Resources possessed by a computer are registered in a resource table. A resource supply judging portion, in answer to a resource utilization request generated in its own computer or the computer in the preceding stage, judges whether or not it is possible to supply the resource from its own computer by reference to the resource table. When the resource is judged suppliable in the judgment, a resource supplier brings the corresponding resource into a utilizable state. A utilization request transmitter, when the resource was judged unsuppliable, transmits the resource utilization request to the computer in the following stage and, at the same time, sets up a resource supply path. With the described arrangement, utilization of a resource of another computer is made possible without having resources managed by a plurality of computers in a centralized manner. Further, dependence of an executed application program on the resource status is lowered and adaptability thereof to a change in the resource status is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer having a processor for executing an application program that utilized various resources and a communicator for communicating with another computer. The invention also relates to a multiprocessor computing apparatus having a plurality of processors for executing application programs and resources utilized by the application programs. More particularly, it relates to a computer or a multiprocessor computing apparatus having a lower dependence of the executed application program on the resource status and an improved adaptability of the same on a change in the resource status.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a computer having a processor executing an application that uses various resources; and a communicator for communicating with another computer, it is known to use an application program of the first computer executed by a second computer through the communicator.
The above is practiced, for example, when a computer executing an application program is lacking or is short of the computer resource required for the execution of the application program.
For example, the execution of the first computer's application program by another computer is achieved by transmitting whole or part of the application program to another computer. Otherwise, when an application program is executed in a first computer, the application program is executed utilizing a resource of another computer through a predetermined communicator, according to a program included in the application program, in which the address of the other computer possessing the utilized resource is prescribed.
For example, a system is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 63-178368 in which a task operating in a first computer accesses a resource in a second computer connected with the first computer through a communication line. In this system, the first computer is provided with a system table showing one or more second computers accessible by the first computer, a resource table showing resources, which are pointed from each item of the system table, possessed by the second computers and accessible by the first computer, and a chain comprising control blocks, which are pointed from the respective items of the resource table, each control block being provided for each task of the first computer accessing the resource shown in the item of the resource table.
According to the above Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 63-178368, a computer in a system formed of a plurality of interconnected computers can access a resource in another computer.
In Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 56-145442 an art is disclosed for achieving centralized management of resources by a plurality of computers by providing a resource management mechanism in a multi computer system. This art is such that, when a command for a resource securing request is issued from a computer to the resource management mechanism, the resource management mechanism transmits an interrupt signal indicating whether success or failure of the resource securing was to that computer. When the computer issues a command for a resource releasing request to the resource management mechanism, the resource management mechanism sends a notice of release to all computers or to that computer waiting for the release of resource by an interrupt signal.
According to the above Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 56-145442, notice the release of the resource can be immediately transmitted to the computer waiting for the release of the resource after the resource has been released.
Hereinafter, an arrangement having a processor executing an application program, resources used by the application program, and a communicator for communicating with another computer will simply be called "computer".
The above resources (computer resources) include for example: (1) input devices such as key boards; (2) output devices such as line printers; (3) memory units such as hard disk; (4) data and files in the memory units; (5) processors (processing time, etc.) such as CPUs (central processing units); and (6) software executed by the processors.
The status of resources such as presence or absence of a resource and availability or nonavailability of the resource will hereinafter be called "resource status".
The above described application program means a program utilizing the resources. More specifically, it means a program controlling such resources and the like other than the operating system.
In arts allowing an application program to utilize a resource of another computer, such as that described above in which whole or part of the application program is transmitted to another computer having the required resource to execute the program at the other computer, and where a program for utilizing a resource of another computer included in the application program is used, a problem exists requiring the first computer to know in advance which computer the required resource is existing in. For example, an application program using resources has to be prepared by knowing which computer will execute the program, or in which computer the required resource is existing.
In the above described Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 63-178368, each computer has to retain data of resources of all other computers. Accordingly, when a change is made in the resource status, all data about resources in other computer has to be revised. Thus, there has been difficulty in the data maintenance.
In the above described Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 56-145442, there have been various problems because resources are managed by a plurality of computers in a centralized manner. That is, the art disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 56-145442 is difficult to apply to a multiprocessor computing apparatus of a distributed processing type. For example, when distributed processing is made in a plurality of computers connected through a LAN (local area network), there has a problem that the response speed is lowered because communication between the resource management mechanism for managing resources in a centralized manner and each computer have had to be made through the LAN.

Multiprocessor computing apparatus for utilizing resources


A spectrometer assembly (10) is disclosed. The assembly includes a light source (11) with a continuous spectrum. A pre-monochromator (2) generates a spectrum with a relatively small linear dispersion from which a spectral portion is selectable, the spectral bandwidth of the spectral portion being smaller than or equal to the bandwidth of the free spectral range of the order in the echelle spectrum. The centre wavelength of the selected spectral interval is measurable with maximum blaze efficiency. The assembly also includes an echelle spectrometer (4) with means for wavelength calibration, an entrance slit (21) at the pre-monochromator (2), an intermediate slit assembly (50) with an intermediate slit (3) and a spatially resolving light detector (5) in the exit plane of the spectrometer for the detection of wavelength spectra.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a spectrometer. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for the wavelength calibration of echelle spectrometers.
Echelle spectrometers are spectrometers operating wi have a high angular dispersion, i.e. the ability to angularly separate closly proximate wavelengths. This has the advantage of a high resolution and yet small dimensions of the assembly. Therefore, echelle gratings are particularity suitable for high resolution spectroscopy, such as atomic absorption spectroscopy with continuous light sources. A spectrometer with an echelle grating normally operates in very high diffraction orders. Typical values are 20th to 150th order. The free spectral range in each order is comparatively small.
In order to avoid spectral overlapping of different diffraction orders in the exit plane of the spectrometer, echelle spectrometers are used in combination with an internal separation of the orders which is perpendicular to the direction of the echelle dispersion and leading to two-dimensional spectra. The use of echelle gratings in combination with a pre-monochramator for the separation of the orders is also known as a so called double echelle spectrometer assembly. The radiation is specrally pre-selected for example by means of a prism. Only the radiation from a limited spectral range essentially corresponding to one order enteres the echelle spectrometer. The generated echelle spectrum has a linear spectral form. Diffraction gratings or prisms are used as dispersing optical elements for the selection of the order with a pre-monochromator. The directions of the dispersion of the pre-monochromator and the echelle grating are parallel to each other.
For most applications it is necessary to calibrate the spectrometer. A wavelength is allocated to each geometric position in the exit plane of the spectrometer. The calibration can vary due to temperature changes, vibrations or other mechanical changes. In this case it may be necessary to re-calibrate the device.
2. Prior Art
From the DE 41 18 760 A1 a double spectrometer assembly is known having a fluid prism with variable prism angle which generates a spectrum with a low, adjustable dispersion. The spectrum is imaged on an intermediate slit simultaneously forming the entrance slit, i.e. the field stop for the following echelle spectrometer. The intermediate slit cuts out a partial spectrum from the entire spectrum of the light source to be measured, the spectral band width of such partial spectrum being at least smaller than the band width of the corresponding diffraction order of the echelle grating. Such an assembly operates with a small intermediate slit with constant width. The width of the intermediate slit is selected similar to the width of a picture element of the detector (pixel). The width of the entrance slit is comparatively large. The selection of the spectral band width of the light entering through the intermediate slit is effected by varying the linear dispersion in such a way that the prism angle is adjusted accordingly. The position of the wavelength of the portion of the spectrum is adjusted by rotating the prism. The position of the portion of the spectrum on the detector of the echelle spectrometer is adjusted by rotating the echelle grating. The precision of the adjustment of the wavelength position is determined by the precision of the mechanical adjustment of the angle of the echelle grating and the prism of the pre-monochromator, respectively.
From DE 195 45 178 A1, a spectrometer assembly is known consisting of an echelle spectrometer and a preceding prism spectrometer for the separation of the orders, the assembly using the Neon spectrum of a low pressure discharge lamp as a line source for the wavelength calibration of the echelle spectrometer. The light from the line source enters the echelle spectrometer bypassing the prism spectrometer through an auxiliary slit in the plane of the intermediate slit and is detected with additional detector elements at the light detector. In such an assembly the widths of the auxiliary slit and the intermediate slit are constant, have the same width and they are smaller than the entrance slit of the pre-monochromator. The intermediate slit forms the field stop for the double spectrometer assembly in a known way. The width of the entrance slit of the described assembly can be changed in steps. Using a fixed prism angle the entrance slit serves as the spectral limitation of the light beam entering the echelle spectrometer. The light entering through the auxiliary slit without pre-dispersion for the wavelength calibration generates a characteristic pattern of spectral lines on the detector. Not all the lines belong to one diffraction order of the Echelle grating, but represent the superposition of the different diffraction orders of the grating. Each line exactly represents one pair of values for the incident and diffraction angle at the grating. With a sufficient line density at least on line is imaged on the reference detector for each position of the grating. By mechanically coupling of the detectors on a common silicon chip a wavelength calibration of the measuring detector can be performed for each measuring wavelength using the position of the reference line with the second, parallelly arranged reference detector. The accuracy of the adjustment of the wavelength position is only determined by the measuring accuracy of the measurement of the reference spectrum, apart from the various imaging errors of the measurement and reference spectra. Thereby, it is now independent from the accuracy of the mechanical adjustment of the Echelle grating.
It is a disadvantage of the known assemblies, that each detector element of the light receiving detector is illuminated by the light from a different position of the entrance slit which is significantly wider than the intermediate slit. Thereby a measuring error can be generated, when using the double spectrometer assembly especially for the investigation of light sources with an inhomogeneous light density distribution.
Furthermore, the accuracy of the adjustment of the wavelength position of the wavelength range selected by means of the pre-monochromator is completely dominated by the accuracy of the mechanical adjustment of the dispersing element used for the pre-monochromator. Furthermore, the line density of the calibrating light source often is not sufficient with very high linear dispersion of the echelle spectrometer to image at least one calibration line on the detector for each grating position.

Assembly and method for wavelength calibration in an echelle spectrometer

Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Analytischen Wissenschaften e.V.

Gesellschaft zur Förderung angewandter Optik, Optoelektronik, Quantenelektronik und Spektroskonie e. V.


Methods for providing cooked rice with enhanced levels of fiber, wherein the fiber-containing cooked rice is suitable and especially adapted for use in preparing fiber-containing rice-based cereal products and especially for preparing fiber-containing puffed rice-based cereal products, are provided.

Fiber is an important dietary component. Typical grains (including cereals prepared from such grains), fresh vegetables and fruits, and the like are an important source of dietary fiber. Rice, including rice-based cereals, however, do not typically provide a significant amount of fiber.
Most of the nutrients (including fiber and B vitamins) of whole rice are found in the outer layer or kernel (i.e., the bran). Rice bran also contains lipase enzymes which can cause rancidity within a relatively short time after harvesting. Thus, typically the bran (along with its fiber and nutrients) are removed before using the rice to prepare commercial food products (e.g., cereals). Such treated rice (e.g., cleaned and hulled) generally contains less than about 1 percent total dietary fiber (including soluble and insoluble fiber). Thus, cereals prepared from rice are typically not good sources of fiber.
Incorporation of fiber in rice without adversely affecting its performance in cereal manufacture has not been possible on a commercial scale. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,248,390 (Jun. 19, 2001) provides a "fiber water" containing significant levels of water soluble dietary fiber. This fiber water can be used to enrich foods, such as rice, by cooking the foods in fiber water. Cooked rice prepared in this manner does indeed provide a good source of fiber. The cooked rice, however, is not suitable for preparing rice-containing cereals, especially, puffed rice cereals, due to both its high water levels and the stickiness of the cooked rice. Such rice is simply not suitable for use in a conventional commercial cereal making production line.
Moreover, adding fiber after the rice has been cooked (i.e., during the later stages of cereal manufacture) has not been successful. The added fiber interferes with the manufacture process (e.g., prevent other coating materials to adhere to or penetrate the cereal particles), simply fails to adhere to the cereal particles themselves, and/or tends to agglomerate the cereal particles together. In any event, a satisfactory cereal product has not been possible.
Consequently, there remains a need to provide rice-based cereals containing relatively high levels of fiber. The present invention provides such methods using a fiber-infusion process during the cooking step.

Fiber-containing rice-based cereals and methods of preparation


The current sharing using thermal feedback, in accordance with various embodiments, includes controlling an amount of current output from each of a plurality of power modules based on the thermal characteristics of each respective power module.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
The present teachings relate to systems and methods for controlling current sharing of parallel power supplies using thermal feedback.
Electronic power generating systems for providing power to a load can typically include a plurality of power modules, or circuits, which each output a current to a common load. More particularly, the current output by each of the power modules is combined to cumulatively provide the needed amount of current drawn by the load. This is commonly referred to as current sharing, because the plurality of power modules shares in providing the current drawn by the load.
In many instances airflow and temperatures over and around the power system can be variant, or certain areas of the system can be exposed to greater amounts of heat such that each power module can experience differing thermal environments. That is, each power module may experience differing cooling and/or heating effects as a result of variances in airflow and heat exposure at different portions of the power system. Therefore, some power modules may operate at a higher temperature than other power modules of system, which will typically shorten operational life of the module. Thus, since each of the power modules is sharing in providing the needed current to the load, the shorter operational life of the hotter operating modules may result in shortening the overall life of the power generating system, lowering the overall reliability.

Parallel supply current sharing using thermal feedback


This document describes a directed graph model using a peer-to-peer overlay structure and a gossip-based protocol to maintain the distributed membership. A protocol suite for peers to join the live streaming session, form the P2P streaming overlay, and exchange video packets with others has also been presented. The different capabilities of the heterogeneous peers are well depicted using an adaptive out-degree mechanism. The performance of the whole system is maintained by a contribution-aware mechanism, which ensures that the peers with large contribution will get more chance to be served than those with small or no contribution.

Peer-to-peer networking has proven to be a promising method for delivering live video streams and other content to a large number of clients over the Internet. Much effort has been devoted to the research and development of these live peer-to-peer streaming systems. Some deployed systems have shown that the peer-to-peer systems can scale to millions of online users in a single session.
In the design of the peer-to-peer streaming systems, one of the most important problems to address is how to organize the dynamic and heterogeneous peers into an efficient overlay. The structure and behavior of the overlay greatly affects the efficiency of many modules such as peer discovery, data transmission, and the final streaming performance perceived by end users.
Mesh-based and tree-based approaches are the two common methods for overlay construction in peer-to-peer streaming systems.
In the tree-based approach, peers or nodes (peers and nodes are used interchangeably throughout this document) form one or multiple trees to disseminate the streaming packets. Within each tree, the node receives packets from its parent nodes and delivers their copies to its child nodes. Multiple trees are usually disjointed, i.e., each node is an interior node of one tree and the leaf node of all the other trees. However, the tree is not robust to peer churn, since it requires high cost in repairing the tree structure when peers are joining and leaving the session frequently.
In the mesh-based approach, peers are organized in a more unstructured way. There is no explicit tree structure over the peers. Instead, peers simply find a number of other nodes as their partners and exchange data with them according to their available packets. Some research work has shown that the mesh-based approach is more robust and efficient than the tree-based one when delivering live video. Consequently, most deployed peer-to-peer streaming systems use mesh-based approaches.
However, current mesh-based approaches use a randomly constructed overlay to organize the peers for transmitting video, otherwise known as an undirected graph approach. Due to this undirected graph approach, it is difficult to describe the relationship between peers, the heterogeneity in the capability of the peers and the ability to optimize the overlay. As such, previous mesh-based and tree-based approaches are either not flexible or not robust enough for providing satisfactory performance.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming overlay construction and optimization


An optical disc drive that can surely erase the trial writing data recorded in the Test Area is disclosed. The optical disc drive of the present invention has a rotation driving mechanism for rotating a loaded optical disc, and an optical pick-up capable of recording data to the optical disc by emitting a laser beam onto the optical disc drive. In the erasing procedure for erasing the trial writing data recorded in the Test Area, CW erase procedure is carried out and the optical disc drive tries to reproduce the trial writing data. Then, it is determined whether an HF signal is detected or not, and the CW erase procedure is carried out again in the case where the HF signal is detected.

There are known optical disc drives, which record and/or reproduce information on an optical disc that is rewritable, such as CD-RW and the like.
Such optical disc drives include: a rotational driving mechanism for rotating a loaded optical disc; an optical pick-up (optical head) which is provided movably in a radial direction with respect to the loaded optical disc for emitting a laser beam to be able to record data (information) on the disc; and an optical pick-up moving mechanism equipped with a sled motor for moving the optical pick-up in the radial direction.
In the optical disc drive having such a function for recording data, it is required to acquire an optimum recording power (writing output of the laser beam) suitable for an inherent property of an optical disc and conditions of the circumstances before actually writing (recording) information onto the optical disc.
Acquiring the optimum recording power is referred to as OPC (Optimum Power Control). An OPC procedure is carried out at a region called as PCA (Power Calibration Area) that is positioned at the innermost region of an optical disc. The PCA is divided into two regions, i.e., a Test Area and a Count Area.
Trial writing is carried out in the Test Area by changing the output level of the laser beam in a stepwise manner, and the count (number of times) of trial writing (the count (number of times) of the OPC procedure) is recorded in the Count Area.
Further, in the case where there is no space to carry out trial writing in the Test Area, the optical disc drive carries out CW erase (Continuous Wave Erase) procedure to erase trial writing data that is recorded in the Test Area.
However, sometimes the trial writing data that is recorded in the Test Area cannot be erased completely by only one CW erase, and if trial writing is carried out in a state where the trial writing data still remains in the Test Area, overwrite procedure is carried out on the portion in which the writing data remains.
In this case, an optimum output level of the laser beam cannot be acquired, and an improper output level of the laser beam may be determined as the optimum recording power.
When recording data is carried out at the improper output level of the laser beam that is determined in the OPC procedure, for example, in the case where the output level of the laser beam is higher than the optimum output level, the optical disc may suffer a significant damage, on the other hand, in the case where the output level of the laser beam is lower than the optimum output level, the recording procedure may be insufficient, thereby being incapable of recording data accurately.
Further, in this case, when the recorded information is reproduced, high-quality signals cannot be obtained.

Optical disc drive for erasing the power calibration area of an optical disc


A power supply controller apparatus is provided for use in a power supply apparatus including a battery assembly. The power supply controller apparatus includes a controller that controls supplying power to a load from said battery assembly through a capacitor connected between first and second contactors by turning on and off each of contactors. The controller detects whether or not each contactor is welded based on an output signal from one output terminal of both ends of the capacitor, when the each contactor is controlled to be turned off and an AC signal is applied to one input terminal of (a) one end of the battery assembly, (b) the other end of the battery assembly, and (c) each connection point between secondary batteries of the battery assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power supply controller apparatus for use in a power supply apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to power supply controller apparatus for detecting whether or not each contactor is welded using an AC signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in electric vehicles such as pure electric vehicles (PEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) or the like, the power supply apparatus using secondary batteries such as nickel-metal hydride batteries with high-energy density (hereinafter referred as to "nickel-hydrogen batteries") or the like has been used as a power source for use in a motor or a drive source for various types of loads. The power supply apparatus for use in an electric vehicle requires a total voltage of 100V to 350V. The output voltage of a single battery (a cell), which is the minimum unit of a battery assembly constituting the power supply apparatus, is approximately 1.2V. Hence, in usual, a plurality of cells (e.g. 100 cells) are connected in series to each other to obtain a desired total voltage.
Contactors (relays) are provided between the power supply apparatus and the motor to connect and disconnect the power source. For example, in PEVs, when a vehicle driver turns on an ignition key to start supply of the power, the contactors are controlled to be in conductive state to connect the power supply apparatus to the motor, and then the motor is driven to rotate. When the vehicle driver turns off the ignition key, the contactors are controlled to be in non-conductive state to disconnect the power supply apparatus from the motor, and then the motor is stopped.
Generally speaking in PEVs and HEVs, a capacitor for smoothing the output voltage is provided in order to stably supply a DC voltage to the motor. As described above, the total voltage of the power supply apparatus is extremely high. Hence, in the case that the contactors are controlled to be in conductive state when the electrical charge of the capacitor is almost empty, a large-current instantaneously flows between the conducting contacts of the contactor. By repeating this, the contacts are heated, melted, and then pressured, and as a result, the contacts might be welded each other. The welding of the contactors causes malfunction of the entire apparatus. A power supply controller apparatus of a prior art for detecting welding of contactors is disclosed in the Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2000-134707.
Referring to FIGS. 14 and 15, the power supply controller apparatus of the prior art will be described.
FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electric vehicle having the power supply controller apparatus of the prior art. In FIG. 14, a battery assembly 1 has such a configuration that a plurality of single batteries are connected in series to each other. The positive terminal of the battery assembly 1 is connected to a first contactor 2. The negative terminal of the battery assembly 1 is connected to a second contactor 3. A third contactor 4 and the current-limiting resistance 5 form a series circuit. The series circuit is connected in parallel to the first contactor 2.
Each of the first contactor 2, the second contactor 3, and the third contactor 4 includes a moving contact and a fixed contact. Each contactor switches over between conductive state (ON state) and non-conductive state (OFF state) of the contacts under control of a controller 8.
An inverter 32 is constituted by a plurality of transistors and a plurality of diodes. The inverter 32 sequentially applies the power supply voltages to respective phases of the motor 34 to drive the motor 34. A capacitor 6 is a smoothing capacitor for stably supplying a DC voltage to the inverter 32. A voltage detector 7 detects a voltage Vinv applied between both ends of the inverter 32 (hereinafter referred as to "an inverter voltage Vinv").
The controller 8 receives an input signal from an operation input part 36 and controls switching over of each contactor between conductive state and non-conductive state thereof. The controller 8 reads out the inverter voltage Vinv from the voltage detector 7 and detects welding of each contactor depending on the control state of each contactor. The controller 8 outputs display information for notifying the operator of incidence of the welding to a display output part 38, to display the same information thereon when the controller 8 determines that any contactor is welded.
The operation input part 36 is, for example, an ignition key that is operated by an operator such as a driver of the electric vehicle or the like. The display output part 38 is, for example, a lighting apparatus such as LEDs or the like. In the case that the controller 8 determines that any contactor is welded, the display output part 38 is made to be lighted responsive to an instruction from the controller 8 to notify the operator of incidence of the welding.
Referring to FIG. 15, a process for detecting welding of the contactors in the power supply controller apparatus of the prior art will be described. FIG. 15 is a timing chart showing control signals 52, 53 and 54 from the controller 8 to the first contactor 2, the second contactor 3, and the third contactor 4, respectively, regarding a typical operation in a power supply controller apparatus for use in an electric vehicle.
At the timing TO, the operator turns on the ignition key of the operation input part 36 to supply the power. At this timing, since the contactors 2, 3 and 4 are controlled to be turned off. Therefore, if no contactors are welded, the inverter voltage Vinv detected by the voltage detector 7 is almost zero during the time interval between the timings TO and T1. That is, if the inverter voltage Vinv detected by the voltage detector 7 increases for this time interval, it shows that at least one of the first contactor 2 and the third contactor 4, and the second contactor 3 are welded.
At the timing T1, the third contactor 4 is controlled to be turned on. If no contactors are welded, the inverter voltage Vinv detected by the voltage detector 7 is almost zero during the time interval between the timings T1 and T2. That is, if the inverter voltage Vinv detected by the voltage detector 7 increases for this time interval, it shows that the second contactor 3 is welded.
At the timing T2, the third contactor 4 is controlled to be turned off before the second contactor 3 is controlled to be turned on at the timing T3. If no contactors are welded, the inverter voltage Vinv detected by the voltage detector 7 is almost zero during the time interval between the timings T3 and T4. That is, if the inverter voltage Vinv detected by the voltage detector 7 increases for this time interval, it shows that at least one of the first contactor 2 and the third contactor 4 is welded.
At the timing T4, with keeping the second contactor 3 be turned on, the third contactor 4 is controlled to be turned on again. The precharge of the capacitor 6 is started. At this timing, since the current-limiting resistance 5 is provided, no large-current flows between the contacts of the third contactor 4. At the timing T5 when the capacitor 6 is fully charged, the first contactor 2 is controlled to be turned on, and then the voltage of the battery assembly 1 is applied to the inverter 32 so as to start driving of the motor 34. At the timing T6, the third contactor 4 is controlled to be turned off.
Further, at the timing T7, the operator turns off the ignition key. At the same timing, the first contactor 2 is controlled to be turned off to stop driving of the motor 34. If no contactors are welded, the inverter voltage Vinv detected by the voltage detector 7 decreases during the time interval between the timings T7 and T8. That is, if the inverter voltage Vinv detected by the voltage detector 7 does not decrease and is kept be nearly equal to the voltage between both ends of the battery assembly 1 for this time interval, it shows that the first contactor 2 is welded. At the timing T8, the second contactor 3 is controlled to be turned off. As described above, the power supply controller apparatus of the prior art detects which contactor is welded.
However, as is understood from FIG. 15, in the power supply controller apparatus of the prior art, the controller 8 is required to keep the third contactor 3 be turned on during the time interval between the timings T1 and T2 for the purpose of detecting welding of the second contactor 3. This leads to that the number of time of switching of the third contactor 4 is twice as much as that in the case of no welding detection. This causes reduction of the service life of the third contactor 4, by extension, causes reduction of the service life of the entire electric vehicle.
Additionally, in the case that the inverter voltage Vinv is measured, necessary circuits and wire harnesses for measuring the inverter voltage Vinv cost high. Furthermore, in the case that the value of the inverter voltage Vinv is read out from the other electronic control unit (ECU) that controls the inverter, it takes time to communicate with each other. It is disadvantageous to shorten the time required for welding detection.
Additionally, for the purpose of detecting welding of the first contactor 2, electric charge in the smoothing capacitor (the capacitor 6 of FIG. 14) is required to be discharged for security, and therefore, it takes time to wait for discharging the capacitor during the time interval between the timings T7 and T8 of FIG. 15 (usually more than 10 minutes). An additional load for discharging the electric charge in short time increases the number of components, and as a result, the power supply controller apparatus becomes more expensive.

Power supply controller apparatus for detecting welding of contactors


The present solution is directed to methods and systems for asynchronously loading tag management code and vendor tags on a web page while remaining portions of the web page load. An application executing on a device may receive a web page comprising a configuration object configured to asynchronously load tag management code. The configuration object may load asynchronously, upon execution by the application, the tag management code into memory of the application while the application continues to load a remainder of the web page. The tag management code may request, while the application continues to load the remainder of the web page, one or more vendor tags from a server over a network. The tag management code may receive, while the application continues to load the remainder of the web page, a vendor tag from the server.

Current web pages utilize a variety of HTML tags for purposes of ad serving and tracking user behavior. An example of an HTML tag is the iFrame container which is used by many ad servers to place ads within web pages. Many other tags exist and each has a specific purpose (e.g., digital marketing, display remarking, web page analysis). While HTML tags are necessary for many of today's websites, especially e-commerce sites, the main disadvantage of such tags is that they have the potential to drastically slow page load times which frustrates end users and leads to higher web page abandonment rates and thus potentially lower revenue for web page publishers. Further, web page publishers must implement a specific service provider's HTML tags within the publisher page. As more and more tags are included within the web page, the overall time required to fully load the page is increased, sometimes to unacceptable levels.
Some web page publishers try to mitigate this problem by placing vendor tags at the end of the web page code so that the tags load after the web page content. However, this method is problematic because placing tags at the end of a web page reduces the number of users still on the page at the point of the tag request, which correspondingly limits the tag's ability to gather data that is often very valuable to the web page publisher.
Webmasters and information technology experts work to maximize the efficiency of loading the content of web pages but often have no control over the tags necessary on their web pages. This causes undesirable page load delays and sometimes results in the removal of some tags to mitigate the overall effect.
Vendor tags may also present other risks to web page publishers. For example, JavaScript tags load sequentially which causes the browser to block all other execution of the page while it awaits completion of the script. Thus, if the awaited script never completes, it creates the worst-case scenario wherein the page never finishes loading.
Other solutions allow for tags to be loaded after the browser has marked its document object model (DOM) as complete. This method may present problems in that if a script loaded in this manner attempts to write content to the page itself (which has already been marked complete), then the browser will create a new page, effectively overwriting the intended page with a new, blank page. Therefore, a need exists in the art for a system and method that is capable of managing how and when certain tags load within a web page.

System and method for loading of web page assets


Improved gray scaling imaging methods and systems include a group of elements within an array of individually controllable elements that project a part of a radiation beam onto a lens in an array of microlenses, and are individually controllable so that any number of the individually controllable elements may be switched on or off to generate a gray scale.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lithographic apparatus and a method for manufacturing a device.
2. Related Art
A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a target portion of a substrate (e.g., a workpiece, an object, a display, etc.). The lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs), flat panel displays, and other devices involving fine structures. In a conventional lithographic apparatus, a patterning means, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, can be used to generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC (or other device), and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g., comprising part of one or several dies) on a substrate (e.g., a silicon wafer or glass plate) that has a layer of radiation-sensitive material (e.g., resist). Instead of a mask, the patterning means can comprise an array of individually controllable elements that generate the circuit pattern. This is referred to as maskless lithography.
In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively exposed. Known lithographic apparatus include steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion in one go, and scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through the beam in a given direction (the "scanning" direction), while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction.
Another way of imaging includes pixel grid imaging, in which a pattern is realized by successive exposure of spots.
It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate. Instead of a mask, the patterning device may comprise a patterning array that comprises an array of individually controllable elements. An advantage of such a system compared to a mask-based system is that the pattern can be changed more quickly and for less cost.
Many patterning devices are binary, that is the dose delivered to a given point on the substrate can be one of two kinds, a high level or a low level. Normally the high level is set at a level that will expose the resist, i.e., is above the resist threshold, whereas the low level is below the resist threshold and does not expose the resist.
Gray scaling is, however, only directly achievable with some patterning devices, for example those which operate as a grating light valve. These devices only have a limited number of pixels, reducing their usefulness. For other devices, a gray scale can be obtained by switching an individually controllable element on and off at a controlled rate. This has the disadvantage that it decreases the throughput at which the apparatus can operate.
What are needed, therefore, are improved gray scaling imaging methods and systems.

Methods and systems for lithographic gray scaling


A communication system has a computer device, a telecommunication terminal apparatus, and a switch that can be connected to a public telephone network. The computer device and the telecommunication terminal apparatus are connected via a first bus system, and the telecommunication terminal apparatus is connected to the switch via an interface. In a first operating mode of the telecommunication terminal apparatus, data is received from the switch and rerouted to a first bus system and to the computer device. The computer has a processor to process data received by the telecommunication terminal apparatus, and forwards this data to the telecommunication terminal apparatus via the first bus system and the data are further transmitted by the telecommunication terminal apparatus. The first bus system has a greater bandwidth than a second bus system that connects individual internal assemblies of the telecommunication terminal apparatus. In the first operating mode, the telecommunication terminal also forwards data produced by the telecommunication terminal apparatus to the computer device and the computer processor processes the received data. This data is sent back via the first bus system to the telecommunication terminal apparatus which reroutes this data to the switch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication system for connecting at least one telecommunication terminal apparatus and at least one computer device to a switching device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Analog telephone equipment is increasingly being replaced by digital equipment, based predominantly on the ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) standard. ISDN is defined by several international digital communication standards that are recognized worldwide by telephone companies. ISDN technology is used to send both speech and data that can include graphics, sound, films and digital signals via public telephone networks. The ISDN standard comprises digital standard transmission protocols, terminals and connection cables. The user is provided with two types of ISDN terminals. The international base terminal (S0) comprises two B channels, each having 64 Kbit/s, and a D channel having 16 Kbit/s. The B channels transmit the useful information. The D channel is used for the signaling. Up to eight telephones or other terminal apparatuses can then be operated at an S0 interface.
Besides the base terminal (S0), the primary multiplex terminal (SZM), which is likewise internationally standardized, is also provided; it comprises 30 B channels and 1 D channel having 64 Kbit/s.
ISDN telephones can be operated directly at public networks or at private branch exchanges (PABX, Private Automatic Branch Exchange). In Germany, public communication networks standardly provide two-lead Uk0 interfaces. In what is known as a network termination (NT), these Uk0 interfaces are converted into a four-lead S0 interface. For normal operation, the network termination requires energy from the public power network. In case of a power failure, the network termination (NT) supplies an emergency-supply-authorized terminal apparatus with energy from the public telephone network. Emergency operation is indicated by a reversal of the supply voltage at the S0 interface.
Terminal apparatuses are preferably connected to private branch exchanges via the Up0 interface. The Up0 interface likewise transmits two B channels and one D channel. The Up0 interface, however, is not internationally standardized. For this reason, in addition to the Up0 interface, there also exist many other manufacturer-specific U interfaces.
Since the ISDN standard is a digital standard, it is particularly easy for computers to be connected to ISDN interfaces via plug-in cards. In contrast to speech transmission via telephone or image transmission using fax machines, computers offer the possibility of transmission of very different data formats. Thus, in the domain of the Internet, a multiplicity of image formats, speech compression methods, and formats for transmitting moving images, are used. The use of computers to send and receive faxes as well known as the prior art. With the corresponding software, a computer connected to a printer and to a scanner replaces a fax machine.
One problem in the contemporary PC world is the lack of flexibility of the interfaces used. A PC is standardly equipped with a keyboard interface, one parallel interface and two serial interfaces (RS-232). The keyboard interface is occupied by the keyboard. One serial interface is allocated to the mouse, and the parallel interface is reserved for the printer. Only the second serial interface is available for additional peripheral devices. In the PC domain, data transmission via a serial interface is limited to a maximum of 115.2 Kbit/s. For this reason, peripheral devices that produce large quantities of data, such as scanners, are connected directly to computer-internal busses, PCI bus or the ISA bus, via additional plug-in cards. However, to use such peripheral devices it is necessary to open the computer and install additional plug-in cards. Another disadvantage of the many different interfaces in the PC domain is the use of many different plug connections. In order to solve this problem, various bus systems are known in the prior art. In contrast to the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) and ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) busses, an SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) interface can also be led out from the computer housing, and can in this way be used for the connection of up to seven peripheral devices having high data transmission rates, such as hard disks or scanners. A large number of low-price busses are available, such as the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB), the RS-485 interface, which represents an extension of the RS-232 interface, the Access.bus (A.b), the Connection Highway Interface (CHI), the GeoPort, and, recently, the Universal Serial Bus (USB).
An essential goal in the definition of the USB standard was to provide a low-cost bus system for the connection of external peripheral devices to PCs. The USB bus offers low to medium data transmission rates (up to 12 MBit/s). It is thus very well suited for the connection of a large number of peripheral devices, such as scanners, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), keyboards and mice. Up to 127 devices can be connected to the USB bus. In addition, the PCI bus supports plug-and-play functionality. The connecting cables are shielded four-lead lines. Two leads are used for the transmission of a supply voltage of 5 volts. The two other leads are twisted, and are used for signal transmission. For data transmission rates of 1.5 MBit/s, unshielded untwisted cables are sufficient. The plugs are designed in such a way that one terminal apparatus can feed a maximum of 5 amperes into the supply line of the USB bus. The energy supply via the USB bus offers the possibility of producing peripheral devices without power supply units, thus saving costs.
PCs and other terminal apparatuses, such as telephones, can be connected jointly to public telephone networks or also to private branch exchanges. As long as the public telephone network or the private branch exchange provides an interface—such as the S0 interface or the Up0 interface—that permits the connection of several terminal apparatuses, the PC and the terminal apparatus can be operated at the same interface, as indicated in FIG. 3. For reasons of cost, telephones are standardly equipped only with the most necessary functions. The telephone or terminal apparatus in FIG. 3 can thus only send data to, and receive data from, the private branch exchange (PABX). Consequently, in FIG. 3 a communication between PC and terminal apparatus is possible only indirectly, via the private branch exchange (PABX). Additional manufacturer-specific solutions according to FIG. 4 have also been created, in which, for example, the PC is connected with the private branch exchange (PABX) via an RS-232 interface, via a terminal apparatus (TE). The advantage of this solution is that at the PC side it is possible to use an already-existing interface, such as the RS-232 interface. It is disadvantageous, however, that this interface does not have the bandwidth required for complete controlling by the PC.
FIG. 3 shows, in addition, the internal construction of a telephone. A telephone essentially has three user interfaces, namely a microphone (acoustic source), a loudspeaker (acoustic sink) and a keyboard for the dialing process (D channel). These three user interfaces, possibly supplemented by additional input and output units, are connected to the private branch exchange (PABX) or to the public telephone network via the telephone-internal IOM-2 bus (Input-Output Multiplexer) with the Up0/E or S0 interface. The IOM-2 interface has a frame structure for three IOM channels. Each of these IOM channels provides four sub-channels, each having 64 Kbit/s. In the IOM-2 frame structure, 2 B channels (64 Kbit/s), one D channel (16 Kbit/s), one D* channel (16 Kbit/s), one CTRL channel (16 Kbit/s) and 2 IC channels (64 Kbit/s) among other things are applied. The B channels are used for data exchange with the switching center, preferably of speech data. The D channel is used for the exchange of control information with the switching center. The two IC channels are used for the exchange of data, preferably speech data, with additional terminal apparatuses, for example slave phones, and the D* channel and CTRL channel are used for the exchange of control information with additional terminal apparatuses. In the connection with an additional telephone (slave phones), the telephone that is connected with the switching center must be configured as a master phone.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,656 discloses an interface arrangement that connects a communication system to a telecommunications terminal device. This interface is implemented by a plugin card in a personal computer that, on the one hand, controls the operation of the connected telecommunications terminal device and, on the other hand, offers services of the communication system. The complete signalling from the communication system is interpreted by the personal computer, converted into suitable control signals and forwarded to the telecommunications terminal device. The data received from the telecommunications terminal device are interpreted and modified in the personal computer. Suitable control and signalling messages are derived therefrom from this data that are then forwarded from the personal computer to the communication system. The connection of further peripheral devices to the interface between the personal computer and the telecommunications terminal device, however, is no more possible than is stand-alone operation of the telecommunications terminal device when the personal computer is turned off.
"Isar—1äβt Daten statt Wasser flieβen", ELEKTRONIK, Vol. 45, No. 20, 1 Oct. 1996, pages 56–60 describes a semiconductor module both for digital as well as for analog data transmission. This module serves the purpose producing cost-beneficial, passive ISDN PC cards that, parallel to the data transfer with ISDN subscribers, can also communicate with subscribers in the analog network and transmit data. The functions of passive ISDN PC cards that are based on the semiconductor module described in this reference are comparable to those of active cards. In one applied example, the semiconductor module is connected to an ISDN transceiver via an IOM-2 bus and is connected to a PC bus interface via a local bus.


An image reading apparatus includes at least two laser stimulating ray sources for emitting laser beams having different wavelengths, a laser beam scanner for scanning an image carrier carrying an image with the laser beam emitted from a selected one of the laser stimulating ray sources and a light detector for photoelectrically detecting light released from the image carrier, the laser beam scanner being provided with a laser beam transmission portion for transmitting the laser beam therethrough. The image reading apparatus further includes a mirror for reflecting light released from the image carrier to lead it to the light detector. According to the thus constituted image reading apparatus, it is possible to be used for a radiation diagnosis system, an autoradiographic system, an electron microscope detecting system and a radiation diffraction image detecting system using a stimulable phosphor and a fluorescence detecting system and accurately reading an image with a simple structure.

The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus and, particularly, to such an apparatus comprising a plurality of laser stimulating ray sources for emitting laser beams having different wavelengths and capable of being used for a radiation diagnosis system, an autoradiographic system, an electron microscope detecting system and a radiation diffraction image detecting system using a stimulable phosphor and a fluorescence detecting system and accurately reading an image with a simple structure.


Articles including a thin laminar heating element composed of a sintered conductive polymer, and electrodes attached to the heating element so that current flows in the plane of the element. The article can be placed between and in contact with two substrates, and then heated to join the two substrates together. Preferably at least one of the substrates is polymeric and becomes melt-fused to the article.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods of joining articles together with the aid of conductive polymer components, and to novel articles for use in such methods.
2. Prior Art
Conductive polymers are well known. They comprise a polymeric component and, dispersed or otherwise distributed therein, a particulate conductive filler, e.g. carbon black. Conductive polymers have been widely used in electrical heaters, including heaters which are in the form of heat-recoverable articles or which are secured to heat-recoverable articles so that, by powering the heater, the article can be caused to recover. Typically, the recovery of the article results in joining, repairing, reinforcing or otherwise modifying one or more substrates around or against which the article recovers. Recently, it has been shown that conductive polymers which retain substantial strength above their melting point, especially sintered polymers such as ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), are particularly useful for modifying pipes composed of organic polymers (plastic pipes). Reference may be made for example to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,987,276, 4,085,286, 4,177,376, 4,177,446, 4,421,582, 4,455,482, 4,570,055, 4,575,618, 4,686,071, U.K. Patent Nos. 1,265,194, 1,449,539, and 2,124,439, German Patent Application No. 3,442,674, U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 596,761, now abandoned, published as European application No. 157,640, 582,105, now abandoned, published as European application No. 153,199, and 818,845, now abandoned, published as European application No. 231,068, and copending commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 720,117 (MP0922) filed Apr. 2, 1985, 720,118 (MP1039) filed Apr. 2, 1985, 784,288 (MP1086) filed Oct. 4, 1985, 818,846 (MP1100) filed Jan. 14, 1986, 853,805 (KP1117) filed, Apr. 18, 1986, 867,830 (MP1130) filed May 27, 1986, 17,497 (MP1180) filed Feb. 23, 1987, 61,353 (MP1186) filed Jun. 11, 1987, 61,354 (MP1187) filed Jun. 11, 1987, 61,259 (MP1202) filed Jun. 11, 1987, 67,679 (MP922) filed Jun. 26, 1987, 75,929 (MP1095) filed Jul. 21, 1987, 89,389 (KP1130) filed Aug. 25, 1987, 120,883 (HP1231) filed Nov. 16, 1987, 132,698 (MP0907) filed Dec. 14, 1987, and 164,046 filed Mar. 4, 1988). The disclosures of each of the patents and patent applications referred to above are incorporated herein by reference.

Methods and devices which make use of conductive polymers to join articles


A printer receives changes to printing conditions by a user when executing reprinting. The printer selects whether to execute reprinting based on application data held in a host computer, or execute reprinting based on printing data held in the printer. If the printer selects executing of reprinting based on application data, the reprint request is sent to the host computer. If the printer selects executing of reprinting based on printing data held in the printer, reprinting is performed based on printing data held in the printer.

With a printing apparatus which receives a print job from an information processing device such as a host computer (hereafter called host) and performs printing processing, sometimes the printed material output by the printing processing is not what the user has desired. In such an event, the user returns to the host, selects the document to be printed again, starts the printing setting screen and sets the desired printing conditions to perform reprinting.
A method has been proposed to improve this complicated situation, by storing the printing data to a storage device within the printing apparatus and reprinting this.
Also, specifying instructions set beforehand as the host by the printing apparatus (for example, instructions for reprinting an entire document (or a portion thereof) which is created by a document creating software and immediately prior instructed to print) and transmitting the specified instructions to the specified host has been proposed (Japanese Patent No. 3274641).
However, with a proposal for saving the above-described printing data in the storage device within the printing apparatus, the printed data is all saved, and therefore only the amount of resources the storage device has can be saved, so there has been a disadvantage wherein the number of reprintable jobs could influence the storage device resources of the printing apparatus. Also, when a setting not changeable at the user interface of the printing apparatus is desired to be changed, there has been a disadvantage of needing to perform complicated operations such as that described above after returning to the host.
Also, with the above-described (Japanese Patent No. 3274641), only the instructions set beforehand could be transmitted. Accordingly, if the user desires that the host execute other processing (such as when a document other than the immediately prior printed document is to be reprinted, or when the user desires to freely change printing settings and perform reprinting), there has been a disadvantage wherein the user must return to the host and perform the complicated operations as described above.
Thus, as means for solving these problems, a "sample printing function" has been proposed. With this function, even after a job is transmitted from the host to the printing apparatus, the printing data of the job is held at the host without deleting it, and the user who has gone to remove the printed material from the printing apparatus side returns to the host, can use the data held therein and can perform reprinting.
This function only saves necessary printing data, and so the burden on the storage device resources is low. However, this function can be used only after this function is selected on a host setting screen in advance before first loading a document to be printed on the printing apparatus, and then performing printing setting.
Accordingly, when loading a document to be printed from the host to the printing apparatus, the user must consciously select this function. With such a situation, this is useful to a user who has mastered the function, but situations can be conceived of a user who does not know the function or who knows the function but has forgotten to select the function and thus loads the job without selecting the function.
Thus, constructing a printing environment which enables reprint jobs as desired by the user without relying on the expert level of the user or the storage device resources of the printing apparatus is desired.


The invention relates to a method for producing semiconductor components, wherein a layer composite (6) containing a semiconductor material is formed on a growth substrate (1), a flexible carrier layer is applied to the layer composite (6), the flexible carrier layer is cured to form a self-supporting carrier layer (2), and the growth substrate (1) is stripped away. As an alternative, the carrier layer (2) may have a base layer (2b) and an adhesion layer (2a) adhering on the layer composite.

The invention relates to a method for producing semiconductor components, and to a thin-film semiconductor component.
It is an object of the present invention to specify a simplified method for producing semiconductor components. It is furthermore an object of the present invention to specify a thin-film semiconductor component which can be handled easily and is mechanically stable.
A first variant of a method according to the invention for producing semiconductor components comprises the following steps:                forming a layer composite containing a semiconductor material on a growth substrate,        applying a flexible carrier layer to the layer composite,        curing the flexible carrier layer to form a self-supporting carrier layer,        stripping away the growth substrate.
Therefore, a flexible carrier layer is applied on that side of the layer composite which is remote from the growth substrate, said carrier layer adhering to the layer composite after curing as a self-supporting preferably rigid, carrier layer.
A second variant of a method according to the invention for producing semiconductor components comprises the following steps:                forming a layer composite containing a semiconductor material on a growth substrate,        applying a self-supporting carrier layer to the layer composite, wherein the carrier layer has a base layer and an adhesion layer, which faces the layer composite and which adheres on the layer composite,        stripping away the growth substrate.
Therefore, a carrier layer is applied on that side of the layer composite which is remote from the growth substrate, said carrier layer adhering to the layer composite as a self-supporting, preferably rigid, carrier layer in the finished semiconductor component.
A separate connection between the layer composite and the carrier layer, for instance a soldering connection, and as a result a method step that causes costs, bonding, can advantageously be obviated.
In accordance with the first variant, the self-supporting carrier layer has the advantage over the flexible carrier layer that it is more fixed in shape and can therefore be handled more easily.
In the case of the second variant, the adhesion layer can be formed from a hot melt adhesive and the base layer can be formed from a dimensionally stable plastic. In this case, it is necessary to heat the adhesion layer in order to melt the latter and to obtain a sufficient wetting of the layer composite and thus a sufficient adhesion after curing. The adhesion layer is preferably solid at room temperature. Furthermore, it is conceivable for the adhesion layer to adhere on the layer composite without additional heating. In this case, the adhesion layer can contain for example silicone and the base layer polyimide.
In a preferred embodiment of the second variant of the method, the base layer contains a plastic material. As an alternative, the base layer can contain glass.
The carrier layer is preferably a film. In particular, the carrier layer can be a plastic sheet produced in tracks. A sufficient stability can be achieved even when the carrier layer according to the invention has a relatively small thickness. This is because the carrier layer is elastic on account of the relatively small thickness, thereby reducing the risk of cracking. In this case, a relatively small thickness should be understood to mean preferably 100 μm, particularly preferably less than 100 μm.
The carrier layer is particularly preferably transparent. This has the advantage that the carrier layer can simultaneously serve as a coupling-out layer.
Preferably thin-film semiconductor components, in particular radiation-emitting thin-film semiconductor components, are produced by the method according to the invention.
A radiation-emitting thin-film semiconductor component is distinguished in particular by at least one of the following characteristic features:                a reflective layer is preferably applied or formed at a first main area—facing towards a carrier element—of a radiation-generating epitaxial layer sequence, said reflective layer reflecting at least part of the electromagnetic radiation generated in the epitaxial layer sequence back into the latter;        the epitaxial layer sequence has a thickness in the region of 20 μm or less, in particular in the region of 10 μm; and        the epitaxial layer sequence contains at least one semiconductor layer having at least one area which has an intermixing structure which ideally leads to an approximately ergodic distribution of the light in the epitaxial layer sequence, that is to say that it has an as far as possible ergodically stochastic scattering behaviour.
A basic principle of a radiation-emitting thin-film semiconductor component is described for example in I. Schnitzer et al., "30% external quantum efficiency from surface textured, thin-film light-emitting diodes", Appl. Phys. Lett. 63 (16), 18 Oct. 1993, 2174-2176, the disclosure content of which in this respect is hereby incorporated by reference.
A radiation-emitting thin-film semiconductor component of this type is to a good approximation a Lambertian surface emitter.
In the case of the invention, the layer composite accordingly has an active layer sequence for generating electromagnetic radiation, said active layer sequence preferably being grown epitaxially on the growth substrate.
In order to produce a plurality of thin-film semiconductor components, the layer composite is structured into individual layer stacks. The latter can be singulated by sawing, for example.
The carrier layer can be applied to the layer composite in prestructured fashion, such that the layer composite can be singulated into layer stacks along the structure.
In a preferred embodiment of the first variant of the method according to the invention, a carrier layer having a plastic material is used. A carrier layer of this type particularly preferably contains an epoxy resin, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) or a polymer in particular a polyimide, for example Kapton or a combination of these materials. Kapton is the trade name of the polyimide products offered by the company DuPont.
In a conventional method, temperatures in the region of 400° C. are typically reached when bonding the layer composites onto the carrier body. During subsequent cooling down to room temperature, a strain or warpage can occur if the coefficients of thermal expansion of the growth substrate and of the carrier body deviate greatly from one another. Furthermore, cracks can thereby occur in the carrier body, such that the resulting component no longer has sufficient stability.
Since the method according to the invention manages with lower temperatures, smaller thermal strains occur, whereby the risk of cracking is advantageously reduced.
By way of example, a carrier layer containing a silver-filled epoxy resin is melted at 80° C. to 90° and cured at a temperature of 150° C., a deviation of 10% being tolerable.
Another possibility for a carrier layer according to the invention is an adhesive film filled with glass particles. Said film can be formed from a hybrid material containing in particular an epoxy resin and an acrylate. Glass particles with a silver coating are incorporated into the hybrid material, the adhesive film advantageously being electrically conductive by means of the glass particles. The adhesive film can be melted at 120° C. and cured at 160° C. for 30 minutes.
In order to be able to dissipate the heat loss that arises during operation in the case of a semiconductor component produced in accordance with the method according to the invention, the carrier layer is preferably formed in thermally conductive fashion. As a result, undesirable effects such as a shift in the wavelength or a reduction of the intensity of the radiation emitted by the semiconductor component can be avoided.
In a preferred embodiment of a method according to the invention, the carrier layer is formed with an electrically insulating material. At least one electrical conductor track can be applied to the carrier layer in order subsequently to connect an arrangement comprising layer stack applied on a common carrier layer or a singulated component to an electrode.
As an alternative, the carrier layer can be formed with an electrically conductive material. By way of example, the carrier layer contains a metal, in particular Al, Ag, Ti, Cu, or an alloy, in particular brass.
For an electrical contact-connection of semiconductor components, the layer composite is provided with a contact area, in particular a contact metallization, containing a metal, on the side facing the carrier layer.
In a preferred embodiment of the method according to the invention, a material which at least partly reflects the radiation generated by an active layer stack during later operation is chosen for the contact metallization. This is advantageous primarily when the carrier layer is not transmissive to the radiation generated and the radiation is coupled out from the side of the semiconductor component opposite to the carrier layer.
The growth substrate is preferably removed by means of a laser stripping method such as is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 6,559,075, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference. The growth substrate can also be stripped away by other methods, such as plasma or dry etching, or be removed mechanically.
After the growth substrate has been stripped away, preferably a second contact area, in particular a contact metallization, provided for a further electrical contact-connection of the subsequent thin-film semiconductor components, is applied on that side of the layer composite which is remote from the carrier layer.
Moreover, a flexible covering layer can be applied on that side of the layer stack which is remote from the carrier layer, which covering layer can be cured. As an alternative, the flexible covering layer can be left in an incompletely cured state.
A further possibility consists in applying a covering layer having a base layer and an adhesion layer facing the layer composite, wherein the adhesion layer adheres on the layer composite.
In particular, the covering layer can be a film.
Preferably, the covering layer is transmissive to the radiation generated by the active layer. In an advantageous embodiment, the covering layer contains a converter material for the proportional wavelength conversion of the radiation generated by the subsequent active layer stack.
The covering layer particularly preferably has properties corresponding to the carrier layer. However, it can also contain a different material from the carrier layer.
In accordance with a preferred variant, the covering layer is formed from glass. Furthermore, the covering layer can have on a side facing the layer composite, for making contact with the thin-film semiconductor component on the top side, at least one conductor track containing, in particular, a radiation-transmissive material such as ITO (indium tin oxide).
A bilateral arrangement of the carrier layer and the covering layer can advantageously replace a housing body.
A thin-film semiconductor component according to the invention in accordance with a first variant, which can preferably be produced in accordance with the first variant of the method according to the invention, has the following constituent parts:                a layer stack,        a self-supporting, preferably rigid, carrier layer arranged on the layer stack, wherein the carrier layer is cured.
A thin-film semiconductor component according to the invention in accordance with a second variant, which can preferably be produced in accordance with the second variant of the method according to the invention, has the following constituent parts:                a layer stack,        a self-supporting carrier layer arranged on the layer stack, wherein the carrier layer has a base layer and an adhesion layer, which faces the layer stack and which adheres on the layer stack.
In particular, the carrier layer has the properties that have already been mentioned in connection with the first and second variants of the method.
Since there is a sufficient mechanical stability in a thin-film semiconductor component with a carrier layer according to the invention, no additional carrier is required. Consequently, the semiconductor component can be embodied with an advantageously small structural height, for example 120 μm.
The thin-film semiconductor component is provided for generating electromagnetic radiation and for this purpose has an active layer stack, which is part of the layer stack. By way of example, the active layer stack can have a conventional pn-junction, a double heterostructure, a single quantum well structure or a multiple quantum well structure.
Furthermore, in a preferred embodiment, the thin-film semiconductor component has a nitride component semiconductor, which means that the active layer stack or at least one layer thereof comprises a nitride III/V compound semiconductor material, preferably AlnGamIn1−n−mN, where 0≦n≦1, 0≦m≦1 and n+m≦1. In this case, this material need not necessarily have a mathematically exact composition according to the above formula. Rather, it can have one or more dopants and also additional constituents which essentially do not change the characteristic physical properties of the AlnGamIn1−n−mN material. For the sake of simplicity, however, the above formula only comprises the essential constituents of the crystal lattice (Al, Ga, In, N), even if these can be replaced in part by small quantities of further substances, for example P.
A thin-film semiconductor component having a nitride compound semiconductor principally emits radiation having a wavelength in the short-wave range of the visible optical spectrum.
The wavelength can be converted at least partly into a longer wavelength by means of a converter element disposed downstream of the layer stack in the emission direction.
In particular, a converter material can be integrated into the thin-film semiconductor component preferably in the covering layer.
According to the invention, the carrier layer can contain a plastic material. Materials which are preferred for the carrier layer are for example an epoxy resin, PET, a polymer, in particular polyimide, for example Kapton, or a combination of these materials.
Furthermore, the carrier layer or the covering layer can have any of the properties mentioned in connection with the method according to the invention. The same correspondingly applies to the thin-film semiconductor component.
Furthermore, in a preferred embodiment, the carrier layer contains carbon fibres. The latter can for example be embedded into a polymer film and have a higher thermal conductivity than the polymer film, such that overall an adhering and thermally conductive layer advantageously results therefrom.
Moreover, the carrier layer can have a glass fabric, in particular a silicate.
In a further preferred embodiment, the carrier layer is transmissive to the radiation generated by the active layer stack. This has the advantage that the radiation can couple out directly and radiation losses that can occur as a result of absorption of reflected radiation in the active layer stack are reduced.
It is conceivable that the covering layer is applied on the side remote from the carrier layer, which covering layer can be left in the incompletely cured state, but is preferably formed in self-supporting fashion, in particular rigidly, and has properties corresponding to the carrier layer.
In an advantageous embodiment, the covering layer contains a converter material for the proportional wavelength conversion of the radiation generated by the active layer stack. The covering layer can furthermore have an optical structure. The optical structure can be provided on a side of the covering layer which faces or is remote from the layer stack. The emission characteristic of the radiation generated in the thin-film semiconductor component can advantageously be influenced by means of the optical structure. By way of example, the optical structure can be formed in lens-type, prism-type or pyramidal fashion.
Since the layer stack typically has a height in the region of 20 μm or of 10 μm, the carrier layer and the covering layer, whose thickness is particularly preferably less than or equal to 100 μm, can enclose the layer stack. This has the advantage that a further housing body is not necessary.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment, a filling layer is arranged between the carrier layer and the covering layer. The filling layer can contain a plastic material, for example.
Furthermore, the thin-film semiconductor component can be incorporated into a housing body.
In a particular embodiment, both the carrier layer and the covering layer are transmissive to the radiation generated by the active layer stack, which leads to a thin-film semiconductor component which is emissive on two sides.
In the figures:

Method for producing semiconductor components and thin-film semiconductor component


A sheet fed device having a media tray and a sensor assembly is disclosed. The media tray includes a major surface having a leading portion and a trailing portion. The sensor assembly is operably coupled to the media tray. The sensor assembly includes a detector spaced-apart from and movable relative to the media tray in a path laterally across the major surface between the leading portion and the trailing portion.

Sheet fed devices—including printers, copiers, scanners, fax machines, multifunction devices, all-in-one devices, or other devices—produce images on media such as plain paper, photo paper, transparencies, and other media. In some examples, sheet fed devices can print on media stacks of metals and polymeric media, such as Compact Discs, in addition to or instead of broad and thin media. Media is positioned as a media stack in an input media tray. Images can be obtained directly from the sheet fed device or communicated to the sheet fed device from a remote location such as from a computing device or computing network. A sheet is selected from the media stack, typically one item at a time, and fed trough a printing mechanism along a feedpath to an output tray.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A steam vacuum cleaner includes a main assembly functioning as a mopstick, and the main assembly has an exhaust duct with a built-in filter formed at a rear face thereof.

The present invention relates to a steam vacuum cleaner including a main assembly that functions as a mopstick, the main assembly having an exhaust duct with a built-in filter formed at a rear face thereof.
Korean utility model registration Nos. 20-0404402 and 20-0413652 and Korean patent application publication No. 10-2007-0027895 disclosed a steam vacuum cleaner where a dust collection bin, a suction motor, and a steam generator are all installed in the main body. Because of this, the main body of the related art steam vacuum cleaner has a certain height, making it difficult to clean under the bed or the couch.
Besides, the main body of the related art steam vacuum cleaner is bulky and wide such that its contact area with the floor is large. As the contact resistance requires a bit more force to move (e.g., push and pull) the cleaner, a user feels more difficult to clean with this type of cleaner.
Moreover, the related art steam vacuum cleaner is built in a manner that ventilation air of the suction motor comes out from behind the main body to blow away the dust on the floor.
In addition, since the dust collection bin only has a function of collecting dust, the filter installed at a suction opening of the motor is often clogged up. This shortens the cleaning cycle of the filter and another inconvenience for the user is posed.
Still another adverse effect of the related art steam vacuum cleaner is that when in use for steam cleaning and/or vacuum cleaning, it is highly possible that the sucked-up steam enters the motor and causes an electrical short.
In addition, whether the dust collection bin is installed inside or outside the main body, its particular shape makes it difficult to take out.
Lastly, the related art steam vacuum cleaner uses a motor is designed to suck air in from the front and discharge the air to a rear side. Therefore, its low cooling efficiency had to be compensated by installing a motor with a relatively large capacity.


Automatic trace determination apparatus comprises: means for setting candidate starting route and candidate ending routes that are tangent to an obstacle existing on a straight line connecting between a starting point and an end point of a trace; means for, when a plurality of obstacles exist on the straight line, setting, with respect to each pair of two of the obstacles, straight routes, each of which is tangent only to such two obstacles and does not intersect with any obstacle other than such two obstacles; means for setting tentative routes, each of which includes any one of the candidate starting routes and any one of the candidate ending routes and, when the plurality of obstacles exist, may further include any of candidate intermediate routes selected with respect to each pair of the obstacles; and means for, among the tentative routes, determining the tentative route that has the shortest distance between the starting point and the end point as an optimal trace route.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic trace determination apparatus and an automatic trace determination method for determining trace routes, on a substrate and that do not intersect with obstacles on the substrate, automatically by computation, as well as to a computer program for allowing a computer to perform this automatic trace determination process.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, in semiconductor integrated circuits such as LSIs (large-scale integrated circuits), PCBs (printed-circuit boards) and the like, as a typical example of a trace route search method for automatically providing traces without intersection with obstacles existing on a substrate, a method called a labyrinth search method is described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-161694, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-350813, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-044288, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-209288.
In the labyrinth search method, trace routes on a substrate are set so as to secure clearance from other traces or obstacles and so as not to intersect with the obstacles by diverting the trace route around such obstacles at 90 degrees or, in some cases, 45 degrees, which is an angle formed by the trace route and the verge of the substrate. Such a setting technique can be implemented, in particular, for LSIs, PCBs and the like, which have peculiar pattern characteristics in that disposed positions and the shapes of the obstacles in the LSIs, PCBs and the like have a certain regularity.
On substrates of PBGA, EBGA and the like semiconductor packages, there exist a large number of elements, such as planes, gates, marks, internal components or other traces in the packages, and so on, that may obstruct the traces and the shapes and the disposed positions or angles of such obstacles may vary significantly. Further, vias, balls, bonding pads (B/P), flip chip pads (F/C) or the like, which are to be starting or end points of the traces, may be positioned variously. Therefore, in trace design for the semiconductor packages, when the obstacles on the substrate are bypassed, the trace routes have to be diverted around the obstacles at arbitrary angles formed by the trace route and the verge of the substrate, which are not limited to 90 or 45 degrees. Thus, the labyrinth search method that has been conventionally used for automatic wiring in the LSI, PCB and the like cannot be applied to automatic wiring of the semiconductor packages.
In view of such circumstances, in the trace design of semiconductor packages, a designer typically designs the trace routes of the semiconductor packages on a virtual plane by trial and error depending on the designer's skill, experience and intuition, for example, by using a CAD system. In such manual trace design by trial and error, as the required traces become more complicated, the effort, time and difficulty for achieving the optimal traces is increased. Further, unevenness in quality of finished products is also increased. In reality, because the manual trace design by trial and error requires at least more than ten hours' work and it is not economical to spend more time on trace designing, the designer has to compromise with a certain design quality. As the semiconductor packages are miniaturized and integrated, automatization of trace design of the semiconductor packages will be one of the most important tasks in the future.
In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic trace determination apparatus and an automatic trace determination method that can determine trace routes on a substrate, that do not intersect with obstacles on the substrate, automatically and in a short time, as well as a computer program for allowing a computer to perform this automatic trace determination process.

Automatic trace determination apparatus and method


An optical element includes a plate portion including a reflecting surface on an upper surface in a direction of a vertically extending central axis, a shaft that extends in a direction of a first axis intersecting with the central axis and is fixed to a lower surface of the plate portion, a magnet below the shaft in the direction of the central axis, and a holder below the plate portion to hold the magnet, the holder including a magnet accommodating portion in which the magnet is accommodated, the magnet accommodating portion including a magnet pressing portion that covers at least a portion of a lower surface of the accommodated magnet.

Conventionally, a movable plate is supported by a torsionally deformable connecting portion in an optical scanner. The drive unit rotates the movable plate about a predetermined axis along the connecting portion, and a light reflecting portion provided on the movable plate is irradiated with light. As a result, the light reflected by the light reflecting portion is scanned in one predetermined direction.
The drive unit has a permanent magnet fixed to a lower surface of the movable plate with an adhesive, and a coil. The drive unit rotates the movable plate about the predetermined axis by attracting the permanent magnet with a magnetic field generated by causing a current to flow through the coil.
In the case of the above-described optical scanner, there is a case where a direction in which the permanent magnet comes into contact with the movable plate and a rotating direction of the movable plate rotates become opposite when the movable plate rotates about the predetermined axis. The moment acting on the permanent magnet by the rotation of the movable plate, in other words, the centrifugal force is likely to be larger than an adhesive force of the adhesive, so that there is a possibility that the adhesion of the permanent magnet becomes incomplete to make the operation of the movable plate unstable.

Optical element and optical scanning device


An image processing method for identifying text on production line components obtains an image to be recognized and a standard image for reference and extracts a first text area of the image to be recognized. A second text area of the standard image is obtained, and a text window is extracted based on the second text area. The method further obtains a target text area of the image to be recognized based on the first text area and the text window, and obtains a first set of first text sub-areas, and obtains a second set of second text sub-areas, by dividing the second text area into sub-windows of the text window. The method further marks the image to be recognized as a qualifying image when each first text sub-area of the first set is the same as a corresponding second text sub-area of the second set.

Automated Optical Inspection (AO′) is a visual inspection of manufactured printed circuit board carried out automatically. It is a high-speed and high-precision optical image detection system that uses machine vision to compare an object to be tested against a standard image to determine whether the object meets certain standards. AOI machines are commonly used in SMT (Surface Mount Technology) assembly lines to inspect the quality of parts on the circuit board after PCB assembly, or to check whether solder paste meets standards after being pasted. An AOI machine engineer will set the inspection standards for each test object. If the standard is set too strictly, the false alarm rate is too high; if the standard is set too loose, defects may be missed. At present, products that are detected as defective by AOI need to be further examined by manual vision to determine whether the object under test (such as circuit board) is defective, the result of manual vision prevailing.
For example, when the current AOI machine detects IC components, it will use the text on the component to confirm whether the component is correct and qualified. Generally, the testing standards in examining the text on the components are strict. For the same IC components, the engraved text is the same, but the font type of the same text may be different because the components are supplied by different manufacturers, which can result in finding as defective after inspection by the AOI machine. Then engineers are required to reconfirm the inspection standards or to add standard images to adjust the ignorance or narrow view of AOI machines caused by different fonts, resulting in a decrease in the overall production line efficiency.

Method for processing image, electronic device, and storage medium

Fulian Precision Electronics (Tianjin) Co., LTD.


Systems, methods and computer implemented tools are provided for performing Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations. Computer implemented tools include a library of MCMC classes that define a core foundation of the MCMC analysis that minimizes knowledge of computer programming and manages the overhead associated with implementing MCMC simulation. Moreover, a user interacting with the various embodiments of the present invention is given numerical control over the problem at issue so that a skilled user can run successful MCMC simulations even where components of the distribution of interest are non-standard.

The present invention relates in general to Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis and more specifically to systems, methods and computer implemented tools for performing MCMC simulations.
A Markov chain is a sequence of random variables with a probability of transition from a current random variable to a subsequent random variable that depends only on the value (or state) of the current random variable. To generate a realization from a Markov chain, an initial state is either specified or randomly selected, e.g., from a probability distribution over the possible states of the initial random variable. Sampling then commences by building a succession of realizations where the probability density over the possible states of the next realization depends only upon the state of the current realization. A Markov chain is said to have a limiting distribution (also called invariant or stationary distribution) if, as the number of samples in the Markov chain becomes large, the relative frequency of the realizations of the chain uniformly converges to the distribution.
In general terms, a Monte Carlo method is any method that solves a problem by generating suitable random numbers. Thus, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations provide a means of creating a Markov chain with a given invariant distribution by generating suitable random numbers. Accordingly, if there is a need to sample randomly from a specific probability distribution, then an MCMC simulation may be used to generate a Markov chain that converges to that probability distribution. Once the Markov chain has (approximately) converged, the subsequent realizations from the generated Markov chain can be used as an approximation of samples drawn from the specific probability distribution of interest.
MCMC simulation is a particularly compelling tool for estimating parameters in complex models having a large number of degrees of freedom where an analytical solution is impractical. For example, in numerical analysis, MCMC simulations may be used for high dimensional integration and for finding the minimum and/or maximum of parameters in a model of interest. MCMC simulations may be used in computer science to study random algorithms, e.g., to study whether an algorithm of interest scales appropriately as the size of the underlying problem increases. In physics, MCMC simulations may be used in statistical mechanics and in analyzing complex dynamical systems. In statistics, MCMC simulations have been increasingly used for exploring posterior distributions of random parameters in hierarchical Bayesian models that are generally too complicated to be studied analytically.

Object oriented library for Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation