An optical component includes a substrate and a fluorine-doped thin film formed on the substrate. This fluorine-doped thin film is dense, and thus very low absorbing and insensitive to various vacuum, temperature, and humidity conditions. This dense film has a high refractive index, which remains stable irrespective of environmental conditions. The fluorine-doped thin film can advantageously ensure low scattering, low reflectance, and high transmittance. Moreover, the fluorine-doped thin film is damage resistant to incident radiation density. The fluorine-doped thin film may be a fluorine-doped silicon oxide film having a thickness of approximately 1-10 nm and a fluorine concentration of 0.1% to 5%.

Standard optical surfaces include anti-reflective coatings as well as other coatings for beam splitters, mirrors, charge-coupled devices (CCDs), detectors, and time delay integration (TDI) CCDs. Unfortunately, these coatings may be adversely affected by humidity, oxidation, contamination, radiation damage, and other environmental conditions. Specifically, various environmental conditions can deteriorate the coating performance or at least induce coating damage. Moreover, high fluence applications (i.e. where the total number of photons intersecting a unit area in a specific time interval is high) typically expose optical surfaces to radiation for long periods of time, which can exacerbate deterioration and damage of those coatings.
Various bulk materials have been suggested for protecting optical surfaces. One exemplary material suggesting for protecting optical surfaces used in UV (ultra-violet) 193 nm and 157 nm applications is fluorine-doped silica glass. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary process for manufacturing a protective layer from fused silica. This process uses a precursor material 101 of high purity fused silica. A natural silica precursor is typically melted in a furnace, either electrically or with a H2/O2 flame, and then grown to form ingots or large bulk material. A synthetic fused silica is made from a silicon-rich chemical precursor using, for example, a continuous flame hydrolysis process. This process includes the chemical gasification of silicon, the oxidation of this gas to silicon oxide, and the thermal fusion of the resulting dust. Yet another fused silica can be formed by adding silicon tetrachloride to a hydrogen-oxygen flame.
In step 102, the precursor material can be melted (or processed) and then doped with fluorine to form large bulk structures (e.g. ingots). In step 103, the bulk structures can be cut into rough shapes depending on their final application. In step 104, the shapes are ground to a rough surface finish. In step 105, the material is polished to a final RMS (a standard industry surface roughness measured in microinches) roughness to meet optical specification.
The resulting optical elements (called lens, filters, pellicles, covers, layers, etc. in the industry) can provide protection from environmental conditions and offer long term high radiation resistance. However, their manufacture for use with specific optical components having custom sizes and shapes is time- and labor-intensive, thereby making the protected optical components more expensive.
Therefore, a need arises for a way to protect optical components from environmental conditions and to ensure long term high radiation resistance at minimum expense.

Protective fluorine-doped silicon oxide film for optical components


A method and system for receiving calibration information including a first power spectral density (PSD) value and a first sand concentration value at a particular frequency. Data is collected in a liquid flow at the particular frequency at a first depth in a downhole environment. A second power spectral density (PSD) value is then determined for the data in the liquid flow at the particular frequency. The second PSD value being compared with the first PSD value. Sand can also be determined to be present in the liquid flow when the second PSD value is greater than the first PSD value by a predefined threshold. A second sand concentration value of the sand present in the liquid flow being quantified based on the first sand concentration value.

For oil or gas wells that have a gravel pack, a sand screen may be used to restrict the flow of sand into the well. Over time, however, the sand screen may become eroded due to impacts by the sand. Larger sand grains, higher concentrations of sand, and higher sand flow rates may lead to an increase in erosion of the sand screen and may lead to more sand in the well. Sand flowing into a well may cause asset degradation through equipment downhole and at a surface as well as reduce the production. The sand in the reservoir and the related infrastructure may lead to lowered efficiency, loss of production, and costly repairs. Ideally, it would be desirable to log data associated with the well to determine if sand is affecting the well. However, it is impractical and difficult to efficiently deliver information about the well.
It is with these issues in mind, among others, that various aspects of the disclosure were conceived.

Systems and methods for sand flow detection and quantification


A bi-static sodar system and method are used to measure and monitor the wake vortices of aircraft in the flight path of an airport runway. A loudspeaker (16) is arranged on one side of the flight path (12) and transmits a series of acoustic pulses to illuminate portion of the flight path. Multiple microphones (18, 20 and 22) are arranged on the opposite side of the flight path (12) so as to receive direct signals from the loudspeaker (16) and forward-scattered echo signals from an echo source (26) within the illuminated portion of the flight path. The microphones (18, 20 and 22) are arranged at different distances from the loudspeaker so that the time intervals between the receipt of the direct and echo signals from each pulse will vary because of the different locations of the microphones. This variation is used to assist in identifying the location and other characteristics of the echo signals and in generating an output indicative of a wake vortex (28).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sodar apparatus, methods and systems for use in detecting, characterising, recording and/or displaying the wake vortices shed from large aircraft on the approach to or departure flight path of an airport runway. It is more particularly concerned with sodar systems of the bi-static type where the acoustic receiver is down-range of the atmospheric echo source of interest. Thus, the echoes of interest are forward scattered, reflected and/or refracted having regard to the direction of the interrogating acoustic beam. This is to be contrasted with a mono-static system in which the transmitter and receiver tend to be co-located and the echoes of interest are those that are backward scattered, reflected and/or refracted.
2. Description of Related Art
Bi-static sodar systems have long been proposed and used for the sounding of the lower atmosphere where atmospheric discontinuities tend to be horizontal, slow moving and wide spread, except in storm conditions. This allows the use of a single transmitter and a single receiver located down-range from the transmitter by a known distance and the use of simple triangulation to determine the height of a source of 'echoes' from forward scattered, refracted and/or reflected transmitted signals. It is well known in such systems to track atmospheric anomalies over long periods of time by using a pulse transmitter and listening for echoes between pulses. Sufficiently strong echo signals allow Doppler components to be extracted that provide an indication of the velocity of movement of echo sources either vertically or down-range.
However, conventional bi-static sodar systems of the type indicated are unsuited to the characterization of wake vortices which are typically close to the ground and capable of rapid movement in three dimensions over their relatively short durations. The simple triangulation techniques of bi-static sodar are inadequate for such an application.
A serious and more general problem with the use of sodar techniques for atmospheric sounding arises from their inherently poor signal-to-noise ratio [s/n] due to (i) the limited power of acoustic transmitters (ii) the strong attenuation of acoustic waves in the atmosphere and (iii) the prevalence of acoustic noise. The latter problem is of particular importance in a noisy airport environment, especially when attempting to detect wake vortices of aircraft as they pass down (or up) the flight path.
The above problems have been addressed in our prior international applications PCT/AU01/00247, PCT/AU02/01129, PCT/AU04/00242 that disclosed sodar systems with exceptionally high s/n ratios. Our prior systems have variously employed long duration transmitted pulses encoded in a 'pulse compression' manner, over-sampling of received echoes for good resolution and processing gain, and the use of matched filter tailored to the pulse-compression code to provide low-power, long range sodars capable of extracting excellent Doppler signals from the received echoes. The pulses—generically called 'chirps'—employed in our prior inventions preferably had durations in the order of tens of seconds. The pulse-compression technique employed was preferably a linear increase or decrease in phase (tone) over the duration of the pulse; for example, a steady increase in tone from 500 to 1500 Hz, or a steady decrease in tone from 1500 to 500 Hz. The methods disclosed involved 'listening while sending'; that is, echoes are received and processed while transmission of the chirp is still under way. This technique not only allows very high system and processing gains that result in exceptionally good s/n (signal to noise ratio), but it also enables atmospheric discontinuities that occur close to the ground to be detected.
The present specification should also be read in conjunction with our international patent application PCT/AU2004/001075 entitled "Detection of Wake Vortices and the Like in the Lower Atmosphere" which taught the technique of sounding the atmosphere near an airport runway when a wake vortex is not present to generate a reference dataset, then sounding the atmosphere when it is suspected that an wake vortex might be present to generate an active dataset and differencing the two datasets to highlight a vortex, if present. Finally, this specification should be read in conjunction with our co-pending Australian patent application entitled "Staged Sodar Sounding" (to be published), which teaches sodar techniques wherein a set of long chirps is employed in a 'send-then-listen' mode in which the echoes generated by the pulses are extracted using matched filter methods. While the sodar systems disclosed in our prior applications were capable of detecting wake vortices and of monitoring wind conditions in the vicinity of airports with much greater sensitivity and precision than was previously possible, they still left something to be desired in tracking an intense wake vortex as it moves in three dimensions.
For brevity, the disclosures in our published applications are regarded as being incorporated herein, including the extensive discussion of the prior art contained in the specifications of those applications. In addition, some of the terminology that is used herein is explained or defined in those specifications.
In the following, the term 'flight path' will be used to designate the volume of the lower atmosphere near either end of an airstrip or runway through which aircraft pass on approach to or take-off from an airport. It is here where persisting wake vortices are caused by large aircraft and can be dangerous for other smaller aircraft using the flight path even minutes later.

Characterization of aircraft wake vortices


A controllable oscillating system for generating a differential oscillating signal is disclosed. The controllable oscillating system includes an oscillating circuit and a current adjusting device. The oscillating circuit includes a controllable resonator, a cross-coupling driving device, and a current source. The cross-coupling driving device is coupled to the controllable resonator and utilized for driving the controllable resonator to generate the differential oscillating signal. The current source is coupled to the cross-coupling driving device and utilized for providing a first current. The current adjusting device is coupled to the cross-coupling driving device and utilized for adjusting currents passing through the cross-coupling driving device.

The present invention relates to a controllable oscillating system, and more particularly, to a controllable oscillating system and related method for generating a differential oscillating signal.
In general, in a radio frequency (RF) communication application, an oscillating circuit (e.g. a transmitting master oscillator or a receiving local oscillator) is required for generating a differential oscillating signal for signal transmission or signal reception. A primary performance criterion of the oscillating circuit is the phase noise characteristic. An oscillating circuit with a lower phase noise means that the oscillating circuit produces less spurious signals outside a desired fundamental frequency signal. The phase noise results from a low frequency noise existing in active elements in the oscillating circuit. For example, active elements in an LC oscillating circuit are primarily transistors included within a cross-coupling driving device in the LC oscillating circuit. This low frequency noise is commonly referred to as flicker noise and up converted to the desired fundamental frequency signal. Thus, the phase noise arises.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional oscillating circuit 100. As shown in FIG. 1, the oscillating circuit 100 comprises a controllable resonator 105, a cross-coupling driving device 110, and a current source 115 for providing a reference current Iref. The controllable resonator 105 (also called an LC resonator) is formed by capacitors C1 and C2 and inductors L1 and L2. The cross-coupling driving device 110 is formed by NMOS transistors Q1 and Q2 and is utilized for generating a differential oscillating signal composed of oscillating signals S1 and S2. Ideally, only one of the NMOS transistors Q1 and Q2 is turned on at a time. That is, the NMOS transistors Q1 and Q2 should not be conductive simultaneously. However, in practice, both the NMOS transistors Q1 and Q2 may be turned on due to the flicker noise as described above. For simplifying the discussion, it is assumed that only the phase noise resulting from the NMOS transistor Q1 of the cross-coupling driving device 110 is considered and the phase noise could be modeled as a small voltage source Vn at the gate of the NMOS transistor Q1. Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows possible practical voltage waveforms of the oscillating signal S2 and the voltage source Vn shown in FIG. 1. The voltage source Vn resulting from the phase noise may cause the NMOS transistor Q1 to turn on early or late, depending upon the timing when the sum of the voltage source Vn and oscillating signal S2 is higher or lower than a threshold voltage of the NMOS transistor Q1. That is, during each transition time, both the NMOS transistors Q1 and Q2 may be turned on. This problem will become more serious if both the phase noise resulting from the NMOS transistors Q1 and Q2 are considered at the same time.
One of the conventional solutions is to utilize an attenuating device to eliminate the phase noise. The attenuating device is utilized for reducing the feedback gain of the active elements for amplifying signals having frequencies much less than that of the desired fundamental frequency signal. Thus, the amplified low frequency noise can be suppressed. A full description is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,750,727B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,987,425B1, and further details are omitted here for brevity.

Controllable oscillating system and related method for selectively adjusting currents passing through cross-coupling driving device


A cover device for partially covering a disc-shaped working tool includes a bearing member (22) forming a receiving space (54) for receiving the shielding member (10) of the working tool and having an inner surface (24) against which an outer surface of the shielding member (10) lies when received in the receiving space (54), and a pivot member (48) supported on the bearing member (22) for a pivotal movement about a pivot axis (S1) between a locking position in which the receiving space (54) is limited at both ends in tangential and axial directions and is at least partially limited outwardly in a radial direction, and an open position in-which the receiving space (54) is open in at least one of the axial direction and the tangential direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cover device for partially covering a disc-shaped grinding or cutting tool of a power tool, in particular of an angular grinder in frontal axial direction and including a bearing member forming a receiving space in which a strip-shaped shielding member that partially radially covers the working tool is received. The receiving space has an inner surface against which an outer surface of the shielding member lies when it is received in the receiving space. The cover device further has a pivot member supported on the bearing member for a pivotal movement about an axis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The cover devices of the type described above and which are formed of at least two parts, can be placed, if needed, on a shielding member of a power tool which is formed, as a rule, as a protective plate, for better covering the working tool during operation. With an improved covering of the working tool, on one hand, a better protection of the tool operator against accelerated, removable material particles, in particular, sparks, is achieved. On the other hand, the cover device which covers a major portion of the working tool, enables an effective suction of the produced material particles by connecting a suction device such as, e.g., an industrial vacuum cleaner, with the cover device.
German Utility Model DE 94 03 777 discloses a protection device for an angular grinder. The device has a shielding disc which is forcelockingly secured with a surface element on a strip-shaped protection element of the angular grinder. A cover is pivotally arranged on the shielding disc. During an operation, the cover, by being pressed against a workpiece, pivots against a biasing force in the direction of the shielding disc, releasing the working tool. Upon removing the power tool from the workpiece, the cover is pressed by a spring force away from the shielding disc. Thereby, a region of the power tool, accessible from outside, is noticeably reduced.
The known protection device insures a good protection of the operator against accelerated material particles and an effective removal by suction of material particles upon connection with a suction device.
A drawback of the known protection and cover device consists in that the conventional means for forcelockingly connecting the cover or protection device with the power tool such as, e.g., stop screws, can be accessed with much difficulty. Moreover, many known forcelocking connection means are not capable to absorb forces such as, e.g., tangentially acting blows, which act on the cover device during operation, without displacing the cover device relative to the power tool.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a cover device in which the drawbacks of the known device are eliminated, and which would insure rapid mounting and dismounting the device on and from the power tool and a reliable holding of the cover device on the power tool.


Provided is a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device. In the method, a gate oxide layer, a gate polysilicon layer, and a capping oxide layer are sequentially formed on a semiconductor substrate. A photoresist pattern is formed on the capping oxide layer. The capping oxide layer, gate polysilicon layer, and gate oxide layer are sequentially etched using the photoresist pattern as an etch mask. Ions are then implanted into the semiconductor substrate using the photoresist pattern as a mask. A thermal diffusion process is performed to form source/drain regions. The capping oxide layer is removed, and ions are implanted into the gate polysilicon layer. After metal is deposited on the gate polysilicon layer, a silicide is formed.

Most complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices form a poly gate using polysilicon. When the poly gate is formed of polysilicon, a depletion layer is indispensably formed more or less. In the case where an integration degree of a device is not so large, a poly gate may be relatively large. Accordingly, even when the depletion layer is generated, reduction in electrical characteristics of a device may be ignored.
However, recently, as integrating technology for semiconductor devices has remarkably developed, the size of a gate gradually reduces and accordingly a depletion layer generated at the gate has a relatively large influence, which acts as a factor reducing the performance of a semiconductor device. The above-described matter emerges as a limitation of a semiconductor device using polysilicon.
To overcome this limitation, various technologies have been tried, and a metal gate has been proposed as a basic solution. However, the metal gate may have a difficulty in a manufacturing process, and forming a dual gate imposes relatively high costs.
For an alternative, a process of forming a fully silicided gate (e.g., using full silicide, or FUSI), is proposed as a transition to full metal gates. Metal silicides are generally considered to be metal-like materials.
However, a FUSI gate also has a difficulty in a process that when metal is deposited and a thermal diffusion process is performed after ions have been implanted in the polysilicon, a defect can be generated because thermal expansion coefficients of the deposited metal and polysilicon are different.

Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same


The invention relates to a vaginal probe, in particular for treating incontinence and comprising an external part (20), an internal part (22), a bridge (24) connecting said parts and processing electronics (28). The external part (20) is configured as a handle and has a cavity (26) and the internal part (22) is a body that is rounded on all sides. Said body: a) has sensors (44–51) on its surface, which are connected to the processing electronics (28); b) is symmetrical about a longitudinal central plane (32), which runs between the legs of a patient using said probe; c) has cross-sections that are perpendicular to said longitudinal central plane (32) and to the bridge (24), in which the measured height dimension H of said body, which runs parallel to the longitudinal central plane (32), is at maximum half its measured width B, which runs perpendicular to the longitudinal central plane (32); and d) has a front sub-section (36) that is at a distance from the external part (20), a central section (38) and a rear sub-section (40). Said central section (38) is curved, the rear sub-section (40) is connected to the bridge (24) and the front sub-section (36) and the rear sub-section (40) are interconnected in one piece by means of the central section (38) and are at an angle of between 170 DEG–100 DEG in relation to one another.

Urinary and faecal incontinence are frequent diseases the frequency of which increases with age. It is assumed that about 2% of the population suffer from urinary and/or faecal incontinence. With age, this percentage increases to more than 10%. Usually, the affected patients are using management means such as pads and diapers. In the long run, this entails considerable costs.
It is known that incontinence, more specifically stress incontinence, can be treated by training the pelvic floor muscles. Prior art vaginal probes, which are also called introitus probes, are known, said probes being introduced into the vagina and having electrodes for registering the electrical activity, what is termed the EMG signal, of the pelvic floor upon contraction of the pelvic floor muscles. These vaginal probes have also already been utilized in such a manner that their sensors, which are configured in the form of electrodes, deliver a voltage that stimulates the muscles to contract. It is also known to use vaginal probes in what are termed biofeedback applications, the reader being referred in this context to DE 19706042 C2. Hereby, the electrodes of the vaginal probe record potentials of the body. These potentials are amplified in the form of a signal that is visually or acoustically returned to the female patient. As a result, the female patient learns to selectively control her body functions on her own. This is advantageous, more specifically if the training is to be performed at home. As to prior art, the reader is generally referred to the German magazine Geburtsk. u. Frauenheilk. (obstetrics and gynecology) 58 (1998) 581 to 587 "Das Oberflächen-EMG der Beckenbodenmuskulatur (Introitus-EMG) bei kontinenten und inkontinenten Frauen" (The surface-EMG of the pelvic floor muscles (introitus-EMG) in continent and incontinent female patients).
The prior art vaginal probes are configured to exhibit rotational symmetry, meaning they have a round cross section. In this context, the reader is also referred to the already mentioned German magazine that shows an illustration of such an introitus probe. It is connectable to a control apparatus via a cable. In many models, the cross section varies over the length of the internal portion. The electrodes also exhibit rotational symmetry and are accordingly configured to be rings, longitudinal electrodes or caps. The rotary position in which these prior art vaginal probes are introduced into the vagina is no concern. These electrodes only register a mean value of the individual potentials.
The prior art vaginal probes have considerable disadvantages. As the electrodes are arranged with rotational symmetry, the various muscle groups it would be desirable to register cannot be scanned directly so that the already mentioned mean is taken over a larger sized area and, as a result thereof, in most cases over different muscle groups.
Furthermore, the previously known vaginal probes are unpractical in that, on the one side, they are connected to the control apparatus through the supply line, which is inconvenient in practical use, and that, on the other side, they are also susceptible to slip out when inserted, more specifically while walking. As a result, the use of the prior art vaginal probes in the normal home setting, be it in standing, walking or any other position, is rendered more difficult.

Vaginal probe; in particular for treating incontinence


A gas and liquid contact body for use in a gas and liquid contact apparatus in which gas and liquid flow in cross-flow relationship to each other includes a plurality of corrugated sheets having opposed first and second edges which are facially opposed in substantially parallel relationship to one another to define a plurality of intersecting and intercommunicating passages allowing the passage of gas and liquid therethrough. In one embodiment, the first edges of the sheets are located generally in the same plane and define a gas inlet edge of the contact body. Alternate sheets in the body are narrower from their first to their second edges than the remainder of the sheets in the body. The second edges of these alternate sheets define an air outlet portion in the body and spaces between the wider adjacent sheets at said outlet portion. Separate undulating drift eliminator segments are formed in the remainder of the sheets which segments include first and second sections having mirror image corrugations formed therein with said second section being folded over the first section within the spaces defined by the alternate sheets to define a drift eliminator which restricts the discharge of liquid droplets from the air outlet portion of the contact body.

The present invention relates to gas and liquid contact apparatus, and more in particular to a contact body which includes an internal drift eliminator section.
Gas and liquid contact bodies for use in evaporative coolers, humidifiers, heat exchangers, and the like, have been proposed in the past which utilize cross-flow of gas and liquid in the contact body in order to remove heat from the liquid. Such contact bodies have been proposed which are constructed of cross-corrugated sheets of material such as plastic, cellulose, paper and other kinds of materials, as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,792,841; 3,395,903; and 3,500,615. Such contact bodies have been generally satisfactory in use and commercially successful.
Typically, such contact bodies are used in an enclosure or casing in which the liquid is distributed over the top of the fill and allowed to flow by force of gravity through the interstices or passages in the contact body with the currents of air which are drawn through the body by a power driven fan assembly or the like. It has been found that there is a tendency for water particles in the contact body to drift or be carried along with the rapidly moving air currents toward the air outlet side of the contact body. As a result, separate drift eliminators are sometimes provided adjacent the air discharge side of the fill assembly in order to eliminate or minimize water loss from the contact apparatus through the air discharge opening thereof. Such mist eliminators have been separate elements positioned downstream of the outlet side of the contact body, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,615.
The separate drift eliminators of the prior art require additional space within the contact apparatus in order to accommodate the additional width thereof. They also are not capable of returning the liquid to the contact body where it can be further cooled by continuous passage through the contact body.
In lieu of separate drift eliminators, it has also been proposed to form the film sheets with drift eliminator profiles on one edge thereof so that the matching faces form an integral drift eliminator section in the fill. Such products are difficult to make and require at least two sets of differently shaped sheets, thus increasing the expense of manufacture.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved contact body in which a mist or drift eliminator is included within the contact body itself.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved gas/liquid contact body of the type described.
A further object of the invention is to provide a gas/liquid contact apparatus which includes a drift eliminator and which is of the same width as a conventional contact body apparatus.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a combination gas contact body with an integrally formed drift eliminator that is relatively simple in construction and inexpensive to manufacture.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a gas and liquid contact body is provided for use in a gas and liquid contact apparatus in which gas and liquid flow in cross-flow relationship to one another. The contact body has opposed edge portions and includes first and second sets of corrugated sheets having corrugations formed therein disposed in a direction transversely of the horizontal plane of the contact body. The sheets of the first set are disposed alternately with the sheets of the second set and the corrugations of the first set cross the corrugations of the second set. The sheets have first and second opposed edges located in the direction of gas flow and the corrugations define passageways in the contact body between the edges of the sheets. The sheets in the first set are narrower, edge to edge, than the sheets of the second set thereby to define a space between each of the second sheets at one edge of the contact body. The sheets of the second set have extended end portions which have undulations formed therein and which are folded over against the adjacent portions of its sheet to be located in each of the spaces. The undulations of those extended end portions are inclined oppositely from the inclination of the corrugations of the first sheets to restrict moisture droplets from leaving the contact body through the edge thereof.

Cross-flow film fill media with intergral drift eliminator


An electrical connector includes an insulating body, an insulating arm, a movable terminal, and a fixed terminal. The insulating body has an insertion hole concavely formed from its front end surface, and a first receiving slot formed at a side of and in communication with the insertion hole. The insulating arm extends from the insulating body and has an extending portion partially entering the insertion hole. The movable terminal has a first fixing portion fixed in the insulating body, an elastic arm extending backward from the first fixing portion and located between the insertion hole and the insulating arm, and a first contact portion extending backward from the elastic arm. The first contact portion crosses the insulating arm, and is located at a side of the insulating arm away from the insertion hole. The fixed terminal has a second contact portion capable of connecting/disconnecting from the first contact portion.

Currently, audio connectors are frequently used in the industry, such as, an audio socket connector disclosed in Chinese patent No. CN201220509738.7. The audio socket connector is internally provided with an insulating body, and the middle of the insulating body has a circular insertion hole for a mating audio plug to be inserted therein. Multiple signal terminals and a pair of switch terminals are arranged around the circular insertion hole. The switch terminals include a movable terminal and a fixed terminal. The insulating body is provided with an insulating arm. The insulating arm is located between the insertion hole and the movable terminal. The fixed terminal is located at a side of the movable terminal away from the insulating arm. In an initial state, the movable terminal and the fixed terminal do not contact. When the mating audio plug is inserted into the circular insertion hole, the mating audio plug butts the insulating arm to push the movable terminal to move toward the fixed terminal, and finally make the movable terminal press against the fixed terminal, so that the switch terminals are switched on, thereby implementing a switch function.
The insulating body is provided with the circular insertion hole in the longitudinal direction, and the insulating arm extends backward tightly along the edge of the circular insertion hole. However, as electronic products are required to be light, thin, and small, the length of the audio socket connector is limited, and the insulating arm convexly arranged in the insulating body cannot be extended to be excessively long. Thus, when the mating audio plug butts the insulating arm, it is required to push the movable terminal to contact or be away from the fixed terminal. Therefore, the insulating arm is easily broken due to insufficient elasticity.
Therefore, to arrange a long insulating arm and movable terminal in a limited space becomes a problem to be solved.


A semiconductor device, particularly, a photoelectric conversion element having a semiconductor layer is demonstrated. The photoelectric conversion element of the present invention comprises, over a substrate, a photoelectric conversion layer and first and second electrodes which are electrically connected to the photoelectric conversion layer. The photoelectric conversion element further comprises a wiring board over which a third and fourth electrodes are provided. The characteristic point of the present invention is that a bonding layer, which readily forms an alloy with a conductive material, is formed over the first and second electrodes. This bonding layer improves the bonding strength between the first and third electrodes and the second and fourth electrode, which contributes to the prevention of the connection defect between the substrate and the wiring board and consequentially to high reliability of the photoelectric conversion element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photoelectric conversion element formed using a semiconductor and a semiconductor device including the photoelectric conversion element.
2. Description of the Related Art
As one mode of a photoelectric conversion element, a photoelectric conversion element having sensitivity to light with a wavelength of 400 to 700 nm in the visible light region is referred to as a light sensor or a visible light sensor. A known application of a light sensor or a visible light sensor is to detect a light signal and read information and to detect brightness of the ambient environment and control operation of electronic appliances or the like.
For example, a light sensor is used in a cellular phone or a television device so that brightness of a display screen is adjusted according to brightness of the ambient environment where the cellular phone or the television device is placed (see Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2002-62856).
FIG. 2A shows a structure of a light sensor disclosed in Patent Document 1. A photoelectric conversion layer 1603 is provided over a substrate 1601 so as to be interposed between a light-reflective electrode 1604b and a light-transmitting electrode 1602 provided with openings 1605 and 1606. The photoelectric conversion layer 1603 has a PIN junction and forms a diode in combination with the light-transmitting electrode 1602 and the light-reflective electrode 1604b. That is, the light sensor has a mode as a two-terminal element. One of external connection terminals is formed of a light-reflective electrode 1604a which is connected to the light-transmitting electrode 1602 through an opening 1607 provided in the photoelectric conversion layer 1603. The other is formed of the light-reflective electrode 1604b. A light-receiving surface is the light-transmitting substrate 1601 side, and light transmitted through the substrate 1601 is incident on the photoelectric conversion layer 1603.
FIG. 2B shows a light sensor in which a light-reflective electrode 1611, a photoelectric conversion layer 1612, and a light-transmitting electrode 1613 are provided in this order over a substrate 1610. This light sensor has a structure in which light is incident on the photoelectric conversion layer 1612 from the light-transmitting electrode 1613 side. Through holes are formed in the light-reflective electrode 1611 and the photoelectric conversion layer 1612, and insulating layers 1614 and 1615 are provided in the through holes. The insulating layers 1614 and 1615 prevents the short-circuit between the light-reflective electrode 1620 and the photoelectric conversion layer 1621, which are located in the neighborhood of an edge of the substrate 1610, and the light-reflective electrode 1611 and the photoelectric conversion layer 1612. The light-transmitting electrode 1613 and the light-transmitting electrode 1619 are electrically insulated from each other by an insulating layer 1616 provided over the photoelectric conversion layer 1612. An external connection terminal 1617 is provided so as to be in contact with the light-transmitting electrode 1619 and is electrically connected to the photoelectric conversion layer 1612 and the light-reflective electrode 1611. The other external connection terminal 1618 is provided so as to be in contact with the light-transmitting electrode 1613.
FIG. 2C shows a mode in which the light sensor shown in FIG. 2A is mounted on a wiring board 1800. The wiring board 1800 and the light sensor are fixed to each other by a photo-curing resin or thermosetting resin 1852 so that the light-reflective electrodes 1604a and 1604b face wirings 1850. The light-reflective electrodes 1604a and 1604b are electrically connected to the wirings 1850 by conductive particles 1851. In addition, FIG. 2D shows a mode in which the light sensor shown in FIG. 2B is mounted on the wiring board 1800. The wiring board 1800 and the light sensor are bonded to each other by a conductive material 1853 such as cream solder or silver paste so that the external connection terminals 1617 and 1618 face the wirings 1850.

Photoelectric conversion element having a semiconductor and semiconductor device using the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A method and apparatus for a Regulator that automatically configures to work in either SMPS mode or linear mode are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes inputting a constant current source to a CBoot_pin for a first predetermined amount of time upon enabling an autodetect circuit by a Regulator control circuit. The CBoot voltage at the CBoot_pin is then determined to see if the CBBoot voltage at the CBoot_pin is above a predetermined CBoot voltage for a second predetermined amount of time. The Regulator is then switched to operate in SMPS mode if the CBoot voltage is substantially continuously above the predetermined CBoot voltage for a second predetermined amount of time. The SMPS is operated in linear mode if the CBoot voltage is substantially continuously below or equal to the predetermined CBoot voltage for a second predetermined amount of time.

As integrated circuit (IC) and system designs are getting more complex, so do the supply current requirements. To handle such requirements, high current switch mode power supply (SMPS) designs are typically used. The SMPS is very often integrated into the same die as sensitive analog circuitry. While the SMPS greatly benefits the power dissipation of the device, the high current switching can also induce unwanted noise that can be detrimental to normal operation of sensitive circuits, both on and off the IC, as well as radiated and conducted emissions produced by the SMPS.
Thus, in systems using a highly specialized application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and where such high current is not required, it is generally advantageous to use a standard linear Regulator instead of using the high current SMPS topology. While using the standard linear Regulator increases the power dissipation, it also greatly reduces the noise induced from the high frequency switching of the SMPS topology. Further, it is desirable to use the same power supply for both high and low power applications.
One current technique that uses the power supply for both the low and high power applications requires programming the Regulator circuit during a final test, which could be via a fuse, EEPROM, or a metal mask change. Another current technique that uses the same power supply for both the low and high power applications requires an additional external pin in the Regulator topology to facilitate selection of the desire mode. All of these solutions either require separate part numbers for the EEPROM, fuse, or a different IC for the metal mask change solution. The use of an external pin for selection of low and high power applications may not be an option available, especially when the IC package is pin limited. Additionally, if the IC package/pin out needs to be backwards compatible with previous revisions, an addition of a pin and/or a change in the PCB layout may be may not be feasible or desirable.

Automatic configuration for linear mode of switching power supply


A system which automatically identifies a power system type, anomalies in the output of the power system, and/or likely errors of wiring and connection to the power system or a system under test connected to the power system is presented. A measurement processing module reduces measurement signals to characterized measurements and a rule base applies knowledge bases of standard power systems and wiring and connection errors to the processed measurements to determine the power system type, the most likely anomalies in the output of the power system, and/or the most likely wiring and/or connection errors.

The present invention is related to power system analysis and, more particularly, to systems which can automatically identify the power system type and likely errors of wiring and connections in the power system.
One of the biggest problems in measuring aspects of electrical circuits is simply the avoidance of errors. For example, errors in the wiring of an electrical circuit connected to a power system are not obvious, but they can drastically affect the resulting measurements of the circuit. Errors in connecting measurement sensors to the circuit are quite common and often result in unusable measurements or misinformation.
Traditionally, such errors are minimized by the knowledge, training and experience of a person, a professional who makes the proper test connections to the circuit and then evaluates the preliminary measurements to determine if the wiring, connections, setup, and operating modes are correct. Based on these preliminary measurements, the professional then makes the necessary corrections. The manufacturers of test equipment have also attempted to minimize errors by: educating the professional with sufficient information so that he or she can make informed decisions on existence of errors and what to do to rectify the errors; requiring the professional to specify the type of power system under analysis and then, based on the specification, possibly indicating to the professional some limited level of error detection; or constraining the professional to hook up the test equipment to only a small number of basic power system types.
Heretofore, a major problem, if not the major problem, with error detection and interpretation has been that there is often more than one possible explanation for a given set of input signals to the test equipment. For instance, if the voltage from A phase to neutral (Van) appears to be 120V, the B phase voltage to neutral (Vbn) appears to be 120V, and the C phase voltage to neutral (Vcn) appears to be 0V, there are several likely explanations:
1) the user is measuring a 2-phase circuit and should measure the phase-to-phase voltage, Vab, of 240V;
2) the user is measuring 2 different single phase circuits and all setups are correct;
3) the user is measuring 1 single phase circuit and the ground lead is not connected;
4) the user is measuring a 3-phase Wye circuit and the C phase is not connected;
5) the user is measuring a 3-phase Delta circuit and the C phase is not connected; or
6) the user is measuring a 3-phase, 4-wire Delta circuit and the C phase has not been connected.
Furthermore, complexity is multiplied when current inputs to the test equipment are also considered. Since a the phase of a current can lead its associated voltage by up to 90 degrees or can lag the associated voltage by up to 90 degrees, if the current sensor is installed backwards, the current leads its voltage from 90 to 270 degrees. In a three-phase power system, each voltage phase is typically 120 degrees apart. Hence, if a current is seen to lag a voltage by 60 degrees, there are several possibilities:
1) the current is lagging its voltage by 60 degrees;
2) the current sensor is misconnected and it should be matched to the next voltage phase, which it leads by 60 degrees; or
3) the current sensor is installed backwards and is misconnected. It should be paired with the third phase, with which it is actually in phase.
Identification of a power system is further complicated by the fact that there are multiple "standard" power systems and multiple configurations of standard power systems. For instance, at 60 Hz, there are several standard three-phase, phase-phase systems, such as 120V, 208V, 240V, 480V, 600V, 4160V, 12470V, 13800V, etc. At 50 Hz and 400 Hz, there are several more standard three-phase, phase-phase systems. By adding consideration of a neutral, there are many more three-phase, phase-neutral systems, such as a 120V Wye system. And to complicate matters even more, there are two-phase systems, single-phase systems, DC systems, and the four-wire Delta system with its asymmetric voltage levels and phase angles between phases. All considered, there are dozens of unique standard power delivery systems in use in the world.
Another difficulty in identifying a power system is that most systems are not ideal. For example, in an ideal three-phase power system, all voltages are equal and nominally non-varying. The voltages have a specific frequency with a fixed phase relationship with respect to each other. A particular power delivery system might have 480 Vrms phase-to-phase at 60 Hz with 120 degrees between each of the phases and the current of each of the phases would be expected to lag its associated voltage by the same number of degrees as in the other phases. All currents would have essentially the same magnitude. But individual voltages typically vary from moment to moment, as do currents and phase angles between voltages and their associated currents. Even the frequency can vary in some systems. A non-ideal system must be recognized and a varying one must not be confused with a similar but different system. A judgment must be made whether the system is standard or non-standard, because there are non-standard systems and sometimes errors cause standard systems to operate outside of acceptable bounds.
To complicate matters even further, there may be errors in the connection of the measurement devices to the system or in the wiring of the system itself, as often happens with temporary measurements of a power system. In such cases, it can be very difficult to recognize a power system. When measuring power, it can be impossible to state with certainty what type of power system is present, whether the connections to the power system are correct, and what errors have been made in the wiring or connections to the power system. For instance, if three current sensors are rotated (connected by one phase off so that A phase is connected to B phase, B phase is connected to C phase, and C phase is connected to A phase), it could appear to be the same as if the sensors were connected to the correct phases, but were installed backwards. Resolution of such issues requires experienced judgment.
Therefore, a need exists for a system that can automatically determine the most likely power system that is connected to a circuit or system under test and the most likely connection or wiring errors present when taking the measurements. To address these issues and problems, the present invention combines methods of interpreting measurements, methods of analysis, and methods of using power system databases, and rules from an artificial intelligence knowledge base in order to make better judgments about the correctness of the wiring and connections, perhaps as well as or even better than a typical knowledgeable professional, and then to communicate the most likely errors (if any) to the user for a clear statement of likely remedial steps which are warranted. The present invention uses artificial intelligence applied to a knowledge base and interpretation of a set of measurements to determine the most likely power system that is connected and the most likely connection or wiring errors present.

System for automatically identifying power system type and identifying likely errors of wiring and connection


A base assembly and method of forming the base assembly for a lamp includes an annular eyelet having an axially outward extending protrusion. The lead wire is fed through the eyelet and folded across the protrusion while a contact member sandwiches the lead wire and confines it during a welding operation. The eyelet, contact, and lead wire are thus fusion bonded to provide a solder-free connection.

This invention pertains to the art of electric lamp assemblies, and more particularly to a base portion for a lamp. The invention is applicable to any lamp employing a metal screw base and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it will be appreciated that the invention has broader applications and may be employed in similar environments and applications.
Incandescent lamp assemblies typically solder a terminal end of a lead wire to an electrical contact or eyelet. Recent and expected governmental regulations are designed to encourage a modification of this well known lamp construction and result in new designs and manufacturing processes that eliminate or reduce the use of solders and fluxes. For example, lead-free solders have undergone recent development in an attempt to address the required reduction in the use of lead-based solders. Even then, other elements incorporated into lead-free solders do not adequately meet selected requirements for lamps, such as severe lamp temperature applications. Moreover, still other components in the lead-free solders are expected to be targeted for reduction or elimination in the future.
Although other solder free connections between a lamp lead wire and an eyelet have been proposed, these arrangements often require substantial modification of the equipment that is currently used to produce and assemble the lamp base components. Thus, it is deemed desirable to meet these needs without undue modification or alteration of existing equipment.
Moreover, other suggested arrangements for connecting lamp lead wires to the eyelet still result in an assembly in which the connection is potentially exposed and left unprotected. A soldered connection not only provided a sound mechanical/electrical connection, but additionally offered some limited protection to the lead wire/eyelet connection.


A method for recording a sequence of user actions made when interfacing with objects associated with an executable code is provided. In this method, a selection of a level of detail to record when user actions enable interfacing with the objects associated with the executable code is enabled. Subsequently, the sequence of user actions is recorded. The recorded sequence of user actions is defined by the selected level of detail. Thereafter, the recorded sequence of user actions is parsed by applying rules that enable the generation of a defined number of data types. The data types are capable of being utilized by an application that is designed to generate information that is related to one or more of the data types.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to recording data and, more particularly, to methods and systems for utilizing a series of recorded user actions on a computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
When interfacing with a computer program, a user takes a series of actions. Examples of such actions include moving a mouse, clicking on an icon or button, and typing texts. Currently, some computer applications can record actions by the user. However, the recording is limited. For example, many applications have a macro feature that shortens long commands or menu sequences. Essentially, a macro recorder records a sequence of actions taken by the user when interfacing with an application. The recorded sequence of actions may then be repeated such that the user does not need to repeat the same actions. A disadvantage of existing macro recorders is that recording is limited to recording a short sequence of commands and actions that are only useful for shortening common user commands. The existing macro recorders cannot determine what the user is actually doing or working on. Further, the only actions that are recordable are limited to pre-specified commands.
Another example is a Web browser feature that tracks the history of Web sites visited. The tracking feature keeps a history of the Web sites visited along with the date. However, the tracking feature doesn't track details such as how the user got to the Web sites, the amount of time spent browsing the Web sites, and the order in which the Web sites were visited. Another example is a replay feature typically found in many video games. The video games basically record user actions during game play and replays the actions at a later time. However, the problem with the replay feature is that the recording cannot be edited or utilized outside the particular video game.
As a result, there is a need to provide methods and systems for recording any actions taken by the user when interfacing with one or more computer programs, and the actions can be saved, edited, and utilized by other programs.

Methods and systems for recording user actions in computer programs


A method of generating a mask design having optical proximity correction features disposed therein. The methods includes the steps of obtaining a desired target pattern having features to be imaged on a substrate; determining an interference map based on the target pattern, the interference map defining areas of constructive interference and areas of destructive interference between at least one of the features to be imaged and a field area adjacent the at least one feature; and placing assist features in the mask design based on the areas of constructive interference and the areas of destructive interference.

Lithographic projection apparatus (tools) can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, the mask contains a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion in one go; such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatus—commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus—each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the "scanning" direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction; since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally <1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic apparatus as here described can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792, incorporated herein by reference.
In a manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a mask pattern is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging step, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g. an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure, or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing. Thereafter, the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book "Microchip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processing", Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0-07-067250-4, incorporated herein by reference.
The lithographic tool may be of a type having two or more substrate tables (and/or two or more mask tables). In such "multiple stage" devices the additional tables may be used in parallel, or preparatory steps may be carried out on one or more tables while one or more other tables are being used for exposures. Twin stage lithographic tools are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,441 and WO 98/40791, incorporated herein by reference.
The photolithography masks referred to above comprise geometric patterns corresponding to the circuit components to be integrated onto a silicon wafer. The patterns used to create such masks are generated utilizing CAD (computer-aided design) programs, this process often being referred to as EDA (electronic design automation). Most CAD programs follow a set of predetermined design rules in order to create functional masks. These rules are set by processing and design limitations. For example, design rules define the space tolerance between circuit devices (such as gates, capacitors, etc.) or interconnect lines, so as to ensure that the circuit devices or lines do not interact with one another in an undesirable way.
Of course, one of the goals in integrated circuit fabrication is to faithfully reproduce the original circuit design on the wafer (via the mask). Another goal is to use as much of the semiconductor wafer real estate as possible. As the size of an integrated circuit is reduced and its density increases, however, the CD (critical dimension) of its corresponding mask pattern approaches the resolution limit of the optical exposure tool. The resolution for an exposure tool is defined as the minimum feature that the exposure tool can repeatedly expose on the wafer. The resolution value of present exposure equipment often constrains the CD for many advanced IC circuit designs.
Furthermore, the constant improvements in microprocessor speed, memory packing density and low power consumption for micro-electronic components are directly related to the ability of lithography techniques to transfer and form patterns onto the various layers of a semiconductor device. The current state of the art requires patterning of CD's well below the available light source wavelengths. For instance the current production wavelength of 248 nm is being pushed towards patterning of CD's smaller than 100 nm. This industry trend will continue and possibly accelerate in the next 5–10 years, as described in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS 2000).
Lithographic methods aimed at improving resolution, while retaining acceptable process latitude and robustness are classified as Resolution Enhancement Techniques (RET's) and comprise a very wide range of applications. As is known, printing mask features at near or below half of the optical exposure wavelength requires applying such resolution enhancement techniques, such as, for example, off-axis illumination (OAI), phase shift masks (PSM) and optical proximity correction (OPC) in combination with the use of a very high numerical aperture (NA>0.7).
However, while such techniques can be utilized to print sub-wavelength patterns, problems remain. As mentioned, the use of OAI is one technique that has been demonstrated and utilized successfully for improving the resolution for dense pitch features. However to date, this technique has been shown to severely degrade the imaging of isolated geometries in the case of both dark-field and bright-field mask types. Thus, the OAI technique by itself is unsuitable for printing random pitch features (i.e., features ranging from isolated to densely spaced). Sub-resolution assist features (SRAF, also known as scattering bars, SBs) have also been used to improve the printing of isolated features. By placing SBs adjacent to isolated features in a clear-field mask type, it makes the isolated feature behave as a dense feature, thereby achieving the improved printing performance when exposed under OAI. To date, the placement of SBs has been done by applying empirical rules. However, for semi-isolated or intermediate-pitch random features, the SB placement rules often need to be compromised mainly due to a lack of sufficient space for SB placement. Similarly, while adding anti-scattering bars (i.e., an anti-scattering bar is a bright mask feature that is applied on a dark-field mask, whereas a scatter bar is a dark feature applied in a clear field mask) to a mask design can improve the imaging for dark-field mask types, applying such anti-scattering bars through pitch and on random geometry has proved problematic. The problem becomes worse when utilizing attenuated PSM. This is due to much stronger optical proximity effect as compare to non-phase shifted mask type. The stronger optical proximity effect results in the through-pitch printing issues becoming much more severe. Thus, in order to satisfactorily extend the printing resolution for deep sub-wavelength features, it is necessary to go beyond the present rule-based SB method for both non-phase-shifted and phase-shifted mask types.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a method of applying OPC to a mask layout which allows for the printing of deep sub-wavelength features through pitch, and which cures the deficiencies and problems associated with the prior art RET techniques noted above.

Method and apparatus for providing optical proximity features to a reticle pattern for deep sub-wavelength optical lithography


A method and apparatus for cloning a configuration of a computer in a datacenter is described in the present application. In one embodiment, the method comprises accessing a configuration snapshot for a computer in a data center, wherein the configuration snapshot defines at least one configuration attribute for at least one computer resource and indicates an operating system and at least one software application and provisioning a hardware computer in the data center based on the configuration snapshot.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to computer networking and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for discovering and cloning a configuration of a computer in a data center in an automated manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
A system administrator may desire to provision numerous computers (e.g., servers) in a data center (e.g., a production environment, a server farm and/or the like) with identical or near identical configurations of various computer resources (e.g., software applications, hardware devices, operating system, network components, clustering software and the like). For example, the data center may comprise numerous clones of a particular computer with a gold standard configuration of the various computer resources. Such a gold standard configuration may be based upon the current best practices for data centers.
As an example, such a datacenter may be used by an organization as a disaster recovery site. The numerous clones are provisioned in accordance with the gold standard in order to recover from a loss in productivity due to a disaster (e.g., a flood, a power outage, an inoperative computer and/or the like). The term Disaster Recovery (DR) refers to various actions performed to provide computing resources to a client computer in the event of failure in the data center. The failure can occur due to multiple factors, such as a component failure (such as hardware or software failure), natural disaster, or any other technical disasters (such as virus attacks).
Conventional techniques for provisioning computers (servers) are manual. Hence, such conventional techniques are expensive and do not scale well. Because the servers are manually configured, there is a strong likelihood that errors occurred during the provisioning. Such errors may cause unpredictable problems associated with the software applications running on the servers. Further, such conventional techniques are restricted to provisioning the computers with a limited number of well defined services (e.g., File Transfer Protocol (FTP) file services, Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) Domain Name Service (DNS) services, and APACHE web services) and/or to a specific software application, such as an operating system (e.g., LINUX).
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for cloning a configuration of a computer in the data center by using a configuration snapshot to provision one or more hardware computers in an automated manner.

Method and apparatus for cloning a configuration of a computer in a data center


A method for providing a label being suitable for being adhered about an object having a outer circumference once removed from a release liner, the label having a length greater than the circumference of the object and the release liner providing a mechanical support for the label prior to be adhered about the object, the method including: printing at least a portion of the label with indicia; printing at least a portion of the release liner with indicia; and, at least partially severing the printed portion of the release liner from the release liner such that upon removal of the label from the release liner, the printed portion of the release liner remains releasably adhered to the label.

Labels, typically in the form of flexible sheet or web material attached to an object, have long been used to identify the object, its contents and/or display other information associated with the object. Such labels, which are normally fabricated from paper or plastic, are usually adhesively secured to the object by a contact or pressure sensitive adhesive material.
Many objects such as jars, bottles, cans and similar receptacles support "wrap" labels which cover substantially all of their circumferential side wall surfaces. With these labels, essentially the entire outer surface of the label is available as an indicia bearing surface. A label covering all or nearly all of the circumferential area of an object such as a product container is oftentimes sufficient to convey desired advertising, content information, instructions, warnings, and the like. In many circumstances, however, an object's physical dimensions detrimentally limit the available print space of the label borne thereby.

Extended wrap label and method of making same


A reflective display apparatus includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a display layer and a light shielding layer. The first substrate has a driving circuit layer and the second substrate has a transparent electrode layer opposite to the driving circuit layer. The display layer is disposed between the driving circuit layer and the transparent electrode layer. The light shielding layer has a first adhering surface and a second adhering surface, wherein the first adhering surface is adhered to the display layer and the second adhering surface is adhered to the driving circuit layer. The light shielding layer can prevent the driving circuit layer from being illuminated by external light rays, and thus display quality of the reflective display apparatus is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus, and more particularly, to a reflective display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Reflective display apparatus is of energy saving due to there is no need of backlight source. In various kinds of reflective display apparatuses, the electrophoretic displays (EPDs) of bistable display technology not only can save energy but also have advantages of high contrast and low cost. Therefore, the electrophoretic displays are more popularly used.
FIG. 1 is schematic view of a conventional electrophoretic display apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional electrophoretic apparatus 100 includes a first substrate 110, a second substrate 120 and an electrophoretic layer 130, wherein the electrophoretic layer 130 is disposed between the first substrate 110 and the second substrate 120. The electrophoretic layer 130 includes a plurality of microcapsules, and each of the microcapsules includes a plurality of positive particles and a plurality of negative particles. The positive particle and the negative particle have different colors. The first substrate 110 has a driving circuit layer 112. The driving circuit layer 112 includes a plurality of thin film transistors (TFTs) and a plurality of pixel electrodes respectively and electrically connected with the thin film transistors. The second substrate 120 has a transparent electrode layer 122 opposite to the driving circuit layer 112. The electrophoretic layer 130 is disposed between the driving circuit layer 112 and the transparent electrode layer 122, and the electrophoretic layer 130 is adhered to the driving circuit layer 112 of the first substrate 110 by an optical clear adhesive (OCA).
In the conventional art, external light rays may pass through the optical clear adhesive and illuminate the driving circuit layer, and it results in electrical leakage of the thin film transistors. Thus, the conventional reflective display apparatus may generate residual image, and the contrast and reflectivity of the reflective display apparatus may be decreased, or a cross-talk phenomenon may be generated. Therefore, the display quality of the conventional reflective display apparatus is reduced.


The present invention discloses a clock switching circuit, which comprises: a clock generator, receiving two different clock signals; a logic gate, coupled to an enable-signal generator and an output-clock generator, wherein during clock switching, the logic gate turns off output clock according to the signal edges of those two clock signals to avoid the problems of clock glitch and timing insufficiency, and the logic gate will not restore clock output until an appropriate timing occurs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clock switching circuit, particularly to a clock switching circuit, which can switch multiple dynamic clocks.
2. Description of the Related Art
In IC design, when a system cannot manage clock switching well but has to switch between two clocks separately with different phases and speeds, the system may have the problem of clock glitch or timing insufficiency.
A clock glitch and a timing insufficiency of an output clock signal clk_out are respectively shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B. In FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, the switch signal is used to determine whether the output clock signal clk_out is clock signal 1 (clk 1) or clock signal 2 (clk 2). However, during a clock switching operation of either from clk 1 to clk 2 or from clk 2 to clk 1, the clock glitch shown in FIG. 1A or the timing insufficiency shown in FIG. 1B may occur. Therefore, a clock switching circuit, which can avoid the abovementioned problems, is necessary. The U.S. patent of Publication No.2004/0095166A1 "Clock Switching Circuit" proposes a clock switching circuit to prevent the abovementioned problems. The circuit of the conventional technology needs an extra select signal generator to control signals; however it causes some inconveniences in usage.
Accordingly, the present invention proposes a clock switching circuit to overcome the abovementioned problems and simplify the operation of switching clock signals.


A sidewall for a semi-trailer is provided. The sidewall includes composite side panels, a baserail and a splicing member. The panels are formed of inner and outer skins and a core member therebetween. An upper portion of the panels is secured to a top rail of the semi-trailer. A lower portion of the baserail is secured to a bottom rail of the semi-trailer. The upper portion of the baserail and the lower portion of the panels overlap such that an outer surface of the baserail is positioned against the inner skin of the panels. The upper portion of the baserail and the lower portion of the panels are secured together by the splicing member which is positioned against the outer skin of the panels, and the outer surface of the baserail. The splicing member also supports the panels at the bottom end thereof.

The present invention relates to a sidewall of a semi-trailer having a high baserail. More specifically, the present invention relates to a sidewall of a semi-trailer having a high baserail where the sidewall is formed of a plurality of composite side panels.
A semi-trailer 20 of the prior art is shown in FIG. 1. The semi-trailer 20 can be connected to a tractor (not shown) by conventional means, such as a fifth wheel assembly (not shown). The semi-trailer 20 includes a body 22 formed from a pair of rectangular sidewalls 24, a front wall 26, rear doors 28, a top panel or roof 30, and a bottom panel or floor 32. The floor 32 is supported by a conventional rear undercarriage assembly 34 and has a landing gear 36 secured thereunder. The roof 30 and an upper portion of the sidewalls 24 are secured to a top rail 38. The floor 32 and a lower portion of the sidewalls 24 are secured to a bottom rail 40.
Each sidewall 24 includes a plurality of vertical upstanding composite side panels 42 joined together by a joint configuration 44, preferably of the type disclosed in any one of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,958,472, 5,860,693, 5,997,076, 6,220,651 and 6,412,854, all of which are owned by the assignee of the present application. Each composite side panel 42 includes a plastic core member 46 sandwiched between an inner thin metal skin 48 and an outer thin metal skin 50 bonded thereto by a suitable known adhesive or other like means.
The inner skin 48 and the outer skin 50 are preferably approximately 0.026 inches thick. The skins 48, 50 are preferably made of aluminum; galvanized, full hardened steel, such as AISI Grade E full hard steel because of its cost effectiveness, or the like. Preferably, the outer skin 50 is made of ASTM G90 galvanized steel and the inner skin 48 is made of ASTM G60 galvanized steel. Aluminum may be used, but it may be tool soft for some purposes and strength and punch resistance are sacrificed, however, aluminum is lightweight. Typically, each composite side panel 42 is four feet in width, but can be longer or shorter depending on the application.
Each core member 46 is made of some type of compressible non-metal material, preferably thermoplastic, such as polypropylene or high density polyethylene. These materials are relatively inexpensive as compared to aluminum found in prior semi-trailer wall constructions. In addition, because a composite side panel 42 is used, the weight of the semi-trailer construction is reduced over semi-trailers having aluminum sidewalls.
The semi-trailer 20 having sidewalls 24 formed of composite side panels 42 typically rests on the bottom rail 40 such that the outer skin 50 extends all the way down to the bottom rail 40. The bottom rail 40 also typically has a vertical section 47 which is about six (6) inches high, against which the inner skin 50 of the composite side panels 42 abuts against, as illustrated in FIG. 2. A scuff plate 49 is also positioned against the inner skin 50 of the composite side panels 42 and is positioned above the vertical section 47 of the bottom rail 40. The composite side panels 42 are secured to both the vertical section 47 of the bottom rail 40 and to the scuff plate 49 by rivets 51. The vertical section 47 and the scuff plate 49 typically run the entire length of the sidewall 24 of the semi-trailer 20 from the front wall 26 to the rear doors 28. The scuff plate 49 is provided to protect the composite side panels 42 from damage by contact with goods and/or loading equipment such as a fork lift truck.
While the use of semi-trailers 20 having sidewalls 24 formed of composite side panels 42 has been met with much praise in the industry because they are both lightweight and strong, these semi-trailers do have some disadvantages associated therewith.
For example, the outer surface of the composite side panels 42 are susceptible to damage proximate to the bottom rail 40 caused from sideswipes by other semi-trailers, typically during docking. Also, if the composite side panels 42 are damaged either by sideswipes or by a forklift, such that replacement thereof is necessary, the construction of the sidewalls 24 does not allow for the easy replacement thereof or easy repair thereof.
Thus, there is a need for a sidewall construction for a semi-trailer using composite side panels which overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages. The present invention provides such a sidewall construction for a semi-trailer using composite side panels.

Sidewall of a semi-trailer having a high baserail


A coordinate detection system includes a coordinate detecting apparatus that is mounted on a display apparatus, detects approach of an indicating object toward the display apparatus, detects a position coordinate of the indicating object on the display apparatus, and outputs a notice indicating the approach of the indicating object and the position coordinate; a contact detecting apparatus that detects whether the contact detecting apparatus is in contact with the coordinate detecting apparatus and outputs a notice indicating contact or non-contact of the contact detecting apparatus; and an information processing apparatus that includes a control unit that, upon reception of the notice indicating the approach of the indicating object, determines whether the notice indicating the contact of the contact detecting apparatus is received within a predetermined time, and issues an event indicating the contact of the contact detecting apparatus when receiving the notice of the contact of the contact detecting apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coordinate detection system, information processing apparatus and method, and a computer-readable carrier medium for identifying a type or a contact timing of an indicating object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an electronic whiteboard has been used at conferences, etc. in companies, educational institutions, governmental institutions, etc., that is provided with a large display for displaying images and that allows users to write or draw characters, numbers, or images including graphics on the display with an indicating object such as a stylus or a finger.
In recent years, as the above electronic whiteboard, for example, StarBoard (registered trademark) manufactured by Hitachi Solutions, Ltd. and Cyber Conference (registered trademark) manufactured by Pioneer Corporation have been provided. An electronic whiteboard equipped with an optical touch panel has also been proposed.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-176802 discloses a coordinate input/detecting apparatus that is the electronic whiteboard equipped with the optical touch panel. The coordinate input/detecting apparatus includes light emitting units for emitting light that travels in an input region with a predetermined range; a reflecting unit that is arranged at a predetermined position on a peripheral portion of the input region; an intensity-distribution detecting unit that receives light emitted by each of the light emitting units and then reflected by the reflecting unit and that detects an intensity distribution of the received light; and a coordinate identifying unit that identifies, using the intensity distribution, the coordinate of a light blocking position at which the light traveling in the input region is blocked. In the coordinate input/detecting apparatus, a position coordinate of an indicating object is identified by a change in the intensity of light blocked by the indicating object.
In the coordinate input/detecting apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-176802, a finger or a stylus is used as the indicating object, and a contact timing of the indicating object is recognized by a change in the intensity of light blocked by the approaching indicating object.
There is a need for a coordinate detection system, an information processing apparatus, a method, and a computer-readable carrier medium capable of accurately identifying a type and a contact timing of an indicating object and improving drawing accuracy.

Coordinate detection system, information processing apparatus and method, and computer-readable carrier medium


A quantum cascade laser includes a semiconductor substrate, and an active layer that is provided on the substrate, and has a cascade structure in which emission layers and injection layers are alternately laminated by multistage-laminating unit laminate structures each consisting of the quantum well emission layer and the injection layer, the active layer generates light by intersubband transition in a quantum well structure. Further, in a laser cavity structure for light with a predetermined wavelength to be generated in the active layer, reflection control films including at least one layer of CeO2 film are formed on a first end face and a second end face facing each other. Thereby, it is possible to realize a quantum cascade laser capable of preferably realizing reflectance control for light within a mid-infrared wavelength region on the laser device end face.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a quantum cascade laser using intersubband transition in a quantum well structure.
2. Related Background Art
Light with a mid-infrared wavelength region (for example, wavelength of 4 to 15 μm) is an important wavelength region in the field of spectroscopy analysis. As a high-performance semiconductor light source in this wavelength region, in recent years, quantum cascade lasers (QCL) have gained attention (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1 to 3 and Non-Patent Document 1).
A quantum cascade laser is a monopolar type laser device which uses a level structure including subbands formed in a semiconductor quantum well structure and generates light by means of intersubband electron transition, and can realize high efficiency and high-output operations by multistage cascade-coupling of quantum well emission layers which are formed by quantum well structures and become active regions. Further, this cascade coupling of quantum well emission layers is realized by using electron injection layers for injecting electrons into emission upper levels and alternately laminating quantum well emission layers and injection layers.    Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,709    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-206340    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-10733    Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-72031    Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-86533    Non-Patent Document 1: J. Nguyen et al., "Optical coatings by ion-beam sputtering deposition for long-wave infrared quantum cascade lasers," Appl. Phys. Lett. Vol. 89 (2006) 111113-1-111113-3

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A rotary fuel pump employs pressure balancing features on the non-vaned side of the impeller to provide localized application of fluid forces so that the impeller is more precisely balanced within the pumping chamber. A generally disc-shaped impeller body has an impeller with a body-side surface and a cover-side surface. The cover-side surface defines an impeller flow channel extending circumferentially around the impeller. The impeller includes a plurality of vanes positioned at least partially within the impeller flow channel. The body-side surface has a plurality of discontinuous undercut regions each coaxially aligned with at least a portion of the impeller flow channel. The impeller has a plurality of apertures wherein each aperture connects the impeller flow channel with a respective undercut region, whereby pressure forces against the impeller from the fuel are substantially balanced in the axial direction.

The present invention relates in general to automotive fuel pumps, and, more specifically, to regenerative fuel pumps having a rotary impeller.
Regenerative fuel pumps are widely used in automotive applications. They generally include an impeller rotating on a shaft and positioned within a pumping chamber in the pump. The clearance between the opposing axial sides of the impeller and the corresponding walls of the pumping chamber must be closely regulated to permit the pump to handle fuel at relatively high pressures (i.e. greater than about 2 bar). It has not been possible to maintain a precisely centered position within the pumping chamber when the impeller is fixedly mounted at a particular axial position on the shaft. This is because wearing of the shaft support structure causes the shaft to shift axially over time. Therefore, the impeller is slidably mounted on the shaft to allow axial translation.
The impellers typically comprise double-sided impellers, meaning the impellers include vanes on each opposing side for pressurizing fuel on both sides of the impeller. Due to the pressurization taking place on both sides, the impellers are relatively well balanced axially to maintain the necessary clearance from each side of the pumping chamber.
One drawback of fuel pumps with double-sided impellers is that their wet circle index is relatively high, typically 1.7 or greater. The wet circle index characterizes the pump boundary layer frictional losses and can be defined as the wet circle length versus the flow channel cross-sectional area. The wet circle length is the distance along the perimeter of the flow channel (e.g., circumference of a round flow channel) formed by the impeller and the opposing structures (e.g., body and cover structures) of the pumping chamber.
A single-sided impeller (i.e., an impeller having vanes and an impeller flow channel on only one side) can achieve a decreased wet circle index relative to a double-sided impeller since the length of the flow channel can be cut in half. If the flow channel cross-sectional area is kept the same, then the frictional losses are also cut in half. A drawback of using single-sided impellers has been that they were not balanced because the fuel pressure acting on the vaned side of the impeller displaced it off center in the pumping chamber.
Parent application U.S. Ser. No. 10/842,685 teaches a single-sided impeller having specially added areas that are exposed to fuel on one side or the other of the impeller, the added areas being sized to provide a body-side force approximately equal to a cover-side force. Consequently, the impeller is balance on the shaft and maintains robust axial clearances (i.e., is centered in the pumping chamber) so that the pump operates at high efficiency. The added areas are created by forming additional channels in the internal surfaces of cover and body member defining the pumping chamber in a manner that deploys the necessary forces to balance the impeller.
The pressure provided by an additional channel is determined by the pressure at the point where the channel emerges from a flow channel or passageway. This particular pressure can then be applied against corresponding surfaces of the impeller to obtain an approximate balance. Since the pressure to be balanced along the flow channel varies, however, it can be difficult to obtain a precise balance. The shape, size, and position of the additional channels in the internal surface of the pumping chamber can be empirically determined by trial and error using computer simulations or actual testing. Such a process is time consuming and results in high development costs. Furthermore, different vehicle applications specify unique and different fuel pressures or other pump parameters and it is not possible to easily modify an existing design layout that provides balance in one vehicle application into a similar layout for a different vehicle application. Thus, it would be desirable to provide for improved pressure balancing performance for a single-sided impeller that can be developed in a shorter time and at lower cost.

Automotive fuel pump with pressure balanced impeller


The present invention concerns an isolation element for the isolation of vibrations and/or heat, which propagate/s in a medium such as soil, as well as the application of isolation element in an isolation arrangement. The isolation element is characterized by a rectangular plate-shaped block (1) with one or several on one or both of the two side surfaces attached cushion-shaped bodies (2). The isolation arrangement is characterized by a trench (7) in the ground, in the bottom of the trench preferably vertically anchored guide rods (8) placed in a row, in the trench poured stabilizing slurry (10) as well as on the guide rods (8) threaded and from the bottom of the trench (7) to the orifice and preferably along the whole length of the trench on top of each other and/or next to each other stacked isolation elements (9) placed on their edges.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an isolation element for the isolation of vibrations and/or heat, which are propagated in a medium such as soil, as well as the application of such isolation elements in connection with vibration isolation measures.
2. Description of the State of the Art
Vibrations, which are generated in a medium such as soil or water, and which are propagated through this medium, can cause damage to structures, which are located on or in this medium. Vibrations can be generated by a variety of sources, for example by vehicles, machines, blasting or earthquakes. Many attempts have been made to eliminate the propagation of vibrations, in order to protect structures, machines or installations. As a result of such measures, as a secondary effect, it is also possible to isolate the propagation of heat.
Open trenches in the soil are effective measures to protect buildings and other structures in the ground against oscillations and vibrations. Another common method of vibration isolation is to arrange concrete or steel barriers in the ground. Their vibration efficiency, however, is significantly lower than that of open trenches. Swedish Patent Document No. SE, B, 430,620 shows a method for vibration isolation with the aid of one or several membranes, which are installed in the ground, and an arrangement for the implementation of this method. This method is characterized by a membrane or connected membranes. which contain a medium such as air, water or similar agents, and which are made of plastic or similar material, and which are installed in the ground vertically or inclined for instance by means of pressing, vibrating, driving, jetting or a combination of these methods, with the aim of absorbing the vibration energy and to reduce the oscillation energy. The membrane is provided at the upper end with a valve body, through which the pressure in the membrane can be varied before, during or after installation. The membrane can at the lower end be provided with a beam-like arrangement, which during the installation phase creates an opening in the soil of required width. The membrane or membranes can, for example, be installed using a fork-like tool. The described method is expensive and there exists a risk that one or several receptacles are damaged by a sharp article located in the ground.
Swedish Patent Document No. SE, B. 460.062 shows an arrangement for vibration isolation and/or heat isolation. The arrangement comprises membranes which can be installed in a medium such as soil or water. The membranes consist of a flexible, external, relatively stiff covering membrane, which is impermeable with respect to the mentioned medium, and at least one additional flexible inner membrane element consisting of a diffusion-tight material. The inner membrane surrounds a closed space consisting of p double-folded foil, which is welded together to form a receptacle and cells or channels filled with air, gas, liquid or foam or a combination thereof on the side surfaces of the receptacle. The cells or channels of one side of the foil are separated from the cells and channels of the other side of the foil, whereby one (or several) chambers are created between them which can either be filled with air, gas, liquid or foam. A valve can be arranged at the inner membrane in order to make it possible to fill the space with an appropriate material and with desired pressure. The risk of puncturing of the multi-layered membrane is thereby reduced. Damage to one or several chambers do not affect the vibration isolation effectiveness of the membrane. The covering envelope is so stiff that it can distribute variations of the earth pressure. However, the above mentioned disadvantage of high installation cost remains.
In built-up areas, it is common to first excavate a trench in the ground, which is filled with a suitable stabilizing liquid in order to assure the stability of the trench during installation. For the installation of the above mentioned vibration isolation arrangement in a liquid-filled trench, the isolation elements must be provided with special anchors at the bottom of the excavated trench, as the buoyancy of the gas-filled cushions can be considerable. The anchoring can be provided by heavy concrete blocks which are attached in advance to the lower end of the cushions. Alternatively, the cushions can be connected to ground anchors which are installed at the bottom of the trench. The installation of concrete blocks requires the lifting of heavy loads. In addition, the trench must be excavated to greater depth in order to provide space for the anchoring weights. The isolation elements must be installed accurately in the trench in order to achieve a continuous isolation barrier. In practice, it can be difficult to place the flexible cushions with sufficient precision, in order to assure vertical and laterial continuity of the isolation barrier.

Isolation element and the use thereof at an isolation arrangement