A semiconductor structure and manufacturing method thereof are provided. The semiconductor structure includes a metallization structure with a dielectric surface. A first protecting structure is on the dielectric surface. A conductive pad is on the dielectric surface and is leveled with the first protecting structure. A polymer layer is over the first protecting structure and the conductive pad. A conductive bump is electrically coupled to the conductive pad through an opening of the polymer layer. A method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure is also provided.

Microelectronic semiconductor IC devices such as Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (CMOS FET) devices and the like are manufactured in a complex process in which numerous separate electronic devices are formed. Such processes of manufacture, which produce large numbers of such electronic devices, are referred to as Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) processes. After many processing steps, conductive terminals such copper bumps and/or solder bumps are to be disposed over interconnect structure during the Back End of Line (BEOL) process.

Semiconductor structure and manufacturing method thereof


Technologies for ensuring functional safety of an electronic device include receiving data by a primary and secondary hardware unit and performing a function on the data. Each of the primary and secondary hardware unit perform the same function on their respective set of data to generate corresponding results. A determination is made whether the hardware units are synchronized and the results can be compared. If so, the results are compared and an alert is generated if the results do not match.

In certain applications, implementation of functional safety of electronic systems is an important consideration. To do so, various techniques may be used to ensure the electronic system is operating in a proper and/or predictable manner. One such technique used to ensure functional safety of an electronic device or system is known as hardware redundancy. In a hardware redundancy system, an electrical component (e.g., a processor core or other electrical device or circuit) is duplicated. For example, two identical or otherwise similar processor cores may be established on the same silicon die. Both electrical components are configured to operate in the same manner in a lock-step fashion. For example, two processor cores may execute the same code in parallel on the same set of data. To ensure the primary electrical component is operating correctly, the output of both electrical components are compared and an error is generated if those outputs do not match. In this way, the operation of the primary electrical component is verified based on the operation of the duplicated electrical component.
Traditional hardware redundancy, however, requires that the primary electrical component and the redundant electrical component are synchronized to ensure the operation of each electrical component is temporally consistent. Typically, such synchronization requires the resetting of both electrical components, or portions of those components (e.g., the resetting of certain flip-flops included in the electrical components). Loss of synchronization may be indicative of a failure of a component of the electronic device or system and may result in loss of data, as well as a lack of verification of the proper operation of the primary electrical component. Of course, loss of synchronization even without a known cause or reason may be considered a bug in the design. As such, should synchronization between the primary and redundant electrical component become lost, a reboot or resetting of the components is required. The loss of synchronization between the components can occur for many different reasons, some of which are unrelated to the core safety concern. As such, the ability to quickly re-synchronize the electrical components is beneficial in systems requiring functional safety.


A power conversion circuit includes a driving circuit, an activating circuit, a converter and an auxiliary power source. The activating circuit receives a first power signal. The converter is used for converting the first power signal into a second power signal. The auxiliary power source is electrically connected to the activating circuit and the driving circuit. The auxiliary power source is driven by the driving circuit to issue either a first control signal to the activating circuit if the load is connected with the power conversion circuit or a second control signal to the activating circuit if the load is disconnected from the power conversion circuit. In response to the first control signal, the first power signal is converted into the second power signal and the second power signal is transmitted to the load. In response to the second control signal, the converter is disenabled.

Recently, power adapters become indispensable devices for many kinds of electronic devices. A power adapter usually has an AC-to-DC converter for rectifying and converting utility power into DC power required for powering a load such as a notebook computer or a mobile phone charger.
Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic circuit block diagram of a typical power supply system is illustrated. The power adapter 10 has a first terminal connected to utility power source 11 through an AC plug (not shown) and a second terminal connected to a load 12 through a connector (not shown). Within the power adapter 10, an AC-to-DC converter 101 is used for receiving the AC power from the utility power source 11 and rectifying and converting the utility power into DC power required for powering the load 12.
Although the AC-to-DC converter 101 of the power adapter 10 can rectify and convert the utility power into the DC power required for powering the load 12, there are still some drawbacks. For example, for carrying the load 12 (for example a portable electronic device such as a notebook computer) to other places, the user may simply separate the load 12 from the power adapter 10 while the power adapter 10 is still connected to the utility power source 11. Under this circumstance, the utility power is continuously transmitted from the utility power source 11 to the power adapter 10. Due to the line impedance between the utility power source 11 and the power adapter 10 or the continuous conversion of the AC power into DC power by the power adapter 10, the power adapter 10 is readily suffered from additional power loss. Nowadays, with increasing awareness of environmental protection, more and more products are designed in views of low power consumption, low power loss and high performance. As a result, the current power adapter is not satisfied.
Therefore, there is a need of providing a power conversion circuit for reducing power loss to obviate the drawbacks encountered from the prior art.

Power conversion circuit for reducing power loss and electronic device having such power conversion circuit


A painting rack for the mounting of a variety and multiplicity of vehicle parts, the sections of which are designed for ease in assembly and disassembly for storage and transport. The rack defines a hole portion to which can be inserted a plurality of rod-like supports extending outwardly therefrom which are rotatable in a given plane for spacing and counterbalance of the parts mounted thereon.

During the extended life of a vehicle, there are occasions when re-painting of one or more parts is necessary or desired. In the event of an accident or severe rusting, it is general practice to obtain a replacement part. In such instances, the part is not of a color which matches the basic color of the vehicle.
In the context of this invention, we are talking about garages, general vehicle repair, collision shops and specialty paint shops. Such shops have dozens of parts waiting to be painted. To compound the problem, the parts should be painted completely, i.e., inside, outside and edges.
There are currently available on the market, paint stands of various designs. All known stands are much like a table with a tilting top, upon which the part is rested. The obvious problem with such devices is that only one side of the part can be painted at a time. When one side is dry, the part is turned over and the other side is painted.
Some painters suspend parts from rafters, and this works fairly well until one considers that these parts are at arm level. Swinging parts tend to strike against each other and the shop becomes somewhat dangerous to walk around in.
The painting rack of this invention is an inexpensive and practical solution to the problems outlined above, and comprises a rack structure which not only supports certain vehicle parts, but which includes arms on which other parts may be suspended. The rack is designed for ease of assembly and disassembly and can be transported in a small van, pick-up truck or in the trunk of an automobile.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved painting rack which is of sufficient strength to support several vehicle parts simultaneously.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a painting rack on which parts are suspended in such positions that both sides, top, bottom and edges of such parts may be painted at the same time.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide an improved painting rack with a variety of receptacles for the extensions in order that any of a variety of positions for parts may be obtained.
Further and other objects will become apparent upon consideration of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.


Method for establishing wireless networks between devices is disclosed. When a first device is activated to establish a wireless network with other devices, a first activation reference time is recorded. At least one second device that has at least one compatible networking capability is searched for and identified. When the second device is activated to establish wireless network with other devices, a second activation reference time also is recorded. The first and second activation reference times are compared to determine whether they fall into the same time window. The offset between the system time of the first device and that of the second may be factored into the calculation to further enhance the accuracy. If the first and second activation reference times are in the same time window, the authentication of wireless network is established between the devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to establishing wireless network communication, and, more particularly, to methods for automatically and accurately establishing wireless network communication between devices.
2. Brief Discussion of the Related Art
Wireless network technology has become pervasive in a wide variety of devices, such as notebook computers, cellular phones, smart phones and PDAs. Built-in networking capabilities can be used to establish connection and execute related wireless operations between devices. For example, devices can exchange contact information, such as digital business cards, wirelessly.
IR communication is a conventional method for transferring digital information between devices. When IR communication is used between two or more devices, the number of transactions grows geometrically as the number of devices involved increases. The relationship between the number of IR transactions and the number of devices involved is summarized as follow:
n=m×(m−1)n, in which n is the number of IR transactions, and m is the number of devices involved. This geometric growth is illustrated in table 1.
TABLE 1Number of devicesNumber of IR transactions22364125206308561213220380
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating data flows based on conventional IR communication. As shown in FIG. 1, if five devices (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) exchange data, the number of data transactions that must be initiated grows to 20 transactions. IR communication becomes impractical as the number of involved devices grows.
Radio Frequency (RF) technologies, such as Bluetooth, allow multiple devices to communicate without requiring line-of-sight alignment. For this reason, problems associated with IR communication can be substantially eliminated. RF technologies, however, have other problems. Misdetection of devices belonging to different exchange groups may occur, if the challenge friends-or-foes identification is not addressed.
Additionally, complex and time-consuming operational steps are typically required. First, a RF networking capability of a device is manually turned on. Then, available network devices are explored, and the correct devices among all visible devices on the network are selected for connection. Finally, wireless data exchange is performed, and, as the last step, the RF networking capability is turned off when the wireless data exchange is completed. The learning curve to perform the aforementioned operations may seem insurmountable to many users. As a result, using conventional RF technologies to exchange data is still not widely practiced.

Methods for establishing wireless network communication and device utilizing same


A standard fluid for a flow cytometer which shows, after staining, almost the same fluorescence intensity and scattered light intensity as those of the cells to be assayed.

There has been known to use a flow cytometer for classifying and counting cells in blood or particles in urine. This method comprises staining cells in a sample with a staining solution, passing the stained cells one by one through a flow cell under irradiating with excitation light beams and measuring the fluorescence or scattered light generated from the cells to thereby classify and count the cells.
In the analysis with the use of a flow cytometer, it is necessary to calibrate the device so as to obtain precise data. It has been a practice to use fixed cells (for example, red blood cells, bacteria), latex particles or fluorescent particles for the quality control and calibration of a flow cytometer. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-102152 has disclosed a standard fluid for a flow-type particle image analyzer with the use of an ion exchange resin, while Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 4-278460 has proposed to use cells, bacteria, latex particles, microcapsules, starch grains, gelatin grains and pollens as marker particles.
However, materials with biological origins such as cells and bacteria show large differences among individuals, which makes it difficult to establish stable qualities. In addition, troublesome procedures (for example, preventive measures against the infection with pathogenic organisms, cold storage) are required in handling these materials.
On the other hand, latex particles cannot be stained in general and, therefore, are not usable in a system of controlling a staining solution. Fluorescent particles bonded to a fluorescent dye are usable in an optical control system but not in a system of controlling staining wherein not only the staining solution per se but also the staining conditions (the amount of the staining solution to be pipetted, temperature, etc.) should be managed. Further, microcapsules, starch grains, gelatin grains, etc. are sometimes different in staining modes from the cells to be assayed. This is seemingly because these particles differ from actual cells in the affinity for the dye contained in the staining solution. It is preferable that a calibration substance shows similar staining behaviors as those of the cells to be assayed, since the calibration and quality control can be facilitated thereby.
The standard fluid disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-102152 as cited above is one to be used in a device for photographing and analyzing particles from the image of each particle. That is, this patent discloses no standard fluid to be used in a device for analyzing scattered light intensity or fluorescence intensity.


An acceleration detection device is provided which is capable of detecting accelerations in two or more directions. The base end of a beam is fixed to a support section on a board. A weight is provided in the front end of the beam which is formed so as to extend horizontally along the board surface with a gap with it and the surface of the board. The position of the center of gravity G of the weight is set at a position spaced perpendicularly apart from the center axis of the beam in order that the inertial moment acts when an acceleration along the length (in the X direction) of the beam is applied. The front end surface of the weight is formed into an upright surface of a movable electrode, and a fixed electrode is formed at a position facing the movable electrode with a gap therebetween. When an acceleration in the X or Y direction is applied, the beam is flexed upwardly or downwardly in proportion to the magnitude of the acceleration, causing the weight to be inclined upwardly or downwardly while being displaced upwardly or downwardly. Thus, the electrostatic capacity between the movable electrode and the fixed electrode increases or decreases. The magnitude of the acceleration can be detected on the basis of the amount of such change of the electrostatic capacity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an acceleration detection device for use in an acceleration detection sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 11 shows an example of a conventional acceleration detection device 18. The acceleration detection device 18 comprises a board 20, a support section 25, a beam 21 in the shape of a cantilever, a weight 22, movable electrodes 23a and 23b, and fixed electrodes 24a and 24b. Referring to FIG. 11, the support section 25 is securely formed on the board surface of the board 20, with the base end of the beam 21 being connected to the support section 25. The beam 21 is formed so as to extend horizontally along the board surface with a gap between it and the board surface of the board 20, with the weight 22 being provided at the extension end of the beam 21. The weight 22 is formed symmetrically between the upper and lower halves with respect to the center axis along the length of the beam 21, with the position of the center of gravity G of the weight 22 at the center axis. The movable electrode 23a is formed on the surface of weight 22 facing the board, and the movable electrode 23b is formed on the opposite surface of weight 22. Further, the fixed electrodes 24a and 24b are provided which face the movable electrodes 23a and 23b, respectively, each with a gap therebetween.
Connected to the movable electrodes 23a and 23b and the fixed electrodes 24a and 24b are detection means (not shown) for performing detection by applying a voltage between the movable electrodes 23a and 23b and the fixed electrodes 24a and 24b which face each other and by converting the electrostatic capacity between the movable electrodes 23a and 23b and the fixed electrodes 24a and 24b into a voltage.
The acceleration detection device 18 constructed as described above is designed to detect an acceleration in a direction (in the Y direction in the example shown in the figure) perpendicular to the board surface of the board 20. When an upward and downward acceleration (an upward and downward acceleration in the Y direction) in the direction shown in FIG. 11, perpendicular to the surface of the board 20, is applied, an upward and downward inertial force in the Y direction corresponding to the direction and the magnitude of the acceleration occurs (to be specific, when an acceleration occurs upwardly, the inertial force occurs downwardly; when, on the contrary, an acceleration occurs downwardly, the inertial force occurs upwardly). This inertial force causes the beam 21 to be flexibly deformed, causing the weight 22 to be displaced. That is, the movable electrodes 23a and 23b are displaced integrally with the weight 22, and the electrode-to-electrode distance between the movable electrodes 23a and 23b and the fixed electrodes 24a and 24b varies. For this reason, the electrostatic capacity between the movable electrodes 23a and 23b and the fixed electrodes 24a and 24b varies. The magnitude of the upward and downward acceleration or the like is detected on the basis of the amount of such change of the electrostatic capacity.
However, in the acceleration detection device 18 having the above-described construction, since the position of the gravity G of the weight 22 is on the center axis of the beam 21, when an acceleration along the length (in the X direction) of the beam 21 is applied, an inertial moment does not act on the beam 21, and the weight 22 is not displaced. Therefore, the electrostatic capacity between the movable electrodes 23a and 23b and the fixed electrodes 24a and 24b does not vary, and therefore, an acceleration in the X direction cannot be detected. That is, in the acceleration detection device 18 constructed as described above, only the acceleration in the Y direction perpendicular to the surface of the board 20 can be detected. Of course, it is not possible to detect the magnitude of acceleration in two or more directions.


Disclosed is a surface treatment liquid which enables simple and efficient hydrophobilization of a substrate and prevention of collapse of a resin pattern or etched pattern. Also disclosed are a surface treatment method using the surface treatment liquid, a hydrophobilization method using the surface treatment liquid, and a hydrophobilized substrate. When a substrate is hydrophobilized, the substrate is coated with a surface treatment liquid containing a silylating agent and a hydrocarbon non-polar solvent. When a pattern is prevented from collapse, the surface of a resin pattern formed on a substrate or etched pattern formed on a substrate by etching is treated using a surface treatment liquid containing a silylating agent and a solvent.

Lithography methods have been frequently used for the production of fine features in various kinds of electronic devices, such as semiconductor devices. In recent years, as the device features are further miniaturized, miniaturized resist patterns with increased aspect ratio in lithography processes have been also desired. For attaining the formation of such a fine pattern, a first step is to improve a lithography device and to develop a corresponding resist. Common factors to consider for developing the lithography device include shortening of wavelengths of light sources such as F2 excimer laser, EUV (extreme UV light), electron beam, X-ray, soft X-ray and the like, and increases in numerical aperture (NA) of lens.
On the other hand, shortening the wavelengths of the light sources requires a new and expensive aligner (lithography device). In addition, a problem arises in that a focal depth width is reduced even if the resolution property is improved because a trade-off lies between the resolution and the focal depth width when the NA of lens is increased.
Accordingly, as a lithography technique for solving such problems, liquid immersion lithography (hereinafter, may be also referred to as "liquid immersion exposure") was proposed (see Nonpatent Document 1). In the liquid immersion exposure, a liquid (liquid immersion medium) having a refractive index higher than that of air is placed between an objective lens of the lithography device and a resist film (or resist protective film), and then the exposure (immersion exposure) is carried out. Regarding such liquid immersion exposure, a high resolution can be reportedly achieved even when a light source with the same exposure wavelength is used, similarly to the case in which a light source with a shorter wavelength and in which a high NA lens is used, and also a decrease in the focal depth width is not reportedly resulted. Additionally, the liquid immersion exposure can be carried out using a preexisting lithography device. Therefore, the liquid immersion exposure is expected to be capable of realizing formation of resist patterns with a high resolution and also with favorable focal depth width at low cost. Thus, it has drawn great attention in manufacturing semiconductor elements which require a large amount of investment in equipment, owing to great effects exerted on semiconductor industry in terms of cost, as well as lithography characteristics such as resolution.
The liquid immersion exposure is efficacious in forming any pattern configuration, and further it is reportedly possible to use it in combination with a super-resolution technique currently being investigated such as a phase shift method, a modified illumination method or the like. At present, techniques in which an ArF excimer laser is employed as a light source have been mainly studied actively as the liquid immersion exposure technique. In addition, water has been predominantly investigated currently as the liquid immersion medium.
In liquid immersion exposure, for example, water is placed as a liquid immersion medium between an objective lens of the lithography device and a resist film (or resist protective film); therefore, there is an envisaged problem that water runs around the edge portion (outer edge) or the back face of the substrate. In order to prevent such running of water, it is efficacious to hydrophobilize the substrate.
Conventionally, as a method for hydrophobilizing a substrate, a vapor treatment by means of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) with bubbling of nitrogen has been extensively adopted (see Patent Document 1). Also, for the purpose of further increasing hydrophobicity, a method carried out using a silylating agent having an alkyl group or alkenyl group substituted with fluorine in place of HMDS was proposed (see Patent Document 2).
However, the vapor treatment with a silylating agent as in Patent Documents 1 and 2 is hardly recognized as being a simple method since it necessitates heating, bubbling of nitrogen or the like. In addition, the center section of a substrate is often provided with an inorganic bottom antireflective coating (inorganic BARC) or an organic bottom antireflective coating (organic BARC), and hydrophobilization of such a section is believed to be unnecessary. In this regard, the vapor treatment with a silylating agent is not efficacious since such a section on which hydrophobilization is not required is also subjected necessarily to the treatment.
Furthermore, a problem of pattern collapse, generally referred to, is marked as further miniaturized resist patterns with increased aspect ratio in lithography processes are provided. The pattern collapse means an event that occurs in forming a large number of resin patterns in parallel on a substrate, in which adjacent resin patterns get close such that they lean to each other, and the resin patterns may be broken off or detached from the basal part in some cases. Occurrence of the pattern collapse leads to failure in obtaining desired products, thereby resulting in deterioration of the yield and decrease in reliability of the products.
Moreover, the problem of pattern collapse recently arises not only on resin patterns but also on etched patterns.
The pattern collapse has been known to be caused in a washing treatment following the pattern formation when the washing liquid dries, owing to the surface tension of the washing liquid. In other words, when the washing liquid is removed off in the drying step, a stress resulting from the surface tension of the washing liquid acts between the patterns, and thus the pattern collapse occurs.
Therefore, many efforts have been made hitherto for preventing pattern collapse by adding a substance for decreasing the surface tension to the washing liquid. For example, washing liquids containing isopropyl alcohol, washing liquids containing a fluorochemical surfactant, and the like were proposed (see Patent Document 3 and 4).
However, only the ingenuity of the washing liquid as proposed in Patent Documents 3 and 4 has involved the problem of insufficiently achieved prevention of pattern collapse.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. S60-25231
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2007-19465
Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. H6-163391
Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. H7-142349
Nonpatent Document 1: Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 5754, pp. 119-128 (2005)

Surface treatment liquid, surface treatment method, hydrophobilization method, and hydrophobilized substrate


A method for yield improvement of trench MOS barrier Schottky (TMBS) devices includes: forming a plurality of trenches in a substrate; forming a gate dielectric layer over a surface of the substrate and inner surfaces of the trenches; forming gates in the trenches; forming a first barrier dielectric layer, a second barrier dielectric layer and an intermediate dielectric layer over the trenches; etching the intermediate dielectric layer with the second barrier dielectric layer serving as an etch stop layer to form a window for forming contact holes; etching a portion of the second barrier dielectric layer within the window using the first barrier dielectric layer as an etch stop layer; and etching in the window to remove a portion of the first barrier dielectric layer overlying the gates and a portion of the gate dielectric layer overlying the substrate.

Trench MOS barrier Schottky (TMBS) diodes, also known as metal-semiconductor diodes, are semiconductor devices that debuted in recent years. The TMBS devices feature a low power consumption, large current and ultra high speed. In a TMBS device, a metal is formed in contact with a semiconductor material so as to form a potential barrier (usually called surface barrier or Schottky barrier) at the interface of the metal and the semiconductor material. This potential barrier enables the TMBS device to function as a rectifier or detector. As minority charge carriers in Schottky diodes have a minimal charge storage effect, the frequency response of such devices is limited merely by their RC time constant. Thus, Schottky diodes are ideal devices for high frequency and high switching speed applications.
FIGS. 1 to 5 are schematic cross sections illustrating steps for forming a gate dielectric layer and gates in a conventional process for fabricating a TMBS device, the steps including:
S1) providing a semiconductor substrate 10 which may be implemented as a silicon substrate;
S2) forming a hard mask layer 20 over the semiconductor substrate 10;
S3) successively etching the hard mask layer 20 and the semiconductor substrate 10 to form a plurality of trenches 11 in the semiconductor substrate 10, as shown in FIG. 1;
S4) forming a gate dielectric layer 30 over sidewalls of the plurality of trenches 11, wherein forming the gate dielectric layer 30 may further include the steps of: forming a sacrificial oxide layer (not shown) over the sidewalls of the trenches 11; removing the sacrificial oxide layer by hydrofluoric acid (HF) dip; and forming the gate dielectric layer 30, as shown in FIG. 2;
S5) forming a gate layer (not shown) in the trenches 11 and over the gate dielectric layer 30 and over the hard mask layer 20 and etching the gate layer to form gates 40, such that the hard mask layer 20 is exposed and the gates 40 are substantially flush with the gate dielectric layer 30 at the top, as shown in FIG. 3;
S6) forming an intermediate dielectric layer 50 over the hard mask layer 20, the gate dielectric layer 30 and the gates 40 and densifying the intermediate dielectric layer 50, as shown in FIG. 4; and
S7) successively etching the intermediate dielectric layer 50 and the hard mask layer 20 to form a window for subsequently forming holes and contacts, wherein the gates 40 and a portion of the semiconductor substrate 10 are exposed in the window, as shown in FIG. 5, in order to facilitate the subsequent formation of the holes and contacts.
In step S7, the intermediate dielectric layer 50 and the hard mask layer 20 are etched by dry etching, i.e., using plasma of an etchant gas. However, conventional plasma etching process takes 180 s when used to etch a surface dielectric layer with a thickness of 10000 Å. As the plasma is distributed not uniformly in a reaction chamber of the used etching apparatus, i.e., having a higher concentration in a central region than in a peripheral region, the dielectric layer is accordingly etched away at a higher speed in a corresponding central area than in a corresponding peripheral area. This results in a thickness difference of about 200 Å every minute between the two areas of the dielectric layer. At such a pace, the 180 seconds' etching will totally introduce a thickness non-uniformity of at least 600 Å to the dielectric layer.
Further, the intermediate dielectric layer 50 is required to be formed to a large thickness that is generally up to 10000 Å. However, due to equipment constraints, for such a large thickness, the intermediate dielectric layer 50 will originally have a certain thickness non-uniformity itself, 800 Å for each 10000 Å, introduced from its formation process. Therefore, after the dry etching process in step S7, the intermediate dielectric layer 50 will have a total thickness non-uniformity of about 1400 Å. This means after the intermediate dielectric layer 50 and the hard mask layer 20 are etched in step S7, there will either be an up to 1400 Å thick residue of the intermediate dielectric layer 50 or a portion of the gate dielectric layer 30 that is over-etched by 1400 Å. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, in order to totally remove the target portions of the intermediate dielectric layer 50 and the hard mask layer 20 located in the window for forming holes and contacts, the over-etching scheme is selected, i.e., the etching time is extended. As a result, portions of the gate dielectric layer 30 covering the sidewalls of the trenches 11 is over-etched, as indicated by the dashed oblong in FIG. 5.
When the over-etched thickness of the portions of the gate dielectric layer 30 is larger than 1200 Å, the yield of the TMBS device being fabricated will decrease. On the other hand, the yield of the TMBS device will also be adversely affected when the etched amount is reduced to an insufficient extent which leads to a residue of the dielectric layer.

Method for yield improvement of TMBS devices

Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation Limited


Embodiments include a method and apparatus for improving the reusability of a computed radiography (CR) plate by housing it in a cassette. The CR plate remains in the cassette during scanning. The embodiments of the method and apparatus improve the reusability of the CR plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention relate to x-ray cassettes and computed radiography plates. Specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to a system for creating images from a plate in a cassette and erasing the plate with improved reusability of the plate.
2. Background
Traditional x-ray film has been used for decades. 28 years ago, a fundamental innovation by Kodak created the first version of a re-usable X-ray plate instead of film. These Computed Radiography (CR) plates store a latent image in a photostimulatable storage phosphor plate. Fuji improved on the Kodak concept and produced the first medical X-ray images using this technique. The CR plate is reflective and erasable allowing repeated exposures, the number of possible exposures is greater than 150,000 if there are no mechanical stresses on the material. An x-ray impregnates the plate with energy which, when subsequently exposed to a particular excitation, is released, recreating the image. Scanners or CR readers of these plates typically include a flying spot laser and photomultiplier tube sensor. The photo multiplier tube captures the image corresponding to the energy being released by excitation of the flying spot laser. The plate is traditionally removed from a cassette and transported by a drive mechanism, typically a set of rollers. This roller type reading process necessitates that the phosphorescent plate be flexible. The feed mechanism used for scanning the plates is typically a set of pinch rollers. Over time the flexing and contact with the rollers causes a deleterious effect on the plate resulting in limited reusability. The phosphor materials in the plates do not degrade due to read/write cycles if mechanical and physical stresses do not act on the plate. Additional wear and tear on the plate is caused by the removal and replacement of the plate in a cassette that protects the plate from ambient energy (light) sources during transportation. In addition to causing degradation of the quality of the plate the pinch rollers can slip causing line artifacts and blurring of the image being generated.

Computed radiography x-ray cassette with rigid embedded CR plate


A method for making an integrated circuit substrate having embedded back-side access conductors and vias provides a high-density mounting and interconnect structure for integrated circuits that is compatible with etched, plated or printed pre-manufactured substrate components. A circuit board or film having a pre-plated, etched or printed circuit, for example a rigid substrate having a Ball Grid Array (BGA) ball-attach pattern, is laser perforated to produce blind vias and/or conductive patterns that provide contact through to conductors of the prefabricated circuit board or film. Existing circuit board and substrate technology is thereby made compatible with laser-embedding technologies, providing the low-cost advantages of existing etching, plating and printing technologies along with a high conductor density associated with laser-embedded circuit technologies.

Semiconductors and other electronic and opto-electronic assemblies are fabricated in groups on a wafer. Known as "dies", the individual devices are cut from the wafer and are then bonded to a carrier. The dies must be mechanically mounted and electrically connected to a circuit. For this purpose, many types of packaging have been developed, including "flip-chip", ball grid array and leaded grid array among other mounting configurations. These configurations typically use a planar printed circuit etched on the substrate with bonding pads and the connections to the die are made by either wire bonding or direct solder connection to the die.
The resolution of the printed circuit is often the limiting factor controlling interconnect density. Photo-etch and other processes for developing a printed circuit on a substrate have resolution limitations and associated cost limitations that set the level of interconnect density at a level that is less than desirable for interfacing to present integrated circuit dies that may have hundreds of external connections.
As the density of circuit traces interfacing an integrated circuit die are increased, the inter-conductor spacing must typically be decreased. However, reducing inter-conductor spacing has a disadvantage that migration and shorting may occur more frequently for lowered inter-conductor spacings, thus setting another practical limit on the interconnect density.
The above-incorporated patent applications provide improvements increasing conductor density and decreasing conductor spacings via laser-embedded circuit technologies, but are generally stand-alone rigid substrate or film substrate technologies replacing the traditional etched, printed or plated substrate technologies. Etched, printed and plated technologies provide cost advantages in that processes are well-established and volume parts can be purchased from vendors producing high volume parts using the traditional technologies.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and substrate having improved interconnect density with a low associated manufacturing cost. It would further be desirable to provide a method and substrate incorporating laser-embedded circuits, while retaining compatibility with and the advantages of etched, printed or plated substrates.

Method for making an integrated circuit substrate having embedded back-side access conductors and vias


An apparatus and method for pre-charging an intermediate node for high-speed wordlines for accessing memory cells in high-speed memory arrays. The apparatus pre-charges a local capacitance located between a wordline supply voltage and the wordline to a voltage level that is greater than the wordline supply voltage. Once the wordline is selected, the charge stored on the local capacitance may be quickly shared with the capacitance of the wordline. The wordline supply voltage may be applied to the local capacitance to provide small, incremental voltage to move the wordline to its final voltage thereby improving the response time of the system.

As microprocessor systems increase in size and speed, there is need for larger and faster memory arrays. These high-speed memory arrays may contain a large number of memory cells. However, as the number of memory elements increases, the time needed to read and/or write to the individual memory cells may also increase. This may be due to the fact that as the number of memory elements increases in an individual array, the length of the wordline between the supply voltage and the individual memory cells may also increase. The increased length of the wordline may directly relate to an increase in the resistance of the wordline. Therefore, as the size of the memory array increases so may the required voltage needed to read the individual memory cells. Additionally, in large memory arrays, the capacitance of the wordline may require an increase in the time required charge to the desired level in order to access a given memory cell. The increase in the time required to charge the may lead to a large cycle time, which may directly limit the access time for the memory. Additionally, the increase in the time required to charge the capacitance may also limit the length of the wordline. As the length of the wordline increases so does the resistance value of the wordline wire. Therefore, the time required to charge the capacitance may be limited by the large RC value associated with a longer wire.
One solution to solve this problem and increase the speed of the memory access time was to break the large single array into a stacked array, which consists of a number of smaller arrays connected in parallel. Although using a stacked memory array may increase access time of the memory cells, there may be several drawbacks associated with using multiple arrays. First, using stacked memory arrays may increase the overall cost of the system. The amount of silicon required to produce a stacked array increases proportionally to the number of memory arrays contained in the stack. Therefore as the number of memory arrays increases, so does the manufacturing costs. In addition, each array in the memory stack may require its own supporting circuitry. Increasing the amount of supporting circuit may also contribute to increasing the manufacturing cost. Next, the stacked memory arrays may increase the load on the system. For example, each individual memory array in the memory stack may be attached to the external bus, which in turn may increase the capacitance load on the external bus. Furthermore, the overall power consumption of the system may be increased due to the increased number of memory arrays.

Apparatuses and methods for pre-charging intermediate nodes for high-speed wordline


A selective call device (100) has a plurality of first alerts and a second alert and includes a decoder/controller (106) generating a plurality of icons associated with the plurality of first alerts and the second alert (116) and a switch for selecting an alert. The decoder/controller (106), in response to the switch (118), positions a second alert icon adjacent to a selected icon when the selected icon is not the second alert icon. A display (108) displays the second alert icon adjacent to the selected icon and the decoder/controller (106) regenerates the plurality of icons wherein the second alert icon is repositioned adjacent to a reselected alert icon.

In conventional selective call systems, when a selective call device, e.g., a selective call receiver or transceiver, is addressed and a message is delivered to the selective call receiver or transceiver, the selective call device alerts the user that the message is received. The prior art selective call devices usually have one audible alert and one tactile (or vibrating) alert. Therefore, when the user wants to select the vibrating alert, e.g., when the user is in a meeting, noisy environment, or other places where an audible alert may be disturbing or annoying to other persons, the user generally selects the vibrating alert over the audible alert.
However, the more modern selective call devices are provided with more than one audible alert, generally several. The audible alerts may includes different kinds of melody that is pleasing to the user. Accordingly, the users frequently prefer different audible alerts and therefore select a different alert from the list of audible alerts that has a melody most pleasing to each user's individual taste.
However, irrespective of the audible alert chosen by the user of the selective call device, when the user is in a meeting or such places where the audible alert may disturb other, the user wants to be able to quickly select the vibrating alert.
Therefore, what is needed is a selective call device that enables the user to easily and quickly select the vibrating alert irrespective of the current audible alert selection of the selective call device.

Method for positioning a vibrating alert adjacent to a selected alert in selective call device


Various embodiments include a power amplifier having power amplifier cells located in a die, conductive contacts overlying a surface of the die and coupled to the amplifier cells, and conductive lines overlying a surface of the die between the conductive contacts and coupled to the power amplifier cells. Additional apparatus are described.

Many electronic items, such as cellular phones and computers, usually have power amplifiers and transformers to boost a power level of a signal for various applications. For some applications, the power amplifier, the transformer, or both may need to be in a certain configuration. To accommodate such configuration, the size of the power amplifier, transformer, or both may relatively large. Further, in some cases, heat generated by the power amplifier may become a factor; connections between the power amplifier and the transformer may be hard to arrange; and supply power may be difficult to be routed to the power amplifier. Therefore, in such cases, designing power amplifiers to suit some applications may pose a challenge.


A method for controlling an NOx concentration in an exhaust gas in a combustion facility by: measuring a reaction velocity ki of each of a plurality of chars, each corresponding to a plurality of types of pulverized coals; determining a relationship between the NOx concentration in the exhaust gas and the reaction velocity ki for each of the chars; (iii) blending the plurality of the types of the pulverized coal, wherein a blending ratio of the plurality of the types of the pulverized coal is determined by using, as an index, a reaction velocity kblend of the char of the blended pulverized coal, which corresponds to a target NOx concentration or below, on the basis of the relationship; and supplying the blended pulverized coal to the combustion facility as the fuel of the combustion facility.

Generally, in a calciner in a cement manufacturing process, a pulverized coal is used as a fuel for heating and calcining a cement material in the calciner.
As is illustrated in FIG. 3, the cement manufacturing facility provided with this calciner includes: a rotary kiln 1 for burning a cement material; a preheater 3 provided with a plurality of cyclones 4a to 4d which are provided on a kiln inlet part 2 of this rotary kiln 1 in the left side of the figure; a chute 5 for feeding the cement material from the cyclone 4d in the lowermost stage of this preheater 3 to the kiln inlet part 2 of the rotary kiln 1; an exhaust line 9 having an exhaust fan 10 which is connected to the cyclone 4a in the uppermost stage and discharges a combustion exhaust gas; a main burner 7 for heating the inner part of the rotary kiln, which is provided at a kiln outlet part 6 in a right side in the figure; a clinker cooler 8 for cooling a cement clinker that has been burnt, which is provided at the kiln outlet part 6; and further a calciner 12 having the lower end to which the combustion exhaust gas is introduced from the kiln inlet part 2 of the rotary kiln 1 through a duct portion and also having a combustion device of the pulverized coal provided therein which is fed from a not-shown fuel feed line, between the cyclone 4c in the third stage and the cyclone 4d in the fourth stage. For information, there is also a cement manufacturing facility having the calciner 12 provided in another path which is different from the duct portion on the kiln inlet part 2.
In a cement-clinker manufacturing facility having the above described structure, the above described cement material which has been fed to the cyclone 4a in the uppermost stage shall be preheated by a high-temperature exhaust gas which is sent from the rotary kiln 1 and ascends from the lower part, as the cement material falls down sequentially to the cyclones 4 in the lower part, then be extracted from the cyclone 4c, be sent to the calciner 12, be calcined in the calciner 12, and then be introduced into the kiln inlet part 2 of the rotary kiln 1 from the cyclone 4d in the lowermost stage through the chute 5.
On the other hand, the combustion exhaust gas which has been discharged from the rotary kiln 1 shall be sent to the cyclone 4d in the lowermost stage through the calciner 12, be sequentially sent to the cyclones 4 in the upper part to preheat the above described cement material, and finally be exhausted by the exhaust fan 10 from the upper part of the cyclone 4a in the uppermost stage through the exhaust line 9.
By the way, in such a cement manufacturing facility, the concentration of nitrogen oxides (hereinafter referred to as NOx) in the exhaust gas to be discharged from the exhaust line 9 by the exhaust fan 10 is regulated by the Air Pollution Control Law. For this reason, the cement manufacturing facility monitors the NOx concentration in the combustion exhaust gas at all times and controls the NOx concentration in the exhaust gas so that the concentration does not exceed the above described regulation value, by removing the NOx by appropriately spraying ammonia water, sludge containing ammonia water or the like into the exhaust line 9, or by lowering the temperature in the rotary kiln 1 by adjusting the amount of fuel of the main burner 7, as are described in the following Patent Literatures 1 and 2, and the like.

Method for controlling NOx concentration in exhaust gas in combustion facility using pulverized coal


A scan velocity detector for detecting scan velocity when a surface of an object is scanned with a beam of light generated by a light-projecting element; the scan velocity detector comprising light-receiving element to receive light which is reflected, threshold-level setting element for setting threshold levels, delay element for delaying the output of the light-receiving element and counting element for counting the time from when the output of the delay element exceeds a certain threshold level until it reaches a different threshold level; the scan velocity detector being an integral part of a bar code scanner, or similar device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scan velocity detector for detecting the velocity at which a bar code bearing surface is scanned by a beam of light. In addition, the present invention concerns a bar code reader using the scan velocity detector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, code readers adapted to scan codes have been used extensively with laser beams. Such code readers detect the light reflected from the code surface during scanning by a light-receiving element, such as a photodiode, so as to optically read the code. A bar code formed on a code surface, such as the surface of a package of a commodity, is an example of a type of code that is scanned in such a manner. The laser has an advantage over other light sources, such as the light-emitting diode, when used in a code reader. A narrowly collimated beam of light can be maintained over a long distance with the laser since the laser has remarkably outstanding focusing characteristics. Since resolution in code reading is determined by the size of a beam spot on the code surface, if a laser beam whose beam diameter can be narrowly collimated over a long distance is used, the range of a distance (reading range) for which reading is possible is expanded. For instance, a bar code scanner using a laser light source can read a bar code when the code surface and the device are spaced apart several dozens of centimeters. However, with a so-called pen-type scanner using a light emitting diode as a light source, reading cannot be effective unless the tip of the pen is brought into contact with the code surface.
Code readers using a laser beam include a manual scanning type shown in FIG. 6 in which the scanning of the code surface with the laser beam is effected manually and an automatic scanning type shown in FIG. 7 in which the scanning of the code surface with the laser beam is effected automatically.
For example, in the case of the manual scanning code reader shown in FIG. 6, a semiconductor laser light source 2, a lens 4 for generating a laser beam 3 by focusing the laser light generated from the semiconductor laser light source 2, and the like are accommodated in a casing 1. This casing 1 is a type which can be held in a hand 5, such as a pistol type. The casing 1 is held in a hand 5 of an operator. As the operator sweeps the casing 1 horizontally along a scan direction 8 of a bar code 7 formed on a code surface 6 with the joint of the wrist as a pivot point, for instance, the scanning of the bar code 7 is accomplished. The light reflected from the code surface 6 is received by an unillustrated light-receiving element disposed in the casing 1, and the discrimination of the bar code 7 is effected on the basis of an output of the light-receiving element.
In addition, in the case of the automatic scanning code reader in FIG. 7, a semiconductor laser light source 12; a collimator lens 13, for collimating the laser light generated from the semiconductor laser light source 12 into collimated light; a polygon mirror 17, for causing laser light 14 from the collimator lens 13 to scan a bar code 16 formed on a code surface 15; and the like are accommodated in a casing 11. This casing 11 is a type which can be held in a hand 19, such as a pistol type. The polygon mirror 17 is arranged such that the side surfaces of a regular polygon are formed as polarizing reflecting mirrors. The polygon mirror 17 is rotatively driven about its axis by an unillustrated motor. Since the direction of emergence of the laser light 14 from the casing 11 changes with time as the polygon mirror 17 rotates, the position of a beam spot on the code surface 15 thereby moves at a substantially fixed speed in the direction of arrow 18. Thus, the scanning of the bar code 16 is accomplished automatically. The laser light from the collimator lens 13 is made incident upon consecutively different polarizing reflecting surfaces as the polygon mirror 17 rotates, so that the bar code 16 is scanned repeatedly. Accordingly, by simply holding the casing 11 with a hand 19 and aiming at the bar code 16, the scanning of the bar code 16 is attained, and as the light reflected from the code surface 15 is received by the unillustrated light-receiving element in the casing 11, the reading of the bar code 16 is effected.
It is stipulated in JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) and other bar code standards that a clear area having a certain minimum width should be provided at each opposite end of the bar code to ensure the reliability of the bar code reading. Various objects can be present in the vicinity of the bar code to be read or a surface pattern can be present on the commodity provided with the bar code. If these are scanned with the laser beam and the amount of reflected light received by the light-receiving element shows a fixed change, the objects other than the bar code can be erroneously recognized as being bar codes. If the clear area at the leading end of the bar code is detected and the bar code is discriminated on the basis of an output of the light-receiving element corresponding to an area following the clear area, it is possible to effect discrimination processing by extracting only a portion corresponding to the bar code from among the output signals of the light-receiving element.
The above-described detection of the clear area is generally effected during scanning with the laser beam by detecting that the output of the light-receiving element is not less than a fixed value and at least a predetermined time in duration. That is, a time t required for scanning the possible clear area is determined and when the time t is at least a predetermined value then the area is a clear area.
From the width d of the clear area in the scan direction and the travel velocity V of a beam spot on the code surface (hereinafter referred to as the "scan velocity"), a time tc required for scanning the clear area can be calculated using the following formula: EQU tc = d/V (1)
However, the scan velocity V is not a fixed value in the case of manual scanning or in the case of automatic scanning. Scan velocity V in the case of automatic scanning is proportional to the optical path length (read distance) of the laser beam; i.e., the distance from the light source to the code surface. With the automatic scanning code reader as is shown in FIG. 7, there is a 10-fold difference in the scan velocity V when the code surface 15 is placed at a position 5 cm from the axis of rotation of the polygon mirror 17 from when the code surface 15 is placed at a position 50 cm from the axis of rotation of the polygon mirror 17. This is because the polygon mirror 17 rotates at a fixed angular velocity. Accordingly, even if the aforementioned time t is determined and this time t is compared with a fixed value, the detection of the clear area having the fixed width d cannot necessarily be conducted satisfactorily.
If the scan velocity V can be detected, the aforementioned problem can be solved by correspondingly changing the criteria of the time t. To date, however, there has been no apparatus which has realized the detection of the scan velocity V. For this reasons, the clear area has hitherto been detected by allowing for a large margin of clear area scanning times. The probability of detection of the clear area has been poor due to the large margin. The present situation is such that it cannot be ascertained whether the detected object represents a bar code or a signal other than the bar code until the bar code discrimination processing is actually conducted. This results in the need for the clear area to be detected again. Since the bar code discrimination processing is complicated and time consuming there are many cases where the scanning position of the laser beam has already passed the clear area and the bar code area during the time of processing. In such a case, the read opening has to be carried out again. This complicates the read operation.
To avoid this drawback, it is conceivable to store all the signals of one scanning in a memory and read the signals sequentially from the memory so as to effect the detection processing of the clear area. This, however, would require a large-capacity memory as well as a complicated memory-processing circuit for processing write/read operations with respect to the memory. Hence, new problems would arise in that the circuit would become large in size,, more complicated, and more costly.

Scan velocity detector and code reader using the same


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that performs operations on a hash table that is fully dynamic and lock-free. This hash table is implemented with a linked list containing data nodes and a bucket array containing bucket pointers, wherein the bucket pointers point to portions of the linked list that function as hash buckets, and wherein the linked list contains only data nodes and no dummy nodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the design of lookup structures within computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for implementing a fully dynamic lock-free hash table without dummy nodes
2. Related Art
Linear hash tables are commonly used to provide fast lookups for computer systems and computer applications. A linear hash table includes an array of buckets, which is occasionally resized so that on average each bucket holds an expected constant number of elements. This ensures that common hash table operations, such as insert, delete and search, require an expected constant time. For example, hash table 100 in FIG. 1 includes a bucket array 102, wherein each bucket 104, 110, and 114 includes a pointer to a linked list of data nodes 106-108, 112-113, and 116, respectively. In order to resize hash table 100 when the buckets become too full, each of the data nodes is typically "rehashed" into a larger bucket array.
The design of such hash tables becomes more complicated in a multi-threaded environment, because concurrently executing threads can potentially interfere with each other while performing operations on the same hash table. In order to prevent such interference, some hash table implementations use locks to prevent different threads from interfering with each other.
However, using locks can create performance problems. Locking an entire hash table can create a performance bottleneck because threads may have to wait for other threads to complete their hash table operations before obtaining access to the hash table. To mitigate this problem, some concurrent hash table implementations make use of multiple locks, which are associated with portions of the hash table. For example, if a hash table has N buckets, a different lock can be associated with each of the N buckets. This allows multiple threads to access different buckets in the hash table at the same time. However, in order to resize the hash table into a different number of buckets, the system has to first collect multiple locks, which can be an extremely time-consuming process. During the resizing process, all other operations dependent on these locks are prevented from making progress.
Because of the performance problems that arise from locks, a number of researchers have been developing lock-free data structures that operate efficiently in a multi-threaded environment.
Harris describes a way to build and modify a linked list that is lock-free and can be constructed using only load-linked (LL)/store-conditional (SC) or compare-and-swap (CAS) instructions (see Timothy L. Harris, "A Pragmatic Implementation of Non-Blocking Linked-Lists," Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Distributed Computing, October 2001, pp. 300-14).
Michael uses a slightly simpler variant of the Harris linked-list as the underlying structure to store the data nodes for each bucket. The Michael list forms the basis of the two state-of-the-art lock-free hash tables described below. The dynamic lock-free hash table by Michael is set up with a bucket array of a chosen size and an empty set of data nodes (see Maged M. Michael, "High Performance Dynamic Lock-Free Hash Tables and List-Based Sets," The 14th Annual ACM Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures, pages 73-82, August 2002). In the hash table of Michael, data nodes are added to the linked lists associated with each bucket, and can be deleted when they are no longer wanted in the hash table. Unfortunately, if the hash buckets get to be "too full," there is no way described to increase the number of buckets to reduce the average load.
The split-list hash table by Shalev and Shavit is able to grow by doubling the size of the buckets table up to a pre-allocated limit (see Ori Shalev and Nir Shavit, "Split-Ordered Lists—Lock-free Extensible Hash Tables," Proceedings of the Twenty-Second ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, pages 102-111, Jul. 13-16, 2003, Boston, Mass.). This doubling involves adding a new "usable" segment that is as big again as the part already in use, and filling it with "uninitialized" values so that references to these new buckets will set themselves up properly, as described below. Their key improvement is that the data nodes of the table are maintained in a single long linked-list (such as Harris') and do not need to be moved when the number of hash buckets changes (see FIG. 2A). FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary bucket array 202, which includes buckets 204, 210, and 214. Buckets 204, 210, and 214 point to dummy nodes 205, 215, and 211, respectively. The linked list includes dummy nodes 205, 211, and 215, and data nodes 206-208, 212-213, and 216. This innovation requires using a special hash function similar to a design by Litwin et al. that orders the buckets to permit recursive splitting of the list (see Withold A. Litwin, "Linear Hashing: A New Tool for File and Table Addressing", Proceedings of the Sixth Conference on Very Large Data Bases, 1980, pages 212-223). The recursive splitting of the hash buckets means that every bucket (except the 0th one) has a "parent" bucket that is in some sense twice as coarse in dividing up the linked list.
The proper setup for Shalev-Shavit buckets is to have each bucket that has been referenced during a hash table operation point to a permanent dummy node in the otherwise-dynamic linked list that holds all the data nodes (see FIG. 2A). These dummies are assigned special hash keys, which are designed to fall in between the hash keys that are possible for data nodes.
The dummy nodes serve as place holders so that entering the linked list by way of the hash bucket will always provide a pointer to a dummy node that is at the head of the region associated with that portion of the hash mapping. Once a bucket pointer has been initialized with a pointer to the corresponding dummy node, it does not change.
These dummy nodes are essential to the correctness of the Shalev-Shavit hash table and can never be deleted. Their algorithm also offers no way to reduce the size of the bucket array. Consequently, as a hash table grows it may add many dummy nodes, but as its contents are deleted the dummy nodes must remain, leaving, in some cases, a large structure of buckets and dummies with very little actual data remaining.
Additionally, the sharing of bucket array elements as the bucket table grows dictates that the space for the growing segments of the bucket array must be pre-allocated sequentially with the initial portions, so that the space taken by the bucket array at all times is effectively the space it will take when it has reached the maximum size supported. This is an expensive overhead when the "live" portion of the array space is a small portion of the allocation, and, more seriously, it puts a limit that must be set initially on the ultimate size the bucket array may ever reach.
A later addendum to the Shalev-Shavit hash table uses additional indirection to ease this problem. It allocates a table of pointers to bucket table segments, and allocates the actual segments upon demand. This scheme reduces the bucket table overhead, but the pointer table is fixed size and must be pre-allocated, and any segment ever used must be retained.
Hence, what is needed is a method and apparatus for implementing a fully dynamic lock-free hash table without the overhead involved in having to maintain a large number of buckets and dummy nodes. By fully dynamic we mean a data structure wherein the space consumed is proportional to the number of items actually in the hash table at any time.

Implementing a fully dynamic lock-free hash table without dummy nodes


It is aimed to provide a wiring harness protection material utilized as a wiring harness protection member and having protection performance in a high-temperature and high-humidity environment and a wiring harness. A wiring harness 1 is formed by molding wiring harness protection materials 1 using a thermally moldable nonwoven fabric containing polyethylene terephthalate fibers having a weight-average molecular weight in a range of 10000 to 200000 into a wiring harness protection member 2 having a predetermined shape and covering a wire bundle 4 with the wiring harness protection member 2.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a wiring harness protection material and a wiring harness.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been a progress in high performance and high functionality mainly for automotive vehicles and electric appliances. Plural wires are used for internal wiring of automotive vehicles, electric appliances and the like to accurately operate various electronics such as automotive vehicles and electric appliances. Generally, these wires are used in the form of a wiring harness.
In the wiring harness, a wire bundle composed of a plurality of wires is fabricated in a form necessary for wiring in advance. For example, the wiring harness is formed by forming necessary branching, connecting connectors and the like to ends of the wiring harness and winding a wiring harness protection member around the outer periphery of the wire bundle.
The above-described wiring harness protection member used is made of a sheet-like wiring harness protection material formed into one of various shapes such as a recessed groove and a tube, and formed into a predetermined shape by covering the wire bundle.
Generally, a nonwoven fabric made using polyethylene terephthalate short fibers (may be also called PET nonwoven fabric) is used for industrial and automotive applications. The PET nonwoven fabric is utilized in various fields such as filter and cushion materials, vehicle interior sheet materials and vehicle interior ceiling materials. The present applicant and others previously proposed protection materials for wiring harness using a nonwoven fabric formed using polyethylene terephthalate short fibers (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-267412).
A wiring harness protection member using the wiring harness protection material disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-267412 is excellent in properties such as moldability and shape retention. The wiring harness protection member has a high possibility of being used in an on-vehicle environment having high temperature and high humidity when being used in an automotive wiring harness. However, the nonwoven fabric formed using polyethylene terephthalate short fibers has a problem of possibly reducing performance as a protection member since being degraded under high temperature and high humidity.
The present invention is designed to solve the problem of the prior art and aims to provide a wiring harness protection material utilized as a wiring harness protection member and having protection performance even in a high-temperature and high-humidity environment and a wiring harness.

Wiring harness protection material and wiring harness


The present invention provides an improved diving fishing lure having a more durable and stable design that is capable of assisting today's fishermen as they target fish at increasingly greater depths and at faster trolling or retrieval speeds. The fishing lure includes a lure body having first and second ends, at least one fish hook extending from the lure body, and a diving lip extending from the first end of the lure body. According to one embodiment, the fishing lure includes a connector mounted to the diving lip, wherein the diving lip defines a recessed surface at least partially around the connector having a sidewall with a radius of approximately 0.30 inches to approximately 0.40 inches.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to fishing lures, more particularly to a diving fishing lure having improved structural durability and trolling stability.
2. Description of Related Art
Many fishermen prefer to target fish that do not normally strike bait floating on the surface. To attract such fish, fishermen use lures designed to dive beneath the surface of the water.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, conventional diving lures 10 have a lure body 15 supporting one or more fish hooks 40 and a diving plate or lip 20 that extends forwardly from the front end 16 of the lure body. The lure is typically connected to a fishing line or leader 11 through a connector 25 mounted along the centerline of the diving lip 20. The connector 25 is typically mounted within a recess area 26 having substantially vertical sidewalls. The diving lips 20 are generally angled downwardly relative to the lure body 15 so that as the lure 10 is retrieved, the water flowing over the diving lip exerts a downward diving force on the lip thereby causing the lure to dive.
Diving lures are typically buoyant, but, as discussed above, are designed to dive below the surface of the water when the lure is pulled or trolled through the water. When using a diving lure, the fisherman first casts the lure, and then retrieves the lure using a reel. Alternatively, the lure is pulled or trolled behind a moving boat. The forward motion of the diving lure through the water generates a downward force on the lure that forces the lure deeper into the water as it is retrieved or trolled until an equilibrium is reached between the downward force exerted by the water on the diving lip and the buoyancy of the lure body, which buoyancy increases proportionately as the depth of the lure increases.
As today's fishermen target fish at increasingly greater depths, within more specific depth ranges, and/or at faster trolling or retrieval speeds, it has become evident that there are a number of problems associated with conventional diving lures. For example, conventional diving lures generally exhibit high stress concentrations where the diving lip connects to the lure body and where the connector for securing the fishing line is mounted to the diving lip. These stress concentrations can reduce the ability of a diving lure to withstand the forces applied to the lure when hooking and retrieving large fish, when fishing at extreme depths, or when trolling at high speeds. Another problem associated with conventional diving lures is that the lures do not exhibit the desired swimming motion or "action" when the lure is used at extreme depths or at high trolling or retrieval speeds.
Accordingly, it is desirable then to produce an improved diving fishing lure having a more robust and durable design that is capable of assisting today's fishermen as they target fish at increasingly greater depths and at faster trolling or retrieval speeds. Further, it is desirable to produce an improved diving lure providing more stable and realistic action for attracting fish.


Integrated circuits, the key components in thousands of electronic and computer products, include interconnected networks of electrical components. The components are typically wired, or interconnected, together with aluminum wires. In recent years, researchers have begun using copper instead of aluminum to form integrated-circuit wiring, because copper offers lower electrical resistance and better reliability at smaller dimensions. However, copper typically requires use of a diffusion barrier to prevent it from contaminating other parts of an integrated circuit. Unfortunately, typical diffusion barrier materials add appreciable resistance to the copper wiring, and thus negate some advantages of using copper. Moreover, conventional methods of forming the copper wiring are costly and time consuming. Accordingly, the inventors devised one or more exemplary methods for making integrated-circuit wiring from materials, such as copper-, silver-, and gold-based metals. One exemplary method removes two or more masks in a single removal procedure, forms a low-resistance diffusion barrier on two or more wiring levels in a single formation procedure, and fills insulative material around and between two or more wiring levels in a single fill procedure. This and other embodiments hold the promise of simplifying fabrication of integrated-circuit wiring dramatically.

Integrated circuits, the key components in thousands of electronic and computer products, are interconnected networks of electrical components fabricated on a common foundation, or substrate. Fabricators typically use various techniques, such as layering, doping, masking, and etching, to build thousands and even millions of microscopic resistors, transistors, and other electrical components on a silicon substrate, known as a wafer. The components are then wired, or interconnected, together with aluminum wires to define a specific electric circuit, such as a computer memory. The aluminum wires are typically about one micron thick, or about 100 times thinner than a human hair.
To form the aluminum wires, fabricators sometimes use a dual-damascene metallization technique, which takes its name from the ancient Damascan metalworking art of inlaying metal in grooves or channels to form ornamental patterns. The dual-damascene technique entails covering the components on a wafer with an insulative layer of silicon dioxide, etching small holes in the insulative layer to expose portions of the components underneath, and subsequently etching shallow trenches from hole to hole to define a wiring pattern.
Etching the trenches and holes entails forming a mask, using photolithographic techniques, on the insulative layer. The masks, which typically consists of a material called photoresist, shields some portions of the insulative layer from the etchant and allows the etchant to dissolve away other portions. After etching, fabricators remove the mask to expose the patterned insulative layer. They then blanket the entire insulative layer with a thin sheet of aluminum and polish off the excess, leaving behind aluminum vias, or contact plugs, in the holes and thin aluminum wires in the trenches.
The complexity of some integrated circuits demand several interconnected levels of wiring. Some circuits, such as microprocessors, have five or six interconnected levels, with each level formed by repeating the basic dual-damascene produce. For example, to form a second wiring level, fabricators apply a new insulative layer over the first wiring layer, form another mask on the new layer, etch holes and trenches into the new layer, remove the mask, blanket the new layer with aluminum, before finally polishing off the excess to complete it.
In recent years, researchers have begun using copper instead of aluminum to form integrated-circuit wiring, because copper offers lower electrical resistance and better reliability at smaller dimensions. Fabrication of copper-wired integrated circuits sometimes follows an extension of the dual-damascene method which includes an additional step of lining the holes and trenches of an insulative layer with a copper-diffusion barrier before blanketing the layer with copper and polishing off the excess. (The diffusion barrier is generally necessary because copper atoms readily diffuse through common insulators, such as silicon dioxide, resulting in unreliable or inoperative integrated circuits.) Typically, the copper-diffusion barrier is more than 30 nanometers thick and consists of tantalum, tantalum nitride, tantalum-silicon-nitride, titanium nitride, or tungsten nitride. Filling the barrier-lined holes and trenches with copper generally entails depositing a thin copper seed layer on the copper-diffusion barrier, electroplating copper on the seed layer, and then polishing off the excess.
The present inventors identified at least two problems with using the extended dual-damascene technique for making the copper wiring. The first is that typical copper-diffusion barriers add appreciable resistance to the copper wiring, and thus negate some promised performance advantages. And, the second is that the number of separate procedures or steps necessary to make the copper wiring using the extended technique makes fabrication both costly and time consuming.
Accordingly, there is a need for better ways of making copper wiring for integrated circuits.

Methods for making integrated-circuit wiring from copper, silver, gold, and other metals


Disclosed are a glycine reuptake inhibitor and the use thereof. The glycine reuptake inhibitor is a compound of formula I, or isomers, pharmaceutically acceptable salts or solvates thereof, wherein R1 is one or more groups selected from hydrogen, halogen, C1-6 alkyl, C1-6 alkoxy, nitro, cyano, amino, hydroxyl, C1-6 haloalkyl, and C1-6 haloalkoxy; R2 is selected from hydrogen, C1-6 alkyl, C1-6 alkoxy, C1-6 haloalkyl, and C1-6 haloalkoxy; and each of R3 and R4 is independently selected from hydrogen, halogen, C1-6 alkyl, C1-6 alkoxy, nitro, cyano, amino, hydroxyl, C1-6 haloalkyl, and C1-6 haloalkoxy.

Schizophrenic disorder is an extremely severe mental illness, lack of contact with reality, hallucinations, delusions and abnormal thinking, social functions significantly damaged. Schizophrenic disorder is a worldwide public hygiene issue; its total morbidity rate throughout the world (including China) is about 0.8-1%. The peak age of onset of schizophrenic disorder is 18˜25 years old for men and 26˜45 years old for women. However, patients having an onset during childhood, adolescence or even old age are also not rare. For different patients the severity and clinical manifestation of their symptoms differ from one another. Overall, the following three groups of symptoms can be summarized: positive symptoms, including hallucinations and delusions, agitation, paranoia, thinking disturbance and dystropy; negative symptoms, including affective blunting, uncommunicativeness, lack of interest, anhedonia andeccentric loner; cognitive deficits, including incapability to focus attention, severe decline of memory and incapability to behave as planned. One group or all the symptoms above may be present in a patient; these symptoms are usually relatively severe, which significantly affect work, interpersonal communication, and even personal life management of a patient. The general purpose of schizophrenic disorder treatment is to alleviate symptoms, prevent recurrence, restore functional defects, as much as possible to promote recovery and enhance life quality.
Currently drugs for treating schizophrenic disorder clinically may be mainly divided into two types: the first generation of anti-schizophrenic drugs (traditional antipsychotics). Such drugs mainly include selective dopamine D2 receptor antagonists, wherein the typical drugs are Haloperidol and Chlorpromazine and the like. These drugs have a certain therapeutic effect on the positive symptoms of schizophrenic disorder, but do not have any effect on the negative symptoms and cognitive deficits. Further, these drugs may lead to severe adverse reactions, such as extrapyramidal side effect, muscular rigidity and weight gain, etc. The second generation of anti-schizophrenic drugs (atypical antipsychotics). These drugs primarily are 5-hydroxytryptamine 5-HT2 receptor antagonists and dopamine D2 receptor antagonists, wherein the typical drugs for example are Olanzepine, Risperidone, Aripiprazole, Quetiapine and Clozapine. The second generation of atypical anti-schizophrenic drugs has a similar therapeutic effect on the positive symptoms of schizophrenic disorder to the first generation of anti-schizophrenic drugs, but has significantly less side effects such as extrapyramidal side effects.
At present anti-schizophrenic drugs used in clinic, particularly the second generation of atypical anti-schizophrenic drugs has a certain therapeutic effect on the positive symptoms of schizophrenic disorder, can alleviate or eliminate symptoms like hallucinations, delusions and thinking disturbance, etc. After the acute symptoms are eliminated, maintenance of antipsychotics can reduce the possibility of recurrence. However, almost all the clinical drugs have no significant therapeutic effect on the negative symptoms and cognitive deficits of schizophrenic disorder. Aripiprazole which is newly listed, as shown by the clinical study results, the drug may have a certain degree of therapeutic effect on the negative symptoms of schizophrenic disorder, but the therapeutic effect thereof is still non-significant and remains to be further investigated by clinical study. Additionally, anti-schizophrenic drugs can cause obvious adverse reactions, e.g. can lead to sedation, muscular rigidity, tremor and weight gain. Meanwhile these antipsychotics may cause tardive dyskinesia, a behavior which is characterized involuntarily by lip and tongue shrinkage, or twisting dyskinesia in arms and legs. Even after drug withdraw, the tardive dyskinesia would not disappear and lack of effective treatment measures.
Short-term prognosis (within one year) of schizophrenic disorder depends on the patient adherence to treatment. If without drug maintenance treatment, 70%˜80% of schizophrenic disorder will relapse within 12 months and may attack again. Drug maintenance may reduce the recurrence rate of the present disease down to about 30%.
Long-term prognosis of schizophrenic disorder greatly varies, wherein ⅓ of patients may obtain significant and sustained improvement, and for another ⅓ of patients, conditions are partially improved with intermittent onsets and left with disabilities, and for the remaining ⅓ of patients, conditions are severe with obvious disabilities. Factors of good prognosis include patients with acute onset, late age of onset, good social skills before onset, and paranoid or positive schizophrenic disorder. Factors of poor prognostic include patients with early age of onset, poor social or professional skills before onset, positive family history of schizophrenic disorder as well as hebephrenic or negative schizophrenic disorder.
CN101616592A has disclosed a benzotriazinone compound for enhancing glutamatergic synaptic responses, which may be used to prevent and treat cerebral insufficiency, for example various diseases such as dementia, schizophrenic disorder and the like. CN101035760A has disclosed a compound for enhancing glutamate receptors, which can be used to treat schizophrenic disorder. CN1535980A has disclosed a novel compound having inhibitory activity against glycine transporter, useful to treat schizophrenic disorder.
Currently, new methods for treating schizophrenic disorder are still expected in the art.

Glycine reuptake inhibitor and use thereof


A crankshaft for a V-type six-cylinder engine is equipped with first through sixth crankpins, first through fourth crank journals, and first through ninth arms for connecting the crank pins and the crank journals to each other. Of the first through ninth arms, the third arm and the seventh arm respectively have surplus weight portions (inclusive of counterweights) whose centers of gravity are situated respectively in a direction substantially opposite the first crank pin and the sixth crank pin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a crankshaft for a V-type six-cylinder engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally speaking, a crankshaft used in a V-type six-cylinder engine is equipped with six crank pins, four crank journals, and nine arms for connecting the crank pins and the crank journals to each other. Some of these arms are each equipped with a counterweight for reducing the rotational force of inertia generated in each arm and the unbalance couple generated in the crankshaft.
In a conventional crankshaft, the counterweights are situated in a direction completely opposite the crank pins connected to the arms with respect to the central axis of the crankshaft. That is, in the case of an arm to which only one crank pin is connected, the counterweight is situated in a direction completely opposite that crank pin, and in the case of an arm to which two crank pins are connected, the counterweight is situated in a direction completely opposite the midpoint of the two crank pins.
An example of such a crankshaft is disclosed in JP 8-121539 A. According to the publication, the fourth arm and the sixth arm have no counterweights.
Conventional crankshafts have a problem in that the unbalance couple generated therein cannot be reduced to a sufficient degree.
This is due to the construction in which, in all the arms that are each provided with a counterweight, the respective centers of gravity of the counterweights are situated in a direction completely opposite the positions of the crank pins.

Crankshaft for V-type six-cylinder engine


In accordance with disclosed embodiments, there are provided methods, systems, and apparatuses enabling polymorphic objects across devices in a heterogeneous platform. According to the disclosed embodiments, such means include, for example, receiving, at a device aware compiler, source code for a computer program as input; compiling the source code for the computer program, in which the compiling includes at least: generating two distinct sets of executable binary instructions for a method of an object; in which a first of the two distinct sets of executable binary instructions for the method of the object provides first binary instructions for the method executable by a first computing device and not executable by a second computing device; and in which a second of the two distinct sets of executable binary instructions for the method of the object provides second binary instructions for the method executable by the second computing device and not executable by the first computing device. Other related embodiments are disclosed.

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also correspond to embodiments of the claimed subject matter.
In computer science, polymorphism is a programming language feature that allows values of different data types to be handled using a uniform interface. A function that can evaluate or be applied to values of different types is known as a polymorphic function. A data type that can appear to be of a generalized type (e.g., a list with elements of arbitrary type) is designated polymorphic data type like the generalized type from which such specializations are made.
Different kinds of polymorphism are known. For instance, if a function denotes different and potentially heterogeneous implementations depending on a limited range of individually specified types and combination, it is called ad-hoc polymorphism. Ad-hoc polymorphism is supported in many languages using function and method overloading.
Conversely, if code is written without mention of any specific type and thus can be used transparently with any number of new types, it is called parametric polymorphism. Parametric polymorphism is widely supported in statically typed functional programming languages. In the object-oriented programming community, programming using parametric polymorphism is sometimes called generic programming.
In object-oriented programming, subtype polymorphism or inclusion polymorphism is a concept in type theory wherein a name may denote instances of many different classes as long as they are related by some common super class. Inclusion polymorphism is generally supported through subtyping, that is to say, objects of different types may be substituted for objects of another type, and thus can be handled via a common interface.
As beneficial as polymorphism is to programmers, its practicality is severely limited when used on computing platforms having non-uniform and heterogeneous computing hardware.
For instance, with conventional methodologies, the targeted computing platform upon which code is expected to run is homogenous, such as a computing platform using a conventional Central Processor Unit (CPU). During execution of code developed using these conventional methodologies, it is assumed that a pointer followed will arrive at an appropriate instruction for execution via the exemplary CPU. This assumption has been safe historically because homogenous systems, such as those having only a CPU or multiple CPUs of the same type for executing instructions, were so common place.
Unfortunately, in a heterogeneous computing platform having multiple non-uniform hardware components, each of which being capable to execute instructions, the preceding assumption may be erroneous. Thus, use of the conventional methodologies results in the following of a pointer that may yield a result incapable of being executed by one of the hardware components in the non-uniform environment.
The present state of the art may therefore benefit from systems and methods for enabling polymorphic objects across devices in a heterogeneous platform as described herein.

Enabling polymorphic objects across devices in a heterogeneous platform


An external structural brace apparatus and method for supporting a user on a surface and for the user to ambulate along the surface to relieve shoulder, armpit, hand, foot, and wrist loads, the apparatus includes first and second support beams that each have a telescoping cantilever beam that contacts the surface. The first and second support beams have a primary pivotal couple at one end to one another with a mechanism to create opposite symmetrical movement of the beams. An attachment element supports the user at their torso has a secondary pivotal connection to the first and second beams and third and fourth user handles that are pivotally attached to the first and second beams are for grasping by the user to extend and retract the telescoping cantilever beams to and from the surface at reduced and increased extension and retraction rates for user ease of ambulating along the surface.

The medical profession may recommend the use of an individual with a back injury or potential back problem to use an exoskeleton structural support apparatus to alleviate the strain and provide relief to the back. The apparatus can immobilize and support the spine when there is a condition that needs to be treated. Depending on the apparatus used, it can put the spine in a neutral, upright, hyper-extended, flexed, or lateral-flexed position. An exoskeleton structural support apparatus can be used to control pain, lessen the chance of further injury, allow healing to take place, compensate for muscle weakness, or prevent or correct a deformity. They offer a safe, relatively inexpensive, non-invasive way to prevent future problems or to help an individual heal from a current condition. The use of exoskeleton structural support apparatus which are commonly termed "braces" is widely accepted and is an effective tool in the treatment of back disorders. In fact, more than 99% of orthopedic physicians advocate using braces as there is a high potential benefit and little downside risk of the individual wearing the brace. In fact, historically braces have been used as far back as 2000 B.C. Recently, braces have become a popular way to help prevent primary and secondary lower back pain from ever occurring or reoccurring.
The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) cites injuries to the upper, middle, and lower back as the most common reason for absenteeism in the general workforce after the common cold. It is estimated that about 80% of adults in North America can expect a back injury in their lifetime and about 10% can expect a re-injury. Back injuries can develop gradually as a result of micro-trauma brought about by repetitive activity over a period time or a single traumatic event. Back injuries can be the immediate result of improper lifting techniques and/or lifting loads that are too heavy for the back to support or brought on by repetitive lifting of lighter loads.
While an acute injury may seem to be caused by a single well-defined incident, OSHA states that the actual cause can be from a series of micro traumas coupled by years of weakening of the muscular-skeletal support system by repetitive lifting and bending, being the most hidden type of injury. Injuries can arise in muscles, ligaments, vertebras, and discs, either singly or in combination. Although back injuries do not cause death, they do account for a significant loss in productivity, income, and expenses plus the physical suffering. For some, the pain and suffering is long-term or even lifelong. For individuals with long-term, disabling musculoskeletal injuries, lifetime earnings may drop significantly. These individuals may also suffer a loss of independence due to a restricted ability to ambulate or complete daily tasks such as cooking, cleaning, bathing, dressing, and the like that can lead to a diminished quality of life and depression.
OSHA cites back injuries in the United States as one of the leading causes of workplace absenteeism and disability; it afflicts over 600,000 employees each year with a cost of about $50 billion in lost productivity and medical costs. In addition, one to five percent of this group will suffer chronic back pain that lasts six months or longer. The frequency and economic impact of back injuries on the work force are expected to increase significantly over the next several decades as the age of the working population increases and the cost of healthcare escalates, thus intensifying the problem. For those under the age of 45, back pain is the most frequent cause of activity limitation. Although 80% to 90% of individuals will recover from back pain within three to six days of their injury, the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that $31 million will be spent on physician office visits and $20 billion on prescription drugs—and only three percent of that total cost will go to prevention of back pain.
Thus, it is clear that there is a great need in the art for an improved method and system for providing active support to the upper, middle, and lower back to assist in bending, lifting, and standing to prevent injury while avoiding the shortcomings and drawbacks of the prior art apparatuses and methodologies as reviewed in the following section.