Disclosed herein is a process, comprising: combining one or more additives with a feedstock to obtain a first mixture, the feedstock comprising a fibrous material and water, the fibrous material comprising lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose; and conditioning the first mixture to obtain a liquid product and a dry pulp product. Also disclosed herein are condition processes and machines for use with the same. Also disclosed herein are liquid products, dry pulp products, and fibrous pellets made by the disclosed processes, and methods of using the same.

Processing raw materials into useable and value-added products is a constant area of human innovation that is consistently developing. Wood or other lignocellulosic materials, for example, can be processed into useable and value-added products such as paper, packaging, biofuel, pellets and the like. A current problem with such processes, as with all processes, is high energy inputs and the addition of harsh chemicals required to obtain valuable products. In processing lignocellulosic materials, large amounts of shaft work are required to mill the materials to desirable sizes, and large amounts of added energy (e.g., heat and/or pressure) and chemicals (e.g., strong acids or bases) are necessary to remove excess water content and inhibiting constituents. Additionally, the temperature increase by the added heat can vaporize and/or cause a conversion of organic matter raw materials into harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are then released into the atmosphere. In some cases, additional energy- and cost-intensive measures must be undertaken to further process the released VOCs and other hazardous waste generated during the processes. Producing useful products in an energy-efficient manner, without hazardous and harsh chemicals, is desirable to expand the design space of a number of industries, such as construction/infrastructure, building, energy, energy production, packaging, lawn/garden products, farming, food production, antipollution, and the like. Additionally, preserving the content of the raw organic materials, such as VOCs, nutrients, organic acids, and the like, is desirable to obtain other useful co-products during processing. Such co-products present attractive opportunities to produce value-added products and improve margins of processing.
What is needed, therefore, are processes, methods, and systems for producing solid and liquid products from lignocellulosic (or other) feedstocks in an energy-efficient and clean (i.e., with no harsh chemicals added) manner while emitting no harmful byproducts, such as VOCs. Embodiments of the present disclosure address this need as well as other needs that will become apparent upon reading the description below in conjunction with the drawings.

Processes, methods, and systems for chemo-mechanical cellular explosion and solid and liquid products made by the same


In accordance with one embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a plurality of light-emitting elements arranged in a line, an image forming section and an exposure control section. The image forming section develops, with developing agent, a latent image formed on a photoconductive drum through the light from the light-emitting elements which emit light according to printing data. The exposure control section controls the operations of the plurality of light-emitting elements according to shifted printing data obtained by shifting the printing data in a case where the number of printings based on the same printing data is more than one.

There is a digital multi-functional peripheral (MFP) provided with an image forming apparatus which forms a latent image on a photoconductive drum with an exposure section consisting of a plurality of light-emitting elements such as LEDs or organic ELs arranged in a line, and carries out printing on a medium such as paper. As to such an image forming apparatus, in a case where the number of printings based on the same printing data is more than one, the light-emission frequency of some light-emitting elements within the plurality of light-emitting elements arranged in a line is high, which leads to a problem that the life of part of the light-emitting elements becomes shorter.

Image forming apparatus and control method of image forming apparatus


A power switching circuit is provided for use in an integrated circuit including at least a first voltage rail and a second voltage rail. The power switching circuit includes at least one MOS device having a first source/drain adapted for connection to the first voltage rail, a second source/drain adapted for connection to the second voltage rail, and a gate adapted for receiving a control signal. The MOS device selectively connects the first voltage rail to the second voltage rail in response to the control signal. The first and second voltage rails form a grid overlying the power switching circuit, the first and second voltage rails being formed in different planes relative to one another. The connection between the power switching circuit and the first voltage rail is made at an interface between the first and voltage rails.

In order to reduce overall power consumption in a circuit, it is well known to scale the supply voltage. However, reducing the supply voltage of the circuit leads to lowering the speed of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices in the circuit. In order to maintain circuit performance, MOS device threshold voltages (Vt) must scale with the supply voltage, which will cause subthreshold leakage currents to increase exponentially. Multiple-threshold complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (MTCMOS) circuit architectures have been demonstrated as an effective technique for reducing leakage currents during a standby state by employing high threshold voltage "sleep" devices to gate one or more voltage supplies (e.g., VDD, ground, etc.) of a logic block employing low threshold voltage devices.
FIG. 1 shows a typical MTCMOS circuit implementation, wherein a logic cell 102 including low threshold voltage devices is connected between a voltage supply rail, VDD, and a virtual ground, VGND, and a high threshold voltage switching cell comprising an n-channel MOS (NMOS) device, MSLP, is connected between the virtual ground VGND and an actual ground rail, GND. Device MSLP is gated by a control signal, SLEEP, which turns off MSLP during a standby mode to reduce leakage currents generated by the logic cell 102 by isolating the logic cell from the actual ground rail.
Conventional MTCMOS circuit implementations typically utilize switching cells which are in-line with standard logic cells to connect the virtual ground to the actual ground rail. Using this layout approach, however, requires that both the virtual ground and the actual ground rail be carried throughout the standard logic cells, resulting in a silicon area penalty for essentially the entire standard logic cell library.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved power switching cell arrangement which does not suffer from one or more of the problems exhibited by conventional power switching cell arrangements.


The present invention provides a drug delivery device having a housing that includes a ventilator interface module and a base module removeably coupled to the ventilator interface module. An aerosol generator is disposed in the base module to nebulize a drug solution provided in the housing. The ventilator interface module has an outlet port through which nebulized particles of the drug solution can be communicated to a user, and an inlet port through which the housing receives intake gas. The housing has a flow path defined therein that directs intake gas from the inlet port to the outlet port such that the nebulized drug solution particles formed in the housing are motivated toward the outlet port when the base module is coupled to the ventilator interface module. A seal arrangement substantially seals the inlet port and outlet port from ambient atmosphere when the base module is uncoupled from the ventilator interface module, such that intake gas can be communicated from the inlet port to the outlet port.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drug delivery systems, and, in particular, to nebulizing drug delivery devices used in ventilator systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional ventilator drug nebulizers are known in the medical device industry for use in delivering nebulized particles of a drug solution to a user. Such devices are typically installed in a ventilator circuit such that the gas within the ventilator circuit flows through the nebulizing drug delivery device on its path to the user. Typically, the drug nebulizer has a sealed housing that interfaces with the ventilator circuit, and into which a drug solution is provided. When the drug solution within the drug nebulizer housing is depleted, the housing must be opened in order to be replenished with additional drug solution. In some conventional drug nebulizers, opening the device housing to replenish the drug solution will result in the ventilator circuit being exposed to atmospheric air. Such atmospheric air, if introduced into the ventilator circuit, may be undesirable in certain instances. In other conventional drug nebulizers, while atmospheric air may not enter the ventilator circuit to a significant extent, gas from the ventilator circuit may leak to atmosphere when the nebulizer housing is opened for replenishing drug solution. Again, in some instances such leaking of the ventilator gas flow to atmosphere may be undesirable.

Nebulizing drug delivery device for ventilator


A wellbore fluid production system that is disposable in a wellbore comprising a separator, a pump, a compressor, and a motor. The separator segregates the gas and liquid and delivers the gas to the compressor inlet and the liquid to the pump inlet. The pump pressurizes the liquid for delivery to the surface. The compressor pressurizes the gas for reinjection into the wellbore, injection into another subterranean formation, or for delivery to the surface.

1. Field of Invention
The present disclosure relates to a fluid handling system used for producing downhole fluids. More specifically, the present disclosure concerns a fluid handling system having an electrical submersible pump combined with a compressor.
2. Description of Prior Art
Submersible pumping systems are often used in hydrocarbon producing wells for pumping fluids from within the well bore to the surface. These fluids are generally liquids and include produced liquid hydrocarbon as well as water. One type of system used in this application employs an electrical submersible pump (ESP). Typically ESP's employ centrifugal pumps with multiple stages of impellers/diffusers. These systems are particularly used in wells that produce a large amount of water in ratio to the oil. ESPs are typically disposed at the end of a length of production tubing and have an electrically powered motor. Often, electrical power may be supplied to the pump motor via an ESP power cable.
In many oil wells, gas is also produced with the liquid hydrocarbon. The liquid usually comprises hydrocarbon, and water.
In certain applications the pump intake is positioned above where the connate fluid enters the wellbore, and thus gas may enter the inlet. Most ESP's are designed for pumping incompressible liquids and not gas. If too much gas is delivered to a pump it will lose efficiency because of the compressibility of gas. To overcome this problem gas separators are employed to extract gas from the mixture thereby diverting from the pump inlet. A gas separator separates a mixture of liquid and gas typically by centrifugal force. The liquid flows through a central area into the intake of the pump. The gas is discharged out gas discharge ports into the annulus surrounding the pump. Gas in the annulus collects at the surface of the well and is often introduced through a check valve hack into the production flowline at the surface.
The produced gas may be pressurized if it has insufficient pressure to flow to surface or if the gas is to be re-injected into a subterranean formation. Reinjecting the gas may be for promoting hydrocarbon production from that formation, or it may ultimately be delivered to subterranean storage. An example of a centrifugal gas compressor comprises stages of rotating impellers within stators or diffusers. However, the design is such that compressors compress gas and not pump a liquid. Generally, a centrifugal gas compressor must operate at a much higher rotational speed than a liquid pump.

Electrical submersible pump and gas compressor


A method, an apparatus, a computer-program product and a system for transmission of data packets are disclosed. A communication link between a first device and a second device is established in accordance with a transmission control protocol for transmission of a data packet between the first device and the second device. The communication link is monitored during transmission of the data packet from the second device to the first device. Based on the monitoring, at least a portion of a bandwidth available for transmission of an acknowledgement from the second device to the first device is adjusted. The acknowledgement indicates receipt of the data packet performing by the second device.

In today's world, cellular networks provide on-demand communications capabilities to individuals and business entities. Typically, a cellular network is wireless network that can be distributed over land areas, which are called cells. Each such cell is served by at least one fixed-location transceiver, which is referred to as a cell site or a base station. Each cell can use a different set of frequencies than its neighbor cells in order to avoid interference and provide guaranteed bandwidth within each cell. When cells are joined together, they provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area, which enables a large number of mobile telephones, and/or other wireless devices or portable transceivers to communicate with each other and with fixed transceivers and telephones anywhere in the network. Such communications are performed through base stations and are accomplished even if when mobile transceivers are moving through more than one cell during transmission. Major wireless communications providers have deployed such cell sites throughout the world, thereby allowing communications mobile phones and mobile computing devices to be connected to the public switched telephone network and public Internet.
A mobile telephone is a portable telephone that is capable of receiving and/or making telephone and/or data calls through a cell site or a transmitting tower by using radio waves to transfer signals to and from the mobile telephone. In view of a large number of mobile telephone users, current mobile telephone networks provide a limited and shared resource. In that regard, cell sites and handsets can change frequency and use low power transmitters to allow simultaneous usage of the networks by many callers with less interference. Coverage by a cell site can depend on a particular geographical location and/or a number of users that can potentially use the network. For example, in a city, a cell site can have a range of up to approximately ½ mile; in rural areas, the range can be as much as 5 miles; and in some areas, a user can receive signals from a cell site 25 miles away.
The following are examples of some of the digital cellular technologies that are in use by the communications providers: Global System for Mobile Communications ("GSM"), General Packet Radio Service ("GPRS"), cdmaOne, CDMA2000, Evolution-Data Optimized ("EV-DO"), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution ("EDGE"), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System ("UMTS"), Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications ("DECT"), Digital AMPS ("IS-136/TDMA"), and Integrated Digital Enhanced Network ("iDEN"). The Long Term Evolution, or 4G LTE, which was developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project ("3GPP") standards body, is a standard for a wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. LTE is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA digital cellular technologies and allows for increasing capacity and speed by using a different radio interface together with core network improvements.
Communications links typically connect endpoint devices (e.g., mobile telephones, personal computers, servers, etc.) so that devices can transmit data to one another. Data transmissions are typically governed by various protocols that are specified in the Internet protocol suite, which includes the networking model and a set of communications protocols used for the Internet and/or similar networks. The Internet protocol suite is typically referred to as TCP/IP and contains its most important protocols: the Transmission Control Protocol ("TCP") and the Internet Protocol ("IP"). The TCP/IP model and protocols are maintained by the Internet Engineering Task Force ("IETF"). TCP/IP provides end-to-end connectivity specifying how data should be formatted, addressed, transmitted, routed and received at the destination endpoint device. TCP/IP protocols are organized into the following four abstraction layers (from lowest to highest): the link layer (containing communication technologies for a single network segment (link)), the internet layer (connecting independent networks to establish internetworking), the transport layer (handling process-to-process communication), and the application layer (providing interfaces to the user and support services).
Transmissions of data in a wireless communication system using TCP are typically affected by the delays, drops, and interruptions that can be result of congestion and/or retransmissions of data packets. These can occur in view of lack of available bandwidth that can be used for transmission of data packets on the downlink as well as data and acknowledgements on the uplink. Thus, the users can experience poor connectivity, data loss, congestion, redundant transmissions, battery power loss (e.g., in user equipment), and other problems. Thus, there is a need to provide a wireless communication system that is capable of providing an efficient, cost-effective and reliable transmission of video data between endpoint devices using TCP while maintaining downlink throughput at substantially constant level.


The electrostatic protection device provided between an input/output terminal and an internal circuit of a semiconductor device according to the present invention has a first insulated gate field effect transistor (MOS transistor) and a second MOS transistor that are connected mutually in parallel between an input/output wiring connected to the input/output terminal and an electrode wiring of a prescribed potential, where the first MOS transistor and the second MOS transistor are MOS transistors of the same channel type, the second MOS transistor has s higher drive capability than the first MOS transistor, and the electrostatic protection device is formed such that it is started by the first MOS transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a semiconductor device equipped with an electrostatic protection device for protecting an internal circuit from electrostatic breakdown.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A semiconductor integrated circuit formed on a semiconductor substrate is constituted by semiconductor elements such as insulated gate field effect transistor (called MOS transistor) Accordingly, it is indispensable to protect the semiconductor elements from breakdown caused by an excessively high external input voltage, such as a pulse-like high voltage generated by electrostatic discharge (ESD), that is applied momentarily. In the past, there have been proposed and actually adopted various kinds of techniques to protect the semiconductor circuits from ESD breakdown.
Along with the high integration processing, lowering of the operating voltage and the low power consumption, of the semiconductor device, the structure of the semiconductor elements that constitute the semiconductor devices is made further refined and high density. As a result, generally speaking, electrostatic breakdown of semiconductor devices, in particular MOS transistors that have been rendered refined and high density, is apt to occur more frequently.
Moreover, in the process of refinement of the semiconductor device, it is normal to set the operating voltage of the peripheral circuit of the semiconductor device to be higher than that of the internal circuit. For example, the operating voltage of the peripheral circuit is set at 3.3 V while that of the internal circuit is set at about 1.2 V. In compliance with this, the gate insulation film of a MOS transistor constituting the peripheral circuit is set thicker than that of the MOS transistor constituting the internal circuit. In addition, the lightly doped drain (LDD) structure for enhancing the resistance to hot electrons is still required for the MOS transistor constituting the peripheral circuit. In contrast, since the operating voltage is at a low level of about 1 V for the internal circuit, the problem of hot-electrons in the MOS transistor is nonexistent. Even in such a case where the MOS transistors that constitute the semiconductor device are given different operating conditions for those in the peripheral circuit and those in the internal circuit, electrostatic breakdown is apt to occur in the MOS transistors of the peripheral circuit due to the formation of the LDD structure or its formation using a silicide.
As conventional electrostatic protection devices for protecting the semiconductor integrated circuit from ESD breakdown, a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Applications Laid Open, No. Sho 63-202056 (referred to as first prior art hereinafter), a technique which is adopted generally (referred to as second prior art hereinafter) and a technique proposed lately (referred to as third prior art hereinafter) will be described briefly. The third prior art is the technique disclosed in IEEE Transactions on Components, Package, and Manufacturing Technology, Part A, Vol. 18, No. 2, June 1995, pp. 314–320.
FIG. 9A shows an equivalent circuit diagram of an input protection part that acts as an electrostatic protection device in the first prior art, and FIG. 9B shows a sectional view of semiconductor element of the input protection part.
As shown in FIG. 9A, an input wiring 102 is connected to an input terminal 101, and the wiring 102 is to be connected to an input gate of an internal circuit of the semiconductor device. An N-channel MOS transistor 103 for input protection as an electrostatic protection transistor is connected between the input wiring 102 and a potential Vss (ground potential). The gate of the N-channel MOS transistor 103 for input protection is fixed to the Vss potential.
Such an input protection part is constituted by one MOS transistor with large size. However, if a high pulse voltage is applied to this MOS transistor, the MOS transistor operates as a bipolar transistor. Because of this, in FIG. 9A it is depicted as if there exists also a parasitic NPN transistor between the input wiring 102 and the Vss potential.
The N-channel MOS transistor 103 for input protection, which is a single piece of MOS transistor that actually constitutes the protection circuit, is formed in a semiconductor substrate 105 of P-type conductivity, as shown in FIG. 9B. It is formed such that a gate electrode 107 surrounds an N+ diffused layer 106 for drain that is connected to the input terminal 101, and an N+ diffused layer 108 for source surrounds the gate electrode 107.
In this case, the parasitic NPN transistor 104 is apparently formed as indicated by broken lines in FIG. 9B. Namely, the semiconductor substrate 105 serves as the base, the N+ diffused layer 108 for source serves as the emitter, and the N+ diffused layer 106 for drain serves as the collector, of the parasitic NPN transistor 104. The N+ diffused layer 108 for source is connected to the potential Vss, and an input terminal made of a metal pad is formed on the N+ diffused layer 106 for drain.
In this manner, a single piece of MOS transistor with large size is formed as a semiconductor element for input protection of the first prior art.
Next, referring to FIG. 10, which shows an equivalent circuit of an input protection part that acts as the electrostatic protection device of the second prior art will be described.
As shown in FIG. 10, a resistance wiring 202 is connected to an input terminal 201, where the wiring 202 is to be connected to the input gate of an internal circuit of the semiconductor device. APN diode 203 for input protection and an NPN transistor 204 are connected so as to be mutually parallel between the resistance wiring 202 and the Vss potential.
The NPN transistor 204 may be configured using, for example, slender N+ diffused layers that are formed in parallel and mutually adjacently on a P-type conductivity semiconductor substrate, though not illustrated in the figure. Here, the NPN transistor is a lateral bipolar transistor in which one of the diffused layers serves as the emitter, the other diffused layer serves as the collector, and the surface of the semiconductor substrate of P-type conductivity between these electrodes serves as the base.
Moreover, the PN diode 203 for input protection is formed by the other N+ diffused layer in the above and the semiconductor substrate. The equivalent circuit in FIG. 10 is formed according to the manner described in the above.
Referring to FIG. 11, which shows an equivalent circuit of an input protection part being the electrostatic protection device of the third prior art, this prior art will be described next.
As shown in FIG. 11, an input wiring 302 is connected to an input terminal 301, and the wiring 302 is to be connected to the input gate of an internal circuit of the semiconductor device. An N-channel MOS transistor for input protection 303 is connected between the input wiring 302 and the Vss potential to work as an electrostatic protection transistor. In addition, a coupling capacitor 304 and a resistor 305 are connected between the input wiring 302 and the Vss potential. After this arrangement, the gate electrode of the N-channel MOS transistor 303 is connected to a point between the coupling capacitor 304 and the resistor 305.
It is to be noted that the electrostatic protection devices shown in the conventional techniques described in the above are applicable similarly to the output protection part.
As has been mentioned in the above, semiconductor devices are made to operate fast as well as to have high integration. As a result, individual semiconductor elements that constitute the semiconductor device are made more refined and high density than ever. In this way, with the advancement in the refinement of the semiconductor devices, occurrence of defects in the semiconductor devices due to ESD breakdown increases in general.
Moreover, low power consumption is indispensable for the semiconductor devices so that lowering of the voltages during the operation becomes the more important. When the lowering of the voltage is pursued in this manner, the semiconductor elements constituting the internal circuit undergo breakdown more easily even in the case of smaller quantity of static electricity or lower level of excessive input voltage compared with the conventional case.
Furthermore, for the products of semiconductor devices, the operating voltage of the peripheral circuit is set higher than that of the internal circuit as has been mentioned above. In compliance with this, the LDD structure, which enhances the resistance to the hot electrons, is still required for the source-drain diffused layer of the MOS transistors that constitute the peripheral circuit. Because of this, electrostatic breakdown of the MOS transistors of the peripheral circuit is especially prone to happen. Under such a technical trend, development of a technology for protecting the semiconductor elements from ESD breakdown or the like is needed urgently even than ever.
In the first prior art, a single piece of MOS transistor with large size is formed in the vicinities of the input terminal 101 as an electrostatic protection transistor. When an excessive input voltage is applied to the N+ diffused layer 106 for drain through the input terminal 101, an avalanche breakdown occurs at the P-N junction part between the N+ diffused layer 106 for drain directly below the gate electrode 107 and the semiconductor substrate. In this case, the breakdown generates a large number of holes that constitute a majority carrier. The holes shifts the substrate potential toward the positive side, and operates the MOS transistor by means of the snap-back effect due to the bipolar action. This induces a discharge dealing with the excessive input voltage.
However, the breakdown at the P-N junction normally occurs locally in the first prior art. Because of this, in the MOS transistor with large size, the bipolar operation starts in the region where the above breakdown took place first, resulting in a nonuniform occurrence within the MOS transistor. Result is that the region at which the bipolar operation occurred first suffers an electrostatic breakdown. The nonuniformity of the bipolar operation reveals itself more readily if the MOS transistor is equipped with the LDD structure. The reason for this is that when the source-drain region of the MOS transistor has the LDD structure, the breakdown voltage becomes higher and the local breakdown is apt to occur more easily.
Moreover, in this prior art, the dielectric breakdown of the gate insulation film of the MOS transistor occurs more frequently. In particular, the dielectric breakdown becomes conspicuous with the decrease in the thickness of the gate insulating film that accompanies the refinement of the semiconductor element. The reason for easy occurrence of the dielectric breakdown is considered to be the injection and storage of a large number of holes in the gate insulation film from the semiconductor substrate whose voltage is shifted to the positive side and where numerous holes are generated, during discharge against the excessive input voltage, resulting in the application of an excessive voltage to the gate insulation film.
Furthermore, in the second prior art, the NPN transistor 204 or the like is formed by using a pair of N+ diffused layers formed selectively on the semiconductor substrate as the emitter and the collector regions, and the portion of the semiconductor substrate bounded by these regions as the base region. When an excessive input voltage is applied to the input terminal, the base potential is raised due to the holes generated by the avalanche breakdown, and the NPN transistor is activated. The discharge dealing with the excessive input voltage is carried out through the NPN transistor.
In this case, however, the activation of the NPN transistor, which is a lateral bipolar transistor, takes place somewhat delayed compared with the MOS transistor such as one in the first prior art. Because of this, the response of the electrostatic protection device against the excessive input voltage applied to the input terminal from the outside is delayed. In contrast, the response of the semiconductor element constituting the internal circuit is the more quickened because the element is made more refined. As a result, the semiconductor element of the semiconductor device tends to be broken down prior to the electrostatic protection device starts its function.
Moreover, in this case, such a protection device becomes no longer able to respond to the situation when the level of the excessive input voltage is reduced. This is because the reduction in the avalanche breakdown voltage of the P-N junction becomes difficult. In contrast, when the MOS transistor constituting the internal circuit of the semiconductor device is refined, its gate length is decreased and the thickness of the gate insulation film is reduced as described in the above, the MOS transistor becomes capable of responding satisfactorily even to such a small pulse voltage, and tends to generate an ESD breakdown.
In this way, at present, the breakdown voltage of the P-N junction tends to be on the high side deviating from the scaling rule of the refinement of the semiconductor element, and dielectric breakdown of the gate insulation film tends to occur before the avalanche breakdown of the P-N junction or the ensuing snap-back breakdown that accompanies the bipolar operation takes place.
In the electrostatic protection device of the third prior art, when a high pulse voltage due to static electricity or the like is applied to the input terminal 301, the potential of the gate electrode of the MOS transistor goes up momentarily through the coupling capacitor. Then, the N-channel MOS transistor 303 for input protection is brought to the on-state (conduction state), and an ESD via the N-channel MOS transistor 303 for input protection takes place. Here, the momentary voltage of the gate electrode can be controlled by the adjustment of the resistance of the resistor 305. In this way, the drive capability of the MOS transistor can be adjusted by the ESD.
The third prior art is effective when the reduction of the avalanche breakdownvoltage of the P-N junction becomes difficult. Nonetheless, a highvoltage is applied, though it maybe momentary, to the gate electrode of the N-channel MOS transistor 303 for input protection. Owing to this, the gate insulation film of the N-channel MOS transistor 303 for input protection changes with the lapse of time and is deteriorated. Moreover, in this case, the N-channel MOS transistor 303 for input protection cannot be used as an output buffer at the same time.


A battery connector includes an insulating housing and a plurality of terminals having a mounting member, a first elastic portion and a second elastic portion all accommodated in the insulating housing. The insulating housing includes two sidewalls, a top wall, a bottom wall, a front wall and a back wall. The top wall defines a plurality of receiving cavities that pass through the front wall and the back wall partly. The back wall defines a blocking portion which has a preventing surface. The front end of the mounting member bends upward and extends to form a soldering portion. A connecting portion extends from the rear end of the second elastic portion and tilts upward and is above the blocking portion. A contacting portion is exposed out of the insulating housing. As compressed, the connecting portion is supported by the blocking portion and slides along the preventing surface.

1. Field of the Invention
This present invention generally relates to a battery connector, and more particularly to a battery connector capable of extending the using life of the terminals thereof.
2. The Related Art
A battery connector is widely used in a mobile phone or other electronic device for electrical connection between an electronic device and a battery.
Referring to TW Pat. No. M267714, a conventional battery connector disclosed in the patent includes an insulating housing and a plurality of terminals accommodated in the insulating housing respectively. The terminal includes a connecting portion, an elastic portion and a locating portion. The connecting portion is V-shaped with one end bulging inner and the other end curved and extending to form the elastic portion. The elastic portion is S-shaped. The other end of the elastic portion connects with the locating portion which includes a soldering portion.
However, when the battery connector described above is in use, the connecting portion is compressed and further leads the elastic portion compressed. Then the elastic portion is in the state of impaction. If the battery connector is used frequently, the action force of the terminal is easy to become fatigue and it leads the elastic force weaken between the terminal and the battery. Therefore, the electrical connection between the battery and the electronic device is not stable.


A method for guaranteeing service reliability in an end-to-end Quality of Service framework is provided. The method includes checking whether connection information held in all node equipment gone through by a session connection is consistent. If the connection information is consistent, the consistency check is completed. Otherwise, the inconsistent connection information is released from the node equipment. In the provided method, a consistency check is performed inside every node equipment, and between node equipment in the network, and thus, abnormal resources may be retrieved, so that network service ability will not be affected by abnormal situations. Consistent with the provided method, degradation of service ability because of network abnormity can be avoided, and network reliability and availability can be improved.

Along with the continuous growth of the Internet, various network services appear, and advanced multimedia systems emerge in endlessly. Because real-time services are relatively sensitive to network characteristic such as transmission latency, delay jitter etc., when there are File Transfer Protocol (FTP) services of high burstiness, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) services with image files on the network, the real-time services may be greatly affected. Besides, since multimedia services may occupy much bandwidth, key services, which need to be guaranteed in the existing network, can not be reliably transmitted. Therefore, in order to guarantee reliable transmission of key services, various QoS technologies arise. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has proposed a good many service models and mechanisms to meet QoS requirement. At present, a scheme, which adopts an Integrated Service (INT-SERV) model on the access or edge area of a network, and adopts a Differentiated Service (DIFF-SERV) model on the core area of the network, is comparatively approved in the art.
In the Diff-serv model, only a measure of setting priority levels is provided to guarantee the QoS. Although this model has a feature of high line efficiency, the real effectiveness is unpredictable. Therefore, an independent bearer control layer is introduced into the Diff-serv Model of the backbone network in the art, a special set of Diff-serv QoS signaling mechanisms are provided, and also a resource management layer is specially established for the Diff-serv network, which is used for managing topology resources of the network. This Diff-serv mode of resource management is called a Diff-serv model with an independent bearer control layer. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the model. Here, the 101 is a service server, such as a Call Agent (CA), which belongs to the service control layer for implementing functions such as soft switch; the 102 is a bearer network resource manager, which belongs to the bearer control layer; the 103 is an Edge Router (ER) and the 104 is a Core Router, both of which belong to the bearer network. In this model, the bearer network resource manager is responsible for configuring management policies and network topology, allocating resources for service bandwidth applications of customers. The service bandwidth application requests and results of customers, and the path information of service applications, etc., which are allocated by every bearer network resource manager, are delivered via signaling between bearer network resource managers of each control domain.
When processing a service bandwidth application request from a user, the bearer control layer will assign a path for the service, and then the bearer network resource manager will inform the ER to forward the service stream according to the assigned path. How could the bearer layer transfer the service stream with reference to the path assigned by the bearer control layer? At present, an existing approach in the art is to use the Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technique, and with a resource reservation mode, establishing a Label Switched Path (LSP) along the service stream path assigned by the bearer control layer, where the end-to-end LSP is set up by using explicit route mechanisms, such as the Resource Reservation Protocol-traffic engineering (RSVP-TE) or the constraint-based routed Label Switched Path (CR-LDP).
In a multi-layer network structure, especially when the control layer and the bearer layer are separated, the procedure for establishing a session connection includes: interaction between service control layer entities, interaction between bearer control layer entities, interaction between service control layer entities and bearer control layer entities, and interaction between bearer control layer entities and bearer layer entities. Every entity involved may keep information related to the session connection, for example, the service control layer may reserve session establishment information, the bearer control layer may preserve session resource establishment information, and a bearer layer entity may preserve policy information of session data flow. All the information should be consistent. When certain node equipment is abnormal during information processing procedure, such as resource releasing, the information on the network will be inconsistent. In this case, resources allocated by some nodes for the session connection, including memories, buffers and bandwidth etc, cannot be released in time, and thus, the resources may be hung up.
At present, cold backup is one of the simplest methods to guarantee service reliability, which means using one entity as a complete backup of another entity. For example, entity B is taken as a backup entity of entity A, and when entity A fails, the backup entity B will totally substitute for entity A. Nevertheless, for the backup entity B, a premise to totally substitute for entity A is to rebuild both the bearer connection and the service connection. The cold backup method is the most effective routing mechanism and easy to implement in the initial stage of network construction, because at this stage the network is small, the real-time requirement for service is not critical, and switching and smoothing are not needed, as well. Therefore, the cold backup method is competent in the case when traffic volume is low, and interruption is allowed. However, along with the growth of traffic volume, and the expanding of real-time services, which are not expected by users to be interrupted, the deficiency of cold backup method appears gradually. That is, in the face of this situation, a device failure may occur, and services should be interrupted and rebuilt. Thus, if the cold backup method is adopted in a wide area network which is complex and of critical real-time requirement, services will be interrupted and rebuilt when a certain section of bearer network fails.

Method and node equipment for guaranteeing service reliability in an end-to-end quality of service framework


A hand-held through-skin (HHTS) sensor for determining the location of an underlying aperture in a support structure suited to mount a skin or surface. In an embodiment, the HHTS sensor includes a sensor disposed in a housing and configured to determine a location of an aperture disposed in an adjacent surface through electromagnetic, x-ray, ultrasonic or other means. The HHTS sensor further includes an alignment assembly having an alignment orifice disposed in the housing and configured to be maneuvered in an x-y plane within the housing. The HHTS sensor also includes a processor coupled to the sensor and configured to receive a signal from the sensor indicating the location of the aperture and configured to control first and second actuators to maneuver the alignment orifice within the x-y plane to be co-axially located with the aperture in response to the sensor signal.

As manufacturing environments become more automated and complex, robotics and other automated machinery is becoming more and more prevalent in all phases of manufacturing. Very specific tasks that are conventionally performed by a skilled artisan may be performed using highly specialized robotics having highly specialized tools and/or end effectors. For example, drilling holes in composite sections of a contoured section of an airplane wing or car body may require a high level of precision with respect to applying torque to a motor for moving the end effector around a contoured wing surface such that a drill hole is drilled precisely over a receiving hole of an underlying structure.
In conventional manufacturing environments, a worker may have used a conventional through-skin sensor to detect an underlying target or hole (wherein a "skin" may refer to a surface structure or body panel of a car body or airplane body). As such, the worker may manually maneuver a hand-held through-skin sensor until the sensor determines that the underlying target or hole is aligned with a drill aperture. Then, a second worker (or in some cases, the same worker accomplishes a new task) may place a drill bit on the identified target or hole location to drill a hole through the skin at the identified location. This is inefficient as one or two workers are needed to manipulate two different devices and the process is tedious as the first worker needs to manually maneuver the aperture of the through-skin sensor until aligned and then hold in place while the second worker completes a drilling procedure (or first worker who holds the sensor in place while drilling). This tedious, work-intensive, inefficient process is in need of a novel and modern overhaul.

System and method for automated aperture alignment in response to detecting an object


A display is provided having first and second direct view modes of operation. The display comprises a liquid crystal display panel and a backlight which is illuminated during the first mode so that the displayed image is visible throughout an extended viewing region in front of the device. The display also comprises a holographic element and a front light source, which is switched on for the second direct view mode. The holographic element redirects light from the front light source into part of the extended viewing region so that an image displayed by the device is visible in only a restricted portion of the viewing region.

Liquid crystal displays are commonly used as image display devices for personal communication devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). For many years now displays have been designed for multiple users and optimized so that viewers can see the same good image quality and the same image from different angles with respect to the display. This assumes that the multiple users require the same information from the display. However, there are many applications where it would be desirable to be able to see different information from the same display in spatially separated viewing windows, such as for 3D or dual view operation. For example, in computer games when each player may wish to view the game from his or her own perspective. This is currently done by each player viewing their unique perspective on individual screens, which takes up a lot of space and is not practical for portable games. By showing more than one image in more than one viewing window from the same display, there can be a considerable saving in space and cost. There is also the ability to preclude the users from seeing each other's views, which may be a desirable option in security applications such as banking or sales transactions as well as games.
Several techniques are known in the prior art for producing three-dimensional images. These techniques include: computer graphics which simulate 3D images on two-dimensional displays; stereoscopic displays where left and right retinal images are mentally fused into one image; and holographic images which reconstruct the actual wavefront structure reflected from an object.
Three dimensional displays are classified into two types depending on the method used to supply the different views to the eyes (or different viewers).
Stereoscopic displays typically display both of the images over a wide viewing area. However, each of the views is encoded, for instance by colour, polarization state or time of display, so that a filter system of glasses worn by the observer can separate the views and will only let each eye see the view that is intended for it. Without this distinction, each eye would see both views in all spatial positions.
Autostereoscopic displays require no viewing aids to be worn by the observer but rather the two views are only visible from defined regions of space. The region of space in which an image is visible across the whole of the display unit active area is termed a "viewing region". If the observer is situated such that one of their eyes is in the viewing region for one image and the other eye is in the viewing region for the other image of the stereoscopic pair then a correct set of views will be seen and a three-dimensional image will be perceived.
"New Autostereoscopic Display System", Ezra et al, SPIE Vol. 2409, February 1995 describes two standard LCDs mounted at 90° with beam combining optics to send the image from one LCD to one eye and the image from the second LCD to the second eye. However, this display apparatus, which uses 2 SLMs, is too large and too expensive for the mass market.
For single panel flat panel autostereoscopic displays, the formation of the viewing regions is typically due to a combination of the pixel structure of the display unit and an optical element, generically termed a parallax optic. An example of such an optic is a parallax barrier. Parallax barrier technology was first used by Ives for 3D display purposes in 1903. The parallax barrier may be an array of transmitting slit apertures on an absorbing optical element attached to the front or rear surface of a LCD device. The slit apertures are vertical and the distance between the slits is slightly less than twice the spacing between two pixels on the display for a front parallax barrier. The barrier generally lies on the surface of a polariser at a fixed distance from the pixel plane. A viewer in a defined region will be able to see with one eye alternate columns of pixels on the display and with the other eye will be able to see the intermediate columns of pixels. If the alternate and intermediate columns show separately two homologous stereoscopic images, then the viewer is able to see a stereoscopic image. Examples of 3D LCD devices with parallax barriers may be found, for example, in: G. J Woodgate, J Harrold, A. M. S Jacobs. R. R. Mosely, D. Ezra. "Flat Panel Autostereoscopic Displays-Characterisation and Enhancement", SPIE Vol. 3957. This display has the disadvantage that it is generally 20-30% of the brightness of the base LCD panel. This is due mainly to the dark areas of the barrier and absorption in the slit. In addition, the resolution of the 3D display is half that of the base LCD; thus 2D images and especially small text become degraded by aliasing artifacts and can be difficult to read.
EP 0829744 describes a display device electronically switchable between 2D and 3D modes of operation. It suggested to use a latent parallax barrier which can be "developed" and, thus, configure 2D to 3D system. This system has the advantages of an autostereoscopic 3D mode along with a full brightness and full resolution in 2D mode. With no "developing" polariser on the display, the latent barrier is not seen as the eye does not distinguish between polarization states. If a developing polariser is placed over the display such that the polariser axis is orthogonal to the light coming from the "absorbing" part of the retarder barrier, the polarized light from the "absorbing" stripes is blocked while light from the "transmitting" stripes passes through the polariser. However, such a display device operates in 3D mode with only a half of the resolution and less than a half of the brightness of 2D mode.
D. Trayner, E. Orr "Development in autostereoscopic displays using Holographic Optical Elements", SPIE Proc. v. 3012, pp. 167-174, 1997 describes the use of a transmission holographic optical element (HOE) for angular separation of left/right images from a transmissive LCD illuminated from the rear by an external light source. The HOE comprises two sets of horizontal (rows) stripes, and each set of stripes reconstructs a real image of a diffuse viewing window.
In the above-mentioned prior art the LCD may be positioned immediately in front of or behind the HOE, and the LCD and HOE are illuminated from the rear by an internal light source. However, because the internal light source must be at a distance from the LCD and HOE, this makes for a relatively bulky device. Furthermore; the device cannot produce simple 2D images, and cannot be used as a 2D backlit LCD and there is therefore no ability to switch between 2D and 3D operation.
G. L. Valliath, Z. A. Coleman et al. "Design of Hologram for Brightness Enhancement in Colour LCDs". SID98 Digest; 44.5L, 1139-1142; 1998 refers to the use of a transmission hologram for brightness enhancement of a front illuminated reflective LCD. The holographic element is permanently attached to a front surface of a reflective LCD device illuminated by a distant light source positioned at 34° offset and above a display and emitting substantially collimated light. The holographic element has no optical function for the light incident from the light source, but steers and scatters the light reflected by an internal LCD reflector into a viewing zone 0°-14° from the normal axis to a display surface. The light source has to be distant to ensure uniform and substantially collimated illumination under achromatic angle (to satisfy chromatic correction of the holographic element).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,808 describes a stereo head-mounted display apparatus using a single grating light valve frame sequential display. This display may be used in 2D and 3D modes. The right image is directed to a right eye of the user, and the left image is directed to the left eye of the user. In a non-stereoscopic mode, both images are the same. The grating light valve display receives the light from left and right sources and sequentially sends the image to the left and right eyes.
Physical Optics Corporation demonstrated a prototype of 3D projection display. This is described at http://www.poc.com/emerging_products/3d_display/default.asp. This 3D projection display employs two projectors for projecting left and right images to a directional screen. Left and right images are angularly separated and spatially overlapped in the plane of a projection screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,562 describes an autostereoscopic display device comprising a pair of polarised light sources and an optical system for imaging the light sources into two spatially separated viewing zones. An LCD includes an array of polarisation sensitive elements, adjacent and aligned to a pixel structure of the LCD. The optical axis of a polarising element of a first type is chosen to transmit light of the polarisation of the first light source and to absorb light of the polarisation of the second light source. The optical axis of a polarising element of a second type is chosen to transmit light of the polarisation of the second light source and to absorb light of the polarisation of the first light source. Thus, only the image generated in a pixel set associated with the polarising elements of the first type is displayed in a right viewing window and only the image generated in a pixel set adjacent to the elements of the second type is displayed in the left viewing window.
To increase the functionality of direct view transmissive displays to project enlarged images on to an external projection screen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,595,648 discloses a projection display comprising a transmissive LCD with a volume reflection hologram permanently attached to its rear surface and an external front illuminator. The reflection hologram is arranged to act like a lens to form an image of the light source which is spatially displaced from the original image of the light source formed by condensing optics. This hologram has substantially no function when the transmissive display is illuminated by backlight and operates in direct view mode. The hologram functions as a reflector and an off-axis lens.
The device of the above prior art document cannot produce 3D or dual view images.
A projection display using a reflective LCD and a polarising beam splitter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,719.
Japanese Patent Application JP2002-268005 discloses a portable projection display which projects the image from the display element or its intermediate image on an eyeball of the observer.


A surface-mounting structure of a surface-mounting electronic device onto the surface of a circuit medium is provided. An external terminal of the device has a first mounting surface on which a first set of protrusions are formed. The first mounting surface includes a first uncovered space in the remaining area of the first set of protrusions. A mounting pad of the circuit medium has a second mounting surface on which a second set of protrusions are formed. The second mounting surface includes a second uncovered space in the remaining area of the second set of protrusions. The second mounting surface is opposite to the first mounting surface. The second set of protrusions are inserted into the first uncovered space. The first set of protrusions are inserted into the second uncovered space. A bonding material is placed between the first and second mounting surfaces. The bonding material provides a mechanical engagement between the first and second mounting surfaces, thereby mechanically and electrically connecting the terminal of the device onto the mounting pad of the circuit medium. The mounting process and its process control are simplified, and connection accuracy and reliability are improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface-mounting technique of electronic devices and more particularly, to a surface-mounting structure and method of electronic devices such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, integrated circuit devices (ICs) and the like onto the surface of a circuit medium such as a printed circuit board, a ceramic substrate and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, on mounting operation of a surface-mounting electronic device onto the surface of a printed circuit board, a well-known soldering technique as shown in FIG. 1 has been developed and practically used in a variety of application fields.
As shown in FIG. 1, first, a solder paste 115 is coated on a mounting pad 112 which is formed on the surface of a circuit board 111. Next, a terminal 114 of a surface-mounting electronic device 113 is placed onto the coated solder paste 115. Then, the solder paste 115 is temporarily melted by the application of heat and then cooled, thereby connecting the terminal 114 to the pad 112 by the solder joint 115.
Also, a mounting technique for a printed circuit board using face fasteners was disclosed in the Non-Examined Utility-Model Publication Nos. 60-176588 and 4-55149.
FIG. 2 shows a method of easily bonding a couple of faces by face fasteners, which was disclosed in the Non-Examined Utility-Model Publication No. 60-176588.
In FIG. 2, a face fastener 222 is stuck onto a flat bent-up part formed by cutting and raising a chassis 221. Another face fastener 224 is stuck onto the bottom side of a printed circuit board 223. Electronic parts 225 are mounted on the top side of the board 223. The exposed hooks of the two face fasteners 222 and 224 are mutually joined or linked by pressing them. Thus, the printed circuit board 223 is fixed to the flat bent-up part of the chassis 221.
FIG. 3 shows another method of easily bonding a couple of faces by face fasteners, which was disclosed in the Non-Examined Utility-Model Publication No. 4-55149.
In FIG. 3, curled members 332 made of a thermally conductive material are fixed thickly on a surface of a heat-radiation plate 331, thereby forming a face fastener. Curled members 334 made of a thermally conductive material are fixed thickly on a surface of a heat-radiation plate 333, thereby forming another face fastener. These two face fasteners are forced to adhere to each other while applying a thermally conductive grease 335, interlocking and connecting the plates 331 and 333.
In the above conventional face fastener techniques, which should naturally be capable of freely attaching and detaching the fasteners, the face fasteners are connected by mutually locking the curled or hooked members under the application of pressure. The connected fasteners are disconnected by causing elastic deformation in the curled or hooked members with a tensile force to thereby release their mutual locking.
The above conventional mounting structures have the following problems.
With the above conventional bonding method using the solder paste shown in FIG. 1, a process of applying the solder paste onto the mounting pads is necessary before placing the surface-mounting devices on the circuit board. Furthermore, the solder paste has many factors to adversely affect the workmanship of the surface-mounting structure. For example, placement error of the devices, and tombstone (Manhattan) phenomenon where the devices undesirably rise due to uneven melting of the solder paste on heating or the like readily take place. This makes the surface-mounting process complex, thereby not only complicating the process control but also giving rise to problems with connection accuracy and reliability.
On the other hand, if the above fastener technique is applied to the connection between a terminal of an electronic device and a mounting pad of a circuit board, the formation of fine curled, hooked, or barbed members of an electrically conductive material is necessary on the metal faces of the terminal and pad. As electrically conductive materials, a variety of metals, electrically conductive plastics, and resins mixed with an electrically conductive filler have been well known. However, whichever the electrically conductive material may be used, it is technically quite difficult to form a curled, hooked, or barbed shape on the metal face, thus raising a problem of unsuitability to industrial applications.
Furthermore, the curled, hooked, or barbed members used in the above conventional fastener technique facilitate the face-to-face connection and disconnection through their forced elastic deformation. Thus, another problem that the necessity of appropriate elastic deformation limits the material selection range.

Surface-mounting structure and method of electronic devices


An method of forming a thin walled section in an injection molded plastic part includes providing a mold having a first mold half, a second mold half, and a slide, wherein the first and second mold halves, and the slide define a mold cavity when assembled. The slide includes portions that define a thin walled section of the plastic part and is movable between a retracted position wherein the slide is partially retracted from the mold cavity and an engaged position wherein the slide is in position to define the final shape of the plastic part; injecting molten plastic into the mold cavity with the slide in the retracted position; moving the slide to the engaged position; allowing the molten plastic to cool; opening the mold halves and removing the plastic part.

When a thin walled cross section is required in a plastic part, particularly when the part is formed by injection molding, the thinning of the section usually requires a secondary operation. This may include removal of some of the plastic with a laser, a blade, or a router. The reason for the secondary operation is that when a form or slide is placed inside an injection-molding tool to form the thin walled section, the reduced area creates a spike in pressure and the flow front is disrupted. This means that the molten plastic will not fill in near the thin wall section. Also, an increase in pressure typically results in a higher localized gloss change to the surface, while the change in the flow front results in a turbulent flow causing surface deflects. In the past, these issues have been hidden with paint or other covering.
Another common surface defect in injection molded plastic parts is sink of the material. When there is a large differential change between the nominal wall stock and the thinned cross section, the part cools at different rates. This cooling difference results in a visible depression in the final part surface.
Therefore, there is a need for a method of forming a thin walled section in an injection molded plastic part that avoids these issues.

Method of forming plastic part having hidden thin walled section


A method for determination of parameters of wood panels, which comprises analyzing the raw wood material/panels at a moisture content <10% by a spectrometric method giving spectral data, and comparing spectral data with reference data from reference material/panels calibrated to known parameters of panels produced from the reference material or of the reference panel by multivariate analysis. Control of process variables influencing parameters of the panels, which comprises analyzing the material/panels, linking spectral data into a combination with desired parameters, and comparing the combination with reference combinations consisting of reference data from reference material/panels linked with known parameters of the reference material/panels, the reference combinations being calibrated to known variables by multivariate analysis.

Particleboard can be produced from dry, fine wood particles that are mixed with binders and formed into a mat, which is then pressed together under high temperature and pressure into a densified board.
Wood raw material of almost any type of species may be used. However, the properties of the finished board, such as, for example, density, glueability etc are dependent upon the properties of the wood.
Sawdust, shavings, chips and shavings from round wood, in this specification and claims, referred to as "particles", are used as wood raw material. Flaking of the round wood takes place in drum flakers, while chips are processed in knifering flakers.
Subsequent to disintegration all wood material is dried down to 2-4% moisture in high capacity dryers. After the drying process the wood particles are screened to the preferred size. Rejected material passes through hammer mills and is fed back to the screening system.
Both the form of the flakes/sawdust and their size distribution are of importance for the board properties.
The most commonly used binder for particleboard and medium density fibre boards (MDF), is urea-formaldehyde resin (UF), but also melamine-urea resin (MUF), phenol resin (PF) and isocyanate resin (MDI) are used to some extent, especially for production of weather resistant board.
Resin, water, hardener and wax emulsion are automatically dosed on weight base. Dosages of the chemicals are calculated on the dry substance in percent of dry wood material. The amounts of binder added varies depending upon the resin type and the quality of board desired.
The dosage of UF resin is normally between 7-10%, MUF-resin between 11-13%, PF resin between 6-8% and MDI resin between 2-5%. The comparatively low dosages of PF and MDI resins reflect the superior binding ability of these resins.
A normal particleboard consists of about 6% moisture, 9% binding agent and other chemicals and 85% wood. In spite of the fact that the totally dominating ingredient is wood, the research and development (R&D) efforts within the particle-board industry has, up to mid 80's almost exclusively been dealing with the binders and the role of the wood has been neglected.
It is well known in the pulp and paper industry that the wood must be stored for a certain time before the production of pulp takes place to avoid quality and process problems. During storage wood undergoes important changes in the chemical composition. For instance, some volatile compounds disappear, the amounts of free and bonded acids increase, unsaturated bonds oxidize, hydrolysis of esters will occur, etc.
The particleboard industry has, however, not paid these facts much attention, but instead concluded that process and quality problems are more likely to stem from variations in the binder quality.
Up to now it has not been possible to establish valid correlations between the analysis result of the wood material and the properties of the board, even though there would seem to be a certain connection between acid content and the processability of wood.
One object of the present invention is to accomplish an on-line, in-line or at-line measuring of the raw wood material flow into the plant, giving the possibility of sorting out unsuitable material before it enters the process line.
Investigations of raw wood particles with the analysis technique according to the present invention have now surprisingly shown very high correlations between measured analysis values of the wood and the board properties, e.g. with the board's content of free formaldehyde, which today is extremely important, considering the very stringent environmental stipulations as well as firmness, and water resistance.
Information on particleboard and the processes for the manufacturing thereof is available in "Modern Particleboard & dry-process fibreboard manufacturing" by Thomas M. Maloney (1993), (cf. especially Chapter 4 and 5), which by reference is incorporated herein in its entirety.
The principles of NIR spectroscopy are described by Williams, P.; Norris,K. (1987): New-Infrared Technology in the Agriculture and Food Industries. AACC, St. Paul/Minn. and Sterk, E.; Luchter, K. (1986): Near Infrared Analyses (NIRA) A Technology for Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses. (Applied Spectroscopy Revues 22:4.), all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The use of multivariate data analysis in the characterisation of multi-component systems is presently a field of development. Applied generally to the field of chemistry those statistic methods are also termed chemometrics methods. The technique of chemometrics is more fully explained in S. D. Brown, "Chemometrics", Anal. Chem. 62, 84R-101R (1990), which by reference is incorporated herein in its entirety.
The term "board" includes in this specification and claims the following board types: particleboard, medium density fibre board (MDF), waferboard, oriented strand board (OSB), hardboard and plywood.
Process variables which influence the quality of the board are e.g. the wood raw material, viz. sort of wood, the maturing level, the composition of the particles as well as size and moisture content; the particle generation such as Hombak/Mayer particles; the dryer, its inlet and cutlet temperatures, dried particle moisture; screening parameters such as surface and core particles, dust content, fractions, moisture content, particle temperature; glueblender variables such as surface and core particles, scale settings, particle temperature, glue amounts, wax amounts, moisture content, cooling water; forming station variables such as volume weight, thickness etc.; pre-press variables such as press time and temperatures; hot-press variables such as press time, pressure, temperature; cooling variables such as temperature; and sanding variables such as surface fineness.
In the proceedings from the 48th Appita Annual General Conference (held at Melbourne, Australia, 2-6 May 1994) Meder et al present an article entitled "Prediction of wood chip and pulp and paper properties via multivaritate analysis of spectral data" (pages 479-484). According to the conclusive part of the article (page 484) Meder et al have used PCR analysis of FTIR, NIR and NMR spectra of wood chip samples to predict the chemical composition of the chips (i.e. in fact to determine said composition from the spectra), and to attempt (although, as explicitly indicated in the article, not very successfully) to predict some physical properties of Kraft and TMP pulp and paper properties. The article does however not suggest any method for qualitative or quantitative determination of parameters of a wood based panel produced from raw wood material flowing into a process for production of wood based panels, little less any method for controlling any process variables in such a process.
In an article in the scientific magazine "Holz als Roh-und Werkstoff 50 (1992) p 25-28" Niemz et al. states that the quality of the board is influenced by the solid resin content and the relation hardwood/softwood. Niemz et al. use NIR spectroscopy for the quantifying of the portion of urea-formaldehyde resin at chips and the mixing ratio of hardwood to softwood. The aim of the tests as performed are to establish if the process is suitable to prove urea-formaldehyde on glued sawdust and to obtain the mixing ratio hardwood/softwood.
It is also stated in the said article that NIR-technique can be used in combination with a linear multiple regression for on-line and off-line control of wood moisture and for the analysis of chemicals and agriculture products. It is furthermore stated that Norris 1962 for the quantitative analysis of foodstuff and fodder combined NIR with mathematical-statistical methods (chemometrics) which later was used for the quantitative analysis within classical chemistry.
In another article in the same magazine at p 73-78 by Kniest a sawdust-glue mixture is characterized by NlR-spectroscopy in combination with linear multiple regression. However, it is at p 77 item 3, 2nd paragraph stated that the measuring of unglued samples is not possible due to the requested data allocations for the process modelling of each board. [Zur Durchfuhrung o.g. Industrieversuche ist die Messung der zugehorigen unbeleimten Probe aufgrund der furdie Prozessmodellierung notwendigen Datenzuordnung zur jeweiligen Spanplatte nicht moglich.]
It is obvious from the said reference that the man skilled in the art did not consider it possible to predict the properties of the board from the unglued particles nor to determine such properties in a non-destroying manner from the produced board, and the problem to find an efficient on-line, in-line or at-line method at the beginning of the process for the determination of the parameters characterising the board remained unsolved.
Relevant parameters defining the properties of board are e.g. density and density profile, internal bond, thickness swelling, absorption, permeability, perforator value, modulus of rapture (MOR), parameters relating to volatile organic compounds (VOC) and emission chamber values.
Density is in this connection the same as volume weight and is normally determined by weighing strips of the board with known volume and dividing the mass with the volume. Values are expressed in kg/m.sup.3.
Internal bond (IB) is the property of a given board to resist tension perpendicular to the plane of the board. The result is depending on the resin content and the board density; in both cases almost a linear function.
Thickness swelling is measured by placing a sample of a certain size in water with a temperature of 20 or 23.degree. C. during a period of 2-24h. Thickness of the sample is measured before and after the soaking. The thickness difference is divided by the original thickness and expressed in percent. Thickness swelling is a measure of the board's ability to withstand for example unexpected rain or water based paint etc.
Absorption value is normally performed with the same sample that was used for measuring thickness swelling. The sample is weighed before and after the water exposure. The weight difference is divided by the original weight and expressed in percent. The absorption value can be used to predict the board behaviour under severe conditions.
Permeability value is obtained by sucking air through the sample (the board edges are sealed with wax) and the pressure drop across the board is measured along with the air flow through the sample. The permeability varies over the board surface depending on variations in board density but normally there is a good correlation between average permeability and the formaldehyde emission value. Permeability measures the resistance the formaldehyde has in escaping from the board. Values are expressed in cm/minute.
Perforator value expresses the formaldehyde content of the board at a certain moisture content (6.5%). The formaldehyde is obtained by extracting the board in toluene. The released formaldehyde is absorbed in water and determined photometrically. As could be expected there is a connection between the perforator value and the formaldehyde emission from the board and the perforator method is therefore an approved method in many countries. Values are expressed in mg HCHO/100 g ovendry board.
The Emission chamber method is now accepted all over the world as the most accurate method for determination of formaldehyde release from wood based panels or other materials. The conditions in the chamber are set to simulate the conditions in a normal home. The size of the chamber varies between the countries from 1 m.sup.3 to 40 m.sup.3. The temperature varies from 23 to 25.degree. C., the load varies from 0.3 m.sup.2 /m.sup.3 to 1.0 m.sup.2 /m.sup.3, the relative humidity from 45 to 50% and the air rate exchange from 0.5 to 1.0/hour. The board samples are placed vertically with a certain distance in racks in the chamber. Air samples are taken until a steady state is reached, which normally takes 3 to 10 days. Values are expressed in ppm HCHO or in mg HCHO/m.sup.3.
Density profile is a measure of the mat forming function and the function of the press and also of the geometry and mix of the wood particles. The profile is today measured by use of apparatus with X-rays capable of measuring the density for each 0.1 mm from surface to surface. A normal density profile for particleboard shows surface densities of 1100 kg/m.sup.3 down to 600 kg/m.sup.3 in the core.
Thus, much research work has been done in the past to find a solution to the said problem during the years but no convenient solution has been available until by the present invention.

Prediction of the properties of board by using a spectroscopic method combined with multivariate calibration


A nuclear fuel assembly having an instrumentation tube having an insert that centers the in-core instrumentation while permitting bugling or welding of the instrumentation tube wall to a grid strap to obtain a rigid connection there between at any elevation along the instrumentation tube.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains in general to nuclear reactor fuel assemblies and more particularly to a pressurized water reactor nuclear fuel assembly instrumentation thimble.
2. Background
A typical pressurized water reactor includes a reactor vessel which contains nuclear fuel, a coolant, typically a water based solution, which is heated by the nuclear fuel, and means for monitoring and controlling the nuclear reaction. The reactor vessel is cylindrical, and is provided with a hemispherical bottom and a hemispherical top which is removable. The hot water coolant solution is conveyed from and returned to the vessel by a reactor coolant system which includes one or more reactor coolant loops (usually three or four loops, depending upon the power generating capacity of the reactor). Each loop includes a pipeline to convey hot water from the reactor vessel to a steam generator, a pipeline to convey the water from the steam generator back to the reactor vessel, and a pump. The steam generator is essentially a heat exchanger which transfers heat from the reactant coolant system to water from a source that is isolated from the reactor coolant system; the resulting steam is conveyed to a turbine to generate electricity. During operation of the reactor, the water in the vessel and coolant system is maintained at a high pressure to keep it from boiling as it is heated by the nuclear fuel.
Nuclear fuel is supplied to the reactor in the form of a number of fuel assemblies, that are supported within a reactor core by upper and lower traversely extending core support plates. Conventional designs of fuel assemblies include a plurality of fuel rods and control rod guide thimbles which are hollowed tubes held in an organized array by grids spaced along the fuel assembly length and attached to the control rod guide thimbles. The guide thimbles are structural members which also provide channels for neutron absorber rods, burnable poison rods or neutron source assemblies which are all vehicles for controlling the reactivity of the reactor. Top and bottom nozzles on opposite ends thereof are secured to the guide thimbles; thereby forming an integral fuel assembly.
The grids, as is known in the relevant art, are used to precisely maintain the spacing between the fuel rods in the reactor core, resist rod vibration, provide lateral support for the fuel rods and, to some extent, vertically restrain the rods against longitudinal movement. One type of conventional grid design includes a plurality of interleaved straps that together form an egg-crate configuration having a plurality of roughly square cells which individually accept the fuel rods therein. Depending upon the configuration of the control rod guide thimbles, the guide thimbles can either be received in cells that are either sized the same as those that receive the fuel rods therein, or can be received in relatively larger thimble cells defined in the interleaved straps. Typically at least one instrumentation tube is provided that extends through at least one cell, typically the center cell, in each strap and is captured between the top and bottom nozzles. The instrumentation tube, like the control rod guide thimbles, is attached to each of the grid cells through which it passes by a mechanical connection formed by bulging or welding. A number of measuring instruments are employed within the reactor core to promote safety and to permit proper control of the nuclear reaction. Among other instruments, neutron flux detectors are stationarily positioned within the instrumentation tubes within the core for that purpose. For a proper flux reading of the neutron activity within the region of the corresponding fuel assembly it is important that the flux detectors be centrally positioned around the longitudinal axis of the instrumentation tube. Centering of the in-core instrumentation is required to ensure the detector responses are consistent from location to location within the core. One existing instrumentation tube design is illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows the instrumentation tube 10 extending between the upper or top nozzle 12 and the bottom nozzle 14. An in-core instrument 16 extends through the interior of the instrument tube 10 spanning between the top nozzle 12 and lower or bottom nozzle 14. Dimples 18 formed by crimping the instrumentation tube at a number of diametrically opposed points around its circumference, center the in-core instrumentation 16 within the tube 10. Typically the dimples are provided at a number of elevations along the instrumentation tube 10, with subsequent dimples being rotated 90 degrees as shown in the top section of the instrumentation tube 10 shown in FIG. 2. However the dimples preclude the bulging of the instrumentation tube to a spacer grid at the dimple elevations and also are limited in their ability to center smaller outside diameter in-core instrumentation within the instrumentation tube.
Accordingly, a new instrumentation tube design is desired that will center the in-core instrumentation while providing a smooth wall, non dimpled, outside circumference that may be either welded or bulged to the spacer grids.
Furthermore, it is an object of this invention to provide such an in-core instrumentation tube that can center any size in-core instrumentation within the instrumentation tube.


A padded protective garment to be worn on the upper body of a user comprises a number of padded panels for positioning against the chest and back regions to cover the shoulders and a major part of the rib cage of the wearer. The garment also includes an external shell comprising generally vertically extending stiffener bands provided in laterally spaced pairs for overlying portions of the front and rear padded sections. The stiffener bands at their upper ends are connected to shoulder arches and are fabricated from a stiffly flexible material so as to be able to attenuate localized impact forces and distribute such forces to an enlarged region of the underlying padding layers.

a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new or improved protective garment to be worn on the upper body of a user to provide a measure of protection against blows to the shoulders and the torso. The invention is particularly although not exclusively concerned with the provision of the kind of protective garment that is commonly referred to as "shoulder pads" as used for ice hockey and other contact sports.
b) Description of the Prior Art
The participants in contact sports, and in particular in ice hockey, are subjected to frequent blows not just from the bodies of opposing players, but also from contact, for example, with rink boards, goal posts, sticks, pucks, skates, and the ice surface. Numerous protection systems of shoulder pads have been proposed in the past and are available on the market.
Unfortunately, maximizing the protective properties of such systems necessarily entails restriction in the freedom of movement of the arms, neck and torso of the player, so that a compromise has to be reached between the amount of protection afforded by a protective garment and the restriction which the garment imposes upon the freedom of movement of the wearer. Generally, more skilful and experienced ice hockey players tend to favour garments which maximize the player's freedom of movement while still providing some degree of protection, whereas amateur and younger players require equipment which maximizes the degree of protection without excessively limiting their freedom of movement.


A polycrystalline alloy is composed essentially of, by weight %: 15% to 30% Mo, 3% to 10% Al, up to 10% Cr, up to 10% Fe, up to 2% Si, 0.01% to 0.2% C, 0.01% to 0.04% B, balance Ni.

Commercial production of many durable products, for example, automotive, aerospace, industrial, and appliances, etc, involve manufacturing methods which include hot forging, extrusion, cutting, etc. Forging and extrusion dies must be very robust in order to have an adequate service life. Dies are generally heat treated in order to obtain sufficient hardness to resist distortion during use in manufacturing processes. However, the hardness obtained by heat treating decreases with time as high temperature work pieces repeatedly come in contact with the die surface. Decreased hardness results in changes in the dimensions of the die due to deformation. Thus, the die must be replaced.
Some die materials have poor resistance to oxidation therefore build up surface oxide scale which alters the die cavity dimensions.
In cutting tool applications, hardened tools can lose their edge and/or performance due to softening which results from heating of the cutting edge by friction during contact with work pieces.

High strength, thermally stable, oxidation resistant, nickel-based alloy

Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation


A powered wheelchair includes a seat assembly configured to support an individual, a legrest assembly pivotally connected to the seat assembly, and an adjustment assembly including an actuator operatively connected to the central column through a piston slidably secured within a sleeve. The adjustment assembly is secured underneath the seat assembly. The powered wheelchair may also include an extension bracket that allows legrests and a central column of the legrest assembly to be separately and independently adjusted with respect to one another.

Power wheelchairs are used by disabled individuals in order to move around in comfort and relative ease. Indeed, these wheelchairs have improved throughout the years to provide numerous features that provide additional comfort to individuals.
A power wheelchair typically includes a base having wheels. The base supports a seat assembly. The individual controls operation of the wheelchair through a control interface, such as a joystick, typically positioned on an armrest of the seat assembly. The control interface is in electrical communication with a processing system that is also connected to motors that drive the wheels, a steering mechanism, and the like. The processing system generally controls overall operation of all powered aspects of the wheelchair.
A wheelchair also includes legrests in which an individual positions his/her legs. Many legrests are adjustable such that they may be moved through various positions.
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate isometric side and front views, respectively, of a conventional power wheelchair 10. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the wheelchair 10 includes a seat assembly 12 and a legrest assembly 14 connected to the seat assembly 12. The legrest assembly 14 includes a central column 16 extending from and proximate to a front edge of the seat assembly 12. Calf supports 18 are positioned on either side of the central column 16 below the seat assembly 12. Footrests 20 extend from an end of the column 16 that is distal from the seat assembly 12. As shown, in the normal position, the footrests 20 are generally parallel with the seating area of the seat assembly 12, while the calf supports 18 and central column 16 are generally perpendicular to the seating area.
The legrest assembly 14 may be adjusted so that it may rotate upward about an area where it connects to the seat assembly 12. That is, a proximal end of the central column 16 is pivotally connected to the seat assembly 12.
In order to adjust the legrest assembly 14, an actuator 22 may be engaged to move the legrest assembly 14. As shown in FIG. 1, the actuator 22 is positioned behind the legrest assembly 14. The actuator 22 is typically secured to the central column 16.
The position of the actuator 22 behind and on the legrest assembly 14 provides a bulky assembly. The actuator 22 adds weight to the legrest assembly 14. As such, when moving the legrest assembly 14, the actuator 22 uses energy sufficient to move both the legrest assembly 14 and the actuator 22 itself. The added weight and bulk, as well as the center of gravity, may cause adjustment of the legrest assembly to be uneven and halting.
FIG. 3 illustrates an isometric side view of the conventional power wheelchair 10 in which the legrest assembly 14 is outwardly adjusted. As shown in FIG. 3, the actuator 22, which is attached to the legrest assembly 14, moves the legrest assembly 14 and the actuator 22 in the direction of arc A. The legrest assembly 14 pivotally moves in the direction of arc A about a hinged interface that connects the legrest assembly 14 to the seat assembly 12. An individual may adjust the legrest assembly 14 through various positions, such as through a control interface.
As shown in FIGS. 1-3, the central column 16 of the legrest assembly 14 is straight. When the legrest assembly 14 is adjusted upwardly in the direction of arc A, the straight central column 16 typically causes the force of the weight of the individual legs to concentrate onto the heels that are supported by the footrests 20. As the legrest assembly 14 continues to move upward in the direction of arc A, the concentration of the weight on the heels typically increases, which may cause the individual seated in the wheelchair to experience discomfort.
Additionally, conventional wheelchair assemblies such as shown in FIGS. 1-3 provide a limited range of adjustability. Also, in order to adjust the length of the individual legrests of the legrest assembly 14, a separate and distinct mechanism, such as a hinge mechanism 24 positioned behind each legrest is used. However, the hinge mechanism 24 on each legrest adds even more weight and bulk to the legrest assembly 14.


A refrigerator capable of controlling supply of cool air into a fresh food compartment and a vegetable chamber is disclosed. A cool air duct is formed at a rear part of the fresh food compartment. The cool air duct has discharge ports for supplying the cool air into the fresh food compartment and the vegetable chamber. The discharge ports are opened and closed by an opening/closing device. The device opens/closes the discharge ports formed at the fresh food compartment and the vegetable chamber simultaneously. Therefore, when the supply of the cool air into the fresh food compartment is stopped, the supply of the cool air into the vegetable chamber is stopped too, and thereby the overcooling of the vegetable chamber is prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator capable of controlling supply of cool air into a cooling compartment and a vegetable chamber.
2. Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, a general refrigerator has a body 1 forming a freezing compartment 2 and a fresh food compartment 5, doors 3 and 6 for opening/closing the freezing compartment 2 and the fresh food compartment 5 respectively. At the rear part of the freezing compartment 2, an evaporator 7 for generating cool air and a fan 8 for supplying the cool air generated by the evaporator 7 into the cooling compartment 2 and 5 are installed.
The fresh food compartment 5 is partitioned into a plurality of spaces by a plurality of shelves 9. The lowermost space among the partitioned spaces is used for a vegetable chamber 10 for storing vegetables. In general the vegetable chamber 10 is maintained to a temperature somewhat higher than the temperature of the fresh food compartment 5.
At the rear part of the fresh food compartment 5, a duct member 16 being formed with a plurality of cool air discharge ports 16a is installed. The duct member 16 forms a cool air duct 11 vertically at the rear part of the fresh food compartment 5. The cool air discharge ports 16a are formed at positions corresponding to the spaces partitioned by the shelves 9.
A part of the cool air blown by the fan 8 flows into the cool air duct 11, and the cool air flowing into the cool air duct 11 is discharged into the fresh food compartment 5 through the cool air discharge ports 16a. Then, the food placed on the shelves 9 is cooled. In the cool air duct 11, a guide device 13 for guiding the cool air flowing into the cool air duct 11 toward the cool air discharge ports 16a is installed.
The cool air discharge ports 16a are formed at the frontal side and the lower side of the duct member 16. The cool air discharged through the cool air discharge ports 16a formed at the frontal side of the duct member 16 is supplied into the fresh food compartment 5, and the cool air discharged through the cool air discharge ports 16a formed at the lower side of the duct member 16 is supplied into the vegetable chamber 10. Thus, the food stored in the fresh food compartment 5 and the vegetables stored in the vegetable chamber 10 are cooled.
The supply of the cool air into the fresh food compartment 5 is controlled by a separate opening/closing device (not shown). That is, the refrigerator is equipped with an opening/closing device for opening/closing the cool air discharge ports 16a. The opening/closing device opens the cool air discharge ports 16a to supply the cool air into the fresh food compartment 5 when the temperature of the fresh food compartment 5 is high, and closes the cool air discharge ports 16a to stop supplying the cool air when the temperature of the fresh food compartment 5 is low. Then, the temperature of the fresh food compartment 5 is maintained to a desired temperature by opening/closing the cool air discharge ports 16a according to the temperature of the fresh food compartment 5 as described above.
However, in such a conventional refrigerator, although the supply of cool air is stopped by the opening/closing device when the temperature of the fresh food compartment 5 is maintained to a temperature lower than the desired temperature, the vegetable chamber 10 is continuously supplied with the cool air through the cool air discharge ports 16a formed at the lower side of the duct member 16, so there is a problem that the vegetables stored in the vegetable chamber 10 may be overcooled.

Refrigerator capable of controlling cool air supply into a cooling compartment and a vegetable chamber