A collage image creating method includes a first step that creates a collage image by determining arrangements of the plurality of images according to a placement algorithm including a rotation angle of each image as a parameter; and a second step that recreates a collage image by re-executing the first step to at least one of a change due to an addition or deletion of an image which configure the collage image, a change in arrangement position of at least one image among images which are included in the collage image, a change in rotation angle of at least one image among images which are included in the collage image, and a change in arrangement size of at least one image among images which are included in the collage image.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a collage image creating program, a collage image creating method, and a collage image creating device.
2. Related Art
In the technology in JP-A-2013-16973, since a process of generating a mosaic image of a target image is performed by arranging a material image in a mosaic shape, it is not possible to change a position or size of the material image which is arranged in the generated mosaic image. In addition, the technology in JP-A-2013-16973 is not a technology of creating a collage image. In the technology in "Google Inc., "Picasa", a collage image is generated by obtaining an automatic layout with respect to a plurality of images, and it is possible to change a position or size of an arbitrary image which is arranged in the collage image. However, a rotation of an image is not taken into consideration. In addition, when a position or size of one image which is included in the collage image is changed, it is necessary to adjust the entire balance by manually changing a position or size of another image by a user. When there are many images included in the collage image, the task of adjusting the entire balance is a big burden for a user.
In the technology in JP-A-2013-16973, since a process of generating a mosaic image of a target image is performed by arranging a material image in a mosaic shape, it is not possible to change a position or size of the material image which is arranged in the generated mosaic image. In addition, the technology in JP-A-2013-16973 is not a technology of creating a collage image. In the technology in "Google Inc., "Picasa", a collage image is generated by obtaining an automatic layout with respect to a plurality of images, and it is possible to change a position or size of an arbitrary image which is arranged in the collage image. However, a rotation of an image is not taken into consideration. In addition, when a position or size of one image which is included in the collage image is changed, it is necessary to adjust the entire balance by manually changing a position or size of another image by a user. When there are many images included in the collage image, the task of adjusting the entire balance is a big burden for a user.

Collage image creating method and collage image creating device


A low profile, high capacity, high performance disk drive includes a plurality of disk surfaces mounted in parallel for simultaneous rotation about an axis. Each of a plurality of data transducer heads for reading and/or writing data to the data surfaces is attached to a slider. A stacked arm actuator for moving the data transducer heads in a radial direction across the disk surfaces includes a supporting arm and a suspension load beam attached to the supporting arm. The suspension load beam connects the supporting arm to the slider. The suspension load beam includes a load dimple bearing on the slider and has opposed stiffening flanges extending in a plane adjacent the slider. The actuator includes a stack of 9 head arm suspension assemblies and the stack has a height of 16.634 mm. An interdisk spacing of less than 1.4 mm provides a height dimension of 14.635 for a stack of 8 disks. Shock and electrical isolation is accomplished using four mounting blocks carrying energy absorbing, highly damped, resilient material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to disk drive assemblies and, more particularly, to a high capacity, high performance two and one-half inch diameter, low profile disk drive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Common form factors for hard disk drives are becoming smaller and smaller. Over the years disk diameters have been incrementally reduced from 24" to 14" to 101/2" to 8" to 51/4" to 31/2" to 21/2", 1.8" and recently a 1.3 inch disk drive was announced. Currently, 31/2 and 21/2 inch drives are in widespread use in low end systems, personal computers and lap top computers. To obtain as much data storage capacity in these small drives as practically possible, it is necessary to maximize the number of disks that can be fitted into a standard form factor. Consequently, the spacing between adjacent disks is becoming smaller also. Narrower disk spacings dictate that actuator arms must become thinner and that head/suspension assemblies (HSA's) take on a lower profile.
FIG. 4 shows a conventional head/suspension assembly with a suspension having a flexure 1 and a load beam 2 carrying reinforcing features 3, or such as a separate folded part welded to the top portion of the load beam for reinforcement and load transmission which are solely on the top or away from a slider 4 positioned by the suspension. The load is transmitted from the load beam 2 through a more or less rigid dimple feature 5 which may be a part of the load beam, flexure, or even the slider. The flexure 1 is a thin metal member used to locate the slider 4 in the plane of the disk surface, while allowing the slider to pitch and roll to follow the contours of the disk surface, as well to compensate for the relative motion of the actuator with respect to the disk surface normal direction. The load beam 2 is another thin metal member which has some type of reinforcement to provide resilient spring action which biases the slider 4 toward the surface of the disk so that the slider will fly stably at the appropriate fly-height. The dimple 5 is used to transmit the relatively large slider load rather than transmitting the slider load through the very thin flexure.
An attachment mechanism, such as an arm or a mounting plate, attaches the suspension to the file actuator. The electrical connection between the transducers and the disk file read/write electronics is made by twisted pair wires which run the length of the suspension and extend over the flexure and slider. The ends of the wires are soldered or ultrasonically bonded to the transducer pads on the slider.
While a single HSA is shown, typically back-to-back HSA's are used for the adjacent disk surfaces. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the conventional design requires a very significant amount of disk-to-disk spacing to accommodate the upright reinforcing features of the prior art HSA design. Some conventional designs waste space by including angles between the load beam and the arm to which the load beam is attached.
Historically in small DASD's 51/4" and smaller, a disk drive enclosure for a head/disk assembly (HDA) is fitted into a metal frame commonly called a user frame. This user frame is typically an aluminum die casting or formed from a sheet metal stamping. Generally, a HDA is attached to the user frame via three or four resilient vibration isolators or shock mounts. For these isolators to be effective, space is required between the HDA and the user frame to allow the HDA to move freely in response to external vibration or shocks. Threaded holes are provided at standard locations in the right and left sides and the bottom of the user frame for attaching the disk drive assembly to the using system box. Therefore, the user frame becomes firmly mounted to the using system box, but the HDA is both electrically and mechanically isolated via the vibration/shock isolators. When magneto-resistive (MR) heads are used within a file, electrical isolation is required between the HDA and the user frame.
Known commercially available two and one-half inch hard disk drives are commonly classified as being low capacity and exhibiting relatively low performance. Typically these drives have one or two 65 mm disks and provided a storage capacity of 40 to 120 megabytes (MB). Latencies are in the range of 30 to 35 ms, average access times are greater than 15 ms, and data rates go from 1.5 to 4 MB/sec to/from the media. In most cases, to conserve space and to reduce costs, user frames and shock isolators are not used. Head/disk assemblies (HDA's) include an enclosure screwed directly to the user's box. HDA enclosures typically are simple die cast flat bases with die cast or stamped screwed on covers. These files are aimed at the low end applications, such as personal computers and lap top computers.
For example, the CONNERS CP20XX small 21/2" disk drive series has dispensed with the use of mechanical isolators and the user frame and provide mounting holes directly into the HDA structure. This mounting scheme appears to be satisfactory for those small drives. Other known disk files use three or more stiff shock mounts between the HDA and using system box. Shock mounts that are very stiff are not generally effective for vibration isolation, but provide shock isolation.
Disk files for high end and mid-range applications require a very high capacity, very high performance file, advantageously packaged in a 1 inch high, 21/2 inch form factor. As many disks and transducer heads as possible are put within the HDA enclosure to get maximum storage capacity. Very high volumetric density packaging is required to provide high capacity in the standard form factor. However, convention construction of current 21/2 inch drives cannot achieve either a very high capacity or a very high performance file. A need exists to accomplish high volumetric density packaging, to provide a very high storage capacity, and a high performance disk file.

High capacity, high performance low profile disk drive

International Business Machines Corporation


A method is disclosed for ensuring operation of a motorized throttle. The presence of an obstruction, such as ice, is detected inside the motorized throttle. The obstruction is then removed within a predetermined time to free the motorized throttle. A new closed throttle position is then recorded as a zero degree reference from which to control a throttle plate to a desired angle.

Internal combustion engines used in automobiles typically operate on fuel-air mixtures, where a fuel injector supplies fuel and a throttle supplies air. On-board computers (also known as Powertrain Control Modules or PCMs) programmed to be responsive to a signal from an accelerator pedal in the automobile, determine the amounts of fuel and air. When a driver wishes to move at a higher speed, he or she presses the accelerator pedal, signaling the computer to supply more fuel, and more air to the engine. The fuel injectors respond by supplying more fuel and the throttle valve responds by opening wider to admit more air to the engine. When the driver wishes to slow down, the driver lifts his or her foot from the accelerator, signaling the fuel injectors to supply less fuel and the throttle to move to a more closed position.
In most internal combustion vehicle engines, a throttle valve controls the engine's idle speed. The throttle valve is typically a metal plate that is positioned on a rotating shaft within the air inlet conduit. The metal plate can be rotated to control the amount of air reaching the cylinders of an internal combustion engine. In many prior art vehicles, the throttle plate's rotational position may be controlled by a linkage connected to the accelerator pedal of the vehicle. The throttle plate may be positioned in a variety of positions, typically within the range of a wide-open, partially open and closed positions. The closed position is sometimes referred to as the "zero position."
In more modern throttles, an electric motor is utilized to set the throttle plate angle based on signals from an engine controller, such as an electronic Powertrain Control Module ("PCM"). Various inputs into the PCM, such as the accelerator pedal position and the present position of the throttle, are used to calculate the precise throttle plate angle to give the engine the desired performance. Motorized throttles or so-called "electronic throttles," often integrate with one or more Throttle Position Sensors ("TPS") to monitor the movement of the throttle plate. The sensors relay the varying movement of the throttle plate to the PCM.
When the PCM calls for more air, the shaft rotates in one direction to open the plate. When less air is needed, the shaft rotates in the opposite direction to close the plate. If the motor fails, the plate must move to a "default" position to maintain some level of engine function. A return spring causes the throttle to close toward the default throttle position when the motor ceases to provide a positioning torque. Default throttle positions are generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,071, incorporated by reference herein.
During extremely cold weather, there is a possibility of ice forming inside the throttle bore or throttle plate. The ice forms during operation. At engine off, the engine heat is transferred to the throttle, which causes the ice to melt, puddle at the plate edge, and then later re-freeze. The ice can prevent the throttle plate from moving during the next engine start and results in an obstructed (or frozen) throttle condition. This condition will result in degraded (or complete loss of) vehicle function. Vehicle function is affected because, without detection of the frozen throttle condition, normal fault detection and throttle control methods are insufficient to identify the condition and free the throttle plate. The undetected frozen throttle may cause an incorrectly recorded closed throttle position, which occurs when the throttle is incorrectly assumed to be closed. Other faults can also be caused by an undetected frozen throttle. These faults may be detected by the safety monitor system and prevent or limit vehicle operation.
Even if the plate does break free of the ice, an incorrect zero position reference causes higher than intended airflow, which adversely affects engine control. Thus, detection of frozen throttle condition is desired to enable the use of special control methods that can free the throttle plate before other faults are detected that would result in loss of vehicle function. Moreover, once the presence of ice is detected, a method of breaking the ice is desired that will not damage the throttle motor. Furthermore, a method that takes note of the throttle position sensor reading when the throttle is truly closed is desired.

Ice-breaking, autozero and frozen throttle plate detection at power-up for electronic motorized throttle


Methods and system for cost-based email routing is provided. Such methods and systems can route high volume of email messages with improved email throughput. Such methods and systems may involve a variety of components, for example, at least one email data store for receiving, storing, and sending high volume of email message, a plurality of mail servers for routing email messages to their recipient domains based through a lowest cost associated with sending high volume of email messages to their recipient domains from the plurality of mail servers, and at least one email processing module for measuring the cost associated with sending each email messages to its recipient domain from each of the plurality of mail servers.

Many embodiments described herein generally relate to sharing and accessing data, and more particularly to routing email messages. These methods and systems can be particularly effective in routing high volume email messages with minimum delivery time.
In extremely high volume email delivery environments, delivery latency across the Internet is one of the biggest factors in overall throughput (emails/second) of email delivery systems. A typical 100 ms delivery latency means that a single mail server can deliver at most 10 emails per second. If delivery latency for sending email messages could be decreased, the overall throughput of email delivery systems will increase.
While typical latencies on the Internet are in the 80-100 ms range, many regional (local) delivery latencies may be only 10-20 ms. In high volume email delivery systems, the current typical delivery latencies translate to hours of delay for email message delivery in some cases. If email messages can be routed in mass to a local mail server, the delivery latency could easily be reduced by 3-5 times and sometimes as much as 10 times. Such drop in magnitude of delivery latencies can result in significant increase in overall throughput of email delivery systems.
Accordingly, it is desirable to develop methods and systems that provide for decreased delivery latency for high volume email delivery, so that all email messages can be timely received by their recipients.


An observation device according to the present invention comprises a stage on which a fluid vessel containing therein an object to be observed such as a cell or microorganism is to be placed, an observing part observing the object to be observed, a driving part performing a stage driving for moving a position of the stage with respect to the observing part, and a control part controlling the stage driving performed by the driving part. The stage driving includes a moving mode for moving the stage toward a predetermined position and a stop process mode for performing a stop process of stopping the stage at the predetermined position, and the control part performs the stop process several times in the stop process mode, and controls the stage driving so that a velocity or an acceleration of the stage driving is common among the stop processes in the stop process mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to observation devices, observation systems, control devices, and control programs, and is suitable particularly for a biotechnological observation using a microscope.
2. Description of Related Art
Observation devices using a microscope are used in the fields of medicine, biology and the like in order to accurately capture a minute object to be observed such as a cell or microorganism (This includes bacteria, virus and the like, and is hereinafter referred to as a cell or the like). This observation device comprises a stage on which a fluid vessel or the like containing therein the object to be observed is placed, a driving part electrically moving the stage, and an observing part observing the object to be observed (observation object). In this observation device, the observation object is automatically moved to change the observed area. In the case where the observation object is periodically observed, it is required that the stage is stopped at the same position every time the stage is moved.
In the driving part moving the stage on which the observation object is placed by using an electric motor or the like, a mechanism interposed between a motor part and the stage includes a mechanical operation part such as a gear, pulley and the like. It is known that a backlash occurs in the mechanical operation part due to play and rattling between the gears, or in the gear itself or the pulley. Therefore, in the case where the mechanism is not a mechanism which is provided with a position sensor and performs feedback control using position information regarding the stage from the position sensor, for example, in the case where the position of the stage is controlled based on the number of rotations of the electric motor or the like, the actual position of the stage cannot necessarily be obtained from the number of rotations of the electric motor due to generation of a lost motion caused by the backlash. Therefore, in the control using the number of rotations of the electric motor, an error (hereinafter referred to simply as a movement error or a position error) occurs in an actual stop position of the stage every time the stage is driven. This position error due to the lost motion caused by the backlash has an unignorable influence in a field in which the observation object is minute.
In order to solve the backlash due to the influence of the play between the gears, it has been suggested a technique of storing information of a rotation direction of the gear at the time of stopping the gear to control the movement of the stage using the information so that the rotation direction at the time of stopping the gear is always the same.
In the mechanical operation part such as the gear, pulley and the like described above, (i) there is a lost motion due to stiffness, mass or the like as well as the lost motion due to the backlash described above. In other words, the lost motion occurs due to generation of twisting, distortion, or slip of the gear, a rotation axis part of the pulley, a tooth part of the gear, a surface part of the pulley or the like forming the mechanical operation part depending on the stiffness, mass or the like of materials of these parts. Also, regarding a chain or belt forming the mechanical operation part, the lost motion occurs due to the generation of expansion and contraction, twisting, or distortion depending on the stiffness, mass or the like of materials of the chain or belt. The above mentioned lost motion occurs because a part of the torque of a sender is absorbed due to the twisting, distortion, or the like described above, and the absorbed torque is not transmitted to a receiver. The lost motion depending on the stiffness, mass or the like causes the position error of the stage.
Additionally, the position error of the stage occurs not only due to the lost motion depending on the stiffness, mass or the like, but also due to moving acceleration or the like depending on the stiffness, mass or the like. That is, (ii) since moving velocity, moving acceleration or the like of the observation object (stage) at the time of performing a control for stopping the stage is not uniform most of the times, the state of the twisting, distortion, or the like of the axis part or the tooth part of the gear varies each time the stage is stopped, resulting in the position error such that the stop position of the stage is different every time the stage is moved.
The movement error and the position error of the stage due to the stiffness, mass or the like described above in (i) and (ii) are hereinafter referred to simply as a "position error due to stiffness, mass or the like".
The conventional art discloses solutions to the problem of only the lost motion due to the backlash such as play, rattling or the like between the gears, and cannot handle the position error due to the stiffness, mass or the like described above. In other words, although, in the conventional art, the information of the stop position and the movement direction of the stage is stored in order to solve the problem of the lost motion due to the backlash, the conventional art does not disclose storing the velocity and acceleration in a stage driving. Accordingly, the velocity and acceleration in the stage driving are not considered in the conventional art, and it is not possible to handle a position error due to stiffness, mass or the like described above only by considering the position and the movement direction of the stage without considering the velocity and acceleration of the stage driving.

Observation device and method that performs compensation control as a first driving and a second driving


A cantilever-type probe with multiple metallic coatings is disclosed. The cantilever-type probe includes at least one probe pin. A first metallic coating is disposed upon a tip of the probe pin, and a second metallic coating is disposed upon a root of the probe pin. The second metallic coating is in contact with the first metallic coating and comprises a softer (more flexible) metal than the first metallic coating.

Cantilever-type probes can be used to measure film resistance and other properties of a sample substrate. For example, to perform film resistance measurements on a sample substrate, a cantilever-type probe may be used to make electrical contacts with a surface of the sample substrate in order to pass current to the sample substrate and measure voltage at the electrical contacts. The resistance is then calculated as a function of the applied current and measured voltage.

Cantilever-type probe with multiple metallic coatings


A system and method for measuring a voltage in a body part are described. The system includes a multiplexing unit, and N body leads for electrically connecting the multiplexing unit to the body part. The system also includes a controller switching unit for allowing a current to flow through the body part between two body leads, n1 and n2 of the N body leads, and a resultant voltage to be measured between two body leads, n3 and n4 of the N body leads, where n1≠n2 and n3≠n4, but where n1 n2 n3 and n4 need not otherwise be distinct.

The onset of disease is often accompanied by physical changes in a body part. Some physical changes, while not discernible by a patient, can be detected with appropriate diagnostic equipment, often at a relatively early stage of the disease.
For example, the electrical impedances of various body tissues are well known through studies on intact humans or from excised tissue made available following therapeutic surgical procedures. In addition, it is well documented that a decrease in electrical impedance occurs in tissue as it undergoes cancerous changes. This finding is consistent over many animal species and tissue types, including, for example human breast cancers. Consequently, electrical impedance may be used to diagnose disease.
A method that permits comparisons of electrical properties for diagnostic purposes has been developed that involves homologous body parts, i.e., body parts that are substantially similar, such as a left breast and a right breast. In this method, the impedance of a body part of a patient is compared to the impedance of the homologous body part of the same patient. One technique for screening and diagnosing diseased states within the body using electrical impedance is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,544, which is incorporated herein by reference. In this patent, data are obtained from two anatomically homologous body regions, one of which may be affected by disease. Differences in the electrical properties of the two homologous body parts could signal disease.
Published international patent application, PCT/CA01/01788, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a breast electrode array for diagnosing the presence of a disease state in a living organism, wherein the electrode array comprises a flexible body, a plurality of flexible arms extending from the body, and a plurality of electrodes provided by the plurality of flexible arms, wherein the electrodes are arranged on the arms to obtain impedance measurements between respective electrodes. In one embodiment, the plurality of flexible arms are spaced around the flexible body and are provided with electrode pairs, which can be used to make tetrapolar impedance measurements.
Tetrapolar impedance measurements are associated with injecting current between so called current injection electrodes and measuring a voltage drop between associated electrodes. In a preferred embodiment, the differences between corresponding homologous impedance measurements in the two body parts are compared in a variety of ways that allows the calculation of metrics that can serve either as an indicator of the presence of disease or to localize the disease to a specific breast quadrant or sector.
The aforementioned system is limited by the number of impedance measurements that can be obtained with the current injection and associated voltage measurement electrodes, and by the fact that only tetrapolar measurements can be performed. Any new system that can yield various types and a greater number of impedance measurements would yield more data that could be processed to make a more accurate diagnosis of disease.

Bioimpedance measurement using controller-switched current injection and multiplexer selected electrode connection


A system for generating hydrogen and oxygen gases that are mixed with fuel supplied to the engine of a vehicle. The system includes a generating unit that utilizes electrolysis to produce the gases from the electrolyte. The anode and cathode plates of the generating unit are made of stainless steel, and the electrolyte is glacial acetic which produces the hydrogen and oxygen with a minimum amount of sediment and no deterioration of the plates.

There are a number of known systems for producing hydrogen and oxygen gases from an electrolyte, which gases are used to supplement fuel supplied to a vehicle engine. The hydrogen and oxygen gases are generally formed in a generating unit by electrolysis of the electrolyte. The gases are then introduced into the air intake of the engine. By supplementing the fuel, mileage is improved and emissions reduced.
Although there are known numerous supplemental fuel systems using the principles of electrolysis, they have not been commercially successful because of cost, problems with sediment contaminating the anode and cathode plates, safety reasons and failure to produce significant results. Numerous attempts have been made to correct the various problems. For example, in Moshier U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,545 and Glynn U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,801 "pusher" gases are used to sweep the plates in the generating unit. Systems using pusher gases are relatively complicated. Also, attempts have been made to raise the plates above the bottom of the convertor unit so that as sediment builds up in the unit it will not contaminate the plates and reduce the efficiency of the unit. There have also been attempts at improving the efficiency of these hydrogen generation units by changes in various materials in the plates and by using various electrolyte compositions. Brown U.S Pat. No. 3,793,079 and Olivera U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,947 are examples of attempts to resolve the problems by changes in the composition of the electrolyte. However, none of these prior art teachings has resulted in an efficient, workable unit that produces increased fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. Especially in current times, reduction of emissions is not only important, but with increasing frequency, regulatory agencies are imposing standards which must be met by vehicle manufacturers and users. In addition, fuel efficiency standards are repeatedly being raised and are becoming more difficult to meet with cost effective techniques.
There is therefore a need for ways to improve the fuel efficiency and to reduce engine emissions of vehicles. There is a further need for producing improved fuel efficiencies and reduced emissions in a cost effective manner. Any such ways of improving fuel efficiency and reducing emissions should also be easy to use and maintain and meet all safety criteria.

Supplement fuel generator for vehicle engines


A computer system having a monitor, disk drive, and central controller is disclosed. The computer manufacturer uses a method for expanding the reserve area of a disk drive to allow computer systems manufacturers to change the storage capacity of the reserve area. The method includes setting up a password with the disk drive manufacturer to enable two commands. One command reads the maximum address or largest track number that the user has access to. The second command allows for setting a new maximum address to which the user has access. The firmware of the disc drive is updated with the new maximum address. Once the two commands have been used to expand the reserve area, the computer system manufacturer can add critical data, and critical program instructions to the expanded or new reserve area. The computer manufacturer may decide to store a portion of a virus scan program in the expanded reserve area, or store a portion of the basic input output system (BIOS) so that a smaller BIOS read only memory (ROM) can be used for the computer system, or the computer manufacturer can store emergency boot up instructions in the reserve area in the event there is damage to the disk.

A standard disk drive includes space for storing data available to the user and a fixed amount of space that is kept in reserve for storing data unavailable to the user. After the manufacturer writes a servo pattern on the disk or disks in a disk drive, the manufacturer fixes the amount of space that is available to the user and the amount of space that is unavailable to the user. Servo writing the disks in the disk drive provides positional information for finding a particular track or group of tracks. The manufacturer then designates that a certain number of tracks will be set aside for the reserve area. The manufacturer then writes certain critical information to the tracks in the reserve area. The critical information is typically required to operate the disk drive and is used by the operating system or hardware in the operation of the drive. In the past, no one beyond the original disk drive manufacturer could access the reserve area. The reserve area was simply protected. The reserve area was even off limits to a computer system manufacturer that integrated the disk drive into a computer system. In the past, a computer system manufacturer could not modify or change the size of the reserve area. No such command or set of commands would allow anyone beyond the manufacturer of the disk drive to change anything with respect to the reserve area as set up by the manufacturer.
The disk drive is basically a nonvolatile source of memory. In other words, after the power is removed from the disk drive, the disk drive maintains the information stored thereon indefinitely. The storage capacity of disk drives has risen dramatically over the past few years and the cost of that storage capacity, commonly priced as the cost per megabyte of disk drive storage has dropped dramatically. The result is that now disk drives have become an attractive alternative to nonvolatile storage in a ceramic chips or integrated circuits, since the cost of storage on a disk drive is much less expensive and since disk drives are already included in most computer systems as one rarely sees a computer system without a disk drive.
The only option at present for computer system manufacturers seeking to write information to a disk rather than to a ROM, is to write to an area of the disk to which the user has access. This option is simply unacceptable, since critical information written to this area of the disk could be overwritten at anytime. Overwriting would be the same as erasing the critical data written to the disk. Overwriting or erasure would have devastating effects. Basic instructions necessary to operate the computer system would be erased leaving the user with useless hardware. In addition, viruses downloaded from other sources such as the Internet, could attack critical information written to an area of the disk to which users have access. Although writing critical information to a disk is currently an attractive alternative from a perspective of cost, computer system manufacturers will not write such information to a disk since one could potentially overwrite any critical information written on the disk. There is no current way to modify the disk drive so that a computer manufacturer will be assured that information written to a disk will not be overwritten or erased. There is a need to reduce the cost of computer systems. There is also a need to provide safe and low cost nonvolatile storage of system manufacturer related critical information used to operate computer systems.

Method and apparatus for adding to the reserve area of a disk drive


The present invention provides for a practice mirror for improving golf putting skill. The practice mirror is comprised of a generally planar reflective surface, upon which are a stance line, a target line perpendicularly intersecting the stance line, and a positioner for locating a golf ball. The positioner is located at the intersection of the stance and target lines, this intersection lying approximately at one quartile of the stance line. In operation, the golfer places the mirror on the ground, places a golf ball in the positioner and aligns his body and putter club by standing over the mirror and viewing his reflection. This allows the golfer to detect and correct body alignment errors that would otherwise go undetected, thereby improving his putting skill. In a slotted, or channel, embodiment the golfer can perform an actual putt by means of the channel. The distance between the edges of the channel are such that when a golf ball is putted away from the closed end of the channel at any angle other than substantially parallel to the edges of the channel, the golf ball ricochets against the edges of the channel before traveling out of the channel.

This invention relates generally to practice mirrors, and more particularly to a mirror adapted for use in improving golf putting skill.
As most sports enthusiasts can appreciate, the difference between simply being able to participate in the sport versus being able to excel in the sport often depends upon the participant's ability to control his body movement so as to optimize skill and coordination. To some degree, a participant can improve his skill in a sport by being instructed as to proper body position. However, instruction alone is often of limited assistance. This is because the participant may actually think that he is positioning or moving his body in accordance with the instructions. However, if the participant were able to observe his actions from the point of view of another party, the participant could be able to realize he is not practicing proper body positioning after all. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a means by which the participant in a sport can observe his body position or motion while he is participating in the sport so as to allow the participant to make necessary corrections.
In the sport of golf, proper positioning of the head, shoulders, hands and club are critical to ensuring the accuracy of putting. Yet, all too often, the golfer is unable to advance his putting skills due to his inability to observe his own actions from a third party point of view. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a device which would enable a golfer to observe his stance, grip and swing while putting. It would be further advantageous if such a device were composed of a durable material, which would resist breakage from rough handling and, more importantly, from an accidental blow by the golf club when the golfer is practicing. It would be further advantageous if such a device were compact, light weight and easily transportable so that the golfer could practice putting wherever he finds it convenient and yet of sufficient size to provide the golfer ample view of his body positioning and movement.


A thermal control system for a data center room, for controlling an ambient temperature in the data center room to meet an ambient temperature set point, receives multiple ambient temperature votes from multiple fan controllers positioned in the data center room each for controlling fan speeds for at least one separate fan from among multiple fans each positioned within a separate system from among multiple systems within the data center room. The thermal control system sets the ambient temperature set point to a lowest ambient temperature specified in the multiple ambient temperature votes, such that the thermal control system and fan controllers operate as independent systems, but are integrated for selecting an ambient temperature that minimizes the power required for controlling a thermal environment in the data center room.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to control systems for cooling data center rooms and more particularly to integrating a data center thermal control system and individual fan controllers within systems within the data center room to minimize the power required for controlling the thermal environment in the data center room.
2. Description of the Related Art
A data center is generally housed in a data center room, or other space, that houses numerous electronic systems. In one example, the electronic systems are arranged in racks and multiple racks are arranged into a row. In another example, the electronic systems are housed in server stacks.
Electronic systems can be configured to house different combinations of components including servers, networking equipment, and storage devices. The components may be embedded in a number of printed circuit (PC) boards, where the PC boards may include a number of subcomponents, such as processors, micro-controllers, video cards, memories and other devices that each dissipate heat during operation.
In a data center room, power is required to run the electronic systems, however, power is also required to remove heat dissipated by the components of the electronic systems. As the number of components in an electronic system and number of electronic systems in a data center room increases, more power is required to remove the heat dissipated by the electronic systems during operation and control the thermal environment in the data center room.
In many data centers a thermal control system, such as a Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) unit, is installed to monitor and maintain the air temperature in the entire room. Separately, each system in the data center room may include one or more fans, each controlled by a separate fan controller that controls fan speeds within electronic systems, to control airflow within each system enclosure.

Integrating a data center thermal control system and individual fan controllers for controlling a thermal environment in a data center room

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A print apparatus including a photoconductive drum, a laser scanning unit (LSU) to scan a surface of the photoconductive drum, and an image processing unit to generate and output dot size information corresponding to externally input image data. The dot size information determines sizes of individual dots on an image to be printed, a memory unit to store dot size compensation values related to a scanning distance of laser beams emitted from the LSU to the surface of the photoconductive drum to the LSU. The compensation values change the dot size information. The apparatus further includes a light intensity difference compensation unit to compensate for the dot size information according to the stored compensation values if the dot size information is received, and a pulse width modulation (PWM) unit to generate and output a pulse signal to control the scanning of the laser beams of the LSU according to the compensated dot size information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a laser printing apparatus and a printing method capable of compensating for influence due to light intensity differences occurring on the surface of a photosensitive drum.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the recent widespread use of computers, peripherals such as printers are increasing in use. Printers are input with text or graphics from computers and print the input information on sheets of paper. The printers may be classified into dot matrix printers, ink-jet printers, or laser printers. The dot matrix printers are low in price, but have the disadvantages of loud noise and poor print quality. The laser printers have good speed and print quality, but may have the disadvantage of high price. Therefore, in general, ink-jet printers have been mostly used by individuals.
However, recent developments in printer manufacturing technologies enable laser printers to be produced at a low price, and thus laser printers are gradually being more widely used. The laser printers print sheet by sheet using the electrophotographic method. The elements of laser printers can be mainly divided into a controller part and an engine part. The controller part interprets image data sent from a computer, stores the interpreted image data in a random access memory (RAM) of the printer itself, communicates with the engine part so that the engine part can prepare for print tasks, and sends the data stored in the RAM in a serial data format. The engine part includes an organic photoconductive drum, a laser scanning unit (LSU), a developer, a cleaning unit, a charging unit, a transfer unit, and a fuser unit. If data to be printed is received, the printer performs, for print tasks, the processes of cleaning, charging, laser scanning, writing, developing, transferring, and fusing.
The laser scanning unit forms a latent image on the photoconductive drum in the laser scanning stage. Specifically, if laser beams scan the photoconductive drum charged at the same voltage, photocurrents are generated on the scanned portions of the drum so that negative charges on the drum are eliminated. Accordingly, the drum has negatively charged portions and charge-free portions, and, through a next developing stage, negatively charged toner particles stick on the laser beam-scanned surface of the drum on which a latent image is formed, to thus form the characters and/or graphics.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a conventional laser printing apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, the printing apparatus includes an interface unit 10, an image processing unit 20, a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) unit 30, an LSU interface unit 40, and an LSU 50. The interface unit 10, the image processing unit 20, the PWM unit 30, and the LSU interface unit 40 belong to the controller part, and the LSU 50 belongs to the engine part.
The interface unit 10 receives image data to be printed from an externally connected user terminal. The received image data is generally input in a binary data format.
The image processing unit 20 generates and outputs information on individual print spots, that is, dot sizes to be output on a sheet of paper based on the received image data. That is, a number of dots are gathered together to produce one image, and dot sizes must be properly adjusted at every print spot in order to output a clear image. Thus, the image processing unit 20 generates the information on the sizes of individual dots so as to properly adjust dot sizes. In general, the information on the dot sizes is divided into levels ranging from 0 (all white) to 255 (all black).
The PWM unit 30 generates and outputs a pulse signal having a different pulse width during every print period based on the information on the dot sizes. That is, if the dot size has the highest level of 255, the PWM unit 30 outputs a high pulse during one period, and, if the dot size has the middle level, outputs a high pulse during half of a period.
The LSU interface unit 40 communicates between the controller part and the LSU 50, and produces a control signal corresponding to a pulse signal generated from the PWM unit 30 to enable the LSU 50 to output proper laser beams. The laser beams of the LSU 50 scan the photoconductive drum according to the control signal to form a latent image.
The photoconductive drum is a core part of the laser printer, and is formed with a cylindrical aluminum tube on the surface of which organic photoconductive material is coated. If a latent image is formed on the photoconductive drum by the LSU 50, toner powder is stuck on latent image-forming portions so as to be transferred on a sheet of paper.
FIGS. 2A-2D are graphs illustrating data output from individual components in the printing apparatus of FIG. 1. FIG. 2(A) illustrates a periodic pulse signal, in which each period indicates a period during which one dot is printed.
FIG. 2(B) illustrates input image data which is received from the interface unit 10, in which the input image data is binary data having 1's and 0's.
FIG. 2(C) illustrates information on the sizes of dots calculated in the image processing unit 20. The size of a dot to be printed during every period shown in FIG. 2(A) is sequentially calculated and sent to the PWM unit 30.
FIG. 2(D) illustrates a pulse signal having pulse widths each adjusted according to the dot size information. For "255", the pulse value is maintained high during one entire period, for "128" (half of the above value), the pulse value is maintained high during half of a period, and for "64", the pulse value is maintained high during a quarter of a period.
If the pulse signal is converted to a control signal through the LSU interface unit 40, the LSU 50 accordingly outputs laser beams. The laser beams form a latent image on the surface of the photoconductive drum as described above.
The photoconductive drum is manufactured in a cylindrical shape, and the LSU 50 is spaced a certain distance from the center of the round surface of the cylinder, so that it is inevitable that the laser beams from the LSU 50 reach the center of the surface of the drum and the sides of the surface of the drum in different light intensities.
FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating such differences in light intensity. Referring to FIG. 3, light intensity of laser beams on the center of the drum surface has a maximum value of about 0.3 mW, and the light beams gradually decrease in intensity as the beams move toward the left and right sides of the surface. For example, the light intensity drops down to about 0.27 mW on the portions of the surface about 10 cm away from the center.
With the light intensity differences occurring, latent images may not be properly formed on the portions spaced from the center of the surface of the photoconductive drum, which can cause obscure writing on the left and right portions of the surface as compared to the central portion. Therefore, the image quality can be degraded.

Printing apparatus and method having functions to compensate for light intensity difference


This invention relates to compositions and methods for removing overfilled substrates, preferably at a relatively high removal rates. Advantageously, a composition according to the invention can contain an oxidizer, preferably a per-type oxidizer such as a peroxide, periodic acid, and peracetic acid, and may also optionally contain an abrasive.

Conventional polishing systems and polishing methods typically are not entirely satisfactory at planarizing substrates. In particular, polishing compositions and polishing pads can have less than desirable polishing rates, and their use in chemically-mechanically polishing surfaces can result in poor surface quality. Because the performance of, for example, a semiconductor wafer is directly associated with the planarity of its surface and its low defectivity, it is crucial to use a polishing composition and method that results in a high polishing efficiency, uniformity, and removal rate, and leaves a high quality polish with minimal surface defects.
One problem with chemical mechanical polishing is that formulations are designed for controlled substrate removal rates, where the maximum practical removal rate is about 6000 Angstroms per minute, as at rates above this planarity suffers and it is difficult to stop the process at the precise time. However, in certain manufacturing processes, there is occasionally large excesses of metal put on a wafer, and removing these excesses with the formulations developed for very controlled substrate removal at intermediate rates creates an economically unfavorable processing time. Large excesses of metal, e.g., copper, are found in for example copper oversputter methodologies. Overfilled and/or oversputtered substrates are also well known in the art. An example of these substrates, as well as issues associated with their fabrication, can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,674, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The difficulty in creating an effective polishing system for semiconductor wafers stems from the complexity of the semiconductor wafer. Semiconductor wafers are typically composed of a substrate, on which a plurality of transistors has been formed. Integrated circuits are chemically and physically connected into a substrate by patterning regions in the substrate and layers on the substrate. To produce an operable semiconductor wafer and to maximize the yield, performance, and reliability of the wafer, it is desirable to polish select surfaces of the wafer without adversely affecting underlying structures or topography. In fact, various problems in semiconductor fabrication can occur if the process steps are not performed on wafer surfaces that are adequately planarized.
A variety of chemical mechanical polishing and/or residue removal compositions and processes suitable for integrated circuit fabrication have been developed and marketed by EKC Technology, Inc. (hereinafter "EKC"), the assignee of the present application. Some of these compositions and processes are also useful for removing photoresist, polyimide, or other polymeric layers from substrates in integrated circuit fabrication, and EKC has also developed a variety of compositions and processes specifically for removing such polymeric layers from substrates in integrated circuit fabrication. Additionally, EKC has developed a variety of compositions and processes to selectively remove specific substrate compositions from a substrate surface at a controlled rate. Such compositions and processes are disclosed in the following commonly assigned issued patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,486 to Lee et al., which issued on Apr. 9, 2002, entitled Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid or its ammonium salt semiconductor process residue removal process;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,039 to Small et al., which issued on Nov. 6, 2001, entitled Chemical mechanical polishing composition and process;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,276,372 to Lee, which issued on Aug. 21, 2001, entitled Process using hydroxylamine-gallic acid composition;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,150 to Small et al., which issued on Jun. 26, 2001, entitled Slurry composition and method of chemical mechanical polishing using same;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,248,704 to Small et al., which issued on Jun. 19, 2001, entitled Compositions for cleaning organic and plasma etched residues for semiconductors devices;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,400 to Lee, which issued on Jun. 5, 2001, entitled Method of stripping resists from substrates using hydroxylamine and alkanolamine;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,235,693 to Cheng et al., which issued on May 22, 2001, entitled Lactam compositions for cleaning organic and plasma etched residues for semiconductor devices;
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,187,730 and 6,221,818, both to Lee, which issued on Feb. 13, 2001 and on Apr. 24, 2001, respectively, entitled Hydroxylamine-gallic compound composition and process;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,661 to Small, which issued on Dec. 5, 2000, entitled Post clean treatment;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,140,287 to Lee, which issued on Oct. 31, 2000, entitled Cleaning compositions for removing etching residue and method of using;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,121,217 to Lee, which issued on Sep. 19, 2000, entitled Alkanolamine semiconductor process residue removal composition and process;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,783 to Small et al., which issued on Sep. 12, 2000, entitled Chemical mechanical polishing composition and process;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,881 to Lee et al., which issued on Aug. 29, 2000, entitled Cleaning solutions including nucleophilic amine compound having reduction and oxidation potentials;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,411 to Lee, which issued on Dec. 14, 1999, entitled Cleaning compositions for removing etching residue and method of using;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,454 to Small, which issued on Nov. 9, 1999, entitled Post clean treatment composition comprising an organic acid and hydroxylamine;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,835 to Lee et al., which issued on Jun. 15, 1999, entitled Method of removing etching residue;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,780 to Lee, which issued on May 11, 1999, entitled Cleaning compositions for removing etching residue and method of using;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,205 to Picardi et al., which issued on Apr. 6, 1999, entitled Chemical mechanical polishing composition;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,577 to Lee, which issued on Sep. 30, 1997, entitled Cleaning compositions for removing etching residue with hydroxylamine, alkanolamine, and chelating agent;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,566 to Lee, which issued on Jan. 9, 1996, entitled Method for removing etching residue using a hydroxylamine-containing composition;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,464 to Lee, which issued on Mar. 21, 1995, entitled Triamine positive photoresist stripping composition and post-ion implantation baking;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,807 to Lee, which issued on Jan. 17, 1995, entitled Method of stripping resists from substrates using hydroxylamine and alkanolamine;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,332 to Lee, which issued on Aug. 2, 1994, entitled Cleaning compositions for removing etching residue and method of using;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,771 to Lee, which issued on Jan. 18, 1994, entitled Stripping compositions comprising hydroxylamine and alkanolamine;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,763 to Lee, which issued on Apr. 25, 1989, entitled Triamine positive photoresist stripping composition and prebaking process; and
U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,348 to Lee, which issued on Jul. 26, 1983, entitled Photoresist stripping composition and method.
The entire disclosures of all of the aforementioned EKC publications are incorporated herein for all purposes by express reference thereto. The compositions described therein have achieved substantial success in integrated circuit fabrication applications.
Compositions and methods for planarizing or polishing the surface of a substrate, especially for chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), are well known in the art. Polishing compositions (also known as polishing slurries if the composition contains an abrasive) typically contain an abrasive material and an oxidizer in an aqueous solution, and are applied to a surface by contacting the surface with the slurry disposed between a moving polishing pad which exerts pressure as well as providing horizontal movement. Typical abrasive materials include silicon oxide, cerium oxide, aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, and tin oxide. Alternatively, the abrasive material may be incorporated into the polishing pad. U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,233 discloses the use of polishing pads having a surface texture or pattern, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,794 discloses a fixed abrasive polishing pad. All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.
In cases where the substrate is associated with integrated circuit manufacture but is not a semiconductor wafer (e.g., a substrate linking multiple wafers or chips, such as one that can provide a conductive link between such wafers/chips through strategically-placed, interconnected metal-containing conduits linking otherwise non-conductive surfaces), surface planarity, regularity, and/or low defectivity constraints may be lessened.

Compositions and methods for rapidly removing overfilled substrates


A circular cover of corrugated cardboard for application to one end face of a roll of convoluted sheet material has two mirror symmetrical tongues which can be pivoted along parallel bending scores out of the plane of the cover for introduction into one end portion of a tubular core within a roll by an apparatus having a depository for covers and a device which transfers covers from the depository to the end faces of rolls. The depository centers and turns the covers so that each cover is properly oriented relative to the transporting device. The latter has two pivotable pushers which can pivot the tongues of a properly centered and oriented cover and thereupon insert the pivoted tongues into one end portion of a core.

The invention relates to improvements in apparatus for confining rolls of convoluted sheet material, such as paper, in envelopes. The invention also relates to portions of envelopes which can be formed in or with the improved apparatus.
It is customary to confine large rolls of convoluted paper or other sheet material in envelopes of the type designed to shield the convoluted material from damage during storage and/or transport. Reference may be had, for example, to commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,612 granted Dec. 4, 1984 to Stefan Piesen et al. for "Apparatus for manipulating rolls of convoluted paper or the like" and to commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,108 granted Jan. 24, 1986 to Stefan Piesen et al. for "apparatus for confining rolls of convoluted paper or the like". An envelope normally comprises (a) two disc-shaped inner covers which are placed next to the two end faces of a roll wherein a long web of paper or other sheet material is convoluted around a normally tubular core, (b) a sheet of paper or other wrapping material which is draped around the periphery of the roll and the two marginal portions (axial ends) of which are thereupon folded over the inner covers, and (c) two outer covers which are placed over the folded-over marginal portions of the applied wrapping material and are affixed (e.g., glued) to the respective marginal portions as well as to the respective inner covers.
The inner covers must be at least temporarily affixed to the roll prior to the application and folding of wrapping material so that they remain in proper positions relative to the respective end faces of the roll. The aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,108 proposes to employ suitably configurated plugs which are driven through the inner covers and into the end portions of the core which is surrounded by the innermost convolution of sheet material. The plugs are held in requisite positions by friction or by clamping action. The inner covers can be affixed to the respective plugs by nails, clamps or in any other suitable way. Problems arise when the plugs are utilized in countries wherein the environmental protection agencies enforce strict rules against the utilization and disposal of articles, machine parts or other objects which are not made of degradable material. As a rule, or at least in many instances, the plugs are made of a material which is not readily decomposable. Moreover, the plugs cannot be reused in most instances because they are damaged or destroyed during extraction from the ends of cores of large rolls of paper or the like.
Attempts to avoid the utilization of plugs include proposals to nail, clamp or otherwise secure the inner covers directly to the rolls, particularly to the respective end portions of cores for convoluted sheet material. Such proposals have met with limited success because of potential damage to the convoluted material, for example, if a nail happens to be driven into the convoluted material in lieu of into the end portion of the core. A clamp is also likely to damage the convoluted sheet material. Furthermore, in many instances the core for a roll of convoluted paper or other sheet material is made of a metal or alloy which eliminates the possibility of using nails or clamps as a means for releasably securing inner covers to the end portions of such cores.
Additional presently known proposals to manipulate inner covers include mechanically and/or otherwise urging an inner cover against the respective end face of a roll of convoluted paper or other sheet material preparatory to or at least during draping of a sheet or wrapping material around a finished roll and during subsequent folding of the marginal portions of the convoluted wrapping material over the inner covers. The inner covers can be released when the folding of marginal portions of wrapping material is completed provided, of course, that the folded marginal portions are sufficiently stiff to hold the inner covers in requisite positions of alignment with the respective end faces of a freshly confined roll. The just discussed proposal is unsatisfactory on the ground that an inner cover which is merely pressed against the respective end face of a roll is likely to become displaced during draping of wrapping material around the roll, during folding of the marginal portions of such wrapping material over the outer sides of the inner covers and/or during subsequent manipulation of the roll and of its envelope, particularly during the application of outer covers to make the rolls ready for shipment to storage or to purchasers. In fact, an inner cover can be displaced to such an extent that it no longer contacts the respective end face of a roll which is to be provided with an enclosure or envelope or which is in the process of being confined in an envelope. Even relatively minor shifting of an inner cover from an optimum position relative to the respective end face of a roll can result in non-uniform shielding of and eventual damage to the improperly confined roll.
In many instances, the outer covers and/or the inner covers for use in envelopes which surround rolls of convoluted paper or other sheet material are made of cardboard or other relatively stiff plate-like material. U.S. Pat. No. 2,788,892 granted Apr. 16, 1957 to Nicholas G. Dales for "Tape roll support" discloses a flat square or rectangular plate-like support which is to be assembled with a roll of tape and has a projection of one piece with two relatively movable sections of the plate and provided with four parallel edges serving to frictionally engage the internal surface of a tubular core within a roll of convoluted tape. The purpose of the polygonal support is to prevent shifting of the roll of tape in a container wherein the support is held against any lateral movements.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,641 granted Oct. 30, 1973 to Lawrence Jerzewski, Jr. for "Adhesive tape package" discloses a box-shaped container for two rolls of adhesive tape. The rolls are located side-by-side and are held in such positions by two supports each adjacent to one of the two end faces of each roll and each having two tongues bent at right angles to the general planes of the respective supports and extending into the tubular cores of the rolls. The rolls are first assembled with the two supports, and the thus obtained assemblies of two rolls and two supports are thereupon introduced into the box-like container. The dimensions of the assemblies are such that the supports cannot move in the container, and the tongues of the supports are received in the respective cores with minimal clearance to prevent wobbling of the rolls relative to their supports.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,447 granted Dec. 13, 1977 to Jeffrey M. Gardner for "Reel package" discloses a retaining pad which is to prevent a roll of convoluted sheet material or tape from sliding within the confines of a box-shaped container. The pad has a square outline and is provided with two projections adapted to be pivoted out of the general plane of the pad and into the tubular core of a reel. The projections are folded over each other and are dimensioned to at least substantially fill the core.

Cover for roll of convoluted sheet material


Disclosed herein is a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices. The method includes the steps of forming a gate oxide film, a polysilicon film and a nitride film on a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the gate oxide film, the polysilicon film and the nitride film to form poly gates, forming a spacer at the side of the poly gate, forming a sacrifice nitride film on the entire surface, and then forming an interlayer insulation film on the entire surface, polishing the sacrifice nitride film formed on the interlayer insulation film and the poly gates so that the nitride film is exposed, removing top portions of the sacrifice nitride film while removing the nitride film, forming an insulation film spacer at the side exposed through removal of the nitride film, and filling a portion from which the sacrifice oxide film is removed with an insulation film, and forming the tungsten gates in portions from which the nitride films are moved.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices, and more specifically, to a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices having tungsten gates electrodes.
2. Brief Description of Related Technology
Of semiconductor memory devices, a flash memory device is characterized in that information stored in memory cells is not lost even if power is shut off. Accordingly, the flash memory device has been widely used in memory cards for use in computers, etc.
As a unit cell of the flash memory device, a memory cell having a structure in which a conduction film for floating gate and a conduction film for control gate are sequentially stacked has been widely known.
The conduction film for floating gate and the conduction film for control gate are generally formed using polysilicon. More particularly, a dual structure of a polysilicon film and a tungsten silicide (WSix) film is generally used as the conduction film for control gate.
As the degree of integration of flash memory devices increases, however, it is difficult to secure resistance in the dual structure of the polysilicon film and the tungsten suicide film. If a thickness is increased in order to secure resistance, there is a problem in that intra-capacitance is increased and inter-gate interference becomes high.
In view of the above, a method has been introduced in which a tungsten nitride (WN) film and a tungsten (W) film serving as barrier films are stacked instead of the tungsten silicide film (WSix), and the W film, the WN film and a lower layer are etched by means of a Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) method, thus forming a gate.
In the case where the gate is formed by the RIE method, it is difficult to deposit a spacer due to oxidization of tungsten when the spacer is formed in the gate sidewalls after the formation of the gate. There is also a problem in that reliability of the gate is degraded due to the shortage of thermal margin.
Accordingly, the damascene method has been proposed which will replace the RIE method.
In the damascene method, after a tunnel oxide film, a polysilicon film for floating gate and an interlayer dielectric film are formed on a semiconductor substrate, the interlayer dielectric film, the polysilicon film for floating gate and the tunnel oxide film are patterned by photolithography process. An interlayer insulation film is then formed to cover the entire surface. Trenches through which the interlayer dielectric film is exposed are formed in the interlayer insulation film. A polysilicon film for control gate, a barrier film and a W film are deposited within the trenches. The entire surface undergoes Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) so that the interlayer insulation film is exposed, forming a gate.
If misalignment occurs upon etching of the trenches, however, the coupling ratio between the floating gate and the control gate reduces. Accordingly, there are problems in that the speed of the device is lowered and a voltage necessary for device operation increases.
Furthermore, as the degree of integration of memory devices increases and the gate width becomes narrow, the trench width reduces. In this case, the W film has to be deposited after the polysilicon film for control gate and the barrier film are formed within the narrow trenches. This results in a very degraded gap-fill characteristic of the W film.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device having tungsten gates electrode


A tapered slot plane antenna apparatus for a millimeter wave radio communication system which provides a tapered pattern composed by utilizing a Fermi-Diac distribution function so as to consider an impedance matching and a directivity of the antenna apparatus. Supporting layers and protection layers may be utilized to provide sufficient strength for implementation in a compact millimeter wave radio communication system. The plane antenna may further prevent a directivity from deteriorating even if distances between end portions of an antenna aperture portion and ends of an antenna are decreased. A slot width of a slot line may be widened in tapering for radiating an electromagnetic wave in a progressive direction of the slot line by a conductor portion having a slot line and a corrugated structure portion at respective end portions located parallel to a radiating direction of the electromagnetic wave.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a planar antenna and an antenna array applicable to mobile communication equipment, a compact information terminal and other radio devices containing a planar antenna, and which may also be used in an application of millimeter wave communication, such as a wireless local area network (LAN).
2. Description of the Background
According to the development of technology, there has been an increase in the use of millimeter-wave communication systems, such as a portable product for a wireless local area network (LAN), a movable communication apparatus, millimeter-wave imaging arrays for remote sensing, radio astronomy, plasma measurement, etc. These apparatuses provide for using high frequency radiowaves with wavelengths in a range of a millimeter or submillimeter. For example, such systems may be used in approximately a 60 GHz frequency range. As a result of these communication systems which use a high frequency range, there is interest in a planar antenna element. A planar antenna is able to be designed to be compact for planning such communication systems. Furthermore, a planar antenna is easy for integrating with other planar devices of electric circuits, such as a high frequency electric circuit of a receiver or a transmitter. Therefore, a planar antenna may be used in many applications including a portable product for a wireless LAN system, or a movable communication apparatus, and so on. A tapered slot antenna is one of a typical implementation of a planar antenna.
A tapered slot antenna in one form of a plane antenna is provided with a structure in which a slot width of a slot line is widened by inclining (tapering), wherein an electromagnetic wave is radiated in a direction parallel to an antenna surface (in a progressive direction of the slot line). Since a tapered slot antenna has a same structure as the slot line, a tapered slot antenna does not need a ground conductor on a back surface thereof in a same way as a microstrip line. Accordingly, a tapered slot antenna can be easily integrated with a feeder and a matching circuit having a uniplanar structure. Hereinafter, a tapered slot antenna is simply referred to as a plane or planar antenna.
In applications of millimeter-wave integrated circuits, if it is not possible to provide an impedance matching of an antenna apparatus, a power of radiowaves is decreased through the antenna element so as to be reflected either during a radiating or a receiving period. Therefore, the antenna apparatus has to consider impedance matching which provides sufficient characteristics for high efficiency of millimeter-wave communication.
Examples of background tapered slot antennas are disclosed in "The Tapered Slot Antenna--A New Integrated Element for Millimeter-Wave Applications" by K. S. Yngvesson et al, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, Vol. 37, No. 2, February 1989.
This disclosure recites several tapered slot antenna apparatuses which have taper patterns which are relatively simple for implementation. For example, a "Vivaldi" which has an exponential taper pattern, a "LTSA" which has a linear taper pattern, and a "CWSA" which provides a constant width near an aperture portion of the slot pattern, are described therein. However, considering a millimeter-wave communication system, such as using a high frequency of 60 GHz, these tapered slot antennas are hard to implement in a compact structure since a length of the slot is almost three or four wavelengths long. These disclosed patterns of a tapered slot would not be able to provide sufficient characteristics for directivity in a short length of the slots.
Although a tapered slot antenna apparatus has just a one dimensional structure in a direction of wave radiation, a tapered slot antenna apparatus is known to radiate radiowaves which has nearly a circular shape with sufficient directivity in millimeter wave communication apparatuses. For radiating nearly circular waves in a millimeter wave communication apparatuses, a thickness of the antenna substrate would be configured in a range described by the following expression which is derived experimentally: ##EQU1## wherein .epsilon. is a dielectric ratio of a material which composes the antenna substrate, t is a thickness of the antenna substrate, and .lambda. is a wavelength in a vacuum.
However, according to the above referenced expression, a thickness of an ideal antenna substrate would be less than 0.1 millimeter when the tapered slot antenna radiates a radiowave which is approximately at 60 GHz of frequency. Consequently, in this planning of a thickness of a tapered slot antenna, it is too thin to provide a sufficient mechanical strength for implementing with a millimeter wave communication apparatus.
Furthermore, if another dielectric device is in a neighborhood of the tapered slot antenna apparatus, characteristics of the antenna apparatus deteriorate because of a dielectric loss of the antenna circuit. Therefore, in a case of implementation, the antenna apparatus would be provided with some spatial separation in a neighborhood of the antenna apparatus thereof. This provides another problem for implementing and integrating a millimeter-wave communication system.


Defective sectors on an optical disk are identified during initial format and such sectors are eliminated as sectors that might possibly be reclaimed at a later date. Those sectors which are identified as defective during use of the disk are listed separately from those found defective at initial format in a secondary defect (SDL) list. After a cleaning operation, those sectors in the SDL are surface analyzed to determine whether they are now good. Further, those defective sectors in the SDL adjacent to sectors found initially defective may be eliminated as reclamation possibilities.

Standard optical disks may be formatted with several thousand spare sectors per surface. The purpose of the spare sectors is to provide locations for recording data when defects in the media or debris on the media create the inability to read and write data. In optical disk technology the marks that are placed on a disk when data is written may be only one micron in size, therefore a small defect or a dust particle on the disk can introduce an error when reading or writing the data.
Defects in optical disks are generally of two types. One type is within the structure of the disk itself while a second type is the result of dust contamination on the surface of the optical disk. Magneto-optical (MO) disks are more subject to manufacturing defects that is, a defect within the structure of the disk, than many other types of media since the MO disks are produced with reactive materials such as terbium, iron and cobalt. If any moisture or oxygen reaches the active layer a defect can result. Such defects may occur during the manufacturing process but they may also arise later during use of the disk.
A defect in reactive material tends to grow during the course of time. The active layers in an MO disk are covered with transparent plastic material designed to be impermeable to oxygen and moisture. If, however, oxygen and moisture reach the active layer a defect may result and may grow. Consequently, if a defect is initially present in the active layer such that one bit of data in one sector is affected, over a period of time that defect may grow to affect additional bits of data in that sector or adjacent sectors.
The second type of defect creating problems in reading and writing data to an optical disk is contamination due to dust or debris. When a particle of dust lights upon the surface of a disk and if the particle is large enough, the laser beam is diffused or blocked by the dust particle and consequently the disk is not written or read at that particular location. Defects created by a dust particle generally do not grow in size but the defect may move across the surface in the course of time as the dust particle moves.
The result of a defect on a disk is the same whether it be a defect in the reactive material or whether it be due to dust. An optical disk system can not know what is causing the defect, only that an error exists. The error may make it impossible to correct data that is written on the disk or make it more difficult to correct the data through error correction codes. It may become necessary for the data to be moved to a spare area. If the problem is caused by dust, it may be that the spare area is also contaminated by dust and thus it becomes necessary to move the data to still another spare area. Contamination due to dust can use up spare areas rapidly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,362 relates to dynamic RAM memory wherein if an error in data is found and corrected utilizing error correcting codes, the data is then rewritten back to the same RAM storage location. If the error repeats itself, it is assumed that a hard error is present within the apparatus. Dynamic RAMS are subject to soft errors, for example, from the bombardment of the RAM by alpha particles and therefore this technique is designed to distinguish hard errors from soft errors.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,703 also relates to distinguishing hard errors from soft errors in RAM storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,541 relates to an error recovery technique in a bubble memory where data is periodically read and errors are detected and corrected. Once corrected the coded data is rewritten back into the memory.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,408 relates to optical disk apparatus containing two heads, one for reading and one for writing. Defects are detected during the formatting operation and sectors with defects are then eliminated from all further reference.
U.S Pat. No. 4,434,487 relates to a three layer defect management system in a mass storage disk wherein defective sectors are replaced by spare sectors.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,326 relates to optical disks and teaches a defect management system for optical disks wherein defective sectors are replaced by spare sectors.
The inventors herein have recognized that defects on optical disks are of two types, that is they may be a result of a defect in the reactive material or they can be defects which are a result of contamination. Defects in the reactive material may not be removed by cleaning, however, defects due to dust may be eliminated by cleaning the disk.

Reclamation of dust contaminated sectors in optical disk apparatus


A switched preconditioner circuit is provided at the power input end of a light source to effectively drop the voltage of the light source to zero volts whenever the light source is required to be in an OFF state thereby eliminating the problem of unwanted current through the light source. The preconditioner circuit may include a terminal connected to a first power potential, a terminal connected to a power node at the power input end of the light source, and an input to receive a preconditioner control signal to place the preconditioner circuit in one of an ON state and an OFF state. The preconditioner circuit supplies the voltage to the power node in its ON state and effectively eliminates the voltage to the power node in its OFF state. The preconditioner circuit also may include a bleed path connected between the power node and a second or ground potential to shunt all power supplied to the power node when the preconditioner circuit input receives a signal to place the preconditioner circuit in the OFF state.

The control of the intensity of light emitting diodes (LEDs) in an LED display screen is crucial to overall performance of the screen. For example, screen contrast is the ratio between the brightest possible output of the display LEDs divided by the minimum brightness. In order to maximize the contrast ratio and provide the best black and/or deep colors, it is important to minimize and/or substantially eliminate the electrical current that flows through the LEDs when an LED array should be in the OFF state. However, typical LED display screens often have some current flow through the LEDs in the OFF state thereby decreasing overall contrast of the screen. In addition, due to the high density of electronics in a large display board and the relatively high current levels using in switching all the LEDs in such a display, pick up noise may be present in the control lines of the power switches. The undesired noise results in unwanted current flow through the LEDs and also decreases contrast.

Power line preconditioner for improved LED intensity control


A torquer assembly is to exert torques about two mutually orthogonal axes on a platform which is mounted for universal movement about a central swivelling point. To this end, a stator having four pairs of pole pieces is provided. The pole pieces are angularly spaced by 90.degree. about an axis passing through the swivelling point. The pole pieces of each pair define an air gap therebetween. The air gap is limited by spherical surfaces. The spherical surfaces are curved about the swivelling point. Permanent magnets together with the pole pieces and magnetic return loops form magnetic circuits, a magnetic field being generated in the air gaps. An armature with four elongated, arcuate coils angularly offset with respect to each other by 90.degree. is connected with the platform. The coils have circumferentially extending turns. Each of these coils extends, with an arcuate coil section, into the air gap of a respective one of the pairs of pole pieces.

A torquer assembly may be energized or controlled by an inertial sensor unit, in order to stabilize a platform in inertial space. The platform may be a seeker in a target tracking missile, the seeker being de-coupled from the motions of the missile through am inertial sensor unit and the torquer assembly. The usefulness of the torquer assembly is, however, not limited to these applications.
Conventionally, a platform is mounted in gimbals. Torquers are placed on the gimbal axes and act between the structure and the outer gimbal or between the gimbals, respectively, each torquer about one associated gimbal axes. The platform represents the inner gimbal.
The prior art torquer assemblies are expensive and bulky, and, in many cases such as in seeker heads for target tracking missiles, can hardly be employed.


The invention described herein pertains generally to boric acid free flux composition wherein in some embodiments, a phthalocyanine pigment is used to effect a color change at activation temperature.

Per the Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures" boric acid (a component of most brazing fluxes), is classified as a reproductive toxin in the European Union. This requires special labeling, leading to an effort on the part of consumers to look for boric acid free alternatives. Suitable boric acid free brazing fluxes must be developed to maintain market share and meet consumer demand.
Brazing is a thermal process, similar to soldering for joining metallic stock materials (hereinafter referred to as base metal), wherein a liquid phase is obtained by melting only the brazing metallic material (hereinafter referred to as filler metal) at temperatures exceeding 450° C. (840° F.). The solidus temperature of the base metal is not reached during this process. Filler metals can be alloys or pure metals.
Assuming pure metal surfaces, the liquid filler metal is able to spread in a thin layer on the base metal surface, wetting it. The filler metal adheres to the base metal surface by a slight alloying of the base and filler metals. The filler metal spreads out over the joint surface and, after solidifying, forms a loadable joint with the base metal.
If designed in a manner suitable for brazing, the two joint surfaces of the parts to be joined form a narrow parallel slit, or capillary. The molten filler metal then flows of its own accord into this slit due to the capillary action, filling said slit. The minimum temperature on the surface of the component to be brazed at which said process takes place undisturbed is the so-called working temperature. It is a characteristic quantity for the filler metal in question.
In order to be able to form a bond with the base metal, the molten filler metal must come into direct contact with the base metal. Oxide layers of the kind present on any engineering metal surface must thus be loosened first and removed. If brazing takes place in the air, this is achieved by covering the brazing site with fluxes in the melt flow of which the oxides dissolve, are reduced or decompose at and above the active temperature of the flux.
The flux thus primarily has the task of removing oxides present on the filler and base metal surfaces and preventing them from re-forming during the brazing process so that the filler metal is able to wet the base metal sufficiently.
The melting point and the effective temperature of the fluxes must be matched to the working temperature of the brazing filler metal used, whereby the flux should melt at about 50-100° C. below the working temperature of the filler metal used and become fully effective from this temperature onwards. Moreover, the molten flux should form a dense, uniform coating on the workpiece which remains intact at the required brazing temperature and for the duration of the brazing period.
Brazing fluxes are composed substantially of salt mixtures which, in the molten state, are capable of dissolving metal oxides. These fluxes are substantially inorganic boron compounds such as, in particular, alkali borates and fluoroborates, including boric acid, and halides such as, in particular, an alkali halide; e.g. alkali fluorides.
At least one aspect of the invention resides in the superior ability to achieve desirable flux characteristics without the presence of boric acid (H3BO3) or borax (NaB4O5(OH)4.H2O) in the flux.