A sports shoe includes an upper wherein a majority by weight of the upper is made from a thermoplastic base material and a sole wherein a majority by weight of the sole is made from the same thermoplastic base material. The sole and the upper are individually fabricated and joined to each other. The thermoplastic base material includes at least one of the following materials: thermoplastic polyurethane TPU, polyamide PA, polyethylene terephthalate PET, or polybutylene terephthalate PBT.

Shoes, in particular sports shoes, generally comprise a sole and an upper made from multiple components. Multiple components are generally required for a sole and an upper to provide the shoe with various desired properties such as cushioning, moisture management, traction, abrasion resistance etc. To this end, the various components of a shoe are typically manufactured from different materials. The components are then attached to each other, for example by adhesives and/or by stitching.
The production of the various components of a shoe and their respective materials requires a considerable amount of energy (e.g. electricity, heat, etc.) which leads to greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, after a shoe's lifetime, e.g. when the shoe is worn out and can no longer be used, considerable efforts are needed to safely dispose of the shoe. In this context, special attention has to be paid to the various individual materials present within the shoe to optimize the disposal of the shoe. Again, energy is needed to decompose the materials and further greenhouse gases are emitted. On the other hand, the majority of worn out shoes still ends up in a landfill or in an incineration facility as waste. Numerous approaches are known to limit the amount of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission during the life cycle of a shoe.
US 2009/0119023 A1 discloses a grading system for evaluating and ranking consumer products based on their ecological and/or environmental impact which is applicable for footwear. However, a mere ranking or evaluating falls short of providing shoes with reduced resource consumption and greenhouse gas emission during their life cycle.
US 2012/0233883 A1 discloses processes for fabricating an upper for a shoe in which scraps are obtained. Material scraps may be collected and resized and the resized scrap may be distributed to create a recovered material layer. The layer may be subjected to heat and/or pressure to create a pliable composite panel. The composite panel may be used to create an upper shell. US 2014/0066530 A1 discloses a method for recycling scrap ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) foam. A blend containing virgin EVA resin and scrap EVA foam, as well as a crosslinking agent and a blowing agent for the EVA resin is foamed and crosslinked. The blend further contains a compatibilizer, which is hydrogenated petroleum resin. The methods of US 2012/0233883 A1 and US 2014/0066530 A1 are based on the idea to re-use scraps, whereby pre-consumer waste (industrial waste) is used back in the production process. However, these methods do not go beyond addressing a possible re-use of waste during production of a shoe.
US 2014/0197253 A1 discloses a method for processing multiple polymer component articles for recycling. Polymer components of multi-component shoes may be separated. Therein, the differences in embrittlement and glass transition temperature of different polymer components are exploited by cryogenically freezing the prepared shoe and impacting it such that one polymer component is pulverized without substantially fracturing the remaining portion of the shoe. While this method addresses the recycling of multiple polymer component articles, it is a very complex and costly process that requires cryogenics.
DE 20 2012 005 735 U1 relates to a cycling shoe. The cycling shoe comprises an outer shoe, which comprises an upper and a sole, which may be fixedly attached to each other. For this particular cycling shoe, the outer shoe consists of a single material, in which case the upper and sole comprise a single layer only. Thermoplastic or thermosetting elastomers such as polyurethane, in particular thermoplastic polyurethane, may be used, possibly with fiber-reinforcement. The outer shoe may be releasably connected with an inner shoe. The inner shoe may also comprise a sole and an upper. It may consist of EVA.
EP 2 233 021 A2 relates to a protective sock for use in swimming pools or spas. The sock is of the type which are formed by two materials differentiated in the sole and the vamp. The sole is made of waterproof textile comprising polyamide between 60 and 75%, and polyurethane between 40 and 25%. The vamp comprises teflonized lycra.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,010,157 B1 relates to an article of footwear including a monofilament knit element with peripheral knit portions. DE 10 2013 208 170 A1 relates to sole for a shoe comprising a midsole and an outsole.
It has also become known in the field that shoes may be fabricated from bio-degradable material. Such shoes may naturally decompose within several months. However, the materials used in these shoes are not suitable for sports shoes and particularly do not meet the requirements for high-quality and high-performance shoes.
It may therefore be considered as a problem of the present invention to provide an improved approach for limiting the amount of resource consumption and greenhouse gas emission during the life cycle of shoes.

Sports shoes and methods for manufacturing and recycling of sports shoes


The present invention relates to an integrated repeater and an integrated relay system. The integrated repeater of the present invention receives a signal from a main repeater for relaying signals transmitted from upper devices, and comprises a demultiplexer configured to demultiplex the multiplexed signal of an Ethernet signal and a mobile communication signal received from the main repeater, and separate the signals into the mobile communication signal and the Ethernet signal; a first converter configured to convert the mobile communication signal separated from the demultiplexer into a radio frequency (RF) signal, and transmit the converted RF signal; a second converter configured to convert the Ethernet signal separated from the demultiplexer into a wireless LAN signal, and transmit the converted wireless LAN signal; and a switching unit configured to deliver a signal received from the main repeater to either the demultiplexer or the second converter, depending on whether a fault of the mobile communication signal is generated.

Recently, with the great development of electronics and telecommunication technologies, mobile communication terminals provide various functions, such as voice communication, internet access, video communication and the transmission of multimedia message. Also, as mobile communication terminals are propagating rapidly, most communications made between people are through mobile communication terminals, which have become a ubiquitous part of modern daily life.
Also, with the continuous development of mobile communication infrastructure, various kinds of mobile communication networks are currently provided, and even more advanced mobile communication networks are expected in the near future. The current mobile communication system includes a wideband CMDA (W-CDMA) system which is classified as a third generation mobile communication, and a mobile world interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) system, e.g., IEEE 802.16e, which allows the use of high-speed internet service while mobile. Also, a wireless LAN (WLAN) service, e.g., Wi-Fi enabling ultra high-speed internet within a certain distance from an installed access point by way of notebook computers and such is provided.
In order to realize these various kinds of communication networks, a multi-band and multi-mode terminal has been developed. The multi-band and multi-mode terminal can access all communication networks having multi-bandwidth or at least two communication networks having different connection methods. That is, the multi-band and multi-mode terminal is an integrated device in which all communication modems corresponding to each communication network are provided.
In today's environment, where various kinds of communication services and terminals are provided, efforts are being made to provide customers with the best quality of service in the telecommunication industry. The most representative effort is to minimize a shadow area at which a communication signal is not properly transmitted. Such a communication drop in the shadow area has been overcome by installing an additional base station or a repeater therein. However, a base station has unbelievably high installation costs and is difficult to install in narrow places such as the underground and parking lots of a building. For this reason, repeaters are generally installed to provide better communication service in the shadow area.
However, as communication services are diversifying and a repeater is installed separately for each communication service, installation costs increase and damages the building appearance by the indiscriminate installation of the repeater.

Integrated repeater for integratedly relaying various types of communication signals, and integrated relay system


A wavelength conversion device exhibiting an excellent wavelength conversion efficiency is provided by forming it in such a manner that an LiTaO.sub.3 substrate is subjected to a proton exchange treatment to form a proton-exchange layer before the proton-exchange layer is subjected to heat treatment to form a domain-inverted structure. Heat treatment is performed at a high temperature rising speed to prevent the thermal diffusion of the proton-exchange layer so that the expansion of the domain-inverted structure to be formed in the proton-exchange layer is restrained. As a result, a higher harmonic wave wavelength conversion device can be provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a wavelength conversion device which make use of a coherent light source for use in the industrial field of optical data storage, optical information processing and applied optic measurement control.
2. Description of Prior Art
Domain inversion for forcibly inverting a domain in a ferroelectric is employed in optical frequency modulators which utilize surface acoustic waves and wavelength conversion devices which utilize the inversion of a non-linear domain in such a manner that a periodical domain-inverted structure is formed in a ferroelectric. In particular, by periodically inverting the non-linear domains of non-linear optical materials, a second harmonic generating device exhibiting an extremely high conversion efficiency can be manufactured. By using the second harmonic generating device thus-manufactured to convert a beam such as semiconductor laser, a small-size short wavelength light source can be realized which can be widely applied to the printed field, the optical information processing field, the applied optic measurement and control field and the like. Therefore, a large number of studies have been made about the domain inversion.
FIG. 21 is a structural view of a conventional light wavelength conversion device. Then, a detailed description will be made about generation of higher harmonic waves (wavelength of which is 0.41 .mu.m) with respect to the fundamental waves the wavelength of which is 0.82 .mu.m (refer to E. J. Lim, M. M. Fejer, R. L. Byer, and W. J. Kozlovsky, "Blue light generation by frequency doubling in periodically poled lithium niobate channel waveguide", Electron. Lett., 25, 731-732, (1989)).
As shown in FIG. 21, an optical waveguide 44 is formed in an LiNbO.sub.3 substrate 41 and a layer (a domain-inverted structure) 45 is formed in the optical waveguide 44, the domain of the layer 45 being periodically inverted. By compensating inconsistence in propagation coefficient between the fundamental waves and the higher harmonic waves with the periodic structure of the domain-inverted structure 45, the higher harmonic waves can be efficiently generated. When fundamental waves P1 (43) are made to be incident upon the entrance surface of the optical waveguide 44, higher harmonic waves P2 (42) are efficiently generated from the optical waveguide 44 so that the above-described structure is able to act as an optical wavelength conversion device.
An optical wavelength conversion device of the conventional type described above has been basically formed into a domain-inverter structure. Then, a method of manufacturing a device of the type described above will now be described with reference to FIGS. 22a to 22c. Referring to FIG. 22a, a Ti pattern 101 is formed on an LiNbO.sub.3 substrate 100 composed of non-linear optical crystal at widthwise intervals of several milimeters by lifting-off and evaporation. Then, heat treatment at about 1100.degree. C. is performed in a state shown in FIG. 22b so that a domain-inverted structure 102, the direction of the domain of the LiNbO.sub.3 substrate 100 of which is inverted, is formed. Then, heat treatment is performed in benzoic acid (200.degree. C.) for 20 minutes in a state shown in FIG. 22c, and then annealing is performed at 350.degree. C. so that an optical waveguide 103 is formed. As a result, the optical wavelength conversion device manufactured by using the above-described benzoic acid treatment can produce higher harmonic waves P2, the power of which was 940 nW, with respect to fundamental wave P1, the wavelength of which was 0.82 mm, under conditions that the length of the optical waveguide was 1 mm and the power of the fundamental wave P1 was made to be 14.7 mW. At this time, a conversion efficiency of 0.43 %/W was obtained. When 1 W of fundamental waves are made incident, higher harmonic waves of 370 mW can be delivered in a case where the length of the device is 10 mm. In this case, a device, the length of which is 10 mm, exhibits a conversion efficiency of 37%/W.multidot.cm.sup.2 per W.
There has been disclosed a report in Appl. Phys. Lett. by Biyoshi Nakamura, 1990, Vol. 56, p.p 1535 in which a fact was reported that a domain-inverted structure could be formed in an LiTaO.sub.3 member. Referring to FIGS. 23a to 23b, reference numeral 104 represents an LiTaO.sub.3 substrate, 105 represents a proton-exchange layer and 105 represents a domain-inverted structure. As shown in FIG. 23a, a domain-inverted structure is manufactured in such a manner that the LiTaO.sub.3 substrate 104 is subject to heat treatment at 590.degree. C. in benzoic acid so that the proton-exchange layer 105 is formed. Then, the LiTaO.sub.3 substrate 104 is, as shown in FIG. 23c, subjected to heat treatment at 570.degree. C. to 590.degree. C. in the vicinity of the Curie point. As a result, the domain-inverted structure 106 is formed on the -C surface of the LiTaO.sub.3 substrate 104. However, there has not been an idea of using the above-described structure for the wavelength conversion device.
The LiNbO.sub.3 crystals involve problems of an optical damage. Also variation in the refractive index of the waveguide due to a rise in the power density of light cannot be prevented, causing the phasematch condition to vary. Therefore, there is raised a problem in that a waveguide conversion device capable of stably operating and exhibiting excellent conversion efficiency can hardly be manufactured. Accordingly, studies have been made for the purpose of manufacturing the wavelength conversion device by forming a domain-inverted structure in LiTaO.sub.3 crystal which are able to resist against the optical damage. Furthermore, the LiTaO.sub.3 crystal exhibits excellent optical characteristics and the mixture of impurities can be satisfactorily prevented at the time of forming the crystal. Therefore, since the crystallization characteristics LiTaO.sub.3 is superior to LiNbO.sub.3, excellent optical damage resistance and DC drift resistance can be obtained and thereby it can be utilized as an advantageous optical material for an optical IC device. However, there arises a problem in that, although a slab-shaped inverted structure can be formed by the above-described method, a desired periodical domain-inverted structure cannot be formed in the LiTaO.sub.3 crystal.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A variable output strobe unit includes a variable current limiting circuit to limit peak current draw after each flash. Parameters of strobe output and current limiting circuit are related and can be set manually or electronically.

Strobe units are often used as visual alarm indicating output devices in fire alarm systems. As is known, such units emit a high intensity light periodically, for example once a second, to provide an ongoing indication that an alarm condition has been detected somewhere in the region being monitored. One such unit has been disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/040,968 filed Jan. 2, 2002 for Processor Based Strobe with Feedback assigned to the Assignee hereof and incorporated by reference herein.
Known units include an energy storage device, for example one or more capacitors, coupled to a gas discharge tube. When the tube is triggered with an appropriate control signal it emits high intensity light while discharging the storage device.
Known strobe units exhibit maximum peak current values subsequent to discharge of the storage element when the tube is triggered. The peak or surge current is primarily due to the fact that electrolytic capacitors in the device need to be recharged for the next flash.
FIG. 1 illustrates a representative timing diagram of peak capacitor recharge current values IREP. These peak current values are of a type exhibited by known strobe units each time the gas filled tube is triggered. At startup, a substantially larger initial current surge I0, which might be as large as 10 amps is exhibited by known units. In contrast, the peak repeating current values IREP fall in a range of 5 to 7 amps. In contradistinction, the steady state IRMS current typically falls in range of 50 milliamps to 800 milliamps.
It is also known that the magnitudes of the peak initial current surge I0 as well as the repetitive peak current values IREP vary continuously, from one second to the next, in response to discharge characteristics of the capacitors, the form of electrical energy being supplied to the unit as well as the phase thereof.
In view of the fact that the initial peak current draw I0 as well as the repetitive peak current draw IREP are exhibited by each of the strobe devices in the system it would be desirable to be able to limit not only the initial peak current surge but also the repetitive ongoing current surges as the unit flashes. Preferably, limiting the amplitudes of the peak current surges can be done without affecting the ability of the units to recharge adequately during the available one-second period to provide the next flash of light. Additionally, it would be desirable if peak current limiting could be achieved without substantial increase in heat generated by the respective strobe units or without substantially increasing the size, cost or manufacturing complexity of such units.


A system and method of point matching measured positions to template, or reference, positions for various applications may generally comprise creating force field vectors and moments operative to perturb measured point locations into alignment with template point locations. Progressive reduction of the force radius may produce results that match very well for points that are highly correlated with the template pattern.

Matching sets of points between a measured set and a template set is a common problem in astronomy, biomedical imaging, animation, precision instrument testing and calibration, and other technologies. One such technology is probe card analysis, in which planarity and alignment of a plurality of probes arranged in an array may be tested or calibrated through comparison with a known location of one or more fiducial marks, for example, disposed on or integrated into the structure of a fiducial plate. In particular, some probe card analysis systems employ optical or image data acquired by a camera or other imaging apparatus; in some cases, the imaging apparatus may be disposed on the opposite side of a substantially transparent fiducial plate from the probe array associated with the probe card. These acquired data are representative of both probe tips and fiducial marks, and data processing may be employed which seek to identify position and orientation of probe tips relative to each other through comparison with the known position and orientation of one or more fiducial marks. Alternatively, the position and orientation of imaged probe tips may be compared to ideal position and orientation data maintained in the template or reference data set.
In the case of a probe card analysis system, image data representing the probe tips may generally be considered "measured" data or points; in some applications, the "template" data may represent ideal or reference points (derived, for example, from the design specifications of the probe card or an industry standard) independent of imaged fiducial marks. Similarly, many of the foregoing technologies, among others, employ comparative metrology relying upon measured data sets and template, or reference, data sets; in many instances, point matching techniques are employed in an attempt to match data representing non-ideal measured points (which include errors, missing points, and erroneous points) to data representing known ideal, template, or reference points. In practice, one example of an application in which point matching techniques may have utility is in comparing an image acquired by a telescope to known locations of celestial objects as recorded on a star chart. While some data processing components attempt point matching operations to fit the measured points to a known reference frame, currently implemented systems and methods are deficient in that traditional methodologies do not accommodate fast, robust, rigid point matching of measured positions to template positions in an integrated and elegant solution.

System and method of point matching measured positions to template positions


In a communication system, a method for providing a location service with geographical location information associated with a user equipment capable of communicating with the communication system is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: storing connection information identifying a connection of the user equipment in the communication system; and determining whether the user equipment is currently connected in the network. Wherein, responsive to the user equipment not currently being connected in the network, the location of the user equipment is determined in dependence on the last stored connection information for the user equipment. The method also includes the step of translating the connection information into geographical coordinates.

A cellular telecommunications system is based around cells or similar radio coverage areas. Examples of cellular telecommunications systems are well-known. In general, a cell coverage area or radio transceiver station coverage area of a telecommunications system can be defined as a certain geographically limited area covered by one or several base transceiver stations (BTS) serving mobile stations (MS) via an air or radio interface and usually connected to a base station subsystem (BSS). Each of the coverage areas of the system can be controlled by an appropriate controller apparatus. The controller is connected further to a gateway or linking apparatus, such as a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) or gateway mobile switching center (GMSC), linking the cell to the other parts of the communication system. Several cells connected to each other cover a larger geographical area, and thus several cells form together the coverage area of a cellular telecommunications network.
Cellular telecommunications systems comprise a registration functionality in order to be able to control the movements and operation of the mobile stations subscribing to the cellular telecommunications network. Each station subscribing to a cellular telecommunications network is permanently registered in the network system which stores subscriber related data. This data may be the current location of the mobile station so that continuous track of the location can be kept for the purposes of call routing. In the GSM terminology, the permanent location registers are often referred to as home location registers (HLR). Each network may comprise one or several permanent or home location registers. The register can be a stand-alone network element or the register can be built into a network controller or into any other network element.
The permanent location register can also be implemented in a location server node. For instance, GSM based systems may include a gateway mobile location center (GMLC) which is used as both a permanent location register and a location service. This type of arrangement is particularly advantageous for subscribers who do not roam outside their home network, but may also be used for other types of subscribers.
In addition to the permanent registers, the cellular telecommunications networks comprise temporary or visitor location (VLR) registers. These temporary registers handle only temporary i.e. visiting subscribers, i.e. the mobile stations within the service area of the associated network controller at a given point of time. The temporary location register keeps track of the given service area within which the mobile station may be located and is constantly informed of whether the mobile station is ON or OFF. Each network controller may have its own visitor location register or the network controllers may share a stand-alone visitor location register or a visitor location register disposed within another network element.
The user equipment or mobile station communicates with an appropriate network controller and provides the controller with various kinds of information.
The use of cells or similar geographically restricted and known radio coverage areas and associated controllers facilitates the telecommunications system to produce at least a rough location estimate concerning the current location of an individual mobile station. More particularly, the telecommunications system is always aware (at least roughly) of the current location of such mobile stations which are communicating with at least one of the base stations of the system and are thus registered within at least one of the location registers of the system (i.e. are located within one limited radio coverage area of the system). This information is available even when the mobile station is located within a coverage area of a visited or "foreign" network, as the visited network is capable of transmitting the location of the mobile station back to the home location register, e.g. for the purposes of routing and charging. It is also possible to input location information provided by an external system for providing location information of a station into the telecommunications system, and to subsequently process and utilize this location information in the telecommunications system.
There have been proposed several techniques for providing the last known location of a mobile station, in particular with a time-stamp identifying when the location was calculated. This feature can be provided by a separate network element or server which receives the information from the various controllers of the system. More particularly, the determination of the location of the mobile user can be based on the location information received from databases of the visited controllers of the telecommunications system, e.g. from a visitor location register (VLR) in the GSM system. This type of arrangement would give the location to within of one base station or cell, i.e. it would indicate that the mobile station is (or at least was) within the coverage area of a certain base station or cell. The accuracy of the location determination can be improved by e.g. utilizing results of measurements which define the travel time (or travel time differences) of the radio signal sent by the mobile station to the base station.
A number of known techniques introduce disadvantages, particularly in increasing the signaling load in the communication system. In addition, regular and frequent updating of current location information requires additional memory resources in the communication system.
WO 01/28269 in particular discloses an improved technique providing location information of a user equipment. This technique applies a method wherein location information is not automatically provided to the location services.
Thus there is a compromise to be found between having the most up to date information for user equipment, with minimizing signaling and memory requirements in the system. As a result, location information for a particular user equipment may be out of date at a particular time it is requested.
A more particular problem arises when user equipment becomes disconnected from the network, for example because the user equipment has moved to a geographical are wherein there is no network coverage. In such a scenario, the last stored location information may be relatively old and unreliable.
It is an aim of the embodiments of the invention to address one or several of the above problems and also to provide a solution by means: of which the interaction of the location registers of a communication system may be made more efficient without causing excessive load to the system and/or by means of which a more efficient use of memory resources of the system can be achieved.

Providing location information of a user equipment


A child safety seat assembly comprises a child seat, a base adapted to assemble with the child seat, wherein the base includes a first portion having an enlarged bottom, and an inclined second portion joined with an upper side of the first portion and provided with a storage pocket, and an abuttal support operable to slide relative to the base between a first position stowed in the storage pocket and a second position deployed outward.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to child safety seats.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an automobile vehicle has seatbelts provided at the front and rear seats. The seatbelt generally includes shoulder and lap straps that may be fastened with an anchor point of the vehicle to restrain and protect the occupant in case of collision or sudden stop of the vehicle. However, the use of the vehicle seatbelt is not adapted for a young child who has a smaller body and may not be able to sustain the pressure applied by the seatbelt. As a result, safety legislations require the use of a child safety seat for seating a young child in a vehicle. The seatbelt of the vehicle can be used to secure the child safety seat, which is more adapted to provide protection for the young child.
The child safety seat usually includes a seat portion and a base connected underneath the seat portion. When it is installed in the vehicle, it is usually recommended to place the seat portion facing rearward for better protection against collision. However, when collision occurs (especially from the rear of the vehicle), this rearward facing placement may create a pivot point at the contact between the front of the seat portion and the seatback of the vehicle seat, which may cause the safety seat to unstably lift from the vehicle seat.
Therefore, there is a need for a child safety seat assembly that can be safer in use and address at least the foregoing issues.


This invention provides improved methods for the derivatization and solubilization of fullerenes, which are particularly useful for those fullerenes that are normally insoluble and which are specifically applied, among others, to endohedral fullerenes, including endohedral metallofullerenes; empty fullerenes, including small-bandgap fullerenes and other insoluble fullerenes and to very high molecular weight fullerenic materials generated in fullerenic soot, including giant fullerenes, fullerenic polymers, carbon nanotubes and metal-carbon nanoencapsulates. More specifically the invention relates to improved methods for cyclopropanation of fullerenes. Specific reaction conditions are provided which allow for cyclopropanation reactions to be successfully performed for the first time on insoluble classes of fullerenes. Also provided is a method for purification of one or more fullerenes from a fullerenic material containing the one or more fullerenes in addition to non-fullerenic carbonaceous material, particularly amorphous carbonaceous material, by derivatizing one or more fullerenes using the methods of the invention and separating soluble derivatizes fullerenes from insoluble materials.

This invention describes improved methods for derivatization and solubilization of fullerenes.
Since fullerenes were first macroscopically produced by the arc method in 1990 (Krätschmer, 1990), their exohedral derivatization chemistry has proceeded. The organic functionalization of fullerenes has been extensively reviewed (Hirsch, 1994(a); Wilson, 2000(a, b)) as well as their inorganic/organometallic functionalization chemistry (Balch, 1998). Because fullerenes possess no substituents, their exohedral derivatization chemistry begins exclusively with addition reactions to their carbon surface, most commonly by 1,2 bis-addition across the reactive carbon-carbon double bonds of the fullerene.
A fundamental characteristic of fullerenes is their electrophilic nature (Reed, 2000) and as a consequence most reported derivatization involves the addition of nucleophilic reagents. A particular kind of nucleophilic addition of widely recognized utility is cyclopropanation which was first reported by Bingel (Bingel, 1993). A general example of this so-called "Bingel" reaction is illustrated by the series of steps shown below in FIG. 1.
Many scientific papers and reports concern the Bingel-type cyclopropanation of the fullerene surface (Bingel, 1993; Bingel, 1995; Bingel, 1998 as well as PCT-WO96/09275A1, EP00695287B1, and EP00782560A1; Brettreich, 1998; Camps; 1997; Hirsch, 1994(a); Hirsch, 1994(b); Lamparth, 1994; Lamparth, 1997; Nierengarten, 1997; Richardson, 2000; Wei, 2001; Wharton, 2001; Wilson 2000(b)). A primary reference for general organic reactions between stabilized nucleophiles and electron-deficient alkenes (non-fullerenes) is that of Jung (1991).
The earliest examples of Bingel-type cyclopropanation of the fullerene surface involved base-induced deprotonation of an α-halo ketone, forming a relatively stabilized nucleophilic carbanion that attacks the electron deficient fullerene. Bingel's initial study employed NaH as the base, which forms gaseous hydrogen by combination of the metal hydride and the removed proton (Step 1). The incipient Na+ salt of the carbanion may be very strongly ion paired in the nonpolar solvents typically used (toluene, etc.). The carbanion may be partially stabilized by adjacent electron withdrawing substituents (the α-halogen, carbonyls, phenyls, etc. that are electronegative and/or inductively withdraw electron density) that simultaneously may or may not additionally enhance stability via electron delocalization (resonance).
The nucleophilic carbanion immediately attacks the fullerene, forming a new bond (Step 2). The cyclopropanation is complete following the spontaneous elimination of the halide anion (or other current leaving group) (Step 3). The net reaction thus occurs via an addition/elimination mechanism. While the mechanism illustrated in FIG. 1 is believed to be the most likely mechanism for the reaction, less-likely alternatives exist including a concerted reaction and an electron transfer route. By using excess quantities of reagents, multiple groups can be added to the fullerene surface. The different products with different numbers of groups added and with different isomeric arrangements on the fullerene surface can then be purified and separated from one another by chromatography. The fullerenes derivatized by cyclopropanation can also be referred to as methanofullerenes. When the Bingel reaction is performed on fullerenes that are already derivatized, for example C60F18, the α-halo substituent of the nucleophile may not function as the leaving group. Instead, a group previously on the fullerene departs leaving the nucleophile group attached to the fullerene via the α-sp3 carbon without cyclopropanation (Wei, 2001).
Conditions alternative to those used by Bingel in his first report have been developed. One of the most popular changes has been the replacement of the insoluble base NaH with soluble amines, most notably DBU (1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene) (Camps, 1997). While this base is strongly hindered, it has been reported to readily form covalent bonds with the surface of C60 (Skiebe, 1994; Klos, 1994).
Another modification to the standard Bingel conditions reported is the incipient production of the reactive α-halo compounds by in situ treatment of mono- and bis-malonates with halogen-releasing agents such as CBr4, I2, etc. (Camps, 1997; Nierengarten, 1997). This allows for the use of more elaborately substituted malonates for which the α-halo precursor is difficult to individually prepare and/or isolate as a reagent. Bingel-style addition of malonates has been used to link fullerenes to a variety of substituents of interest, for example, porphyrins.
Addition of multiple groups to fullerene surfaces is usually performed stepwise using excess reagents. Derivatives with specific numbers of addends can be separated from derivatives with lesser or greater numbers of addends by chromatographic or other standard techniques. Separation of the different regioisomers formed can also be performed chromatograpically, but such separations can be expensive and laborious.
For a Bingel-style multi-derivatization, a tether-directed addition strategy offers control over regiospecificity of addition (location pattern of the cyclopropanations) and the number of addend groups in a pre-determined way while increasing yields over traditional derivatization strategies, as reviewed by Diederich et. al. (Diederich, F.; Kessinger, R. (1999). "Templated Regioselective and Stereoselective Synthesis in Fullerene Chemistry," Acc. Chem. Res., 32, 537-545). The tether strategy uses multi-functional reaction substrates cojoined in one molecule by covalent moieties of variable length separating these functionalities, which are themselves variable in number.
Tether-directed formation of C60 trisadducts has been reported previously by Rapenne et. al. (Rapenne, G.; Crassous, J.; Collet, A.; Echegoyen, L.; Diederich, F. (1999). "Regioselective one-step synthesis of trans-3, trans-3, trans-3 and e, e, e [60]fullerene tris-adducts by a C3-symmetrical cyclotriveratrylene tether," J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. 1121-1122). Reuther et al. describe the use of cyclo-[n]-octylmalonates as an improved tether strategy (Reuther, U.; Brandmüller, T.; Donaubauer, W.; Hampel, F.; Hirsch, A. (2002). "A Highly Regioselective Approach to Multiple Adducts of C60 Governed by Strain Minimization of Macrocyclic Malonate Addends," Chem. Eur. J., 8, 2261-2273). Reuther et. al. used this Bingel-reaction based tether addition process to form the C3 isomer (or e, e, e isomer) of the trisadduct C60[C(COOH)2]3 in high yield with high specificity. Bingel-style addition of malonates has also been used to control the regiochemistry of addition by Wilson (Wilson, 2000(b)).
Following the Bingel cyclopropanation, the ester groups of malonate addition products can be cleaved and converted to other functionalities, i.e. effecting side-chain modification (Lamparth, 1997). For example, the ester groups of the Bingel addition product of diethylbromomalonate (FIG. 1) can be converted to their respective carboxylic acids (or carboxylate salts of alkali metals, etc.) using the method of Hirsch (Lamparth, 1994). The carboxylic acid and carboxylate salts (of multiple adducts) of the fullerenes are water-soluble, a property critical to the development of the fullerenes' emerging medical applications. For example, multiply carboxylated C60 has shown high potential as an antioxidant for treating neurodegenerative disorders in vivo (Dugan, 2000). Other potential pharmaceutical applications for water-solubilized fullerenes include HIV-protease inhibitors (Wilson, 2000(a)), nuclear medicine agents (Cagle, 1999), and in vivo enhancers for medical imaging techniques including, e.g., MRI, X-ray, and nuclear imaging (Zhang, 1997; Wilson, 1999; Mikawa, 2001).
Typically, the Bingel-style cyclopropanation reactions of non-derivatized fullerenes have been conducted in non-polar solvents such as aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, etc.) that are also good solvents for common fullerenes (Ruoff, 1993). The fullerenes derivatized in this manner have invariably belonged to the class of fullerenes possessing larger HOMO-LUMO gaps such as the most abundant fullerene, C60, and the larger "higher" C2n fullerenes, e.g. C70, C76, C78, C82, C84, etc. A notable property of these large HOMO-LUMO gap-possessing fullerenes is solubility in common non-polar organic solvents. Consequently, addition reactions like the Bingel method outlined above are performed on solutions of these fullerenes. This excludes important classes of fullerene materials that are not soluble in these common organic solvents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,376, issued to Bingel, reports formation of cyclopropanated derivatives of fullerenes in polar solvents including methylene chloride and chlorobenzene. The fullerenes discussed in Bingel's patent (C60, C70, C76, C78) are expected to be soluble in these polar aprotic solvents prior to derivatization. PCT published application WO 96/09275 of Bingel also reports the generation of fullerene derivatives by certain cyclopropanation reactions.
Chemical and electrochemical retro-Bingel reactions have been demonstrated by Echegoyen et al. (Moonen, 2000; Beulen, 2000). Addition of excess electrons (via exhaustive reduction) to methanofullerene derivatives regenerates underivatized fullerenes. Addition of less than an excess amount of electrons induces only a substituent migration or a "walk-on-the-sphere" isomerization of the methanofullerene groups (Kessinger, 1998).
There are a number of additional reports of methods for derivatization of fullerenes. Gugel, U.S. Pat. No. 5,763,719, reports methods for making thermally stable fullerenes. Murphy et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,926 and PCT published application WO9636631, report methods for making multiply-substituted fullerenes. Cahill and Henderson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,172, report methods of functionalizing fullerenes employing organoborane intermediates. Mattay et. al., PCT published application WO 9626186, reports methods for the generation of azafullerenes. Hinokuma et. al., EP 1 071149, reports the introduction of one or more proton releasable groups such as OH and SO3H into fullerenes. Kampe et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,476 and PCT published application WO 9405671, report fullerene derivatives prepared by reaction with diamines. Chiang, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,648,523; 5,994,410; 6,020,523 and 6,046,361, reports the preparation of fullerene derivatives including polyorganofullerenes and water-soluble fullerene derivatives. Friedman et. al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,811,460 and 6,204,391, report water-soluble fullerene derivatives. Schriver et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,643, reports fuel oil-substituted fullerenes.
Endohedral fullerenes are those fullerenes encapsulating an atom or atoms in their hollow interior spaces. They are written with the general formula Mm@C2n, where M is an element, m is the integer 1, 2, 3 or higher, and n is an integer number. The "@" symbol refers to the endohedral or interior nature of the M atom inside of the fullerene cage. Aspects of endohedral metallofullerenes have been reviewed (Bethune, 1993; Nagase, 1996; Nagase, 2000; Shinohara, 2000; Liu, 2000).
Endohedral fullerenes corresponding to most of the empty fullerene cages have been produced and detected under varied conditions. Because the endohedral element is completely encased by the spherical fullerene shell, it is not released to the exterior except under cage-destructive conditions (heat, long-duration exposure to strong acids, etc.). Endohedrals containing lanthanide, transition, alkali, and alkaline earth metals have by far received the most attention to date, although studies on non-metallo endohedrals such as He@C60, N@C60, P@C60, etc. are developing. The major production technique for producing endohedral metallofullerenes is the Krätschmer-Huffman style resistive heating of graphite rods that are impregnated with metals or metal salts. Typically, metallofullerenes comprise only several percent of the total fullerene yield in the carbon arc production method.
Of the Mm@C2n metallo-endohedrals, those having the particular formulation M@C82 (with M=a lanthanide element) have been the subjects of most investigations to date. This is largely due to the solubility of the M@C82 closed-shell species in common solvents. Because of their solubility, they can be separated from the empty fullerenes and other endohedral metallofullerenes, including their different cage isomers, by chromatographic methods. Their solubility also allows for standard derivatizations to be performed on the metallo-endohedral fullerenes, by analogy to the derivation of empty large HOMO-LUMO gap fullerenes.
The study of other M@C2n, and multiple-metal containing Mm@C2n materials is proceeding at more slowly because many of these fullerenes are intrinsically insoluble in the common, non-reactive hydrocarbon and arene solvents normally used for C60, etc. Without wishing to be bound by any particular theory, the most likely explanation for their insolubility is the spontaneous formation of intramolecular polymers.
The "polymerization" which occurs for certain metallofullerenes, most notably the M@C60 species, derives from their electronic structures. The electronic structure of a metallofullerene of course encompasses the interior metal and any electrons it donates to the fullerene cage molecular orbital. Essentially, these fullerenes have small HOMO-LUMO or band gaps such that the molecules are open-shell or very close in energy to being open shell. Functionally equivalent descriptions to this situation include the descriptions that metallofullerenes possess "radical sites", "dangling bonds", or "unfulfilled vacancies". Most endohedral metallofullerenes have been found to contain metals which donate three electrons (per metal) forming endohedral M3+ ions inside of a fullerene cage now having three "extra" electrons relative to a cage without a metal inside. Such an endohedral metallofullerene molecule is a zwitterion, with a cationic metal "core" and anionic fullerene (fulleride) cage.
Because the number of electrons transferred to the fullerene cage (three) is an odd number, there has to be an unpaired electron, i.e. the molecule is a radical. As many radicals do, they dimerize or oligomerize spontaneously "quenching" their free radical status. To free them from their intramolecularly cross-linked matrix, their electronic structures must be altered. To eliminate radical behavior, redox chemistry (addition or removal of molecular electron(s)) can be performed, or they can be derivatized exohedrally by substituent groups. It should be pointed out that the matrix of "polymerized" insoluble endohedral fullerenes likely contains some small percentage of soluble C2n species interstitially trapped and/or bonded to other endohedral fullerenes, as a consequence of heterogeneous nature of fullerene generation in the arc process.
Despite the relatively low availability of samples of endohedral fullerenes, their derivatization chemistry is also proceeding (Kato, 1997). Examples include the derivatization of the soluble endohedral metallofullerenes M@C82 (M=La, Gd), La2@C80, and Sc2@C84 with disiliranes and digermanes (Akasaka, 1995(a); Akasaka, 1995(b); Akasaka, 1995(c); Yamamoto, 1999). Suzuki and co-workers reported the reaction of La@C82 with substituted carbenes derived from diazomethanes to produce cyclopropanated derivatives (Suzuki, 1995; Yamamoto, 1998). Various groups have reported the polyhydroxylation of endohedral metallofullerenes including Ho@C82 (Cagle, 1999), Ho2@C82 (Cagle, 1999), Pr@C82 (Sun, 1999), and Gd@C82 (Wilson, 1999; Mikawa, 2001).
Patents involving the exohedral derivatization of endohedral metallofullerenes include U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,076 (Yamamoto, 1998) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,869,626 (Yamamoto, 1999). The first involves cyclopropanations conducted in a completely different manner than Bingel-style reactions and adding four or fewer groups to the fullerene surface, while the second is an unrelated type of derivatization.
Bingel-style cyclopropanations have not been reported on endohedral metallofullerenes. Bingel-style cyclopropanations have been reported on minute amounts of "inert" endohedral fullerenes present in trace levels (10−4 M or 100 ppm) in C60 matrices, including N@C60 (Dietel, 1999), 3He@C60 (Cross, 1996) (and 3H@C60 (Khong, 2000)). These materials were produced for EPR and 3He-NMR detection purposes. Both techniques are very sensitive to trace amounts of spectroscopically active material present in a matrix of dominantly unactive material. Neither has radical character expressed by the fullerene cage, explaining their apparent solubility and lack of difference in reactivity for Bigel-style cyclopropanation from that of C60.
Reaction of M@C60 (and M@C70, etc.) with nucleophilic solvents to extract soluble surface-modified (normally insoluble) M@C2n species has been demonstrated with the nitrogen-bases aniline and pyridine. Examples of solvents used and endohedral fullerenes extracted include: aniline for M@C60 (M=Y, Ba, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Gd; Kubozono, 1996(b)), aniline for Eu@C60 (Inoue, 2000), aniline for Er@C60 (Ogawa, 2000), aniline for Ca@C60 and Sr@C60 (Kubozono, 1996(a)), pyridine for Ca@C60 (Kubozono, 1995), and pyridine for mixed M@C2n (M=La, Ce; Liu 1998). These highly nucleophilic solvents, with strongly coordinating amine nitrogen groups, may irreversibly produce soluble, poly-solvent coordinated species. The chemical nature of the surface attachment has not been analytically determined; a covalent linkage is most likely. The formation of adducts may proceed via charge-transfer, donor-acceptor complexes, and/or reduced fullerene species prior to covalent bond formation (Skiebe, 1994; Klos, 1994). In general, the solvent molecules in these cases cannot be removed from bonding to the fullerene cages, for example by applying reduced pressure and/or non-destructive heat.
Gügel, Müllen and co-workers reported the extraction of giant fullerenes from arc-produced fullerene soot by an irreversible Diels-Alder cycloaddition strategy using ortho-quinodimethanes (Beer et. al.,1997). These highly reactive intermediates, obtained by thermal extrusion of sulfur dioxide from the requisite organic thiophenes, add irreversibly across fullerene carbon-carbon double bonds. Other reports on giant fullerene and SBF solubilizations include the following. There are several reports of solvent extraction of "giant" fullerenes C2n (n≧50) with high-boiling arene solvents (Parker, 1991; Diederich, 1991). Yeretzian et. al. conducted a study of gradient sublimation on empty and endohedral metallofullerenes, showing that the technique could be used to generate a partial enrichment of the larger (empty) C2n (n≧47) fullerenes without solvents (Yeretzian, 1993). The SBF C74 specifically was solubilized by electrochemical one-electron reduction, which was used to separate it from the more numerous large-bandgap fullerenes (Diener, 1998).
The medicinal applications of fullerene compounds have been reviewed by several authors (Wilson, 1999; Wilson, 2000(a)). Watson et. al. mention use of endohedral fullerenes in applications like medical imaging in their U.S. patent (Watson, 1997), but provide few details on how the application would be achieved. Gd chelates as MRI contrast agents have been thoroughly reviewed by Caravan and others (Caravan, 1999). Zhang (1997), Wilson (1999), and Mikawa (2001) reported aqueous relaxivity measurements on Gd@C82(OH)x, showing higher R1 values than obtained with conventional inorganic chelates. Neutron activation of 165Hom@C2n to 166Hom@C2n with a biodistribution study was reported (Cagle, 1996; Cagle, 1999). Dugan and co-workers have reported medicinal antioxidant and other properties of "Bingelated" C60 (Dugan, 2000).
There remains a need in the art for improved methods of derivatization and/or solubilization of fullerenes, especially of non-derivatized and derivatized fullerenic species that are insoluble or substantially insoluble in polar aprotic solvents.

Derivatization and solubilization of insoluble classes of fullerenes


The connecting device includes rotor and blade mounting segments each secured on a rotor and a fan blade at a respective connecting end thereof. A socket end of the rotor mounting segment extends in a radial direction relative to the rotor, and has an insert wall with an insert opening, an insert slot confined by upper and lower inner walls and extending in the radial direction from the insert opening, and an upper outer wall opposite to the upper inner wall. The upper outer wall has a recess communicated with the insert slot to form a retaining wall. A plug end of the blade mounting segment has a bottom wall to be fitted into the insert slot from the insert opening. A resilient retainer has a proximate end secured on the bottom wall, and a distal end with an engaging spring protrusion to provide a biasing force away from the bottom wall. The distal end can be brought to insert into the insert slot and to be kept in sliding contact with the upper inner wall against the biasing force until the engaging spring protrusion abuts against and is retained at the retaining wall of the socket end.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connecting device, more particularly to a connecting device for connecting a fan blade to a rotor of a motor of a ceiling fan.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional ceiling fan is shown to include an outer casing 11 for housing a motor 10, a plurality of fan blades 30 (only one is shown), and a plurality of mounting arms 20 for connecting the fan blades 30 on a bottom of the motor 10, respectively. Each mounting arm 20 has two ends which are respectively secured on the corresponding fan blade 30 and the bottom of the motor 10 by screw fasteners 31,21. However, it is inconvenient to assemble the mounting arms 20 due to the use of the screw fasteners 31,21. Moreover, insufficient tightening of the screw fasteners 31,21 can result in vibration of the mounting arms 20 and in eventual removal of the fan blades 30 from the motor 10 when the ceiling fan operates.

Connecting device for connecting a fan blade to a rotor of a motor if a ceiling fan


A feature extraction apparatus includes a spectrum calculating unit that calculates, based on an input speech signal, a frequency spectrum having frequency components obtained at regular intervals on a logarithmic frequency scale for each of frames that are defined by regular time intervals, and thereby generates a time series of the frequency spectrum; a cross-correlation coefficients calculating unit that calculates, for each target frame of the frames, a cross-correlation coefficients between frequency spectra calculated for two different frames that are in vicinity of the target frame and a predetermined frame width apart from each other; and a shift amount predicting unit that predicts a shift amount of the frequency spectra on the logarithmic frequency scale with respect to the predetermined frame width by use of the cross-correlation coefficients.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, method and computer program product for feature extraction that calculate a difference between pitch frequencies from an input speech signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A differential pitch frequency per unit time is one element of speech prosody information. From the differential pitch frequency information, one can obtain information on accents, intonation, and if the speech is voiced or unvoiced sounds. The differential pitch frequency information is therefore adopted in speech recognition devices, voice activity detectors, pitch frequency estimation devices, speaker recognition devices, and the like. A method of obtaining the differential pitch frequency information is described, for example, in Sadaoki Furui, "Dijitaru Onsei Shori (Digital Speech Processing)", Tokai University Press, pp. 57-59 (1985). According to the method in this document, pitch frequencies are first estimated, and then the amount of change in pitch frequencies with time is calculated to obtain the differential pitch frequency information.
With the method according to the above document, however, erroneous pitch frequencies could be estimated, and thus the differential pitch frequency information obtained from these pitch frequencies could be erroneous. Recently, methods of obtaining the differential pitch frequency information less influenced by errors in the pitch frequency estimation have been suggested. One of such methods is described in JP-A 2940835 (KOKAI). According to this document, a cross-correlation function between autocorrelation functions for predictive residuals of a speech at times (frames) t and s is calculated. Then, a peak of this cross-correlation function is extracted so that differential pitch frequency information, in which influence of errors in the pitch frequency estimation is reduced while multiple pitch frequency choices are taken into consideration, can be obtained.
With the method according to JP-A 2940835 (KOKAI), however, the pitch frequency estimation is based on the predictive residuals of the speech. This means that, when extracting the peak value of the cross-correlation function, a peak value that is not the one that corresponds to the differential pitch frequency may be estimated under the influence of the background noise, which makes it difficult to obtain accurate differential pitch frequency information. Furthermore, in the autocorrelation function of the predictive residuals, multiple peaks appear at integral multiples of the pitch period. If peaks at integral multiples are incorporated, the amount of differentials is also multiplied by this integer. For this reason, to obtain accurate differential pitch frequency information, the range of the autocorrelation function of the predictive residuals that is used to obtain the cross-correlation function needs to be narrowed down to the vicinity of the accurate pitch frequency. Then, the pitch frequency has to be calculated in advance, and the range of the pitch frequency has to be suitably determined in accordance with the voice pitch of the speaker. It is technically difficult, however, to suitably determine the range of the pitch frequency. For this reason, a technology of obtaining differential pitch frequency information in which the influence of the background noise is reduced, without narrowing down the range of the pitch frequency, has been sought.

Apparatus, method and computer program product for feature extraction


An oven door has an outer door panel, an inner door panel, and a viewing panel being disposed intermediate the outer and inner door panels. The oven door is provided with an air deflection assembly disposed intermediate the outer door panel and the viewing panel. The air deflection assembly deflects a first portion of an entry air stream of air from outside the oven into a first branch path extending vertically along a left hand side and deflects a second portion of the entry air stream into a second branch path extending vertically along a right hand side.

The invention disclosed herein relates generally to an oven, and more particularly to an oven door assembly that selectively closes and permits access to an access opening of an oven cavity of the oven and which includes an air deflection assembly.
Cooking appliances have been available, for example, in configurations known as built-in wall ovens and one type of built in oven that is commercially available is a double oven which features two independently operable convection or non-convection ovens. Such double ovens can be installed in a kitchen of a home residence, another room of a home residence, or in other settings in a manner such that one of the pair of ovens is located above the other of the pair of ovens. Moreover, one commercially available configuration of a double oven comprises as well as single control panel element, typically located above the uppermost one of the pair of ovens, which can control the operations of both ovens.
Built-in wall ovens can offer advantages such as convenient single-location access for items to be cooked, such as foodstuffs and the like. Additionally, if both ovens are operated in overlapping manner—i.e., foodstuffs are heated in both the upper and lower ovens during overlapping time periods—then the heat produced by both ovens mutually reinforces the heat retention insulative effect that operates to promote good heat retention by the ovens and, thus, less energy consumption by the ovens in producing their heat. While built-in wall ovens can offer advantages such as noted above, there are several factors to consider concerning the installation of built-in units. U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,557 notes that, in the kitchen area, appliances are installed either as upright units or, more widely, as built-in units. U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,557 further notes that appliances which are built in require extensive modifications to the wooden carcass and facings with front panels which match the other kitchen units. U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,557 further describes other perhaps detrimental aspects of such built-in units, including the fact that wood is sensitive to dampness and the effects of heat and the requirement to provide each appliance with its own power supply, often requiring installation to be carried out by a specialist electrician. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,557 notes that the electrical appliances of such built-in units are generally not stackable for static reasons.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,353 discloses a free-standing warming appliance 10 that can optionally be provided with a pair of oven support members 210 to directly support a built-in oven 14 and, in this respect, the free-standing warming appliance 10 and built-in oven 14 supported thereon may present one solution for installing a built-in unit. Each of the oven support members 210 is inverted-U-shaped in cross section and has inner walls that form a plurality of spaced-apart engagement arms 218 with mounting tabs 220 provided at their lower ends. The tabs 220 are sized to be inserted into a plurality of spaced-apart and collinear slots 222 formed in the top panel 76 of a warming drawer.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,353, each of its support members 210 is attached to the warmer drawer chassis 20 by inserting the tabs 220 into the slots 222 in the outer enclosure top panel 76 so that the arms 218 engage the top panel 76. Screws are then inserted to attach the outer wall 216 to the outer enclosure lateral walls 70, 72. It is readily apparent from the above description that the support members 210 can be installed and removed with access to only the lateral sides of the warming appliance 10.
With each of the support members 210 attached to the warming appliance 10, the top walls 210 of the support members 210 are generally parallel and spaced-apart to form a generally horizontal support plane 223 for the built-in oven 14. As shown in FIG. 14 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,353, the oven 14 rests directly on the support member top walls 212 within a cabinet in a kitchen. Therefore, the free-standing warming appliance 10 directly supports the built-in oven 14.
Additionally, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 15 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,353, the free-standing warming appliance 10 can optionally be provided with a pair of cabinet support brackets 224, each having a generally planar main wall 226 and a tab 228 extending generally perpendicularly therefrom. The tabs 228 provide forward facing engagement surfaces that engage the rear surface of a cabinet front panel of a kitchen to prevent the chassis 20 of the warming appliance 10 from being pulled out of the cabinet 12 when the warmer drawer 22 is pulled out of the chassis 20.
A common design consideration that must be taken into account for all built in double oven installation scenarios is that an appropriate flow of cooling air and an appropriate removal of heated exhaust air must be provided for a number of reasons. For example, such cooling air flows and heated exhaust air removal must be arranged such that the selected cooking temperatures in the ovens are maintained. In connection with maintaining the selected oven cooking temperatures, it is typically provided that a predetermined quantity of heated exhaust air is removed from an oven. This removed heated exhaust air often comprises entrained cooking residues such as food particulates, steam vapor, grease matter, and other substances and the heated exhaust air must then be guided away from the ovens such that these substances do not contact and accumulate upon, for example, electrical wiring, is located next to the ovens. Additionally, it is frequently desired to introduce cooling air—in the form of air at the ambient temperature of the kitchen or other room in which the double ovens are located—to thereby achieve cooling of selected components of the double oven. For example, one design constraint is that oven door outer surfaces including oven door handles must not exceed a specified temperature. Thus, there is a need to provide, with respect to ovens, an arrangement for promoting desired cooling of selected components of the oven.

Oven with oven door having an air deflection assembly


A display device may include a first support member and a second support member arranged in a first direction, a plurality of joint units provided between the first and second support members, a hinge member providing two rotating axes, which are connected to bottom surfaces of the joint units and bottom surfaces of the first and second support members and extend in the second direction, to be adjacent to facing sides of the first and second support members, a protection film provided on the first and second support members and the joint units, a flexible display panel provided on the protection film, and an adhesive member configured to attach the protection film to the display panel and to define a cavity in a region, which is located between the display panel and the protection film and is overlapped with the joint units.

The present disclosure relates to a display device, and in particular, to a foldable display device.
Electronic products, such as a smart phone, a digital camera, a notebook computer, a navigation system, and a smart television have an image display device for displaying an image to a user. The image display device is configured to generate an image and to provide the image to a user through a screen.
With the development of display technologies, various display devices are being developed recently. A typical example of such a display device is a flexible display device that can be curvedly deformed, folded, or rolled. Since a shape of the flexible display device is variously changed, the use of the flexible display device allows for improvement in portability and user convenience.


An presentation generator is disclosed for generating presentations for interacting with a user on a personal topic of, e.g., the user's selection, wherein the presentations assist the user in obtaining a greater awareness of his/her motivations and/or behaviors relating to the topic. In one embodiment, the presentation generator generates and presents to the user textual observations, questions, and/or statements for the user's consideration. Such presentations use and/or are consistent with textual descriptions obtained from: (a) the results of one or more personality/motivation test results, and (b) user inputs, e.g., regarding the selected topic together with his/her confidence in the validity of such inputs. The invention organizes the textual descriptions so that outputs to the user can be generated from various personality/motivational perspectives thereby assisting the user in viewing the topic of discussion from different perspectives and thereby becoming more aware of his/her biases, motivations, and/or concerns relating to the topic.

Every living thing that exists has energy that integrally supports the life process in all its aspects—the material operations of the physical body, the functions of the emotions and mind, and even the spiritual life. Every individual has a different energy pattern and growth potential that fluctuates through each day and throughout the individual's lifetime. To be able to take advantage of or to recognize the fluctuations in one's energy levels could greatly increase the individual's productivity and well-being, both at work and at home, and would enhance the individual's growth. The prior art discusses different ways of assessing an individual's energy and potential for growth; however, such assessments are not necessarily an exact science. Indeed, the intension of the prior art is to identify a method that quantifies the energy pattern and/or growth potential of an individual. The prior art recommends that an "energy healer" (denoted as "facilitator" herein) or one skilled in the art of addressing an individual's energy to diagnose or address an individual's energy functions and potential dysfunctions and to use the combination of the healer's and individual's own experiences to direct the individual's energy into the individual's 'functional' or 'preferred" energy field. Energy healing encompasses a large array of slightly different therapies including but not limited to: Psychology, Healing Touch, Reflexology, Biofield Therapeutics, Therapeutic Touch, Reiki, and Chi Gung Therapy. However, none of these therapies provide a quantitative approach in both assessing an individual's energy pattern and providing direction or focus to an individual's preferred energy pattern. Such a quantitative approach is needed and the present invention supplies a needed approach.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for personal awareness and growth


An electron beam exposure apparatus comprising: column 1 for irradiating an electron beam to wafer 10 serving as a sample; sample chamber 3 having vacuum pump 40 as a vacuum exhaustion unit for controlling the internal unit to a vacuum atmosphere; stage 4A arranged in the sample chamber 3 for holding and moving the wafer 10; and first mounting 5A for elastically supporting the column 1 with respect to the sample chamber 3.

In an apparatus that produces or inspects microscopic patterns such as circuit patterns of magnetic heads and semiconductor devices, circuit patterns of masks, reticles or the like for forming circuit patterns of semiconductor devices and so forth, a charged-particle beam is irradiated to these targets (sample) to produce or inspect the circuit patterns.
Hereinafter, described as an example is an electron beam rendering apparatus which renders a circuit pattern on a sample using an electron ray (electron beam). The electron beam rendering apparatus causes generation of an electron ray in an ultra-high vacuum environment to scan a semiconductor substrate with the electron ray, and forms an LSI pattern on a substrate such as a glass substrate to manufacture masks or reticles used in an exposure apparatus such as a stepper.
FIG. 6 is a view showing a construction of a conventional electron beam rendering apparatus. Referring to FIG. 6, an electron ray outputted from a column 1 (projection system) is irradiated to a sample 10 placed on a stage 4 of a sample chamber 3. The position of the sample 10 is controlled by measuring the position of a mirror 20 fixed to a stage 4 using a laser beam. Since a laser beam in the air is easily influenced by fluctuation of the air and variation of the air pressure, an interferometer 21 is provided in a vacuum. It is preferable to measure the position of the sample 10 with the column 1 as a reference. Therefore, the interferometer 21 is arranged on the lower surface of the upper partition 3A of the sample chamber 3 where the relative position of the sample 10 with respect to the column 1 is easily adjusted.
The sample chamber 3 is mounted on the base 8, which is supported by mounting 5 having a function of vibration isolation. A main table 7 holding the mounting 5 is placed on a base 6 which is placed on a floor 9. The column 1, which is arranged on the upper partition 3A of the sample chamber 3 with high rigidity, is exhausted to a vacuum by a column exhaustion vacuum pump 50, so that the internal atmosphere of the column 1 is maintained in a high vacuum (e.g., equal to or lower than 10−4 Pa). The sample chamber 3 is exhausted to a vacuum by a sample chamber vacuum pump 40 so that the internal atmosphere of the sample chamber 3 is maintained in a high vacuum (e.g., on the order of 10−4 Pa).
The conveyance path of the sample 10 is described. The sample 10 is conveyed from an outside, which is an air atmosphere, to a preliminary exhaustion chamber 30 adjacent to the sample chamber 3 by a conveyer 31 provided inside the preliminary exhaustion chamber 30. Then, the preliminary exhaustion chamber 30 is preliminarily exhausted from an air state to a vacuum state by a vacuum pump (not shown). When the preliminary exhaustion chamber 30 has about the same degree of vacuum as that of the sample chamber 3, a valve 32 is opened to convey the sample 10 to the stage 4. The sample 10 is then subjected to circuit pattern rendering or transferring (exposure), conveyed from the sample chamber 3 to the preliminary exhaustion chamber 30, and conveyed to the outside after the preliminary exhaustion chamber 30 returns from the vacuum state to the air atmosphere. The foregoing series of operation enables conveyance of the sample 10 while keeping the sample chamber 3 in a vacuum state, and helps improve the throughput.
The column exhaustion vacuum pump 50 is connected to the column 1 through a column exhaustion bellows 50A, and held by a table 51 supported by the base 8. In the foregoing conventional art, the mounting arrangement method can be found in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 05-074695, and the method of setting the sample chamber and the column can be found in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 08-320570.
In an electron beam exposure apparatus, in order to prevent an energy loss of an electron ray, the path of the electron ray must be maintained in a high vacuum as mentioned above. However, in the conventional apparatus structure, a large measurement error of the sample position is about to become a problem.
Recently samples (exposure target), particularly wafers, tend to have a large bore diameter to improve productivity, and the number of chip acquisition per wafer is increasing. For this reason, it has become necessary to increase the stroke of the stage 4 for moving the sample 10, and naturally the sample chamber 3 has been enlarged. Therefore, the rigidity of the sample chamber 3 becomes vulnerable to vibration disturbance from the floor 9 or the vacuum pump 40. Because of the above-described reason, the following error factors are reinforced in the conventional apparatus structure.
When the vibration disturbance from the floor 9 or the vacuum pump 40 causes elastic vibration in the sample chamber 3, the attitude of the column 1 mounted to the sample chamber 3 as well as the positions of the interferometer 21 and optical member 23 fluctuate, causing an error. FIG. 7 shows fluctuation of the position of the laser optical member 23 due to elastic vibration of the sample chamber 3. FIG. 8 shows elastic deformation of the upper partition 3A and a slant of the column 1 caused by elastic vibration of the sample chamber 3. Due to these fluctuation, deformation, slant and so forth, the following errors occur.
(1) Electron Beam Shift Due to Displacement ΔY of the Column 1
If the column 1 is displaced by ΔY, the irradiated electron beam shifts. Therefore, it is necessary to add the electron beam shift ΔY to the position information of the sample 10, which is measured with the column 1 as a reference.
(2) Length Measurement Error Due to Displacement ΔX of the Interferometer 21
If the interferometer 21 is displaced by ΔX, an error ΔX is added to the position information of the sample 10, which is measured with the column 1 as a reference.
(3) Abbe Error Due to Displacement ΔZ of the Interferometer 21
When the interferometer 21 is displaced by ΔZ, if the stage 4 undergoes pitching θp, the following length measurement error is generated:ΔZ·sin θp
(4) Cosine Error Due to Rotation Δθ of the Interferometer 21
If the interferometer 21 rotates by Δθ, the following length measurement error is generated:L(1−cos Δθ); L: measurement length
As a method of reducing the above-described various errors, it may be considered to increase the rigidity of the partitions that constitute the sample chamber 3. However, in this case, an increased load to the mounting 5 due to an increased mass of the sample chamber 3 is inevitable.
Furthermore, it is possible to reduce the above-described errors (1) and (2) by employing a structure in which a reference beam of the interferometer is irradiated to a reference mirror 25 mounted to the column 1. However, in this case, optical axis adjustment becomes complicated, resulting in an increased operation time.


The present disclosure relates generally to a system and method, and more particularly to a system and method of pre-approving card holders for expedited security processing using an emerging country's international travel approval control card, i.e. an electronic data card that includes biometric verification means for verifying a biometric identifier stored thereon, used to uniquely identify the card holder to security personnel as pre-approved for expedited security screening at a country's port of entry.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 many developed countries have implemented new security measures with more stringent rules in an effort to minimize and/or eliminate the threat of terrorism within their country's borders. Central to these security measures is increased screening at airports and/or other ports of entry. Although necessary, airport security screening impacts everyone, terrorists, non-terrorists, domestic and international travelers alike, as all individuals boarding airplanes, i.e. pilots, other crew members and passengers, must undergo metal detector screening, and in some instances remove one or more articles of clothing, e.g. belts, shoes, etc., prior to gaining access to the boarding gates for flight departures. Additionally, each individual is verified against a "No-Fly" list of known or suspected terrorists or persons who are a flight and/or security risk. Many travelers consider airport security screening a necessary evil, but would otherwise prefer a less intrusive method of conveying their non-terrorist status to security personnel. Thus, there is a need for a system and method for providing proper authentication and less intrusive airport security screening for travelers who are not a flight and/or security risk, without compromising security measures.
Another immigration concern for developed countries is finding a way to effectively document illegal aliens who are out of status and/or foreigners who extend their stay beyond their visas. Currently, there are no requirements for immigrants or visitors to update their address information to the immigration authorities once they have gained access into the country. In reality, immigrants often change addresses moving to different cities or even different states, without ever thinking of apprising immigration and customs authorities of the change. Although, immigration authorities would prefer documenting that information, the sheer volume of illegal aliens and out of status foreigners makes it extremely difficult. Thus, there is a need for the immigration authorities to be able to track immigrants, both legal and illegal in a manner that is efficient and cost effective.
Accordingly, the various embodiments and disclosures described herein satisfies these long felt needs and solves the limitations of the prior art in a new and novel manner.

System and method of pre-approving card holders for expedited security processing using emerging countries international travel approval control card


An integrated circuit device includes functional logic, an anti-noise machine, and state monitoring points providing the anti-noise machine with an interface to the functional logic for monitoring states of the functional logic. The anti-noise machine includes indicia defining noise precursor states for the functional logic, and recognition logic coupled to the state monitoring points. The anti-noise machine is operable to generate anti-noise responsive to the recognition logic detecting in the functional logic noise precursor states matching the indicia.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns reducing power supply noise within integrated circuits, and, more particularly, concerns reducing the noise in a dynamic manner in response to events within the integrated circuit.
2. Related Art
An Integrated Circuit (IC) contains transistors connected together to implement one or more digital, analog or mixed signal functions. In addition to their signal connectivity, transistors within the IC must be supplied by a power source of a specific voltage and tolerance for proper operation of the IC. With succeeding generations of IC technology, both the number and density of transistors on an IC have increased while the power supply voltage and tolerance values have been reduced to offset increases in IC power consumption which is a function of transistor count, power supply voltage and switching frequency. With the development of higher density and higher frequency integrated circuits, it has been recognized that the switching of the thousands of transistors within the IC will create power supply noise, or rapid fluctuation of the power supply voltage within the IC. As an example of the noise generated on power supply bus networks, FIG. 1 illustrates both high frequency fluctuation in the supply voltage, which is due to variations in current demand within each cycle, and low frequency fluctuation in supply voltage, which is due to cumulative affects of current demand variation due to changes in IC function as a result program control or data sensitivity on the power supply resistor-inductor-capacitor (RLC) bus network. In past generations of IC families, the addition of passive capacitance coupling the power supply to the GROUND bus within the IC has been used to stabilize power supply voltage, however, with the trend to lower supply voltages and tighter voltage variation limits at the transistor, increased capacitor sizes are required within the IC to provide stabilization. Also, the level of power supply noise immunity is being continuously reduced. With both current and future IC generations, power supply noise induced by the switching of transistors within the IC itself can result in functional failure of the IC. As a result, power supply noise within the IC is becoming an increasingly serious problem for reliable operation. Thus, a need exists for an improved structure and method for mitigating power supply noise in integrated circuits.

Method and apparatus for reducing noise in a dynamic manner

International Business Machines Corporation


System and method for current control. As an example, the system for current control includes: a transistor including a drain terminal, a gate terminal, and a source terminal, the drain terminal being coupled to one or more light emitting diodes; a resistor coupled to the source terminal of the transistor and configured to generate a resistor voltage related to a current flowing through the one or more emitting diodes; a voltage detector configured to receiver a first input voltage related to a second input voltage received by the one or more light emitting diodes; and a voltage controller coupled to the voltage detector, the resistor, and the gate terminal of the transistor; wherein the voltage detector is further configured to: detect the first input voltage; and generate a control signal based at least in part on the first input voltage.

Certain embodiments of the present invention are directed to integrated circuits. More particularly, some embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for segmented constant current control. Merely by way of example, some embodiments of the invention have been applied to light emitting diode (LED) lighting systems. But it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applicability.
Linear constant current LED drivers have been widely used for LED lighting systems. These lighting systems often have simple and reliable structures with low costs. FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram showing a conventional LED lighting system with linear constant current control. The LED lighting system 100 includes a bridge rectifier 110, an operational amplifier 120, a transistor 130, a capacitor 140, a resistor 150, and one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs) 160. In some examples, the transistor 130 is used to regulate a current 162 (e.g., ILED) that flows through the one or more LEDs 160, and the resistor 150 is used to sense the current 162 (e.g., ILED).
After the LED lighting system 100 is powered on, an AC supply voltage 170 (e.g., VAC) is received by the bridge rectifier 110 (e.g., a full-wave rectifier), which generates an input voltage 112 (e.g., Vin). Additionally, the operational amplifier 120 generates a gate voltage 122 to turn on the transistor 130, which also has a drain voltage 132 (e.g., Vdrain). For example, the operational amplifier 120 includes an output terminal 121 and generates the gate voltage 122 at the output terminal 121, and the gate voltage 122 is received by the gate terminal of the transistor 130. If the input voltage 112 (e.g., Vin) minus the drain voltage 132 (e.g., Vdrain) becomes larger than the forward bias voltage of the one or more LEDs 160, the current 162 (e.g., ILED) flows through the one or more LEDs 160, the transistor 130, and the resistor 150. In response, the resistor 150 generates a sensing voltage 152 (e.g., Vsense) that corresponds to the magnitude of the current 162 (e.g., ILED). The sensing voltage 152 (e.g., Vsense) is also the source voltage of the transistor 130. For example, the resistor 150 includes terminals 149 and 151. The terminal 149 is biased to a ground voltage, and the terminal 151 is connected to the source terminal of the transistor 130. As an example, the resistor 150 generates the sensing voltage 152 (e.g., Vsense) at the terminal 151. The operational amplifier 120 receives the sensing voltage 152 (e.g., Vsense) and a reference voltage 124 (e.g., Vref), compares the voltages 124 and 152 (e.g., determines a difference between the voltages 124 and 152), and adjusts the gate voltage 122 to keep the current 162 at a constant magnitude. For example, the reference voltage 124 (e.g., Vref) is used to determine the constant magnitude of the current 162.
As shown in FIG. 1, when regulating the current 162 (e.g., ILED), the transistor 130 often consumes significant energy, thus adversely affecting the efficiency of the LED lighting system 100. Hence it is highly desirable to improve the current regulation techniques.

Systems and methods for segmented constant current control

On-Bright Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.


A method for conducting a stress calculation is disclosed adapted for modeling a set of stresses and displacements in a reservoir, the method comprising: (a) building a reservoir model over a region of interest by gridding the region of interest, the grid being comprised of one or more cells and having nodes, each cell having a cell center; (b) interpolating unknown rock displacements in the region of interest from cell centers to grid nodes; (c) integrating over each cell to form a discrete system of equations; and (d) using the discrete system of equations to model the stresses and displacements in the reservoir.

The subject matter of this specification relates to a new finite volume method (and associated system and program storage device) for a set of Linear Elasticity equations described below; and, in particular, to a finite volume approach to discretization of a set of equations of Linear Elasticity on a general unstructured grid in three dimensions.
The flow equations in commercial reservoir simulators are generally discretized using the finite difference or finite volume method, whereas for stress equations it is more common to use the finite element approach. In a reservoir simulator designed to include geomechanical effects, these two distinct types of equations must be solved with some degree of coupling. It is therefore natural to ask: whether suitable finite volume methods can be derived for the stress equations so that the stress and fluid flow models can share a common derivation, and what the relative merits of finite volume and finite element methods are for these coupled systems.
In this specification, a finite volume discretization of a set of stress equations, as implemented in a commercial reservoir simulator, is presented with an option to couple the stress with the fluid flow. The method, as presented, is locally conservative and retains second order accuracy on general three-dimensional grids. The imposition of various types of boundary conditions is discussed and the implementation of special features is described, such as faults, pinch-outs and local grid refinements. A comparison with other approaches is presented based on finite differences (see References 1 and 2 below) and finite elements (see Reference 3 below). The relative accuracy, efficiency and robustness of these three different approaches are also discussed.

Finite volume method system and program storage device for linear elasticity involving coupled stress and flow in a reservoir simulator


A method for providing a playlist, a remote controller applying the same, and a multimedia system are provided. The method for providing a playlist includes displaying a plurality of content lists of a plurality of kinds of contents in which contents of a same kind are arranged together, the plurality of content lists being displayed on a first area of a screen, if at least two different kinds of contents are selected from the plurality of content lists in a selecting, collecting the selected contents of the at least two different kinds of contents, and generating and displaying a playlist including play information regarding the collected contents of the at least two different kinds of contents.

1. Field
Systems and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a method for providing a playlist, a remote controller applying the same, and a multimedia system, and more particularly, to a method for providing a playlist including information regarding playing contents in a multimedia apparatus, a remote controller applying the same, and a multimedia system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As Internet communication technology has been developing, a multi-media apparatus has been introduced, and new media contents have appeared, the number of contents that a user may enjoy has been increasing exponentially. Also, the type of contents has also been diversified. In addition, technological development of a multimedia apparatus has allowed a single multimedia apparatus to execute various types of contents. Therefore, there is a need for a method of managing and playing contents desired by a user in an easier and more convenient way.
Conventionally, a separate browser or viewer should be executed for each type of contents in order to browse the contents. For example, if a user wishes to view a plurality of photos continuously via a slide show of a photo browser and then play a plurality of videos, the user should end the photo browser, compose a playlist of videos by executing a video browser, and play the videos. In the case of broadcast contents, a user should compose a broadcast program list by reserving desired broadcast programs on an EPG and then watch the programs at each broadcast time of the reserved programs. That is, a playlist should be generated and managed separately for each type of contents, causing inconvenience to a user.
Accordingly, a method for generating and managing a playlist for various types of contents is required.

Method for providing playlist, remote controller applying the same, and multimedia system


A high frequency probe card for probing a photoelectric device includes a substrate having a first opening and at least one first through hole, an interposing plate disposed on the substrate and having a second opening and at least one second through hole, a circuit board disposed on the interposing plate and having a third opening and at least one third through hole, and a probe module mounted to the substrate and having at least one ground probe and at least one high-frequency impedance matching probe having a signal transmitting structure and a grounding structure passing through the at least one first, second and third through holes and being electrically connected with a signal pad and a ground pad of the circuit board, respectively. The first, second and third openings are communicated with each other for light transmission.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to probe cards for probing devices under test and more particularly, to a high frequency probe card for probing a photoelectric device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a task of testing semiconductor chip, the tester is indirectly and electrically connected with a device under test (hereinafter referred to as 'DUT') through a probe card. The conventional probe card is generally composed of a circuit board and a plurality of probes. On the top surface of the circuit board, a plurality of top contact pads for being electrically contacted by the tester are provided. The bottom surface of the circuit board is provided with bottom contact pads electrically connected with the top contact pads. The probes are respectively soldered to the bottom contact pads and arranged in a pattern corresponding to that of contacts of the DUT. When the probes contact the corresponding contacts of the DUT respectively, they can transmit the testing signals from the tester to the DUT for enabling the tester to detect and measure the electric characteristics of the DUT.
The probe card designed for testing image sensing devices, such as CMOS image sensors, or other photoelectric devices further comprises an opening in which a lens module is mounted. When the probe card probes the DUT, testing light can reach on the DUT through the lens module. After the DUT receives the testing light, the DUT converts the testing light to electric signal, which is transmitted to the tester through the probe card for enabling the tester to analyze characteristics of the DUT.
Nowadays, the lens modules used in electronic devices usually have a smaller size with a larger numbers of pixels; therefore, the photoelectric device usually works under a high frequency condition. In order to transmit the high frequency testing signals effectively, the probe card must have a certain impedance matching with those of the tester and the DUT so as to accurately reflect the test result. However, the commercially available probe cards for probing photoelectric devices cannot fulfill the requirement of high frequency testing at present.
In another aspect, the top contact pads of the circuit board of the probe card are electrically connected with the bottom contact pads through an internal circuit layout of the circuit board. Therefore, it is difficult in manufacturing such a circuit board, and the signals may not be smoothly transmitted due to the fact that the internal circuit layout may have many bends and curves. Further, if the internal circuit layout of the circuit board is configured having a high frequency signal trace accompanying a grounding trace for impedance matching, the circuit board will be more difficultly manufactured.

High frequency probe card for probing photoelectric device