A display has a glass substrate provided with a transparent conducting film, thin-film transistors, and an aluminum alloy wiring film electrically connecting the thin-film transistors to the transparent conducting film. The aluminum alloy wiring film is a layered structure having a first layer (X) of an aluminum alloy comprising at least one element selected from the specific element group Q including Ni and Ag, and at least one element selected from the specific element group R including rare-earth elements and Mg in a content in the specific range, and a second layer (Y) of an aluminum alloy containing having a resistivity lower than that of the first layer (X). The first layer (X) is in direct contact with the transparent conducting film.

An active matrix liquid crystal display includes a TFT substrate (TFT array substrate) provided with thin-film transistors (TFTs) as switching devices, a transparent conducting film and a wiring unit including gate, source and drain lines; a counter substrate disposed opposite to and separated by a space from the TFT substrate and provided with common electrodes; and a liquid crystal layer filling up the space between the TFT substrate and the counter substrate. The transparent conducting film is, for example, an indium tin oxide film (ITO film) of indium oxide (In2O3) containing about 10% by mass tin oxide (SnO) or an indium zinc oxide film (IZO film) of indium oxide containing 10% by mass zinc oxide.
FIG. 1 is a schematic, enlarged sectional view of a liquid crystal panel included in such a liquid crystal display. This liquid crystal panel includes a TFT array substrate 1, a counter substrate 2 disposed opposite to the TFT array substrate 1, and a liquid crystal layer 3 sandwiched between the TFT array substrate 1 and the counter substrate 2 and serving as a light modulator layer. The TFT array substrate 1 includes an insulating glass substrate 1a, thin-film transistors (TFTs) 4 arranged on the glass substrate 1a, transparent conducting film 5 forming pixel electrodes, and a wiring unit 6 including scanning lines and signal lines.
The counter substrate 2 includes common electrodes 7 formed on a surface thereof facing the TFT array substrate 1, a color filter 8 facing the transparent conducting film 5 (pixel electrodes), and a shading film 9 facing the thin-film transistors (TFTs) 4 and the wiring unit 6 of the TFT array substrate 1.
Polarizers 10 are attached to the outer surfaces of the TFT array substrate 1 and the counter substrate 2, respectively. The counter substrate 2 is provided with a liquid crystal alignment film 11 for aligning liquid crystals with a predetermined direction.
An alignment direction with which the liquid crystal molecules are to be aligned is controlled by an electric field created between the counter electrode 2 and the transparent conducting film (pixel electrodes) 5 to modulate light passing through the liquid crystal layer 3 formed between the TFT array substrate and the counter electrode 2. Thus, the quantity of light that passes through the counter substrate 2 is controlled to form an image.
The TFT array is driven through a TAB tape 12 connected to the TFT array by a drive circuit 13 and a control circuit 14.
Shown also in FIG. 1 are a spacer 15, a sealing material 16, a protective film 17, a diffusion plate 18, a prism sheet 19, a light guide plate 20, a reflecting plate 21, a back light 22, a holding frame 23 and a printed wiring board 24.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a part A shown in FIG. 1 and including the wiring unit 6 electrically connected to the transparent conducting film (pixel electrodes) 5. The gate line 26 shown in FIG. 2 is a layered wiring film formed by superposing a film of a metal, such as Mo or Cr, or an aluminum alloy film of, for example, An Al—Nd alloy, and a film of a refractory metal, such as Mo, Cr, Ti or W. A source line 28 and a drain line 29 (referred to as source•drain lines in some cases) are layered film each of a single-layer film of pure aluminum (Al) and a film of the foregoing refractory metal as mentioned in, for example, Patent documents 1, 2 and 3.
The film of the refractory metal is used for the following reasons. When the transparent film (ITO film) 5 is connected directly to the film of pure aluminum or an aluminum alloy, such as an Al—Nd alloy, forming the gate lines and the source•drain lines, aluminum is oxidized and a aluminum oxide layer having high resistivity is formed between the transparent conducting film and the pure aluminum film or the aluminum alloy film, such as an Al—Nd film. Consequently, contact resistance between the signal line and the transparent conducting film increases to deteriorate the image quality of displayed images.
Since aluminum is an element that can be readily oxidized, an aluminum oxide film is formed in the atmosphere. An aluminum oxide film having high resistivity is formed particularly by oxygen used for forming the transparent conducting film of a metal oxide or by oxygen produced in a film forming process.
The oxidation of the surface of a pure aluminum film or an aluminum alloy film is prevented by using a barrier metal (refractory metal) layer to ensure satisfactory contact between a pure aluminum or aluminum alloy film and a transparent conducting film.
An additional process for forming the metal barrier layer is necessary to build a structure including the metal barrier layer, and an additional apparatus for forming the metal barrier layer is necessary in addition to a sputtering apparatus for forming a film for forming gate lines and source•drain lines. Increase in the cost and the reduction of productivity resulting from the formation of the metal barrier layer have become problems with the progress of the reduction of the cost of the liquid crystal display panel by mass production. There has been a demand for electrode materials and manufacturing processes effective in omitting the metal barrier layer in recent years. The inventors of the present invention have previously proposed an aluminum alloy wiring film capable of simplifying the metal barrier layer forming process and of being in direct contact with the transparent conducting film in Patent document 4.
Disclosed in Patent document 5 is a technique that enables the omission of a metal barrier layer by subjecting a drain electrode to a surface treatment process, such as a plasma process or an ion implantation process. Disclosed in Patent document 6 is a technique that enables the omission of a metal barrier layer by using a layered wiring film formed by superposing a second layer containing impurities, such as N, O, Si and C, to a first layer for forming gate, source and drain electrodes.
The length of wiring lines has increased with the progressive increase in size of liquid crystal display panels and the resistivity of signal lines has increased greatly accordingly. The increased resistivity causes RC delay which is can deteriorate the image quality of displayed images. Accordingly, demand for wiring lines having low resistivity has increased and wiring materials having low resistivity, such as pure Al, are used for forming wiring lines having low resistivity.
When a transparent conducting film is brought into direct contact with pure aluminum or aluminum alloy wiring lines, contact resistance increases and the display quality of the screen is deteriorated. Such a problem arises because aluminum is oxidized easily as mentioned above, the surfaces of wiring lines are readily oxidized in the atmosphere, and an insulating aluminum oxide film is formed on the surfaces of the wiring lines by the oxidation of aluminum by oxygen used for forming the transparent conducting film of a metal oxide. If an insulating film is formed between the signal lines and the transparent conducting film, contact resistance between the signal lines and the transparent conducting film increases and hence the display quality of the screen deteriorates.
A metal barrier layer used in conventional liquid crystal display panels prevents the oxidation of the pure aluminum wiring lines or aluminum alloy wiring lines and ensures the satisfactory contact between the transparent conducting film and the pure aluminum wiring lines or the aluminum alloy wiring lines. Since refractory metal, such as Mo, Cr, Ti or W, used for forming the metal barrier layer has high resistivity, increase in the resistance of wiring lines due to the use of the metal barrier layer is unignorable.
Difficulty in fine processing is one of disadvantages of using a metal barrier layer. Usually, it is considered to be desirable that the sectional shape of a wiring line is tapered at a taper angle in the range of about 45° to about 60° considering satisfactory coverage. Since a wiring line of a layered film including a metal barrier layer have layers of different metals. Therefore, the metal layers of different metals are etched at different etch rate, respectively, and in some cases, has a sectional shape as schematically shown in FIG. 3. Since metals respectively having different potentials are joined, the galvanic corrosion of the wiring line occurs and, in some cases, the wiring line has a sectional shape shown in FIG. 4. When wiring lines have such a sectional shape, a passivation film cannot be formed in satisfactory coverage and the operating characteristic of the TFTs (thin-film transistors) is deteriorated.
Moreover, for example, the heat resistance of pure aluminum wiring lines is unsatisfactory and protruding defects called hillocks are formed. When the hillocks penetrates the insulating film, wiring lines are short-circuited. Thus the reduction of the yield of a production line due to the use of pure aluminum is a practically significant problem.    Patent document 1: JP H4-20930 A    Patent document 2: JP H6-12503 A    Patent document 3: JP 2001-350159 A    Patent document 4: JP 2004-214606 A    Patent document 5: JP H11-238934 A    Patent document 6: JP H11-284195 A


A single-stage driver for an LED device, configured to be coupled between a power supply and the LED device, comprises: a rectifier, a DC-to-DC converter, a resistor and a controller. The rectifier is configured to be coupled to the power supply and convert an alternating voltage from the power supply into a first direct voltage. The DC-to-DC converter, which comprises at least two switches, is coupled between the rectifier and the LED device and configured to receive the first direct voltage and provide a constant current to the LED device. The resistor is configured to be coupled in series with the LED device. The controller is coupled between the resistor and the at least two switches, and configured to keep the current through the LED device stable around a predetermined current value by controlling the switches based on a voltage across the resistor, wherein all the at least two switches are turned on or off synchronously.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to drivers for LED devices, and LED systems.
The conventional LED drivers applied in high voltage conditions are usually two-stage drivers, which have characteristics of large volume and heavy weight. However, the conventional LED light often have some limitations on the size and weight of the driver, so the conventional high-voltage LED drivers cannot meet the needs of LED lights.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide new drivers for LED devices and LED systems to solve the above-mentioned problem.


The invention provides method in a mobile communication system of transmitting data wherein the data is transmitted using a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, which is reconfigurable over a MCS re-configuration cycle length and wherein the data is transmitted using a reconfigurable transmit time interval, TTI, length, the MCS reconfiguration cycle length and the TTI length being different from each other.

Mobile radio communication systems have to cope with the effects of changes to the radio channel. Therefore, several measures are applied. One of them is commonly known as link adaption or adaptive modulation and coding. The problem to be solved using such techniques is to find a trade-off between high data rate and robust transmission. A robust transmission with a low order modulation scheme and high channel coding rate is suited for bad channel conditions. A higher order modulations scheme with low channel coding rate leads to a high data rate but is not suited to cope with bad channel conditions. As radio conditions may change during transmission, it is required to monitor the channel conditions periodically and adapt the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) accordingly, if required. Nowadays the adaption takes place with a fixed periodicity, i.e. the base station indicates the used MCS in every packet of the physical channel, irrespective of whether a change is required or not. For example, in UMTS this is done once in a slot (0.666 ms), in LTE once in a subframe (1 ms). This periodicity is sufficient for all radio conditions and movement scenarios considered during the specification phase. It is obvious that there is a fixed overhead required for the MCS configuration signalling and that the maximum movement speed of mobile devices is limited by this fixed periodicity.
Further, another mechanism is used in HSPA and LTE to cope with transmission errors that may occur during transmission termed hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). For this, each packet contains redundant bits that enable the receiver to detect erroneous packets. These bits are commonly known as cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits. If the receiver detects an error in the received packet based on the CRC, a so called NACK (negative acknowledgement) message is transmitted back to the transmitter to request for a retransmission. Otherwise an ACK (positive acknowledgement) message is sent back and the transmitter will continue the transmission with the next packet in the buffer. The time duration of a transmission of data including the associated CRC bits is called transmit time interval (TTI). The TTI length is strongly related to the transmission latency. Longer TTIs leads to longer latency. The TTI length in LTE is 1 ms and it is fixed. This TTI length leads to a user plane latency of 10 to 20 ms. In UMTS the TTI length is configurable between 10 and 80 ms which will lead to a user plane latency of 300 to 400 ms.
Currently the fifth generation of mobile communication is being specified by 3GPP. One requirement of the new system is more flexibility of the radio interface. It should be scalable to be efficient for services that requires ultra-low latency (e.g. 1 ms user plane latency) and also for services with very low data rates and/or very low mobility whose batteries should last for up to 10 years (e.g. smart meters). The ultra-low latency requirement needs a much shorter TTI length. The ultra-long battery lifetime requirement needs measures to reduce the signalling overhead in cases of very low data rate and very low mobility.
In general, longer TTIs save on overhead requirements for configuring the feedback procedure and save resources required to send the feedback, on the cost of a longer latency. They are well suited for low cost and power efficient low data rate communications. Shorter TTIs enable shorter latency as required e.g. for Ultra Low Latency communication, at the cost of more signalling overhead. Longer MCS re-configuration cycles will save overhead for configuring the PHY parameters, at the cost of the ability to quickly adapt to fast changing radio channels. They are well suited e.g. for low mobility devices. Shorter MCS re-configuration cycles will enable the system to adapt the transmission to fast changing radio channels, e.g. in high speed trains on the cost of more signalling overhead.
EP 2 015 601 A1 describes a method to select one out of a plurality of TTI length for an uplink shared channel and a downlink shared channel or both based on at least any of: a moving speed of a mobile terminal, location of the mobile terminal in a cell, provided throughput value, average number of retransmissions. This document does not describe how signalling for configuration of variable TTI length is done or how the resource grid is arranged in case of simultaneous transmission packets with different TTI length.
WO 2016/069378 A1 describes a frame structure offering multiple frame length. It does not describe a configurable length for the MCS re-configuration and therefore MCS adaption for different channel conditions is not possible. Further the distance of CRC bits is not configurable, and therefore the feedback cycle is not adjustable to the service needs.
It is currently not possible to adjust the rate of MCS re-configuration signalling. Therefore, the overhead required for this signalling is fixed. It is not possible to assign a longer MCS re-configuration cycle to reduce overhead when the radio conditions changes slowly or to assign a shorter MCS re-configuration cycle to allow for more accurate adaption to fast changing radio conditions.
Further, in current OFDM-based communication systems (e.g. LTE) it is not possible to adjust the TTI length to the current latency requirements. Therefore, a lower latency as required for some use cases of the 5th generation of mobile communication systems (e.g. safety relevant vehicle-to-vehicle communication) could not be enabled with the LTE resource grid/frame structure. On the other hand, the signalling overhead required for the HARQ mechanism could not be reduced if the latency requirement of a service allows for longer latency.
3GPP document R1-1608634 from WG1 Meeting #86bis describes a two level downlink control information, DCI, scheme for short TTI. For a slow DCI scheme, the DCI including the MCS information is transmitted in a legacy PDCCH region whereas for a fast DCI scheme, the information is transmitted on the sPDCCH or a legacy PDCCH. The TTI length is always identical to the MCS re-configuration period length.
Other 3GPP documents concerning short TTI operation include R1-11609323 (also from Meeting #86bis) and R1-1612210 (Meeting #87). Aggregation of modulation and coding schemes is described in a proposal in connection with the IEEE 802.11 standard in document IEEE 802.11-04/945r0.

Mobile communication transmission using flexible frame structure with variable MCS and TTI length


An speech processing apparatus comprises a setting unit that sets an association between a speech recognition target vocabulary and the shortcut data for transitioning to a state to which a transition is made, when a user makes a transition to a state among the plurality of states using an operation input unit, an speech input unit that inputs an audio, a speech recognition unit that employs the speech recognition target vocabulary to recognize the audio that is input via the speech input unit, and a control unit that employs the shortcut data that corresponds to the speech recognition target vocabulary that is a recognition result of the speech recognition unit to transition to the state, in order to improve speech recognition accuracy for audio shortcuts, while also preserving the convenience of the audio shortcuts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speech recognition-based user interface technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
A user interface that incorporates speech recognition or speech synthesis is being applied to operating such devices as car navigation systems. One advantage of a user interface that employs speech recognition is that it facilitates a shortcut to an intended control screen. For example, a hierarchical menu is employed when controlling a device via only a graphical user interface (GUI). In such a circumstance, a user may find it necessary to go from a first screen to a second screen, a third screen, and a fourth screen, in order to execute a given function. When using a user interface that employs speech recognition, on the other hand, it is possible, for example, for the user to verbally input a prescribed spoken, that is, speech, command in the first screen that directs a transition to the fourth screen, and thus, transition directly from the first screen to the fourth screen.
It is necessary, however, for the user to have prior knowledge of the speech command that corresponds to the transition to the desired screen. Jpn. Patent Publication No. 2000-231398 (Cited Reference 1), for example, discloses a technology that stores a sequence of operations that the user performs, and notifies the user that a shortcut exists that corresponds to the sequence of operations thus stored. The technology allows the user to learn a speech shortcut in a simpler fashion than might otherwise be possible.
The technology disclosed in the Cited Reference 1, however, requires that a plurality of spoken shortcuts be stored in the device for all manner of sequences of operations. Each respective user will have need of different spoken shortcuts in actual use, and thus, speech shortcuts of which a given user has no need will be recorded therein. Consequently, executing speech recognition on the device will necessitate recognizing a significant quantity of speech that corresponds to a given speech shortcut, which, in turn, may lead to a deterioration in speech recognition accuracy.

Speech processing apparatus and control method thereof


Provided is a vinylidene fluoride resin film that is produced using a film composition including at least a vinylidene fluoride resin and inorganic particles; and that includes a plurality of protrusions on at least one surface thereof. Among the plurality of protrusions, the number of protrusions greater than 0.10 μm in height from a flat surface at which the protrusions are not present is from 7.0 to 50 per 0.10 mm2 of the vinylidene fluoride resin film.

Plastic insulators, having characteristics such as high insulation resistance, excellent frequency characteristics, and excellent flexibility, are expected to be used as film materials for film capacitors for communication, electronic devices, power supply, medium/low voltage phase-advance, and inverters, and film materials for piezoelectric elements, pyroelectric elements, dielectrics for carrying a transfer body, and the like.
In recent years, various electrical equipment being controlled by inverters, and a demand for a capacitor with a smaller size and a greater capacity is increasing accordingly. Such a demand in the market, particularly in automobile application (including hybrid car application), has prompted a further decrease in the film thickness while prompting an improvement in the breakdown strength of film capacitors or the processability of elements as essential.
It is known that a film capacitor with a smaller thickness and a higher dielectric constant can provide an element with a large capacitance. A typical film capacitor uses a resin having a relatively low dielectric constant, such as polypropylene, but it has been proposed to produce a film capacitor having a high relative permittivity by using a vinylidene fluoride resin, which has a high dielectric constant.
Regarding the vinylidene fluoride resin, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a vinylidene fluoride resin composition including from 95 to 30 wt. % of a vinylidene fluoride resin and from 5 to 70 wt. % of a polyether. Patent Document 1 describes polyoxymethylene as an example of the polyether.
For example, Patent Documents 2 to 5 describe techniques relating to the film.
The film described in Patent Document 2 is a high-dielectric film, formed using a fluororesin including a total of not less than 95 mol % of vinylidene fluoride units and tetrafluoroethylene units, and is a film for a film capacitor that has a high dielectric property and high breakdown voltage and that can be made thinner.
The film described in Patent Document 3 is a film having a high dielectric constant including a vinylidene fluoride resin and inorganic particles.
On the other hand, the film described in Patent Document 4 is a biaxially stretched polypropylene film in which a target surface morphology is formed by utilizing crystal modification of a polypropylene film.
Furthermore, Patent Document 5 describes a stretched film made from a syndiotactic polystyrene resin composition. The stretched film includes two types of particles having different particle sizes, and at least one of the particles is a silica particle.


Image data to be processed multiple times for display is encoded to provide faster display processing. For example, an original image having pixels that may be either transparent or non-transparent may be displayed multiple times within a single display and/or over successive displays. Rather than having to determine pixel transparency on a pixel-by-pixel basis each and every time the image is to be processed for display, the original image is encoded to generate an encoded image. The encoding process involves grouping the original image pixels into sets and characterizing the transparencies of the pixels of each set. A code signal representing the results of the characterization of each set of pixels is then encoded into the encoded image, along with the original image pixels. Each time the original image data is to be processed for display, the encoded image rather than the original image is used as input to special transparency decode processing. During decode processing, the code signals are retrieved from the encoded image and used to determine how to display the corresponding sets of pixels which are also retrieved from the encoded image. In this way, the original image data can be processed for display multiple times without having to perform pixel transparency analysis, one pixel at a time, each time the image is displayed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital signal processing, and, in particular, to encoding images for subsequent decoding and display.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many computer-based image processing applications provide the ability to define portions of an image as being transparent, on a pixel by pixel basis. A particular color may be reserved for transparent pixels. Any pixels of the image that are to be designated as transparent are assigned that reserved color. When the image is processed for display, pixels having the reserved color are not rendered (i.e., copied) to the display buffer for display on a computer monitor. As a result, only non-transparent pixels (i.e., those pixels having colors other than the reserved color) will appear on the monitor. This image processing technique is often referred to as chromakeying.
In typical chromakeying, each pixel of the image is compared to the reserved chromakey or transparency color, one by one, to determine whether the pixel is to be rendered to the display buffer. If the pixel is not the reserved color, then the pixel is non-transparent and processing is implemented to render that pixel to the display buffer. Otherwise, the pixel is transparent and processing is implemented to skip the current pixel. The pixel-render processing and the pixel-skip processing may involve the implementation of different sets of program code, one set of which is jumped to based on the results of the comparison of the pixel to the reserved transparency color.
Graphics applications typically build composite displays from different graphics images, each image of which may have both transparent pixels and non-transparent pixels. In some applications, the same image is to be displayed on the monitor more than once. For example, the image may be rendered at different locations within the same display (i.e., at the same time), or it may be repeated over successive updates of the display, either at the same location or at different locations.
For example, in a graphics application, a tile may be repeated at different locations within a single grid of a single display. In addition, that same grid may be repeated over a number of successive updates of the display. As a result, the graphics data for the tile needs to be processed multiple times. If transparency is enabled, under conventional processing schemes, each pixel of the tile is compared to the reserved transparency color to determine whether the pixel is to be rendered to the display buffer. When the tile is repeated multiple times within a single display and/or over multiple displays, the same transparency processing is repeated each time the image is processed for display. This can result in a great deal of redundant processing to determine pixel transparencies, one pixel at a time. Such redundant processing can severely impact the ability of the graphics application to operate efficiently (e.g., limit the rate at which the display can be updated).
What is needed is a processing scheme for graphics and other image data (such as video data) that minimizes redundant processing, such as transparency processing, that would otherwise exist when the same image data is to be rendered multiple times within the same display and/or over successive displays.
It is accordingly an object of this invention to overcome the disadvantages and drawbacks of the known art and to provide image encoding and decoding schemes that reduces such redundant processing.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the detailed description of a preferred embodiment which follows.


The present invention relates to a method for the patterning of a stack of layers on a surface with high topography. A method of the present invention can be used for gate patterning for multiple Gate FETs (MuGFETs), for patterning of the control gate in non-volatile memory applications, and for the patterning of the poly emitter in BiCMOS devices. The present invention also relates to a device prepared by a method of the invention.

In the fabrication process of classical CMOS devices, topography has always been reduced as much as possible in order to facilitate the patterning of the different levels, affecting the quality of both lithography and dry etching steps. The development of Shallow Trench Isolation or STI (used for active area pitches in the sub-0.5 μm regime) and, more specifically, the reduction of the 'STI ditch' at the border between active area and field is a typical example in this context. Gate patterning is another example of such a critical application.
In general, topography consists of two facets: the level difference on local scale and the slope of the surface caused by this level difference. The former compromises the lithographic illumination conditions because sufficient Depth of Focus (DOF) is required. From (anisotropic) dry etch point of view, both level difference and slope determine the final process window. In the neighborhood of a topography step a deposited, grown, or spin-coated layer is locally thicker in the direction perpendicular to the wafer compared to this layer on a flat surface. The steeper the slope and the larger the level difference, the longer over-etch is needed to clear out the residual parts of the layer next to the topography steps. Referring back to the example of the STI ditch, during gate etch, a sufficiently long over-etch is needed to remove poly-Si residues, which requires high selectivity towards the gate oxide and adequate profile control (e.g., to prevent notching).
In many cases topography reduction is not straightforward. In Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) applications, the control gate level is patterned as a three-dimensional structure on top of the floating gate. A reduced topography can be achieved by patterning the floating gate with a sloped profile (typically between 80 and 85 degrees). However, the height of the floating gate is fixed by the technology node (e.g., 125 nm for 0.13 μm technology), and the overall topography remains very pronounced.
In some cases topography is a crucial part of the device architecture, e.g., for Multi-Gate devices which are regarded as possible alternatives for classical CMOS devices in sub 45-nm technologies. The term "Multi-Gate device" or "MuGFET" refers to a family of devices known in literature as FinFETs, Tri-gate, Omega-gate, Pie-gate, and the like. The potential advantage of these devices is their superior short-channel effect (SCE) control over bulk devices in the sub-30 nm physical gate length regime. Important issues in the fabrication of these devices are, e.g., the patterning of 25 nm gates over high topography due to the fins. In MuGFETs the active area is patterned from an SOI (Silicon On Insulator) layer of the order of tens of nm thick, and consists of source and drain connected by 'fins'. Narrow fins are required to have a better short channel effect control. Typically the fin width should be about half of the gate length. The channel width on the other hand is determined by the height of the fin—the higher the fin, the more current can flow from source to drain. Therefore the gate stack is deposited on a surface with an intrinsically high topography.
One of the key issues of gate patterning for MuGFETs is the high topography involved. The FIN heights are of the order of 50 to 100 nm, and recess in the BOX (Buried Oxide Layer) can result in extra topography, from a few nm to several tens of nanometers. As a consequence, the selectivity of the etch chemistries used for gate patterning become more critical than compared to planar gate etch. For each layer that needs to be etched, a sufficiently long over-etch is required to clean up any residues at topography steps while at the same time damage to already patterned layers must be avoided.
The patterning of the gate for MuGFETs consists of four basic steps. First several layers are deposited (or grown/coated) on the initial surface: the layer(s) that need(s) to be patterned (e.g. poly-Si or a stack of metals to define the gate); sacrificial layers (e.g. stopping layer, hard mask); and litho-related layers (e.g. Bottom Anti Reflective Coating or BARC, resist). Second, the wafer is illuminated and the resist developed. Subsequently the wafer is etched to transfer the resist pattern into the relevant layer(s) stopping on the initial surface. In the fourth and last step, any sacrificial material (e.g. resist, hard mask) is removed. As mentioned before, the presence of topography steps narrows down the process window for both lithography and dry etch. Since the topography itself in many cases can only be reduced to some extent, other options have to be explored to open up the process window as much as possible.
One approach that has been used to avoid problems related to the etching of layers with high topography is Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) to planarize the surface of one of the layers that is deposited on the initial surface. This is certainly a huge improvement from lithographic point of view with respect to DOF. From dry etch point of view this approach has the advantage that any layer that is deposited on top of this planarized layer (e.g., hard mask on top of CMP-ed poly-Si used for gate patterning) can be removed with minimal over-etch. Yang et al. (Symp. on VLSI Technology 2004 pp. 196) have successfully applied this approach to pattern a poly-Si gate with a CD of 5 nm (using hard mask trimming) on top of a nanowire FinFET structure. The level difference between the top of the fin and the BOX is about 15 nm, whereas the poly thickness is about 60 nm. Nevertheless, there are two serious drawbacks of the CMP approach. First, the uniformity and reproducibility of the CMP process are difficult to control since there is no stopping layer. Second, as the etch front is planar, the higher-level parts of the initial surface will be exposed sooner to the etch plasma. In the case of MuGFET poly-Si gate patterning this means that source, drain and fin become exposed to the plasma when there is still a relatively thick poly-Si layer present on field areas. On the one hand this complicates the use of endpoint triggering (typically used for planar gate etch) and on the other hand it is problematic for the removal of the remaining poly-Si—etch chemistries with very high selectivity to gate oxide tend to have poor profile control and a very small etch rate (especially when considerable amount of poly-Si is exposed to the plasma).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,787,476 by Dakshina-Murthy et al. describes the use of a stopping layer in between two layers where the removal of the upper layer causes selectivity problems with respect to the lower layer (due to the long over-etch needed because of topography). This approach was used for MuGFET gate etch, and more specifically for an ARC (Anti-Reflective Coating) layer (e.g., SiN) on poly-Si. The stopping layer consists of Ti or TiN because these materials have a very low etch rate in a fluorine etching process, such as, for example, a CF4/Ar etching process for which the ARC layer and poly-Si have a high etch rate. Subsequent to etching of the ARC, the etch stop layer and poly-silicon material of the gate may be etched using, for example, a Cl2/HBr etching process. This approach has the overall disadvantage that an additional layer is added to the stack—after gate etch it needs to be removed with sufficient selectivity towards materials like poly-Si and oxide, which complicates the process flow. Another disadvantage is the fact that the etch chamber becomes metal contaminated. During front-end-of-line CMOS processing metal contamination is avoided when possible. The metallic stopping layer used here is not a part of the gate itself but only used for patterning purposes. If an alternative without metal contamination is possible, then this is more preferable.
Dakshina-Murthy et al. propose an additional approach to tackle the problem of topography for MuGFET gate etch. First, the gate oxide and the poly-Si layer are deposited on the initial surface with active area. On top, an endpoint layer (e.g., Ti or SiGe) is deposited followed by an additional poly-Si layer or possibly another material (not specified). First the additional layer is etched on endpoint, stopping on the Ti or SiGe layer, resulting in spacers next to topography steps. These spacers reduce the slope of the topography and therefore less ARC OE is needed. From this point onwards, the rest of the patterning is continued (possibly with the use of a Ti or TiN stopping layer suggested before). Also, this second proposal by Dakshina-Murthy et al. has disadvantages because again extra layers are added to the stack and in addition, an etch on endpoint to create spacers next to the topography steps is needed. This complicates the process flow even more than in the case of their first proposal. The gate etch itself becomes more complicated with respect to selectivity towards the spacer material. Finally, if Ti is used as a stopping layer, then the etch platform becomes metal contaminated.

Etching of structures with high topography

Interuniversitair Microelektronica Centrum (IMEC) vzw


Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a low-power, area efficient ESD protection device that provides ESD protection to an ESD susceptible circuit. The ESD protection device has a trigger circuit with a resistor. The resistor has a first terminal connected to the first external pin and a second terminal connected directly to a gate of a SiGe based PMOS shunt transistor. The trigger circuit generates a trigger signal that drives the gate of the PMOS device to shunt power away from the ESD susceptible circuit when an ESD event is present. The SiGe based PMOS shunt transistor has a lower gate leakage than a conventional NMOS shunt transistors, thereby providing for an ESD circuit with a low leakage current at small gate lengths.

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) event is a sudden and unexpected voltage and/or current discharge that transfers energy to an electronic device from an outside body (e.g., a human body, which can be approximated in modeling by a human body model (HBM)). ESD events can damage electronic devices, for example by "blowing out" a gate oxide of a transistor in cases of high voltage or by "melting" an active region area of a device in cases of high current, causing junction failure. If devices are damaged by an ESD event, the electronic product can be rendered less operable than desired, or can even be rendered inoperable altogether.

SiGe based gate driven PMOS trigger circuit

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A method wherein a circuit substrate device is provided having a semiconductor element and a circuit substrate between which a protective resin is placed.. The protective resin has a smaller coefficient of linear expansion than that of the circuit substrate and a greater coefficient of linear expansion than that of the semiconductor element. Therefore, the protective resin may mitigate the influences of thermal stress due to differential in the thermal coefficients of expansion between the semiconductor element and circuit substrate to prevent warpage of the circuit substrate.

The present invention relates to a circuit substrate device having a structure where a semiconductor element is electrically connected via electrode lugs to a conductive pattern formed on the substrate.
Some circuit substrate devices have a structure where semiconductor chips (flip chips) are bonded and electrically connected to the conductive pattern on a circuit substrate. The semiconductor chips have solder bumps which form electrode lugs. In such circuit substrate devices, a failure mode tends to occur in which thermal fatigue is produced due to differential in coefficients of thermal expansion between the flip chip and circuit substrate, thereby causing fractures in the solder bumps. It is known that the thermal fatigue characteristics of the solder bumps may be improved by altering shape of the solder bumps. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 62333/1988 discloses a method for mitigating thermal fatigue in solder bumps by forming them into longer columns which, however, require preformed solder bumps of larger area. Accordingly, the above-mentioned method is disadvantageous in that the shape of solder bumps would prevent miniaturization of the device and high-density packaging of flip chips. In addition, it is not easy to form such solder bumps in desired column shapes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a circuit substrate device that is resistant to thermal fatigue.
Another object of the invention is to provide a circuit substrate device that may be manufactured in a small size with high density packaging of flip chips.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a circuit substrate having its higher reliability and longer life in operation at an elevated temperature.

Method for reducing thermal stress in an encapsulated integrated circuit package


A method of controlling a remote navigation system that remotely orients the distal end of the medical device in order to navigate a medical device through a body lumen, the method comprising: displaying an exterior image of the body lumen; superimposing an indicator of the current position of the medical device in the body lumen; displaying a plurality of segment labels; receiving oral commands and recognizing one of the spoken displayed segment labels; and causing the remote navigation system to orient the distal end of the device in a preselected direction associated with the segment corresponding to the displayed segment label.

This invention relates to the remote navigation of medical devices in the body, and in particular to the control of remote navigation systems.
Remote navigation systems have been developed that allow a user to remotely control the orientation of the distal end of a medical device to facilitate navigation of the device through the body. Examples of such systems include the magnetic navigation systems made by Stereotaxis, Inc., St. Louis, Mo., which create a magnetic field in a selected direction to orient the distal end of a medical device having one or more magnetically responsive elements. Other examples of remote navigation systems include robotic systems, such as systems using motors or mechanical devices such as pull wires or push wires to move articulated members. The technology of remote navigation systems has advanced to a point where they can quickly and easily orient the distal end of a medical device in a selected direction, but regardless of the method of movement an obstacle to their wide spread use is difficulties indicating to the remote navigation system the desired direction in which to orient the medical device.
A variety of interfaces have been created to facilitate the communication of the desired direction of orientation from the user to the remote navigation system. For example the magnetic navigation systems available from Stereotaxis, Inc. have a number of tools to help the user select the direction for the medical device and cause the magnetic navigation system to align in the selected direction. These interfaces typically require the user to manipulate a cursor on a display or actuate a touch screen. This can be difficult where the user is also trying to manually advance the medical device, or is otherwise using his or her hands.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Voice controlled user interface for remote navigation systems


A method for fabricating high-voltage semiconductor devices is disclosed, in which a P-well and a N-well are first formed over the substrate, where a plurality of P-wells and N-wells used as isolation regions and drift regions are further formed therein. More shallot P-type and N-type regions are subsequently formed in the drift regions and isolation regions, so as to increase the breakdown voltage and enhance the current-driving performance. In addition, a deepened isolation doping, can also increase the latch up capability, resulting in less area required for fabricating a device.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for fabricating semiconductor devices, and more particularly to a method for fabricating a high-voltage semiconductor device.
2. Description of Related Art
High-voltage semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by reducing the doping concentration of drift regions to increase the breakdown voltage. However, the current-driving performance is also degraded by doing so. Also, a latch up capability of a device needs to be commensurate with high-voltage applications. Although the layout rule can be relaxed to improve the latch up capability, extra area is required for fabricating, the device.
Conventionally, the high-voltage device is fabricated by using an isolation layer to increase the distance between the source/drain regions and the gate, so that the lateral electromagnetic field within the channel can be reduced. Also, drift regions underneath the isolation layer and the grade regions underneath the source/drain regions can be lightly doped to reduce a hot electron effect. In this way, the breakdown voltage at the junctions between the source/drain regions and the substrate can be increased and the leakage current therein can be avoided.
FIGS. 1 to 3 show cross sectional views of a portion of a conventional high-voltage semiconductor device. Referring first to FIG. 1, a P-type lightly-doped substrate 100, N-type lightly-doped regions 101, N-type heavily-doped regions 102, and a gate layer 103 are depicted, in which the N-type heavily-doped regions 102 are the source/drain regions, while the N-type lightly-doped regions 101 are used to increase the breakdown voltage at the junctions between the source/drain regions 102 and the substrate 100.
Referring to FIG. 2, a P-type lightly-doped substrate 110, N-type lightly-doped regions 111, N-type heavily-doped regions 112, spacers 113, and a gate layer 114 are depicted, in which the N-type heavily-doped regions 112 are the source/drain regions, while the N-type lightly-doped regions 111 and the spacers 113 can be used to increase the distance between the source/drain regions 112 and the gate 114.
Referring to FIG. 3, a P-type lightly-doped substrate 120, N-type lightly-doped regions 121, N-type heavily-doped regions 122, field oxide (FOX) layers 123, and a gate layer 124 are depicted, in which the N-type heavily-doped regions 122 are the source/drain regions. while the N-type lightly-doped regions 121 and the FOX layers 123 can be used to increase the junction breakdown voltage between the source/drain regions 122 and the substrate 120.
Generally, the high-voltage semiconductor devices are fabricated by reducing the doping concentration of the drift region to increase the breakdown voltage. However. the current-driving performance is also degraded. Also, the latch up capability of the device needs to be commensurate with high-voltage applications. Although the layout rule can be relaxed to improve the latch up capability, extra area is required for fabricating the device.

Method for fabricating a high-voltage semiconductor device


A method and system for dynamically controlling the transmission of reverse-link control signals to help reduce interference on the reverse link. A RAN identifies a mobile device whose transmission of reverse-link control signals best represents the reverse-link air interface condition of each other mobile device in a plurality of mobile devices. Then the RAN causes each mobile device in the plurality other than the identified mobile device to not send its respective reverse-link control signal at a given time, thereby reducing the number of mobile devices that transmit reverse-link control signals at the given time.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Many people (or "subscribers") use mobile devices, such as wireless telephones, wireless e-mail devices, wirelessly-equipped computers (such as handheld, tablet, or laptop computers), or other types of wireless communication devices, to communicate with one or more Radio Access Networks (RANs). The RANs may include a number of network elements that communicate with one another via wired and/or wireless links and that thereby enable the mobile devices to communicate with one or more remote devices.
A typical RAN includes one or more base stations that radiate to provide wireless-communication service to mobile devices within a given geographical coverage area. Depending on the specific underlying technologies and architecture of a given wireless communication system, various RAN elements may take different forms. In a code division multiple access (CDMA) system configured to operate according to IS-2000 and IS-856 standards, for example, the base station is usually referred to as a base transceiver system (BTS). In a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) configured to operate according to Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards, however, the base station is usually referred to as an eNodeB. Other examples exist as well.
In a CDMA system, the mobile device used by a subscriber is referred to as an access terminal (also referred to herein as "AT"); in an LTE system the mobile device is referred to as user equipment (also referred to herein as "UE"). When an AT or UE is positioned within the coverage area of a base station, it communicates via an RF air interface with the base station. The air interface may define a forward link (or "downlink") for carrying communications from the base station to the mobile device and a reverse link (or "uplink") for carrying communications from the mobile device to the base station. In various implementations, these links may be defined on one or more carrier frequencies, or blocks of frequencies having a given bandwidth. Furthermore, on each link, various channels may be defined through techniques such as time division multiplexing, code division multiplexing, and the like.
In one implementation, the forward link and/or reverse link may be divided over time into a sequence of timeslots, and the base station or associated equipment may be arranged to transmit data to, or receive data from, mobile devices during those timeslots. In such an implementation, the base station or associated equipment may dynamically schedule transmission of data in particular timeslots and may then transmit and/or receive the data according to that schedule. In addition to scheduling the transmission of data, the base station may determine (and allocate) the extent of other forward link and/or reverse link resources to be used by mobile devices for the transmission of data. Examples of such resources include a number of timeslots for transmission of the data, a number of data blocks for transmission of the data, a number of resource blocks for transmission of the data, a particular modulation scheme, and/or a particular transmission power, among other examples.
To aid the RAN in scheduling, and allocating resources for, transmission of data from a given mobile device on the reverse link, the RAN may evaluate the reverse-link air-interface conditions, or reverse-link quality, of the given mobile device. In order to facilitate this evaluation, mobile devices may be configured to periodically transmit a reverse-link control signal such as a "reverse-link pilot signal" in CDMA or a "sounding reference signal" (SRS) in LTE. The reception quality of the reverse-link control signal may be used by the RAN to help evaluate reverse-link air-interface conditions. In practice, each mobile device operating in a base station's coverage area may be arranged to transmit its reverse-link control signal to the base station at a predetermined time, so that the base station can evaluate the signal at that time. Further, in some implementations, all or multiple mobile devices in a coverage area may be arranged to transmit their reverse-link control signals at the same time, possibly across the full bandwidth of the coverage area.

Dynamic control of transmission of reverse-link control signals


A network client device is disclosed having a media streamer for processing a media stream received at a first port of a client device. Further included is a setup controller configured to transmit a set-up request message and a discovery message without waiting for acknowledgement of reception of the set-up request message before transmission of the discovery message, from a second port and the first port respectively, to predetermined ports of a server device.

Media streaming from a server to client involves transmission of a stream of messages, preceded by a set-up phase, in which the client sends a commands to start the stream and the client and server set up parameters that are needed for the transmission. To the user, the set-up phase appears as a slow response that delays the start of service. This is especially so when roundtrip transmission via a wireless network are needed. Therefore it is desirable to reduce the duration of the set-up phase as much as possible.
According to the IETF RTSP protocol described in RFC2326bis, the set-up phase involves one or more "set-up" commands transmitted via the network from a client device to a server device, with a reply from the server device to the client device, followed by a play command from the client device. In addition a "describe" command may be needed, to obtain further parameters.
To speed up the set-up phase, pipelining of the commands may be used. This involves transmitting commands before replies to the preceding commands have been received, but this is not possible when a command depends on information from a reply to a preceding command.
Further delay can occur when the client device is "visible" on the network only via a firewall or a network address translator (NAT). In this case the client device cannot specify its own address, or even which of its ports data must be addressed from the stream output port(s) of the server device. To solve this problem the client devices sends discovery messages to the stream output ports of the server device through the firewall or network address translator. This enables the server device to recover the necessary address from the source address of these discovery messages, including an identification of the port if necessary. The need for an additional discovery message increases the set-up delay. The increased delay can be significant because the address discovery introduces a dependency between commands that limits the possibility of pipelining. Moreover, plurality of discovery messages may be needed in the case of lost traffic.

Set-up of media stream transmission and server and client for media stream transmission


A method and a system are disclosed for generating a recommendation of a retail location on a network-based system. For example, a system may obtain a retail location definition associated with a geographic location. The geographic location may represent the retail location. The system then builds a scan event model from product scan messages received from a plurality of scanning devices located within the geographic location. The scan event model may include one or more scan events each being associated with a product definition and the retail location definition. Next, a recommendation query from the search device is received by the system. The recommendation query may include a product identifier and a query location. The system may generate a recommendation of the retail location based on determining that the product identifier and the query location match the one or more scan events of the scan event model.

The explosion of information available over network-based systems such as the Internet can overwhelm a person attempting to locate a desired piece of information or product. For example, the categories of products available through a typical network-based commerce system have grown exponentially over the last decade. This dramatic growth has left users with the problem of sorting and browsing through enormous amounts of data to find information or products relevant to their needs. Search engines and recommendation systems have both been developed to assist in locating both information and products within network-based systems.
Traditional recommendation systems have been implemented to attempt to assist users in locating relevant information or products. A successful recommendation system on a network-based commerce system not only saves users time in locating relevant products but also brings extra profits to the commerce system's operators. Most traditional recommendation systems utilize some form of searching technique. For example, traditional recommendation systems may access or otherwise obtain inventory data provided by merchants. The inventory data may indicate that a particular merchant (e.g., such as Best Buy®) may offer a given product for sale. Accordingly, such traditional recommendation systems rely on merchants to provide updates on what products are offered for sale. Often times, the inventory data provided by a merchant merely indicates that a merchant in general offers, or at some point had offered, a given product for sale.

Systems and methods for recommending a retail location


An IC includes testing circuitry including a Test Access Port (TAP) controller and Segment-Insertion-Bit circuits (SIBs) arranged in multiple hierarchy levels. Some of the SIBs are connected to hardware units, and some of the SIBs are root-SIBs that connect between neighbor hierarchy levels. A test bus runs in a daisy-chained loop path starting at the TAP controller, passing via at least some of the SIBs and ending at the TAP controller. Each root-SIB has an Open state and a Closed state. The TAP controller, for a selected subset of the hardware units that are to be tested, selects one or more root-SIBs that, when set to the Open state, make the selected subset of hardware units reachable by the test bus, and sends via the daisy-chained test bus a data stream comprising one or more instructions that set two or more of the selected root-SIBs to the Open state.

The IEEE Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) has published various standards relating to testing of circuit boards and devices. For example, the IEEE 1149.1™-2001 standard, entitled "IEEE Standard Test Access Port and Boundary-Scan Architecture," June, 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference, defines boundary scan mechanisms for printed-circuit boards and for devices, and is used for a variety of other applications. The IEEE1500™ standard, entitled "Standard Testability Method for Embedded Core-based Integrated Circuits," Edition 1.0, November, 2007, which is incorporated herein by reference, is based on the 1149.1 standard, and targets testing of cores.
The IEEE 1687™-2014 standard, entitled "IEEE Standard for Access and Control of Instrumentation Embedded within a Semiconductor Device," 1687-2014″, Nov. 3, 2014, which is incorporated herein by reference, was defined by IEEE's Internal JTAG (IJTAG) working group and further extends the IEEE 1149.1 and the IEEE 1500 standards, focusing on design for testability (DFT) features.


A system and method for deploying a document classification system include deploying a document classification system with a first classification engine configuration, and thereafter, automatically redeploying the document classification system with a second classification engine configuration in response to a cost function.

Advances in computer technology have provided users with numerous options for creating electronic documents. For example, many common software applications executable on a typical personal computer enable users to generate various types of useful electronic documents. Electronic documents can also be obtained from image acquisition devices such as scanners or digital cameras, or they can be read into memory from a data storage device (e.g., in the form of a file). Modern computers enable users to electronically obtain or create vast numbers of documents varying in size, subject matter, and format. Such documents may be located, for example, on personal computers, networks, or other storage media.
As the number of electronic documents grows, the ability to classify and manage such documents (e.g., through the use of networks such as the Internet) becomes increasingly important. Document classification enables users to more easily locate related documents and is an important step in a variety of document processing tasks such as archiving, indexing, re-purposing, data extraction, and other automated document managing operations. In general, document classification involves assigning a document to one or more sets or classes of documents with which it has commonality-usually as a consequence of shared topics, concepts, ideas and subject areas.
A variety of document classification engines or algorithms have been developed in recent years. Performance of these engines varies from engine to engine, but is generally limited due to computers being historically poor at performing heuristic tasks. Common commercial document classifier engines use a single technology and approach for solving the problem of classifying documents. Expert users can tune these classifier engines to obtain better results, but this requires significant training of such engines using high quality example documents.

Deploying a document classification system

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A case for a portable electronic device such as cell phones, cameras, MP3 players and PDAs wherein said case includes material at the corners to provide protection to the electronic device. To reduce bulk at the corners and allow the material forming the case to conform with the contours of the device, the protection at the corners includes strips of material defining apertures there between. The apertures provide reduction in bulk and allow the case to conform to the corners of the device therein. Alternately, the protection at the corners can be provided by other structures co-molded into the corners of the cases. Such structures include material that is of a reduced thickness than other material used in the case, or structures that are formed to conform to the corners of the case. Such structures can be joined to the material forming the panels of the case by co-molding.

Cell phones, pagers, PDA's, MP3 players, and other portable electronic devices have become increasingly popular. Users of the devices like to keep the devices readily accessible on their person. Due to their portable nature, the devices are also subject to being dropped and otherwise roughly handled, which can result in damage to the electronics inside, or to the plastic housing of the device. To address the above concerns, cases have been developed to both carry and protect the portable electronic devices. These cases often include a clip or other retaining structure to allow the case to be removably attached to the user's clothing, such as a belt.
The clips or retainers commonly used are removeably attached to the case by fastening to a plastic post, which itself is attached to the case. The plastic post can be an integral part of the case, being formed of the same material as the case. In other prior art embodiments, the post is a separate piece, sewn into or otherwise permanently attached to the case. While this provides a secure attachment post for the clip, the post becomes a cumbersome and unwanted protrusion when the clip is removed. The case disclosed herein is provided with a detachable post, thereby providing a case unburdened with unnecessary protrusions. The case disclosed herein also provides an attachment point for other accessories such as a light, velcro, keychain or magnets.
The portable electronic cases of the prior art are generally constructed of leather, nylon, or other material provided in sheets. The material is cut to predetermine sizes to form panels, which are then sewn or otherwise attached to form a pocket for holding the portable electronic device. With this type of construction, if one desires parts of a panel to have different physical properties, such as elasticity, texture, color or clarity, different pieces of material must be physically joined to one another to create a panel having the desired characteristics. Typically, the materials are joined by stitching, heat weld, or adhesive. The seams created at the joints add unwanted bulk and add to the cost of construction. It is therefore desirable to produce a case that includes different physical properties, but does not require pieces to be mechanically joined. To that end, the case disclosed herein is constructed of a co-molded material.
For cases designed for clamshell devices, such as cellular phones, the prior art teaches cases having two detachable pocket sections. Each pocket section fits over a section of the clamshell phone and are then connected by a snap, zipper, or velcro. Because of the nature of the case materials, if the pocket sections were not detachable, there would be no way to place the case on the phone, as leather and nylon do not stretch sufficiently to allow one pocket to be placed on the phone and then have the other pocket placed on the phone. By use of the co-molded material described herein, sufficient elasticity may be incorporated into the case to allow the case to be constructed as a single unit. In other words, the two pockets do not have to be separable. Further, the elasticity of the material allows the case to give and fit the contours of the phone in a superior fashions when compared to the prior art.

Portable device case with corner protector


A method of manufacturing a support member, which includes a tubular-shaped tubular part and a coupling part coupling one portion and another portion of an inner circumferential surface of the tubular part to support a ventilation membrane, includes filling a fixed mold and a movable mold with a thermoplastic material or a thermosetting material, wherein the thermoplastic material or the thermosetting material is injected from a gate in the coupling part to be charged from the coupling part toward the cylindrical part.

Conventionally, devices including vehicle lamps, such as head lamps, rear lamps, fog lamps and turn lamps, an inverter, a converter, an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) a battery box and the like require ventilating properties eliminating a differential pressure generated inside a housing due to temperature change. In addition, these devices require dust-proofing properties preventing foreign materials from entering inside a housing, water-resisting properties preventing entry of water, oil repellent properties preventing entry of oil and CCT tolerance preventing entry of salt. Therefore, a ventilation member provided with functions of the ventilating properties, the dust-proofing properties, the water-resisting properties, the oil repellent properties and the CCT tolerance is attached to each device.
For example, in a ventilation cap (ventilation member) described in Patent Document 1, into a cover part of substantially a bottomed cylindrical shape, a substantial tubular body having substantially a cylindrical shape is fittingly inserted, and, between the inner circumference of the cover part and the outer circumference of the substantial tubular body and between a bottom surface of the cover part and a bottom portion of the substantial tubular body is formed into a ventilation path, and a top opening part of the substantial tubular body is formed in an attachment part for attaching to an attachment opening of an device housing. The ventilation cap (ventilation member) described in Patent Document 1 is covered with a filter member (ventilation body), a bottom portion opening of the substantial tubular body of which has ventilating properties, and the attachment part (top opening part) of the substantial tubular body is fittingly inserted into the attachment opening formed in a neck portion of the device housing; thereby the ventilation cap is attached to the device housing.

Method for manufacturing supporting body


A system processes signals exchanged between a near end terminal and a far end terminal over a communication path. The system selects the processing characteristics of a near end terminal based on characteristics of the communication path. The communication path may include the near and the far end terminal and their respective codecs, and the networks. The system may select processing characteristics of the near end terminal based on characteristics of the communication path. Selecting the processing characteristics may include selecting a predetermined operation. The system may adapt a selected operation based on a real time analysis of the communication path.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to acoustics, and more particularly, to systems for processing audio signals to enhance a perceived quality of a processed signal.
2. Related Art
The audio quality of a phone call may depend on the characteristics of telephone terminals at either end of a communication path between the terminals, as well as the networks that provide signals for the terminals. This is true of mobile telephone terminals and their supporting networks. Different mobile networks may have different characteristics that affect the quality of phone calls. A network may exhibit different characteristics in different locations, since network characteristics (e.g., gain, spectral features, distortions, signal continuity, duplexing characteristics) may change in time or change with geography. Further, a network may exhibit different characteristics when receiving signals from different types of networks and telephone terminals that may include the communication path, since each network may work with a particular set of telephone terminals, ideally situated on the same network.
A need exists for systems which may obtain and use information about the terminals and networks that may support a telephone call and may modify their processing characteristics to improve the quality of audio signals transmitted during a telephone call.


An elevator controller/solid state drive interface allows an existing relay logic passenger elevator controller to be retrofitted with either a DC or AC solid state drive replacing the motor generator set for DC hoist motors or the two-speed starter in AC systems. This interface can also allow systems utilizing a motor generator set and DC hoist motor to be retrofitted with an AC solid state drive and AC hoist motor while retaining the existing controller. The controller/solid state drive interface includes selectable dropping resistors to adapt to various control VDC from an existing elevator controller to a 24 VDC relay bank. An electrical circuit coupled to the relay bank (containing additional relays and timers) provides control signals to the solid state drive, which in turn provides the drive power to the hoist motor. Sequencing of specific control signals and creation of the functions necessary for proper operation of the solid state drive are provided within the controller/solid state drive interface.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to passenger elevators generally, and more specifically to an electrical control circuit for powering an elevator hoist motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cities around the world, real estate has become more valuable with increases in population density. To best utilize precious land area, architects and engineers have designed and erected buildings of ever increasing heights. These tall buildings are not new, some having existed for more than a century. In order to provide reasonable access to the upper floors of these buildings, elevators have been provided as a matter of course. Hoist motors provide the actual raising and lowering forces applied to the elevator car, while motor-generators convert A/C power from an electrical supply line to DC and are used as part of the control of both speed and direction of the hoist motor. As one will recognize immediately, electronic circuits capable of controlling the large hoist motors used with elevators were not available to building designers until recently. Instead, large switch banks and massive motor-generator sets provided the necessary interface to a hoist motor.
Many of the tall buildings were and continue to be constructed with long-life materials such as reinforced concrete and steel. As a result, these buildings have outlasted the useful life of the motor-generator sets. With the advent of more advanced and lower cost electronic devices, repair or replacement of motor-generator sets with identical motor-generators is no longer preferred. A modern Solid State Drive (abbreviated SSD) performs the basic functions of the older motor-generators while offering added advantages. For example, the SSD may be used to very precisely control parameters such as accelaration and deceleration of the elevator car. Compensation for variable hoist motor parameters such as winding impedance and field strength may occur instantaneously, or, in some designs, may not be required at all.
Unfortunately, replacement of the motor-generator set has, in the prior art, also necessitated replacement of the entire elevator control system. Replacement of the existing controls which are used in part to drive motor-generator sets is very costly and unduly burdensome to building owners.

Elevator controller/solid state drive interface


A lighting system is provided for use with a patio umbrella or gazebo. The lighting system has a battery housing or power source, and at least one wire branch, with each wire branch releasably attached to a corresponding one of the ribs of the patio umbrella, or to a portion of a gazebo. A plurality of LED devices are spaced apart along each wire branch, and an interconnecting wire couples the battery housing or the power source to the wire branches.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to outdoor patio umbrellas and gazebos, and in particular, to a LED lighting system that is adapted to be installed for use with an outdoor patio umbrella or a gazebo.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Outdoor patio umbrellas and gazebos have become increasingly popular as more and more people are beginning to conduct more outdoor activities. For example, outdoor dinner parties and events are becoming more common, and patio umbrellas have been useful in providing shade to tables and chairs that have been placed outdoors for these events. Outdoor events that are held in the evenings, when the sun has set, usually need to address the problem of providing sufficient illumination to the location of the event. In this regard, separate lighting systems had to be provided to illuminate the location of the event.
There are many different types of lighting systems that are available in the market place. Fluorescent light and incandescent light are commonly used for many applications, but they suffer from several drawbacks. For example, such lighting systems occupy a lot of space and consume a lot of energy. Maintenance can be expensive and these lighting systems can pose fire safety risks.
Thus, there remains a need to provide improved illumination for outdoor events, and in particular, to the space under a patio umbrella or a gazebo.


A coating composition is described which is applied to a substrate and contains ultra-fine TiO.sub.2. This coating composition contains from 0.5 to 30.0% by volume of colored pigment and/or carbon black, from 55.0 to 98.5% by volume binder solids and from 0.3 to 15% by volume ultra-fine TiO.sub.2 having a particle size of 5 to 40 nm. It has a high total reflectance and intensive depth of color. Furthermore, a method of making the coating composition is described. Finally, the use of the coating composition as a finishing lacquer for motor vehicles, industrial coating, printing ink, coil coating, package coating, plastic coating and decorative paint, and also as paint, is described.

The present invention relates to a coating composition which is applied to a substrate and contains ultra-fine Tio.sub.2 and to a method for production of the coating composition and to its use.
A coating composition is known from European Patent EP 0 270 472 B1 which contains 24.0 to 35.0% by weight of a thermoplastic or duroplastic resin, 1.1 to 10.5% by weight of a metallic or metallic-like pigment and 1.1 to 10.5% by weight transparent TiO.sub.2 which has a particle size of 20 to 30 nm. The coat composition is intended for use as a base coating for a metallic paint for automobile bodies in the automobile industry. At least one layer of an unpigmented varnish is applied to this base paint. Several layers of a pigmented base paint may also be applied. However, the pigmented coating composition is not used as a top coat. In addition to the metallic effect, the coating composition exhibits the frost effect. The frost effect can be noted when observing coating compositions which contain metallic or metallic-like pigments in combination with finely-divided TiO.sub.2. The frost effect depends on the direction of incidence of the light relative to the sample and to the observer. If the samples are observed from a vertical direction, the coating seems yellowish to golden in color, but if observed from a horizontal direction, the sample looks bluish.
It can be inferred from the publication by J. G. Balfour in J. Oil Colour Chem. Assoc. (1), 1992, page 21 ff. that in the case of paints which contain exclusively ultra-fine TiO.sub.2, the total reflectance of the paints increases with the increase in the pigment volume concentration from 0.1 to 1.0% ultra-fine TiO.sub.2. The increase in the reflectance of the paints is greater in the blue light range at a relatively short wavelength. With the increase in ultra-fine TiO.sub.2 in the pigment volume concentration, the paints appear to be increasingly milky to the observer.
In conventional coating compositions which are applied to a substrate, an improvement in the total reflectance and depth of color is always desired. An improvement in the unsatisfactory stabilization of colored pigments is likewise always desired. This is particularly so when it is necessary to apply preferably only one coating composition as top coat to a substrate, and therefore the total reflectance and the depth of color only result from the one top coat.

Coating composition applied to a substrate and containing ultra-fine TiO.sub.2 and methods of making and using same


A method of generating motion vectors for image data includes identifying boundaries of at least one object in original frames of image data, performing object motion analysis based upon the boundaries, performing pixel-level motion layer generation, using the object motion analysis and the pixel-level motion layers to generate motion for blocks in the image data, and producing block level motion information and layer information for the original frames of image data.

Conversion from lower frame rates to higher frame rates typically involves frame interpolation. Frame interpolation generates frames between existing frames in the lower frame rate data to achieve the higher frame rate. The frame interpolation process relies upon motion vectors between the two frames to generate the data with the appropriate motion in the data. Using the most accurate motion vectors results in higher video quality.
True motion base frame interpolation typically results in good video quality improvement. Current state-of-the-art automatic motion vector calculations result in interpolation frames with artifacts. It is possible to use true motion by editing the motion and then use that motion for interpolating a frame of interpolation data.


In one embodiment, an advertisement is matched to subject matter in a portion of rich media content, such as a digital video, Flash™ animation, etc. For example, during the playing of rich media content, it may be determined by audio recognition techniques that the content's subject matter matches or correlates with an advertisement. Rendering preferences associated with the advertisement are then determined. The rendering preferences may be used to determine how the advertisement should be rendered (i.e., displayed in association with the content). The advertisement is then served to a device. The advertisement is served such that it can be rendered relative to a time that the portion of media is being displayed on the device.

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to digital media and more specifically to displaying advertisements with rich media content.
A user can perform a text search for content using a search engine. When the search is matched to text content, the results are displayed on a web page. The search results are typically static. For example, if a user was searching for certain web pages, the web pages and URLs would be listed on the page and do not change.
Advertisements related to the content may then be placed in certain sections of the page. Because the content on the page is static, the advertisements are matched to the search once. The placement of the advertisement on the page may be optimized, such as placing the advertisements at the beginning of the results. However, because the content on the web page is static, there is no need to match the advertisements to content that changes over a period of time. It is assumed that once the search is finished, the content remains the same.

Techniques for rendering advertisements with rich media


A vibration reduction mechanism, comprising: a first moving member and a second moving member which move relatively at a time of image blur correction; a guide member which guides relative movements of the first moving member and the second moving member; a plurality of first engagement portions, aligned in a row, which engage the first moving member with the guide member by spherical or cylindrical surfaces and groove-shaped portions; and a plurality of second engagement portions, aligned in a row, which engage the second moving member with the guide member by spherical or cylindrical surfaces and groove-shaped portions, wherein a groove shape of at least either one of the plurality of the first engagement portions or the plurality of the second engagement portions is formed with an elongated hole shape extending along an alignment direction of the first engagement portions aligned in a row.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vibration reduction mechanism having a mechanism to correct blur of an optical system and an optical device using the vibration reduction mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known an optical device provided with a vibration reduction mechanism, in which a lens frame body is movable along a prescribed direction by sliding on a guide axis and rotates around the guide axis so that lens is supported to be movable along a direction perpendicular to the prescribed direction (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H10-3102).
However, the above-mentioned vibration reduction mechanism has the disadvantage of including many constituent mechanical elements, thereby resulting in an insufficient regulation of the rotation of the lens frame body, due to errors and looseness between the constituent mechanical elements, which may be detrimental to the accuracy of the driving control of the vibration reduction mechanism.

Vibration reduction mechanism and optical device


A cathodoluminescence detection system is provided, including                a source of charged particles arranged to illuminate a sample with a charged particle beam, and        an optical path having at least two optical components capable of collecting and conveying light radiation coming from the illuminated sample to an analysis device;        each optical component of the optical path is selected so that:        the maximum output angle of the optical component is less than or equal to 120% of the maximum acceptance angle of the next optical component; and        the diameter of the radiation coming from the optical component in the input plane of the next optical component is less than or equal to 120% of the useful input diameter of the next optical component.

The present invention relates to a cathodoluminescence detection system. It also relates to a microscope implementing such a system.
The field of the invention is the field of cathodoluminescence, and more particularly the field of systems using charged particles such as charged particle microscopes, for example microscopes using the principle of cathodoluminescence.
Numerous cathodoluminescence detection systems coupled with charged particle microscopes are currently known, such as transmission electron microscopes (TEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEM).
The physical effect used in these microscopes, known as cathodoluminescence, is based on the detection of optical signals emitted due to excitation by a charged particle beam. The microscopes used are equipped with a charged particle cannon producing a charged particle beam that is aimed at a sample under examination. The sample struck by the particle beam is excited and in turn emits light radiation. The light radiation is collected by a collection optic the role of which is to direct the light radiation towards means of analysing said light radiation. So-called adjustment means can be arranged between the collection optic and the analysis means to modify and convey the light radiation to the input of the analysis means. Such a microscope is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,589,322. The collection optic is located in a vacuum chamber of the microscope.
However, the known cathodoluminescence detection systems are not flexible. These microscopes and the cathodoluminescence detection systems that they implement do not allow for optimised light radiation collection combined with conservation of intensity and radiance (power per unit solid angle per unit area) along the light path to the analysis means. In particular, they do not allow for optimum collection of the optical signal combined with optimum spectral resolution.
An aim of the present invention is to remedy the aforementioned drawbacks.
Another aim of the present invention is to propose a cathodoluminescence detection system that improves the collection of the light radiation.
Moreover, a further aim of the invention is to propose a cathodoluminescence detection system that conserves both the intensity and radiance of the signal collected over the entire light radiation path.

Adjustable cathodoluminescence detection system and microscope employing such a system


A material classifier includes a cyclone including a cyclone inlet, a cyclone outlet, a blower and a blower discharge; an air diffuser connected at a diffuser inlet to the cyclone outlet and at a diffuser outlet to an air lock such that the cyclone and air diffuser are in fluid communication; wherein the diffuser including a central cylindrical portion including an air inlet for admitting controlled amounts of diffuser air around substantially the entire cylinder outer periphery of the central cylindrical portion, wherein the material classifier separating fine particles from coarse particles and discharging the fine particles together with air out the blower discharge, and discharging the coarse particles through the air lock, such that varying the amount of diffuser air one can control the size of the fine particles being separated from the coarse particles.

In order to transport granular materials they are often entrained in air or some gas. By fluidizing granular material in air, one is capable of transporting the granular materials through pipes, long distances to desired locations. Once the material has reached its desired location, the material being transported must be separated from the air which is usually accomplished with a cyclone. Therefore in most material conveying systems using air fluidization or entraining granular particles within air, the final air material separation is often accomplished with a cyclone.
Furthermore, there is often the requirement that the granular materials being transported, further needs to be classified into different sizes. The most fundamental classification that usually is required is separation of coarser material from finer material for subsequent operations. There are a number of existing devices which independently of the cyclone have the capability of classifying materials into different sizes. It would be desirable, however to use the cyclone in addition to its air separating ability to also be able to classify the materials into different sizes. This would eliminate an intermediate step and the equipment associated with classifying granular materials into various sizes.
There have been attempts at accomplishing this within the cyclone, in for example prior art in International Application WO 03/033158 A1, titled Dust Separator, filed by Rapid Granulator AB on Oct. 19, 2001, wherein they describe a cyclone which is used for the separation of dust from granular material, using a separator chamber mounted on the lower side of a cyclone. Particles dropping out of the bottom of the cyclone pass into a separator chamber and impinge upon a deflector device, wherein via this impact any dust upon the particles settling out of the bottom of the cyclone is dislodged and carried upward through a "inner wall" of the cyclone. Further, the art teaches plates disposed within the inner walls, whose purpose is to prevent or reduce rotation of the flow which takes place with the major direction upwards within the "inner wall" of the cyclone. An air inlet is located below the separator chamber. A downwardly angled portion of the inlet conduit, introduces air and is controlled by a regulator valve. The art taught in this patent is directed towards removal of dust which is adhered to larger granular particles. The apparatus intends to dislodge the dust from the larger granular materials by impinging the larger granular materials upon the deflector devices within a separation chamber. This unit is limited to the collection and removal of extremely fine dust particles from granular materials.
There is however, a need to be able to use a cyclone as a material classifier to be able to classify granular materials into coarse and fine in addition to having the capability of dust removal as indicated in the prior art PCT Application WO 03/033158 A1.


Nanorod and nanowire compositions are disclosed comprising copper indium selenide, copper indium gallium selenide, copper indium sulfide, or a combination thereof. Also disclosed are photovoltaic devices comprising the nanorod and/or nanowire compositions. Also disclosed are methods for producing the nanorod and nanowire compositions, and photovoltaic devices described herein.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to nanomaterials, and specifically to copper indium selenide (CIS) nanorods and nanowires, and methods for making and using such nanorods and nanowires.
2. Technical Background
Copper indium selenide (CuInSe2; CIS) and related materials can be useful as light absorbing materials in, for example, photovoltaic (PV) devices. In photovoltaic devices, these materials can be useful due to their match to the solar spectrum and high optical absorption coefficients. The efficiency of most single junction thin-film solar cells is limited, and even those employing a CIS absorber layer can have a solar energy conversion of about 20% or less. CIS can exhibit good long-term stability that can improve with time. CIS films for photovoltaics are currently deposited onto substrates by a coevaporation process, in which copper, indium, and gallium metal are first deposited, then reacted with Se vapor or H2Se to convert the deposited materials to CIS. This deposition approach can be expensive and the CIS stoichiometry can be difficult to control when trying to deposit the films over large areas.
Solution-based methods have been developed to synthesize colloidal nanocrystals of many different materials, including metals, and Group II-VI, III-V, I-VI, and IV semiconductors. Colloidal CdSe and CdTe nanocrystals have been used to form functional photovoltaic devices with reasonable light energy conversion efficiencies; however, many Group II-VI semiconductors that would be useful for photovoltaic devices, such as CdTe for example, contain toxic Pb, Cd, and Hg, which make them undesirable for widespread commercialization.
Synthetic procedures for preparing colloidal CuInSe2 and CIGS nanocrystals have been reported in the literature, but these procedures typically have low yield and produce particles having multiple phases. The performance of traditional nanocrystal solar cells can also be inhibited by the high number of interfaces present in the material. Thus, there is a need to address the aforementioned problems and other shortcomings associated with traditional CIS synthesis and their incorporation into devices. These needs and other needs are satisfied by the compositions and methods of the present disclosure.

Nanowires and methods of making and using

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


The present invention resides in a method for transferring images from an image-bearing surface, to a moving web or sheet. The image-bearing surface is advanced in a predetermined direction, and the receptor area of the image-bearing surface is exposed to successive images. The successive images are developed using a liquid toner comprising charged pigmented particles, in a liquid hydrocarbon carrier. A porous web is transported in synchronism with movement of said image-bearing surface into position for transfer of said developed images on said receptor area successively onto said web. In one embodiment, the web is an uncoated, non-conductive porous material. The web is treated with a fluorinated or partially fluorinated hydrocarbon surfactant hold-out material in an amount effective to reduce the penetration rate of the toner carrier into the web so as to ensure that sufficient carrier is available for complete and void-free transfer. In another embodiment, the same treatment is effective to prevent the leaching of materials from coatings such as those used in the manufacture of carbonless papers.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to electrophotographic or electrographic printing or copying using a liquid toner, and more particularly, relates to improved transfer of a developed image onto a receiving web.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,374 discloses that a fluorocarbon can be used to achieve solvent hold-out properties in the manufacture of electrofax paper. The fluorocarbon is incorporated into an electroconductive coating applied to a paper base. The coating formulation also comprises electroconductive polymers, binders, and pigments. The fluorocarbon provides resistance to solvent penetration in the paper base during subsequent application of a zinc oxide photosensitive coating to the base, and also resistance to kerosene penetration in the later copying process using a wet toner comprised of kerosene, binders, and carbon particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,417 contains a similar disclosure to that in U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,374. Here, the process is used in the manufacture of electroconductive papers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,933 discloses a coating formulation comprising certain binders and 0.05-10 weight percent fluorine containing polymer. The coating formulation imparts solvent, oil and grease resistance to a cellulosic material. This patent makes no reference to electrophotographic printing.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,030,678, 3,576,019, and 3,671,493 also disclose the application of fluorocarbons to paper to achieve oil repellency. None of these patents make any reference to electrophotographic printing.

Treatment to enhance transfer in liquid toner electrophotography