Electrical energy supply methods and electrical energy power supplies are described. According to one aspect, an electrical energy supply method includes providing first and second battery assemblies individually configured to store electrical energy, coupling the first and second battery assemblies to form a unitary device configured to supply electrical energy to a load, charging one of the first and the second battery assemblies using electrical energy from a supply at a first moment in time, discharging electrical energy from the first and second battery assemblies to the load at a second moment in time, and disabling discharging of electrical energy from the other of the first and second battery assemblies during the charging.

The sophistication and uses of electrical devices have increased dramatically in recent years. Consumer items having electrical components are ubiquitous in communications, computing, entertainment, etc. The size of mobile telephones, notebook computers, music players, and other devices has continued to decrease while the capabilities and quality of the devices continues to increase as modern electronic components used in such devices are developed and improved upon.
Numerous people rely upon or have grown accustomed to usage of electrical consumer devices for business, education, or for other needs. Electronic consumer devices are increasingly portable to accommodate these needs during travels from home or the workplace. The sophistication and capabilities of power supplies for such devices have also improved to meet the requirements of the electronic consumer devices. For example, cost, size, and capacity are some product characteristics which have been improved for the portable power supplies for electronic applications. There is a desire to enhance these and other design parameters of portable power supplies to accommodate increasing popularity and power requirements of the modern electronic consumer devices.


A packaged electronic device includes a multilayer lead frame having first and second trace levels, a via level therebetween, a conductive feed structure, and a conductive reflector wall. The first trace level includes a conductive coupler antenna and a conductive ground structure that extends in a plane of orthogonal first and second directions, and a portion of the conductive coupler antenna faces outward along a third direction orthogonal to the first and second directions. The conductive reflector wall has an opening and extends along the third direction between the first and second trace levels around a portion of the conductive coupler antenna. The conductive feed structure is coupled to the conductive coupler antenna and extends along the first direction through the opening of the conductive reflector wall.

In the microwave to millimeter wave (mm-wave) region, molecular spectroscopy is useful for constructing microwave or millimeter wave atomic or molecular clocks and other systems that require accurate timing signals having wavelengths λ in the mm range. The mm-wave frequency spectrum lies between microwave and infrared waves with frequencies between about 30 GHz and 300 GHz. Millimeter wave atomic clocks can be implemented with a dipolar gas in a physics cell coupled to a transceiver (or separate transmitter and receiver). Atomic clocks excite the gas within a physics or gas cell using a mm-wave radiation induced by a RF transceiver, and the system detects the rotational quantum transition of dipolar molecules for a reference. Certain gas molecules (e.g., water or H2O) have defined quantum rotational state transitions, and such molecules absorb energy at a very repeatable frequency when transitioning between rotational states. For example, water absorbs energy based on quantum rotational state transitions around 183 GHz, and other physics cells (e.g., oxygen carbonil sulfide or OCS) have peak absorption around 121 GHz. An antenna can be used to couple a chip scale gas cell with transceiver circuitry, for example, to transmit a 121 GHz signal from a mm-wave transceiver to the antenna and to launch the same signal from a substrate package to a silicon physics cell to implement a cost effective and power efficient transition based atomic clock. The signal interrogates the gas in the physics cell to lock to a quantum rotational molecular transition for an atomic clock application. Efficient performance results when the antenna structure provides a coupling reflector at λ/4, but this requires a thick antenna or coupler substrate. In some applications, package size constraints limit the overall dimensions of antenna-in-package solutions, and it is desirable to provide a mm-wave package in a very thin package substrate.

Packaged electronic device and multilevel lead frame coupler


Provided is an RPG disruption system (RDS) for protecting an enclosure against RPG's, the system including a casing fixed in close proximity to a wall of the enclosure facing an anticipated RPG threat. The casing includes an anvil accommodating a propelling mechanism for propelling the disrupting element, and an activating system for activating the propelling mechanism so as to propel the disrupting element towards an approaching RPG, to thereby neutralize it.

When discussing protection of combat vehicles e.g. troop carriers, tanks and the like, one may consider using a variety of different passive or reactive armors, the latter typically comprising protective modules comprising in turn one or more plates with explosive material embedded there between, to be ignited upon impact of a projectile, resulting in imparting the one or more plates to propel in a direction so as to disrupt the kinetic energy and that of a hollow charge of the threat.
It is also known to increase effectiveness of protection systems by utilizing a threat detecting system for instant activating protective modules facing the upcoming threat.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,679 discloses an active protection device for a wall against attack by a projectile and comprising: at least one explosive charge able to project at least one metallic block in the direction of the projectile, wherein each block of the at least one block is in the shape of an elongated bar which has a maximal length greater than or equal to 10 times a smallest crosswise dimension, the explosive charge being positioned opposite a longitudinal surface of the bar; and a support having a bottom plate intended to be fastened to the wall and onto which the explosive charge is placed, wherein the support incorporates a longitudinal cavity delimited by two lateral checks and accommodating the explosive charge and the at least one bar.
One type of threat often used against light vehicles is the widely used RPG, in its various forms, which is up to date considered as one of the most successful antitank grenade ever manufactured. An RPG is usually fitted with a shaped charge comprising a cylinder of explosive with a metal-lined conical hollow, an inverted metal-liner cone which together constitute a 'hollow space, a detonator in conjunction with the explosive, said detonator being electrically coupled to a Piezo-electric sensor at a fore end of the missile via a conductive aerodynamic cover and said liners. In some cases there are provided electric wires instead of conductive liners.
The arrangement is such that upon impact of the Piezo-electric crystal sensor with a target, an electric current generates and is conducted via the conductive aerodynamic cover and said liners to ignite the detonator resulting in detonation of the explosive which drives the conical liner to collapse upon its central axis. The resulting collision forms and projects a high-velocity jet of metal and gases (plasma) which is deadly and devastating.
Various solution have been proposed for protecting tanks, APCs and structures, ranging from reactive armor systems, through metal slat-armor in the form of a metallic cage mounted on the enclosure to be protected, ending with sand bags placed there over.


A host-side control unit 120 receives a terminal-device-side notification value INFD indicating a second voltage V2 that is a voltage at a reference point P2 on a terminal-device-side power supply line 134 from a terminal device 130, calculates a first resistance value R1 indicating a resistance from a power supply unit 112 to the reference point P2 based on the terminal-device-side notification value INFD, a first voltage V1 output by the power supply unit 112, and a first current A1 measured by a first current measurement unit 116, and supplies the calculated first resistance value R1 to the power supply unit 112. The power supply unit 112 adjusts the first voltage V1 according to the first resistance value R1 and the first current value A1 measured by the first current measurement unit 116 at that moment so that the second voltage V2 falls within a predetermined first reference range.

The present invention relates to a power supply, in particular to a technique for supplying electric power from a host device to a terminal device.
It has been known that there are systems including a host device (hereinafter it is also simply called "host") and a terminal device(s) in which electric power is supplied from the host device to the terminal device. For example, in USB (Universal Serial Bus) systems, the host device supplies a DC current from a power supply embedded in an interface to a terminal device through an interface cable (USB cable). In this way, the terminal device can operate without using an AC adapter or the like.
The power supply from the host device to the terminal device in the USB system is explained hereinafter with reference to FIG. 10. As shown in FIG. 10, the USB system 10 includes a host device 20, a terminal device 30, and a USB cable 40 connecting the host device 20 with the terminal device 30. The host device 20 includes a power supply unit 22, a host controller 24, and a connector 26, and the terminal device 30 includes a terminal-device controller 34 and a connector 36.
The power supply unit 22 outputs a voltage to be supplied to the terminal device 30. Hereinafter, the voltage output from the power supply unit 22, i.e., the voltage at a point P1 located at the exit of the power supply unit 22 is referred to as "first voltage V1".
In the USB standards, a power supply line used to supply electric power from a host to a terminal device is called "VBUS". For the sake of explanation, the part of the VBUS located on the host side and that located on the terminal-device side are called "host-side VBUS" and "terminal-device-side VBUS" respectively. Further, the part of VBUS located inside the cable is called simply "VBUS".
As shown in the figure, the power supply unit 22 in the host device 20 applies a first voltage V1 to the host-side VBUS 28.
One end of the host-side VBUS 28 is connected to the power supply unit 22 and the other end is connected to the connector 26. A first end of the connector 26 is connected to the terminal-device-side VBUS 28 and a second end of the connector 26 is connected to a VBUS 42 included in the USB cable 40.
The host controller 24 can control the power supply unit 22 and performs various communications with the terminal-device controller 34 of the terminal device 30 through the USB cable 40. Further, the host controller 24 converts various data to be transmitted to the terminal device 30 into packets and converts packets of various data received from the terminal device 30 into the original date format.
Note that in FIG. 10, only the VBUS 42 of the USB cable 40 is shown and the illustration of other signal lines and the like used for the communication between the host device 20 and the terminal device 30 are omitted.
In the terminal device 30, a first end of the connector 36 is connected to the USB cable 40 and a second end of the connector 36 is connected to the terminal-device-side VBUS 38.
The terminal-device-side VBUS 38 is connected to the connector 36 and thereby supplies electric power into the terminal device 30.
The terminal-device controller 34 performs various controls within the terminal device 30 and performs various communications with the host controller 24 of the host device 20 through the USB cable 40. Further, the host controller 24 converts various data to be transmitted to the host device 20 into packets and converts packets of various data received from the host device 20 into the original date format.
Electric power is supplied from the power supply unit 22 to the terminal device 30 through the host-side VBUS 28, the VBUS 42, and the terminal-device-side VBUS 38.
In the USB standards, a power supply voltage and its permissible deviation as well as the maximum value of a current flowing between the host device 20 and the terminal device 30 are specified. For example, the USB 2.0 standards specify that a voltage at a point immediately in front of the connector 26 (point P3) should be within a range from 4.75 v to 5.25 v. The voltage at the point P3 is hereinafter called "third voltage V3".
In general, terminal devices are developed so that they operate properly under the condition that the third voltage V3 is within the above-described range, and the sum total of the contact resistance between the connector 26 and the host-side VBUS 28, the resistance of the VBUS 42, the contact resistance between the VBUS 42 and the connector 36, and the contact resistance between the connector 36 and the terminal-device-side VBUS 38 is equal to or smaller than the maximum value that is expected under normal circumstances. Therefore, terminal devices under development are evaluated whether they operate properly under the condition that a voltage that is obtained by measuring a voltage at a predetermined reference point on the terminal-device-side VBUS 38 (point P2 in the figure) is within a range between a value that is obtained by subtracting a margin according to the normally-expected, maximum value of the above-described sum total of the resistances (i.e., resistances from the point P1 to the reference point P2) from the maximum value of the permissible range of the above-described third voltage V3 (4.74 v to 5.25. v) and a value that is obtained by adding a margin according to the normally-expected minimum value of the above-described sum total of the resistances (e.g., 0) to the minimum value of the permissible range of the above-described third voltage V3. The voltage at the point P2 is hereinafter called "second voltage V2". Further, a range obtained by adding and subtracting a margin to and from the permissible range of the third voltage V3 is called "first reference range" and the permissible range of the third voltage V3 is called "second reference range".
That is, terminal devices are developed so that they operate properly when the voltage at the reference point P2 on the terminal-device-side VBUS 38 is within the first reference range.

Host device and terminal device, and communication system


A plurality of virtual circuits, each including at least two network nodes, may be established over a single network connection for inter-process messaging. The network connection may be opened asynchronously via a non-blocking open. A virtual circuit including three or more nodes may be implemented in a star formation or a relay formation. Messages may be sent as unicast or broadcast messages. An additional virtual circuit may be opened for the purpose of transmitting status information regarding the network connection between the networked computer systems.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of networked computer systems and, more particularly, to techniques for inter-process messaging.
2. Description of the Related Art
Companies today rely to an unprecedented extent on online, frequently accessed, constantly changing data to run their businesses. Unplanned events that inhibit the availability of this data can seriously damage business operations. In addition, any permanent data loss, from disaster or any other source, will likely have serious negative consequences for the continued viability of a business. Therefore, when disaster strikes, companies must be prepared to eliminate or minimize data loss and recover quickly with usable data.
Even with the most well-executed backup strategy, restoring from tape usually results in several hours of lost data. For many environments, this kind of data loss is unacceptable and real-time replication is an essential technique. Real-time replication not only minimizes or eliminates data loss, but also enables rapid recovery when compared to conventional bulk data transfer from sequential media. The replica data is available and ready for use on disk at a disaster-safe location.
A successful replication solution would allow operations to continue without a significant break in continuity. To keep the recovery data removed from the impact of a disastrous event, it should be stored in a different geographical location from the primary data. Depending on business requirements, this could be across campus, across town, or across continents. In addition to having data at a disaster-safe location, the ideal replication solution would ensure that the replica volumes are current (fully up-to-date), complete (including all applications, logs, configuration data, etc.), and recoverable (consistent data that is free from errors).
In a distributed environment, replication as well as other management tasks may require substantial messaging traffic across the network. Messages between and among hosts may be used to ensure that data is up-to-date, that logs are properly maintained, that configuration data is exchanged, and for other suitable purposes. Of course, inter-process messaging requires the opening and use of network connections (often using TCP/IP protocols) between nodes on the network. Substantial overhead may be incurred in opening, using, and maintaining these network connections. For example, long delays may be encountered when opening TCP/IP connections over a wide-area network (WAN) with high latency, such as a network having nodes separated by hundreds or thousands of miles. Furthermore, most systems place restrictions on the number of concurrent network connections that are accessible by a particular host or by a process executing on a host. When high security is desired, the opening of a secure connection (e.g., a secure socket layer [SSL] handshake) may cause further delays. Additional overhead may be incurred in the maintenance of network connection status, such as by using ICMP ping operations to provide a "heartbeat."
In a distributed management framework where multiple software objects may exist across multiple hosts, robust and efficient communication between hosts is highly desirable.

Inter-process messaging using multiple client-server pairs


Certain embodiments provide a parallel capacitor including a substrate configured by a dielectric, upper electrodes, and a lower electrode. The upper electrodes are provided in an upper electrode region on a surface of the substrate. The lower electrode is provided on an entire surface of a lower electrode region including a region corresponding to the upper electrode region of an underside of the substrate, the lower electrode region being wider than the region. A single-operation capacity of each capacitor on both ends is smaller than the single-operation capacity of a capacitor in a center portion. The capacitors on the both ends are configured by the upper electrodes arranged on both ends of the substrate, the lower electrode, and the substrate. The capacitor in the center portion is configured by the upper electrode arranged in a center portion of the substrate, the lower electrode, and the substrate.

A high frequency semiconductor device in which FET chips including, for example, a plurality of field effect transistor (FET) cells are arranged in parallel in a package has an input/output matching circuit in the package. An input matching circuit includes a dividing circuit and a parallel capacitor in which a plurality of capacitors is arranged in parallel and an output matching circuit includes a combining circuit and a similar parallel capacitor.
When a high frequency is input into such a high frequency semiconductor device, the high frequency is distributed into a plurality of high frequencies by a dividing line and each distributed high frequency is input into each cell of the FET chip via each capacitor of the parallel capacitor. Each of the plurality of high frequencies output from each cell of a plurality of FET chips is input into a combining line via each capacitor of the parallel capacitor before being synthesized and output.
FIG. 19 is a schematic plan view when a conventional parallel capacitor is viewed from above. As shown in FIG. 19, a conventional parallel capacitor 2000 applied to each matching circuit described above includes a plurality of capacitors 2011 configured by providing a plurality of upper electrodes 2013 mutually having an equal area on the surface of a dielectric substrate 2012 like being spaced from each other and also providing a lower electrode 1014 on an underside of the dielectric substrate 2012.
FIGS. 20A, 20B, and 20C are each schematic sectional views of the conventional parallel capacitor along an alternate long and short dash line X-X′ in FIG. 19. In FIGS. 20A, 20B, and 20C, reference numeral 2011e is attached to, among the plurality of capacitors 2011 shown in FIG. 19, the capacitors 2011 on both ends and reference numeral 2011c is attached to the capacitors 2011 in the center portion sandwiched between the capacitors 2011e on both ends. Similarly, reference numeral 2013e is attached to, among the plurality of upper electrodes 2013, the upper electrodes 2013 arranged on both ends of the dielectric substrate 2012 and reference numeral 2013c is attached to the upper electrodes 2013 arranged in the center portion sandwiched between both ends of the dielectric substrate 2012.
As shown in FIGS. 20A and 20B, the capacities of the capacitors 2011e, 2011c when a high frequency output from an RF power supply 15 is applied to, among the plurality of upper electrodes 2013e, 2013c, only one upper electrode, will be called single-operation capacities Ces, Ccs. For example, as shown in FIG. 20A, the capacity of the capacitor 2011e when a high frequency is applied to only the upper electrode 2013e on the left end in FIG. 20A is called the single-operation capacity Ces and, as shown in FIG. 20B, the capacity of the capacitor 2011c when a high frequency is applied to only the upper electrode 2013c in the center portion in FIG. 20B is called the single-operation capacity Ccs. As shown in FIG. 20C, the capacities of the capacitors 2011e, 2011c when a high frequency output from the RF power supply 15 is simultaneously applied to all of the plurality of upper electrodes 2013e, 2013c will be called simultaneous-operation capacities Cep, Ccp.
FIGS. 21A and 21B are each explanatory views illustrating the single-operation capacity of each capacitor constituting a conventional parallel capacitor and FIG. 21C is an explanatory view illustrating the simultaneous-operation capacity of each capacitor constituting the conventional parallel capacitor.
If, as shown in FIG. 21A, a high frequency output from the RF power supply 15 is applied to only the upper electrode 2013e on the left end of the parallel capacitor 2000, an electric line of force E extends up to the neighboring capacitor 2011c on one side of the capacitor 2011e to which the high frequency is applied and so-called coupling occurs, generating a coupling capacity Ce-cup. Further, the electric line of force E swells in an outer direction on the other end of the capacitor 2011e to which the high frequency is applied, generating a so-called fringing capacity Ce-fringe. As a result, the single-operation capacity of the capacitor 2011e increases only by the coupling capacity Ce-cup and the fringing capacity Ce-fringe from the original capacitor capacity Ce. The original capacitor capacity Ce means the capacity determined by an area Se of the upper electrode 2013e without including the coupling capacity Ce-cup and the fringing capacity Ce-fring. The original capacitor capacity Cc described below also has the same meaning.
If, as shown in FIG. 21B, a high frequency output from the RF power supply 15 is applied to only the upper electrode 2013c in the center of the parallel capacitor 2000, the electric line of force E extends up to the neighboring capacitors 2011c, 2011e on both sides of the capacitor 2011c to which the high frequency is applied and so-called coupling occurs, generating a coupling capacity Cc-cup. As a result, the single-operation capacity of the capacitor 2011c increases only by the coupling capacity Cc-cup from the original capacitor capacity Cc.
If a high frequency is applied to only the upper electrode 2013c in the center of the parallel capacitor 2000, the upper electrodes 2013c, 2013e contributing to coupling are arranged on both sides of the upper electrode 2013c to which the high frequency is applied and thus, the coupling capacity Cc-cup may be larger than the coupling capacity Ce-cup. Particularly when the upper electrodes 2013c, 2013e are arranged close to each other, the coupling capacity Cc-cup becomes larger than the total of the coupling capacity Ce-cup and the fringing capacity Ce-fringe.
In the conventional parallel capacitor 2000, therefore, even if the plurality of upper electrodes 2013e, 2013c having the mutually equal area is provided, the single-operation capacity of the capacitor 2011e on both ends and the single-operation capacity of the capacitor 2011c in the center portion may be different.
If, as shown in FIG. 21C, a high frequency output from the RF power supply 15 is simultaneously applied to all the upper electrodes 2013e, 2013c of the parallel capacitor 2000 (all the capacitors 2011e, 2011c are simultaneously operated), the upper electrode 2013e and the upper electrode 2013c are at the same potential and therefore, the electric line of force E as illustrated in FIG. 21C is generated in the dielectric substrate 2012.
That is, the electric line of force E extending linearly from the upper electrode 2013e toward the lower electrode 2014 is generated in the capacitor 2011e on both sides. Further, the electric line of force E swelling in the outer direction of the capacitor 2011e is also generated. Therefore, the simultaneous-operation capacity Cep of the capacitor 2011e increases only by the fringing capacity Ce-fringe from the original capacitor capacity Ce.
In the capacitor 2011c in the center portion, the upper electrode 2013c of the capacitor 2011c is close to the surrounding upper electrodes 2011c, 2011e and thus, only the electric line of force E extending linearly from the upper electrode 2013c toward the lower electrode 2014 is generated, and the electric line of force E swelling in the outer direction is hardly generated. Therefore, the simultaneous-operation capacity Ccp of the capacitor 2011c approximates to the original capacitor capacity Cc.
In the conventional parallel capacitor 2000, therefore, even if the plurality of upper electrodes 2013e, 2013c having the mutually equal area is provided, the simultaneous-operation capacity of the capacitor 2011e on both ends and the simultaneous-operation capacity of the capacitor 2011c in the center portion may be different.
If the spacing of the upper electrodes 2013e, 2013c is made sufficiently wider than the thickness of the dielectric substrate 2012, the electric line of force E swelling in the outer direction of the capacitor 2011c is also generated in the capacitor 2011c in the center portion. Therefore, the simultaneous-operation capacity Ccp of the capacitor 2011c increases only by the fringing capacity Ce-fringe from the original capacitor capacity Cc.
In general, however, the plurality of capacitors 2011c, 2011e is arranged in spacing substantially equal to the spacing of a plurality of FET cells constituting a FET chip and thus, the spacing of the upper electrodes 2013e, 2013c is narrower than the thickness of the dielectric substrate 2012.
Therefore, as has been described with reference to FIG. 21C, in the conventional parallel capacitor 2000, the simultaneous-operation capacity Cep of the capacitor 2011e on both ends and the simultaneous-operation capacity Ccp of the capacitor 2011c in the center portion may be different.
In a conventional high frequency semiconductor device having the conventional parallel capacitor 2000 as described above, power of an output high frequency may be smaller than desired power. One of the causes therefor is considered to be differences of the simultaneous-operation capacities Ccp, Cep of the plurality of capacitors 2011c, 2011e constituting the conventional parallel capacitor 2000. If there are differences of the simultaneous-operation capacities Ccp, Cep of the capacitors 2011c, 2011e, a phase shift of a high frequency output from each of the capacitors 2011c, 2011e arises. High frequencies are synthesized in a mutually phase-shifted state by a combining circuit of an output matching circuit and therefore, output power of high frequency decreases.

Parallel capacitor and high frequency semiconductor device


A method for coating polyimide on liquid crystal display panel includes: (1) providing nozzles and a glass substrate; (2) tightly and regularly juxtaposing the nozzles in a row so that the row has a length that corresponds to width of the glass substrate; (3) vertically positioning the entire row above the glass substrate so as to correspond to the glass substrate along the width of the glass substrate; (4) simultaneously activating the nozzles to allow each of the nozzles to simultaneously drip down polyimide solution according to predetermined flow rate, while moving the glass substrate so as to have the polyimide solution uniformly applied to the glass substrate form a polyimide film; and (5) using a doctor blade to shape the polyimide film that is uniformly coated on the glass substrate so as to provide a regular and flat surface of the polyimide film on the glass substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of liquid crystal displaying, and in particular to a method for coating polyimide on a liquid crystal display panel.
2. The Related Arts
Liquid crystal display (LCD) has a variety of advantages, such as thin device body, low power consumption, and being free of radiation, and is thus widely used. Most of the LCDs that are currently available in the market are backlighting LCDs, which comprise a liquid crystal display panel and a backlight module. The operation principle of the liquid crystal display panel is that liquid crystal molecules are interposed between two parallel glass substrates and electricity is applied to the glass substrates to control variation of orientation of the liquid crystal molecules in order to refract light emitting from the backlight module for generating images.
A liquid crystal display panel is generally composed of a color filter substrate, a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate, and liquid crystal (LC) and sealant interposed between the CF substrate and the TFT substrate. A general manufacturing process comprises a front stage of array process (including thin film, yellow light, etching, and film stripping), an intermediate stage of cell process (including bonding TFT substrate and the CF substrate), and a rear stage of assembling process (including mounting drive ICs and printed circuit board). The front stage of array process generally makes the TFT substrate for controlling the movement of liquid crystal molecules. The intermediate stage of cell process generally introduces the liquid crystal between the TFT substrate and the CF substrate. The rear stage of assembling process generally integrates the drive ICs and the printed circuit board to drive the liquid crystal molecules to rotate for displaying images.
A liquid crystal display panel often needs to coat polyimide (PI) on the TFT substrate and the CF substrate and to apply rubbing or photolithography on the polyimide to form pre-tilt angle to provide liquid crystal molecules with a supporting angle.
Referring to FIG. 1, for the conventional operation of coating polyimide, it generally uses rollers 150 to uniformly distribute a solution of polyimide 170 on a relief printing plate (Asahikasei Photosensitive Resin, APR) 130 and then transfers the polyimide solution 170 from the relief printing plate 130 by means of the rollers 150 to a TFT substrate or a CF substrate 110, while the TFT substrate or the CF substrate 110 is moving in the direction indicated by the arrow so as to complete the coating operation of the polyimide solution 170. However, the known polyimide coating device is relatively complicated and the operation time of coating polyimide is long. Thus, both the coating device and the coating operation are needed to be further improved.

Method for coating polyimide on liquid crystal display panel

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


The present invention provides packaging for MEMS devices and other sensors for downhole application. The MEMS devices and/or other sensors may aid in characterizing formation fluids in situ. The packaging facilitates high temperature, high pressure use, which is often encountered in downhole environments.

In order to evaluate the nature of underground formations surrounding a borehole, it is often desirable to obtain samples of formation fluids from various specific locations in a borehole. Tools have been developed which allow several samples to be taken from the formation in a single logging run. Examples of such tools can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,780,575 and 3,859,851.
Schlumberger's RFT and MDT tools represent two specific versions of sampling tools. In particular, the MDT tool includes a fluid analysis module to allow analysis of fluids sampled by the tool. FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of such a downhole tool 10 for testing earth formations and analyzing the composition of fluids from the formation. The downhole tool 10 is suspended in a borehole 12 from a logging cable 15 that is connected in a conventional fashion to a surface system 18 incorporating appropriate electronics and processing systems for control of the tool and analysis of signals received from the downhole tool 10. The downhole tool 10 includes an elongated body 19 which encloses a downhole portion of a tool control system 16. The elongated body 19 also carries a selectively extendible fluid admitting assembly 20 (for example as shown in the '575 and '851 patents referenced above, and as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,581, incorporated herein by reference) and a selectively extendible anchoring member 21, which are respectively arranged on opposite sides of the elongated body 19. The fluid admitting or withdrawal assembly 20 is equipped for selectively sealing off or isolating portions of the wall of the borehole 12 such that pressure or fluid communication with the adjacent earth formation is established. A fluid analysis module 25 is also included within the elongated tool body 19, through which the obtained fluid flows. The fluid can then be expelled through a port (not shown) back into the borehole, or it can be sent to one or more sample chambers 22, 23 for recovery at the surface. Control of the fluid withdrawal assembly, the fluid analysis section and the flow path to the sample chambers is maintained by the electrical control systems 16, 18.
An optical fluid analyzer (OFA), which may be located in the fluid analysis module 25, may identify the fluids in the flow stream and quantify the oil and water content. U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,671 (incorporated herein by reference) describes a borehole apparatus which includes a testing chamber, a light source, a spectral detector, a database, and a processor. Fluids drawn from the formation into the testing chamber are analyzed by directing the light at the fluids, detecting the spectrum of the transmitted and/or backscattered light, and processing the information (based on information in the database relating to different spectra), in order to characterize the formation fluids.
In addition, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,167,149, and 5,201,220 (both incorporated by reference herein) describe apparatus for estimating the quantity of gas present in a fluid stream. A prism is attached to a window in the fluid stream and light is directed through the prism to the window. Light reflected from the window/fluid flow interface at certain specific angles is detected and analyzed to indicate the presence of gas in the fluid flow.
As set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,266,800 (incorporated herein by reference), monitoring optical absorption spectrum of fluid samples obtained over time may allow one to determine when formation fluids, rather than mud filtrates, are flowing into the fluid analysis module 25. Further, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,156 to Hines, by making optical density (OD) measurements of the fluid stream at certain predetermined energies, oil and water fractions of a two-phase fluid stream may be quantified.
In addition or alternative to the optical fluid analyses described above, the in situ measurement of other formation fluid properties may be desired. For example, for fluid samples that will be returned to the surface for further analysis, it may be important to precisely measure the density, viscosity, temperature, and pressure of a fluid sample downhole. During transportation of a sample bottle from a field location to a laboratory, the fluid properties may change due to differences in pressure and temperature. The in situ conditions must be precisely known in order to duplicate the conditions in a laboratory for full and accurate sample analysis. However, current downhole analysis equipment associated with fluid sample characteristic measurements is quite large and requires significant power resources. Moreover, space and power are at a premium in a downhole tool, and therefore the smaller and more power efficient the equipment, the better.
The present invention is directed to improving, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems identified above.

Apparatus for downhole fluids analysis utilizing micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) or other sensors


The present disclosure provides a description of systems and methods for providing anonymity to users of computing devices engaged in communication to facilitate truthfulness by the users. A first mobile computing device may establish, with a plurality of other mobile computing devices, a game between a first user of the first mobile computing device and a plurality of other users respectively of the plurality of other mobile computing devices. The first mobile computing device may transmit a first original question and preset answer options for display. The first mobile computing device may determine a first follow-up question to the first original question, a correct answer to the first follow-up question, and one or more incorrect answers to the first follow-up question based on the answer to the first original question from the first user and the plurality of answers to the first original question from the plurality of other users.

During parties, family events, and other social gatherings, people often participate in games as a form of entertainment. Such games can range from card games to corn hole. One category of games is so called truth games such as "truth or dare," "never have I ever," and the like. One fundamental flaw of truth games is that they rely on players telling the truth when participating. However, a player can easily lie when participating in the truth game. This is exacerbated by the fact that often such truth games relate to uncommon or questionable behavior or choices the player has made in the past. Because the player may be uncomfortable or embarrassed by his or her truthful response, the player is often motivated to lie in his or her responses.
Thus, there is a need for a technical solution that is rooted in computer technology to provide anonymity to players of truth games in order to promote truthfulness by the players.

System and method of leveraging anonymity of computing devices to facilitate truthfulness


An electrical connector includes electrically-conductive contacts (33) held on a base plate portion (31a) of a housing (31), and makes the contacts (33) tightly contacted with an electrical connecting element (81) in the form of a flat plate placed on the base plate portion (31a). The base plate portion (31a) has a first base surface (31b) on which the electrical connecting element (81) is placed, and a second base surface (31c) positioned adjacent to the first base surface (31b). The contacts (33) each have a support post portion (33a) held on the base plate portion (31a) and extending upward above the first base surface (31b), a first beam portion (33b) extending from the support post portion (33a) in opposed relation to the first base surface (31b), and a second beam portion (33c) extending from the support post portion (33a) in opposed relation to the second base surface (31c). An operating member (41) is interposed between the second beam portion (33c) and the second base surface (31c) to change the spacing between the second beam portion (33c) and the second base surface (31c), and simultaneously to change the spacing between a contact portion (33d) and the first base surface (31b) with a joint portion between the second beam portion (33c) and the support post portion (33c) serving as a fulcrum, so that the electrical connecting element (81) inserted between the first beam portion (33b) and the first base surface (31b) is tightly grasped therebetween and connected to the contact portion (33d).

The present invention relates to an electrical connector for electrically and mechanically coupling an electrical connecting element in the form of a flat plate, such an FPC (Flexible Printed Circuits) or FFC (Flexible Flat Cables), to a printed circuit board (referred to as a circuit board hereinafter) through electrically-conductive contacts, and more particularly to an electrical connector having a joint structure adapted to connect an electrical connecting element to contacts by moving the element horizontally.
An electrical connector according to Prior Art 1 is constructed such that a slider member is inserted in the same direction as a direction in which the FPC is inserted, whereupon resilient contact portions of contacts are deformed so as to come into contact under reaction forces with electrically-conductive portions provided on a lower surface of an FPC. When the slider member is pushed into place horizontally in the same direction as the direction in which the FPC is inserted, the FPC is pressed downward by a pressing force applied from the slider member to it, and the resilient contact portions of the contacts are deformed through the FPC and sprung back to come into contact with the electrically-conductive portions of the FPC (See, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 6-7179).
There is also known a modification of the above electrical connector having such a structure that U-shaped contacts are employed and a movable piece is inserted in a direction opposite to the direction in which an FPC is inserted, causing the contacts to partly deform and spring back to come into contact with corresponding electrically-conductive portions which are provided on an upper surface of the FPC. (See, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-82563).
An electrical connector according to Prior Art 2 employs a pressing member rotatively fitted into place. An FPC is inserted into a gap between the pressing member and contact bosses of contacts before the pressing member is rotated. When pressing member is rotated, it comes closer to the contact bosses while pressing the FPC against the contact bosses, allowing the contact bosses to come into contact with electrically-conductive portions provided on the FPC. (See, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-142130 and Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 6-77186).
As another example of prior art, there is an electrical connector in which substantially L-shaped contacts are displaced to apply a pressure to an FPC for holding it in a fitted state. Specifically, this electrical connector has such a structure that a plate is inserted into one surface side of the contacts from above to displace the contacts downward, whereupon the positions of contact bosses provided on the other surface side of the contacts are changed to such an extent as enough to hold the FPC in place with a satisfactory contact force (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,855).
The structure of the electrical connector of Prior Art 1 has a problem that the FPC is liable to shift in its position because the slider member is pushed into place while sliding over the FPC and pressing it downward. More specifically, when the slider member is inserted into the housing, it simultaneously imposes a pressing or contact force upon the FPC, thus producing a force tending to shift the FPC in the direction of insertion. In alignment of the FPC and the housing, therefore, relative positions of the contact bosses and the electrically-conductive portions of the FPC are more likely to shift upon insertion of the slider member.
Accordingly, this type of electrical connector has a difficulty in design of making narrower the pitch of the plurality of contacts or thinner the FPC to enhance its strength for the purpose of arraying a larger number of contacts in the housing; hence it has a limit in reducing the size.
Another problem of the above electrical connector is below. An attempt to assemble the contacts in the housing at a higher density and realize a smaller size would necessarily reduce the size of the slider member. This requires a larger operating force to establish connection of a larger number of contacts with the FPC. As a result, the slider member becomes harder to push it into place and the working efficiency is deteriorated.
The structure of the electrical connector of Prior Art 2 has a problem that the contact bosses and the electrically-conductive portions of the FPC are liable to shift in relative position as with the electrical connector of Prior Art 1 because the FPC is also pressed by a force tending to rotate it with respect to the contact bosses.
A problem common to the structures of the electrical connectors of Prior Arts 1, 2 is that the height of the connector cannot be reduced. Specifically, both the connectors have such a structure that the FPC and the slider member or the pressing member are grasped by the U-shaped contacts, i.e., that pressing or contact forces are indirectly applied to the upper surfaces of the resilient contact portion. For this reason, an insulating member (housing) necessarily has a large thickness.
In the other electrical connector using the contacts which are not U-shaped but substantially L-shaped or the like, reaction forces produced upon the contact bosses being displaced to provide the contact forces must be borne by any of the components. Usually, an insulating member called a housing serves to bear such reaction forces. To this end, a wall of the insulating member serving to bear the reaction forces is required to have a sufficiently large thickness.
Further, the conventional electrical connectors have a difficulty in reducing the size because they necessarily have a large height as mentioned above. In addition, since the contact bosses of the electrical connector are displaced downward, it is required to provide a housing wall or the like in position outside the contact bosses. Accordingly, there is a problem that the electrical connectors have a relatively large overall size and are difficult to achieve a reduction in size.

Electrical connector having joint structure to connect electrical connecting element to circuit board


A target image detection device for detecting a target image from an original image has an acquiring section for acquiring the original image, a determining section for determining a detection condition different from a detection condition of a previous time of a plurality of detection conditions for detecting the target image, a detecting section for detecting the target image with the detection condition determined by the determining section with respect to the original image acquired by the acquiring section, and an output section for outputting a detection result detected by the detecting section.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a target image detection device for detecting a target image from an original image, a controlling method of the same, a control program and a recording medium recorded with the program, and an electronic apparatus equipped with the target image detection device.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, needs for automatically recognizing a photographing target or a displaying target to provide an easy-to-use user interface or to automatically acquire an optimum image are increasing in an imaging device, a display device, and the like. One example of such needs includes a function of detecting a face of a person and making an adjustment such that an optimum focus and exposure are obtained on the detected face, or recognizing a character and automatically having a region of the recognized character as a target of OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
Generally, in order to realize such a function, an advanced image processing is required, and an enormous amount of calculation is required. The above-described function generally requires real-time performance, and thus high-speed processing is necessary. It is thus often difficult to realize such a function in an incorporating device where processing ability, power consumption, and cost are restricted such as a digital camera or a mobile communication terminal.
Various methods for increasing the speed of processing have been proposed for such a problem. For instance, in an image processing device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-135115, reduced images are sequentially template matched in an order a resolution sequentially changes in a step-wise manner, a region in which a specific subject is photographed is detected, and the processing is interrupted after the detection to increase the speed of the processing. Furthermore, in a face detection method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-301847, the faces are detected in order from large faces, and detection is subsequently continued excluding the region where a face is already detected from the detecting target region. The detecting target region thus can be reduced every time a face is detected, and the speed of processing can be increased.

Target image detection device, controlling method of the same, control program and recording medium recorded with program, and electronic apparatus equipped with target image detection device


The invention is a serial bus identification circuit for a module that enables a microcontroller or microprocessor to identify one or many modules, each having an iButton digital device. The invention enables electronic activating and identifying the digital device amongst a plurality of similar devices. Each digital device has a unique digital registration number, and is an element of a module. In addition to the digital device, the module has a dual addressable switch component having a first switch and second switch, where the dual addressable switch component has a unique digital address; a light emitting source; and a source of electrical power. The dual addressable switch component and the unique digital device are in electrical communication with the serial data bus, and can be added as modules. When the first switch of the unique addressable component is closed, the digital device can be accessed, and the unique digital registration number can be down loaded and correlated to the dual addressable switch component. The second switch of the unique addressable component can be closed activating the light emitting source utilizing the source of electrical power. The light emitting source provides an identifying position signal for the device.

1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to circuit electrical mapping, and more particularly to the detection and identification of digital devices connected to a serial bus.
2) Prior Art of the Invention
There are multiple circuit designs to detect and identify digital devices that have a unique registration number. A popular digital device is an iButton® microprocessor, which can contain memory, a real-time clock, a temperature sensor or a transaction counter. The Dallas IButton® is normally connected via a one wire interface, that is a serial data bus. To troubleshoot or repair these circuits, the prior art teaches using a switching network consisting of a matrix to identify the location of a specific digital device. What is needed is a system that is comprised of essentially discreet modular units that can be added as needed. Further needed is a means of querying the circuit to identify the modules.

Serial bus identification circuit for a computer chip enclosed in a stainless steel can


A display device is disclosed. The display device includes: a pixel array part; and a drive part that drives the pixel array part. The pixel array part includes row-wise first scan lines and second scan lines, column-wise signal lines, pixels arranged in a matrix form on parts where the lines intersect, and power supply lines and ground lines that supply power to the respective pixels. The drive part includes a first scanner that sequentially supplies first control signals to the respective first scan lines and line-sequentially scans the pixels in units of rows, a second scanner that sequentially supplies second control signals to the respective second scan lines according to the line-sequential scan, and a signal selector that supplies video signals to the column-wise signal lines according to the line-sequential scan.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device that displays images by current-driving light emitting devices provided with respect to each pixel. Specifically, the invention relates to a so-called active matrix type-display device that controls amounts of current to be applied to light emitting devices such as organic EL devices with insulated gate field effect transistors provided within the respective pixel circuits. Further, the invention relates to electronic equipment in which such a display device is incorporated.
2. Background Art
In a display device such as a liquid crystal display, many liquid crystal pixels are arranged in a matrix form, and images are displayed by controlling transmittance intensity or reflectance intensity of incident light according to image information to be displayed with respect to each pixel. The same applies to an organic EL display using organic EL devices as pixels, however, the organic EL devices are self-luminous devices unlike the liquid crystal pixels. Accordingly, the organic EL display has advantages that the image visibility is higher, no backlight is necessary, and the response speed is faster in comparison to the liquid crystal display. Further, brightness levels (gradation) of the respective light emitting devices are controllable with amounts of current flowing therethrough, and the organic EL display is a so-called current control type device and largely different from voltage control type devices like the liquid crystal display.
In the organic EL display, there are drive systems of a simple matrix system and an active matrix system as is the case of the liquid crystal display. The former is simple in structure, however, it has problems in difficulty of realizing a large-scaled and high-definition display etc., and currently, the active matrix type system is increasingly developed. This system is to control the current flowing in the light emitting devices within the respective pixel circuits with active elements (generally, thin-film transistors, TFTs) provided within the pixel circuits, and disclosed in JP-A-2003-255856 (patent document 1), JP-A-2003-271095 (patent document 2), JP-A-2004-133240 (patent document 3), JP-A-2004-029791 (patent document 4), and JP-A-2004-093682 (patent document 5).


A flexible active signal cable (100, 200) includes a flexible printed circuit substrate (105), two electrical connectors (110), at least two metal conductors (115), at least one flexible optical waveguide (120), an optical transmitter (125), and an optical receiver (130). In some embodiments, the flexible active signal cable is less than 0.5 meters long and is capable of being wrapped and unwrapped from a 5 millimeter diameter mandrel 10,000 times with a low probability of failure at a test temperature, while supporting data rates greater than 25 megabits per second.

In handheld or mobile devices, high data throughput and supplying one or more DC power sources is often required between two components that move relative to each other. For example, for a "clam shell" cell phone or a typical laptop computer, the displays are separated from the baseband processors and the two are typically connected via flex cables (i.e., cables made from one or more layers of flexible printed circuit substrates) that pass through the region of the device hinge. In recent years, displays have provided higher resolution, better color and they serve more functions, increasing the data rate through the hinge region. Problems such as electromagnetic interference and mechanical breakdown increase because flex cables have had to adopt multilayer structure to accommodate the increased throughput.
High data throughput can be achieved by using optical fiber, which reduces electromagnetic interference. Cables that provide optical fiber for data transmission and metallic conductors for DC or AC power transmission have been described. The most typical arrangements described are combinations of coaxial cables. Another arrangement is described in U.S. publication 200201365A1, and may be characterized as a ribbon cable comprising a plurality of optical fibers and a plurality of solid or stranded metallic conductors molded into a parallel arrangement. These coaxial cables and the ribbon cable arrangement provide for high data throughput, but their cost per unit length is typically quite high and the termination of the optical and electrical conductors is costly.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.


A sealing element comprises two distinct materials of different melting points. An outer shell material has a higher melting point than an inner core material. The core material can be a relatively low melting point metal, plastic or polymer. The seal is positioned in the wellbore and, in response to heating to a selected temperature, such as a bottom hole static temperature, the core material melts or softens. Upon melting or softening of the inner material, the outer shell's elastic modulus decreases, allowing longitudinal compression and radial expansion of the sealing element. The inner material can also thermally expand and thereby assist or cause radial expansion of the outer shell. The sealing element can provide a metal-to-metal seal with a casing or tubing. The cross-sectional shape of the outer shell can take various shapes to promote controlled compression, expansion and sealing.

Technical Field
This application relates to expandable sealing elements, such as packing elements, for use in operations in wellbores. More particularly, the application relates to a metal-to-metal sealing device and methods of use.
Background Art
Tools containing an expandable sealing element may be used to perform various operations or tasks in a wellbore. The expandable sealing element may be used to provide an annular pressure seal, a plug, a packer, a patch, on expandable tubing, as an anchor, tubing hanger, etc. For example, a packer tool is commonly used during wellbore operations to seal against pressure or isolate fluid. A packer tool is an expandable plug used to seal off an annular area around a tubing or casing section when cementing, acidizing, isolating, producing, etc., a formation zone. The packer tool is run into the wellbore, typically on a work string or production tubing. Sealing elements are expanded radially, and typically compressed axially, and seal the packer tool against the wellbore, cased or uncased. A packer tool typically consists of a sealing element or elements which are actuated by a setting assembly, one or more holding assemblies such as slips, and at least one interior passage for fluid flow.
Elastomeric materials are frequently used for packing and other sealing elements because of their resiliency. Elastomeric elements may be insufficient under certain conditions, such as high temperature, high pressure, and chemically hostile environments. A metal-to-metal contact between, for example, a sealing element and a casing is less prone to extrusion under such circumstances. However, typical manufacturing tolerances of the casing, deformation during transport and installation, etc., often lead to ovality, upsets, and other non-conformities, which tend to reduce the sealing capabilities of the metal-to-metal contact. Leakage, extrusion and other problems can result. Further, even if an initial seal occurs, the seal may leak under changing conditions of temperature and/or pressure.
Prior efforts, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,519,116, incorporated herein by reference for all purposes, to effect metal to metal contact have employed detonating explosive charges disposed on a rod within a packer cavity to expand an outer ductile metal wall of the packer. The expanded metal wall engages the casing and forms a metal to metal contact. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 2,306,160, also incorporated herein by reference for all purposes, teaches a fluid injected into a cavity to inflate the cavity and effect a seal. The reference discloses that suitable liquid materials injected into the cavity are liquids which harden after expansion. More recent efforts include U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,717, to White et al., which discloses a sealing assembly with a deformable portion and a core, at least partially disposed within the deformable portion, that can be radially expanded to engage an adjacent surface and effect a seal. In one embodiment, the core encases a compressible fluid and the deformable portion comprises a deformable metal. The core can retain an amount of stored energy and adjust to changing conditions that otherwise might affect seal integrity. U.S. Pat. No. 7,445,104, to Duhon, discloses an apparatus for use in a wellbore, comprising an element formed of a superplastic material to perform a predetermined downhole task. The apparatus can comprise a flowable element and a deformable element adapted to be expanded by flowing the flowable element. Installation methods can include running a tubular structure into a wellbore and activating a heating element to heat at least a portion of the tubular structure to enable the tubular structure to exhibit a highly deformable characteristic while maintaining structural integrity. The White and Duhon references are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety for all purposes.
Therefore, a need exists for a metal-to-metal sealing assembly with increased sealing capabilities and sufficient resiliency, particularly under adverse conditions in an oil field well. Further, a need exists for such a sealing assembly which is retrievable.

Multi-layered temperature responsive pressure isolation device


An external combustion engine including a container 10 sealed with a working medium 14 in liquid phase adapted to flow, a multiplicity of evaporators 201 to 204 for heating and evaporating part of the liquid-phase working medium 14, a multiplicity of condensers 221 to 224 for cooling and condensing the working medium 14 evaporated in the evaporators 201 to 204, and an output unit 11 for outputting by converting the displacement of the liquid-phase portion of the working medium 14 into mechanical energy. The multiplicity of the evaporators 201 to 204 share a heat source from which heat is supplied thereto. The engine further includes an influent liquid amount regulation unit whereby the liquid-phase portion of the working medium 14 in a greater amount flows into the evaporators nearer the heat source upon displacement of the liquid-phase portion of the working medium 14 toward the multiplicity of the evaporators 201 to 204 from the output unit 11, while the influent liquid amount is smaller for the evaporators farther from the heat source. In this way, heat loss is reduced resulting in improved efficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an external combustion engine for displacing a liquid-phase portion of a working medium by evaporation and condensation of the working medium and outputting by converting the displacement of the liquid-phase portion of the working medium into mechanical energy.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-330885 discloses a external combustion engine, in which a container having a working medium adapted to flow in a liquid phase is provided with at least an evaporator for heating and evaporating part of the working medium in a liquid phase and at least a condenser for cooling and condensing the working medium evaporated in the evaporator. In this configuration, the liquid-phase portion of the working medium is displaced by the evaporation and condensation thereof and this displacement of the liquid-phase portion of the working medium is converted into mechanical energy which is retrieved from an output unit.
In this technique, the portion of the container near the output unit is configured of a single collecting pipe, while the portion of the container formed with an evaporator and condenser is configured of a multiplicity of branch pipes thereby increasing the heat transmission area of the evaporator and condenser. As a result, the heating (evaporation performance) and cooling performance (condensation performance) of the working medium are improved for an improved output of the external combustion engine.
According to this technique, the portion of the multiplicity of the branch pipes formed with the evaporator is arranged in the flow of a high-temperature gas to heat the working medium with the high-temperature gas as a heat source.
Also, according to this technique, the multiplicity of the branch pipes are arranged both in the direction along the flow of the high-temperature gas and in the direction perpendicular to the direction of the high-temperature gas flow. In other words, the multiplicity of the branch pipes are arranged in a grid pattern to thereby prevent the multiplicity of the branch pipes from making the container bulky.
However, in the techniques described above, the high-temperature gas flowing from the upstream to the downstream side is deprived of heat by the evaporator of the multiplicity of the branch pipes and decreases in temperature. As a result, the more upstream the evaporator of the branching pipes arranged in the high-temperature gas is, the greater the heat exchange amount, and vice versa.
Consequently, the working medium, in the evaporator of the branching pipes upstream in the high-temperature gas flow is sufficiently heated and evaporated at the boiling point. However, the working medium in the evaporator of the branch pipes downstream in the high-temperature gas flow is not sufficiently heated and often fails to reach the boiling point.
In the branch pipes downstream in the high-temperature gas flow, the displacement amount of the liquid-phase portion of the working medium is decreased, resulting in a smaller output. Specifically, if the working medium fails to reach the boiling point after being heated, the corresponding heat loss deteriorates the efficiency of the external combustion engine. This problem of deteriorated efficiency due to the heat loss occurs also in the case where two as well as a multiplicity of branch pipes are provided in this engine.
In the case where one heat generating unit is arranged in the neighborhood of the container and where the evaporator is heated by the heat generated by the one heat generating unit, the working medium is heated sufficiently in the branch pipes in the neighborhood of the one heat generating unit, while the working medium cannot be sufficiently heated in the branch pipes far from the one heat generating unit, thereby posing a similar problem of efficiency deterioration due to heat loss.


A new cultivar of Abelia named ‘Rhabpe22’ that is distinguishable by dense, compact and mounding plant habit and colorful variegated foliage. In spring and early summer, and in shade, the leaves of ‘Rhabpe22’ exhibit mid-green centers and contrasting cream-yellow margins. In summer to fall, the leaves of ‘Rhabpe22’ develop very dark green centers and Rhabpe22-orange margins. In combination, these characteristics. In combination these traits distinguish ‘Rhabpe22’ from all other varieties of Abelia known to the inventor.

The present disclosure relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Abelia plant, a shrub that is grown for use as an ornamental landscape and container plant. The new variety is known botanically as Abelia grandiflora nana and will be referred to hereinafter by the cultivar name 'Rhabpe22'.
'Rhabpe22' was first observed by the inventor as a naturally occurring branch sport which was growing on a single plant of Abelia grandiflora nana (species, unnamed, unpatented) in the inventor's nursery in Tynong, Victoria, Australia. Abelia grandiflora nana is a compact shrub grown for its non-variegated glossy green foliage. The inventor observed that one of his plants of Abelia grandiflora nana had developed a stem which bore striking variegated foliage along its length. In 2015, the inventor took and rooted a small number of softwood cuttings in order to establish the variegated form on its own roots, to evaluate its stability, and to increase numbers for commercial introduction.
The inventor has determined that 'Rhabpe22' is a stable cultivar which reproduces true-to-type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.


An LED lamp includes a heat sink, a plurality of fin arrays mounted on the heat sink, and a plurality of LED modules mounted on the fin arrays. The heat sink includes a base and a plurality of heat dissipating fins extending from the base. The fin arrays are mounted on a top surface of the base of the heat sink. Each fin array consists of a plurality of fins interlocked together. Each fin array has a bottom mounting surface in contact with the top surface of the base and a top engaging surface defined at an acute angle with respect to the top surface of the base. The LED modules are mounted on the engaging surfaces of the fin arrays, respectively, via heat absorbing plates.

1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates to LEDs, and more particularly to an LED lamp providing a wide illumination area.
2. Description of Related Art
The technology of light emitting diodes has been rapidly developed in recent years, allowing expansion of application from indicators to include illumination. With the features of long-term reliability, environment friendliness and low power consumption, the LED is viewed as a promising alternative for recent lighting products.
A conventional LED lamp comprises a heat sink and a plurality of LED modules having LEDs, attached to an outer surface of the heat sink to dissipate heat generated by the LEDs. The outer surface of the heat sink is generally planar with the LEDs arranged closely. However, such LEDs mounting on the planar outer surface of the heat sink provides only a planar light source.
What is needed, therefore, is an LED lamp providing a sufficiently wide illumination area to function as a three-dimensional light source.

LED lamp including LED mounts with fin arrays

Fu Zhun Precision Industry (Shen Zhen) Co., Ltd.


One object is to provide a method for providing a water- and oil-repellent layer on an amorphous carbon film with excellent fixity. A method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes the steps of: preparing a substrate; providing, directly or indirectly on the substrate, an amorphous carbon film layer containing silicon and nitrogen in at least a surface thereof; and providing a water- and oil-repellent layer containing fluorine on the amorphous carbon film layer via a coupling agent capable of forming, with the amorphous carbon film layer, hydrogen bonds based on polarity and/or —O-M bonds (M is any one element selected from the group consisting of Si, Ti, Al, and Zr) by condensation reaction with functional groups of the amorphous carbon film.

An amorphous carbon film such as a diamond-like carbon film (abbreviated as "DLC film") is excellent in abrasion resistance, slidability and strength. Therefore, amorphous carbon films are used in various fields, e.g., for protective films of various devices such as cutting tools and molds. Also, amorphous carbon films are formed on the surface of resin films or resin bottles formed of high polymer materials to serve as H2O and O2 gas barrier films. Particularly, it is desired that a water- and oil -repellent layer provided on a protective film formed of an amorphous carbon film should provide excellent abrasion resistance and slidability, as well as water- and oil-repellence that inhibits adsorption of water molecules (H2O) on the surface causing stains and degraded gas barrier effect.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H06-215367 ("Patent Literature 1") relates to a protective layer of a magnetic storage medium and discloses irradiating a hard carbon protective layer with a neutral radical species (atomic gas) generated by corona discharge, followed by forming a layer including a fluorine-containing lubricant having at least one polar group. Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-266328 ("Patent Literature 2") discloses treating an amorphous hard carbon film surface with nitrogen plasma thereby to produce a carbon protective film containing 6 to 20 at % nitrogen within 30 Å from the surface and forming a fluorine-based lubricant layer on the carbon protective film.
Meanwhile, Japanese Patent No. 2889116 ("Patent Literature 3) discloses mixing silicon and nitrogen into an amorphous hard carbon film layer to produce an amorphous hard carbon film having excellent adhesion with a substrate and improved lubrication characteristics such as slidability and abrasion resistance. Additionally, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-67637 ("Patent Literature 4") discloses a method for affixing an adhesive agent formed of a resin on the surface of an amorphous carbon film having poor adhesion. The Patent Literature 4 discloses forming silanol groups by oxidizing the surface of an amorphous carbon film containing silicon with ultra-violet rays, followed by reacting the silanol groups with Si—OR (wherein R is a methyl group or an ethyl group) groups contained in an adhesive, and affixing the adhesive on the surface of the amorphous carbon film containing silicon via a coupling agent.

Method for affixing water-and-oil-repellent layer to amorphous carbon film layer, and laminated body formed by said method

TAIYO YUDEN CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


The invention relates to methods and apparatus for determining a characteristic of an optical element. The apparatus includes a spatial light pattern generator adapted to generate a beam of light at a predetermined spatial position, at least one lenslet disposed in an array of lenslets adapted to receive the beam of light from the spatial light pattern generator, and to direct the beam of light to the optical element. The apparatus further includes a detector positioned to receive the beam of light subsequent to the beam of light encountering the optical element. The detector is adapted to detect a received spatial position at which the detector receives the beam of light. The apparatus also includes a processor adapted to compare the predetermined spatial position with the received spatial position to determine the characteristic of the optical element. The invention further relates to methods and apparatus for generating a diffraction limited image. The apparatus includes a spatial light pattern generator adapted to generate a plurality of beams of light at selected spatial positions to compensate for a characteristic of an optical element and an array of lenslets adapted to receive the plurality of beams of light from the spatial light pattern generator and to direct the plurality of beams of light to the optical element. The apparatus also includes an image plane positioned to receive the plurality of beams of light subsequent to the plurality of beams of light encountering the optical element and adapted to form the diffraction limited image.

The invention relates to the field of instrumentation for optical measurements and more specifically to methods and devices for measuring and correcting for optical aberrations in an optical system.
A typical optical system operates on an incident optical wavefront to transform it to a different optical wavefront. Generally, different points on the wavefront experience different transformations depending on what portions of the optical system they encounter. For example, when a wavefront is incident on a lens, those portions of the wavefront that traverse the periphery of the lens will experience phase delays which differ from those experienced by portions of the wavefront which traverse the center of the lens. A wavefront can be defined as a plurality of points having a constant phase. The wavefront encountering the lens results in a transmitted wavefront having a different shape. Appropriately shaping and positioning lenses can modify a transmitted wavefront to a desired shape.
In some cases, an optical system is known to produce an undesired transformation. One way to correct the transformation is to add a second optical system designed to correct for the deficiencies of the original optical system. For example, in the case of a human eye requiring a corrective lens, the optical components of the human eye perform an optical transformation which is imperfect. In another example, a flawed objective lens installed in a large telescope performs an imperfect transformation. Rather than replacing the objective lens, it may by preferable to install a corrective lens. In both of these cases, it is necessary to know characteristics of the flawed optical transformation in order to correct it.
One method for measuring the optical characteristics of a human eye is the technique of placing lenses having various correction factors in front of the eye and asking the patient whether or not the overall image has improved. Using this substitution technique, one can determine an overall correction for the optical characteristics of the eye. An instrument that is generally used to approximate an optical system that corrects for the flawed optical transformation of an eye is referred to as a xe2x80x9crefractometer.xe2x80x9d In the case of a general lens system, corrections are determined by a variety of tests, each referred to by its owns name, such as the xe2x80x9cFoucault test.xe2x80x9d Throughout the following description, the term xe2x80x9crefractometerxe2x80x9d will be used to refer to all of the instruments that perform such tests.
A mathematical model of the eye can be expressed in terms of a polynomial equation. One such mathematical model is known as the Siedel model. The substitution technique described above determines the overall correction for the eye, but it is limited to prismatic, cylindrical, and spherical corrections. These corrections provide only the lowest-order terms of the Siedel or polynomial model of the eye""s optical system. The technique does not correct for the errors that are specified by higher-order terms of the polynomial model. Additionally, it is not possible to obtain point-by-point measurements of the wavefront at designated sites on the optical system using the technique. For example, where the optical system is a cornea, this technique cannot determine the optimal wavefront portion at each point on the cornea.
A number of refractometers have been developed that are designed to determine the optimal wavefront at designated sites on the optical system. For example, one such optical system includes a reference optical subsystem for projecting a reference pattern on the patient""s retina through a reference area on the cornea and a separate measurement optical subsystem for projecting a measurement pattern on the patient""s retina through a measurement area on the cornea.
To determine the shape of the optimal wavefront at a designated site on the cornea using this refractometer, the measurement pattern is moved across the retina until its location coincides with the location of the reference pattern. Based on the difference between the initial and final positions of the measurement pattern, this refractometer can infer the correction of the wavefront required at the selected corneal site.
An example of another refractometer consists of two optical subsystems aligned along substantially the same optical axis: a reference optical subsystem and a measurement optical subsystem. The reference optical subsystem projects a reference pattern onto a reference pattern position on a detector plane through a selected reference site on the measurement plane. The measurement optical subsystem projects a measurement pattern onto a measurement pattern position on the detector plane through a selected measurement site on the measurement plane. The two subsystems may have some or all of their elements in common.
In operation, the location of the measurement pattern on the detector can be controlled by an observer through the use of an optical aligner coupled to the measurement optical subsystem. Using the optical aligner, the observer can move the measurement pattern on the detector until it is aligned with the reference pattern on the detector. The distance and the direction in which the observer moves the measurement pattern in order to align it with the reference pattern provide a measure of the shape of the optimal wavefront associated with the portion of the wavefront incident on the selected measurement site on the measurement plane. This method is sometimes referred to the xe2x80x9cnullingxe2x80x9d method.
In an alternate operation, a measurement of the displacement of the measurement pattern from the reference pattern is used to characterize the wavefront. This method is sometimes referred to the xe2x80x9cnon-nullingxe2x80x9d method.
Although the devices disclosed above can be used to measure the deviation from the shape of an optimal wavefront at a selected measurement site on the optical system, they are complex and they do not provide an observation of the optical system after correction.
The invention relates to an apparatus for determining a characteristic of an optical element. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a spatial light pattern generator adapted to generate at least one beam of light at a predetermined spatial position. The apparatus further includes at least one lenslet disposed in an array of lenslets adapted to receive the at least one beam of light from the spatial light pattern generator, and to direct the at least one beam of light to the optical element. The apparatus further includes a detector positioned to receive the beam of light subsequent to the beam of light encountering the optical element, and adapted to detect a received spatial position at which the detector receives the beam of light. The apparatus further includes a processor adapted to compare the predetermined spatial position with the received spatial position to determine the characteristic of the optical element. In another embodiment, the processor is further adapted to change the predetermined spatial position in response to the received spatial position.
In another embodiment, the spatial light pattern generator includes an opaque mask having a movable aperture. In a further embodiment, the spatial light pattern generator includes a spatial light modulator. In yet another embodiment, the spatial light pattern generator includes an array of individually addressable light-modulating elements. In one embodiment, the array of lenslets is arranged in a substantially uniform pattern. In another embodiment, the uniform pattern is chosen from the group comprising substantially a square, a circle, a rectangle, an ellipse, and concentric circles. In yet another embodiment, the detector is chosen from a group of position detectors, including a retina, an array detector, a quadrant detector, a photodetector, a photodiode, a charge coupled device (CCD) detector, and a photosensitive film. In one embodiment, the optical element comprises an eye, a lens, a mirror, a spherical mirror, a segmented mirror, and a flexible mirror. In one embodiment, the processor includes a computer or control electronics. In another embodiment, the apparatus further includes a contact lens fabrication device coupled to the processor. In another embodiment, the apparatus further includes an intraocular lens fabrication device coupled to the processor. In yet another embodiment, the apparatus fiuther includes laser surgical equipment coupled to the processor. In other embodiments, the characteristic includes wavefront aberration, defocus, astigmatism, and curvature.
The invention also relates to a method for determining a characteristic of an optical element. The method includes passing at least one beam of light originating from a predetermined spatial position through a lenslet in an array of lenslets to the optical element. Subsequent to said at least one beam of light encountering said optical element, the method further includes detecting the at least one beam of light at a received spatial position, and comparing the predetermined spatial position with the received spatial position to determine the characteristic of the optical element. The method further includes the step of processing the received spatial position to determine the characteristic of the optical element. The method also includes providing a detector. The detector is chosen from the group comprising a retina, a photodetector, a quadrant detector, a charge coupled device, and a photosensitive film. In another embodiment, the step of passing at least one beam of light includes providing a spatial light pattern generator. In yet another embodiment, the step of comparing the predetermined spatial position with the received spatial position includes providing a processor. In another embodiment, the method further includes the step of changing the predetermined spatial position in response to the received spatial position.
The invention also relates to an apparatus for generating a diffraction limited image. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a spatial light pattern generator adapted to generate a plurality of beams of light at selected spatial positions to compensate for a characteristic of an optical element. The apparatus further includes an array of lenslets adapted to receive the plurality of beams of light from the spatial light pattern generator and to direct the plurality of beams of light to the optical element. The apparatus also includes an image plane positioned to receive the plurality of beams of light subsequent to the plurality of beams of light encountering the optical element and adapted to form the diffraction limited image. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of beams of light is coherent with respect to the others of the plurality of beams of light.
In another embodiment, the spatial light pattern generator includes an opaque mask having a movable aperture. In a further embodiment, the spatial light pattern generator includes a spatial light modulator. In yet another embodiment, the spatial light pattern generator includes an array of individually addressable light-modulating elements. In one embodiment, the array of lenslets is arranged in a substantially uniform pattern. In another embodiment, the uniform pattern is chosen from the group comprising substantially a square, a circle, a rectangle, a triangle, an ellipse, a pentagon, a hexagon, an octagon and concentric circles. In yet another embodiment, the detector is chosen from the group including a retina, an array detector, a quadrant detector, a photodetector, a photodiode, a charge coupled device (CCD) detector, and a photosensitive film. In one embodiment, the optical element comprises an eye, a lens, a mirror, a spherical mirror, a segmented mirror, and a flexible mirror. In one embodiment, the processor includes a computer or control electronics. In another embodiment, the apparatus further includes a contact lens fabrication device coupled to the processor. In another embodiment, the apparatus further includes an intraocular lens fabrication device coupled to the processor. In yet another embodiment, the apparatus further includes laser surgical equipment coupled to the processor. In other embodiments, the characteristic includes wavefront aberration, defocus, astigmatism, and curvature.
The invention also relates to a method for generating a diffraction limited image. The method includes passing a plurality of beams of light through a lenslet array to an optical element, the plurality of beams of light originating from selected spatial positions to compensate for a characteristic of the optical element. Subsequent to said plurality of beams of light encountering the optical element, the method further includes imaging the plurality of beams of light to form a diffraction limited image. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of beams of light is coherent with respect to the others of the plurality of beams of light.
In another embodiment, the step of imaging includes providing a detector. The detector is chosen from the group comprising a retina, a photodetector, a quadrant detector, a charge coupled device, and a photosensitive film. In another embodiment, the step of passing a plurality of beams of light comprises providing a spatial light pattern generator. In yet another embodiment, the step of imaging comprises providing a processor.

Methods and apparatus for measurement and correction of optical aberration

The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Inc.


The flow rate of oil under pressure for operating an attachment for a hydraulic excavator or the like according to the type of attachment is controlled by a simple hydraulic circuit, capable of easily switching the flow rate and also capable of finely adjusting the flow rate. The circuit has directional control valves (2-4, 6-8), pressure compensating valves (17, 18) disposed at outlet ports of each of the directional control valves, load sensing valves (23, 24) for controlling discharges from the variable capacity type main hydraulic pumps (1, 5), and circuits (21, 22) for feeding back the maximum valve of load pressure between each actuator and the associated direction control valve to the pressure compensating valves and the load sensing valves via a shuttle valve (20). A directional control valve (4), which controls the attachment, has a restricting element for restricting an opening area of a spool of the directional control valve.

A hydraulic excavator composed of an upper revolving structure and a lower travelling structure has a multiplicity of hydraulic actuators such as hydraulic cylinders for moving a boom, an arm, a bucket and the like which constitute a working machine, and a travelling motor for rotating the right and the left tracks. In order to freely operate each of the actuators, two variable capacity type hydraulic pumps are usually mounted. As an alternative to the bucket fastened to serve as a working machine, an attachment such as a crasher or a hydraulic breaker or the like is sometimes fastened so as to perform an operation for crashing a structure or a rock. The aforesaid attachments respectively require different flow rates because the hydraulic devices for operating the attachments are different from one another. For example, a flow rate realized by two pumps is required in a case where a crasher is operated, while only a flow rate realized by one pump is required in a case where a hydraulic breaker is operated.
On the other hand, the above-mentioned attachments are usually used in such a manner that exchange of attachments for use in one hydraulic excavator is performed when the need arises. Therefore, the hydraulic excavator must be capable of easily switching the flow rate to be supplied to the attachment in order to be immediately adapted to the newly fastened attachment. Accordingly, in the conventional hydraulic excavator, a service valve 43 of two provided service valves 40 and 43 is, as shown in FIG. 6, switched so as to switch the flow rate between that realized by one main pump and that realized by two main pumps.
Referring to FIG. 6, five directional control valves for operating a revolving actuator, a boom-Hi actuator, a left-side service actuator, an arm-Lo actuator, and a left running actuator are connected in parallel to a variable capacity type hydraulic pump (hereinafter called a "main pump") 1. Five directional control valves for operating a right running actuator, a bucket actuator, a boom-Lo actuator, an arm-Hi actuator, and a right-side service actuator are connected in parallel to a main pump 5. Two pipes 41 and 42 connected to outlet ports of the right side service valve 40 are respectively connected to a hydraulic circuit extending from the left side service valve 43 to an actuator 19 so that they are joined together.
An attachment pedal 13 for operating the attachment is positioned in contact with a pilot-pressure control valve (hereinafter called a "PPC valve") 14, and a control pump 12 serves as a hydraulic pressure source for it. Two pilot circuits 44 and 45 extending from the PPC valve 14 are respectively connected to the left end portion and the right end portion of the service valve 43. Furthermore, branch circuits 46 and 47 are respectively provided for the two pilot circuits 44 and 45 and are respectively connected to the right end portion and the left end portion of the service valve 40 via pilot circuit directional control valves 48 and 49 having solenoids. The solenoids of the aforesaid pilot circuit direction control valves 48 and 49 are respectively connected to a selection switch 50.
In a case where, for example, a crasher is fastened as the attachment, a flow rate realized by two pumps is required in order to operate the crasher and therefore the selection switch 50 is switched on. As a result, the solenoids of the pilot circuit directional control valves 48 and 49 are excited, the branch circuits 46 and 47 of the pilot circuits 44 and 45 are thereby communicated, and the pilot pressure acts on the left end portion of the service valve 43 and the right end portion of the service valve 40 or acts on the right end portion of the service valve 43 and the left end portion of the service valve 40 by the operation of the attachment pedal 13. Thus, the total flow rate of the main pumps 1 and 5 acts on the actuator 19 which operates the attachment.
In a case where a hydraulic breaker is fastened as the attachment, only a flow rate realized by one main pump is required to operate the hydraulic breaker. Therefore, the selection switch 50 is switched off. As a result, the solenoids of the pilot circuit directional control valves 48 and 49 are demagnetized and thereby the branch circuits 46 and 47 of the pilot circuits 44 and 45 are closed. Thus, the pilot pressure acts on only the left end portion or the right end portion of the service valve 43 by the operation of the attachment pedal 13. As a result, the flow rate of the main pump 1 solely acts on the actuator which operates the attachment.
In order to control the discharge from the main pump according to the operation of each spool for the directional control valve, and more particularly, to control the discharge from the main pump to become minimum when each directional control valve is at the neutral position for the purpose of reducing wasteful flow, a relief valve 51 and an orifice 52 are provided for the main circuit in such a manner that they are connected to a flow-rate adjustment mechanism 53 of the main pump via circuits so that the discharge from the main pump is controlled.
However, the flow-rate switching circuit thus structured involves the following problems: (1) The two pilot circuit directional control valves 48 and 49 must be provided for the pilot circuit, and the two pipes 41 and 42 for realizing joining from the service valve 40 to the main circuit of the attachment actuator 19 must be provided. This leads to a fact that the hydraulic circuit becomes too complicated, causing the reliability of the hydraulic excavator to deteriorate. Furthermore, the number of the inspection processes undesirably increases and the manufacturing cost increases. (2) Since the quantity of oil to be supplied to the attachment actuator is switched in two stages, that is the quantity realized by the one pump and that realized by the two pumps, a fine adjustment of the flow rate cannot be performed.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for switching the flow rate for attachments having a simple hydraulic circuit, capable of switching a required flow rate for each attachment by a simple operation and also capable of finely adjusting the flow rate.

Apparatus for switching flow rate for attachment