A method of forming a MOS transistor in an upper surface of a semiconductor substrate. A gate oxide layer covers the upper surface of the substrate. A gate stack comprising one or more thin film layers covers the gate oxide layer. A gate electrode pattern is partially etched into the gate stack, the partial etching step being completed before any of the gate oxide layer is exposed. Sidewall spacers are formed on edge surfaces of the partially formed gate electrode. Source and drain regions are created by ion implantation using the partially etched gate electrode and the sidewall spacers as a mask. The sidewall spacers are removed and lightly doped drain regions are formed by ion implantation using the partially etched gate electrode as a mask.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to process for fabricating MOS integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to MOS or CMOS integrated circuits having a lightly doped drain (LDD) structure in which a portion of the drain nearest the channel is less strongly doped than other regions of the source and drain.
2. State of the Art
In the manufacture of high density integrated circuits using metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) technology, as device dimensions decrease, there is a need to create shallower source and drain junctions. However, correspondingly abrupt or steep n+ doping profiles in NMOS transistor lead to increased electric fields in the device channel in a region adjacent to the drain. The high electric field causes electrons in the device channel to gain significant energy and be injected into the gate oxide. This phenomenon is also known as the xe2x80x9chot carrierxe2x80x9d effect that leads to long term device degradation, threshold shifts, and poor reliability.
In lightly doped drain (LDD) structures, regions of the source and drain near the channel are less heavily doped than regions of the source and drain farther away from the channel. The lateral grading of the n+ doping profile provided by lower doping near the gate electrode reduces the electric fields near the drain, improves the speed and reliability of the device, lowers the gate-source and gate-drain capacitance, and minimizes hot electron injection into the gate.
In a conventional LDD process, the gate electrode is used as a mask for the nxe2x88x92 LDD implantation. Subsequently, sidewall oxide spacers are formed creating a narrower open region laterally spaced from the gate electrode in which a heavier source/drain implant is performed. In this manner, the LDD region is formed and the sidewall spacer can be retained preventing the damage caused by the sidewall spacer removal.
In processes in which the heavily doped drain is formed after the LDD implant, the LDD region will be subject to all thermal processing required to anneal and drive in the heavier drain implant. This loss of control results in diffusive broadening of the LDD region during high temperature treatments. However, the high dose source/drain implants, which in the conventional LDD process are performed after the LDD implant and spacer formation, must be annealed at high temperature to remove ion implantation damage.
Alternative processes are known that form the LDD region after the source/drain implant. In one process, the LDD region surrounding the gate electrode is masked with a layer slightly thicker than the gate to protect regions of the silicon adjacent to the gate electrode. Regions of the silicon further out are then doped with a first doping process and the mask removed to allow a lighter doping of the regions nearer the gate with a second doping process. In another known LDD process, a region of silicon dioxide is formed as a sacrificial or disposable spacer along the sides of the gate electrode and the silicon left exposed by the spacer is heavily doped to form source/drain regions. The disposable spacer is removed to expose regions near the gate previously covered by the spacers. The regions near the gate are then lightly doped with a second doping process.
Unfortunately, the etch used to remove the spacers causes damage in the gate oxide. Damage to the gate oxide significantly impacts yield and reliability. Another problem in the conventional processes using sidewall spacers is that substrate damage occurs in the LDD region during the sidewall spacer etch. Sidewall formation is accomplished by anisotropic etching using plasma techniques. Exposed silicon during the plasma etch is damaged requiring subsequent anneal, or damage removal processing to eliminate leakage and other electrical deficiencies caused by the defects. What is needed is a lightly doped drain process that allows formation of the heavily doped source/drain and sidewall due to sidewall spacers and the associated anneal processes while allowing independent control of the thermal budget for the LDD region.
Briefly stated, the present invention involves a lightly doped drain (LDD) process for forming MOS or CMOS transistors. A substrate with appropriate field oxide regions formed thereon is provided. A gate insulator layer is formed on active areas of the substrate. A first gate electrode layer preferably comprising polysilicon is formed over the gate oxide layer. An etch stop layer is formed on the upper surface of the first gate electrode layer. A second gate electrode layer covers the etched stop layer. Optionally, an oxide layer is formed covering the second gate electrodes layer. The oxide layer, if used, in the second gate electrode layer are patterned using conventional photoresist technology and etched so as to stop on the etch stop layer.
In this manner, the gate pattern is transferred to the semiconductor device, but the gate electrode is not completely formed. The spacer oxide layer is deposited over the partially etched gate electrode structure. The deposited oxide is anisotropically etched to form sidewall spacers covering the lateral sidewalls of the partially etched gate electrode. A high current source/drain implant is performed through the etch stop layer, the first gate electrode layer, and the gate oxide layer to form heavily doped portions of source and drain regions. Subsequently, the sidewall spacer is removed in a process that stops on the etch stop layer.
A relatively low concentration of impurities are implanted into the substrate through the etch stop, first gate electrode, and gate oxide layer. The etch stop, first gate electrode, and gate oxide layers are etched using the partially formed gate electrode as a mask to completely form the gate electrode. The LDD structure formed in accordance with the present invention is then processed through conventional electrode and wiring formation to form completed devices.

Method of forming lightly doped drain MOS transistor including forming spacers on gate electrode pattern before exposing gate insulator


An analog electronic angle sensor circuit with a ground connection (GND) and with a supply voltage connection (+UB) and with an output (OUT), comprising an actual sensor (12) and a suitable wiring of said sensor (12), wherein the voltage at the output (OUT) relative to ground is proportional to the product of the supply voltage (+UB) and the measured angle (φ) and a method for electronic emulation of an optimum potentiometer wherein the input voltage (+UB) is reduced to a fixed fraction (1/k) and an analog angle sensor (12) is operated with this fraction of the input voltage (+UB) as an operating voltage (Uv), wherein the output voltage (OUT1) of said angle sensor is proportional to the operating voltage and to the rotation angle (φ) measured by said angle sensor (12).

I. Field of The Invention
The invention relates to an analog electronic angle sensor circuit with a ground connection and with a supply voltage connection and with an output, and the invention relates to a method for electronic emulation of an optimum potentiometer. Such angle sensor circuits are also designated as angle sensors with a ratiometric output signal.
II. Technical Background
In the prior art, precision potentiometers are used in voltage divider circuits for measuring angles. These circuits comprise an internal resistance, which depends on the set divider ratio. This leads to measurement errors, when connecting to follow on electronics with a finite input resistance (loaded voltage divider). Furthermore the service life of a potentiometer is reduced by loading the slider contact. Furthermore, potentiometers can be destroyed by inverse polarity connection, since the safety circuits, which are otherwise typical for current- and/or voltage limitation, can lead to additional falsifications of the output signal.

ASM Automation Sensorik Messtechnik GmbH


A marking device of a trimming apparatus includes a light source member, a lever member and a supporting member. The lever member includes a first sustaining arm, a second sustaining arm and a channel formed between the first sustaining arm and the second sustaining arm. The rear end of the light source member is fixed in the channel. The supporting member includes a sleeve for accommodating the front end of the light source member therein and an upper wing extending upwardly from the sleeve and conforming to the lever member. The upper wing includes a bolt hole corresponding to the second sustaining arm of the lever member. A resilient element is confined between the upper wing and the first sustaining arm. A screw penetrates through the bolt hole and is in contact with the second sustaining arm so as to render compression of the resilient element.

In a co-pending Taiwanese Patent Application No. 093106536, entitled "Trimming Device", filed by the same assignee of the present application on Mar. 11, 2004, a manually operable desktop trimming apparatus includes a laser beam generator for projecting a trimming line onto a sheet article to be trimmed such that the user is capable of precisely discriminating the actual position for trimming the sheet article.
The marking device mounted on the trimming apparatus, i.e. the laser beam generator, may be aberrant due to improper operation or careless impact. Therefore, the trimming line, which is projected from the marking device onto the sheet article, is somewhat aberrant from the actual trimming position.
In view of the above-described disadvantages, the applicant keeps on carving unflaggingly to develop a marking device having a position adjustable mechanism according to the present invention through wholehearted experience and research.


Apparatus and method to carry out checks for memory errors within a memory device independently of a memory controller during times when there is no activity on a memory bus coupling the memory device to the memory controller that involves the memory device.

With ever greater demands to be able to store and retrieve data ever more quickly, memory devices, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices, have continued to become ever faster. With the increasing speed of the memory devices has been an accompanying need for increases in the speed of the memory interfaces and memory busses used to communicate addresses, commands and data with these memory devices. Concerns have arisen as to whether or not the current practice of bussing the majority of signals provided by the memory interface of a memory controller to multiple memory devices, such as dual inline memory devices (DIMMs), will continue to be possible as the speed of these signals continue to increase.
Both increasing speed and increasing desires to conserve power have also raised concerns about increasing the efficiency of how memory interfaces and memory busses are used, and have raised the issue of finding ways to decrease the overhead in communicating addresses and/or commands required in the communication of data to and from memory devices. As demands to transfer data ever faster have continued to increase, every use of a memory interface and/or memory bus to transfer an address or command has started to become viewed as a lost opportunity to have used that amount of time and electrical energy to transfer data, instead.

Memory device having error checking and correction


A scanning circuit has path switches connected between a plurality of data flip-flop circuits of the scanning circuit for sequentially reading an output signal in synchronism with a clock. A plurality of control signal lines select the path switches to arbitrarily skip reading of the flip-flop circuits that do not require the scanning circuit and always fix a potential of the skipped data flip-flop circuit. Only the arbitrary data is read, and in the case where unnecessary data exists, reading is skipped, to thereby increase the read rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a scan circuit (hereinafter "scanning circuit") that is adaptive to plural kinds of systems different in scanning order by arbitrarily skipping reading of a plurality of data flip flop circuits that do not require the scanning circuit when a coarse system of a scanning means is selected in the scanning circuit which is made up of the plurality of data flip flop circuits that sequentially read an output signal in synchronism with a clock.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional scanning circuit that is made up of a plurality of data flip flop circuits that sequentially read an output signal in synchronism with a clock is used as a drive circuit for a sensor IC or a memory. In the case where only arbitrary bit data is intended to be read, it is necessary to sample only data necessary for the external after all of data has been read once (for example, refer to JP 5-167988 A (pp. 7-8, FIG. 9).
Since the conventional scanning circuit is structured as described above, a read rate at the time of reading all of data is fixed because all of data is read. Also, the coarse system of the scanning means cannot be selected, and an external processing IC is required.

Scan circuit and image sensor having scan circuit


A substrate processing system includes: an acquiring unit configured to acquire process data of each step when each step included in a predetermined process is executed under different control conditions; an extracting unit configured to divide each step into a first section in which the process data fluctuates and a second section in which the process data is converged, and extract first data belonging to the first section and second data belonging to the second section from the process data; and a monitoring unit configured to monitor the process data by comparing one or both of an evaluation value that evaluates the first data and an evaluation value that evaluates the second data with corresponding upper and lower limit values.

Generally, in a substrate processing system such as a film forming system, when processing a substrate (a semiconductor wafer), a predetermined process is executed while controlling a gas pressure in a processing container to a target gas pressure. In the substrate processing system, an abnormality of the process data is detected by monitoring the process data (e.g., pressure data and flow rate data) acquired during the execution of the process.
Meanwhile, among the substrate processing system, in a film forming system executing a film forming process by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) method, a plurality of processes (ALD cycles) are executed for one substrate.
At this time, in the film forming system, in each step included in each of the ALD cycles, the ALD cycles are executed while controlling the gas pressure under different control conditions (while the conditions such as the target gas pressure or the flow rate of the supplied processing gas are different). As a result, the process data acquired by the film forming system during the execution of the ALD cycle exhibits different behavior for each step. See, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 2012-216697 and 2012-186213.

Substrate processing system and method for monitoring process data


Attacks from automated scripts or processes, such as Web bots, can be dynamically blocked by monitoring dimensions of requests or submissions received by a system. Each host receiving requests can log information about the requests over a specified period of time. For each period of time, specified dimensions of the requests for that host can be analyzed to determine whether the number of requests having a common value for any of those dimensions meets or exceeds a specified threshold. If so, any requests having those specified dimension values can be automatically blocked for the next specified period of time. The requests can be automatically unblocked after that period of time if the requests do not again meet or exceed the threshold, but can be dynamically blocked for subsequent periods of time if the threshold is again met or exceeded.

As the number of users performing actions such as viewing information and purchasing items electronically increases, there is also an increasing amount of forgery, misuse of identity information, and other such illicit activities in such an electronic environment. For example, many automated applications, processes, or scripts (referred to generically as robots or "bots") perform tasks such as submitting requests or initiating submissions across a network at a much higher rate than would generally be performed by a user of a system, application, or site attached to, or otherwise accessible through, the network. While certain bots can be used beneficially to execute certain functionality, other bots can be used maliciously to flood a server, host, application, network, device, or location with requests or other submissions that can cause the device or application to slow or even fail for a certain period of time.
Such attacks are particularly prevalent across the Internet. Many popular Web sites are subjected to bot attacks on a daily basis. These range from simple requests for Web pages at a rate that is higher than a Web server can handle, to more specific attacks that go deeper into a system, site, or application, for example, such as by using an overwhelming number of requests to perform a specific task, such as to add an item to a virtual shopping cart for an electronic marketplace. Many sites monitor traffic, and begin throttling or otherwise limiting the number of requests or other traffic when the amount of bandwidth reaches a certain level. Oftentimes, a system will log requests such that a manual decision can be made to block users or IP addresses where the traffic is determined to be excessive. These approaches generally work well for attacks that are not directed to specific functionality in the system, but are directed to a top layer of the system or software. Such approaches are not particularly well suited, however, to targeted or patterned attacks directed to potentially vulnerable portions of the systems, where a smaller number of requests in a shorter period of time can damage the system without necessarily reaching the levels used for throttling, setting off alarms, etc. Further, conventional approaches can be slow to react, which in the case of a bot attack can result in the attack being at least partially successful for a period of time.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Dynamic blocking of suspicious electronic submissions


Provided is a spindle motor including a rotor, a stator, and a base. The rotor includes a rotor yoke, a magnet, and a rotating shaft. The stator is disposed correspondingly to the rotor and includes a core and coils. The base includes a base plate for supporting the stator. The base plate is integrally formed with a housing. The housing has the core disposed at an exterior thereof and has a bearing for rotatably supporting the rotating shaft provided within. A thrust stopper for sealing the housing is fixed to a bottom of the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spindle motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prevalent examples of recording media that write and read images, sounds, and other types of data at high density include optical discs, hard discs, cards, and tapes; and of these, optical discs are at the forefront of the mainstream.
The field of optical discs includes products ranging from laser discs (LD) and compact discs (CD) to digital versatile discs (DVD).
Optical discs can be generally categorized into CDs and DVDs; CDs can be divided into CD-read only memory (CD-ROM) and CD-Rewritable (CD-RW); and DVDs can be split into DVD-ROMs and DVD-random access memory (RAM).
Such optical discs have tracks formed to spiral outward from the middle, whereon digital data of a predetermined format is written.
An optical disc apparatus for reading optical discs has a built-in spindle motor that spins an optical disc at high speed. The optical disc apparatus also includes a built-in actuator, which has a laser diode, a lens, a beam splitter, a photodetector, and other installed optical devices.
A spindle motor according to the related art includes a rotor and a stator. The stator has a bearing housing installed for holding a bearing in place.
However, the bearing housing of a spindle motor according to the related art is a separate component, so that it must be installed following its manufacture. Therefore, the number of manufacturing processes increases due to the installing of the bearing housing.
Also, a bearing housing according to the related art has a plurality of coupling portions formed thereon to couple it to the spindle motor, which complicates the configuration of the bearing housing and increases its size. Consequently, it is difficult for the device to satisfy the prevailing trend of miniaturizing spindle motors, while at the same time securing adequate interior space for ensuring that the motor's capabilities are not compromised.
Also, to prevent the rotating shaft and the rotor yoke from rising, a spindle motor according to the related art employs a washer assembled at its rotating shaft and bearing. Because this configuration does not allow facile assembly of the washer, not only does the assembly process of the unit become more complex, but also the structure does not allow for adequate interior space inside the spindle motor to secured.
Additionally, in spindle motor designs according to the related art, the gaps present between the bearing housing, the rotating shaft, and the upper portion of the bearing induce oil leakage.


The facsimile apparatus stores other party station discrimination information for reception so that there is a correspondence with the received telephone number in cases where a telephone number of a transmission destination is input and normal transmission performed. Furthermore, when there is redial transmission the facsimile apparatus displays the stored other party discrimination information on the display apparatus. Therefore, the task of selecting the other party destination is simplified for the operator.

The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus and more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus having a redialing function.
The transmission functions of the facsimile apparatus are single-button dialing (one-touch dial) that can transmit a data signal to a required destination through the operation of a single key, and an abbreviated dialing function that can transmit to a required destination through the input of an abbreviated number. In general, the facsimile apparatuses receive the names and other information, from another party, by certain normal transmission control procedures. These normal transmission control procedures are implemented as follows.
First in normal transmission control procedures, the facsimile apparatus receives DIS (Digital Identification Signals) and CSI(Called Subscriber Identification) signals from a transmission destination. Secondly, the facsimile apparatus sends DCS(Digital Command Signals) and TSI(Transmitting Subscriber Information) signals to a transmission destination. Thirdly, the facsimile apparatus receives NSF(Non-standard Facilities) signals from the transmission destination. Fourthly, the facsimile apparatus sends NSS (Non-standard Set-up) signals to the transmission destination. The facsimile apparatus executes modem training procedures, and determines the data transmission speed when the facsimile transmits image information to the transmission destination.
The above described CSI signals from the transmission destination which notifies the telephone number information of the transmission destination to the other party. The name and other information of the other party which are notified by the RTI(Remote Terminal Identification) information of the NSF signals of the transmission destination. Information other than the DIS signals and the NSF signals with the transmission destination notifies the facsimile apparatus of the communication performance information with the transmission destination apparatus.
Furthermore, the facsimile apparatus checks the apparatus communication performance of the other party station. Then the facsimile apparatus displays the received name on the display of the facsimile apparatus and transmits image signals that are suited to the apparatus communication performance of the apparatus of the checked communications destination.
When a facsimile apparatus performs transmission indicated by one-touch dial or abbreviated dialing, there is a function that stores the name and apparatus performance of the receiving side so that it corresponds with the one-touch dial or abbreviated dialing function of the facsimile apparatus. When the facsimile apparatus performs the same operation the next time, as instructed by the operator, the facsimile apparatus displays the name of the transmission destination on the display, as stored. Also, there is a function whereby after the facsimile apparatus has transmitted to the transmission destination, the stored apparatus performance of the other party station is used as the basis for shortening the transmission control procedures that check the apparatus performance of the other party station; when the operator specifies the other party station, transmission of the image signals is performed soon after the start button is pressed. Such transmission is called abbreviated protocol.
In addition, a redialing function is a function whereby after one transmission has been performed by input of a telephone number, pressing the redialing button transmits to the same transmission destination. However, with a conventional facsimile apparatus, when transmission using this redialing function is performed, it is not possible for the name of the received transmission destination used previously to be displayed on the display, for there to be transmission by abbreviated protocol. Only the telephone number of the transmission destination previously received by the facsimile apparatus is displayed. Accordingly, it is necessary for the operator to select the transmission destination from the telephone numbers displayed. There are therefore problems in that it is not easy for the operator to select the transmission destination, and it is not possible to perform efficient facsimile communication in a short time.

Facsimile apparatus having redialing function


Both wafers on which copper wiring was performed and wafers on which non-copper wiring was performed can be inspected by a single unit of electron microscopic inspection apparatus with no possibilities of the wafers being contaminated with copper. All elements within the apparatus that come in contact with wafers, such as hands of a wafer transporter, are duplicated or more and one of the elements that contact wafers is used appropriately for the wafers under inspection which may be either the wafers on which copper wiring was performed or the wafers on which non-copper wiring was performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electron microscopic inspection apparatus for semiconductors and, more particularly, to the electron microscopic inspection apparatus for inspecting semiconductor waters.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to enhance the operating speed of semiconductor devices, semiconductor industries have come to adopt less resistive copper wiring instead of aluminum wiring. However, a problem associated with the copper wiring is that, if copper exists in insulations of semiconductors, it diffuses ten times as fast as aluminum and this deteriorates the device performance. Thus, copper as an impurity should be eliminated completely out of semiconductor fabrication processes. Accordingly, some semiconductor fabrication equipment has been developed to be dedicated to semiconductor production including a copper wiring process (Nikkei Microdevices, February 1999). For example, electroplating apparatus has been contrived to protect the underside surface of a wafer from being contaminated with copper (Nikkei Microdevices, November 1999). Such apparatus is dedicated to semiconductor production including a copper wiring process and contrived to prevent copper impurities from being mixed into semiconductor constituent substances, but a single unit of such apparatus is not designed to process wafers on which non-copper wiring was performed as well as wafers on which copper wiring was performed.
Meanwhile, as disclosed in JP-A No. 260776/2000, there has been proposed an idea to prevent copper diffusion on the wafer side not the wafer fabrication equipment side, but a dedicated process must be added to implement this.
For the purpose of inspecting semiconductor wafers, electron microscopic inspection apparatus such as a metrological scanning electron microscope (SEM) or the like is used. At the present, the electron microscopic inspection apparatus for semiconductor wafers is used such that units of such apparatus provided to inspect wafers on which copper wiring was performed are completely distinct from units of such apparatus provided to inspect wafers on which non-copper wiring was performed. Consequently, if both copper wiring and non-copper wiring processes are included in the entire process of fabricating a specific semiconductor device, the number of required units of electron microscopic inspection apparatus increases by a factor of 1.5 on an average as compared with the process only including the conventional aluminum wiring, though the factor varies, depending on the ratio between both wiring processes.

Electron microscopic inspection apparatus


The present invention provides, in part, compounds of Formula I:

Dopamine acts upon neurons through two families of dopamine receptors, D1-like receptors (D1Rs) and D2-like receptors (D2Rs). The D1-like receptor family consists of D1 and D5 receptors which are expressed in many regions of the brain. D1 mRNA has been found, for example, in the striatum and nucleus accumbens. See e.g., Missale C, Nash S R, Robinson S W, Jaber M, Caron M G "Dopamine receptors: from structure to function", Physiological Reviews 78:189-225 (1998). Pharmacological studies have reported that D1 and D5 receptors (D1/D5), namely D1-like receptors, are linked to stimulation of adenylyl cyclase, whereas D2, D3, and D4 receptors, namely D2-like receptors, are linked to inhibition of cAMP production.
Dopamine D1 receptors are implicated in numerous neuropharmacological and neurobiological functions. For example, D1 receptors are involved in different types of memory function and synaptic plasticity. See e.g., Goldman-Rakic P S et al., "Targeting the dopamine D1 receptor in schizophrenia: insights for cognitive dysfunction", Psychopharmacology 174(1):3-16 (2004). Moreover, D1 receptors have been implicated in a variety of psychiatric, neurological, neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative, mood, motivational, metabolic, cardiovascular, renal, ophthalmic, endocrine, and/or other disorders described herein including schizophrenia (e.g., cognitive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia), schizotypal personality disorder, cognitive impairment associated with D2 antagonist therapy, ADHD, impulsivity, autism spectrum disorder, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), age-related cognitive decline, Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's chorea, depression, anxiety, treatment-resistant depression (TRD), bipolar disorder, chronic apathy, anhedonia, chronic fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder, seasonal affective disorder, social anxiety disorder, post-partum depression, serotonin syndrome, substance abuse and drug dependence, Tourette's syndrome, tardive dyskinesia, drowsiness, sexual dysfunction, migraine, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), hyperglycemia, dislipidemia, obesity, diabetes, sepsis, post-ischemic tubular necrosis, renal failure, resistant edema, narcolepsy, hypertension, congestive heart failure, postoperative ocular hypotonia, sleep disorders, pain, and other disorders in a mammal. See e.g., Goulet M, Madras B K "D(1) dopamine receptor agonists are more effective in alleviating advanced than mild parkinsonism in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-treated monkeys", Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapy 292(2):714-24 (2000); Surmeier D J et al., "The role of dopamine in modulating the structure and function of striatal circuits", Prog. Brain Res. 183:149-67 (2010).
New or improved agents that modulate (such as agonize or partially agonize) D1R are needed for developing new and more effective pharmaceuticals to treat diseases or conditions associated with dysregulated activation of D1R, such as those described herein.
US20040167336 or WO2002024695 reports octahydroindolizine, octahydroquinolizine and hexahydro-pyrrolizine derivatives of the following formula:
their synthesis and their use as histaminic H1 and H3 antagonists, for example, for the treatment of disorders and conditions mediated by the histamine receptor.
US20120245172 or WO2012126922 reports heterocyclic amine derivatives of the following formula:
as TAAR ligands useful in the treatment of TAAR related disease.
CN102558147 reports pyridinecarboxamide derivatives of the following formula:
as inhibitors of tyrosine kinase and/or serine-threonine kinase for treating cancer.
US20130123284 or WO2011119894 reports compounds of the following formula:
or N-oxide, N,N′-dioxide, N,N′,N″-trioxide, or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof as kinase inhibitors useful for treating, for example, lymphangiogenesis, angiogenesis and/or growth of a tumor.
WO2007009524 reports 2-arylbenzothiazoles of the following formula
useful as protein kinase inhibitors for treating diseases such as those associated with abnormal and hyperproliferation of cells.
Kim, Eun-sook et. al, "Design, syntheses and biological evaluations of nonpeptidic caspase 3 inhibitors," Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society (2002), 23(7), 1003-1010, reports design of certain scaffold for nonpeptidic caspase 3 Inhibitors, for example, compounds of the following formulas:

In addition, certain compounds of the following formula of
(wherein X is H, OCH3, Cl, CN, NO2, or Ph) were prepared. But they didn't show inhibitory activities on caspase 3.

Substituted 1,7-naphthyridines as dopamine D1 ligands

Abstract: and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof; processes for the preparation of; intermediates used in the preparation of; and compositions containing such compounds or salts, and their uses for treating D1-mediated (or D1-associated) disorders including, e.g., schizophrenia (e.g., its cognitive and negative symptoms), schizotypal personality disorder, cognitive impairment (e.g., cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia, AD, PD, or pharmacotherapy therapy), ADHD, Parkinson's disease, anxiety, and depression.


A mechanism for information retrieval in fully decentralized, distributed, peer-to-peer network systems. Peer profiles are aggregated and collected in real-time by each peer. Each peer uses and integrates knowledge that it collects during query-reply cycles for each future query received, thereby learning over time and making information retrieval a more intelligent and rapid process. Each peer then autonomously decides which of its peers are most likely to have an answer to a given query. A routine is provided for monitoring the messages and profiling each peer, building a local peer profile for each node exchanging messages in the peer-to-peer network based on messages passing through the node.

1. Field Technology
The present invention relates generally to computer networking, and particularly to peer-to-peer networks.
2. Description of Related Art
The increasing need to share computer resources and information, the decreasing cost of powerful workstations, the widespread use of networks, and the maturity of software technologies have increased the demand for more efficient information retrieval mechanisms.
"Peer-to-Peer" (P2P) network systems are real-time communications networks where any computing device currently connected—also sometimes referred to as an "edge node" or "fringe node"—can take the role of both a client and a server, where "Client-Server" is a model of interaction in a distributed computer network system in which a program at one site sends a request to another site and then waits for a response. The requesting program is called the "client," and the program which responds to the request is called the "server." In the context of the Internet, also referred to as the World Wide Web ("www" or just "web"), the client is a "browser," a program which runs on a computer of an end-user. A program and network computer which responds to a browser request by serving web pages and the like, is referred to as a "server."
Generally, peer-to-peer systems are connected personal computing devices—e.g., personal computer ("PC"), personal digital assistant ("PDA"), and the like—where the operating platforms may be heterogeneous. Each node connects to the network of peers by establishing a relationship with at least one peer currently on the network in a known manner referred to as the exchange of "ping" and "pong" messages. Peers arrive and disappear dynamically, shaping the peer-to-peer network's real-time structure; this contrasts to the Internet where web sites are statically allocated. Peer-to-peer is a way of decentralizing not just features, but costs and administration as well, eliminating the need for a single, centralized component, such as a known manner index server. Peer-to-peer permits ad-hoc collaboration and information sharing in what are large-scale, dynamic, distributed environments. Peer-to-peer systems are becoming increasingly popular because they offer the significant advantages of simplicity, ease of use, scalability, and robustness.
Peer-to-peer computer applications are a class of applications that takes advantage of resources available on this fringe of the standard Internet; for example, decentralized resources of storage, central processing unit (CPU) cycles, content, human presence, and the like. However, accessing such decentralized resources means operating in an environment of unstable connectivity and unpredictable locations since the nodes operate outside the DNS, having significant or total autonomy from known manner dedicated central servers. At the same time, an advantage of such systems is that communications can be established while tolerating and working with the variable connectivity of hundreds of millions of such nodes. Peer-to-peer system designers must try to solve such connectivity problems. A true peer-to-peer system must (1) treat variable connectivity and temporary network addresses as the norm, and (2) give the fringe nodes involved in the network at least significant autonomy.
One specific problem is that existing search mechanisms in peer-to-peer networks are inefficient due to the decentralized nature just described. That is, the topology of the peer-to-peer network is dynamically evolving in real time and arbitrary at any point in time with various connectivity degrees between the linked peers, making search and retrieval of the desired information a difficult problem. Moreover, the only thing assumptively known about a peer's knowledge base is what the peer wants to, or has time to, make available. This is all somewhat contrary to the objective of helping a querying peer efficiently find the most relevant answer.
One known peer-to-peer network communication protocol, known as "Gnutella™," is a file sharing technology, offering an alternative to web search engines used in the Internet, with a fully distributed mini-search engine and a file serving system for media and archive files, that operates on an open-source policy of file sharing. FIG. 1 (Prior Art) illustrates a simple peer-to-peer structure and searching in a Gnutella peer-to-peer network model. In essence, each node (each circle symbol) represents a computing device; an accurate model may have tens of thousands of such nodes at any given point in time, with nodes appearing and disappearing with various links substantially randomly, where dotted-lines represent currently active network links between nodes. Individual host nodes 101, 102, 103, and the like, store resources, e.g., a database of documents or other content. Moreover, each peer uses its own local directory structure to store its copy of each of the resources. Any peer can propagate a search request, or "query," illustrated in FIG. 1 by arrows parallel to current links, as broadcast by a first "Querying Peer" 101 to all of its "Neighbor Peer(s)" 102. Note that a neighbor peer becomes the querying peer when it passes a search request on to its neighbors which is not in direct communication with the first Querying Peer 101, e.g., a neighbor forwarding the query to node 103. In other words, each peer not only searches its own directory for the resource-of-interest of the query, but broadcasts the query to each of its neighbor peers. While individual hosts are generally unreliable with respect to availability at any given moment, the resources themselves, i.e., the content being sought, tend to be highly available because resources are generally replicated and widely distributed in proportion to demand in peer-to-peer networks. Generally, however, resources are identified only by file name and file names are subject to the individual preferences of each host node for its local directory structure. Thus, one specific problem is how to search intelligently and efficiently for relevant resources in a peer-to-peer network.
Again, it is common to store content data files at each peer's local directory structure simply by the given file name. For example, web sites such as Napster™/SM simply store data by a file name associated with the artist or specific song title to facilitate searching. Simple descriptor queries thus get a very large number of unsorted returns. In fact, even a web site search engine in a non-peer-to-peer system, such as the commercial Google, Alta Vista, and the like engines, provides a list of all return links potentially relevant to a query—namely, each and every file found which has a match, or "hit," to the query—which the user must then study for relevance to the actual interest intended, then visit serially those which actually may be authoritative. That is, all of these web search engines rely upon human intelligence to build and keep the information they contain—in the form of links to web pages—relevant and current.
Another method of data storage at a given node is by random names in order to hide actual file identity. This raises the problem of need for some form of mapping between the random names and the actual files.
Another method for data retrieval is collaborative filtering where patterns of searches by like-minded searchers are analyzed and leveraged to produce allegedly more relevant results to a specific query. Such analysis inherently requires the documents to be public and known to the searchers in advance for providing an answer message to the query.
As another method for limiting query distribution, the query message itself (see e.g., FIG. 3 (Prior Art, message header 300) can include a decrementing, time-to-live ("TTL") field whereby the number of node propagations is limited. For example, if the TTL is set to seven, each neighbor node passing on the message thereby identifies itself as the first, second, third, et seq., node receiving the message, decrementing the TTL. If the current neighbor node is the seventh node in a peer-to-peer network link chain, it will not forward the message because TTL has reached zero.
In general, existing solutions focus on locating every specific instance of each of the resources that is a potential match to the query. Thus, a replicated resource is likely to appear multiple times in multiple responses to one specific query.

Distributed information retrieval in peer-to-peer networks

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The magnetic tool has a narrow, elongate, rigid shank having a handgrip end and a selectively extendible and retractable magnet at the opposite working end. Various mechanisms are provided at the handgrip end to extend and retract the magnet. The working end of the tool may be provided with a polygonal (e.g., hexagonal, square, etc.) receptacle for the removable installation of a tool bit or square drive socket therein. The retracted magnet retains the bit or socket within the receptacle as desired. The magnetic tool is particularly well-adapted for insertion into a pushrod passage in the cylinder head of an overhead valve engine, for retracting a valve lifter away from the lobe of the camshaft to facilitate removal and replacement of the camshaft. A linear scale depth gauge may be provided, and an adjustably positionable collar may be provided to hold the tool with the lifter retracted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to magnetized tools of various types, and more specifically to an elongate tool having a selectively extendible and retractable magnetic tip. The present magnetic tool is particularly well adapted for use as a valve lifter or tappet raising tool for use in removing the camshaft from the block of an engine, but may be modified or adapted for other purposes as well.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many, if not most, U.S. automotive and truck engines are constructed with the valve actuating camshaft located in a bore within the engine block, offset from the engine crankshaft. These engines universally use the overhead valve principle, with the valves being actuated by pushrods extending upwardly from the camshaft lobes and acting on rocker arms atop the cylinder head to actuate the valves. Such engines nearly universally use hydraulic tappets or lifters riding on the cam lobes to actuate the valve pushrods. Hydraulic lifters provide many advantages over solid lifters, particularly providing quieter valve train operation and greatly reducing the need for periodic valve adjustments.
From time to time it may be necessary to remove the camshaft from such an engine, due to wear of the cam lobes, desire to install a higher performance cam, or for some other reason. In the past, the labor required for such a job was relatively high, primarily due to the need to remove the cylinder head(s) in order to access the lifters or tappets before removing the camshaft. If the lifters are not removed prior to attempting to remove the cam from its bore in the engine block, the lifters drop downwardly past the cam lobes and bearings as the withdrawal of the camshaft from the block is initiated. As the camshaft continues to be withdrawn, the succeeding cam lobe or bearing encounters the dropped lifter from the adjacent valve in the adjacent cylinder, which blocks further withdrawal of the camshaft from the block. The conventional procedure in providing sufficient clearance to remove the cam from the block is to spend the additional time and labor to remove the cylinder head(s) from the engine to gain access to the lifter bores, and then remove the lifters from their bores.
The present invention provides a solution to the above problem in the form of a magnetic tool which is particularly well adapted for the lifting of hydraulic valve lifters or tappets from the bottoms of their bores in a camshaft-in-block, overhead valve (OHV) gasoline or diesel engine. The present invention comprises a series of embodiments of relatively thin, elongate tools having selectively extendible and retractable magnets in their working tips. Various mechanisms are provided for extending and retracting the magnet in the tip of the tool, as desired. The present tool is used by merely loosening the rocker arms atop the cylinder head of the engine and shifting the rocker arms to one side to access the valve pushrods. The pushrods are withdrawn from their passages through the cylinder head(s), and one of the present tools is inserted into each of the pushrod passages through the head and into the block to contact the valve lifter at the bottom of the passage. The tool is then lifted slightly, withdrawing the lifter from its normal position against the face of the cam lobe to allow withdrawal of the cam from the block. A collar is preferably provided along the shank of the tool to rest against the head and hold the magnetic end of the tool at a sufficient height to maintain the lifter clear of the cam lobes. One of the present tools is applied in each pushrod passage to hold all of the lifters or tappets simultaneously during camshaft removal and installation. The present tool may be modified slightly to provide other functions as well, by forming a square, hexagonal, or other shaped receptacle at the working end to grip a square drive socket, an interchangeable tool bit, or other component as desired.
A discussion of the related art of which the present inventor is aware, and its differences and distinctions from the present invention, is provided below.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,143 issued on Mar. 11, 1986 to Irving J. Nast, titled "Pick-Up Tool," describes a mechanical type grasping tool having a series of outwardly springing fingers extending from the tubular end thereof. The fingers are normally withdrawn into the end of the tube by an axial spring at the opposite end of the device. The Nast tool differs from conventional finger-type tools by having a toroidally shaped magnet installed at the finger end of the tool. This configuration teaches away from the present invention, in which the magnet is retractably located within the end of the tube, rather than having mechanical fingers within the tube and the magnet fixed about the exterior of the end of the tube, as in the Nast device. Moreover, Nast does not note any dimensions for the diameter of the magnet at the gripping end of his tool. It would appear that the diameter of the magnet is too large to pass through the relatively narrow pushrod bore provided through the head of a conventional OHV engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,193 issued on Dec. 8, 1992 to John J. Stelmach, titled "Magnetic Pickup Tool," describes an elongate tool having a retractable magnet in the working end or tip thereof. A flexible wire extends through the tubular shank of the tool to control the position of the magnet. As in the case of the Nast tool above, the Stelmach tool is quite flexible in order to provide the versatility required for picking up various objects which have fallen into relatively inaccessible locations. Stelmach provides a rigid tubular jacket around his flexible tube, but the rigid tube is removable. In contrast, the present tool includes a rigid tubular housing as a permanent component of the device. As in the Nast tool discussed immediately above, Stelmach does not make any disclosure regarding the diameter of his tool and its suitability for passage through the relatively narrow bore provided in a cylinder head for a valve pushrod. Moreover, neither Stelmach nor Nast provides any means of securing their tools in position at a predetermined height within a passage, as provided by the present tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,887 issued on Nov. 30, 1993 to John J. Stelmach, titled "Magnetic Pickup Tool," is a continuation in part of the '193 U.S. patent to the same inventor, discussed immediately above. The '887 continuation patent includes a different, more rounded tip at the working end of the tool, but the same points of distinction between the '193 tool and the present invention are seen to apply here as well.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,253 issued on Dec. 5, 1995 to John R. Resor, titled "Welder's Debris Pick Up Tool" describes a rigid, elongate tool having a fixed magnetic shank extending from a non-magnetic handle to the working tip of the device. This enables the device to pick up magnetically attractive pieces at any point along its length. The provision of an exposed magnetic shaft is undesirable in the present invention, as it would make the tool difficult to position within a cast iron engine block.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,623 issued on Jul. 15, 1997 to Hsuan-Sen Shiao, titled "Telescopic Shaft Magnetic Retriever," describes a device having a multiple segment telescoping shaft with a small battery powered light coaxially installed at the working tip thereof. A single button type magnet is placed over the end of the light. The magnet is not retractable, and the diameter of the device would appear to be too large to fit within the narrow pushrod bore through the cylinder head of an engine, due to the light assembly at the working end thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,999 issued on Sep. 1, 1998 to Cyril B. Schneider et al., titled "Magnetic Retrieving Tool," describes another flexible elongate tool having a retractable magnetic tip. The magnetic tip may be locked in an extended or retracted configuration, as desired. The flexibility of the device results in a tool more closely resembling the tool of the '143 U.S. patent to Nast, than it does the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,409 issued on Sep. 22, 1998 to Richard J. Hardie, titled "Magnetic Retrieval Device," describes another device having a flexible shaft (formed of rubber hose, in this case) with a magnet in the working tip thereof. While the magnet is retained by a wire extending the length of the tube to a handle at the handgrip end of the device in at least one embodiment, Hardie makes no provision for the retraction or extension of the magnet beyond the tip of the tube. Moreover, Hardie specifies that the tube has a ¼ inch internal diameter, which in view of the cross sectional drawings provided would appear to result in a tool having an external diameter too large to pass through the pushrod bore in the cylinder head of an engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,901 issued on Aug. 31, 1999 to Edward S. Coleman, Jr. et al., titled "Magnetic Head For Magnetic Pick-Up Tool," describes various embodiments of an elongate tool having a magnetic working tip. A slidable, magnetically attractive sleeve is provided over the magnet to concentrate the magnetic attraction of the magnet. FIG. 6 of the drawings shows a hand grip having finger indentations therein, with the hand grip having about the same diameter as the sleeve disposed about the magnet. The magnet with its surrounding sleeve is thus apparently too large to fit into a pushrod bore through the cylinder head of an engine, which operation is one of the primary purposes of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,073 issued on Apr. 11, 2000 to Hsuan-Sen Shiao, titled "Telescopic Hand Tool," describes an elongate tool having a series of interchangeable tool elements for the working end thereof. The working end of the tool includes a magnet within a socket, with the socket having external threads thereon. Most of the tool elements secure to the working end of the tool shank by means of an external socket having internal threads which secure to the socket of the working end of the tool shank. The device includes provision for screwdriver bits and the like which insert into the socket of the working end of the tool, in at least some embodiments. However, the magnet is fixed in a permanently retracted configuration in order to provide a magnetically retractable receptacle for the tool bit, as is known in the art. This configuration cannot be used to lift a magnetically attractive component which is larger than the internal diameter of the receptacle, as the magnet is positioned at some distance from the article to be attracted and cannot exert sufficient magnetic force to draw the article away from its initial position. In contrast, the present magnetic tool provides for the selective extension of the magnet beyond the working end socket of the tool, to allow the magnet to come into direct contact with the object being magnetically moved.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,787 issued on May 23, 2000 to Robert M. Jarosch, titled "Retriever Tool," describes a tool having double opposed telescoping end sections from a central portion. Several means of attracting or attaching one of the working ends of the tool to another component are provided, including a magnet disposed in one end of the tool. The magnet cannot be retracted within its installed end, as provided by the present invention. Moreover, the increasingly larger widths or diameters of the telescoping sections toward the working ends of the tool, preclude insertion of either working end into the relatively narrow pushrod passage in the cylinder head of an engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,340 issued on Nov. 13, 2001 to Andrew Chen, titled "Multifunctional Pick-Up Tool," describes a device having a retractable mechanical claw or fingers selectively extending from the working end, with a small light and a small magnet installed beside the opening for the claw. The plurality of components in the working end of the tool results in the working end being too large to fit within the pushrod passage of an engine cylinder head, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,433 issued on Dec. 4, 2001 to Roy V. Nicholson et al., titled "Magnetic Metal Object Retriever With Cover," describes a hand carried tool having a relatively large diameter, flat magnetic plate extending from one end. The tool is drawn over a surface (floor, etc.) by a walking person carrying the device and used to pick up magnetically attractive debris (nails, screws, etc.). A magnetically permeable cover is removably installed over the magnet, with the magnet attracting articles through the cover. The cover is removed to remove the attracted articles from the tool, with the articles falling from the cover when it is removed. The magnet is much too large to be inserted within a pushrod bore of an engine cylinder head, and no retraction of the magnet is provided by Nicholson et al.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/173,788 published on Sep. 18, 2003 and applied for by James Fussell et al., titled "Recovery Device And Unit," describes a hand carried device having a retractable head which carries an adhesive pad thereon. The pad is used to pick up various articles which may be hazardous in the event of direct contact to a person. When the adhesive pad has been used it is retracted into the head, which dislodges the pad from its attachment to the tool for disposal. Fussell et al. make mention of an alternative magnetic means, but no magnetic embodiment is specifically disclosed. In any event, the Fussell et al. tool is much too large for use in the intended environment of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,654 issued on Mar. 16, 2004 to L. Johnny Slauf, titled "Frisbee Golf Disc Retriever And More," describes another relatively large, hand carried tool having a folding tubular body secured by an elastic tension member extending therethrough. This construction cannot provide for a rigid compression member extending through the body to selectively extend a magnet from the working end thereof, as provided by the present invention. As in the case of Fussell et al., Slauf makes mention of a magnetic component on the working end of his device, but none of the pickup devices disclosed by Slauf can be retracted into the working end of the tool.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 378,337 issued on Mar. 11, 1997 to Mark F. Reynolds et al., titled "Telescoping Magnet," illustrates a design having a swivel attached magnet at the working end thereof, with a series of relatively short telescoping sections extending from the handle portion of the device. No retraction of the magnet into the working end of the device is apparent.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 446,701 issued on Aug. 21, 2001 to Edward S. Coleman, Jr. et al., titled "Magnet Head for Magnetic Retrieval Tool," illustrates a design for a magnetic tool head, apparently for use with the tool of the '901 U.S. patent to the same inventors. The device of the '901 U.S. patent was discussed further above, with the same points noted in that discussion appearing to apply here as well. In addition, it is noted that no retraction of the magnet is apparent in the device of the '701 U.S. Design Pat.
British Patent No. 584,156, published on Jan. 8, 1947, titled "An Improved Permanent Magnet Appliance," describes a tool having a flexible shaft with a bar magnet at one end and a horseshoe magnet at the opposite end. No means of retracting the magnet into a sleeve at either end, is disclosed.
British Patent No. 639,039, published on Jun. 21, 1950, titled "Improvements In Or Relating To Permanent Magnets," describes a tool comprising an elongate rod of flexible metal with a generally cylindrical housing for a magnet attached to the working end of the rod. The magnet is permanently affixed in the end of the tool, and cannot be retracted or extended. One embodiment discloses the magnet being housed in the base of a socket with the socket walls extending beyond the magnet, as in conventional screwdrivers and the like having interchangeable bits. The socket is adapted to f it the head of a bolt or the like, which would apparently make the outer diameter of the socket too large to fit into a pushrod passage in the cylinder head of an engine. The patent describes various uses for the tool, including withdrawing parts or debris from engine oil sumps, transmissions, and differentials, but these areas are universally provided with relatively large access panels or are removed for mechanical work. Thus, the interiors of such components are readily accessible with large tools.
Finally, German Patent No. 929,300 published on Jun. 23, 1955, includes only a single drawing apparently illustrating a tool having a selectively retractable magnet within the working end. A spring within the device apparently urges the magnet to an extended position, with a finger grip provided to retract the magnet within its housing at the working end of the tool. A cover is placed over the end of the magnet and housing, thereby completely enclosing the magnet. It would appear that withdrawal of the magnet from the cover would dislodge any magnetically attracted material from the working end of the tool. Thus, the device of the '300 German Patent appears to be more closely related to the magnet and removable cover of the '433 U.S. patent to Nicholson et al., discussed further above, than it is to the present invention. In any event, the relatively wide flare of the working end of the device of the German disclosure would appear to preclude its use in retracting valve lifters or tappets, for which purpose the present invention is adapted.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a magnetic tool solving the aforementioned problems is desired.


A stress isolation technique for an accelerometer of the type that has a reed that includes a paddle, a support, and flexures connecting the paddle to an area of the support. The support includes one or more mounting pads through which the reed is mounted. The area of the support adjacent to the flexures is divided into first and second portions, such that the flexures are connected to the first portion and such that the mounting pads are positioned solely on the second portion. The flexures are therefore isolated from stress coupled into the reed through the mounting pads.

A prior art accelerometer with high performance potential is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,073. The accelerometer comprises three primary components, a reed, and upper and lower stators or magnetic circuits between which the reed is supported. The reed includes a movable paddle that is suspended via flexures to an outer annular support ring, such that the paddle can pivot with respect to the support ring. The paddle, flexures and support ring are commonly provided as a unitary structure composed of fused quartz.
Both upper and lower surfaces of the paddle include capacitor plates and force balancing coils. Each force balancing coil is positioned on the paddle such that the central axis of the coil is normal to the top and bottom surfaces of the paddle, and parallel to the sensing axis of the accelerometer. A plurality of mounting pads are formed at spaced-apart positions around the upper and lower surfaces of the annular support ring. These mounting pads mate with inwardly facing surfaces of the upper and lower stators when the accelerometer is assembled.
Each stator is generally cylindrical, and has a bore provided in its inwardly facing surface. Contained within the bore is a permanent magnet. The bore and permanent magnet are configured such that an associated one of the force balancing coils mounted on the paddle fits within the bore, with the permanent magnet being positioned within the cylindrical core of the coil. Current flowing through the coil therefore produces a magnetic field that interacts with the permanent magnet to produce a force on the paddle. Also provided on the inwardly facing surfaces of the stators are capacitor plates configured to form capacitors with the capacitor plates on the top and bottom surface of the paddle. Thus movement of the paddle with respect to the upper and lower stators results in a differential capacitance change.
In operation, the accelerometer is affixed to an object whose acceleration is to be measured. Acceleration of the object along the sensing axis results in pendulous, rotational displacement of the paddle with respect to the support ring and the stators. The resulting differential capacitance change caused by this displacement is sensed by a feedback circuit. In response, the feedback circuit produces a current that, when applied to the force balancing coils, tends to return the paddle to its neutral position. The magnitude of the current required to maintain the paddle in its neutral position provides a measure of the acceleration along the sensing axis.
Prior accelerometer designs of the type described above have in general taken two different approaches to the mounting of the reed. In one approach, three mounting pads are equally spaced from one another around the support ring, and the reed is clamped between the stators via such mounting pads. This arrangement results in at least one mounting pad being close to the area of the support ring to which the flexures are attached. Mounting strains and thermal strains are therefore coupled into the flexures, causing bias sensitivities to mounting and temperature. Overall stability of the accelerometer is thus degraded. This design does have the advantage of providing three pads that are widely separated, with at least one pad on each side of the magnetic circuit centerline. Preload forces can therefore be applied at the center of the accelerometer, to provide a stable clamping condition. Thus, this first approach allows for flexibility in preload system design, but results in degraded bias performance.
A second commonly used design approach involves the placement of all three mounting pads to one side of the centerline, as far as possible from the flexure area. As a result, the long support ring section between the mounting pads and the flexures provides isolation of the flexures from thermal strains and mounting strains. This approach also allows two of the mounting pads to be aligned with the centroid of pick-off capacitance, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,187. Thus, this mounting pad arrangement results in improved bias performance, but does not allow preloads to be applied at the centerline of the accelerometer, and may degrade alignment stability.


A separator that is excellent in workability and corrosion resistance, and allows a reduction in the number of constituent components of a fuel cell and the number of manufacturing process steps, and a manufacturing method therefore are provided. A separator includes a separating section for achieving separation between a hydrogen gas channel and an oxygen gas channel, and a sealing section disposed along an outer periphery of the separator, for preventing leakage of hydrogen and oxygen gases. The separating section and the sealing section are formed integrally with each other by means of plastic deformation processing, e.g., press working, of a metal thin sheet. A coating layer is formed n the metal thin sheet to coat the metal thin sheet's surface, and a DC power generated at an interface between a high polymer membrane and a catalytic electrode on contact of the coating layer with the catalytic electrode is taken out as a DC current and is collected at a power collector plate after passing through an interior of the separator. A high polymer elastic layer is provided at the part contacting the high polymer membrane of a sealing projection of the sealing section. The polymer elastic layer contacts the polymer film to seal.

The need for the effective use of limited energy resources, as well as the need for energy saving to prevent global warming, has hitherto become a matter of public awareness. To date energy needs have been served by means of thermal power generation; that is, by converting heat energy into electric energy. However, considering that coal and oil resources required for thermal power generation are limited in recoverable reserves, the demand for an alternative to such resources has augmented as a natural consequence. As one of new energy resources, attention is being given to a fuel cell for effecting chemical power generation with use of hydrogen for fuel.
A typical fuel cell is composed of two electrodes, namely an anode and a cathode, having sandwiched therebetween an electrolyte. In the cathode, supplied hydrogen is ionized to form hydrogen ion which travels through the electrolyte toward the anode. In the anode, supplied oxygen and the hydrogen ion having passed through the electrolyte react with each other to form water. As the electrons generated in accompaniment with the ionization of hydrogen are moved from the cathode to the anode through wiring, electric current is developed, thus generating electricity.
The fuel cells are classified into four types depending upon the kind of electrolyte: a solid oxide type fuel cell (SOFC) using ion conductive ceramics as an electrolyte; a solid polymer electrolyte type fuel cell (PEFC) using a hydrogen-ion conductive polymeric membrane as an electrolyte; a phosphoric acid type fuel cell (PAFC) using phosphoric acid in highly concentrated form as an electrolyte; and a molten carbonate type fuel cell (MCFC) using alkaline metal carbonate as an electrolyte. Recently, there has been brisk development on the solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) in particular because of its relatively low operating temperature (80° C.).
The solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell is mainly composed of an electrolyte layer, a separator, and a power collector plate. The electrolyte layer has a catalytic electrode formed on its surface. On both sides of the electrolyte layer is disposed the separator so as to sandwich the electrolyte layer. The separator is provided with channels for the supply of hydrogen and oxygen. The power collector plate serves to collect electricity generated in the electrode. Not only the electrolyte layer but also the separator has been improved upon on a repeated basis.
The requirements to be fulfilled by the separator include: high electrical conductivity; high hermeticity against fuel gas and oxidizer gas; and high resistance to corrosion by oxidation-reduction reaction products of hydrogen as well as oxygen.
In order to constitute a separator such as that which satisfies the above stated requirements, the following materials have been used. One of the most frequently used materials is fine-grained carbon which is excellent in electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance, and mechanical strength, and is also higher in workability and lighter in weight. However, the fine-grained carbon is susceptible to oscillation and shock and needs to be subjected to cutting process, which leads to an undesirable increase in the processing cost. It is also necessary to perform additional treatment thereon to attain impermeability to gaseous substances.
As synthetic resin materials, heat-hardening resin such as phenol resin and epoxy resin has been in general use. The synthetic resin, although it is advantageous in terms of cost reduction, offers poor dimensional stability and low electrical conductivity.
Metal materials have also been coming into wider use from the standpoints of electrical conductivity, workability, and hermeticity. In general, titanium and stainless are used. However, the negative side is that metal is susceptible to corrosion, and, in a separator made of metal, metal ion tends to be taken in an electrolyte membrane, which results in deterioration in ion conductivity. In order to avoid this, the separator needs to have its surface plated with gold.
The last example is rubber materials. For example, ethylene-propylene-diene rubber is preferably used. Rubber is low in gas permeability but high in sealability.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 8-180883 (1996) discloses a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell. This solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell employs, as a separator, a thin sheet made of such a metal material as lends itself to passivation in an atmospheric environment, for example, stainless steel or titanium alloy. The metal thin sheet is processed into a separator of predetermined configuration by means of press working.
Moreover, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 2002-175818 discloses a separator designed for use in a fuel cell. This fuel cell separator has a rib formed at its outer edge to provide high rigidity, whereby the separator can be prevented from being warped when held by a sealing material.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 2003-297383 also discloses a separator designed for use in a fuel cell. This fuel cell separator is constituted by a metal base sheet which has, on its one surface at least, a first resin layer and a second resin layer formed of an admixture of resin and an electrically conductive filler. The first resin layer exhibits a volume resistivity of 1.0 Ω·cm or below. The second resin layer is smaller in volume resistivity than the first resin layer. In this way, the separator succeeds in providing enhanced power collecting capability, moldability, strength, and corrosion resistance.
The separator constituted by a metal sheet, although it is excellent in workability, is susceptible to corrosion under the influence of oxygen gas. In such a separator, metal ion is taken in an electrolyte membrane, which results in deterioration in ion conductivity. In order to avoid this, the separator needs to have its surface plated with gold.
Moreover, the separator of conventional design has its outer periphery sealed with a sealing material such as an O-ring to prevent leakage of hydrogen gas, oxygen gas, and coolant.
In the conventional constructions disclosed in JP-A 8-180883 (1996) and JP-A 2002-175818, a gasket is disposed in the vicinity of the separator to prevent leakage of reaction gas and coolant fluid.
As described hereinabove, in the conventional fuel cells, there is a need to interpose a sealing material between the outer periphery of the separator and the cell. Furthermore, in terms of manufacturing process steps, after processing the separator into a desired shape, an additional step is required to fix a sealing material to the outer periphery of the separator or to form a sealing material by means of die molding, with the separator placed as a core.

Fuel cell separator that is excellent in workability and corrosion resistance


Control system for a communications network, wherein the control system contains network-control means and information-processing means. Through the quality-control means, a user may set a desired quality (UQS). Additionally, the quality-control means measures quality delivered (UQS′) by the information-processing means and compares the two qualities, UQS and UQS′. By reference to a calculated comparison result, parameters are passed on to the network-control means in order to minimize a difference between the desired and delivered qualities. The quality-control means may comprise one or more user agents which may be set through the information-processing means and the communications network.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a control system for a communications network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Advanced telecommunications networks are bearer oriented. A telecom operator does not know for which applications customers are using the communications network.
In this case and in the description below, "applications" implies the whole of hardware (PCs etc.) and software (control and application software) which customers are using for, e.g., Internet browsing, e-mail, video meetings etc.
The customer has an opinion on the quality of the application making use of the bearer (the network), not on the quality of the bearer itself. From the operator, however, it is expected that he will provide sufficient Technical Quality of Service (QoS) to the customer.
The present invention relates to a system for determining the minimum required technical QoS (TQS) in the network (bearer) on the basis of the "User-perceived" QoS (UQS) desired by the customer.
Several mechanisms for providing TQS guarantees in a network are generally known. Frequently, guarantees are provided on TQS parameters, such as "bit error rate", "packet loss", "throughput bit rate" and "delay". In addition, various mechanisms are known for measuring UQS, e.g., for transmission chains comprising speech or video coders and decoders. The known systems, however, have the drawback that any coupling between the TQS guarantees (operator) and the UQS wishes (customer) is lacking.
That coupling is hard to make and, in addition, depends on the terminal and the wishes of the customer. The customer eventually observes a quality which for the major part is determined by the terminal. If there are problems with the quality, the operator is often (unjustly) blamed. The customer just wants to get "value for his money" or, in other words, a maximum overall quality-price ratio.


A method of producing a transparent conductive film provided with supplementary metal lines, comprises the steps of forming a transparent conductive film composed mainly of indium oxide, tin oxide, or antimony oxide on a transparent substrate and forming metal lines through printing on the transparent conductive film by an intaglio or litho offset printing procedure a line pattern of metallorganic ink composed mainly of an organic noble metal containing gold, silver, or platinum and baking it for metallization.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a transparent conductive film for use with a liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Liquid crystal displays which are widely used as display units of portable calculators or watches, television receivers, and visual display terminals of OA devices, have been improved in performance and increased in screen size.
Such a liquid crystal display has a transparent conductive film thereof which serves as an electrode and is substantially produced by coating a planar, polished glass substrate with a layer of silicon dioxide (SiO.sub.2) for preventing penetration of alkali ions, forming on the silicon dioxide layer by sputtering a transparent conductive thin film of a ceramic material consisted mainly of indium tin oxide (ITO)-a mixture of indium oxide and tin oxide, and etching the ITO thin film by a photolithograph patterning technique.
As a further enlargement of a display panel and operation with high-speed response are now desired, such a transparent conductive film is intended to be low in resistance. However, the ITO thin film produced by a known sputtering technique exhibits as high as 1.times.10.sup.-4 .OMEGA..multidot.cm of resistivity, failing to satisfy the foregoing requirement. For improvement, a transparent conductive film accompanied with auxiliary metal lines has been proposed which is produced by arranging a pattern of auxiliary metal lines, a dozen or more of micrometers in line width, of e.g. a nickelchrome alloy over a transparent film.
In the prior art, a desired pattern of auxiliary metal lines is developed by forming a thin film of a nickel-chrome or gold-chrome alloy on a transparent conductive film, forming a photoresist pattern by a photolithograph technique on the thin film, and etching the thin film of nickel-chrome or gold-chrome alloy by chemically removing the unwanted portions. The prior art method however requires a considerable number of procedures including vacuum deposition, photolithograph processing, etching, and removal of photoresist materials. Also, a surplus of metal film regions are formed during the vacuum deposition thus increasing the cost of production.
Also, a screen printing technique is employed for forming a line pattern of metal resinate (a type of ink made from a metallorganic material), in which the pattern can cover a considerable area and the cost of production can be reduced. However, the pattern of lines is hardly developed at an accuracy of less than several tens of micrometers in the width of each line. Accordingly, no improvement has been attempted on the methods of forming supplementary metal lines on an ITO layer with the use of a known printing technique.

Method of producing a transparent conductive film provided with supplementary metal lines

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Forwarding of multicast data frames over an Ethernet bridged network infrastructure is performed by storing in a bridge forwarding table the multicast destination address when the hosts are polled via the bridge by a router. Then when a multicast data frame is received by the bridge, the forwarding table is searched and the frame is forwarded to each port of the bridge that corresponds to a host that subscribed to the particular multicast session indicated by the multicast destination address.

The present invention relates to networks, and more particularly to forwarding multicast frames over an Ethernet bridged network infrastructure.
An Ethernet network with a bridged infrastructure improves networking performance, i.e., bandwidth, by separating point to point or unicast traffic. Such a network, as shown in FIG. 1, has one or more hosts coupled to a hub or common bus, with one hub being coupled to another via a bridge or switch. The bridge in turn is coupled via a router to the rest of the world, i.e., to the Internet, for example. However the bridged infrastructure does not separate, and thus improve the performance of, many to many or multicast traffic because the bridge, and hosts, treat multicast traffic as if it were broadcast traffic and floods it to all hosts. On the Ethernet network an Internet Protocol(IP)-multicast packet is encapsulated in an Ethernet multicast frame so that the IP-multicast packet shares the fate of the Ethernet multicast frame and is broadcast over the entire Ethernet bridged infrastructure.
A frame of data has a header, which includes an address space with a source address (the originator of the frame) and a destination address (the target of the frame), followed by data. For multicast traffic a network multicast packet is encapsulated within the frame as part of the data. The bridge does not look at the encapsulated network multicast packet, but merely at the source and destination addresses of the data frame header. The bridge maintains a forwarding table in which it contains a source address and a port of the bridge to which the source is coupled. The destination address of a frame is searched for within the forwarding table, and when found the frame is sent through the corresponding port to the host that has the destination address. If not found, the frame is broadcast--it is transmitted through all ports except the port on which it arrived. For broadcast frames, i.e., frames that are intended to be transmitted to all hosts, the destination address is tested to see if it falls within the broadcast address range, and if so the bridge broadcasts the frame. The bridge does not recognize multicast addresses, so multicast frames also are broadcast by the bridge.
The Ethernet system has 48 bits of address space that are divided up into:
(1) a broadcast address; PA1 (2) multicast addresses; and PA1 (3) unicast addresses.
The unicast addresses are the normal addresses, each address being assigned uniquely to a single board coupled to the network. A data frame addressed to a unicast address is forwarded by the bridge to the host to which the unique board identified by that address is coupled, while a data frame addressed to the broadcast address is forwarded to all hosts, and thence to all boards. But a multicast address is treated by the bridge as an unrecognized unicast address and broadcast.
The first facet of the problem in dealing with multicast addresses is on the host. Any frame addressed to a multicast address is received by every host, so that hosts that interface with the network may be interrupted for every multicast frame that appears on the hub, whether it is destined for them or not. This may be a major performance drain.
Next the bridge does not read the network level addresses that are encapsulated in the data frame, doing all its work at the data frame level, i.e., reading the data frame header. The bridge attempts to filter data frames between several hubs, each hub having one or more hosts attached to it. The bridge listens to source addresses on each hub and remembers on which bridge port it received such an address. The bridge then maintains a forwarding table which associates source address with the port on which it was heard. When it receives a data frame destined for a particular address, it searches its forwarding table to find a destination port. The bridge forwards the data frame to that port, if found, filtering the data traffic. If the bridge does not have the destination address in the forwarding table, or otherwise does not recognize the address, it treats the destination address as a broadcast address and outputs the data frame to every port. Thus bridges treat the multicast frames like broadcast frames.
Using a protocol entitled IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol), as described in the Network Working Group Request for Comments (RFC) 1112, Appendix I (August 1989), hosts subscribe to a multicast session when they are polled by a router with a well-known specific multicast address. The multicast address from the router must be passed via the bridge as a broadcast frame to every host on every hub. If one or more of the hosts want to be part of a multicast session, the host or hosts respond by providing the address of the multicast session to which they want to subscribe. This information must be passed by the bridge back up to the router. If none of the hosts coupled to the bridge subscribe to a multicast session, then the router, when it receives a multicast frame, bypasses that bridge. However if one of the hosts coupled to the bridge subscribes to the multicast session, then the multicast frame is transmitted to the bridge which in turn, as discussed above, treats it as a broadcast frame and each host coupled to the bridge in turn accepts it as a broadcast frame.
There have been some attempts to solve this problem recently. Cisco Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. sells bridges that work with a router which recognizes the network multicast address and performs the multicast polling at the router (network) level using a proprietary protocol between the bridge and the router.
Stephen Deering, in a 1988 paper entitled "Multicast Routing in Internetworks and Extended LANs" published by the Association for Computing Machinery, describes one technique prior to the IGMP protocol for multicasting in a simple bridged LAN using membership reports and a forwarding table algorithm. However the article does not describe how the bridge operates under the IGMP protocol, specifically what the interaction should be between the bridge and a router.
What is desired is a solution to the multicast problem in an Ethernet bridged network infrastructure using the IGMP protocol that assures that multicast frames are received only by subscribers to that multicast session without the use of proprietary hardware bridges or protocols.

Forwarding multicast frames on an ethernet bridge


A movable type staircase is disclosed, particularly one which is located at the exterior wall or veranda at various floor levels of a building. In an emergency, a safety bar on any floor may be pushed aside to enable the movable staircase to unfold itself and connect rapidly by its own gravity with the veranda or fire exit at a lower floor level. Also by means of the force produced when the movable type staircase is being lowered, a safety bar at the next lower floor level will be further pushed aside to again enable that movable staircase to unfold itself and rapidly connect by its own gravity with still another lower floor level and so on until the various floor levels which are lower than the floor which the user is staying can be connected automatically in a way similar to an indoor staircase. It is a staircase which provides a highly safe and automatic means of escape for people in time of emergency.

With the development of modern technology, high buildings are erected to provide people with a more comfortable living environment. Various new models of life-saving apparatus are available to cope with and satisfy new requirements derived from the modern life style in high buildings, among which a suspension type of slow descending life saving equipment is very popular and marketable. It comprises three gears, one gear ring and other assembling members. It is made of a centrifugal structure with the application of centrifugal theory, and resistance will be produced by the gears in coordination with the gear ring and the other assembling members to reduce the descending speed of people being suspended on it, so as to achieve the object of saving their own life. However, in spite or providing people with a light and convenient means of escape, such suspension life-saving equipment will make people face danger and feel afraid when they are being suspended on a steel wire facing the exterior wall of a tall building. Its capacity is also found to be extremely small due to its limitation of allowing one person to escape at a time.
Focussing on the defects of a suspension type slow descending life saving equipment described above, the inventor devoted himself to years of research and study for necessary renovation, and managed to overcome the aforesaid defects with the present invention hereof.


A fan includes a first motor portion, a first impeller fixed to a first rotating portion of the first motor portion, a second motor portion arranged along a central axis of the first motor portion, a second impeller fixed to a second rotating portion of the second motor portion, a tubular wind channel portion arranged to surround the first and second impellers, and support ribs arranged to join the wind channel portion to the first and second motor portions. The first impeller includes first blades arranged in a circumferential direction about the central axis and the second impeller includes second blades arranged in the circumferential direction, a rotation direction of the second impeller is opposite to a rotation direction of the first impeller. A surface of each first blade which faces the second impeller is concave. A surface of each second blade which faces the first impeller is concave.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a serial axial fan, and more specifically to a serial axial fan including two impellers arranged in series.
2. Description of the Related Art
Blower fans are widely used to cool household electrical appliances, office equipment, industrial equipment, and so on, for air conditioning or ventilation, or as blowers for use in vehicles and so on. As such a blower fan, a serial axial fan including two axial fans connected in series along a central axis is known. For example, a counter-rotating axial blower is disclosed in JP-A 2004-278370. In this blower, a first impeller and a second impeller are arranged in series along a central axis inside a housing. The first and second impellers are arranged to rotate in mutually opposite directions.
JP-A 2002-21777 discloses a jet fan installed on a ceiling of a tunnel. The jet fan includes a first impeller, a second impeller, and reverse rotation means arranged to cause the first and second impellers to rotate in mutually opposite directions. Each of the first and second impellers is arranged to be reversible in rotation. JP-A 2009-250225 discloses an axial blower. The axial blower includes two impellers arranged in series, and is arranged to be capable of rotating in both a normal direction and a reverse direction. Each of rotor blades of each impeller has a curved cross-section.
The serial axial fan is typically arranged to send air in a fixed direction as is the case with the counter-rotating axial blower disclosed in JP-A 2004-278370. Therefore, each blade is arranged to have a shape appropriate for sending air in the single fixed direction. In the counter-rotating axial blower disclosed in JP-A 2004-278370, for example, each of front and rear blades has a curved shape with a concave portion thereof being open toward an outlet side.
Meanwhile, depending on a purpose of the blower fan, the blower fan is demanded to be capable of sending air in both directions equivalently, and an increase in static pressure is demanded for each of the case where the blower fan sends air in one direction and the case where the blower fan sends air in an opposite direction. In the case where blower fans having the same design are installed on a variety of devices, for example, it is desirable that the blower fans should be capable of sending air in both directions. However, a blower fan designed to send air in a single fixed direction suffers a significant decrease in a static pressure characteristic when sending air in an opposite direction.
The jet fan disclosed in JP-A 2002-21777 is capable of sending air in both directions. Each blade of the jet fan is in the shape of a flat plate, and therefore, high static pressure cannot be obtained. The axial blower disclosed in JP-A 2009-250225 is also capable of sending air in both directions. However, because the two impellers are arranged to rotate in the same direction when viewed along a central axis, an outgoing air current has a large whirl component and spreads radially. Therefore, high static pressure cannot be obtained.