Disclosed is a process for making a Ziegler-Natta catalyst having controlled particle size and distribution. It comprises altering the precipitation of a catalyst component from a catalyst synthesis solution including a soluble magnesium containing catalyst precursor by controlling the concentration of either the soluble magnesium containing catalyst precursor, wherein the average particle size of the catalyst component is increased, and the particle size distribution increased, with a decreased concentration of the soluble magnesium containing catalyst precursor; or of the precipitating agent, wherein the average particle size of the catalyst component is increased, and the particle size distribution increased with an increased concentration of the precipitating agent. Use of the invention enables improved catalyst consistency regardless of production scale and customizing of catalyst morphology to desired polymer morphology. The novel catalyst components may be used to prepare polymers, and end-use articles therefrom, having desirable properties.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to polymers. More particularly, it relates to processes for the preparation of Ziegler-Natta catalysts useful for preparing polymers.
2. Background of the Art
Olefins, also called alkenes, are unsaturated hydrocarbons whose molecules contain one or more pairs of carbon atoms linked together by a double bond. When subjected to a polymerization process, olefins may be converted to polyolefins, such as polyethylene and polypropylene. One commonly used polymerization process involves contacting an olefin monomer with a Ziegler-Natta type catalyst system. Many Ziegler-Natta type polyolefin catalysts, their general methods of making, and subsequent use, are well known in the polymerization art. Typically, these systems may include a Ziegler-Natta type polymerization catalyst component; a cocatalyst; and an electron donor compound. A Ziegler-Natta type polymerization catalyst component may be a complex derived from a halide of a transition metal, for example, titanium, chromium or vanadium, with a metal hydride and/or a metal alkyl that is typically an organo-aluminum compound. The catalyst component is usually comprised of a titanium halide supported on a magnesium compound complexed with an alkylaluminum. There are many issued patents relating to catalysts and catalyst systems designed primarily for the polymerization of propylene and ethylene that are known to those skilled in the art. Examples of such catalyst systems are provided in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,107,413; 4,294,721; 4,439,540; 4,114,319; 4,220,554; 4,460,701; 4,562,173; 5,066,738; and 6,174,971, which are fully incorporated herein by reference.
Conventional Ziegler-Natta catalysts comprise a transition metal compound generally represented by the formula MRx, where M is a transition metal compound, R is a halogen or a hydrocarboxyl, and x is the valence of the transition metal. Typically, M is selected from the Group IV to VII metals, such as titanium, chromium or vanadium, and R is chlorine, bromine, or an alkoxy group. Common transition metal compounds may be TiCl4, TiBr4, Ti(OC2H5)3Cl, Ti(OC3H7)2Cl2, Ti(OC6H13)2Cl2, Ti(OC2H5)2Br2, and Ti(OC12H25)Cl3.
Ziegler-Natta catalysts generally may be provided on a support, e.g., deposited on a solid crystalline support. The support may be an inert solid, which is chemically unreactive with any of the components of the conventional Ziegler-Natta catalyst. The support is often a magnesium compound. Examples of the magnesium compounds which may be used to provide a support source for the catalyst component may be magnesium halides, dialkoxymagnesium, alkoxymagnesium halides, magnesium oxyhalides, dialkylmagnesiums, magnesium oxide, magnesium hydroxide, and carboxylates of magnesium.
The properties of the polymerization catalyst may affect the properties of the polymer formed using the catalyst. For example, polymer morphology typically depends upon catalyst morphology. Good polymer morphology includes uniformity of particle size and shape and an acceptable bulk density. Furthermore, it is desirable to minimize the number of very small polymer particles (i.e., fines) for various reasons, such as for example, to avoid plugging transfer or recycle lines. Very large particles also must be minimized to avoid formation of lumps and strings in the polymerization reactor.
Thus, it would be desirable in the art to improve and/or to control catalyst morphology such as to, by extension, improve polymer morphology.

Process for controlling morphology of Ziegler-Natta catalysts


This invention relates to toughened cyanoacrylate compositions which exhibit improved peel strengths and fixture speeds. The toughened cyanoacrylate compositions include a toughening agent comprising poly(vinychloride-co-vinyl acetate) and poly(methylmethacrytlate).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to toughened cyanoacrylate compositions which exhibit improved peel strengths and fixture speeds. The toughening agent used in the present invention comprises poly(vinychloride-co-vinyl acetate) in combination with poly(methylmethacrytlate).
2. Brief Description of Related Technology
Cyanoacrylate compositions are well known as one component reactive adhesives, quick bonding and suitable for a variety of substrates. However, traditional cyanoacrylate-based adhesives tend to be brittle, and to have low peel strengths. A variety of additives and fillers have been proposed for addition to cyanoacrylate adhesive compositions to improve toughness and peel strengths.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,945 (Gleave) describes a cyanoacrylate adhesive having enhanced peel strengths in which a cyanoacrylate is thickened by a copolymer or terpolymer including vinylidene chloride-acrylonitrile copolymers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,910 (O'Connor) is directed to cyanoacrylate compositions having improved toughness, achieved through the addition of elastomers, i.e., acrylic rubbers. These rubbers are either (i) homopolymers of alkyl esters of acrylic acid; (ii) copolymers of another polymerizable monomer, such as lower alkenes, with an alkyl ester of acrylic acid or with an alkoxy ester of acrylic acid; (iii) copolymers of alkyl esters of acrylic acid; (iv) copolymers of alkoxy esters of acrylic acid; and (v) mixtures thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,933 (Columbus) suggests the addition of a vinyl chloride/vinyl acetate copolymer to a cyanoacrylate adhesive to reduce adhesion to human skin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,723 (Millet) discloses a cyanoacrylate adhesive composition containing a toughening agent comprising a core-shell polymer and a sustainer comprising an organic compound containing one or more unsubstituted or substituted aryl groups. The sustainer is reported to improve retention of toughness after heat aging of cured bonds of the adhesive.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,405 (Koga) discloses an α-cyanoacrylate adhesive composition of matter consisting essentially of α-cyanoacrylate, fumed silica having a surface treated with a dimethyldichlorosilane, and trialkyl borate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,873 (Mitry) discloses a cyanoacrylate adhesive composition having improved toughness by including an effective toughening amount of a polyester polymer derived from a dibasic aliphatic or aromatic carboxylic acid and a glycol.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,205 (Nishino) discloses an α-cyanoacrylate adhesive composition which comprises (a) 100 parts by weight of an α-cyanoacrylate compound, (b) 10 through 20 parts by weight of (I) polyalkyl methacrylates having a weight average molecular weight of 100,000 through 300,000, or (II) copolymers of alkyl methacrylates and other methacrylates or acrylates, said copolymers having the same weight average molecular weight as that of the polyalkyl methacrylates (I), (c) 2 through 20 parts by weight of ultrafine anhydrous silicas, and (d) 0.001 through 20 parts by weight of certain quick curing additives, (b)-(d) being on the basis of (a) 100 parts by weight of α-cyanoacrylate compounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,464 (Oheawa) discloses a cyanoacrylate adhesive composition containing a cyanoacrylate monomer, an elastomer miscible or compatible with the cyanoacrylate monomer, and a core-shell polymers being compatible, but not miscible, with the cyanoacrylate monomer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,475,331 (O'Connor) discloses and claims a cyanoacrylate adhesive composition comprising: (a) a cyanoacrylate components; and (b) an accelerator component consisting essentially of (i) calixarenes, oxacalixarenes, or a combination thereof, and (ii) at least one crown ether, wherein said composition exhibits a fixturing speed of less than 20 seconds for bonding two substrates, at least one of which is constructed of a material selected from steel, epoxy glass, and balsawood.
Despite the state of the technology, there continues to be a need for cyanoacrylate adhesives with improved toughness and peel strengths, while maintaining a high fixture speed.


An electrical resistance heating element has an axially elongated flat carbon fiber tow, which includes a multiplicity of continuous axially parallel carbon filaments. The tow is sandwiched between two layers of polyester sheet material and bonded to only one of the layers. The other of the layers overlies the tow in direct contacting engagement with and unconnected relation to the tow and is connected to longitudinally extending marginal portions of the one layer along transversely opposite sides of the tow. The heating element may be produced by a continuous forming process.

The present invention is particularly concerned with improvements in non-metallic heating element assemblies and particularly electrically conductive carbon fiber heating element assemblies suitable for general purpose usage in a wide variety of heating applications.
The development of improved processes for artificially producing staple carbon in fibrous or filamentary form and at reasonable cost has virtually revolutionized the plastic composite industry, particularly where light weight and a high degree of mechanical integrity is desired. New materials embodying carbon in fibrous or filamentary form now enjoy wide spread use in the production of golf shafts, aircraft parts, and indeed entire airframes, to cite a few outstanding examples. Advantages in the use of carbon in the electrical field were early recognized by pioneers in that field, and although artificially produced carbon fiber has found some limited usage in electrically operated heating device, the potential for such usage has not yet been fully realized.
Accordingly, it is the general aim of the present invention to provide improved electrical heating element assemblies employing carbon fiber technology and suitable for supplying heat in a wide variety of environments both small and large. It is a further aim of the present invention to provide improved carbon fiber heating element assemblies for use in a variety of automotive heating applications as, for example, warming the seats and steering wheel of a vehicle, deicing and defogging windows, outside rear view mirrors and various vehicle engine heating applications.
A still further aim of the invention is to provide improved carbon fiber heating elements for economic installation and operation to heat large surface areas such as the floors of up-scale homes, apartments and condominiums, the surfaces of parking lots, sidewalks, driveways, highway sections, bridge decks and airport runways, as well as the surfaces of aircraft which operate thereon.
Yet another aim of the invention is to provide carbon fiber heating element assemblies, which utilizes to advantage the negative coefficient of electrical resistance (ohm) exhibited by carbon fiber.

Carbon fiber heating element assembly and methods for making


The invention relates to a novel microalga species and to the use thereof for animal and/or human consumption and in the production of carotenoids. A novel strain of Scenedesmus has been isolated at the Las Palmerillas experimental station, Cajamar, identified as microorganisms that had not been previously registered by the University of Gottinghem and deposited within the Culture Collection of Alagae and Protozoa (CCAP) as Scenedesmus almeriensis. The novel strain, which can be used for animal and/or human consumption, produces large quantities of carotenoids, particularly lutein and beta-carotene. Scenedesmus almeriensis grows adequately in a wide range of temperatures from 10° C. to 40° C. at a pH of between 7 and 9.5 and can tolerate high concentrations of copper, up to 1 mg/L. The microalgal strain is grown in a 4000 L photobioreactor, into which the culture is inserted mechanically, and produces less than 4 mg of lutein per gram of dry material. Said strain is suitable for the production of carotenoids that can be used in the treatment of ocular macular disorders.

There are thousands of catalogued microalga species, although only a few of them are commercially exploited. The main requirements a microalga species must meet to be susceptible of industrial use are suitable growth and a different biochemical composition conferring it the highest possible added value. In this sense, the microalga species that are commercially exploited today range from Chlorella and Nannochloropsis for aquaculture (Borowitzka, Journal of Biotechnology, 70(1-3), (1999) 313-321) to Spirulina for human consumption (Morist et al., Process Biochemistry, 37(5), (2001), 535-547), or Dunaliella and Haematococcus for the production of carotenoids such as beta-carotene and astaxanthin, respectively (Guerin et al., Trends in Biotechnology, 21(5), (2003) 210-216).
Although many other species have been described as potentially interesting because of their valuable biochemical profile, their low growth rate or the difficulty of producing them due to stress sensitivity and/or easy contamination have prevented said commercial exploitation. This is the case of the microalgae Isochrysis galbana (Molina et al., Process Biochemistry, 30(8), (1995) 711-719) or Monodus Subterraneous (Belarbi et al., Process Biochemistry, 35(9), (2000) 951-969). In relation to the production of lutein, the microalga Muriellopsis sp. has been adequately grown in small, 50 L, laboratory scale tubular photobioreactors with production capacities of up to 180 mg lutein/m2/day, although the photosynthetic efficiency is very low, 4% (José A. Del Campo et al., Journal of Biotechnology 85 (2001) 289-295). The results obtained with the new isolated strain double said production capacity, pending optimization.

Microalga species and its application for animal, human consumption and in obtaining carotenoids


A ring resonator comprised of four mirrors arranged at an angle of 45.degree. relative to the pump laser is suggested for an optically pumped far infrared laser. The mirrors are arranged in pairs which are positioned in evacuated chambers of the laser housing together with the ends of two waveguides. The pump laser is introduced into the resonator via a bore in one of the mirrors. The ring resonator provides for a completely wavelength-independent insulation between the pump laser and the ring laser. The system also provides for a minimal power loss of the FIR laser beam.

The present invention relates to an optically pumped far infrared laser having a resonator formed of at least three mirrors which are arranged in a vacuum-tight housing filled with laser gas and having furthermore a means for introducing a pump laser.
With optically pumped far infrared lasers (FIR laser) power stabilization generally presents a problem because a small portion of the pumping power introduced into the FIR laser resonator is reflected into the pump laser. This is known from carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide lasers, including doped embodiments. Accordingly, the standing wave resonators of FIR lasers and pump lasers are coupled to one another and can be viewed as a weakly coupled oscillating circuit. This coupling results in frequency and amplitude instabilities within the pump laser which results in strong amplitude fluctuations within the FIR laser. In practice, this so-called feed back coupling effect prevents an active frequency stabilization of the pump laser.
In order to realize a stable pump laser frequency and thus a stable output power for the FIR laser, an effective optical insulation of the pump laser and the FIR laser is an indispensable requirement. Because in many cases a pump laser within a wave length range between 9 and 11 .mu.m is to be used in order to provide f or a wide spectrum of FIR laser frequencies, universal broad range solutions are not realizable with classical polarization methods such as 1/4 wavelength platelets. Other methods, for example, insulation by acoustic-optical modulation or skewed introduction, result in a considerable loss of the pumping effectiveness.
From the journal article "Appl. Phys. Lett. 33 (7), 1. October 1978, S. 590-592" an FIR laser of the aforementioned kind is known which is called a ring laser and which is provided with a resonator with three mirrors embodied and arranged such that the laser beam is reflected from one mirror to the next in a ring-like fashion. For this open resonator the introduction of the pumping power is achieved with a special grate. With this known ring laser the feedback coupling effects of the pumping power are prevented; however, the open resonator results in considerable power losses. Furthermore, the introduction method used in the known device strongly depends on the wavelength of the pump laser and the ring laser.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a laser of the aforementioned kind which has no feedback coupling effects and in which power losses are essentially prevented.


An alkoxysilane sol-gel composition and method for its production are disclosed whereby an alkoxysilane of the general formula EQU Si(OR).sub.4. wherein R is an organic radical such as methyl, ethyl, propyl or butyl is hydrolyzed with an acid catalyst and the resulting acidic sol is further hydrolyzed and condensed in the presence of an alkaline component which accelerates gelation to form an inorganic oxide network.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,753 to Emblem et al discloses a method of producing a usefully gellable cohydrolysate from a normally gellable substance and a not normally gellable substance, preferably a hydrous oxide which has an alkoxy group implanted on it. When hydrolysis is carried out under acid conditions, a slurry is formed from hydrolysate and powdered refractory material which may be set by adding an alkaline reagent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,230 to Baney et al discloses that abrasion resistant siloxane resins having a low degree of organic substitution, thereby tending to be brittle, can be made flexible by including some degree of phenyl substitution. Buffered latent condensation catalysts are disclosed, such as amine carboxylates and quaternary ammonium carboxylates.
In "The Processing and Characterization of DCCA Modified Gel-Derived Silica", Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 32 (1984), Wallace et al examine the role of formamide (NH.sub.2 CHO) as a drying control chemical additive to reduce drying stress in tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMS) gel-derived silica.
D. L. Segal discloses in "Sol-Gel Processing: Routes to Oxide Ceramics Using Colloidal Dispersions of Hydrous Oxides and Alkoxide Intermediates", Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 63 (1984) 183-191, that spheres may be formed from a hydrous oxide sol dispersed as liquid droplets in an immiscible organic solvent. In external gelation, removal of anion from the sol droplets by passing ammonia gas or adding a long-chain amine to the solvent results in gel formation.


A refiner plate for the face of a refiner disc comprising a plurality of refiner segments arranged side-by-side on the face of the disc to form a substantially annular refining region. Each refiner segment has a plurality bars and grooves for refining a lignocellulosic material and a plurality of steam pockets for receiving, storing and transmitting steam generated during the refining process. Each steam pocket is defined by a series of gaps in adjacent bars such that the steam pocket extends radially and laterally across the refiner segment and such that the surface of the steam pocket is at or below the height of the groove surface. At least one bar extends radially between each adjacent steam pocket in a segment, thereby forming a discontinuous path for the movement of steam.

The present invention relates generally to disc grinders for lignocellulosic material. More particularly, the present invention relates to refiner plate segments for such an apparatus.
In high consistency mechanical pulp refiners, the wood fibers are worked between two relatively rotating discs on which refiner plates are mounted. The plates usually have radial bars and grooves. A large volume of steam is produced between the plates as a result of this refining work. For effective refining, the fibrous material must be retained between the plates on the bar surfaces despite the high velocity of the flowing steam, and the enormous centrifugal forces. Typically, the steam has been exhausted via the grooves, and dams have been provided in the grooves to interrupt material flow and thus improve the retention time of the material in the refining region.
In a typical refiner plate with radial bars and grooves, the bars provide impacts or pressure pulses which separate and fibrillate the fibers. The grooves enable feeding of the fibers and steam extraction. Near the perimeter of the plates, high radial steam flow and high centrifugal force both act to sweep the fibers outwardly from between the plates prematurely, thus reducing the refining effectiveness. The flow restrictions due to a small plate gap and fiber-filled grooves result in a steam pressure peak between the plates, located radially inward from the perimeter. This pressure peak is a major source of the refining thrust load, and can induce control instability at high motor loads.
It is thus desirable that the steam generated during refining be discharged from the refining region as quickly as possible, while retaining the pulp within the region as long as possible. Conventional refiner plates utilize a variety of mechanisms to promote the flow of steam while retarding the flow of pulp. U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,440 discloses refiner plates for mounting to the rotor, having a plurality of exhaust channels that extend continuously across the face of the grinding surface. The sectional area of each exhaust channel is greater than that of the grooves, promoting efficient exhaustion of the steam through the channel. Each channel is placed at an angle to impede the flow of particles through the channel. Edge formations or partial height dams in the channel may also be incorporated to control the amount or kind of material that can be carried by the steam flow.


Systems and methods of controlling uninterruptible power supplies of electrical power systems are described. According to one aspect, an electrical power system can include a generator having a stator and a rotor, a power converter coupled to a rotor bus of the rotor, and a control system comprising one or more control devices, the one or more control devices configured to operate the power converter to provide an AC signal for a rotor bus. The system can also include an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The UPS can include a power storage element configured to receive and store electrical power, and configured to power the control system during a power failure, and, a health check circuit configured to verify a health status of the power storage element, and including a health check disable component configured to disable the health check circuit during the power failure.

Wind power is considered one of the cleanest, most environmentally friendly energy sources presently available, and wind turbines have gained increased attention in this regard. A modern wind turbine typically includes a tower, generator, gearbox, nacelle, and one or more rotor blades. The rotor blades capture kinetic energy of wind using known airfoil principles. For example, rotor blades typically have the cross-sectional profile of an airfoil such that, during operation, air flows over the blade producing a pressure difference between the sides. Consequently, a lift force, which is directed from a pressure side towards a suction side, acts on the blade. The lift force generates torque on the main rotor shaft, which is geared to a generator for producing electricity.
During operation, wind impacts the rotor blades of the wind turbine and the blades transform wind energy into a mechanical rotational torque that rotatably drives a low-speed shaft. The low-speed shaft is configured to drive the gearbox that subsequently steps up the low rotational speed of the low-speed shaft to drive a high-speed shaft at an increased rotational speed. The high-speed shaft is generally rotatably coupled to a generator so as to rotatably drive a generator rotor. As such, a rotating magnetic field may be induced by the generator rotor and a voltage may be induced within a generator stator that is magnetically coupled to the generator rotor. In certain configurations, the associated electrical power can be transmitted to a turbine transformer that is typically connected to a power grid via a grid breaker. Thus, the turbine transformer steps up the voltage amplitude of the electrical power such that the transformed electrical power may be further transmitted to the power grid.
In many wind turbines, the generator rotor may be electrically coupled to a bi-directional power converter that includes a rotor side converter joined to a line side converter via a regulated DC link. More specifically, some wind turbines, such as wind-driven doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) systems or full power conversion systems, may include a power converter with an AC-DC-AC topology. In such system, the generator stator is separately connected to the power grid via a main transformer.
The power converter usually includes several switching devices such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), integrated gate commutated thyristors (IGCTs or GCTs), diodes, or metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) that are switched at certain frequencies to generate the desired converter output voltage and frequency. The converter output voltage is then provided to various loads such as motors, power grids, resistive loads, etc.
Some grid and/or wind conditions can cause a full or partial power failure which disrupts power to the switching devices, which then disables the power converter. Such power failures are undesirable and can cause maintenance issues. Typical solutions involve large, heavy, lead-acid battery-based back-up power supplies to provide power to the control system, thereby retaining operation of the power converter during power failures. However, these lead-acid battery systems involve increased cost and complexity in integration. Other controllable systems may be more desirable.

System and method for controlling uninterruptible power supply of electrical power systems


A Passive Optical Network (PON) includes an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) and an Optical Line Terminal (OLT). The ONT is configured for providing controlled port operations of authenticator Port Access Entity (PAE) functionality and the OLT is configured for providing entity authentication operations of the authenticator PAE functionality. The controlled port operations of authenticator PAE functionality includes inhibiting transmission of non-authentication messages from the ONT, transmitting a supplicant authentication request to the OLT and enabling transmission of non-authentication messages from the ONT in response to receiving supplicant authentication confirmation. The entity authentication operations of the authenticator PAE functionality include facilitating authentication of an identity of the supplicant and facilitating transmission of supplicant authentication confirmation for reception by the ONT in response to the identity being authenticated.

The 802.1X standard (i.e., 802.1X) of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a standard for facilitating network access control. It offers an effective framework for authenticating and controlling user traffic in data networks such as, for example, a Passive Optical Networks (PON), a WiFi wireless network and the like. The underlying functionality of 802.1X is that it keeps a network port disabled (e.g., to a certain type of traffic) until authentication is completed. Such a network port, which is under control of 802.1X, is referred to herein as the controlled port. Depending on the results, the controlled port is either made available to all traffic or remains disabled for at least a portion of traffic.
802.1X uses Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) for passing authentication messages. "EAP Over LAN" (EAPoL) is specifically configured for packet networks such as Ethernet. 802.1X uses EAPoL to start and end an authentication session and pass EAP messages between a supplicant and an authenticator and from the supplicant to an authentication server via the authenticator. Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) protocol is a typical protocol used for sending EAP messages from the authenticator to the authentication server. The supplicant is an entity (e.g., a user or client) requesting access to a network, the authenticator is the network device (e.g., an access point (AP), an network access server (NAS) or the like) that provides the network port to the supplicant and the authentication server is the server that provides authentication. In some networks (e.g., relatively small networks), the authentication server is often located in the same network element as the authenticator.
In a conventional manner, initial 802.1X authentication functionality begins with a supplicant attempting to connect with an authenticator. The authenticator responds by enabling a port (i.e., a controlled port) for passing only EAP packets from the client to an authentication server. The authenticator blocks all other traffic, such as HTTP, DHCP, and POP3 packets, until the authenticator can verify the supplicant's identity. The authenticator interacts with an authentication server for facilitating authentication of the supplicant's identity. Once the supplicant's identity is successfully authenticated, the authenticator opens the controlled port for other types of traffic.
Conventional approaches for implementing authentication via 802.1X are limited in that full functionality is too costly and too complex for low power, low cost devices. For example, an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) of a PON is intentionally designed as a relatively low-cost, low-power device with relatively high data plane packet processing functionality and with relatively limited control plane functionality. Accordingly, running full authenticator Port Access Entity (PAE) functionality on a ONT via 802.1X would require a host IP stack on the ONT with RADIUS client functionality, thereby necessitating stringent security and processing power requirements at the ONT as well as increasing cost and complexity of the ONT.
Therefore, an approach for enabling cost efficient implementation of authentication via 802.1X in a relatively low power, low cost device would be useful and advantageous.


A method of separating volatile organic components, so-called VOC, from crude oil, where, as it is loaded onto a ship, the crude oil is passed into a process vessel (2) in which is established a negative pressure adjusted according to the vapour pressure of the oil, from where the liquid phase of the crude oil flows to the ship's cargo tanks, while the gas phase, the VOC, is extracted from the process vessel (2).

The object of the invention is to remedy the disadvantages of prior art.
The object is achieved in accordance with the invention by the characteristics given in the description below and in the appended claims.
Crude oil that is pumped onboard a tanker via e.g. a single-point buoy mooring loading system is passed into a process vessel in which VOC is separated from the crude oil under negative pressure. The negative pressure is adjusted according to the vapour pressure and gas content of the oil, and is typically of the order of 0.7 bar absolute. The VOC present in the oil is immediately evaporated from the oil and extracted from the separation vessel by means of e.g. gas compressors of a type that is known per se. Preferably, the degassed oil flows through a liquid seal and into the cargo tanks of the ship. The liquid seal is designed to maintain an appropriate liquid level in the process vessel, and the principle of operation of the liquid seal will be explained in greater detail with reference to the appended drawings in the specific part of the description.
VOC that is extracted from the process vessel is compressed through several compression stages, with each stage typically comprising a so-called scrubber in which the fraction of VOC that has liquefied is separated out, while the remaining gas phase is preferably extracted through a cooler by means of a compressor.
After sufficient compression and cooling, the predominant fraction of VOC has been converted to liquid, whereupon it is pumped into pressurized cargo tanks located on the ship. The pressurized cargo tanks are dimensioned to hold the required quantity of VOC from a cargo of oil.
The separated VOC contained in the pressurized cargo tanks of the ship is a high-grade product that may be sold separately, used to fuel the ship, or be reinjected into the oil cargo during unloading.
Experiments have shown that crude oil treated according to the invention will only give off an insignificant amount of VOC during transport. The energy requirements of the process only amount to 20% of the energy required for treatment according to prior art, and one may expect to retain more than 90% of the VOC in the oil.

Method and a device for loading petroleum


Tail-biting turbo coding to accommodate any information and/or interleaver block size. The beginning and ending state of a turbo encoder can be made the same using a very small number of dummy bits. In some instances, any dummy bits that are added to an information block before undergoing interleaving are removed after interleaving and before transmission of a turbo coded signal via a communication channel thereby increasing throughput (e.g., those dummy bits are not actually transmitted via the communication channel). In other instances, dummy bits are added to both the information block that is encoded using a first constituent encoder as well as to an interleaved information block that is encoded using a second constituent encoder.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to communication systems; and, more particularly, it relates to communication systems employing turbo coding.
2. Description of Related Art
Data communication systems have been under continual development for many years. One such type of communication system that has been of significant interest lately is a communication system that employs iterative error correction codes. Of those, one particular type of communication system that has received interest in recent years has been one which employs turbo codes (one type of iterative error correcting code). Communications systems with iterative codes are often able to achieve lower bit error rates (BER) than alternative codes for a given signal to noise ratio (SNR).
A continual and primary directive in this area of development has been to try continually to lower the SNR required to achieve a given BER within a communication system. The ideal goal has been to try to reach Shannon's limit in a communication channel. Shannon's limit may be viewed as being the data rate to be used in a communication channel, having a particular SNR, that achieves error free transmission through the communication channel. In other words, the Shannon limit is the theoretical bound for channel capacity for a given modulation and code rate.
The use of turbo codes providing such relatively lower error rates, while operating at relatively low data throughput rates, has largely been in the context of communication systems having a large degree of noise within the communication channel and where substantially error free communication is held at the highest premium. Some of the earliest application arenas for turbo coding were space related where accurate (i.e., ideally error free) communication is often deemed an essential design criterion. The direction of development then moved towards developing terrestrial-applicable and consumer-related applications. Still, based on the heritage of space related application, the focus of effort in the turbo coding environment then continued to be achieving relatively lower error floors, and not specifically towards reaching higher throughput.
More recently, focus in the art has been towards developing turbo coding, and variants thereof, that are operable to support higher amounts of throughput while still preserving the relatively low error floors offered within the turbo code context.
Generally speaking, within the context of communication systems that employ turbo codes, there is a first communication device at one end of a communication channel with encoder capability and second communication device at the other end of the communication channel with decoder capability. In many instances, one or both of these two communication devices includes encoder and decoder capability (e.g., within a bi-directional communication system).


The light emitting element including: a semiconductor laminate including a first layer, an active layer and a second layer; a first electrode including protrusions that penetrate the second layer and the active layer, the first electrode connected to the first layer via the protrusions; a second electrode connected to the second layer on an lower face of the second layer; and an insulation film between the protrusions and the semiconductor laminate, wherein the protrusions each include a protrusion body covered with the insulation film and a protrusion tip, an upper face and a side face of the protrusion tip being exposed from the insulation film, the first layer includes recesses arranged on an upper face of the first layer so as to sandwich first areas located above the respective the protrusions, and a distance between the recesses sandwiching the first area is larger than a width of the protrusion tip.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor light emitting element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Light emitting elements with a plurality of semiconductor layers, such as LEDs, have been proposed, for example, in JP 2011-54967 A, JP 2011-216524 A, and JP 2012-195321 A. For example, JP 2011-54967 A discloses an invention for improving light extraction efficiency by etching the upper face of a first semiconductor layer (first electrically-conductive semiconductor layer) to a predetermined depth so as to form a rough surface.
JP 2011-216524 A discloses an invention for allowing smooth current flow to an n-pad electrode by providing an auxiliary grid electrode that penetrates a second semiconductor layer (p-type layer), an active layer and a first semiconductor layer (n-type layer) so as to connect the auxiliary electrode to the n-pad electrode. JP 2012-195321 A discloses an invention for suppressing repetitive light reflection between the contact face of a first electrode and the upper face of the first semiconductor layer by smoothing the upper portion of the contact face between the first electrode and the first semiconductor layer in the upper face of the first semiconductor layer.
However, there are following disadvantages with the inventions disclosed in JP 2011-54967 A, JP 2011-216524 A, and JP 2012-195321 A. For example, in the invention disclosed in JP 2011-54967 A, the upper face of the first semiconductor layer is partly etched in the area above the contact between the first electrode and the first semiconductor layer, where electric current is likely to be concentrated. Therefore, in the invention disclosed in JP 2011-54967 A, current flow around the contact may be impeded to cause a rise in resistance, which may result in high drive voltage.
In the invention disclosed in JP 2011-216524 A, forming the auxiliary grid electrode decreases an area of the active layer by the amount thereof, which results in decreased light emission and decreased light extraction efficiency. In the invention disclosed in JP 2012-195321 A, because the area above the contact between the first electrode and the first semiconductor layer is flat, light may be reflected more into the laminate structure in this area due to its flat surface, which may result in decreased light extraction efficiency.


An architecture to provision one-stop parking, charging, storage, and/or maintenance facilities and/or functionalities for drone equipment. A method can comprise identifying a drone entering a defined airspace monitored by the network equipment; in response to establishing a communication channel with the drone, receiving data representing a physical dimension associated with the drone; based on the physical dimension associated with the drone, allocating a space within a defined area to which the drone is to navigate and then cease moving; and sending, to the drone via the communication channel, notification data that notifies the drone to navigate to the space.

Drone technologies, as applied to drone equipment, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned motorized terrestrial based vehicles, unmanned space and/or aerospace vehicles, and the like, is an emerging technology, and as yet have not been used to their maximum potential. In the impending future, it is contemplated that fleets of drone equipment will be used for a wide array of tasks. Illustrative tasks can range from package delivery to various destinations—terrestrial, airborne, and/or in space—as well as a plethora of military and/or security operations. It is further envisaged that in the not-too-distant future that our skies in the proximate orbit of our planet, as well as the skies and orbits of our planetary neighbors, will be filled with drone equipment.


Methods and apparatuses are described for automatic classification of error conditions in automated user interface testing. A server receives an image file corresponding to a current user interface (UI) view of a software application under test. The server analyzes the image file to identify error conditions that exist in the current UI view. The server assigns a classification to the image file according to one or more error types based upon the error conditions identified in the current UI view. The server transmits a notification message to one or more remote computing devices, the notification message comprising the image file and the classification assigned to the image file.

Debugging of errors and failures in user interface (UI) automation scripts is a time-intensive process that negatively affects the productivity of software quality assurance (QA) testing teams. Often, such teams may encounter thousands of test automation script failures every week, each of which must be individually debugged and classified by automation engineers (because they all represent potential application defects). The cost to classify these failures is significant, both in terms of engineer time and corresponding cost in resources
While automation engineers attempt to classify and resolve all these failures each week, the time commitment necessary to complete this task (in addition to their normal responsibilities supporting releases) makes classifying every failure each week a rare occurrence. While it costs a significant amount of time and money to determine the root cause of these failures, the cost of not classifying one of these failures is even more severe. As the script continues to fail week after week, the opportunity is lost to provide meaningful feedback to development and business partners on why that script is failing, including missing opportunities to identify environment/service outages and intermittent application defects. Additionally, as automation becomes more prevalent, the number of executed and failing scripts will increase, only compounding the problem.

Automatic classification of error conditions in automated user interface testing


Multiple classifiers can be applied independently to evaluate images or video. Where there are heavily imbalanced class distributions, a local expert forest model for meta-level score fusion for event detection can be used. Performance variations of classifiers in different regions of a score space can be adapted. Multiple pairs of experts based on different partitions, or “trees,” can form a “forest,” balancing local adaptivity and over-fitting. Among ensemble learning methods, stacking with a meta-level classifier can be used to fuse an output of multiple base-level classifiers to generate a final score. A knowledge-transfer framework can reutilize the base-training data for learning the meta-level classifier. By recycling the knowledge obtained during a base-classifier-training stage, efficient use can be made of all available information, such as can be used to achieve better fusion and better overall performance.

In many applications, particularly in image or video retrieval from large datasets, classifiers are commonly used to assign a score indicating the probability that a given item (image or video) belongs to a particular category. In one application, classifiers are used to retrieve video clips of a particular category, such as to automate a task otherwise performed by an intelligent analyst. Commercial classifiers can be used to detect abnormal behavior in airports or shoplifting in retail settings.
Classifiers are generally trained to assess probability given a particular feature of the input image or input video. The features are chosen by system designers to exploit a cue to the underlying category. In systems that distinguish between similar categories, more than one cue, and thus more than one type of feature may be used.

Score fusion and training data recycling for video classification


In one embodiment, a rigid disk drive including a rotary actuator having a lift tab extending asymmetrically from the end of the load beam which supports a slider with read/write element is disclosed. The free end of the lift tab cooperates with a cam surface on a cam assembly to provide dynamic loading and unloading of the slider while imparting a roll to the slider as it is loaded to and unloaded from the disk. In another embodiment, the lift tab extends from the end of the load beam along an axis generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the load beam, but the axis of the lift tab is offset from the longitudinal axis of the load beam. In a further embodiment, a disk drive including a rotary actuator having a load beam which includes a lift tab extending from the free end, with the lift tab cooperating with a cam assembly which is located adjacent to the edge of recording media, but not extending over a surface of the media is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of information storage utilizing rigid disks, and more particularly to apparatus for dynamically loading and unloading read/write magnetic recording elements for flight above the surface of moving magnetic media.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In certain types of disk files which include rigid magnetic media it is desirable to load and unload a magnetic recording reproducing element into flight above the surface of the moving media as opposed to utilizing take off from and landing on the magnetic media where the magnetic recording element comes to rest on the disk after rotation has ceased and takes off from the disk after the disk is once again spun up. U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,374 to Anderson et al., issued Aug. 13, 1985, is exemplary of a rigid disk drive of the linear actuator type which provides for dynamic loading of magnetic read/write heads above the surface of a disk. In Anderson et al. a stationary cam follower is provided on and supported from the housing, and the load arm, which includes a magnetic recording head at its free end, is provided with a cam surface intermediate the free end and the end supported by the actuator. The cam surface cooperates with a stationary cam to lift the head above the surface of the disk when the head arm is retracted.
Another linear actuator rigid disk drive utilizing a cam arrangement to achieve dynamic loading of the magnetic recording head above the disk is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,682 to McNeil, issued May 5, 1987. In McNeil, a pair of cam surfaces are supported by the disk drive housing and a wing, having a pair of free ends, is attached to the load beam intermediate the actuator driving mechanism and the free end of the load beam which supports the head slider. The free ends of the wing cooperate with the cam surfaces to lift the magnetic recording head slider above the surface of the disk when the head arm is retracted. In McNeil, the direction of movement of the magnetic media beneath the magnetic recording head is such that the media is moving in a direction which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the slider on which the magnetic recording element is supported and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of load beam. The cam surfaces in McNeil are offset and provide pitch to the slider during the loading process when the slider is approaching the surface of the rotating media.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,785 to Morehouse et al., issued Jun. 12, 1990, and assigned to Prairietek Corporation, discloses a magnetic disk drive utilizing a rotary actuator. The load beams (which support the read/write elements) each include a lift button which is supported on the load beam, and positioned on the longitudinal axis of the load beam. The lift buttons cooperate with a spreader, which includes cam surfaces, to provide dynamic loading and unloading of the slider which is supported on the end of the load beam opposite of the pivot point of the load beam. The buttons and the cooperating spreader with cam surfaces are located intermediate the pivot point of the rotary actuator and the magnetic head. The button and cam surface on the spreader provide a symmetrical lift to the load beam and correspondingly symmetrical loading of the magnet head above the media, which in this configuration is rotating in the direction beneath the head which is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the load beam which is supporting the slider.
A later introduced rigid disk drive from Prairietek Corporation, utilized a dynamic loading structure having a cam surface supported on the housing which contacted directly the load beam of the rotary arm having the magnetic slider on its free end. In this Prairietek hard disk drive, denominated the model 120, the cam is supported on the housing and is positioned intermediate the head slider and the pivot point of the rotary actuator. The principle distinction between the dynamic loading structure in the model 120 over the structure illustrated in the '785 patent is the elimination of the button which was included on the load beam and provided a center line lift on the load beam. In the model 120 disk drive a heavy roll torque is applied to the load beam and there is no ability to change the amount of torque and correspondingly the roll applied to load beam.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,873, issued Oct. 5, 1976 to Pejcha illustrates a structure for dynamically loading heads, which in one embodiment utilizes a movable channel member which is supported above the surface of the rotating rigid disk. The loading of a head above the surface of the disk is achieved by providing flat spring extensions which extend symmetrically from the free end of the load beam and are captured in the channel which is positioned in a plane above the surface of the disk such that the opening is generally parallel to the plane of the disk. With the spring extensions captured in the channel, the heads are prevented from being loaded on the disk. To load the heads the channel member is moved out of contact with the flat spring extensions and the heads move toward the surface of the associated disk. In another embodiment, the flat spring extensions on the ends of the load beam are crisscrossed and a pivoted member is moved into contact with the crisscrossed free ends to unload the heads from the disk. In a third embodiment, a cam surface is provided adjacent to the edge of the rotating disk and the magnetic head is supported on a spring member which is affixed by bolts to a rotating arm. An extension of the spring member on the end adjacent to the magnetic head is positioned at right angles with respect to the center line of the rotary arm on which the head and spring is mounted, with the spring extension having a longitudinal axis which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the cam surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,241, issued Jun. 25, 1991 to Hatch et al. illustrates a rotary actuator using a dynamic loading tab which extends from the end of the load beam. In Hatch et al., the load tab (which cooperates with a cam for loading and unloading the slider from the surface of the disk) extends outwardly from the end of the load beam and is symmetrically aligned with the centerline of the load beam. Although this provides geometric symmetry, it does not provide zero torque on the load beam as it is lifted from the disk. In contrast, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention an asymmetrically positioned lift tab is used whereby the amount of roll provided to the slider as it is lifted from the surface of the disk can be fine tuned to an optimum level. In a second embodiment of the present invention a lift tab structure which provides a zero torque force on the load beam is provided. This is achieved by utilizing an offset load tab.
A number of the prior disk drives employing dynamic head loading utilized a cam arrangement in which a portion of the cam extended over the surface of the magnetic recording disk. With the continuing desire to produce disk drives which are more compact, the requirement of having a portion of the cam surface extend above the surface of the disk made it more difficult to reduce the disk-to-disk spacing, and accordingly more difficult to reduce the height of the disk drive. Additionally, this requirement made it more difficult to design an effective cam in view of constraints, such as, the type of material from which the cam could be constructed. This is particularly troublesome in drives using a plurality of disks where all of the disk surfaces are used for storing information. Additionally, in disk drives in which a portion of the cam surface extended above the magnetic disk, assembly of the drive was made somewhat more difficult since if the cam assembly were installed prior to installation of the magnetic disks in the housing, it was necessary to either pivot the cam assembly out of the way of the disks during installation or to install the cam assembly after the disks had been installed. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a cam assembly is provided which is constructed such that no portion of the cam assembly extends over a surface of any of the recording disks, thus eliminating the necessity to take special precautions when installing the magnetic disks, and secondly eliminating the necessity of providing space for portions of the cam surfaces between adjacent disks.

Rigid disk drive with dynamic head loading apparatus


The method for leaving an empty pitch in a line of vehicles entering a trim line range of a trim shop conforms with operating and production restriction conditions of the trim shop. The method determines an empty pitch pattern for vehicles sent into the trim shop from a PBS through a vehicle conveyer line according to a basic empty pitch leaving scheme, and loads vehicles according to the determined empty pitch pattern, thereby increasing efficiency of line management of the trim shop and equalization of work in the trim shop.

Specific kinds of vehicles are often transferred to a trim shop of a vehicle body conveyer line. As the processes within the trim shop take an excessive amount of time, a space is typically left either within, before, or after a line of vehicles on the conveyor line to account for this excessive time. This space is known as an empty pitch.
In order for an automobile company to produce a completed vehicle, various processes, from a selection of material to assembly of the vehicle, are needed. Furthermore, various efforts to increase productivity through factory automation and efficient use of facilities are continuously being made. In order to facilitate increased productivity, automobile companies ascertain stock management and production sequence data by determining production schedules according to consumers' vehicle purchase orders.
This production sequence data is then used to send vehicles that have been painted in a paint shop, and stored in painted body storage (PBS), to a trim shop, where various components are coupled to the vehicle body. That is, the painted vehicles are stored in the PBS until they are required by the trim shop, as based on the trim shop's work load, according to commands of a PBS controller.
However, if specific types of vehicles are continuously required by the trim shop, work time in a specific process may substantially increase, thereby causes a stoppage of the production line. In order to prevent such stoppage, when specific type's of vehicles are continuously input into the trim line, an empty pitch P (i.e., an empty seat) is left within a line of vehicles, before a line of vehicles, or after a line of vehicles.
Typically, if a PBS operator notices many vehicles being transferred to the trim shop, the PBS operator informs a worker of the same, via a wire communication, and the worker inputs an order into a trim line controller to insert an empty pitch whenever a corresponding vehicle is transferred to the trim shop. However, if the worker erroneously omits to input the order for leaving an empty pitch, a possibility of a production line stoppage still exists. Accordingly, it is difficult to effectively perform line management of the trim shop and maintain work equalization in the trim shop.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art that is already known to a person skilled in the art.

Method for leaving an empty pitch in a vehicle conveyer line


A back rest for a chair, namely in particular an office chair, has a base plate and a concealing shell disposed at the rear side of the base plate. The concealing shell conceals with its rims the base plate in the region of its edges. In order to ensure an easy assembly and dismantling of the concealing shell to the base plate, hook connections are formed between the base plate and the concealing shell, which can be closed or released by displacing the base plate and the concealing shell in relation to and substantially parallel to each other.

With known back rests of the generic type the concealing shell is provided with arrowhead-like locking pins thus having barbed-like heads, while receiving sleeves which are correspondingly undercut are provided for the locking pins at the rear side of the base plate. The manufacture is relatively complicated, as the locking pins on the one hand and the receiving sleeves on the other hand cannot be manufactured of a cheap plastics material, but have to be glued, if for the base plate and the concealing shell themselves relatively simple plastics materials are used respectively. Furthermore, the assembly of the concealing shell to the base plate is in fact relatively simple, even if a high amount of force is necessary; a releasing, however, is very difficult to accomplish and most often results in breaking off at least one part of the locking pin, so that a renewed assembly cannot reliably be carried out.

Friedrich W. Dauphin GmbH & Co. Entwicklungs- und Beteiligungs-KG


The invention provides a produce preserving article comprising a mixture of humectant and silica gel sorbent.

In the storage of produce in a refrigerator the material is generally kept in a drawer that is specified for vegetables or fruit. The drawer, generally having a sealing strip, provides separation from the usual drying atmosphere of a frost free refrigerator. However, there are continuing problems with the keeping of fruit and vegetables in such drawers. Some vegetables and fruit give off water that will condense in the drawer and lead to rotting of the vegetables, and the growth of molds or other fungi on the fruits and vegetables, if the humidity is too high. In other instances, the drawer will develop low humidity, as in the rest of the refrigerator, and not maintain a high enough humidity to prevent fruit and vegetables from drying out.
Another difficulty with the storage of fruits and vegetables in a drawer is that many of them give off ethylene when ripening. Fruits such as bananas, apples, avocados, and pears, give off ethylene at fairly high rate. Many other vegetables also give off ethylene, at a lower rate. This ethylene can lead to rapid ripening of these fruits and others that are stored in the same produce container or drawer. This rapid ripening will actually hasten the rotting process, which any increase in moisture will spur.
There remains a need for a way of better keeping vegetables and fruits from spoiling while stored in a refrigerator, particularly in the produce drawer. It would be desired to maintain the humidity within the drawer in a desired range. It would be desirable if there was a way to control humidity in a produce drawer and also to control other undesirable things that can happen to produce in the drawer, such as rapid ripening, spoilage, and smelling.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Humidity control for product in a refrigerator


In a CRT display and a television set having the same, horizontal/vertical synchronizing signals are separated from a video synchronizing signal in a synchronizing separation circuit, and position information S of a vertical frame is generated on the basis of the horizontal/vertical synchronizing signals in a count-down processor and then converted to corrected vertical frame information W in a function circuit to output a vertical deflection waveform signal and a horizontal deflection correcting waveform signal. Further, the corrected vertical frame information W is compared with predetermined voltages in comparators to detect an effective frame range in the vertical direction.

The present invention relates to a cathode ray tube display mounted in a television set or the like, and a television set having the same, and more particularly to a cathode ray tube display having a screen aspect ratio of 16:9 and a television set having the same.
Cathode ray tube (hereinafter referred to as "CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)") displays used in television sets or the like have been recently designed in a wide size, and this wide-size design has promoted the spread of CRT displays having screens whose aspect ratio is 16:9 (hereinafter referred to as "16:9 CRT displays (or screens)") together with conventional CRT displays having screens whose aspect ratio is 4:3 (hereinafter referred to as "4:3 CRT displays (or screens)").
A television set having a CRT display of aspect ratio 16:9 as described above (hereinafter referred to as "wide television") is designed so that in several kinds of picture (display) mode users can watch pictures which comprise frames of an aspect ratio 4:3 of the conventional NTSC system (hereinafter referred to as "4:3 pictures").
These picture modes include a normal mode in which a 4:3 picture is directly reproduced on a 16:9 screen (a screen having an aspect ratio of 16:9) as shown in FIG. 1A, a zoom mode in which a 4:3 picture is displayed on the 16:9 screen so that the lateral frame length of the 16:9 screen is made the same as the lateral length of the 4:3 picture and upper and lower portions of the 4:3 picture which protrude from the 16:9 screen in a vertical direction are trimmed as shown in FIG. 1B, a wide mode in which the 4:3 picture is enlarged on the 16:9 screen and the protruding upper and lower portions of the picture are compressed in the vertical direction of the screen as shown in FIG. 1C.
There is also known a television having a scroll mode in which a user can freely scroll the picture to watch upper or lower portions protruding from the 16:9 screen in the vertical direction when the zoom mode as described above is set.
In general, time information or the like which is displayed at the top of the screen, for example, in a morning or evening time range, is trimmed when the zoom mode is set, and it obstructs information supply to a user. The scroll mode as described above enables the scrolling of pictures in the vertical direction, so that a trimmed picture portion can be also displayed on the screen.
Accordingly, at the present time when pictures are displayed on a screen while enlarged (reduced), trimmed or the like, when an user watches on a wide television having a 16:9 screen video software of 4:3 aspect ratio which are respectively formed in the screen (display) modes as described above, it is necessary to optimally adjust both the frame size in the vertical direction and the picture position in the vertical direction for each of the respective software every time. In such a wide televisions, the adjustment of the frame size in the vertical direction has been hitherto performed by adjusting the amplitude of a vertical deflection (scan) waveform signal (VSAW), and also the adjustment of the vertical picture position has been performed by adjusting the DC component of the vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) or making the vertical linearity non-linear.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing a deflection system of the CRT display mounted in a wide television, for example.
In FIG. 2, reference numeral 21 represents a synchronizing separation circuit, and it serves to separate a vertical synchronizing signal (V.SYNC) and a horizontal synchronizing signal (H.SYNC) from a video signal (CVBS) which is supplied from a pre-stage circuit of a television set (not shown), and then output the separated vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals. Reference numeral 22 represents a count-down processor which comprises a counter or the like. The count-down processor 22 is normally reset by the vertical synchronizing signal, and it counts the horizontal synchronizing signal. For example, even when the vertical synchronizing signal (V.SYNC) output from the synchronizing separation circuit 21 is missing, the count-down processor 22 is reset with the same period as the vertical synchronizing signal to generate position information S of the vertical frame.
Reference numeral 23 represents a vertical deflection waveform generator which outputs a vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) which has been adjusted on the basis of the position information S of the vertical frame supplied from the count-down processor 22. Reference numeral 24 represents a horizontal deflection correcting waveform generator which outputs a horizontal deflection correcting waveform signal (E/w) to adjust the horizontal deflection waveform signal on the basis of the position information S of the vertical frame supplied from the count-down processor 22.
Reference numeral 25 represents a control circuit comprising a microcomputer or the like, and it outputs a control signal to control respective parameters of the vertical deflection waveform generator 23 and the horizontal deflection correcting waveform generator 24 as described below.
The operation of the CRT display shown in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the output waveform of each part shown in FIGS. 3, 4A and 4B.
The synchronizing separation circuit 21 separates a vertical synchronizing signal (V.SYNC) and a horizontal synchronizing signal (H.SYNC) from a video signal (CVBS) which is supplied from an earlier stage circuit (not shown), for example, and supplies these signals to the count-down processor 22. The count-down processor 22 generates and outputs the position information S of the vertical frame in conformity with the period of the vertical synchronizing signal (V.SYNC) shown in FIG. 3 on the basis of the vertical synchronizing signal (V.SYNC) and the horizontal synchronizing signal (H.SYNC). Further, the position information S of the vertical frame can be represented by s=Kt at each period of the vertical synchronizing signal (V.SYNC) where s represents an instantaneous value for representing a frame position with a time (K represents a coefficient, t represents time).
The position information S of the vertical frame is supplied to the vertical deflection waveform generator 23 and the horizontal deflection correcting waveform generator 24. For the instantaneous value s of the vertical frame position information S, the vertical deflection waveform generator 23 outputs the vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) adjusted according to the following function equation (1): EQU VSAW:v(s)=B(Cs.sup.3 +Ds.sup.2 +s)+A (1)
where A: parameter to adjust vertical frame position
B: parameter to adjust vertical frame size
C, D: parameters to adjust vertical linearity
That is, if the value of each parameter is set to satisfy C=D=0 and B=1, the vertical deflection waveform signal becomes v(s)=s+A, and thus the frame is vertically scrolled in conformity with the value of the parameter "A". Further, the zoom mode display can be performed on the basis of the value of the parameter "B", and the linearity of the display frame can be corrected by the parameters "C", "D" and "B".
On the other hand, the horizontal deflection correcting waveform signal (E/W) which is calculated by a function equation (2) shown below for the instantaneous value s of the position information S of the vertical frame (a signal to correct the horizontal deflection waveform signal) is output from the horizontal deflection correcting waveform generator 24 to form a horizontal deflection waveform signal whose linearity has been corrected with the above signal. EQU E/W: u(s)=F(Gs.sup.4 +s.sup.2 +Hs)+E (2)
where E: parameter to adjust horizontal frame size
F: parameter to correct horizontal pin distortion
G: parameter to correct horizontal corner pin distortion
H: parameter to correct horizontal trapezoidal distortion
Here, it will be assumed that in the normal mode in which pictures of aspect ratio 4:3 are directly reproduced on a CRT display of a wide television having a screen aspect ratio of 16:9, a control signal with which the values of the respective adjustment parameters "A" to "D" of the function equation (1) are set to "A.sub.1 ", "B.sub.1 ", "C.sub.1 " and "D.sub.1 " is output from the control circuit 25 and the vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) with which an image having no distortion on the screen as shown by a chain line in FIG. 4A can be obtained is output from the vertical deflection waveform generator 23.
For example, when pictures are required to be enlarged in the zoom mode, the value "B.sub.1 " of the parameter B for adjusting the vertical frame size in the function equation (1) above is set to "B.sub.2 " on the basis of the control signal from the control circuit 25, and the amplitude of the vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) is varied as indicated by a solid line in FIG. 4A, whereby the vertical frame size is adjusted.
Further, when the pictures are scrolled in the vertical direction in the scroll mode, the value "A.sub.1 " of the parameter A for adjusting the picture position of the vertical frame in the function (1) is set to "A.sub.2 " on the basis of the control signal from the control circuit 25, and the vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) indicated by a chain line of FIG. 4B is shifted, for example, in the upward direction as indicated by a solid line in FIG. 4B, whereby the picture position of the vertical frame is adjusted.
Accordingly, by inputting the vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) and the horizontal deflection correcting waveform signal (E/W) to an output drive circuit in a later stage (not shown), horizontal and vertical deflection currents providing frames whose linearity and picture position on the screen are corrected can be generated and a picture whose linearity has been corrected has been finally displayed.
The vertical deflection current which is output in each screen mode of the wide television described above is set to one of the waveform current signals shown in parts (a) to (c) of FIG. 5. The upper part (a) of FIG. 5 shows the waveform of the vertical deflection current in the normal mode, the middle part (b) of FIG. 5 shows the waveform of the vertical deflection current in the zoom mode, and the lower part (c) of FIG. 5 shows the waveform of the vertical deflection current in the wide mode. Each vertical deflection current waveform in FIG. 5 is assumed to be linear to make understanding easy.
As is apparent from FIG. 5, the waveform of the deflection current in the zoom mode shown in (b) of FIG. 5 is increased by about 25% as compared with the waveforms of the vertical deflection current in both the normal mode and the wide mode because the amplitude of the vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) in the zoom mode is increased by about 25% as compared with the other screen modes.
However, paying attention to any one point in the vertical direction within the effective frame of the wide television as shown in FIG. 5, a one-to-one (1:1) corresponding relationship exists between any point and the vertical deflection current irrespective of the screen mode. Therefore, when the start point of the trace of the vertical deflection current is considered to be a start time, the time until the vertical deflection current reaches a specific value differs depending on the screen mode, and therefore the time period from the start time until a scan position reaches any one point on the screen differs in accordance with the screen mode.
A large number of wide televisions and other types of television which can display various parameters of currently-used functions (brightness, tone, etc.) on the screen have been recently put on the market. In order to display the parameters of the respective functions, a microcomputer built in a wide television monitors the current status of the screen mode and calculates a time period from the start time until the scan position reaches any one point on the frame to output a timing pulse together with the parameter information, whereby the parameters are displayed in the same positions on the screen.
As described above, the adjustment of the vertical frame size and the adjustment of the picture position of the vertical frame are performed by controlling the parameters "B" and "A" of the function equation (1) of the vertical deflection waveform generator 13, however, this adjustment work causes some distortion in the linearity of the vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) with respect to the vertical position of the frame and the horizontal pin cushion of the horizontal deflection correcting waveform signal (E/W).
Therefore, the values of all the parameters "A" to "H" of the function equation (1) for adjusting the vertical deflection waveform signal (VSAW) and the function equation (2) for correcting the horizontal deflection correcting waveform signal (E/W) for adjusting the horizontal deflection waveform must be adjusted again to correct the distortion of the vertical linearity and the horizontal pin cushion every time the adjustment of the vertical frame size and the position adjustment of the vertical frame are carried out.
In a CRT display of a wide television or the like in which the time period from the start time of the vertical synchronizing signal until the display time of the frame differs in accordance with the screen mode, when the frame is scrolled with the scroll mode to vary the picture position in the vertical direction under the zoom mode, a time period until the scan position arrives at any point in the vertical direction cannot be covered by merely setting some wait times, and each of the wait times must be calculated on the basis of the data of the screen mode. Therefore, a large load has hitherto been imposed on the software of the microcomputer.
In order to solve the above problem, there has also been proposed such a countermeasure that the horizontal synchronizing signals are digitally counted with the period of the vertical synchronizing signals and the calculation of the wait time which has been performed according to the software of the microcomputer is performed by using a deflection system circuit. However, from the viewpoint of the precision of an interface, the counting frequency must be set to several times as high as the horizontal synchronizing signal, and thus the cost rises.
Further, a deflection yoke in the vertical direction must be driven beyond the effective frame in the zoom mode, and thus reflection of electron beams may occur. Therefore, it is necessary that blanking is applied to video signals to avoid the reflection of the electron beams, and some restriction has had to be imposed on the output of the vertical drive circuit to avoid an undesired load from being imposed on the deflection yoke driving circuit. However, since the necessary video blanking time varies in accordance with the screen mode as described above, the setting of the video blanking is very troublesome
In the case of limitation of the deflection current, if a limiter is merely provided in the vertical drive circuit, the output of the vertical drive circuit itself would fluctuate due to the adjustment as a result of dispersion of the CRT or the deflection yoke driving circuit, and consequently it has not been possible to obtain a sufficient effect.

Cathode ray tube display and television set having the same


The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same. The semiconductor device may include a first metal gate electrode provided in a NMOS region of a substrate; and a second metal gate electrode provided in a PMOS region of the substrate, wherein the first and second metal gate electrodes may be formed of TiN material or TiAlN material. Here, the first metal gate electrode may have a higher titanium (Ti) content than the second metal gate electrode, and the second metal gate electrode may have a higher nitrogen (N) content than the first metal gate electrode.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to semiconductor devices, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device of a CMOS structure, which includes a dual-work function metal gate having work functions adjusted by controlling a composition of components such as nitrogen (N), aluminum (Al), and titanium (Ti) within a TiN electrode, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor device, a silicon oxide layer (SiO2) is generally used as a gate dielectric layer of memories and logics. However, reduction in design rule of semiconductor devices results in increase in gate leakage current, causing a limit of the silicon oxide layer.
Reduction in tunneling current is obtained by increasing the thickness of the gate dielectric layer and a high permittivity (high-k) dielectric material is suggested as a solution to this. In addition, various studies have been made to minimize depletion of polysilicon through application of metal gate electrodes instead of polysilicon gate electrodes.
To obtain symmetrical and low threshold voltages in formation of a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS), a technology using two metals having ideal work functions of an NMOS and a PMOS is suggested, but has a problem of causing etching failure of a metal electrode.
In particular, metals such as Ru, Mo, Pt, and the like, which can be used for an electrode of a PMOS and have high work functions, are not suited to a gate first process due to etching difficulty and low thermal stability. Thus, it is advantageous to use TiN in formation of a CMOS device, since TiN allows easy etching. However, it has been reported that TiN has an insufficient work function to be used for nMOSFETs and pMOSFETs.
Korean Patent Registration No 10-0463239 (Registration Date: Nov. 30, 2004) discloses a method of manufacturing a CMOS device having a dual-metal gate electrode. The dual-metal gate electrode of the CMOS device includes a first metal gate electrode, which is formed on an nMOS region and comprised of a material selected from among Ru1-xTaxNy, WAx (A=Ti, Ta, Nb) and Ru1-xCxOy (C=Ti, Ta), and a second metal gate electrode, which is formed on a pMOS region and selected from among Ru1-xTixNy, WBx(Ni, Mo, Pt) and Ru1-xDxOy (D=Ni, Mo).

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same

INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY COOPERATION FOUNDATION HANYANG UNIVERSITY