A light diffraction element comprising a transparent substrate and a first orientation layer that is formed on one surface of the substrate and includes anisotropic polymers and a first pattern of an orientation direction arranged periodically in a first direction along the primary plane of the substrate. The first pattern includes three or more small regions that are arranged in the first direction and in which the orientation direction of the polymers included in the first orientation layer are different from each other, and generates diffracted light as a result of interference between light passed respectively through the three or more small regions.

The contents of the following Japanese patent applications and PCT application are incorporated herein by reference:                NO. 2011-068374 filed on Mar. 25, 2011,        NO. 2011-129762 filed on Jun. 10, 2011, and        NO. PCT/JP2012/000938 filed on Feb. 13, 2012.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a light diffraction element and an optical low pass filter using the light diffraction element.
2. Related Art
An optical low pass filter is used for a digital movie or digital camera using an image capturing element in order to prevent Moire patterns caused by input of an optical image having a spatial frequency higher than the pixel pitch of the image capturing element. A liquid crystal board utilizing birefringence of a material is used as an optical low pass filter, as shown in Patent Document 1.
Patent Document 1: International Publication No. 2008/004570
However, a light diffraction element using a crystal board has an increased thickness, and is therefore difficult to miniaturize. Furthermore, a crystal board is expensive, and easily attracts debris due to its charge.

Light diffraction element and optical low pass filter


Compacts produced from a pyrogenically produced oxide, magnesium stearate, methyl cellulose and urea are mixed together in the presence of water, compacted, dried, comminuted to a powder, and the powder is pressed with an isostatic press to compacts and the compacts tempered. The resulting compacts have an outside diameter of 16 to 100 mm.

The present invention relates to compacts made from pyrogenically produced oxides, the method of their production and to the use of such compacts as catalyst supports or as catalysts.
The production of compacts or pressed parts from pyrogenically produced silicon dioxide is known in the art. For example, In U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,031 compacts are described having an outside diameter of 2 to 15 mm and a fracture breaking strength of 50 to 150 N. They can be used as catalysts in the hydration of ethylene to ethanol as well as other reactions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,031 assigned to the same assignee as this invention is relied on and incorporated herein by reference.
However, the known compacts have the disadvantage that when they are used e.g. as catalysts in the hydration of ethylene in fixed-bed reactors, additional support-, covering- or facing layers, e.g. of coal, metals such as copper, ceramic materials or mineral materials such as mullite must be used (cf. Marshall Sittig, Handbook of Catalyst Manufacture, Noyes Data Corporation, USA, 1978).
As a result of the different chemical composition of the support-, covering- or facing layers, impurities, which can possibly result in undesired side reactions, are carried into the reaction mixture.
There was thus a need to find a material for the support-, covering- or facing layers which does not carry any impurities into the reaction mixture.

Compacts based on pyrogenically produced oxides


The attachment plate for a prosthetic socket is fabricated into the distal end of a prosthetic socket. The attachment plate comprises a body with a peripheral seal, a valve, an air tunnel, and an exhaust port. When fastened in the distal end of a prosthetic socket, the peripheral seal creates a secure seal to the inner wall of the prosthetic socket and the exhaust port remains exposed to atmosphere. The valve is open to the cavity of the prosthetic socket for air to be removed to secure a prosthetic via vacuum or suction. Air from the cavity moves through the valve, through an air tunnel machined into the cylindrical body, and is expelled out of the exhaust port.

The most common cause of amputation is vascular related, although traumatic injuries and rare diseases may be a cause as well. In order to have a good functional prosthesis regardless of the cause of amputation, the prosthesis must have both good comfort and good suspension. If the suspension is not present, the leg will not stay on the user. If comfort is not maintained, the user cannot wear the prosthesis for extended periods of time
Prosthetic limbs may be attached to the residual limb in various ways. Prosthetic limbs may be suspended from a user's body by a pulley, belt, or strap suspension. Prosthetic limbs may also be secured by a suspension sleeve that is rolled over the residual limb and the prosthetic socket. Other methods include mechanical or electric pumps to establish positive or negative pressures. However, many of these systems look unnatural, are heavy, and are often difficult to use or adjust. Furthermore, these systems may require pressures that are so forceful that they can be uncomfortable or cause damage to the residual limb tissue.
One issue with prosthetic suction sockets, or sockets for elevated vacuum, is leaks. There is a need for a need for a prosthetic socket with an attachment plate that can be used with standard suction sockets, or could have an external pump connected to the attachment plate for elevated vacuum.

Attachment plate for a prosthetic socket


Disclosed and described is a rotating access cover assembly that may be utilized to cover a storage chamber such as those that store swimming pool covers. In a swimming pool setting, the access cover assembly allows complete access to the storage chamber by the swimming pool cover, which extends the width of the swimming pool. Allowing such access to the chamber, the access cover assembly provides support so that users may walk and sit on the edge of the pool and the edge of the access cover assembly. The access cover rotates to an open position to allow access to all or part of the storage chamber of the swimming pool cover.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to access covers for storage chambers, and more particularly to access covers for storage containers for housing swimming pool covers.
2. Background Information
It is highly advantageous to use a pool cover with a swimming pool. The pool cover reduces evaporation of the water and use of chlorine keeps dust and other debris out of the pool, reduces heat loss, and generally improves the functions of a swimming pool.
Swimming pool covers are most effectively utilized on a swimming pool that is generally rectangular in shape. In many cases, the pool cover extends the width of the pool and is stored in a rolled up condition that is as wide as the pool. From the rolled up condition, the swimming pool cover is extended out over the top of the water the length of the pool. When the pool is to be utilized, the swimming pool cover is retracted from the surface of the water and typically wound on an axle into a storage chamber adjacent one end of the pool.
With such an arrangement, there is typically a cover over the storage chamber in which the pool cover is stored. The cover of the storage chamber forms the fourth pool side edge, and thus comprises a significant amount of the pool side area. Because the swimming pool cover must extend the entire width of the pool without interruption, to allow the passage of the pool cover, the lip of the storage chamber cover must be unsupported for the entire width of the pool. This presents problems in that it is also desirable to have the entire distance along this edge of the pool usable by persons using the pool. One solution to this problem is to use L-shaped brackets to support the storage chamber cover, similar to how a bookshelf is supported on a wall. This arrangement presents problems in that a weight limitation is imposed on users of the edge of the swimming pool, and exceeding the strength of the supporting brackets is always a concern. Additionally, it is important that the storage chamber cover be removable or operable to allow access to the mechanics of the storage mechanism for the swimming pool cover. This can include motors, gears, axles and bearings. It is desirable to have the entire width of the swimming pool cover accessible without such access presenting a huge project.
Thus, it would be desirable for the cover of a storage chamber exemplified by a swimming pool cover storage chamber to be easily accessible and yet be easily closed in a way that the unsupported edge of the cover would safely bear the weight of users without the users having to be concerned with structural failure.
It is also desired that a cover for such a storage chamber be easily moved from an open to a closed position. It is also desired that when in the open position, the storage cover would be stored in such a way that it cannot accidentally rotate into the closed position with the possibility of injuring a person.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.


A test system for testing a wireless electronic device is provided. The test system may include a test host and a tester. The test host may instruct the electronic device under test (DUT) to transmit radio-frequency test signals in a selected resource block of a desired channel identified by a channel number in the Long Term Evolution frequency band. The tester may measure harmonic output power levels of the radio-frequency test signals transmitted by the DUT at harmonic frequencies of the selected resource block. The test host may compare the measured harmonic output power levels to threshold power levels to characterize the radio-frequency performance of wireless circuitry in the DUT. The test system may test the radio-frequency performance of the DUT for radio-frequency test signals transmitted by the DUT in some or all resource blocks in the desired Long Term Evolution band.

This invention relates generally to electronic devices having wireless communications circuitry, and more particularly, to testing wireless communications circuitry in electronic devices.
Electronic devices such as portable computers and cellular telephones are often provided with wireless communications circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry is operable to transmit and receive radio-frequency signals. The wireless communications circuitry includes amplifier circuitry for amplifying the transmitted radio-frequency signals. The wireless communications circuitry wirelessly communicates using a communications protocol. The wireless communications circuitry transmits radio-frequency signals in a communications band associated with the communications protocol.
Electrical components in the wireless communications circuitry typically exhibit non-linearity. The non-linear electrical components produce undesired radio-frequency components at harmonic frequencies of the communications band (e.g., second order harmonics, third order harmonics, etc.). Undesired signal power at harmonic frequencies may interfere with other radio-frequency communications performed by the wireless communications circuitry.
Electronic devices can be subject to requirements such as regulatory requirements that restrict the amount of signal power produced at harmonic frequencies of a communications band. It can be challenging to design and manufacture electronic devices while ensuring that the electronic devices satisfy such requirements. For example, conventional test systems that test electronic devices can produce imprecise measurements. It would therefore be desirable to provide improved test systems for testing wireless communications circuitry.

Method for validating radio-frequency performance of wireless electronic devices


Embodiments of the present invention provide a channel measurement method and apparatus. The method includes: configuring, for each frequency band of N frequency bands having a same carrier frequency, according to a measurement demand, reference signal information corresponding to each frequency band, so that reference signal densities included in configured reference signal information of at least two frequency bands of the N frequency bands are different, where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, the reference signal information refers to information required to generate a reference signal, the reference signal density refers to a distribution density on a time domain or a distribution density on a frequency domain of the reference signal or a pattern of the reference signal; and notifying a user equipment of the reference signal information, so that the user equipment performs channel measurement according to the reference signal information.

In a wireless communication system, because of factors such as mobility of a user equipment (User equipment, UE) and multipath propagation of a wireless signal, a channel state between a base station and the UE changes with the change of time and a frequency. In order to improve transmission efficiency of the system, it is expected that the base station can effectively utilize channel state information between the base station and the UE, and schedule each UE onto a time frequency resource corresponding to a best channel state of the UE. Based on this, the base station needs to acquire channel state information of each UE.
In a wireless communication system, such as an LTE (Long term evolution, long term evolution)/LTE-A (LTE-Advanced, long term evolution-advanced) system, a base station generally acquires a channel state between the base station and a UE through channel state information reported by the UE. Specifically, the UE may obtain, through a calculation, channel quality and an interference level between the base station and the UE by measuring a downlink reference signal sent by the base station, and further obtain downlink channel state information (Channel State Information, CSI) between the base station and the UE. Here, the downlink reference signal mainly includes a cell-specific reference signal (Cell-specific reference signal, CRS) and a channel-state information reference signal (Channel-State Information reference signal, CSI-RS). Moreover, the base station may also acquire uplink channel quality between the base station and the UE by measuring an uplink reference signal sent by the UE, such as an uplink sounding signal SRS (Sounding Reference Signal, SRS); for a system having a channel reciprocity characteristic, such as a TDD system, the base station may obtain downlink channel quality between the base station and the UE through the uplink channel quality.
In a wireless communication system, for measurement of channel state information, two factors are mainly considered for design of a reference signal. A first factor is that measurement precision can be satisfied, namely, it needs to be ensured that channel state information obtained through measurement is basically the same as an actual channel condition between a base station and a UE, so that the base station can more accurately perform rate matching on the UE, namely, can adopt a more appropriate modulation coding scheme (Modulation Coding Scheme, MCS) for data scheduling of the user and schedule the user onto a more appropriate time frequency resource; a second factor is that it needs to be considered that an overhead of the reference signal is as small as possible, so as to avoid causing an excessive waste of a data resource.
For a same UE, reference signals used on different frequency bands in a same carrier may be used for different measurement purposes, for example, used for channel quality measurement and interference level measurement separately, and reference signal characteristics required for these two types of measurement may be different. However, currently the base station does not consider different measurement purposes of different frequency bands for reference signal characteristics of frequency bands configured by the UE, and in this way, the foregoing two factors cannot be considered completely, so that precision of channel quality measurement or interference level measurement on a part of frequency bands is insufficient, or so that reference signal overheads on a part of frequency bands are increased.

Channel measurement method and apparatus


A semiconductor device fabricating method is described. The semiconductor device fabricating method includes providing a substrate. A first gate insulating layer and a second gate insulating layer are formed on the substrate, respectively. A gate layer is blanketly formed. A portion of the gate layer, the first gate insulating layer and the second gate insulating layer are removed to form a first gate, a remaining first gate insulating layer, a second gate and a remaining second gate insulating layer. The remaining first gate insulating layer not covered by the first gate has a first thickness, and the remaining second gate insulating layer not covered by the second gate has a second thickness, wherein a ratio between the first thickness and the second thickness is about 10 to 20. A pair of first spacers and a pair of second spacers are formed on sidewalls of the first gate and the second gate, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a semiconductor device fabricating method, and more particularly to a semiconductor device fabricating method of integrating different devices having different gate insulating layer thicknesses.
2. Description of the Related Art
System-on-a-chip (SoC) designs have become mainstream designs of integrated circuits due to improving semiconductor device scaling processes and critical requirements for dimensions and functions of consumer products. System-on-a-chip (SoC) technology, incorporates all necessary electronic devices and circuitry together, such as, logic devices, memory devices or input/output (I/O) interfaces, for a complete "system" on a single integrated circuit (IC). For example, an SoC fabricating process of a liquid crystal display (LCD) is needed for integrating high voltage (such as, 30 or 40 V) metal oxide semiconductor transistors (HVMOS), low voltage or medium voltage (such as, 2.5 or 5V) logic circuits, or non-volatile memory devices in one chip. Gate insulating layers for SoC devices may have different thicknesses and obvious thickness differences. In the conventional semiconductor fabrication processes, an etching process can be used to remove the remaining gate insulating layers which are not covered by the gates of different devices with different thicknesses after the gate formation step. However, following the conventional etching process steps, undesired substrate loss or gate defect problem due to extreme thickness differences among the gate insulating layers of the different devices, may occur. Therefore, negatively effecting device performances and reliability. Meanwhile, the remaining gate insulating layers of different devices can be respectively removed using additional photolithography and etching processes. However, fabrication costs would increase due to an increase in the number of masks used for the additional photolithography and etching processes.
Therefore, improving device performance and reliability through process integration of different devices having different gate insulating layer thicknesses, such as, high voltage devices, low voltage or medium voltage devices, has become an important challenge.
A novel semiconductor device fabricating method integrating different devices is desirable.

Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation


CVD, ALD, and other vapor processes used in processing semiconductor workpieces often require volatilizing a liquid or solid precursor. Certain embodiments of the invention provide improved and/or more consistent volatilization rates by moving a reaction vessel. In one exemplary embodiment, a reaction vessel is rotated about a rotation axis which is disposed at an angle with respect to vertical. This deposits a quantity of the reaction precursor on an interior surface of the vessel's sidewall which is exposed to the headspace as the vessel rotates. Other embodiments employ drivers adapted to move the reaction vessel in other manners, such as a pendulum arm to oscillate the vessel along an arcuate path or a mechanical linkage which moves the vessel along an elliptical path.

In manufacturing integrated circuits, various thin films are deposited and patterned on a semiconductor substrate. One well-known deposition process is chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In general, CVD is a process in which a substrate, e.g., a semiconductor workpiece, is heated and coated with layers of volatile chemical compounds. During CVD, a precursor compound is reduced or dissociated in a chemical reaction on or adjacent to the substrate surface. The precursor compound is delivered to the reaction chamber in a vapor or gaseous state, often in a reaction gas which also includes a suitable carrier gas. In reactive CVD processes, the reaction gas may also include other compounds, e.g., other precursors, which react with one another. These CVD processes yield an adherent coating on a surface of the substrate.
CVD processes are used at a number of stages in semiconductor manufacture. For example, CVD can be used to produce epitaxially grown single crystal silicon by the reduction of a silicon precursor, such as silicon tetrachloride, by a reactant gas such as hydrogen. This process is used to make other epitaxial layers such as polysilicon, silicon nitride, silicon dioxide, and both doped polysilicon and silicon dioxide. CVD is also used in semiconductor manufacture to depositing various conductive films, such as aluminum and copper.
One advantage of CVD processes is that the deposited film is highly conformal, i.e., it yields a uniform film even on more complex surfaces with high aspect ratio features. As these features become smaller and ever more densely packed together, though, it is difficult to achieve uniform step coverage even with CVD. Atomic layer deposition (ALD, also referred to as atomic layer epitaxy) is an improvement of conventional CVD processes. Rather than continuously depositing material to build up a coating, ALD rapidly deposits a series of monatomic layers atop one another. Though ALD is materially slower than CVD, it improves conformality of the film.
One limitation on the variety of films which can be deposited via CVD and ALD is that the reaction precursor must be delivered in a gaseous state. Many potentially useful reaction precursors are solids or relatively low vapor pressure liquids. It can be difficult to volatilize such precursors at a rate fast enough for a commercially acceptable production throughput. It can also be difficult to maintain a consistent delivery rate of the precursor gas over the course of a deposition process, with the delivery rate often decreasing as the deposition process proceeds. If the precursor is a solid, it typically must be sublimated, which often makes it more difficult to produce the gaseous precursor at an acceptable, stable rate. This can sometimes be attributed to agglomeration from a particulate solid precursor, which reduces the effective surface area of the precursor over time, driving down the rate of volatilization.

Methods and apparatus for vapor processing of micro-device workpieces


A method to produce an optical module, in particular, a module to transmit an analog data to enhance a yield thereof is disclosed. The method comprises (a) taking an I-L characteristic and its slope efficiency, (b) taking a gradient of a linear approximation between the slope efficiency and a current applied to an LD, and (c) taking an optimum current for the CSO characteristic as varying the current. Steps (a) to (c) give a correlation between the gradient of the linear approximation and the optimum current and are performed in advance to the practical production.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method to produce an optical module that installs a distributed feedback laser diode (hereafter denoted as DFB-LD), in particular, the optical module produced by the present method is utilized for the optical transmission of an analog data.
2. Related Prior Art
The United States patent, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,096, has disclosed a method to manufacture an optical module for the analog data transmission. The method disclosed therein inspects the composite second order beat (hereafter denoted as CSO) of the DFB-LD after a laser chip is installed within the module package.
In the DFB-LD, in particular, that is applied in the analog transmission, the CSO performance thereof influences the transmission system. The CSO performance of the DFB-LD strongly depends on the inner structure of the DFB-LD device. Accordingly, in a case where the CSO performance is inspected after the DFB-LD device is installed within the module housing, the yield becomes hard to be kept in an acceptable level.

Method to produce an optical module for analog data transmission


A method of forming a relaxed SiGe layer having a high germanium content in a semiconductor device includes preparing a silicon substrate; depositing a strained SiGe layer; implanting ions into the strained SiGe layer, wherein the ions include silicon ions and ions selected from the group of ions consisting of boron and helium, and which further includes implanting H+ ions; annealing to relax the strained SiGe layer, thereby forming a first relaxed SiGe layer; and completing the semiconductor device.

In enhanced mobility MOSFET device applications thick, relaxed Si1-xGex, buffer layers have been used as virtual substrates for thin, strained silicon layers to increase carrier mobility for both NMOS Welser et al., Electron mobility enhancement in strained-Si N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors, 1994 IEDM Conference Proceedings, p. 373 (1994).IEEE EDL-15, #3, p. 100, (1994); Rim et al., (Rim I) Fabrication and analysis of Deep submicron strained-Si N-MOSFETs, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol 47, 1406, (2000); and Rim et al., (Rim II) Strained Si NMOSFETs for High Performance CMOS Technology, 2001 Symposium on VLSI Technology Digest of Technical Papers, p. 59, IEEE 2001; and PMOS, Rim et al., (Rim III) Enhanced hole mobilities in surface-channel strained-Si p-MOSFETs, 1995 IEDM Conference Proceedings, p. 517 (1995); and Nayak et al., High-Mobility Strained-Si PMOSFET's [sic], IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 43, 1709 (1996). Compared with bulk silicon devices, enhancement in electron mobility of 70% for devices with Leff<70 nm has been reported, Rim I supra. Enhancements of up to 40% in high-field hole mobility for long-channel devices have also been found, Nayak et al., supra.
The main current technique to produce a high quality relaxed Si1-xGex buffer layer is the growth of a several μm thick, compositionally graded layer, Rim I, supra, and Nayak et al., supra. However, the density of threading dislocations is still high, e.g., >106/cm2. In addition, the integration of several μm Si1-xGex into device fabrication is not practical.
An alternative method to efficiently relax strained SiGe layers on silicon is to implant helium followed by an anneal step. Cavities formed in silicon and germanium, and their alloys, by helium implantation and annealing have been found to have a strong short-range, attractive interaction with dislocations. Introducing cavities at the SiGe/Si interface greatly enhances the relaxation rate and alters dislocation microstructures, Follstaedt et al., Cavity-dislocation interactions in Si—Ge and implications for heterostructure relaxation, Appl. Phys. Lett., 69, 2059, 1996. He implantation and subsequent annealing has been used to achieve ˜70% relaxation of 100 nm thick Si0.7Ge0.3 films with a threading dislocation density as low as 107/cm2 Luysberg et al., Effect of helium ion implantation and annealing on the relaxation behavior of pseudomorphic Si1-xGex, buffer layers on Si(100) substrates, J. Appl. Phys., vol. 92, pp 4290–4295 (2002). These films were successfully used to fabricate high performance n-type modulation-doped FETs, Herzog et al., Si/SiGe n-MODFETs on Thin SiGe Virtual Substrates Prepared by Means of He Implantation, IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 23, pp 485–487 (2002). Meanwhile, research has continued on the relaxation mechanisms of SiGe after He+ implantation and annealing, Christiansen et al., Strain relaxation mechanisms in He+-implanted and annealed Si1-xGex layers on Si(100) substrates, Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 686, p. A1.6.1 (2002); Cai et al., Strain relaxation and threading dislocation density in helium-implanted and annealed Si1-xGe/Si(100) heterostructures, J. Appl. Phys., vol. 95, pp 5347–5351 (2004). Another recently published alternative method for the relaxation of SiGe films on Si is the implantation of Si+ ions. Doses of less than 2014/cm2 produce comparable results to those achieved by He+ implantation using much higher doses of 1–2×1616/cm2, Hollander et al., Strain relaxation of pseudomorphic Si1-xGex/Si (100) heterostructures after Si+ ion implantation, J. Appl. Phys., vol. 96, pp 1745–1747 (2004).
Hydrogen implantation has been found to induce exfoliation of silicon and cause shearing of macroscopic layers of silicon, Weldon et al, On the mechanism of the hydrogen-induced exfoliation of silicon, J. Va. Sc. technol. B. 15, 1065, (1997). This has been incorporated into the fabrication of high-quality silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, and is known as the SmartCut™ process. In recent publications by a collaboration of S. Mantl et al. and H. Trinkaus et al., reports of the advantages of using hydrogen implantation to increase the degree of SiGe relaxation and to reduce the density of threading dislocations, Mantl et al., Strain relaxation of Epitaxial SiGe layers on Si (100)improved by hydrogen implantation, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 147, 29, (1999); Trinkaus et al., Strain relaxation mechanism for hydrogen-implanted Si1-xGe/Si(100) heterostructures, Appl. Phys. Lett., 76, 3552, (2000), have been made. However, the collaboration only reported the relaxation of a SiGe having a thickness of between 2000 Å–2500 Å, with up to 22% germanium. SiGe having a 2000 Å–2500 Å thickness is not sufficient for device application. Also, a higher germanium content is desirable. Meanwhile, we have also made thicker films having higher germanium content, e.g., 30%, U.S. Pat. No. 6,746,902, to Maa et al., granted Jun. 8, 2004, for Method to Form Relaxed SiGe Layer with High Ge Content, and for reducing leakage current through proper isolation, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/345,551, of Hsu et al., filed Jan. 15, 2003, for Method of Reducing Si1-xGex CMOS Leakage Current; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,583,000 B1, granted Jun. 24, 2004, to Hsu et al. for Process Integration of Si1-xGex. CMOS with Si1-xGex, Relaxation After STI Formation.
In addition to the hydrogen implantation SmartCu™ process, other methods for splitting wafers for application in SOI fabrication have been proposed and developed. These methods all require the co-deposition of some other species together with hydrogen. By so doing, the hydrogen dose may be reduced, and the annealing temperature and time may also be reduced, resulting in a lower cost and a higher quality wafer. Co-implantation of boron (5e12/cm2 to 5e15/cm2) and H2+ ions (5e16/cm2) at energies to ensure overlap of the two species is described in Tong et al., Low Temperature Si Layer Splitting, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE International SOI Conference, p. 126, (1997); Tong et al., A "smarter-cut" approach to low temperature silicon layer transfer, Applied Physics Letters, vol 72, p. 49 (1998); U.S. Pat. No. 5,877,070, to Goesele et al., granted Mar. 2, 1999, for Method for the transfer of thin layers of monocrystalline material to a desirable substrate; and Tong et al., Low dose layer splitting for SOI preparation, Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE International SOI Conference, p. 143, (1998). This method was most effective at reducing anneal temperature and times when a low temperature anneal was performed, e.g., 250° C. for 10 minutes, before any higher temperature annealing steps. Also, electrically inactive boron was more effective than electrically active boron. Boron is thought to be a good choice for co-implantation with hydrogen because it generates a large number of point defects per ion and the boron atoms may trap a cluster of hydrogen atoms. Both effects assist in the formation of platelets and microcracks, which are essential to the SmartCut™ process. The references also suggest using heavily boron-doped silicon substrates, instead of implanting the boron. Based on this, the co-implantation of boron with molecular hydrogen (H2+), followed by an anneal as a means of relaxing a SiGe film grown on a silicon substrate is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,562,703 B1, to Maa et al, granted May 13, 2003, for Molecular Hydrogen Implantation Method for Forming a Relaxed Silicon Germanium Layer with High Germanium Content.
Helium has also been co-implanted with silicon, Agarwal et al., Efficient Production of Silicon-on-Insulator Films by Co-implantation of He+ with H+, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE International SOI Conference, p. 44, (1997); Weldon et al., Mechanism of Silicon Exfoliation by Hydrogen Implantation and He, Li and Si Co-implantation, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE International SOI Conference, p. 124, (1997). A dose of 1e16/cm2 helium with 7.5e15/cm2H implantation was found to be as effective as a 6e16/cm2H SmartCut™ process, reducing the total implant dose by 70%, Agarwal et al., supra.

Method to form relaxed SiGe layer with high Ge content using co-implantation of silicon with boron or helium and hydrogen


A device for ratiometric sensor signal measurement has a multiple arrangement of sensors (gas pedal transmitters and throttle valve transmitters air mass flowmeters, etc.) in motor vehicles. The supply voltage V5int for an analog/digital converter ADC integrated in the engine control unit ST in a microcontroller xcexcC and the sensor reference voltages V5a, V5b are generated in a common voltage controller SR having a common voltage reference Ref1 which is monitored (xc3x9cW1). The supply voltage V5int is additionally monitored by a monitoring circuit xc3x9cW2 having an independent voltage reference Ref2.

The invention relates to a device for the ratiometric measurement of sensor signals, particularly in motor vehicle electronics.
Motor vehicle internal combustion engines are increasingly being fitted with an electronic gas pedal (E gas) and electronic traction control (ETC). To determine the position of the gas pedal, throttle valve, air mass flowmeter, etc., potentiometers with a reference voltage applied to them, for example, are used as pedal value transmitters, throttle valve transmitters, air mass transmitters, etc.; the ratios of the voltages which can be measured at their taps to the reference voltage are a measure of the respective position of the associated transmitter.
DE 196 29 747 A1 discloses a sensor device which has a first reference voltage applied to it and generates a ratiometric measured signal; the ratio of the first to a second reference voltage is formed and is used to correct the measured signal.
For reasons of operational reliability, such transmitters are usually-embodied in multiples and are supplied from mutually independent voltage sources.
The demands on the measurement accuracy of sensors in motor vehicle electronics are becoming higher and higher. Many measured values are transmitted from the sensors to a processing microcontroller xcexcC as analog DC voltages Vmexcex2 (0 . . . 5V+0 . . . 100%). The microcontroller digitizes them using an analog/digital converter ADC (e.g. 10 bit ADC: 0 . . . 5V+0 . . . 1023 steps). In an analog/digital converter, the measured voltage Vmexcex2 to be converted is set in relation to a reference voltage. To convert the analog values to digital values as accurately as possible, it is therefore desirable for the sensors and the analog/digital converter ADC to use the same reference voltage.
In motor vehicle electronics, this is generally not possible because the reference voltage used for the analog/digital converter ADC integrated in the microcontroller xcexcC is the supply voltage V5int for the microcontroller xcexcC (VAref=V5int). Since, however, the microcontroller and hence the engine/transmission control unit need to remain operational in the event of a short circuit, for example between a sensor line and ground or the battery, the supply voltage V5int for the microcontroller xcexcC must not be routed to the vehicle wiring harness. For this reason, mutually independent supply and reference voltages are required.
A principal cause of measurement errors is the synchronism of the individual supply and reference voltages. For an engine control unit ST containing a microcontroller xcexcC, the following voltages are required, for example, in the case of dual transmitters:
an internal supply voltage V5int for the microcontroller xcexcC, which is simultaneously the reference voltage for an analog/digital converter ADC integrated in said microcontroller and required for ratiometric measurements of the transmitter voltages and the conversion thereof to digital values required for further processing,
a reference voltage V5a for the first transmitter set SS1 (pedal value transmitter 1, throttle valve transmitter 1, air mass transmitter 1, etc.), and
a reference voltage V5b for the second transmitter set SS2 (pedal value transmitter 2, throttle valve transmitter 2, air mass transmitter 2, etc.). In this context, the notation V5int signifies the internal 5 volt supply voltage for the microcontroller xcexcC, whereas V5a and V5b signify the 5 volt reference voltages for sensors arranged outside of the engine control unit ST. The supply voltage for microcontrollers and sensors is usually 5V.
As already mentioned, the voltages V5int, V5a and V5b need to be independent of one another, i.e. the other voltages must not be impaired in the event of one of these voltages being shorted.
In addition, the supply voltage V5int and hence the operating range of the microcontroller xcexcC need to be monitored. If the supply voltage is outside the prescribed operating range of, for example, V5int 5Vxc2x1250 mV, reliable operation of the engine controller is no longer ensured. Subsequently possible uncontrolled operation of the microcontroller xcexcC and hence of the engine control unit ST can result in personal injury and should be avoided absolutely. The microcontroller xcexcC needs to be stopped in this case.
optimum synchronism would be possible by integrating all the voltage sources in an integrated voltage controller having a common reference voltage source; however, this is hampered by the fact that, in the event of a fault in this common reference voltage source (for example as a result of faulty assembly or as a result of interference pulses), reliable voltage monitoring is not possible because such a fault cannot be recognized by the microcontroller xcexcC.
One implemented compromise solution consists, as shown in FIG. 1, in an inherently known, first voltage controller SR1 generating the internal supply voltage V5int and the external reference voltage V5a using a common reference voltage Ref1 which is obtained from an operating voltage UB and is monitored by a monitoring circuit xc3x9cW integrated in the first voltage controller SR1, and in a second, smaller voltage controller SR2 with a dedicated reference voltage source Ref2 generating the external reference voltage V5b. The monitoring circuit xc3x9cW, shown as a box inside of the first voltage controller SR1, has a window comparator which is indicated by two operational amplifier symbols and whose output signal, possibly delayed by means of a timer xcfx84, is output to the microcontroller xcexcC as a reset signal Res1 if the voltage reference exceeds or falls below prescribed limit values.
The timer xcfx84 is intended to permit a reset signal to be output only if the voltage reference exceeds or falls below the limit values for a particular time.
This embodiment produces good synchronism between the internal supply voltage V5int and the external reference voltage V5a, but loses the synchronism with respect to the reference voltage V5b. Reliable voltage monitoring is not possible in the event of a fault in this common voltage reference Ref1 either, because the limit values in the monitoring circuit xc3x9cW are derived from the voltage reference Ref1 and are then likewise erroneous.
It is the object of the invention to provide a voltage supply device which permits good synchronism between all the voltages generated and ensures reliable voltage monitoring for the supply and reference voltages.
The invention achieves this object by means of a device for ratiometric measurement of sensor signals, comprising a voltage controller constructed to generate a first reference voltage from a received operating voltage, generate a supply voltage for a microcontroller, generate a sensor reference voltage for each one of a plurality of sensor elements selected as a sensor or a sensor set, and derive the sensor reference voltage, for each one of the plurality of the sensor elements, from the first reference voltage independently from the supply voltage.
A first monitoring circuit generates a first reset signal for stopping the microcontroller if the first voltage reference leaves a first prescribed voltage range.
A second monitoring circuit is constructed to generate a second reference voltage from the operating voltage independently from the first reference voltage, and generate a second reset signal for stopping the microcontroller if the supply voltage or the sensor reference voltage leaves a second prescribed voltage range.

Device for radiometric sensor signal measurement


A traction control system configured to limit slip by a machine having a work implement including a machine motion sensor configured to determine a motion of the machine, a work implement unit configured to determine whether the work implement is in an operational state, a powertrain motion sensor configured to determine a motion of a powertrain component, and a machine powertrain controller configured to determine slip by comparing the motion of the machine to the motion of the powertrain component, wherein the machine powertrain controller is configured to command a torque reduction to the powertrain component when slip is determined.

Machines including large wheel loaders, wheel dozers, or tracked bulldozers may be used for engaging with high impact loads at a construction or mining worksite. Such use may be generally referred to as pile engagement. These machines benefit from high torque and engine speed when engaging with the pile of material. Often these machines are being operated on uneven or unpaved terrain, for example, for transporting a rock pile in a rock-filled mine. One problem that may become cost prohibitive during the lifetime of the machine is tire or track failure. For example, in a mining application, where a rock or other material pierces the tire while there is still a significant amount of tread left. The tire on a wheel may need replacement before a full life cycle of the tire tread wearing thin. This cost of tire or track replacement for a wheel loader, wheel dozer, or tracked bulldozer may represent a large portion of the cost to operate the machine.
In this regard, a problem in the industry is that an operator of the machine is unable to ascertain in enough time to prevent such catastrophic tire failure because there is no sure indicator of a tire slippage until the damage has been realized. This is because even a quarter of a rotation of a tire may result in a deep tear. Such a deep tear lends itself to failure of the tire entirely. Alternatively, all four tires may fail when the tires are spinning together, and therefore slight operator delayed reaction time to reduce the torque delivered to the tires is often too late.
A few devices or techniques for traction control for such machines have been developed that fail to address the above noted problems. Traditional traction control design may attempt to eliminate tire slip in all scenarios. However this can be cost prohibitive as it requires multiple wheel speed sensors, knowledge of the machine's articulation angle, individual wheel speeds as well as a means to eliminate slip for each wheel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,002, entitled "Vehicle acceleration based traction control," discusses a fraction control system in which a tire spin condition is detected based on measured machine acceleration instead of measured wheel speeds. An electronic controller detects a tire spin condition by computing the acceleration of the vehicle drive shaft and comparing the computed acceleration to an acceleration threshold.
However, prior art approaches, such as the system in the '002 patent, may be expensive to implement, are not configured to determine a state of the machine components for slip determination, such as pile engagement, and/or are not configured to determine state of the machine powertrain for slip determination.

Traction control system and process for a machine having a work implement


The present invention relates to a two-stage fuel injection valve. The two-stage fuel injection valve of the present invention is configured such that the pressure of main fuel delivered from an injection pump is applied to a plunger in a main fuel chamber, and subsequently delivered to an ancillary fuel pressure chamber via the plunger so as to compress ancillary fuel, such that a needle is retracted in a manner similar to those of slide valves by means of the pressure of the ancillary fuel so as to open an ancillary fuel nozzle hole and inject the ancillary fuel, and a main fuel nozzle hole is opened after the injection of the ancillary fuel so as to inject the main fuel, thereby conducting two-stage fuel injection.

As a fuel injection device of a diesel engine, a mechanical fuel injection device and an electronically controlled fuel injection device are generally used.
The mechanical fuel injection device injects a high-pressure fuel, compressed by an injection pump, into a combustion chamber through a mechanical injector. In other words, in the injection pump, a fuel is compressed by driving a plunger with a fuel cam linked to a crank shaft, and in the mechanical injector, a nozzle hole is opened or closed by sliding of a needle (or pushrod) to inject the fuel or intercept the injection of fuel. In the mechanical fuel injection device, the injection condition (injection timing, injection pressure, or injection amount) is subordinate to an engine speed. This means that pressure increases in proportion to the engine speed. Therefore, a great load is applied to the pump at every revolution. In addition, since the pressure cannot be increased over a certain engine speed, high-pressure injection is not available at a low speed. Moreover, it is difficult to optimally control the injection condition according to an operating state of an engine or a traveling state of a ship, vehicle or power generator to which the engine is mounted. Further, it is impossible to inject a fuel in multi stages, and it is also impossible to inject dual fuels.
As an improvement overcoming the drawbacks of the general mechanical fuel injection device, an electronically controlled fuel injection device using a common rail has been proposed. The electronically controlled fuel injection device includes a low-pressure pump, a high-pressure pump, a common rail and a solenoid injector. The fuel is pressurized to an ultra-high pressure while passing through the low-pressure pump and the high-pressure pump in order, and compressed with a certain pressure at the common rail by an engine control unit (ECU). In addition, the solenoid injector is governed by the ECU to adjust injection timing and injection amount. The electronically controlled fuel injection device allows high-pressure injection at a low speed since pressurization and injection are separately performed. In addition, since the injection condition may be freely controlled according to an operating condition, engine performance (e.g., output) and fuel efficiency may be improved. Moreover, by controlling the solenoid injector, multi-stage injection such as pilot injection, main injection and post injection may be performed, which improves fuel efficiency and reduces discharge gas. However, the electronically controlled fuel injection device is not able to inject dual fuels and thus not useable for a dual fuel engine.
A duel or two-kind fuel engine has two combustion modes. For example, in a diesel fuel mode, before a main fuel (e.g., heavy fuel oil, marine diesel oil) is injected, an auxiliary fuel (e.g., marine diesel oil, marine gas oil) may be injected to improve a combustion environment of the combustion chamber, resulting in improvement of exhaust, NOx and combustion performance. In addition, in a gas fuel mode, only an auxiliary fuel may be injected by adjusting a fuel injection amount governor so that a gas fuel flowing in through a gas admission valve and an engine intake port may be stably ignited.
In order to inject dual fuels by using the mechanical fuel injection device or the electronically controlled fuel injection device, described above, another injector should be added, which complicates the system and greatly increases costs.
For example, a general fuel injection device shown in FIG. 17 uses a parallel twin injector to inject dual fuels. The twin injector is configured to inject different kinds of fuels by combining a single general mechanical injector and a single solenoid injector. However, since two fuel injection lines are arranged in a single injector body, the injection device has an increased size and occupies a greater space. In addition, two nozzle orifices and shafts corresponding to the dual fuels are installed in parallel at spaced points. For this reason, one of two kinds of fuels is inevitably injected at a location deviating from the center of the combustion chamber, which makes it difficult to optimize the fuel performance. Moreover, when a main fuel containing a large amount of particles (a heavy fuel oil) is injected, the auxiliary fuel nozzle orifice may be closed. Further, since a common rail, a high-pressure pump and a solenoid injector should be additionally installed for auxiliary injection, the system becomes more expensive and complicated.
In addition, as another example, for two-stage dual-fuel injection, in addition to an existing mechanical main injector disposed at the center of the combustion chamber, an electronically controlled auxiliary injector separately prepared may be installed with a slope around the main injector. However, in this case, the auxiliary injection is not performed at the center of the cylinder head but performed aside, and the injection direction (angle) is also inclined to one side, which results in bad fuel performance.


An apparatus management device, which is connected via a network to an apparatus, includes a storage unit configured to store a default value for a parameter of the apparatus and a table including coefficients associated with counter values indicating operational status of the apparatus; an apparatus information obtaining unit configured to obtain apparatus information including a counter value indicating the operational status from the apparatus; a parameter value calculation unit configured to obtain one of the coefficients that corresponds to the counter value in the obtained apparatus information by referring to the table, and to calculate an update value for the parameter of the apparatus by multiplying the default value by the one of the coefficients; and a setting unit configured to set the parameter of the apparatus at the update value.

1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of this disclosure relates to an apparatus management device, an apparatus configuration method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a known apparatus management system where an apparatus management device obtains information on apparatuses and configures the apparatuses via a network. When there are a large number of apparatuses to be managed, separately setting parameters (settings) of the apparatuses causes a heavy workload. Using an apparatus management device makes it possible to remotely set the same parameters of multiple apparatuses at the same time and thereby makes it possible to reduce the workload.
In such an apparatus management system, an administrator prepares a configuration file and requests the apparatus management device to apply the configuration file to the apparatuses one by one or at the same time. After the configuration file is applied, the apparatuses operate according to parameters defined in the configuration file. Thus, with an apparatus management device, the administrator can easily install and manage a large number of apparatuses.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-094633, for example, discloses a communication apparatus configuration method for specifying, via a network, parameters of one or more communication apparatuses that send and receive image information. The disclosed method includes steps of searching the network, via the simple network management protocol (SNMP), to find communication apparatuses to be configured and configuring the found communication apparatuses via the simple object access protocol (SOAP).
In related-art technologies, the same values are specified for the parameters of all apparatuses at the same time. However, optimum values of parameters may differ from one apparatus to another. Also, optimum values of parameters for an apparatus may change after the apparatus is put into operation depending on, for example, the operational status or the usage status of the apparatus.
Assuming a case where a digital multifunction peripheral installed in a department of a company is very frequently used and a digital multifunction peripheral installed in another department is less frequently used, optimum values of some parameters of the digital multifunction peripherals may differ depending on their usage frequencies. With related-art technologies where the same values are specified for the parameters of all apparatuses at the same time, it is not possible to automatically specify or change values of the parameters to suit respective apparatuses.
Here, since it is difficult to estimate the operational status or the usage status of apparatuses when they are installed, it may be practical to specify the same values for the parameters of the apparatuses at the beginning. Meanwhile, after a certain period of time from when the apparatuses are put into operation, it is preferable to specify or change values of the parameters to suit the respective apparatuses depending on the operational status or the usage status.

Apparatus management device, apparatus configuration method, and storage medium


Provided is a pneumatic tire. One terminal of a carcass layer extends to a ground contact edge of a tread portion positioned on an opposite side with respect to a tire center line as a reference. The carcass layer has a double layer structure including an inner layer positioned inward in a tire radial direction in a tread region and an outer layer positioned outward in the tire radial direction of the inner layer in the tread region. A cord angle in the carcass layer in a tread central region with respect to a tire circumferential direction is different from a cord angle in at least one of the inner layer and the outer layer of the carcass layer in a side region with respect to the tire circumferential direction.

Generally, as a method of reducing weight of a tire, the thickness is reduced of rubber used for, for example, a cap tread and sides, which are portions of the tire large in area. However, from the perspective of wear resistance and durability, it is difficult to achieve further reduction in weight with the method of reducing the thickness of each portion of the tire.
Meanwhile, for reduction in weight of the tire, there have been proposed various types of a tire which does not require an independent belt layer of a related-art radial structure. For example, in Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-22537, the following pneumatic tire can be obtained. That is, in each of an inner side cord layer and an outer side cord layer, a large number of cords are arrayed in parallel with each other. A cord angle in each cord layer is set to a range from 80° to 90° in sidewall portions and to a range from 15° to 50° in a center of a tread portion, and the cords are tilted reversely with each other between both the cords layers. As a result, the pneumatic tire can have both an internal-pressure retaining function and a hoop function without a belt layer. However, the related art relates to a complicated manufacturing method in which one cord continuously reciprocates between right and left bead cores, and hence practical utility is not high.
Further, in Japan Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-127711, the following pneumatic tire can be obtained. That is, the pneumatic tire includes two or more carcass layers for reinforcing a space between a pair of beads. Cords of the carcass layers are arranged substantially in a tire radial direction from the bead to a position near a tire maximum width position. From this position to a ground contact edge, an angle of the cords with respect to a circumferential direction gradually changes. With respect to the circumferential direction, the cords are arranged at an angle from 20° to 60° in the vicinity of the ground contact edge, and are arranged at an angle from 20° to 50° at a tread portion. However, in the case where reinforcement is performed through use of the two or more carcass layers, as compared to a case where a single carcass layer is used, portions such as end portions of the carcass layers, which are wound about the bead cores, do not substantially function as reinforcing materials. Thus, there is a problem in that effective reinforcement cannot be performed while reducing the tire in weight.


An integrated waveguide/stripline signal transition structure and method for fabricating the same are provided for allowing high frequency signal transitions. The signal transition structure includes a waveguide which has a conductive cavity for guiding electromagnetic waves therethrough. A first conductive circuit layer is fabricated within the conductive cavity and is electrically connected thereto. A second conductive signal layer is fabricated within the conductive cavity and is isolated from the conductive cavity and the first conductive signal layer. A plurality of dielectric layers are provided which suspend the first and second conductive signal layers within the conductive cavity. The second conductive signal layer and the conductive cavity thereby allow for signal transitions therebetween. The first and second conductive signal layers and dielectric material are integrally fabricated on top of a removable material which is subsequently removed. In an alternate embodiment, a single dielectric layer is provided for suspending the first and second conductive signal layers. In addition, an array of signal transition structures may be integrally fabricated within a housing structure.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to high frequency microwave integrated circuitry and, more particularly, to integrated high frequency waveguide/stripline signal transitions.
2. Discussion
High frequency microwave systems frequently require signal transitions between a waveguide and a conductive stripline or microstrip. Microwave systems sometimes require adequate signal transitions from a stripline or microstrip to a waveguide for purposes of launching or transmitting signals therefrom. Likewise, microwave systems may further require adequate signal transitions from a waveguide to a stripline or microstrip for purposes of receiving high frequency signals.
Conventional waveguide/stripline signal transition structures generally employ a waveguide and stripline as separate components. Making adequate signal transitions at increasingly higher frequencies is increasingly difficult using the existing conventional waveguide/stripline signal transition structures. For instance, for frequencies approaching 75 GHz or higher, rectangular waveguide dimensions are generally required to be approximately 0.125 by 0.063 inches (0.30, 0.15 cm) or smaller. As a result, very high frequencies impose the requirement of very small waveguide dimensions. In addition, it is desirable to fabricate integrated circuits in a highly integrated manner to reduce the size and number of components that are required. The small waveguide dimensions which are required have made it increasingly difficult to provide for integrated fabrication of the waveguide with a stripline or microstrip.
It is therefore desirable to provide for an integrated waveguide/stripline signal transition structure with high frequency capabilities. It is further desirable to provide for a method of integrally fabricating a waveguide with a stripline to form an integrated signal transition structure. In addition, it is desirable to provide for a plurality of waveguide/stripline signal transition structures integrally fabricated together. Furthermore, it is desirable to provide for such an array of signal transition structures fabricated integrally in conjunction with other circuit components.


A recreational vehicle (RV) waste drainer having a drainer sheath (1) with an angled drain nipple (3) at a receptacle end in fluid communication with an expandable tube (5) in the drainer sheath. A drain end of the expandable tube is attached to the drain nipple. A holding-tank connector (6) on a holding-tank end of the expandable tube connects the expandable tube to an RV holding tank (21, 22) for draining it and connects the expandable tube to a sheath lid (4) for sealing the drainer sheath and the expandable tube against escape of odorous gases and liquid at a tube end of the drainer sheath when not in use. The drain nipple has a beveled nipple-attachment wall (9) that is resilient and sized to fit inside of receptacle pipes (10) of RV sewage receptacles (11). A nipple lid (2) has a nipple sleeve that fits onto the beveled outside periphery of the drain nipple like an input pipe to seal the drainer sheath against escape of odorous gases and liquid at the drain nipple when not in use.

This invention relates to a drain tube for a recreational vehicle (RV) and in particular to a convolute drain tube carried in portable casing in which the drain tube is sealed when not in use and when being used has sealing attachment to RV sewage receptacles.
There is one unpleasant and at times gross aspect of an otherwise pleasurable way of life traveling and living in motor homes, campers and travel trailers which are known collectively as RV's. It is handling the sewage. Known drainer systems and devices involve messy, wet and horribly smelling contact with sewage-disposal items and conditions.
Examples of different but related RV sewage-handling devices are described in the following patent documents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,349, issued on Aug. 8, 1989 to Foreman, describes a sealable sleeve attached to a bottom of a recreational vehicle (RV) for holding an expandable sewage tube. U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,595, issued on Nov. 4, 1980 to Knutsen, describes a differently attached but similarly functional sleeve attached to a bottom of an RV for holding an expandable sewage tube. U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,702, issued on Sep. 23, 1980 to Cook, teaches a telescopically expandable sleeve for holding an expandable sewage tube intermediate an RV and a sewage receptacle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,102, issued on Dec. 25, 1979 to Larkin, taught a sleeve with half-circle sections held together with end rings for holding an expandable sewage tube. U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,347, issued on Jan. 9, 1979 to Mercer, described another sleeve attached to an RV bottom by attachment directly to a sewage-outlet pipe. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,755, issued on Dec. 15, 1987 to Robbins, et al. teaches railing to hold an expandable sewage tube between an RV holding tank and a sewage receptacle.
Industry literature describes other devices but none having the features of this invention. The nearest known is a hose-carrier tube that can be mounted onto an RV.


A regenerated sulfur recovery apparatus positioned in a sulfur recovery plant, which apparatus contains a sulfur purifier that cools gaseous sulfur and condensates it, forming liquid sulfur while removing impurities contained therein; the apparatus containing a steam supplying means for melting solid sulfur deposited on an inner wall of the sulfur purifier, a molten sulfur reservoir that recovers and stores the melted sulfur, a reservoir heating means that heats the reservoir, an exhaust gas line that directs to the outside an exhaust gas formed in the reservoir when the reservoir is heated by the reservoir heating means, and an inert gas supply means that supplies an inert gas to the reservoir, such that the inert gas supplied into the reservoir flows to the outside through the exhaust gas line when molten sulfur stored in the reservoir is discharged from the reservoir.

A sulfur recovery plant is commercially used including a sulfur purifier which cools gaseous sulfur so as to condensate to produce liquid sulfur while removing impurities contained therein. Such gaseous sulfur is, for example, produced from hydrogen sulfide formed as a by-product in a hydrodesulfurization plant or a synthetic gas production plant. Such sulfur recovery plant includes a regenerated sulfur recovery apparatus which recovers sulfur as reusable regenerated sulfur while melting solid sulfur depositing onto an inner wall of the sulfur purifier. FIG. 3 schematically shows a flow sheet of the regenerated sulfur recovery apparatus 200 of the prior art.
A sulfur recovery plant 201 includes a regenerated sulfur recovery apparatus 200, a sulfur gas production apparatus (not shown), a sulfur purifier 210, and a sulfur recovery tank (not shown). The sulfur production apparatus burns sulfur sulfide (H2S) as a raw material so as to form sulfur dioxide (SO2), and reacts sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide so as to form gaseous sulfur.
The sulfur purifier 210 and the sulfur recovery tank are used to recover the gaseous sulfur in the state of liquid which sulfur is produced in the sulfur production apparatus. The sulfur purifier 210 is controlled to keep its inside temperature at a temperature which is a little higher than a solidification temperature of sulfur (for example, 130° C. to 150° C.). The gaseous sulfur having been supplied into the sulfur purifier 210 through a sulfur gas supply line 213 when a sulfur gas supply line valve 212 is opened is formed into liquid droplets. At this stage, the liquid droplets contact with an adsorbent in the sulfur purifier 210, so that impurities (such as chlorine, ammonia and so on) contained in the liquid droplets are removed by means of the adsorption, and liquid sulfur produced through the condensation is discharged while passing through a liquid sulfur discharge line 215 when a discharge line valve 214 is opened. The liquid sulfur thus discharged from the sulfur purifier 210 is recovered in a sulfur recovery tank.
The regenerated sulfur recovery apparatus 200 melts solid sulfur deposited onto an inner wall of the sulfur purifier 210 and recovers such molten sulfur as regenerated sulfur which is able to be reused. The regenerated sulfur recovery apparatus 200 comprises a steam supply means 218, a molten sulfur reservoir 220 and a regenerated sulfur recovery tank 230.
A steam supply means 218 supplies steam at a temperature of about 150° C. into the sulfur purifier 210 through a steam supply line 217 when a steam supply line valve 216 is opened, so that the solid sulfur deposited onto the inner wall of the sulfur purifier 210 is melted. Thus molten sulfur passes through a molten sulfur flowing line 223 when a flowing line valve 222 is opened, and it is recovered and stored by the molten sulfur reservoir 220. The molten sulfur stored in the molten sulfur reservoir 220 contains much water derived from the steam supplied by the steam supply means 218, and such water contained in the molten sulfur is converted to steam when the molten sulfur reservoir 220 is heated by a reservoir heating means 221. Such steam is exhausted to the outside of the reservoir through an exhaust gas line 241 together with an exhaust gas such as hydrogen sulfide, and then subjected to a detoxification treatment in an exhaust gas detoxification apparatus 240.


A multiplexer is implemented in multiple stages. In an exemplary embodiment, a four-to-one multiplexer is transformed into two four-input logic functions to facilitate a field-programmable-gate-array implementation.

The present invention relates generally to digital logic circuits and more specifically to an apparatus and method for implementing a multiplexer.
Multiplexers are used extensively in many applications such as computers and telecommunications. For example, multiplexers comprise the primary portion of the register file in a field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) implementation of a microprocessor. The problem sometimes arises, however, that the multiplexer function does not map efficiently onto four-input look-up tables, which are the basic logical building block of many FPGAs. Specifically, some FPGA synthesis tools use additional logic available in the majority of FPGAs to fit, for example, a four-to-one multiplexer into two four-input look-up tables. Unfortunately, use of this additional logic makes it unavailable for other uses and complicates the process of placement and routing. It is thus apparent that there is a need in the art for an improved multiplexer implementation.
An apparatus and associated method are provided for implementing a multiplexer. The multiplexing function is divided into two stages, the first of which outputs either a selection result or a selection signal. The selection result corresponds to one of a first set of data inputs to the first stage. The second stage selects one of a second set of data inputs to the second stage in response to the selection signal.

Apparatus and method for implementing a multiplexer


An ink jet recording medium having excellent image reproducibility, ink-drying property and pencil writing property has an ink receiving layer, formed on a substrate, including porous xerogel pigment particles, wherein the surface of the ink receiving layer has a pencil scratch value of 50 g or more determined by a pencil scratch tester for coated film in accordance with Japanese Industrial Standard K 5401-1969.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording medium on which visible images are recorded with an aqueous ink. More particularly, the present invention relates to an ink jet recording medium having excellent ink absorption and image reproducibility and a satisfactory surface strength for office recording sheets and capable of being hand-written thereon by a pencil and allowing pencil marks thereon to be erased with a rubber eraser.
(2) Description of the Related Art
An ink jet recording system using an aqueous ink is advantageous in that noise during the recording procedure is low, colored images can be easily recorded, and the recording procedure can be carried out at a high speed. Thus the application of the ink jet recording system to terminal printer, facsimile machine, plotter and printer for accounting books and slips is progressing. Since usual wood free paper sheets and coated paper sheets usable for conventional printing have an unsatisfactory ink absorption, when these paper sheets are subjected to the ink jet printing, the applied inks are retained in a non-dried condition on the sheet surface for a long time, and thus stain the printing apparatus, the printed sheets and printed images. Therefore, conventional paper sheets are not suitable for the ink jet recording practice.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 52-53012 proposes to use recording paper sheets having a low sizing degree, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 53-49113 provides urea-formaldehyde resin-containing paper sheets impregnated with a water-soluble polymeric material.
Also, various types of recording paper sheets having a surface thereof coated with various porous inorganic pigments including amorphous silica which are used for the purpose of enhancing an ink-coloring property and colored-image reproducibility are provided by Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 55-51,583 and No. 56-148,585.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-110,287, No. 59-185,690, and No. 61-141,584 disclose an improvement in the physical properties of the above-mentioned porous pigments for the purpose of preventing a spread of ink and of forming ink images with high accuracy.
The above-mentioned recording media have a high ink absorption and are capable of recording ink images having a high clarity at a high reproducibility. However, these recording media are still unsatisfactory in surface strength, pencil-writing properties, and erasing properties, of pencil marks, with a rubber eraser, and thus are not suitable as office recording sheets.
To enhance the applicability of the conventional paper sheets to office recording work, for example, pencil writing, employment of a writing-property enhancing agent was proposed by, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 57-107,878. However, the writing-property enhancing agent does not contribute to enhancing the absorption of water-soluble ink used for printing, and thus when the writing property-enhancing agent is contained in the ink-receiving layer, a problem that the form of printed dots becomes irregular and thus the reproducibility of ink images is decreased, occurs.
Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-16,378 proposes to appropriately employ two or more types of porous pigments different in fine pore radius from each other for the purpose of enhancing both the image-reproducibility and the pencil-writing properties. This proposal exhibits a considerable enhancement in both the properties. However, when the amount of coating is increased, to obtain high accuracy images, the pencil writing property is degraded. Therefore the proposal is not satisfactory.
As mentioned above, although an employment of the pigments having a large particle size is proposed for the purpose of enhancing the pencil writing property, since the pigment is not always selected under consideration of ink-receiving property thereof, the reproducibility of high accuracy images is unsatisfactory.


A transparent glass substrate having an antiglare surface that minimizes sparkle. The antiglare surface has a roughened portion that surface that has a RMS amplitude of at least amplitude of at least about 80 nm. The antiglare surface may also include a portion that is unroughened, or flat. The fraction of the antiglare surface that is roughened is at least about 0.9, and the fraction of the surface that is unroughened is less than about 0.10. The antiglare surface has a pixel power deviation of less than about 7%.

The disclosure relates to a transparent substrate having antiglare properties. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a transparent glass substrate having an antiglare surface.
Antiglare surfaces are often used in display applications such as LCD screens or OLEDs to avoid or reduce specular reflection of ambient light. These antiglare surfaces are typically formed by providing some degree of roughness to spread light reflected by the surface over a certain angle. Antiglare surfaces used in display applications typically comprise a coated or structured polymeric film (often a polarizing film) that is directly laminated to the surface of the front glass sheet forming an LCD or OLED.
Random noise may be generated in an image viewed through such an antiglare surface due to either excessive roughness of the surface or the shape of the features that form the roughened surface. Such noise is generally called "sparkle" and can be characterized by a number referred to as the pixel power deviation (PPD). In addition, the roughness of the antiglare surface can generate other image artifacts, such as image resolution degradation or black image contrast reduction.

Transparent glass substrate having antiglare surface


A semiconductor device having two thin film transistors where cross-talk is minimized and a flat panel display device having the same. The semiconductor device includes a first electrode, a second electrode surrounding the first electrode in the same plane, a third electrode surrounding the second electrode in the same plane, a fourth electrode surrounding the third electrode in the same plane, a first gate electrode insulated from the first through fourth electrodes and arranged on another plane separate from the first through fourth electrodes to correspond to a space between the first electrode and the second electrode, a second gate electrode insulated from the first through fourth electrodes and arranged on yet another plane separate from the plane of the first through fourth electrodes to correspond to a space between the third electrode and the fourth electrode, and a semiconductor layer insulated from the first gate electrode and the second gate electrode and contacting the first through fourth electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having thin film transistors (TFTs) and a flat panel display device having the same, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device design that minimizes cross-talk and a flat panel display device having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Designs for coplanar TFTs often have more than on TFT formed on a substrate side-by-side with each other. On top of the electrodes of the TFTs is an unpatterned semiconductor layer. Such a design has drawbacks in that crosstalk can occur between neighboring TFTs. One solution is to pattern the semiconductor layer. However, patterning the semiconductor layer, especially an organic semiconductor layer, has drawbacks in that the electrical characteristics of the patterned semiconductor layer become degraded, especially when the semiconductor layer is made of an organic material. Therefore, what is needed is a design for TFTs that can be used in a flat panel display that reduces crosstalk without degrading the electrical properties of the semiconductive material.

Semiconductor device and flat panel display device having the same


A maintenance jig for a balancer of a robot includes a balancer with a casing closed at both ends by two end plates, each having a through hole, a movable member disposed in the casing, movable in an axial direction of the casing, a rod, one end of which is fixed to the movable member and another end of which is disposed outside the casing, and a force generating member accommodated in the casing. The force generating member generates a pulling force that pulls the rod into the casing. The maintenance jig includes a first member detachably fixed to the other end plate, a second member includes a male screw portion to be fastened to a screw hole of the first member, and a rotational force input unit through which a rotational force is input.

In a large vertical articulated robot, a balancer may be used to supplement the torque of a motor. When replacing a reduction gear at a joint equipped with the balancer, it is first necessary to remove the balancer. For that purpose, it is preferable to perform the removal in a state in which the posture of the robot is changed to a posture in which a force generated by the balancer is minimized. However, in the case where the reduction gear has broken down and locked, because the robot cannot be changed to a desired posture, the reduction gear must be removed at a position where the robot is at rest. After the reduction gear has been removed, it is preferable to return the two members constituting the joint to a normal assembly posture and perform the task of assembling the reduction gear.
There is known a jig for fixing the state of a balancer at an arbitrary position at which a robot has stopped (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2002-283274). The jig of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2002-283274 is basically a jig for preventing an arm from falling off when removing a motor by fixing the state of the balancer at an arbitrary position at which the robot has stopped.


A small-sized display device having a holder for holding a liquid crystal display panel and a frame for accommodating the holder is disclosed. Projecting portions 41 are formed in part of the holder 4 and are used as horizontal stoppers against the liquid crystal panel. Cutout portions 71 are formed in the frame 7 at positions corresponding to the projecting portions 41 of the holder 4. The outer surfaces of the projecting portions 41 of the holder are made almost flush with the outline of the frame 7 or are made somewhat inside the frame outline. With this configuration, the frame thickness is reduced, and tolerance dimensions in assembling the frame and the holder need not be taken into account, thus making it possible to reduce the outline size of the display device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique capable of reducing an outline size of a set in a small-sized liquid crystal display device used in a portable telephone or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In connection with a liquid crystal display device there is a strong demand for reducing an outline size of a set while keeping a certain screen size. To meet this demand various efforts have been made for narrowing the frame of a liquid crystal panel, improving the accuracy of parts of a liquid crystal panel holder, reducing the holder thickness, improving the accuracy of parts of a metallic frame serving as an outer frame, reducing the thickness of the metallic frame, and reducing the size of a back light structure.
FIG. 12 is a plan view of a portable telephone using a conventional liquid display device. A liquid crystal display panel forms an image by applying a signal voltage for each pixel to liquid crystal held grippingly between an upper glass substrate 1 and a lower glass substrate 2. An upper polarizing plate 3 is affixed to the upper glass substrate. Numeral 4 denotes a holder for accommodating a liquid crystal panel. The holder 4 is usually formed of resin. An IC chip 5 for driving the liquid crystal is mounted on the lower glass substrate 2 of the liquid crystal panel. Numeral 6 denotes a flexible wiring substrate, which supplies for example an electric current to the liquid crystal driving IC chip 5. The flexible wiring substrate 6 is turned back and is integral with a back light provided on the back side of the liquid crystal panel. A combination of the liquid crystal panel, the drive circuit and the back light is called a liquid crystal module, which is accommodated inside a metallic frame 7.
There has been a demand for maintaining an effective screen size and reducing an outline size of a set while maintaining the basic configuration of the liquid crystal display device.
Such a conventional technique is described in the following Patent Literatures: JP-A-2001-133756; JP-A-2004-29651; JP-A-2004-62048; and JP-A-2005-338497.
To reduce the size of a set such as a portable telephone, the following have been adopted: reduction in the size of a liquid crystal module; reduction in the thickness of a metallic frame; and improvement in the assembling accuracy of both liquid crystal module and metallic frame. FIG. 13 is a sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG. 12 showing a conventional example.
In FIG. 13, the same parts as in FIG. 12 are identified by the same reference numerals as in FIG. 12. A lower polarizing plate 8 is affixed to the lower glass substrate 2. The holder 4 is stepped in two stages, with the liquid crystal panel being mounted on the stepped portion. The lower substrate of the liquid crystal panel is bonded to the holder through a double coated light shielding adhesive tape 9. The double coated light shielding adhesive tape not only fixes the liquid crystal panel to the holder but also prevents the entry of light from the back light to the peripheral portion of the liquid crystal screen with a consequent lowering in contact of the screen peripheral portion. Numeral 10 denotes an upper diffusing sheet, numeral 11 denotes an upper prism sheet, numeral 12 denotes a lower prism sheet, numeral 13 denotes a lower diffusing sheet, and numeral 14 denotes a light guide plate. Further, numeral 15 denotes a reflecting plate, which reflects light traveling downward from the light guide plate and causes it to travel toward the liquid crystal panel.
In order to reduce the outline size of the set, assuming that the outline size of the liquid crystal panel is constant, the following can be adopted: for example, reduction in the wall thickness mt of an upper portion of the holder 4 shown in FIG. 13; reduction in the wall thickness ft of the frame 7; narrowing of a gap g1 between the frame 7 and the holder 4; or narrowing of a gap g2 between the liquid crystal panel 1 and the upper portion of the holder 4.
However, a limit is encountered in the abovementioned means. Reducing the wall thickness ft of the frame 7 and reducing the wall thickness mt of the holder upper portion to below respective certain values encounter problems in machining. Moreover, the gap g1 between the frame 7 and the holder 4, as well as the gap g2 between the liquid crystal panel 1 and the holder 4, are required from the standpoint of part tolerance and assembling process. To reduce those sizes, it is necessary to make small the tolerances of the outline sizes of the parts. However, making small the tolerances of the parts concerned leads to a rise of the cost for the parts due to, for example, a lowering of the yield of the parts.


This program product causes a computer to function as the respective units for (a) arranging a model configured by intersecting a plurality of plate-shaped polygons in a virtual space, (b) calculating a parameter dependent on an angle formed from a first vector set in association with the model and a second vector set in association with the line of sight of the virtual camera, (c) selecting as a display target one among the plurality of plate-shaped polygons configuring the model according to the parameter, (d) mapping a prescribed texture to the plate shaped polygon selected with the polygon selection unit, and (e) generating an image obtained by performing perspective projection to the inside of the virtual space, in which the model mapped with the texture is arranged, on a perspective projection plane set in correspondence with a visual point of the virtual camera.

The present invention generally relates to technology for generating a two-dimensional image by subjecting an event set in a virtual three-dimensional space to perspective projection transformation, and in particular relates to image processing technology capable of alleviating the computational load upon more realistically representing numerous spectators in a game device or the like relating to sports.
Pursuant to the development of computer technology in recent years, image processing technology relating to TV game machines and simulators (simulation rides) is becoming universally prevalent. In this kind of system, the rich expression of images to be displayed is key in increasing the commercial value. For instance, in a TV game machine related to sports such as tennis or soccer, it is desirable to realistically express the behavior of sports players to be operated by a player as well as realistically express the behavior of the attending spectators in order to further increase the commercial value. Meanwhile, by attempting to improve the expressiveness of images, the computational load required in generating such images tends to increase. Since TV games and the like are demanded of real-time processing for generating images, there is a certain limit in the tolerable computational load. Therefore, technology capable of alleviating the computational load without deteriorating the expressiveness is sought after.
As conventional technology trying to meet the foregoing demands, there is a method that applies technology referred to as billboard processing (refer to Non-Patent Document 1). Specifically, this method represents a target body such as spectators based on a two-dimensional model using plate-shaped polygons, appropriately rotates the plate-shaped polygons (two-dimensional models) according to a line-of-sight vector showing the line of sight of a virtual camera, and thereafter replaces the texture to be mapped to the plate-shaped polygons.
Nevertheless, even in the case of the foregoing method, since coordinate conversion processing must be performed to the coordinate components (x, y, z components of the respective apexes) or the normal line components of the four apexes of the plate-shaped polygons, the effect of alleviating the computational load is low when trying to represent numerous spectators. Therefore, technology capable of achieving further reduction of the computational load without deteriorating the expressiveness of images concerning spectators or the like is sought after.
[Non-Patent Document 1]
Shigenori Tanaka et al., "Introduction to Game Programming with DirectX: Chapter 6—Practical Game Development: 6.3.2 Billboard Drawing", [online], Aug. 29, 2003, Microsoft Corporation, [Searched on Aug. 25, 2005] Internet <URL: http://www.microsoft.com/japan/msdn/academic/Articles/DirectX/06/>

Image generation program product and image generation device


The invention features nucleic acid molecules and methods for use in site-specific methylation of ribonucleotides. The methods of the invention can be used to modulate RNA folding, RNA processing, RNA cleavage, and other processes involving sequence-specific recognition of RNA sequences, as well as for promoting RNA stability.

This invention relates to nucleic acid molecules and methods for sequence-specific methylation of ribonucleic acid.
Ribosomes are large, complex particles that play a central role in protein synthesis. Ribosomes are produced in a discrete region of the cell nucleus, designated the nucleolus. Eukaryotic ribosomes consist of 40S and 60S subunits, which each contain multiple ribonucleic acid (RNA) and protein components. For example, the 40S ribosomal subunit contains 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and the 60S ribosomal subunit contains 5S, 28S (28S in metazoans and 25S in unicellular eukaryotes, such as yeast), and 5.8S rRNAs. Each of the rRNAs, except 5S rRNA, are transcribed in the nucleolus as segments of a large precursor RNA, which is cleaved in the production of the mature rRNAs. Additional rRNA processing events include modification of certain bases by, e.g., conversion of uridine to pseudo-uridine or methylation of ribose 2'-hydroxyl groups.
In addition to rRNAs, eukaryotic nucleoli contain complex populations of small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs), several of which have been shown to be required for rRNA processing (Maxwell et al., Annu. Rev. Biochem. 35:899, 1995; Filipowicz et al., Mol. Biol. Rep. 18:235, 1993; Fournier et al., Trends Biochem. Sci. 18:131, 1993; Sollner-Webb, Cell 75:403, 1993). snoRNAs associate with multiple proteins to form small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein (snoRNP) particles. For example, nearly all snoRNAs are associated with the nucleolar protein fibrillarin, which itself is required for normal processing and methylation of rRNA.
Some snoRNAs are encoded within the introns of genes, e.g., genes coding for proteins involved in ribosome synthesis and function. These snoRNAs contain conserved sequence motifs, and several of them also contain regions of sequence complementarity to conserved regions of rRNA of up to 21 nucleotides. In several cases, methylated nucleotides are present in the rRNA sequence elements that are complementary to these snoRNAs (Bachellerie et al., Trends Biochem. Sci. 20:261, 1995).

Sequence-specific methylation of ribonucleic acid