A nonvolatile semiconductor memory including at least two cells each comprising: a floating gate formed on a semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a first insulating film; a split gate formed on the semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a second insulating film at a predetermined distance from the floating gate; a control gate formed at least on the floating gate with the intervention of a third insulating film; and an impurity diffusion layer formed in a surface layer of the semiconductor substrate and capacitively coupled with an edge of the floating gate on an opposite side to the split gate in the channel direction, wherein the floating gate and the split gate of one cell are alternately arranged with the floating gate and the split gate of another adjacent cell along the channel direction and the impurity diffusion layer of one cell is capacitively coupled with a split gate of another adjacent cell.

This application is related to Japanese application No. 2000-94339 filed on Mar. 30, 2000, whose priority is claimed under 35 USC xc2xa7 119, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory, a method of reading from and writing to the same, and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, it relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory having cells of split gate (SPG) structure and being capable of high integration, a method of reading from and writing to the same, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Virtual grounding structure has been proposed with a view to reducing the size of memory cells in a nonvolatile semiconductor memory,. In the virtual grounding structure, one bit line can be omitted, because a bit line does not need to contact an impurity diffusion layer which functions as a drain, and a source of a cell can serve as a drain of another cell adjacent to the cell so that one bit line can be omitted. Therefore, scaling of the cells is easily performed and an area of the cells can be minimized in NOR structures. Thus, the virtual grounding structure is suited to realize large capacity. An example of a conventional virtual grounding structure is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 6 (1994)-196711. Now referring to FIG. 22, the conventional technique is explained.
In FIG. 22, a buried bit line 51 in a semiconductor substrate 50 of the first conductivity type is asymmetrically constituted of a low concentration impurity diffusion layer 52 of the second conductivity type and a high concentration impurity diffusion layer 53 of the second conductivity type. The impurity diffusion layer 52 overlaps with a floating gate 54a of an adjacent memory cell and the impurity diffusion layer 53 overlaps with a floating gate 54b of another adjacent memory cell. That is, the buried bit line 51 serves as a source of a cell and a drain of a cell adjacent to the cell.
However, in the above-mentioned virtual grounding structure, it is known that data reading from a cell is often interfered by a cell adjacent to the cell. Accordingly, it has been difficult to achieve satisfactory reading precision and to obtain a multi-valued circuit.
Regarding this drawback, a virtual grounding structure with SPG cells has been known (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 5 (1993)-152579). Specifically, as shown in FIG. 23, floating gates 62a and 62b are provided as sidewall spacers on the sidewalls of a SPG 61 in the channel direction, respectively and a control gate 63 is provided along the channel direction. Further, an impurity diffusion layer 65a which is capacitively coupled with the floating gate 62a and an impurity diffusion layer 65b which is capacitively coupled with the floating gate 62b and the SPG 61 are formed in a surface layer of a semiconductor substrate 64. The impurity diffusion layer 65b is also coupled capacitively with the floating gate 62a of an adjacent cell.
Various methods of rewriting the memory cells have been known, for example, a method of injecting electrons from the substrate to the floating gate or from the floating gate to the drain with use of Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunnel current, and a method of injecting electrons from the source to the floating gate or from the drain to the floating gate with use of channel hot electrons (CHE). In the memory cell constituted as shown in FIG. 23, rewriting is not performed by the method of injecting the electrons from the floating gate to the drain with use of the FN tunnel current since the floating gates are formed on both sidewalls of the SPG. Therefore, the applicable range of the memory cell of such a construction is limited.
Further, if the memory is more miniaturized and the gate is formed shorter, dielectric strength between the source and the drain is reduced and writing errors are resulted. Accordingly the reduction of the cell area is difficult.
FIG. 24(a) is a plan view for illustrating the difficulty in reducing the cell area by the conventional technique described above. FIGS. 24(b) and 24(c) are cross-sections cut along the lines A-Axe2x80x2 and B-Bxe2x80x2 shown in FIG. 24(a), respectively. In FIGS. 24(a) to 24(c), reference numeral 71 signifies a diffused bit line, 72 a low concentration impurity diffusion layer, 73 a high concentration impurity diffusion layer, 74 a floating gate, and 75 a control gate. FIG. 24(b) is a cross section in the direction parallel to the control gate and FIG. 24(c) is a cross section in the direction vertical to the control gate.
When the nonvolatile semiconductor memory shown FIG. 24(a) to 24(c) is formed, provided that the minimum manufacturing order of the nonvolatile semiconductor memory is F (e.g., if the manufacture is under 0.15 xcexcm process, F=0.15 xcexcm), the size of the memory cell in the direction parallel to the control gate will be Lg (channel length between the source and the drain)+F (bit line width).
In this memory cell, when a common writing voltage is applied to an adjacent bit line, the value Lg of about 0.3 xcexcm is required to ensure dielectric strength between the source and the drain. That is, when the minimum manufacturing order F is 0.15 xcexcm, Lg=2F is established. As a result, the size of the memory cell in the X direction (horizontal to the control gate) will be 3F. The size in the Y direction (vertical to the control gate) will be 2F, which is the sum of the size F of a portion where the floating gate and the control gate overlaps with each other and the size F of a portion between the memory cells.
Thus, the memory cell area in the virtual grounding structure according to the prior art is 6F2. The actual minimum area 4F2 is difficult to realize by the prior art technique.
Also in the structure shown in FIG. 23, an additional transistor (a SPG transistor) is required between the source and the drain, so that the area occupied by the transistor has been an obstacle to the scaling.
Since such a SPG region inevitably exists as long as the SPG cells are employed, the cell area of 4F2, which is the actual minimum value, is difficult to realize as in the previously mentioned structure.
According to the present invention, provided is a nonvolatile semiconductor memory including at least two cells each comprising:
a floating gate formed on a semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a first insulating film;
a split gate (SPG) formed on the semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a second insulating film at a predetermined distance from the floating gate;
a control gate formed at least on the floating gate with the intervention of a third insulating film; and
an impurity diffusion layer formed in a surface layer of the semiconductor substrate and capacitively coupled with an edge of the floating gate on an opposite side to the SPG in the channel direction,
wherein the floating gate and the SPG of one cell are alternately arranged with the floating gate and the SPG of another adjacent cell along the channel direction and the impurity diffusion layer of one cell is capacitively coupled with a SPG of another adjacent cell.
The present invention further provides a method of reading data from the above-described nonvolatile semiconductor memory, wherein the data reading from one cell is performed by grounding the impurity diffusion layer of said one cell and applying a voltage to an impurity diffusion layer of another adjacent cell, or by applying a voltage to the impurity diffusion layer of said one cell and grounding the impurity diffusion layer of said another adjacent cell.
Still further, according to the present invention, provided is a method of reading data from the above-described nonvolatile semiconductor memory, wherein the data reading from one cell is performed by applying a voltage to the SPG of said one cell and avoiding voltage application to a SPG of another adjacent cell to isolate said one cell from said another adjacent cell.
Still further, according to the present invention, provided is a method of writing/erasing data to/from the above-described nonvolatile semiconductor memory, wherein the data writing/erasing is performed by utilizing FN tunnel current flowing between the floating gate and the semiconductor substrate or the floating gate and the impurity diffusion layer of one cell.
Still further, according to the present invention, provided is a method of writing data to the above-described nonvolatile semiconductor memory, wherein the data writing to one cell is performed by applying a predetermined voltage to the impurity diffusion layer of said one cell and grounding an impurity diffusion layer of another cell to flow electric current, and applying a first voltage to the SPG to weakly invert a channel region facing the SPG to inject hot electrons from an edge of the SPG.
Still further, according to the present invention, provided is a method of data writing to the above-described nonvolatile semiconductor memory, wherein the data writing to one cell is performed by applying a predetermined voltage to the impurity diffusion layer of said one cell and grounding an impurity diffusion layer of another cell to flow electric current, and applying a second voltage to the SPG to strongly invert a channel region facing the SPG to inject hot electrons from the impurity diffusion layer of said one cell.
Still further, according to the present invention, provided is a method of manufacturing a nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising the steps of:
(a1) forming at least two floating gates for providing at least two cells on a semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a first insulating film to have a predetermined distance therebetween in a channel direction;
(b1) forming two SPGs on the semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a second insulating film at one side of each of the floating gates along the channel direction;
(c1) forming an impurity diffusion layer in a surface layer of the semiconductor substrate between the floating gate of one cell and the SPG of another adjacent cell so that the impurity diffusion layer is capacitively coupled with the floating gate of said one cell and the SPG of said another adjacent cell; and
(d1) forming a control gate on each of the floating gates with the intervention of a third insulating film.
Still further, according to the present invention, provided is a method of manufacturing a nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising the steps of:
(a2) forming at least two floating gates for providing at least two cells on a semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a first insulating film to have a predetermined distance therebetween in a channel direction;
(b2) performing oblique ion implantation of impurities using the floating gates as a mask or using a mask formed on the floating gates to form an impurity diffusion layer in a surface layer of the semiconductor substrate at one side of each of the floating gates;
(c2) forming two trenches in the semiconductor substrate including a part of the impurity diffusion layer using the floating gates as a mask or using a mask formed on the floating gates;
(d2) forming a second insulating film on the sidewalls and the bottom of the trenches;
(e2) forming two SPGs by burying a conductive material in the trenches; and
(f2) forming a control gate on each of the floating gates with the intervention of a third insulating film.
Still further, according to the present invention, provided is a method of manufacturing a nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising the steps of:
(a2) forming at least two floating gates for providing at least two cells on a semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a first insulating film to have a predetermined distance therebetween in a channel direction;
(b2) performing oblique ion implantation of impurities using the floating gates as a mask or using a mask formed on the floating gates to form an impurity diffusion layer in a surface layer of the semiconductor substrate at one side of each of the floating gates;
(c2)xe2x80x2 forming sidewall spacers on sidewalls of each of the floating gates and forming two trenches in the semiconductor substrate including a part of the impurity diffusion layer using the floating gates and the sidewall spacers as a mask;
(d2) forming a second insulating film on the sidewalls and the bottom of the trenches;
(e2) forming two split gates by burying a conductive material in the trenches; and
(f2) forming a control gate on each of the floating gates with the intervention of a third insulating film.
Still further, according to the present invention, provided is a method of manufacturing a nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising the steps of:
(a2) forming at least two floating gates for providing at least two cells on a semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a first insulating film to have a predetermined distance therebetween in a channel direction;
(b2)xe2x80x3 performing ion implantation of impurities at least to regions between the floating gates using the floating gates as a mask or using a mask formed on the floating gates and annealing;
(c2)xe2x80x3 forming sidewall spacers on sidewalls of each of the floating gates and forming two trenches using the floating gates and the sidewall spacers as a mask to provide a floating impurity diffusion layer and an impurity diffusion layer in a surface layer of the semiconductor substrate under each of the sidewall spacers;
(d2) forming a second insulating film on the sidewalls and the bottom of the trenches;
(e2) forming two SPGs by burying a conductive material in the trenches; and
(f2) forming a control gate on each of the floating gates with the intervention of a third insulating film.
Still further, according to the present invention, provided is a method of manufacturing a nonvolatile semiconductor memory comprising the steps of:
(a2) forming at least two floating gates for providing at least two cells on a semiconductor substrate with the intervention of a first insulating film to have a predetermined distance therebetween in a channel direction;
(b2)xe2x80x3 performing ion implantation of impurities at least to regions between the floating gates using the floating gates as a mask or using a mask formed on the floating gates and annealing;
(c2)xe2x80x2xe2x80x3 forming two trenches at least between the floating gates to provide a floating impurity diffusion layer and an impurity diffusion layer below edge portions of the floating gates extending along the sides of the trench, respectively;
(d2) forming a second insulating film on the sidewalls and the bottom of the trenches;
(e2) forming two SPGs by burying a conductive material in the trenches; and
(f2) forming a control gate on each of the floating gates with the intervention of a third insulating film.
These and other objects of the present application will become more readily apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory, method of reading from and writing to the same and method of manufacturing the same


A portable electrical fan including a housing defining inlet and outlet openings for transmitting air flow; a fan blade disposed in the housing; a motor disposed in the housing and rotatably coupled to the fan blade; and an elongated support having opposite end portions attached to the housing and an intermediate stand portion shaped and arranged to support the housing on a surface. Also included are electrical controls connected to the motor and retainer means retaining the electrical controls fixed to the elongated support. This arrangement provides a portable electric fan in an efficient, low cost configuration.

This invention relates generally to a portable electric fan and, more particularly, to a portable electric fan having electrical controls retained by a support stand.
Electric fans are used extensively to reduce personal discomfort caused by excessive temperature. Utilization is enhanced by fans constructed for portability so as to facilitate movement thereof into different locations for placement on support surfaces such as floors, tables, window sills, etc.
The object of this invention is to provide an improved, low cost portable electric fan.

Portable fan with electrical control retaining stand


This invention relates to anti-inflammatory compounds, methods of making such compounds and methods of using such compounds having the following structure:

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to triphenylpropanamide compounds which are useful in treating inflammations but which do not demonstrate the side effects normally associated with other anti-inflammatory treatments such as glucocorticoids This invention also relates to methods for making and using the compounds of the invention.
2. Prior Art
Glucocorticoids are the only agents which reduce all the symptoms that are manifested in chronic adrenocortical disorder and hyperfunction, allergies, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, inflammatory bowel disease, pneumonia, bronchial asthma, hematological disorders, dermatitis and eczema. Glucocorticoids also reduce immunological response in organ transplants. The undesired side effects of these agents include hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, hyperglycemia, bone thinning and electrolyte imbalance.
Mechanistically, glucocorticoids bind to the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) on the surface of leukocytes and the resulting glucocorticoid -GR complex migrates into the cell nucleus. There, the complex interacts with transcription factor AP-1 (activating protein-1), inhibiting its induction of genes that produce inflammatory cytokines and collagenase, thereby repressing the inflammatory process. However, the complex also activates GRE (glucocorticoid response element), a transcriptional activator of genes which are responsible for the undesirable side effects mentioned heretofore. The most desirable antiinflammatory medication would inhibit AP-1 without activating GRE.
Steroids, such as dexamethasone and prednisone have been found to exhibit potent antiinflammatory activity, but also exhibit the previously-mentioned side effects.
Heretofore, there has been no antiinflammatory agent found which does not cause side effects. Thus, new chemical agents are needed which would have the desired antiinflammatory effect without causing the side effects mentioned above.
Prior art compounds which relate to the triphenylcyclopropyl and triphenylpropyl compounds of the invention are as follows: U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,833 (Gognaco) describes certain amino derivatives of 2,2-diaryl-cyclopropane. They are described as being useful for the treatment of disorders of the cardiovascular system. They are intended for systemic use. There is no indication in this patent that such compounds can or should be administered topically. Nor is there any indication that such compounds would be useful for treating inflammation of the skin.
Gilbert, et al. in J. Med. Chem. 1983, 26, 693–699 report triphenylpropylidene amines and nitrites as inhibitors of prostaglandin synthetase
Blank et al. in J. Med. Chem. 1969, 12, 873–876 describe the inhibition by 2,3,3-triphenylpropylamines of the biosynthesis of aldosterone without altering deoxycorticosterone or corticosterone levels.
Schultz et al. in J. Med. Chem. 1967, 10, 717–724 describe diphenylpropanamides which are hypocholesteremic in rats and inhibit penicillin excretion in dogs
Burch et al. in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1991, 88, 355–359 describe fluorenyl propanamides which inhibit localized inflammatory reactions in mice.
German Patent No. 2,726,993 (Gognaco) describes 1-substituted 2,2-diphenylcydaopropanes. The patent indicates that they are useful as vasodilators and blood pressure loeIn agents. They are intendjed for systemic use. There is no indication in this patent that such compounds can or should be administered topically. Nor is there any indication that such compounds would be useful for treating inflammation of the skin.
Belgian patent No. BE 855689 (Hexachemie S. A. Fr.) describes 2,2-diphenylcyclopropyl methylamides with vasodilator activity.
Precigoux. et al. describe the compound 4,4′-(3Acetemido-2-phenylpropylideee) diphenol diacetate in Acta Crystallogr., Sect. C: Cryst. Struct. Commun., C41 (8), 1985, pp. 1244–1246.
Falkenstein et al. describe certain phenylaziridine compounds in "Single electro transfer versus nucleophilic ring opening in reactions of cistrns pairs of activated 2-pheytaziridines. Strong influence of nitrogen pyramid for N-benzoylaziridines.", J. Org. Chem., 1993, 58, pp. 7377–7381.
Stamm et al. describe other aziridines in "Reactions with aziridines.53. Arene hydrides. 9. Intermediate substitution in the formation of a benzylic anion by an aromatic radical anion as observed with 1-benzoyl-2-phenylaziridine."Chem. Ber., 1990, 123, pp. 2227–2230. Stamm et al. also described related aziridine structures in "Reductive ring opening of N-benzoylaziridine by anthracene hydride (anion of 9,10-dihydroanthracene) via base-induced fragmentation of the intermediate carbonyl adduct." J. Org. Chem., 1989, 54, pp. 1603–1607. However, none of these publications describe the structures of this invention nor do they indicate that such compounds would be useful in treating inflammation.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide one or more compounds capable of treating inflammatory diseases.
It is a further object of this invention to provide compounds capable of treating inflammatory diseases without causing side effects similar to those caused by glucocorticoids.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a method of making compounds for treating inflammatory diseases.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method of treating inflammatory diseases in mammals by administration of the compounds of this invention.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc.


A speech recognition apparatus 20 includes: an identification language model creation unit 21 that selects, from learning texts 27 for various fields for generating language models 26 for the fields, a phrase that includes a word whose appearance frequency satisfies a set condition on a field-by-field basis, and generates an identification language model 25 for identifying the field of speech using the selected phrases; a speech recognition unit 22 that executes speech recognition on the speech using the identification language model 25, and outputs text data and word confidences as a recognition result; and a field determination unit 23 that specifies a field that includes the most words whose confidences are greater than or equal to a set value based on the text data, the word confidences, and the words in the learning texts for the fields, and determines that the specified field is the field of the speech.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speech recognition apparatus and a speech recognition method for executing voice recognition on input speech, and also relates to a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing the apparatus and method.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, dictionaries for speech recognition called language models are used in speech recognition. Also, the recognition accuracy of speech recognition currently tends to falls relative to a rise in the number of parameters in the learning texts used in the creation of a dictionary. Accordingly, instead of having general-purpose dictionaries that allow recognition with any language, the area in which a dictionary is to be applied is limited to a certain extent, and language models are created and used with focus on a certain field.
In order to improve recognition accuracy under these circumstances, JP 2001-100783A, JP 2002-091484A, and JP 2010-170137A disclose techniques for performing speech recognition using multiple language models.
For example, according to the technique disclosed in JP 2001-100783A, firstly, multiple language models are created by adding example phrases regarding specific topics to the respective language models. Next, speech recognition is performed using those language models, and then the most likely recognition result is selected from among the recognition results.
Also, according to the technique disclosed in JP 2002-091484A, firstly, tree-structure clustering is performed on learning text data, and thus the learning text data is divided into multiple clusters such that each cluster has linguistically analogous properties. Next, a language model is created for each cluster, speech recognition is performed using each language model, and then the word string (recognition result) that has the highest likelihood is output.
Furthermore, according to the technique disclosed in JP 2010-170137A, firstly, speech recognition is performed using multiple language models that are different from each other, and a confidence is calculated in units of utterances. Next, the recognition result having the highest confidence is selected, and the selected recognition result is output.
However, the technique disclosed in JP 2001-100783A and the technique disclosed in JP 2002-091484A have the problem that they are only useful with speech whose field is known in advance. For this reason, when the field of input speech is unknown, it is necessary for someone to recognize the field in advance by listening to the speech and then prepare a language model or learning text data in the corresponding field. Also, in order to implement speech recognition using batch processing when there is a large number of speech files in different fields, it is necessary to classify the speech files by field in advance, and then prepare corresponding language models.
However, according to the technique disclosed in JP 2010-170137A, it is conceivable to be able to handle speech whose field is not known in advance if as many language models as possible are prepared, but as the number of language models rises, there ends up being a rise in the number of speech recognition engines that operate at the same time. This results in the possibility of an excessive rise in the processing load borne by the system during speech recognition.
Although it is conceivable to solve the above-described problems by automatically identifying the field of input speech and selecting a language model in the appropriate field, the reality is that a technique for automatically identifying the field of input speech does not exist.

Speech recognition apparatus, speech recognition method, and computer-readable recording medium


The invention relates to porous polymeric cellulose prepared via cellulose crosslinking. The porous polymeric cellulose can be incorporated into membranes and/or hydrogels. In preferred embodiments, the membranes and/or hydrogels can provide high dynamic binding capacity at high flow rates. Membranes and/or hydrogels comprising the porous polymeric cellulose are particularly suitable for filtration, separation, and/or functionalization media.

Cellulose based membranes offer several advantages over other materials in filtration applications. Cellulose is a readily available, renewable polymer that is non-toxic and readily modified to add functionality for advanced separations. Cellulose is currently used in a variety of membrane products including air, water, and oil purification and adsorptive filtration applications.
However, there are several challenges that must be overcome to realize the advantages of cellulose as a filtration media. Cellulose readily absorbs water, swelling when wet. Water absorbance/swelling constricts membrane pore spaces and leads to reduced permeability. In addition, the volume of the entire membrane increases. If the base material is modified with functional groups to act as a chromatography media, further swelling may occur as water interacts with the functional groups added to capture proteins and other molecules of interest. Because total volume of the material is increased, volumetric binding capacity (amount of target molecule bound per volume of material) decreases compared to a non-swelling material. In extreme cases of functional group addition (e.g. addition of functional tendrils via ATRP), a hydrogel is formed with very high binding capacity on a mass basis, but suffering from very low permeability and low volumetric binding capacity due to material swelling and pore constriction.
When wet, cellulose is also a very mechanically flexible material. After functionalization, the material becomes even less structured and does not retain its shape. This flexibility makes physically working with the material difficult. For example, in packing material into a housing in preparation for flow through filtration, transferring the material must be done with great care or the material folds upon itself and must be separated at risk of damaging the material. The flexible nature of cellulose also means that material compression may occur during flow through filtration. Because of welling, increased pressures must be applied to obtain a given flowrate compared to non-swelling materials. Over time, pressure may compact the cellulose, reducing pore spaces and increasing pressure further. The reduced pore spaces also decrease adsorption kinetics as target molecules can no longer easily access certain binding sites through convection and must rely on slower diffusion to reach these sites and adsorb to the material. The result is increasing pressure requirements over multiple runs and very low maximum flowrates (<2 MV/min) and/or very deep membrane beds (>1 cm) to achieve high binding capacity.
Therefore, reducing the swelling of cellulose is advantageous in increasing permeability and volumetric binding capacity. In addition, if material stiffness could be increased, the resulting membrane would be easier to physically work with and would not compress under flow, maintaining low pressure drop over multiple runs and high binding capacity at high flowrates and/or smaller bed depths. Thus, an object of the invention is to provide porous cellulose compositions with improved physical and kinetic properties as a result of reduced swelling. A further object of the invention is to provide porous cellulose compositions with increased material stiffness, kinetics, and durability. Other objects and advantages of the invention are apparent from the detailed description, figures, and claims.
The invention described herein uses crosslinking using multi-functional carboxylic acids to modify cellulose containing membrane materials to reduce swelling, increase stiffness and durability (reuseability). In a preferred embodiment, the compositions can provide high binding capacity at high flowrates after the material is further modified for use as a chromatography medium.
While multiple embodiments are disclosed, still other embodiments of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which shows and describes illustrative embodiments of the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not restrictive.

Porous polymeric cellulose prepared via cellulose crosslinking


A method, computer system, and a computer program product for dynamic graphical rendering of call options is provided. The present invention may include receiving, by an interactive voice response (IVR) system, a phone call from a telephonic device. The present invention may include determining that the telephonic device includes a visual menu device type. The present invention may include generating a visual prompt menu having a visual representation of a set of call options included in the IVR system. The present invention may include transmitting the generated visual prompt menu to a display of the telephonic device. The present invention may include receiving, from the telephonic device, at least one selected call option from the generated visual prompt menu. The present invention may include processing, by the IVR system, a call sequence based on the received at least one selected call option from the generated visual prompt menu.

The present invention relates generally to the field of computing, and more particularly to telecommunications.
Many organizations deploy interactive voice response (IVR) solutions when providing customer service via telephone calls. IVR enables organizations to handle large call volumes by directing callers through self-service interactions. During the self-service interactions, callers typically listen to automated voice prompts instructing the callers to select from a list of options to service the callers' request. Although IVR may be efficient for organizations, a caller may find that spending time listening to automated voice prompts, and waiting to hear all the instructions before selecting the options to service the caller's request may be inefficient.

Graphical rendering for interactive voice response (IVR)

International Business Machines Corporation


A shaped charge casing 1 designed to be nested to reduce overall volume, which benefits storage or carriage. A lid portion 5 is connected at 8 to a body portion 9 by means of a screw thread. A shaped charge liner 12 can be positioned onto lip 11. The lid portion 5 and body portion 9 can be separated to allow filling or unpacking of explosive material.

A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. A typical device consists of a solid cylinder of explosive with a metal-lined conical hollow in one end and a central detonator at the other end contained within a casing. The enormous pressure generated by the detonation of the explosive drives the liner contained within the hollow cavity inward to collapse upon its central axis. The resulting collision forms and projects a high-velocity jet of metal forward along the axis.
Shaped charges are frequently used as warheads in anti-tank missiles (guided and unguided) and also gun-fired projectiles (spun and unspun), rifle grenades, mines, bomblets, torpedoes and for various explosive disposal purposes. The shaped charge is held within a casing for safe storage and to aid the effectiveness of the charge on detonation.
Previous use of shaped charge casings has involved the charge casing being packed with explosive material either manually (hand stemmed) or by machine and assembled for storage or use. If the user wishes to carry several shaped charge casings on his person, it means a considerable volume is taken up and thus there is less space available for other equipment to be taken. It would be advantageous then to provide a shaped charge casing designed to reduce the overall volume for carriage or storage. Prior art such as EP0185150 shows the principal of stacking warheads to save space. U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,537 discloses a multipart trenching charge case having upper and lower parts which can be nested. In this charge the upper part of the casing provides an explosive compartment and the lower part of the casing provides the required stand off distance.


An image formation system comprises a color image formation unit of a color image formation apparatus and a black-and-white image formation unit of a black-and-white image formation apparatus. A determining unit determines whether each page in an input job having both color pages and black-and-whites pages is a color page or black-and-white page. A control unit controls the color image formation unit to form the color pages, and the black-and-white image formation unit to form the black-and-white pages, based on results from the determining unit. In the event that both color pages and black-and-white page are to be formed on a single sheet, a selecting unit selects between a first mode wherein all pages are formed with the color image formation unit, and a second mode wherein the color pages are formed with the color image formation unit and the black-and-white pages are formed with the black-and-white image formation unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image formation system wherein a color image formation apparatus and a black-and-white image formation apparatus are connected to a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With regard to image formation of jobs containing color pages and black-and-white (hereafter may be also referred to as "monochrome" or may be abbreviated as "B/W" particularly in the drawings) pages, an apparatus proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-112688 is known as an image formation system which can automatically switch between a color image formation apparatus and a black-and-white image formation apparatus for forming images.
However, with the conventional method, image formation of jobs that include both color pages and black-and-white pages can be handled by forming the color pages with a color image formation apparatus, forming the black-and-white pages with a black-and-white image formation apparatus, and collating using an inserter, collator, hand feed tray, etc. However, in the event that there is both a color page and a black-and-white page to be formed on the same sheet, the image formation apparatus to be used for forming the images cannot be automatically determined. Also, even if the image formation apparatus to be used for forming images containing a color page and a black-and-white page on the same sheet could be automatically determined, the control of the color image formation apparatus and the black-and-white image formation apparatus needs to be changed according to the mixing method with the inserter, collator, hand feed tray, etc., and accordingly, such an arrangement could not be readily realized.


A juice extractor includes a juice extraction assembly having a wall surface and fluid outlet thereon. At least one tapered spray nozzle is mounted flush on the wall surface at the fluid outlet for receiving and discharging fluid and configured for preventing build-up on the spray nozzle of product material during extractor operation.

In a whole fruit juice extractor such as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,970,861; 5,992,311; 5,996,485; and 6,568,319, the disclosures which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety, the motion of the extractor cups and the orifice tube received within the strainer tube are each controlled by mechanical cams. Although the motions are separate, the cams and extractor cups and movement of the orifice beam are synchronized. Typically a single camshaft supports at least a drive cam (or cup cam), which engages cam followers located on a cup support member, i.e., a cup beam. The cup beam cam followers are held in contact with the cams through the use of springs and rotation of the camshaft rotates the drive cams and moves the moveable extractor cups into fixed extractor cups located on a cup bridge.
The orifice beam is mounted for movement within a product material area and supports orifice tubes that are each received within a respective strainer tube that is mounted on the juice manifold. An orifice cam is mounted on the camshaft and engages a drive mechanism that also connects to the orifice beam such that as the orifice cam rotates, the drive mechanism reciprocates the orifice beam during extractor operation, thus, driving the orifice tube in and out of the strainer tube.
The orifice beam, a drive mechanism that engages the orifice beam and the extractor cups require periodic cleaning, which typically occurs by a spray nozzle that extends outward from a pipe within the juice extractor. This pipe and attached nozzle collects debris, which can accumulate and cause operational problems during the juice extraction process.

Juice extractor with tapered clean up nozzle


A prestored database indicating a correspondence of δ (depth)/ΔHcJ (coercivity increment) and a prestored database indicating information of Dy diffusion condition (diffusion coefficient, diffusion flux and processing time regarding Dy diffusion) are used to compute distribution of Dy introduction amount in a magnet from shape information of the magnet and information of a Dy introduction face and compute distribution of ΔHcJ in the magnet from the distribution of Dy introduction amount. Regarding a magnet having a coercivity that is distributed non-uniformly, a J/H curve is computed using the computed distribution of ΔHcJ, and a demagnetizing factor at a predetermined temperature is computed using a temperature coefficient.

An Nd—Fe—B series sintered magnet is used as a high-performance permanent magnet for various devices, especially hard disk drives or various kinds of motors.
A remanence of an Nd—Fe—B series sintered magnet sometimes decreases (demagnetization) when the magnet is exposed to high temperature or a demagnetizing field is applied. Such demagnetization includes "reversible demagnetization" in which the remanence recovers when the temperature is returned to an ordinary temperature and "irreversible demagnetization" in which the remanence does not recover. Since the various devices mentioned above are used at various temperatures, there is a need that irreversible demagnetization does not occur even when a demagnetizing field is applied at a high temperature. A conventionally utilized technique is to substitute Nd in a main phase of an Nd—Fe—B series sintered magnet with a heavy rare-earth element such as dysprosium (Dy) by adding the heavy rare-earth element to the magnet so as to prepare a magnet having a high coercivity, in which irreversible demagnetization does not occur even when a demagnetizing field is applied at a high temperature. The "irreversible demagnetization" will be hereinafter expressed simply as "demagnetization" in the present specification.
In the method of substituting Nd in an Nd—Fe—B series sintered magnet with a heavy rare-earth element, however, the remanence still lowers when a coercivity increases. Moreover, it is required to reduce the amount of a heavy rare-earth element to be used while maintaining the heat resistance, since a heavy rare-earth element is a scarce resource. Therefore, a technique has been proposed to supply a heavy rare-earth element such as dysprosium from a diffusion source to the surface of a magnet and make a layer having a high density of a heavy rare-earth element at an outer periphery of the main phase of the magnet by thermal diffusion mainly consisting of grain boundary diffusion (WO 2007/102391). Disclosed in WO 2006/43348 is a technique to diffuse a heavy rare-earth element such as dysprosium from the surface of a magnet into the magnet. This enables manufacturing of a high-performance permanent magnet having an enhanced coercivity while inhibiting lowering of the remanence of the entire permanent magnet.
When a magnet is used for a motor or the like, it is important to know the magnetic force characteristic of the magnet, especially a demagnetizing factor due to heat or the like, in order to design a magnet appropriately and to decide specifications such as characteristics of a motor. Disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-127056, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-257879 and WO 2008/123251 are methods for evaluating demagnetization of a permanent magnet.

Calculating method of magnetic force characteristic, and magnetic force characteristic computing device


The present invention relates to a method for preparing germinated brown rice that has better texture, is easier to cook and has higher safety from microbial contamination compared with conventional germinated brown rice, by controlling the conditions for the germination process, and to a germinated brown rice obtained therefrom. More particularly, improved germinated brown rice can be obtained by at least partially removing the skin, germinating the altered rice in slighted acid germination water and treating the germinated brown rice at elevated temperatures and pressures.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for preparing germinated brown rice having improved texture, cookability without microbial contamination and to a germinated brown rice obtained therefrom. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for preparing germinated brown rice that has better texture, is easier to cook at homes and has higher safety from microbial contamination compared with conventional germinated brown rice, by controlling the conditions for the germination process, and to a germinated brown rice obtained therefrom.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The structure of brown rice consists, from the topmost layer, of the rice bran layer that comprises three layers such as pericarp, testa and aleurone layer, and the embryo occupying a small portion of the base of the rice grain, and the endosperm occupying most of the remaining part. This endosperm, which is filled dominantly with starch, is the edible rice portion.
Compared with milled rice, unpolished brown rice is stable in storage and less susceptible of being damaged by insects or microbes, and does not lose in much nutrients. Therefore, it is rich in fats, proteins, vitamins B1 and B2 compared with milled rice, and does not undergo reduction in the quantity owing to processing. However, in spite of these benefits aspects of brown rice, it is not widely popular because it is less tasty than milled rice, its nutritious ingredients are not sufficiently digested and assimilated, and it is not easy to cook. Consequently, germinated brown rice is drawing more interest.
Germinated brown rice results from germination of the embryo of brown rice through various physiological changes within the rice grain under conditions suitable for germination. Compared with conventional brown rice, germinated brown rice is effectively digested and assimilated in the body, and it is recognized as a functional food with high contents of nutrients beneficial to the human body, such as γ-aminobutyric acid (referred to as GABA), ferulic acid, diet fiber and the like.
However, germinated brown rice has problems of producing offensive fermentation smell and bad odor during the germination process because of the metabolism of brown rice itself as well as the growth of microbes that are attached to the surface of the grain, and undergoing putrefaction during the germination process. Thus, these problems occurring in the germination process should be avoided for the preparation of high quality germinated brown rice. The aforementioned problems should be necessarily recognized in order to satisfy the demand of consumers, and in fact quality control of germinated brown rice through controlling various conditions in the process for preparing germinated brown rice is required.
According to the results of many researches on germinated brown rice, it is reported that as brown rice undergoes germination, its texture becomes soft to a certain extent owing to the physiological activity of brown rice itself and activities of various enzymes, and thereby preparation of a rice which is very easy to cook and has soft texture, compared with normal brown rice, is possible. However, practically there is limit in overcoming such dissatisfaction on conventional brown rice only by adopting the germination process, and the product quality is much too low to satisfy the fastidious demand of consumers. Thus, techniques such as follows are being introduced as a result of researches to improve various properties of brown rice (e.g., texture, cookability, etc.).
Korean Patent No. 247686 discloses a method for making germinated brown rice wherein rice grains still covered with the husks are immersed in brine to sort out those grains with high germinating potential, and then these selected rice grains are partially polished to brown rice, which are subjected to processes of germinating in water and germinating in air repeatedly.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2000-37091 describes a germinating apparatus for repeating the germination process comprising the steps of washing brown rice while circulating water in the germination bath, germinating brown rice in water, discharging water from the germination bath regularly while germination, and injecting air into the bath by an air injection motor.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2002-71208 discloses a device for drying germinated brown rice rapidly to a water content of 25 to 42%, and a method for drying and packaging germinated brown rice comprising the step of drying of germinated brown rice followed by heat treatment. This patent discloses data on the improvement of the cookability of brown rice at homes.
Korean Utility Model Publication No. 2000-07517 discloses an electric heater for the preparation of edible germinated brown rice, which is used to cook brown rice.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2001-111002 discloses a method for preparing germinated brown rice having good cookability, texture and preserving property, wherein germinated brown rice prepared by controlling the water content, degree of gelatinization and the efficiency of water absorption during immersion in water, is subjected to steaming or moist heating, followed by drying.
However, in spite of aforementioned various techniques, there has been a continued desire to improve the quality of the geminated brown rice because the techniques could not resolve completely the problems such as the prolonged process of germination, prolonged cooking and inconvenience in cooking, the rough texture and abnormal odor of brown rice remained after cooking.
In this regard, the inventors of the present invention have conducted researches to solve the technical problems in quality and preparation process that conventional germinated brown rice products have and to develop a high-quality germinated brown rice which has high safety against microbial contamination, highly nutritious, and easy to cook at homes, and found that the texture of germinated brown rice can be improved by lightly grinding brown rice to partially remove its outermost skin, putrefaction of germinated brown rice can be prevented and its abnormal odor can be removed through controlling appropriately the germination conditions such as pH and temperature of the germination water, air injection, change interval of the germination water and so on, and treatment of germinated brown rice under high temperature and high pressure can lead to the improvement of the safety against microbial contamination and cookability as well as further improvement of the texture of brown rice.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a method for preparing germinated brown rice that has high safety against microbial contamination, highly nutritious, easy to cook at homes and soft in texture after cooking.
Another object of the invention is to provide a germinated brown rice prepared by the method according to the present invention.

Method for preparing germinated brown rice having improved texture and cookability without microbial contamination and a germinated brown rice obtained therefrom


A method and arrangement for the insitu cleaning of a chamber in which process gas is injected into the chamber through gas injection ports. Separate gas injection ports through which process gas and the cleaning gas are injected into the chamber are provided. The process gas is injected into the chamber, such as a plasma chamber, through a first gas injection port while the cleaning gas, which cleans the residue left by the process gas during the deposition process, is injected into the chamber through the second gas injection port that is separate from the first gas injection port through which the process gas is injected. The separation of the gas injection ports provides an equalized pressure within the jet screw ports for the process gas and the interior of the chamber. This allows the jet screw ports to be maximally cleaned and reduces the frequency of replacement of the jet screw ports in the chamber.

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) systems normally employ a chamber in which gaseous chemicals react. From these reactions, a substance is deposited on a wafer surface to form dielectric, conductor, and semiconductor film layers that constitute an integrated circuit, for example. In a chemical vapor deposition system, a process gas is injected into the plasma chamber in which a plasma is formed. Due to the ion bombardment within the plasma of the process gas, (SiH.sub.4 (silane), for example) silicon will be deposited on a wafer which has been previously placed in the chamber. During this deposition step, the gas injection ports, also known as jet screws, typically clog with silicon-rich oxide residue formed by the combined SiH.sub.4 (the process gas) and oxygen radicals flowing into the gas injection port. These oxygen radicals originate from the plasma chamber.
The residue coats the walls of the chamber, and also tends to clog the gas injection ports. The chamber, as well as the gas injection ports, needs to be cleaned periodically. This ensures that each wafer encounters the same environment so that the deposition process is repeatable. Since opening up the chamber (changing out the hardware) for cleaning is very labor intensive and costly, a method for removing the deposition from the chamber walls without opening the chamber itself has been previously developed. This "insitu" cleaning has been accomplished in the past using fluorine. The fluorine is injected into the chamber as NF.sub.3. Fluorine is known to etch silicon and silicon dioxide at high rates when it is accompanied by ion bombardment. Radio frequency (RF) power provides the energy for ion bombardment, with the NF.sub.3 serving as the source of fluorine.
Typically, after a wafer is processed through deposition in the CVD system, the wafer is removed to a load lock. A cover wafer is then transferred to the chamber and placed on the chuck. The cover wafer is a standard silicon wafer that is coated with aluminum. It protects the chuck surface from the plasma cleaning and conditioning steps that follow.
The RF power is applied to the chamber and NF.sub.3 is injected into the chamber. The walls will then be cleaned of oxide deposition. However, there may still be a significant amount of fluorine in the chamber and on the walls and free particles. For this reason, a pre-deposition conditioning step is often required. The conditioning step is essentially a deposition that getters the fluorine and tacks down particles onto the chamber walls. When this pre-deposition conditioning step is completed, the cover wafer is transported back to its cassette and the next wafer can then be processed.
In conventional systems for routing the gas to the chamber, injection ports are shared between the deposition process gas (SiH.sub.4) and the insitu cleaning gas (NF3). Such an arrangement is shown in prior art FIG. 1 in which a portion of a process chamber is schematically depicted. The plasma chamber 10 injects oxygen at port 12 into the interior 14 of the plasma chamber. The oxygen radicals are formed within the plasma chamber 14. The shared injection ports for the deposition process gas and the insitu clean gas are depicted as reference numeral 16. During the deposition step, the gas injection ports (also known as "jet screws") clog with silicon-rich oxide residue formed by the combined SiH.sub.4 and the incoming oxygen radicals originating from the plasma chamber.
As stated earlier, the insitu cleaning gas is designed to chemically etch the SiO.sub.2 (silicon dioxide) residue. However, high pressure caused by supersonic gas flows in front of the jet screws causes regions of scarce fluorine radicals that reduce fluorine induced etching of the SiO.sub.2. FIG. 2 a schematic depiction of a detail of a jet screw. NF.sub.3 gas is injected into the chamber 14 through the jet screw 16. Within the jet screw, there is SiO.sub.2 clogging, schematically depicted at point 18 at the jet screw 16. The high pressure region 20 of scarce fluorine radicals caused by the supersonic gas flows in front of the jet screws 16 reduces the fluorine induced etching of the SiO.sub.2 in this area, and in particular, prevents the jet screws 16 from being unclogged of the SiO.sub.2 residue. All of the other chamber surfaces are typically cleaned except for the jet screw ports.
Due to the SiO.sub.2 clogging of the jet screw ports, the jet screws are normally replaced after approximately 300 wafers have been processed. This process involves shutting down the chamber at high expense and loss of productivity. Another problem of the prior art arrangement is that the SiH.sub.4 and NF.sub.3 gases, if combined, are highly combustible so that routing the gases through the same injection ports can be relatively dangerous.

Chemical vapor deposition system with a plasma chamber having separate process gas and cleaning gas injection ports


A device for influencing the movement of a furniture part movably accommodated on a basic furniture structure via a guide unit, the device including a basic component which is assigned to the guide unit and on which a pushing-out device and a retraction device are present so that, in a mounted state of the device, the furniture part can be pushed out from a closure position on the basic furniture structure in a first direction of movement under an action of the pushing-out device, and the furniture part can be retracted from an open position on the basic furniture structure in a second direction of movement under an action of the retraction device, and a charging mechanism for charging the force accumulator, the pushing-out force accumulator is charged by a movement of the housing component of the pushing-out device relative to the basic component.

In the furniture sector, different arrangements for influencing the movement or for guiding the movement of a furniture part which is accommodated movably on a basic furniture structure are known.
With regard to a desired ease of operation and supplied auxiliary functions for a user, functions which can facilitate an action of the user on the furniture part or can reduce the action to a minimum, in particular, in connection with the opening, closing or stopping of the furniture part moving in an opening or a closure direction, are of particular interest. Further aspects are focused, for example, on enabling a largely quiet and material-protecting movement of the furniture part in order to achieve a long service life of the components.
Of central importance in this connection are what are referred to as retracting or closure devices and pushing-out or opening devices, which preferably act automatically or in an automated manner in predeterminable operating phases.
Retracting devices serve, for example, in particular for the automated, complete retraction or closure of the furniture part in a final portion of a movement path relative to a basic furniture structure, on which the furniture part is accommodated so as to be movable in a guided manner.
For an opening direction opposed to the closure direction, use is made of opening devices, in particular in order, in the closed state of the furniture part relative to the basic furniture structure, to move the furniture part out somewhat in the opening direction following a triggering action, for example by means of a person acting on the movable furniture part from the outside, where the first partial path of the moving-out action takes place under the action of a pushing-out force accumulator rather than by further assistance from a person.
In the case of the arrangements mentioned, which in particular do not operate with motor drives, use is generally made of a force accumulator which can be repeatedly discharged to dissipate the force and charged again by an action of a force to be applied.

Device for influencing the movement of a furniture part, guide unit for guiding the movement of a furniture part, and item of furniture


A semiconductor device includes a substrate including an NMOS region, a fin active region protruding from the substrate in the NMOS region, the fin active region including an upper surface and a sidewall, a gate dielectric layer on the upper surface and the sidewall of the fin active region, a first metal gate electrode on the gate dielectric layer, the first metal gate electrode having a first thickness at the upper surface of the fin active region and a second thickness at the sidewall of the fin active region, and a second metal gate electrode on the first metal gate electrode, the second metal gate electrode having a third thickness at the upper surface of the fin active region and a fourth thickness at the sidewall of the fin active region, wherein the third thickness is less than the fourth thickness.

1. Field of the Invention
At least one example embodiment of the present inventive concepts relates to a semiconductor device having a tri-gate transistor and a method of manufacturing the same. According to at least one example embodiment of the present inventive concepts, the semiconductor device may comprise a substrate, a NMOS transistor including a first fin active region protruding from the substrate, and a PMOS transistor including a second fin active region protruding from the substrate. The NMOS transistor and the PMOS transistor may comprise a first metal gate electrode and a second metal gate electrode formed on the first metal gate electrode, respectively.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to high integration of semiconductor devices, a typical transistor has been steadily reduced in size and the transistor's performance, e.g., current-drive performance, also has been degraded. In order to increase the transistor's current-drive performance, there is increasing demand for using a dual-gate transistor having a two-dimensional channel surface or a tri-gate transistor having a three-dimensional channel surface.
As compared with the dual-gate transistor, the tri-gate transistor having a fin-type active region which has an upper surface and a sidewall is structurally more beneficial to improve current-drive performance. However, the tri-gate transistor typically presents some problems. One of the problems is that electric field formed by a gate electrode may be highly concentrated at the intersection of the sidewall and the upper surface of the fin-type active region, therefore the threshold voltage of the tri-gate transistor may be higher due to self-heating phenomenon at the intersection, and the reliability of a gate dielectric layer, e.g., time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB), may also be degraded. Therefore, research activities have been focused on reducing the electric field concentration phenomenon at the intersection of the fin-type active region in the tri-gate transistor.

Semiconductor device having tri-gate transistor and method of manufacturing the same


The present invention is directed to a recording/reproducing apparatus having a Read After Write function which simultaneously performs recording operation and reproduction operation, and is such that, in a reproducing system (120) of a tape streamer (100) which performs Read After Write operation for signals through a magnetic tape (105), the apparatus serves to distribute reproduction signals obtained from the magnetic tape by a first data distribution switch (133) to store signals thus distributed into frame memories (135A), (135B) of 2 channels, and to distribute a recording signal from a recording system (110) by a second data distribution switch (134) as cause signals of crosstalk signals included in reproduction signals to store signals thus distributed into frame memories to generate pseudo crosstalk signals of respective channels by crosstalk cancellers (136A), (136B) on the basis of reproduction signals and cause signals of respective channels which are read out from the frame memories to cancel, every channel, crosstalk signals included in reproduction signals of respective channels.

Hitherto, realization of high transfer rate with respect to data recording/reproducing apparatus with improvement in processing speed of computer and increase in data quantity being as the background has been required. In order to allow the recording/reproducing apparatus to have high transfer rate, realization of high frequency of recording/reproduction signal is necessary. As one of the fundamental problem which obstructs realization of high frequency, operating speed of the reproduction signal processing circuit is mentioned. For example, in an apparatus employing Trellis code modulate system which is the advanced digital modulation system, since the maximum likelihood decode calculating circuit for binarizing (discriminating) reproduction signal requires vast operation quantity, this is the problem in improvement in operating speed. Although the maximum likelihood decoding system is not described in detail here, it will be expected in future that more complicated digital modulation systems are developed for the purpose of improvement in error rate. As a result, there is the possibility that vast calculation quantity may not be processed on the real time basis.
Here, in the real time processing, arithmetic operation is carried out for high rate reproduction signals, which have been converted from analog to digital under the AD (Analog to Digital) conversion, without changing rate. Namely, when reproduction signal channel rate is 100 MHz, a signal processing circuit also processes data or signals with the same 100 MHz rate. In all the apparatuses in practical use at present, data or signals are processed under the real time processing.
Here, a tape streamer 400 which performs real time processing will be explained with reference to FIG. 1.
The tape streamer 400 is a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus of the helical scan type which has a rotation drum unit composed of a rotation drum and a fixed drum, and is adapted for recording data to a magnetic tape 401 wound on the rotation drum unit over 180° when viewed from the drum center and for reproducing thus recorded data. The rotation drum has recording heads W1, W2 and reproducing heads R1, R2 arranged thereon. The recording heads W1, W2 are arranged on opposite sides of the rotation drum, or are so arranged as to be apart from each other by 180° when viewed from the drum center, and also the reproducing heads R1, R2 are arranged on the rotation drum similarly.
In a recording system 410 of this tape streamer 400, recording data of data rate of 100 MHz is distributed and delivered, through a recording head changeover switch 411, to recording amplifiers 412A, 412B, at which recording data are amplified. The recording data thus amplified are delivered, through rotary transformers 413A, 413B, to a pair of recording heads W1 and W2 provided at the rotation drum.
The recording head changeover switch 411 is caused to undergo switching control by recording head switching signal WSWP in such a manner that recording data WR1 is given as a recording signal of the first channel to the first recording head W1 for 180° time period during which the first recording head W1 is slidably in contact with the magnetic tape 401, and recording data WR2 is given as a recording signal of the second channel to the second recording head W2 for 180° time period during which the second recording head W2 is slidably in contact with the magnetic tape 401.
In a reproducing system 420, reproduction RF signals of 2 channels respectively having about 0.1 mV obtained by scanning, by a pair of reproducing heads R1, R2, respective recording tracks of the magnetic tape 401 on which recording data is recorded by a pair of recording heads W1, W2 of the recording system 410 provided at the rotation drum are amplified by reproduction amplifiers 421A, 421B of 2 channels disposed in the vicinity of the heads for the purpose of avoiding noise mixing, and are delivered to the fixed drum side through rotary transformers 422A, 422B. The reproduction RF signal thus obtained is delivered to a reproduction processing system 430 through a reproduction head changeover switch 423.
The reproduction head changeover switch 423 is caused to undergo switching control by reproducing head switching signal RSWP in such a manner that reproduction RF signal of the first channel obtained for 180° time period during which the first reproducing head R1 is slidably in contact with the magnetic tape 401 is selected, and reproduction RF signal of the second channel obtained for 180° time period during which the second reproducing head R2 is slidably in contact with the magnetic tape 401 is selected.
The reproduction processing system 430 is composed of an equalizing circuit 431 which is cascade-connected to the reproduction head changeover switch 423, an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) 432, a PLL circuit 435, and a reproduction signal discrimination circuit 436.
The equalizing circuit 431 adjusts gain and/or phase frequency response so that channel transfer characteristic of the reproduction RF signal delivered through the reproduction head changeover switch 423 results in a desired characteristic. An output of the equalizing circuit 431 is digitized at the ADC 432, and is delivered, as reproduction RF data, to the reproduction signal discrimination circuit 436 such as Viterbi decoder, etc. through the PLL circuit 435.
Here, since it is necessary to sample clock (ADC clock) of the ADC 432 by sampling frequency more than channel frequency of 100 MHz, it is required that ADC clock ≧100 MHz.
The PLL circuit 435 extracts channel clock (reproduction clock) of 100 MHz from reproduction RF signal which has been caused to undergo waveform equalization by the equalizing circuit 431. The reproduction clock is utilized as operating clock of all signal processing circuits of the succeeding stage.
The reproduction signal discrimination circuit 436 binarizes reproduction RF data to output it as reproduction data.
In the reproducing system 420 in this tape streamer 400, all circuits must operate at the channel frequency (100 MHz). When either one of circuits has operating speed less than 100 MHz, bit missing would take place. Such signal processing synchronous with the channel frequency is called real time processing. Since there is a tendency that the channel frequency rises in order to meet requirement of realization of high transfer rate, real time processing becomes more difficult.
Here, the term opposite to the real time processing is post processing. Namely, this system is a system of temporarily storing, into frame memory, reproduction signal of high rate converted Analog to Digital (AD conversion) to read it at rate lower than that in AD conversion to process the reproduction signal at low rate, i.e., to perform post processing to thereby lessen load of the operating speed of the reproduction signal processing circuit. The recording/reproducing apparatus which has been put into use by post processing does not yet exist, but is used at the experimental stage, and has been put into use in measurement instrument.
Then, outline of the post processing circuit will be explained with reference to FIG. 2.
A reproducing system 420A shown in FIG. 2 serves to perform post processing at the reproduction processing system 430 of the reproducing system 420 in the tape streamer 400, and comprises, at a reproduction processing system 430A, frame memories 434A, 434B, PLL circuits 435A, 435B and signal discrimination circuits 436A, 436B of 2 channels which are respectively cascade-connected to a switch 433 for distributing reproduction RF data digitized by the ADC 432 to 2 channels.
The switch 433 is driven by reproduction head switching signal RSWP to distribute and deliver reproduction RF data of the first channel in which reproduction RF signal obtained by the first reproducing head RI has been digitized by the ADC 432 and reproduction RF data of the second channel in which reproduction RF signal obtained by the second reproducing head R2 has been digitized by the ADC 432 to the frame memories 434A, 434B of 2 channels. The reproduction RF data of the first channel is stored into the first frame memory 434 A at 100 MHz rate, and reproduction RF data of the second channel is stored into the second frame memory 434B at 100 MHz rate. The store operations with respect to the respective frame memories 434A, 434B have duty ratio of 50%.
In FIG. 2, the right side partitioned by dotted lines is a post processing circuit 450. Since the post processing circuit 450 operates at duty 100%, low speed of half rate (50 MHz) can be attained. If this technology is developed to provide four frame memories, it is possible to perform signal processing at 25 MHz rate.
In general, in broadcast equipment for business and/or computer back-up unit (tape streamer), etc., design is made such that confirmation operation called Read After Write (RAW), which reproduce data immediately after recording the data to confirm whether or not the data is correctly recorded, can be executed.
It is to be noted that discrimination as to whether or not data is correctly recorded is conducted by judgment of magnitude of reproduction signal voltage in the analog VTR, and is conducted by judgment of error rate in tape streamer which performs digital recording. Most cases where data is not correctly recorded are the cases where medium is defective and/or dust is attached on the head surface.
Here, operation immediately after recording in RAW does not mean that tape is rewound from the time when recording is completed to reproduce data, but means data is reproduced just immiediately after the data is recorded by the recording head. For example, in the magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus of the helical scan system, there is employed a configuration such that RAW operation is conducted by the next drum rotation of the recording drum rotation. In the magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus of the linear system, there is employed a configuration such that reproducing heads are disposed at the backward position of the recording head to thereby perform RAW operation.
Meanwhile, in the case where RAW function is realized in the tape streamer 400 of the helical scan system, recording heads W1, W2,reproducing heads R1, R2, rotary transformers 413A, 413B for recording and rotary transformers 422A, 422B for reproduction which transmit signals thereto, etc., which are disposed at close distances, operate at the same time. From this fact, in order to suppress crosstalk interference where recording signal is mixed into very weak reproduction signal, it is necessary to employ, e.g., as shown in FIG. 3, strong shield structure which electromagnetically shields the recording system 410 and the reproducing system 420 therebetween. Namely, recording signals delivered to recording heads W1, W2 through rotary transformers 413A, 413B from recording amplifiers 412A, 412B are signals of large amplitude ranging to 10 V, whereas reproduction RF signals obtained at reproducing heads R1, R2 from the magnetic tape 401 are very small amplitude signal of the order of 0.1 mV, and its voltage ratio is fifth power of 10. Accordingly, shield as large as 100 dB must be implemented to recording signal. In order to obtain shield effect as large as 100 dB, space for inserting shield material is required. Employment of strong shield structure obstructs miniaturization of drum, leading to the cause to obstruct miniaturization of equipment.
As a technology for suppressing crosstalk interference from recording signal to reproduction signal by signal processing without employment of the shield structure in order to suppress crosstalk interference from recording signal to reproduction signal, e.g., technologies to subtract pseudo recording signal crosstalk generated by passing recording signal through the adaptive filter from reproduction signal to thereby remove crosstalk component of recording signal mixed into reproduction signal are disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 245307/1997 publication and/or the Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 177701/1998 publication.
If such crosstalk cancellation means is provided, error rate of RAW is improved. As a result, sense (detection) accuracy of head stain and/or tape defective which is the object of RAW is improved. Thus, this contributes to realization of high reliability of equipment.
Meanwhile, since crosstalk canceller is a circuit for canceling leakage of recording data, arithmetic processing had to be performed at recording data rate. Namely, real time processing had to be performed, and it was required to dispose crosstalk canceller at the preceding stage of frame memory. Accordingly, the crosstalk canceller is not permitted to undergo post processing, and the crosstalk canceller is required to perform 100 MHz rate operation. Thus, there is the possibility that the crosstalk canceller results in cause of obstacle (obstruction) to realization of high transfer rate.

Recording/reproducing apparatus and cross talk cancel method


Provided is an ophthalmic diffractive multi-focal lens with a diffractive structure including a phase profile in which a plurality of blaze shaped zones are set in a concentric circle form, wherein: at least one of the zones serves as an adjustment zone wherein an inclination direction in the phase profile is reversed with respect to that of other zones; and a light intensity level giving a peak or focal point at a position away from three focal points in a light intensity distribution of transmitted light in an optical axis direction is kept low in comparison with a phase profile without the adjustment zone.

Conventionally, as an optical element for correcting refractive abnormalities in the optical system of the human eye, or as a substitute optical element after removal of an crystalline lens, etc., an ophthalmic lens has been used. As specific ophthalmic lenses, in addition to eyeglasses lenses, there are contact lenses that are overlapped on the cornea, or ophthalmic lenses mounted directly in the human eye, such as an intraocular lens (IOL) used by being inserted intracapsularly in place of the intraocular crystalline lens, or a phakic intraocular lens (ICL) used by being inserted in the anterior chamber of the intraocular crystalline lens, etc., and these are widely used because they provide a wide field of view as well as reduce a sense of discomfort of vision.
However, in recent years, there is an increase in people continuing to use contact lenses when they have reached the age of having presbyopia. For people with presbyopia, their accommodation power decreases, so there is a symptom of having difficulty in focusing on nearby objects. Thus, multi-focal contact lenses which can also focus on nearby objects are needed for presbyopia patients. Also, for patients who have undergone cataract surgery, since the crystalline lens which is in charge of the accommodation function is removed, even if an intraocular lens is inserted as a substitute, the symptom of having difficulty in seeing close up remains. With the intraocular lens as well, it is necessary to have a multi-focal function having a plurality of focal points. In this way, the need for multi-focal ophthalmic lenses to reflect the aging society has increased even further in recent years.
As a method for realizing this multi-focal ophthalmic lens, known examples include a refractive multi-focal ophthalmic lens that forms a plurality of focal points based on the principle of refraction, and a diffractive multi-focal ophthalmic lens that forms a plurality of focal points based on the principle of diffraction. With the latter diffractive ophthalmic lens, provided are a plurality of diffractive structures which are formed in concentric circle form on the optical part of the lens, and a plurality of focal points are given by the mutual interference effect of light waves that pass through the plurality of diffractive structures (zones). Therefore, compared to a refractive lens that gives focal points using the refractive effect of light waves at the refracting surface comprising boundary surfaces with different refractive indexes, with the diffractive type multi-focal ophthalmic lens, there are advantages of being able to set a high lens power while inhibiting an increase in lens thickness, etc.
Generally, a diffractive multi-focal lens has a diffractive structure for which the diffractive zone pitches become gradually narrower toward the periphery from the lens center according to a rule called the Fresnel pitch, and multiple focal points are made by using the 0th order diffracted light and +1st order diffracted light generated from that structure. Normally, the 0th order diffracted light is used as the focal point for far vision, and +1st order diffracted light is used as the focal point for near vision. Using this diffracted light distribution, it is possible to make a bifocal lens having both far and near focal points.
Also, as in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. JP-A-2010-158315 (Patent Document 1) disclosed by the present applicant, or in PCT Japanese Translation Patent Publication No. JP-A-2013-517822 (Patent Document 2), known are items for which the number of focal points are further increased, and as a result, it is possible to set focal points for intermediate vision in addition to those for far vision and for near vision. Moreover, as shown in International Publication No. WO2013/118176 (Patent Document 3) disclosed previously by the present applicant, there is also known a diffractive lens giving a plurality of focal points using a diffractive zone that is not based on the Fresnel pitch.
Meanwhile, with such diffractive multi-focal lens, it is required that, particularly for implementation in an ophthalmic lens, the quality of vision (QOV) be enhanced. For obtaining a good QOV, it is also an effective way to suppress the peak of the light energy other than the focal points required on the optical axis. Specifically, when focusing on the focal point for far vision in the multifocal lens, light from the far distance forms a main peak at the image plane center of the far focal point. Here, due to the fact that the lights intensified each other at other focal point positions, etc. also reach the image plane position of the far focal point, small peak groups exist around the main peak that forms the far focal point in the image plane of the far focal point, which conceivably cause the light energy other than the required focal points.
Therefore, in the multifocal lens, it may be effective for enhancing the QOV or the like to suppress the light energy of the focal point that is not required by the user, or to substantially eliminate such focal point. This will conceivably improve, for example, "halo," which is a phenomenon of a band shaped or ring shaped light occurring around a light source when viewing a far light source at night, "blurred vision," which is a symptom of vision as if being hazed or viewing an object in fog, and the like.

Ophthalmic diffractive multi-focal lens and method for manufacturing ophthalmic diffractive multi-focal lens


A method for optimizing multipass laser amplifier output utilizes a spectral filter in early passes but not in later passes. The pulses shift position slightly for each pass through the amplifier, and the filter is placed such that early passes intersect the filter while later passes bypass it. The filter position may be adjust offline in order to adjust the number of passes in each category. The filter may be optimized for use in a cryogenic amplifier.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods of optimizing laser amplifier output. In particular, this invention relates to optimizing laser amplifier output in ultrashort-pulse multipass laser amplifiers, by selective use of a spectral filter.
2. Description of Related Art
Gain narrowing has long been recognized as a problem in amplifiers where the beam passes through the amplifying medium multiple times (e.g. multipass configurations and regenerative configurations). Both multipass and regenerative amplifiers pass the beam being amplified through the gain material a number of times, in order to achieve sufficient amplification. Since gain follows a generally bell-shaped curve, the repeated passes result not just in increased power, but also in narrowed gain profile.
Gain-flattening etalons and other types of filters have been used in the past in room temperature regenerative [4] and multipass amplifiers [3, 5]. The resulting gain shape achieved is not ideal however, as it is not flat but rather a double peak shape or "hard edges" on the spectrum. See, for example, FIG. 4 in reference [6], wherein the double peak has completely suppressed the gain at 800 nm, the center frequency of the input pulse.
This non-ideal effect of the etalon or filter is minor in early passes, because the gain is high and offsets the "double peak" effect of the filter. In later passes, when amplifier is near saturation, the double peak effect predominates. Furthermore, the amount of gain the amplifier can achieve is degraded by use of a filter in these last few passes when the power is the highest. Such filters work best in small signal regimes. However, no prior work in the field discusses the insertion of such a filter in earlier passes but not later passes, although it is the case that some laser systems have used two stages of amplification—the first of which did include the filter, and the second of which did not and others [7, 8, 9] have removed the pulse from the amplifier before a final pass through the filter. In others, the position of the filter was such that the pulse was removed from the amplifier after passing through the crystal, but before a final pass through the filter. However, no attempt was made in past work to fabricate and mount the filter in such a way that the number of passes through which the filter is inserted can be varied.
A need remains in the art for a technique of optimizing the output of ultrashort-pulse multipass amplifiers by selectively inserting a spectral filter in the path of the beam being amplified.

Method for optimizing output in ultrashort-pulse multipass laser amplifiers with selective use of a spectral filter

The Regents of the University of Colorado


A cladding layer 7 is formed on a base body made of a material for an optical waveguide, and a groove is formed in the base body and the cladding layer 7. The base body and the cladding layer are joined to a supporting substrate with the cladding layer 7 positioned on the side of the supporting substrate 1. The base body is machined and thinned to form a thin plate 30 so that the groove penetrates through the thin plate 30. An end face 14A on the groove 12 side of the optical waveguide 13A is contacted with a light absorbing material or light reflecting material 9 to form a reflecting mirror.

In recent years, with the developments in information communication apparatus, shortage of the capacity of signal lines within such apparatus becomes problematic. For solving the problem, the replacement of a part of electric wiring made of copper in the printed circuit board within the apparatus by an optical waveguide and the use of optical signals in place of electric signals come under review. Since high-density optical wiring is required to be housed in a limited space, the following is examined in the apparatus. That is, in the same manner as in ICs and multi-chip modules, a photoelectric element such as a laser diode or photodiode is mounted on a surface of a substrate, and optical wiring layers are stacked on the same substrate as the electric wiring substrate. Such optical surface mounting circuit substrate is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication Nos. H05-72429A and 2004-94070A.
In an optical-electrical wiring substrate in which an optical waveguide is stacked on the same substrate as an electric wiring, high-density mounting can be achieved. However, in order that an optical waveguide may be optically connected to a photoelectric element such as a laser diode or photodiode, an optical path switching technology for switching an optical path of the optical waveguide by an angle of 90 degrees is required.
In Japanese Patent Publication No. H05-34526A, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a groove 4 extending toward an inner side from a surface 3a is formed in a substrate having formed therein an optical waveguide 2 by machining and etching. This groove 4 is made oblique by 45 degrees relative to the substrate surface 3a. As a result, an end face of the optical waveguide 2 faces the groove 4, and an optical reflecting mirror is formed on the end face of the optical waveguide 2. Light A propagating through the optical waveguide 2 is reflected by a wall surface 4a of the groove 4, namely, by the optical reflecting mirror, and propagates toward the surface 3a of the substrate to enter a photoelectric element 5 on the substrate surface.

Method for manufacturing optical surface mounting waveguide substrate


An annular packer to create an annulus seal that includes a solid mandrel with a first end, second end, central bore, and exterior. The annular packer includes first and second sealing elements connected to the exterior. The second sealing element is expanded radially by axial movement of at least a portion of the second sealing element. The annular packer includes a first piston movable from a first position to a second position. Pressure applied exterior of the mandrel moves a portion of the first sealing element away from the mandrel to create a first seal causing a pressure differential. The pressure differential moves the first piston to its second position axially moving at least a portion of the second sealing element to create a second seal against the casing. A port may be opened releasing the first seal, but the second seal remains set against the casing.

Field of the Disclosure
The embodiments described herein relate to an annular packer that includes a solid mandrel and may be set using annular pressure.
Description of the Related Art
Improving the safety and integrity of oilfield operations and design is a top priority in the oil and gas industry. It is important to provide an effective barrier between the downhole formation and the rig floor in order to prevent uncontrolled flow of fluids up to the wellhead. The main barrier between the formation and the rig floor is typically a cemented casing string. The cement creates a barrier in the annular space between the casing string and the formation directing the formation fluids and/or pressure into the production string where multiple devices and methods may be used to control the wellbore pressure.
In some instances, it may be necessary to provide another barrier in the annulus. Annulus packing devices are previously known to be used to create an annular seal. Annular packing devices are typically set by the application of pressure from within the bore of the device to set a packing element against the casing string. However, the flow paths required for setting the packing elements may provide additional leak paths whereby formation fluid may travel into the wellbore through the device. It may be desirable to have an annular packing device that does not include any flow paths from the bore that may be potential leak paths. Other annular packing devices may require complex setting mechanisms such as using an electronic or acoustic signal transmitted to the tool to set the packing elements. The complexity of such systems increases the costs of such annular packers. Further, such systems require an application of providing the requisite signals to the downhole location of the annular packer. It would be desirable to provide an annular packer that may be simply actuated by the application of annulus pressure.

Interventionless method of setting a casing to casing annular packer


A direct current (DC) brushless fan and a drive apparatus are provided. The drive apparatus includes a housing, a DC brushless motor, a control unit, an adaptation unit, an alternating current (AC) input interface, a DC input interface, and a power storage. The housing includes a first portion and a second portion. A projection path defined by orthogonally projecting the first portion toward the second portion is defined as an installation range. The DC input interface is arranged in the installation range and is electrically connected to the control unit. The AC input interface is arranged in the installation range and is electrically connected to the adaptation unit. The power storage is detachably arranged at an installation position of the housing. When the power storage is arranged at the installation position, the power storage covers the AC input interface and is electrically connected to the DC input interface.

A conventional fan includes a motor, a fan blade assembled to the motor, and a power input interface that is electrically connected to the motor. The power input interface is configured to be electrically connected to a utility power (i.e., alternating current), so that the motor can obtain an electrical energy from the utility power to drive the fan blades to rotate. However, the conventional fan can only be electrically connected to the utility power to obtain electrical energy. Therefore, when a user is in an environment (e.g., an outdoor environment) without utility power, the user must extend the utility power to the aforementioned environment through an extension cord, so as to supply the electrical energy to the conventional fan for use. In other words, the conventional fan is easily limited by the condition of the environment being with utility power, so as to cause inconvenience.

Direct current brushless fan and drive apparatus


An abdomen exerciser includes two three-end links respectively pivoted to two curved supports on a base frame at opposite sides to hold two leg presses, two sets of weights, and a back cushion. The sets of weights automatically turn the three-end links on the curved supports in lifting the back cushion from a horizontal position to a vertical position as the player bends the trunk upwards, or give a pressure to the player's back as the player lies down. Either leg press can be turned into the operative position for hanging the respective leg in raising the player's center of gravity.

The present invention relates to an abdomen exerciser for training the muscles of the abdomen.
A variety of abdomen exercising apparatus have been disposed, and have appeared on the market. FIG. 1 illustrates an abdomen exercising apparatus which was filed by the present inventor on Dec. 8, 1992 under filing No. 07/992,730. This structure of abdomen exercising apparatus is suitable for people of different ages and physical conditions. However, it is simply designed for trunk bending upwards, and it gives little damping resistance as the trunk is lying down.