A base seat structure for supporting a chip card includes a tray which is utilized to configured a chip card and capable of being formed by a reciprocally-moved type, a base frame disposed on the tray, a fastening frame disposed on the tray and having a retarding portion, and a carrier which is configured between the base frame and the fastening frame and capable of being motioned between a first position and a second position to follow the reciprocally-moved tray. When the carrier is motioned toward the first position, the retarding portion of the fastening frame presses the carrier to pass through a limitation of the base frame to motion toward the second position, thereby pushing or allowing the tray for movement. Moreover, when the tray and the carrier are motioned toward the first position, the chip card is located or electronically connected.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a base seat structure for supporting a chip card or a smart car, in particular relates to an engagement of a carrier, a base frame and a retarding portion of a fastening frame applied to assist a tray utilized for loading a chip card in locating or generating movement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Applications of a substrate and an integrated circuit or a microprocessor aggregated in a center of the substrate of a chip card or a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, which are utilized to realize information transmission of communication network, are already known as conventional skills. Generally, the integrated circuit of such smart card is electronically connected to terminals of a connector or a socket when the smart card is plugged into the connector or the socket.
In conventional skills, types of smart cards capable of being manually plugged into connectors or sockets by an operator are also disclosed. Basically, in the structure design of such smart card, the smart card is limitedly pushed out of the connector or the socket from one end of the smart card by the operator, rather than allowing the operator to directly draw out the smart card in an insertion direction thereof. In otherwise structure designs, the users are allowed to manually push out a smart card from the surface thereof. Moreover, in some structure designs of conventional skills, a back cover which is additionally provided at a region parallel to a surface of a smart card is utilized to shield the smart card. That is to say, the smart card is allowed to be removed unless the back cover is opened by the operator.
In conventional skills, a structure of a drawer-type connector or socket assembled with a smart card is disclosed. Such drawer-type connector or socket structure is generally configured with a drawer-type machine frame and a tray, in which the machine frame has two sides formed with sliding slots, and the tray has lateral sides correspondingly engaged to the sliding slots of the machine frame, such that the tray can be plugged in an interior of the machine frame to form an assembly structure.
One topic related to structure designs and applications of such assembly of the smart card and the socket or connector shall be concerned is that the assembly of the machine-frame sliding slots and the tray lateral sides has an inferior stability, and the condition of the machine-frame sliding slots tended to be worn by the tray lateral sides in a normal use generally causes unsmoothness of push-assembling or drawing movement cooperatively executed by the tray and the machine frame, and certainly these conditions are not our expectations.
Representatively speaking, these reference data reveal the conditions of usage and structural design of the smart card and the connector (the socket) or combination components connected therewith. If the structure and above-described applications of the connector or the socket and the components connected therewith (e.g., the machine frame, the tray, etc.) can be properly redesigned and reconsidered, the use pattern and the application conditions of the connector or the socket and the components connected therewith can be advancedly altered, thus to be distinguished from conventional products and methods. For example, the following topics to the structure design of the connector or the socket and the components connected therewith at least shall be considered.
Firstly, the structure design of the connector or the socket shall provide the operator with direct push-press, push-away or automatic eject-away functions so that the chip card or the smart card can be conveniently removed or placed by the operator, thereby improving complicated operation in conventional skills and providing a use with a simple and convenient operation.
Secondly, the improper conditions in conventional skills shall be simultaneously improved, such as an inferior stability of the assembly of the machine-frame sliding slots and the tray lateral sides, and the machine-frame sliding slots tended to be worn by the tray lateral sides in a normal use to cause unsmoothness of push-assembling or drawing movement cooperatively executed by the tray and the machine frame.

Base seat structure for supporting chip card


A coated wet-chemically oxidized aluminum effect pigment is provided having at least one metal oxide layer having at least one metal oxide which differs from aluminum oxide and an enveloping organic polymer layer, wherein the weight ratio of the metal oxide of the metal oxide layer to aluminum oxide in the wet-chemically produced aluminum oxide layer of uncoated wet-chemically oxidized aluminum effect pigment is in a range of from 1:1 to 1:40. Also, a method for the production of the pigment is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to colored oxidized aluminum effect pigments, a method for their production and the use thereof. The invention furthermore relates to a coating agent and a coated object.
2. Description of Related Art
Aluminum effect pigments offer a large number of possible uses and are established in diverse fields of use. They are often to be encountered, for example, in cosmetics, in the automobile sector, in the production of plastics, in paints or the printing industry. In addition to optical properties, they also offer, for example, specific technical properties here. Due to their platelet-shaped form, aluminum effect pigments display interesting optical effects, which is to be attributed to their larger reflective surface. In addition to the basic shape of the effect pigments per se, various surface modifications have furthermore been developed in the past in order to create new properties or to influence the existing properties in a targeted manner.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,936 A describes a controlled wet-chemical oxidation of the surface of aluminum effect pigments, which are marketed by Eckert under the name Aloxal. A characteristic surface structure forms here, which brings about a coloring of the effect pigments as a consequence of interference effects. Although the champagne color shades, for example, which can be achieved by this means offer a highly interesting color spectrum for many uses, the water contained in the aluminum oxide layer can bring about a subsequent oxidation, with the result that a long-term color stability can be achieved only with difficulty.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,996 A describes a method for the production of colored aluminum effect pigments, wherein color pigments are introduced into a metal oxide coating of the aluminum effect pigments.
US 2007/0104663 A1 furthermore describes the coating of wet-chemically oxidized aluminum particles with a metal chalcogenide layer. Particles obtained here have a minimal total thickness and firmly adhering oxide layers, and are acceptable in terms of safety.
US 2008/0249209 A1 moreover describes the production of inorganic/organic mixed layers having an inorganic network and at least one organic component. It has been found that the production of such inorganic/organic mixed layers is elaborate in terms of process technology.
Known from US 2009/0264575 A1 are metal effect pigments having a coating which contains oligomeric and/or polymeric binders which are chemically crosslinkable and/or can be crosslinked under the action of heat, IR radiation, UV radiation and/or electron beams.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,761,762 B1 discloses effect pigments coated with reactive orientation aids. The subject of this patent is constituted substantially by aluminum effect pigments which can be coated with a coating of metal oxides or polymers. Orientation aids which make possible a covalent binding to the binder of a paint or a varnish are then arranged on this coating.
Finally, metal effect pigments, in particular aluminum effect pigments, coated with synthetic resin are known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,767 A.
US 2009/0117281 A1 describes aluminum effect pigments comprising an adhesion promotion layer and a polymer layer. The aim here is to be an improved water resistance and chemical resistance of the pigments.
US 2010/0152355 A1 furthermore describes metal effect pigments which are provided with a synthetic resin coating, wherein the synthetic resin coating comprises a polymer and an organofunctional silane.

Coated, wet-chemically oxidized aluminum effect pigments, method for the production thereof, coating agent and coated object


A camera device comprises a movable optical system, a driving unit which drives the optical system, and a control unit which controls the driving unit to move the optical system to a predetermined state by an initialization processing based on a startup program which does not comprise an operating system and then controls the driving unit based on the control program comprising the operating system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera device having a movable optical system, and a method and a program for starting the camera device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in electronic still cameras or digital cameras, an object is picked up by an image pickup element such as a CCD or the like, and while the image is being displayed as a through image on a liquid crystal display device, the picked-up image is recorded as digital data on a recording medium such as a memory card or the like in accordance with an operation of a shutter. Accordingly, at the time of startup when the power supply of an electronic still camera is turned on for photographing, various initializing operations with respect to both of the hardware and the software, for example, such as a preparation for making data to be able to be recorded on a recording medium, a preparation for image picking-up an object, and a preparation for displaying the picked-up image, are indispensable. As a time from the power-on until when it is in a state in which photographing is available, a given starting time which is longer than that in the case of a silver salt camera or an analog camera is required. Therefore, there is the shortcoming that the electronic still cameras or the digital cameras cannot cope with an urgent chance to press a shutter key.
Therefore, in order to make shortening of the above-described starting time to be possible, a conventional example in which a time of reading management information from an freely attachable and detachable memory card is omitted is disclosed in paragraph 0025 of Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2002-237977.
However, in an electronic still camera, which has a movable or sinkable optical system in which a lens is housed in a camera housing during non-photographing and it is necessary to protrude the zoom lens prior to photographing, the time required for protruding the optical system accounts for most of the starting time. Therefore, even if the time of reading management information from a memory card is omitted as in the conventional document, the time accounts for extremely small percentage of the total starting time, and there is the problem that an effect on reduction in starting time has not been satisfactory yet.

Camera device and method and program for starting the camera device


A structural member includes side walls, a top wall connecting a top region of the side walls, a bottom wall connecting side wall bottoms and extending beyond the side walls to form wings each having one portion of a connector for connecting members to one another, a span connected to the side walls, and truss configurations each connected to the span and the bottom wall and respectively to one side wall. Side walls, top wall, and span define an upper interior chamber and span, truss configurations, and bottom wall define a lower interior chamber. Each truss configuration has a vertical wall and two intermediate walls. An assembly of members interlock with one another in series by connecting a first portion of the connector with a second portion of another member. These interlocked members form a structure for receiving concrete as a base for a ribbed concrete slab.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a single very light tubular building element for the construction of reinforced concrete intermediate floors/ceilings and roofs. The single building element provides the formwork for the casting in place of the structural concrete and also provides for a high quality finished ceiling at the same time. It is intended for simple installation without heavy equipment into building parts. A series of members are often intended to form an exposed surface when used as a floor or ceiling.
A series of members are constructed and often disposed to be the primary means of containing and supporting a panel or slab of concrete as it cures. An interconnected series of members, according to the present invention, also form a continuous mortar impervious formwork for a concrete slab, and presents an attractive permanently exposed ceiling surface.
2. Prior Art
There have been many suggestions for use of either or both temporary or permanent form members to construct building parts of concrete. These form members can be temporary in nature because they are removed after concrete cures, or can be contained in concrete as permanent parts. For example:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,880 to de Zen teaches a modular building system of extruded hollow thermoplastic structural components of rectilinear cross-section. These members are made of a special thermoplastic mixture said to resist the elements and are characterized by a fire-resistant outer skin. The concrete is poured inside the thermoplastic components that have internal apertures through which the concrete can flow from one member to another member in a group when they are joined as a wall panel, for example. When the members are to be used in construction of a roof, concrete cannot be used, and metal inserts are called for to assist in stiffening.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,944 to de Zen discloses the use of thermoplastic structural components as permanent formwork. The forms can be used in a series to construct various structures. Concrete is poured inside the thermoplastic components that have internal apertures through which the concrete can flow from one member to another member when they are joined as a wall panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,096 to Nelson is illustrative of conventional concrete forming techniques to manufacture a ribbed, reinforced concrete slab. The forming system utilizes concrete displacement pans supported on temporary framework. Nelson discloses the problem of concrete leaking out of joints. The leaking material normally is without aggregate, and is sometimes referred to as mortar. When the concrete slab or slab cures, workers must, remove the hardened mortar with a chisel, or the like, providing an unsatisfactory surface finish. The bottom surface is neither planar nor finished. Nelson suggests the use of additional members to forestall the leakage of mortar.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,031 to Winkler and U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,863 to Nessa et al. are illustrative of other expedients to join extruded plastic form members for use in containing concrete inside. The members are normally a part of the cured concrete structure or building component.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,565 to Majnaric et al. is illustrative of a containment including a plurality of panels that are interconnected by connector columns and fused together by the passing of electrical current through conductors received within such elements at their points of intersection. Sliding one adjacent panel over another panel interconnects the panels. A gasket is interposed between a pair of panels to create a watertight environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,660 to Vadala is illustrative of a highly sound insulating clay tile for the construction of floors that has an outer substantially parallelepiped shape with symmetrical, laterally projecting portions that act as shoulders for the support of each tile by prefabricated reinforced concrete floor beams.
While the field of reinforced concrete formwork is well developed, there is still the need for a relatively inexpensive easy-to-use system to form ribbed-concrete slabs with structural formwork components. The system should not be as labor intensive as prior art configurations. It should use components that are lightweight and yet will control elastic deformation such as is often encountered when steel and aluminum alloy formwork is used to make such ribbed structures. Moreover, each element should be easily aligned with an adjacent member, the alignment measures providing an impermeable alignment between adjacent members. Thus, eliminating the need of additional members (e.g., gaskets) or fusing of the adjacent members to accomplish impermeability.
Further, the members making up the formwork should not be filled with concrete to create the slab. Similarly, the members should include an easy device for placement of reinforcement bars without the need of manual tying or securing of the reinforcement bars together.
It is also desirable to have the ability to incorporate the formwork into the slab and have it serve as an impervious formwork base, eliminating cumbersome cleaning during construction and leakage afterward, and saving the common need of a costly waterproofing membrane over the slab. The formwork should serve for the casting in place of the structural concrete and also should provide for a high quality finished ceiling at the same time, eliminating the need to plaster and otherwise enhance the aesthetic appeal of the ceiling. Finally, the formwork should facilitate hung ceiling installations and also be easily penetrable to hold threaded screws and the like.


A production method for a sintered member includes preparing a raw powder, compacting the raw powder into a green compact having pores at the surface thereof, and sintering the green compact into a sintered compact. The production method also includes sealing the pores exposed at the surface of the sintered compact by at least one of plastically deforming and melting the surface of the sintered compact. The production method further includes forging the sintered compact by using a lubricant after the sealing.

1 Technical Field
The present invention relates to a production method for a sintered member. Specifically, the present invention relates to a technique for obtaining a sintered member with high density and high strength by forging after sintering. The sintered member has high density and high strength that are equivalent to those of a wrought steel.
2 Background Art
In a powder metallurgical method, a raw powder including a metallic powder is compacted into a green compact in a predetermined shape with predetermined dimensions. Then, the green compact is sintered at a predetermined temperature, whereby the powder particles are reliably bonded together, and a metallic product of a sintered member is manufactured. According to the powder metallurgical method, a sintered member can be formed in a shape that is near-net-shape of the product, and the sintered member is suitable for mass production. Moreover, a sintered member made of a specific material, which cannot be obtained by a wrought steel, can be produced. Therefore, the sintered members produced by the powder metallurgical method are widely used for automobile machine parts and various industrial machine parts.
In general, when a raw powder is compacted into a green compact, the green compact has spaces among the powder particles, and the spaces in the green compact remain as pores in the sintered member after sintering. Therefore, a sintered member made by the powder metallurgical method tends to have low strength compared with a member made of a wrought steel. In view of this, a great amount of alloying elements may be added to a sintered member, and the matrix of the sintered member is strengthened by the alloying elements. That is, a sintered member has been made by using an alloy that has a higher steel grade than that of an alloy used for a wrought steel. However, since the price of each alloying element has been rising recently, the cost of the raw powder has been increasing. On the other hand, by performing liquid phase sintering, a liquid phase is generated in the green compact, and the liquid phase fills up the spaces among the powder particles and thereby prevents generation of pores. In this case, a sintered member having high accuracy is difficult to obtain, and thereby machining is required after sintering. That is, a sintered member is not formed in a near-net-shape of a product, and the advantage of the powder metallurgical method is not effectively obtained.
In these circumstances, studies for improving strength of a sintered member are disclosed in, for example, PCT International Publications Nos. WO97/047418 and WO02/000378, U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,937, and Japanese Patent Application of Laid-Open No. 2004-091929. PCT International Publication No. WO97/047418 corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,546, EP Patent Application of Laid-Open No. 0958077, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2000-511975, and CN Patent Application of Laid-Open No. 1222105. PCT International Publication No. WO02/000378 corresponds to U.S. Patent Application of Laid-Open No. 2003/0155041, EP Patent Application of Laid-Open No. 1294511, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2004-502028, and CN Patent Application of Laid-Open No. 1438926. U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,937 corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,927, PCT International Publication No. WO97/043458, EP Patent Application of Laid-Open No. 0910680, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2001-513143. In the study, densities of a part or the entirety of a sintered member is increased by plastic deforming. Therefore, the amount of pores that may become starting points of fracture is decreased, whereby strength of a matrix is increased.
In the techniques disclosed in PCT International Publications Nos. WO97/047418 and WO02/000378, a sintered member is densified, whereby strength is partially improved. Nevertheless, the sintered member has low overall strength due to the existence of the pores. On the other hand, in the techniques disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,937 and Japanese Patent Application of Laid-Open No. 2004-091929, a sintered member is cold forged so as to crush almost all of the pores after sintering. The sintered member has a density equivalent to that of a wrought steel, but the strength is less than that of a wrought steel.


Provided are a beacon service method, apparatus, and system for providing a plurality of services using one beacon device by allowing the beacon device to broadcast a plurality of beacon signals for providing the plurality of services to a certain user terminal. The beacon device includes a first communication module configured to broadcast a beacon signal, a storage module configured to store transmission information for a plurality of beacon signals, and a control module configured to use the transmission information for the plurality of beacon signals stored in the storage module to control the first communication module to alternately broadcast the plurality of beacon signals.

This section is intended to merely provide background for embodiments of the present invention and is not considered prior art in the claims.
With the development of mobile communication networks and the advance in terminal specifications, mobile communication terminals have become the necessity for modern people and have evolved into total entertainment equipment beyond typical simple communication devices or information providing devices.
Further, technologies for performing short-range wireless communication between devices that are located within a short distance are being rapidly developed.
In this communication, a near field communication (NFC)-based service capable of transmitting and receiving desired data through bidirectional communication when a mobile communication terminal comes in contact with a point of sale (POS) terminal installed in a store or a beacon-based service capable of periodically transmitting a signal using an electromagnetic or acoustic wave, driving a specific application of a nearby mobile communication terminal, and providing desired content is used.
In this case, services provided by service providers may include services in various fields such as promotion, finance, payment, games, or the like, which are currently provided on the wired/wireless Internet, for example, a comparative simple promotion page service, a service for downloading a low-priced discount coupon, a service for paying for a product purchased in a store, and a service for downloading applications such as a game to users.
However, generally, the beacon service has a shortcoming in that one beacon device transmits unique identification information (e.g., a beacon ID) and only one service.
In addition, in order to overcome such a shortcoming, several services in one service page may be provided through a menu link. However, when a period of an individual service has elapsed, the service ends, and thus a change of a page, such as deletion of a page, is needed.

Method, apparatus, and system for providing plurality of services using one beacon


A semiconductor chip includes a logic circuit unit, at least one memory macro unit having a redundant memory cell which recovers a defect cell, electrode pad rows being arranged around the outside of the logic circuit unit and the memory macro unit, and the least one fuse unit group storing addresses of the defect cell and being arranged in a region along any edge of the semiconductor chip, and on the outside of the logic circuit unit, the memory macro unit and the electrode pad rows. Here, the logic circuit unit, the memory macro unit, the electrode pad rows and the fuse unit group are positioned on a semiconductor chip surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, which has memory and a logic circuit unit mounted upon the same substrate. In particular, it is related to a semiconductor chip and a semiconductor module, which respectively include a fuse unit used for defect cell recovery in memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a redundant memory structure, which has an internal defect cell recovery circuit, is widely employed in semiconductor memory chips. When there is a defect cell in a memory device, this redundant memory structure replaces it by using a spare cell.
With a semiconductor chip including this type of redundant memory structure, there is a region having a plurality of fuse units (hereafter referred to as a 'fuse unit group') on a portion of the defective memory recovery circuit.
Typically, with a semiconductor chip testing process, once the existence of a defect cell is confirmed with a tester and the specific address of the defect cell is identified, the corresponding fuse of the fuse unit is melted and blown by using a laser to store the address of the defect cell in the fuse unit.
Upon reading out a memory cell, the stored defect cell address and an inputted address are compared; if they match, a redundant cell is selected, otherwise, if they do not match, the cell of the inputted address is selected.
FIG. 1 is a planar view showing a configuration of a conventional memory chip 100. As shown in the same Figure, with the memory chip 100, electrode pad rows 200 for bonding are respectively arranged along ones of the edges of the chip. Inside thereof, a plurality of memory arrays 300 are arranged, and next to each memory array 300 a corresponding decoder circuit 500 and fuse unit group 400 are arranged.
Meanwhile, in recent years, due to reductions in mounting area and improvements in data transfer speed, memory embedded chips having memory and a logic circuit on the same substrate have come to be widely used.
FIG. 2 is a planar view showing a structural example of a conventional memory embedded chip 110. As shown in the same figure, electrode pad rows 210 for bonding are arranged along all four edges of the chip, and a logic circuit unit 700 and a memory macro unit 610 are formed there inside.
The memory macro unit 610 includes memory 600, which includes memory arrays and a decoder circuit, etc., and a fuse unit group 410. The memory macro unit 610 includes a redundant cell configuration for defect cell recovery as with the case of the memory chip 100. In this manner, the same memory functions as the conventional memory chip 100 may be included with merely the memory macro unit 610, and normally, design of the memory macro unit 610 and design of the logic circuit unit 700 are independent of each other.
In recent years, calculation processing requested of the logic circuit has become more complex, and consequently, power consumption has increased. Together with such conditions, the number of power source terminals required for the chip has increased, and interconnects such as power source lines and signal lines for connecting the logic circuit unit within the chip to the electrode pads, which function as power source terminals, have also become more complex.
In addition, the memory capacity that is loaded upon the memory embedded chip together with the logic circuit unit has increased, and the space occupied by the memory macro unit relevant to the entire chip area has increased. As a result, it has become necessary for interconnects such as the signal lines and power source lines formed in the highest layer, which connect the logic circuit unit and the electrode pads, to pass over the top of the memory macro unit.
However, since the fuse melting/blowing operation is performed after forming the interconnects on the upper-most layer, these interconnects cannot be formed above the fuse unit group. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 2, the interconnects 800 such as the power source lines and signal lines connecting, for example, the logic circuit unit 700 and the electrode pad 210 must be routed around the fuse unit group 410. Therefore, the existence of the fuse unit group 410 places great constraints on the interconnect routing design for connecting each electrode pad 210a and the logic circuit unit 700.
Meanwhile, with recent logic circuit unit LSI, the trend in increased integration continues, further increasing the number of input/output signal terminals on a chip. In addition, due to the increase in power consumption accompanying this, the number of power source terminals has been further increased. As a result, with the conventional mounting method where the electrode pads are connected to an external board via the wire bonding, the number of electrode pads is limited, causing situations to develop where the number of terminals may be insufficient. Therefore, recent semiconductor chips are utilizing mounting methods that make use of bumps.
FIG. 3 is a planar view showing a structural example of a memory embedded chip 120 using bumps. Electrode pad rows 210 are arranged along all four edges of the chip, and a logic circuit unit 700 and a memory macro unit 610 are formed there inside. Within the memory macro unit 610, memory 600 and a fuse unit group 410 are formed.
On the chip surface, a plurality of bumps 900, which are formed as, for example, protuberances of lead, are laid out in a two-dimensional pattern. Each electrode pad 210b is connected to each corresponding bump 900 by interconnects in the upper-most layer, and then via the bumps 900 is connected to an external board. More specifically, the input/output terminals are respectively connected to electrode pads 210b on the chip edge. These electrode pads 210b are further connected to bumps 900, respectively, arranged on the chip surface. These bumps 900 are then connected to, for example, an external package board.
In this manner, in cases where bumps 900 are used, it is possible to increase the number of input/output terminals since the input/output terminals may be laid out on the chip surface in a two-dimensional pattern. In addition, since the distance between each bump terminal laid out in the two-dimensional pattern may be widened, connection with the external board also becomes easier.
Nonetheless, in this case as well, as shown in FIG. 3, the interconnect connecting each electrode pad 210b with a respective bump 900 must be routed around the fuse unit group 410. This also causes there to be electrode pads that are not connected to a bump 900, as shown in the same Figure.
In addition, bumps 900 may not be formed over the fuse unit group 410. As a result, bumps cannot be laid out in an even pattern throughout the entire chip surface. In cases where the semiconductor chip is mounted on, for example, a package board, it is easy for stress to develop in the bumps due to differences in the thermal expansion of the chip and that of the package board. Accordingly, if the bumps are not laid out evenly throughout the chip surface, an imbalance in stress may develop making it easy for problems to occur such as the package peeling back.
Moreover, with an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), since the memory macro unit upon the chip may be arranged at the discretion of each user, the location of the fuse unit group may also differ for each user depending on the arrangement of the memory macro unit. And since the arrangement of bumps may be affected by the position of the fuse unit, various changes may be possible depending on the user. Accordingly, assuming all of these combinations, it is extremely difficult to perform ASIC layout so that problems such as peeling back of the package do not occur.


A process is described for forming an aluminum plug in a via in an insulating layer in an integrated circuit structure by first depositing a layer of aluminum over the insulating layer in a multistep deposition which will also result in filling the via with aluminum to form an aluminum plug therein, followed by removal of any additional aluminum formed over the surface of the insulating layer, and subsequent formation of one or more patterned conductive layers over the insulating surface which is in electrical communication with the underlying aluminum plug in the via. The one or more patterned conductive layers formed over the insulating surface are characterized by superior electrical properties over the aluminum layer initially deposited and then removed. A barrier layer may be first formed over exposed portions of the underlying integrated circuit structure at the bottom of the via before it is filled with aluminum.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for forming, in one or more vias in an insulating layer of an integrated circuit structure, an aluminum plug; and then forming a patterned metal layer over the insulating layer in electrical communication with the aluminum plug.
2. Description of the Related Art
Aluminum has been used for a number of years as interconnect material, as well as a filler material for vias in an insulating layer to provide electrical communication to either another metal interconnect layer or to underlying integrated circuit structure, e.g. , between different levels of interconnects or to contacts of an active device such as a bipolar or MOS transistor.
However, the problem of spiking, which occurs when silicon migrates into the aluminum, has led to the use of an electrically conductive barrier layer in the via, such as a refractory metal which is formed over exposed portions of underlying silicon at the bottom of the via. However this further reduces the size of the via, making it more difficult to fill the remainder of the via volume with aluminum, especially with the concurrent reduction in the geometries of integrated circuit structures. This, in turn, has led to the use of other filler materials such as tungsten to fill the vias.
However, while tungsten can be used successfully as a via filler material, it has a higher electrical resistance than aluminum, making it less desirable as a filler material and/or as an overlying metal interconnect layer.
In view of such less than satisfactory results with the use of tungsten in filling vias, there has been renewed interest in the use of aluminum as a filler material for vias, leading to the development of CVD or sputter deposition processes wherein at least a part of the deposition is carried out at temperatures of at least 400.degree. C. or higher.
While the use of such higher deposition temperatures has resulted in the satisfactory filling of such vias with aluminum,, the resulting aluminum layer concurrently formed over the insulation layer containing the vias may not be satisfactory for use in forming a patterned interconnect. Such high temperature-deposited aluminum layers have been found to have electro migration and stress migration limitations. Furthermore., the resulting large grains formed in the aluminum deposited at such high temperatures interferes with subsequent patterning and line etching of the aluminum layer resulting in poor line definition.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a process for filling a via in an insulating layer of an integrated circuit structure with an aluminum plug followed by formation of a patternable conductive metal layer over the insulation layer to provide an electrical connection to the aluminum plug in the via.

Process for forming low resistance aluminum plug in via electrically connected to overlying patterned metal layer for integrated circuit structures


Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments providing a testing integration and automation system. An embodiment operates by receiving a component selection of a set of one or more components of the computing program for testing from a testing interface. A test procedure for testing a new component for the computing program with the selected one or more components of the set is identified. A selection of a runtime environment in which to test the new component and the computing program is received from the testing interface. The test procedure is executed in the selected runtime environment to generate testing results. The testing results of the executing the test procedure in the selected runtime environment are provided via the testing interface.

Testing improvements to software applications is an important part of the software development cycle. However, testing new versions of components of existing software applications can become increasingly cumbersome as the number of updates increase and/or those updates are released into different runtime environments or operating systems. Manually testing the numerous and varied combinations of versions and runtimes with the new components may quickly become costly, cumbersome, and slow down software development.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical or similar elements. Additionally, generally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

Testing integration and automation system


An erasures assisted block code decoder and related method are provided. The erasures assisted block code decoder includes a first block decoder, an erasures processor, and a second block code decoder. The first block decoder, for example, a Reed-Solomon decoder, is configured to decode blocks of data elements, e.g., bytes, that were previously affected by bursty errors. The first block decoder is also configured to identify those of such blocks it is unable to decode. The erasures processor is configured to identify, as erasures, data elements in the un-decodable blocks by utilizing, in the erasures identification process, data elements in the decoded blocks that were corrected by the first block decoder. The second block decoder, e.g., the same or different Reed-Solomon decoder, is configured to decode one or more of the un-decodable blocks by utilizing, in the decoding, the erasures identified by the erasures processor.

1. Field of the Invention
This application relates generally to block code decoders, and, more specifically, to increasing the number of correctable errors in such decoders.
2. Related Art
A forward error correction code is a code applied to encode source information at the transmitter so that errors introduced by transmission over the communications channel can be corrected through corresponding decoding performed at the receiver. To increase the error detection and correction capability of the code, it is common to apply combinations of codes, a process which is often referred to as code concatenation. In one example of code concatenation, an outer code is first applied to encode the source information, and then an inner code is applied to further encode the information. The inner and outer codes can be selected to address different classes of errors or complement one another in other ways.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a FEC encoder 100 that applies a concatenated code, comprising an outer code and an inner code. In this example, the outer code is a block code, and the inner code is a convolutional code. The encoder 100 typically forms a portion of a transmitter configured to communicate information over a communications channel to a receiver. The encoder 100 comprises a block code encoder 102, an interleaver 104, and a convolutional code encoder 106. The input to block code encoder 102 consists of blocks of data. The encoder 102 appends parity information to each block, which is to be used at the receiver for error detection and correction. The interleaver 104 is configured to permute the encoded blocks in order to reduce the impact of the (anticipated) bursty errors introduced by the communication channel. In one configuration, the interleaver 104 is a convolutional interleaver that is configured to interleave the encoded blocks from encoder 102 at the byte level. The convolutional encoder 106 is configured to convolutionally encode the permuted blocks output by the interleaver 104. Typically, this encoding is performed at the bit level and introduces a certain amount of redundancy that is used for error detection and correction. For example, the encoder 106 may be a rate ½ convolutional encoder that substitutes two convolutionally encoded bits for every input but, and thus doubles the size of the encoded blocks, although, with puncturing, the degree of redundancy that is introduced can be reduced.
FIG. 2 illustrates a decoder 200 for decoding the encoded data produced by the encoder 100 after transmission over the communication channel. The decoder 200 typically forms a portion of a receiver. The decoder 200 comprises an inner decoder 202, a de-interleaver 206, and a block code decoder 208. The inner decoder 202, typically a Viterbi decoder, is configured to decode the convolutional encoding applied by the (inner) convolutional encoder 106 in FIG. 1. The output 204 of the inner decoder 202 is input to the de-interleaver 206, which is configured to reverse the permutations introduced by the interleaver 104 . Through this process, the de-interleaver 206 spreads any bursty errors introduced by communication over the communications channel. The data from de-interleaver 206 is input to the block code decoder 208, which is configured to decode the block code encoding applied by the block code encoder 102 of FIG. 1. Therefore, in the case where the block code encoder 102 is a Reed-Solomon encoder, the block code decoder 208 is likewise chosen to be a Reed-Solomon decoder.
The error detection and correction capability of the decoder 200 is typically defined by the amount of parity information appended by the block code encoder 102. In the case where the encoder 102 is a (n, k) Reed-Solomon encoder over GF(256), indicating that the encoder appends n-k bytes of parity information to each k byte block, and the block code decoder 208 is a (n, k) Reed-Solomon decoder, the decoder 200 is able to detect and correct Ldmin/2 errors, where "L" represents the "floor" operator, and dmin=(n−k+1). Thus, for a code where dmin=17, the decoder is able to detect and correct up to 8 errors.
To increase the error detection and correction capability of the decoder 200, various schemes have been proposed, none of which is entirety satisfactory. One approach calls for configuring the inner decoder 202 such that its output 204 is in the form of soft bit estimates rather than hard bit estimates, and also configuring the block code decoder 208, which is typically configured to handle only hard bit estimates, so that it is capable of handling soft bit estimates. See, e.g., M. K. Cheng et al., "Soft-Decision Reed-Solomon Decoding on Partial Response Channels," GLOBECOM'02—IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference. Conference Record, vol. 2, 2002, pages 1026-30; J. Jiang et al., Iterative Soft-Input Soft-Output Decoding of Reed-Solomon Codes By Adapting the Parity Check Matrix, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 52, No. 8, August 2006, pages 3746-3756. However, while this approach is theoretically able to increase the error detection and correction capability of the decoder 200, it has proven difficult or impossible to implement in practice.

Erasures assisted block code decoder and related method


The present invention is a device for cutting solid medications, whether in the form of capsules, tablets or pills. When cutting capsules, the capsules are retained to be divided by a first blade. Tablets and other forms of the medication are retained by pill stabilizers and cut by a second blade. The device also may have a pill crusher and a section to hold whole or divided medications.

The present invention relates generally to medical care devices, and more particularly to devices for accurately and precisely dividing predetermined dosages of substantially solid medicines, whether in a tablet or capsule form.
Modern oral medicines come in a variety of forms depending on the desired effect, manufacturing abilities, shelf life, personal preference, and the like. Examples include tablets, capsules, liquids, gels, gums, and dissolving strips. Of these, tablets and capsules are the most widely accepted forms. Tablets may be defined as generally small, usually soluble masses of medicine, often held together with a binder. Capsules are similar, except capsule are usually substantially cylindrical shaped and comprise an outer coating or layer to hold the medication together.
Medications typically are produced in a limited number of concentrations or dosages. For example, a tablet may be produced in dosages of 150 and 250 mg active ingredient. Dosage variations for a particular medication may be driven by financial, manufacturing, and/or effectiveness considerations.
As medications are produced and delivered in predetermined dosages, patients may sometimes need to divide a medication into smaller portions in order to achieve a proper dosage as prescribed by a medical professional.
Further, some patients have difficulty swallowing larger tablets and capsules. Thus, some patients find it easier to divide a tablet or capsule medication into smaller, more easily swallowed portions, even where the full-sized tablet or capsule is the proper dosage for the patient.
The prior art is ripe with examples of various tablet dividers. However, a greater number of medications are being produced in capsule form. The tablet dividers of the prior art generally cannot consistently, properly, and accurately divide a medication in capsule form into smaller dosages.
Further, many more tablets are being produced with an outer shell which makes prior art medication dividers more difficult to use properly, as the outer shell may be difficult to pierce in order to divide the tablet as desired.
Thus, what is desired is a device for properly and accurately dividing tablet and capsule medications into small dosages.

Device for dividing medications and method of using the same


A method is provided for displaying at least one hierarchically structured list having at least two levels, and a display unit for such a method is also provided, in which the user is offered an optimum overview in the display of hierarchically structured lists having at least two levels. In the display of one or more of the subordinate elements of the list, the respective superordinate element of the list associated with the subordinate element of the list is also always displayed.

The difficulty in displaying or representing long, hierarchically structured lists may be encountered nowadays in many technical fields, such as for the display of hierarchically structured lists on the display element of a computer system or on a navigation display. In this regard, a navigation system is used as an example below.
In a navigation system for displaying the results of a route search, a list of names of the streets included in the route may be generated. In addition to the actual street names (shown in Roman numerals in FIG. 1), the entries may also contain any existing street numbers (shown in Arabic numerals in FIG. 1) and the town (shown in capital letters in FIG. 1) to which the streets belong (see FIG. 1).
Although the "flat" or non-hierarchical display shown in FIG. 1 may be used in this form, it may be considered generally impracticable and not clear. For greater practicability and better clarity, entries and elements which are associated with a specific town (shown in capital letters in FIGS. 1 and 2) or a specific street number (shown in Arabic numerals in FIGS. 1 and 2) may be combined and hierarchically displayed, as illustrated in FIG. 2.
This form of the tree display shown as an example in FIG. 2 may offer the user greater practicability and better clarity, since the various entries and elements are displayed in a weighted manner according to their importance. It may also be possible to combine the partial lists created, also referred to below as "subordinate lists" or "sublists," and to display them using only the superordinate entry or the superordinate element.
Thus, for example, the streets within towns may be concealed so that the route list appears as a list of towns with overland road connections (see FIG. 3). Such a display may be practical, for example, for long cross-country trips for which the individual streets in the towns may be of no concern.
To show an existing possibility for expanding a concealed branch of the hierarchically structured list, a square with a plus sign has been established. Accordingly, a square with a minus sign is displayed for the existing possibility of collapsing a subordinate list or sublist. One such example is the route list displaying all towns and streets including street numbers, as shown in FIG. 4.
In addition to these various preset lists in which only certain portions are shown or concealed, other configurations may also be possible. Thus, after interaction with the user it may be possible to expand some sublists and to combine others (see FIG. 5).
The possibility of combining or collapsing sublists, or also expanding these sublists, is intended to help the user obtain a better overview of the information provided. This may be important since the display possibilities in navigation devices for an arrangement for transport, for example, may be limited by a small display. Thus, some conventional navigation devices, even those for a high-end arrangement for transport, may provide, for example, only six lines for displaying the list of street names.
Using an example of a display having ten lines, the hierarchically structured list and the corresponding display window are shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B. The entries and elements in boldface in FIGS. 6A and 6B appear in the display window, whereas the entries and elements in lighter typeface located outside the display window are used only for better understanding of the relationships, but are not visible to the user in the display window.
However, as seen from a comparison of FIGS. 7A and 7B, there may be an undesired feature for hierarchically structured lists, in that for specific regions it may not be possible to determine a direct association of the street name with the street number or with the town, or to determine a direct association of the street number with the town. This effect may appear, for example, in the middle of long subordinate lists.
In this case, the user may only obtain the sought information by scrolling through the hierarchically structured list. For very long lists this procedure may be undesired and impracticable because the actual entry or element of interest may be lost from the field of vision during scrolling. Thus, only in relatively few cases may it be possible to see the relevant entries and elements simultaneously. Thus, using FIG. 7B as an example, it is not possible to directly determine that street name IX belongs to town B. A direct association may therefore not always be possible, which may be perceived as unsatisfactory in light of the accompanying loss of information.
The display of hierarchically structured lists may generally be affected by this undesired feature when it is not possible to completely display these lists in the display medium (for the most part, it may not be possible to completely display hierarchically structured lists in the display medium; see FIG. 8A).
An example in the field of computer technology may include the display of file managers, such as for example in the case of Explorer in the Windows® operating system by Microsoft®. For such applications, it may not be possible in some cases for the user to, for example, determine what the superordinate directory, or even the superordinate directories of the files or directories instantaneously shown in the display window, are (see FIG. 8B).

Method for displaying a hierarchically structure list and associated display unit


In an interrupt-driven data frame stream receiver, an interrupt to a host processor is applied by an interrupt system that comprises a timer logic circuit, an address match circuit, a data frame counter, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) logic circuit, a frame length logic circuit, and a frame content detector. Each of these circuits is coupled to an OR gate. A Start Frame Delimiter (SFD) detector is connected to the inputs of the other circuits. The interrupt system provides the interrupts when any one or more of the following conditions arise: 1) a time interval between successive frames in the data frame stream is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, 2) a predetermined maximum number of frames have been received, 3) a frame is not addressed to the receiver, 4) an error frame is received, 5) the length of a frame is less than a minimum preset value, 6) the length of a frame is more than a maximum preset value, 7) frames have been received for a time period that exceeds a predetermined time period, and 8) the content of a frame requests the frame to be handled in a prescribed manner.

In most data communication environments, a number of terminals interact with a master station or central processing unit (CPU) that controls the reception and transmission of data performed by the terminals. For example, FIG. 1 of the drawings illustrates interaction between a host CPU 32 and Intel 82586 LAN controller 34 (coprocessor) in the IEEE 802.3/Ethernet environment. Communication between the host CPU 32 and the controller 34 is carried out via a 82586 system memory 36. The controller comprising a command unit (CU) and receive unit (RU) (not shown in FIG. 1) is engaged in the two types of activities simultaneously: the CU may be fetching and executing commands out of the memory, and the RU may be storing received frames in the memory. CPU intervention is required after the CU executes a command or the RU stores a frame. The CPU and the controller are connected by INTERRUPT and CHANNEL ATTENTION hardware signals. The INTERRUPT signal is used by the controller to inform the CPU as to changes in control and status information. The CHANNEL ATTENTION signal is used by the CPU to inform the controller as to those changes.
The system memory structure consists of four parts: an initialization root 38, a system control block (SCB) 40, a command list 42 and a receive frame area 36. The initialization root 38 is a predetermined location of the memory space known to both the host CPU 32 and the controller 34, is accessed at initialization and points to the SCB 40. The SCB 40 functions as a bidirectional mail drop between the host CPU 32 and the controller 34 to exchange control and status information. The command list 42 stores a program for the CU. The receive frame area 36 comprises a number of receive buffers and their descriptions. The buffers are filled upon frame reception.
Referring to FIG. 2, an IEEE 802.3 frame/packet 200 comprises a preamble 202 and start frame delimiter (SFD) 204 automatically generated by the LAN controller 34 during transmission and prepended to the frame. The destination address 206, source address 208, length field 210 and data field 212 are supplied by the host CPU 32. The frame check sequence (FCS) 214 is cyclic redundancy check data (CRC) computed by the controller 34 and appended at the end of the frame. The FCS 214 may be followed by the end frame delimiter 216 generated by the controller 34 to indicate the lack of a signal after transmitting the last bit of the FCS 214.
The receive frame area 44 is configured by the host CPU to receive data placed by the controller as frames are received. In order to prepare the receive frame area to receive the next frame, the controller interrupts the CPU upon receiving the entire previous frame. Accordingly, the Intel LAN controller provides an interrupt of the CPU per each received frame.
In another example of interaction between a controller and a master processor, an AM7990 LAN controller that is designed to interface a variety of microprocessors to an IEEE 802.3/Ethernet LAN generates an interrupt to the microprocessor upon the reception of each packet.
The growth in computer applications that require heavy data traffic and the growing availability of high-speed transmission lines creates a need for communication systems able to manage the traffic at much higher rates. However, their throughput is limited by the processing power of master processors that are interrupted upon the reception of each frame or packet. High-speed communication systems may require the master processors to be interrupted at rates 20,000-100,000 interrupts per second. To eliminate processing bottlenecks created by the master processors, it would be desirable to provide a communication system able to receive a contiguous sequence of data frames or packets without interrupting a master processor upon the reception of each frame or packet.

Apparatus for and method of providing interrupts to a host processor in a frame receiving system


Provided is a dynamic resolution method of enriching a desired isomer of an alpha-substituted carboxylic acid relative to an undesired isomer, the method comprising: (a) in a solvent, contacting the alpha-substituted carboxylic acid, wherein the alpha substitution is with a leaving group and wherein the alpha carbon is chiral, with a homochiral amine to form a salt that is partially insoluble under selected reaction conditions, wherein the homochiral amine is selected so that the solubility of the amine salt of the undesired alpha-substituted carboxylic acid is greater than that of the amine salt of the desired alpha-substituted carboxylic acid under the selected reaction conditions; (b) reacting under the selected reaction conditions the salt with a nucleophile, wherein the reacting is effective in producing a net increase in the less soluble amine salt of the alpha-substituted carboxylic acid, and wherein the selected conditions are selected to (i) promote nucleophilic substitution of the nucleophile and the leaving group or (ii) to produce the increase in the less soluble amine salt in the absence of a strong base; and (c) maintaining the reaction for a period of time effective to increase the amount of the desired alpha-substituted carboxylic acid isomer.

Traditionally, synthetic chiral bioactive compounds were used in racemic form, since technology for resolving isomers was either unavailable, or impractical for use on a commercial scale. However, the bioactive component of such a racemate is typically found in only one of two or more of isomeric forms, meaning that at least half of the administered compound does not provide the intended benefit. It is also known that the opposite enantiomer of an intended drug can have a completely different therapeutic action. In some instances, the presence of the opposite enantiomer can be toxic. The biologically inactive isomers are, nonetheless, typically as bioavailable as the active isomer, and thus provide sources of risk without an offsetting benefit. Accordingly, regulators prefer some significant level of isomeric purity. See, e.g. FDA's Policy Statement for the Development of New Stereoisomeric Drugs (May 1, 1992). Technologies for resolving compounds have improved, allowing manufacturers to more readily conform to this regulatory pressure. Nonetheless, the art needs additional isomer resolution techniques that are adaptable to commercial scale and are cost effective.
Classical techniques for resolving optical isomers have included preferential precipitation/crystallization of a chiral compound that is associated with, covalently or non-covalently, an auxiliary chiral resolving compound or moiety. Advances in chromatography techniques effective to resolve isomers have helped provide analytical tools, but such techniques are of somewhat limited industrial applicability due to the associated cost. Dynamic resolution techniques are available, such as methods that react a chiral compound that is covalently attached to an auxiliary chiral resolving compound, or methods that utilize an enolization and Schiff base formation to convert isomeric forms.
The invention provides a new, cost effective technique that resolves the isomeric mixture while increasing the amount of the desired isomer. The technique avoids the formation of intermediate covalent adducts with auxiliary chiral resolving moieties, where such covalent bonds can be difficult to reverse without destroying desired chemical moieties. Such intermediate adducts are particularly difficult to remove in the context of the alpha-substituted carboxylic acids used in the dynamic resolution technique described here, as the leaving groups of the alpha substitution are not well preserved in the adduct removal chemistries. The technique of the invention uses partially insoluble salts of the alpha-substituted carboxylic acids formed with chiral amine compounds, yet unexpectedly the amine moieties do not disrupt the chemistry of the dynamic resolution technique.

Dynamic resolution of isomers and resolved isomers


A projection device is disclosed. The projection device includes an air inlet, an air outlet, an optical engine, a heat sink, a fan and a combiner. A first passage is arranged between the air inlet and the air outlet for passing an air flow. The optical engine includes a light source and an imaging lens set outputting a projection light beam. The heat sink is connected to the optical engine, and a part of the heat sink is arranged in the first passage. The fan is arranged in the first passage. The combiner receives the projection light beam. The projection light beam moves in a propagating direction opposite to the entry direction.

Development of science and technology promotes progress of times. Because demand of consumers varies so quickly, more and more new pico projectors are introduces into market. In response to the demand of consumers for high illumination, many manufactures utilize semiconductor light source of high power to provide light-illumination beam. However, the light source of high power often generates more heat which raises temperature in the pico projectors and thus reduces optical efficiency of the semiconductor light source and even causes deformation of lenses which causes a poor optical quality of light beam. Therefore, heat dissipation is one of the main critical factors affecting performance of pico projectors. One of solutions for heat dissipation of pico projectors is to increase area of heat dissipation fin. However, this may increase total volume of the pico projector. In addition to projectors, display systems such as head up displays also have the heat dissipation problem which affects optical efficiency.
The information disclosed in this "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION" section is only for enhancement understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art. Furthermore, the information disclosed in this "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION" section does not mean that one or more problems to be solved by one or more embodiments of the invention were acknowledged by a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Projection device and display system with a combiner therein


A brake rotor for attachment to a wheel of a vehicle may include an inner friction member and an outer friction member. The brake rotor may further include a plurality of posts connecting the inner friction member to the outer friction member, each post inclining at an angle between the inner friction member and the outer friction member.

Brake rotors, or brake disks, are arranged to be mounted to and rotate with a wheel hub of a vehicle as part of the vehicle's braking system. Brake rotors, for example, generally include two oppositely-facing annular friction surfaces which, during operation of the brakes, are engaged by two blocks of friction material (e.g., brake pads) that are moved towards one another into contact with the two friction surfaces so that frictional forces occur and slow the rotation of the rotor, and hence the wheel of the vehicle. These frictional forces, however, may also cause the rotors, brake pads, and caliper (which houses the brake pads and fits over the rotor) to become very hot, which may lead to reduced braking efficiency. High temperatures, for example, may cause problems such as brake fade (temporary loss of braking due to the reduction of the friction coefficient between the friction material and the brake rotor), brake fluid vaporization, component wear (including thermal deformation of the brake rotors), and thermal judder (vibrations that the driver can feel and hear).
In order to reduce temperature/heat accumulation in the brake rotors that is caused by the frictional forces, rotors may include, for example, vents that are cast into the edge of the rotor that allow the heat that has built up on the metal of the rotor to escape. Conventional ventilated rotors may include, for example, friction members (which carry the oppositely-facing annular friction surfaces) that are arranged in a spaced-apart parallel relationship. The friction members are joined by fins (see, e.g., FIG. 1) and/or posts (see, e.g., FIG. 2) therebetween, which form cooling ducts extending radially and outwardly of the rotor. The cooling ducts are arranged so that, as the rotor is rotated, air passes through the ducts and acts to cool the friction members.
Although conventional ventilated brake rotor designs may reduce the amount of temperature/heat accumulation in the rotors, to help improve the performance, handling, and fuel economy of the vehicle, there is still a continued need to present new ventilated brake rotor designs that also reduce the weight of the rotor. It may, therefore, be advantageous to provide an improved ventilated brake rotor design, which provides a rotor with sufficient stiffness and a decreased weight.


An improved segmented anode plasma generator apparatus and method. A combustion mixture of a hydrocarbon and air is injected into the plasma chamber along the direction of the plasma vortex, causing the plasma arc attachment to the anode to be in the diffusion attachment mode, where the plasma arc attaches to the anode surface over a large area, thereby substantially reducing the anode erosion rate. An innovative design of the exit nozzle then reduces the rotational component of the plasma's exit velocity to maximize the axial component of the velocity. By modulating the plasma arc current with very sharp plasma arc current pulses at a frequency related to the dwell time of the spray particles in the plasma, multiple sequential plasma shock waves which disintegrate the spray particles and accelerate them toward the target substrate. The increased velocity of the spray particles combined with their smaller size results in greatly increased cooling rates when they impact the target substrate, thereby resulting in amorphous spray-coatings with improved characteristics, including decreased porosity, higher tensile bond strength, and increased hardness, as well as having a greatly increased deposition rate. The plasma arc current is precisely controlled to assure small time constants in the plasma so that rapid changes in the plasma arc current (approximately 10.sup.8 amperes per second and higher) form plasma shock waves that strongly impact the spray particles.

The present invention relates to an improved plasma torch method and apparatus, and, more particularly, to an improved method and apparatus for plasma spraying.
An important use of the direct current (DC) plasma torch is in applying spray-coatings to surfaces. A coating material, in powder or wire form, is fed into a heat source created by an electric arc which passes through a gas and ionizes the gas to form a plasma. The intense heat from the plasma arc melts the coating material into small droplets, hereinafter referred to as "spray particles," and projects them at high velocity onto a prepared target substrate for coating. The resulting spray-coating is hard and resistant to mechanical abrasion as well as to the effects of high temperatures.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, to which reference is now made, a basic prior art plasma generator consists essentially of a hollow cylindrical anode 14 and a concentric inner cathode 10 located near one end of anode 14 and insulated from anode 14 by an insulator 12. A power supply 30 has the negative output terminal thereof connected to cathode 10 and the positive output terminal thereof connected to anode 14. Power supply 30 supplies sufficient current at a sufficient voltage to create and sustain a plasma arc between cathode 10 and anode 14. Cathode 10 is sometimes referred to as the "back electrode." The gas which is to be ionized is forced under pressure into the cavity 18 of anode 14 through a hole 16 in cathode 10, and flows toward an exit nozzle 20 located at the front end of anode 14. A high-current DC arc is initiated from cathode 10 to anode 14, and it is this plasma arc which creates the plasma in cavity 18. The gas which is to be ionized is usually introduced into cavity 18 in a tangential direction when viewed in a transverse cross-section, and the plasma arc which is created and sustained therein assumes a swirl form having an angular rotational component of velocity, this swirl form herein referred to as a "plasma vortex." The present application uses the term "direction of the plasma vortex" to denote the direction of the flow of ionized gas in the plasma vortex. By adjusting the flow of gas down the axis of anode 14, it is possible to force the plasma arc to attach to anode 14 at different distances from cathode 10. The plasma arc in this configuration of plasma generator tends to attach to anode 14 at a small point, and this mode of plasma arc attachment is referred to as the "contraction attachment mode." The contraction attachment mode is characterized by a very high current density, approximately 10.sup.9 amperes per square meter. It is this high current density which causes rapid erosion of the anode. A coating material is introduced through a hole 22 in exit nozzle 20, where the coating material is melted into spray particles and accelerated toward the target substrate as shown. During operation, outside cavity 18 there is a region 24 of flame-like high enthalpy, high temperature, and high velocity. The present application uses the term "plasma generator" to denote any device for plasma spraying having a hollow cavity, the inner wall of which acts as one electrode for an electric arc, and through which an ionized gas can flow.
There are a number of shortcomings and deficiencies of current plasma generators, which include the following. First the erosion rate of the electrodes is excessive, on the surface 26 of cathode 10, and particularly on anode 14 in the region of the inner wall 28. Second, the enthalpy of the plasma is below the desired level. Third, there is inadequate control over the chemical composition of the spray-coating and the dimensions of the spray particles, their adhesion to the target substrate, and their gas permeability. Fourth, the plasma velocity has an angular rotational component which, for a given kinetic energy, reduces the axial component of the plasma exit velocity, and therefore reduces the ability of the plasma to accelerate the spray particles. Fifth, the cost of gases such as Argon, Helium, and Nitrogen for use in plasma generators is high. In addition, it is desirable to increase the bond strength, microhardness, corrosion resistance, and deposition rate of the spray-coatings over the levels currently attained, and it is also desirable to decrease the porosity and the oxide content of the spray-coatings below the levels currently attained.
Various attempts have been made to address these issues. For example, direct current (DC) plasma generators are utilized in spite of the fact that they involve higher cost and complexity than alternating current (AC) plasma generators, because AC plasma arcs have higher contamination and instability levels, lower enthalpy, and higher nozzle erosion rates. U.S. Pat. No. 2,920,952 to Ducati, et al. discloses methods and apparatus for increasing the useful life of the back electrode. In "Linear Direct Current Plasma Torches" (page 9-43 of Thermal Plasma and New Materials Technology, volume 1), M. F. Zhukov summarizes a number of advances in plasma generator design, including segmented anode inserts, gas-swirling interelectrode inserts, and rotating magnetic fields. The purpose of these innovations is to lengthen, control, and stabilize the plasma arc, in order to increase the enthalpy of the plasma and to reduce the electrode erosion. As another example, Israel patent number 103069 to B. Goodman, which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, discloses a current modulation technique and a method of using a fuel and oxidizer mixture to produce an explosive detonation in the plasma, to increase the acceleration of the spray particles.
FIG. 2 schematically illustrates one of the above-mentioned advances, that of the segmented anode plasma generator. This configuration has a cathode 40 and a segmented anode made of separate annular anode segments 42, 44, and 46. At the exit point of the segmented anode is an exit nozzle 48, after which is a coating material feed 52, where the coating material is introduced and melted into spray particles. One of the advantages of the segmented anode plasma generator is that the attachment point of the plasma arc will be on the inside surface 50 of anode segment 46, rather than at some other point, and so the length of the plasma arc can easily be maintained at a desired level. This is because the positive output terminal of power supply 30 is connected only to segment 46. Segment 42 and segment 44 are electrically floating, and therefore a plasma arc cannot exist between cathode 40 and segment 42, or between cathode 40 and segment 44. In contrast, the configuration shown in FIG. 1 has a plasma arc which can establish the attachment thereof to any point on the inside surface 28 of anode 14. Consequently, the configuration shown in FIG. 1 has what is referred to as a "self-establishing plasma arc". Such a plasma arc can have an arc length which is less than optimum. The enthalpy of the plasma decreases as the arc length thereof decreases, and it is therefore desirable to maintain as long a plasma arc as possible, and the segmented anode plasma generator thereby represents an improvement over the earlier design.
Despite these advances, however, existing plasma generators still fall short of the potential which can be achieved. There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, methods and apparatus which would further decrease the rate of electrode erosion, further increase the enthalpy of the plasma, further increase the axial component of the plasma velocity, further increase the velocity of the spray particles, and make other improvements in order to increase the tensile bond strength, microhardness, corrosion resistance, and deposition rate of the spray-coatings, to decrease the porosity and the oxide content of the spray-coatings, and to enable the application of amorphous and ceramic thermal barrier coatings. These goals are met by the present invention.

Plasma spraying arc current modulation method


A movable contact arm assembly is provided for an electrical switching apparatus, such as a circuit breaker. The movable contact arm assembly includes a first member, and a second member attached to the first member. The first member is made from a first material, such as steel, and the second member is made from a second different material, such as copper. The first and second members each include first and second ends. The first end of the first member cooperates with the operating mechanism of the circuit breaker. The first end of the second member is attached to the second end of the first member. A movable contact is disposed on the second end of the second member.

1. Field
The disclosed concept relates generally to electrical switching apparatus and, more particularly, to electrical switching apparatus, such as circuit breakers. The disclosed concept also relates to movable contact arm assemblies for electrical switching apparatus.
2. Background Information
Electrical switching apparatus, such as circuit breakers, provide protection for electrical systems from electrical fault conditions such as, for example, current overloads, short circuits, abnormal voltage and other fault conditions.
Typically, circuit breakers include an operating mechanism, which opens electrical contact assemblies to interrupt the flow of current through the conductors of an electrical system in response to such fault conditions. The electrical contact assemblies include stationary electrical contacts and corresponding movable electrical contacts that are typically mounted on movable (e.g., pivotable) arms. The stationary and movable contacts are in physical and electrical contact with one another when it is desired that the circuit breaker provide electrical current therethrough to a load. When it is desired to interrupt the power circuit, the movable contact arm is pivoted, thereby moving the movable contact away from the stationary contact creating a space therebetween.
The movable contact arms of some circuit breakers are unitary members made from one single piece of material and including a first end, which cooperates with the circuit breaker operating mechanism (e.g., without limitation, operating handle), and a second end where the movable contact is disposed. Typically, the movable contact arms and movable contacts are made from copper. Thus, as the cost of copper increases, the cost of the movable contact arm assembly correspondingly increases.
There is, therefore, room for improvement in electrical switching apparatus, such as circuit breakers, and in movable contact arm assemblies therefor.

Electrical switching apparatus and movable contact arm assembly therefor


This invention concerns a SiO.sub.2, SiN.sub.x protection film formed by a CVD or PVD gas phase glowing method capable of preventing melting of the matrix ingredients at the surface of a dielectric material in electric discharge of an ozone generator and it relates to a dielectric material used for an ozone generator capable of overcoming the problems for the abrasion of electrode and dielectric material or melting of ions or molecules of during electric discharge, as well as a method of forming a protection film therefor based on the finding that an SiO.sub.2 film or SiN.sub.x film can be formed easily on a surface of a predetermined electric material or, further, on a surface of electrode by processing a specific reaction gas, for example, comprising a crude gas such as SiH.sub.4, SiCl.sub.4, N.sub.2, NH.sub.3 or TEOS or further incorporated with an inert gas or like by means of an atmospheric CVD process such as CVD or heat CVD and, in particular, on the finding that the protection film can be disposed directly to the surface of the dielectric material and the electrode in an ozone generator after the completion of assembling.

Ozone generators are used for sterilization and odor killing in refrigerators and rooms, and ozone is used as an oxidant and a sterilizer in plants where chemical and medicinal plants as well as in semiconductor devices are manufactured. This is in addition to conventional use in excrement processing facilities or sewage facilities.
Furthermore, in the production of semiconductor devices, SiO.sub.2 film is used as an interlayer insulation film for A1 wirings, and a CVD (chemical vapor deposition) using TEOS (organic silane) and gaseous ozone of excellent step coverage has been examined for embedding to flatten the grove shape between the wirings.
For general ozone generators, a method of generating a great amount of ozone by silent electric discharge process using air or oxygen as a starting material has been used.
In the silent discharge type ozone generator, a dielectric material is inserted and disposed between electrodes opposed to each other, a high voltage is applied between the electrodes and an oxygen-containing gas is passed through a discharge gap to obtain ozone.
A tubular ozone generator as shown in FIG. 1 has a construction in which a glass tube dielectric material (2) is disposed so as to surround a cylindrical tubular high voltage electrode (1) and a tubular water cooling grounding electrode (4) made of stainless steel is disposed by way of a required discharge gap (3), in which air or oxygen is passed through the discharge gap (3) to obtain ozone, the grounding electrode being a double tube through which a coolant such as water is passed.
In addition, Japanese Patent Publication Sho 51-6110, Japanese Patent Publication Sho 46-42748, etc., propose, cylindrical ozone generators of the similar construction.
Further, a plane type ozone generator as shown in FIG. 2 has a structure in which a pair of high voltage electrodes (10) and a grounding electrode (11), each laminated with a dielectric material (12) on a flat electrode surface, are opposed to each other by way of an insulating separator (13) and air or oxygen is introduced from one of holes in the direction of an orthogonal line in the thus formed electric discharge gap (14) and ozone is obtained from the other of the holes.
In addition, Japanese Patent Publication Sho 45-22930, Japanese Patent Publication Sho 51-6111, Japanese Patent Laid Open Sho. 51-148290, Japanese Utility Model Laid Open Sho 61-125485, etc., propose plate-type ozone generators.
The ozone generators having the respective constructions as described above involve a problem that since dielectric material is impinged by electrons at high voltage upon discharge in a cell in the device, ingredients of the dielectric material such as enamel or glass may intrude into gaseous ozone, or melting of ions or molecules of the electrode may occur to contaminate the generated gaseous ozone.
In view of the above, ceramics with less abrasion, free from leaching of ions or molecules and having high specific dielectric constant have been used for the dielectric material (Japanese Patent Laid Open Sho 55-37483).
Such ceramics are shaped and sintered into various shapes depending on the constructions of the ozone generators, but it can not be said that the moldability is satisfactory and there is a requirement of securing close bondability with the electrode to prevent oxidative corrosion with respect to the electrode (Japanese Patent Publication Sho. 62-7121).
In particular, such an extremely high cleanness as not containing particles, metal ions, etc., is required for gaseous ozone at high concentration used for the semiconductor steps. However, since the ingredients of the matrix of the dielectric material may possibly be incorporated, even though in small amounts, into the gaseous ozone, there is a problem that the utilization in a semiconductor production device is hindered. In view of the foregoing present situation for the ozone generator, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ozone generator capable of disposing a protection film of excellent abrasion resistance extremely easily to the surface of the dielectric material and preventing abrasion of the dielectric material and melting of ions and molecules due to dielectric discharge as an industrially preferable productivity and it is an object thereof to provide a dielectric material having a protection film used for an ozone generator and a method of forming such a protection film.

Dielectric material used for an ozone generator and a method of forming a film to the dielectric material


The present technique relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method that can improve the convenience of a voice AI assistance service used in coordination with content. A first information processing apparatus including an insertion unit that inserts a token, which is related to use of a voice AI assistance service in coordination with content, into an audio stream of the content and a second information processing apparatus including a detection unit that detects the inserted token from the audio stream of the content can be provided to improve the convenience of the voice AI assistance service used in coordination with the content. The present technique can be applied to, for example, a system in coordination with the voice AI assistance service.

In recent years, a voice AI assistance service is rapidly spreading. For example, when an end user uses the voice AI assistance service and questions "Where am I?" an answer "You are in a central park" is returned based on the current position of the end user (for example, see PTL 1).

Information processing apparatus and information processing method


A tube coupling includes a body (1) to receive a tube (22). The body has lateral recesses (12) extending outwardly from an internal wall. An O-ring (3) is retained by the body distally of the recesses. A collet (5) includes a ring (6) and collet legs (7) to be received in the lateral recesses and having a tooth (8) facing the passageway. Proximal movement of the collet with respect to the body causes the fingers to deflect inwardly. A tube support (10) includes a ring (12) and has a key to align with the body. Castellations (13, 14) extend proximately from the tube support ring and are complementary to the collet legs to align the collet with respect to the body as the collet is inserted into the body.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tube coupling comprising a body having an open proximal end and a throughway to receive a tube, in use, the body having at least one lateral recess extending outwardly from an internal wall; an O-ring retained by the body distally of the or each recess and surrounding the throughway; a collet inserted into the proximal end of the body, the collet comprising a ring and at least one distally projecting collet leg, the or each collet leg being received in a respective lateral recess in the body and having a tooth facing the passageway, the body and leg being arranged such that proximal movement of the collet with respect to the body causes the or each finger to deflect inwardly. Such a coupling will subsequently be referred to as being "of the kind described".
2. The Relevant Technology
A tube coupling of the kind described is well-known in the art. One example of such a coupling is illustrated in FIG. 1, which represents a product sold by John Guest as part of the "Underground" range.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the body 1 is of tubular construction and has lateral recesses provided by four windows 2. An O-ring 3 is placed into the body 1 and rests in a recess (not shown) which is beyond the windows 2. An optional spacer washer 4 is fitted in the body 1 between the O-ring 3 and the windows 2 and a collet 5 is pushed into the tubular body 1 to complete the assembly. The collet comprises a collet ring 6 and four distally projecting collet legs 7, each of which locates within a respective window 2.
As is well-known in the art, a tube is pushed into the coupling from the collet end through the throughway to a position beyond the O-ring 3. The O-ring then seals against the outer face of the tube. Pulling on the tube in the proximal direction causes teeth 8 on the collet legs 7 to bite into the tube such that the collet 5 is drawn proximally together with the tube. Cam surfaces 9 on the collet legs 7 co-operate with the proximal edges of respective windows 2 in order to deflect collet legs 7 inwardly to produce a clamping force on the tube which increases with the pulling force on the tube to provide a secure coupling.
In order to release the tube from the coupling, the collet 5 is pushed distally and held in that position so that the teeth 8 are disengaged from the tube which can then be readily withdrawn.
As is apparent from FIG. 1, in order to assemble the coupling, the O-ring 3, spacer washer 4 and collet 5 are sequentially inserted into the housing 1. The collet 5 must be correctly aligned so that the collet legs 7 line up with their respective windows 2. If the collet 5 is not inserted correctly, the legs 7 can be damaged in use, or the collet 5 could fall out.
The present invention is directed to an improvement of a tube coupling of the kind described which is designed so that it is impossible to insert the collet in an incorrect alignment.

Tube coupling having an improved collet alignment


A voltage detecting system is configured for detecting a voltage supplied to an electronic device. The voltage detecting system includes a voltage measuring circuit configured to measure the voltage, a voltage converting circuit electrically coupled to the voltage, and a voltage comparing circuit. The voltage measuring circuit has a first measuring range and a second measuring range that is wider than the first measuring range. The voltage converting circuit is capable of the converting the voltage to an output voltage according to a predetermined ratio. The voltage comparing circuit compares the output voltage with a reference voltage. If the output voltage is greater than the reference voltage, the voltage comparing circuit informs the voltage measuring circuit to select the second measuring range. If the output voltage is not greater than the reference voltage, the voltage comparing circuit informs the voltage measuring circuit to select the first measuring range.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a voltage detecting system.
2. Description of Related Art
A voltage detecting circuit includes a voltage meter for detecting a voltage supplied to an electronic device. A voltage measuring range of the voltage meter needs to be adjusted since the voltage supplied to the electronic device may be less or greater than a predetermined voltage value. However, the voltage measuring range of the voltage detecting circuit cannot be adjusted automatically.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.

ShenZhen Treasure City Technology Co., LTD.


The actual axial center position of a helical gear relative to the axial center position of a rotary table is calculated on the basis of input gear dimensions and information from a touch probe. Correction values for the positions and motions of the rotary table and a grindstone are calculated on the basis of the actual axial center position of the helical gear.Operation values for the rotary table, a column, a saddle, and a grindstone head are calculated by adding the correction values to reference values for the positions and motions of the rotary table and the grindstone. Motors are controlled in such a way that operation is carried out at the operation values to thereby carry out form grinding.

Gear grinding machines are configured to sequentially grind the tooth surfaces of a gear mounted on a rotary table by rotating the gear and inserting the circumference of a disk-shaped grinding wheel, which is being driven to rotate, into each tooth space of the gear. In this way, the gear's meshing accuracy can be improved. Such a gear grinding machine cannot properly grind the tooth surfaces of the gear when the axis of the gear is displaced (offset) with respect to the axis of the rotary table. Thus, the axis of the rotary table and the axis of the gear need to be accurately positioned to each other (centering). However, in a case of machining a large-sized gear measuring several meters in diameter, the centering cannot be done easily because such a gear is extremely heavy, weighing several tons.
In this respect, for example, Patent Literature 1 listed below and the like disclose the following. Specifically, a rotary table is rotated to measure the runout of a gear to thereby read, from a graph, the relation between the value of the position of the axis of the gear (eccentricity) and the phase position. As position vectors associated with the center of the rotary table, the following are calculated: the eccentricity at the center in the face width; the crossing angle between the axis of the rotary table and the axis of the gear; the eccentricity with respect to any planes perpendicular to the axis of the rotary table; and the phase angle. Then, the above adjustment data thus obtained are displaced perpendicular to the axis of the rotary table so that the axis of the rotary table and the axis of the gear can intersect at the center in the face width, for example. Then, the axis of the rotary table and the axis of the gear are tilted by the crossing angle between these two axes, followed by the moving of a tool in accordance with such speeds, positions, and paths that the guiding axis of the tool and the axis of the gear coincide, to thereby machine the gear.

Gear grinding machine and gear grinding method