An apparatus for a locking unit of a container spreader having at least a pair of telescopic beams comprising a housing, a twistlock head partially inside the housing and partially protruding out from the housing, an elastic impact absorption element and a toothed coupling to transmit the necessary engagement torque to the twistlock head. The locking unit is equipped with a coupling that has been arranged to allow the movement of the twistlock head in all directions on a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the twistlock head.

Traditionally, for the lifting of containers an especially just for that purpose designed loading means called spreader is used. The spreader engages with the lifting holes situated on the corners of the container with its locking units called twistlocks. The apparatus is used in connection with different forklift trucks and reach trucks moving on wheels, and cable cranes.
During the operation fairly hard impact stresses are directed towards the spreader and therefore the whole operation has to be stopped very often for repairing or changing of the whole apparatus.
Another problem is to be able to aim the twistlocks at the lifting holes on the corners of the container due to the manufacturing tolerances of containers and damages during a transport.
In order to be able to engage the twistlocks reliably it is essential to recognize the distance of the container from the twistlock so that all the twistlocks are simultaneously in the correct place. Recognizing limit switches are damaged fairly easily because accelerations are extremely high.
Also distortions of moving rods or levers can easily cause malfunctions. In those cases also counter surfaces on the supporting structure can be damaged and the whole structure has to be repaired or changed.
Prior-art technology in the field of the invention is represented for example by the patents GB2294027 and EP0442154. In these publications different types of absorption solutions and levers for recognizing the corners of the container are presented. In both cases the concentration is directed mainly at the absorption of the axial force, and as to the guidance of the twistlock, at the swing in relation to the self-aligning bearing.
Swedish patent publication SE 339740 shows a twistlock arrangement where moving parts are situated inside a closed space, and where the coupling for transmitting the torque does not move in the vertical direction. A disadvantage of the solution presented by the Swedish patent publication is the fact that it is complicated of its structure and that receiving of the horizontal forces is fairly poor.

Apparatus for a locking unit of a container spreader


The present invention provides a flexible line guidance and tension measuring device for use on an exercise apparatus to guide a flexible line from a resistance mechanism to an exercise member and measure tension in the flexible line. A fixed member is operatively secured to the exercise apparatus, and a movable member is movably mounted to the fixed member. The flexible line passes over a load bearing pulley rotatably mounted on the movable member. Tension in the flexible line causes the movable member to move relative to the fixed member, and an incremental deflection measuring means measures the relative movement.

Those skilled in the art will recognize the desirability of providing isokinetic resistance to movement for exercise purposes, and that flexible lines may be used to provide such resistance. Also, those skilled in the art will recognize the desirability of providing a single unit that facilitates a full body workout. The present invention involves an exercise unit that is capable of providing isokinetic resistance through flexible lines relative to a person performing pullovers, pull downs, chest crosses, butterflies (with the arms either up or down), chest presses, bicep curls, leg curls, leg extensions, squats, etc. The present invention facilitates a wide range of exercises that depend upon a single isokinetic resistance mechanism. The present invention not only guides one or more flexible lines from a resistance mechanism to one or more exercise members; it also measures the exercise load as a function of the tension in the flexible line(s) without impacting the exercise load.

Flexible line guidance and tension measuring device


An on-board unit (OBU) of a vehicle receives one or more data messages indicative of intersection geometry for an upcoming intersection along a roadway being traversed by the vehicle and traffic control status of a traffic control of the intersection. An outbound direction for the vehicle through the intersection is identified. A first traffic message is sent to preempt the traffic control to allow the vehicle to perform a maneuver to traverse the intersection in the outbound direction. The maneuver is indicated as complete and a second traffic message is sent to discontinue the preempt of the traffic control.

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) is a type of communication that allows vehicles to communicate with various aspects of the traffic environment. This communication may include interaction with vehicles using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication and interaction with infrastructure using vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication.
Vehicles may include radio transceivers and vehicle on-board units (OBUs) to facilitate the V2X communication. Road-side units (RSUs) may provide wireless communications from roadside infrastructure to the OBUs. Such communication may be referred to as infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) communication. RSUs generally operate in the same frequency band as V2X, over technologies such as Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (CV2X) and Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technologies. Some RSUs provide additional functionality, such as local Wi-Fi hotspots for pedestrians or cellular backhaul to communicate information with a central system.

Traffic control preemption according to vehicle aspects


A laser blood-flow meter includes a laser-beam irradiator for irradiating laser beams to biological structure, a detector for detecting scattered beams resulted from scattering of the laser beams in the biological structure, the laser blood-flow meter measuring blood flow of the biological structure in accordance with the scattered beams detected by the detector, and a beam-collector for collecting the scattered beams to direct the collected beams to the detector.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a laser blood-flow meter and a system for monitoring bio-data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-45342 has suggested a laser blood-flow meter which irradiates laser beams to biological structure to allow the laser beams to be scattered in the biological structure, and detect power spectrum of scattered laser beams to thereby measure blood flow in the biological structure.
The suggested laser blood-flow meter measures or calculates blood flow by virtue of a speckle interference process making use of diffraction of laser beams scattered in biological structure.
Herein, speckle interference indicates, with respect to measurement of blood flow, a spotted noise or interference pattern obtained when scattered beam resulted when laser beams irradiated to biological structure are scattered with erythrocytes in blood are observed at a facet. The noise or interference pattern varies in accordance with movement of erythrocytes.
A laser blood-flow meter operates in accordance with such a principle as mentioned above. A laser blood-flow meter detects an interference pattern by irradiating laser beams to biological structure such that the interference pattern appears on a detection screen of a detector such as a photodiode, and measures blood flow, based on correlation between variance in the interference pattern and movement of erythrocytes.
Measurement of blood flow in a laser blood-flow meter is made with a sensor of the laser blood-flow meter being attached to a person to be monitored. Accordingly, when blood flow is measured continuously for a long time, a laser blood-flow meter would receive artifact noises caused by the person's slight movement and/or measurement environment.
The artifact noises often become extremely high in proportion with power spectrum of scattered beams, in which case, it is not possible to properly measure blood flow.
Thus, it was difficult or almost impossible to properly measure blood flow by applying a laser blood-flow meter to a monitor system which was necessary to receive for a long time blood flow data and biological data having correlation with the blood flow.
It is empirically known that blood flow in a head is different from blood flow in quarters. Hence, it has been said that blood flow in a head and quarters were necessary to be measured independently of each other, but it was not possible to do so because of the above-mentioned artifact noises.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-120509 has suggested an apparatus for detecting power spectrum as a blood-flow signal, including a laser-beam source emitting laser beams in a longitudinal single mode, first means for stabilizing a wavelength of the laser beams, and second means for converting laser beams reflected from an object, into electric signals.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1-256924 has suggested a method of diagnosing eyes including the step of irradiating laser beams to eyes wherein laser beams are received by a beam receiver through an optical fiber, a lens being disposed between the beam receiver and the optical fiber.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 37-31395 has suggested a lumen mirror including a beam irradiator, a beam collector and a detector.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2-203838 has disclosed a probe for measuring blood flow, as prior art, including a prism for turning laser beams by 90 degrees.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 57-134658 has suggested a device for detecting whether a droplet exists on an object, including a beam block which prevents a beam irradiated from a beam emitter, from being directly received at a beam receiver.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 58-185203 has suggested an optical fiber sensor used for forward-scattered beams.

Laser blood-flow meter and system for monitoring bio-data


A tire inflation pressure sensing apparatus according to the present invention includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter is provided on a wheel of a vehicle and includes a pressure sensor working to sense an inflation pressure of a tire on the wheel and an acceleration sensor working to generate a signal as a function of a component of gravitational acceleration in the sensing direction thereof. The transmitter is configured to determine a position thereof depending on the signal generated by the acceleration sensor and transmit the signal representative of the inflation pressure of the tire toward the receiver when a transmitting request is issued and the determined position thereof falls in a predetermined range. The receiver is provided on the body of the vehicle and is configured to receive the signal transmitted from the transmitter and determine the inflation pressure of the tire depending on the received signal.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to tire inflation pressure sensing apparatuses or sensors. More particularly, the invention relates to a direct-type tire inflation pressure sensing apparatus that includes a transmitter with a pressure sensor, which is installed to a wheel of a vehicle and configured to transmit a signal representative of an inflation pressure of a tire on the wheel sensed by the pressure sensor, a receiver installed to the body of the vehicle and configured to receive the signal transmitted from the transmitter, and an acceleration sensor employed to determine a position of the transmitter relative to the receiver so as to improve reliability of the sensing apparatus and decrease power consumption of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional tire inflation pressure sensing apparatuses of direct-type generally include a transmitter and a receiver. (For example, Japanese Patent No. 3212311, an English equivalent of which is U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,524, discloses such an apparatus.)
The transmitter, which includes a pressure sensor, is directly installed to a wheel of a vehicle on which a tire is mounted. The transmitter is configured to transmit a signal representative of an inflation pressure of the tire sensed by the pressure sensor.
The receiver, which includes an antenna, is installed to the body of the vehicle. The receiver is configured to receive the signal transmitted from the transmitter through the antenna and determine the inflation pressure of the tire depending on the received signal.
Specifically, with reference to FIG. 11, the transmitter J2 is placed inside the tire J1 and mounted to an air valve J4 of the wheel J3. Consequently, when the vehicle is running, the position of the transmitter J2 relative to the antenna of the receiver varies due to rotation of the transmitter J2 with the tire J1, thus resulting in variation in the level of the signal received by the receiver.
There may exist such a position of the transmitter J2 relative to the antenna of the receiver that the level of the signal received by the receiver is lower than a required level. When the transmitter J2 is rotated to such a position and transmits at the position the signal representative of the inflation pressure of the tire J1, the receiver cannot accurately recognize the signal, thus resulting in a decrease in the fidelity of the receiver.
To avoid such a decrease in the fidelity of the receiver, one may consider applying one of the following two approaches.
The first approach is to determine a suitable installation position of the antenna of the receiver on the body of the vehicle such that the receiver can accurately recognize the signal transmitted by the transmitter J2 at any rotational position of the transmitter J2.
However, determination of such an installation position of the antenna requires an additional task of evaluating the level of the signal received by the receiver.
Moreover, since the signal transmitted from the transmitter J2 will be attenuated during the course of transmission to the receiver, it is, indeed, very difficult to determine such an installation position of the antenna. For example, when the transmitter J2 transmits the signal at a position where the transmitter J2 is opposed to the receiver with the wheel J3 positioned therebetween, the signal cannot pass through the wheel J3 which is made of a metal material. Especially, when the level of the signal transmitted by the transmitter J2 is restricted under regulations, determination of such an installation position of the antenna becomes more difficult.
Furthermore, in the case where the receiver has only a single antenna, through which the receiver receives all the signals transmitted from a plurality of transmitters J2 installed to different wheels J3 of the vehicle, it is required to install the antenna at an optimal position where the receiver can accurately recognize all the signals transmitted from different transmitters J2. However, determination of the optimal position is even more difficult, and a lot of time is required to evaluate the level of all the signals received by the receiver.
The second approach is to allow the transmitter J2 to continuously transmit a plurality of frames, which contain therein the same signal representative of an inflation pressure of the tire, so as to increase the probability of accurate recognition of the signal by the receiver.
However, this approach still cannot certainly ensure the accurate recognition of the signal by the receiver.
Moreover, since a plurality of frames are transmitted for transmission of the same signal, the electrical power consumed by the transmitter J2 is increased. As a result, when the transmitter J2 is supplied with electrical power by a battery, the life of the battery will be shortened.

Tire inflation pressure sensing apparatus with high reliability and power-saving capability


An information processing apparatus for processing an access request to access a recording medium from an application includes the following elements. A setting unit sets a priority unique to the access request from the application or permission information indicating whether or not processing on the access request from the application is permitted. A queue controller stores the access request provided with the priority or the permission information in a queue. An access request processor processes the access request stored in the queue according to the priority or the permission information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing apparatuses and methods, programs, and program recording media. More particularly, the invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, a program, and a program recording medium in which, for example, audio-visual data (AV data), can be recorded and played back on and from a recording medium in real time.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been demanded that high bit-rate AV data can be recorded and played back on and from optical discs.
The assignee of the present invention previously proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-005895 a disc drive for recording a plurality of data formats, such as video data and associated audio data, on an optical disc such that they can be recorded periodically and in units of, for example, sectors (without being recorded over adjacent sectors) of the optical disc, and more specifically, such that the boundaries of the video data and the audio data coincide with boundaries of the sectors of the optical disc.
In this disc drive, a certain number of video data or audio data can be collectively recorded on consecutive recording areas on an optical disc, and thus, such data can be read or written without a seek.
Additionally, since video data or audio data can be recorded in units of sectors of an optical disc, video data and audio data are not recorded together in one sector, thereby making it possible to read only video data or audio data. That is, for example, when the user requires only video data or audio data, the required video data or audio data can be read from the optical disc, which enhances the efficiency (speed) in reading only video data (or audio data) compared to when video data and audio data are recorded together in one sector.

Information processing apparatus and method, program, and program recording medium


There are contained the step of forming voltage waveform information by calculating a voltage waveform of each instance of a semiconductor integrated circuit at a power-supply terminal based on circuit information and analyzing the voltage waveform of each instance, the step of forming voltage abstraction information by abstracting the voltage waveform information, and the step of calculating a delay value of the instance based on the voltage abstraction information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operation analyzing method for a semiconductor integrated circuit device, an analyzing system used in the same, and an optimization design method using the same and, more particularly, a method of applying a high-speed and high-precision operation analysis to a large-scale and high-speed driven LSI (large-scale semiconductor integrated circuit).
2. Description of the Related Art
Normally, a timing analysis is important in the design of the semiconductor integrated circuit. For example, the optimization must be achieved by executing the timing analysis to decide whether or not timings among flip-flops are matched mutually. Therefore, there is employed a method that executes an optimum design of the semiconductor integrated circuit by executing a circuit operation analysis to calculate a delay value such that the delay value is suppressed within a tolerance. However, the numbers of transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc. constituting the semiconductor integrated circuit increases steadily with the higher speed and the higher integration of the semiconductor integrated circuit. For this reason, although the circuit is designed to reduce power consumption of each circuit element, a large voltage is simultaneously consumed since the number of elements is increased. Also, a huge amount of computation is needed to execute the analysis every circuit element.
As a result, it becomes an important matter to calculate a high-precision delay value while preventing an increase in an amount of computation. Thus, various methods were proposed.
In the related art, a logic simulation applied to analyze the circuit operation is carried out by taking account of not only representative delay conditions but also power-supply voltage variation, operating temperature variation, and process variation. However, a delay variation of each element due to the operating voltage of each element in the circuit is not considered. Thus, with an increase of an integration degree, it becomes impossible to neglect an influence of such delay variation upon a delay of each element.
Therefore, there was proposed a delay calculation method that attains an improvement of reliability by calculating a voltage drop due to the power-supply wiring to consider a voltage drop of each element (See Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-195960).
According to this method, a power-supply voltage of each element is calculated with taking a voltage drop in the power-supply wiring of the object-of-design circuit into consideration, and then a delay value of each element is calculated by using the calculated power-supply voltage of each element.
However, according to this method, a calculation of the voltage drop is carried out, based on element voltage-drop resistance value information read out from the library that stores the voltage-drop resistance values of respective elements, and an average power-supply current value in the operation of each element. Therefore, the voltage-drop information of each element calculated herein gives average voltage information of each element in the circuit.
More particularly, as shown in FIG. 56, a voltage analyzing means 2002 executes a voltage analysis based on the average power-supply current in the operation of each element from circuit information 2001 to calculate an average voltage-drop value 2003, then a delay calculating means 2005 picks up a delay value based on the resultant average voltage-drop value by referring to a library 2004 and then outputs the delay value formed in a standard delay format (SDF: Standard Delay Format established by the nonprofit organization in USA, Silicon Integration Initiative, to represent the delay time) 2006, then a timing analyzing means 2007 executes a timing analysis by using the delay value and then outputs the result analyzed by the timing analyzing means as a timing report 2008, and then an optimizing means 2009 executes a change of design based on this analyzed result to optimize the timing.
Here, the library 2004 includes a cell library 2013 for storing delay value information every cell, and a macro library 2023 for storing delay value information every so-called macro that an assembly of cells is regarded as one lump. Then, an average voltage drop is calculated based on an average power-supply current in operation of the representative cell from cell information 2011, then this calculated value is abstracted (characterized), and then this characterized value is stored in the cell library 2013. In contrast, an average voltage drop is calculated based on an average power-supply current in operation of the representative macro from macro information 2021, then this calculated value is characterized, and then this characterized value is stored in the macro library 2023.
Also, in order to implement the logic simulation in which an influence of a voltage variation at the time of switching a logic cell upon the delay time is considered, a method of simulating the delay time based on a voltage at a power-supply terminal of a logic gate was proposed (See Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. HEI-7-239865).
However, in this method, the simulation is carried out based on a mean value over an execution time of a test pattern of the simulated circuit.
In addition, a method of calculating circuit element delay information in response to time-series voltage variation information during the simulation that takes account of the voltage variation was proposed (See Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-194732).
In the actual circuit operation in above Patent Literature 1, the voltage is varied during when the cell (instance) is operated. In contrast, in this method, since the average voltage-drop value is used to calculate the delay value, a calculation of the delay value at an impossible timing is caused and therefore a practical timing analysis for such calculation of the delay value is desired.
Also, in Patent Literatures 2 and 3, a time-series voltage is considered to calculate the delay value, nevertheless the voltage variation caused when the instance is operated is not considered.
However, in the actual circuit operation, the voltage variation during the operation becomes a big problem.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit capable of operating with high precision and having an excellent performance characteristic by taking account of a dynamic voltage drop.
Also, it is another object of the present invention to implement a high-precision and highly reliable timing verification by taking account of a dynamic voltage drop.

Operation analyzing method for semiconductor integrated circuit device, analyzing system used in the same, and optimization design method using the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Compositions formed of aqueous dispersions comprising a mixture of the following fluorinated polymers:

The present invention relates to compositions to be applied on textiles to make them hydro- and oil-repellent in combination with a very good softness and with the maintenance of the textile appearance.
In order to make hydro- and oil-repellent the surfaces of various materials, the use of various types of polymers, also fluorinated, is known in the prior art. For example fluorinated polymers with various kinds of functionality can be mentioned. Specifically for textiles, fluorinated polymers having an acrylic base wherein the fluorinated part is formed of fluorocarbon chains, can be mentioned. Other fluorinated polymers used to give hydro- and oil-repellence are those having a (per)fluoropolyether structure, in particular polyurethanes. These polymers are used in the form of their aqueous dispersions -to treat textiles. Hydro- and oil-repellence depend on the kind of polymer and the functionality.
In all the patents of the prior art no reference is made to the softness of the treated textiles. This is an essential feature since the treated textiles in addition to very good hydro- and oil-repellence values must show a softness which is substantially similar to that of the untreated textiles. By textile appearance it is meant that the treatment does not substantially change the colour and the gloss with respect to the textiles as such.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,995,542, U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,628 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,658 relate to the synthesis of fluoroacrylic polymers and their use for the fiber and textile treatment. After treatment with these polymers, very good hydro- and oil-repellence values, higher than those obtainable with other fluorinated polymers which have other kinds of functionality and structure, are obtained. However, the fluoroacryl polymers show the following drawbacks: the fiber or textile surface appearance is modified, perspirability is reduced and textiles become stiffer. This last aspect of the treated textiles is determined by the softness examination, as called in the technical language. In case of the application of said films, the textile softness becomes worse.
The need was therefore felt to have available compositions for the surface textile treatment combining the very good hydro- and oil-repellence characteristics with the appearance and softness of the untreated textiles. In other words there was the need to find compositions which, besides conferring very good hydro- oil-repellence, did not worsen the textile softness and appearance.
It has now been surprisingly and unexpectedly found that it is possible to solve said technical problem by treating textiles with compositions in the form of aqueous dispersions as hereinunder defined.
It is an object of the present invention compositions formed of aqueous dispersions comprising a mixture of the following fluorinated polymers:
A) (meth)acrylic (co)polymers containing fluorine, and
B) cationic ionomers of fluorinated polyurethanes based on (per)fluoropolyethers,
xe2x80x83the weight ratio A):B), on the dry product, being in the range 70:30 and 30:70, preferably 60:40 and 40:60, with the proviso that component A) must not be lower than about 0.5% by weight as dry product in the dispersion.
Preferably component B) is present in the dispersion at a concentration of about 0.4% by weight, more preferably 0.5%.
The invention compositions are used in aqueous dispersions at a concentration in the range 0.7-3% w/w, preferably 0.8-1.5% w/w, still more preferably 0.9-1.3% w/w, determined as dry residue.
Component B), cationic ionomer fluorinated polyurethanes, usable in the present invention, are based on (per)-fluoropolyethers and are obtainable with known methods of the prior art. See for example EP 273,449, EP 337,312, EP 533,159, EP 689,908.
The (per) fluoropolyether-based ionomer polyurethanes have a fluorine content preferably higher than 15% by weight, more preferably higher than 25% by weight, still more preferably higher than 35% by weight, and contain in their structure hydrophilic ionic groups of cationic nature, wherein the cationic groups can be present as side groups and/or in the chain, the side groups being separated from the polymer chain by a bivalent alkylen radical ((R)a)zI, wherein zI is an integer equal to one or zero, a is an intger from 1 to 20, preferably from 3 to 10, R being of the CR1R2, Y(CR1R2)b type wherein:
Y is a linking bivalent radical, different from CR1R2, preferably xe2x80x94COOxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94CONHxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94OCONHxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94; b is an integer from 0 to 20; R1 and R2, equal to or different from each other, are: H, aliphatic radicals having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, cycloaliphatic radicals having from 5 to 20 carbon atoms, aromatic having from 6 to 20 carbon atoms, the cyclic radicals can optionally contain heteroatoms.
The ionomer polyurethanes are obtained by polymerization in two steps according to known various processes which have in common the following steps:
a first step, wherein a fluorinated diisocyanate prepolymer is prepared by reacting with hydrogenated diisocyanates in organic solvents of polar type, for example ketones and acetates, bifunctional (per) fluoropolyethers having alcoholic or acid functionality, optionally mixed with hydrogenated macrodiols. a second step, which depending on the processes consists of:
I) partial chain extension by chain extenders such as dials or diamines (C2-C12) and ionomers, described in the above mentioned prior art which is herein incorporated by reference, then subsequent dispersion in water and salification with polymerization completion by formation of ureic bonds; or
II) insertion of ionomers and then salification, dispersion and polymerization by chain extension in water in the presence of diamines; or
III) insertion of ionomers and completion of the chain extension in solvent to obtain the polymer having the desired molecular weight, and contemporaneous dispersion and salification in water of the so obtained polymer; alternatively the polymer can be first salified and then dispersed in water.
The hydrogenated macrodiols are for example saturated or unsaturated C2-C4 polyoxyalkylenes, for example PTMEG (polytetramethylenglycol), PEG (polyethylenglycol), PPG (polypropylenglycol), PBDH (polybutadienglycol), polyesters obtained by polycondensation of aliphatic anhydrides of dicarboxylic acids having from 4 to 9 carbon atoms with aliphatic C2-C8 diols, alone or in admixture, ex. PCL (polycaprolactonediol).
The fluorinated polyurethanes according to the present invention contain in the chain units derived from ionomers such as for example the following:
a. diols containing a substituted aminic group, having formula:
xe2x80x83wherein RN is a linear or branched C1-C6 alkyl, zII is 1 or 2, when zII=1 the nitrogen free valence is saturated with one H atom, RCI is H or C1-C4 alkyl, NI ranges from 1 to 4;
b. tertiary alkyldialkanolamines of formula
xe2x80x83wherein RN and NI have the above mentiond meanings; examples of said amines are methyldiethanolamine, butyldiethanolamine, methyldiisopropanolamine, or
c. the ionomers corresponding for example to the formula:
xe2x80x83wherein T is an alkylene radical with a number of carbon atoms from 1 to 20 and has the meaning of R1, X=N(R1)2, R has the above mentioned meaning of R1; or
d. diol compounds containing substituted aminic groups corresponding to the following formulae:
xe2x80x83wherein R has the above mentioned meaning of R1
xe2x80x83wherein R has the above mentioned meaning of R1
e is aninteger from 1 to 10.
The PFPEs contained in ionomer fluorinated polyurethanes are used in the synthesis of these polymers in the first step of the above described synthesis method; said PFPEs have average number molecular weight in the range 500-4.000, preferably 1.000-2.000, and contain repeating units selected from the following:
(CF(CF3)xe2x80x94CF2O), (CF2CF2O), (CF2(CF3)O), (CF2xe2x80x94CF(CF3)O) (CF2CF2CF2O), (CF2CF2CH2O), said units being statistically distributed in the polymer chain.
In particular they belong to one or more of the following classes:
1)xe2x80x94O(CF(CF3)xe2x80x94CF2O)n(CF(CF3)O)m(CF2O)pxe2x80x94
xe2x80x83having a random distribution of the perf luorooxyalkylene units and n, m, p are integers and have average values such as to meet the above previously mentioned requirements of average molecular weight;
2)xe2x80x94O(CF2CF2O)nxe2x80x2(CF2O)mxe2x80x2xe2x80x94
xe2x80x83with random distribution of the perfluorooxyalkylene units, mxe2x80x2 and nxe2x80x2 are integers such as to meet the above mentioned requirements of molecular weight;
3)xe2x80x94O(CF2CF2O)nxe2x80x3(CF2O)mxe2x80x3(CF(CF3)O)pxe2x80x3(CF(CF3)xe2x80x94CF2O)oxe2x80x3xe2x80x94
xe2x80x83wherein mxe2x80x3, nxe2x80x3, pxe2x80x3, oxe2x80x3 are integers such as to meet the above mentioned requirements of molecular weight;
4)xe2x80x94O(CF2xe2x80x94CF(CF3)O)txe2x80x94
xe2x80x83wherein t is an integer such as to meet the mentioned requirements of molecular weight;
xe2x80x94O(CF2CF2CF2O)sxe2x80x94 or xe2x80x94O(CF2CF2CH2O)sxe2x80x94
xe2x80x83wherein s is an integer such as to meet the above mentioned requirements of molecular weight.
Preferably the repeating units in the PFPES of the ionomer polyurethanes have the structure 1).
The ionomer fluorinated polyurethanes have a fluorine content preferably in the range 30-40% by weight.
The polymer salification is carried out with organic or inorganic acids such as hydrochloric, phosphoric, formic, acetic, lactic acid, etc. or by carrying out the nitrogen quaternization with alkylating agents known in the art, for example methyl iodide, dimethylsulphate, benzyl bromide, etc.
Said salts are prepared by adding the acid to the reaction solution containing the polyurethane in a mixed aqueous/organic solvent, wherein the organic solvent is partially or totally soluble with water, for example ethyl acetate.
The so prepared aqueous dispersions of the polyurethanes are generally stable to sedimentation during the time, also in the absence of surfactants and/or protective colloids. Optionally, if necessary, non ionic surfactants, such as ethoxylated derivatives of alcohols having a linear C12-C20 chain or alkylphenols, in amounts in the range 0.01-1.5% by weight with respect to the polymer, can be added to the dispersion; also cosolvents, more specifically polar solvents such as propylene glycol, N-methylpyrrolidone in amounts not higher than 10% by weight with respect to the polymer, can be added.
The preferred component A) fluorinated (meth)acrylic (co)polymers are formed of monomers comprising perfluoroalkyl groups preferably with C3-C30 chain, or (per)fluoropolyether groups preferably having a chain from 4 to 30 carbon atoms; optionally one or more sulphonamide groups; hydrogenated (meth)acrylic monomers known in the art, and cationic (meth)acrylic ionomer monomers.
As examples of these monomers reference is preferably made to the formulae (I), (II), (III) and (IV) reported below, wherein the substituents have the mentioned meanings.
These fluoro(meth)acrylate copolymers are for example described in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,803,615, 2,839,513, 2,995,542, 3,814,741, 3,356,628, 3,536,749, 4,525,423, 4,529,658, EP 622,653 and EP 870,778 as precursor acrylic monomers.
Said copolymers can be prepared for example by emulsion polymerization, in the presence of an emulsifier, catalyst and chain transfer agent as described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,423, herein incorporated by reference. For example the fluoroacrylated copolymers can be obtained by using the following monomers:
a) from 1 to 30% by weight of monomers or mixtures thereof having formula
R1O(R2O)nII[C(O)CH2O]mIICOCHxe2x95x90CH2xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(II)
xe2x80x83wherein
R1 is a C1-C20 alkyl, cycloalkyl, haloalkyl, halocycloalkyl group (halo=Cl, Br);
R2 is a C1-C6 alkylene or haloalkylene group, each R2 group can be equal to or different from the other R2 groups, at least one R1 or R2 group contains an halogen atom,
nII is an integer from zero to 10, with the proviso that when n is zero R1 is a C1-C16 haloalkyl or halocycloalkyl group;
mII is zero or 1;
b) from 60 to 80% of monomers or mixtures thereof having formula
(RfI)pIQOCOCH=CH2xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(I)
xe2x80x83wherein
RfI is a fluoroalkyl radical with C3-C30, preferably C3-C20, carbon atoms or it is a PFPE (per) fluoropolyether radical containing the above mentioned units and having a number of carbon atoms from C5 to C30;
pI is 1 or 2;
Q is a linking bridge, divalent or trivalent, e.g., aliphatic from 1 to 12 carbon atoms, or a C6-C12 aromatic group; Q can optionally contain heteroatoms such as N, O, S or carbonylimino, sulphonylimino or carbonyl groups; Q can be unsubstituted or is linked to substituents selected from the following: halogen atoms, hydroxyl groups, C1-C6 alkyl radicals; Q preferably does not contain double or triple bonds; preferably Q is selected from the following radicals: xe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94, xe2x80x94C2H4xe2x80x94, xe2x80x94SO2N(R5)C2H4xe2x80x94, xe2x80x94SO2N(R5)CH2CH(CH3)xe2x80x94, C2H4SO2N(R5)C4H8xe2x80x94, R5 is H or a C1-C4 alkyl;
c) from 0 to 15%, preferably from 1 to 15% of monomers or mixtures thereof having formula
xe2x80x83wherein R3 is H or methyl;
d) from 1 to 6% of cationic monomers, or mixtures thereof, of formula
CH2=C(R4)ZIVYIV+Xxe2x88x92xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(IV)
xe2x80x83wherein R4 is H or methyl,
the ZIV group is a divalent electron attracting group and has a carbonyl or aromatic group or an oxygen or sulphur atom directly linked to the monomer vinylidene radical; the ZIV group can be preferably selected from the following:
xe2x80x94COOCH2CH(OH)CH2xe2x80x94, xe2x80x94COO(CH2)kIVxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94CONH(CH2)kIV, wherein kIV is an integer from 2 to 6;
YIV+ is a monovalent organic cation and comprises (a) the pyridinium ion, (b) the N+(R6)3 ion wherein each R6 is independently H or a C1-C4 alkyl group, or two of any R6 combine to form a C4-C5 alkylene group, or two of any R6 are xe2x80x94(CH2)2xe2x80x94 and combine with an oxygen atom to give the structure xe2x80x94(CH2)2xe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94(CH2)2xe2x80x94, (c) phosphonium ions and (d) sulphonium ions; preferably YIV+ is N+(R6)3 wherein R6 is as above defined;
Xxe2x88x92 is an anion, preferably an halide (Cl, Br, I) or an alkyl sulphate;
e) from 0 to 20% of monomers containing at least a double bond, such as for example maleic anhydride, acrylonitrile, vinyl acetate, vinylchloride, vinyl fluoride, vinylidene fluoride, vinylidene cyanide, vinyl chloroacetate, vinyl silicon, ethylene, styrene, alkyl styrenes, halogenated styrenes, methacrylonitrile, N-vinyl carbazole, vinyl pyridine, vinyl alkyl ethers, vinyl alkyl keteones isoprene, butadiene, chloroprene, fluoroprene, and mixtures thereof. The preferred monomers of group a) are the esters (halo)alkyl and (halo)cycloalkyl of the (meth)acrylic acid, halo=Cl, Br, from 1 to 20 carbon atoms.
The preferred monomers of group b) are those containing C4-C12 perfluoroalkyl chains, still more preferably containing the sulphonamide group, such as for example C8F17SO2N(CH3)CH2CH2OCOCH=CH2; when RfI is based on PFPE, Txe2x80x2O(C3F6O)m(CF2O)nCF2CH2OCH2CH2OCOC(CH3)=CH2, wherein Txe2x80x2=perfluoroalkyl C1-C3, can be mentioned, optionally one or more atoms of F of Txe2x80x2, generally one F atom, are substituted by H and/or Cl; m and n are as above defined.
The monomers usable in the group b) can also have the structures corresponding to the general formula:
Txe2x80x2Oxe2x80x94(CF2CF2O)nxe2x80x2(CF2O)mxe2x80x2xe2x80x94CF2xe2x80x94Aqxe2x80x94T0
wherein Txe2x80x2, nxe2x80x2 and mxe2x80x2 have the above mentioned meanings, q is an integer from 0 to 1, A is a bivalent radical, preferably of linear aliphatic type (CH2)mxe2x80x2o wherein mxe2x80x20 is an integer from 1 to 20, or (alkylen)cycloaliphatic, (alkylen)aromatic type. A optionally can contain heteroatoms in the ring or in the alkylene chain, or it can be both a linear and branched polyalkylenoxy chain, in particular containing repeating units of the CH2CH2O, CH2CH(CH3)O, (CH2)3O, (CH2)4O type. A can also contain groups of amidic, ester, ether, COO type, of sulphide, iminic type; the carbon atom number of the cycloaliphatic compounds being from 3 to 20, for the aromatic ones from 6 to 20; the group, A can also be a combination of the mentioned types; the bond group of A with the perfluoromethylene group of the fluorinated chain can be for example: xe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94CONRxe2x80x94(R is H, alkyl, cycloaliphatic or aromatic groups having less than 15 carbon atoms), xe2x80x94CO2xe2x80x94, xe2x80x94COSxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94COxe2x80x94, one heteroatom, or the triazinic or heterocyclic aromatic groups having 5 or 6 atoms containing 2 or more heteroatoms equal to or different from each other; T0 is xe2x80x94COOCHxe2x95x90CH2, xe2x80x94COOCH2CHxe2x95x90CH2.
The aqueous dispersions according to the present invention are prepared by adding to the aqueous dispersions of the fluorinated polyurethanes, optionally containing the indicated additives, the aqueous dispersions of the fluoroacrylates, in the required weight ratios.
The fluoroacrylate aqueous dispersions, for example Scotchgard(copyright) by 3M(copyright), are available on the market.
As said, the aqueous dispersions of the present invention are used for the treatment of textiles, specifically natural fiber textiles, for example cotton, silk, wool; synthetic fibers, e.g., acrylic, polyamide, polyester fibers, etc.
The aqueous dispersions of the present invention are used as such or diluted, depending on the type of application technique on textiles. The application technique are the known ones, for example by spreading, by immersion and subsequent mechanical removal of the polymer excess deposited on the textiles, by spray or roll application.
For example when the application is made by spreading, the dispersion can be formulated by adding additives such as thickening agents, optionally together with the other conventional excipients of these formulations. In the immersion or spray application the dispersion is diluted with deionized water depending on the desired use. Tests carried out by the Applicant (see the Examples) have shown that the aqueous dispersions containing the sole component A) fluoroacrylic copolymers confer to textiles good hydro- and oil-repellent properties when said dispersions have concentrations equal to or higher than a specific value, which depends on the treated substratum. With these dispersions however it is not possible to obtain a textile satisfactory softness.
On the contrary by using an aqueous dispersion according to the present invention, containing a mixture of fluoroacrylates and polyurethanes in the ratios according to the present invention, the textile softness remains unchanged in comparison with the untreated sample and the hydro- and oil-repellent properties are maintained or improved.
It has been found that the dispersions of the invention always show high hydro- oil-repellence values also when the amount of the fluoroacrylic component A) is such that if it was used alone, in the absence of the component B), would give very low hydro- oil-repellence values. This is surprising since the fluoroacrylic polymer concentration in the mixture is lower than that which allows to obtain the same hydro- oil-repellence degree.
It is still more surprising that the hydra-oil-repellence values of the compositions of the invention remain at high values even using the component B) poyurethane which as such has lower hydro- oil-repellence values than the component A).
Therefore the mixture of the two polymers has a synergic effect both as regards the textile hydro- oil-repellence treatment and the softness.
Furthermore it has been unexpectedly found that the hydro- and oil-repellence and softness properties using the dispersion of the invention are maintained even after various textile washings. Tests carried out by the Applicant have shown that after 4 washings in water the treated textiles show substantially unchanged properties. Also washings of textiles treated with detergents do not show meaningful changes with the number of washings.

Abstract: B) cationic ionomers of fluorinated polyurethanes based on (per) fluoropolyethers, the weight ratio A):B), calculated on the dry product, being in the range 70:30 and 30:70.


The present invention is directed to enzyme based methods for removing water insoluble non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs) and/or water soluble or insoluble oligosaccharides from soy products without significantly damaging the proteins contained therein This removal is facilitated by the enzymatic hydrolysis of poly- and oligomeric carbohydrates into monosaccharides and other water soluble sugars. The present invention provides for the production of three streams of useful materials. The first is an enriched protein material comparable to the known SPCs but without significant quantities of undigestible oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. The second is an SPI made from the soluble protein in the hydrolysate which is valuable for high-quality feed, food and industrial uses. The third is the soluble saccharides and hydrolyzed carbohydrates (releasing sugars) that can be converted by fermentation to various valuable bioproducts.

Soybean is probably the best protein source among possible plant feed stuffs available having reasonable amino acid profiles that could be used as an alternative to animal protein. Soy protein products are used in various kinds of foods such as infant formulas, soups, meat analogues, tofu, frozen foods, etc. Soy protein products are also used to improve texture of meat products, increase the protein content of the food, to enhance moisture retention and also as an emulsifier. The major factors that drive the soy protein market are functionality, health benefits, environment friendliness, cost and versatility. Among all plant proteins, soy protein is the most similar to the animal protein in terms of amino acids and soy protein is much cheaper than animal protein. Worldwide soy protein market in terms of revenue had a worth of $5 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach $9 billion by 2017. Asian market is expected to be the fastest growing market in upcoming future due to its advancement and increasing demand from China and India. North America especially United States dominates the global soy protein market right now, accounting for more than 35% of the global soy protein market demand in 2012.
Successful inclusion of soy proteins into various animal feed or human food products such as aquaculture feed for fish and shrimp, poultry feed, and meat, typically requires the proteins to exhibit similar characteristics to those of the proteins being replaced or supplemented in the feed or food. Different functional properties of soy proteins are required in varying degrees to be included in different kinds of food. And the functionality is affected by the methods used to make the soy protein products.
Many plant seeds, like soy beans, wheat, pulse, peas, or chickpeas, contain a significant amount of usable protein, together with some fats and both soluble and insoluble carbohydrates. Soybean meal, for example, contains approximately 30-35% carbohydrates, mostly non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs) and oligosaccharides. The soluble carbohydrates and the fats can easily be removed by conventional methods, leaving the protein material and the insoluble oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. These oligo- and, particularly, poly-saccharides have been found to lower digestibility of soy products when included in animal feed.
Processed defatted soybean products are typically divided into three categories: soy flour, Soy Protein Concentrate (SPC) and Soy Protein Isolate (SPI). As used herein, soy flour is a powdery defatted soybean meal containing about 50% protein. As used herein, SPC is any soybean meal products processed to have protein contents higher than that of soy flour but lower than that of SPI. The typical SPC has protein content in the range of 65% to 75%. As used herein, SPI refers to any soybean meal products processed to have a protein content of at least 90%. As used herein, the term "soybean hulls" refers to the soybean seed coats, which are removed and collected while soybeans are processed for soybean oil and soybean meal products. As used herein, "soybean flakes" refers to the soybean meal products processed into a physical shape of flakes. As used herein, "soybean powder" refers to the soybean meal products processed into a physical shape of powders.
Current commercial processes for producing SPC and SPI use non-enzymatic methods. SPC is currently produced by washing soy flour with water, often containing a pH buffer and/or an organic solvent. The water soluble carbohydrates (and other soluble and colloidal materials) are removed from the mixture to leave the protein-rich solids that remain. SPC thus produced usually has a protein content of about 65-70% but retains the insoluble soy carbohydrates including the non-starch polysaccharides (hemi/cellulose and pectin), and lignin. The protein yield (i.e., the portion of initial proteins retained in the product) for SPC production can be high (90%-98% depending on the method), but it is less ideal for many uses because of the presence of the hard to digest polymers.
SPI, on the other hand, is currently prepared by first dissolving proteins in aqueous solutions, together with water soluble carbohydrates and others. This causes disintegration of soybean meal particles and allows removal of insoluble constituents by centrifugation. Proteins in the supernatant are then made insoluble, for example by adjusting the pH with acid to a particular pH where the proteins precipitate out and collected by centrifugation. The SPI product thus prepared has higher protein content (about 90%) but is costly to produce and gives a dry weight yield of only about only 30% (protein yield about 60%).
Moreover, many SPC or SPI products are also currently made using methods that include alcohol leaching or treating with acid. Soy proteins obtained using alcohol leaching have been found to have a much lower nitrogen solubility index (NSI), which results in a lower functionality of the product. This is because the protein has been denatured to a greater extent by the alcohol and the heat used in the alcohol leaching process. Further, during the conventional acid wash or alcohol leaching process, some of the alcohol and/or acid remains in the soy protein precipitates and must be removed by additional processing. This additional processing makes the process less economical or may be sufficiently harsh to reduce the value and protein content of the product.
The high content of non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs) in soybean meal and SPC produced by the current processes as described above is a major challenge to the use of soy products, particularly as animal feeds. It is believed that soybean NSPs in feed may have the effect of increasing the viscosity of the intestinal content, which might also be a reason for poor digestibility of nutrients in these animal feeds. Soybean meal contains almost 15% oligosaccharides and 20% NSPs. Soy protein concentrate (SPC) produced by the current commercial method contains 3-5% oligosaccharides and 14-17% NSPs, which have been reported to be indigestible to fish. Reduced digestibility of fat and proteins in Atlantic salmon, for example, have been reported due to the presence of dietary NSPs in soybean meal. (See Storebakken, T., S. Refstie, and B. Ruyter, Soy products as fat and protein sources in fish feeds for intensive aquaculture. Soy in Animal Nutrition, 2000: p. 127-170, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). These components were reported to be responsible for low growth performance and induced enteritis in several salmonids species fed with soybean meal-containing diet.
Another problem with the conventional production processes is the presence of non-functional indigestible fibers in the final product. Natural soy fiber is derived from the parenchyma cell walls of the soybean. The presence of these fibers can bind with the otherwise digestible proteins to prevent the soy products from being used in various animal feed.
In addition, the prior art processes remove the soluble material from the soybean meal either by washing it with large quantities of water or by treating with acid or leaching with alcohol and as a result, it is often not practical to try to utilize the soluble material for other purposes. The prior art processes do not do anything to break down the soluble oligosaccharides, such as raffinose, stachyose and verbascose, into easily fermentable sugars. These oligosaccharides are not readily metabolizable to many organisms and are a hindrance in many industrial applications. In addition, because neither the soluble and insoluble oligosaccharides nor the polysaccharides are broken down into fermentable sugars and a very large quantity of water may be used to wash the soybean meal, the concentration of fermentable sugars in the wash water is not high enough to justify further processing. Moreover, the large quantity of wash water used likewise makes it difficult to easily recover the soluble proteins. And, as discussed above, where the soy proteins obtained using alcohol leaching have been found to have a much lower nitrogen solubility index (NSI) and where the conventional acid wash or alcohol leaching processes are used, some of the alcohol and/or acid remains in the soy protein precipitates and must be removed by additional processing.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for more economic processes for producing soy products having a high protein content and low level of indigestible components, while at the same time generating and capturing the monosaccharide-rich liquid byproduct of the process for future use.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Enzyme-based protein separation and enrichment from soy meal, wheat meal, and other protein-rich materials derived from plant seeds, fruits and other biomass


A method includes observing one or more rear tires for a front car, the one or more rear tires include a left rear tire and a right rear tire, determining whether the one or more of the rear tires have an anomaly, observing a chassis of the front car to determine if there is an inclination, and sending an alert if the one or more rear tires have the anomaly.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) will allow for vehicles to drive in closer proximity to each other than a typical human-only operated vehicle, allowing for a more efficient use of highways and roads. However, the risk of accidents may increase as car density increases on the roadways.
One cause of accidents is a result of if tire pressure is too high or too low. If tire pressure of a vehicle is too high while the vehicle is moving, a contact area between the tire and the ground is reduced, grip of the tire is affected, and/or imminent tire failure is expected. If tire pressure of a vehicle is too low, steering of the vehicle is affected, and could be an indication of imminent tire failure is expected.
What is needed is a better way to monitor adjacent vehicles for imminent tire failure to improve vehicle safety.

Front car rear tire anomalies detection system and related methods


Redundancy circuits are provided for an integrated circuit memory device including a first memory cell block including a plurality of primary wordlines and a spare wordline, each associated with a plurality of memory cells; a second memory cell block including a plurality of primary wordlines and a spare wordline, each associated with a plurality of memory cells; and a plurality of bitlines extending across both the first and the second memory cell blocks the plurality of bitlines having a twisted bitline structure in which the bitlines are twisted between the first memory cell block and the second memory cell block and are not twisted within the respective memory cell blocks. The redundancy circuit is coupled to the primary and spare wordlines of both the first memory cell block and the second memory cell block. The redundancy circuit is also configured to select the spare wordline of the first memory cell block to replace one of the primary wordlines of the first memory cell block associated with a defective cell and to select the spare wordline of the second memory cell block to replace one of the primary wordlines of the second memory cell block associated with a defective cell so that data stored in spare cells connected to a selected spare wordline have a same data scramble as that of cells connected to the correspond.

The present invention relates to integrated circuit devices and, more particularly, to redundancy circuits for memory devices and methods of repairing defective cells.
As the cell density of semiconductor memory devices, such as dynamic random access memories (DRAMs), increases, the interval between bitlines thereof generally decreases. As a result, bitline coupling noise may be significantly increased during sensing of memory cell data. A twist bitline scheme has been proposed to reduce bitline coupling noise.
In the twist bitline design, a bitline BL and a complementary bitline {overscore (BL)} are typically twisted at regular intervals. By adequately controlling the layout arrangement between an odd column and an even column, a bitline coupling noise generated by a bitline BL and a complementary bitline {overscore (BL)} in a column may be offset by a bitline coupling noise received from bitlines in an adjacent column. Consequently, the bitline coupling noises in the two adjacent columns may be reduced or even eliminated.
When a defective cell is detected in a memory cell array having this twist bitline design, the defective cell is typically repaired by replacement with spare cell (or a redundancy cell). Consequently, a semiconductor production yield may be improved using a redundancy cell. In the twist bitline design having twisted bitlines, memory cells connected to one wordline generally have different data scrambles according to their locations.
FIG. 1 illustrates a data scrambling that may occur after repairs in a twist bitline design and a folded bitline design. As shown in FIG. 1, first bitline and complementary bitline BL0 and {overscore (BL0)} form a twist bitline design (scheme), and second bitline and complementary bitline BL1 and {overscore (BL1)} form a folded bitline design (scheme). In FIG. 1, memory cells are defined by the first bitline and complementary bitline BL0 and {overscore (BL0)}, and the second bitline and complementary bitline BL1 and {overscore (BL1)} and first through fourth wordlines WL0 through WL3 that cross the bitlines BL0, {overscore (BL0)}, BL1, and {overscore (BL1)}. For the device of FIG. 1, when a data pattern (value) stored in a memory cell is 1, the data pattern is represented as T(True). When a data pattern stored in a memory cell is 0, the data pattern is represented as C(Complement).
It is assumed for purposes of this description that the memory cells connected to the first through fourth wordlines WL0 through WL3 in the twist bitline structure store a "TCCT" data pattern. If these memory cells are defective, and the first through fourth wordlines WL0 through WL3 are replaced by first through fourth spare wordlines SWL0 through SWL3, spare cells connected to the first through fourth spare wordlines SWL0 through SWL3 store a "CTTC" data pattern, because the bitlines are twisted. In other words, data scrambling occurs. In this case, during final defective cell screening after primary defective cell repairing, defective cells may not be screened or normal cells may have a high risk of being detected as defective cells based on lack of information about the data scrambling.
In contrast, for the folded bitline scheme, if the memory cells connected to the first through fourth wordlines WL0 through WL3 are defective and replaced by the spare cells connected to the first through fourth spare wordlines SWL0 through SWL3, the spare cells store a TCCT data pattern the same as the TCCT data pattern stored by the memory cells connected to the first through fourth wordlines WL0 through WL3.
Thus, to repair a defective cell in a twist bitline scheme, if bitlines are twisted once, a spare wordline for repairing a wordline connected to the defective cell (hereinafter, referred to as a defective wordline) typically must exist on each side of a place where the bitlines are twisted, so that data are stored in spare cells connected to the spare wordline to have the same data scramble as that of the defective cell in the folded bitline scheme.
However, to repair a defective wordline with a spare wordline in the twist bitline scheme, an address fuse cutting portion for repairing an address corresponding to the defective wordline with an address corresponding to the spare wordline typically must be installed in the spare wordline. In other words, each spare wordline typically requires an address fuse cutting portion. Because the address fuse cutting portion generally occupies a large area of a layout of a memory device. A chip size of the memory device generally proportionally increases as a number of memory cells having different data scrambles increases.

Redundancy circuits and memory devices having a twist bitline scheme and methods of repairing defective cells in the same


A mobile device for storing and supplying multiple liquid fertilizers, comprising a housing, enclosing: two or more storage units, each suitable for storing a liquid fertilizer, wherein each storage unit is provided with a storage unit level measurement system, a storage unit filling system and a storage unit venting system; a safety drain liquid fertilizer storage, comprising at least two separate collectors for the separate containment of spilled liquid fertilizer; a dosing and controlling system; and wherein the housing is equipped with a connection for the input of a water flow, at least two connections for the output of liquid fertilizer, and an output for venting gasses.

Greenhouses, such as the ones using hydroponics, or substrate-based culture, are generally provided with systems to supply one or more liquid fertilizers to the crops, grown in said greenhouse. These systems can be relatively simple, but may also be part of a more complex fertigation system, including one or more sensors which measure the total water and/or nutrient consumption by the crop, the temperature in the greenhouse, and various other parameters.
One of such prior art supply systems on the market is the YaraTera SUBSTRAFEED™ system, offered by Yara (Yara International ASA, Norway) to high-technology greenhouses in North West Europe. This system is globally the most sophisticated Yara Crop solution offer to growers. It provides seven different fertilizer compositions and is perfectly balanced in maximum concentration (=efficiency) and safety (maximum 6H+ mole/kg). It is a solution which allow growers at any time to dose exactly the amount of nutrients needed by the crops with a re-circulation of unused fertilizer, and hence without the loss of nutrients at all. The system is supported by YaraTera Fertigation software.
Due to the complexity and the cost of installation, only new greenhouses consider investing in this technology. For example, a manual SUBSTRAFEED™ installation for 5 ha of tomato costs about 33.000 Euro. To experience all benefits of SUBSTRAFEED™ (a fully automatic version), another 35.000 Euro investment is needed. The SUBSTRAFEED™ installation in usually installed inside the greenhouse and is directly coupled to the fertigation system thereof, in particular to the storage and nutrient tanks thereof. It consists of two or more storage units suitable for storing a liquid fertilizer, a safety drain liquid fertilizer storage, a storage unit level measurement system, a storage unit filling and venting system, and a dosing and controlling system including one or more pumps, and is connected to the storage and mixing tanks of the fertigation system. It does not comprise a separate housing, nor are pipes, tubing, etc. arranged in a compact configuration.
In order to open up the market for existing greenhouses and smaller greenhouses, a new technology is needed, based on a "turn-key" set up which make installation easier and the costs lower.

Mobile fertilizer device for storing and supplying multiple fertilizers to a greenhouse


A connector or termination assembly for a mini-coaxial cable in different embodiments is made up of an extension tip which is preassembled in a connector body to receive the inner conductor pin on the cable, a first inner sleeve which fits over an exposed end of the dielectric layer, a second outer sleeve which surrounds a compression ring, and a crimping ring is mounted on the outside of the outer sleeve to force the sleeves to be radially contracted into crimping engagement with the cable so as to avoid creating impedance which will downgrade the signal passing through the cable into the connector. In alternate embodiments, variations of the connector body may be employed for different lengths and forms of connectors with a compression tool or crimping ring assembly in further combination with color bands to signify the size of cable and intended application.

The following relates to coaxial cable connectors and more particularly relates to a novel and improved mini-coaxial cable connector assembly which is conformable for use with different size cables in effecting positive engagement with a connector assembly in connecting the cable to a post or terminal.
The problems associated with the connection of mini-coaxial cables as well as larger size cables to a post or terminal in the field are discussed at some length in U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,583 for MINI-COAX CABLE CONNECTOR AND METHOD OF INSTALLATION and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,448 for CABLE TV END CONNECTOR STARTER GUIDE. This invention is directed to further improvements in termination assemblies to be employed for mini-coaxial cables in which the termination assembly is characterized in particular by being comprised of a minimum number of preassembled parts which can be quickly assembled at the manufacturing site as well as in the field and is readily conformable for connection of different sized mini-coaxial cables to BNC and RCA connectors.

Mini-coaxial cable connector assembly with interchargeable color bands

International Communication Manufacturing Corp.


A semiconductor light-emitting device (LE1) comprises a multilayer structure LS generating light. This multilayer structure includes a plurality of laminated compound semiconductor layers (3 to 8) and has first and second main faces (61, 62) opposing each other. A first electrode (21) and a second electrode (31) are arranged on the first and second main faces, respectively. A film made of silicon oxide (10) is also formed on the first main face so as to cover the first electrode. A glass substrate (1) optically transparent to the light generated by the multilayer structure is secured to the multilayer structure through the film made of silicon oxide.

Recently, as the CPU driving frequency has been becoming higher (e.g., 10 GHz or higher), attention has been directed toward optical interconnection techniques in which signals within and between system apparatus are transmitted by light. Semiconductor devices such as semiconductor photodetector devices and semiconductor light-emitting devices are used in the optical interconnection techniques.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. HEI 2-128481, 10-200200, and 11-46038 disclose so-called back-emitting semiconductor light-emitting devices each comprising a substrate and a plurality of compound semiconductor layers laminated on one of main faces of the substrate and emitting light from the other main face of the substrate. For the following purposes, the portion of substrate positioned under the light-emitting region is partially thinned in these semiconductor light-emitting devices, while a part maintaining the substrate thickness is formed so as to surround the above-mentioned part. The first purpose is to prevent optical signals from deteriorating or disappearing because of optical absorption of the substrate. The second purpose is to prevent the semiconductor devices from being damaged or broken when mounted onto an external substrate by wire-bonding or bump-bonding.

Semiconductor light emitting element and manufacturing method thereof


Disclosed herein is a flash memory device in which the distribution of threshold voltage is significantly reduced and the durability is improved even though a floating gate has a micro- or nano-size length. It comprises a tunneling insulation film formed on a semiconductor substrate; a multilayer floating gate structure comprising a first thin storage electrode, a second thick storage electrode, and a third thin storage electrode, defined in that order on the tunneling insulation film; an interelectrode insulation film and a control electrode formed in that order on the floating gate structure; and a source/drain provided in the semiconductor substrate below the opposite sidewalls of the floating gate structure. The novel flash memory device can be readily fabricated at a high yield through a process compatible with a conventional one.

As seen in FIG. 1, a conventional flash memory device, such as that fabricated by Toshiba in Japan, or the ETOX flash memory device of Intel in the U.S.A., comprises a planar channel on which an insulation film 3, a floating gate (or storage electrode) 4, an inter-electrode insulation film 5, and a control electrode 6 are laminated in that order. With the recent great advances in various electronic appliances and mobile electronic equipment, the degree of integration of memory devices has been required to increase. Even though the memory size can be increased from a given technology node by applying an MLC (Multi Level Cell) technique, the size of the nonvolatile flash memory device must be reduced. However, the size reduction of the flash memory device may cause a lithographic problem, leading to the incapability to precisely control the size of a CD (Critical Dimension), and thus to CDE (CD Error).
In addition, as one cell element becomes close to another, cross-talk occurs therebetween, causing an operational error of the memory device and an increase in threshold voltage distribution. The narrower the distribution of threshold voltages according to the writing/erasing operation of cell elements, the better. However, the above-mentioned problems increase as the memory device decreases in size. Thus, the production yield also decreases. Particularly, as shown in FIG. 2, the floating electrode is made from polysilicon, consisting of a plurality of grains which differ in direction from one to another. In the case where a gate has a large area, that is, in the case in which the degree of integration is low, a number of grains which are variable in crystal direction exist in one cell storage electrode, so that the characteristics of the grains are equalized in each cell element. That is, none of the grains in a particular grain direction are predominant over any other, resulting in an improvement in the uniformity of characteristics over cell elements.
Despite the recent requirement for a high degree of integration, the thickness of the floating gate of the cell element has not tended to decrease because the coupling ratio between the control electrode and the floating electrode (or gate) must be maintained at approximately 0.6 or greater. Because the height of the floating gate has not decreased despite the size reduction of memory devices, cross-talk based on parasitic capacitance between cell elements has increased and the grain size has not decreased. As the cell elements decrease in size, the structure thereof is highly apt to undergo mechanical stresses from various thin films deposited thereon.
Suggested in the present invention is a structure which comprises simple elements and which can be fabricated through a process that is compatible with a conventional one, and which can solve the problems encountered in the prior arts, that is, can exhibit a narrow threshold voltage distribution, reduced cross-talk, and decreased mechanical stresses. If the floating gate decreases in thickness according to the miniaturization of cell elements, the coupling ratio is reduced. An attempt has been made to maintain the coupling ratio while reducing the thickness of the floating gate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,765,258B1 (entitled "Stack-gate flash memory cell structure and contactless flash memory arrays therefor") employs a spacer formation technology to realize a floating-gate structure with a thinner floating-gate layer formed in a center and a thicker floating-gate layer formed at the edge. This floating-gate structure requires additional spacer formation technology and is still likely to exhibit increased cross-talk with the adjacent cell due to the large thickness of the edge of the floating gate. This floating gate structure is different from that of the present invention, and does not exhibit excellence in terms of effect or process.
Even though the method is different than that of the present invention, a flash memory device having reduced cross-talk between neighboring cells is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,693,009B1 (entitled "Flash memory cell with minimized floating gate to drain/source overlap for minimizing charge leakage"). Out of a stack of a control electrode and a floating electrode, formed using a given technology node, only the floating electrode is laterally etched away to form an undercut, thereby suggesting a structure with a (reduced floating to drain/source overlap?). In this structure, charge leakage from the floating gate is minimized during programming/erasing of the flash memory cell. However, the device in this structure may operate erroneously because the undercut at the sidewall may eliminate the overlap between the source/drain and the floating gate. With regard to the object of minimizing only the floating gate to drain/source overlap, the length of the overlap can be precisely controlled by source/drain ion implantation into a dummy spacer rather than by etching a sidewall of the floating gate.
One of the advantages from the multilayer floating gate structure of the present invention is the improvement of the durability of the memory device by effectively absorbing mechanical stresses onto the grain boundary of polysilicon, the area of which is increased as a multilayer structure is formed. In this context, the advantages of such a multilayer structure can be found in the literature. An article issued in IEEE Trans. on Electron Devices, October 1998 (entitled "Effects of buffer layer structure on polysilicon buffer LOCOS for the isolation of submicron silicon devices") sheds light on polysilicon buffered LOCOS, a conventional element isolation technology. In the article, problems, such as the formation of pin holes, caused by mechanical stresses can be solved by employing a multiple polysilicon layer, instead of a single polysilicon layer, as a buffer layer.
Flash memory devices are in great demand as household appliances and mobile electronic devices develop rapidly. Flash memory devices having gates 100 nm long have been developed and are now produced on an industrial scale. Mass production is expected for 60-nm process flash memory devices, which is beyond a 70-nm process, in the near future. Particularly, NAND type flash memory devices are expected to be developed using a 45 nm process. Major problems accompanying the reduction in gate length include the distribution of threshold voltage of the device which conducts programming/erasing processes, and cross-talk between the cell elements thereof. A decrease in gate length means a reduction in the size of the patterns formed through a lithographic technique. Problems with the photolithography and etching processes for reducing the size of patterns bring about errors into the critical dimension, causing a large distribution of device characteristics within and between wafers and between lots.
Particularly, threshold voltages after programming/erasing must be uniform, but show a large distribution in practice, resulting in a decrease in production yield. The distribution of threshold voltage is a variable which must be controlled because it has great importance for a flash memory device process. The distribution of threshold voltage, as mentioned above, generally increases with the reduction of device size. One of the factors determining the increase is the grain size of a polysilicon storage electrode. While the area of a storage electrode decreases with the reduction of device size, polysilicon grains are not reduced in size in the storage electrode. Accordingly, grains of a polysilicon storage electrode tend to decrease in number as the cell elements are decreased in size. Generally, only one to several grains exist in one cell on a 70-nm technology node. A polysilicon storage electrode consists of a plurality of grains, crystal directions of which are randomly formed. If different in crystal direction, grains differ from one to another in interface charge thereof at boundaries with tunneling insulation films immediately below. In the case of a storage electrode having a large area, there are a number of grains that have various crystal directions. Thus, each cell element has a storage electrode in which a variety of interface charges from various grains are averaged, so that interface charge characteristics are uniform over the cells.
However, grains within the storage electrode decrease in number as the cell decreases in size, increasing the possibility that grains in a particular direction will be predominant over grains in other directions. This results in a decrease in the uniformity of threshold voltage between cells. In other words, the distribution of threshold voltage increases. In this way, conventional flash cell devices have an increased distribution of threshold voltage as they decrease in size.
Further, the polysilicon floating gate of the conventional flash device structure does not decrease in thickness although the gate area of the device is decreased because the coupling ratio between the control electrode and the floating storage electrode must be maintained at about 0.6 or higher. As mentioned above, a large thickness of the floating gate causes an increase in cross-talk between cells, giving rise to an increase in false cell operation and threshold voltage distribution and thus a decrease in production yield.


A method of determining an operating state of an internal combustion engine in a hybrid electric vehicle drive system comprising an internal combustion engine having an output shaft which is coupled to a generator. The engine includes a fuel injector responsive to a fuel command. The method comprises the steps of determining an ON/OFF status of the fuel command and determining the generator torque. The generator torque provides an indication of the actual engine torque. An engine running flag is set ON when the fuel command is ON and the generator torque value is greater than a predetermined value. Otherwise, the engine running flag is set OFF.

The present invention relates generally to internal combustion engines for automotive vehicles, and more specifically, to an automotive vehicle having a motor/generator coupled to the engine. Further, the present invention relates, in particular, to a method for determining that the engine is producing torque in a hybrid electric vehicle.
Hybrid electric vehicles (xe2x80x9cHEVsxe2x80x9d) utilize both an internal combustion engine and one or more electric machines (e.g., motors/generators) to generate power and torque. The electric motor/generator within a hybrid electric vehicle provides the vehicle with additional degrees of freedom in delivering the driver-demanded wheel torque and may also be used to control the speed of the engine.
In one type of hybrid electric vehicle, commonly referred to as a xe2x80x9cpower splitxe2x80x9d configuration, the electric generator and the internal combustion engine are interconnected by use of a planetary gear set, and the electric generator selectively provides a reaction torque which may be used to control the speed of the engine.
During initial startup of the vehicle, the motor/generator functions as a starter. While functioning as a starter, the motor/generator provides a sufficient amount of starting torque to rotate the crankshaft of the engine before the cylinders are fired. After the engine is fired, an amount of engine torque is provided to the crankshaft from the combustion process in the cylinders. Once the engine is running, the motor/generator functions as a generator in which electric power is generated by the output rotation of the engine. This power is then used to charge the electrical system of the vehicle including an energy storage device which, in turn, is used to drive a traction motor.
In foreseeable automotive applications, the engine may be shut down during vehicle stops or other operating conditions. Thus, many startups could occur over the course of a trip. In such applications, the vehicle system controller requires a reliable indication that the engine has started and is running before making torque requests of the engine controller.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved hybrid electric vehicle system. It is another object to provide a reliable engine running indicator before torque requests are made of the engine.
In one aspect of the invention, a method of determining an operating state of an internal combustion engine in a hybrid electric vehicle drive system is provided. The HEV system comprises an internal combustion engine coupled to a generator. The engine includes fuel injectors responsive to a fuel command. The method comprises the steps of determining an ON/OFF status of the fuel command and determining the generator torque. The generator torque provides an indication of the actual engine torque. An engine running flag is set ON when the fuel command is ON and the generator torque value is above a predetermined value. Otherwise, the engine running flag is set OFF.
In a further aspect of the invention, the actual engine torque as derived from the generator torque is compared to a commanded engine torque value. An engine running flag is set ON when the fuel command is ON and the difference between the actual and commanded engine torques is less than a predetermined value.
One advantage of the invention is that the vehicle system controller has a reliable indication that the engine has started and is running before torque requests are made of the engine.


A battery charger which supplies charging current for a high voltage, high current battery in accordance with a charge profile which preferably includes both a charge pulse sequence as well as a discharge pulse sequence. Charging power is obtained from a three phase power line the voltage of which is reduced by an isolation transformer. Conversion of ac to dc is accomplished by a switching transistor power converter having a control for supplying transistor switching signals. The control is responsive to the angle of line voltage, the actual line current and a reference signal indicative of desired charge current, to generate the transistor switching signals. Any deviation between actual and desired current is then corrected by modification of the transistor switching signals.

1. Field of the invention
The invention in general relates to battery chargers and more particularly to a high power, pulsed current battery charger system particularly well adapted for the rapid charging of electric vehicle batteries.
2. Description of related art
After a predetermined use, a secondary battery may be recharged by supplying a charging current until full battery charge is restored. In one typical system, charging current is supplied by a source of ac power connected to a rectifier which then provides dc current to the battery for a certain time period depending upon the battery state of charge.
In an improved battery charging technique, the charge profile consists of one or more positive charge pulses of relatively long duration, followed by one or more negative discharge pulses of relatively shorter duration. This alternate charge-discharge pulse technique enhances battery charge acceptance, reduces internal heating, reduces the time necessary for battery charging and prolongs battery life.
In some battery systems, such as utilized in electric vehicles, a string of batteries provides operating potential of hundreds of volts at a current rating of hundreds of amperes. These high power battery systems are typically charged from a high voltage multiphase power line. It would be desirable to charge these high power batteries utilizing the alternate charge-discharge pulse technique. The problem however is in devising a relatively low cost system which will provide satisfactory pulse characteristics while maintaining the quality of the ac input power in terms of power factor and harmonic distortion of the ac current. The present invention provides a solution to the problem.

Apparatus for charging energy storage means from a multiphase power source


Systems and methods for providing a status of a teleconference by determining an approximate delay time and providing a status signal in view of the determined approximate delay time are provided. An approximate delay time is approximately the amount of time that will elapse before an occurrence occurring at a first time, which is captured into an occurrence signal by a source unit, will be experienced at a second time after the occurrence signal is received by at least one receiving unit.

In face-to-face communications, people make eye contact with others, observe the body language of others, and observe the facial expression of others, etc. Experiments show, for example, that mouth motion starts about 0.4s to about 1.2s prior to speech, and thus facial expressions (e.g., mouth motion) can provide signals to others that a person may speak. In addition, in face-to-face communications the delay between the time a person communicates a message (e.g., says or does something) and the time another person receives (e.g., hears or sees) the communicated message is so small that it is substantially non-existent and inconsequential. These features of face-to-face communications aid in turn-taking during a conversation.
However, face-to-face communications involving, for example, people who have to travel to meet face-to-face are more and more-often being replaced by teleconferencing (e.g., videoconferencing, audio/video-chatting using audio/video enabled messenger tools). In some cases, people who live and/or work in the same area but in different buildings are opting to communicate via teleconferencing systems to avoid having to physically travel to the other building, for example. Teleconferencing has become popular in many environments (e.g., educational, business and personal environments) because, for example, a teleconference may eliminate the need for one or more of the conference members to travel to another location. However, some features of face-to-face communications, such as, eye contact ability, facial expression observation ability, and substantially quick receipt (i.e., with an unnoticeable delay) of a communicated message, etc. are generally not available, or are hindered, during teleconferencing.
Teleconferencing systems generally capture images and/or sounds at one site, encode them into a standard format, and transmit the encoded data over a network connection to another site which decodes the encoded images and/or sounds and outputs the decoded result thereof. Although progress is being made in developing faster systems and more efficient ways to use available bandwidth and/or to increase bandwidth, the encoding/decoding and transmission of the data generally causes a delay which impacts the teleconference. Even in teleconferences including video transmission, where images of one conference site are captured and transmitted to the other conference site and facial expressions may be thereby observed via the video images, due to transmission delays and/or poor data quality, teleconferencing generally does not allow for members/people to make eye contact and/or for members/people to sense that another member/person is about to speak based on facial expressions in a manner which would assist the members in turn-taking (i.e., taking turns communicating and listening), for example, during their teleconference based communications. However, instead of requiring, for example, a person to travel to another location to participate in a face-to-face communication with another person, the people involved generally agree to deal with "side-effects" of teleconferencing in order to eliminate the need for travel.
One common "side-effect" resulting from the lack and/or suppression of the above-described features of face-to-face communication in teleconferences, is collisions (i.e., a state where a local conference member and a remote conference member begin to communicate at one time). Although collisions occur during face-to face conferences, they occur much less often in face-to-face communications than they do during teleconferences. Further, when collisions occur during face-to-face teleconferences, because there is substantially no delay (i.e., such a small delay that it is unnoticeable) between the time one person talks and the time others hear and/or see the communicated message, collisions are generally overcome quickly and easily.
In contrast, in teleconferences, repeated collisions may occur before the situation is resolved because, in teleconferences, the lack or reduced ability to observe facial expressions and/or make eye contact is greatly exacerbated by the delays resulting from the need to encode/decode the data and to transmit the data over the network. More specifically, collisions tend to occur in teleconferences because, for example, conference members tend to forget that there is a delay in transmission and thus, out of habits based on face-to-face communications, a first conference member tends to break a period of silence and begin talking again before being interrupted by the receipt of the other party's response to the initial communication (even though that response was on its way (but not yet received) to the first conference member). In other instances, as a result of the silence, for example, conference members may be uncertain as to whether their initial communication was received and/or understood by the other party and thus, may instinctively begin to repeat their message before realizing that another member had responded to their communication (i.e., collision).
In other instances, in an attempt to prevent such collisions, conference members may patiently wait for a communication from the other party when, in fact, the other party had not communicated anything. Further, once a collision occurs each party may simultaneously refrain from communicating to allow the other party to finish their communication and then, upon a realization of such a mutual silence, both parties may begin communicating again substantially simultaneously, before realizing that another collision occurred. Such collisions during teleconferences are time-consuming and distracting.

Systems and methods for mediating teleconferences


A meander line antenna includes a rectangular-parallelopiped base member made from a dielectric material having barium oxide, aluminum oxide, and silica as main components, a meander-shaped conductor having, e.g., 10 corners made of copper or a copper alloy by printing, deposition, pasting, or plating inside the base member, and a power-feed terminal for applying a voltage to the conductor. The meander-shaped conductor is formed in the longitudinal direction of the base member. One end of the conductor is led to a surface of the base member to form a power-feed section and is connected to the power-feed terminal. The other end of the conductor serves as an open end inside the base member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a meander line antenna used for mobile communications and in local area network (LAN).
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 6 shows a monopole antenna 50, which is a conventional line-shaped antenna. The monopole antenna 50 has one conductor 52 almost upright against a ground surface 51 in the air (relative dielectric constant .di-elect cons.=1, relative magnetic permeability .mu.=1). A power source V is connected to one end 53 of the conductor 52, and the other end 54 is free.
Since the conductor of a line-shaped antenna, typical of which is the above conventional monopole antenna, exists in the air, the dimensions thereof are large. Assuming that the wavelength of a signal in a vacuum is .lambda..sub.0, for example, the conductor of a monopole antenna is required to have a length of .lambda..sub.0 /4. When the resonant frequency is 1.0 GHz or less, the conductor of a monopole antenna needs to be at least about 7.5 cm long.
Therefore, it is difficult to use a monopole antenna in a case in which a compact antenna is required, especially in low-frequency mobile communications.