An inverter performs bidirectional DC/AC power conversion between a power line and a second MG so as to control an output torque of the second MG for generating vehicle driving force. A PM-ECU sets a torque command value of the second MG such that requested driving force for an entire vehicle is exerted on a drive shaft. An MG-ECU estimates, based on a rotation speed of the second MG, a magnitude of a drag torque acting as rotational resistance when the second MG rotates at zero torque, and stops the inverter in accordance with a difference between the estimated drag torque and the torque command value.

In recent years, attention has been given to an electrically-powered vehicle as an environmentally-friendly vehicle, such as an electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle and a fuel cell vehicle. These electrically-powered vehicles each are equipped with an electric motor (motor generator) generating vehicle driving force and a power storage device for storing electric power supplied to the electric motor. The hybrid vehicle is equipped with an internal combustion engine as a source of motive power in addition to the electric motor, and the fuel cell vehicle is equipped with a fuel cell as a source of DC (direct-current) electric power for driving the vehicle.
In such an electrically-powered vehicle, the driving force (torque) for vehicle running is output by an electric motor. Accordingly, the energy efficiency (fuel efficiency) of the electrically-powered vehicle is to be greatly influenced by control of the electric motor.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-196415 (PTD 1) discloses control performed by a control device of a hybrid vehicle in the case where the temperature of a motor generator exceeds a prescribed reference temperature during execution of a fuel-efficiency priority mode. It specifically discloses that, when the temperature rises, the torque command value of the motor generator is decreased while the decrement of the torque command value is compensated by the torque transmitted from the engine to the drive shaft, thereby preventing overheating of the motor generator while avoiding shortage of the driving force in the entire vehicle. Consequently, the fuel efficiency can be improved without deteriorating the running performance of the vehicle.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-208480 (PTD 2) discloses a hybrid vehicle in which an inverter that controls and drives a motor generator is shut down while the vehicle is stopped and while the engine is under the self-sustained operation in the state where a shift lever is set in a drive position or in a reverse position for vehicle running.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2007-161249 (PTD 3) discloses control performed for an electric vehicle and a hybrid vehicle for improving the energy efficiency by shutting down an inverter controlling an electric motor that drives driving wheels when the electric motor is controlled to be in a non-driven state.

Electrically-powered vehicle and method of controlling the same


When the recording format of an image recorded on a magnetic tape (709) is changed, a playback time period of an image signal by a REC review function is extended. Even when the recording format is changed during playback of an image signal by the REC review function, an image (409) recorded in the recording format after change can be displayed after a blue-backed screen (408) is displayed. Therefore, the user can determine whether the blue-backed screen (408) is displayed due to switching of the system or due to an unrecorded part of an image signal. Hence, the user can be prevented from overwriting a new image signal on the recorded region of an image signal by mistake.

Conventionally, a digital VTR which records an image signal on a magnetic tape as digital data is known. In recent years, a digital VTR which can record and play back a high-definition (HD) image in place of a conventional standard-definition (SD) image has been proposed (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-275077). In such a digital VTR, a high-definition image signal obtained by photography is encoded by MPEG and is then recorded on a magnetic tape.
As the standard for consumer digital VTRs that record SD image signals, a DV format has been proposed. Furthermore, as the standard for consumer digital VTRs that record HD image signals, an HDV format (Hi-Vision format) has been proposed.
In this HDV format, the same magnetic tape as the DV format is used as a recording medium and an MPEG-encoded HD image signal is recorded and played back.
As a function of a video camera, a REC review function is known. In this function, after recording is paused, a tape is rewound by a predetermined amount, and playback is made up to the paused position.
As described above, the HDV format uses the same magnetic tape as in the DV format. Hence, a video camera which supports both the DV and HDV formats is available.
In such a video camera, an SD image signal recorded in the DV format and an HD image signal recorded in the HDV format can coexist on a single magnetic tape. For this reason, upon playback, the playback method of an image signal must be switched at a boundary between the recorded region in the DV format and that in the HDV format. As a result, output of a playback image may cease.
For example, when the boundary between the recorded region in the DV format and that in the HDV format is included in a zone to be played back by the aforementioned REC review function, the processing method must be switched at that boundary, and as a result an image ceases to be played back. Therefore, although an image signal is actually recorded on the magnetic tape, the user may misunderstand and believe that no signal is recorded.
As a result, when the user starts recording from the position where an image ceases to be played back, the originally recorded image may be overwritten and erased.

Image playback apparatus and playback method


Methods for rescuing learning, memory and/or motor function deficits associated with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions (FTLD-U) are disclosed. The method comprises: a) administering to an animal having FTLD-U a therapeutically effective amount of an autophagy inducer; b) causing a decrease in the amount of ubiquitinated TDP-43 aggregation forms in the brain of the animal; and c) causing an improvement of the learning, memory capacities and/or motor function of the animal.

TDP-43 is a 43 KD, ubiquitously expressed protein well conserved among the eukaryotes. This DNA/RNA-binding factor is predominantly located in the nucleus as a dimer, and it has been implicated to play roles in multiple cellular functions, e.g. transcriptional repression, splicing, and translation. TDP-43 has also been identified as the pathological signature protein of a range of neurodegenerative diseases. The pathological samples of these diseases, which have been termed TDP-43 proteinopathies, are characterized with cytoplasmic and, to a much less extent, nuclear TDP-43-positive (+) and ubiquitinated inclusions (UBIs) containing full-length TDP-43, poly-ubiquinated TDP-43, phosphorylated TDP-43, as well as 35 KD- and 25 KD carboxyl fragments of TDP-43. Of the two major categories of TDP-43 proteinopathies are frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin (+) inclusions (FTLD-U) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It has been estimated that approximately 50% of FTLD-U and 80-90% of ALS, which has an incidence rate between 1.5 and 2.5 per 100,000, are signified with TDP-43 (+) UBIs (6). Furthermore, numerous experimental data have suggested that mis-regulation of the metabolism of TDP-43, including the formation of the TDP-43 (+) UBIs, plays a causative role in the pathogenesis. Thus, it would be logical to identify the potential drugs of FTLD-U and ALS with TDP-43 proteinopathies, for which there is no effective drug therapy yet, by targeting either TDP-43 or the TDP-43 (+) inclusions.
Caccamo et al. (2009) overexpressed ˜25 kDa C-terminal fragment (the last 199 amino acids; C199-TDP) of TDP-43 in N2A mouse and SH-SYSY human neuroblastoma cell lines, leading to a redistribution/mislocalization of endogenous TDP-43 from nucleus to the cytoplasm. They reported that rapamycin treatment reduced the steady-state levels of ˜25 kDa fragment, decreased the mislocalization of TDP-43 to cytoplasm, but rapamycin had no effect on the amount of full-length TDP-43 in the C199-TDP transfected cells (JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY VOL. 284, NO. 40, pp. 27416-27424). The C199-TDP transfected neuroblastoma cell line does not mimic the FTLD-U disease, nor displays symptoms of FTLD-U. It is not a scientifically recognized animal model for FTLD-U disease. Furthermore, patients with FTLD-U have type 3 ubiquitin-positive, TDP-43 positive, tau-negative pathology at post-mortem. Cytosolic TDP-43 (+) inclusions in patients with FTLD-U contain not only ˜25 kDa but also ubiquinated TDP-43, full-length TDP-43 and ˜35 kDa fragments. Clinical symptoms of FTLD are complex and progress with the stage of the disease. There are three clinical subtypes for FTLD: behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia, semantic dementia and progressive nonfluent aphasia. The symptoms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) can be classified roughly into two groups which underlie the functions of the frontal lobe: behavioural symptoms (and/or personality change) and symptoms related to problems with executive function. Semantic dementia (SD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by loss of semantic memory in both the verbal and non-verbal domains. The major symptom of progressive nonfluent aphasiais progressive difficulties with the production of speech. It is not known whether autophage enhancers would improve any clinical symptoms of patients with FTLD-U.
Moreover, there are contradicting reports about the relationship of autophage and cell death. Ravikumar et al. (2006) reported that rapamycin pretreatment reduced mitochondrial loads and protected against apoptosis including neuronal death (Human Molecular Genetics, Vol. 15, No. 7 1209-1216). However, Zhang et al. (2011) reported that treatment with autophage enhancer rapamycin caused more server mitochondria impairment, accelerated motor neuron degeneration, shortened the life span of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) mice, and had no obvious effects on the accumulation of in copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) aggregates, suggesting that rapamycin treatment may exacerbate the pathological processing through apoptosis and other mechanisms in the ALS mice "Rapamycin treatment augments motor neuron degeneration in SOD1G93A mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" Autophagy 7:4, 1-14).
A previously unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies, especially in connection with an effective drug for FTLD-U.

Methods for treating frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions (FTLD-U)


A device for separation of folders within a layer of folders includes elements for blocking the advance of a folder in the layer, elements for unlayering the folders preceding the retained folder, and elements for retaining the blocked folder and the folders following it relative to the advance of the layer acting successively on the folders.

The present invention relates to a separating device to form a bundle of stacked folders, by offsetting the folders in a layer of advancing folders.
During stacking of the folders, there are formed bundles of stacked folders to package them for transport. To form these bundles, it is necessary to carry out a separation between two folders in the formed stack.

Device for separation of folders in a layer of folders


In a transfer apparatus to which MIMO-OFDM is applied, a data transmission method and a data reception method are provided in which, even when there are frequency errors varying among transfer paths, the precision of estimation of an inverse propagation coefficient function can be improved, thereby making it possible to suppress a degradation in characteristics. Among symbols composed of a plurality of subcarriers orthognal to each other, the transfer apparatus uses, as a synchronization symbol, a symbol in which predetermined amplitudes and phases are assigned to a plurality of subcarriers spaced at predetermined frequency intervals. The synchronization symbol is divided into transmission antennas to generate a plurality of synchronization subsymbols, which are in turn simultaneously transmitted from a plurality of transmission antennas. A reception apparatus estimates a frequency error for each transfer path based on synchronization subsymbols included in signals received by a plurality of reception antennas, and based on the estimated frequency errors, corrects the received signals.

In recent years, as a transfer method for use in broad-band mobile communications, MIMO-OFDM (Multi Input Multi Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) has attracted attention. Hereinafter, MIMO-OFDM will be described.
For mobile communications, such as wireless LAN and the like, OFDM, which is a type of multi-carrier transfer, has been used as a modulation technique which is resistant to frequency selective fading occurring in the multi-path environment. With the aim of improving the efficiency of use of frequency, a technique of performing multiplex communication between a transmitter and a receiver via a plurality of paths obtained by space division, where a plurality of transmission antennas and a plurality of reception antennas are used to construct MIMO channels (the technique is hereinafter referred to as MIMO) has been proposed. In MIMO, the number of channels can be increased by the number of transmission antennas.
A combination of OFDM, which is robust with respect to multi-path, and MIMO, which improves the efficiency of use of frequency, is MIMO-OFDM. A conventional transfer apparatus to which MIMO-OFDM is applied (hereinafter referred to as a conventional transfer apparatus) is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-60604. FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary structure of the conventional transfer apparatus. In FIG. 18, the conventional transfer apparatus is a transfer apparatus in which the number of transmission antennas is two and the number of reception antennas is two (i.e., a 2×2 MIMO-OFDM transfer apparatus).
In FIG. 18, the conventional transfer apparatus is composed of a transmission apparatus and a reception apparatus. The transmission apparatus comprises a preamble generating section 901, data modulating sections 902 and 903, multiplexers 904 and 905, orthogonal modulation sections 906 and 907, a local oscillator 908, and transmission antennas TX1 and TX2. The reception apparatus comprises reception antennas RX1 and RX2, a local oscillator 909, orthogonal demodulation sections 910 and 911, frequency error estimating sections 912 and 913, an averaging section 914, frequency correcting sections 915 and 916, an inverse propagation function estimating section 917, and data demodulating sections 918 and 919.
In the transmission apparatus, the preamble generating section 901 generates a synchronization preamble Ssync and a propagation coefficient estimation preamble Sref. The data modulating section 902 subjects data to be transmitted from the transmission antenna TX1 (hereinafter referred to as a data sequence 1) to OFDM modulation to output a data symbol sequence 1. The data modulating section 903 subjects to data to be transmitted from the transmission antenna TX2 (hereinafter referred to as a data sequence 2) to OFDM modulation to output a data symbol sequence 2.
The multiplexer 904 subjects the data symbol sequence 1, the synchronization preamble Ssync, and the propagation coefficient estimation preamble Sref to time division multiplexing to generate a transfer frame 1. The multiplexer 905 subjects the data symbol sequence 2, the synchronization preamble Ssync, and the propagation coefficient estimation preamble Sref to time division multiplexing to generate a transfer frame 2. FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary transfer frame used in the conventional transfer apparatus. In FIG. 19, in the transfer frame, the synchronization preamble Ssync and the propagation coefficient estimation preamble Sref are inserted before the data symbol sequence.
The transfer frame 1 is converted into a radio signal by the orthogonal modulation section 906 and the local oscillator 908. The transfer frame 2 is converted into a radio signal by the orthogonal modulation section 907 and the local oscillator 908. The transfer frame 1 and the transfer frame 2 which have been converted into radio signals are simultaneously transmitted from the transmission antenna TX1 and the transmission antenna TX2.
Radio signals transmitted by a plurality of transmission antennas TXi are received via different paths by a plurality of reception antennas RXj. Note that i represents a transmission antenna number, and j represents a reception antenna number. Here, when a transfer path between the transmission antenna TXi and the reception antenna RXj is represented by p (i, j), in the case of 2×2 MIMO the conventional transfer apparatus has four transfer paths p (1, 1), p (1, 2), p (2, 1), and p (2, 2). When a propagation coefficient possessed by the transfer path p (i, j) is represented by h (i, j) and a transmitted signal transmitted by the transmission antenna TXi is represented by Ti, a received signal Rj received by the reception antenna RXj can be represented by expressions (1) and (2).R1=h(1, 1)T1+h(2, 1)T2  (1)R2=h(1, 2)T1+h(2, 2)T2  (2)
In the reception apparatus, the received signal R1 is converted into a frequency band which is optimal to a subsequent-stage process, by the local oscillator 909 and the orthogonal demodulation section 910. The frequency error estimating section 912 estimates a frequency error (hereinafter referred to as a frequency error 1) contained in the received signal R1 based on the synchronization preamble Ssync. Similarly, the received signal R2 is converted into a frequency band which is optimal to a subsequent-stage process, by the local oscillator 909 and the orthogonal demodulation section 911. The frequency error estimating section 913 estimates a frequency error (hereinafter referred to as a frequency error 2) contained in the received signal R2 based on the synchronization preamble Ssync. The frequency error 1 and the frequency error 2 are averaged by the averaging section 914.
The frequency correcting section 915 corrects a frequency of the received signal R1 based on the frequency error averaged by the averaging section 914. The frequency correcting section 916 corrects a frequency of the received signal R2 based on the frequency error averaged by the averaging section 914. The received signals R1 and R2 whose frequencies have been corrected are input to the inverse propagation function estimating section 917. The inverse propagation function estimating section 917 estimates an inverse function for the propagation coefficient h (i, j) based on the propagation coefficient estimation preambles Sref contained in the received signal R1 and the received signal R2, and based on the estimated inverse function, separates the multiplexed transmitted signals T1 and T2. The data demodulating section 918 subjects the separated transmitted signal T1 to OFDM demodulation to output the data sequence 1. Similarly, the data demodulating section 919 subjects the separated transmitted signal T2 to OFDM demodulation to output the data sequence 2.

Data transmission method and data reception method


A journal foil bearing system includes a retainer arrangement with an internal groove extending in a depth direction from the bore of the housing. The internal groove has a first portion and a second portion. The first portion extends further in the depth direction than the second portion and includes a seat surface of the internal groove. The retainer arrangement additionally includes a first top foil end and a second top foil end of the top foil member. The first top foil end is configured to abut the second top foil end to arch-bind the at least one top foil within the bearing system. The first top foil end is received in the first portion of the internal groove and is configured to seat against the seat surface to limit rotation of the first top foil end about the axis. The second top foil end is received in the second portion of the internal groove.

Various bearing systems are provided for supporting rotation of a shaft within a housing. For example, turbomachines (e.g., turbochargers, superchargers, motorized turbomachines, turbogenerators, etc.) may include one or more air bearings. These bearings preferably support efficient rotation of the shaft, across a wide range of operating conditions, and throughout a long operating lifetime.
Some devices include foil bearing systems (i.e., journal foil bearing systems, foil-air bearing systems, air foil journal bearing, etc.). These bearings include one or more foils that are radially disposed between the shaft and the housing, wherein the foil(s) exert an inwardly directed radial pre-load against the shaft when at-rest. The lift-off speed of the bearing is affected by the amount of pre-load applied to the shaft. Furthermore, wear of the bearing is affected by the amount of applied pre-load. Also, the foil(s) are preferably stiff enough to provide acceptable roto-dynamic behavior/shaft motion control throughout the operating speed range of the shaft.
However, tailoring and controlling these factors for conventional foil bearing systems remains challenging. For example, it can be difficult to control certain dimensions of the bearing components, which can cause the pre-load of the foil bearing to be unacceptable. Manufacture of these bearing systems can also be inefficient due to difficulty in controlling these dimensions, due to a large part count, due to assembly difficulties, and/or for other reasons.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a foil bearing system that allows for more precise and selective control of the pre-load that the system applies to the shaft when at-rest. It is also desirable to provide a foil bearing system that provides manufacturing efficiencies. Other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background discussion.

Turbomachine with air foil bearing retainer arrangement


The present invention provides a process for transfer printing and decorating metal objects of complex configuration. The process yields decorated objects with high clarity and uniformity of print quality. The process includes the steps of providing an object of complex configuration having a layer of thermosetting coating material formed thereon, aligning and fixing a piece of transfer paper having a transferable image formed thereon over the layer of coating material, placing a section of heat shrinkable plastic film over the transfer paper, and then heating the object so as to cause the film to shrink and facilitate the transfer of the image into the coating material.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns the decoration of metal surfaces of complex configuration. More particularly, this invention relates to transfer printing of metal objects of complex configuration.
2. Background Art
Transfer printing of inks or dyes into a variety of articles such as shirts, mugs, plastic articles and plastic coated substrates is well-known in the art. Dispersible dye crystals or inks are printed in reverse images in transfer paper which is to be used to transfer print the article to be decorated. The article to be decorated is usually made of plastic or has a plastic or polymer coating on it into which the dyes are transferred.
Most transfer printing is referred to as sublimation printing in which the dyes are said to sublimate under heat and pressure to be driven into any receptive substrate that is put in contact with the transfer paper. Such sublimation printing was developed circa 1969 and has been used extensively to print many articles including plastic coated metal substrates.
Transfer printing also includes a melt printing process which is as described in several patents and patent applications including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,587,155; 4,670,084; 4,668,239 and Published Application WO 92/21514. According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,155, the desired dye image is transferred from the paper to the substrate by heating the dye to a temperature above its melting point but below its vaporization temperature so that the dye will diffuse into the softened plastic substrate. Published Application WO 92/21514 describes melt printing of planar metal base members such as aluminum, steel or the like which have been coated on at least one planar surface with a melt printable layer of softenable, dye-permeable, thermoplastic or thermoset material such as polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate or other thermoplastic polyesters, polycarbonates, nylons and the like. Application WO 92/21514 further describes bilayer coatings of thermoplastic or thermoset materials including a base coat optimally provided with a pigment and a second layer that can comprise a clear resin. The application states that neither the composition nor the thickness of either the substrate or the printable plastic layers is critical.
Canadian Patent 1,108,929 describes a process for applying designs to unsealed, anodized aluminum which is continuously heated to a temperature at which colored components of ink will sublime. The heated strip is fed into contact with an ink carrying web so the ink is heated and transferred into the anodized aluminum surface. The decorated aluminum strip is then cooled with water and passed through a sealing bath filled with a sealing solution such as buffered aqueous nickel.
Unfortunately, none of these references provide any insight into how to produce a high-quality image on a metal object of complex configuration such as a metal sphere or a tapered cylinder. An improved process is needed for transfer printing metal objects of complex shape in order to produce objects having consistent bright coloring with little or no texturing of the surface of the object.


A substrate serving as a heat sink for a semiconductor efficiently radiates heat from a semiconductor element mounted thereon. The substrate consists of a composite alloy metal which consists of a sintered body of a metal powder having a high melting point such as W and Mo impregnated with a filling metal such as Cu and Ag, wherein the sintered body of a metal powder having a high melting point has a grain size composition of a combination of a plurality of powder groups having statistically different average grain sizes from group to group, and the powder of each group is dispersed uniformly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate and a heat sink for a semiconductor suitable for integrated circuits, and to a method of manufacturing the heat sink.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, Cu-type, Mo-type and W-type substrates have been used as heat sinks for semiconductors such as integrated circuit chips. These substrates are plated with Ni and then joined with packaging parts made of ceramics or with semiconductor elements.
Although a Cu substrate has high thermal conductivity and therefore an excellent heat radiating performance, the coefficient of thermal expansion of the Cu substrate is several times greater than that of the ceramic packaging part or semiconductor element to be joined with the substrate. Therefore, when a semiconductor element is mounted on the Cu substrate, deterioration of the brazed portion is accelerated due to distortion caused by the difference between the coefficients of thermal expansion. In contrast, W substrates and Mo substrates have relatively small coefficients of thermal expansion, so these substrates have excellent durability after being joined with semiconductor elements or ceramics parts by brazing. However, since W substrates and Mo substrates have small thermal conductivity, their heat radiating performances are insufficient.
Because of the above, there have been attempts to make composites of Cu and W or of Cu and Mo to obtain a substrate for a semiconductor which has excellent characteristics and takes advantage of the features of each respective material.
Composites of Cu and W or of Cu and Mo are made using an infiltration method, one of several powder metallurgical methods, in which Cu is infiltrated into a sintered body or a preliminary sintered body of powder of W or Mo, or by a method in which they are joined together using a clad.
However, because of insufficient dimensional accuracy, the clad method requires precise machining. Thus, joining cannot be performed with high reliability, and costs increase. Moreover, it is difficult to obtain an elongated plate by rolling a sintered ingot of W or Mo. In addition, mechanical joining with Cu is difficult because of the presence of a hard oxide film or layer. In view of the foregoing drawbacks, the infiltration method is now widely used, as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 3-36304 and 3-36305, and Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-13494.
The infiltration method, though, requires a complex process, and also requires adjustment of the density of a sintered body by shrinkage during sintering in cases where the content of Cu is not greater than 20 wt. %, because the desired density cannot be obtained in a green compact. In such cases, it is difficult to control heating conditions and to obtain a predetermined amount of shrinkage. Thus, the density and dimensions of the sintered body after shrinkage vary, affecting the coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity, and resulting in uneven quality.
Meanwhile, as the sizes of semiconductor elements and the density of integration are increased to cope with enhanced functions, the amount of heat generated by the semiconductor elements also increases. Thus, it becomes more important to release Joule heat generated in the semiconductor elements to maintain the predetermined functions. Accordingly, a substrate serving as a heat sink and having improved heat conductivity and heat radiating performance has been desired.

Substrate and heat sink for a semiconductor and method of manufacturing the same


A flashlight includes a casing having a first end, a second end, a first side surface and a second side surface. The casing has a first casing member joined to a second casing member, with the first and second casing members defining an interior cavity there between. An electronics package is provided that includes a power source, an actuable switch member and a light array coupled to the power source and switch member. The light source is capable of projecting light outwardly from the first end of the flashlight and into a cavity. The first casing member includes a light passable portion through which the light projected into the cavity can pass to the exterior of the cavity.

Traditional flashlights usually include a housing that comprises a generally cylindrical casing having a hollow interior into which batteries are received. In order to provide strength to the flashlight and protect the batteries, the casing is normally made from a hard, rigid plastic or metal material. Battery contacts and wiring are disposed within the interior of the hard plastic or metal casing.
One end of the casing is typically closed, and the other end of the casing is open. The open end of the casing often includes a threaded end surface for threadedly receiving a light assembly that when joined to the casing forms a part of the overall flashlight housing. The light assembly includes an axially facing, radially extending lens cover, that covers over a highly reflective parabolic or conical dish. A light bulb that may be either an incandescent or an LED bulb is placed at the base of the dish to project light outwardly through the lens cover.
A switch member is usually mounted on the outwardly facing, cylindrical side surface of the flashlight. Typically, either a push button-type switch or a slide switch is employed to enable the user to turn the light on and off. Examples of such flashlights are shown in Shiu, U.S. Pat. No. D524,972; Lynch, U.S. Pat. No. D425,231; and Leopoldi, U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,495.
Flashlights of this type have been produced in many sizes and shapes and have been used for many years, and are still in widespread use. Although such flashlights are often large and cumbersome, they have significant utility because the size of the interior of the rigid casing can be made large enough to hold a plurality (e.g. 1-5) of large batteries, such as C or D cells, to provide the flashlight with sufficient candle power (or lumens) to cast a bright light on the surrounding areas, and sufficient power reserves to produce light for relatively long periods of time. Because of this large battery capacity, flashlights of this type are often used in work and safety-related applications and are often carried by police officers, firemen, guards and other security and safety personnel.
Additionally, the Applicants have been inventors in the field of flashlights and other lighted devices. See, Killion, U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,991; Killion et al., U.S. Pat. No. D636,509; Killion et al., U.S. Pat. No. D636,510; and Killion, Published Patent Application No. 2010/0110670 A1.
Although the rigid casing of the flashlights described above are usually cylindrical, advances in battery and light bulb technology have permitted designers to expand beyond the confinement of typically employed cylindrical shapes. For example, a large number of "flat casing" flashlights exist that employ more compact batteries and advanced technology bulbs such as LED bulbs. See, e.g. Lee, U.S. Pat. No. D549,862.
One significant technological development that has benefited flashlights relates to the use of LED lights. As LED lights consume significantly less electrical power than incandescent lights, manufacturers have been able to produce flashlights that are smaller and less expensive. Size can be reduced because smaller cylindrical batteries and coin-shaped and sized batteries can be used to power the flashlight in place of the larger C and D cell batteries typically used to power flashlights having incandescent lights.
The combination of LED lights and better battery technology has given flashlight manufacturers the ability to construct flashlights that are smaller and less expensive than previously known flashlights. These technological advances have allowed manufacturers to build flashlights that are inexpensive enough to both be disposable and to serve as value-priced promotional product items. Flashlights have now become disposable as a practical/economic matter, as they are inexpensive enough so that manufacturers often do not provide a vehicle to enable the user to change the battery in the flashlight, assuming that the user will throw it away when the batteries expire.
The inexpensive cost at which these flashlights can be produced has also caused flashlights to become increasingly popular promotional product items. A promotional product item is an item that is typically manufactured by a first company (Company A), and is purchased by a second company (Company B) who places their (Company B) logo or other visual indicia on to the particular product. Other examples of promotional product like items are collateral merchandise and affinity products. The common thread between these products that they include an indicia of some sort that is printed onto or attached as a sticker, such as a decal to the product. For example, the indicia can take the form of an aesthetic-based indicia such as an attractive design such as a picture of a monument, landscape or animal; or of a "collateral merchandise" type indicia such as a picture or logo of a race car, sports figure, sports team, theme park, cartoon character, celebrity or super hero. Additionally, the indicia can be an image that relates to an affinity group such as a fraternity, club, school, team or organization.
In addition to promotional products, the ability to place an indicia on a product, such as a flashlight is prized by other types of users. For example, collateral products merchandisers such as theme parks (e.g. Walt Disney), movie studios, sports teams, racing teams, schools, universities and the like derive a substantial amount of income from selling products that have visual indicia on them, such as cartoon or movie characters, or team and school logos, pictures of race cars, pictures of drivers and the like on the product.
For the sake of brevity herein, products such as promotional products and collateral merchandise products and affinity that are designed to incorporate some sort of visual indicia, such as an advertising indicia, logo, artwork, team logo or the like, will be referred to collectively as "Promotional Products", it being understood that the term is broad enough to encompass a wide variety of uses including collateral merchandise products.
There are several features that are considered highly desirable in a promotional product. One is that the device be useful and desirable by the end user. As the purpose of a promotional product is to remind the user of the promoting company's existence, the promoting company's ability to remind the user will be significantly enhanced if the product is used often and desired by the user. In contrast, a promotional product of limited use, such as mustache wax, would probably be thrown away by the recipient, thus rendering it unable to remind the consumer of the advertised product or company.
A second desirable feature of a promotional product is that it be manufacturable at a relatively low cost. As many promotional products are sold to the promoting company, but then given by the promoting company to the end customer, it follows naturally that a less expensive product enables the company to stretch its advertising budget further and reach more potential consumers than a relatively more expensive product. Although some promotional products can be quite expensive, and are highly desired for companies to give to especially deserving employees and customers, the larger number of promotional products tend to be less expensive. Additionally, promotional products that are sold (such as those containing pictures of cartoon characters and sport team logos) are preferably kept at a low enough price so that the ultimate customer does not mind purchasing them as an "impulse item".
A third desirable feature is that the promotional product have a configuration that permits a visual indicia, such as a logo, contact information, a message or character to be placed on the product so that it is easily seen.
Currently, a large number of flashlights exist that perform their intended function well and make wonderful promotional products. Some of these promotional products can be seen at The Killion Corporation's BENTCIL catalog and website at www.bentcil.com.
Notwithstanding the existence of these well-performing devices, room for improvement exists. In particular, room for improvement exists in providing a flashlight that provides not only illumination in front of the case in a manner similar to most flashlights, but also provides illumination for a message area so that a visual indicia placed on the flashlight is highlighted and made more prominent, and thereby helps to better illuminate the logo or visual indicia and thereby serve as a better advertising or promotional vehicle.
One object of the present invention is to provide such a device.


The eyewear for industrial use comprises a deformable arcuate lens with a pair of temple receiving entries at opposite ends thereof, a deformable brow frame shaped to fit the upper edge of the lens so as to be engageable therewith and a pair of temple pieces, each piece being hingedly connected to a respective opposite end of the brow frame. Assembly of the temple pieces and brow frame to the lens is easily effected by inserting the temple pieces in the entries of the lens and by snap engagement of a mid-section of the brow frame to the upper edge of the lens. The assembly is made of plastic material so that it may be resiliently deformed to adapt to the various sizes of head of users.

Often, in industrial use, the lens and/or temples pieces of a protective eyewear often break, requiring the user to discard the entire eyewear and replace it with a new pair.
Another problem in industry has been to provide a standard protective eyewear that can accommodate comfortably different head sizes. On the other hand, it is important to provide the user with appropriate comfort when wearing such eyeglasses and this can hardly be obtained since there are various sizes of user heads.
Thus, there is a need for a protective eyewear for industrial use that can be easily mounted and dismounted in the event of breakage of one of its components and, at the same time, providing comfort to its user.


Disclosed herein are small molecule heterocyclic inhibitors of sepiapterin reductase (SPR), and prodrugs and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The Also featured are pharmaceutical compositions of the compounds and uses of these compounds for the treatment or prevention of pain (e.g., inflammatory pain, nociceptive pain, functional pain, and neuropathic pain).

In general, the present invention relates to small molecule heterocyclic inhibitors of sepiapterin reductase (SPR), and to the medical use of these compounds.
Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), which has the following structure,
is an essential cofactor of hydroxylase enzymes that are involved in the synthesis of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, melatonin, dopamine, norepinephrine (noradrenaline), epinephrine (adrenaline), and nitric oxide (NO). SPR catalyzes the final step in the BH4 synthetic pathway, which is the conversion of 6-pyruvoyl tetrahydropterin to BH4. SPR is also one of the two enzymes involved in de novo BH4 synthesis that is up-regulated in preclinical pain models, and reducing the activity of these enzymes leads to preclinical pain relief (Tegeder et al., Nature Medicine 12:1269-1277, 2006). Accordingly, the inhibition of SPR can be a useful target for developing new methods for the treatment or prevention of pain.

Sepiapterin reductase inhibitors for the treatment of pain


A pulse width (PW) digitizer comprises a current pump, a capacitor, a quantizer, a feedback controller, and a digital filter. The current pump provides a current signal in response to a PW signal. The capacitor obtains a voltage signal in response to the current signal. The quantizer obtains a digital signal in response to the voltage signal. The feedback controller determines a feedback PW signal in response to the digital signal. The feedback PW signal is fed back to the current pump for controlling the current signal converging to a specific value and controlling the digital signal switching between a first code and a second code. The digital filter counts times that the digital signal indicating the first code/the second code and accordingly obtains the PW of the PW signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a pulse width (PW) digitizer, and more particularly to a PW digitizer incorporating delta-sigma modulation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, pulse width (PW) signal modulation and detection has been well-known and been applied in a great variety of aspects. Generally, how to detect the PW with fine resolution is a prominent object of the related industry. Conventionally, various methods, such as low-pass filter method and direct-sampling method, exist for PW detection. The low-pass filtering method employs PW signals having the pulse-width information in voltage domain. The PW signal is first averaged by a low pass filter to extract a direct current (DC) voltage. Then the DC voltage is compared by a voltage comparator with a threshold voltage. However, the smoothness of low-pass-filtered pulse signal affects the resolution of pulse-width detection, which can be achieved by extracted over many quench periods, resulting in a trade-off between resolution and conversion speed.
The direct-sampling method, on the other hand, processes the data in time domain. The PW signal is firstly hard limited, and then is directly sampled by a high frequency reference clock to achieve the PW detection. However, the resolution of the pulse-width detection is severely limited by time-domain quantization noise due to insufficient sampling frequency (i.e., quantization jitter) and the quantization jitter due to insufficient sampling frequency is still the dominant resolution limitation in this method.
Thus, how to find a method capable of solving the up-mentioned problems of the known PW signal modulation and detection methods and detecting the PW with fine resolution is a prominent goal for the industries.

Pulse width digitizing method and pulse width digitizer using thereof


A method of designing an exposure mask for exposing an image forming layer provided on a substrate, by use of near field light leaking from adjoining openings formed in a light blocking member. The method includes determining a width D of the openings and an opening interval of the openings to be formed in the light blocking member, in which a relation D≦(P−W−2T) is satisfied where T is the height of a pattern to be produced by the image forming layer, W is the linewidth of the pattern and P is the pitch of the pattern, so that an electrical field distribution, adjacent to the opening of the light blocking member as exposure light is projected on the light blocking member, is approximated to an electrical field model extending concentric-circularly with an edge of the light blocking member at an image forming layer side as a center.

Increasing capacity of a semiconductor memory and increasing speed and density of a CPU processor have inevitably necessitated further improvements in fineness of microprocessing through optical lithography. Generally, the limit of microprocessing with an optical lithographic apparatus is on an order of the wavelength of light used. Thus, the wavelength of light used in optical lithographic apparatuses has been shortened more and more. Currently, a near ultraviolet laser is used, and microprocessing on the 0.1 μm order is enabled. While the fineness is being improved in the optical lithography, in order to assure microprocessing of 0.1 μm or narrower, there still remain many unsolved problems, such as further shortening of laser wavelengths, development of lenses usable in such a wavelength region, and the like.
On the other hand, as a measure for enabling microprocessing of 0.1 μm order or narrower, a microprocessing apparatus using a structure of a near-field optical microscope (scanning near-field optical microscope: SNOM), has been proposed. An example is an exposure apparatus in which, by use of evanescent light leaking from a fine opening of a size not greater than 100 nm, local exposure that exceeds the light wavelength limit is performed to a resist.
However, since such a lithographic apparatus with an SNOM structure is arranged to execute the microprocessing by use of one or more processing probes, as in continuous drawing there is a problem that the throughput is not high.
As one method for solving such a problem, U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,730 proposes an exposure method in which a photomask, having a pattern arranged so that near field light leaks from a light blocking film, is closely contacted to a photoresist upon a substrate, whereby a fine pattern of the photomask is transferred to the photoresist at once.
The method and apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patent is very useful and it makes a large contribution to the technical field to which the present invention pertains.
Also, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-317345 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,996 disclose that such near field light has a property that the intensity is attenuated as with an exponential function, with the distance from the fine opening, and, thus, the film thickness of a pattern forming layer based on the near field exposure has to be made thin.
FIG. 2 illustrates a near-field electrical field distribution around a mask opening obtained by investigation made through simulations. Specifically, FIG. 2 shows the state of an electrical field distribution produced adjacent to the opening, where light having a wavelength of 436 nm is projected to a near-field exposure mask having a pitch of 200 nm and a mask opening width of 70 nm. Values in the drawing are relative electrical field intensities at respective positions where the intensity of incident light is taken as one.
Seeing the electrical field distribution, there is an extension from the opening to the light blocking film portion. This means that there is a possibility that the opening pattern of the mask and the pattern provided by exposure do not completely correspond to each other.
The feature that the electrical field intensity attenuates as coming away from the mask opening and that there appears an electrical field distribution being extended in a direction parallel to the mask surface, such as depicted in FIG. 2, is peculiar to the near field.
Generally, making an exposure mask takes a very long time and is expensive. In the mask pattern production for near field exposure, particularly, the mask design should be done while taking into account this electrical field distribution.
On the other hand, as the pattern width to be produced becomes narrower, the mask design should be made while more exactly taking into account the extension described above.
However, if the mask opening width having an electrical field distribution that can meet various pattern linewidths and pitches is sought through complicated simulations using many varieties of parameters, it takes a long time to complete the simulation and analysis. Consequently, it causes a problem that the mask designing also requires a long time.

Exposure mask, method of designing and manufacturing the same, exposure method and apparatus, pattern forming method, and device manufacturing method


A writing device comprises a carrying section configured to carry a plurality of tags written with information by way of wireless communication, a writing section configured to write the information into the tags which are carried to a set writing position by the carrying section by way of wireless communication, an accepting section configured to accept the input of the writing position where the writing section writes the information into the tags, when the information is written into the tags which are carried by the carrying section and a correcting section configured to correct the set writing position according to the writing position where the accepting section accepts the input.

In the prior art, a writing position where information is written into RFID tags is set in a bar code printer having a RFID reader-writer which writes the information into the carried RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags, under the offline mode (system mode) that the RFID reader-writer does not write the information into the RFID tag.


A process for the deposition of particulate material of a desired substance on a surface includes: (i) charging a particle formation vessel with a compressed fluid; (ii) introducing into the particle formation vessel a first feed stream comprising a solvent and the desired substance dissolved therein and a second feed stream comprising the compressed fluid, wherein the desired substance is less soluble in the compressed fluid relative to its solubility in the solvent and the solvent is soluble in the compressed fluid, and wherein the first feed stream is dispersed in the compressed fluid, allowing extraction of the solvent into the compressed fluid and precipitation of particles of the desired substance; (iii) exhausting compressed fluid, solvent and the desired substance from the particle formation vessel at a rate substantially equal to the rate of addition of such components to the vessel in step (ii) through a restrictive passage to a lower pressure whereby the compressed fluid is transformed to a gaseous state and a flow of particles of the desired substance is formed; and (iv) exposing a receiver surface to the exhausted flow of particles of the desired substance and depositing a uniform layer of particles on the receiver surface.

Deposition technologies are typically defined as technologies that deposit functional materials dissolved and/or dispersed in a fluid onto a receiver (also commonly known as substrate etc.). Technologies that use supercritical fluid solvents to create thin films are known. For example, R. D. Smith in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,582,731, 4,734,227 and 4,743,451 discloses a method involving dissolution of a solid material into a supercritical fluid solution and then rapidly expanding the solution through a short orifice into a region of relatively low pressure to produce a molecular spray. This may be directed against a substrate to deposit a solid thin film thereon, or discharged into a collection chamber to collect a fine powder. By choosing appropriate geometry of the orifice, and maintenance of temperature, the method also allows making of ultra-thin fibers from polymers. This method is known as RESS (rapid expansion of supercritical solutions) in the art.
In general, a process is considered a RESS process when the functional material is dissolved or dispersed in a supercritical fluid or a mixture of supercritical fluid and a liquid solvent, or a mixture of a supercritical fluid and surfactant, or a combination of these, which is then rapidly expanded to cause simultaneous precipitation of the functional material. Tom, J. W. and Debenedetti, P. B. discuss RESS techniques in "Particle Formation with Supercritical Fluids—a Review," J. Aerosol. Sci. (1991) 22:555–584, and also their applications to inorganic, organic, pharmaceutical and polymeric materials. The RESS technique is useful to precipitate small particles of shock-sensitive solids, to produce intimate mixtures of amorphous materials, to form polymeric micro-spheres, and deposit thin films. One problem with RESS based thin film deposition technologies is that it is limited only to materials that are soluble in supercritical fluid. While it is known that co-solvents can improve the solubility of some materials, the class of materials that can be processed with RESS based thin film technologies is small. Another significant problem is that such technologies fundamentally rely on formation of functional material particles through sudden reduction of local pressure in the delivery system. While the reduced pressure reduces the solvent power of the supercritical fluid, and causes precipitation of the solute as fine particles, the control of the highly dynamic operative processes is inherently very difficult. When co-solvents are used in RESS, great care is required to prevent dissolution of the particles by condensing solvent in the nozzle or premature precipitation of particles and clogging in the nozzle. Helfgen et al., in "Simulation of particle formation during the rapid expansion of supercritical solutions", J. of Aerosol Science, 32, 295–319 (2001), discuss how the nucleation of particles upon supersonic free-jet expansion, and subsequent growth by coagulation at and beyond Mach disk, pose significant design challenges in controlling the particle characteristics. In addition, beyond the expansion device, the complex transonic flow of gaseous material must be managed such that the particles are deposited onto a surface and do not remain suspended in the expanded gas. This is dependent not only on fluid velocities but also on particle characteristics. A third problem pertains to the use of RESS methods in manufacturing: it is well recognized that progress to a fully continuous RESS process is limited by depletion of the stock solution to be expanded. Thus, there is a need for a technology that permits improved control of particle characteristics so that uniform thin films onto receiver surfaces can be deposited continuously with compressed carrier fluids for a broader class of materials.
Fulton et al. in "Thin fluropolymer films and nanoparticle coatings from the rapid expansion of supercritical carbon dioxide solutions with electrostatic collection", Polymer, 44, 3627–3632 (2003), describe a process that charges the homogeneously nucleated particle as they are formed with an electric field applied to the tip of the expansion nozzle. The charged particles are then forced to a solid surface in this field generating a uniform particle coating. This method, however, does not overcome the limitations of the RESS process, namely, control of particle characteristics, and its limited applicability to only materials soluble in supercritical fluid or its co-solvent mixture.
Sievers et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,093 disclose a process for depositing a film on a substrate by rapidly releasing the pressure of a supercritical reaction mixture to form a vapor or aerosol that is not supercritical. A chemical reaction is induced in the vapor or aerosol so that a film of the desired material resulting from the chemical reaction is deposited on the substrate surface. Alternatively, the supercritical fluid contains a dissolved first reagent, which is contacted with a gas containing a second reagent, which reacts with the first reagent to form particles of the desired material deposited as a film on the substrate. In either case, the method still relies on particle formation upon expansion and suffers from the limited control of particle characteristics and only a narrow class of materials are suitable for processing by this method.
Hunt et al. U.S. 2002/0015797 A1 describe a method for chemical vapor deposition using a very fine atomization or vaporization of a reagent containing liquid or liquid-like fluid near its supercritical temperature by releasing it into a region of lower pressure, where the resulting atomized or vaporized solution is entered into a flame or a plasma torch, and a powder is formed or a coating is deposited onto a substrate. In this particular RESS process, rapid depressurization of a supercritical fluid creates an aerosol of liquid droplets. While further extending the number of possible usable precursors, this method does not improve the prior art in terms of particle characteristic control as particle nucleation and growth processes interact with the energetic regions of the combustion flame or plasma in an uncontrolled fashion.
Sievers et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,441 describe an alternative RESS process and apparatus for forming fine particles of a desired substance upon expansion of a pressurized fluid, wherein the substance is first dissolved or suspended in a first fluid that is immiscible with the second fluid, which is then mixed with the second fluid that is preferably in its supercritical state, and the immiscible mixture is then reduced in pressure to form a gas-borne dispersion of liquid droplets. The method thus relies on atomization and coalescence of fluid droplets rather than nucleation and growth of particles in the supercritical fluid. It is essentially a RESS process as it seeks to make liquid particles through rapid expansion of supercritical fluids. The dispersion then is dried or heated to facilitate reactions to occur at or near surfaces to form coatings or fine particles. The particle formation in this process occurs well beyond the expansion region and occurs through mechanisms similar to those operative during conventional spray or film drying.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,384 to Murthy et al. describes a process for depositing a thin metal or polymer coating on a substrate by exposing the substrate at supercritical temperatures and pressures to a solution containing the metal or polymer in a solvent and reducing the pressure or temperature to sub-critical values to deposit a thin coating of the metal or polymer on the substrate. Since the process relies on particle and film formation upon the expansion of the supercritical solution, it is still a RESS process.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,923,720 and 6,221,435 disclose liquid coatings application process and apparatus in which supercritical fluids are used to reduce, to application consistency, viscous coatings compositions to allow for their application as liquid spray. The method comprises of a closed system and relies on decompressive atomization of liquid spray for the formation of a liquid coating. Once again, the method is a RESS process as it depends on rapid expansion of supercritical fluids to form liquid droplets.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,721 discloses system for continuous processing of powder coating compositions in which supercritical fluids are used to reduce, to application consistency, viscous coatings compositions to allow for their application at a lower temperature. While the method comprises of continuous processing, it still relies on rapid expansion of supercritical fluids to form liquid droplets that are spray dried, and thus, is a RESS process.
Thus, there is still a strong need for a compressed fluid based coating process that operates continuously, has improved control of particle formation for a broader class of materials than hitherto possible with RESS based processes, and can be used to coat these particles onto a substrate uniformly.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Process for the deposition of uniform layer of particulate material


A semiconductor device having an array of flash memory cells and for each column of cells, a global read bit line, a global write bit line, and a plurality of local bit lines, wherein the column of cells is divided into a plurality of subcolumns and each local bit line is electrically coupled to each of the cells in a subcolumn associated with the local bit line. The local bit line is coupled and decoupled to the global read bit line by a local read select transistor and is coupled and decoupled to the global write bit line by a local write select transistor. By coupling one local bit line for a column to the global read bit line and coupling another local bit line to the global write bit line, one cell can be written while another cell is read from, even though the cell being read and the cell being written are in the same column. A variation uses the two global bit lines as read lines or read/write lines instead of a global read bit line and a global write bit line for each column.

The present invention relates to the field of flash memory construction. More specifically, one embodiment of the present invention provides an improved method and apparatus for addressing flash memory cells.
Flash electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) has been an increasingly popular choice for memory systems architects because of the densities that can be achieved. For example, as much as sixteen megabytes of flash memory can be found on a single chip, such as the 29LV160 flash memory chip made by Hyundai Electronics America of San Jose, Calif. One feature of flash memories which allows such density is that each cell of the memory requires the use of only a single transistor. A cell is the unit of memory in which a bit is stored, or multiple bits in the case of multi-bit cells. As is well known in the art of flash memories, one or more bits can be stored as a charge on a floating gate interposed between a control gate and the source/channel/drain of the single transistor of a cell. Typically, a word line is connected to the control gates of each flash memory cell in a row of memory and a bit line is connected to the drains of each flash memory cell in a row of cells. The sources of each of the cells are coupled to a reference, typically ground; however, in some memories the connections for sources and drains are reversed.
To address a particular cell, a word line associated with the particular cell's row is activated to activate a row of the memory and a bit line associated with the particular cell's column is used to perform a memory operation. Multiple cells in a row can be operated on in parallel, using multiple bit lines. The memory operations performed on a selected cell or row of cells include reading the data stored in the cell or cells and programming, i.e., writing, a value or values to the cell or cells. Another memory operation, erasing, might also be performed on a particular cell, but more typically more than one row are erased at one time, hence the name "flash" memory. The term "sector" is used to describe a set of cells which are erased as a group in a flash memory. One disadvantage to this addressing scheme is that, when data is read from or written to the cell, the activity on the bit line may disturb the contents of cells in rows that have not been selected, as the bit line is coupled to many unselected cells in unselected rows in addition to a selected cell in the selected row. In flash memories where the drains of each cell are coupled to a bit line, this undesired effect is often referred to as a "drain disturb" effect.
In response to drain disturb and other concerns, some memory chips have been designed with a page architecture to reduce the ratio of unselected cells to selected cells on a given bit line. One example of this is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,808 (which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes). That reference shows the division of the rows of a flash memory into a plurality of pages wherein a column of cells overlies a plurality of pages and a page bit line is provided for each column in each page. Using this approach, if one row is selected, only the page bit line for the page containing the selected row need be activated. This allows for the cells in other pages to remain undisturbed, as their page bit lines are not activated. This reduces the number of times an inactivated cell is disturbed, and consequently increases the number of times the memory can be accessed before drain disturb errors occur.
Another desire in flash memories is to increase the access speed. The apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,808 may reduce the effects of drain disturb, but it does not provide for simultaneously accessing memory locations. Therefore, what is needed is an improved flash memory architecture which provides for improved access times.

Concurrent read/write architecture for a flash memory


There is provided a dielectric ceramic composition that is a dielectric ceramic material used for a laminated ceramic capacitor; that can be co-fired with internal electrodes mainly composed of Ni at a temperature of 1300° C. or less; and that has a high dielectric constant, good temperature characteristics of capacitance in a range of −55 to 175° C., and a high resistivity ρ at 175° C. The dielectric ceramic composition includes a main component represented by a composition formula (1-a) (K1-xNax)(Sr1-y-zBayCaz)2Nb5O15-a(Ba1-bCab)TiO3 (where a, b, x, y, and z are all molar amounts and 0.3≦a≦0.8, 0≦b≦0.2, 0≦x<0.2, 0.1≦y≦0.5, 0.1≦z≦0.5, and 0.2≦y+z≦0.7); and M, as an additional component, in an amount of 0.1 to 40 parts by mole relative to 100 parts by mole of the main component (where M is at least one element from the group of V, Mn, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Mg, and Si).

A laminated ceramic capacitor that is a principal application of the present invention is typically manufactured as follows.
First, there is prepared a ceramic green sheet that contains a dielectric ceramic raw material and on which a conductive material which will become internal electrodes is provided in a desired pattern.
Subsequently, a plurality of ceramic green sheets including the above-mentioned ceramic green sheet to which a conductive material has been provided are stacked and heat-bonded to manufacture an integrated green laminated body.
The green laminated body is then fired to obtain a sintered laminated body. Internal electrodes composed of the above-mentioned conductive material are thus formed inside the laminated body.
Subsequently, an external electrode is formed on the outer surface of the laminated body so as to be electrically connected to particular internal electrodes. For example, the external electrode is formed by providing conductive paste containing conductive metal powder and glass frit to the outer surface of the laminated body and then baking the conductive paste. Thus, a laminated ceramic capacitor is completed.
To reduce manufacturing cost of the laminated ceramic capacitor, inexpensive Ni is desirably used as the material of the internal electrodes. When Ni is used as a material of the internal electrodes, the atmosphere during the firing of the laminated body needs to be a reducing atmosphere to prevent the oxidation of Ni during the firing because Ni is a base metal.
To fire the laminated body in a reducing atmosphere, the dielectric ceramic material needs to have reduction resistance. International Publication No. WO2006/114914 Pamphlet (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a KSr2Nb5O15 ceramic composition as a material having reduction resistance and good electrical properties.
Patent Document 1—International Publication No. WO2006/114914

Dielectric ceramic composition and laminated ceramic capacitor


A method and system for a user interface for artifact removal in an EEG is disclosed herein. The invention allows an operator to select a plurality of artifacts to be automatically removed from an EEG recording using a user interface. The operator pushes a button on the user interface to apply a plurality of filters to remove the plurality of artifacts from the EEG and generate a clean EEG for viewing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and system for displaying EEG data. More specifically, the present invention relates to analyzing an EEG recording.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electroencephalogram ("EEG") is a diagnostic tool that measures and records the electrical activity of a person's brain in order to evaluate cerebral functions. Multiple electrodes are attached to a person's head and connected to a machine by wires. The machine amplifies the signals and records the electrical activity of a person's brain. The electrical activity is produced by the summation of neural activity across a plurality of neurons. These neurons generate small electric voltage fields. The aggregate of these electric voltage fields create an electrical reading which electrodes on the person's head are able to detect and record. An EEG is a superposition of multiple simpler signals. In a normal adult, the amplitude of an EEG signal typically ranges from 1 micro-Volt to 100 micro-Volts, and the EEG signal is approximately 10 to 20 milli-Volts when measured with subdural electrodes. The monitoring of the amplitude and temporal dynamics of the electrical signals provides information about the underlying neural activity and medical conditions of the person.
An EEG is performed to: diagnose epilepsy; verify problems with loss of consciousness or dementia; verify brain activity for a person in a coma; study sleep disorders, monitor brain activity during surgery, and additional physical problems.
Multiple electrodes (typically 17-21, however there are standard positions for at least 70) are attached to a person's head during an EEG. The electrodes are referenced by the position of the electrode in relation to a lobe or area of a person's brain. The references are as follows: F=frontal; Fp=frontopolar; T=temporal; C=central; P=parietal; O=occipital; and A=auricular (ear electrode). Numerals are used to further narrow the position and "z" points relate to electrode sites in the midline of a person's head. An electrocardiogram ("EKG") may also appear on an EEG display.
The EEG records brain waves from different amplifiers using various combinations of electrodes called montages. Montages are generally created to provide a clear picture of the spatial distribution of the EEG across the cortex. A montage is an electrical map obtained from a spatial array of recording electrodes and preferably refers to a particular combination of electrodes examined at a particular point in time.
In bipolar montages, consecutive pairs of electrodes are linked by connecting the electrode input 2 of one channel to input 1 of the subsequent channel, so that adjacent channels have one electrode in common. The bipolar chains of electrodes may be connected going from front to back (longitudinal) or from left to right (transverse). In a bipolar montage signals between two active electrode sites are compared resulting in the difference in activity recorded. Another type of montage is the referential montage or monopolar montage. In a referential montage, various electrodes are connected to input 1 of each amplifier and a reference electrode is connected to input 2 of each amplifier. In a reference montage, signals are collected at an active electrode site and compared to a common reference electrode.
Reference montages are good for determining the true amplitude and morphology of a waveform. For temporal electrodes, CZ is usually a good scalp reference.
Being able to locate the origin of electrical activity ("localization") is critical to being able to analyze the EEG. Localization of normal or abnormal brain waves in bipolar montages is usually accomplished by identifying "phase reversal," a deflection of the two channels within a chain pointing to opposite directions. In a referential montage, all channels may show deflections in the same direction. If the electrical activity at the active electrodes is positive when compared to the activity at the reference electrode, the deflection will be downward. Electrodes where the electrical activity is the same as at the reference electrode will not show any deflection. In general, the electrode with the largest upward deflection represents the maximum negative activity in a referential montage.
Some patterns indicate a tendency toward seizures in a person. A physician may refer to these waves as "epileptiform abnormalities" or "epilepsy waves." These include spikes, sharp waves, and spike-and-wave discharges. Spikes and sharp waves in a specific area of the brain, such as the left temporal lobe, indicate that partial seizures might possibly come from that area. Primary generalized epilepsy, on the other hand, is suggested by spike-and-wave discharges that are widely spread over both hemispheres of the brain, especially if they begin in both hemispheres at the same time.
There are several types of brain waves: alpha waves, beta waves, delta wave, theta waves and gamma waves. Alpha waves have a frequency of 8 to 12 Hertz ("Hz"). Alpha waves are normally found when a person is relaxed or in a waking state when a person's eyes are closed but the person is mentally alert. Alpha waves cease when a person's eyes are open or the person is concentrating. Beta waves have a frequency of 13 Hz to 30 Hz. Beta waves are normally found when a person is alert, thinking, agitated, or has taken high doses of certain medicines. Delta waves have a frequency of less than 3 Hz. Delta waves are normally found only when a person is asleep (non-REM or dreamless sleep) or the person is a young child. Theta waves have a frequency of 4 Hz to 7 Hz. Theta waves are normally found only when the person is asleep (dream or REM sleep) or the person is a young child. Gamma waves have a frequency of 30 Hz to 100 Hz. Gamma waves are normally found during higher mental activity and motor functions.
The following definitions are used herein.
"Amplitude" refers to the vertical distance measured from the trough to the maximal peak (negative or positive). It expresses information about the size of the neuron population and its activation synchrony during the component generation.
The term "analogue to digital conversion" refers to when an analogue signal is converted into a digital signal which can then be stored in a computer for further processing. Analogue signals are "real world" signals (e.g., physiological signals such as electroencephalogram, electrocardiogram or electrooculogram). In order for them to be stored and manipulated by a computer, these signals must be converted into a discrete digital form the computer can understand.
"Artifacts" are electrical signals detected along the scalp by an EEG, but that originate from non-cerebral origin. There are patient related artifacts (e.g., movement, sweating, ECG, eye movements) and technical artifacts (50/60 Hz artifact, cable movements, electrode paste-related).
The term "differential amplifier" refers to the key to electrophysiological equipment. It magnifies the difference between two inputs (one amplifier per pair of electrodes).
"Duration" is the time interval from the beginning of the voltage change to its return to the baseline. It is also a measurement of the synchronous activation of neurons involved in the component generation.
"Electrode" refers to a conductor used to establish electrical contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit. EEG electrodes are small metal discs usually made of stainless steel, tin, gold or silver covered with a silver chloride coating. They are placed on the scalp in special positions.
"Electrode gel" acts as a malleable extension of the electrode, so that the movement of the electrodes leads is less likely to produce artifacts. The gel maximizes skin contact and allows for a low-resistance recording through the skin.
The term "electrode positioning" (10/20 system) refers to the standardized placement of scalp electrodes for a classical EEG recording. The essence of this system is the distance in percentages of the 10/20 range between Nasion-Inion and fixed points. These points are marked as the Frontal pole (Fp), Central (C), Parietal (P), occipital (O), and Temporal (T). The midline electrodes are marked with a subscript z, which stands for zero. The odd numbers are used as subscript for points over the left hemisphere, and even numbers over the right
"Electroencephalogram" or "EEG" refers to the tracing of brain waves, by recording the electrical activity of the brain from the scalp, made by an electroencephalograph.
"Electroencephalograph" refers to an apparatus for detecting and recording brain waves (also called encephalograph).
"Epileptiform" refers to resembling that of epilepsy.
"Filtering" refers to a process that removes unwanted frequencies from a signal.
"Filters" are devices that alter the frequency composition of the signal.
"Montage" means the placement of the electrodes. The EEG can be monitored with either a bipolar montage or a referential one. Bipolar means that there are two electrodes per one channel, so there is a reference electrode for each channel. The referential montage means that there is a common reference electrode for all the channels.
"Morphology" refers to the shape of the waveform. The shape of a wave or an EEG pattern is determined by the frequencies that combine to make up the waveform and by their phase and voltage relationships. Wave patterns can be described as being: "Monomorphic". Distinct EEG activity appearing to be composed of one dominant activity. "Polymorphic". distinct EEG activity composed of multiple frequencies that combine to form a complex waveform. "Sinusoidal". Waves resembling sine waves. Monomorphic activity usually is sinusoidal. "Transient". An isolated wave or pattern that is distinctly different from background activity.
"Spike" refers to a transient with a pointed peak and a duration from 20 to under 70 msec.
The term "sharp wave" refers to a transient with a pointed peak and duration of 70-200 msec.
The term "neural network algorithms" refers to algorithms that identify sharp transients that have a high probability of being epileptiform abnormalities.
"Noise" refers to any unwanted signal that modifies the desired signal. It can have multiple sources.
"Periodicity" refers to the distribution of patterns or elements in time (e.g., the appearance of a particular EEG activity at more or less regular intervals). The activity may be generalized, focal or lateralized.
An EEG epoch is an amplitude of a EEG signal as a function of time and frequency.
Various techniques have been developed to present the EEG data to a physician or technician. However, these techniques are still lacking. Learning what is an artifact and how to see what is in the underlying signal is one of the most difficult problems in EEG interpretation. A number of techniques have been developed for algorithmically removing artifact to produce a cleaner EEG, but in order for these to be adopted commercially it is necessary to develop a user interface that allows the user to see how the original signal has evolved to the clean signal.

User interface for artifact removal in an EEG


In an aspect, an inflatable object includes an object body enclosing a chamber to receive air, and a valve mounted to the inflatable object body, including a valve body defining a passageway between the chamber and an ambient environment. The valve body has a shoulder. The valve body defines an outside end, which opens to the ambient environment, and an inside end, which opens into the chamber. The valve includes a one-way flap that is movable between an open position to permit fluid communication between the chamber and the ambient environment through the passageway, and a closed position. The one-way flap is biased to the closed position with a closing force selected to be overcomable to move the one-way flap to the open position by an airflow having a speed that is less than about 48 m/s, and which is at a pressure lower than 1 atmosphere.

It is known to construct inflatable objects with a valve permitting a user to manually inflate and deflate the object. Typically the valve employs some kind of one-way flow mechanism to permit air to be pushed into the object, while inhibiting air from leaving the object during between puffs by the user. These one-way flow mechanism sometimes require substantial effort to overcome, which can cause the user to tire during inflation of the object. Furthermore, the volume of air that the user needs to blow into the inflatable object can be significant and can also cause the user to become tired or dizzy. It would be advantageous to at least ameliorate one or more of these aforementioned problems or other problems with inflatable objects.


A method and apparatus for supporting uplink Transmission Time Interval (TTI) bundling in Long Term Evolution (LTE) is provided. Described are related method and apparatus for signaling, activation/deactivation and wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) behavior.

Third generation partnership project (3GPP) and 3GPP2 are considering long term evolution (LTE) for radio interface and network architecture. There is an ever-increasing demand on wireless operators to provide better quality voice and high-speed data services. As a result, wireless communication systems that enable higher data rates and higher capacities are a pressing need.
In evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (evolved UTRA), the network architecture includes a radio access network that provides wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) access to a core network of a cellular communication system. Within the radio access network, radio resources are divided into blocks of time (sub-frames) and frequency (frequency blocks).
Transmission Time Interval (TTI) bundling in the uplink has been proposed to improve coverage for WTRUs near the cell edge. The solution is characterized by a single transport block that is coded and transmitted in a set of consecutive subframes. A bundle is treated as a single resource, i.e., a single grant, and a single hybrid-Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) acknowledgement is used for each bundle. The same HARQ process number is used in each of the bundled subframes. The HARQ Round Trip Time (RTT) is different than for the non-bundling case to reduce delays. The relation between subframe number and HARQ process number is unaffected for non-bundled subframes. Bundling can be applied to Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) as well as Time Division Duplex (TDD). For TDD, the bundling size needs to take the allocations of subframes to Uplink (UL) and Downlink (DL) into account.
For an example in a LTE FDD system, a HARQ process and its different redundancy versions (RV) are bundled and transmitted in a fixed number of subframes, timeslots or applicable blocks of time or frequency and may be designated as Nbundle and may also referred to as the TTI bundling value. For example, Nbundle=4, is the current working assumption in 3GPP standards. A single transport block may be coded and transmitted in a set of consecutive subframes.
Three alternatives for TTI bundles are shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, respectively. In Alternative 1, the timing relation between the last subframe in the TTI bundle and the transmission instant of the HARQ acknowledgement is identical to the case of no bundling. For the case of FDD, if the last subframe in a TTI bundle is subframe n, then the acknowledgement is transmitted in subframe n+4 and if the first subframe in a TTI bundle is subframe k, then any HARQ retransmissions begins in subframe k+2*HARQ_RTT. In Alternative 2, the timing relation between the first subframe in the TTI bundle and the transmission instant of the HARQ acknowledgement is identical to the case of no bundling. For the case of FDD, the HARQ acknowledgement is obtained from decoding the first subframe only. In Alternative 3, the timing relation between the last subframe in the TTI bundle and the transmission instant of the HARQ acknowledgement is identical to the case of no bundling. For the case of FDD, if the last subframe in a TTI bundle is subframe n then the acknowledgement is transmitted in subframe n+4
Uplink TTI bundling may be activated and deactivated by radio resource controller (RRC) signaling. When switched on, TTI bundling applies to all uplink transmissions using PUSCH. To reduce the number of options and the associated testing, the number of configurations of the bundle size is minimized. Preferably only a single fixed value of the number of subframes in a bundle is specified. But there are several deficiencies with respect to this method such as but not limited to not providing criteria for triggering TTI bundling, no defined WRTU behaviors, no HARQ process related behaviors and no details related to Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS).

Method for transmission time interval bundling in the uplink


Optical fiber attenuators are produced by splicing two fiber ends by melt-fusioning. The fiber ends are initially placed with a large lateral offset and the heating of the spliced portion is continued during a long time period to completely align the fiber ends, in particular the cores (3) and claddings (2) thereof, and to make material of the fibers cores (3) diffuse (23) into the neighbouring regions of the fiber claddings. By properly choosing the extended time for prolonged heating attenuators can be produced with a good repeatability. The prolonged heating period is significantly shortened by the use of a large initial offset.

Optical-fiber attenuators are used for optical signal-power reduction, mainly in short distance telecommunication links or in long distance trunk-lines with signal repeaters having a fixed amplification. In a network, whenever the optical signal power is higher than the dynamic range of the detectors (normally less than 25 dB), the optical signal needs to be lowered by attenuating the signal power to avoid saturation of the detectors.
There are mainly three different types of designs of optical-fiber attenuators: mechanical attenuators, see A. Benner, H. M. Presby. and N. Amitay, "Low-reflection in-line variable attenuator utilizing optical fiber taper," J. of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 7-10, January, 1990, laser diode attenuators, see N. Kashima, "A new approach to an optical attenuator for a time compression multiplex system using a laser diode as both transmitter and receiver", J. of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 9, No. 8, pp. 987-990, August, 1991, and fused attenuators, see e.g. M. Cork, "Passive fiber optic components," Short Course Notes, OFC'91, San Diego, p. 63, February, 1991.
A typical mechanical attenuator is shown in FIG. 1. Two fiber ends 1 having claddings 2 surrounding cores 3 are made broader at the end surfaces, in the portions 5, producing a taper 7 as seen from the end surfaces. A stabilizing sleeve 9 keeps the ends in place with the end surfaces at some predetermined distance. There are several variations in the design, e.g., with or without the taper 7, the end surfaces may extend perpendicularly or non-per-pendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the fibers, there may be a piece of absorption or half-reflection glass in the air-gap 11, etc. The advantage of a mechanical attenuator is that the attenuation can be adjusted in a mechanical way by moving the end surfaces of the fiber ends, see the arrows 13. However, if the attenuator is to be used as a line build-in component having a fixed attenuation in a system, the variation of attenuation with varying temperature, a high production and maintenance cost, the high reflection--low return loss of about 10-40 dB--will altogether make a system comprising mechanical attenuators very unstable and expensive.
A typical fused attenuator, see FIG. 2 and the article by M. Cork cited above, can be manufactured by offset splicing, as described in the published International patent application WO-A1 95/24665 "Controlled splicing of optical fibers" corresponding to the Japanese patent application 523,400/95 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/400,968, which is incorporated by reference herein. Here the fiber ends 1 are only displaced in a lateral direction, an offset x existing between the sides of the fibers, that is between the outer surfaces of the cladding 2 as seen in a chosen direction. When the splice is made, the surface tension effect will try to align the outer surfaces of the claddings, this also producing a curved end segment 15 of the fiber cores 3 at the formed end surfaces, at the corresponding splice surface. This type of attenuator has a very low production cost, has a very high attenuation stability and reliability, and almost no reflection is obtained from the attenuator. No maintenance is needed. However, the offset of the fiber claddings may not be quite satisfactory, as considered by some system designers. They are worried about the mechanical stress concentration at the splice point when the attenuator is used during extended time periods, especially when the splice is only re-coated without using a protection sleeve. These stress concentrations may lead to unwanted cracks of the fiber claddings or even ruptures of the fiber joints.
The British patent application GB-A 2 128 766 discloses a single mode optical fiber attenuator, wherein the ends of two optical fibers are fused together by applying heat to the ends. When the ends have been satisfactorily fused together the heating is continued. This causes the core region to partially diffuse into the cladding material. When the fiber is then cooled an attenuator is created, i.e. light propagating in the fiber is attenuated as a result of the non-distinctiveness of the fiber cores due to the partial diffusion. The heating can be prolonged during quite a long time. Times of 70 and 150 seconds are mentioned for making attenuators of 4 dB and 8 dB respectively.
In the article "Splice loss of single mode fiber as related to fusion time, temperature, and index profile alteration", by J. T. Krause, W. A. Reed and K. L. Walker, IOOC-ECOC '85, pp. 629-632, the loss or attenuation of a single mode fiber splice is discussed and in particular it is stated that the loss is dependent on the offset of the fiber cores and on the diffusion of the core material. U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,556 for George A. Decker discloses a method for fabricating an optical attenuator wherein the axes of two optical fiber ends are misaligned by an offset distance and then the fiber ends are melted to each other. While the fiber ends are melted, the ends are moved since the surface tension tends to align the exterior sides of the claddings of the optical fibers and then also the axes of the cores will be essentially aligned. The same method is disclosed in German Offenlegungsschrift DE-A1 42 36 807. A similar method is discussed in the European published patent application EP-A2 0 594 996.

Optical fiber attenuator made by fusion splicing offset fiber ends with extended heating after fusing


Provided is a multi-threshold complementary metal oxide semiconductor (MTCMOS) latch circuit including: a data inverting circuit for inverting and outputting input data under the control of a sleep control signal; a transmission gate for transferring the data signal output from the data inverting circuit under the control of a clock control signal; a signal control circuit for outputting the data signal output from the transmission gate under the control of a reset control signal and the sleep control signal; and a feedback circuit for feeding back the signal output from the signal control circuit and preserving the data in a sleep mode. The MTCMOS latch circuit can minimize power consumption caused by a leakage current due to elements scaled down to nano scale and also contribute to high-speed operation of a logic circuit by using an element having a low threshold voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-threshold complementary metal oxide semiconductor (MTCMOS) latch circuit capable of preserving data without a leakage current during a sleep mode using MTCMOS technology.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A latch circuit has one data input, one clock input, and one output. When the clock input is activated, input data is received and transferred to an output side, and when the clock input is deactivated, the data is preserved in a feedback circuit.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a conventional latch circuit using a single threshold voltage, FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of a conventional clock signal generation circuit, and FIGS. 3A to 3C illustrate transistor equivalents of elements shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3C, the latch circuit using a single threshold voltage includes a transmission gate 100 controlled by a clock signal CP and an inverted clock signal CPb, a NAND gate 110 outputting data D in response to a reset control signal RS, a first inverter 120 inverting the signal output from the NAND gate 110, and a feedback transmission gate 130.
The clock signal CP and the inverted clock signal CPb are generated by the clock signal generation circuit shown in FIG. 2. The clock signal generation circuit includes a second inverter 210 and a third inverter 220.
Therefore, when a clock control signal CLK in a high state is input, the inverted clock signal CPb in a low state is output by the second inverter 210, and the clock signal CP in the high state is output by the second inverter 210 and the third inverter 220. On the contrary, when the clock control signal CLK in a low state is input, the inverted clock signal CPb in a high state is output by the second inverter 210, and the clock signal CP in the low state is output by the second inverter 210 and the third inverter 220.
As illustrated in FIG. 3A, the transmission gate 100 consists of a p-channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor and n-channel metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) transistor having a medium threshold voltage.
As illustrated in FIG. 3B, the NAND gate 110 consists of PMOS transistors and NMOS transistors having a medium threshold voltage.
As illustrated in FIG. 3C, the first, second and third inverters 120, 210 and 220 each consist of a PMOS transistor and NMOS transistor having a medium threshold voltage.
Operation of the latch circuit constructed as described above will be described below.
When the reset control signal RS is in a low state, the NAND gate 110 outputs the signal in a high state regardless of an input state of the data D, and an output Q is maintained in a low state by the first inverter 120.
On the contrary, when the reset control signal RS is in a high state and the clock control signal CLK is in a high state, the clock signal CP becomes the high state and the inverted clock signal CPb becomes the low state. Thus, the transmission gate 100 becomes an on state and the feedback transmission gate 130 becomes an off state.
Here, when the data D is in a high state, the output Q becomes a high state, and when the data D is in a low state, the output Q becomes a low state.
In addition, when the clock control signal CLK is in a low state, the transmission gate 100 becomes an off state and the feedback transmission gate 130 becomes an on state. Thus, the output Q is maintained in a state of previous data.
However, the conventional latch circuit using a single threshold voltage as described above has problems in achieving high performance and low power consumption due to a leakage current caused by scaled-down elements.

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute