Systems and methods for controlling an internal combustion engine during and shortly after starting include controlling combustion burn location via ignition timing to improve engine stability while reducing feedgas emissions. Open or closed loop control based on observed or measured mass fraction burned or cumulative released heat allows maintenance of a lean air/fuel ratio charge with significantly retarded ignition timing to reduce catalyst light-off time and temperature and reduce engine feedgas emissions.

The present invention relates to systems and methods for controlling an internal combustion engine during and shortly after starting.
Optimal control of internal combustion engines during starting presents a number of challenges. Conventional strategies provide a rich (excess fuel) air/fuel ratio charge during cranking and run-up with advanced ignition timing to achieve stable combustion. Spark feedback control of engine speed is then used during idling to compensate for disturbances such as operation of vehicle accessories.
To reduce feedgas emissions during cranking and startup, and to reduce the time required for any catalyst to become operational, ignition timing may be retarded along with air/fuel enleanment during the first twenty or more seconds after starting. These cold start operating conditions present significant difficulty in that they can approach and exceed engine operational stability boundaries and are increasingly susceptible to disturbances and wear/aging factors. Current control strategies require compromises during these operating conditions from optimal ignition timing and air/fuel calibration to avoid rough operation, speed oscillations, and/or stalling. Engine calibration compromises must also accommodate manufacturing variation, changing environmental conditions (especially humidity), and component aging and wear.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for controlling an internal combustion engine during and shortly after starting to provide improved engine stability and reduced emissions by controlling combustion burn location via ignition timing.
In carrying out the above object and other objects, advantages, and features of the present invention, a system and method for controlling an internal combustion engine include providing a cylinder charge with an air/fuel ratio slightly lean of stoichiometry and controlling combustion burn location retarded from that of MBT using ignition timing to compensate for engine operational difficulties during starting.
The present invention provides a number of advantages. For example, the present invention minimizes calibration tradeoffs previously required to maintain stable combustion during and shortly after starting to reduce feedgas emissions, increase exhaust gas heat flow, and reduce catalyst light-off time. Engine cold start control based on combustion burn location allows for more aggressive spark retard and allows the air/fuel ratio to be maintained slightly lean of stoichiometry while maintaining engine stability and reducing roughness, speed oscillations, and stalls.

System and method for cold start control of internal combustion engines


Systems and methods for gathering, classifying, and evaluating real time security intelligence data concerning security threats presented by an IP address, and reporting in real time the degree and character of such security threats.

Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to the field of network security; specifically, the protection of computer systems and networks from electronic attack by detecting, classifying, and rating security threats presented by a given network connection in real time.
Description of the Related Art
Every computer connected to the Internet is connected in some fashion to every other computer connected to the Internet, and all of these computers are capable of communicating with each other through various layers of network communications protocols. These protocols differ wildly at the physical level, with some protocols communicating through changes in voltage across copper wires, others utilizing pulses of light across fiber optic cable, and still others using radio and microwave signals broadcast through the air.
However, the key to the Internet's success is the Internet Protocol—a routing and addressing protocol layered on top of the physical protocols and ignorant of the actual physical medium used. The Internet Protocol allows any one computer to find any other computer on the Internet by knowing only one thing about the remote computer: the Internet Protocol network address associated with that remote computer. This "IP Address" is a thirty-two bit binary number, commonly represented visually in "dotted-decimal" format for improved human-readability, such as: 18.104.22.168.
Each computer on the Internet generally must have a unique IP Address. When data packets are broadcast to the Internet identifying the IP Address of the intended recipient, devices with knowledge of network topography determine where to send the packets. When the destination machine receives the data packets, it verifies that the packet is intended for it by examining the destination IP Address stored in the Internet Protocol packet header, and disregards packets that are not intended for it. Further, the datagrams must also identify the IP Address of the sending computer so that the destination device knows where to send responses. IP Addresses are so fundamental to the Internet that even novice Internet users generally are aware of them.
Additional protocols are built on top of IP to improve the reliability of network communications, such as the Transmission Control Protocol ("TCP"). TCP handles the "session" between each endpoint of network communications, breaking large chunks of data into small datagrams and sending each datagram separately, reassembling the datagrams in proper order when they are received by the destination computer, and re-transmitting lost datagrams. TCP and IP are the workhorses of the Internet and, due to their complementary functions, are often referenced in concert as "TCP/IP," though they are technically distinct protocols.
Application protocols are then layered on top of TCP/IP to enable specific types of Internet communications. For example, the HyperText Transfer Protocol ("HTTP") is used by web browsers to exchange web page between web sites and web browsers. Other such protocols include the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol ("SMTP"), which is used to transfer one-to-one messages between Internet users, what is now known as "e-mail." Other venerable open protocols include FTP, IRC, IMCP, and SNMP. Newer protocols include peer-to-peer protocols and closed protocols, some of them layered on top of these and other open protocols. Network protocols are sometimes referred to as a "protocol stack" because each higher level protocol is generally independent of the protocols "beneath" it.
When these fundamental building blocks of the Internet were engineered, virtually all computers, people, and institutions with access to the Internet could be trusted to behave themselves. In its infancy, the Internet was used almost exclusively by academics at major research institutions, the government, a handful of private corporations, and a very small number of individual users with benign intentions. The engineering goal of the Internet was physical security, not data security, and the system was designed to survive disruptions caused by damage to physical components, such as by acts of warfare or terrorism. As such, little attention was paid to data security threats originating within the network, and the protocols do not capture much information that can be used to identify nefarious individuals or malicious data. For example, TCP/IP captures little identifying information beyond the source and destination IP Addresses. Similarly, the designers of protocols such as SMTP, FTP, and IRC had little reason to include any form of source verification. For example, SMTP simply assumes that the sender of an e-mail is who the sender claims to be. The designers of newer protocols, notably peer-to-peer file sharing protocols, specifically engineered them to protect anonymity and frustrate attempts to identify the user.
When the Internet was commercialized during the tech bubble of the 1990s, the open nature of Internet's basic protocols was abused to flood the Internet with unwanted traffic. For example, the scourge of the 1990s was unsolicited junk e-mail known as "spam," which was blasted through open relays on the Internet which blindly and obediently forwarded SMTP traffic as they always had, creating a substantial industry in highly sophisticated spam-detection and spam-blocking software solutions. Because the authenticity of the sender is nearly impossible to validate, spam solutions generally examine the content of the e-mail to determine whether to categorize it as spam.
While spam is annoying, compared to modern threats to data security, spam now appears in hindsight like the quaint troubles of a bygone era of naiveté. An enormous amount of money now is exchanged across the world in on-line financial transactions, ranging from ordinary consumer purchases, to sales of securities, to interbank and intergovernmental transfers. Individuals also exchange private, personal information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, photos of their families, addresses and phone numbers, insurance information, credit card numbers, and bank information. Lawyers and doctors send their clients confidential and privileged information; corporate board members, government agencies, and military personnel exchange messages and documents regarding strategies and secret new projects. All of this activity takes place on top of the open TCP/IP protocols, protected only by additional security layered on top of these basic building blocks.
The opportunity for malefactors to interject themselves into the stream of on-line activity and create havoc is manifest, and the modern threats to data and network security are myriad and include: fraud, theft, corporate and sovereign espionage, hacking, virus distribution, smuggling, child pornography, drug sales, conspiracy, organized crime, terrorism, and other behaviors injurious to nations, firms, and individuals. The threat is exacerbated by the fact that sophisticated malefactors manipulate the open structure of the Internet to hide their activities. After all, law enforcement and cybersecurity personnel have only an IP Address at their disposal to identify the source of malicious data.
However, even that limited amount of information—an IP Address—assumes that the malefactor is carrying out an attack or fraudulent transaction from his own computer. In the modern day, sophisticated security threats also come in the form of "bots"—intelligent software planted on otherwise innocuous networked computers and commandeered by the malefactor without the knowledge of the infected computer's operator. The wrongdoer plants these bots on a remote machine using "Trojan horse" techniques—sneaking the malicious software past technological security, such as by taking advantage of unpatched security flaws in operating systems, and past human vigilance, such as disguising the program as a legitimate download or burying malicious code in a funny video. The infected computer then becomes a "zombie" under the wrongdoer's control, and the wrongdoer directs the zombie to carry out attacks or fraudulent transactions, thus removing the true source of the attack from the apparent source of the attack by another degree of separation and further frustrating attempts to identify and stop the malefactor.
In addition to obscuring the true source of the malicious behavior, bots also allow malefactors to carry out attacks not otherwise possible on the shoestring budget of a cybercriminal. For example, governments and large corporations usually have substantial bandwidth available to handle Internet traffic and use sophisticated load balancers to route incoming traffic to idle resources which can promptly service the connection. No one individual computer on commodity hardware has the horsepower to take down this kind of corporate network. However, the wrongdoer can utilize a "bot herder" program to organize millions of zombies into a "botnet" and coordinate a simultaneous distributed attack on a single system. The botnet floods the victim network with traffic that appears innocent but quickly brings the system to its knees, causing legitimate users to receive a "timeout" message stating that the web site is too busy to serve them. This type of attack is known as Distributed Denial of Service ("DDoS") attack.
While a DDoS attack is frustrating to the business, major DDoS attacks are easy to spot once they begin and the victim corporation simply issues a press release informing the public of why the website is not available. Antivirus solutions for the infected zombie computers are usually developed quickly and enough of the bots are disabled to reduce the DDoS traffic to a manageable volume. Consequently, even a highly sophisticated DDoS attack is rarely successful for more than a few days, and often no more than a few hours, resulting in some interruption of normal business operations with only modest financial damage.
However, zombies and botnets can also be leveraged to carry out more nefarious activities carrying a higher price tag for the individual user than merely not being able to reach a favorite web site. The bot software residing on the infected computer may collect personally identifying information, such as by monitoring the keystrokes of the user and recognizing common patterns of potentially useful information such as social security numbers, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and passwords. The zombie forwards this information to the bot herder, which redistributes the information to other bots to carry out fraudulent transactions. The zombies can work in concert to defraud a single user, but are usually more effective if each zombie acts individually by emulating an individual, specific person. Using the gathered personally identifying information, the zombies connect to commercial websites, such as banks and retailers, to withdraw or transfer money, or purchase goods or services.
The amount of damage a sophisticated botnet can inflict increases with the price performance of commodity hardware. A graphics card in a high-end gaming computer today has more processing power than an entire server farm only a decade ago and costs only a few hundred dollars. The wide variety of methods, techniques, and sources for malware attacks creates the need to develop and deploy equally flexible, adaptive, and sophisticated countermeasures. Unfortunately, the breadth and depth of these threats is such that countermeasures tend to be complex, cumbersome, expensive, and intrusive upon legitimate use, pushing unto innocent users too much of the burden of dealing with bad actors.
Further, modern countermeasures are, at best, only partially successful. Because the only identifying information typically available for any given packet of network information is the IP Address, countermeasures focus on examining the payload to determine the threat profile it presents, if any. However, because the actual data transmitted over TCP is broken into separate datagrams which may arrive out of sequence, the payload often cannot be examined and analyzed until it has been received, at which point it already presents a threat. This means that a requested transaction or connection from a client must be accepted, and the data transmitted from that client must be accepted, before the threat can be identified and countermeasures can be marshaled. By then, it may be too late.
One way around this is to maintain "blacklists" of IP Addresses known to be malicious. This technique has been used on peer-to-peer ("P2P") networks to identify "polluters" who intentionally distribute bad data to frustrate the efficacy of P2P networks. Known polluters are identified in a blacklist, and P2P clients are programmed to check new connections against the blacklist and ignore connections from known polluters.
However, IP Addresses are no longer static. Innovations such as the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol ("DHCP") allow routers to autonomously assign IP Addresses to computers within that router's subnet, effectively creating self-configuring sub-networks that require little maintenance or attention. As mobile device use becomes more prolific, the one-to-one relationship between an IP Address and a particular device is being eroded. For example, when an iPhone is within range of a wireless network and joins it, the device receives a new IP Address on the subnet. When the iPhone's owner wanders away, that IP Address is recycled and assigned to another device, and when the iPhone user stops at another location, the iPhone will receive a new IP Address on another subnet. Even the WAN IP Address for a home cable Internet connection changes over time and with it, the IP Addresses for all computers on the private home network. Thus, it's not enough to blacklist a given IP Address; countermeasures must also be able to remove IP Addresses from the blacklist as they are recycled and assigned to new users presenting no threat or risk. Blacklists are also insufficient because an IP Address that presents a risk for one type of transaction may present no risk at all for another type of transaction.
Tracking the ebb and flow of IP Addresses is made even more difficult because of the size of the addressing space. As mentioned, an IP Address is a thirty-two bit binary number, meaning there are theoretically more than four billion possible IP Addresses. About three billion are assigned at any given time. The use of home routers to create private networks also hides additional computers behind a single address, meaning that a single IP Address assigned to a cable subscriber may actually represent transactions from multiple computers accessing the Internet through a shared gateway, some of which may be malicious, and others of which may not. This presents a serious processing bottleneck. Further, the four billion possible IP Addresses pertains to version four of the Internet Protocol, but in version six, the IP Address is a 128-bit number allowing for not only trillions of IP Addresses, but trillions of trillions of trillions.
Consequently, current threat mitigation systems do not focus on identifying malicious IP Addresses, but instead narrowly define potential threat factors based on the payload sent. That is, existing systems do not determine whether a particular IP Address presents a threat, but instead whether the particular payload or transaction for that IP Address is malicious. Examining a payload can sometimes provide a proxy for detecting a criminal, and if the payload cannot be delivered, the criminal activity cannot be carried out. However, the sophistication and signature of attacks changes rapidly, and firms providing malware protection services struggle to keep up with the speed and flexibility of these programs. Further exacerbating the situation, it can be difficult to anticipate the new ways in which payloads can be hidden or disguised, and existing solutions to malware are thus generally reactive, rather than proactive.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems and methods for dynamic protection from electronic attacks


A tunable external cavity semiconductor laser is provided with a semiconductor laser diode, a diffraction grating and a movable mirror. The diode laser is positioned to illuminate a diffraction grating and a movable mirror is positioned to reflect a selected wavelength back into the cavity. The mirror is mounted on a pivot so positioned to provide simultaneous rotation and linear translation. The pivot point is selected so as to provide an internal cavity length which is exactly an integral number of half wavelengths at three different wavelengths and an exceptionally close (within 1/1000 of one wavelength) match at all other wavelengths within the tuning range. Significantly, the pivot point calculation takes into account the effect of the dispersion of the laser and other optical elements in the system on the cavity length. These elements are usually a small part of the physical length of the cavity, but their greater dispersion makes their contribution to the number of half wavelengths in the resonant cavity very significant.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to tunable diode lasers, and particularly, to an improved tuning system which avoids tuning discontinuities by maintaining a constant integral number of half wavelengths in the tuning cavity over the entire tuning range.
2. Description of the Prior Art Tunable semiconductor diode lasers, which provide an extremely useful optical tool, are handicapped by the fact that the tuning mechanisms do not maintain a constant number of half wavelengths within the cavity. The typical tunable diode laser has one facet having an antireflection coating through which a selected wavelength is fed back into the laser to sustain oscillation at the selected wavelength. Quite commonly, the desired wavelength is selected by means of a diffraction grating with a rotatable mirror which selects a desired wavelength from the beam diffracted by the grating. The variation in angle of the mirror is effective to select the desired wavelength, which is diffracted by the grating at the angle represented by the mirror position. While this approach provides a convenient means for tuning the operating wavelength of the laser, it has been found that mirror rotation alone does not provide a smooth tuning action. This is because the simple rotation of the mirror to select the energy emitted from the diffraction grating at the angle of the desired wavelength does not maintain the length of the tuning cavity at an integral number of half wavelengths. As the wavelength is varied and the number of waves in the cavity varies, the laser output exhibits discontinuities such as large changes in output power.
The basic principles of the operation of the tunable laser utilizing a variable length external cavity in conjunction with a diffraction grating and a rotatable mirror are set forth in the publication, "Spectrally Narrow Pulse Dye Laser Without Beam Expander", by Michael G. Littman and Harold J. Metcalf, Applied Optics, vol. 17, No. 14, pages 2224-2227, Jul. 15, 1978 Although the article describes a system which uses a dye laser, the diode laser is easily substituted. The system utilizes a diffraction grating which is filled with an incident collimated laser beam by using the grating at a grazing angle. The diffracted beam at the angle normal to the mirror is reflected back onto the grating and from there, back into the lasing cavity, where it serves to determine the operating wavelength of the system. Rotation of the mirror to select the wave diffracted allows the system to be tuned to a desired output wavelength.
It was later recognized that simple rotation of the mirror did not provide a continuous single mode scan over a range of wavelengths. The publication, "Novel Geometry for Single-Mode Scanning of Tunable Lasers" by Michael G. Littman and Karen Liu, Optics Letters, Vol. 6, No. 3, pages 117, 118, March, 1981 describes a tunable cavity in which the mirror is translated axially, as well as rotated, to change the cavity length as well as the angle of the diffracted beam returned to the laser. Although the authors state that the pivot point selected by their method provides exact tracking for all accessible wavelengths, this is, in fact, true only for the case where there are no dispersive elements on the cavity since the changes in optical length due to the effects of dispersion are not considered. Further information of a general nature is available in "Introduction to Optical Electronics" by Amnon Yariu, 1976, published by Holt, Rinehart and Wilson; and "Optics" by Eugene Hecht, 1987, published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.
The shortcomings of tuning systems in which the mirror was rotated only was further developed in the publication "Synchronous Cavity Mode and Feedback Wavelength Scanning in Dye Laser Oscillators with Gratings" by Harold J. Metcalf and Patrick McNicholl, Applied Optics, Vol. 245, No. 17, pages 2757-2761, Sept. 1, 1985. The geometry described in this publication relates to positioning the point of rotation (pivot point) of the mirror at the intersection of the planes of the surface elements. The article suggests that for oscillators with mirrors as both end elements a possibly useful displaced configuration will also be synchronous. However, the displaced configurations will, as above, be synchronous only in the absence of dispersive elements in the cavity.
A further development, set forth in "External-Cavity Diode Laser Using a Grazing-Incidence Diffraction Grating", by K. C. Harvey and C. J. Myatt, Optics Letters, Vol. 16, No. 12, pages 910-912, Jun. 15, 1991, describes a tunable cavity system utilizing a diode laser in which the diode laser has a highly reflective rear facet and an anti-reflection coated output facet with an output window. The output beam is collimated by a lens and illuminates a diffraction grating at a grazing angle. The first order of diffraction of the grating is incident on the mirror, which reflects it back onto the grating, where the first order of diffraction passes back into the diode laser. The output of the system is the zeroth-order reflection from the grating. In this system, no mention is made of coordinated rotation and lineal translation of the mirror.
Various mechanical arrangements for movement of the mirror have been devised to introduce simultaneous rotation and longitudinal translation in attempts to maintain the physical length of the internal cavity at a constant number of half wavelengths. One such a system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,124 to Cameron et al.
Despite efforts to devise suitable mechanical arrangements for simultaneous rotation and linear translation of the mirror, the prior art systems either require complex adjustment or do not effectively provide the required constant number of half wavelengths within the tuning cavity. In the case of a cavity containing dispersive elements, even the dispersion caused by air can be a significant factor.

Tuning system for external cavity diode laser


A capacitance-sensing vibratory gyro includes a capacitance-sensing circuit that detects changes in capacitances of a sensing element. The capacitance-sensing circuit includes two operational amplifiers. The inverting input terminal of each operational amplifier is connected to the corresponding sensing electrode in the sensing element. A bias voltage generated by dividing a power supply voltage with resistors is applied to the non-inverting input terminals of the operational amplifiers. The bias voltage is applied to each sensing electrode by imaginary short-circuiting in the operational amplifiers so that the bias voltage directly depends on the power supply voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a capacitance-sensing vibratory gyro and a method for detecting changes in a capacitance.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in the case where a vibratory gyro is used as a sensor for detecting a camera vibration or shaking during hand-held shooting or a position of a motor vehicle by an angular velocity, an analog output signal from the sensor is converted into a digital signal by an A/D converter and then a predetermined correction process is carried out based on the signal.
In this case, in an A/D converter with a voltage comparator, since the reference voltage level for the conversion sometimes depends on a power supply voltage level, detection sensitivity of the sensor must depend on the power supply voltage level to improve the detection accuracy.
For this purpose, in a known art, the amplitude of the signal for driving a vibrator, which is a sensor, is varied depending on the power supply voltage level, thereby changing the output level of the sense signal from the vibrator. As a result, the detection sensitivity of the sensor depends on the power supply voltage level to improve the detection accuracy (refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-44540, in particular, pages 1 to 3 and FIG. 1).
Unfortunately, in the known art as disclosed in the above-described patent document, during a time period from applying a driving signal dependent upon the power supply voltage to the vibrator to receiving a required sense signal from the vibrator, many conversions, electrical to mechanical and vice versa, are required. These conversions accumulate conversion errors such that sufficient accuracy to precisely follow the change of the power supply voltage level cannot be obtained.

Capacitance-sensing vibratory gyro and method for detecting change in capacitance


The present invention is directed to an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter realized by a small circuit. The A/D converter according to this invention generates a discrete output voltage having several levels in response to an input analog voltage. It includes a number of field effect transistors (FETs), each of which corresponds to an output voltage level and has multiple gates for receiving outputs of higher-order FETs, the input voltage and a negative offset voltage. The A/D converter also includes a voltage divider for generating the offset voltage for each FET and a plurality of inverters corresponding to each FET for outputting a constant positive voltage in response to a negative output of the corresponding FET and for outputting a zero voltage responsive to a positive output voltage of the corresponding FET.

As shown in FIG. 5, conventionally and generally, an A/D converter distributes an input voltage Vin by voltage divider DV1, compares the distributed voltage with an offset voltage using comparator array C, and converts the result of comparison into a digital signal having a predetermined bit width using encoder ED to provide an output D. The offset voltage is generated by reference voltage generating means, such as DV0.
In this way the conventional A/D converter has a rather large circuit and consumes a relatively large amount of electric power.

Analog-to-digital connecter using multi-gate field effect transistors


An electrical connector includes an inner conductor, an annular insulator which surrounds the inner conductor and an outer conductor which surrounds the annular insulator. The electrical connector is provided with both a threaded coupling mechanism and a snap-fastening coupling mechanism. In one embodiment, the threaded coupling mechanism is in the form of an outwardly projecting spiral threading which protrudes out from the mating end of the outer conductor. In the same embodiment, the snap-fastening coupling mechanism is in the form of an annular groove which is formed in the central body of the outer conductor, the annular groove being sized and shaped to receive a resilient, C-shaped snap ring from a mating electrical connector. In this manner, it is to be understood that the electrical connector is capable of being mechanically and electrically coupled to various types of mating electrical connectors using either threaded coupling means or snap-fastening coupling means.

The present invention relates generally to electrical connectors and more particularly to electrical connectors that are provided with either threaded or snap-fastening coupling means.
Electrical connectors are well known in the art and are commonly used to electrically connect separate conductive elements in order to complete an electrical circuit.
One type of electrical connector which is well known in the art is the coaxial electrical connector. A coaxial electrical connector is commonly used to transmit high frequency communication signals (e.g., electromagnetic signals over 10 MHz) between a pair of electric devices, wherein examples of electric devices include, but are not limited to, coaxial cables, coaxial switches and signal generating or processing devices. In this capacity, it is to be understood that coaxial electrical connectors are commonly used to transmit and receive signals in various types of conventional communications applications (e.g., audio and video broadcast, cellular phone transmission, global system for mobile (GSM) communications, etc.).
A coaxial electrical connector typically comprises an inner signal conductor (commonly referred to simply as the inner conductor) which serves to transmit the desired communication signal. The inner signal conductor is separated from an outer conductor by an insulating material, or dielectric material, the outer conductor serving as (i) the return path, or ground, for the communication signal and (ii) a shield to prevent degradation of the signal carried by the inner conductor. As can be appreciated, this type of electrical connector is commonly referred to as coaxial because the inner and outer conductors share a common longitudinal axis.
A coaxial electrical connector of the type as described above is also typically provided with a coupling mechanism which serves to securely retain said connector in both electrical and mechanical connection with a corresponding (i.e., mating) electrical connector. Preferably, coaxial electrical connectors are provided with a releasable coupling mechanism in order to allow for the replacement, repair and/or reconfiguration of electrical devices within a particular communication system.
One well-known means for securing together a mated pair of coaxial electrical connectors is through the use of complementary threaded coupling mechanisms (also commonly referred to as screw-type coupling mechanisms in the art). Specifically, in one common version of this coupling means, the male end of a first electrical coaxial connector (i.e., the end of the electrical connector in which the inner conductor is of the male variety) is provided with a independently rotatable coupling nut that includes a spiral recess formed in its inner surface. In addition, the female end of a second electrical coaxial connector (i.e., the end of the electrical connector in which the inner conductor is of the female variety) is provided with an outwardly projecting, spiral threading on the outer surface of its outer conductor. In order to couple together the first and second coaxial connectors, the threading on the female end of the second conductor is aligned within the spiral recess formed in male end of the first conductor. Disposed as such, the coupling nut of the first electrical connector is then rotated in a first direction relative to its longitudinal axis such that its male inner conductor is drawn into electrical contact within the female inner conductor for the second electrical connector, thereby establishing an electrical path therebetween. As can be appreciated, the threaded engagement established between the pair of electrical coaxial connectors serves to securely retain said pair in electrical and mechanical connection with one another. However, if desired, the mated pair of electrical coaxial connectors can be electrically and mechanically disconnected from one another simply by rotating the coupling nut of the first electrical connector in the opposite direction relative to its longitudinal axis until such time that said pair can be mechanically separated.
An example of a mated pair of electrical connectors which can be coupled together using threaded coupling means is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,529,357 to J. Landinger et al., which is incorporated herein by reference.
It has been found that the use threaded coupling means to secure together a pair of electrical coaxial connectors is desirable with respect to the quality of the electrical connection established therebetween. Most notably, this means of coupling together a mated pair of coaxial connectors provides a relatively strong and durable level of connection, thereby rendering it particularly suitable for certain applications, such as a high vibration environment and/or an environment which requires minimal accessibility (i.e., a relatively permanent connection).
Although well-known and widely used in the art, the use of threaded coupling means to secure together a mated pair of electrical coaxial connectors suffers from a few notable drawbacks.
As a first drawback, the process of axially rotating one electrical connector relative to another has been found to be substantially cumbersome, time-consuming and highly dexterous in nature, which is highly undesirable.
As a second drawback, the process of axially rotating one electrical connector relative to another often requires a separate tool (i.e., for tightening purposes) which may or may not be readily available to the user, which is highly undesirable.
As a third drawback, the process of axially rotating one electrical connector relative to another necessitates a considerable amount of rotational clearance immediately surrounding the mated pair of connectors (e.g., clearance in the order of the length of a tightening tool used therewith), which is highly undesirable.
Accordingly, another well-known means for securing together a mated pair of coaxial electrical connectors is through the use of snap-fastening coupling means (also commonly referred to as quick-connect, snap, snap-on or push-on coupling means in the art). As defined herein, snap-fastening coupling means relates to the use of any complementary pair of coupling mechanisms which can be secured together by drawing said connectors together using an axial, or linear, force (i.e., with limited twisting, turning and/or screwing). Typically, the use of snap-fastening coupling means to secure together a mated pair of connectors requires a first connector to be linearly displaced relative to a second connector, with a portion of the first connector telescopingly mounting over a portion of the second connector. As can be appreciated, as the first connector is telescopingly slid over the second connector with a suitable force, a latching device (e.g., a pivotable pawl, clip, ring, ball or the like) provided on the inner surface of the first connector releasably snaps into engagement within a detent (e.g., a notch or groove) formed in the outer surface of the second connector. With the latching device engaged within the detent, the pair of connectors are retained in electrical and mechanical connection with one another. If desired, electrical and mechanical disconnection of the pair of connectors can be achieved through the application of a suitable linear separation force.
Examples of mated pairs of electrical connectors which can be coupled together using snap-fastening coupling means include U.S. Pat. No. 6,709,289 to C. W. Huber et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,011 to M. Schneider and U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,545 to T. L. Holt, all of said patents being incorporated herein by reference.
As can be appreciated, the use of snap-fastening coupling means to secure together a mated pair of electrical connectors allows for simple, easy and rapid installation with limited (or even no) rotational motion, thereby minimizing the clearance requirement necessitated by threaded connection means. In this capacity, it is to be understood that use of snap-fastening coupling means to secure together a pair of electrical connectors is most appropriate in environments which are relatively confined and/or in conjunction with systems which require frequent component repair, replacement and/or upgrading.
However, it has been found that the use of snap-fastening coupling means to secure together a mated pair of electrical connectors introduces a few notable drawbacks.
As a first drawback, electrical connectors which are provided with snap-fastening coupling means are often mechanically complex in their design, thereby increasing manufacturing costs, which is highly undesirable.
As a second drawback, electrical connectors which rely on snap-fastening coupling means provide a lesser degree of connective strength than electrical connectors that rely on threaded coupling means.
As a result, it has been recognized that the use of snap-fastening coupling means to secure together a mated pair of electrical connectors is desirable in certain applications (e.g., in confined, dark environments or in the event of an emergency) and that the use of threaded-coupling means to secure together a mated pair of electrical connectors is desirable in other applications (e.g., when a more rugged, permanent connection is required).
Accordingly, it is well-known in the art for separate adapters to be constructed which enable an electrical connector with threaded coupling means to be converted into an electrical connector with snap-fastening coupling means. In this manner, the particular coupling mechanism to be utilized with respect to an electrical connector can be selected based on the particular application with which it is to be used, which is highly desirable.
Examples of adapters which allow an electrical connector with threaded coupling means to be converted into an electrical connector with snap-fastening coupling means include U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,527 to F. Volpe et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,332,815 to B. B. Bruce, both of said references being incorporated herein by reference.
Although well-known in the art, the use of adapters of the type described above suffer from a couple notable shortcomings.
As a first shortcoming, adapters of the type described above are constructed separately from the mated pair of electrical connectors. Accordingly, if such an adapter is not readily available to the user, connection between electrical connectors through the use of snap-fastening means can not be readily made, which is highly undesirable.
As a second shortcoming, adapters of the type described above are often mechanically complex in design, thereby increasing manufacturing costs, which is highly undesirable.

Electrical connector with dual independent coupling means


Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for predicting the subject, logistics, and resources of associated with a communication event. Predictions and suggestions can occur prior to, during, or in response to communication events. The user can confirm the prediction or suggestion via user input such as a click or a voice command. The system can analyze past behavior patterns with respect to the subject, logistics and resources of communication events, followed by preparing ranked listings of which subjects, logistics, and resources are most likely to be used in a given situation. The predicted logistics may then include people to invite, time and date of the meeting, its duration, location, and anything else useful in helping potential participants gather together. The resources may include files attached, files used, communication event minutes, recordings made, Internet browsers and other programs which may be utilized by the user.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to communications and more specifically to predicting the subject, logistics, and resources of associated with a communication event.
2. Introduction
Modern technology has given those who wish to schedule a gathering of multiple people many options. They can consider what type of event to schedule, such as classic in-person meetings, a conference call, a video conference, or any other type of communication event. They can consider whom to invite, the location, the time, and the duration of the communication event. Further considerations are what attachments to send with the invitation, the subject matter, how this communication event compares and contrasts with previous events, as well as how this will coincide with everyone's schedule. Given the many factors involved in making a new invitation it can be useful to examine previous communication event invitations to remember details. However, given time, the number of previous meetings and details of those events simply become too cumbersome to search through.
Similarly, during a communication event participants can take notes, look at sent attachments, record audio, send instant message communications with other participants, or examine other resources. The ability to access information during the communication event can boost productivity and topic comprehension, but if there is trouble in locating resources during the communication event it can also be burdensome. With the continual increase of applications and documents available for use during a communication event, the burden of finding the right information at the right time also increases until the burden outweighs the benefits. There exists, then, a need to quickly and efficiently find useful, relevant information for inviting people to and participating in communication events.

System and method for predicting meeting subjects, logistics, and resources


A peripheral card header (100) is disclosed including an alignment device (160) and a hold-down anchor (230). The peripheral card header (100) is for mounting on a surface (110) and has application in portable electronic devices, such as electronic organizers. The hold-down anchor (230) has a lead-in feature (430) to allow a peripheral card (310) to be inserted without snagging or otherwise jamming before the complete insertion of the card.

Present day trends in the electronic industry are towards miniaturazation and standardization of components. With small size, light weight, and overall ruggedness being requirements for portable devices, the problem must be solved of supplying peripheral and other expansion capabilities to small, general-purpose computing and consumer electronic devices. One solution to the problem is standardized memory and I/O cards to provide this expansion capability.
With the application of the products being the general consumer market, the products must be rugged and easy to use. It is within these constraints that peripheral cards must operate in order to solve interchangability and expandability problems.
With space being at a premium in portable products, it is often desirable to have the peripheral cards slide flush along printed circuit boards, and the like, during insertion and removal operations. This saves vertical space and the need for an additional horizontal guide surface is avoided. This configuration presents a problem, however, as the bottom edge of the peripheral card tends to stub against the peripheral card connector lead-in on present day known designs. Forming a sharp enough lead-in that will stay firmly on the circuit board has proved to be infeasible from a manufacturability viewpoint.
Clearly an urgent need exists, in the exploding portable electronics market, to provide a peripheral card header lead-in arrangement that will prevent stubbing during peripheral card insertion and removal operations and will also secure the peripheral card header firmly to the surface on which it is resident.

Peripheral card header lead-in arrangement


A suspension system for the resilient/damped suspension of a driver's cab of a motor vehicle relative to the vehicle chassis. The suspension system has a spring/damper arrangement and a hydraulic arrangement with hydraulic cylinders on the right and left sides, relative to the driving direction. The hydraulic cylinders are connected in a cross-over manner to form a roll stabilizing device. The suspension system has an upper cross-bridge that is arranged on the driver's cab and a lower cross-bridge that is arranged on the vehicle chassis. The spring/damper arrangement and the hydraulic arrangement are positioned between and connected to the upper and lower cross-bridges.

Suspension systems of the above type are used, for example but by no means exclusively, in trucks, agricultural vehicles or heavy-good vehicles. Since in such vehicles the spring and damper characteristics of the spring/damper units of the chassis have to be chosen to be comparatively large because of the considerable vehicle weights and because of the large unsprung masses in the chassis, road surface irregularities or even vibrations from the axles and the drive-train are first to a considerable extent transmitted to the chassis via the axle suspension. For that reason it is necessary, by means of a suitable suspension system, to decouple the driver's cab again, separately, from the vehicle chassis.
With elastic suspension devices of this type for driver's cabs, in order to dampen or restrict undesired rolling of the cab relative to the vehicle chassis, for example when driving along an incline or around a bend, or in the case when a road is uneven on one side only, suspension systems for driver's cabs usually comprise a device for roll stabilization. This ensures that jouncing movements of the cab relative to the chassis take place essentially in a linear manner, i.e. that the degree of freedom of movement between the cab and the chassis is reduced to a mainly vertical jouncing movement.
From DE 10 2007 052 038 A1 a system for the hydraulic stabilization of a driver's cab is known, in which the cylinder chambers of the oscillation dampers on the right and left sides of the cab suspension are connected to one another in a cross-over manner in order, in this way, to favor the jouncing of the cab suspension on the right and left sides in the same direction and suppress jouncing in opposite directions, in other words to achieve roll stabilization for the driver's cab.
However, the design of this known suspension system is comparatively complex and also entails fitting space problems, in particular since it is located in the forward area of the driver's cab where comparatively little fitting space is available for accommodating the components and assemblies of the suspension system. Furthermore, the known suspension system has a comparatively large number of individual components and assemblies, which tends to entail high manufacturing and assembly costs. Moreover, adaptation of the known suspension system to different types of vehicles and hence different spring, damping and rolling characteristics, is a comparatively complex process.

Driver's cab suspension device with roll stabilizing means


The present invention provides a bitumen composition comprising a bitumen component, a thermoplastic rubber in an amount of less than 8 % wt, and an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer in an amount of less than 5 % wt, both based on total bitumen composition, wherein the ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer has a vinyl content in the range of from 20 to 35% wt, based on copolymer; a process for preparing such bitumen composition; and the use of such bitumen compositions in asphalt mixtures for road applications.

Bitumen is used as a binder in road asphalt mixtures and has been developed continually to meet ever-increasing performance demands from road building constructors. In general, bitumen performs well in road asphalt but increasingly heavy traffic loads have led to the premature wear of many roads through rutting and cracking of the surface. Cracking is a serious defect in a road asphalt because it allows water to reach lower layers of the road surface where it causes rapid deterioration and accelerates the need for repairs. Increasing the bitumen content of asphalt or using a softer grade of bitumen improves the crack resistance of asphalt at low temperatures but increases the risk of excessive rutting at higher temperatures because the mixture is effectively softer. Conversely, resistance to rutting can be improved by reducing the amount of bitumen in the asphalt mixture or by using a harder grade of bitumen at the expense of crack resistance because the mixture becomes less flexible.
Much effort is therefore nowadays directed to the development of a hard bitumen composition meeting today's crack resistance requirement, i.e. a bitumen composition having both a good low temperature performance and a good high temperature rutting resistance.
Another requirement which bitumen compositions frequently have to meet nowadays is the resistance to solvency of petroleum products such as fuels (e.g. gasoline and kerosene) and oils such as lubricating oils. This resistance to solvency is of importance in areas where asphalt mixtures are regularly exposed to spillage of fuels and oils. Such areas include for instance airfields, waste disposal areas, gas stations, and tank storage areas. When an asphalt mixture is exposed to fuel or oil spillage, the bitumen will be leached out of the asphalt mixture, eventually resulting in the loss of coarse aggregate from the road surface, so-called fretting of the road surface.
In view of the above it will be clear that it would be advantageous to develop a hard bitumen composition meeting today's crack resistance requirement and which would in addition display an improved resistance to solvency of petroleum products.

Bitumen compositions and a process for their preparation


Disclosed is apparatus and method for improving the signal by changing the voltage applied to an analyzing trap of a high resolving power Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer. More specifically, after the ion activation, a voltage different from that of a trap electrode is applied to an additional electrode in the center of the trap electrode, and the voltage is maintained until the end of a detection cycle. Applying the above method, the stability of the ions confined in a trap is more increased, and therefore, the detected time domain signal is being lengthened. The lengthened time domain signal results in an increase of the frequency or an improvement of the resolving power and the sensitivity of the mass-to-charge domain signal.

1. Field of the Invention
Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry (MS) is an apparatus which analyzes the structure of molecules by estimating the mass of a molecule ion and a fragment ion. FT-ICR mass spectrometry has become the ultimate standard for high-resolution broadband mass analysis.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, a trap used in the conventional FT-ICR mass spectrometry is generally constituted of a trap electrodes (10, 13), an independent additional electrode (11) including the center of the trap electrodes (10, 13) (so called "a sidekick electrode"), and an excitation and detection electrode (12). The independent additional electrode (11) has been used to improve the storage efficiency of the ions. Generally, after the step of ion activation, a voltage which is same as that of trap electrode (10, 13) is applied to the independent additional electrode (11) (see FIG. 2).
Resolving power in FT-ICR MS is limited by the duration of the time domain ICR signal. Therefore, there have been several approaches to improve trap design, to better understand ion motion, and to increase ion stability in an ICR ion trap. For example, a Penning trap, confines and stores ions by combination of a spatially uniform static magnetic field and a three-dimensional axial quadrupolar electrostatic field. The quadrupolar field ensures that the ion cyclotron frequency is independent of ion location in the trap.
Ions in such a trap exhibit three periodic motions (cyclotron rotation, magnetron rotation, and trapping axial oscillation). Ion stability derives from these motions. Cyclotron rotation results from the Lorentz force on an ion of mass, m, and charge, q, moving in a static magnetic field, B0, and prevents ions from escaping in directions perpendicular to B0. The ion cyclotron angular frequency, ωc, is given by:
                              ω          c                =                              qB            0                    m                                    [                  Equation                                                              1                ]
The quadrupolar trapping potential has three effects. First, it introduces a linear sinusoidal trapping axial oscillation along B0, at frequency, ωz, thereby preventing ions from escaping along with the axial B0-direction. Second, the cyclotron frequency is shifted downward from ωc to ω+. Finally, there is a new magnetron rotation perpendicular to B., at frequency, ω−. ωz, ω+, and ω− are given by:
                              ω          z                =                                            2                            q                                                                                V                trap                                          α                                      ma              2                                                          [                  Equation                                                              2                ]                                          ω          +                =                                            ω              c                        2                    +                                                                      (                                                            ω                      c                                        2                                    )                                2                            -                                                ω                                      z                    2                                                  2                                                                        [                  Equation                                                              3                ]                                          ω          -                =                                            ω              c                        2                    -                                                                      (                                                            ω                      c                                        2                                    )                                2                            -                                                ω                                      z                    2                                                  2                                                                        [                  Equation                                                              4                ]
in which α is a characteristic measure of the trap length, and α depends on the trap geometry. Magnetron motion results from the radial electric field gradient generated by the electrostatic trapping potential.
In a typical closed cylindrical ICR cell, the radial electric field is directed outward toward the excitation and detection electrodes (from the inside to the outside of the trap).
The resulting outward radial force destabilizes ions, because the ion magnetron radius increases as ions lose energy by ion-neutral or ion-ion collisions, ultimately leading to radial ejection and limiting the can affect length of time that ions can be held in the trap.
It is important to note that Eqations. 2 to 4 are derived only for a perfectly quadrupolar electrostatic trapping potential. That assumption is valid only near the center of a trap and in the absence of other ions. Under those conditions, the three natural ion motions are virtually independent and ions can be confined for a long period of time without significant loss.
However, collisions with neutrals, deviation from quadrupole electrostatic trapping potential due to truncated or otherwise imperfect trap electrodes, and Coulombic charge interactions destabilize ions axially and/or radially and result in damping of the time-domain ICR signal. Under either of the described conditions, the three ion motions are no longer independent.

Apparatus and method for improving fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer signal


An inductive charging system transfers energy by inductively coupling a source coil on a power source to a receiver coil for a battery charger. Source current may be received in the battery charger and converted for charging a battery pack. A wireless communication arrangement may also provide for authentication of devices that are allowed by the source to be powered or otherwise charged.

Computer systems have become increasingly popular in modern society. Conventional computer systems, especially computer systems using graphical user interface (GUI) systems, accept user input from a conventional input device, such as a keyboard for entering text, and a pointing device, such as a mouse for operating the graphical user interface. The processing capabilities of computers have increased the efficiency and productivity of workers in a wide range of professions. Marketing staff, corporate executives, professionals and others use mobile computers to easily transport their data and work with computers out of the office or on travel.
The popularity of portable electronic devices allow users to work and play free of restrictive power cords and chargers for a limited period of time. As people work outside of their traditional office, they often find themselves using their notebook computers, cellular phones, digital assistants and tablet computers. Similarly, people enjoying themselves away from the home take advantage of portable music players, digital cameras, electronic game systems and the like while on travel or doing outdoors activities.
Rechargeable batteries are used for portable electronic devices, such as portable computing systems, video cameras, and mobile phones. While users attempt to operate with the freedom of mobile computing, there are still basically tethered to the power cable. The users must think about how much power is available for mobile use. This time period is limited to the type of battery and other factors.
To replace rechargeable batteries, a contactless power supply may be used in commercial aircraft. In one example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,745 to Kories describes a contactless power supply for a laptop computer with a seatback tray of a commercial aircraft. This patent is incorporated by reference. The power supply of Kories has several drawbacks. There is no active communication between the power supply and the seatback. Unwanted flux could be sent to metallic objects or cause other problems. Further, the system of Kories would most likely risk damage to current mobile device designs and does not allow for device independence for powering, because the power supply part must be part of the laptop computer. Thus, the system of Kories is undesirable, and has limited use, if any, for recent battery packs designs.
To recharge batteries, U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,433 to Rohde describes a universal inductive battery charger system having a charging coil and rechargeable battery pack. The system of Rohde has several drawbacks. There is no active communication between the inductive charger and the battery pack. Unwanted flux could be sent to metallic objects or cause other problems. Thus, the system Rohde is undesirable, and limited use, if any, use for recent battery packs designs.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed is an apparatus and method to support battery packs for an untethered environment for the new media technologies and productivity activities for mobile electronic devices.


A new and distinct cultivar of Lantana plant named ‘Tropical Fruit’, characterized by its mounding and outwardly spreading growth habit; freely branching plant habit; yellow-green and dark green variegated foliage; freely flowering habit; and yellow-colored flowers that are held above and beyond the foliage.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lantana, botanically known as Lantana camara, and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Tropical Fruit'.
The new Lantana is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Waynesville, N.C. The objective of the breeding program is to create new freely-flowering Lantana cultivars with attractive flower coloration.
The new Lantana is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of an unnamed proprietary seedling selection, not patented. The new Lantana was discovered and selected by the Inventor from within a population of plants of the seedling selection in a controlled environment in Waynesville, N.C. in June, 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new Lantana by terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Waynesville, N.C. since September, 2002, has shown that the unique features of this new Lantana are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


To improve the processing rate and uniformity in a plasma processing for a substrate having a relatively large area, a plasma processing apparatus includes a reaction vessel which has a portion made of a dielectric member, which accommodates a film formation substrate, and which can be evacuated, an evacuating means and a gas supply means for supplying a predetermined gas into the reaction vessel, a cathode electrode arranged in a position outside the reaction vessel where the cathode electrode opposes the film formation substrate accommodated in the reaction vessel via the dielectric member, and a high frequency power supply means (a matching circuit and a high frequency power supply) for supplying high frequency power of 30 MHz to 300 MHz to the cathode electrode. The high frequency power of 30 MHz to 300 MHz is supplied to the cathode electrode to generate a plasma between the dielectric member and the film formation substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma processing apparatus and a plasma processing method which can be suitably used as, e.g., a plasma CVD apparatus useful to semiconductor devices such as an electrophotographic photosensitive device, an image input line sensor, an image pickup device, and a photovoltaic device, a sputtering apparatus for forming, e.g., insulating films and metal interconnecting lines as semiconductor devices and optical elements, and an etching apparatus for semiconductor devices and the like.
2. Related Background Art
In the fabrication of semiconductors and the like devices, various plasma processing methods and apparatuses are used in accordance with the intended uses. For example, apparatuses and methods using the characteristics of plasma are used in, e.g., the formation of oxide films, nitride films, and amorphous silicon semiconductor films using a plasma CVD process, the formation of metal interconnecting layers using a sputtering process, and the fine processing techniques using etching. Also, as demands on the film quality and the performance are increasing recently, various improvements are being examined. In particular, a plasma process using high frequency power is extensively used because of the advantages that 1) discharge is stable, and 2) the process can be applied to insulating materials such as an oxide film and a nitride film.
As one example of a plasma CVD apparatus generally used in the formation of deposited films, FIG. 1 shows a plasma processing apparatus as a film formation apparatus for an amorphous silicon film (to be referred to as an a-Si film hereinafter) for a cylindrical electrophotographic photosensitive body.
In FIG. 1, the apparatus comprises a reaction vessel 201 which can be evacuated. This reaction vessel 201 is connected to an evacuating means 209 for evacuating the vessel and a gas supply means 210 for supplying a gas into the vessel.
In the reaction vessel 201, a cylindrical cathode electrode 202 electrically insulated from the reaction vessel 201 by an insulating material 211 is arranged. Additionally, a cylindrical film formation substrate 203 is arranged as a counter electrode inside the cathode electrode 202. The film formation substrate 203 is held by a substrate holder 204 having a rotating mechanism driven by a motor 212. A heater 205 is positioned in the internal space of the film formation substrate 203. The film formation substrate 203 can be heated to a predetermined temperature from the inside by the heater 205 arranged in the internal space. The cathode electrode 202 is connected to a high frequency power supply 207 for discharge via a matching circuit 208.
Note that the oscillation frequency of a discharge high frequency power supply used in a plasma process such as plasma CVD is commonly 13.56 MHz. The oscillation frequency of the high frequency power supply 207 is also 13.56 MHz.
An a-Si film formation method using this plasma processing apparatus will be described below.
First, the reaction vessel 201 is evacuated to a high vacuum by the evacuating means 209. Thereafter, the gas supply means 210 supplies a source gas such as silane gas, disilane gas, methane gas, or ethane gas and a doping gas such as diborane gas to maintain the pressure at several tens of millitorr to a few torr. Subsequently, the high frequency power supply 207 supplies high frequency power of 13.56 MHz to the cathode electrode 202 to generate a plasma between the cathode electrode 202 and the film formation substrate 203, thereby decomposing the source gas. Consequently, an a-Si film is deposited on the film formation substrate 203 heated to about 200.degree. C. to 350.degree. C. by the heater 205.
In the above apparatus using the 13.56-MHz high frequency power, even the maximum deposition rate at which a-Si films meeting the performance of a recent electrophotographic photosensitive body can be formed is at most about 6 (.mu.m/hour). If the deposition rate is further increased, it is sometimes impossible to obtain satisfactory characteristics as a photosensitive body. Generally, when an a-Si film is used as an electrophotographic photosensitive body, a film thickness of at least 20 to 30 .mu.m is necessary to obtain charging power. Accordingly, a long processing time is required to manufacture an electrophotographic photosensitive body meeting the required performance.
As a method of increasing the deposition rate, a plasma CVD process (Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, Vol. 7, No. 3, (1987) pp. 267-273) is reported. This technique suggests that the deposition rate can be increased without lowering the performance of the deposited film by increasing the discharge frequency to be higher than 13.56 MHz by using a high frequency power supply with a frequency higher than 13.56 MHz. This method of increasing the discharge frequency is performed in the field of sputtering and the like and has been extensively studied.
As described above, the conventional plasma processing apparatus has the drawback that a long processing time is required to manufacture an electrophotographic photosensitive body and the like. Therefore, it is necessary to decrease the deposition time without lowering the performance of the deposited film.
Unfortunately, it is found that if a frequency higher than 13.36 MHz, e.g., a high frequency of 100 MHz, is directly applied to the conventional apparatus, the deposition rate of the deposited film varies, or etching cannot be evenly performed. That is, it turns out that it is difficult to perform uniform plasma processing or film deposition on a substrate with a relatively large area.
This degrades various characteristics of the deposited film. The conventional plasma processing apparatus has many problems to be solved in order to form a deposited film having uniform characteristics at a uniform deposition rate.


A machine translation apparatus includes: a transfer dictionary for translation word searching for storing therein a semantic code representative of semantic categorization of a source language word, a dominated code which is a semantic code of a word relatable to the source language word, and a translation word of a target language corresponding to the dominated code; a dominated code and semantic code searching unit for executing a logical AND operation applicable to a word at each node of an intermediate structure obtained by parsing an inputted source language sentence, to be performed on the dominated code of the each node and the semantic code of a node related to the each node, which are respectively stored in the transfer dictionary for translation word searching, and determining proper ones of the dominated code and the semantic code, respectively and a translation word searching unit for searching a translation word for each node corresponding to the dominated code obtained by the dominated code and semantic code searching unit, from among target language translation words for the source language word stored in the transfer dictionary for translation word searching. With the aforesaid machine translation apparatus, a proper translation word for a polysemous word can be automatically selected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine translation apparatus capable of automatically selecting a suitable translation word and reducing the burden on a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
New information is increasing rapidly in the 20th century, in what might be called a knowledge explosion age. People are impelled to perpetually enrich their knowledge in order not to be left behind the times. New knowledge comes from both inside and outside one's nation. Ordinary people read their mother language faster than foreign languages, so translations are important. It is now the time that manual translation should be replaced with mechanical translation, i.e., a machine translation system.
In a machine translation system, the language which is to be inputted for translation is called the source language, whereas the translated and outputted language is called a target language. For example, in the Japanese-Chinese machine translation system, the source language is Japanese and the target language is Chinese. The difference in syntax and semantics between the source and target languages is an important factor which influences the quality of machine translation. Consider the following translation example: ##STR1##
According to a conventional method, in order to transfer the syntax and semantics of a source language to those of a target language in a complete and precise form, the data structure of the source language is simplified to have a simple intermediate structure capable of processing a broad range of information. An example of such an intermediate structure is a dependency structure. With the simplified data structure, a translation can be processed with fewer transfer rules and with higher efficiency. This method is called the transfer system. FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the translation procedure of the transfer system. As shown in FIG. 6, a machine translation apparatus using the transfer system is constructed of, in addition to a reference dictionary, (1) a source language parsing unit, (2) an intermediate structure transfer unit, and (3) a target language generating unit. The most difficult and significant operation performed by the intermediate structure transfer unit is to search for an optimum translation of a source language word. Languages have many meanings, and almost each word is polysemous. A translation word should be selected therefore in accordance with the meaning of the source word. In other words, a suitable translation word cannot be selected unless the meaning of the word in the source language can be grasped correctly. For example, the Japanese word " " has at least the following five meanings and the translation equivalents thereof change correspondingly: ##STR2##
As will be understood from the above example, it is most important for the intermediate structure transfer unit to efficiently grasp the meaning of each word of the source language. Conventional techniques dealing this subject are classified into the following two types:
(I) the user participation system, and PA1 (II) the reference dictionary system, which refers to a dictionary storing all possible translation equivalents. PA1 (1) I write a letter. PA1 (2) And, I mail the letter. PA1 1. PA1 2.
These two systems will be described below.

Machine translation apparatus having means for translating polysemous words using dominated codes

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Multi-mode computer systems and operating methods thereof. The computer system comprises a storage device and a boot program. The storage device includes a single disk partition comprising a first operating system corresponding to PC mode, and a second OS image and a file system image corresponding to media mode. If an instruction for PC mode is received, the boot program loads the first OS on the computer system, enabling the computer system to operate in PC mode. If an instruction for media mode is received, the boot program starts the computer system according to the second OS image and the file system image, enabling the computer system to operate in media mode.

The present disclosure relates generally to computer systems and operating methods thereof, and, more particularly, to multi-mode computer systems and operating methods thereof that can operate in different operating modes.
In addition to PC mode, media modes are also available in many computer systems. In PC mode, performance of general operations of a personal computer is available, while in media mode, discs or mp3 can be played, PVR can be recorded, and IR remote controllers are enabled.
A conventional multi-mode computer system is equipped with a large storage device, such as a hard disk, and a small storage device, such as a flash RAM (Random Access Memory). The large storage device installs a conventional OS (Operating System), and the small storage device installs software corresponding to the media mode. In this design, additional hardware costs are required. Additionally, since the access for small storage devices is slower than that for large storage devices, boot process is longer.
Another conventional multi-mode computer system is equipped with a single storage device. The storage device is partitioned into at least two partitions, each storing respective file systems for software in respective operating modes. In this design, if users damage functions of software, these two file systems cannot be correctly handled, copied, and recovered, increasing the difficulty of system maintenance. Additionally, in PC mode, configuration of file system in media mode is vulnerable and this may cause abnormal function in media mode.


A socket for the inspection of semiconductor devices is disclosed which has laterally extended leads. The device is mounted in a mounting seat of the socket body and results in improvement of the inspection process because difficult steps such as soldering can be omitted. The socket is composed of a socket body which is mountable on a circuit board having a mounting seat therefor, a lead frame intervening between the socket body and the circuit board and an anisotropically electroconductive elastic connector sheet.

The present invention relates to a socket for inspection of a semiconductor device or, more particularly, to a socket for inspection of, in particular, a surface-mountable semiconductor package having a plurality of leads on the side surfaces such as QFPs (quad flat packages), SOPs (small outline packages), PLCCs (plastic leaded chip carriers) and LCCs (leadless chip carriers).
In conducting a burn-in test of semiconductor packages, it is conventional to employ an IC socket for electrical connection between the electrode terminals of the semiconductor package and the electrode terminals of the testing circuit board. An IC socket for such a purpose of a known type comprises a socket body provided with a mounting seat to which a semiconductor package is mountable, a plurality of leads or pins fixed to the mounting seat of which the electrode terminals are connected to the side surfaces and bottom surfaces of the socket body with lead wires and a covering member pivotally rotatable up and down to open or close the upper opening of the mounting seat.
While the above mentioned covering member serves, when the covering member is brought into a position to close the upper opening of the mounting seat, to press down the semiconductor package mounted in the mounting seat so as to bring the electrode terminals of the semiconductor package and the leads or pins of the socket appearing inside of the mounting seat into a press-contacting state, it is usual that the covering member is provided on the lower surface thereof with a resilient cushioning member utilizing a rubber pad or spring so as to ensure uniformity of the contacting pressure between the above mentioned contact points. The IC socket of this type is mounted on a circuit board by soldering the leads to the electrode terminals of the circuit board, when the leads are provided on the side surfaces of the socket body, or by inserting the pins through the through-holes in the circuit board, when pins are provided on the bottom surface of the socket body.
The above described conventional IC socket has disadvantages that, since a plurality of electrode terminals must be provided on the mounting seat of the socket body and a plurality of leads or pins must be provided on the outer surface of the socket body, the number of necessary parts is so large and the assembling work is accordingly very troublesome.
Conventional IC sockets of this type have problems that soldering is always involved in the assembling work on a circuit board so that the number of process steps is increased so many and, in particular, when pins are to be provided, through-holes must be formed in the circuit board so that the design of the circuit board is complicated correspondingly.

Socket for inspection of semiconductor device


A device for providing displacement information includes a housing holding a displacement sensor. The displacement sensor includes a coil and a captive core. An electrical measurement of the coil provides information about displacement of the core. The coil has an axis extending in a first direction, wherein the housing has a minimum outside dimension that is less than 3.00 mm when measured perpendicular to that first direction. The housing has an inner surface having a housing inside dimension. The housing is for holding a displacement sensor and a guidance mechanism. The displacement sensor includes a coil and a captive core having a core outside dimension. The guidance mechanism includes a first part and a second part for guiding the core. The first part includes a bearing connected to the housing. The bearing has an axial hole having a hole dimension about equal to the core outside dimension. The core slidably extends through this axial hole. The second part has a second part outside dimension about equal to the housing inside dimension. The guidance mechanism is for resisting lateral movement and lateral rotation of the core while allowing axial movement of the core into and out of the coil.

Displacement sensors have been used for gauging parts on an assembly line, for use in orthopaedic implants, such as artificial hips and knees, for use on civil structures, such as buildings, dams, and bridges, and for use on vehicles. They have been limited, however, because of the bulk of some of the sensors for some of these applications. Biomedical implants, for example, must be as small as possible. Small displacement sensors are available from MicroStrain, Inc., and they have been described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,914,593, 6,433,629, 6,499,368 and 6,622,567 to MicroStrain, Inc. Shrinking these designs has been hindered by the need to maintain mechanical integrity in the face of potential lateral forces that could bend the moveable core or prevent its easy axial movement into the coil of the displacement sensor. Such problems would seriously degrade measurement accuracy.
However, further miniaturization has been needed to provide displacement sensors in applications requiring even smaller sizes.
Thus, a better solution is needed to provide further miniaturization for applications requiring extremely small sizes while still providing resistance to lateral displacement and lateral rotation from lateral forces, and this solution is provided by the following invention.

Microminiature gauging displacement sensor


The invention relates to a brush seal for sealing a gap between a rotor and a stator, with at least one brush ring, comprising a number of sealing brushes and at least two annular brush ring carriers, running in the circumferential direction of the rotor. Each brush ring is fixed between a first front face of a first brush ring carrier and a second front face of a second brush ring carrier, whereby the second brush ring carrier is directly axially and radially fixed to the first brush ring carrier.

Brush seals are successfully used, for example, in turbomachines, in order to reduce the leakage flow between a rotor and a stator. Many brush seals have the disadvantage that the brush ring carriers are often not produced in one piece. This results, during operation, in out-of-roundnesses of the brush seals and of the secondary seal with respect to the housing, which have an adverse effect on the sealing action of the overall arrangement and consequently on the efficiency of the turbomachine.
DE 199 38 268 A1 discloses a brush seal, in which the brush ring is welded in between two annular one-piece brush ring carriers. This entire unit, consisting of two brush ring carriers and of a brush ring located between them, is inserted into a corresponding slot of the stator. That is to say, each brush ring requires two brush ring carriers and a slot in the stator for receiving the brush ring carriers.
DE 197 20 648 C2 discloses a brush seal, in which a brush ring is held between two brush ring carriers and the brush ring carriers are connected to one another by flanging. In this brush seal, too, each brush ring requires two brush ring carriers and a slot in the stator.

Brush seal for sealing a gap between a rotor and a stator


To provide a semiconductor package on which a multilayer circuit is formed by a so-called build-up system, capable of assuredly mounting a semiconductor chip and improving the reliability of a semiconductor device yield, and durability. The semiconductor package includes an insulating core substrate 10 on one surface of which is defined a semiconductor chip mounting area 20 for mounting the semiconductor chip 14. A circuit pattern 12 made of a metallic foil is also formed on this surface so that one end thereof extends into the semiconductor chip mounting area 20. Film-like circuit patterns 22 connected to the circuit pattern are formed in a multi-layered manner via a film-like insulating layer 18 around the semiconductor chip mounting area on the core substrate. By these film-like circuit patterns and the film-like insulating layer, the semiconductor chip mounting area 20 is defined as a recess.

A semiconductor package (produced by a so-called build-up system) has been known in the prior art and is shown in FIG. 3. In the built-up system a film-like circuit pattern 22 is overlaid via a film-like insulation layer (resist) 18 on a core member 10 carrying a circuit pattern 12 made of metallic foil on the surface thereof, and electrically connected to the circuit pattern 12 on the core member 10 to form a multilayer circuit. The circuit pattern 12 provided on the surface of the core member 10 is made, for example, of copper foil. A solder resist 26 is coated on the upper surface of the uppermost film-like circuit pattern 22. A ball bump 30 is fixed to the circuit pattern 22 at a position where the solder resist 26 is partially removed. Thus, the semiconductor package is formed. A semiconductor chip 14 is fixed to the film-like circuit pattern 22 in the uppermost layer and connected to the multilayer circuit. Further, the semiconductor chip 14 or others are sealed by a potting substance (not shown) to form a semiconductor device.
According to the above semiconductor package, since the multilayer circuit is formed by using the film-like resist 18 and the film-like circuit pattern 22, it is possible to make the package very dense and miniaturize the circuits in response to the dense integration of the semiconductor chip 14.
However, when the semiconductor package is produced by the build-up system as described above, the bonding force between the coated resist 18 and the copper-plated film-like circuit pattern 22 is weak. That is, since the film-like circuit pattern 22 is merely overlaid with the resist 18, the bonding force is very weak and is, for example, in a range from 0.2 kg/cm to 0.3 kg/cm.
Accordingly, a bonding force is also weak between the ball bump 30 fixed on the surface of the film-like circuit pattern 22 and the resist 18. Since the semiconductor chip 14 is fixed to the uppermost film-like circuit pattern 22 via the ball bump 30, the semiconductor chip 14 cannot be assuredly fixed, with a high yield, to the semiconductor package and this results in a problem of lack of reliability and durability. For example, when the ball bump 30 is fixed, the film-like circuit pattern 22 may be peeled off or the semiconductor chip 14 may be released from the semiconductor package to disconnect the electric connection between the semiconductor chip 14 and the multilayer circuit.
Also, when the semiconductor chip is connected to the multilayer circuit of the semiconductor package by a wire bonding system, there is problem in that, if the bonding ability of the film-like circuit pattern 22 with the resist 18 is inferior, it is impossible to bond wires to the film-like circuit pattern 22 with a high yield to result in the deterioration of reliability and durability.

Semiconductor package with multilayer circuit, and semiconductor device


A surge voltage target setting unit obtains a main circuit power supply voltage of a semiconductor power conversion device based on an inter-terminal voltage of a semiconductor switching element detected by a voltage detection unit, and sets a control target of a surge voltage in accordance with the obtained main circuit power supply voltage. An active gate control unit, when the semiconductor switching element is turned off, sets a quantity of voltage modification so as to modify a gate voltage in a direction raising the gate voltage, that is, in a direction lowering a turn-off speed, based on feedback of the inter-terminal voltage, when the inter-terminal voltage exceeds the control target.

For a semiconductor switching element implementing a semiconductor power conversion device such as an inverter or a converter, active gate control for dynamically controlling a gate voltage is employed as a technique for suppressing a peak voltage in a switching operation without requiring a snubber circuit.
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-136732 (hereinafter, Patent Document 1) discloses a semiconductor power conversion device including voltage application means for applying forward bias and reverse bias to a gate to set an emitter of a semiconductor switching element to an intermediate potential and voltage division means for dividing a collector-emitter voltage, in which a gate voltage is controlled in accordance with a voltage across the collector and the emitter when the collector-emitter voltage is equal to or greater than a voltage determined by the voltage division means while a drive signal is OFF.
According to the semiconductor power conversion device disclosed in Patent Document 1, gate voltage control, that is, active gate control, can be carried out such that feedback of a surge voltage is provided to lower the surge voltage, by dynamically controlling the gate voltage based on the divided collector-emitter voltage while the semiconductor switching element is OFF.
In addition, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-238431 (hereinafter, Patent Document 2) discloses a semiconductor power conversion device configured to include a semiconductor switching element for power conversion connected to each arm connecting a DC power supply and a load to each other, that is, an IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) having a collector and an emitter connected in series to the arm, a capacitor connected between the collector and a gate of this IGBT and supplying a current adapted to a rate of variation of the collector-emitter voltage to the gate, and an auxiliary DC power supply connected in parallel to the capacitor through a buffer diode. In addition, a configuration for supplying a current to the gate through the capacitor when a voltage obtained by adding decrease in a forward voltage of the buffer diode to a voltage of the capacitor on the collector side exceeds an output voltage of the auxiliary DC power supply is shown.
According to the semiconductor power conversion device disclosed in Patent Document 2, when a collector voltage exceeds a prescribed voltage obtained by charging the capacitor with the auxiliary DC power supply, feedback is activated so that the gate voltage can be varied to lower a surge voltage. Thus, active gate control can be carried out so as to lower the surge voltage.
In general, in an inverter included in an air-conditioner or a hybrid vehicle, control for dynamically varying a main circuit power supply voltage converted by the inverter (semiconductor power conversion device) depending on a drive condition of a motor driven and controlled by the inverter is carried out.
On the other hand, in conventional active gate control represented by Patent Documents 1 and 2, whether or not a gate voltage is to be varied to suppress a surge voltage is determined based on comparison between a collector voltage of a semiconductor switching element and a prescribed fixed voltage. Namely, a set voltage at which active gate control is activated is fixed.
Therefore, if the set voltage above is determined in accordance with a maximum value of the main circuit power supply voltage as designed, active gate control can be exerted such that a withstand voltage of the semiconductor switching element is not exceeded. On the other hand, if the main circuit power supply voltage is controlled to a low voltage, suppression of surge through active gate control cannot effectively be achieved. In such a case, a feedback amount through active gate control decreases and a switching operation of the semiconductor switching element becomes a simple operation of simply alternately applying a forward bias voltage (voltage for turn-on) and a reverse bias voltage (voltage for turn-off) to the gate, which results in failure in suppression of voltage variation involved with turn-on and turn-off. Consequently, free oscillation voltage variation may take place due to a parasitic capacitance of the semiconductor switching element and a parasitic inductance of a main circuit, and such an oscillation voltage causes EMI (electro-magnetic interference) represented by electromagnetic noise.
In addition, as pointed out in general, where the motor is driven and controlled by the inverter, dielectric breakdown due to partial discharge between windings inside the motor is more likely when voltage fluctuation (dv/dt) of an output voltage from the inverter is excessive. In order to prevent this, it is important to suppress dv/dt within a prescribed range. Here, as described above, suppression of dv/dt is important also from a point of view of measures against EMI.
In active gate control in the semiconductor power conversion device disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, however, a condition of a voltage at which active gate control is activated is determined based on comparison between a collector voltage and a prescribed voltage (set voltage). Accordingly, it is not easy to carry out active gate control so as to strictly restrict dv/dt of a collector-emitter voltage of the semiconductor switching element implementing the inverter. Consequently, it has been difficult to reliably suppress dv/dt of the output voltage from the inverter, that is, a voltage across terminals of the motor, within a prescribed range.