The invention pertains to a tank having a partially cylindrical body extended by a cylindrical extension of smaller section by the intermediary of a tapered junction extension, and at least one internal reinforcement ring integral with the internal surface of the tubular part of smaller section.

Tanks, particularly tanks that are transportable by means having different dimensions, usually have a cylindrical tank body providing the bulk of the useful volume. This tank body is extended in its front part by an extension of smaller section. Mobile tanks must be reinforced so as to resist the various handling operations without, however, this reinforcement increasing the tank's bulk.
It would therefore be advantageous to resolve this drawback by providing a reinforced tank with maximized capacity at given dimensions.


A wind plant includes at least one wind collector assembly configured to collect a wind stream; at least one booster arm in fluid communication with the at least one wind collector assembly, the booster arm configured to receive the wind stream and to increase the flowrate of the wind stream; and at least one exit conduit, the at least one exit conduit in fluid communication with the booster arm and rotatable with respect to the booster arm. The at least one exit conduit is configured to rotate with respect to the at least one booster arm in response to a thrust force generated by the wind stream exiting the exit conduit. A method of capturing energy from wind is also disclosed.

Wind can be a source of renewable energy. More specifically, wind transports energy that can be harvested to produce mechanical torque. For example, lift-based horizontal axis wind turbines can be used to harvest kinetic energy from wind. Lift-based horizontal axis wind turbines have one or more blades that are aerodynamically designed to experience lift from passing wind, which causes the blades to rotate. The rotation generates a torque that can be used to produce electrical energy.
Lift-based wind turbines are limited in how efficiently they can transform energy from wind to usable electrical energy. That is, only a small fraction of the energy carried in wind is captured by these types of wind turbines. There is thus a need for improved apparatuses and methods for harvesting energy from wind.


A braking system is disclosed for foot-bound roller skates, particularly in-line roller skates, consisting of a method and apparatus for activating the brake, continuously applying braking force while the brake is activated without the application of force to the activating apparatus, and stowing the brake. Preferably, the brake deploys to serve as the aft point on which the skate rides, along with one or more forward wheels.

Traditional roller skates consist of a platform to which are appended four wheels, paired in two axles fore and aft. This arrangement provides lateral stability and braking is normally accomplished by turning the feet to have forward momentum dissipated by increased frictional forces between wheels and the surface being traversed. Supplemental braking means usually are not required because high speeds are not attained with traditional roller skates. As materials improve, particularly in wheels, there is a need for supplemental braking means, even in traditional roller skates. Presently, the means of choice is a toe-mounted friction pad, which the skater engages by raising one or both heels.
However, the need for satisfactory braking means is far greater in in-line roller skates because much higher velocity can be attained. In-line roller skates use two or more, typically four, wheels aligned in a common vertical plane. This arrangement gives the skater a feel and movement more resembling ice skates than traditional roller skates. Thus, the lateral stability is reduced, and at the same time higher speeds can be attained. Unlike ice skates, however, the wheels in in-line roller skates cannot be slid laterally over the skating surface for a high-friction, quick stop.
In-line skates have been part of the art since at least 1876 (U.S. Pat. No. 7,345). Currently, the designs of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,287,023 and 4,909,523 are durable, cost effective, and functional for the thrill of high-speed movement, notwithstanding a lack of acceptable braking Lateral instability and high speed result in danger of bodily harm far greater than with traditional roller skates The problem is compounded by the fact that high speeds can usually be attained in roadway environments where motion vehicles and pedestrians are encountered.
1991 estimates indicate that there are 5 to 6 million in-line roller skaters in the United States, with sales of three million units per year and about 75% annual growth. Presently, the industry standard braking means is a simple stub aft of the rear-most wheel. The stub has a static friction pad, which engages the skating surface when the skater raises his toe and extends leg forward. The stub is inadequate for safe, controlled braking. Media attention has been directed to the inability of present brakes and the high frequency of skater injuries. Where a panic stop is required, the stub is incapable, and the only recourse is for the skater to drop to the road surface and rely on the friction between his body and the road to stop and avoid collision. The stub is so inadequate, skaters frequently remove the factory supplied braking device.
The severe problem of speed control has attracted a great deal of unfavorable attention beyond that of actual product users. A growing number of city governments across the country have banned the use of in-line skating because of the high degree of injury and the conspicuous uncontrollability exhibited by skaters--factors directly related to the ineffectiveness of current braking means. The high degree of uncontrollability and resultant injuries coupled with a broad publication of the situation has created a large and growing liability exposure to in-line skate producers as well as contributing negatively to the general image of the sport. It has been conveyed to the inventors without exception by the major manufacturers that a solution to the braking problem is the preeminent design necessity facing the industry. Furthermore, that such a solution is required to the long-term health of the sport, and that such a solution would constitute a profound competitive advantage.


The invention concerns an analytical element for the determination of an analyte containing in or on material which enables liquid transport between zones, a sample application zone and a detection zone located downstream thereof, wherein the detection zone contains a partner 1 of a specific binding pair 1 immobilized in such a manner that it is able to bind to partner 2 of the specific binding pair 1 which is not the analyte when it contacts it, wherein a labelled partner 1 of a specific binding pair 2 is present upstream of the detection zone impregnated on a material such that it can be detached by liquid and is able to bind to partner 2 of the specific binding pair 2 which is not the analyte when this contacts it as well as a method for the determination of an analyte using this analytical element.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an analytical element for the determination of an analyte containing in or on material which enables liquid transport between zones, a sample application zone and a detection zone located downstream thereof, wherein the detection zone contains a partner 1 of a specific binding pair 1 immobilized in such a manner that it is able to bind with partner 2 of the specific binding pair 1 which is not the analyte when this contacts it as well as a method for the determination of an analyte by means of specific binding pairs. The invention additionally concerns a kit for the determination of an analyte containing an analytical element.
2. Description of Related Art
Analytical elements are known from the prior art in which the reagents required to determine an analyte are present in or on carrier materials. Examples are: U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,711, U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,645 and EP-A-0 291 194. A common feature of the analytical elements described in these documents is that they are especially suitable for carrying out immunological detection methods. They comprise a sample application zone and a detection zone which is located downstream thereof. A liquid sample migrates through various zones between the sample application zone and detection zone as a result of capillary forces within a porous carrier material and thereby takes up the reagents that are necessary for detecting the analyte and reacts them with the analyte in the sample.
A binding partner is immobilized in the detection zone which is able to specifically bind the analyte to be determined. In the case of different analytes this requires that different binding partners for the analyte have to be immobilized on a solid phase.
It is also known from FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,711 in conjunction with the description, for example in column 5, line 57 to column 6 line 48 that a partner 1 of a specific binding pair 1 can be immobilized in the detection zone which does not bind the analyte but can be used universally because it binds an epitope as partner 2 of the specific binding pair 1 which is present on a substance which specifically binds the analyte. Hence the mobile complex of analyte and this binding substance is immobilized in the detection zone during the course of the detection reaction and is separated from non-complexed mobile reaction components.
A labelled substance that is specific for the analyte plays a very important role because only its binding to the analyte and the later immobilization of the complex formed composed of analyte and labelled substance directed against the analyte in the detection zone as well as the removal of the mobile non-reacted reaction components from the detection zone is able to indicate the presence of analyte in the liquid sample. The labelled substances known from the prior art are specific for the analyte i.e. in the case of sandwich assays they are labelled substances such as antibodies or antigens which react specifically with the analyte to be determined (antigen or antibody). However, this requires that depending on the analyte, different labelled specific binding partners for the analyte have to be prepared.
Numerous substances are known from the prior art for labelling. Whereas in the past radioactive labels with all their disadvantages were used, these labels were later replaced mainly by enzyme labels. Nowadays particulate labels, especially gold or latex particles, are mainly used in analytical elements as described in the previously described documents of the prior art. The preparation of a conjugate composed of a label and a substance binding specifically to the analyte is complicated and has to be optimized for each individual analyte-specific binding partner if it is intended to determine different analytes. In addition in analytical elements the material on which this conjugate is present and transported must be optimally adapted to the requirements from case to case. In this connection above all stability problems have often to be solved.
Therefore the object of the present invention was to provide a general purpose structure of an analytical element which can always be used independent of the analyte to be determined provided this analyte or a substance derived from the analyte and representing this analyte can be detected by specific pair binding.

Analyte determination using a general purpose structure of an analytical element


A wire clamping plate is provided for a wire clamp that is adapted to contact a length of metallic wire when the wire clamp is applying a clamping force on the wire. The wire clamping plate comprises doped silicon carbide, which makes it electrically conductive and exhibit a high level of wear resistance.

Wire bonding and bumping are important steps in electronic packaging. Wire bonding involves the connection of conductive wires between different electronic components of a semiconductor device, usually a semiconductor chip and a carrier or substrate, such as a lead frame. Bumping involves the placement of solder balls on a wafer or semiconductor chip, to enable electrical connections to be made between the chip and another electronic component.
To plant a bump or bond a wire onto a metallic connection pad either on a chip or a chip-mounting substrate by using a wire bonder, an effective bond or connection may be made between a bonding wire (which is typically made of gold, aluminum or copper) and the connection pad from the combined effect of bond force and temperature for a certain duration. One method of performing bonding is to use a capillary tip to feed bonding wire to the metallic contact pad, and to induce flexural agitation of the capillary tip driven by an ultrasonic transducer to apply a bonding force onto the bonding wire and contact pad.
Typically, a pair of wire clamping plates is equipped in a wire clamp of a wire bonding machine. FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a wire clamp 10 utilized in a wire bonding machine comprising wire clamping plates. The wire clamp 10 generally comprises a movable jaw 12 and a fixed jaw 14. Clamping of a length of metallic bonding wire extended between the movable jaw 12 and fixed jaw 14 is achieved by using a motor to control opening and closing of the movable jaw 12. A clamping plate 16 is located and bonded by conductive epoxy on each of the movable jaw 12 and fixed jaw 14. When the movable jaw 12 is closed, the clamping plates 16 grip the bonding wire. Accordingly, the clamping plates 16 of the movable jaw 12 and fixed jaw 14 form the surfaces that contact and clamp the bonding wire when the wire clamp 10 is applying a clamping force on the bonding wire.
The main function of the wire clamp is to feed the wire to the capillary tip, clamp the wire after the wire is extended and a wire bond is made, and then to drag the wire to break it from a second bond after the second bond has been made. The friction created between the wire and the clamping plates, especially due to the force arising from clamping and pulling the wire for breaking the wire, causes wearing-out at the surfaces of the clamping plates. This wearing-out at the surfaces of the clamping plates affects the wire looping consistency and other related performances. Wear resistance is thus required of the material comprised in the clamping plates.
Also, when making a ball bond during the wire-bonding process, an electrical spark called EFO (electrical flaming-off) is created. The purpose of EFO is to melt a tail of the wire into a free air ball. A large current pulse is produced in the EFO firing process to create the spark, and may generate micro-arcing if the electric conductivity of the wire clamping plates is not large enough so that an instant potential could be generated on the plate to counteract the pulse voltage due to the EFO firing. Any electrical discharging at the plate would further accelerate the wearing-out of the clamping plates.
For the above reasons, a material used for the wire clamping plate should desirably be of high wear resistance and electrically conductive.
Hard alloys, such as cemented carbide, are widely used as a primary material to make wire clamping plates. Hard alloys basically consist of a hard phase (for example, tungsten carbide, titanium carbide and niobium carbide) bonded by a soft phase (for example, nickel or cobalt). Such alloy materials are electrically conductive and exhibit considerably high wear resistance. Even so, when these alloys are used in wire clamping plates, wear marks on the clamping plates can be observed after a certain number of wire bonding cycles. It has been observed that wear usually starts from the alloys' soft binder phase, at or adjacent to the interphase boundaries between the hard phase and soft binder phase. As a result, the binder around a hard carbide grain is gradually worn off and the grain in particular becomes loosely bonded with the rest of binder around it. In this condition, the grain is susceptible to detachment from the bonded matrix. As the wire bonding cycles continue and greater wearing ensues, a wire mark is seen. When the bonding wire is gold wire and the binder is cobalt, the situation is even worse because gold wire tends to stick to cobalt, causing even faster wearing out of the clamping plates.
It is thus widely accepted that a key disadvantage of using cemented carbides for wire clamping plates is the existence of the aforesaid soft binder phase. Nonetheless, it is not easy to avoid the binder phase because it is used to enhance the material integrity, in particular its strength. Moreover, it is difficult to manufacture binderless carbides free of porosity. Porosity also deteriorates the wear resistance of the wire clamping plate.
Due to the above disadvantages of cemented carbides, it is proposed that single phase hard ceramics like alumina or silicon carbide be utilized instead. Since there is no binder phase (such as cobalt, nickel or others), the wearing-off of the material should be much reduced, and the reliability would correspondingly be improved significantly. At the same time, the single phase materials would have to present some conductivity that is required for ball bonding applications.


The present invention relates to a method of making a multibit non-volatile memory and especially to a method of making a flash memory such as a fast-programmable Flash EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) device relying on hot-electron injection for programming which is particularly suited for high density low-voltage low-power applications and employs only two polysilicon layers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multibit non-volatile memory and method and especially to a flash memory and method such as a fast-programmable Flash EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) device relying on hot-electron injection for programming which is particularly suited for high density low-voltage low-power applications and employs only two polysilicon layers.
2. Description of Related Art
Most Flash memories use Channel Hot Electron Injection (CHEI) at the drain side of the memory cell or Fowler-Nordheim Tunnelling (FNT) for programming. On the one hand the CHEI mechanism provides a relatively high programming speed (˜10 μs) at the expense of a high power consumption (˜400 μA/bit) which limits the number of cells that can be programmed simultaneously (so-called page-mode programming) at the moment to a maximum of 8 bytes (Y. Miyawaki et al., IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 27, p. 583, 1992. Furthermore, in order to allow a further scaling of the transistor dimensions towards 0.18 μm and below, supply voltage scaling from 3.3V towards1.8V also becomes mandatory. This supply voltage scaling is known to degrade the CHEI efficiency—and hence the corresponding programming speed—considerably. Today, these memories already use a bitline charge pump to provide a 4–5V drain voltage to the cell during programming and erasing. The problem with this solution is two-fold:
Since the internally generated programming voltages are not scaled down with respect to the technology generation, it becomes practically impossible to further scale the cell itself, in terms of both vertical (i.e. dielectric thickness) and lateral (i.e. gate length) dimensions;
Due to the high power needed to trigger the CHEI it becomes harder and harder to generate these voltages on-chip from a high voltage generator or charge pumping circuit. Also, the relative area of the charge pumps and the corresponding high-voltage switching circuitry increases with respect to the useful area of the memory chip.
The Fowler Nordheim tunnelling (FNT) on the other hand provides slower programming times (˜100 μs) and a lower power consumption which allows larger pages (˜4 kbit) in order to reduce the effective programming time to 1 μs/byte (T. Tanaka et al., IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 29, p. 1366, 1994). Further improvement is, however, limited by tunnel-oxide scaling limits and by the very high voltages (˜15V) needed on chip for FNT, both compromising device reliability and process scalability.
The recent success of Source-Side Injection (SSI) as a viable alternative for programming over FNT and CHEI for Flash programming, is mainly due to its unique combination of moderate-to-low power consumption with very high programming speed at moderate voltages. Source-Side Injection has very high efficiency in generating hot electrons in the channel. It also provides very high efficiency in collecting the channel hot electrons onto the floating gate. SSI programming improves reliability and allows for re-programming using on-chip charge pumps. A typical example of such a device relying on SSI for programming is the Applicant's High Injection Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor or HIMOS® (an IMEC registered trademark) memory cell (J. Van Houdt et al., 11th IEEE Non-volatile Semiconductor Memory Workshop, February 1991; J. Van Houdt et al., IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. ED-40, p. 2255, 1993). As also described in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,583,810 and 5,583,811, a speed-optimised implementation of the HIMOS® cell in a 0.7-μm CMOS technology exhibits a 400 nanoseconds programming time while consuming only a moderate current (˜35 μA/cell) from a 5V supply. This result is obtained when biasing the device at the maximum gate current, i.e. at a control-gate voltage (Vcg) of 1.5V. In terms of the feature size F (i.e. the smallest dimension on chip for a given technology), the HIMOS® cell area corresponds to ˜30F2. This is fairly large as compared to the high density Flash memory concepts which are all in the <10F2 range.
However, due to the growing demand for higher densities, also in embedded memory applications like e.g. smart-cards and embedded microcontrollers, a continuous increase in array density and the scaling of the supply voltage become mandatory. This evolution calls for more aggressive cell-area scaling and for low-voltage and low-power operation.
There have been many attempts to solve this problem by the fabrication of high-density high-performance Flash memory device using 3 polysilicon layers. However, the solutions found suffer from a number of significant disadvantages that will be discussed below in more detail.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,784 by Manley and U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,565 by Wu describe so-called "sidewall gate" devices. The floating gate FG is formed in the first polysilicon layer, while the select gate is formed by a polysilicon sidewall spacer. This spacer can be formed in the second polysilicon layer (Manley, FIG. 1) or in the third one (Wu, FIG. 2). The programming mechanism is source-side hot-electron injection. Next to the triple poly process, this solution has a lot of disadvantages:
The sidewall select gate is formed by depositing a polysilicon layer on the chip which is then partially removed selectively by using anisotropic (dry) techniques. It is, however, very difficult to control this selective etching operation, as for example the width of the spacer remaining after etching determines the effective channel length during programming and this parameter should be tightly controlled. Furthermore, the effective channel length is also influenced by the junction implant when going through the thinner portion of the spacer.
Since the select gate controls only a short portion of the channel, it is not straightforward to switch off the transistor channel in some cases, e.g. when reading/writing a particular cell the select gates of the (erased) cells sharing the same bitline have to be able to reduce their channel current to zero in order to prevent leakage currents and/or unwanted programming in the array. Usually, the thickness of the polysilicon, which determines the width of the spacer, is smaller than the minimum feature size, which compromises the hard-off situation, which is highly desired in a memory array.
It is well known that the efficiency of the SSI mechanism is closely linked to the thickness of the oxide spacing in between the select and the floating gate (see e.g. J. Van Houdt et al., IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 39, no. 5, May 1992). By putting the sidewall select gate right next to the control gate (CG) (FIG. 2), this oxide spacing has to remain fairly thick since it also has to isolate the high control gate voltage during programming form this sidewall select gate. Therefore, the injection efficiency is compromised by isolation requirements.
The main problem with these devices, however, is the difficulty of contacting the cells in a large array of memory cells. Indeed, the sidewall gate is also used for wiring and this has a considerable negative impact on the parasitic resistance in a large memory array, as explained in U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,360, issued Feb. 28th, 1995, to T. Fukumoto (col. 1 lines 37–41). Also, variations in sheet resistance, due to variations in spacer profile and/or doping, can lead to poor cell uniformity in large arrays which typically shows up as a severe manufacturability issue.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,952, issued Aug. 16, 1994, to Y. Yamauchi, solves some of the problems mentioned above by forming the floating gate as a polysilicon sidewall spacer (FIG. 3). However, the major drawbacks of the sidewall gate device are still present in the memory cell described in this patent;
The sidewall gate is still formed by depositing a polysilicon layer on the chip which is then removed selectively by using anisotropic (dry) etching. In this case, the width of the spacer remaining after etching determines the effective channel length during read-out and this parameter should be tightly controlled. Indeed, if electrons are stored on the floating sidewall gate, the portion of the channel controlled by this sidewall has to be switched off efficiently, which is not trivial. As already mentioned above, the thickness of the polysilicon, which determines the width of the spacer, is usually smaller than the minimum feature size, which compromises the hard-off situation which is highly desired in a memory array. Eventually, the cell may exhibit a soft-on and a hard-on state instead of hard-off/hard-on states as required for fast access. Furthermore, since erasing is now to be achieved from the sidewall towards a sufficiently underdiffused drain junction, the effective channel controlled by the spacer is even smaller. This makes the leakage problem during read-out even more critical.
Since the floating gate is a sidewall spacer, the coupling ration between the control gate (3rd polysilicon layer) and this floating gate will be rather small. This increases the necessary program/erase voltages, which is typically 12V for programming and −11V for erasing as mentioned in the corresponding conference paper "A 5V-only virtual ground Flash cell with an auxiliary gate for high density and high speed applications" by Y. Yamauchi et al., IEDM Tech. Dig., p. 319, 1991.
An alternative memory cell with 3 polysilicon layers, which also uses the source-side injection mechanism similar to the applicant's HIMOS® cell, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,446. The major difference with the above discussed prior art is the absence of a sidewall gate. Instead, first and second polysilicon layers are etched in a stacked way and the select gate is added on top by a 3rd polysilicon layer. Also this method has some major disadvantages:
It is known to one skilled in the art that such a processing scheme introduces considerable complexity which makes it difficult to use in an embedded memory application.
On the other hand, the used erase voltage is still −12V provided that the bitline is biased at 5V. In future generations, when the supply voltage and hence also the bitline voltage go down, aggressive tunnel oxide scaling will be required in order not to have an increase in this negative voltage.
The oxide spacing between the select gate and the control gate has to be kept quite thick because this oxide also serves to isolate the high programming voltage from the select gate in order not to have a soft-erase effect or even oxide breakdown during programming. This restriction compromises scaling—in general—and also—more in particular—decreases the injection efficiency which is directly linked to the thickness of this spacing as explained extensively by J. Van Houdt et al. in IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 39, no. 5, May 1992.
In the European patent application EP 008702458, filed Oct. 25, 2000, a double polysilicon memory cell structure is described. This cell structure still enables to obtain a high performance by the introduction of a novel programming scheme (Drain Enchanced Secondary Injection or DESI). This application shows a compact cell (about 15F2) which, however, still suffers from the basic drawbacks of the split-gate structure:
The split gate structure suffers from an inherent misalignment problem, since the second poly (control gate) is always slightly misaligned with respect to the first poly (floating gate). This misalignment does not scale proportionally to the feature size of the technology, and, therefore, introduces larger non-uniformities in programming behaviour and in read current when scaling down. In the case pending European patent application EP 1096572 A1 claiming priority of U.S. pending patent application Ser. No. 09/696,616 also the gate coupling ratio is subject to a misalignment error further increasing the spread on device characteristics. This latter sensitivity can be solved by completely encapsulating the floating gate by the control gate but this is at the expense of cell area and reliability since then the oxide between wordline and bitline needs to withstand the stress of both gate and drain voltages during program/erase conditions.
A second major scaling problem is the requirement of having a separate self-aligned drain junction: the mask for this implant should cover part of the floating gate to make sure that the implant is only present in a self-aligned way at the drain end of the channel and not at the source side of the floating gate.
For example, in 0.18 μm technology, drawing both channels at 0.18 μm dimensions could be marginal if misalignments are not well controlled to values well below 70 nm (3*standard deviation □), and even then, the current drawn from the cell would vary by more than a factor of two from lot to lot. Starting from 0.13 μm technology, it becomes clear that both channels will need to remain longer than the feature size which implies not scaling the lateral dimensions any further.
As explained above, poly spacer technology, as a self-aligned process, has been extensively tried out in order to circumvent these problems, however, without any commercial success so far.
Another solution to obtain self-aligned structures is the so-called dual bit approach, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,439, issued on Jan. 11, 1994 to Y. Y. Ma et al. in which the device is a triple poly floating gate version and in the paper "Twin MONOS cell with dual control gates" by Hayashi et al. (Halo and New Halo), presented at the 2000 VLSI Technology Symposium, which describes a nitride charge trapping version. However, both structures suffer from major drawbacks:
When using a triple poly layer approach (U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,439), the device suffers from the same drawbacks as the related U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,446, which has already been discussed above. Only the misalignment issue is resolved at the expense of very complicated processing.
When using a poly spacer technology as in the Halo device, the device suffers from all major problems related to poly spacers as discussed above (U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,952). Some additional drawbacks of such a spacer technology are for example poor interconnect properties causing yield and manufacturability problems (spacer uniformity in terms of shape, width, thickness, doping, . . . ) and variations in the effective channel length beneath the spacer because of the drain junction implant going through the thinner portion of the spacer. This will affect the device performance considerably unless the thickness of the polysilicon layer is constant over the entire channel area. Also, the spacer is only 80 nm wide in a 0.25 μm technology and can, therefore, not easily be controlled. Finally, the spacer process puts a lower limit on the 1st poly thickness, because the spacer width is related to this parameter. This is an additional boundary condition for the cell geometry.
Moreover, in the Halo case, the wordline is used to form the spacers which implies that a contact is required either on both source and drain, or, alternatively, on every control gate, in order to have a wordline perpendicular to the bitlines of the memory array. This considerably increases the real bit size when implemented in a true memory array. Considering that the minimum size for a single cell as mentioned in the paper is already 3F2, this cell is considerably larger than the one of the present invention. The problem can be resolved by routing the 2nd layer of polysilicon over the spacers in horizontal direction (see U.S. patent application No. 20020005545, F. Widdershoven and J. Schmitz). The problem with this configuration is that the spacing between both spacers then needs to be defined from an additional sacrificial layer. Removal of this layer after spacer formation will inevitably attack an oxide-nitride-oxide or ONO layer under the poly spacers exactly at the source-side injection point. This is detrimental for device performance and reliability. Alternatively, a triple poly process could also fulfill the same array connectivity requirements (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,500 issued Apr. 2nd 2002 by Ogura et al.), however at the expense of a complicated and therefore expensive process.
With respect to the previously discussed prior art, as far as it is known, neither poly spacer technologies, nor the dual bit triple poly layer approach mentioned above, have made it into production because of major manufacturability and yield problems, related either to the spacer itself, and/or to the third poly layer.

Method of making a multibit non-volatile memory

Interuniversitair Microelektronica Centrum vzw


The present invention relates to a method for tracking, monitoring and evaluating ecological impacts of a channel project based on long-term time series satellite remote sensing data, belonging to the field of ecological environment protection. Created in view of limitations and deficiencies of existing monitoring and evaluation methods, the method includes: a process for long-term time series satellite remote sensing analysis of an ecological impact of a channel project, an analysis method for respectively evaluating erosion and deposition, shoreline and water area morphological changes at different research scales based on water body information extraction, and an analysis method for respectively tracking and monitoring engineering construction details, comparing engineering impact scope consistency and evaluating engineering implementation effects based on channel project identification.

Channel projects feature a large spatial scope and long time span for construction and operation maintenance, which correspondingly causes changes of habitat conditions such as water flow and shoreline with time and space. It is expectedly a feasible and cost-effective technical approach to track and monitor the large-scale and long-term ecological impact of channel projects by using long-term time series satellite remote sensing data. This approach urgently needs to be supported by applicable tracking, monitoring and evaluation methods.
Related research shows that the utilization of satellite remote sensing information still depends on the establishment of a special remote sensing data identification method and is based on accurate ground object information investigation. For example:
Wang Wei and Ling Huanran disclosed in patent CN104268560A, 2015 a land use identification method based on remote sensing interpretation. The method adopts a 13-characteristic method in pattern recognition to perform template sampling and matching detection of multi-sample raster data, and realizes the identification of a land use status of a whole research area on the basis of mastering accurate land use mapping classification of a research area. This brings great convenience for obtaining effective and complete data.
Xu Jing used a remote sensing technology, took Landsat remote sensing data of the United States as an example to establish a remote sensing inversion model of Minjiang River water depth with reference to measured underwater topographic data, and introduced sediment remote sensing parameters suitable for a second class of water bodies, to establish a water depth model of the lower Minjiang River mainstream (Master's degree thesis of Fujian Normal University, Remote Sensing of Water Depth and Analysis of River Morphology Evolution in the Lower Minjiang River Mainstream, April 2009).
Chu Zhongxin used a remote sensing technology to study the law of erosion and deposition in the Yellow River Delta based on Landsat remote sensing data from 1976 to 2000 in the Yellow River Delta with reference to measured 2 m isobath data and data of water and sediment of the Yellow River entering the sea, thus realizing multispectral remote sensing water depth inversion of high turbidity water areas (Masters degree thesis of Ocean University of China, Study on Evolution Law of Erosion and Deposition in Modern Yellow River Delta and Application of Remote Sensing, June 2003).
Sun Chao integrated long-term time series multi-source remote sensing image data sets, and performed monitoring research on oil and gas development activities in the South China Sea to propose a method for analyzing marine oil and gas development activities (doctoral dissertation of Nanjing University, Monitoring Research on Oil and Gas Development Activities in the South China Sea Supported by Long-term time series Multi-source Remote Sensing Images, May 2018).
In summary, the existing research on satellite remote sensing monitoring has the following limitations and deficiencies:
(1) It is required to establish a special method for remote sensing data identification of land use, water depth and marine oil and gas development activity conditions, and the identification method lacks universality because it relies on measured data according to which the foregoing conditions have been mastered.
(2) It is mainly used to obtain information on land use conditions and water depth, as well as information on human activity conditions in marine oil and gas development. The information cannot be directly used to evaluate the ecological impact of channel projects and related human activity conditions. There is a corresponding gap in data acquisition types.
(3) A land use matching detection method, a method for analyzing oil and gas development activities by using multi-source remote sensing images, and a method for remote sensing inversion of water depths in specific and high turbidity water areas have been developed. Although they improve the accessibility and efficiency of data acquisition, they cannot be directly used to evaluate the ecological conditions of channel project water areas and the impact of related human activities. There are corresponding technical gaps in remote sensing monitoring and evaluation methods.

Method for tracking, monitoring and evaluating ecological impact of channel project based on long-term time series satellite remote sensing data

China Waterborne Transport Research Institute


A cap for listening to an audio device such as an MP3 player or iPod has a pocket in the back with a spring-loaded double-ended retractor for pulling a stereo jack to the front of the cap for connecting to an audio device, adjusting it and returning the retractor along with the audio device to the pocket. The stereo jack is connected to ear buds via wires leading from a T-shaped anchoring junction secured in the bottom of the pocket. The ear buds hang from opposite sides of the cap and are placed in bud pockets on the cap when not in use.

Portable audio devices are well known and take many forms. These include AM and FM radios, audio tape players, and digital audio players such as iPod and MP3 players. The content of the players may be live or prerecorded on suitable media used to listen to popular or classical music or recorded books. The audio players are usually transported by carrying in the pocket, or attaching them to a belt or by strapping them to the arm. A mono or stereo connector jack is inserted into an audio output receptacle on the portable audio device. From there an electrical cord leads to an earphone headset or to small individual ear buds incorporating tiny loudspeakers placed in the ears. In some cases, an earphone headset is used to directly carry an integrated audio device without an interconnecting cord.
Many users prefer an audio device with a plug-in jack attached to an electrical cord running to ear buds or to an earphone headset. In the case of ear buds, the cord branches into two segments leading to individual buds for the left and right ears or to ear buds mounted on either side of a headset. If the audio device is equipped for stereo sound, one earphone and one branch segment of the connection cord is used for each stereo track, and merge at a junction into a common twin wired segment connected to a stereo plug-in jack.
The presence of the electrical cord is a great annoyance, because movement of the head with respect to the body of the user in cases where the audio device is pocketed or strapped in place causes the cord to intermittently contact the face or neck. Turning the head tightens one of the branch cords which can pull out one ear bud. Also the weight of the cord or catching of the cord in clothing or on external objects causes pulling against the connector jack or the audio device, which can cause both of the ear buds to become dislodged. This is disconcerting because it interrupts listening to the music or book as the audio device continues to run while the ear buds are being re-positioned.
Another annoyance is that movement of the wires against the face or clothing can create noise or static which is heard in the ear buds along with the audio program, degrading the listening experience.
In order to eliminate the annoyance of electrical cords touching the body or becoming entangled in clothing, several authors have suggested adapting headgear, such as caps, visors or headbands to carry speakers or to function with audio devices connected to ear buds, thereby shortening or eliminating the electrical cords connecting the ear buds to the audio device. Some of these prior art suggestions are described below in a listing which is exemplary, but not necessarily all-inclusive.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,619 issued Sep. 5, 1989 to Spates shows headphone speakers built into a soft resilient headband connected via a cord leading from the back of the headband to a stereo jack. The audio device is not shown in the patent but it is suggested that the jack might be "connectable to any small stereophonic audio reproduction system that may be integrated with, or directly attached to, the headband-headphone assembly".
U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,698 issued Aug. 1, 1995 to Burton et al. describe a wearable audio device removably attached to an enclosure that, in turn, is removably attached to the back of a headband. The enclosure contains an electrical connecting cord (looped back and forth to serve as a radio antenna) extending from a plug-in jack to a pair of ear buds. The volume, tuning and off-on controls are exposed for manual operation removing the radio.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,160 issued Mar. 9, 1999 to Sheppard discloses a cap with a support bracket positioned inside the cap holding a tape player inside the crown electrically connected on opposite sides to speakers disposed in small ear pieces hanging from the lower edge of the cap. The settings and adjustments of the tape player must be made before the cap is put on and the speakers put in place.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,044,615 issued May 16, 2006 to Gesten discloses a billed cap with an audio device built into the bill. Speakers, controls and a visual display are on the underside of the bill. No ear buds are disclosed.
Pending patent application 2006/0251283, published Nov. 9, 2006 to Yeh discloses a bag for holding an audio device such as an MP3 player. The bag is equipped with stereo jack connected to ear buds that may be retracted up to the bag, either with a winding reel or with a pull cord. In one embodiment the bag is mounted inside a cap. The audio device is connected to the stereo jack and inserted into the bag.
Pending patent application 2007/0226876, published Oct. 4, 2007 to Foust et al discloses a cap with pockets for carrying an MP3 player and the associated wires. One of the pockets holds the audio device and a separate pocket holds the wires. The wires are bundled on a mandrel that is inserted into the wire pocket.
One disadvantage in all of the foregoing devices that employ ear buds is the inability to see and manipulate the controls of the audio device while wearing the headgear and listening to the audio device through the ear buds. It is very difficult to properly select the audio content (music or voice) to be heard and to adjust the volume unless the controls and display can be seen and manipulated while listening to the audio content.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide headgear especially adapted for connecting, adjusting, docking and listening to a portable audio device.
Another object of the invention is to provide headgear especially adapted to carry an audio device and to connect it for listening and manipulating the controls of the audio device in the field of vision of a user while wearing the headgear.
Still another object is to eliminate the annoyance of electrical wires attached to ear buds that touch the face and neck of a user or cause noise or static caused by rubbing of the wires against the body or clothing.

Headgear for docking and listening to portable audio devices


A magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus includes a separator and first and second amplifiers. The separator separates a servo data signal and a user data signal, both reproduced by a reproducing head. The first and second amplifiers are connected to the output stage of the separator to increase the amplitude ratio of the servo data signal to the user data signal. The magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus can precisely decode the servo data along with the user data, and can achieve a highly precise servo control.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus having a magnetic recording medium such as a discrete track medium or other media.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic recording and reproducing apparatuses having a magnetic recording medium such as a discrete track medium or other media are widely known as a conventional magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus capable of high-density storage, and described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 6-195907.
The magnetic recording medium used in such conventional magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus comprises, for example, a servo data section SD and a user data section YD as shown in FIG. 12. In the servo data section SD, a special pattern, called a position detection mark for tracking (servo pattern), is formed. The special pattern is formed by physically separating a magnetic layer ML of the same material as the one used for the user data section YD, and is, for example, magnetized in one direction by an external magnetic field to store a magnetic signal.
In the conventional magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus, however, a magnetic signal in the user data section YD can have two-directional polarization, whereas a magnetic signal in the servo data section SD can only have one-directional polarization. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B, the servo data signal SS is reproduced with an amplitude of about half the amplitude of the user data signal YS. A problem with this is that the data error rate of the servo data signal SS tends to increase due to its smaller amplitude in comparison with the amplitude of the user data signal YS, preventing a precise servo control.


A method for performing a task, which includes generating a user interface with multiple screens where each screen corresponds to a step in a workflow used for performing the task; generating multiple live thumbnails which include miniaturized sections of the screens; displaying a first screen of the multiple screens and the multiple live thumbnails to a user using the user interface; populating a field on the first screen with input data entered by the user; determining a validity of the input data; updating a first live thumbnail of the multiple live thumbnails corresponding to the first screen based on the input data and the validity; receiving a screen selection from the user; displaying a second screen of the multiple screens corresponding to the screen selection; and updating a second live thumbnail of the multiple live thumbnails corresponding to the second screen based on the screen selection.

Payroll is a series of accounting transactions centered around making payments to employees. In addition to calculating a basic hourly wage or salary for an employee, an employer must also disburse as gross pay any commission, bonuses, vacation pay, sick leave, or other compensation. On the other hand, the employer is responsible for withholding various debits from the employee's gross pay, including income tax, other taxes (such as social security and Medicare), health insurance, union dues, pension plan contributions, and other deductions.
After the appropriate deductions have been removed from the gross pay, the employee is paid the remaining amount, known as net pay. The net pay is typically disbursed to the employee in the form of cash, a handwritten check, a printed check, as a direct deposit into the employee's bank account, or some other form of electronic transfer. Along with the disbursement of payment, the employee may receive a pay stub detailing the gross income as well as the deductions for the current pay period. The pay stub may also include year to date totals for important items on the paycheck, such as gross pay, income tax withholding, social security withholding, Medicare withholding, deductions, and other details.
In addition to calculating and paying employees' net income, the employer is also responsible for transferring deducted amounts from employee paychecks, as well as making additional monetary contributions, to the appropriate organizational (i.e., governmental) bodies. For example, the employer must send portions of the employee's withholdings and any employer matching contributions to: (1) the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as tax payments, (2) the insurance plan administrator for the group health care plan to which the employer is enrolled as health insurance payments, (3) any retirement plans, such as 401k plans, offered by the employer (including matching funds) as funding payments, and (4) any other entity for payment of any additional expenses.
Businesses may choose to process payroll by hand, by using accounting software, and/or by hiring a payroll service to handle the payroll needs of the company or small business. Small businesses with very few employees often perform payroll by hand, while small businesses with greater numbers of employees tend to use off-the-shelf payroll software or the assistance of a payroll service. Larger corporations tend to use payroll modules found within Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS), which may be client/server based software systems for streamlining and automating many aspects of human resources (HR) management.
Because of the complexities associated with payroll, payroll software often uses wizards to help employers process payroll. A wizard refers to a user interface that leads a user through a sequence of dialogs to perform a task, such as processing payroll and/or taxes. The dialogs may be used to display information, such as tax laws and regulations, to the user and/or obtain information, such as payroll and employee information, from the user. By walking the user through a series of steps required to perform the task, the wizard may help the user complete complex and/or infrequently performed tasks. However, because wizards require sequential completion of the steps, the user may be forced to perform the steps associated with the task in a specific sequence. In addition, the user may be required to scroll through multiple dialogs to update information and/or preferences associated with one dialog.

Workflow management using live thumbnails


Signal processing, data encoding and/or decoding techniques are applied in a dictionary system. A dictionary is generated as a function of time shift and phase shift distortion. Atoms of the dictionary can be determined. Further, parameters of the dictionary can be flexibly chosen. In one aspect, signals can be processed as a function of the dictionary.

Wireless communication systems are ubiquitous for personal and commercial uses. Demand for such systems continues to increase as the quantity of users, devices, and data increases. However there is a limit to the number of signals a communication system can accommodate per the number of orthogonal or quasi-orthogonal codes, for a direct sequence spread spectrum application. This is because the communication system is an interference limited and/or a code limited resource.
Data signals, or simply signals, are sequences of finite length repeating periodically. A signal of length n, can be represented as a vector in an n-dimensional space of complex number or equivalently as a complex-valued function.
In direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) communication systems, multiple signals with different encoding sequences are transmitted simultaneously. To retrieve the desired data stream from the overall data signal, the specific code sequence used to encode the desired signal is reproduced at a receiver, and via the autocorrelation properties, used to detect the original data stream from the noise of and interference in the overall signal.
In a code division multiple access (CDMA) communication systems, a multiple access technique in which a plurality of substantially orthogonal codes are used to spread spectrum modulate user signals within a system. Each modulated user signal may have an overlapping frequency spectrum with other modulated user signals in the system. However, because the underlying modulation codes are orthogonal, it is possible to demodulate individual user signals by performing a correlation operation using the appropriate code. As can be appreciated, a communication device operating within a CDMA-based system will often receive overlapping communication signals associated with a variety of different users. The signals associated with other users will typically appear as interference when trying to demodulate a signal associated with a desired user within the communication device.
The above-described background is merely intended to provide an overview of information regarding wireless communication networks, and is not intended to be exhaustive. Additional context may become apparent upon review of one or more of the various non-limiting embodiments of the following detailed description.

Distributive source coding and signal processing

THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


A learning control method for an electronic engine control system in which a variable concerning the adhesion of injected fuel onto a wall surface of an intake manifold, the evaporation of adhered fuel or the runaway of fuel to a cylinder is determined on the basis of a detection value of the operating state of an engine in accordance with a predetermined relational expression and the quantity of fuel injection is controlled on the basis of the determined value of the variable so that a target air/fuel ratio is realized, comprises the steps of determining the degree of deviation of an air/fuel ratio from the target value after the engine has been turned from a steady operating state into a transient operating state, determining a range in which the detection value of the engine operating state as the base of determination of the variable has changed upon occurrence of a fuel injection quantity control error which causes the deviation of the air/fuel ratio from the target value, and correcting a corresponding relationship between the engine operating state and the variable in the determined range of change on the basis of at least the degree of deviation of the air/fuel ratio from the target value by use of a rule-based inference.

The present invention relates to a method of automatically setting optimal model parameters in a fuel transport delay compensation method using a dynamic model.
The conventional methods of compensating for a delay in fuel transport by use of a dynamic model includes methods disclosed by Japanese Patent Application un-examined laid-open No. JP-A-58-8238 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,658. In these methods, the characteristics including the rate of adhesion, the rate of evaporation and the rate of parameters are beforehand formulated through predetermined experiments and the quantity of fuel injection is determined by use of those characteristics. For the formulation is used a method which is disclosed by, for example, Proceedings of the Scientific Lecture Meeting of Japan Automobile Technology Association, 842049. In the disclosed method, the formulation of characteristics is made by determining parameters so that a measured response of an air/fuel ratio of an exhaust gas, when the fuel injection quantity is stepwise changed in a state in which various conditions of an engine are constant, coincides with that response which is calculated using a fuel transport model.
The above prior art involves a problem that a desired control performance cannot be obtained even if the characteristics inclusive of the adhesion rate, the evaporation rate and the runaway rate determined by the predetermined experiments are set to a fuel control system as they are.
Also, in the above formulation method, it is not possible to uniquely determine the parameters since the measured response of the air/fuel ratio of the exhaust gas has a large variation even under the same engine operating condition. Therefore, a method may be considered in which the average values of parameter determined from several kinds of measured response is produced for use as a real parameter value for a certain operating condition. However, even by use of this method, there is a large possibility that the determined parameter includes an error. Therefore, even if the determined parameter is set to the control system as it is, a desired control performance cannot be obtained. Accordingly, the matching (or tuning) of a fuel system parameter becomes necessary.
Further, even if the parameter can be determined with satisfactory accuracy, there is the following problem concerning the detection of an air quantity. In order to obtain a desired performance of air/fuel ratio control, the quantity of air used for calculating the fuel injection quantity must be the quantity of air which flows into a cylinder. At present, an Hot Wire sensor or a pressure sensor is used for the detection of the air quantity. However, due to a delay in response of the sensor, the arrangement of the sensor, a processing for smoothing of pulsation or ripple, and so-on, it does not always follow that the detected air quantity coincides with the quantity of air which flows into the cylinder. This error in air quantity causes an air/fuel ratio control error. The matching of a fuel system parameter becomes necessary for making compensation for the air/fuel ratio control error.
As mentioned above, the matching of a fuel system parameter must be taken in order to obtain a desired control performance. In the existing circumstances, the matching is taken through the operation of an actual engine or an actual motor vehicle by a person. There is a problem that the matching must be taken in various operating ranges and hence a considerable number of steps are required for the development of a system.
Further, in the prior art, no consideration is made for a temporal change of the fuel transportation characteristic in an intake manifold. Accordingly, there is a possibility that the air/fuel ratio control performance is deteriorated with an increase in number of times of operation of an engine.

Learning control method for fuel injection control system of engine


Disclosed are methods and devices for distributed sensing of a measurable parameter employing stimulated Brillouin scattering in an optical fiber. A frequency-modulated or phase-modulated light wave is transmitted into the optical fiber. A scattered light wave in the optical fiber is monitored for sensing a measurable parameter. In some embodiments, the calculating step may include calculating a distance of a sensed location along the optical fiber using the monitored time of arrival.

Distributed sensing is commonly used to determine the conditions of a monitored object by collecting data from a distributed set of points on or in the vicinity of the object. The technique is widely used for example for structural health monitoring (SHM), where a structure such as a bridge, a building or an airplane, is monitored substantially simultaneously at the distributed set of points, to detect a structural fault at an early stage of the fault progress.
Some methods for distributed sensing utilize a deployed optical fiber, which is in mechanical or thermal contact, substantially along at least a portion of the fiber's length, with the object that needs to be monitored. Optical fibers, typically made as flexible transparent thin fibers, are commonly used for highly efficient transportation of light signals over large distances. Within some such methods for distributed sensing, each point, area, or segment of the optical fiber may be used for sensing; light signals, indicating sensed data, are transmitted through the fiber to be collected and processed at any one or both of the optical fiber's ends.
Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in optical fibers is an underlying effect employed by several methods for distributed sensing of local strain and temperature variations, over distances that may reach tens of kilometers. Techniques that employ SBS are for example Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (BOTDR), Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis (BOTDA) and Brillouin Optical correlation Domain Analysis (BOCDA). Within these techniques, an intense light wave (a pump wave)—that may be amplitude-modulated, frequency-modulated or phase-modulated—is transmitted to the fiber, while a scattered light wave, generally having a frequency shifted from that of the pump wave, is received from the optical fiber, monitored and analyzed in the time and frequency domains.
Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is a nonlinear optical propagation effect, in which an optical wave (a pump wave) propagating forward in an optical medium, is scattered inelastically by phonons of the medium. The phonons are acoustic waves, generated in the medium by the propagating pump light wave, through electrostriction.
When SBS occurs in an optical fiber, the pump light wave may be backscattered by the phonons in the optical fiber that are generated as described above, thereby generating a backscattered light wave propagating in the opposite direction to the pump light wave. The frequency of the backscattered wave is different from the frequency of the pump wave by the Brillouin frequency shift ΩB, which is generally on the order of magnitude of 10 GHz in standard optical fibers. The ΩB frequency is a property of the optical medium in which the waves propagate, but it may vary with environmental conditions such as temperature and mechanical strain. Further, when SBS is generated in an optical fiber, and a second optical wave (a probe wave) is transmitted into the fiber in the opposite direction to the pump wave, the probe wave may be forward-scattered by the phonons in the optical fiber that are generated as described above. The forward-scattered probe light wave may further be amplified considerably if its frequency is set to be substantially equal to that of the backscattered wave, namely if its frequency is shifted from that of the pump light wave by exactly ΩB.
In BOTDR, a pump wave of frequency ω0 is pulse-modulated, and the light pulses are transmitted to the fiber. A backscattered wave, having a frequency of approximately ω0−ΩB, is then generated in the fiber due to SBS along the fiber's length. The backscattered wave is detected, and its frequency is instantaneously monitored as a function of time, following each transmitted pulse. If the fiber is exposed to uniform environmental conditions throughout its length, the detected wave frequency is constant, and shifted from that of the transmitted pulses by ΩB. If, however, the fiber is exposed, in some portion thereof, to some different conditions, e.g., strain different from that of other portions of the fiber, then the backscattered wave from that portion has frequency that deviates by some difference ΔΩ from ω0−ΩB. The magnitude of the frequency difference ΔΩ is substantially proportional to the magnitude of the strain (or temperature) variation, typically by 0.5 GHz/% strain, and 1 MHz/° K. Further, the time gap Δt between each transmitted pulse and the time when such a frequency change is detected with the backscattered wave, indicates the location, along the optical fiber, where the strain is applied: denoting the light wave group velocity in the fiber by vg, the distance, along the fiber, from the end of the fiber to that location is ½Δt·vg. Thus, by mapping the magnitude of the backscattered wave as a function of both time and frequency, the position and magnitude of strain (and temperature) variance is detected.
In Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA), a pump light wave is transmitted from one end of the fiber, while counter-propagating probe waves, typically substantially weaker than the pump waves, are transmitted from the other end of the optical fiber. The pump wave amplifies the probe waves having the frequencies that match the local Brillouin frequency shift in the fiber. The position-dependent frequency shift of the probe wave is then detected in a similar manner to the description relating to BOTDR above, through mapping the magnitude of the amplified probe as a function of both time and frequency.
In Brillouin optical correlation-domain analysis (BOCDA), a continuous, constant-magnitude pump wave is transmitted into an optical fiber from one end, and a continuous, constant-magnitude probe wave is transmitted into the optical fiber from the opposite end, and in the opposite direction to the pump wave. The frequencies of the two waves, which are nominally ΩB apart, are synchronously modulated by a common sine wave. Due to the modulation, the frequency difference between the two counter-propagating waves remains stationary only at particular fiber locations, known as correlation peaks, whereas the frequency difference elsewhere is oscillating. Consequently, effective SBS amplification, and hence localized measurement, is restricted to the location, along the fiber, where correlation peaks occur.

Distributed sensing employing stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers


Embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein may provide visual and audible flight direction cues to the pilot of a helicopter to maintain an optimum energy sustaining profile to successfully perform an autorotation maneuver. From the moment the engine fails or fails to provide adequate power to the main rotor system, systems described herein provide airspeed, attitude, and altitude guidance to the pilot to intercept and fly the correct path for a successful autorotation entry and autorotation descent. The system displays specific cues as the helicopter approaches the determined flare altitude and guides the pilot through the autorotation flare and minimum rate of descent touchdown.

Helicopter energy management is of primary concern during an engine out situation onboard a helicopter. Energy may be found within each of the rotating components including the kinetic energy stored in the rotor system. This energy may be used to counteract the rate of descent during an autorotation landing by converting the kinetic energy in the rotor system into Lift. Additional Lift is produced at the bottom of an autorotation by increasing the angle of attack of the main rotor blades. During the autorotation procedure, rotor RPM will rapidly decay. It is essential to properly time the autorotation flare by converting the rotor RPM energy into Lift to fully arrest the descent and cushion the landing.
Traditional flight director systems may offer guidance to a ground based navigational aid including an instrument landing system (ILS) or area navigation (RNAV) lateral and vertical guidance profiles. These systems, however, offer guidance to a specific point on the surface and fail to incorporate local atmospherics into the guidance equation. For example, and ILS may provide ground based guidance to a specific landing point on a runway. Similarly, RNAV systems may offer inertial or satellite based guidance to a specific point on a runway. These systems have no value during an engine out autorotation maneuver.
Proper autorotation technique is of primary concern, since the pilot has a single opportunity for success. Pilot visual scan should be appropriate for the phase of the autorotation to be successful. As the pilot turns the helicopter to final landing heading or course line prior to the flare, pilot scan should focus almost entirely outside. The successful scan should include: 1) Outside—to the horizon for attitude, ground track, and nose alignment; 2) Down—for altitude to set the flare and for closure vertical speed and groundspeed; and 3) Inside the cockpit—to cross-check airspeed, rotor rpm, and engine rpm in the descent.
The completion maneuver just before the helicopter touches down may be referred to as the autorotational flare. Each autorotational flare may be unique depending on the existing wind conditions, airspeed, Density Altitude (DA), and the aircraft gross weight. These many variables could lead to pilot misinterpretation of existing conditions and an unsuccessful autorotation. Therefore, a need remains for a system and related method to aid a pilot in recognition of these variables and offer cues to mitigate factors which could lead to an unsuccessful autorotation.

Autorotation initiation and flare cues system and related method


An angular position sensor including a magnetic field generator means and a magnetic sensor means. The magnetic field generator means produces a magnetic field. The magnetic sensor means has a first magnetic sensor element, a second magnetic sensor element, and a third magnetic sensor element each for providing an output signal depending on a direction of the magnetic field. One of the magnetic field generator means and the magnetic sensor means rotates in conjunction with the target object. The magnetic sensor elements are located so as to provide output signals having different phase differences by allowing the magnetic sensor means to rotate relative to the magnetic field generator means. The magnetic sensor elements are also located such that an output signal of each magnetic sensor element has a phase different from an inverted phase of an output signal of the other two magnetic sensor elements.

Various types of angular position sensors are known. For example, as a target object rotates, one of those angular position sensors is adapted to rotate magnetic sensor means having two magnetic sensor elements relative to magnetic field generator means such as permanent magnets. Then, the angular position sensor detects an angle of rotation of the target object based on an output signal of the magnetic sensor elements which varies as the target object rotates (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications Nos. 62-95402 and 60-47901).
An example of such an angular position sensor is shown in FIG. 8. The angular position sensor includes a pair of permanent magnets 312 and 314, which are attached to the inner circumferential wall of a cylindrical yoke 310 to form a parallel magnetic field. The yoke 310 and the permanent magnets 312 and 314 rotate in conjunction with a target object whose angle of rotation is to be detected. For example, provided generally at the center of the yoke 310 as the magnetic sensor element are Hall elements 320 and 322 which are supported by a support member to form an angle of 90 degrees to each other in the direction of rotation of the target object. That is, as shown in FIG. 9, output signals 100 and 102 from the Hall elements 320 and 322 are different in phase by 90 degrees from each other, the output signals having a sine and cosine relation.
Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 10, applying a trigonometric arc tangent operation to the output signals 100 and 102 shown in FIG. 9 results in a calculated angle 110 which varies in a cycle of 180 degrees in a one-to-one relation with the angle of rotation of the target object.
Then, as shown in FIG. 12, the rotational angular position of the target object is identified within a range from 0 to 360 degrees in accordance with the sign of the output signals 100 (Va) and 102 (Vb). Then, an offset angle is added to the calculated angle 110 of FIG. 10 to provide a combined calculated angle 110, thereby providing an output angle 120 which varies in a cycle of 360 degrees in a one-to-one relation with the angle of rotation of the target object, as shown in FIG. 11. This makes it possible to detect the angle of rotation of the target object within a range from 0 to 360 degrees.
However, in practice, like an output signal 130 shown in FIG. 13, an offset may be added to the output signal of a Hall element, so that the signal is shifted from the center of oscillation. Furthermore, some variations in gain of the output signals 130 and 132 may also be found between the Hall elements. These offset and variation in gain may be caused during manufacture of the Hall elements or installation of the angular position sensor.
The angle of rotation of the target object cannot be properly determined from output signals which have an offset or a variation in gain. It is thus necessary to make a correction to the offset and the gain of the output signals 130 and 132 in order to determine the angle of rotation, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications Nos. 2001-311605 and 2004-45286.
As described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications Nos. 2001-311605 and 2004-45286, a correction is made by detecting the minimum and maximum value of the output signals and then determining their offset and gain. However, for example, using Hall elements as the magnetic sensor element requires a rotation of 180 degrees or more of the permanent magnets or the like which form a magnetic field, thereby resulting in an increase in time for correcting the output signals.
Furthermore, suppose that the angular position sensor attached to a target object may degrade over time, so that the output signal from a Hall element needs to be corrected. In this case, for example, the range of rotational angles of the target object being as narrow as less than 90 degrees would also raise another problem that the minimum or maximum value of the output signal cannot be determined, thereby causing no correction to be made to the output signal.

Method and apparatus for sensing angle of rotation which compensates an output signal from a magnetic sensor element irrespective of the range of rotational angles of a target object


A security system includes: an outing motion detection sensor for detecting actions of a non-monitored person when leaving the monitored area; and human body sensors for detecting the non-monitored person in the monitored area, and a home controller includes: a mode switching section for switching between an alert mode and a non-alert mode; a storage section for storing sensor state accumulative data that indicates initial states of the human body sensors in the alert mode; a human body sensor confirming section for detecting a matching between detection states of the human body sensors and the sensor state accumulative data; and a mode switching reminder section for causing a remote alarm device located at a remote place to present mode change reminder information, when the outing motion detection sensor detects that the non-monitored person has left the monitored area, the detection states of the human body sensors are matched with the sensor state accumulative data, and the non-alert mode has been set. With this arrangement, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of absence of security measures caused by a human error.

Along with rising crime, security systems in which security measures are automated by providing security sensors and the like in houses and buildings have become widely used. Wide variety of security systems have already been in practical use, e.g. ranging from a large-scale system in which a security center receives a security alert from a sensor via a computer network upon the detection of an intruder and the like by the sensor, so that a security guard is sent to the scene, to a simple system in which information detected by a sensor is sent to a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone of the user. Also, sensors that detect the existence of a human body, the breakdown of glass, fire, and gas leakage have been in practical use, thanks to sensing media that detect light, sound (including supersonic wave and acoustic pressure), electric waves (especially microwave), images, and others.
Prior art documents related to the present invention are the following Patent Documents 1-3.
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 8-16963/1996; published on Jan. 19, 1996) discloses an alarm device which prevents the user from making an operation mistake and prevents a security alert from being mistakenly dispatched. More specifically, this alarm device is arranged such that a plurality of intrusion sensors are provided in a monitored area and an alert is automatically sent to a remote security center if an intrusion to the monitored area or an act of vandalism in the monitored area is detected by one of the intrusion sensors, and the alarm device includes: a controller provided in the monitored area; a mode setting device provided outside the monitored area; timer means that starts clocking in response to the operation of the controller, and stops the clocking after a predetermined period of time elapses; and control means. The control means sets the controller to an alert mode if the mode setting device is operated during the clocking of the timer means. If the mode setting device is operated after the clocking finishes, the control device does not set any security modes.
According to a portable remote moving picture transmission system of Patent Document 2 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-333216; published on Nov. 30, 2001), a photograph of an intruder is automatically sent to a next-generation mobile phone, rather than an alert is sent to a security company, so that the user can swiftly identify the intruder and contact the police, and as a result the payment to the security company can be reduced. More specifically, according to this portable remote moving picture transmission system, when an alert state is set by a key switch, the illegal intruder is sensed by a miniaturized human sensing light and a connected automatic reporting device is started. The automatic reporting device continuously starts connecting plural reporting destinations predetermined to the next generation portable telephone. By setting the next generation portable telephone of a party to automatic incoming call, when there is a report, an image automatically appears. Thus, the person concerned, who receives the image, can instantaneously judge conditions from the image and can report the movement of the illegal intruder or features of the face to the police as they are. When an erroneous report can be judged from the image such as when a member of company enters the room while forgetting the cancel of the key switch, for example, such a state can be judged by the image so that the report to the police is not required.
Patent Document 3 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-288939; published on Oct. 19, 2001) discloses a locking confirmation supporting apparatus which alleviates a fear of the user regarding locking, and is easy to use, inexpensive, and highly versatile. More specifically, the locking confirmation supporting apparatus is comprised of a key holder section for holding a key, and an electronic clock section consisting of a timer circuit, a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and a display. Then, a locking confirmation signal is generated, and a current time point of locking is stored as a confirmation time point into the RAM of the electronic clock section, based on the locking confirmation signal, and a notice is sent to a liquid crystal display. The locking confirmation signal is generated by a key taking/ejecting means inclusive of a key taking/ejection-detecting switch provided in the key holder section, locking sound detecting means inclusive of a locking sound sensor such as a microphone, a manual input switch, etc. After locking, by operating a reconfirmation switch, the confirmation time point stored in the RAM is displayed again on the liquid crystal display.
However, in spite of remarkable development of devices and systems, human errors made by the users of buildings and houses invalidate such devices and systems and bring about absence of security measures, thereby causing a lot of troubles.
A representative example of the human errors is such that the user forgets to set an "alert mode". That is, security systems are typically arranged in such a manner that the user sets the security mode when he/she leaves home and wishes to let the house be watched, and releases the security mode upon the return to the house. In this case, the security system does not turn on if the user forgets to set the security mode or does not set the mode for some reason, so that the security measures do not operate.
There have been no proposals to provide measurements for spotting such human errors, because it has been difficult to accurately spot the errors with low costs.
As described above, conventional security systems cannot, for instance, gives advise, alarm, or the like to set the security mode to the user, in order to prevent a human error by the user of buildings, houses, and the like. In other words, the conventional systems cannot cover for human errors without imposing a burden on the user.

Mechanical security system, control device, remote annunciator, control method and control program, computer-readable recording medium recording control program


A surface-emitting extended cavity laser with intracavity frequency conversion is provided with at least one surface-emitting laser element with multiple layers to obtain laser light at a fundamental frequency, reflector means, spaced from the laser element to form an external cavity, a frequency conversion device, arranged within the external cavity to generate light at a second frequency and tunable optical band-pass filter means, arranged within the external cavity and detector means, where said optical band-pass filter means are tunable upon a signal, which is obtained by the detector means to enable a frequency control at the fundamental frequency.

Vertical surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) are known in the art for low manufacturing-cost. Recently, vertical surface-emitting lasers with an external cavity (VECSEL) were developed, which allow large-area beams to be generated efficiently with high beam quality. By placing a frequency conversion device in the external cavity it is now possible to generate laser light at wavelengths, for which a direct generation of laser light is not possible at reasonable cost and effort.
A typical field of application of such a device are RGB image projectors, for which laser light sources are ideal due to their high luminance and high beam quality. While red and blue laser light can be generated directly by laser diodes at a reasonable cost, it is currently not feasible to generate green laser light directly using a laser diode. Therefore, vertical surface-emitting external cavity laser devices with intracavity frequency conversion are promising for this application.
Within vertical surface-emitting external cavity laser devices with intracavity frequency conversion, laser light is generated in a semiconductor laser element, similar to the laser chip of a VCSEL device, comprising at least one gain layer with usually several quantum wells and at least one highly reflective distributed Bragg reflector. A laser mirror is arranged spaced from the laser element to form an external cavity, which completes the laser resonator. When the laser element is operated, this setup generates light at a fundamental frequency. By placing a frequency conversion device, for example a non-linear crystal, in the external cavity, light at a second frequency being different from the fundamental frequency, e.g. at a harmonic frequency, is generated. The light at the second frequency can then easily be coupled out of the external cavity and be used for the desired application.
A problem arises, since the performance of both the semiconductor laser element and frequency conversion device typically are temperature dependent. The conversion efficiency of the frequency conversion device from the fundamental frequency to the second frequency strongly depends on an exact match of its phase-matching bandwidth, which is strongly temperature-dependent for most of the common efficient frequency conversion materials. If the gain bandwidth of the laser element drifts due to a change of the temperature, the gain bandwidth may drift out of the phase-matching bandwidth, which may result in low conversion efficiency and thus low power of the light at the second frequency. Usually, this problem can be addressed by an active temperature control of both, the laser element and the frequency conversion device.
Document WO 2006/105249 discloses a frequency stabilized vertical extended cavity surface-emitting laser, which comprises a semiconductor laser chip for generation of laser light at a fundamental frequency, an output coupler, defining an external cavity and a non-linear crystal for generating light at the second-harmonic frequency arranged within the external cavity together with a thin-film interference filter.
Here, the thin-film filter serves to constrain the emission wavelength of the laser at the phase-matching bandwidth of the non-linear crystal. Although due to this setup, a temperature control of the laser chip can be omitted, it is still necessary to actively control the temperature of the non-linear crystal, which is costly and may lead to significant problems when integrating the laser device in small projection units.
It is therefore an object to provide a surface-emitting external cavity laser device with intracavity frequency conversion, which is universally applicable and may be manufactured cost-efficiently.

Surface-emitting external cavity laser device


A pixel array comprises at least one long exposure pixel, short exposure pixel, and a control circuit. The long exposure pixel comprises a first photodiode to generate charges, a first image signal generating module for generating a first image sensing signal; and a first transfer switch device for passing the charges to the first image signal generating module via a first transfer control signal. The control circuit sets the first transfer control signal to be a first predetermined control voltage when the long exposure pixel is in an long exposure phase, and then sets the first transfer control signal to be a second predetermined control voltage when the short exposure pixel is in a short exposure phase.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sensor, and particularly relates to an image sensor with an anti-blooming mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A pixel of an image sensor has a photodiode to generate charges according to light and a transfer switch coupled to the photodiode to control the charges selectively output to a floating diffusion. In order to well control the charge leakage, for example the transfer switch being an n-type transistor, a negative control voltage is provided to a control terminal of the transfer switch. Under exposure, the photo diode converts light into charges. If the light is too bright, however, a large quantity of charges are generated and accumulated in the photodiode, and leakage current may likely occur to affect the neighboring pixels. Such situation is called blooming.
Therefore, a good mechanism for avoiding the bloom issue is needed.

Dual low voltage levels for control of transfer switch device in pixel array


A ridge cap type roof ventilator comprising a plurality of sections aligned longitudinally with one another and hingedly interconnected along their confronting ends such that the plurality of sections may be folded or pivoted into parallel abutting contact. Once folded, several roof ventilators may be stacked with their vent parts in an overlapping, interfitted pattern to provide a stable column or stack having a minimal volume to conserve the space required to store or ship a predetermined number of the roof ventilators. The sections may be unfolded for positioning and installation on the ridge of the roof.

This invention relates generally to roof ventilators, and particularly to a corrugated plastic ridge cap type roof ventilator having interconnected segments which may be folded longitudinally for storage, shipping, and installation.
Embodiments of a foldable corrugated plastic ridge cap roof ventilator have previously been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,803,813 to Fiterman and 5,094,041 to Kasner, the content of those patents (including the related applications, documents, and references) being incorporated herein by reference as though fully set forth. The details and description of the fabrication, assembly, and use of the roof ventilators shown in the Fiterman '813 and Kasner '041 patents should be assumed to apply in all pertinent respects to the roof ventilator discussed herein, with the exception of the particular variations and modifications set forth and described with particularity.
The improvement disclosed herein is equally applicable to and may be incorporated into many other types of ridge cap type roof ventilators, with representative examples being shown for demonstrative purposes only by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,949,657; 4,843,953; and 5,054,254 to Sells; 4,942,699 to Spinelli; 2,579,662 to Gibson; or 4,876,950 to Rudeen.
These examples show ridge cap type roof ventilators that are installed in short sections aligned end-to-end along the ridge of a roof in covering relation to a ventilation opening. The installer will remove several sections from the shipping carton, pallet, or vehicle and carry those sections to the roof, fasten a first section in position on the ridge of the roof, and then place additional sections in abutting contact with one or both ends of the first sections and progress sequentially along the ridge of the roof fastening the sections to the roof. Once the line of roof ventilators is installed, they are overlaid with shingles, tar paper, tile, or other roofing materials.

Roof ventilator having longitudinally aligned folding sections