A plasma display apparatus and a method of making the same are disclosed. The plasma display apparatus has a film filter formed by laminating multiple functional films, an electromagnetic interference shielding film of the film filter is oxidized with a conductive material, and the electromagnetic interference shielding film and grounding means are grounded. The method of making a plasma display apparatus having a film filter formed by laminating multiple functional films according to the present invention includes the steps of blackening the entire surface of the electromagnetic interference shielding film by coating with a conductive material, forming a black frame by laminating a color-dye film on the electromagnetic interference shielding film, and laminating an antireflection film on the color-dye film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display apparatus and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly, to a plasma display apparatus having a film filter formed on a front panel, and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a plasma display device includes partition walls formed between front and back panels made of soda-lime glass to form a plurality of unit cells. Each unit cell generates vacuum ultraviolet rays when inert gas, such as helium-xenon (He—Xe) or helium-neon (He—Ne), is discharged by a high frequency voltage, causing fluorescent material formed between the partition walls to become luminescent, thereby realizing an image.
FIG. 1 is a view schematically showing a structure of a related art plasma display apparatus. As shown therein, the plasma display apparatus includes a case 110 having a front cabinet 111 and a back cover 112 which define the profile of the plasma display apparatus; a plasma display panel (hereinafter, PDP) 120 disposed within the case for realizing an image; a driving circuit substrate 130 having a printed circuit board for driving and controlling the PDP; a heat sink 140 connected to the driving circuit substrate 130 for radiating heat generated upon driving the plasma display apparatus; a filter 150 formed at a predetermined spacing from the front face of the PDP by adhering a film on a glass substrate (not shown); a finger spring gasket 160 and a filter supporter 170 for supporting the filter 150 and electrically connecting the same to the metal back cover 112; and a module supporter 180 for supporting the PDP including the driving circuit substrate.
The plasma display apparatus of such a structure realizes an image by applying a high voltage and a high frequency for plasma discharge, which produces the problem that this plasma display apparatus emits more electron waves onto the front face of the panel glass than a color cathode ray tube (CRT) or liquid crystal display panel (LCD) does. In addition, the plasma display apparatus emits near infrared rays (NIR) induced from the inert gas, such as Ne and Xe, and thus there is a problem that these near infrared rays cause malfunctions because they are very close in wavelength to that of a remote controller of a home electronic appliance. Moreover, there is the problem of glare caused by external light, and other various problems, such as a decrease in contrast.
Therefore, in an ordinary plasma display apparatus, a filter having a predetermined function is formed on the front face of the PDP as shown in FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a view showing a filter structure of the related art plasma display apparatus. As shown therein, a first functional film, i.e., an antireflection film (AR film) 152 is formed over a transparent glass substrate 151 formed at a predetermined spacing from the PDP 120. A second functional film, i.e., a color-dye film 153 for shielding near infrared rays (NIR) and adjusting colors, and a third functional film, i.e., an electromagnetic interference shielding film (EMI film) 154, are sequentially formed adjacent to the transparent glass substrate to thus form the filter 150. The transparent glass substrate 151 plays the role of protecting the PDP from an external shock as well as the role of a base for forming the filter. Such a filter of the plasma display apparatus that includes a transparent glass substrate 151 is referred to as a glass filter.
A rule is formed on the transparent glass plate 151 by blacking parts of the transparent glass plate 151 except for the effective screen area, in order to increase visual effects when viewers are watching the screen. The rule, thus blackened, is referred to as a black frame 151a.
The glass filter protecting against an external shock is manufactured larger in size than the front panel of the PDP, so there is no problem in forming a black frame for defining an effective screen, and no problem in the manner of grounding the electromagnetic interference shielding.
However, a film filter formed by laminating multiple functional films is problematic in that, as shown in FIG. 2, the formation of a black frame and the grounding process for the electromagnetic interference shielding are complicated.
FIG. 3 is a view showing a schematic structure of a related art plasma display apparatus having a film filter. As shown therein, the film filter 150 formed by adhering multiple functional films directly to a PDP front panel 121 by lamination or the like. The film filter 150 comprises an electromagnetic interference shielding film 154, a color-dye film 153 and an antireflection film 152.
The black frame formation of the plasma display apparatus of such a structure and the grounding process for electromagnetic interference shielding thereof will now be described.
The effective screen bounded by the black frame is made up of a copper (Cu) mesh through a given exposure process, to produce an electromagnetic interference shielding film 154. Thereafter, the electromagnetic interference shielding film 154 of the effective screen is blackened by being coated with a non-conductive material 154a.
The black frame 151a defining the effective screen is adhered to the top of the blackened electromagnetic interference shielding film 154. Thereafter, the color-dye film 153 and the antireflection film 152 are sequentially laminated thereon to form the film filter 150.
The film filter thus formed is adhered to the front panel by lamination or the like. Thereafter, in the grounding process for electromagnetic interference shielding, a non-blackened region of the electromagnetic interference shielding film is grounded using a filter support 170 to thus shield electron waves generated upon driving the plasma display apparatus.
In the plasma display apparatus manufactured using such a black frame formation process and grounding process, however, the front panel and the film filter are the same size, so it is difficult to acquire a ground contact area for electromagnetic interference shielding, thereby resulting in a production yield decrease.
Further, the black frame of the film type for defining the effective screen increases the manufacturing cost.

Plasma display apparatus and manufacturing method thereof


A double-triggered logic circuit is a composite circuitry consisting of a plurality of PMOS, NMOS, inverters and a signal line. It includes an AND logic circuit and a XNOR logic circuit to generate an adjustable pulse mode to solve the problem of threshold voltage loss.

Nowadays, digital systems are increasingly diversified. How to reduce power consumption of chipsets is a one of main research focuses. Digital synchronous systems usually have one or more sets of clock systems. Clock signals are used to control data movement. The clock system consists of a clock system distribution network and a flip-flop. It consumes greatest power in the chipset. Power consumption can be divided into static power consumption and dynamic power consumption. The dynamic power consumption can be divided into switch power consumption and short circuit current power consumption. The static power consumption mostly is leakage power consumption.
The technique for reducing power can target reducing static power and reducing dynamic power. As the dynamic power consumption always is much greater than the static power consumption, design of circuits mainly focuses on reducing the dynamic power consumption. The most effective approach to reduce power consumption is lowering operation voltage. But lowering the voltage often results in lower speeds. Another alternative is adopting a double-edge trigger design. It can reduce power without decreasing throughput. Thus in practice of circuit design a pulse triggered flip-flop is adopted to reduce system clock loading capacitance and power consumption.
Refer to FIGS. 1 and 2 for the structure of a conventional flip-flop. It includes two latches. Clock signals have a positive edge and a negative edge to control data sampling and holding activities. Referring to FIG. 1, the master latch 1 performs data sampling and the slave latch 2 performs data holding. When in use, data is moved from a data input end (Din) 3 to a data output end (Qout) 4 in sync with an edge signal at a clock signal input end (Clock) 5. A positive edge triggered mode only samples a positive edge signal of the data input end (Din) 3 from the clock signal input end (Clock) 5, and a negative edge triggered mode samples a negative edge signal of the data input end (Din) 3 from the clock signal input end (Clock) 5. Then the data transmission can be accomplished. Thus every complete transaction of data transmission requires two clock signals.
Refer to FIG. 2 for the time series of the flip-flop shown in FIG. 1. A clock signal 6 has a positive edge to sample a data 7 and a negative edge to hold a data 8. Such a phenomenon creates a race trough problem. Hence a time factor that maintaining the flip-flop in normal duty conditions has to be taken into account.
The conventional double edge trigger flip-flop (hereafter is referred to as DETFF) requires only one clock signal 6 to complete the entire transaction of data transmission. A typical DETFF can save data at the positive edge or negative edge of the clock signal. But the transmission delay is longer. The driven loading capacitance at the clock signal input end (Clock) 5 also is greater. Although the clock signal input end (Clock) 5 at the positive edge or negative edge can save data, the original clock signal at the clock signal input end (Clock) 5 must have a double frequency to become a new clock signal. Hence the clock frequency used on the DETFF is one half of the clock frequency of the ordinary single edge triggered flip-flop. But a same data transmission rate can be achieved. As power consumption is proportional to the operational clock frequency, the consumed power also is lower. Hence DETFF is frequently adopted on power reducing designs.
Compared with the single edge triggered flip-flop, the DETFF has a more complex structure and requires a greater chipset size to contain more internal nodes and capacitor exchanging. And it results in the benefit of reducing the frequency is offset.
To address the aforesaid issues other techniques have been developed, such as explicit-pulsed-triggered flip-flop and implicit-pulsed-trigger flip-flop. Both of them can be further divided into a single-edge pulse triggered type and a double-edge pulse triggered type. When the explicit-pulsed-triggered flip-flop is adopted on multiple and serial-and-parallel circuits the pulse generator can be shared, but not so for the implicit-pulsed-trigger flip-flop. Hence total power consumption is much lower when the explicit pulsed-triggered flip-flop is adopted. However, in a serial-and-parallel environment a greater loading capacitance occurs that could result in not able to generate the pulses. As a result, the explicit-pulsed-triggered flip-flop does not provide as much benefits as the implicit-pulsed-trigger flip-flop does. Moreover, with addition of the pulse generator on the circuit, power consumption increases. The implicit-pulsed-trigger flip-flop also has a higher average duty frequency than the explicit-pulsed-triggered flip-flop.
As the pulse-triggered flip-flop provides a less complicated circuit design, it is increasingly accepted in applications of registers. The pulse generator has another important feature, namely control of its operation mode. The traditional pulse generator operates only in one mode. Refer to FIG. 3 for a conventional dual-mode logic circuit. It has a MUX circuit 9A to control two logic circuits, one is a AND logic circuit 9B and another is a XNOR logic circuit 9C. A mode selection signal input E is sent to the MUX circuit 9A as a transmission mode selection signal. Such a logic circuit requires a great number of transistors. Although the circuit is simpler, the loading capacitance of the clock signal input (CLK) 9D is greater and huge power consumption is caused.
On technical development for the design of lower power, multiple duty modes often is a requirement for single-pulse triggered or double-pulse triggered. For instance, at the stage of data synchronization on a data communication circuit, effective duty frequency can be doubled through the double-edge triggered mode. Once the stage of data synchronization is accomplished, the circuit can be switched to single-edge triggered to reduce the power consumption by the effective clock. It the past such a design usually requires pulse generators of two different modes. The single-edge pulse triggered circuit often includes an inverter and an AND or an OR logic gate to generate a positive or negative pulse signal. The double-edge pulse triggered circuit often includes an inverter and a XNOR logic gate and a XOR logic gate, and another MUX circuit to do selections.
On CMOS circuits of the conventional logic circuits, such as those for applications of XOR, XNOR, AND, OR and MUX, the circuits are relatively simple, but they have the problem of threshold voltage loss. The problem of threshold voltage loss is because circuits cannot function at a low voltage and consume a greater amount of power. Such a problem creates other problems on the circuits such as not adequate driving power and short circuit current. In short, adopted the conventional techniques to make a customized circuit are time-consuming and take great efforts. It requires a lot of time to design, execute, customize features and perform integration. There is a need for an improved circuit to provide desired time series specifications, minimum power consumption and enhanced processing speed.

National Yunlin University of Science and Technology


The improved thermal image recording method for forming an image to be recorded corresponding to image data on a thermal recording material using a thermal head, includes the steps of dividing the image to be recorded on one screen into a specified number of regions each having a specified number of pixels and calculating for each of the regions a representative value of the image data within that region; calculating a predicted value of temperature for each of the regions from the representative value of the image data within that region and an initial value of temperature as detected with a specified number of thermistors; calculating a value of temperature correction for each of the regions from the predicted value of temperature for that region; interpolating the values of temperature correction for the regions to calculate a value of temperature correction for each of the pixels in the image to be recorded on one screen; and performing temperature compensation on the image data of each of the pixels. The improved thermal recording apparatus carries out the improved thermal recording method described above. These apparatus and method are capable of recording high quality images at high speed without uneven densities.

This invention relates to a thermal image recording apparatus with which a recording corresponding to image data is formed on a thermal recording material (hereunder referred to as a "thermal material") using a thermal head. The invention also relates to a recording method for application of that apparatus. More specifically, the invention relates to a thermal image recording apparatus and method which are capable of forming recording at high speed without uneven densities.
Thermal materials comprising a thermal recording layer on a substrate such as a paper or film are commonly used to record the images produced in diagnosis by ultrasonic scanning. This recording method, commonly referred to as thermal image recording, eliminates the need for wet processing and offers several advantages including convenience in handling. Hence, the use of the thermal image recording system is not limited to small-scale applications such as diagnosis by ultrasonic scanning and an extension to those areas of medical diagnoses such as CT, MRI and X-ray photography where large and high-quality images are required, is under review.
As is well known, the thermal image recording apparatus uses a thermal head having a glaze in which heat generating resistors corresponding to the number of pixels of one line are arranged in one direction and, with the glaze slightly pressed against the thermal recording layer of the thermal material, the two members are moved relative to each other in a direction approximately perpendicular to the direction in which the heat generating resistors are arranged, and the respective heat generating resistors of the glaze are heated in accordance with the image to be recorded to heat the thermal recording layer imagewise, thereby accomplishing image reproduction.
A typical method of heating the individual heat generating resistors is by applying an electric current to such resistors for specified time periods that correspond to the image data of the individual pixels in the image to be recorded. However, the temperatures of the heat generating resistors to be energized vary from each other depending on the history of heat generation up to the previous line and, therefore, even if the heat generating resistors corresponding to the pixels having the same image data in the present line are energized for the same time period, temperature differences will occur between the heated resistors, thereby producing unevenness in the recording density.
In order to solve this problem of uneven recording densities, the image data must be compensated for temperature such that the heat generating temperature for the image data are corrected for each heat generating resistor on the basis of that image data and the history of heat generation up to the previous line.
Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application 59-98878 teaches a thermal recording apparatus capable of outputting images at consistent density during high-speed recording. This apparatus performs thermal transfer recording using an ink ribbon and comprises memory means for storing the quantity of energy stored in each of the heat generating resistors, first computing means by which the electric energy to be applied to each of the heat generating resistors is calculated on the basis of the output data from said memory means and the input image data, second computing means by which the electric energy stored in each of the heat generating resistors is calculated on the basis of the output data from the memory means and the input image data, and control means by which the quantity of the electric energy to be applied to each of the heat generating resistors is controlled in accordance with the output of the first computing means.
In the above thermal recording apparatus, the electric energy to be applied at the present time is calculated on the basis of the image data to each of the heat generating resistors and the quantity of the heat stored up to the present time, namely, the past image data weighted to have a progressively smaller value back into the past; therefore, according to the patent, the calculated results reflect the changes in the temperatures of the individual heat generating resistors more correctly and, compared to the conventional system, the apparatus can provide more uniform recording densities, which is an advantage particularly salient in a high-speed recording mode.
In fact, however, the apparatus is designed to be such that the electric energy to be applied to the heat generating resistor corresponding to each one of the pixels is calculated for the entire surface of one screen, so that quite a lot of time is required to calculate the electric energy of interest. Therefore, if the size of one screen increases or if the number of recording pixels is increased in order to meet the demand for producing images of higher quality, it becomes difficult to achieve high-speed recording with this apparatus. If a capability for high-speed calculation is needed, the system configuration must be made complex enough which increases the manufacturing cost.

Apparatus and method for thermal image recording


The present invention relates to methods for plating a conductive material on a substrate surface in a highly desirable manner. The invention removes at least one additive adsorbed on the top portion of the workpiece more than at least one additive disposed on a cavity portion, thereby allowing plating of the conductive material take place before the additive fully re-adsorbs onto the top portion and causing greater plating of the cavity portion relative to the top portion.

There are many steps required in manufacturing multi-level integrated circuits (IC). Such steps include depositing conductive and insulator materials on a semiconductor wafer or substrate followed by full or partly removal of these materials using photo-resist patterning, etching, and the like. After photolithography, patterning and etching steps, the resulting surface is generally non-planar as it contains many cavities or features such as vias, lines, trenches, channels, bond-pads, and the like that come in a wide variety of dimensions and shapes. These features are typically filled with a highly conductive metal material before additional processing steps such as etching and/or chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is/are performed. Accordingly, a low resistance interconnection structure is formed between the various levels/sections of the IC.
Copper (Cu) is quickly becoming the preferred material for interconnections in ICs because of its low electrical resistively and high resistance to electro-migration. Electrodeposition is one of the most popular methods for depositing Cu into the features on the substrate surface.
As can be expected, there are many different designs of Cu plating systems that have been used in this industry. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,412 issued on May 14, 1996, to Andricacos et al. discloses a vertical paddle plating cell that is designed to electrodeposit a film on a flat article. Next, U.S. Pat. No. 5,985,123 issued on Nov. 16, 1999, to Koon discloses yet another vertical electroplating apparatus, which purports to overcome the non-uniform deposition problems associated with varying substrate sizes. Further, U.S Pat. No. 5,853,559 issued on Dec. 29, 1998, to Tamaki et al. discloses an electroplating apparatus that minimizes waste of the plating electrolyte and accomplishes high recovery of the electrolyte.
During the Cu electrodeposition process, specially formulated plating solutions or electrolyte are used. These solutions or electrolyte contain ionic species of Cu and additives to control the texture, morphology, and the plating behavior of the deposited material. Additives are needed to make the deposited layers smooth and somewhat shiny.
There are many types of Cu plating solution formulations, some of which are commercially available. One such formulation includes Cu-sulfate (CUSO4) as the copper source (see James Kelly et al., Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 146, pages 2540-2545, (1999)) and includes water, sulfuric acid (H2SO4), and a small amount of chloride ions. As is well known, other chemicals can be added to the Cu plating solution to achieve desired properties of the deposited material.
The additives in the Cu plating solution can be classified under several categories such as suppressors, levelers, brighteners, grain refiners, wetting agents, stress-reducing agents, accelerators, etc. In many instances, different classifications are often used to describe similar functions of these additives. Today, solutions used in electronic applications, particularly in manufacturing ICs, contain simpler additives consisting of two-component two-ingredient packages (e.g., see Robert Mikkola and Linlin Chen, "Investigation of the Roles of the Additive Components for Second Generation Copper Electroplating Chemistries used for Advanced Interconnect Metallization", Proceedings of the International Interconnect Technology Conference, pages 117-119, Jun. 5-7, 2000). These formulations are generically known as suppressors and accelerators.
Suppressors are typically polymer formulated from polyethylene glycol-PEG or polypropylene glycol-PPG and is believed to attach themselves to the substrate surface at high current density regions, thereby forming a high resistance film and suppressing the material deposited thereon. Accelerators are typically organic disulfides that enhance Cu deposition on portions of the substrate surface where they are adsorbed. The interplay between these two additives and possibly the chloride ions determines the nature of the Cu deposit.
The following figures are used to more fully describe the conventional electrodeposition method and apparatus. FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a cross-section of a substrate 3 having an insulator 2 formed thereon. Using conventional etching techniques, features such as a row of small vias 4a and a wide trench 4b are formed on the insulator 2 and the substrate 3. In this example, the vias 4a are narrow and deep; in other words, they have high aspect ratios (i.e., their depth to width ratio is large). Typically, the widths of the vias 4a are sub-micron. The trench 4b, on the other hand, is typically wide and has a small aspect ratio. In other words, the width of the trench 4b may be five to fifty times or more greater than its depth.
FIGS. 2a-2c illustrate a conventional method for filling the features with Cu. FIG. 2a illustrates a cross sectional view of the substrate 3 in FIG. 1 having various layers disposed thereon. For example, this figure illustrates the substrate 3 and the insulator 2 having deposited thereon a barrier/glue or adhesion layer 5 and a seed layer 6. The barrier layer 5 may be tantalum, nitrides of tantalum, titanium, tungsten, or TiW, etc., or combinations of any other materials that are commonly used in this field. The barrier layer 5 is generally deposited using any of the various sputtering methods, by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), or by electroless plating methods. Thereafter, the seed layer 6 is deposited over the barrier layer 5. The seed layer 6 material may be copper or copper substitutes and may be deposited on the barrier layer 5 using various sputtering methods, CVD, or electroless deposition or combinations thereof.
In FIG. 2b, after depositing the seed layer 6, a conductive material 7 (e.g., copper layer) is generally electrodeposited thereon from a suitable acidic or non-acidic plating bath or bath formulation. During this step, an electrical contact is made to the Cu seed layer 6 and/or the barrier layer 5 so that a cathodic (negative) voltage can be applied thereto with respect to an anode (not shown). Thereafter, the Cu material 7 is electrodeposited over the substrate surface using the specially formulated plating solutions, as discussed above. By adjusting the amounts of the additives, such as the chloride ions, suppressor/inhibitor, and the accelerator, it is possible to obtain bottom-up Cu film growth in the small features.
The Cu material 7 completely fills the via 4a and is generally uniform in the large trench 4b, but does not completely fill the trench 4b because the additives that are used are not operative in large features. For example, it is believed that the bottom up deposition into the via 4a occurs because the suppressor/inhibitor molecules attach themselves to the top of the via 4a to suppress the material growth thereabouts. These molecules can not effectively diffuse to the bottom surface of the via 4a through the narrow opening. Preferential adsorption of the accelerator on the bottom surface of the via 4a results in faster growth in that region, resulting in bottom-up growth and the Cu deposit profile as shown in FIG. 2b. Without the appropriate additives, Cu can grow on the vertical walls as well as the bottom surface of the via 4a at the same rate, thereby causing defects such as seams and/or voids.
Adsorption characteristics of the suppressor and accelerator additives on the bottom surface of the large trench 4b is not expected to be any different than the adsorption characteristics on the top surface of the field regions 8 of the substrate. Therefore, the Cu thickness t1 at the bottom surface of the trench 4b is about the same as the Cu thickness t2 over the field regions 8.
As can be expected, to completely fill the trench 4b with the Cu material 7, further plating is required. FIG. 2c illustrates the resulting structure after additional Cu plating. In this case, the Cu thickness t3 over the field regions 8 is relatively large and there is a step s1 from the field regions 8 to the top of the Cu material 7 in the trench 4b. For IC applications, the Cu material 7 needs to be subjected to CMP or other material removal process so that the Cu material 7 as well as the barrier layer 5 in the field regions 8 are removed, thereby leaving the Cu material 7 only within the features. These removal processes are known to be quite costly.
Thus far, much attention has been focused on the development of Cu plating chemistries and plating techniques that yield bottom-up filling of small features on substrates. This is necessary because, as mentioned above, lack of bottom-up filling can cause defects in the small features. As part of these development efforts, it was discovered that the filling behavior of the small features could be affected not only by the solution chemistry, but also by the type of the power supply used for electrodeposition.
Recent studies suggest that it might be preferable to use pulse or pulse-reverse plating methods to deposit defect free Cu into the small vias (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,972,192 issued to Dubin et al. on Oct. 26, 1999, and Gandikota et al. "Extension of Copper Plating to 0.13 um Nodes by Pulse-Modulated Plating", Proceedings of the International Interconnect Technology Conference, pages 239-241, Jun. 5-7, 2000). In the pulse-reverse plating process, a cathodic voltage pulse rather than a cathodic DC voltage is applied to the substrate surface. After a short period of plating during the cathodic pulse, the polarity of the voltage is reversed for a brief period causing electrochemical etching from the deposited material. Plating and etching cycles are then repeated until the small features are filled with high quality Cu. A recent study (e.g., C. H. Hsieh et al., "Film Properties and Surface Profile after Gap Fill of Electrochemically Deposited Cu Films by DC and Pulse Reverse Processes", Proceedings of the International Interconnect Technology Conference, pages 182-184, Jun. 5-7, 2000), shows that the filling of the vias is controlled mainly by the additive diffusion when the DC process is used, whereas it is mainly controlled by additive adsorption when a pulse-reverse process is used.
As described above, the attention in the semiconductor industry has mainly been concentrated on filling the various features on semiconductor wafers with Cu. Both DC and pulsed power supplies have been used in the deposition of these Cu films. Filling properties of Cu into small features was found to be a strong function of the type of the power supply used. Although the exact roles of the plating solution additives and their interaction with the applied voltage waveforms are not well understood, it is clear that the kinetics of the additive adsorption and diffusion processes influence the way metals deposit on non-planar substrate surfaces.
As mentioned above, special bath formulations and pulse plating processes have been developed to obtain bottom-up filling of the small features. However, these techniques have not been found effective in filling the large features. In large features, the additives can freely diffuse in and out of them. The use of standard pulse plating techniques in conjunction with the commonly used additive systems containing chloride ions, accelerators and suppressors/inhibitors do not yield accelerated growth from the bottom surface of the features where the width of the feature is considerably larger than its depth. The growth of Cu in such features is conformal and the film thickness deposited on the bottom surface of the large features is approximately the same as that deposited on the field regions.
Methods and apparatus to achieve accelerated bottom-up plating in small as well as large features on a substrate would be invaluable in terms of process efficiency and cost since such a process would yield a Cu deposit that is generally planar as illustrated in FIG. 3. The Cu thickness t5 over the field regions 8 in this example is smaller than the traditional case as shown in FIG. 2c, and the step height s2 would also be much smaller. Removal of the thinner Cu layer in FIG. 3 by CMP or other methods would be easier, providing important cost savings.
Others have previously recognized attractive features of a plated Cu structure such as the one shown in FIG. 3. For example, in a PCT application ("Electroplated Interconnection Structures on Integrated Circuit Chips", WO 98/27585, Jun. 25, 1998) researchers from International Business Machines Corporation state that the plating processes described therein produce super-filling of only the sub-micron size cavities when plating was carried out in a conventional plating cell. However, it also states that a further benefit could be realized when a cup plating cell is used as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,319 issued on Jul. 13, 1982, to Aigo. In addition, when the substrate surface was held in contact with the meniscus of the electrolyte during plating in a cup plating cell, cavities of greatly different widths could be filled rapidly at the same rate yielding a structure similar to that shown in FIG. 3. The PCT application also mentions that superior performance of the meniscus plating approach was due to the higher concentration of the surface active additive molecules at the air-liquid interface.
In the co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/201,928, entitled "Method and apparatus for electrochemical mechanical deposition", commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention, a technique is disclosed that achieves deposition of the conductive material into the cavities on the substrate surface while minimizing deposition on the field regions by polishing the field regions with a pad as the conductive material is deposited. The plating electrolyte in this application is supplied to the small gap between the pad and the substrate surface through a porous pad or through asparities in the pad.
FIG. 4 shows a schematic depiction of an electrochemical mechanical deposition apparatus that can be used for planar or near-planar Cu deposition on a semiconductor wafer. A carrier head 10 holds a semiconductor wafer 16 and provides an electrical lead 17 connected to the conductive portion of the wafer 16. The head 10 can be rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise about a first axis 10b and can be moved in x, y, and z directions. A pad 18 is provided on top of an anode assembly 19, which pad 18 faces the wafer 16. An electrolyte 20 containing the plating material is applied to the wafer 16 surface using the anode assembly 19. The electrolyte 20 can be flowed through the holes/openings in the pad 18, which makes physical contact with the wafer 16 surface. The electrolyte 20 then flows in the narrow gap between the wafer 16 and the pad 18, eventually flowing over the edges of the pad 18 into a chamber 22 to be re-circulated (not shown) after cleaning/filtering/refurbishing. A second electrical lead 24 is connected to the anode assembly 19. Any other known method for providing the electric potentials to the anode assembly 19 and cathode wafer 16 can be used herein.
The anode assembly 19 can also be rotated around a second axis 10c at controlled speeds in both the clockwise and counter-clockwise directions. It is also understood that axes 10b and 10c are substantially parallel to each other. The gap between the wafer 16 and the pad 18 is adjustable by moving the carrier head 10 in the z direction. When the wafer 16 surface and the pad 18 are in contact, the pressure that is exerted on the two surfaces can also be adjusted. The co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/511,278, entitled "Pad Designs and Structures for a Versatile Materials Processing Apparatus", filed Feb. 23, 2000, describes various shapes and forms of the holes in the pad 8, through which the electrolyte flows to the wafer surface.
During operation, a potential is applied between the electrical lead 17 to the wafer 16 and the electrical lead 24 to the anode assembly 19, making the wafer 16 surface more negative than the anode assembly 19. The electrolyte 20 can be introduced to the pad 18 from a reservoir (not shown) located in proximity to the anode assembly 19. The anode assembly 19 can have an in-channel and holes that are made therein, which together provide a path for the electrolyte 20 to be fed to the gap between the pad 18 and the wafer 16.
Under applied potential, Cu plates out of the electrolyte 20 onto the wafer 16 surface. The moving pad 18 that is pushed against the wafer 16 surface at a controlled pressure minimizes accumulation of Cu over certain portions of the wafer 16 surface by polishing the same.
The pad 18 is preferably nonconductive, hard, porous, or perforated type material so that an electric field can pass through it, while preventing shorting between the anode assembly 19 and the cathode wafer 16. The spacing or gap between the pad 18 and the cathode wafer 16 may range from less than 1 micron up to 2 millimeter. The diameter or cross sectional length of the pad 18 and the wafer 16 may range from about 5 millimeter to over 300 millimeter. The larger the wafer 16 diameter, the larger the pad 18 diameter.

Plating by creating a differential between additives disposed on a surface portion and a cavity portion of a workpiece


A system board for a computer system includes a management unit set up to collect status information from system components of the computer system, a network interface, and a communication unit set up separately from the management unit, connected to the network interface and containing a software for communication via network, wherein the management unit is set up to transfer collected status information from system components of the computer system to the software within the communication unit, and the software within the communication unit is set up exclusively to incorporate the collected status information into a communication protocol for communication via the network interface within a network.

To date, management of an infrastructure in a computer system has conventionally been effected by installing a piece of management software within or under the control of the operating system. The management software transmits health data, telemetry data and status information from system components of the computer system or the system board (e.g., parameters for fans, temperature, voltages and so on) to the operating system or a dedicated management environment, e.g., a management server.
The consequence of such in-band management is that the collected system information can be captured and evaluated, and is available for an administrator of the PC infrastructure only if the management software, the operating system itself and the hardware of the computer system run correctly. If an error occurs in the operating system, the management software or the hardware of the computer system, however, there is the risk that the management software is no longer fully functional and status information from system components of the computer system can no longer be collected, let alone evaluated. There is also a disadvantage that dedicated management software for such purposes is often programmed individually and is therefore complex and costly, not least on account of the software updates that continually need to be performed. Further, connection of the management software to a management environment set up outside the computer system is often effected using proprietary communication protocols that make integration into existing installations or systems often laborious and complicated.
There are already solutions for what is known as out-of-band management, which involves status information from the system components of a computer system being captured and evaluated independently of management software running within an operating system. Such approaches require elaborate architectures and expensive management components, however, which need to be set up specifically for such purposes in the computer system.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a system board for a computer system and a method of out-of-band monitoring of a computer system that allow simple and inexpensive management of a computer system.

System board for a computer system, computer system having such a system board and method of out-of-band monitoring of a computer system

Fujitsu Technology Solutions Intellectual Property GmbH


A vehicle panel includes a care layer and a reinforcement layer positioned on one or both sides of the core layer. The core layer is made of a material with heat absorption or insulation properties, such as polypropylene, and the like. The reinforcement layer is comprised of fiberglass strands intermingled with a polymer to form a blended composition having a density in a range between about 50 and 200 g/m2. The vehicle panel may also include an adhesive layer between a cover material and the reinforcement layer on one side of the core layer. The vehicle panel may also include a scrim material adjacent the reinforcement layer on the opposite side of the core layer. The reinforcement layer provides dimensional stability to the vehicle panel, while reducing the overall weight and thickness of the vehicle panel as compared to conventional vehicle panels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a vehicle panel structure, and in particular to a vehicle panel structure that includes a core layer and a reinforcement layer made of a polypropylene/fiberglass material to provide dimensional stability to the vehicle panel structure while reducing the thickness and weight of the vehicle panel structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicle panel, such as a headliner, is designed to meet or exceed requirements for dimensional stability when exposed to temperatures of 160° C. over a 24-hour time period. To achieve the requirements for dimensional stability, one or more reinforcement layers are included in the design of a conventional vehicle panel, such as a headliner. Unfortunately, one problem associated with conventional vehicle panels with one or more reinforcement layers to achieve the necessary dimensional stability requirements is that the reinforcement layers is bulky and unnecessarily increases the thickness and weight associated with the vehicle panel.


Disclosed herein are transgenic plants and seed having an exogenous DNA which expresses a GB1 protein that imparts increased glycine-betaine content in plants.

Disclosed herein are polynucleotide sequences useful for producing transgenic plants with increased glycine-betaine content and methods of using such sequences for producing transgenic plants and seed. Such sequences are useful for producing transgenic plants with increased tolerance to stresses such as water-deficit and cold.
Stress, such as water-deficit, cold, heat, nutrient deficiency and the like, can have many adverse effects on plant performance such as yield reduction, increased susceptibility to disease and pests, reduced plant growth and reproductive failure. Considering the complexity of stress response in land plants, especially during conditions that produce water-deficit or cold, relatively few genes specifically associated with this aspect of physiology have been identified. It would be of benefit to the art to increase the number and variety of genes involved in regulating water use or temperature tolerance in plants, more particularly, in maize plants, and even more particularly in maize plants experiencing water-deficit and/or cold.
Glycine-betaine (N,N,N-trimethylglycine) is an osmoprotectant metabolite. Osmoprotectant metabolites, including betaines, such as glycine-betaine, sugars, sugar-alcohols, and amino acids, such as proline, are known to accumulate in plants under water-deficit and other stressful conditions such as cold conditions. Historically, applications of osmoprotectants to seeds and plants has been shown to have beneficial effects upon stress tolerance. Allard et al. (W0 99/01032) found that application of glycine-betaine to wheat plants increased the freezing tolerance of the plants by several degrees and Mottram (U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,267) disclose the foliar application of glycine-betaine to cotton plants under water-deficit which resulted in an increased number of cotton bolls.
The pathways for the synthesis of glycine-betaine are similar in higher plants and microorganisms. In both kingdoms, a two-step oxidation of choline occurs to produce glycine-betaine via an unstable glycine-betaine aldehyde intermediate. Choline is ubiquitous in higher plants. In spinach, the first step conversion of choline to glycine-betaine aldehyde utilizes a ferredoxin dependent choline monooxygenase. In E. coli, a membrane bound choline dehydrogenase performs this step. The second step, conversion of the unstable aldehyde to glycine-betaine, is carried out by glycine-betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase. This enzyme has been found to share strong similarity between plant and bacterial species.
Spinach, sugar beet and some varieties of maize are examples of higher plants in which glycine-betaine is found to accumulate under water-deficit stress. In contrast, many other plants, such as tomato, tobacco, rice and some varieties of maize, do not accumulate significant amounts of glycine-betaine, regardless of growing conditions.
Hanson et al., (U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,271) disclose tobacco transformed with a choline monooxygenase gene which exhibited increased accumulation of glycine-betaine. The transgenic plants also demonstrated increased tolerance to irrigation with saline solution when compared to non-transgenic controls. Bulow et al., (PCT Publication WO 98/26801) disclose the use of an E. coli choline dehydrogenase gene to impart increased freezing and choline tolerance in transformed potato plants. Allen et al., (U.S. application No. 2002/0123118A1) disclose the proposed use of choline oxidase, L-allo-threonine aldolase, phosphoserine phosphatase and sarcosine oxidase genes for altering the levels of glycine metabolism in a transformed cell. Adams et al., (U.S. Pat. No. 6,281,411; incorporated herein by reference in its entirety) disclose naturally occurring metabolites, such as glycine-betaine (Wyn-Jones and Storey, 1982) that are osmotically active and/or provide some direct protective effect during drought and/or desiccation.
We have discovered DNA useful for the production of a transgenic plant with increased glycine-betaine. As used herein "GB1" is the name of a protein and its homologs, e.g., a protein at least 40% identical to GB1, the expression of which results in increased glycine-betaine in plants and "gb1" is the name of the DNA coding sequence and its homologs encoding and used to express the GB1 protein. "GB" is used herein to refer to the glycine-betaine metabolite.

Transgenic plants with increased glycine-betaine


A method of making castings of metal foam in which compacts of the metal, e.g. aluminum, and a gas-producing foaming agent are heated in a chamber from which the foaming mass is driven completely into the mold cavity so that some residual foaming can complete the distribution of the foam in the mold cavity. The volume of the compacts is selected such that upon complete foaming, it will fill the mold cavity.

Light-metal molded bodies can be produced as solid bodies, as hollow bodies and as metal-foam bodies. In the first case, the molten metal can be cast in a mold and is intended as much as possible to have a uniform structure. In the casting of hollow bodies, frequently expensive cores are required and efforts are made to provide a uniform and relatively thin wall structure. An alternative to the casting of hollow bodies and solid bodies is the formation of bodies from metal foam, i.e. the metal foam casting process.
In the casting of metal foams, the skin of the casting should have a smooth outer surface while the interior structure is porous. For many purposes a metal foam casting is ideal since it is especially light weight, can provide sound damping and has a reduced thermal conductivity. It is surprising that in spite of the high porosity, metal foam castings can have high strength. However not every kind of machine part can be fabricated by foam casting.
Two basically different processes for the formation of metal foam can be distinguished, namely, one using melt metallurgical techniques and the other utilizing power metallurgy. In DE 43 26 982 C1, a typical process and apparatus for carrying out the melt metallurgical process in the production of cast bodies from metal foam have been described. A melt, for example, an aluminum melt, is held in a liquid state in two communicating vessels, one of which is provided with an agitator which generates a foam from the metal melt. The completed foam can then be forced upwardly into the mold cavity by raising the level of the liquid aluminum upon which the foam floats.
A powder metallurgical metal foam can be produced as described in DE 41 01 630 C2 from a metal powder and a foaming agent which releases gas upon heating. A mixture of the foaming agent and metal powder can be hot compacted and shaped to a blank or compact of metal particles which are held firmly together to provide a matrix in which the expanding agent particles are held in a gas-tight manner. The blanks or compacts are introduced into a heated steel mold and are foamed by heating, with the metal foam expanding to fill the mold cavity. The drawback of this system is that the contour of the blank or of the compacts must correspond to the contour of the mold cavity. Otherwise uniform foaming does not occur and frequently not all of the interstices or corners of the mold will be filled. If the blank or compact is rod or bar-shaped, it must be cut to precise lengths and positioned precisely in the mold cavity. Cold-welded locations can develop between the foaming bars which can interfere with the homogeneous distribution of the metal foam within the mold cavity.
A collapsing of pores of a foam generated by the melt metallurgical technique can be observed when the foam is pressed in the mold as is often required. Furthermore, when heated molds are used, the temperature cannot be too high or else the metal foam again will tend to collapse. In many cases, the foaming takes place in an uncontrollable manner and pores of different sizes are produced. The problem is magnified when complex shapes must be produced and thus this type of foam casting can only be used effectively for objects of simple shapes. In the melt metallurgical process, moreover, an agitator is required and positioning of the agitator frequently poses a problem since the foam is only produced in the region of the agitator and previously produced foam may tend to collapse during the agitation process. The quantity of foam produced by the agitator cannot be accurately determined so that the reproducibility of the casting process is limited. The pores of the foam generated by an agitation process do not contain gas at a superatmospheric pressure which can resist collapse and in many cases, the resulting product is inhomogeneous and nonuniform.

Method of producing molded bodies of a metal foam


An image forming apparatus having a cleaner, which can be a cleaning blade, for removing residual toner from the surface of a rotatable image-bearing member, and a charger for imparting a charge to the residual toner before the residual toner is removed by the cleaner. The amount of charge imparted to the residual toner is less than 10 .mu.c/g.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus provided with a cleaning device used to remove residual toner from the surface of an image-bearing member such as a photosensitive member, dielectric member or the like in electrophotographic copiers, electrophotographic facsimile machines, electrophotographic printers and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional image forming apparatuses are known wherein a photosensitive member provided with an image-bearing member on the surface thereof is charged, and the surface of said photosensitive member is optically exposed in accordance with image information to form an electrostatic latent image which is then developed as a toner image by a developing device, and said toner image is transferred onto a paper sheet, and the residual toner remaining on the surface of the image-bearing member is removed therefrom. In such image forming apparatuses, a precleaning charger is provided in front of the cleaning device to improve the cleaning characteristics by discharging the charge of the residual toner and weakening the electrostatic attractive force of the photosensitive member. It has been proposed that a precleaning charger may be controlled by controlling the output of the precleaning charger in accordance with the amount of toner adhered to the image-bearing member after the image transfer as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. SHO 64-68783, or the charge of the residual toner remaining on the surface of the image-bearing member may be set to either positive or negative by means of said precleaning charger, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. HEI 2-48683.

Image forming apparatus wherein the residual toner is charged and cleaned


A keyboard storage and retrieval system for a computer is provided, the system comprising a flat panel display, an enclosure, a removable keyboard slidably attached to the enclosure, and a latching system for lockingly securing the removable keyboard to the enclosure. The latching system includes a manually operated damping device for ejecting the removable keyboard from the enclosure and a manually operated mechanical latching device for securing the removable keyboard to the enclosure. The flat panel display is movable to a closed position on the enclosure to actuate the latching device to prevent the damping device from ejecting the removable keyboard from the enclosure.

Laptop computers continue to increase in popularity due at least in part to a corresponding increase in performance levels as well as affordability. The performance of some high-level laptop computers, has increased to approach that of similar stand-alone non-portable (desktop) personal computers. Laptop computers are available with a variety of storage, input/output (I/O) and expansion options to meet various user needs. Laptop computers generally offer the availability of floppy as well as hard disk drives, and operate using a variety of types of microprocessors.
Laptop computers typically include a flat panel display such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen by which the computer displays information (data as well as graphics). On many laptop computer designs, the flat panel display is attached to the computer enclosure by a hinge, and flips upwardly away from the enclosure to reveal the display to a user of the laptop computer. The flat panel display is typically powered by stored charge provided by one or more batteries.
The manner in which a user interacts with a laptop computer is by either by means of a stylus which is used to write on the display or by means of a keyboard. In stylus or pen-based systems, the laptop computer is capable of recognizing handwritten instructions provided by the user. The stylus or pen may be wireless or may be attached to the computer by a cable.
Keyboards are also utilized by users to interact with laptop computers. In stylus or pen-based systems, a keyboard is often optional. In other laptop computers, the keyboard is required. The keyboard in a laptop computer system may either be fixedly attached to the computer enclosure or it may be removable from the enclosure. Fixed position keyboards present design constraints because the keyboard must be physically located in front of the flat panel display. Fixed position keyboards also do not offer the option for the user to adjust the position of the keyboard with respect to the flat panel display. In pen-based systems, the fixed position keyboard may obstruct the access of a user when operating a stylus on the display.
Removable keyboards need not be physically located in front of the flat panel display, thereby eliminating the position of the keyboard as a design constraint for the laptop computer. Moreover, a user may adjust the position of the keyboard with respect to the display, thereby providing a more ergonomically usable laptop computer. Removable keyboards may be connected by cable to the laptop computer or they may be completely detachable from the computer. Completely detachable keyboards typically communicate with the laptop computer via infrared signals.
Removable keyboards for laptop computers, however, may be accidentally separated from the computer when not in use by the user. Accordingly, it is believed that there is a need for an improved keyboard storage and retrieval system for a laptop computer having a removable keyboard. The need extends to desktop computers which have removable keyboards. It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide such a keyboard storage and retrieval system.

Computer having ejectable keyboard ejected by damping device

International Business Machines Corporation


A molding system for encapsulating electronic devices mounted on a substrate, the molding system comprising a first mold chase with a first mold chase surface and a second mold chase with a second mold chase surface opposite to the first mold chase surface, the first and second mold chase surfaces being operative to clamp onto the substrate and to apply a clamping pressure thereto. The molding system further comprises a first sensor located at a first position for determining a first relative distance between the substrate and a mold chase facing the substrate at the first position, and a second sensor located at a second position for determining a second relative distance between the substrate and a mold chase facing the substrate at the second position. The molding system also comprises a first actuator located adjacent to the first position and a second actuator located adjacent to the second position, wherein the first and second actuators are operative to adjust the first relative distance with respect to the second relative distance for applying a uniform clamping pressure onto the substrate.

Transfer molding is one of the more commonly employed methods for encapsulating semiconductor devices. In transfer molding, a molding compound in the form of a solid pellet is introduced into a mold supply pot of a molding system. The solid pellet molding compound is melted into a liquid state with the application of heat and pressure. The liquefied molding compound is then forced by a plunger into a runner connecting the mold supply pot to a molding cavity, in order to enter into the molding cavity via a gate. Thus, the molding compound covers a surface of a semiconductor substrate clamped in the molding cavity in order to encapsulate the semiconductor substrate.
The increasing demand for smaller semiconductor devices has led to a corresponding shrinkage of molding cavity height. This means that a surface of the semiconductor substrate is made increasingly closer to an opposing molding cavity surface, which then causes greater resistance to the flow of the liquefied molding compound into the molding cavity. As a result, there is a greater possibility that voids will arise in the resulting encapsulated semiconductor substrate.
Furthermore, when the semiconductor substrate to be encapsulated is a whole wafer, which is usually substantially larger than a lead frame, a wider molding cavity is required. In such cases, it is more difficult for the liquefied molding compound to properly fill the molding cavity. This is because the further the liquefied molding compound has to travel away from the gate, the more difficult it is for the ejected liquefied molding compound to properly fill the molding cavity.
In addition, the liquefied molding compound may overflow the molding cavity when the semiconductor substrate is improperly positioned, thus resulting in mold bleed. Furthermore, mold bleed may also occur in situations where the substrate thickness is uneven. In such situations, the surface of the semiconductor substrate would not be substantially parallel to the opposing molding cavity surface due to the uneven thickness of the semiconductor substrate. In other words, one portion of the molding cavity surface would be substantially nearer the surface of the semiconductor substrate than another portion of the molding cavity surface. As a result, the liquefied molding compound may overflow from the portion of the molding cavity where the molding cavity surface is substantially further away from the surface of the semiconductor substrate.

Molding system for applying a uniform clamping pressure onto a substrate


A movable arm assembly is for an electrical switching apparatus including a stationary contact and an operating mechanism. The arm assembly includes a biasing member and an arm member having a first end, an opposite second end, a pivot point therebetween, and a portion having a longitudinal axis. A movable contact is disposed at or about the first end. The arm member engages a crossbar member at or about the pivot point such that the arm member can pivot from a first position to a second position. The biasing member engages the arm member at a point between the pivot point and the second end and includes a portion that engages and biases against a housings of the crossbar member. The longitudinal axis of the portion of the arm member is oriented generally parallel to the portion of the biasing member when the arm member is at the first position.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to circuit interrupters and, more particularly, to contact arm assemblies for electrical switching apparatus, such as circuit breakers. The invention also relates to crossbar assemblies having a movable contact arm assembly. The invention further relates to electrical switching apparatus having a crossbar assembly and a movable contact arm assembly.
2. Background Information
Electrical switching apparatus, such as circuit breakers, provide protection for electrical systems from electrical fault conditions such as, for example, current overloads, short circuits, and other fault conditions. Typically, circuit breakers include a spring powered operating mechanism which opens electrical contacts to interrupt the current through the conductors of an electrical system in response to abnormal conditions.
The electrical contacts generally comprise one or more movable contacts and one or more corresponding stationary contacts. Each pair of separable contacts is electrically connected, in series, between corresponding line and load terminals which are typically positioned at opposite ends of the circuit breaker. More specifically, each movable contact is disposed at or about a first end of a corresponding movable contact arm, which is part of a movable contact assembly. The movable contact arm is pivotably coupled, at or about its second end, to a crossbar of the operating mechanism. A suitable shunt (e.g., without limitation, flexible conductor) electrically connects the movable contact assembly to a load conductor, for example, by way of a clinch joint. The operating mechanism controls the movable contact arm to pivot the movable contact into and out of electrical contact with the corresponding stationary contact. The crossbar carries the movable contact arms for all of the poles of the circuit breaker, and allows for simultaneous opening and closing of the contacts in all of the poles.
Contact pressure between the stationary and movable contacts is typically achieved through the use of compression springs which can commonly attract or be damaged by heat and molten debris produced when each pair of separable contacts is separated and a resulting arc is formed.
As such, there exists a need for improved movable contact arm assemblies and crossbar assemblies for use in electrical switching apparatus.

Movable contact arm and crossbar assembly and electrical switching apparatus employing the same


A high voltage may be generated for programming memory cells in a memory array. A middle voltage may also be generated for reading memory cells in the memory array. Control logic and switches may be used to select between the high voltage and the middle voltage. A first oscillator generates clock signals at a high frequency for generating the voltages, and a low frequency oscillator may be used to generate pulses at a lower frequency than the first oscillator to allow the first oscillator to operate only during such pulses to conserve power during a stand-by mode of operation to maintain the middle or medium voltage.

As advanced technologies allow higher density memory devices, power supplies may also be decreasing, making it difficult to optimize the speed at which data in the memory devices may be read. This is especially true for EEPROM and FLASH memory, which utilize high internal voltage supplies for programming and erasing memory cells. The size of high voltage transistors used in programming and erasing does not shrink while other devices in the memory shrink due to the need for such high voltage transistors to continue to handle the high voltages. When not programming or erasing or reading memory cells, the memory may be in a standby mode during which the such high voltages are not generated in order to conserve power and reduce heat generation.
The access time of a memory may depend on the memory cell current during a read operation, and the speed of sense amplifiers that sense the memory cell current. The access time is thus also dependent on the speed of sense amplifiers. The current from a memory cell is provided by applying voltages to a bit line and a word line used to access the memory cell. A boost structure may be used to generate a middle voltage to speed the access, but generation of the middle voltage take time.
In prior memory devices, bit line selection is performed by a bit line select circuit that couples a bit line to a sense amplifier. Each memory cell is coupled to a sense amplifier by a high voltage transistor and a low voltage transistor. To make access quicker, prior solutions focused on increasing the width of high voltage transistors. This led to increased areas and a corresponding decrease in memory density. Further, the supply voltage decreased while the threshold voltage of an N transistor remained the same thing, so bit line voltages became too weak, resulting in bad characteristics on the sense amplifiers. Strong parasitic capacitances due to larger size transistors also resulted.
Word line drivers charge word lines with the help of a vboost structure to start cell current flow. As supply voltages decrease, the drive is too poor to ensure a good discharge of the word line through a transistor. A simple doubler has been used to generate higher voltages on the word line, but even more than double the voltage, such as a tripling of the voltage, may be needed. This may result in a strong increase in the rise time and a commensurate risk of damages on the functionality of a read operation at low Vdd.


A printing system is disclosed. The system includes a scanner which produces an RGB signal corresponding to a scanned image. The RGB signal is compressed in accordance with a tone curve which is built in reliance upon input provided by the user. The resultant compressed RGB signal is conveyed to a computer. The RGB signal may be modified by a number of interface controls. The RGB signal is driven through a separation engine to produce individual CMYK signals. The separation engine relies upon the interface controls in converting the signal. Image sharpening, or unsharp masking, is performed on resultant CMYK signals to produce a sharp printed image. The image sharpening procedure includes sharpening pixels, calculating T-sums for pixels, calculating gradients for pixels, and smoothing pixels in response to the T-sums and gradient calculations. The resultant CMYK signals may be exported for further data processing, such as integration with text, or they may be sent to a printer to produce high-quality prints.

Film projectors, televisions, and computer monitors utilize an additive color model where the individual colors (Red, Green, and Blue--RGB) may be presumed pure, and therefore may be combined to produce high-quality colors in a relatively predictable manner. In contrast, color printing utilizes the concept of subtractive color in which three inks combined in different amounts absorb different amounts of the RGB colors. These inks, known as CMYK, are cyan (which absorbs red light), magenta (which absorbs green light) and yellow (which absorbs blue light). Black ink is also used to shadow areas to increase contrast and make up for deficiencies in the inks themselves. Unlike, the relatively pure RGB colors which are projected in light, CMYK color production must accommodate for ink impurities. Ink impurities prevent a direct transition from a RGB to a CMYK model. Thus, it is difficult to accurately represent on an additive color device, the effect that corrections will have on a subtractive image.
Traditionally, drum scanners have been employed to convert film into data for high quality prints suitable for use in magazines, books, brochures, and other printed material. Film is placed on the drum scanner and then treated with an oil-based composition. The drum scanner is then rotated and an optical assembly separately analyzes with photo multipliers the rotating film through red, green, and blue filters to produce CMYK color plates.
Recently, flat-bed electronic scanners utilizing charge coupled devices, or CCDs, have been employed to scan film to produce digital data which may be further processed by a host computer. Specifically, a scanner scans film through a red, a green, and then a blue filter. Red, green, and blue data of the photograph are thereby produced. Afterwards, the individual data files are interleaved by the scanner to produce a single file with a composite red, green, and blue (RGB) digital data image. This combined RGB data is then conveyed to a host computer which may project the RGB data onto a monitor. The user may make adjusts to the RGB data while viewing it on the monitor. After adjustments, the host computer converts the RGB data to individual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) data files. These individual data files may then be prepared for the printing press by creating separate plates from the image of the film.
This approach is advantageous since it reduces the need for intermediate photographic films and manual image assembly. The approach is also advantageous since the photographic original is scanned directly, without having to apply any materials to the photograph, as is done in drum scan technology. In addition, this approach produces digital data which may be conveniently utilized for further processing and incorporation with text.
On the other hand, this approach has not been able to produce the quality reproductions which are realized with drum scanners. One problem relates to the necessity of compressing the tonal range when one moves from film to a printed image. A transparency has a large density range, while a printing press has an extremely limited range. Consequently, tonal compression is necessary when moving from a transparency to a printed image. If tone is not compressed properly, the resultant image will lose important tonal detail or have unnatural tone shifts.
It is difficult to determine where to compress an image. Typically, RGB scanners utilize a simple compression of the overall tonal range in accordance with a gamma curve. This approach does not allow for the optimum data to be captured for specific reproduction requirements and different original images. For instance, one image might depend on accurate rendition of the shadow, with greater compromise possible in reproducing the highlights, while another image might be completely the opposite, where the highlights are more important to the picture.
Another problem with digital systems is treating color casts. An original image will often have a color cast, usually most notable in a particular area such as a highlight. These casts should be removed for successful reproduction.
Another problem with prior art printing systems relates to black generation. Black is added to achieve detail and contrast in shadow areas. Black adds the density that is lost due to additivity failure when the inks are printed on top of each other. Prior art systems are limited to black generation by skeleton black or to default black generation methods utilizing only under color removal or gray component replacement.
The problem associated with gray component replacement is that it produces an undesirable color shift. In addition, it is difficult to decide how much color to remove and how much black to replace it with.
A problem associated with all reproduction processes is the lack of sharpness in the original image. If smooth areas of a figure are erroneously adjusted for sharpness, then the texture of the area is augmented and becomes unnatural. In most image manipulation programs, sharpening, or unsharp masking, is done with filters based on a convolution matrix, by analyzing a pixel and its immediate neighbors. Because digitally scanned data is often quite coarse, single pixels can be distinctly different from their neighbors, and these filters can adversely affect smooth tones in an image. To smooth flat areas, one must distinguish between an artifact of scanned data and an actual edge. In an ideal system, one would be able to determine which areas should be smoothed, and which edges should be sharpened and by how much. Moreover, it would be highly advantageous to be able to control the adjustment of the sharpening threshold, the amount of sharpening applied, the amount of contrast at the edges, and the addition of tonal smoothness.

Method and apparatus for converting RGB digital data to optimized CMYK digital data


By interfolding or interleaving at least a portion of the dispensing panel of a dispenser with the first sheet in a stack of sheet material such that a leading edge of the first sheet is exposed, it is no longer necessary to reach into the dispenser to dispense the first sheet. To dispense the first sheet, the optional removable panel is torn from the dispenser, and then the already exposed leading edge of the first sheet protruding from the dispensing panel is grasped and pulled to withdraw the first sheet from the dispenser.

Dispensers for sheet materials, such as facial tissue, are often provided with the sheets in the dispenser interfolded or interleaved with adjacent sheets such that the withdrawal of one sheet partially exposes the subsequent sheet in the dispensing opening of the dispenser. Partially exposing the next sheet enables a person needing a facial tissue to easily grab the exposed end to quickly dispense the sheet. Frequently, this type of dispensing is referred to as pop-up dispensing. Often, to prevent debris from entering the dispenser, to reduce multiple sheets from dispensing, or to assist with retaining the partially exposed sheet within the dispensing opening, a dispensing window constructed from a clear film or plastic material is provided. Typically, a slit or other restricted opening is present in the dispensing window to retain the partially exposed sheet within the opening. While a narrow slit in the dispensing window can assist with presenting tissue sheets for subsequent removal, it is sometimes difficult to remove the initial sheet from the dispenser due to the narrowness of the slit. For instance, the narrow slit can interfere with the ability of a person opening a new tissue carton to locate and find the leading edge of the first tissue sheet in the stack. Furthermore, the narrow slit may get distorted or damaged by inserting a portion of one's hand inside of the dispenser to retrieve the first sheet.
In order to assist with dispensing of the first tissue sheet, U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,952, entitled Box Containing Facial Tissue which granted Mar. 11, 1986, to Masui discloses a carton containing facial tissues in which double sided tape is attached to the undersurface of a removable panel of the carton and, in turn, attached to the uppermost sheet in the stack of facial tissues inside the dispenser. In this manner, when the carton is opened and the removable panel is detached along a perforated line, the uppermost facial tissue sheet is automatically removed from the container along with the removable panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,633, entitled Interfolded Sheet Dispenser Having a Starter Sheet Pull-Out System which granted Apr. 6, 2004, to Thoms describes a dispenser for dispensing a stack of disposable sheets having a removable panel that is releasably attached to the first sheet in the stack. When the removable panel is pulled off the dispenser, the first sheet in the stack is partially withdrawn from the container. After being partially withdrawn, the sheet releases from the removable panel.
Finally, pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/216,468, entitled Tissue Sheet Dispenser And Process For Making Same filed Aug. 31, 2005, discloses a dispenser having the first sheet adhesively attached to a removable panel with the adhesive located in a recess in the removable panel. By placing the adhesive in a recess, the adhesive material is prevented from adhering to other portions of the dispensing container before the first sheet is attached.
Although the above references assist with dispensing the first tissue sheet, they can be difficult to implement in some embodiments. For example, if the dispensing window utilizes a narrow slit to dispense the tissue sheets, the dispensing window with the narrow slit disposed between the removable carton panel and the first tissue sheet can interfere with attaching the first tissue sheet to the removable panel. The adhesive or tape needs to attach the first tissue sheet to the removable panel while at the same time not sticking to the dispensing window.
Therefore, a need exists for quickly dispensing the first sheet of a stack of sheets in a dispenser that overcomes the above problems. More particularly, a need exists for locating and quickly dispensing the first sheet that is compatible with dispensing windows having a small opening or narrow slit.


A system and method for waking hibernating virtual machines (VMs) are disclosed. In particular, a host operating system (OS) may decide to wake a hibernating VM in response to a message received by the host, such as an incoming networking packet, a message generated by an external event (e.g., a hardware device fault, an interrupt, etc.), etc. In accordance with one embodiment, the decision whether to wake a hibernating VM may be based on a sender of the message.

A virtual machine (VM) is a portion of software that, when executed on appropriate hardware, creates an environment allowing the virtualization of an actual physical computer system (e.g., a server, a mainframe computer, etc.). The actual physical computer system is typically referred to as a "host machine," and the operating system of the host machine is typically referred to as the "host operating system."
A virtual machine may function as a self-contained platform, executing its own "guest" operating system and software applications. Typically, software on the host machine known as a "hypervisor" (or a "virtual machine monitor") manages the execution of one or more virtual machines, providing a variety of functions such as virtualizing and allocating resources, context switching among virtual machines, etc.
A virtual machine may comprise one or more "virtual processors," each of which maps, possibly in a many-to-one fashion, to a central processing unit (CPU) of the host machine. Similarly, a virtual machine may comprise one or more "virtual devices," each of which maps, typically in a one-to-one fashion, to a device of the host machine (e.g., a network interface device, a CD-ROM drive, etc.). The hypervisor manages these mappings in a transparent fashion, thereby enabling the guest operating system and applications executing on the virtual machine to interact with the virtual processors and virtual devices as though they were actual physical entities.

Manageable external wake of virtual machines


A semiconductor device having a vertical interconnect or via stacked formed by quantum well comprising a semiconductor material is provided. A first semiconductor device (11) having a current carrying region (19) is formed in a first horizontal plane. A second semiconductor device (12) having a current carrying region (29) is formed in a second horizontal plane. Each of the current carrying regions have a first quantized energy level that is substantially equal. A semiconductor via (31) couples the current carrying region (19) of the first semiconductor device (11) to the current carrying region (29) of the second device (12), wherein the semiconductor via (31) has a first quantized energy level capable of alignment with the quantized energy levels of the current carrying regions (19, 29) of the first and second semiconductor devices (11,12).

The present invention relates, in general, to interconnect structures for semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to quantum well semiconductor via structures for semiconductor devices.
As semiconductor device dimensions approach the sub-micron level, one of the limiting factors for further reduction in size is area required for device interconnections. One possible solution is multilevel metallization in which two or more interconnect layers are formed on top of a device, separated by an interlayer dielectric, and coupled by holes, or vias, which are filled with a via metallization. Even with multilayer metallization, though, the area required for vias limits further reduction in device size.
Small metal vias also result in current crowding and less reliable operation due to electromigration effects. Current crowding occurs at metal corners at the interface between the interconnect layer and the via metallization, resulting in higher current density at the corners than in the body of the via metallization. Current crowding effects significantly reduce the lifetime and reliability of the via metallization. These reliability problems are complicated in modern devices which require millions of metal interconnections.
Another problem with previous multilayer metallization processes was filling the via with the via metallization without creating voids so that a high quality electrical contact was formed. Conventional metal deposition methods such as evaporation, sputtering, and reactive ion sputtering have been used to fill vias. These metal deposition methods result in poor step coverage in small vias, which is aggravated as the aspect ratio, that is the ratio of height to width of the via, increased. Poor step coverage forces manufacturers to slope the via walls to step coverage and decrease the aspect ratio, but also increased the dimensions of the contact. What is needed is a truly compact, reliable interconnect method and structure that does not use conventional metal materials and processes.

Semiconductor device having a vertical quantum well via and method for making


A method of enabling data to be relayed between an access point (AP) and a target station (STA). The AP identifies the target STA based at least in part on a medium usage efficiency of the target STA. The AP further sends a relay selection trigger to the target STA to cause the target STA to broadcast a relay selection request to a set of candidate STAs. The relay selection request includes a set of metrics pertaining to a direct link between the AP and the target STA. The AP then receives one or more relay selection responses from one or more candidate STAs in the set of candidate STAs based at least in part on the set of metrics and selects a relay STA from the set of candidate STAs based at least in part on the one or more relay selection responses.

A wireless local area network (WLAN) may be formed by one or more access points (APs) that provide a wireless communication channel or link with a number of client devices or stations (STAs). Each AP, which may correspond to a Basic Service Set (BSS), periodically broadcasts beacon frames to enable any STAs within wireless range of the AP to establish and/or maintain a communication link with the WLAN. Once a connection is established, the STA and the AP may exchange data (e.g., using one or more protocols defined by the IEEE 802.11 standards).
An AP may serve multiple STAs in a wireless network. However, communications with STAs at the edge of the network (e.g., furthest from the AP) may be inefficient due to poor link quality and/or interference in the medium. For example, medium usage (MU) efficiency may be characterized by the highest achievable modulation and coding scheme (MCS) with a packet error rate (PER) of less than 10%. More specifically, the MU efficiency for a STA at the edge of the network (e.g., the "edge STA") may be substantially lower than the MU efficiency for a STA closer to the AP. Such medium inefficiency may lead to lower throughput at the edge STA. In other words, for a given medium usage (e.g., percentage of time the AP spends transmitting data), the throughput for the edge STA will be less than the throughput for a STA closer to the AP.


A DMS filter has improved signal suppression in fly-back. At least two transformers of a first type are connected in parallel between a common node of the signal path and a ground connection/reference potential. A concentrated element is connected in the signal path of said transformers of the first type, so that the voltages present at the first transformers are different from each other.

SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) filters of the DMS (Dual Mode SAW filter) type are preferably used as RF filters when the intention is either to change from asymmetrical to symmetrical signal routing or to achieve small filter dimensions. DMS filters comprise at least two resonators which are arranged in the same acoustic track, acoustically couple to one another and are preferably alternately connected to the input and output sides of the RF filter. The number of input and output transducers laterally arranged beside one another in the longitudinal direction determines the electrical performance of the filter substantially via the respective transducer impedances and the resonances occurring between the individual transducers.
In order to improve the selectivity of DMS filters, it is known practice to connect the filters to individual resonators or to one or more basic elements of a ladder-type structure. In this case, a so-called basic element respectively comprises at least one acoustic resonator arranged in a series path and an acoustic resonator connected to ground in parallel therewith in a shunt branch.
On account of their symmetrical structure, DMS filters are also suitable for symmetrizing an asymmetrical or single-ended signal or converting it into a balanced signal. However, it is also possible to operate a DMS filter in an asymmetrical-asymmetrical or symmetrical-symmetrical manner.

DMS filter having improved signal suppression in the stop band


A package for a suture anchor and attached suture. The package has on a top side a suture channel covered by door members. The bottom side of the package has a suture anchor mounting chamber and channel as well as a needle park for surgical needles.

Suture anchors are medical devices which are used to attach soft tissue to bone. A suture anchor can have a variety of configurations. One type of suture anchor, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,156, which is incorporated by reference, has superelastic arc members extending from an anchor member. Other suture anchors have screw threads and cutting flutes such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,100, which is incorporated by reference. Yet another suture anchor configuration can be described as a wedge type anchor as disclosed in commonly owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/235,737 (Docket No. ETH-923), which is incorporated by reference.
Suture anchors typically have mounting members, such as eyelets, for receiving a surgical suture. Typically, a surgical needle is mounted to each end of the suture. The initial step in a surgical procedure using a suture anchor to mount soft tissue to bone is for the surgeon to drill a blind bore hole in bone using a conventional surgical drill. Then, a suture anchor, typically mounted to the distal end of an application device, is inserted into the bore hole such that the anchor body is lodged in the bone beneath the hard outer cortex of the bone, such that the surgical suture extends out from the bone bore hole. Next, the surgeon, utilizing the surgical needles attached to the surgical suture, affixes soft tissue adjacent to the bone surface. The surgeon then secures the approximated soft tissue with the suture using conventional surgical knots and knotting techniques, and finally cuts the surgical needles and excess suture away from the knots. The soft tissue is now approximated next to an appropriate bone site where it can heal and reattach to the bone surface. The types of soft tissue which can be approximated include ligaments, tendons, cartilage, muscle, skin, organs and the like.
It is critical that the suture anchor and surgical suture and attached needles be easily removed from a package during surgery. It is also critical that the package protect the suture anchor, suture and needles during sterilization, and store and handling prior to use in a surgical procedure.
There is a need in this art for novel packages for suture anchors which provide superior ease of use in the field during surgical procedures, and which are economical to manufacture while still protecting the suture anchor, sutures and needles during shipping, handling and storage.


A semiconductor capacitor that includes a plurality of overlapping conductive layers and a field-effect transistor. The plurality of conductive layers include a first and second conductive layers that are spaced apart to creating a capacitance between the plurality of layers. In the semiconductor capacitor, the FET has a source, a drain and a gate. When the FET is in conduction mode, a capacitance is created between the gate and the conductive path in the semiconductor substrate between the source and the drain. The semiconductor capacitor's total capacitance is increased by coupling the drain and the source to the first conductive layer and coupling the gate to the second conductive layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor devices, more particularly, to an apparatus for increasing the capacitance of a semiconductor device.
2. Background
Sensitive circuits, particularly analog circuits, prefer a clean (i.e. noiseless) direct current (DC) power supply. A DC power supply may become noisy due to the effects of AC coupling. AC coupling occurs when stray capacitance and/or mutual inductance of nearby conductors becomes coupled to the DC power supplying line. One way to ensure a clean DC power supply is to attach a decoupling capacitor to the power supply and in proximity to the load.
However, making large capacitor in small semiconductor devices is difficult because it requires lots of space, which is lacking in small semiconductor devices. As such, what is needed is a semiconductor capacitor that efficiently utilizes valuable semiconductor space to obtain a large decoupling capacitance.


An interactive slot car game having a multiple lane slot car track for electrically powered slot cars. The trackway has a pit lane which is positioned on the same side of the track for all cars, with a pit position for all cars, with each pit position located on the same side of the pit lane. The game has an intermediate control device which limits the control that the user has over the speed of the slot car, and can be programmed to simulate occurrences such as tire wear or fuel shortages. The intermediate control device limits car speed due to actual occurrences during racing, such as a car in another lane exiting the track, thereby creating and enforcing caution periods, as in auto racing. Light signals and aural signals are generated in response to the game conditions, occurrences during the game, or randomly generated events.

Electric model car racing systems have, for well over the past 30 years, generated a large amount of enthusiasm and commercial interest. As the interest in such devices has increased, so has the technology used to support these model car racing systems.
The related technology began with sets having vibrator cars, and has progressed to today's sophisticated scale vehicles enhanced with magnetic attraction. Tracks involved with these systems range from simple two lane home slot car tracks, to slotless systems, to sets with electronic enhancements. Large commercial multiple lane tracks, including features such as magnetically enhanced copper coated steel braid conductors, operate around the globe and offer an assortment of track configurations to increase the required skill level and realism of model racing. Many commercial slot car raceways use personal computers (PC's) to post time, speed, and lap data for each operating lane.
Each technological advancement through the evolutionary process of model car racing has brought with it an incremental increase in the enjoyment for model racing enthusiast. Various attempts have been made to improve the model road race systems of the prior art and to increase the realism of these systems. For example, Mabie, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,531,118, discloses an electronic lap counter for vehicular racing games. A light board is used to display the completed lap count. Conkins, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,572,771, discloses a system for counting laps completed, timing individual laps, the elapsed race time, and visually indicating these parameters to the operators.
Magnetic traction enhancement for miniature vehicles, now the standard in HO scale model racing, is disclosed in Bernard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,661. Smith et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,107, discloses an apparatus for sensing static pit position and laps completed, a system for calculating and displaying various track functions, and a means for introducing simulated failures by removing power supplied to a specific electric vehicle lane.
While each of the above patents represents an increase in the sophistication and realism of the electric model car racing systems, each falls short of providing an accurate simulation of today's real motor sporting events. Prior art simulations use rheostat hand controllers to directly vary the voltage to the track and these systems have no means of indirect control in response to specific track events. Power to the vehicles is either on or off, with no reduction steps available for forcing players to slow their cars for running starts, simulated malfunctions, fuel shortages, or caution periods. The prior art devices do not have means to detect vehicle crashes, nor means for realistically enunciating such events. Prior art examples either use mechanical lap sensing devices that interfere with the smooth operation of the cars, or "dead strips" that are electrically isolated from the remaining track and cause the cars to stop on the electrically segregated strip. These limitations, in conjunction with the lack of a realistic and functional pit area segregated from the main track way, make the prior art devices inferior in race simulation and entertainment value.
An accurate scale racing simulation should include segregated track events governed by specific, but separate, rules for practice sessions, qualifying, and racing. These simulations need flag signals (i.e. white, yellow, and green), dictated by actual track occurrences, such as "crashes," and means for varying the operational parameters available to the participants which are responsive to specific track events such as "crashes", or a simulation of limited resources, like fuel usage and tire wear. Improvement in the realism of the track operations, including segregated pit actions and induced chance, is also a need which exists.