A capacitive electric musical instrument vibration transducer contains one or more parallel plate variable capacitors. Each variable capacitor contains one vibrating variable capacitor plate, an electrically conducting surface that comprises, covers, or is embedded within an acoustically emitting vibrating surface on a musical instrument (such as a drumhead or soundboard), and one fixed variable capacitor plate comprising a rigid electrically conducting surface held a fixed distance away. When the instrument is played, the vibrating surface causes vibrations directly (without using airborne sound as an intermediary) in the vibrating variable capacitor plates, thus causing time-varying voltage oscillations in the parallel plate variable capacitors reflecting the vibrational state, and therefore the sound, of the instrument. An electric circuit in the transducer converts these voltage oscillations into the same kinds of signals produced by microphones and magnetic pickups.

This invention relates generally to the field of musical instruments, more particularly to a capacitive electric musical instrument vibration transducers better adapted to interface acoustic musical instruments with electronic recording and amplification equipment. (A musical instrument vibration transducer is sometimes referred to as a pickup, but that term will not be used to refer to the invention presented here to avoid confusion with electric guitar pickups and similar devices which, unlike this invention, are magnetic in nature.) There are three different general categories of musical instruments in common usage at the time of this writing: acoustic, electronic and electric. This invention relates to the first category, and aims to give acoustic instruments many of the advantages of the other instrument types. For completeness, all three categories will be discussed here.
Note that the primary emphasis of the discussion will be on percussion instruments, although this invention can be used on other types of instruments as well, including those that use some form of soundboard for sound propagation. These two categories of instruments have much in common; a percussion instrument can be understood as a soundboard stimulated by direct impact, and a banjo (a soundboard-instrument) uses a membrane as its soundboard that is essentially a drumhead in terms of its construction and mounting. In discussing the three general types of instruments, we will examine percussion instruments first, then examine the similarities between the percussion and soundboard instruments.
Acoustic percussion instruments include a number of different types of drums (such as snare, tom, bass, conga, djembe, etc.) as well as cymbals (such as hi-hat, crash, ride, gong, etc). Acoustic percussion instruments can be widely varied, such as temple blocks and cowbells, but drums and cymbals are of particular interest to musicians. Usually a number of acoustic percussion instruments are placed together in sets to be used by a single musician. Such sets of instruments are often known as drumsets, and the musician playing them known as a percussionist or drummer.
Drums typically consist of a shell (a hollow open-ended cylinder made of materials such as wood, metal, and plastic) capped on one or both ends by a drumhead (a thin, flexible disc made of materials such as plastic or animal hide). Drumheads are typically held in place by metal hoops that are secured to the shell by tension rods screwed into metal lugs. Acoustic drums are played by striking one or both heads with hands, sticks, brushes, beaters, rods, and other such devices.
Acoustic cymbals are typically discs made of metals such as bronze or brass, often mounted on stands by holes in their centers. Cymbals can also be mounted on their perimeter (like gongs). They have been carefully machined and hammered to provide certain sounds in response to activating actions, for example when played by devices such as sticks, mallets, brushes, rods, or bows, or when brought into rapid contact with one another (as in the case with hi-hat cymbals).
Acoustic percussion instruments generally interface with electronic recording and amplification systems through microphones. There are two different techniques used to record percussion sounds: close miking, where one or more microphones are placed close to each percussion instrument to capture their sounds individually, and distance miking, where fewer microphones are placed further away from the set of instruments to capture their sounds collectively.
Close miking is often more desirable because it captures individual instrument sounds more accurately, which allows more precise mixing of percussion sounds in production. It is also more complicated, due to the number of microphones needed. In close miking double-headed drums like snare drums, for example, two microphones are needed for each drum, one for each drumhead. Close miking can be very costly, especially if high quality microphones are required (as is often the case for cymbals). Distance miking is less costly and complicated, but it offers less control of instrument sounds while mixing for recording and/or amplification. Distance miking is also more likely to pick up noises from the surroundings (like other instruments, vocals, crowd noise, etc.) and make the final musical mix less clean than close miking.
A combination of close and distance miking are commonly used in live performances and recording sessions. For example, two close microphones may be used on snare drums, one for each drumhead, but only one close microphone on each tom and bass drum (even though these instruments are typically double-headed). Some loss of fidelity is experienced on toms and bass drums because the microphone only captures the sound from the head being struck, and even with close miking, the microphones can still pick up significant amounts of sound external to the drums being miked. For cymbals, one or two distant microphones are often used to capture their sounds collectively. The sounds of individual cymbals cannot be mixed individually, and other sounds (such as drum noise) are recorded as well.
Acoustic percussion instruments have a number of drawbacks. For greatest fidelity in an amplified performance or recording session, they require a large number of microphones, which can be quite expensive. Arranging these microphones requires great expertise, and can be quite time consuming. The fact that microphones can pick up significant amounts of external noise, such as other musical instruments or squeaking from a poorly lubricated bass drum pedal, can cause significant problems for sound engineers and percussionists. Another problem with acoustic instruments is that they can be very loud, often too loud for other musicians performing with a percussionist, or for neighbors of a percussionist practicing at home. Elaborate muting systems have been devised, such as erecting Plexiglas shields around drumsets or drumhead muffling systems like the invention of Suenaga, but these often change the sound of the instruments to an unacceptable degree. Using less force to play the instrument changes the playability of the instruments as well as their acoustic output, and is generally not a viable solution for volume problems.
Other acoustic musical instruments exist that propagate sound through a soundboard or its equivalent, which are referred to here collectively as soundboard instruments. These instruments include a number of stringed instruments like banjos, acoustic guitars, violins, lutes, mandolins, pianos, harps, and many others. These instruments may have a part of the instrument formally known as a soundboard, as the piano does, but many of these instruments use other parts of the instrument instead as a soundboard equivalent, such as the hollow body of an acoustic guitar or violin. In these instruments, vibrations are created in the soundboard or equivalent indirectly, generally by plucking, picking, hammering, or otherwise stimulating stretched strings attached to the soundboard or equivalent. The vibrating strings vibrate the soundboard or equivalent, which propagates the sound to the air more effectively than the vibrating strings do themselves. The banjo is particularly interesting in the context of this discussion because in terms of its construction, it is essentially a drum whose head, called a membrane, vibrates not by direct impact, but instead by the vibrations of stretched strings connected to the membrane through a bridge.
Soundboard instruments, like the acoustic percussion instruments discussed earlier, generally rely on microphones to interface with audio recording and amplification equipment. For this reason they suffer the same kinds of drawbacks that acoustic percussion instruments do. Piezoelectric devices known as contact pickups are sometimes used to sense vibrations over small areas of soundboards or their equivalents. The signal quality produced by contact pickups is generally poor, especially in terms of their low frequency response.
There are many examples of electronic percussion instruments, including the inventions of Mori et al. and Ebihara et al. These instruments do not produce musical sound directly, as acoustic instruments do. Instead, they use an electronic device (commonly referred to as a drum module) to produce electronic waveforms. These waveforms can be recordings of acoustic percussion instruments, recordings of other instrument sounds, or completely artificial waveforms produced by a synthesizer or other electronic device. These waveforms can be captured by recording or amplification equipment as if they were actual sounds captured by microphones.
Drum modules do not require a percussionist or drummer for operation. They can be operated through computer interfaces, electronic musical keyboards, or other electronic devices, although percussionists are frequently used. To simulate the instrument layout and feel of acoustic percussion instruments, a number of drum pads are typically employed. Drum pads typically feature a rubber or mesh head that can be played in a similar manner as a drumhead or cymbal, and are placed on stands around the drummer to simulate acoustic instrument placement conventions. The pads feature electronic mechanisms, typically called triggers, that sense vibrations on the pads consistent with the impact of sticks, hands, beaters, and such, and then send signals to the drum module to indicate that a particular waveform should then be emitted. Pads can feature multiple triggers to better simulate acoustic instrument behavior. For example, a pad meant to imitate a snare drum (like the one shown by Yoshino) might have two sensors, one in the center of the pad and one on the edge, which would allow the module to play ordinary drum beats, rim shots, and rim knocks depending on the signal received from the pad's multiple sensors. Triggers can also be impact sensitive, like the pressure transducer of Duncan et al., allowing drummers some measure of volume control.
Electronic drums are desirable for a number of reasons. They are much easier to set up than acoustic instruments because they don't need microphones. Drum sounds are sent directly from the drum module to recording or amplification equipment. They can play sounds that acoustic percussion instruments are physically incapable of producing. Also, electronic instruments can be played much more quietly than acoustic instruments. Because the sound produced by a drum module has nothing to do with the actual modes of vibration on the pads, electronic pads are generally made of materials that create little noise when struck, like rubber or taut nylon mesh.
Electronic percussion instruments have a number of drawbacks that make them unacceptable to large numbers of musicians. First and foremost, they lack the range and depth of acoustic instruments. The sound an acoustic instrument makes is unique every time it is played, because of factors such as instrument tuning, strike location, and so on. An electronic drum, on the other hand, generates an identically shaped waveform every time it is played. This repetitiveness can be unpleasant to many listeners. Adding extra triggers to pads (as Yoshino shows to allow triggering of rim shots), or making them pressure sensitive to change the volume at various times (as Duncan et al. shows), does little to alleviate this problem. Electronic percussion instruments also often lack the physical response characteristics (or "feel") of their acoustic counterparts, which can limit their playability.
The trigger mechanisms for electronic percussion instruments, including the inventions of Bozzio, Duncan et al., and others, have received much attention. It should be noted that these triggers, often known as drum pads, pressure transducers, piezoelectric pickups, and other similar names, are not used for the same purpose as microphones or magnetic pickups. When played, drum triggers produce a signal that triggers the drum module or equivalent to play a sound; they do not produce a microphone-like or magnetic pickup-like signal directly. The signal they produce is not intended to reproduce the sound of the triggering mechanism itself. For example, the invention of Duncan et al. is a pressure transducer that produces a non-oscillatory signal indicating the amount of pressure being applied to the triggering device by the percussionist as a function of time. These devices cannot be used without a drum module, synthesizer, or other such device, and are incapable of reproducing the (often undesirable) exact sound being emitted from the triggering device as a result of the triggering strike.
Soundboard instruments have their electronic counterparts as well, such as the electronic keyboard and (more rarely) electronic guitar-like devices. Again, they have an interface similar to their acoustic counterparts, but their output waveforms are based on sampled or electronically synthesized sounds from an electronic module within the instrument. They are often rejected by musicians and listeners for the same reasons electronic percussion instruments are rejected, including their repetitive output waveforms and their poor playability compared to their acoustic counterparts.
Acoustic musical instruments often have purely electric analogs, the most famous and commonly used being stringed instruments like electric guitars and basses, which use magnetic pickups (the invention of Fender is one example) to transduce metallic string vibrations into electric signals. Other electric analogs of soundboard instruments exist, such as electric violins, that use transducers (most commonly piezoelectric elements) on variants of the instrument bridge to detect string vibrations (as opposed to vibrations of an instrument's soundboard or other vibrating surfaces that actually produce the sound of the instrument), a combination which is often referred to as a saddle transducer. Ashworth-Jones, Carman et al., Benioff, and Evans all show examples of this general type of transducer. Neither magnetic pickups nor saddle transducers capture the vibrations of a soundboard or its equivalent; in fact, instruments with these kinds of transducers often lack a soundboard or equivalent entirely, and emit little sound directly. Consequently, electric stringed instruments do not sound like their acoustic counterparts, but instead have their own unique sounds. These electric instruments are used and valued for many reasons, but they are no substitute for their acoustic progenitors. Acoustic guitars and violins, for example, are still commonly found on concert stages and in recording studios for this reason.
Similarly, electric percussion instruments attempt to combine the playability and uniqueness of acoustic instruments with the implementation simplicity of electronic instruments. In a short analogy, an electric percussion instrument is to percussion what an electric guitar is to guitars. Various models have been proposed, although none of them appear to be in widespread use at the time of this writing.
Some models, such as the invention of Rogers, use a conventional acoustic drumhead with a magnetic speaker cone placed underneath, which is wired to act as a microphone. These systems do not have the dynamic range of an ordinary microphone. Furthermore, the speaker cones tend to be so large that they cannot be used in double-headed drums, because they disrupt the sound waves inside drums to an unacceptable degree. It should also be noted that speakers can be quite heavy; acoustic drumsets are already heavy and bulky, so adding a heavy speaker-like microphone is undesirable.
Other proposed models, such as the invention of Green, involve magnetic pickups (magnets and coils of wire which detect changes in the magnet's position) to capture drumhead or cymbal vibrations. Pickup-based systems are at a disadvantage because they require special drumheads or cymbals that do not well emulate traditional acoustic drumheads or cymbals. Furthermore, the magnetic pickups tend to capture vibrations at a single point only, rather than sample the vibrational state of an entire cymbal or drumhead, as the sound from an acoustic instrument does. Furthermore, a single pickup is often very dense compared to a drumhead or cymbal. Placing a single pickup on a drumhead breaks the vibrational symmetry of the head, which tends to create a vibrational node (or dead spot) at that point. The single pickup can thus destroy the vibrational fidelity of a drumhead. The vibration of a whole drumhead or cymbal requires an impractical and costly number of pickups, as well as a complicated mixing apparatus.

Capacitive electric musical instrument vibration transducer


A method based on species-specific molecular markers applied to a multiplex platform system is provided that permits, in a one-time assay, the qualitative and quantitative screening of multi-species populations in several dozens of environmental samples, tested in parallel, with low cost and rapid turn-around. The method identifies a specific portion of DNA, shared amongst a variety of important mold species, but with sufficient sequence differences that allow for unique identifications. Two pairs of primers, which are capable of amplifying this region across at least 38 different mold species, have been identified. Also short oligonucleotide probes have been designed specifically for each species to detect their presence and concentration in mixed species environmental samples. The method of detection of the invention can be practiced using conventional PCR reactions, followed by nucleotide hybridization assays and quantization of the hybridized biotinylated amplicons in a multiplex liquid array system.

It is widely understood that mold present in living or working spaces, with exposure rates as high as 50% (Gunnbjornsdottir et al., Thorax 2006, Mudarri and Fisk, Indoor Air 2007), presents a human health threat. The toxic nature of mold can lead to a number of health problems both chronic and acute. Various epidemiological studies have revealed that mold exposure is often associated with diseases and conditions such as asthma, respiratory infection, bronchitis, allergic rhinitis, and eczema (Mendell et al., Environ Health Perspect 2011).
As buildings become more energy efficient and better sealed, the potential for increased mold growth is actually exacerbated. As such, the incidence of mold exposure is increasing. Children and elderly people, as well as those with pre-existing respiratory problems are particularly vulnerable.
There are a number of reasons for routine testing of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), and in particular to qualify and quantify mold species in indoor environments (mold "testing" vs. general mold "problem identification"). These reasons include the following:
1) Acceptable levels for individual mold species vary since mold species toxicity differs widely, as does spore size, weight, and other features which affect the risk to building occupants. High priority areas can be identified based on type of molds present to maximize remediation strategies for public buildings (i.e. schools, hospitals, offices) and for private residences. For mold species with severe toxic effects, immediate action from mold professionals is crucial for the safety of the building and its occupants.
2) The presence of specific group of mold species often indicates building water damage conditions even if it is not visible. Molds often hide behind walls and their presence and level of toxicity can only be indicated by the adequate IAQ tests.
3) IAQ problems can be identified by comparing known indoor mold species to known outside mold species; which can only be achieved by knowing which species are present. Thus, commonly used tests of total spore counts between the indoor molds and outdoor molds, when mold species are unknown, are largely irrelevant.
4) For a large remediation project exact mold tests can improve project control. By analyzing mold spores qualitatively as well as quantitatively before and after a mold remediation project, it can help ensure that the cleanup is complete.
5) For House and Health Insurance Purposes.
The approved ability to assess mold species rapidly and precisely can have an impact on mold remediation and overall health. Method of multiplex mold toxicity assessments described here will help to quickly pin point the sources of mold illness. Improved analysis can lead to a better understanding of mold related illness and prevention.

Qualitative/quantitative detection of fungal species


A flash memory device includes a flash fuse cell array, a trim code processing unit, a flash memory array, and a regulator. The fuse cell array, which includes multiple nonvolatile fuse cells, is configured to store a first trim code. The trim code processor is configured to generate a second trim code based on the first trim code provided by the fuse cell array and a voltage control code. The flash memory array includes multiple flash memory cells. The regulator is configured to generate a high voltage in response to the second trim code and to provide the high voltage to the flash memory array. The high voltage varies according to erase, program and read operations of the flash memory cells.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to flash memory device testing, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a flash memory device having a fuse cell array and a method of testing a flash memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various flash memory devices have been developed, which include additional circuits, such as a controller and a voltage regulator, as well as a flash fuse cell array. Most flash memory devices normally operate at voltage of about 1V through 3V. However, a high voltage, which may be several times the normal voltage, is required for erase, program and read operations. Therefore, the regulator of a flash memory device is a kind of a DC to DC converter, which generates a high voltage from a low voltage and provides the high voltage to a flash memory cell array having multiple memory cells.
However, because of errors which may occur during the semiconductor fabrication process, the regulator may not generate the required high voltage. Because the level of the high voltage affects stability and life span of products, and because errors in a semiconductor fabrication process are inevitable, a general test process measures the voltage output from the regulator and appropriately corrects the voltage using a trim circuit. The trim circuit includes a fuse circuit that is set to output a trim code for correcting the errors in the voltage. The regulator receives the trim code from the fuse circuit and outputs the corrected high voltage.
A conventional fuse circuit includes a fuse array that connects or disconnects internal fuses, as needed, using a laser, etc. A limitation of the fuse array is that a trim code is set only one time.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional flash fuse cell array.
Referring to FIG. 1, a flash fuse cell array 10, acting like a fuse, turns programmable flash cells 11 through 18 on/off and generates trim codes TR0 through TR3 through sense amplifiers 19A through 19D, respectively. The trim codes TR0 through TR3 are applied to a voltage control unit of a regulator (not shown) and are used by the regulator to output the appropriate voltage. Even when the power is off, each of the flash cells 11 through 18 may maintain the set trim codes and may reset the trim codes since the flash cells are non-volatile.
The flash fuse cell array 10 may store two kinds of trim codes. When a first word line W0 and each of bit lines B0 through B3 are activated, a first trim code is output. When a second word line W1 and each of the bit lines B0 through B3 are activated, a second trim code is output. Source lines S0 and S1 are generally connected to a ground voltage.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional flash memory device.
Referring to FIG. 2, in a high voltage output test of a flash memory device, a high voltage regulator 20 outputs a predetermined high voltage VPP according to a default code output from a flash fuse cell array, such as the flash fuse cell array 10 of FIG. 1. The regulator 20 includes a decoder 21, a reference voltage generator 22, a voltage control unit 23, and a pumping unit 24. The decoder 21 decodes an input trim code. For example, when a 4-bit trim code (TR0 through TR3) is provided to the decoder 21, the decoder 21 decodes the trim code and provides 16-bit binary codes D0 through D15. The reference voltage generator 22 generates a reference voltage VR. The voltage control unit 23 includes a series resistor array RL, R0 though R15, and switches that may change the connection of resistors. When a total resistance of the resistor array is changed according to the binary codes, a voltage applied to the pumping unit 24 can be changed, and thus controlling a level of the high voltage VPP.
A tester 25 measures the high voltage VPP, and compares the level of the high voltage VPP with a level of a required high voltage, and generates a pertinent trim code signal TRIM CODE according to the result of the comparison. The trim code TRIM CODE is again applied to the flash fuse cell array 10, and is stored in the flash cells of the flash fuse cell array 10.
However, it is often necessary to temporarily change the level of the high voltage VPP of the regulator 20, according various types of tests which may be performed after correcting the regulator 20. In a conventional flash memory device, whenever the level of the high voltage VPP must changed, the trim code TRIM CODE for the high voltage VPP of the changed level must be stored in the flash fuse cell array 10. Generally, in the mass production of flash memory devices, the produced devices are simultaneously tested. However, memory devices with different correction characteristics cannot be simultaneously tested by the conventional method.

Flash memory device and method of testing a flash memory device


A suction nozzle holster whose upper rim is provided with a notch into which a suction hose can be forced in order to constrict the hose and, hence, curtail the vacuum conditions in a suction nozzle.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is generally concerned with holsters for the nozzle components of medical/dental suction devices such as so-called Yankauer suction tubes. The use of Applicant's holsters serves to maintain aseptic conditions and convenient human hand access to such suction devices during medical/dental procedures. This invention is also particularly concerned with providing a means whereby a hose that services suction devices of this type can be pinched off (constricted) to such an extent that the partial vacuum conditions that exist in the hose during medical/dental procedures are substantially curtailed or even completely shut off.
2. Discussion of the Background
A wide variety of prior art medical suction nozzle holsters are disclosed in the patent literature. Such holsters have many different features that perform various distinct technical functions as well as various convenience-in-use functions. These convenience-in-use functions often involve the methods and mechanical devices used to temporarily attach such nozzle holsters to a bedrail or operating table rail for ease and/or convenience of use during medical/dental procedures wherein the medical/dental practitioner's attention is often urgently directed away from such holsters. None of these prior art medical suction nozzle holsters, however, provide a device and/or method for readily curtailing, shutting off, etc. those partial vacuum conditions extant in a flexible hose that leads from the suction device (e.g., a Yankauer suction tube) to a waste fluid disposal container.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,110 B1 ("the '110 patent") teaches a holster for an electrocautery tip. The holster is attached to an operating table, Mayo instrument table, etc. by a temporary attachment means such as a spring-loaded, wide-base C-clamp (see FIGS. 4a and 4b) or a releasable clip (see FIG. 4). Since the outwardly-extending member is integral and unitary with the receptacle, there is no way to rotate the receptacle with respect to the outwardly-extending member. No suction hose pinching device is disclosed in this '110 patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,286 ("the '286 patent") discloses a cleaning and storage device for an aspirator instrument such as a Yankauer suction tube. The device has a holder that can be attached to a bedrail by opposing adhesive surfaces or by a C-shaped clamp. Here again, no suction hose pinching apparatus is disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,822 ("the '822 patent") discloses a wall mounted holder for a Yankauer suction instrument. The holder has a base and two spaced supports respectively extending substantially horizontally from the upper end of the vertically mounted base and from the lower end of said base. The upper support may comprise, for example, a continuous rim that forms an annular ring that defines an opening for receiving the forward end of the suction instrument and thereby preventing it from tipping laterally. The lower support preferably has two spaced support arms that define a substantially horizontal slot. In effect an upper end of the suction device resides in the ring while the handle portion of the suction device rests on the support arms above the slot while a suction hose portion of the suction device extends through the horizontal slot defined by the two spaced apart support arms. No hose pinching device is taught or suggested.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,074 ("the '074 patent") discloses a sleeve-type holder for a suction device such as a Yankauer suction tube. One end of a sleeve component of this holder is provided with a frame that can be slidably mounted to a C-shaped frame track having a compatible C-shaped channel configuration. The opposing end of the sleeve is provided with a hole for receiving a hook of a body member bar. The body member bar is attached to a clamp that attaches the bar, frame and sleeve assembly to a bedrail. Thus, the sleeve that holds the suction tube can not be rotated once the frame is inserted into the channel portion of the C-shaped frame track. No hose pinching apparatus is disclosed.
The teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,974 ("the '974 patent") are quite similar to those of the '074 patent. It does, however, contain the added feature (see FIGS. 10 and 11) of providing the frame with a dovetail side that is inserted into a dovetail track (i.e., dovetail-shaped channel). Such an arrangement does not permit rotation of the sleeve with respect to the dovetail tracks channel portion. No hose clamping or constricting device is taught or suggested.
The teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,963 ("the '963 patent") are similar to those of the '974 patent. The main difference between these two patent references is depicted in FIGS. 17 and 18 of the '963 patent. They show a frame-like member hingedly mounted to a mounting plate. This plate is fixedly mounted to a clamp that is, in turn, slidably mounted to a bedrail or similar bar-like object. This construction does not permit vertical rotation of the sleeve to any alternative position or orientation. Nor does this apparatus provide for pinching off a hose leading from a suction device to a waste disposal unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,679 ("the '679 patent") teaches a holster for a hand-held instrument such as an intake nozzle of an operating room suction device. The '679 patent suggests several ways the holster may be attached to an operating table (see FIGS. 1, 4 and 5). These ways include: (a) blade-like inserts for placement between table tops and cushions, alligator clamps and C-clamps having hand operable tightening/loosening bolts. This holster is adapted to hold a bubble wrap in which the suction device was originally packaged. The suction tip is holstered in this original package during use. The nozzle holster also is adapted to secure the bubble wrap to the inside of the holster. After the operation is over, the wrapper and nozzle are disposed of and a new nozzle-containing wrapper (e.g., clear plastic bag) is put in the holster. Here again, no hose pinching apparatus is taught or suggested.
It might also be noted that not only do these prior art devices fail to provide a convenient means of curtailing the suction conditions in their respective suction tubes, none of them allow for variation in the vertical orientation of the handle of the suction nozzles held in such holsters. The hereinafter described medical/dental suction nozzle holsters of this patent disclosure not only provide a means for curtailing suction conditions in a suction tube, they also address the need for variation in the vertical orientation of a nozzle handle. They do this by providing three separate and distinct vertical orientations for the holster.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Medical/dental suction nozzle holster having a hose pinching device


A main ink tank side connector of an inkjet printer moves, with respect to a sub ink tank side connector, between a first positional relationship where the two connectors are connected, and a second positional relationship where the main ink tank side connector is disconnected from the sub ink tank side connector. A wall member surrounds at least a connection portion of the two connectors when they are in the first positional relationship. A breaking portion breaks an ink film formed within an inner space of the wall member. The ink film is formed when the main ink tank side connector moves with respect to the sub ink tank side connector from the first positional relationship to the second positional relationship. The breaking portion breaks the ink film in a state where at least a part of the ink film exists within the wall member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a station type ink jet printer supplying ink within a main ink tank to a sub ink tank.
2. Description of the Related Art
A station type inkjet printer is taught in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-181952. The station type inkjet printer is provided with a main ink tank side connector that is to be connected with a main ink tank, and a sub ink tank side connector that is to be connected with a sub ink tank. The main ink tank side connector is capable of moving with respect to the sub ink tank side connector between a first positional relationship and a second positional relationship. When the main ink tank side connector and the sub ink tank side connector are positioned in the first positional relationship, the sub ink tank side connector and the main ink tank side connector are in a connected state, and ink is supplied from the main ink tank to the sub ink tank. When the supplying of ink ends, the main ink tank side connector and the sub ink tank side connector are separated and the main ink tank side connector and the sub ink tank side connector are positioned in the second positional relationship.


A data recording apparatus includes a surface having a plurality of data tracks with leading track portions. A head moves along head paths over the data tracks to provide data access. The data access has a reduced reliability along a limited number of the leading track portions. Trailing path additions follow the head paths for the limited number of leading track portions. The trailing path additions providing overlapping data access for the limited number of leading track portions.

In order to provide faster data access, the rotational speeds of disc drive have increased into the range of 15,000 RPM in new designs. At these increased rotational speeds, the transient thermal response of a write head due to heating by a write current extends over a significant leading portion of a data track. Write current induced pole tip recession (CPTR) varies over a length of a data track due to the transient thermal response.
As the areal density of disc drives increases to provide greater data storage, the nominal write gap between the pole tip and a data storage surface becomes smaller and the variation of CPTR due to transient thermal response becomes a more significant source of low data reliability in writing data.
A method and an apparatus are needed to overcome low data reliability in writing data due to CPTR and other variations in data reliability over the length of a data track.
Embodiments of the present invention provide solutions to these and other problems, and offer other advantages over the prior art.


A circuit embodying the invention includes two toggle flip-flops formed using Josephson junctions sharing a common inductive element. One flip-flop is responsive to "zero" input signals (IN.phi.) and the other flip-flop is responsive to "one" input signals (IN1). Each flip-flop has two outputs. The two outputs of the flip-flop responsive to IN.phi. may be identified as A.phi. and B.phi. and the two outputs of the flip-flop responsive to IN1 may be identified as A1 and B1. The inductive element is settable to either one of two states by controlling the flow of a bias current therethrough. Depending on the state of current conduction through the inductive element, an IN.phi. input signal will produce an output at either A.phi. or B.phi. and an IN1 input signal will produce an output at either A1 or B1. If, and when, the inductive element is in a first state, an IN.phi. or IN1 input will cause a corresponding output at A.phi. or A1, respectively, and will concurrently set the inductive element to its second state. If, and when, the inductive element is in its second state, an IN.phi. or IN1 input signal will cause a corresponding output at B.phi. or B1, respectively, and will concurrently cause the inductive element to revert to its first state. Thus, each time an input signal is applied to the circuit, the inductive storage element is toggled from one state to its other state.

This invention relates to a superconducting digital demultiplexer (DEMUX) and, in particular, to a DEMUX employing Josephson junction technology.
In the discussion to follow, the invention will be illustrated using a particular type of Josephson junction technology denoted generally as rapid single-flux quantum (RSFQ) circuitry. The RSFQ circuitry is generally characterized by the use of "overdamped" Josephson junctions which have a single valued current-voltage (I-V) characteristic; i.e., they are non-hysteretic. This also implies that after a current pulse, which exceeds the critical current (Ic), the junction is self-reset to its original superconducting state.
There are many devices such as RSFQ analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) which generate digital data at such a fast rate that conventional semiconductor electronics can not process the data. It is known that by demultiplexing a "fast" data stream into several subsidiary data streams, the rate of the "fast" data stream is effectively slowed in the subsidiary streams. This can be done by distributing the bits of the original fast data stream, one at a time, to several slower digital channels (lines or circuits). By way of example, the "fast" data bits on an input channel can be distributed among N channels where the data rate on the N channels is 1/N times the rate of the input transmitting channel. An advantage of demultiplexing is that the circuits processing the slower data can be made using a slower, less expensive technology. The tradeoff is that more circuitry is required. However, a reduction in speed by a factor of N accompanied by a reduction in cost much greater than N, may result in significant economic advantage. Also, reducing the effective speed enables the data to be coupled to many different electronic circuits.
Although the idea of demultiplexing is known, actual circuits for demultiplexing the extremely high rate of the RSFQ generated data streams need to be developed. Because of the speed involved, it is desirable that the demultiplexers employ Josephson junctions (JJs). Also, in dealing with extremely high speed circuits, the delays in the transmission of signals from one part of the circuit to another, can lead to timing errors relative to some clock signal. Therefore a synchronous operation tied to some clock signal would tend to limit the maximum speed at which the circuit can be operated.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to have a self-synchronizing (asynchronous) demultiplexer which does not require a clock signal.
It is another object of the invention to have an extremely high speed demultiplexer employing Josephson junctions.
It is a still further object of the invention to have a demultiplexer whose sections can be easily cascaded to produce higher order demultiplexing.
It is a still further object of the invention to have a dual-rail (i.e., two input lines) demultiplexer in which information is transferred between circuits by means of two lines with one line carrying (transmitting) the "one" logic signals and the second line carrying (transmitting) the "zero" logic signals.

Asynchronous dual-rail demultiplexer employing Josephson junctions


A cable splice closure is disclosed, which includes a casing which, in use, is closed around a cable splice; and at least one cable gripper comprising a strip which, in use, is wound around at least one cable extending into the casing. Closing the casing, in use, automatically causes the or each strip to tighten around the or each cable around which it is wound, thereby gripping the cable. The cable gripper strip may have the ability to decrease in length when wound and compressed around a cable, thereby allowing it to contract, and therefore tighten, around the cable.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cable splice closure, for example for telecommunications or electrical cables. The invention also relates to a device for gripping a cable, which device may, for example, form part of a cable splice closure. Although the invention is particularly applicable to the splicing and gripping of cables (including copper wire cables, optical fibre cables, wires, and optical fibres), at least some embodiments of the invention may be applicable to the splicing and gripping of pipes (especially district heating pipes) or other elongate objects. Hence, even though, throughout the specification, cables are referred to, it is to be understood that pipes or other elongate objects may, at least in some embodiments of the invention, be substituted for cables.


A heat transfer recording medium includes a protective layer containing mainly a polyvinylbutyral resin, phenoxy resin, or polyvinylacetal resin, an adhesive layer having a glass transition point Tg1 falling within the range Tg1≦T−80° C., an ink image receiving layer/adhesive layer having a glass transition point Tg2 falling within the range 60° C.≦Tg2≦Tg−50° C., and a hot-melt ink image receiving layer/adhesive layer in which a first resin component having a number-average molecular weight of 16,000 or more and a glass transition point of Tg−80° C. or less and a second resin component having a number-average molecular weight of 16,000 or less and a glass transition point of Tg−50° C. or more are mixed at a weight ratio of 1:9 to 5:5.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat transfer recording medium having an image receiving layer formed on a support member, and capable of forming an image by hot-melt ink or sublimating heat transfer ink and thermally adhering the layer onto a recording medium such as paper or plastic, and to a printed product obtained by using this heat transfer recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A sublimation type heat transfer recording method is most often used as a method of recording a face image for personal authentication onto an image display body such as a license, employee's ID card, member's card, or credit card.
In this sublimation type heat transfer recording method, a sublimating ink ribbon formed by coating a support sheet with ink containing a sublimating (or heat flowing) dye such that heat transfer is possible, is overlayed on a recording medium having an image receiving layer made of a thermoplastic resin capable of accepting the sublimating dye. The heat transfer ribbon is selectively heated on the basis of image data by a thermal head or the like, thereby forming a desired image on the recording medium by sublimation type heat transfer recording. It is widely known that color images superior in tone reproduction can be easily recorded by this method. However, this sublimation type heat transfer recording method has the problems related to the durability of a card. For example, an image is easily scratched because it is formed near the face region of thermoplastic resin layer, the dye sublimates again to lower the image density with time, and ultraviolet radiation decomposes the dye to change the tone of color of an image.
A melting type heat transfer recording method is also usable. In this method, a hot-melt ink transfer ribbon formed by coating a support sheet with hot-melt ink in which a coloring pigment or dye is dispersed in a binder such as a resin or wax, is overlayed on a recording medium having an image receiving layer made of a thermoplastic resin capable of accepting the hot-melt ink transfer ribbon. The heat transfer ribbon is selectively heated on the basis of image data by a thermal head or the like, thereby recording a desired image by transferring the binder-containing hot-melt ink onto the recording medium. In this method, inorganic or organic pigments generally having high lightfastness can be selectively used as the coloring material. Also, by improving the resin or wax used as the binder, it is possible to provide images hard to scratch and superior in solvent resistance. In addition, special high-security ink is readily formable by mixing a functional material such as a fluorescent pigment or magnetic substance into the ink. The image receiving layer can be any recording medium provided that the medium has a surface adhesive to the binder. So, the image receiving layer can be chosen from various recording media. As described above, this melting type heat transfer recording method is advantageous for the sublimation type heat transfer method.
Still another method is proposed in which an image is formed on a transparent transfer type image receiving layer formed on a base film by the sublimation heat transfer recording method or the melting type heat transfer recording method described above, and this transfer type image receiving layer on which the image is recorded is thermally transferred onto a recording medium such as paper. In this method, after transferring the transfer type image receiving layer itself can function as a surface protective film, so the mechanical strength of the surface is high. Also, by improving the smoothness of the transfer type image receiving layer surface and thereby increasing the affinity to the ink layer, images excellent in tone reproduction can be formed even by the melting type heat transfer method.
Unfortunately, if a printed product on which a transfer type image receiving layer is formed by the above method is stored for long time periods in contact with a film containing a plastic material e.g., a vinyl chloride resin, such as used in a transparent resin cover, this plastic material moves to the transfer type image receiving layer and is fused to the vinyl chloride resin or the like. If this plastic material is peeled, the transfer type image receiving layer is removed from the final recording medium. Alternatively, if a sublimating ink image is recorded on a printed product, the sublimating dye becomes readily diffusible. This smears the contour of the image or discolors the image.
That is, a transfer type image receiving layer formed by the conventional method cannot be stored for long time periods if a resin film containing a plastic material is overlayed on the layer.
Also, the melting type heat transfer recording method basically performs ink adhesion and uses a dot area modulation tone recording method in which tone recording is performed by changing the sizes of transferred dots. Therefore, the method is very sensitive to the surface unevenness of a recording medium to which an image is to be transferred. If the surface is uneven, inferior transfer occurs to make dot size control impossible, resulting in poor tone reproduction.
Various proposals have been made to solve the above problems. One proposed method uses a recording medium having a porous image receiving layer. In this method, fine pores are formed in an image receiving layer of a recording medium, and hot-melt ink is transferred into these fine pores by permeation. This method can provide images superior in tone reproduction. However, a porous image receiving layer generally has low mechanical strength, so the surface is scratched when brought into contact with various rollers and a convey path in a printing apparatus, resulting in image defects.
In another proposed method, an image is formed on a resin layer obtained by forming a transparent image receiving layer/adhesive layer on a film base, and this image receiving layer/adhesive layer is heated and pressurized to adhere or heated transfer onto a base such as paper or plastic to which the image is to be given. In this method, no fine pores are formed in the image receiving layer, so the mechanical strength of the surface is high. In addition, by improving the smoothness of the resin layer surface and thereby increasing the affinity to the ink layer, images excellent in tone reproduction can be formed even by the melting type heat transfer method.
Unfortunately, the above method has the problem that if a low-softening-temperature resin having high adhesion to paper or plastic is used as the image receiving layer/adhesive layer, the reproducibility of the recording image density becomes unstable under the same recording conditions. This is so because a state (center omission) in which no ink is present in the centers of pixel points constructing a transferred ink image occurs.
To prevent this center omission of each pixel point, a resin having a high softening temperature can be used in the image receiving layer/adhesive layer. However, this lowers the adhesion to the base such as paper or plastic.
As described above, a melting type heat transfer recording image receiving layer formed by the conventional method cannot prevent center omission and ensure sufficient adhesion to paper or plastic at the same time.

Heat transfer recording medium and printed product


An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal display apparatus which comprises two liquid crystal display stacked one on top of the other, and which is switchable between two states, a state in which only the viewer-side liquid crystal panel is operated and a state in which only the other liquid crystal panel is operated. More specifically, a liquid crystal display apparatus according to the present invention includes a first liquid crystal display and a second liquid crystal display disposed above the first liquid crystal display with the viewing side of each of the displays facing upward, wherein the first liquid crystal display has at least one viewing mode, a transmissive mode or a reflective mode, and the second liquid crystal display has at least one viewing mode, the transmissive mode or the reflective mode, and wherein the maximum power consumption of the second liquid crystal display is smaller than that of the first liquid crystal display.

It is known to provide a liquid crystal display apparatus which comprises two liquid crystal panels stacked one on top of the other, and in which the first liquid crystal panel disposed on the viewer side is used as a shutter so as to be able to conceal a portion of the display of the second liquid crystal panel (for example, patent document 1). In such a liquid crystal display apparatus, a secret mode or the like can be achieved by concealing a portion of the display of the second liquid crystal panel.
It is also known to provide a liquid crystal display apparatus which comprises two liquid crystal panels stacked one on top of the other, and in which the liquid crystal panel disposed on the backlight side is used as an open/close means so that good contrast can be obtained regardless of whether the other liquid crystal panel is operated in a reflective mode or a transmissive mode (for example, patent document 2). The backlight-side liquid crystal panel used as the open/close means has the function of allowing the light from the backlight to pass through when the backlight is on, and reflecting the light passed through the other liquid crystal panel when the other liquid crystal panel is operated in the reflective mode with the backlight turned off.
However, in either prior art liquid crystal display apparatus comprising two liquid crystal panels stacked one on top of the other, no attempts have ever been made to operate the two liquid crystal panels in a collaborative manner such that when one liquid crystal panel is turned on, the other liquid crystal panel is turned off, thereby reducing the power consumption of the liquid crystal display apparatus as a whole.
[Patent document 1] Japanese Patent No. 3154498 (FIGS. 1 and 5)
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-258603 (FIG. 1)


A method, apparatus, and system according to which a drilling engine includes a template having a plurality of data fields outlining operational steps and parameters to perform a drilling process, the data fields having a plurality of recipe settings input therein to facilitate performance of the drilling process. A computer system communicates with the drilling engine and an operational equipment engine, and is configured to send a first control signal, based on the template and the recipe settings, to the operational equipment engine to cause the operational equipment engine to perform the drilling process to drill a first wellbore segment. A sensor engine is configured to monitor a key performance indicator (“KPI”) of the operational equipment engine during the performance of the drilling process. In some embodiments, the drilling engine includes a recipe optimization module configured to modify, based on the monitored KPI, at least one of the recipe settings.

At the outset of a drilling operation, drillers typically establish a drill plan that includes a steering objective location (or target location) and a drilling path to the steering objective location. Once drilling commences, the bottom-hole assembly (BHA) may be directed or "steered" from a vertical drilling path in any number of directions, to follow the proposed drill plan. For example, to recover an underground hydrocarbon deposit, a drill plan might include a vertical bore to the side of a reservoir containing a deposit, then a directional or horizontal bore that penetrates the deposit. The operator may then follow the plan by steering the BHA through the vertical and horizontal aspects in accordance with the well plan.
In slide drilling implementations, such directional drilling requires accurate orientation of a bent housing of the down hole motor. The bent housing has a predetermined angle of bend. The high side of this bend is referred to as the toolface of the BHA. In such slide drilling implementations, rotating the drill string changes the orientation of the bent housing and the BHA, and thus the toolface. To effectively steer the assembly, the operator must first determine the current toolface orientation. Thereafter, if the drilling direction needs adjustment, the operator must rotate the drill string or alter other surface drilling parameters to change the toolface orientation.
Well operators rely upon experience and conventional best practices to create processes for carrying out tasks, such as slide drilling, in an efficient and effective manner. However, more efficient, reliable, and intuitive methods for identifying efficient and effective rig processes are needed.

Apparatus, systems, and methods for slide drilling optimization based on stand-by-stand performance measurements


A method for obtaining solutions to combinatorial problems by way of a discrete state-based search approach utilizes a node evaluation function based both on solution quality and distance in search steps to a goal. The method considers the problem as finding the shortest path between an initial state and a goal state in a large graph and performs solution evaluation utilizing computation time balanced against solution quality. Rather than solely using a lower bound on the solution cost achievable below a search node, an estimate of the distance (in search steps) to the nearest solution below a search node is also utilized. These are combined using the user's stated utility function (represented as a function of time and cost) to evaluate candidate search nodes.

This disclosure relates generally to problem solution approaches and more particularly to solution evaluation utilizing computation time balanced against solution quality.
Many tasks, such as paper path planning, parsing, or biological sequence alignment, can be thought of as finding the shortest path between an initial state and a goal state in a large graph. Various methods for finding optimal solutions are known in the art, and various ad-hoc methods have been proposed to quickly find sub-optimal solutions, represented as shortest-path problems. If sufficient computation is available, optimal solutions to such problems can be found using A* search with an admissible heuristic (Peter E. Hart, Nils J. Nilsson, and Bertram Raphael, "A Formal Basis for the Heuristic Determination of Minimum Cost Paths", IEEE Transactions of Systems Science and Cybernetics, SSC-4(2):100-107, July 1968). However, in many practical scenarios, time is limited or costly and it is not desirable, or even feasible, to look for the least-cost path. Instead, search effort must be carefully allocated in a way that balances the cost of the paths found with the cost of the computation and the amount of time available.
By way of example, A* is a best-first search in which the 'open list' of unexplored nodes is sorted by f(n)=g(n)+h(n), where g(n) denotes the known cost of reaching a node n from the initial state and h(n) is typically a lower bound on the cost of reaching a solution from n. A* is optimal in the sense that no algorithm that returns an optimal solution using the same lower bound function h(n) visits fewer nodes (Rina Dechter and Judea Pearl, "The Optimality of A*", in Laveen Kanal and Vipin Kumarto, editors, Search in Artificial Intelligence, pages 166-199, Springer-Verlag, 1988). However, in many applications solutions are needed faster than A* can provide them. To find a solution faster, it is common practice to increase the weight of h(n) via f(n)=g(n)+w·h(n), with w≧1. There are many variants of weighted A* search, including Anytime A* and ARA*. In ARA*, for example, a series of solutions of decreasing cost is returned over time. The weight w is initially set to a high value and then decremented by δ after each solution. If allowed to continue, w eventually reaches 1 and the cheapest path is discovered. Of course, finding the optimal solution this way takes longer than simply running A* directly.
These algorithms suffer from two inherent difficulties. First, it is not well understood how to set parameters to best satisfy the user's needs. Setting ω too high or δ too low can result in many poor-quality solutions being returned, wasting time. But if ω is set too low or δ too high, the algorithm may take a very long time to find a solution. Therefore, to use a weighted A* technique like ARA* the user must perform many pilot experiments in each new problem domain to find good parameter settings.
Second, for anytime algorithms such as ARA*, the user must estimate the right time to stop the algorithm. The search process appears as a black box that could emit a significantly better solution at any moment, so the user must repeatedly estimate the probability that continuing the computation will be worthwhile. This requires substantial prior statistical knowledge of the run-time performance profile of the algorithm and rests on the assumption that such learned knowledge applies to the current instance.
These difficulties suffer from a more general problem: anytime algorithms must provide suboptimal performance due to their ignorance of the user's utility function. It is simply not possible in general for an algorithm to quickly transform the best solution achievable starting from nothing within time t into the best solution achievable in time t+1. Without the ability to decide during the search whether a distant solution is worth the effort of reaching it, anytime algorithms must either waste time finding nearby poor-quality solutions or overexert themselves finding the very best solution when any would have sufficed.
It would be desirable to eliminate the problems of ad hoc parameter modification and laborious performance profiling by applying an estimate of the distance in search steps to the nearest solution below a search node and combining this with the user's utility function to evaluate candidate search nodes.

System and method for time-aware path finding


A signal processor is configured to: derive, using a first process, at least one of a distance and a relative speed included in the object data set; and derive, using a second process different from the first process, at least one of the distance and the relative speed included in the object data set when the distance included in the object data set is below a predetermined distance.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a signal processing in object detection.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there has been a technology [e.g. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)] that enables a vehicle on which a radar apparatus is mounted (hereinafter referred to simply as "vehicle") by detecting a position, etc. of a vehicle traveling in front (hereinafter referred to as "front vehicle") of the vehicle by using the radar apparatus, to follow the front vehicle, keeping a predetermined distance. The ACC is used, for example, when the vehicle follows the front vehicle traveling in a longitudinal distance of approx. 100 m ahead of the vehicle traveling on a highway, or when the vehicle follows the front vehicle in a longitudinally short distance of 4 m from the vehicle traveling in traffic congestion, keeping an inter-vehicular distance of approx. 2 to 4 meters from the front vehicle at a low speed (e.g. 10 km/h or less). Herein, the term "longitudinal distance" means a distance that a transmission wave transmitted from a transmitter antenna of the radar apparatus travels to an object or that a reflected wave of the transmission wave reflected by the object travels back to a reception antenna of the radar apparatus. The longitudinal distance is hereinafter simply referred to as distance.
However, if the distance between the vehicle and the front vehicle is short, there is a case where the reception antenna of the radar apparatus receives a multiply-reflected wave caused between the vehicle and the front vehicle by multiple reflection of the wave transmitted from the transmitter antenna of the radar apparatus to detect the front vehicle. In addition, there is a case where the transmission wave does not only reflect by a vehicle body of the front vehicle, but reflects by a base part of the vehicle body and a road surface, etc. by going into a space between the base part of the vehicle body and the road surface, and thus the reception antenna of the radar apparatus receives such a reflected wave. As a result, there has been a case where a signal processor of the radar apparatus fails to pair a peak signal in an up-modulating interval with a peak signal in a down-modulating interval because no corresponding peak signal exists, or where a mis-pairing occurs because the signal processor pairs a peak signal with a non-corresponding peak signal.
Herein, the term "peak signal(s)" refers to a signal(s) of which strength is greater than a predetermined threshold among a plurality of signals generated per frequency after the signal processer of the radar apparatus processes beat signals, by using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), obtained by mixing transmission signals and reception signals.
Then the signal processor determines whether or not a pair data set has been derived in a current object detection process based on an object on which a pair data set had been derived from a past object detection process. If the signal processor determines that these pair data sets have been derived based on the same object, these pair data sets are used as successive pair data sets.
Herein, the term "a pair data set(s)" refers to data generated by pairing the peak signal in the up-modulating interval with the peak signal in the down-modulating interval. The pair data set mainly includes information of a relative distance between the vehicle and an object, a relative speed between the vehicle and the object, and an angle of the object viewed from the vehicle.
The following is an example of concrete conditions to determine whether or not the pair data set has time continuity from another pair data set. Herein, the term "to have time continuity from" refers to a situation in which a data set is a successive data set to or succeeds another data. First, the signal processer has derived a pair data set in a most recent (preceding) object detection process (hereinafter also referred to as "preceding pair data set") among past object detection processes, and derives a predicted pair data set that will be derived in the current object detection process (hereinafter also referred to as "current pair data set"), based on an object data derived in the preceding object detection process (hereinafter also referred to as "preceding object data set") based on the preceding pair data set.
Then the signal processor determines that the current pair data has the time continuity from the preceding pair data if a difference in the relative speed between the predicted data set and an actual current pair data set is, for example, 2 km/h or less. Then, the signal processor generates an object data set of the object processed in the current object detection process (hereinafter also referred to as "current object data set") based on the current pair data set and the preceding object data set, and outputs the current object data set to a vehicle controller that controls each of apparatus, devices, etc. of the vehicle.
In other words, the signal processor deems the current object data set having the time continuity as a data set corresponding to the same object for which the preceding object data set derived in the past, and assigns to the current object data set a same target No. assigned to the preceding object data set, and then outputs the current object data set to the vehicle controller. At least one of the preceding object data set and the current data set may be hereinafter referred to simply as "object data set."
If the relative speed difference of 2 km/h or less that is a condition to determine whether or not the pair data set has the time continuity, is changed, a problem shown below occurs. Concretely, if a difference between a prediction relative speed for the current pair data set predicted based on the preceding object data set and an actual relative speed included in the current pair data set is changed from 2 km/h or less to a value greater than 2 km/h (e.g. 10 km/h or less), a problem as shown below occurs.
For example, if the current pair data set is derived from a mis-paired peak signal, even when the front vehicle that is an object corresponding to the current pair data set is stopping, there may be a case where the signal processor implements a following process based on a result of determination of the time continuity. In other words, there is a case where the signal processor derives an incorrect relative speed of the front vehicle based on the pair data set derived from the mis-paired peak signal, and outputs to the vehicle controller the current object data set indicating that the front vehicle travels at a relative speed difference of 10 km/h or less (e.g. 10 km/h) as compared to a relative speed derived in a preceding object detection process.
As a result, there is a possibility that the vehicle starting traveling collides with the front vehicle that is actually stopping when the vehicle controller controls the vehicle to follow the front vehicle. Therefore, because of a possible occurrence of a pair data set derived from a mis-paired peak signal, a condition of a relative speed difference needs to be set in a range as narrow as possible. Concretely, a relative speed difference of 5 km/h or less is more preferable than a relative speed difference of 10 km/h or less, and a relative speed difference of 2 km/h or less is more preferable than the relative speed difference of 5 km/h or less.
However, if a relatively small difference value (e.g. relative speed difference of 2 km/h or less) between the prediction relative speed for the current pair data set predicted from the preceding object data set and the relative speed included in the actual current pair data set is continuingly used as the condition of determination of the time continuity, when the front vehicle starts to move at a speed that makes the relative speed difference more than 2 km/h, e.g. the relative speed difference of 5 km/h, the signal processor determines that the current pair data set has no time continuity from the preceding object data set. As a result, the current pair data set becomes a pair data set having no time continuity and is detected for the first time (newly detected) in the current object detection process. Thus an object indicated by the current pair data set is regarded to be located further than a location of the stopping front vehicle detected in the preceding object detection process (a location further from the vehicle than a location where the front vehicle had stopped). Then a signal processor outputs to the vehicle controller a current object data set corresponding to the current pair data set, from a radar apparatus.
Moreover, in such a case, although the current pair data set newly derived in the current object detection process has no time continuity from the object data derived in the preceding object detection process, the signal processor outputs to the vehicle controller the object data set corresponding to the front vehicle indicating that the front vehicle is stopping in front of the vehicle (at a same location where the front vehicle has been detected in the preceding object detection process). In other words, the signal processor implements a process (hereinafter referred to as "extrapolation process") for treating the object that is not detected in the current object detection process as an object that were locating in front of the vehicle (at a location where the front vehicle had stopped), in object detection processes implemented after the current object detection process.
As a result, as compared with the current pair data set corresponding to the front vehicle, actually travelling, detected as a new object, a data set corresponding to the front vehicle detected by the extrapolation process (hereinafter referred to as "extrapolation data set") is closer to the vehicle. Therefore, the object indicated by the extrapolation data set becomes a following target. Therefore, although the front vehicle is actually traveling, the vehicle remains stopping because there is no change in the location of the object corresponding to the extrapolation data set. Thus, there is a possibility that the controlling of the vehicle to follow the front vehicle cannot be implemented fully.


A compact high-frequency module that increases isolation between a transmission-side circuit and a reception-side circuit of a duplexer includes a switch element and duplexers. The duplexers include transmission-side SAW filters and reception-side SAW filters. The transmission-side SAW filters are mounted near one edge of a multilayer body. The reception-side SAW filters are mounted near another edge opposite to the one edge of the multilayer body. The switch element is mounted at the center of the multilayer body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-frequency module that transmits and receives a plurality of communication signals by using a common antenna.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been suggested various types of high-frequency modules that transmit and receive, using a common antenna, a plurality of communication signals utilizing different frequency bands. As an example of such a high-frequency module, the high-frequency module described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-10995 includes a switch IC, a demultiplexing circuit, and a duplexer.
Here, the demultiplexing circuit is a circuit or circuit element that demultiplexes a plurality of target communication signals, including a transmission signal and a reception signal. Specifically, the demultiplexing circuit is a circuit that demultiplexes a communication signal of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) 850 and a communication signal of GSM 900, a communication signal of DCS (Digital Cellular System), and a communication signal of PCS (Personal Communications Services) and a communication signal of a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) communication system.
The duplexer is a circuit element that demultiplexes a transmission signal and a reception signal utilizing different frequency bands in a single communication band. For example, the duplexer described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-10995 is connected to a transmission signal input port, a reception signal output port, and an antenna input/output port (specifically, an antenna input/output port via a switch IC) of a single communication band in the CDMA communication system. The duplexer transmits a transmission signal of the single communication band from the transmission signal input port to the antenna input/output port side, and transmits a reception signal of the single communication band from the antenna input/output port side to the reception signal output port.
As described above, the duplexer demultiplexes a transmission signal and a reception signal in a single communication band. The frequency bands utilized for the transmission signal and the reception signal in the single communication band are relatively close to each other. Thus, duplexers available at present, particularly duplexers that are mounted in high-frequency modules of mobile communication terminals, are constructed by combining a transmission-side SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) filter whose pass band is a frequency band utilized for a transmission signal, and a reception-side SAW filter whose pass band is a frequency band utilized for a reception signal.
In a duplexer according to the related art, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-10995, a transmission-side SAW filter and a reception-side SAW filter are integrally provided in a single housing.
Thus, in the duplexer according to the related art, a transmission path for a transmission signal (electrode pattern or the like) and a transmission path for a reception signal (electrode pattern or the like) are close to each other. Thus, a high-power transmission signal may leak into the transmission path on the reception signal side, and the isolation between a transmission-side circuit and a reception-side circuit may be degraded.
Also, a further decrease in size may be required for high-frequency modules. The size of each circuit element is an important factor when designing high-frequency modules so as to have a reduced size.


A system in-package test inspection apparatus for measuring and evaluating the high-speed/high frequency characteristic of a system in-package through an electrode pad in which I/O terminals are formed on one side of an LSI package containing metallic wiring internally and plural LSI chips are stacked in multiple layers on the other face while electric connection between the LSI chip and the LSI package and the electric connection between the LSI chips are implemented, the system in-package test inspection apparatus comprising: a printed wiring substrate to which the I/O terminals of the system in-package are connected to enable transmission of high speed and high frequency signals; LSI chip driving means for driving the LSI chip; a contact probe having a contact electrode and for transmitting a high frequency signal; evaluation signal generating means for supplying a high frequency evaluation signal to the contact probe; output signal detecting means for detecting an output signal of the system in-package through the printed wiring board; and analyzing means for analyzing a signal detected by the output signal detecting means, wherein by contacting the contact electrode of the contact probe with an electrode pad formed on the LSI chip, the evaluation signal is inputted to the LSI chip not through metallic wiring within the LSI package.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting technology of electronic information transmission system and more particularly to a system in-package test inspection apparatus for measuring and evaluating high-speed/high frequency electric characteristic of a system in-package (SIP) whose system is established on a structure body loaded with a multiplicity of electronic components such as semiconductor integrated circuit (LSI) chips and the like and a test inspection method.
2. Description of the Related Art
The system in-package (hereinafter referred to as SIP) concerns technology for mounting a plurality of LSI chips in a single package and because high density and high speed electronic system can be constructed using an existing LSI chip, application development thereof onto ubiquitous high function information devices such as mobile phone has been advanced energetically. If classified depending on the configuration, the kinds of the SIP includes, as shown in FIG. 7, chip stack type, package stack type, wafer stack type, plane multi-chip type and the like.
Of the SIPs, the aforementioned package stack type and plane multi-chip type have been actually used and widely applied already.
On the other hand, because in the package stack type, wire between chips is short and high speed transmission can be achieved, its development has been achieved energetically and part thereof has been already utilized. Particularly, the chip stack type has been adopted in a mobile phone in which reduction of the size and intensification of performance have been demanded strongly such as portable phone, digital camera, personal digital assistance (PDA) and the like. The semiconductor device of the chip stack type has been described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-31649.
By the way, the performance required for the SIP has been demanded to be high electric performance and reliability in a frequency range of several GHz to several tens GHz accompanied by intensified performance of the apparatuses and a test inspection apparatus for measuring and evaluating that high speed/high frequency electric performance has been demanded.
Although the test inspection on the aforementioned package stack type and plane multi-chip type can be met by conventional technology, the chip stack type SIP which can be expected to reduce cost largely in the SIPs and is estimated to prevail rapidly has not been yet developed from viewpoints of high speed/high frequency test inspection technology.
FIG. 8 shows an example of the chip stack type SIP. As shown in the same Figure, in the chip stack type SIP 200, a plurality of LSI chips 202, 203, 204, 205 different in size are placed in multi-layers and bonding pads P formed on the respective layers are connected to each other with bonding wire W. In the meantime, input/output signals of the entire SIP 200 are inputted and outputted through soldering balls formed on the bottom face of the LSI package 201.
In such a chip stack type SIP 200, the test inspection of the SIP can be carried out through the soldering ball which is an I/O terminal. However, in the inspection of the high-speed/high-frequency characteristic, no high frequency signal can be transmitted due to an influence of inductance originating form a long wire within the LSI package 201, so that no accurate inspection is enabled.
Although the above-described problem can be solved if a test evaluation signal can be inputted directly into a signal line between the LSI chips, that is, to the bonding pad P or the bonding wire W not through the LSI package 201, the conventional probe cannot be contacted with only an arbitrary signal line because its pitch is very fine. That is, in case of the chip stack type, any inspection signal cannot be inputted from a signal line between stacked LSI chips and in test inspection, the inspection signal needs to be always inputted through the LSI package 201, and consequently, the high speed/high frequency characteristic cannot be inspected at a high precision.

System in-package test inspection apparatus and test inspection method

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology


A PWM method and circuit. A temporary PWM signal is generated at a first frequency. The temporary PWM signal includes analog duty cycle information adapted for the first frequency. At least a portion of the analog duty cycle information is converted to digital duty cycle information adapted for a second frequency. A final PWM signal having a carrier frequency of the second frequency is generated from the digital duty cycle information.

Many integrated circuit applications require a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal. FIG. 1A illustrates a conventional circuit 100 for generating a PWM signal from a ramp voltage reference and an input signal. The widths of respective pulses in the PWM signal are modulated based on the input signal. The PWM signal has a carrier frequency "fref" that is the same frequency as the ramp voltage reference. The duty cycle of each period of the PWM signal depends upon the relative magnitudes of the ramped reference signal and the input signal. Thus, the duty cycle of the PWM signal contains information about the magnitude of the input signal.
FIG. 1B illustrates a conventional circuit 150 for generating a ramped reference voltage, which may be used to create the PWM signal having the same frequency "fref" as the ramped reference voltage signal. The ramped voltage circuit 150 functions by charging the capacitor Cref with the bias current Ibias until the capacitor Cref is at the reference voltage VDc—ref. During this period, the output voltage ramps up. When the output voltage reaches the reference voltage, the capacitor Cref rapidly discharges to create the saw-tooth waveform of the output ramped reference voltage.

Pulse width modulation carrier frequency technique


A pixel device, comprising; a first plate, a second plate disposed under the first plate, and a third plate disposed under the second plate; a first power supply for providing a first voltage to the first plate; a second power supply for providing a second voltage to the second plate; and a third power supply for providing a third voltage to the third plate.

Micro-mechanic optical devices have been applied quite commonly as basic pixel components/elements in display products. The pixel element is a spatial light-modulating optical cavity, actuated by electrical voltages. Through an interference method, the pixel element generates different color reflections. Typically, the pixel element operates with a high voltage. A high voltage device to drive a pixel element complicates design implementation.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The present invention relates to a method of recognizing and tracking a spatial point, and more particularly to a method of using a point light source and a spatial point recognition device to measure the coordinates of the point light source and the coordinates of the convergent point of the spatial point recognition device based on the principle of parallax of human eyes, as to achieve the purpose of recognizing the position of a spatial point. Further, the spatial point recognition device is capable of moving the convergent point, such that the coordinates of the convergent point are superimposed onto the coordinates of the point light source, so as to achieve the purpose of tracking a spatial point automatically. At the same time, the spatial point recognition device can also receive the coordinates of a new convergent point to reset the position of the convergent point, so as to achieve the purpose of resetting the convergent point.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of imaging of a 2D optical lens.
A general 2D optical lens is formed by a spherical lens 1. After an object point o of a paraxial point light source goes through a 2D optical lens 1, a characteristic of the image includes a point-shaped image point ixy, and the relation of its image position follows the principle of geometric optics as shown in Equation (1) as listed below.
                                          1                          l              o                                +                      1                          l              i                                      =                  1          f                                    (        1        )            where, lo is an object distance of the point light source o, and li is an image distance, and f is a focal length of the optical lens 1. In addition, another characteristic of the geometric optical image resides on that a non-deviated light exists between the point light source o and the image point ixy, and the light passes through a geometric center Olens of the 2D optical lens 1.
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of forming an image by a 1D optical lens.
A general 1D optical lens is formed by semi-cylindrical lenses 2, 3, and its imaging principle follows the theory of geometric optics, but the 1D optical lens has the 1D imaging ability only. Therefore, 1D longitudinal focusing optical lens 2 transforms a point light source into a transverse line image iy, and a 1D transverse focusing optical lens 3 transforms a point light source into a longitudinal line image ix, and the image transformation also follows the principle of geometric optics as listed in Equation (1).
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a general optical camera. The camera 5 can be a general optical camera, a digital camera, or a camcorder, comprising an adjustable aperture 6, a variable focusing lens module 7, an image sensing and recording device 8. For the object point o1, an appropriate adjustment of the focal length f of the variable focusing lens module 7 is made to obtain an image point i1, and form an image on the image recording device 8. In general, a relation of li≈f can be obtained due to the object distance l0 being larger than the focal length f.
For an object point o2 at a different distance, the variable focusing lens module 7 is used for obtaining another image point i2. By an appropriate adjustment of the size of the adjustable aperture 6, another similar image point i2 can be obtained on the image recording device 8.
FIG. 4(a) is a schematic view of a structure of a human eyeball.
Human eyeball 10 is similar to an optical camera, and mainly comprises an iris 11, an eye crystalline lens 13 and a retina 15. Compared with the optical camera, the function of the iris 11 is to adjust the size of the pupil 12 and can be considered as an adjustable aperture; the eye crystalline lens 13 serves as a lens, such that the ciliaris muscle 14 can be moved to change the curvature (or focal length) of the eye crystalline lens 13, and thus can be considered as a variable focusing lens; and the retina 15 can be considered as an image sensor for transmitting an obtained image to a brain through the optic nerve 16, and the brain processes, stores and recognizes the visual space. In general, the viewing direction of the eyeball 10 (or known as the visual axis 17, which is the optical axis of the optical system of the eyeball) bases on the up-and-down and left-and-right movements of the eyeball 10 to change the direction of the visual axis 17 in a limited extent. Further, the left-and-right and up-and-down rotation of the neck can change the direction of the visual axis 17 is a great extent.
FIG. 4(b) is a schematic view of a structure of a visual space.
As to the left and right eyes 21, 22, the visual space refers to the space existed and observed by the left and right eyes 21, 22. Firstly, a world coordinate system O(X, Y, Z) is defined, such that î, ĵ, {circumflex over (k)} are unit vectors of the coordinate axes in the coordinate system. The coordinate axes of the world coordinate system are fixed, and the world coordinate system constitutes the space to define the visual space. Further, another rotating but immoving neck coordinate system ON(XN, YN, ZN) is set at the origin (0, 0, 0) of the world coordinate system O(X, Y, Z) and îN, ĵN, {circumflex over (k)}N are set to be the unit vectors of the coordinate axes in the coordinate system, and the coordinate system ON(XN, YN, ZN) is rotated such that the axis ZN can be rotated to an angle Θ with respect to the axis YN, and the axis XN can be rotated to an angle Φ as shown in FIG. 4(c).
Further, a rotating but immoving left eye coordinate system OL(XL, YL, ZL) is set at the position (S/2, H, 0) of the neck coordinate system ON(XN, YN, ZN), and ûLX, ûLY, ûLZ are set to be the unit vectors of the coordinate axes, and a rotating but immoving right eye coordinate system OR(XR, YR, ZR) is set at the position (−S/2, H, 0) of ON(XN, YN, ZN), and ûRX, ûRY, ûRZ are set to be the unit vectors of the coordinate axes. Therefore ON(XN, YN, ZN) can be rotated to an angle of Θ or Φ to drive the rotation of OL(XL, YL, ZL), OR(XR, YR, ZR) and the point OH respectively, and Θ and Φ can be considered as angles of left-and-right (horizontal) and up-and-down (vertical) rotations of the neck. S is defined as the stereo base; OH is defined as the center of stereo base; and the length of H is considered as the height of cervical (neck) spine as shown in FIGS. 4(f) and 4(g).
In FIG. 4(b), a point FL at the position (0, 0, f) on the left eye coordinate system OL(XL, YL, ZL) is defined as the center position of the left eye crystalline lens. The axis ZL of the coordinate system OL(XL, YL, ZL) can be rotated to an angle θL with respect to the axis YL, and an angle φL with respect to the axis XL as shown in FIG. 4(d). Therefore, the angles θL, φL can be considered as the angles of left-and-right (horizontal) and up-and-down (vertical) rotations similar to the rotations of the left eyeball as shown in FIG. 4(f) and FIG. 4(g) respectively. Since the OL(XL, YL, ZL) of the left eye coordinate system is set on the retina, therefore the retina disposed proximate to the origin of the coordinates can be considered to be disposed on the plane XL-YL, and the plane XL-YL is defined as the plane of the left image.
In FIG. 4(b), a point FR at the position (0, 0, f) on the right eye coordinate system OR(XR, YR, ZR) is defined as of the center position of the right eye crystalline lens. The axis ZR of the coordinate system OR(XR, YR, ZR) can be rotated to an angle θR with respect to the axis YR, and an angle of φR with respect to the axis the axis XR as shown in FIG. 4(e). Therefore, the angles θR, φR can be considered as the angles of the rotations similar to left-and-right (horizontal) and up-and-down (vertical) rotations of the right eyeball as shown in FIGS. 4(f) and 4(g). Since the right eye coordinate system OR(XR, YR, ZR) is set on the retina therefore the retina disposed on the origin of the coordinates can be considered to be disposed on the plane XR-YR, and thus the plan XR-YR is defined as the plant of the right image.
FIG. 4(h) is a schematic geometric view of a (convergent point), an object point and each coordinate when two eyes are staring at a point. If two eyes are staring at a point in the front, the visual axes of two eyes are intersected at a point which is called a point of view or convergent point V. In other words, the axes ZL, ZR are the visual axes of the left and right eyes 21, 22 respectively, and the two visual axes must be intersected at a point which is the convergent point V. In a world coordinate system O(X, Y, Z), the coordinates of the convergent point V are (XV, YV, ZV). In the neighborhood of the convergent point V, there is an object point P, and in the world coordinate system O(X, Y, Z), the coordinates of the object point P are (XP, YP, ZP). Further, the position of a point image IL of the object point P formed by the left eye crystalline lens at the coordinate system of the left eye retina OL(XL, YL, ZL) are IL(xL, yL, 0); and the position of a point image IR of the object point P formed by the right eye crystalline lens at the OR(XR, YR, ZR) coordinate system of the right eye retina are IR(xR, yR, 0). In general, the angles (θL, θR, φL, φR, Θ, Φ) of the visual axes of both left and right eyes are adjusted appropriately to superimpose the convergent point V with the object point P to achieve the purpose of tracking and staring at an object.
As to human eyes, the up-and-down movements of the left and right eyeballs are limited to the same angle due to the evolution of human vision to recognize the 3D space effectively. In other words, φL=φR=φ. The condition of this limitation gives rise to a very important result which illustrates the vertical coordinate of point image IL, IR on the retina is consistent. In other words, yL=yR. Another necessary condition of causing such result is that the focal length of both left and right eyes must be equal to assure the consistency of the size of an image formed at the left and right eyes. The so-called parallax phenomenon refers to the difference between both images of an object point P, other than the convergent point V, formed on the retinas of the left and right eyes. In other words, xL≠xR. With the parallax, a human eye is capable of recognizing the distance of the space. Further, the value of a stereo base S is the most fundamental factor of determining the magnitude of the parallax. For the recognition of an object at a farther end, the parallax effect can be improved by increasing the stereo base S. As to the space recognition of a human vision, the angles (θL, θR, φ, Θ, Φ, S, f) are defined as a group of convergent parameters, and the parameters determine the parallax effect to achieve the purpose of recognizing the space.

Method of recognizing and tracking a spatial point


A composition of microscopic devices utilizable in a medical diagnostic or therapeutic procedure. Each microscopic device includes a nanostructure provided with a ligand for effectively coupling the nanostructure to a predetermined chemical or molecular site. A medical method in part comprises inserting the medical devices into a patient, attaching the nanostructures via the respective ligands to instances of a predetermined type of target structure inside the patient, and thereafter activating the nanostructures to perform a preselected medical diagnostic or therapeutic function.

Generally, this invention relates to a composition containing nanostructures such as nanotubes. This invention may be used in a medical method, therapeutically and/or diagnostically.
Despite the ever accelerating advances in medical technology, there are many disease states which present medical techniques are unable to adequately treat. For example, there is no effective treatment of nerve tissue damage. Extant therapies for other illnesses are only partially effective in most people. Such illnesses or afflictions include gout, excess weight, bone injuries, aging, and cancer. In addition, while other disease states or systemic malfunctions are treatable by current methods, the treatments frequently have disadvantages or undesirable side effects. For example, in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, pacemakers are implanted in the patients, thus requiring open surgery with the attendant risks, costs, and traumas. Drugs used in the treatment of AIDS have serious side effects such as toxicity and rapid rise of resistant viral strains.

Medical composition employing nanostructures