even when the colorant used has a small hiding power.


Disclosed is an electric wire bracket for solar cells, which includes a pair of upper and lower plates respectively having adhesive layers adhered to each other and grooves facing each other so as to form insertion paths, into which a plurality of electric wires for supplying power produced by solar cells to electronic instruments are inserted, through the connection of the upper and lower plates by adhering the adhesive layers to each other, thus facilitating the connection of the wires.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric wire bracket, and more particularly to an electric wire bracket for solar cells, which includes a pair of upper and lower plates respectively having adhesive layers adhered to each other and grooves facing each other so as to form insertion paths, into which a plurality of electric wires for supplying power produced by solar cells to electronic instruments are inserted, through the connection of the upper and lower plates by adhering the adhesive layers to each other, thus facilitating the connection of the wires.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, power supply systems using solar cells are installed at a place, to which power cannot be easily supplied through an electric wire, and are used as emergency indicators or emergency power supplies. Otherwise, these power supply systems using solar cells are attached to a window so as to conserve energy, and produce electric power, and supply the power to various electronic instruments, such as a lighting device for a picture frame or a wall-mounted fish basin.
A conventional power supply system using solar cells charges a battery with electric power produced by photoelectric conversion through the solar cells, and operates various electronic instruments using the power charged in the battery.
FIG. 7 is a schematic view illustrating one example of the installation of a conventional electric wire for supplying power produced by solar cells. A plurality of solar cells 100 for producing electric power from the rays of the sun are attached to a window 200.
A transformer 400, which transforms the electric power produced from the rays of the sun by the solar cells 100 so as to charge a charging battery 300, is provided at one side of the plurality of the solar cells 100.
Here, the solar cells 100 and the transformer 400, and the transformer 400 and the charging battery 300 are respectively connected by an electric wire 500.
Further, in order to supply the electric power to various electronic instruments, for example a lighting device 700 for a wall-mounted picture frame 600, the charging battery 300 is electrically connected to the lighting device 700 by the electric wire 500.
Here, the charging battery 300 and the lighting device 700 keep a designated distance from each other. Thus, the connection between the charging battery 300 and the lighting device 700 by a single electric wire is out of question. However, in the case that the length of the electric wire 500 for connecting charging battery 300 and the lighting device 700 is short, or the electric wire 500 needs to be branched off so as to supply the power from the charging battery 300 to a plurality of lighting devices 700, a plurality of electric wires must be connected to one another.
In order to connect a plurality of electric wires, insulating sheaths of the respective electric wires are peeled off so as to expose cores of the electric wires, and then the exposed cores are connected. Thereafter, an insulating tape is wound on the connected cores so as not to expose the cores to the outside.
The above connection of the cores of the electric wires is complicated, and an electric short due to incorrect connection may occur. Further, as time passes, the adhesive strength of the insulating tape becomes weak, and may cause a leak of electricity. Moreover, foreign substances may be attached to the insulating tape, thus providing untidy external appearances of the wires.

Abstract: The electric wire bracket for solar cells includes a lower plate, an upper plate, release papers, and conductive layers, wherein at least one insertion path, into which the electric wires for solar cells are inserted, is formed by connecting the lower plate and the upper plate.


A method and an apparatus comprising a transmission electron microscope, an electron camera, a computer, and microscope control electronics. The electron camera captures an image produced by the electron microscope, the computer transforms the image into a digital diffractogram, and determines the microscope defocus and astigmatism by analyzing the diffractogram. The computer uses the determined astigmatism and defocus values to stigmate the microscope, and to set the defocus to a user-selected value. The computer also changes the direction of electron illumination to different values, and works out the true location of the optic axis of the microscope from the changes in the diffractograms recorded for the different illumination directions.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to transmission electron microscopes, and particularly to the auto-adjustment of high resolution transmission electron microscopes.
2. Description of Prior Art
Modem transmission electron microscopes (TEMS) are able to resolve individual atoms and columns of atoms in thin samples of inorganic and organic materials. However, the images produced by such microscopes can only be correctly interpreted in terms of the atomic structure of the sample if the imaging parameters of the microscope are controlled with a very high degree of accuracy. In particular, the focus of the objective lens of the TEM must be set with a precision better than about 2 nm, the astigmatism of the objective lens must be set with a precision better than about 1 nm, and the direction of the electron beam incident on the sample must be adjusted to be parallel to the optic axis of the microscope objective lens with a precision better than about 10.sup.-4 radians.
Making the needed adjustments is a task requiring a high level of theoretical knowledge and experimental skill, which restricts the availability of the atom-resolving ability of modern TEMs to a handful of experts. If the needed adjustments could be performed automatically, the power of modem TEMs would become available to a much wider range of scientific researchers.
A method for auto-adjusting a TEM is known from an article by W. O. Saxton, D. J. Smith and S. J. Erasmus published in the Journal of Microscopy, vol. 130 (1983), pp. 187-201 and by S. J. Erasmus and K. C. A. Smith published in the Journal of Microscopy, vol. 127 (1982) pp. 185-199. The method described therein monitors the contrast of the image of a thin film of an amorphous material while the defocus, astigmatism (in x and y directions) and the beam tilt (in x and y directions) are being varied. It utilizes the fact that there is a global minimum in the contrast of a thin amorphous material imaged by a high resolution TEM when the five parameters are varied, and that this minimum corresponds to a well defined condition of a correctly stigmated and aligned microscope set to the Gaussian (minimum phase contrast) defocus. The method has been demonstrated to be able to autoadjust an electron microscope with the required precision. However, in order to find the global minimum, it needs to acquire and analyze about 20 images while each of the 5 parameters is varied. Thus the method needs a total of about 100 images per one pass. This makes it very slow, and hence unsuitable for the daily operation of a TEM. The method also typically results in an unacceptably high irradiation dose delivered to the sample while the microscope is being adjusted. Moreover, the analysis of 100 images requires a large amount of computational power, making special image-processing hardware such as an array processor essential for the method.
A different method for autoadjusting a TEM was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,766 by K. D. van der Mast and U. Gross. The method described therein varies the angle of the electron illumination incident on the sample, determines the image shift accompanying the change in the illumination angle, and uses the image shift value to find the optimum setting of the microscope. This method needs only about 10 images to autoadjust a TEM, and works well at low magnifications. At high magnifications, however, the precision of the method is limited by the fact that the image detail changes when the illumination direction is changed, making it impossible to determine the image shift with the required accuracy. This makes the method unsuitable when high magnifications are needed, for instance when the atomic structure of the sample needs to be resolved. Further, the computational requirements for determining the image shifts are quite considerable, thus also necessitating the use of special image-processing hardware.
Most users of TEMs would find significant advantage in a method and an apparatus for autoadjusting a high resolution transmission electron microscope operating at medium and high magnification, which achieved the required precision using either a single or very few recorded images, and which performed the required adjustments in only a few seconds. Moreover, the users would find significant advantage in an autoadjustment method whose computational demands could be satisfied by a high-end personal computer not equipped with any additional image-processing hardware.


An image-forming device includes: an image-forming unit; a sheet discharge unit; a sheet support unit; a top cover; and a panel. The image-forming unit forms images on a recording sheet. The sheet discharge unit discharges, in a sheet discharging direction, a recording sheet formed with an image by the image-forming unit. The sheet support unit is disposed above the image-forming unit, and supports sheet discharged from the sheet discharge unit. The top cover is disposed above the sheet support unit so as to cover the sheet support unit with a underside surface of the top cover opposing a top surface of the sheet support unit. The top cover has a front side and a rear side in the sheet discharge direction, the front side being on a downstream side of the rear side in the sheet discharge direction. The panel is disposed on the front side of the top cover and includes at least one of a control unit and a display unit on the top thereof. An opening is formed between the panel and the sheet support unit through which the recording sheet can be retrieved. A top surface and a underside surface of the panel slopes downward from the rear side to the front side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image-forming device.
2. Description of Related Art
A multifunction device such as that disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2001-63898 having a control panel disposed on a discharge tray is well known in the art. This type of multifunction device is configured with a main reading unit body for scanning an original document and a control panel disposed adjacent to the main reading unit body on one end.


An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for an improved video stream. The method involves taking video of a location and mapping points of interest that are in the range of the camera. Tags are associated with various points of interest and are inserted into the video stream and displayed to the users. Tags may include advertisements and information about particular locations. In certain embodiments, proprietors pay a fee to have a tag associated with their location. The user may be able to remotely control the camera to view a particular area, with the tags appearing at appropriate locations. Video streams from numerous cameras at varying locations may be made available on a website, and end users may select the camera they are interested in and control the camera via the website.

Travelers are often interested in getting information about destinations prior to their arrival. Various services allow users to survey their destination and acquaint themselves with an area. For example, Google offers a "street view" feature that allows users to see photos of a particular location.
However, many of these services are passive; that is, they show pictures of a location. Many users would prefer to see video of locations of interest. In addition, users may want to find information about the points of interest found within the video frame. Businesses that show up within a frame may want to advertise on sites or channels that show the video stream; other entities, such as government entities and private residences, may want to ensure that their locations are not shown on the video stream.

Apparatus, system, and method for tagging objects in a video stream


A software system with self-describing attribute vocabularies that enhance the capability of service providers to advertise their resources and that facilitate the addition of new types of attributes and resources to the system. Each self-describing attribute vocabulary is characterized by a corresponding set of attribute properties and a corresponding set of:matching rules that are adapted to the corresponding attribute properties. The software system includes a matching engine that enables a service provider of a resource to describe the resource to the software system in terms of any one or more of the self-describing attribute vocabularies.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of software systems. More particularly, this invention relates to self-describing attribute vocabularies in a software system.
2. Art Background
Computer systems and networks of computer systems and similar devices may be viewed as a collection of resources. These resources may include software resources such as files, data bases, application programs, and information services. These resources may also include hardware resources such as storage devices, printers, communication devices, and display devices to name only a few examples. These resources may be local resources of a computer system or similar device or may be remote resources accessible via a network connection to one or more other computer systems or similar devices.
Software systems for computer systems and similar devices commonly include service providers which are adapted to particular types of resources. One example of a service provider is a file server. Other examples of service providers include printer servers, digital document servers, as well as providers of information services such as news, stock quotes, etc. A software program that accesses a resource of a service provider may be referred to as a client of the service provider.
Software systems for computer systems and similar devices commonly implement protocols that enable potential clients to discover resources and that enable service providers to advertise their resources to potential clients. In such a system, a service provider usually formulates attributes that describe its capabilities and a potential client usually formulates attributes that describe requirements about a desired resource. Such a system typically enables the potential client to discover a desired resource by determining whether a match occurs between the attributes that describe the desired resource and the attributes that describe the capabilities of the service providers.
Unfortunately, prior protocols for resource discovery typically limit the ability of service providers to advertise their resources. For example, a printer service provider may not be able to advertise incentives associated with its printer resources in a system in which attributes are limited to hardware related factors such as resolution, fonts, and colors, etc. In addition, such prior systems may make it difficult to add new types of resources to a software system. For example, attributes which are adapted to files or hardware devices may not be suitable for new types of resources such as news or stock quotes or other information services.
A software system is disclosed with self-describing attribute vocabularies that enhance the capability of service providers to advertise their resources and that facilitate the addition of new types of resources and attributes to the system. The self-describing attribute vocabularies are active entities that are made available as resources in the software system. The software system enables vocabulary service providers to easily make new attribute vocabularies available to tasks executing in the software system and enables tasks to discover resources in terms of one or more of the self-describing attribute vocabularies.
Each self-describing attribute vocabulary is characterized by a corresponding set of attribute properties and a corresponding set of matching rules that are adapted to the corresponding attribute properties. The software system includes a matching engine that enables a service provider of a resource to describe the resource to the software system in terms of any one or more of the self-describing attribute vocabularies. The attribute vocabularies are self-describing in that the attribute properties and associated matching rules can vary widely among the attribute vocabularies. The matching engine implements mechanisms that enable software tasks to discover and use any one or more of the self-describing attribute vocabularies and the matching engine adapts its attribute-based lookup operations for resources to the appropriate set of matching rules.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description that follows.

Self-describing attribute vocabularies in a software system


A safety shield for capturing corrosive fluids escaping from a joint formed in a piping system consists of first and second shroud members releasably joined to form an enclosured chamber in assembled position about the pipe joint. The chamber includes at least one aperture which is sized and shaped to form a vapor-tight seal around the pipe. Preferably, the safety shield includes an outlet for discharging any fluid which may accumulate in the chamber. Optionally, devices may be attached in communication with the interior of the chamber for determining the physical conditions therein.

Many factories, such as chemical manufacturing plants and the like, have extensive systems of piping which handle corrosive or otherwise hazardous fluids. These fluids typically consist of liquids, vapors or combinations thereof which travel through the pipes under varying pressures.
In view of the hazardous nature of these fluids, the integrity of the piping systems is critical. Notwithstanding the care exhibited in assembling and maintaining these systems, leaks occasionally develop, typically in joints between two or more pipes or between pipes and other components such as flanges, couplings, valves, expansion joints, gauges and the like. In most cases it is imperative that all of the liquid or vapor which may escape through these leaks be intercepted and contained before causing damage to equipment or, more importantly, to plant employees. This need is especially critical in those cases where the piping systems are carrying toxic materials, the escape of which would present an immediate danger to the health and even the lives of plant employees.
In addition, federal and state environmental regulations, for example, the federal Clean Air Act, as well as individual corporate air quality programs, seek to control and eliminate, or at least minimize the release of harmful materials into the environment. Such releases typically occur as standard process emissions or accidental emissions from process equipment. Many of the harmful materials these programs seek to control are cancer causing agents. Others, vapor emissions in particular, are harmful to the earth's ozone layer. Both the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have as their objectives the promotion and regulation of practices which minimize uncontrolled vapor and liquid releases by setting program guidelines for monitoring, detecting and containing such releases.
Presently available shields do not provide adequate safeguards to control such undesirable releases. Thus, while flexible safety shields, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,428 to Matthiessen and co-pending application Ser. No. 07/445,176, intercept a stream of liquid which may leak from a pipe joint, they do not prevent the liquid from eventually dripping or otherwise flowing from the shield. Moreover, these flexible safety shields do not contain vapors which may escape through the pipe joint.
Other available safety shields consist of separable portions formed from a semi-rigid material which assemble around a pipe joint to form an annular chamber thereabout. The members are typically assembled by snapping the two portions together to form a loose fit about the pipe joint. Thus, since this type of shield does not adequately seal around the pipe it is unable to contain any escaping vapors and only minimally contains escaping liquids. Furthermore, the failure of the individual components to be positively and securely assembled together presents a hazardous condition. Should a significant amount of liquid accumulate in the shield, the shield may readily come apart, exposing those persons nearby to its contents. Even in those cases when the shield does not come apart under the weight of its contents, the need to remove the shield from the pipe joint in order to empty its contents exposes maintenance workers to potential harm.
Thus, the need exists for an improved safety shield capable of forming an airtight seal about a pipe joint in order to intercept and contain any liquid or vapor which may leak from the pipe joint. There also exists a need for a safety shield which will surround a pipe joint in a secure fashion and not readily become disengaged therefrom. Preferably, The improved safety shield will provide adequate safeguards from the release of harmful liquids and vapors in full compliance with governmental regulations. More preferably, the improved safety shield will enable any contained fluids to be readily drained therefrom without subjecting plant employees to their hazardous contents.


The power transmission apparatus for a vehicle has a main shaft having drive gears mounted thereto and a countershaft having driven gears mounted thereto, and the respective shafts are attached to a case. A reverse shaft attached to the case has an idler gear for reverse operation or a reverse idler gear rotatably attached thereto which is engaged with a drive gear for reverse operation and a driven gear for reverse operation. The reverse shaft has a projection which is integrally formed thereon and is in contact with one side surface of the reverse idler gear, and has a washer mounted thereto which is in contact with the other side surface of the reverse idler gear.

An ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) that runs on irregular grounds or all grounds, called a buggy, is a single-seat off-road vehicle having four wheels, which may be used in leisure such as hunting and trail touring or used as a farm vehicle in some cases. In such an all-ground type vehicle, as a transmission in a power transmission apparatus for transmitting power of an engine to drive wheels, manual type one is employed which performs shift operations by a driver's shift pedal operations.
The manual type transmission has a transmission input shaft or a main shaft that is coupled to a crankshaft of an engine through an input clutch to be driven by the engine and that has a plurality of drive gears mounted thereto; and a transmission output shaft or a countershaft to which a plurality of driven gears are mounted which are always engaged with the drive gears to form trains of speed change gears respectively, and a switchover sleeve of the dog clutch type that is driven by the operation of a shift pedal is provided in the transmission to select a train of speed change gears to transmit power. The manual type transmission is provided with an idler gear for reverse to back a vehicle which is engaged with a drive gear for reverse operation mounted to the main shaft and a driven gear for reverse mounted to the countershaft, and the idler gear is mounted to a reverse shaft that is arranged in a case housing therein the main shaft and the countershaft.
To prevent the idler gear mounted to the reverse shaft from slipping along the shaft direction, there is known a conventional method in which ring-shaped retention grooves are formed at the reverse shaft corresponding to both sides of the idler gear; and snap rings are mounted to the respective retention grooves to prevent the idler gear from slipping along the shaft direction. Furthermore, there is known a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication 10-259860 in which step portions along the diameter direction are formed on the reverse shaft corresponding to both sides of the idler gear and washers are mounted between the respective step portions and the idler gear to prevent the idler gear from slipping along the shaft direction.
However, in case of forming retention grooves for retaining two snap rings at the reverse shaft, there is required an assembling process of stretching the snap rings along the diameter direction and attaching thus stretched snap rings to the reverse shaft, which undesirably increase the number of parts as well as the number of manufacturing processes of the power transmission apparatus. Furthermore, use of washers requires cutting works for the reverse shaft to form two step portions corresponding to both sides of the idler gear. This results in increasing working processes for the reverse shaft is increased as well as in requiring two washers to be mounted to the reverse shaft, which undesirably increase the number of parts as well as the number of manufacturing processes of the power transmission apparatus accordingly.

Power transmission apparatus for vehicle


An electronic cigarette adopting organic cotton includes a liquid storage component and an atomizing device, the atomizing device includes a hollow spiral heating wire, a liquid guiding member inserted in the heating wire, the liquid guiding member is made of non-fiberglass organic cotton materials; the atomizing device further includes a smog conduit inserted in the liquid storage component for supporting the liquid storage component and serving as a channel for the smog, the smog conduit comprises an outer sleeve and an inner sleeve, one inserted into another to position the liquid guiding member therebetween, and the liquid guiding member has its opposite ends respectively to be protruded out of an outer sidewall of the smog conduit and firmly abut against an inner sidewall of the liquid storage component. This kind of electronic cigarettes is harmless to the human body and has stable and reliable inner structure.

Current electronic cigarettes are configured therein with a liquid storage component for accommodating liquid smoke, an atomizing device for transforming the liquid smoke in the liquid storage component into smog and a power supply apparatus to supply power to the atomizing device, the atomizing device is mainly constituted by a heating wire, a liquid guiding member and a smog conduit with a through hole for the smog to circulate, the liquid guiding member and the smog conduit both are made of silica-based fiberglass materials, the fiberglass belongs to inorganic cotton, and the heating wire is wound around the liquid guiding member, with its opposite ends connected with conductive wires, then the heating wire is transversely placed into the smog conduit, exposed ends of the conductive wires are connected with the positive and negative electrodes of the power supply apparatus, the liquid guiding member and the liquid storage component are connected to absorb the liquid smoke, finally the liquid smoke is transported to the heating wire through the liquid guiding member, the heating wire after energized would atomize the liquid smoke to generate smog. Since the liquid guiding member and the smog conduit in the atomizing device are made of inorganic cotton, which is formed by numerous intertwined tiny fiberglass yarn, and they are prone to be broken, bent, and twisted. When the heating wire is wound around the liquid guiding member of fixed in the smog conduit, the liquid conduit or the smog conduit are easy to be bent or twisted, and this process would generate countless fiberglass flocs which adhere to the liquid guiding member and the heating wire and inner wall of the smog conduit, and easy to enter the mouth, respiratory tract or lung during smoking the assembled electronic cigarette, thereby causing serious harm to the human body. In addition, the smog conduit made of fiberglass material is easy to be broken, bent and twisted, and has poor structural stability and reliability.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Electronic cigarette adopting organic cotton

HUIZHOU KIMREE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD., SHENZHEN BRANCH


A seal-protected perimeter partition valve apparatus (450) defines a vacuum and pressure sealed space (401) within a larger space (540) confining a substrate processing chamber with optimized geometry, minimized footprint and 360° substrate accessibility. A compact perimeter partitioned assembly (520) with seal protected perimeter partition valve (450) and internally contained substrate placement member (480) further provides processing system modularity and substantially minimized system footprint.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the area of substrate processing systems and more specifically to a system and apparatus for transferring a substrate to a processing chamber and subsequently processing a substrate under sub-atmospheric pressure within a process chamber.
2. Description of Prior Art
Flat substrates, such as round silicon wafers, rectangular glass panels, round, rectangular and square ceramic plates and optical grade crystalline substrates are commonly used for the manufacturing of many useful devices such as integrated circuit (IC), flat panel display, optical, electro-optical, sensor and micro-fluidic devices. In many cases, these substrates are processed within single substrate processing-chambers. Substantially automatic transport of substrates into the process chambers and out of the process chambers is commonly practiced with a variety of useful different designs and a variety of useful wafer-handling systems architecture. Substrate handling systems significantly add to the size and cost of the processing apparatus. Accordingly, it is a common practice to exploit substrate handling and transport systems to support multiple single substrate chambers. Additionally, systems configurations with multiple single substrate processing chambers are advantageously exploited in many technologies to conduct sequential and integrated substrate processing wherein a sequentially processed substrate benefits substantially from the short delay between sequential processing and the ability to maintain controlled ambient during substrate transport from one process chamber to another, therefore substantially suppressing the adverse impact of ambient contamination.
One prominent example of such crucially integrated sequence of substrate processing is the deposition of copper barrier and copper seed film stack commonly implemented in semiconductor fabrication technology. Accordingly, silicon wafers are processed to grow a thin barrier layer in a first process chamber and subsequently quickly transported, under vacuum or controlled inert ambient, to a second processing chamber where a thin copper seed layer is formed over the previously formed seed layer. The performance of the copper barrier-seed stack predominantly depends on the quality of the interface between the barrier layer and the copper layer. The quality of this interface is predominantly improved by minimization of barrier layer surface contamination and oxidation related to the ability of integrated multiple substrate wafer processing systems to minimize the exposure of the wafers to possible contamination during wafer transport between the first processing chamber and the second processing chamber.
In an another prominent example, fabrication of flat panel display Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) devices crucially relies upon a series of 5-7 sequential fabrication process steps that must be carried within the processing system with extremely minimized exposure to moisture and other contamination sources during substrate handling between subsequent chambers and related processing steps.
Many commercially available processes such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), etching, physical vapor deposition (PVD) or atomic layer deposition (ALD) are implemented at controlled ambient at the sub-atmospheric pressure range. Substrate transport is typically carried at vacuum or otherwise low pressure of inert ambient. During process execution, the process chambers are completely enclosed and pressure-sealed from the substrate-handling chamber. After process completion (or before process starts), the substrate is removed out of (or into) the process chamber without venting it to atmospheric pressure, such that low pressure and isolation from the ambient is maintained.
To facilitate the substrate transport and processing, processing systems are equipped with substrate translation means, substrate placement means and with volume partition means.
Substrate handling is practiced with a variety of robotic translation and rotation stages that are capable of moving a substrate in a certain plane. Many different devices are suitable and known to those who are skilled in the art including simple linear stages, simple rotation arms, rotation-translation robots and multiple-axes rotation-based robots.
Substrate placement refers to the removal of a substrate from a station and mounting that substrate over a substrate handling member and to the reversal operation of dismounting a substrate from a substrate handling member and subsequently mounting that substrate on a station. Station refers to a variety of processing and support chambers such as a load-lock station, an alignment station, processing stations, cleaning stations, a pre-heating station, a cooling station, pattern delineation stations, a bakeout station, post processing treatment stations, an outgasing station, etc. Substrate placement members comprise means for substrate exchange between the station and the substrate handling member such as a fork-like end-effector mounted on the substrate handling member and matching lift-pins or lift-fingers mounted on the station. substrate exchange requires vertical translation of the substrate. Many useful arrangements are successfully implemented and are known to those who are skilled in the art.
Volume partition is practiced to isolate stations during processing or otherwise when ambient conditions at different stations are not compatible, such as, for example, when a load-lock station is vented to atmospheric pressure. Typically volume partitions accommodate the basic architecture of the processing system and the substrate-handling member. For example, a planar partition, such as a slit-valve, is commonly practiced in the art wherein a substrate transport path is substantially linearly defined, when the partition is opened. A channel shaped as a horizontally oriented slit is formed in the wall of each chamber to facilitate a substrate transport port. The system further includes a substrate handling member with linear translation means such as a linear-rotation, linear-linear, linear-linear-rotation or a multiple-axes rotation robot. Multiple chamber systems of that design devote a significant space to enable the robot to align parallel to the linear access paths of different chambers. One of many such useful systems is described by Maydan et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,601. Planar partitions with horizontal substrate transport plane are typically implemented with the partition vertical to both the substrate transport plane and the substrate transport path to minimize partition size and related process chamber asymmetry. When more than one substrate transport path is necessary, the processing system implements a planar partition for each path.
In yet another, less common, example, perimeter volume partitions enable unobstructed access to a station when the partition is substantially opened. Substrate handling with a single axis rotation arm complements the system, although more sophisticated substrate-handling members are also suitable. One of several such useful systems in described by Kawasaki et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,981. Perimeter partitions are typically designed to be substantially vertical to the substrate-handling plane.
Optimum process chamber geometry dictates substantial similarity to the shape of the substrate. At the same time optimized flow path for process gasses commonly dictates that substantially sharp corners must be avoided. Accordingly, process chamber geometry should substantially replicate the shape of the substrate with provisions for round corners. For example, round geometry is most suitable for round substrates while round corners rectangular geometry best accommodates rectangular substrates.
Current implementation of planar partitions, or slit valves, conventionally employs a flat design which does not interface well with the symmetry of round process chambers. As a result, a substantially large cavity is created to adapt the round inner wall shape to the flat slit valve. This inevitable cavity breaks the (symmetry of the round process chamber with adverse impact on the symmetry, uniformity and consistency of various process elements, such as flow, plasma field, pressure and chemical transport. In addition, the parasitical cavity acts as a "dead space", creating flow turbulence that notoriously generates particles. Such dead-space cavities are particularly detrimental to the performance and optimization of atomic layer deposition (ALD), an emerging cutting edge process technology. The extent of the dead-space cavity impact on performance grows as the proportional area of the cavity compared to the chamber area is increased. Round process chambers utilizing slit-valves for volume partition were therefore forced into larger diameter chambers to create substantial separation between the substrate and the asymmetry source. Therefore, slit-valve-related asymmetry imposes an inevitable increase in chamber size. Additional process system increase emerges from the need to dedicate substantial space for the substrate-handling member to maneuver from one linear path through one planar partition into another linear path through another planar partition. For example, a large transport chamber is commonly used to accommodate a robot, linear substrate pickup, substrate and robot rotation and substrate placement. For example the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,601. Substrate transport chambers contribute substantially to the overall size of the processing system. With the increase in substrate size yielding substantially more devices per substrate and the trending of many industries into short product lifetime, fewer completed substrates and therefore fewer process chambers per system are necessary. Unfortunately, the relative impact of substrate process chambers on the overall size and cost of the processing system increases as the number of process chambers per system decreases making planar volume partitions such as planar slit-valves less favorable.
Perimeter partitions can be shaped to the optimum flow geometry and advantageously eliminate the adverse asymmetry effect. Unrestricted substrate handling within the substrate transport plane eliminates the need for a dedicated substrate-handling chamber with potentially much improved utilization of system area as well as substantially simplified substrate handling. However, despite these indisputable advantages, perimeter partitioned systems continue to be unpopular. Unfortunately, perimeter partitions also enhance problems that are inherent to volume partitions.
Most problematic, as well known to those who are skilled in the art, is the integrity and the cleanliness of the partition seals and related crevices. Crevices are inherently created when partitions are operated to enclose the chambers and relate to the surfaces between the moving part of the partition, typically defined as the "slide" and the stationary part of the partition typically referred as the "housing". As well known in the art, process chamber contamination and failure; are significantly driven by the growth of undesired films and/or accumulation of contamination at exposed crevices between the slide and the housing, as well as the deterioration of the seals by exposure to harsh chemical and/or plasma environment. Unfortunately, perimeter volume partitions typically introduce at least four times longer seals and related problematic slide-housing gaps.
In an attempt to reduce the adverse impact of seal related deterioration, the prior art utilized a vertically movable stage to elevate the process space between a process chamber top and a substrate holder substantially above the seals plane. Unfortunately, this prior art improvement does not completely resolve the problem, in particular, in the case of deposition processes. Therefore, further improvements could only be driven by substantially spacing the perimeter partition away from the process with a related significant chamber area increased.
Perimeter volume partition with protected seals was taught by the inventor of this invention in US patent application number 2003/0180458 and related applications. Accordingly, an atomic layer deposition (ALD) apparatus and method are provided wherein the seals of a "perimeter slot valve—(PSV)" are located within a small volume compartment of the process chamber space, named "DGIC" having a perimeter flow restriction at the inlet and a perimeter flow restriction at the outlet and an inert gas plenum for introduction of inert gas into the DGIC. This apparatus is suitable for process method wherein a substantially high flow of inert gas into the DGIC during the introduction of process reactive gas into the process chamber is useful as described in detail in US patent application number 2003/0180458. Accordingly, the seals of the PSV are substantially protected from contact with the reactive chemicals. As a result, a small diameter PSV apparatus was successfully implemented for a substantially small process chamber footprint with exceptional protection from seal-deterioration and contamination. However, the PSV apparatus of US patent application number 2003/0180458 is specific to the synchronously modulated flow and draw ALD (SMFD-ALD) method and does not provide a seal protected perimeter volume partition apparatus with easy application to other methods.
In addition, chambers defined with perimeter partitions lack the necessary wall area where essential accessories such as pressure gauges, pressure switches, electrical feeding ports (electrical feedthrough), sensors (such as temperature measurement, end-point detection, etc.), feeding ports, view ports, pumping ports, residual gas analyzers, feeding ports for in-situ cleaning gas, to name a few, are typically communicated with the chamber space through the chamber wall. Process chambers typically have minimized usable space at both the top and the bottom ends. The top end typically hosts process gas delivery members and is inherently unsuitable to communicate the accessories listed above with the process space. The bottom end is typically substantially crowded with a cumbersome substrate placement member leaving only very limited unoccupied area. In fact, many prior art implementations of substrate placement members required that vacuum pump ports were relocated from the bottom face and placed at the chamber walls. Accordingly, conventional substrate placement members leave very limited unoccupied area at the bottom of process chambers that is substantially insufficient for relocating the above listed essentials. Substrate holder elevators that were used to alleviate seal deterioration in the prior art of perimeter partitioning, as described above, further reduce the unoccupied area at the bottom end of the process chamber. Inevitably, this situation imposes an undesired chamber area increase to provide additional necessary space at the bottom end of the chamber.
A perimeter partition valve as practiced in the prior art is illustrated in the SHUT position in FIG. 1a. Accordingly, system volume is confined by a top plate 102, a bottom plate 104 and a system wall (not shown). A process chamber 100 includes lid 106 wherein process gasses are introduced into a gas distribution device 110 through conduit 108 and are further distributed through gas dispersion member 112. The chamber includes means to support a substrate 116 such as a heated chuck 114. The bottom face of the chamber 118 is predominantly crowded with substrate placement member 122. For example the substrate includes three pins 124 (only one shown) arranged on a circle at respective 120° from each other, as commonly practiced in the art. Perimeter partition valve 150 includes an L-shaped slide 152, top perimeter seal 154, bottom perimeter seal 156, bonnet 160, guides 162 and actuators 164. Seals 154 and 156 are made from a suitable elastomer such as Viton or Kalrez or other equivalent compounds. When perimeter partition valve 150 is SHUT seals 154 and 156 are pressed against sealing surfaces 166 and 168, respectively, to pressure seal the internal space of chamber 100. Three or four actuators 164 are conveniently arranged to actuate the slide between a SHUT position (FIG. 1a) and an OPEN position (FIG. 1b). When the perimeter partition valve 150 is actuated to the OPEN position (FIG. 1b) the substrate chuck 114 is accessible from 360° directions through perimeter slit 130. The substrate 116 is levitated by pins 124 (one out of three shown) to create gap 140 between the substrate 116 and the chuck 114 which is suitable for the insertion of a wafer handling end-effector (not shown). During processing, perimeter crevices 126 and 128 at the top and the bottom seal areas, respectively, are exposed to the process ambient resulting in unacceptable deterioration and contamination and overall inferior performance. Additionally, the bulky substrate placement member 122 occupies most of the area of bottom face 118 living very limited space 120 available for process and chamber accessories. As described above, perimeter partitioned chambers must accommodate process and chamber accessories at the bottom face of the chamber.
There is a need in the art to protect the seals of perimeter partition devices to avoid process chamber deterioration and contamination and to enable optimum perimeter partition apparatus with minimized process chamber and processing system area. Complementary, there is a need for improved substrate placement members and mainly to drastically reduce the area that these members obstruct at the bottom of process chambers and to enable mounting of chamber accessories and pumping ports, at the bottom end of the process chamber.

Perimeter partition-valve with protected seals and associated small size process chambers and multiple chamber systems


The present invention provides systems and methods for protecting the lower main wellbore of whipstocks and completion deflectors from debris accumulation. A well system subassembly includes a deflector tool arranged within a casing string and defining a deflector surface and an inner bore extending longitudinally from the deflector surface and one or more seal stacks disposed about the inner bore of the deflector tool. A wellbore barrier device is disposed about the inner bore uphole from the one or more seal stacks and is expandable from an unswelled configuration to a swelled configuration. When the wellbore barrier device is in the swelled configuration, it protects the one or more seal stacks from debris generated from milling and/or drilling operations.

The present invention relates to equipment utilized and operations performed in conjunction with a subterranean well and, more particularly, to systems and methods for protecting the lower main wellbore of whipstocks and completion deflectors from debris accumulation.
Hydrocarbons can be produced through relatively complex wellbores traversing a subterranean formation. Some wellbores can include multilateral wellbores and/or sidetrack wellbores. Multilateral wellbores include one or more lateral wellbores extending from a parent (or main) wellbore. A sidetrack wellbore is a wellbore that is diverted from a first general direction to a second general direction and can include a main wellbore in the first general direction and a secondary wellbore diverted from the main wellbore in the second general direction. A multilateral wellbore can include one or more windows or casing exits to allow corresponding lateral wellbores to be formed. A sidetrack wellbore can also include a window or casing exit to allow the wellbore to be diverted to the second general direction.
The casing exit for either multilateral or sidetrack wellbores can be formed by positioning a casing joint and a whipstock in a casing string at a desired location in the main wellbore. The whipstock is used to deflect one or more mills laterally (or in an alternative orientation) relative to the casing string. The deflected mill(s) penetrates part of the casing joint to form the casing exit in the casing string. Drill bits can be subsequently inserted through the casing exit in order to cut the lateral or secondary wellbore.
During lateral drilling operations, it is desirable to protect lower portions of the main wellbore from the accumulation of debris that results from drilling. Such debris can plug the main wellbore and prevent follow on operations such as retrieving whipstocks or deflectors or the opening of fluid loss devices. One way of preventing debris is through the use of mechanical barriers, such as flapper valves, plugs, disks, etc. With the accumulation of a large amount of debris, however, it may be difficult to subsequently open the flapper valve for follow on operations or retrieve the plug or disk from the main wellbore. Another way of preventing debris buildup in the main wellbore is by protecting the area in question with one or more viscous fluids. Formulating the appropriate viscosity or mixture of the viscous fluid for each wellbore application, however, can oftentimes be difficult and as a result large amounts of drilling debris will nonetheless continue to pass through the viscous fluid.


An apparatus and method are provided for automatically inspecting and rejecting glass articles during the continuous manufacture thereof. In particular, an optical pyrometer is provided for measuring the top of each glass article and generating signals representative of the residual temperature thereof. A computer includes software which processes the temperature signals and generates actuating signals if the temperature does not fall within a range of predetermined temperature setpoints. Generation of such actuating signals actuates a hammer which removes each defective glass article.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of automatically inspecting and rejecting glass articles during their manufacture. Such apparatus and method may be used on a variety of different types of glass forming machines provided that the glass article produced is suspended from a fixed point after it leaves the mold; retains some residual heat from the molding operation; and that the top of the glass article is visible. The present invention is particularly useful during the manufacture of hollow glass articles on what is commonly referred to as a glass ribbon machine. In a preferred application, the present invention relates to automatically inspecting incandescent lamp envelopes produced on a ribbon machine and rejecting such envelopes if they are too short or their tops are too thin or too thick.
Glass ribbon machines are well known in the art, one of the earliest being described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,790,397 issued to W. J. Woods et al., and incorporated herein by reference. Such glass ribbon forming machines typically provide for formation of a stream of molten glass into a ribbon of glass which is laid upon an endless chain of orifice plates. Such endless chain and ribbon of glass supported thereon are conveyed in a linear manner through various process steps the last of which involves severing each hollow glass article from the linearly travelling ribbon of glass. In the manufacture of incandescent lamp envelopes, hollow glass envelopes so produced are separated from the linearly travelling ribbon of glass and subjected to further process steps including cleaning and treatment of the interior of each envelope, insertion of the lamp element and sealing of the envelope.
Other known ribbon forming machines include U.S. Pat. No. 1,833,284 issued to Gray, U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,410 issued to Heaton et al. and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,642,461 and 3,775,084 issued to Heaton, each incorporated herein by reference.
The operation of a ribbon machine to produce lamp envelopes or bulbs is a high speed process typically providing for the production of in excess of one thousand bulbs per minute. Due to such high speed, bulb inspection is usually done on a sampling basis after manufacture of the bulbs and before further processing thereof. For example, in one known inspection technique, bulb sampling is done manually, the bulbs selected being gauged by hand. If any of the bulbs are too short or have tops which are too thick or too thin, all of the bulbs coming down the production line are rejected until another test is conducted which indicates that there are no defective bulbs. Such an inspection process is costly, resulting in scrapping the good as well as the defective bulbs produced between such tests. In addition to adding to manufacturing costs, most of the bulbs are shipped to the customer without being inspected; that is, when a test is conducted, if the test sample results in no defective bulbs, all of the bulbs which come down the production line are further processed and shipped to customers until such time as a test is conducted which indicates that there are defective bulbs.
It is believed that at least one bulb manufacturer using the ribbon forming method inspects the bulbs by means of a laser and detector apparatus for detecting and rejecting short bulbs. However, such system is not believed to be effective in detecting and rejecting bulbs having tops which are too thin or too thick.
It is also known to use a blank length detector to inspect for short bulbs on a ribbon machine. In particular, a line scan camera is provided to detect the length of the blank. However, the effectiveness of this technique is limited in that a short bulb is not always caused by a short blank. In addition, this system is also not effective in detecting and rejecting bulbs having tops which are too thin or too thick.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved apparatus and method of automatically inspecting glass articles during their manufacture.
It is also an object to provide an apparatus and method of automatically inspecting hollow glass articles during their manufacture on a glass ribbon machine to determine whether any of such hollow glass articles are too short or have tops which are too thin or too thick.
It is a still further object to provide an apparatus and method of automatically inspecting each hollow glass article produced by a glass ribbon machine and automatically rejecting any such hollow glass article which is too short or has a top which is too thin or too thick.
It is also an object to provide an apparatus and method of automatically inspecting and rejecting glass articles, during their manufacture, which is not labor intensive.
It is a further object to provide an apparatus and method of automatically inspecting and rejecting glass articles during their manufacture without rejecting the good glass articles along with the defective glass articles.
It is yet another object to provide an apparatus and method of automatically inspecting and rejecting hollow glass articles during their manufacture on a glass ribbon machine while such hollow glass articles are still on the ribbon of glass.

Glass article inspection and rejection apparatus


A diagnosis method for use with peripheral devices includes diagnosing states of the peripheral devices connected to a host, automatically and periodically, and outputting a history of diagnostic results to a predetermined storage unit. The diagnosis method further includes automatically stopping the diagnosis of the peripheral devices if the peripheral devices are operated by a user during the diagnosis, and resuming or restarting the diagnosis of the peripheral devices when the peripheral devices or the host return to idle. Consequently, a vendor of one of the peripheral devices may recognize the problems in the peripheral device, to efficiently manage the peripheral device while reducing cost for after-sale service.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a diagnosis method and apparatus for use with peripheral devices, and more particularly, to a method, apparatus, and medium for periodically diagnosing a host and the host's peripheral devices and storing a history of diagnostic results, and for transferring the history to the host or the vendor of the peripheral devices when troubles occur in the host or the peripheral devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, when peripheral devices of a host, such as a printer, scanner, or facsimile, are out of order, a user diagnoses the software or hardware of the host or the peripheral devices using a diagnosis program provided by the vendor of the host or the peripheral devices, or transfers diagnostic results to the vendor. The vendor receives the diagnostic results to diagnose the host or the peripheral devices based on the diagnostic results. However, the diagnostic results refer to the time that the troubles took place. Thus, the software and hardware states of the host or the peripheral devices before the troubles occur cannot be precisely diagnosed. In addition, if the troubles are fatal, the diagnosis program may not run, and the host or the peripheral devices cannot be diagnosed.

Diagnosis method and apparatus for peripheral device of host


A word processor comprises a setting unit for setting a frame for entered characters and a unit for processing the characters in the frame. In an edit operation, the characters in the frame are displayed on a CRT screen and edited without affecting information outside of the frame. The word processor further comprises a unit for expanding or reducing the frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a word processor for processing a text.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a prior art apparatus capable of serially entering characters in a frame such as an area of 15 lines with each line including 20 characters, when it is desire to input a character outside of the frame, it is necessary to position a cursor outside of the frame or to release the frame.
In addition, when a character is overwritten or inserted in the frame area, it may be written outside of the frame. A word processor devised on behalf of the assignee of the present invention has a function of automatically expanding the frame during word processing for the framed area (See Japanese Patent Application No. 54-127203). However, in the proposed word processor, the frame is defined line by line and the effect of the expansion of the frame to other frames is limited to the immediately following line. Therefore, the process is simple.
It has been known to define a frame having a predetermined size and to input characters in the frame. An example thereof is a column of a newspaper. A word processor proposed by the assignee of the present invention enables word processing for the framed area to include modification of the fixed frame. (See Japanese Patent Application No. 54-127203). The proposed word processor, however, is characterized by a restriction that a longitudinal dimension of one frame must be equal to that of the laterally adjacent frame, because flags or registers, one for each line, are used to recognize and discriminate the frame and hence the frames must be delimited for each line.
When an edit process such as deletion is done for an entered character string, it may be necessary to delete one line. For example, when a carriage return (CR) code in the character string is deleted, it is necessary to feed forward the succeeding lines by one line. When a selected full line is deleted, the same process is required. In a word processor capable of setting a plurality of frames on an image screen or a sheet in a desired form and processing character strings within the frames, relative relations among the frames may not be satisfied by the process of deleting more lines or of feeding lines forward line feed process. For example, when a line in a frame is to be deleted or fed forward, the process is different depending on whether or not a character is present is the other frame.
In preparing a formatted document, a plurality of frames are set in an image screen or a sheet and characters are entered in the frames and edited. In a prior art frame processing, a single frame is set in a line or a fixed frame is set like a newspaper but it is not possible to change the sizes of a plurality of frames or define a new frame at a central area.
In a known apparatus, rules are partially patterned so that they can be handled equally with the characters in order for document data including rules to be prepared and provided to a printer. However, in order to prepare the data for series of rule patterns, a plurality of input means corresponding to the number of partial patterns are required, or it is necessary to specify a start point and end point of the rule and convert them to the series of partial pattern data. Furthermore, in the known apparatus, the relation between the rule and the document is not always constant and the relation between the document and the rule is destroyed when correction such as insertion or deletion is made to the document.

Word processor permitting modification of a preset frame


A method for manufacturing a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) device, comprising providing a base layer (10) and a mechanical layer (12) on a substrate (14), providing a sacrificial layer (16) between the base layer (10) and the mechanical layer (12), providing an etch stop layer (18) between the sacrificial layer (16) and the substrate (14), and removing the sacrificial layer (16) by means of dry chemical etching, wherein the dry chemical etching is performed using a fluorine-containing plasma, and the etch stop layer (18) comprises a substantially non-conducting, fluorine chemistry inert material, such as HfO2, ZrO2, Al2O3 or TiO2.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) refer to a collection of micro-sensors and actuators, which can react to an environmental change under micro-circuit control. The integration of MEMS into traditional radio frequency (RF) circuits has resulted in systems with superior performance levels and lower manufacturing costs. The incorporation of MEMS based fabrication technologies into micro and millimeter wave systems offers viable routes to devices with MEMS actuators, antennas, switches and capacitors. The resultant systems operate with an increased bandwidth and increased radiation efficiency, reduced power consumption, and have considerable scope for implementation within the expanding area of wireless personal communication devices.
MEMS elements comprise a first and a second electrode of which the second electrode is movable to and from the first electrode between an opened position and a closed position, in which opened position there is an airgap between the first and the second electrode. A dielectric layer may be present on top of the first electrode. This leads to the fact that the first electrode does not make electrical contact with the second electrode in its closed position, but forms a capacitor therewith. The other electrode or electrodes may also be provided with dielectric layers or native oxides if so desired.
The fact that the second electrode must be movable, but still be incorporated in a mechanically stable construction results in the fact that the devices are usually provided with a mechanical layer of sufficient thickness and mechanical stability. The second, movable electrode may be provided in the mechanical layer, but this is not necessary. It may also be provided in an additional intermediate layer between the beam and the first electrode. In particular, recent experiments have shown that it is advantageous to fabricate a MEMS element with a third electrode in the mechanical layer, in addition to the second electrode that is present in an intermediate electrode layer. The second electrode is then movable not only towards the first electrode, but also towards the third electrode.
Surface micro-machining is a common method for the fabrication of MEMS, and the processing sequence used in surface micro-machining is illustrated schematically in FIG. 1 of the drawings. A base layer 10, a sacrificial layer 16 and a beam or mechanical layer 12 are deposited on a substrate 14 and structured. The beam layer 12 is made free-standing by etching the sacrificial layer 16. This means that the beam layer has a larger area that is not supported by a substrate. The beam layer is then supported through supports to one or more contact pads in the base layer. This support may be present under the beam layer, but also more or less laterally to the beam layer. The latter alternative is particularly present if the beam layer has a bridge-like or membrane-like construction, and provides a better elasticity for vertical movement to the beam layer. The beam layer may be electrically conducting as in this case, in which the contact pads are also electrical contact pads. However, this is not necessary. In this embodiment, the second electrode is defined in the mechanical layer 12, and the first electrode is defined in the base layer.
The critical processing step in the above-mentioned sequence is the etching of the sacrificial layer, and the etchant for etching this layer should ideally fulfill several criteria:
it should not etch the beam and base layers;
it should not lead to sticking of the second electrode to the substrate after etching; and
it should result in the fact that the second electrode is movable between its ultimate position without any mechanical resistance from parts of the sacrificial layer that are not removed.
Several MEMS systems of materials with their sacrificial layer etchant are known. The most common system is the wet-chemical etching of a SiO2 sacrificial layer in a solution of HF using beam and base layers (12, 10) consisting of Si. However, the main disadvantage of the known system is that the free-standing layer 12 tends to stick to the base layer as a result of capillary forces during drying of the substrate after HF etching. Another type of system, which does not have this drawback is one in which the etchant consists of a gas or plasma rather than a liquid. This type of system is known as dry chemical etching. A known system of this type uses an O2 plasma for sacrificial layer etching. In this case, the sacrificial layer consists of a polymer and the base layer and mechanical layers comprise a metal. The substrate, and any dielectric layers on the substrate or on the base layer can be exposed additionally.
However, a drawback of this system is the fact that the polymer sacrificial layer limits the processing freedom of the beam layer. The processing temperature of the beam layer is then limited, since polymers tend to flow and/or outgas at high temperatures (200-300° C.). This considerably restricts the choice of material for the mechanical layer. Furthermore, the use of polymers for structural layers is non-standard in common IC processes.
The restriction is particularly problematic if the sacrificial layers must be removed only locally. Suitably, the mechanical layer is also used as interconnects, and possibly other elements such as inductors and capacitors are present in the device. They are laterally displaced from the MEMS element, but defined in the same layers. The mechanical layer has therein a function of interconnect layer, and the interconnects or coils that have a size in the order of micrometers or even millimeters ought not to hang in the air without sufficient support. In order to remove the sacrificial layer only locally, parts thereon must be protected by a protective layer, such as a photoresist. A photoresist, is however, a polymer layer and the etchant that removes a polymer sacrificial layer tends to remove the polymer layer as well.

Method of manufacturing a MEMS device and MEMS device


Particulate solids and gas are removed from a three phase hydrocarbon synthesis slurry of solid catalyst particles, gas and liquid, by successively passing slurry from a slurry body through solids and gas disengaging zones in fluid communication, with the solids disengaging zone upstream of the gas disengaging zone. This is accomplished using a solids and gas disengaging downcomer immersed in the slurry wherein solids are disengaged in a quiescent zone adjacent the slurry body, from which the solids reduced slurry passes through an enclosed cup in which gas is disengaged and removed. The bottom of the cup terminates in a downwardly depending downcomer which hydraulically feeds the densified, solids and gas reduced slurry to the bottom of the reactor or to filtration.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a solids reducing downcomer. More particularly, the invention relates to a downcomer for producing a gas and solids reduced slurry from a three phase hydrocarbon synthesis slurry comprising gas bubbles and particulate catalyst solids dispersed in a hydrocarbon liquid.
2. Background of the Invention
Slurry hydrocarbon synthesis (HCS) processes are known. In a slurry HCS process a synthesis gas (syngas) comprising a mixture of H.sub.2 and CO is bubbled up as a third phase through a slurry in a reactor in which the slurry liquid comprises hydrocarbon products of the synthesis reaction and the dispersed, suspended solids comprise a suitable Fischer-Tropsch type hydrocarbon synthesis catalyst. Reactors which contain such a three phase slurry are sometimes referred to as "bubble columns", as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,982. Irrespective of whether the slurry reactor is operated as a dispersed or slumped bed, the mixing conditions in the slurry will typically be somewhere between the two theoretical conditions of plug flow and back mixed. The catalyst particles are typically kept dispersed and suspended in the liquid by the lifting action of the syngas bubbling up through the slurry and by hydraulic means. Mechanical means such as impellers and propellers and the like are not used, because they will quickly erode and also cause attrition of the catalyst particles. One or more vertical, gas disengaging downcomers may be used as hydraulic means to assist in maintaining more uniform catalyst dispersion, by providing a vertical catalyst circulation in the slurry, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,748. The catalyst particles, being heavier than the liquid, tend be more concentrated at the bottom of the slurry. It would therefore be advantageous in maintaining a more uniform vertical catalyst concentration to circulate a catalyst lean slurry to the bottom. Further, the slurry liquid hydrocarbon product of the HCS reaction must be separated from the catalyst particles. This is typically accomplished by mechanical filtration in which the slurry is fed to one or more porous filter media which permit the liquid to pass through, but not the catalyst particles. The hydrocarbon liquid filtrate is then sent to further processing and upgrading. The build-up of a catalyst particle cake and plugging of the filters could be reduced if some of the catalyst particles were removed from the slurry before it is filtered. Hence, there is a need for a means of reducing the catalyst concentration in slurry being fed to the bottom of the reactor and to filtration.

Gas and solids reducing slurry downcomer


A retractable pin reaction injection molding device and method for forming a layer on an object are disclosed and claimed. The device includes mold plates that cooperate to form a cavity. Retractable pins hold the object within the cavity. Material is inserted into the cavity under pressure to form a layer on the object. The pins are retracted and material fills the voids left by the retracted pins. A system prevents the material from flowing into the clearance between the pins and the mold plates. The system provides a counter pressure of a non-reacting gas to resist the material insertion pressure. The counter pressure may also be used to balance and control the material injection into the mold. Suitable materials for use with the apparatus and method are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and method for reaction injection molding. More specifically, the present invention relates to device and method for reaction injection molding while allowing for the use of retractable pins. Still more specifically, the present invention relates to a device and method for forming a layer on a golf ball using retractable pins by reaction injection molding.
2. Description of the Related Art
The covers of today's golf balls are made from a variety of materials, such as balata, SURLYN®, and IOTEK®. Balata is a natural or synthetic trans-polyisoprene rubber. Balata covered balls are favored by more highly skilled golfers because the softness of the cover allows the player to achieve spin rates sufficient to more precisely control ball direction and distance, particularly on shorter shots. Balata-covered balls, however, are easily damaged, and thus lack the durability required by the average golfer. Accordingly, alternative cover compositions have been developed in an attempt to provide balls with spin rates and a feel approaching those of balata-covered balls, while also providing higher durability and overall distance.
Ionomer resins have, to a large extent, replaced balata as a cover material. Chemically, ionomer resins are a copolymer of an olefin and an α, β-ethylenically-unsaturated carboxylic acid having 10 to 90 percent of the carboxylic acid groups neutralized by a metal ion, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,264,272. Commercially available ionomer resins include, for example, copolymers of ethylene and methacrylic or acrylic acid, neutralized with metal salts. Examples of commercially available ionomer resins include, but are not limited to, SURLYN® from DuPont de Nemours and Company, and ESCOR® and IOTEK® from Exxon Corporation. These ionomer resins are distinguished by the type of metal ion, the amount of acid, and the degree of neutralization. However, while ionomer-covered golf balls possess virtually cut-proof covers, the spin and feel are inferior compared to balata-covered balls.
Polyurethanes have also been recognized as useful materials for golf ball covers since about 1960. The resulting golf balls are durable and, unlike ionomer-covered golf balls, polyurethane golf ball covers can be formulated to possess the soft "feel" of balata-covered golf balls. U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,061 teaches a golf ball made from a polyurethane prepolymer formed of polyether with diisocyanate that is cured with either a polyol or an amine-type curing agent. U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,673 discloses the use of two categories of polyurethane available on the market, i.e., thermoset and thermoplastic polyurethanes, for forming golf ball covers and, in particular, thermoset polyurethane-covered golf balls made from a composition of polyurethane prepolymer and a slow-reacting amine curing agent, and/or a difunctional glycol.
Polyureas have also been proposed as cover materials for golf balls. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,870 discloses a polyurea composition comprising the reaction product of an organic diisocyanate and an organic amine, each having at least two functional groups. Once these two ingredients are combined, the polyurea is formed, and thus the ability to vary the physical properties of the composition is limited.
Conventionally, golf balls are made by molding a cover around a core. The core may be wound or solid. A wound core typically comprises elastic thread wound about a solid or liquid center. Solid cores typically comprise a single solid piece center or a solid center covered by one or more mantle or boundary layers of material. Wound cores may also include one or more mantle layers.
The cover may be injection molded, compression molded, or cast over the core. Injection molding typically requires a mold having at least one pair of mold cavities; e.g., a first mold cavity and a second mold cavity, which mate to form a spherical recess. In addition, a mold may include more than one mold cavity pair.
In one exemplary injection molding process, each mold cavity may also include retractable positioning pins to hold the core in the spherical center of the mold cavity pair. Once the core is positioned in the first mold cavity, the respective second mold cavity is mated to the first to close the mold. A cover material is then injected into the closed mold. The positioning pins are retracted while the cover material is flowable to allow the material to fill in any holes caused by the pins. When the material is at least partially cured, the covered core is removed from the mold (demolded).
Compression molds also typically include multiple pairs of mold cavities, each pair comprising first and second mold cavities that mate to form a spherical recess. In one exemplary compression molding process, a cover material is pre-formed into half-shells, which are placed, respectively, into each of a pair of compression mold cavities. The core is placed between the cover material half-shells and the mold is closed. The core and cover combination is then exposed to heat and pressure, which cause the cover half-shells to combine and form a full cover.
Casting processes also typically utilize pairs of mold cavities. In a casting process, a cover material is introduced into a first mold cavity of each pair. A core is then either placed directly into the cover material or is held in position (e.g., by an overhanging vacuum or suction apparatus) to contact the cover material in what will be the spherical center of the mold cavity pair. Once the cover material is at least partially cured (e.g., to a point where the core will not substantially move), the cover material is introduced into a second mold cavity of each pair, and the mold is closed. The closed mold is then subjected to heat and pressure to cure the cover material thereby forming a cover on the core.
As a common feature of injection molding, compression molding, and casting, when used to form a golf ball cover, the mold cavities typically include a negative dimple pattern to impart a dimple pattern on the cover during the molding process.
Casting is the most common method of producing a urethane or urea layer on a golf ball. However, the materials typically used in casting require a relatively long gel time. Long gel times have the disadvantage of requiring long cure times for the material to set so that the ball can be demolded, or removed from the mold. Additionally, once demolded, cast golf balls usually require subsequent buffing and other finishing process steps. Another disadvantage of using materials with a long gel time is that they may require sacrificing one or more material properties, such as flex modulus or resiliency.
Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) allows for a wider range of materials to be used in manufacturing, including materials with a short gel time. RIM, however, is subject to technical challenges, one of which is eliminating or minimizing the production of flash. Flash is extra material formed during molding or casting that must subsequently be removed. Since the materials used in RIM can have low viscosity, they readily flow into any crevices or holes within the mold. If retractable pins are used, there will necessarily be some clearance between the pins and the holes in the mold in which the pins are mounted. Thus, low viscosity layer-forming materials have not heretofore been usable with retractable pin reaction injection molding. As a result, conventional RIM has been limited to using materials having longer gel times. Otherwise, extensive and oftentimes economically prohibitive post-mold processing is required to remove the resulting flash. Furthermore, extensive labor is often required to clean and maintain the mold after retractable pin reaction injection molding.
What is needed is an improved retractable pin reaction injection molding device and method allowing for injection of materials with low viscosity.

Retractable pin reaction injection molding


A network fabric may divide a physical connection into a plurality of VLANs as defined by IEEE 802.1Q. Moreover, many network fabrics use Priority Flow Control to identify and segregate network traffic based on different traffic classes or priorities. Current routing protocols define only eight traffic classes. In contrast, a network fabric may contain thousands of unique VLANs. When network congestion occurs, network devices (e.g., switches, bridges, routers, servers, etc.) can negotiate to pause the network traffic associated with one of the different traffic classes. Pausing the data packets associated with a single traffic class may also stop the data packets associated with thousands of VLANs. The embodiments disclosed herein permit a network fabric to individually pause VLANs rather than entire traffic classes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to relieving congestion in a network fabric, or, more specifically, to pausing specific data flows within the network fabric.
2. Description of Related Art
Computer systems often use multiple computers that are coupled together in a common chassis. The computers may be separate servers that are coupled by a common backbone within the chassis. Each server is a pluggable board that includes at least one processor, an on-board memory, and an Input/Output (I/O) interface. Further, the servers may be connected to a switch to expand the capabilities of the servers. For example, the switch may permit the servers to access additional Ethernet networks or PCIe slots, as well as permit communication between servers in the same or different chassis.
A plurality of switches may be combined to create one logical switch. However, the communication interface between the logical switch and the servers may become so busy that packets are dropped (or lost). That is, a server may transmit packets to a switch faster than the switch can process the received packets. If the buffer associated with the switch fills up, subsequent packets may be dropped. To avoid packet loss, a switch may instruct the server to temporarily stop sending packets to the switch. The switch may use this period of time to relieve network congestion.

Flexible and scalable data link layer flow control for network fabrics

International Business Machines Corporation