A service transmitting method of mobile multimedia broadcasting network is disclosed. The sending side of the system adds an updating indication of multiplexing configuration information in the service information slice for indicating whether the information of a next frame is updated, sends information to the receiving terminal, and sends an updating indication of information to the terminal in advance; the terminal acquires the service needed according to the information received at the beginning and monitors whether the information is going to change by monitoring the updating indication, the terminal stops monitoring and records the updating indication in case monitors an updating indication; for receiving other services, the terminal inquires whether any updating notice is recorded, if recorded, the terminal re-acquires the current information, according to which the service needed is acquired and at the same time removes the original updating indication and re-starts to monitor the updating indication of information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital mobile communication field, specifically relates to a service transmitting method of mobile multimedia broadcasting network.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, technologies and standards of digital mobile multimedia broadcasting have developed rapidly, such as DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast Handheld) of Europe, Media FLO (Media Forward Link Only) of the USA, CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcast) of China and so on.
Compared with analog technologies, one of the advantages of the digital mobile multimedia broadcasting network is that a broadcasting channel can support transmissions of a plurality of services by multiplexing on the premise of satisfying the requirements on service qualities so that the utilization efficiency of radio resource can be greatly increased. We call the data obtained by multiplexing of a plurality of services within a certain time a broadcast frame. For the receiving terminal, as there are a plurality of services on a broadcast frame, the terminal needs information which we call multiplexing configuration information and can exactly describe the broadcast channel resource each service used in the present broadcast frame to receive one or more services needed rapidly and exactly. Multiplexing configuration information is generated by the sending terminal when multiplexing occurs and is sent to the terminal in one same broadcast frame.
In consideration of reducing the receiving power consumption of a mobile multimedia receiving terminal, all mobile multimedia broadcasting technologies have adopted various methods to reduce the working time of the receiving terminal. In addition to service data compression, another two methods are also widely used:
Time slicing technology, in which a broadcast frame is further divided into a plurality of time slices and one time slice only bears one service, thus the receiving terminal only needs to receive the time slice needed and needless to receive the whole broadcast frame, if only needing to receive one service.
Multiplexing configuration information and service data use different time slices, so as to reduce the number of spending information in service data or in other words to increase the proportion of services payload data on time slices, so that lengths of time slices can be further reduced, which leads to reducing of the working time of the receiving terminal.
There are many design methods for broadcast frames used by various mobile multimedia broadcasting technologies, but basic constitutions of broadcast frames are similar.
We call the time slice in which multiplexing configuration information is located multiplexing information time slice and the time slice in which a service is located service time slice. In this manner, the receiving terminal can receive the service needed normally only by acquiring the multiplexing information time slice and the service time slice needed in each frame. If the times of reading spending time slices by the receiving terminal can be reduced, the working time of the receiving terminal can also be further reduced so that the design of mobile multimedia broadcasting system can have a better feature of current saving. Various mobile multimedia broadcasting technologies have designs for this point. Below are two common methods:
Method A: adding interval time indication information in the service time slice, the information used to indicate the time when the next service time slice of the present service appears. This technology has been applied in DVB-H system. The problem of this method is that when a broadcast frame bears services having variable rate, each interval time may be varied and the receiving terminal needs to acquire interval time indication information from each service time slice no matter whether data rate of the service currently received by the receiving terminal is variable or not.
Method B: auxiliary multiplexing information with a fixed length is added in the service time slice, for a broadcast frame has a fixed time length (such as 1 sec.). Whether multiplexing configuration information of the present service will be changed in the next frame and corresponding multiplexing configuration information or filling are provided in the auxiliary multiplexing information, according to which the receiving terminal can receive the service needed. Only when needing to receive other services, the receiving terminal needs to receive the multiplexing information time slice. However, this method also has a problem of increasing the processing complexity of the receiving terminal.
For a mobile multimedia broadcasting network, the services most commonly used by users are the real-time services which are continuously broadcasted such as television and audio broadcast. The feature of this kind of service in the broadcasting process is that the average data rate can be considered to be fixed and as long as the coverage area or service quality is not adjusted by broadcast operator, the broadcast channel resource (the size of time slice) needed by this kind of service can also be fixed.
If this kind of service application is prevailing, the existing methods not only increase additional spending but the procedure of receiving processing of the receiving terminal is also relatively complex.

Service transmitting method of mobile multi-media broadcasting network


A method, system and computer program product for migrating at least one switch in a storage area network is disclosed. The migration is done by analysing the I/O traffic to identify patterns in the I/O traffic of the switch; forecasting future I/O workload of the switch based on one or more identified patterns in the I/O traffic, determining appropriate timing for migration based on the identified patterns and administrator inputs; processing the storage area network configuration data to identify the storage network physical and logical access paths to the or each selected switch to create a first connectivity map; generating a second connectivity map based on the first connectivity map and administrator inputs; and migrating the or each switch migration based on the second connectivity map and the appropriate timing. The migration may comprise routing the I/O traffic from the switch to be migrated to the alternate switches in the storage area network. The migration may further comprising transforming zones on the switch to be migrated and deploying the transformed zones to the new switch.

A storage area network (SAN) is an architecture to attach remote storage devices to servers in such a way that the storage devices appear as locally attached to the operating system. Storage area networks may be used for enabling multiple applications on servers access to data stored in consolidated shared storage infrastructures. Enterprises are deploying increasingly large-scale SANs in order to gain economies-of-scale business benefits, and are performing and planning massive business-critical migration processes to these new environments.
Enterprise SANs are increasingly supporting most of the business critical applications in enterprises. These SAN are increasingly large and complex. A typical SAN environment may contain a few hundred servers and tens of switches and storage devices of different types. Furthermore these SAN environments are undergoing a large amount of change and growth. This large size and rate of growth of SANs leads to huge added complexity. The number of components and links which may be associated with the data transfer from each given application and one or more of its data units (LUNs—stored on one or more shared storage devices) may increase exponentially with the size of the SAN.
This complexity, which is compounded by the heterogeneity of the different SAN devices, leads to high risk and inefficiency. Changes to the SAN (which need to happen often due to the natural growth of the SAN) take a long time to complete by groups of SAN managers, and are error-prone. For example, in many existing SAN environments a routine change such as adding a new server or a switch to the SAN may take a day to a week depending on the complexity. Further businesses may not be willing to have a down time even in the order of hours depending on their business continuity requirements.
One of the main reasons for these problems in SANs is a consequence of the fact that applications and data LUNs, the end-points in SAN flows, have a relatively strong exclusive access relationship, involving a fabric (constituting one or more switches) in the flow paths. That is, each application on a SAN-connected host typically requires access (often exclusive access) only to some specific SAN data units (LUNs). Consequently, in storage area networks each source end point (application on a host) will typically need to interact only (and often exclusively) with a specific, small minority of target end points (LUNs on storage devices), ever.
However that access relationship and its related access characteristics actually need to be realized by setting up multiple underlying devices of different types. These underlying operations include multiple physical and logical basic set up actions (sometime tens per a single logical change) which need to be set up in different locations and device types, with perfect mutual consistency.
Other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follow.

Migration of switch in a storage area network

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The present invention relates to a pyroelectric infrared ray sensor fabricated by using MEMS processes, wherein an infrared ray absorption layer disposed on the most top portion of the infrared ray sensor assembly is formed with a silicon oxide film (SiO2) to exhibit an excellent absorption efficiency with respect to the infrared wavelength band of 8 to 12 mm and function as a protective film for a sensor pixel. In addition, an infrared ray absorption layer, support arms and posts are formed in a single body to allow the sensor assembly to be robust and fabricating processes to be remarkably reduced to increase a process yield.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an infrared ray sensor and, more particularly, to an uncooled pyroelectric infrared ray sensor in which an infrared ray absorption layer of a focal plate is composed of a silicon oxide film, and the infrared ray absorption layer, support arms and posts are integrated in a single body, and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A focal plate of a pyroelectric infrared ray sensor is an element that converts an incident infrared energy into a thermal energy to transmit it to a pyroelectric thin film and detects the variation of charges generated in a pyroelectric material at the same time as an electrical signal. Typically, a focal plate of an infrared ray sensor includes several parts such as a part for converting an incident infrared ray into a thermal energy, a part of the functional material for exhibiting differences of the electrical characteristics in accordance with the amount of the thermal energy, and a part of the metallic wiring for detecting the electrical signals in accordance with the differences of the electrical characteristics.
If an infrared ray is incident to a pyroelectric infrared ray sensor, the corresponding energy is delivered to the focal plate to raise the temperature of a pyroelectric thin film, thus generating variations of residual surface charges, that is, the inherent characteristic of a pyroelectric material. The variation of the generated charges is detected through a metallic wiring as minute currents. At this point, the minute currents equal to or less than pico-amperes (˜pA) are detected so that noise ratio of the element becomes an important factor for detecting the signals. For this reason, it is preferable that the focal plate including the pyroelectric thin film, the main component of the infrared ray sensor, has a configuration three-dimensionally separated from a substrate in order to avoid thermal noises.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a conventional configuration of a pyroelectric infrared ray sensor, disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,661 entitled 'Thermal Isolation of Monolithic Thermal Detector', by Robert A. Owen et al. Such a pyroelectric infrared ray sensor has a configuration three-dimensionally separated from a substrate in consideration of thermal noises.
Referring to FIG. 1, a thermal sensor 36 mainly includes a thermal assembly 44 and a signal flow path 46. The thermal assembly 44 comprises a thermal sensing element 50 for generating a signal in accordance with thermal energy and a pair of electrodes 52 and 54 for collecting the signal generated by the thermal sensing element 50. The signal flow path 46 transmits the signal collected by the electrodes 52 and 54 to the substrate 34, and includes a pair of support arms 56 and 58 extending from each of electrodes 52 and 54 and connected to the substrate 34. The support arms 56 and 58 are supported by the posts 64 disposed on the contact pads 70 on the substrate 34 and support the thermal assembly 44 to be separated from the substrate 34. The support arms 56 and 58 are formed with a thermal insulating material, which provides electrical conductivity to transmit the signal collected by the electrodes 52 and 54 to the substrate 34.
The pyroelectric infrared ray sensor shown in FIG. 1 comprises not an infrared ray absorption layer but upper and lower electrodes 52 and 54 composed of an oxide film, which is transparent in an infrared wavelength band. For this reason, a part of the incident infrared ray is absorbed in the pyroelectric thin film and then absorbed again after reflected by a metallic thin film (not shown) formed on the surface of the substrate 34. In such a configuration, the upper and lower electrodes 52 and 54 of the focal plate assembly of the infrared ray sensor should be supported by two separate support arms 56 and 58.
Such a configuration is advantageously sensitive to the variation of the amount of the incident infrared ray by decreasing the thermal mass of the focal plate. However, the electrodes made of the thin oxide films should support the focal plate assembly. Therefore, such a configuration is structurally unstable, so that the process yield decreases. In addition, the top portion of the substrate must disadvantageously have a metallic thin film which functions as a reflecting mirror for reflecting the incident infrared ray from the substrate.

Infrared ray sensor using silicon oxide film as infrared ray absorption layer and method of fabricating the same

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


Compounds of the formula

The present invention relates to piperidine derivatives useful as selective CCR5 antagonists, pharmaceutical compositions containing the compounds, and methods of treatment using the compounds. The invention also relates to the use of a combination of a CCR5 antagonist of this invention and one or more antiviral or other agents useful in the treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The invention further relates to the use of a CCR-5 antagonist of this invention, alone or in combination with another agent, in the treatment of solid organ transplant rejection, graft v. host disease, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, asthma, allergies or multiple sclerosis.
The global health crisis caused by HIV, the causative agent of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), is unquestioned, and while recent advances in drug therapies have been successful in slowing the progression of AIDS, there is still a need to find a safer, more efficient, less expensive way to control the virus.
It has been reported that the CCR5 gene plays a role in resistance to HIV infection. HIV infection begins by attachment of the virus to a target cell membrane through interaction with the cellular receptor CD4 and a secondary chemokine co-receptor molecule, and proceeds by replication and dissemination of infected cells through the blood and other tissue. There are various chemokine receptors, but for macrophage-tropic HIV, believed to be the key pathogenic strain that replicates in vivo in the early stages of infection, the principal chemokine receptor required for the entry of HIV into the cell is CCR5. Therefore, interfering with the interaction between the viral receptor CCR5 and HIV can block HIV entry into the cell. The present invention relates to small molecules which are CCR5 antagonists.
CCR-5 receptors have been reported to mediate cell transfer in inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, asthma and allergies, and inhibitors of such receptors are expected to be useful in the treatment of such diseases, and in the treatment of other inflammatory diseases or conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, solid organ transplant rejection and graft v. host disease.
Piperidine derivatives which are muscarinic antagonists useful in the treatment of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,883,096; 6,037,352; 5,889,006; 5,952,349; and 5,977,138.
Piperidine and piperazine derivatives useful in the treatment of AIDS are disclosed in WO 00/66559 and WO 00/66558.
A-M. Vandamme et al., Antiviral Chemistry & Chemotherapy, 9:187–203 (1998) disclose current clinical treatments of HIV-1 infections in man including at least triple drug combinations or so-called Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy ("HAART"); HAART involves various combinations of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors ("NRTI"), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors ("NNRTI") and HIV protease inhibitors ("PI"). In compliant drug-naive patients, HAART is effective in reducing mortality and progression of HIV-1 to AIDS. However, these multidrug therapies do not eliminate HIV-1 and long-term treatment usually results in multidrug resistance. Development of new drug therapies to provide better HIV-1 treatment remains a priority.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

CCR5 antagonists useful for treating AIDS

Abstract: Compounds of the formula

Abstract: or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or isomer thereof, wherein:                Q, X and Z are CH or N;        R, R4–R7 and R13 are H or alkyl;        R1 is H, alkyl, fluoroalkyl, R9-arylalkyl, R9-heteroarylalkyl, alkyl-SO2—, cycloalkyl-SO2—, fluoroalkyl-SO2—, R9-aryl-SO2—, R9-heteroaryl-SO2—, N(R22)(R23)—SO2—, alkyl-C(O)—, cycloalkyl-C(O)—, fluoroalkyl-C(O)—, R9-aryl-C(O)—, NH-alkyl-C(O)— or R9-aryl-NH—C(O)—;        R2 is H and R3 is H, alkyl, alkoxyalkyl, cycloalkyl, cycloalkylalkyl, R9-aryl, R9-arylalkyl, R9-heteroaryl, or R9-heteroarylalkyl, and when X and Z are each CH, R3 is alkoxy, R9-aryloxy, R9-heteroaryloxy, alkylC(O)O—, alkylaminoC(O)O—, alkylC(O)NR13—, alkylOC(O)NR13— or alkylaminoC(O)NR13—;        or R2 and R3 together are ═O, ═NOR10, ═N—NR11R12 or ═CH-alkyl;        R8 is substituted phenyl, substituted heteroaryl, naphthyl, fluorenyl, diphenymethyl, alpha-substituted benzyl or alpha-substituted heteroarylmethyl;        R9–R12 are as defined;are disclosed for the treatment of HIV, solid organ transplant rejection, graft v. host disease, inflammatory diseases, atopic dermatitis, asthma, allergies or multiple sclerosis, as well as pharmaceutical compositions and combinations with antiviral or anti-inflammatory agents.


A fabrication method of a multilayer PWB is provided, which realizes a satisfactorily-high adhesion strength between a mounting pad and a cured resin of a prepreg layer located in a surface via hole. A first surface via hole is formed in a first subboard, and a second surface via hole is formed in a second subboard. Then, the first and second subboards are laminated together while placing an inner structure including a prepreg layer between the first and second subboards. The first and second surface via holes are filled with a resin contained in the prepreg layer. Filler particles are buried into first and second surface regions of the resin which are located in the first and second surface via holes, respectively. The filler particles buried into the first and second surface regions of the resin are removed by dissolving the filler particles, thereby roughening the first and second surface regions of the resin. First and second mounting pads are formed to be contacted with the roughened first and second surface regions of the resin, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fabrication method of a multilayer Printed Wiring Board (PWB) and more particularly, to a fabrication method of a multilayer PWB having surface via holes covered with mounting pads.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A multilayer PWB is typically comprised of two or more subboards laminated with at least one prepreg layer intervening between two adjacent ones of the subboards Each of the subboards is formed by a dielectric substrate and a conductive pattern fixed on one side of the dielectric substrate or two conductive patterns fixed on both sides thereof.
Usually, the conductive patterns of the subboards are electrically interconnected with one another through plated holes penetrating at least one of the subboards and having metal-plated inner walls. An outermost one or two outermost ones of the conductive patterns constitute a predesigned outer circuit or circuits. The remainder of the conductive patterns constitute a predesigned inner circuit or circuits.
To mount surface-mounting electronic components on the Multilayer PWB, mounting pads are provided on the outermost one or two outermost ones of the conductive patterns serving as the outer circuit or circuits.
Some of the plated holes penetrate entirely the multilayer PWB itself from one side to another to electrically interconnect the outer circuit or circuits with some of the inner circuits, which are termed "plated through holes". The plated holes that do not penetrate entirely the multilayer PWB itself from one side to another are termed "plated via holes".
Especially, the plated via holes that penetrate only the outermost one of the laminated subboards to electrically interconnect the outer circuit and a next one of the inner circuits are termed "plated surface via holes".
In recent years, to increase the mounting density of electronic components on a multilayer PWB, mounting pads have been placed not only on the outer circuit or circuits but also on the plated surface via holes. In this case, the plated surface via holes are closed by the mounting pads; in other words, the opening mouths of the plated surface via holes are padded with the mounting pads. Therefore, these via holes may be termed "padded, plated surface via holes".
Multilayer PWBs with padded, plated surface via holes have been becoming practically used more and more widely because of their advantage of the increased mounting density.
FIG. 1 shows a flow chart of a conventional fabrication method of a multilayer PWB with padded, plated surface via holes. FIG. 2 shows a part of a multilayer PWB fabricated by this conventional method.
As shown in FIG. 2, a multilayer PWB 101 is comprised of first and second double-sided copper-clad laminates 110 and 120 serving as first and second subboards, and an intervening prepreg layer 130 between the first and second laminates 110 and 120.
The first copper-clad laminate 110 is formed by a dielectric substrate 111, a patterned outer copper foil 112 on the outer side of the substrate 111, and a patterned inner copper foil 113 fixed on the inner side thereof. Holes 116a are formed to penetrate the substrate 111 and the outer and inner copper foils 112 and 113.
Plated copper layers 114 are formed on the outer and inner copper foils 112 and 113 and the inner walls of the holes 116a, respectively. The parts of the plated copper layers 114 formed on the inner walls of the holes 116a serve to electrically interconnect the outer copper foil 112 with the opposing inner copper foil 113. The holes 116a whose inner walls are covered with the copper layers 114 constitute plated surface via holes 116.
The patterned outer copper foil 112 and the parts of the copper layers 114 located thereon constitute a first outer circuit 117. The patterned inner copper foil 113 and the parts of the copper layers 114 located thereon constitute a first inner circuit 118, which is electrically connected to the first outer circuit 117 through the plated surface via holes 116.
Plated copper layers 115, which serve as mounting pads, are formed on the parts of the plated copper layers 114 located over the outer copper foil 112 (i.e., located on the first outer circuit 117).
The second copper-clad laminate 120 is formed by a dielectric substrate 121, a patterned outer copper foil 122 fixed on the outer side of the substrate 121, and a patterned inner copper foil 123 fixed on the inner side thereof. Holes 126a are formed to penetrate the substrate 121 and the outer and inner copper foils 122 and 123.
Plated copper layers 124 are formed on the outer and inner copper foils 122 and 123 and the inner walls of the holes 126a, respectively. The parts of the plated copper layers 124 formed on the inner walls of the holes 126a serve to electrically interconnect the outer copper foil 122 with the opposing inner copper foil 123. The holes 126a whose inner walls are covered with the copper layers 124 constitute plated surface via holes 126.
The patterned outer copper foil 122 and the parts of the copper layers 124 located thereon constitute a second outer circuit 127. The patterned inner copper foil 123 and the parts of the copper layers 124 located thereon constitute a second inner circuit 128, which is electrically connected to the first outer circuit 127 through the plated surface via holes 126.
Plated copper layers 125, which serve as mounting pads, are formed on the parts of the plated copper layers 124 located over the outer copper foil 122 (i.e., located on the second outer circuit 127).
A hole 131a is formed to penetrate the first and second-copper-clad laminates 110 and 120 (i.e., the first and second subboards) and the intervening prepreg layer 130. A plated copper layer 132 is formed on the corresponding parts of the plated copper layers 114 and 124 of the first and second laminates 110 and the inner wall of the hole 131a. the part of the plated copper layer 132 located on the inner wall of the hole 131a serves to electrically interconnect the outer copper foil 112 of the first laminate 110 with the outer copper foil 122 of the second laminate 120. The hole 131a whose inner wall is covered with the plated copper layer 132 constitutes a plated through hole 131.
The multilayer PWB 101 shown in FIG. 2 is fabricated in the following way.
As shown in FIG. 1, first, the first and second copper-clad laminates 110 and 120, which have been cut to have a desired same size, are prepared (step S1).
Next, the holes 116a are formed by drilling to penetrate the first laminate 110, and the holes 126a are formed by drilling to penetrate the second laminate 120 (step S2).
Then, the first and second copper-clad laminates 110 and 120 are subjected to panel electroplating of copper. Thus, the copper layers 114 are formed on the outer and inner copper foils 112 and 113 and the inner walls of the surface via holes 116a of the first laminate 110, and the outer and inner copper foils 122 and 123 and the inner walls of the surface via holes 126a of the second laminate 120, respectively (step S3).
Photoresist films are formed on the inner copper foil 113 of the first laminate 110 and the inner copper foil 123 of the second laminate 120, respectively. Then, the photoresist films are exposed and developed, thereby forming etching masks on the inner copper foil 113 of the first laminate 110 and the inner copper foil 123 of the second laminate 120, respectively (step S4).
Using the etching masks thus formed, the inner copper foil 113 of the first laminate 110 and the inner copper foil 123 of the second laminate 120 are selectively etched using an etching solution such as a water solution of copper chloride. The etching masks are then removed (step S5).
Through the above process steps S1 to S5, the first and second subboards 110 and 120 are prepared. The first subboard 110 has the patterned inner copper foil 113, the unpatterned outer copper foil 112, and the plated holes 116. The second subboard 120 has the patterned inner copper foil 123, the unpatterned outer copper foil 122, and the plated holes 126. The plated holes 116 and 126 will become plated surface via holes after lamination.
Subsequently, the first and second subboards 110 and 120 and the prepreg layer 130 are stacked so that the patterned inner copper foils 113 and 123 are opposite to one another and the prepreg layer 130 is sandwiched by the first and second subboards 110 and 120. Release films are applied onto the outer copper foils 112 and 122 of the first and second subboards 110 and 120, respectively (step S6).
The first and second subboards 110 and 120 and the prepreg layer 130 thus stacked are placed between upper and lower platens of a laminating machine so that the release film applied onto the second subboard 120 is contacted with the lower platen and the release film applied onto the first subboard 110 is contacted with the upper platen. Then, the stack of the first and second subboards 110 and 120 and the prepreg layer 130 is pressed by lowering the upper platen under heat for a preset period, thereby joining them together. Thus, a laminated board is given, which is comprised of the first and second subboards 110 and 120 and the prepreg layer 130 (step S7).
A typical lamination temperature is approximately 170.degree. C., a typical lamination pressure is 8 to 25 atoms, and a typical lamination time is approximately two hours.
During this lamination step, a synthetic resin contained in the prepreg layer 130 is melted due to the applied heat and then, it is slightly pushed or flown out of the holes 116 and 126 of the first and second subboards 110 and 120 due to the applied pressure. The resin of the prepreg layer 130 thus pushed out is cured after the laminated board is cooled down.
After removing the release films from the top and bottom of the laminated board, the top and bottom of the laminated board are planarized to remove the cured, pushed-out resin of the prepreg layer 130 using a belt sander (step S8).
Following this planarizing process, the hole 131 is formed by drilling to entirely penetrate the laminated board itself (step S9).
The laminated board is then subjected to panel electroplating of copper, thereby forming the copper layers 115, 125, and 132 on the plated copper layers 114 and 124 and the inner wall of the hole 131a. The copper-plated via holes 116 and 126 are closed by the plated copper layers 115 and 125, respectively (step S10).
Photoresist films are formed on the top and bottom of the laminated board, respectively. Then, the photoresist films are exposed and developed, thereby forming etching masks on the top and bottom of the laminated board, respectively (step S11).
Finally, using the etching masks thus formed, the outermost copper layers 115 and 116 are selectively etched by an etching solution such as a water solution of copper chloride. Thus, the plated copper layers 115 and 125 are patterned. After removing the etching masks, the top and bottom of the laminated board are subjected to surface finishing, resulting In the multilayer PWB 101 shown in FIG. 2 (step S12).
With the conventional fabrication method as explained above, however, the adhesion or bonding strength between the plated copper layers (or, mounting pads) 115 and 125 and the cured resin of the prepreg layer 130 located in the surface via holes 116 and 126 is not sufficiently high. As a result, there is a problem that the plated copper layers or mounting pads 115 and 125 tend to be apart from the cured resin of the prepreg layer 130 during a mounting or soldering process of surface-mounting electronic components. The possibility of this problem becomes higher as the diameter of the surface via holes 116 and 126 increases.
It is supposed that this problem is caused by the following reason.
Because the cured resin of the prepreg layer 130 pushed out of the surface via holes 116 and 126 during the lamination step S7 is polished with the use of a belt sander in the step S8, the exposed surface of the remaining resin is planarized. The planarized surface of the resin is difficult to be roughened by any conventional preprocess of the panel plating step S10. Accordingly, the anchor effect between the remaining resin of the prepreg layer 130 and the plated copper layers or mounting pads 115 and 125 does not become sufficiently strong.
The Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication No. 1-241895 published in September 1989 discloses a fabrication method of a multilayer PWB with blind through holes In this method, a patterned copper layer is left on the mouth of a surface via hole by etching and therefore, the mouth of the surface via hole Is flattened due to existence of the patterned copper layer. However, no roughening technique for a cured resin of a prepreg layer is disclosed in this Publication.
The Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication No. 5-343846 published in December 1993 discloses a fabrication method of a PWB with padded surface via holes. In this method, the exposed surface of a cured resin of a prepreg layer located in a surface via hole is planarized by polishing. However, no roughening technique for a cured resin of a prepreg layer is disclosed in this Publication also.
On the other hand, the following surface-roughening methods (i) to (iv) have been developed to Increase the adhesion or bonding strength between a plated copper layer and a cured resin of a prepreg layer located in a surface via hole.
(i) An embossed release film is used to transfer the bosses of the release film to a cured resin of a prepreg layer located in a surface via hole. The bosses of the release film are transferred to the contacted area of the resin during a lamination step, resulting in the roughened surface of the resin. PA1 (ii) The surface of a cured resin of a prepreg layer is roughened by mechanical polishing using a belt sander or the like. PA1 (iii) The surface of a cured resin of a prepreg layer is roughened by colliding hard particles such as a sand using a sand blasting machine or the like. PA1 (iv) The surface of a cured resin of a prepreg layer is chemically swollen and then, it is etched using a water solution of alkali permanganate, resulting in the roughened surface of the resin.
However, all the surface-roughening methods (i) to (iv) are unable to realize a satisfactorily-high adhesion or bonding strength.

Fabrication method of multilayer printed wiring board


A hinge assembly is used in a notebook computer and has a combination bracket, a keyed shaft, a stationary bracket, a limiting assembly and a pressing assembly. The notebook computer has a monitor panel and a base. The monitor panel is mounted horizontally pivotally upon the base. The combination bracket is attached to the monitor panel. The keyed shaft is attached securely to the combination bracket. The stationary bracket is mounted rotatably around the keyed shaft and is mounted securely on the base. The limiting assembly is mounted rotatably on the stationary bracket, is connected to the keyed shaft and allows the keyed shaft to rotate 360°. The pressing assembly is mounted around the keyed shaft below the stationary bracket to provide friction. Consequently, the hinge assembly allows the monitor to rotate 360° relative the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hinge assembly, and more particularly to a hinge assembly attaching a monitor panel to a base of a notebook computer.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
Notebook computers are designed to be more and more convenient and to have structural features to add preferred operational functions.
One type of conventional notebook computer has a horizontally rotatable monitor panel relative to its base to provide a capability to exhibit or to show the monitor to people behind the monitor panel. However, the kind of the conventional notebook computer is only designed to allow its monitor panel to horizontally rotate clockwise or counterclockwise a limited angle. Consequently, a person using the notebook computer needs to rotate the monitor panel in the opposite direction to close the monitor panel or continue typing on the notebook computer after showing it to people behind the monitor panel. Even when the monitor panel is rotated more then 180°, the monitor panel must be rotated in the opposite direction to its original position. Not being able to return the monitor panel to its original position directly by continuing to rotate it in the initial direction to reach 360° can be awkward.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a hinge assembly to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.


A kennel includes a plurality of side panels that are connected or coupled together with a gate panel to form an enclosure. The gate panel has a pair of ends that are configured for connecting to the side panels and allow access into and out of the enclosure via a doorway positioned between the ends. A door configured for opening and closing the doorway is positioned therein, and has a frame member directly and rotatably attached to a doorway frame member to form a compact door and doorway combination in the gate panel.

The present invention relates generally to kennels, and more specifically to an animal kennel having a compact door and doorway configuration.
Animal kennels are known in the art. Such kennels can be relatively small and portable enabling users to carry an assembled kennel in a vehicle or the like, or generally larger, which requires the kennel to be disassembled during transportation and assembled once a destination is reached. Many users of kennels have concerns about storing animals in smaller kennels, and prefer using larger kennels because of increased sanitation and space.
Larger kennels basically can be formed using a series of panels that are connected or coupled together to form an enclosure. FIG. 1 is exemplary of such a typical prior art kennel, which is generally designated as 10. The kennel 10 includes a plurality of side panels 12 that are configured for coupling to one another, and a gate panel 14 that connects to the side panels at corners 16. An enclosure, generally designated as 18, is formed by the connecting of the side panels 12 and the gate panel 14 together.
Generally, it is desirable to be able to quickly assemble larger kennels since they are often used as portable kennels. Accordingly, many larger kennels are designed to have a skeleton structure that is formed by a plurality of vertical frame members 20 that slidingly interlock with horizontal frame members 22 at junctions 24. That is, the vertical frame members 20 and horizontal frame members 22 are assembled by slidingly coupling in a friction fit to one another to form the skeleton structure of the kennel 10.
After assembly of the skeleton structure of the kennel 10, the vertical frame members 20 and the horizontal frame members 22 that form the gate panel 14 are arranged to form a doorway, generally designated as 26. The doorway 26 is surrounded by vertical doorway frame members 28 and horizontal doorway frame members 30 that connect to one another. Typically, a section of wire cloth 31 or other barrier is attached to the vertical doorway frame members 28 using vertical posts 34 that are passed through loops in the wire cloth. Another length of wire cloth 35 is attached to one or more of the vertical frame members 20 to seal the enclosure 18. The vertical posts 34 are secured by clamps 36 to the vertical frame members 20, and prevent escape of an animal from the enclosure 18 through the doorway 26 when closed.
A door 38 is provided for closing the doorway 26, and is defined by the vertical doorway frame members 28, the horizontal doorway frame members 30, and the wire cloth 31. Typically, the door 38 uses hinges 40 to achieve rotation about one of the vertical frame members 20. In addition, the door 38 usually has a locking mechanism 42 attached to a vertical doorway frame member 28 that engages one of the vertical frame members 20 to maintain the door 38 in a closed position. When the locking mechanism 42 is released, the door 38 is rotatable from the closed position, as shown in FIG. 1, to an open position (not shown) permitting entry into and out of the enclosure 18.
While the use of hinges to rotate kennel doors is known in the art, hinges have a number of drawbacks and disadvantages. One of the principle disadvantages is that repeated connection of the hinges to the vertical frame member when assembling the kennel can be difficult, especially since the hinges need to be positioned at certain locations on a vertical frame member. Since these portable kennels are often assembled and disassembled, adjusting the position of the hinges can become tedious and labor intensive. Another disadvantage is that hinges may malfunction over time due to stress upon the hinges caused by their support of the door. Another design factor of such portable kennels is a desire to reduce the disassembled weight while maintaining the size and structural strength. Therefore, there has been and continues to be a need for a larger kennel that is portable, can be quickly and easily assembled, has a sturdy structure for enabling rotation of a door, and that can withstand stress exerted on the structure by the door.


A control system for a power transmission system capable of speed change control in conformity of a deceleration demand. The transmission system includes at least two transmission units having different responsiveness to a speed change and capable of setting a speed change ratio individually, and in which a total speed change ratio is determined according to the speed change ratios of the transmission units. The control system includes a speed change control for changing a priority order to carry out a speed change operation of the individual transmission units to achieve a predetermined deceleration in conformity with a content of the deceleration demand, when the predetermined deceleration is demanded.

One example of a power transmission system comprising a plurality of transmission units having different responsiveness to a speed change is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-127681. According to the hybrid drive system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-127681, an internal combustion engine is connected with a carrier of a planetary gear mechanism, and a first motor/generator is connected with a sun gear of the planetary gear mechanism. Also, a ring gear is connected with a member of an input side of a geared automatic transmission. A member of an output side of the automatic transmission is connected with a propeller shaft, and a second motor/generator is connected with the propeller shaft. Thus, according to this drive unit for a hybrid vehicle, the planetary gear mechanism functions as a distribution mechanism distributing an engine power to the first motor/generator and to the transmission.
According to the system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-127681, a revolution frequency of the engine is varied continuously by changing a revolution frequency of the first motor/generator. That is, the planetary gear mechanism and the first motor/generator function as a continuously variable transmission. Consequently, a total speed change ratio of the drive unit for the hybrid vehicle is determined by the speed change ratio of the planetary gear mechanism functioning as a continuously variable transmission and the gear stage of the transmission arranged on the output side of the planetary gear mechanism.
As explained above, according to the system taught by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-127681, the revolution frequency of the engine is varied by changing a revolution frequency of the first motor/generator. Therefore, a substantial speed change ratio of the planetary gear mechanism or the distribution mechanism is varied promptly. However, on the other hand, a shifting operation of the geared transmission is carried out by engaging and releasing frictional engagement devices. This means that the required time for the shifting operation of the geared transmission is relatively longer.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-127681, the transmission is provided for the purpose of improving a power transmission efficiency and a fuel economy by reducing a power transmission with a conversion of the power onto an electric power as much as possible even in case the vehicle is running under low load at high speed or running under high load at low speed, and downsizing the motor/generator. For this purpose, the gear stage of the transmission is shifted sequentially to the stage of smaller ratio with an increase in the vehicle speed, as a typical automatic geared transmission. On the other hand, a speed change ratio of the distribution mechanism is varied continuously by the first motor/generator. As a result, a total speed change ratio of the vehicle is set according to a running condition of the vehicle.
Thus, an entire speed change ratio, that is, the total speed change ratio is set by a speed change ratio of the continuously variable transmission unit and a gear stage of the geared transmission unit. However, a speed change operation is carried out in response to a change in the vehicle speed, an output demand, an accelerating operation, a decelerating operation and so on. That is, a content of a speed change demand is different depending on the situation. Therefore, if a speed change operation of the continuously variable transmission and a shifting operation of the geared transmission are always carried out on a consistent basis to approximate the total speed change ratio to the target speed change ratio, a speed change operation may not be carried out in conformity with such various demands concerning the speed change operation.


Embodiments of this invention include a test and measurement instrument and associated methods for acquiring and stitching wide overlapped non-uniform frequency bands so that a user specified band can be efficiently displayed and analyzed. The test and measurement instrument includes a user interface to receive the user specified frequency span. Acquisition circuitry acquires one or more predefined frequency bands having non-uniform overlapping frequency ranges. A frequency band processing section can decimate the acquired frequency bands, mask the acquired frequency bands, and stitch the masked frequency bands together. A display section displays the user specified frequency span using the stitched frequency bands. Due to the overlap configuration of the wide non-uniform bands, any user specified span between 50 kHz and 6 GHz, or thereabout, can be covered by two bands.

Spectrum analyzers have an upper limit to how wide a frequency span can be acquired and processed at one time. Such upper limit is caused by speed and processing limitations of the hardware, and is particularly applicable to digital spectrum analyzers, where a band of signal is acquired and transformed into a frequency spectrum for that band. When a frequency span that is wider than can be accommodated in one acquisition is desired, multiple acquisitions with different acquisition and processing settings must be processed and the resulting two or more partial spectrums are subsequently "stitched" together.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional approach for multiple acquisitions and stitching of uniform frequency bands to provide a full spectrum. An RF input 105 receives a signal, which is attenuated or amplified using attenuator/amplifier 110. The signal is directed to different paths using switch 115. The paths correspond to different frequency bands 1 through N. Filters 120 are associated with the paths. All bands are of the same width, or at least substantially the same width. In other words, the frequency ranges for each path are uniform in their width with respect to each other. This is shown in the bands 170 that are output as spectrum 165. From 2 to N bands are stitched to create the wide span spectrum 165. Although the bands 170 are shown abutting one another, some overlap is necessary. In the conventional art, the overlap is minimal, on the order of 1%.
Bands 2 through N are sent to the mixer 130 using switch 117. The mixer 130 mixes the bands 2 through N with a local oscillator signal 125. Low pass filter 135 removes local oscillator feed-through and image spectrums that result from the mixing process. The analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 145 receives bands 1 through N from switch 140, and digitizes them. After the ADC, the signal may be further conditioned by a digital down converter (DDC) section 160, which may adjust the center frequency and reduce the sample rate. The DDC section 160 also includes a digital mixer 155 to mix the bands with a digital local oscillator signal 150 for each band, as well as other components for decimating or down sampling each individual band.
The bands are then transformed using transform 158, which can be a Fourier transform, among other suitable transform operations. The different spectrum bands are stitched together and the switch 162 outputs the bands 170 as spectrum 165. The switch 162 can be a virtual switch, implemented in software. Multiple stitches require multiple acquisitions. Each additional stitch requires a corresponding additional acquisition.
For performance and quality reasons, it would be desirable to minimize the number of stitches. With very wide overlapping bands, the bands can be mixed and matched to minimize the number of acquisitions, and therefore, stitching can be made less frequent. It would also be desirable to have non-uniform frequency ranges associated with each band, so that a user specified span is more likely to fall within one or more of the non-uniformly configured bands. It would be desirable to optimize downstream processing of each band by processing each band as if the full band was present.

Minimal reconfiguration spectrum stitching with overlapped bands


Providing computer security is disclosed. A computing system is booted into a pre operating system environment. The pre operating system environment is used to provide current security data to the computing system. The computer system is booted into an operating system environment other than the pre operating system environment.

A computer or other bootable device booted without updating security data may be vulnerable to a security threat and may pose a threat to other devices, e.g., those associated with a network to which the device is or will be connected. In particular, when booting a computer's security data, e.g., without limitation antivirus or other threat definitions, network borne or other attack signatures, configuration settings, etc., may not be the most current security data available. A computer's security data may have been up to date when the computer was turned off but while the computer is off new and/or updated security data becomes available. Such a circumstance may arise, for example, if a computer or other device is configured initially or restored using a disk image or other data recorded at an earlier date, or in the case of a laptop or other mobile device the device has been used outside a protected, e.g., network or other enterprise, environment and is returning to the protected environment at a later date. Therefore, there is a need for an effective way to update security data prior to boot.


A communication device able to share one antenna and in addition able to sufficiently exhibit characteristics of a function as a reader, writer and a card function, a non-contact type IC card provided with that, and an information apparatus, wherein the device has a first transmission circuit 220 having first and second output terminals and outputting a carrier from the first and second output terminals in a first mode; an antenna circuit 210 including a node ND210, an inductor 211 having one end connected to the node, and having the other end connected to the second output terminal of the first transmission circuit, and a capacitor 212 connected between the node and the first output terminal of the first transmission circuit; a second transmission circuit 230 connected to the node of the antenna circuit and outputting the transmission data in a second mode; at least one reception circuit 240 connected to the node of the antenna circuit and performing reception processing with respect to data received at the antenna circuit; and a circuit switch unit 280 forming the antenna circuit as a serial resonance circuit including the inductor and the capacitor in the first mode and forming the antenna circuit as a parallel resonance circuit including the inductor and the capacitor in the second mode.

The development and growth of non-contact type IC cards have been remarkable. IC card functions etc. are now being built into mobile phones due to the card size. Non-contact type IC cards are disclosed in for example Patent Documents 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a front end circuit 10 of a general non-contact type IC card use R/W (reader/writer) device.
The front end circuit 10 of this non-contact type IC card use R/W device is mainly configured by, as shown in FIG. 1, a reception side circuit 11, a transmission side circuit 12, a serial resonance use capacitor 13, an R/W antenna 14, etc. A resistor 15 is an internal resistor of an (antenna) coil 16.
Further, in FIG. 1, C1 indicates a capacitance of the capacitor 13, R1 indicates a resistance value of the resistor 15, and L1 indicates an inductance of the coil 16.
The operation of the front end circuit 10 of the R/W device of FIG. 1 will be explained.
At the time of the transmission of data, a modulation wave signal is output from the transmission side circuit 12, a current flows in the capacitor 13 connected in series to the antenna 14, and the coil 16 forming the antenna 14, and a magnetic field is emitted from the antenna 14.
On the other hand, at the time of reception, a constant carrier signal is output from the transmission side circuit 12, but it is possible to perform load modulation on the card side so that the carrier signal received at the reception side circuit 11 becomes a load modulated signal and the demodulation data can be extracted.
In the transmission and reception of data, the capacitor 13 and the coil 16 form a resonance circuit. At this time, an impedance seen from the transmission side circuit 12 becomes small (much current flows), and the transmission magnetic field from the antenna 14 becomes the largest.
Namely, the front end circuit 10 at the time of the transmission/reception is configured with the coil 16 and the capacitor 13 connected in series. Further, basically ideally a carrier frequency of the signal used is set so as to coincide with a resonance frequency of the coil 16 and the capacitor 13 and the impedance is the lowest at the resonance frequency.
The coil 16 configuring the loop antenna is expressed by the resistance 15 including the loss and forms a serial resonance circuit together with the capacitor 13.
The resonance frequency f0 thereof is expressed as in the following equation.
[Equation 1]f0=1/(2π*√(L1*C1))  (1)
An impedance Z of the antenna circuit at this time becomes as follows. When a resistance value R1 of the resistor 15 is small, the current can flow in the antenna with a high efficiency and the generated magnetic field becomes the maximum.
                    [                  Equation                                                              2                ]                                                                                Z              =                                                                            R                                                                                1                                +                                  j                                                                                ω                                                                                L                                                                                1                                +                                  1                  /                                      (                                          j                                                                                ω                                                                                C                                                                                1                                        )                                                                                =                                                          R                                                                                1                                                                        (        2        )
Next, the front end circuit used in the non-contact type IC card will be explained.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of principal parts of the front end circuit used in a non-contact type IC card.
The front end circuit 20 used in the non-contact type IC card is principally configured by, as shown in FIG. 2, a transmission and reception side circuit 21, a capacitor 22, a card antenna 23, a resistor 24, etc.
Further, in FIG. 2, C2 indicates the capacitance of the capacitor 22, R2 indicates the resistance value of the resistor 24, and L2 indicates the inductance of the coil 25.
In the circuit of FIG. 2, the card function is set so that the resistor 24 and the coil 25 are connected in series, a capacitor 22 is connected parallel to the two ends of these, and resonance occurs at the used frequency.
Further, at the time of the resonance, basically ideally, the impedance of the combined circuit of the card antenna 22 and the parallel connected capacitors 22 becomes the highest.
The parallel resonance frequency f0 is expressed by the following equation.
[Equation 3]f0=1/(2π*√(L2*C2))  (3)
The impedance Z of the antenna circuit at this time is expressed by the following equation.
[Equation 4]Z=1/(1/(R2+jωL2)+(jωC2))  (4)
The impedance Z expressed by (Equation 4) where R2 is small becomes as follows, and the reception voltage becomes the maximum at the peak of the impedance.Z≈∞  [Equation 5]    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2002-334310    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2004-355212

Communication device, non-contact type IC card mounting same, and information apparatus


In sophisticated semiconductor devices, the contact structure may be formed on the basis of contact bars formed in a lower portion of an interlayer dielectric material, which may then be contacted by contact elements having reduced lateral dimensions so as to preserve a desired low overall fringing capacitance. The concept of contact bars of reduced height level may be efficiently combined with sophisticated replacement gate approaches.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to the fabrication of integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to the contact level of a semiconductor device, in which contact areas of drain and source regions are connected to the metallization system of the semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In modern integrated circuits, such as microprocessors, storage devices and the like, a very high number of circuit elements, especially transistors, are provided and operated on a restricted chip area. Although immense progress has been made over recent decades with respect to increased performance and reduced feature sizes of the circuit elements, the ongoing demand for enhanced functionality of electronic devices forces semiconductor manufacturers to steadily reduce the dimensions of the circuit elements and to increase the operating speed thereof. The continuing scaling of feature sizes, however, involves great efforts in redesigning process techniques and developing new process strategies and tools so as to comply with new design rules. Generally, in complex circuitry including complex logic portions, MOS technology is presently a preferred manufacturing technique in view of device performance and/or power consumption and/or cost efficiency. In integrated circuits including logic portions fabricated by MOS technology, field effect transistors (FETs) are provided that are typically operated in a switched mode, that is, these devices exhibit a highly conductive state (on-state) and a high impedance state (off-state). The state of the field effect transistor is controlled by a gate electrode, which controls, upon application of an appropriate control voltage, the conductivity of a channel region formed between a drain and a source.
On the basis of the field effect transistors, more complex circuit components may be composed, such as inverters and the like, thereby forming complex logic circuitry, memory devices and the like. Due to the reduced dimensions, the operating speed of the circuit components has been increased with every new device generation, wherein, however, the limiting factor of the finally achieved operating speed of complex integrated circuits is no longer the individual transistor elements but the electrical performance of the complex wiring fabric, which may be formed above the device level including the actual semiconductor-based circuit elements, such as transistors and the like. Typically, due to the large number of circuit elements and the required complex layout of modern integrated circuits, the electrical connections of the individual circuit elements cannot be established within the same device level on which the circuit elements are manufactured, but require one or more additional metallization layers, which generally include metal-containing lines providing the inner-level electrical connection, and also include a plurality of inter-level connections, which are also referred to as vias. These interconnect structures comprise an appropriate metal and provide the electrical connection of the individual circuit elements and of the various stacked metallization layers.
Furthermore, in order to establish a connection of the circuit elements with the metallization layers, an appropriate vertical contact structure is provided, which connects to a respective contact region of a circuit element, such as a gate electrode and/or the drain and source regions of transistors, and to a respective metal line in the metallization layer. The contact structure may comprise contact elements or contact plugs having a generally square-like or round shape that are formed in an interlayer dielectric material, which in turn encloses and passivates the circuit elements. Upon further shrinkage of the critical dimensions of the circuit elements in the device level, the dimensions of metal lines, vias and contact elements also have to be adapted to the reduced dimensions, thereby requiring sophisticated metal-containing materials and dielectric materials in order to reduce the parasitic capacitance in the metallization layers and provide a sufficiently high conductivity of the individual metal lines and vias. For example, in complex metallization systems, copper in combination with low-k dielectric materials, which are to be understood as dielectric materials having a dielectric constant of approximately 3.0 or less, are typically used in order to achieve the required electrical performance and the electromigration behavior as is required in view of reliability of the integrated circuits. Consequently, in lower-lying metallization levels, metal lines and vias having critical dimensions of approximately 100 nm and significantly less may have to be provided in order to achieve the required "packing density" in accordance with density of circuit elements in the device level.
Upon further reducing the dimensions of the circuit elements, for instance using critical dimensions of 50 nm and less, the contact elements in the contact level may have to be provided with appropriate critical dimensions in the same order of magnitude. The contact elements may typically represent plugs which are formed of an appropriate metal or metal composition, wherein, in sophisticated semiconductor devices, tungsten, in combination with appropriate barrier materials, has proven to be a viable contact metal. When forming tungsten-based contact elements, typically, the interlayer dielectric material may be formed first and may be patterned so as to receive contact openings, which may extend through the interlayer dielectric material to the corresponding contact areas of the circuit elements. For this purpose, openings of very different depth may have to be formed in the interlayer dielectric material in order to connect to gate electrode structures or any other conductive lines formed above the semiconductor layer, while other contact openings have to extend down to a semiconductor layer, i.e., any contact areas formed therein. In particular, in densely packed device regions, the lateral size of the drain and source areas and thus the available area for the contact regions may be 100 nm and less, thereby requiring extremely complex lithography and etch techniques in order to form the contact openings with well-defined lateral dimensions and with a high degree of alignment accuracy, while the difference in etch depth may additionally contribute to the overall complexity of the patterning process.
After exposing the contact areas, which are frequently provided in the form of metal silicide regions, the contact metal, such as tungsten and the like, is deposited in the contact openings of different depth, thereby also contributing to a highly complex manufacturing process. For example, a plurality of contact openings are typically provided in the interlayer dielectric material so as to connect to the drain and source regions of transistors, wherein these contact openings may typically have a substantially round or square-like shape. Consequently, after providing the contact elements, the overall series resistance in the transistor, i.e., the resistance of the conductive path from one contact element through the source region, the channel region, the drain region and into the other contact element, may significantly depend on the resistivity for connecting to the contact areas, such as metal silicide regions provided in the drain and source areas. Upon further scaling of device dimensions, the contact resistivity for connecting to the drain and source areas of sophisticated transistor elements may represent a limiting factor of the overall transistor performance, thereby offsetting or al least reducing some of the advantages obtained by generally reducing the overall transistor dimensions. For example, in sophisticated manufacturing strategies, extremely complex mechanisms may be incorporated, such as strain-inducing semiconductor materials for enhancing charge carrier mobility in the channel region of the transistors, providing sophisticated gate electrode structures including high-k dielectric materials in combination with electrode metals and the like, which may per se result in superior transistor performance. For this purpose, superior contact regimes may also be required for efficiently connecting to the drain and source areas. In this context, it has been proposed to provide contact elements of increased lateral dimension along the transistor width direction to reduce the contact resistivity between the actual contact elements and the contact areas of the drain and source regions, such as the metal silicide regions. To this end, appropriate contact trenches may be formed in the interlayer dielectric material, which may subsequently be filled by an appropriate contact metal, thereby reducing the overall contact resistivity. On the other hand, providing contact trenches in the interlayer dielectric material so as to connect to the drain and source areas may significantly increase the fringing capacitance, which is to be understood as the parasitic capacitance between the gate electrode structures and the contact elements, thereby negatively affecting the overall AC performance of the transistor.
The present disclosure is directed to various methods and devices that may avoid, or at least reduce, the effects of one or more of the problems identified above.

Contact bars with reduced fringing capacitance in a semiconductor device


A system and associated method are described for depositing high-quality films for providing a nanolayered coating on a three-dimensional surface. The system includes a magnetic array comprising multiple sets of magnets arranged to have Hall-Effect regions that run lengthwise along a sputter target. The system further includes an elongated sputtering electrode material tube surrounding the magnetic array comprising multiple sets of magnets arranged to have Hall-Effect regions that run lengthwise along the sputter target. During operation, the system generates and controls ion flux for direct current high-power impulse magnetron sputtering. During operation logic circuitry issues a control signal to control a kick pulse property of a sustained positive voltage kick pulse taken from the group consisting of: onset delay, amplitude and duration.

High-power RF cavities, such as those found in an RF LINAC, require not only tremendous RF powers (on the order to 10's to 100's of kW and above), but also a vacuum environment to prevent arcing and sparking within the RF cavity due to the intense electric fields associated with such high powers. The RF power needed to reach a specific electric field within the resonant cavity is governed by the quality factor (Q) which is integral energy stored divided by energy lost per cycle. For resonant RF cavities, the formula reduces to
  Q  =                              L          C                            R                  s                    u                    r                    f                    a                    c                    e                      =                  (                              Δ                        ω                                ω            o                          )                    -        1            since the RF energy propagates along the surface and is a function of the surface resistance
      R    surface    =      1          Conductivity      ×      Skin                                      Depth      that is proportional to the square root of RF frequency. Higher quality factor leads to higher efficiencies, higher achievable voltages and accelerating gradients. However, there are engineering tradeoffs in cavity design and operation since electrical skin depths are on the order of microns for GHz frequencies. RF cavities are typically electroplated with copper for lower surface resistance or constructed out of solid blocks of base material for room-temperature cavities.
Typically, RF power is coupled into a high-power RF cavity via a waveguide and a hermetic RF window. This approach, while viable at high power LINAC applications, requires additional hardware, which increases the cost, size and complexity of compact high power RF LINAC systems. An alternative approach to the one described above is to couple RF power directly into the RF cavity via an RF amplifier assembly mounted on, and with an output stage coupled directly to, the RF cavity. This approach is described in Swenson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,682. However, the inclusion of the entire vacuum tube (and its associated tuning elements) within the vacuum envelope has led to an inability to operate at high powers due to processes such as multipactoring. For this reason, as much as possible of the RF and biasing circuitry needs to be at atmospheric pressure. In addition to this constraint, problems arise in the structure described in Swenson due to high powers dissipated both in the antenna and in the anode of the vacuum tube if these structures are not actively cooled. Swenson's approach to mounting the RF amplifier in a high power RF LINAC is further complicated by a vacuum tube anode commonly being held at high voltage, which necessitates the careful selection of a coolant.

Compact system for coupling RF power directly into RF linacs


A weaving machine, more particularly a projectile weaving machine (100), has weft break clearing devices (1, 2) at the shed entrance and exit. These devices form units with grippers and, for example, a suction device for removing a broken weft (110) and are mounted for pivoting or displacing them with an actuator or manually out of range of the warps. The mobility of the devices (1, 2) allows the weaver unrestricted access, for example, when clearing a warp break in the selvedge area.

The invention relates to a weaving machine, more particularly a projectile weaving machine, having at least one weft break clearing device located at the entrance to or an exit of a shed of the machine for gripping and weaving broken weft yarn.
Various devices and methods are known by means of which faulty picks and weft breaks can be cleared, such as with an air jet or gripper weaving machines (see for example EP-AS 0332257). Weft break clearing devices are composed of sensors, gripping means, hooks, suction nozzles and/or draw-off rollers. These devices make it possible in many cases for the break to be cleared automatically by the weaving machine itself. As a rule it is not possible to clear every type of fault automatically. If a fault of this kind arises, the weaver must intervene. At this point a disadvantage of the weft break clearing devices become apparent, in that these devices disturb or hinder the weaver in his work.

Weaving machine with weft break clearing devices


Fiber-reinforced composites prepared from a depolymerizable and repolymerizable polymer have the processing advantages of a thermoset without being brittle. Impregnation of polymer into the fiber bundle can be achieved with ease, while still producing a composite with excellent physical properties and high damage tolerance.

This invention relates to a fiber-reinforced composite. Processes are known for producing a fiber-reinforced composite by drawing fibers into a pultrusion device, impregnating the fibers with resin, and simultaneously forming and curing the structure in a heated die. (See Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, 2.sup.nd Edition, Vol. 4, John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 1-28 (1986).) Inasmuch as low melt viscosity is required for efficient resin impregnation (a necessary requisite for acceptable properties of the composite), thermosets have been used in preference to thermoplastic materials. Although thermoset composites have excellent mechanical properties, they suffer from several disadvantages: Thermoset matrices have relatively limited elongation, the thermoset precursors are a source of undesirable volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the composites cannot be reshaped or recycled, and their production rates are limited.
In recent years, efforts have been directed toward making composites using thermoplastic materials. For example, Hawley in U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,387, incorporated herein by reference, teaches the extrusion of molten thermoplastic resin material through a die which imbeds the fibers. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,262, Cogswell et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a fiber-reinforced composition that is obtained by drawing a plurality of fibers continuously through an impregnation bath, which is a static melt of a thermoplastic polymer of sufficiently low molecular weight (resulting in lower melt viscosity) to adequately wet the fibers. Suitable polymers taught by Cogswell et al. include thermoplastic polyesters, polyamides, polysulfones, polyoxymethylenes, polypropylene, polyarylene sulfides, polyphenylene oxide/polystyrene blends, polyetheretherketones and polyetherketones. Cogswell et al. also teaches that in order to achieve acceptable physical properties in the reinforced composition, it is preferred that the melt viscosity be in excess of 1 Ns/m.sup.2. Thus, if the molecular weight of the thermoplastic resin is low enough to achieve sufficiently low melt viscosity to process the resin, the properties of the resultant composite suffer.
The thickness of a single ply of the fiber-reinforced sheet (or tape) is limited by the processes of the prior art. For example, Cogswell et al. teaches single-ply tape thicknesses around the order of 0.1 mm (col. 21, lines 29-31, and col. 22, lines 29-30). In order to achieve a thicker tape, several tapes have to be stacked and compression molded (col. 22, lines 33 to 48.)
In principle, thermoplastic composites would solve many of the problems associated with thermosets. For example, unlike thermosets, thermoplastics can be reshaped, welded, staked, or thermoformed. Furthermore, thermoplastics are generally tougher, more ductile, and have greater elongation than thermosets. Unfortunately, composites prepared by imbedding fibers in a typical thermoplastic resin suffer from a number of disadvantages. First, as previously noted, low molecular weight resins are required to achieve the low viscosities necessary for processability. Second, complete impregnation generally requires slow haul-through rates. Third, the static impregnation bath can cause the polymer melt to be hot for an unduly long time, resulting ultimately in polymer degradation. Fourth, the shape and size of the final composite is limited. For example, the thickness of a single ply of a thermoplastic composite tape is generally not greater than about 0.1 mm, and the length of the composite is limited to not greater than about 100 mm.
There is a need to balance processability of the thermoplastic resin with the final physical properties of the composite. It would be desirable, therefore, to have a fiber-reinforced composite prepared using a thermoplastic resin that has a sufficiently low melt viscosity to adequately wet the fiber. At the same time, it would be desirable that the resin not be limited by molecular weight restrictions as a means of achieving low melt viscosity, so that the composite prepared using such a resin exhibits improved physical properties as compared to the thermoplastic composites prepared as described in the art. It would also be an advance in the art to eliminate the static impregnation bath with an impregnation means that does not require that the melt be exposed to advanced temperatures for an unduly long time. Finally, it would be desirable to prepare longer composite tapes or articles that have single-ply thicknesses of greater than 0.2 mm, preferably greater than 0.5 mm, thereby eliminating the need of a compression-molding step to build thickness

Fiber-reinforced composite and method of making same


Magnoliidae compounds are made by obtaining parts of Magnoliidae plants. The parts of the Magnoliidae plants are mixed with alcohol and water. The mixture of the parts of the Magnoliidae plants, alcohol and water is heated and the parts of the Magnoliidae plants are removed so that a liquid mixture remains. The liquid mixture is drying to form a solid composition. Alcohol and water are added to the solid composition to reconstitute the solid composition into a liquid composition. The liquid composition is heated to form solid matter. The solid matter is dried to obtain a purified composition of the Magnoliidae compounds. A dose of Magnoliidae compounds promotes weight loss and can be administered in liquid form, sublingually, intravenously, in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, in combination with a metabolite detoxification agent, in combination with a nutritional or dietary supplement, or in chewing gum.

Obesity is defined as a body mass index of greater than 30, whereas overweight is defined as having a body mass index of greater than 25. Approximately 19% of Americans are obese, and 35% are overweight. The incidence of being overweight and obese has increased dramatically in the last decade. In the United States, over $33 billion are spent each year for weight loss products ($0.5 billion alone on drugs) with 14% of adults using prescription drugs for weight loss and 7% using over the counter drugs.
Obesity involves multiple factors that contribute to the disease, including genetic, metabolic, psychosocial, lifestyle, nutrition, exercise, and environmental factors. The great majority of obesity cases are probably due to a complex relationship between the many factors which regulate energy intake and utilization. Obesity is a life-long disorder with adverse health consequences. Obesity is considered the second leading cause of death in the United States and contributes to at least 300,000 deaths per year. It is associated with a number of diseases, including diabetes (80% of type II diabetics are obese), hypertension, gallstones, respiratory problems, and mortality rates for certain types of cancers.
Given the large obese population and the associated problems, the area of obesity research and product development for the management of obesity has been extensively explored, yet the problem remains. The currently available weight management programs almost all take a lifetime commitment by the patients and involve painful lifestyle changes.
Many known pharmaceutical agents designed for weight loss and fat loss have notable side effects. For example, the side effects of adrenergic agents include insomnia, nervousness, irritability, headache, nausea, and constipation. Some adrenergic agents can even increase blood pressure and precipitate angina. The side effects of lipase inhibitors include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, oily spotting, fatty oily stool, flatus, fecal urgency, increased defecation, and fecal incontinence. The gastrointestinal side effects could be worse if dietary fat is not reduced. Sibutramine can cause headache, insomnia, constipation, and dry mouth, as well as an increase in blood pressure and pulse rate. Agents that increase energy expenditure such as ephedrine, theophylline, and thyroid hormone carry the risk of cardiac complications from hypertension and increased heart rate. Cholecystokinin is a peptide that activates gastric vagal fibers, and triggers satiety. However, it must be administered parenterally, dramatically limiting its use. Serotonergic agents have been withdrawn from the market after valvular heart disease was reported in patients using the combination of fenfluramine and phentermine.

Method of manufacturing magnoliidae compounds


A lens-fitted photo film is pre-loaded with a photo film. Imaging frames are created on the photo film by releasing the shutter. There is aspect ratio information optically prerecorded on the photo film outside of the imaging frames, and associated with a respective one of the imaging frames. The aspect ratio information includes two dots, and represents an aspect ratio in two bits. The imaging frames are printed in accordance with the aspect ratio. The lens-fitted photo film unit has a viewfinder with a view field of the aspect ratio represented by the aspect ratio information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens-fitted photo film unit and a method of producing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a lens-fitted photo film unit in which aspect ratio information is provided for a photo film to be used in producing photographic prints from the photo film, and a method producing the same.
2. Description Related to the Prior Art
Photographic prints having various aspect ratios are produced and supplied commercially, for versatile attraction and enjoyment of taking photographs on the side of a user of a camera or a lens-fitted photo film unit. The aspect ratio are set based on kinds of photographic subjects and their sizes. Examples of the photographic prints are a panoramic print (89.times.252 mm), a wide-vision print (89.times.158 mm) and a C-size print (89.times.127 mm) which is the most prevalent standard print. The panoramic print is two times as long horizontally as the C-size print. The wide-vision print has an aspect ratio similar to that of high-definition television (HDTV).
To obtain the photographic prints having the various aspect ratios, there is a method in which an exposure are on photo film is restricted in the course of exposure by light-shielding plates or the like incorporated in the camera or the lens-fitted photo film unit, and the photo film having the exposure range being varied is subjected to printing operation to obtain the photographic prints of printing modes in the above-described manner. Examples of the exposure range are a panoramic exposure range (13.times.36 mm), a wide-vision exposure range (20.times.36 mm) and a C-size exposure range (24.times.36 mm).
There is a problem of high cost in the manufacture of the camera or the lens-fitted photo film unit, because the light-shielding plates and mechanism for changing over the light-shielding plates must be added to the camera or the lens-fitted photo film unit. The problem is the more serious in view of features of the compact camera or the lens-fitted photo film unit, which should be typically inexpensive and should have a simplified construction.
There is another suggestion for obtaining the photographic prints of the printing modes without adding any mechanism to the camera or the lens-fitted photo film unit. In taking exposures, all the imaging frames are recorded in the exposure range commonly determined at a fixed format. In a photo laboratory, only a restricted range inside the exposure range being fixed is printed according to each of the printing modes. Results of this approach are similar to those of the above technique where the exposure area on the photo film is varied.
To produce the photographic prints according to the printing modes from the exposure area of the single kind on the photo film, selected ones of the imaging frames for the printing modes as desired must be designated by the user and recorded by a photofinishing agent, who must accomplish extra manual operation for it. It is further likely that an operator of the photofinishing agent misreads the printing modes as designated, to produce improper photographic prints.

Lens-fitted photo film unit and method of producing the same


A snowboard scooter formed of a one-piece platform wide enough to accommodate the width of two feet, with side-by-side but offset foot grips in the form of straps, as on a snowboard, requiring the user to place his or her feet in predetermined positions, a fixable post and a handlebar, and a brake system actuated either at the handlebar or by direct contact with one of the user's feet. Preferably a hydraulic brake system is used to drive a rear flange into the snow to stop the snowboard.

Downhill skiing is a popular sport in which there have been a number of important developments bringing greater excitement, fun, and safety. Untethered, spring-loaded brakes, improved materials, and innovative ski designs, such as parabolic skis, have enabled all skill levels to enjoy the sport. Snowboarding has brought increased excitement to downhill skiing, but has generally been limited to those with greater athletic ability and flexibility. Safety can be easily compromised, not only for the snowboarders, but for skiers in the area endangered by out-of-control snowboarders. Over many decades, a wide variety of devices have been suggested to "improve" the skiing experience or to make it safer or easier for those without athletic ability or acquired skills. Many of these devices have taken the form of a scooter, for example, in Shores U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,847, where a mono-ski is fitted with a handlebar carried on a post connected to a single ski wherein the skier places his feet aligned one in back of the other. The post can be vertically tilted by a control on the handlebar. "Brakes" are spring loaded to maintain the post in a chosen rotational position and can be released to change the rotational position by means of a cable connected a lever pivotally attached to the handlebar. Little U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,548 discloses a device having a handlebar carried on a bendable mechanism connected to a single ski. Brumbt U.S. Design Pat. No. Des. 257,336 provides a handlebar rigidly secured at an angle to a board which itself is supported on a pair of runners. Moerling U.S. Pat. No. 2,292,891 provides a snow scooter having a platform placed on top of the rear of a relatively narrow single runner. A brake is arranged at the forward end of the platform to extend into the snow against the force of a biasing spring. Monreal U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,584 secures upright post-handles to each of two otherwise standard and independent skis. Benson U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,313 discloses what appears to be a water ski board provided with vertically tiltable posts carrying a handlebar.
Many previously proposed devices use handlebars on a post to enable the user to steer without the need for body movement. Wingard U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,031 attaches a rudder through the forward part of a snowboard, connected to an upright handle and grip, to steer and/or brake the board. Myers U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,126 provides a handlebar secured by means of a tiltable post to a snow runner; see also, Spiers U.S. Pat. No. D451,162. Steering blades extend into the snow on respective sides of the runner operated by respective boot pads. A brake located toward the rear of the runner can be pushed vertically straight into the snow against the force of a biasing spring. Brown U.S. Pat. No. 2,593,974 provides a forward steering and braking blade mounted between the front ends of two skis and controlled by a handlebar connected to the blade by a post. Additional braking is provided by U-shaped flanges connected to the rear of shoe pads and which can be tilted into engagement with the snow on respective outer sides of the skis.
Other devices bifurcate the runner into a forward steering part and a rear platform on which the user stands. Upright posts with handlebars or gripping surfaces are provided to enable the user to steer the device. Examples can be found in Burger U.S. Pat. No. D460,137, Lanner U.S. Pat. No. D384,912, Blomstrand U.S. Pat. No. 1,723,966, Kupka U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,552, Evequoz U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,353, Rygiel U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,659, Ohlhaver U.S. Pat. No. 2,513,199, Petoud U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,975, Hylan U.S. Pat. No. 2,256,203, and Wetzel U.S. Pat. No. 1,945,170. Some combine runner bifurcation with brakes, such as Van Daam U.S. Pat. No. 1,524,850 which has a downwardly tiltable brake separating forward and rear runners, and Anderson et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,101,229, which has a downwardly tiltable brake on one side of a rearward portion of the rear runner. The most recent implementation can be found in McClure et al U.S. Pat. No. D467,199 and in McClure et al U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0067127.
As can be seen from the above listed references, some ski scooters are formed with a single runner, others with two or more runners, some of the latter using a front runner to steer and a back runner to stand on, while others use parallel runners. The above patents divide themselves into still other categories. Some of them are meant to support only one foot, while the other foot is used to propel the device, much in the manner of a simple land scooter, such as described in the above U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,524,850, 1,723,966, 1,945,170, 2,101,229, and 4,160,552. Others provide boot grips to place the feet placed one after the other as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,529,847, and 4,773,659. Still others provide separate but parallel runners, each with a boot grip to place the feet side by side on the separate runners as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,593,974, 4,708,353, and 4,744,584, or provide parallel, side-by-side, non-offset, non-slip surfaces as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,126. The remaining references do not provide any means for locating the feet at particular positions.
None of the foregoing devices and proposed designs are believed to provide the user with a full skiing experience. With both skis and snowboards, a great part of the enjoyment comes from the movement or tilting of one's body to control direction and speed, providing so called "body English", yet the purpose of many of the above-described devices is, essentially, to remove or compromise the need for such body English. Other devices attempt to provide safety by braking mechanisms that are awkward to use or which require unnecessary coordination to operate satisfactorily. A need exists for a device that will allow a user to experience the exhilaration and enjoyment of snowboarding without loss of control, without the need for great athleticism, yet retaining the feel that comes from the use of body English to turn and to check speed, while enabling the user to quickly stop in a safe, easy manner.