A methodology for forming contact areas by a multiple patterning process that provides increased yield and lower risk of contact-to-contact short at points of tight tip-to-tip spacing and the resulting device are disclosed. Embodiments include forming one or more trench patterning layers on a planarized surface of a wafer, forming one or more trenches in the one or more trench patterning layers, forming a block mask at one or more points along the one or more trenches, extending the one or more trenches down to a substrate level of the wafer, and removing the block mask from the one or more points.

Due to the high resource requirements of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, 193 nm immersion lithography remains an attractive alternative for the fabrication of 20 nm and beyond technology nodes. However, 193 nm immersion lithography techniques suffer from reliability and yield issues caused by time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB), especially for tight contact tip-to-tip spacing. The problems caused by tight tip-to-tip contact spacing are particularly severe in highly integrated circuits with the greatest demands for feature size reduction and scaling (e.g., 10 nm SRAM design).
FIG. 1 illustrates a top view 100 of contact trenches 101 and gates 103. Due to the tight contact to gate pitch (CGP) 105, a triple patterning process (e.g., with 193 nm immersion lithography) is used to pattern the contact trenches 101 alongside the gates 103. Despite the high resolution of the triple patterning process, shorts may still occur in tight tip-to-tip contact spacings. For example, the tip-to-tip spacing near gate contacts 109 may be particularly small. Furthermore, process optimization for triple patterning is particularly expensive and resource-intensive because of the unknown variation of the tools at these feature sizes. For example, product overlay does not scale at the same rate as the rate at which chip features are down-scaled. The integration margin for 20 nm nodes is, therefore, not as great as it is for less advanced technology nodes. In addition, mask error remains a problem and further complicates the contact integration process. For example, the risk of contact-to-contact shorts is greater for end-of-line process stages because of the greater mask error enhancement factor (MEEF).
A need therefore exists for a methodology enabling less costly middle-of-line (MOL) contact integration with improved yield and reliability, and the resulting device.

Method and apparatus for high yield contact integration scheme


A first processor console includes a first display screen and a first storage device for storing panel templates containing fixed panel information for display on the first display screen. A second processor console includes a second display screen and a second storage device for storing panel templates containing fixed panel information for display on the second display screen. The first processor console transmits to the second processor console an identification of a panel template for display on the second display screen. The second processor console receives the panel template identification, determines if the panel template identification identifies a panel stored in the second storage means and displays the panel on the second display screen if the identification identifies a panel stored in the second storage device, and requests transmission of the identified panel template if the second storage device does not contain the identified panel template. The first processor console also transmits variable information to the second processor console for merger with the identified panel template. The first and second processor consoles utilize standard operating systems to participate in the remote operations.

The invention relates generally to computer systems, and deals more particularly with remote control of a local processor console and an application program running on the local processor console, and parallel display of application panels on a remote processor console and the local processor console.
Heretofore, remote control of a local processor console and an application running on a local processor console has been provided by connecting a remote processor console to the local processor console via a telephone line, and sending a data stream representing the local processor console display to the remote processor console. For example, a prior art local processor console within an IBM System/370 computer system was remotely controlled by sending an IBM "3270" data stream to a remote (dumb) IBM 3275 terminal in addition to the local (dumb) IBM 3272 terminal. An IBM "3270" data stream is a data stream which directly controls the console display. The 3270 data stream comprises for each field on the screen, information defining the type of field, the location of the field and the content of the field, for example, an alphanumeric character. While this arrangement permitted remote control of the local processor console and parallel display on the local processor console and the remote processor console, the speed of presentation of display on the remote processor console is limited by the transmission speed over the telephone line. Because the remote processor console in this example is dumb and requires the 3270 data stream, a large amount of data must be sent from the local processor console to control the remote processor console screen. Therefore, the remote processor console is subject to slow operation.
In the same session of the aforesaid System/370 computer system, an operator at the remote processor console could enter data or commands through the remote processor console keyboard. In response, terminal hardware within the remote processor console determines which fields are changed and sends information defining only the changed fields to the local processor console. This information is in the form of a 3270 data stream. The application running in the local processor console then processes the information and takes appropriate action, for example, updating the local and remote processor console screens by sending the 3270 data streams for the entire screen or changed portions as appropriate.
The aforesaid local processor console is also used in a different session as a dumb terminal for controlling an application running in the System/370 host processor. During this session, the host processor communicates with the local processor console with the 3270 data stream.
Still another prior art IBM System/370 computer system comprises a host processor, a personal computer coupled to the host processor by a local area network or a telephone line, and a remote processor console coupled to the local personal computer by a local area network or a telephone line. The personal computer includes software to act as a communications manager to couple the host processor to the aforesaid remote processor console (or another remote console similarly coupled by a local area network or a telephone line). In this prior art system, the software is IBM's "Gateway" program. The host processor runs an application and transmits the 3270 data stream to the personal computer, and the communications manager routes the 3270 data stream to the proper remote processor console which then acts as a dumb terminal.
In another prior art system, IBM's 4381 computer system, an application running on a local processor console (serving a host processor) makes function calls to cause a display. The function calls are written in SPIL high-level language, and are received by a language interpreter in the operating system of the local processor console. The language interpreter breaks down the high-level calls into many corresponding low-level calls including the 3270 data stream (and an address of an error handling routine), which low-level calls are passed through a first common adapter code (CAC) program in the local processor console. The language interpreter then determines if a remote processor console coupled to the local processor console is operable, and if so, invokes a common communications adapter (CAC) program which is a second type of CAC program responsible for communicating with the remote processor console through a communication link. Then, the first CAC program sends the 3270 data stream to the second CAC program, and the second CAC program sends the 3270 data stream to a receiver at the remote processor console (an IBM 3275 dumb terminal). Then, the first CAC program in the local processor console transmits the 3270 data stream to the local processor console screen, and the receiver at the remote processor console transmits the 3270 data stream to the remote processor console screen. Also, in this IBM 4381 computer system, the remote processor console can receive inputs from the keyboard of the remote processor console, and keystroke information in the form of short encoded transmissions are sent directly to the local processor console. Then, the keystroke information is received by the local processor console which processes the keystroke information and generates a 3270 data stream to update the local console screen as described above.
The local processor console (a UC.5 computer) of the IBM 4381 computer system can be operated in either of two modes, a manual function mode or a host operating system mode. In the manual function mode, code running above the operating system in the local processor console controls the screens of both the local processor console and the remote processor console. Keyboard information can originate from either the remote processor console keyboard or the local processor console keyboard, and keyboard control was made from the respective processor console. The keyboard information passes through the language interpreter in the local processor console, and then the first CAC program in the local processor console to the application running in the local processor console. In the operating system mode, the operating system of the host processor controls both the screens. The 3270 data stream information originates from the host operating system and is passed to the local processor console through a local channel adapter including hardware and a third CAC program which stores the 3270 data stream in the processor console. Then, the 3270 data stream is sent to the local console screen and the remote processor console screen.
In another prior art system (prior art under U.S. law), IBM's 308X remote support system, an IBM UC.5 computing engine served as a processor console for a main frame computer and another system 370 main-frame computer provided remote control of the UC.5 computing engine. Screens were displayed almost simultaneously at both the UC.5 computing engine site and at the remote site. Each site included a collection of templates containing fixed information for the screens, and to make a display at the remote site, the UC.5 computing engine sent an identification of the desired template and variable data to be merged into the template. The remote site included a table to map the variable information into the proper locations in the template. While the storage of the collection of templates at the local and remote sites reduced the amount of data transfer, there were draw backs to this system. The UC.5 computing engine ran low level code that included a merged combination of single line application and control commands. There was a command facility that received display-related (and other) single line codes. Another facility determined if the remote site was operable. If so, these display-related commands were routed to the remote site to control the remote display. These commands also caused the same display at the local site. Thus, the body of code was specific to the application. Also, the collection of templates was included in the microcode at both sites and when a template required change, the microcode at both locations was rewritten to incorporate the change. Moreover, the templates could only accept variable data of predefined length.
A general object of the present invention is to provide efficient remote control of a local processor and an application running on the local processor, and parallel display of application panels on a local processor console and a remote processor console.
Another general object of the present invention is to provide remote control and parallel display of the foregoing object yet provide flexibility and standardization in the implementation.

Remote control of a local processor console

International Business Machines Corporation


An apparatus for gas assisted injection molding having a fluid forcing nozzle with a minimum of moving parts is shown. This apparatus produces an injected molded article by forcing a stream of molding material from a source of molten plastic through a fluid forcing nozzle into an article forming mold space. After the desired amount of material has been injected to fill the mold cavity, the flow through the fluid forcing nozzle is shut off, and replaced by a pressurized fluid or gas flow. The fluid forcing nozzle has an operable valve part operable between a first position and a second position. When the valve part is in its first position, a continuous flow channel from an injection molding machine to a mold sprue is provided for a molten plastic material. When the valve part is in its second position, a portion of the first flow channel is blocked, and a flow channel for an injection gas to the mold sprue is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluid forcing nozzle. More particularly the invention relates to a fluid forcing nozzle of the type which may alternately inject a fluid or a gas into the interior of a mold cavity. The construction disclosed is greatly simplified in comparison to prior art nozzles, and uses a minimum of moving parts.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of nozzles to force fluids and/or gases into the interiors of various types of cavities is well known in the art. One such use of fluid forcing nozzles is in the field of injection molding, and more particularly in the field of gas assisted injection molding. Gas assisted injection molding is known in the art as a preferred way of making larger and more complicated parts without having the problems of sink marks and the like in thick rib sections or when complicated cross sections are involved.
In this type of injection molding, these large and complicated pieces are made of a hollow construction by injecting a fluid or gas into the interior of a part while it is being formed in a mold cavity. It is known that the gas or fluid which is injected into the interior of the mold cavity will follow the easiest path. Since it is also known that the molten plastic or synthetic resin will generally cool and harden from the mold cavity wall inwardly, the interior of the part will stay fluid longer, and the gas will penetrate the sorer and warmer portions of the part. The softer and warmer portions of the part are generally found in the thicker sections where there is a structural rib, etc. The injection gas, by following this path, creates a hollow within the plastic, and that hollow can be expanded by the addition of pressure outwardly to fill the mold cavity.
If the gas pressure is held at an effectively constant level while the plastic part cools, the surface finish of the plastic part will be greatly enhanced by the elimination of sink marks, etc. Along with the idea of the injection of the gas or fluid into the interior of the mold cavity through the fluid forcing nozzle came the need to vent the gas to relieve the pressure within the part before the mold could be opened. Failure to relieve this pressure, in some cases, caused the part to explode when the mold opened. Many solutions were tried to discover a satisfactory way of introducing the gas into the interior of the plastic part, and then to vent the gas before opening the mold cavity.
An apparatus for venting the gas after injecting the fluid through the fluid forcing nozzle, and before opening the mold cavity, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,407 issued Jul. 24, 1990 to James W. Hendry. Generally this invention involves venting the gas to atmosphere through a specialized sprue bushing in which the sprue bustling includes a first body part in which a second body part or cylindrical pin is mounted for movement upon the activation of an actuator. The pin has two flow paths which are alternately used. One path allows the passage of plastic through the bushing into the sprue, and from there into the interior of the mold cavity. The second path allows injection or venting of gas from the interior of said mold cavity.
However, by creating the two f low paths in the mold sprue bushing, one is required to provide the special sprue bushing valves for each mold being used. When molds having multiple cavities are used, this increases the cost of the mold significantly. In addition, mold sprue bushings are generally rather small, and, therefore, providing moving parts therein to allow the injection of plastic and gas alternately has proven difficult.
Applicant's assignee, to eliminate the problems in the prior art, developed the idea of forcing fluid into the interior of the mold cavity through the nozzle, which is a larger device, can be more easily manufactured, and can serve a large number of mold cavities. One such nozzle is described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/628,746, filed on Dec. 17, 1990, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,127 and assigned to the common assignee of the present invention.
Another such nozzle is described in a co-pending application by the inventor of the present application filed on every date herewith entitled "INJECTION NOZZLE" and assigned to the common assignee of the present invention. These nozzles have proven to be satisfactory for many applications. However, for some applications it was desired to develop a nozzle with an absolute minimum of moving parts to prevent problems known in the art of injection molding.


A monitoring method that is executed by a monitoring device that monitors communication between an information processing device from among a plurality of information processing devices and a switching device that is coupled to a peripheral device that includes at least one of an input device and an output device, the monitoring method includes storing information on a recovery method for each process of the communication, in a memory; detecting the communication between the information processing device and the switching device; determining whether a failure has occurred in the detected communication by analyzing the detected communication for each of the processes; and executing restoration processing of recovering the detected communication, based on information on the recovery method corresponding to a failed process among the processes, which is stored in the memory when it is determined that the failure has occurred in the detected communication.

A KVM switch is a switch that is used to monitor and operate a plurality of servers using a set of a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse. Here, the server is a computer that provides information processing service. Here, "KVM" represents "K" of a Keyboard, "V" of a Visual Unit, and "M" of a Mouse.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a KVM switch. As illustrated in FIG. 9, to the KVM switch 2, eight servers 1 that are referred to as servers #1 to #8, a keyboard 3, a mouse 4, and a monitor 5 are coupled. The KVM switch 2 switches connection of one of the eight servers 1, to the keyboard 3, the mouse 4, and the monitor 5.
The KVM switch 2 and each of the servers 1 are coupled to each other through a KVM switch cable. The KVM switch cables include signal cables of the keyboard 3, the mouse 4, and the monitor 5. The KVM switch 2 and each of the keyboard 3 and the mouse 4 are coupled to each other through a Universal Serial Bus (USB). The monitor 5 and the KVM switch 2 are coupled to each other through a Video Graphics Array (VGA).
There is a technology in a related art, in which, due to a signal switch that is obtained by combining a KVM switch and a peripheral device sharing switch, all computers that are coupled to the signal switch share all USB peripheral devices that are coupled to the signal switch. As the related art, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Translation of PCT application) No. 2005-509947 has been disclosed.
In the development of a new KVM switch, the connection compatibility with an existing server model is verified. Firmware of the KVM switch is tuned when a problem occurs in the verification of the connection compatibility, so that the verification is posed during the tuning. Thus, when a connection problem occurs during the verification, the verification is stopped, thereby causing a problem that the verification time period is increased.
In the USB, a protocol defining how the communication is to be performed is formulated by a standard. However, a manufacturer defines the unique specification in some points other than the protocol. Therefore, even when a keyboard and a mouse that are compliant with the USB standard are used, the verification of the connection compatibility is performed. In the verification of the connection compatibility, a certain verification operation is repeated in order to confirm that a problem does not occur under various circumstances. Therefore, once the verification work is stopped, it is desirable that the verification operation is repeated from the beginning, so that the verification time period is increased.

Monitoring method, monitoring device, and information processing system


The control device has a drive circuit, in turn having a number of modular circuits--one for each inductor--activated selectively and receiving timing signals, and a common circuit connected to the modular circuits and cooperating with the activated modular circuit to supply the respective inductor. Each modular circuit has a first controlled switch connected between a first input terminal and a respective first output terminal, and a second controlled switch connected between the respective first output terminal and a storage capacitor; and the common circuit has a third controlled switch connected between the storage capacitor and a respective second output terminal, and cooperating with the second controlled switch to selectively transfer energy between the storage capacitor and the respective inductor.

The present invention relates to a device for controlling inductive loads, in particular of injectors of an internal combustion engine injection system.
As is known, to control the injectors of an internal combustion engine injection system, each injector must be supplied with current, the curve of which comprises a rapidly increasing portion, a more slowly increasing portion, a portion decreasing to a hold value, a portion oscillating about the hold value, and a portion decreasing to zero.
To achieve such a curve, control devices are currently employed whereby the inductive loads of the injectors are connected on one side to a low-voltage supply source, and on the other side to a ground line via a controlled electronic switch. A major drawback of control devices of this sort is that, in the event of ground shorting of one of the terminals of any one of the inductive loads--e.g. due to impaired insulation of of an injector conductor, and contact between the conductor and the vehicle body--the injector and/or control device is irreparably damaged and the engine is turned off--an extremely dangerous situation when the vehicle is moving.
To eliminate the above hazard, control devices have been proposed whereby the inductive loads of the injectors are grounded on one side and connected on the other side to an internal node of the control device itself, so that, as opposed to damaging the control device and turning off the engine, ground shorting of one of the terminals of the inductive loads simply results in that particular injector being put out of use, so that the vehicle continues running minus one injector.
Such control devices, however, in addition to involving complex, high-cost circuitry, normally fail to provide for simultaneously injecting different cylinders, as required for example by engine injection systems involving multiple injection of each cylinder.

Device for controlling inductive loads, in particular of injectors of an internal combustion engine injection system


The invention relates to a device for and a method of informing replacement time of an air filter, more particularly, to a device for and a method of informing replacement time of an air filter, in which the accumulation amount of the dust accumulated in the air filter is calculated based on the factors such as a contamination degree of the air introduced into the air filter, air introduction time, and air introduction volume, and then when the accumulation amount of the total dust in the air filter exceeds a reference value, a driver is informed of the replacement time of the air filter, so that it is possible to replace the air filter at an optimum instance to thereby maintain the pleasant interior circumstance of a vehicle, to prevent the dissipation of the expense caused by the unnecessary early replacement of the air filter, and to prevent the interior air contamination of the vehicle due to the delay of the replacement of the air filter, and the like.

1. Field of the Invention
This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 2006-3536 filed Jan. 12, 2006, and Korean Patent Application No. 2007-2389 filed Jan. 9, 2007, each of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties.
The invention relates to a device for and a method of informing replacement time of an air filter, more particularly, to a device for and a method of informing replacement time of an air filter, in which the accumulation amount of the dust accumulated in the air filter is calculated based on the factors such as a contamination degree of the air introduced into the air filter, an air introduction time, and an air introduction volume, and then when the accumulation amount of the total dust in the air filter exceeds a reference value, a driver is informed of the replacement time of the air filter, so that it is possible to replace the air filter at an optimum instance to thereby maintain the pleasant interior circumstance of a vehicle, to prevent the dissipation of the expense caused by the unnecessary early replacement of the air filter, and to prevent the interior air contamination of the vehicle due to the delay of the replacement of the air filter, and the like.
2. Background of the Related Art
In general, an air conditioning device for a vehicle is designed to introduce exterior/interior air of the vehicle and heat or cool it to thereby blow the air into the interior of the vehicle, resulting in the heating or cooling of the vehicle interior. As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle air conditioning device comprises a blower provided with an exterior/interior air switching door 10 at the inside for selectively opening and closing an interior/exterior air inlet opening formed at an inlet side according to an interior/exterior air mode, and a blower driven by a motor for blowing the air introduced through the interior/exterior air inlet opening to an air conditioning case; an evaporator and a heater core disposed at the inside of the air conditioning case with a predetermined interval there-between; a temperature control door disposed between the evaporator and the heater core for controlling the volume of the air passing through the heater core; a mode door disposed at an outlet side of the air conditioning case for opening and closing a plurality of vents communicating with the interior of the vehicle; and an air filter disposed at the upstream of the blower.
Accordingly, if the user operates a predetermined operation unit 30 for controlling the air conditioning device, the control unit 28 selects the interior/exterior air conversion unit by controlling the position of the interior/exterior air switching door, controls the air introduction volume by controlling the blower motor or controls the positions of the temperature control door 20 and the mode door 24, or performs the temperature and various air conditioning modes.
In other words, in case of the interior air mode, the interior/exterior air switching door 23 is operated to open the interior air inlet opening 21 and close the exterior air inlet opening 22, and the interior air introduced through the interior air inlet opening 21 by means of the operation of the blower, passes through the air filter to be blown into the inside of the air conditioning case, and then it is introduced into respective vents with selectively passing through the heater core by means of the temperature control door and the mode door and is emitted into the inside of the vehicle.
In addition, in case of the exterior air mode, contrary to this operation, the interior/exterior air switching door 23 tightly closes the interior air inlet opening 21 and opens the exterior air inlet opening 22, and the exterior air introduced through the exterior air inlet opening 22 by means of the operation of the blower, passes through the air filter to be blown into the inside of the air conditioning case, and then it is introduced into respective vents with selectively passing through the heater core by means of the temperature control door and the mode door and is emitted into the inside of the vehicle.
In this regard, the air filter 16 disposed at the air conditioning device is operated to filter out the dust in the air to purify the air introduced through the interior/exterior air inlet openings. However, if it is used for a long time, the dust is concentrated to thereby increase the resistance of the air passing through the air filter 16 rapidly and cause the pollution of the air, so that it is necessary to change the air filter at a proper instance.
With regard to a conventional technology for exchanging the air filter at a proper time, there was disclosed a Korean Patent Application Laid Open No. 10-1996-0023728, in which a device for detecting the replacement time of the air filter was suggested. Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, the device for detecting the replacement time of the air filter is characterized by further comprising a blower motor driving means 46 for driving a blower motor of a blower, driving means 48 of suction air selection means disposed for the blower to suck the exterior air or the interior air selectively, display means 40 or alarming means 42 for informing the replacement time of the filter means, and control means for counting the driving time of the driving means 48 of the suction air selection means and the blower motor driving means 46 and informing the replacement time of the filter means to the alarming means, in addition to the vehicle air conditioning device with a filter, which includes a blower for blowing interior air or exterior air of a vehicle, an evaporator unit connected to an emitting opening of the blower.
Also, there was disclosed a method for detecting the replacement time of an air filter in an air conditioning device for a vehicle with filter, which is provided with a blower for blowing interior air or exterior air in a vehicle, an evaporator unit connected to an emitting opening of the blower, and filter means disposed at the inlet side of the evaporator unit, the method is characterized by comprising: a step S10 of accumulatively counting driving time of the blower, and a time for introducing the exterior air, a step S20 of determining whether or not the accumulative count time exceeds the respective predetermined exchange period by comparing the accumulatively counted driving time of the blower with a proper exchange period of the air filter predetermined after the driving of the blower, or comparing the accumulatively counted exterior air introduction time with a proper exchange period of the air filter after the driving of the blower, and a step S30 of informing the replacement time of the air filter or producing an alarming sound when any one of the two determinations exceeds the exchange period.
In other words, the conventional technique was directed to the detection of the replacement time of the air filter by comparing only the driving means of the suction air selecting means (holding time of the exterior air mode) and the blower motor driving means (blowing time) with the filter exchange period. Also, another conventional technique, which was disclosed in Korea Patent Laid Open No. 10-1996-0004754, was constructed to detect the replacement time of the air filter by sensing the speed of the blower motor, the load and the overload of the motor.
However, the conventional techniques have a problem that it was difficult to exchange the air filter accurately because they informed the replacement time regardless of the real amount of the dust accumulated in the air filter. In other words, since the accuracy of the replacement time of the air filter was reduced by the outer disturbing factors such as the difference of the pollution according to the driving area, and the overload due to the deterioration of the blower motor itself, and the like, there occurred problems that expense dissipation was caused due to unnecessary early exchange of the air filter and the occurrence of the air pollution in the vehicle due to delay of the exchange of the air filter.

Device for and method of informing replacement time of air filter


In the game machine which adopts an accumulation-type progressive jackpot with a jackpot payout increasing according to a game play of a player and increases the jackpot payout by a predetermined unit according to a predetermined number of game plays by the player, the game machine includes a monitor which displays a game screen. The game machine counts the jackpot payout increasing according to the game play of the player by each player as a separate increment, manages a fraction with the separate increment smaller than the predetermined unit in association with the player and controls the display device so as to display the fraction.

For example, there is a medal game machine that provides a jackpot expected to provide high payout in addition to a payment based on prize winning in a normal game (for example, see Patent Literature 1). When satisfying a predetermined game condition or winning the jackpot game, payout reserved as the jackpot is paid to a player. In determining payout amount of the jackpot, an accumulation-type progressive jackpot system is adopted that makes a reserve according to a medal consumed by a player playing in the game machine in addition to a minimum amount of the jackpot. For example, when the player consumes 100 pieces of medals in the game machine, the payout of the jackpot is set to increase by one piece.    Patent Literature 1: JP-A-2010-131285.


The present invention is directed to providing a method and system that enables a first responder security officer to take command and control of a building having a security incident. Using the method and system herein, the security officer is able to clearly distinguish the positions of his building entry teams in the building relative to the position of a suspect through a graphic display of friend and foe designation whereupon he can precisely direct a maneuver to close with the suspect. A group of motion sensors are mounted throughout the building to monitor various hallways for movement and collocated RFID readers are interrogated by the security alarm panel software to provide the intelligence for the security alarm control panel to distinguish a police building entry team (Friend) from the suspect (Foe).

In the most common example, persons who live, go to school or work in a building and who are immediately caught in a security incident such as an active shooter event are typically fleeing for their lives, while those outside the danger area in other parts of the building may not know for some time of the ongoing danger. There is usually no electronic alert system or automated voice system in a building to warn building occupants of a potential active shooter event as there may be for a building fire alarm. In public schools, for instance, the administration may make a loud speaker announcement if the school is under attack, and at colleges and universities, a campus wide alert system will be activated at a point when someone can make an emergency 911 call. Active shooter statistics show that alerts often occur about two or more minutes after an incident begins.
In the event of a tragedy, many people may be shot before a 911 call is received. Often, the 911 operator will try and get information about the shooter(s) and their location(s). There will be a number of 911 calls coming from the incident scene, but in the next 2-3 minutes police most likely will not have a suspect description, the number of shooter(s), or the location of the shooter(s). When police arrive on scene, they will form building entry teams and the senior officer on the scene will assume incident command and continue to be in communication with the 911 police dispatch officer for any information coming from individuals trapped in the building.
Once on site, building entry teams enter the building and move in different directions in search of the shooter(s) and the location(s) of victim(s) while simultaneously seeking useful on-site information. At this time, building entry teams generally do not have a subject description. Police often seek information from victims while assisting those victims to safety. Once they finally pinpoint a last location and possibly a description of the shooter(s), police continue searching the building. They listen for gunfire to alert them of the shooter's general location. The building entry teams generally do not have any knowledge of the interior building space other than their building reference system of A side (street side), then clockwise B side, C side and D side of the building. Building entry teams only have their radios to try and coordinate their location and movement. Unless they can orient on gunfire, they do not know where the shooter(s) are or if they are still in the building. The incident commander has little if any ability for a proactive command as he is dependent on the building entry teams for real-time intelligence. He may or may not have building floor plans to familiarize himself with the building or to plot the locations of his teams in the building. All law enforcement understands the quicker they can close with the shooter the quicker they will stop the killing. Unfortunately, in today's environment a suspect's movement in the building is a time consuming extensive search for the suspect(s) unless the team happens to luck out through gunfire echoes and receipt of timely intelligence from victims calling for help on a cell phone. In such an environment, where an active shooter is not contained and multiple police teams are in the building, command and control is difficult and friendly fire is always a concern as all fingers are on triggers.

Method and system for monitoring of friend and foe in a security incident


A tobacco smoke filter consisting essentially of a porous substrate having dry water and microcapsules dispersed therein. The microcapsules comprise at least one substance selected from the group consisting of chlorophyllin, methylcellulose, sodium pyroglutamate and a vegetable oil.

It is widely known that tobacco smoke contains mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds which cause substantial morbidity and mortality to smokers. Examples of such substances include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and nitrosamines.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons appear to cause toxicity by intercalating within DNA molecules. Nitrosamines are electrophilic, alkylating agents which are potent carcinogens. Nitrosamines are not present in fresh or green tobaccos and are not formed during combustion. They are instead formed by reactions involving free nitrate during processing and storage of tobacco, or by the post-inhalation, metabolic activation of secondary amines present in tobacco smoke.
Attempts to reduce the amount of toxic and mutagenic compounds that reach the smoker include tobacco smoke filters positioned between the burning tobacco and the smoker. Conventional filters are made of cellulose acetate, with or without activated charcoal. These conventional filters, however, are only partially effective in reducing the amount of toxic and mutagenic compounds reaching the smoker. Further, conventional filters disadvantageously remove flavor compounds, thereby decreasing acceptance by the smoker.
There is, therefore, a need for an improved filter for a smokable device that substantially removes toxic and mutagenic compounds from tobacco smoke. Further, there is a need for an improved filter which allows the passage of flavor compounds while substantially removing toxic and mutagenic compounds from tobacco smoke. Such an improved filter would preferably be simple and inexpensive to manufacture, and convenient to use.

Cigarette filter containing dry water and microcapsules


A collapsible container has a base having a lower hinge portion which includes a first lower hinge portion and a second lower hinge portion. The container also includes a plurality of upstanding side walls attached to the base having an upper hinge portion extending downwardly. The upper hinge portion includes a first elongate upper hinge portion and a second elongate upper hinge portion. The first lower hinge portion includes a first opening for receiving the first elongate upper hinge portion therein and also includes a flange for securing the first upper hinge portion thereunder. The second lower hinge portion includes a second opening correspondingly sized to receive the second elongate upper hinge member therein for limiting lateral movement between the side walls and the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a collapsible container for storing and handling goods.
2. Background Art
Typical collapsible containers have a base member and four attached walls which fold relative to the base member by way of hinges. The walls are received by the base member to allow for relative pivoting between the walls and the base member. However, when the walls are assembled to the base, there often exists some movement or "play" between the wall and base after assembly. This is attributable to the existence of a relatively large amount of clearance in the hinge receiving area of the base which allows the wall to be inserted and also detached from the base member.
Further, the walls are usually attached to each other by way of latching mechanisms. While present latching mechanisms are functional, they may not provide adjacent side walls with both a secure attachment when in the assembled position, and also the capability to become unlatched efficiently by a user in order to move to the folded position. Accordingly, an improved collapsible crate is desired which has a hinge which securely mounts the walls to the base with nominal or no resulting play therebetween. The collapsible container should also provide a latch mechanism which is secure but is also unlatched with minimal and efficient handling and user effort.


A tire tread that comprises a rubber composition based on an elastomer matrix that comprises more than 50% by weight of at least one butyl rubber, on a reinforcing filler and on a plasticizing system that comprises at least one polybutene oil having a glass transition temperature below −75° C.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to tire treads comprising rubber compositions based on butyl rubber.
2. Description of Related Art
One of the requirements needed for a tire is to provide optimal grip on the road, especially on wet ground. One way of giving the tire increased grip on wet ground is to use a rubber composition in its tread, which composition has a broad hysteresis potential.
But at the same time, the tire tread must also minimize its contribution to the rolling resistance of the tire, that is to say have the lowest possible hysteresis. Thus, the rubber composition of the tread must satisfy two conflicting requirements, namely having a maximum hysteresis potential in order to satisfy the requirement of grip and having a hysteresis that is as low as possible in order to satisfy the requirement of rolling resistance.
Tire manufacturers have therefore proposed hysteretic materials, such as for example compositions based on copolymers of butadiene and styrene with a styrene weight content of at least 35%, rubber compositions comprising high contents of reinforcing fillers or plasticizers. But these solutions are generally obtained to the detriment of the rolling resistance.
It has also been proposed to introduce butyl rubber into the rubber compositions of the tire treads in order to improve their grip on wet ground. This is because butyl rubber is an elastomer whose dissipation potential is known and constitutes per se a good candidate for improving the grip, especially on wet ground, as U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,552 teaches. However, this patent also teaches that butyl rubber must be used at contents of at most 30 parts per hundred parts of elastomer (phr) in order to minimize its hysteretic contribution in the field of rolling resistance.
Patent EP 1 687 370 B1 discloses that the use, in a tire tread, of a rubber composition reinforced with a silica and comprising a certain content of butyl rubber and of glycerol trioleate makes it possible to improve the grip of the tire on wet ground. But this solution is not satisfactory with respect to the rolling resistance performance.
Satisfying both the requirement of grip, especially on wet ground, and of rolling resistance remains a constant concern of tire manufacturers.

Abstract: A tire comprising such a tread has a good compromise between the wet grip performance and the rolling resistance performance.

COMPAGNIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN


A method is disclosed for managing a parking lot. In one disclosed embodiment, the method includes receiving parking lot data. The embodiment of the disclosed method also includes transforming the parking lot data into parking lot information, the parking lot information including information about a moving parking lot object. Further, the embodiment of the disclosed method includes transmitting a map of the parking lot to a mobile interaction device, and transmitting the parking lot information to the mobile interaction device.

Shopping at traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers is currently under pronounced assault, particularly by the advent of on-line retailers. A substantial cause is likely the numerous inefficiencies associated with shopping at traditional stores, particularly given the increasing intolerance of today's shoppers to indulge time-wasting activities.
Often the inefficiencies associated with shopping at a traditional store begins before a shopper walks into the store. Upon pulling into the store's parking lot, shoppers often spend substantial time trying to locate a parking space. This loss of time can be exacerbated when an apparently empty parking space is taken by another driver or contains a shopping cart, broken glass, or other parking impediment. Upon parking, the driver, and possibly the passengers, must spend additional time walking to the store entrance. After shopping, still more time is spent walking from the store to the shopper's vehicle.
The inefficiencies further include the time wasted by traveling to a store, only to find that the store does not have an expected product. Even if the store normally carries the product, shoppers all too frequently discover that the item is currently out-of-stock, or not on the shelves. Moreover, finding a store employee to check the store's inventory for a normally-stocked product that is absent from its shelf location can be unduly time-consuming. Even if the desired item is on the shelf, if the shopper is unfamiliar with the store, the shopper often must spend substantial time locating the item within the store.
Moreover, shoppers can lose substantial amounts of time waiting to check-out of a store. Typically, with little more than a hunch to guide them, shoppers select one of numerous check-out lines, hoping the selected line will minimize the shopper's check-out wait. All too often, shoppers guess incorrectly, judging by the expressions of frustration frequently heard in check-out lines. These frustrations can be heightened when a shopper discovers that a chosen check-out line is restricted to a certain number of items, or to cash-only shoppers.
Shoppers have few, if any, means for reducing or eliminating these, and other, inefficiencies commonly associated with shopping at traditional stores, short of foregoing shopping at these stores altogether. Thus, there is need for devices, methods, and/or systems for improving the efficiency of shopping at traditional stores.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method for achieving a nearly zero net magnetic moment of pinned layers in GMR sensors, such as Co—Fe/Ru/Co—Fe, is described. The method determines a thickness of the first pinned layer which will yield the desired net magnetic moment for the pinned layers. A series of test structures are deposited on a substrate such as glass. The test structures include the seed layers, pinning layers and pinned layers and have varying thicknesses of the first pinned layer. The compositions of the materials and the thicknesses of all of the other films remain constant. The net areal magnetic moment of each test structure is measured and plotted versus the thickness of the first pinned layer. The thickness of the first pinned layer which corresponds most closely to zero net areal magnetic moment is chosen as the design point for the sensor.

A typical prior art data storage system 10 used for longitudinal recording is illustrated in FIG. 1. In operation a magnetic transducer 20 is supported by a suspension (not shown) as it flies above a rotating magnetic disk 16. The magnetic transducer 20, usually called a "head" or "slider," is composed of an element that performs the task of writing magnetic transitions (the write head 23) in ferromagnetic material on the magnetic disk, and another element that performs the task of reading the magnetic transitions (the read head 12) written in the ferromagnetic material on the magnetic disk. The magnetic transducer 20 is positioned by an actuator (not shown) over points at varying radial distances from the center of the magnetic disk 16 to read and write circular tracks (not shown). The magnetic disk 16 is attached to a spindle (not shown) driven by a spindle motor (not shown) to rotate the magnetic disk 16. The magnetic disk 16 comprises a substrate 26 on which a plurality of thin films 21 are deposited. The thin films 21 include ferromagnetic material in which the write head 23 writes the magnetic transitions, and in which the read head 12 reads the magnetic transitions.
There are three main categories of read heads 12, one current-in-plane (CIP) giant magnetoresistance (GMR) heads, one current-perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) GMR heads, and the other CPP tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) heads. In each category, there are three types of read heads 12, one a top type, one a bottom type, and the other a dual type. A typical prior art top-type CIP GMR read head 12, as illustrated in FIG. 2, includes a bottom shield layer 38, a bottom gap layer 37, a top gap layer 41, and a top shield layer 39. Within the top and bottom read gap layers 37, 41, a top-type CIP GMR sensor 14 is located in a central read region, and hard-bias/lead layers 42, 43 are disposed in two side regions.
The top-type CIP GMR sensor 14, as shown in FIG. 2, comprises a nonmagnetic seed layer 31, a ferromagnetic free (sense) layer 32, an electrically conducting spacer layer 33, a ferromagnetic pinned (reference) layer 34, an antiferromagnetic pinning layer 35, and a nonmagnetic cap layer 36. GMR effects result from different magnetization orientations of the weakly coupled ferromagnetic free and pinned layers 32, 34 separated by the electrically conducting nonmagnetic spacer layer 33. The antiferromagnetic pinning layer 35 fixes the magnetization of the pinned layer 34 in a direction perpendicular to an air bearing surface (ABS) which is an exposed surface of the GMR sensor that faces the magnetic disk (the plane of the paper in FIG. 2). In a quiescent position when a sense current is conducted through the GMR sensor 14 without magnetic field signals from an adjacent rotating magnetic disk 16, the magnetization of the free layer is preferably parallel to the ABS. During GMR sensor operation with magnetic field signals from the adjacent rotating magnetic disk 16, the magnetization of the free layer is free to rotate in positive and negative directions from the quiescent position in response to positive and negative magnetic signal fields from the moving magnetic disk 16.
In the fabrication process of the top-type CIP GMR head 12, the top-type CIP GMR sensor 14 is deposited on the bottom gap layer 37 which is deposited on the bottom shield layer 38. The GMR sensor 14 typically comprises a Ta seed layer 31, Ni—Fe/Co—Fe ferromagnetic free layers 32, a Cu spacer layer 33, a Co—Fe pinned layer 34, an antiferromagnetic Ir—Mn, Pt—Mn or Ni—Mn pinning layer 35, and a Ta cap layer 36.
Photolithographic patterning and ion milling are applied to define the read region of the GMR sensor 14. The hard-bias/leads layers 42 and 43 are then deposited in the two side regions of the GMR sensor. The hard-bias/lead layers 42, 43 preferably comprise a Cr film, a ferromagnetic Co—Pt—Cr film, a Cr film, a Rh film, and a Ta film. An electrically insulating nonmagnetic top gap layer 41 is deposited over the cap layer 36 and hard bias/leads layers 42, 43. A top shield layer 39 is formed over the nonmagnetic top gap layer 41.
In this top-type CIP GMR sensor, ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic coupling occurs between the pinned and pinning layers, producing a unidirectional anisotropy field (HUA). This HUA must be high enough to rigidly pin the magnetization of the pinned layer (M2) in a transverse direction perpendicular to an air bearing surface (ABS) for proper sensor operation. Ferromagnetic/ferromagnetic coupling also occurs across the spacer layer, producing a ferromagnetic coupling field (HF). This HF must be precisely controlled so that the sum of HF and a current-induced field (HI) counterbalances a demagnetizing field (HD) in the sense layer (HF+HI=HD), thereby orienting the magnetization of the sense layers (M1) in a longitudinal direction parallel to the ABS for optimally biased sensor operation. In a quiescent state, this GMR sensor exhibits a resistance of Ro+RA, +(1/2)RG, where Ro is a nonmagnetic resistance, RA is the maximum anisotropy magnetoresistance (AMR) of the free layers, and RG is the maximum giant magnetoresistance (GMR). When receiving a signal field from a magnetic disk , M1 rotates while M2 remains unchanged. This M1 rotation changes the resistance of the GMR sensor by ±ΔRGsinθ1−ΔRAsin2θ1, where θ1 is the angle of M1 rotation from the longitudinal direction.
When the GMR sensor is operating at elevated temperatures in the data storage system, an inadequate exchange coupling can cause canting of the magnetization of the pinned layer from the preferred transverse direction, causing malfunction of the sensor operation. The operation temperature of the GMR sensor in the data storage system can reach 180 degrees C. or more. A high HUA at high temperatures ensures proper sensor operation at high temperatures. This thermal stability is typically described by a blocking temperature (TB), where the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic exchange coupling diminishes and HUA is zero. A higher TB typically indicates a higher HUA at the sensor operation temperature.
The effort to increase the GMR coefficient, HUA and TB is typically directed to the selection of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic films from various alloy systems as pinned and pinning layers. Recently, a ferromagnetic 90Co—10Fe alloy film (in atomic percent) has replaced a ferromagnetic Co film as the preferred pinned layer, in order to increase the GMR coefficient, HUA and TB. An antiferromagnetic film selected from a Pt—Mn or Ni—Mn alloy system as a pinning layer has been extensively used in the GMR sensor.
In the selection process of an antiferromagnetic film from the Pt—Mn or Ni—Mn alloy system as a pinning layer, the Mn content of the Pt—Mn or Ni—Mn film must be carefully selected. A small difference in the Mn content leads to substantial variations in both HUA and TB. In addition, since the Mn is the most diffusive and corrosive chemical element among all the chemical elements used in the GMR sensor, its content substantially determines the corrosion resistance and thermal stability of the GMR sensor.
In a published U.S. patent application 2004/0042130 by Lin, et al. three seed layers comprising Al—O(3 nm), Ni—Cr—Fe(3 nm) and Ni—Fe(1 nm) films are followed by the Pt—Mn pinning layer. The '130 application is commonly assigned with the present application and has a common co-inventor with the present application. The Al2O3 film used as the bottom gap layer is preferably directly sputtered in an argon gas from an alumina target, while the Al—O film used as the seed layer is preferably reactively sputtered in mixed argon and oxygen gases from an aluminum target. A pinning layer, preferably comprising a 15 nm thick Pt—Mn film, is then deposited on the seed layers. Thereafter, pinned layers are deposited on the pinning layer. The pinned layers comprise a ferromagnetic Co—Fe first pinned layer, an antiparallel (AP) Ru spacer layer, and a ferromagnetic Co—Fe second pinned layer. A spacer layer, preferably a Cu—O film, is deposited on the second pinned layer. Thereafter, free layers, preferably comprising Co—Fe and Ni—Fe films, are deposited on the Cu—O spacer layer. The cap layers, preferably comprising Cu and Ta films, are then deposited on the free layers.

Method of fabricating magnetic sensors with pinned layers with zero net magnetic moment

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.


A modular watercraft is disclosed which includes plural connectable modules and which can be broken down for ease of handling, transport and storage. The watercraft includes novel means for connecting separate modules. The connectable modules may be storable within a single one of the modules.

There are many types of small watercraft, sometimes referred to as personal watercraft. These are generally one- or two-person craft that may be unpowered, such as canoes, kayaks and the like, or powered, such as jet skis or a Mokai® jet-powered watercraft available from Mokai Manufacturing, Inc. of Newburgh, N.Y. Such watercraft can range from being fairly easy to handle and transport when out of the water to requiring significant effort.


A semiconductor device (150) is formed having a first conductive member (64) overlying a field isolation region (36) that is typically less than two microns wide. Typically, the field isolation region (36) is relatively thinner compared to wider field isolation regions. The first conductive member (64) lies between the field isolation region (36) and a second conductive member (80) to shield the substrate (20). The shielding helps to increase the field threshold voltage of the field device. The invention is particularly useful in double polysilicon process flow used in forming devices operating at a potential higher than V.sub.DD. Examples of these devices include nonvolatile memories and microcontrollers having nonvolatile memory arrays.

Semiconductor devices continue to be scaled to smaller and smaller dimensions. One of the problems caused by shrinking dimensions is field isolation thinning an small dimensional regions. More specifically, when the space between nitride features becomes less than two macrons the thickness of the field oxide grown an this small region can differ greatly from nitride grown in a large region. More specifically, for a spacing between nitride features of 2 macrons, a field oxide thickness of about 7500 angstroms would be achieved. However, for a spacing of 0.9 microns between nitride features, the same field oxide process would produce field oxide having a thickness of about 5900 angstroms. The locally thinner field isolation region combined with oxide removals can greatly decrease the thickness of the field of isolation region to less than half of what was originally grown. Using the previous example, only about 3000 angstroms of the original 5900 angstroms remains when a high potential electrode is formed on the field oxide.
A problem associated with this thinner field oxide is the creation of a field device that has an unacceptably low threshold voltage. This is particularly problematic when a gate electrode over the field isolation region is at a relatively high potential (higher than V.sub.DD). When the gate electrode is at the relatively high potential, current can flow between the source/drain regions under the field isolation region, which is undesired.
Therefore, a need exists for forming a semiconductor device having reasonably high field threshold voltages. A need also exists that such a semiconductor device be formed without adding any processing steps or masking layers, so that processing time and costs are minimized.

Process for forming a semiconductor device having a conductive member that protects field isolation during etching


An improved liquid impingement nozzle having two openings along an axis, spaced apart and angled towards each other. A non-atomized liquid stream of the same liquid is directed through each opening by a pressurized source. The two streams meet at an apex distal from the front of the nozzle to create a flat triangular pattern of liquid. The inner shape of the nozzle is substantially conical reducing turbulence and dead zones within the nozzle, thereby reducing build-up and clogging.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to liquid spray nozzles and more particularly to a spray nozzle having openings angled towards each other to form a triangular spray pattern and a mixing chamber shaped to reduce turbulence and clogging.
2. Description of the Related Art
Spray nozzles for generating streams of liquid are well known as seen from U.S. Pat. No 6,322,008 to Mark Aker, et al, which is hereby incorporated by reference. This patent describes a nozzle having at least two openings on its face, spaced apart from one another and angled towards each other such that two individual streams cross each other at a point distant from the face of the nozzle. A non-atomized, pressurized stream passes through each opening and meets at an intersection point, forming a flat, triangular pattern. The nozzle is useful in spraying polyester gelcoat applications and reduces emissions of volatile organic compounds.
Often, the materials sprayed using this nozzle or similar nozzles are very viscous or harden quickly. For example, boat hulls are often formed by spraying resins over a mold. In some applications, fillers are added to the resin such as calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate and aluminum trihydrate to improve fire retardency. These fillers further thicken the resins. The viscosity of these liquids and their fast hardening times often cause problems with the nozzle such as clogging. Other than the general problem of clogging of the nozzle openings, the flow of the material within the nozzle causes problems. Turbulence within the nozzle creates dead-spots where the material being sprayed may sit without passing through the nozzle. After time, that material may harden, reducing the area within the nozzle, leading to different dead spots. Eventually, more material may harden within the nozzle, leading to reduced flow. Finally, part of the hardened material may break away and clog the openings in the nozzle or may exit the nozzle and attach itself to the target object. As this build-up occurs, the spraying operation must be stopped, the nozzle removed and cleaned or replaced, and the spraying operation restarted. This stop/restart operation reduces the efficiency of the application and may affect the overall quality of the spray by creating runs or uneven applications.
What is needed is a nozzle that will provide all the advantages of the prior nozzles while reducing accumulation within the nozzle, hence reducing clogging and the need for replacing or cleaning the nozzle during the spray operation.

Liquid impingement nozzle with paired openings


A package or bag is provided with an easy open re-closable device for allowing ready access to the contents of the bag. The closure device is applied longitudinally in a vertical orientation in plastic bags but the closure device is spaced from the ends. In a layer paper bag, while the position of the closure device is preferably longitudinal, the closure device may have any orientation including a diagonal position. The closure device is incorporated in the fins of a fin bag and the closure devices extends longitudinally of the bag in a vertical direction. The process or making a multi layer paper material with a closure device incorporated therein is carried out in a continuous operation. The process of making zip-fin plastic bag or film containing the fins and closure are performed in a continuous operation.

Present technology for easy-open resealable closures is focused primarily across the top of the bag or flexible package. Applicant claims benefit of the filing date of applicant's co-pending provisional application, Application No, 60/340,581 filed Dec. 14, 2001. The transverse positioning of the closure in the same opening of the package that is used to fill the package creates numerous limitations and problems. For example, providing a transverse closure device at the top of the package requires additional headspace in the top of the package that increases package costs and package size. This additional headspace requirement also increases shipping volume. Further, problems of efficient utilization of material handling methods of distribution ranging from pallet loading to-shelf presentation are encountered with packages having large headspace typically ranging from packages of less than 1 kg. up to packages of 25 kg.
In conventional technology, access to the contents of a package is from the top of the package or bag. Access to the bag contents in this manner requires a consumer to reach further into the package as the contents are removed, thus making the retrieval of the contents more difficult as the package is emptied over time.
In the present invention a resealable closure device for packages is provided and is arranged longitudinally of the package. Certain prior art devices have attempted to provide vertically oriented (longitudinally arranged) openings or pouring spouts. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,571 and Pat. Pub. No. U.S. 2001/0010737 to Olin, FIGS. 18 and 19, discloses a vertically or longitudinally arranged re-closable opening in a bag but this re-closable access opening extends across the transverse seal at the upper edge. In order to provide a sealed package, Olin must seal across the closure device which typically crushes the re-closable feature and increases the likelihood of channel leakers. Channel leakers compromises the sealed interior of the package and results in rejected packages. Olin is directed to disclosure of making plastic cereal box liners or bags only on a form fill seal machine and is not intended for heavier bags or shipping sacks. Further, Olin is concerned only with pouring contents from the bag and is not concerned with scooping.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,172 to Yeager discloses a package and process of making the bag in which a zipper is pre-applied to film and preferably positioned transversely to the film's longitudinal formation axis. The closure is described as transversely oriented. The methods disclosed have particular utility in producing a bacon package but the access opening and closure device are located in one plane (single panel) and extends transversely of the package. Access openings located in a single plane are difficult to open.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,837 to Van Erden discloses method of pre-applying slide zipper assemblies to film in both transverse and longitudinal orientation. The method produces a tube bag or package having a transverse seal along the top of the package. Van Erden discloses that the zipper closure forms the top of the bag.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,416,221 and 6,213,641 to Price disclose a stand-up pouch with top and bottom gussets with a closure located at the top of the bag. It is emphasized in the Price patents that this location of the opening for closure (the same opening through which the bag is filled) aids in the filling of the bag. Applicant believes the Price package creates a likelihood of channel leakers.
Applicant's novel bags or packages also include a uniquely located tamper evident element. U.S. Pat. No. Application Pub. U.S. 2002/0094137 to Schneider discloses a package having a tamper evident element. However, the Schneider publication is directed to a slider type closure for a transversely extending opening for plastic bags.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,317,939 and 6,183,134 to Malin disclose bags having high internal force resistant peel sealable zippers. However, the access opening for these bags closed by the resistant peel sealable zippers are the same openings through which the bags are filled.
The present invention overcomes these problems listed above and provides many additional advantages over conventional packages.

Paper and plastic bags flexible packages and other containers with re-closable device and method of making the same


In a catching tool for baseball or softball, a lining leather including at least a back-side leather and a palm-side leather is inserted into a surface leather including at least a back leather and a ball-receiving leather, and the lining leather has inner-side finger stalls defined by peripheral edges of the back-side leather and the palm-side leather which are sewn together. A finger part stabilizing member is provided along at least a region on right and left sides in a region covering a root part through a fingertip part of a wearer's finger inside the inner-side finger stall. The finger part stabilizing member is provided in at least one of the inner-side finger stalls, which are an inner-side thumb stall, an inner-side forefinger stall, an inner-side middle finger stall, an inner-side fourth finger stall, and an inner-side little finger stall.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a catching tool for baseball or softball, and more particularly to a catching tool for baseball or softball that realizes an improved holding property and a sense of fitting by providing the catching tool with a finger part stabilizing member.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, fingers inserted into a catching tool for baseball or softball (hereinafter, may be referred to as a glove) are generally secured when the fingers are inserted into inner-side finger stalls provided in an inner leather (an inner-side thumb stall, an inner-side forefinger stall, a middle finger stall, an inner-side fourth finger stall, and an inner-side little finger stall). However, the respective inner-side finger stalls are generally formed in a size significantly larger than an actual size of the hand. Therefore, it is not possible for the catching tool to give the fitting sense in the same manner as when inserting the hands in commonly worn gloves, and the catching tool can only loosely fit the fingers in the presence of a certain degree of space in an entire periphery of the fingers. In terms of a movement of the glove when a ball is thereby caught, the presence of the space allows the glove to be closed. However, it may be necessary in some cases for the glove to appropriately fit the forefinger and the middle finger so that an impact from the ball when the ball is caught and forces of the fingers exerted when the ball is grabbed can be efficiently transmitted to the glove.
In order to solve the foregoing problem, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 07-037657 discloses a glove in which a palm part, a thumb part, a forefinger part, a middle finger part, a fourth finger part and a little finger part are integrally formed in a thick lining leather, stalls are formed in such a manner that end parts of two thin leathers are sewn to back-surface end parts of the forefinger part, middle finger part and fourth finger part, cushion members are inserted into the respective stalls, and an end part of a thin leather is sewn to back-surface end parts of the thumb part and the little finger part.
However, the glove disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 07-037657 is provided with the cushion members on only the back-surface parts of the respective fingers, and therefore, the catching tool fails to fit the finger and the finger cannot be thereby appropriately held in right and left side parts thereof


An encryption for a distributed global online backup system with global two-stage deduplication in the absence of an indexing database where data blocks are encrypted using their SHA-1 signatures as encryption keys.

There are few online backup systems offering global deduplication on a file/block level. Traditionally, such backup systems either use a sharing algorithm that employs common encryption keys or the backup systems do not encrypt common files/blocks. One of the implications for the use of such systems is that the sharing of common files/blocks may be a potential security risk, or that such systems and methods nullify the benefits of global deduplication where some data blocks must be stored multiple times.
Existing online backup systems often consist of one or more multiple storage systems with numerous backup applications sending and/or retrieving data to/from the storage systems. Traditionally, such backup systems store data in a file system, which often have limited size, and are not able to scale billions of files.
There are conventional systems that store data on clustered file systems. These types of systems require very reliable high-performance storage systems that make the implementation very expensive. Moreover, such systems need many data storage nodes which, on a global scale, often cause a bottleneck. The requirement for storing large number of files increases when deduplication is needed on a block level. For example, if hundreds of millions of files were scheduled to be backed up, and each file contained an average of one thousand blocks of 4 kB, the storage system would need to be capable of handling hundreds of billions of files. Such large numbers of files are very difficult to catalog and handle. There are conventional online backup system implementations that store 500 million files. If, for example, each file had multiple versions, the number of protected files would grow dramatically. Such conventional systems are thus often impractical and inefficient. In other conventional systems, data is stored on virtual tape libraries. Such virtual tape libraries have limited capacity even if this capacity is in the range of gigabytes, terabytes or larger. If there were a need to store more data, more virtual tape libraries would need to be added to the system. In such situations however, the advantages of block level deduplication are lost with the addition of each new virtual tape library.
There are conventional systems that offer global block level deduplication. Such implementations have an indexing database that stores the signatures of the blocks. In global schemes such indexing databases become a bottleneck.
What is needed is an online backup system capable of storing unlimited numbers of files with unlimited size. Such online backup systems must not suffer from degradation in performance due to the very large number of files being protected. This new online backup system must be able to identify existing blocks and store them only once, thus offering global block level deduplication. This new online backup system must have built-in replication in order to offer redundancy and increased performance.

Online backup system with global two staged deduplication without using an indexing database


A vertical type semiconductor device includes: a silicon substrate having a first surface and a second surface; a first electrode disposed on the first surface of the silicon substrate; and a second electrode disposed on the second surface of the silicon substrate. Current is capable of flowing between the first electrode and the second electrode in a vertical direction of the silicon substrate. The second surface of the silicon substrate includes a re-crystallized silicon layer. The second electrode includes an aluminum film so that the aluminum film contacts the re-crystallized silicon layer with ohmic contact.

A semiconductor device having a backside electrode disposed on a silicon substrate is well known. Specifically, in the device, current flows in a thickness direction perpendicular to the substrate. The device is manufactured such than, in a step of polishing a backside of the substrate, firstly, the backside of the substrate is roughly polished. Then, the backside of the substrate is finely polished with a fine grinding stone having the number #2000, which is defined in Japanese Industrial Standard. Thus, two-step polishing is performed. Thus, the silicon substrate is polished so that the thickness of the silicon substrate becomes a predetermined thickness. After that, the backside electrode is formed on the backside of the substrate.
In the above method, when the backside of the substrate is finely polished, a small dislocation and/or a small defect may be formed on the backside of the substrate so that amorphous silicon layer is formed on whole of the backside of the substrate. In this case, the backside electrode is formed on the amorphous silicon layer, so that an interface between the amorphous silicon layer and the backside electrode has a large potential barrier height. This barrier height provides a Schottky barrier. Thus, an on-state resistance of the semiconductor device becomes large.
To avoid the above problem, two methods are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,927,167 and Japanese Patent No. 3339552. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,927,167, after a step of polishing two times, a substrate is etched with etchant so that the amorphous silicon layer is removed. After this wet-etching step, a backside electrode is formed on the substrate. However, in this case, a wet-etching step is added to a manufacturing process of the device. Further, the thickness of the silicon substrate becomes thin. Furthermore, the thickness of the substrate is controlled by an etching time in the wet-etching step, so that the thickness of the substrate may be varied. Thus, it is difficult to control the thickness of the substrate accurately. Furthermore, it is not preferable for the silicon substrate to become thin when the thickness of the substrate is restricted to a predetermined thickness in view of warpage and/or durability.
In Japanese Patent No. 3339552, after a backside electrode is formed on a substrate, the substrate with the backside electrode is annealed at a temperature in a range between 400° C. and 500° C. so that metal in the backside electrode is alloyed with silicon in the substrate. An annealing step is added into the manufacturing process of the device. Further, an aluminum conductor of the device may be damaged by high temperature annealing, and a surface protection film on the device may be damaged by the high temperature annealing. Specifically, aluminum in the aluminum conductor may be diffused into the silicon substrate.

Vertical type semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same


An article having a sealed layered edge, e.g. an automotive laminate and a multiple glazed unit includes a pair of glass sheet in a fixed relationship with one another. A sputtered coating is deposited on a major surface of one of the sheets and includes at least one combination of a metal film, e.g. a silver film and a dielectric film. Discontinuities in the metal film at the marginal edges of the coated sheet provide voids in the metal film to impede or stop corrosion of the metal film. The discontinuities include (1) break lines or segments in the coating, (2) coating thickness variations provided by abrading the coating and (3) spaced discrete coating areas on the marginal edges of the coated sheet. The discontinuities may be made in the metal film using a laser, an abrasive surface, a coating mask and/or coating deletion techniques.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an article, e.g. a laminated transparency, and/or a multiple glazed unit, having a sealed layered edge to impede corrosion of a coating at the sealed edge of the article and to a method of making the article, and more particularly, to a laminated transparency and/or multiple glazed unit having a coating containing a metal film, e.g. a sputtered solar control coating and/or heatable coating, and having discontinuities in the metal film at the sealed layered edge to impede corrosion of the metal film at least in a direction inward away from the edge, and to method of making the laminated transparency and/or multiple glazed unit.
2. Discussion of the Technical Issues
Sputtered solar control and/or heatable coatings are applied to substrates, e.g. glass sheets, and the coated substrates are used in the manufacture of articles, e.g. transparencies such as laminated automotive windshields; multiple glazed units or windows for homes, commercial buildings, and windows for storage cases, e.g. windows for refrigerator doors. A common feature of the transparencies is that the transparencies have sealed layered edges. Another common feature of the transparencies is that the coatings usually include one or more sets of a metal film, e.g. a silver film and a dielectric film. Examples of such coatings are discussed in European Patent Application No. 00939609.4. Sputtered coatings are soft coating, compared to pyrolytic coatings, similar to the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,657, and are usually applied to the surface of the glass sheet designated as an inner surface of the laminate or multiple glazed window.
The usual practice in the manufacture of a laminate is to provide a plastic sheet between a pair of glass sheets with the coating facing one of the surfaces of the plastic sheet and to apply heat and pressure to the glass and plastic sheets to form the laminate. The usual practice in the manufacture of a multiple glazed unit is to position a spacer frame having a layer of moisture impervious adhesive on opposed surfaces of the spacer frame between a pair of glass sheets with a coating facing the spacer frame. The glass sheets are biased toward one another against the spacer frame to flow the adhesive to seal the edges of the unit.
The coating on the marginal edge portions of the sheet in each instance is between the glass sheet and a plastic layer, e.g. the plastic sheet or the layer of moisture impervious adhesive. Moisture in the atmosphere often containing corrosive materials, e.g. acid, attacks the edge of the coating exposed at the periphery of the article, and in particular the edge of the metal film of the coating, and corrodes the metal film. The corrosion of the coating or metal film continues into the sealed layered edge of the article. Minor corrosion of the coating at the sealed marginal edges is unsightly, whereas sever corrosion of the coating at the sealed marginal edges may result in failure of the sealed edge. In the case of a laminate, the failure of the sealed edge may result in delamination of the laminate, and in the case of a multiple glazed unit, the failure of the sealed edge results in air moving into the unit.
The present practice to eliminate corrosion of the coating or metal film of the coating at the sealed layered edges is to provide a coated sheet having uncoated marginal edges. One technique to provide uncoated marginal edges is to mask the marginal edges of the sheet during the coating operation, e.g. as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,750. Another technique is to coat the complete surface of the sheet and, thereafter, completely remove the coating from the marginal edge portions of the sheet, e.g. as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,769.
The present techniques are acceptable to prevent corrosion of the coating at the sealed layered edges; however, it would be beneficial to have less expensive techniques available to impede the corrosion of the metal film of the coating at the sealed layered edge of an article.

Coated article having a sealed layered edge to impede corrosion of a coating at the edge and method of making same


Provided is a warming device which can efficiently warm a blood product and inhibit a liquid in a warming flow path from exceeding an upper limit temperature thereof when liquid delivery of the blood product is stopped. The warming device includes the warming flow path in which the blood product flows and a heat plate which is in contact with the warming flow path to supply heat to the warming flow path. On the heat plate, a heater in a predetermined pattern corresponding to the warming flow path is disposed. The heater is disposed such that an amount of heat generation toward the warming flow path decreases in stages from an upstream side toward a downstream side in the warming flow path and that a decrease rate of the amount of heat generation at each of the stages decreases from the upstream side toward the downstream side.

In a hospital, for the purpose of maintaining the function of a blood product to be infused into a patient, the blood product is stored under refrigeration. When a blood product is infused into a patient, to reduce a burden on the patient, the blood product may be warmed to an appropriate temperature and then infused. In particular, in the event of major or fatal bleeding, a blood product needs to be infused in large amounts in a short time. At this time, to prevent hypothermia, the blood product needs to be rapidly warmed to the body temperature of the patient.
Conventionally, for use in treating a patient who had the major or fatal bleeding mentioned above, an infusion system has been known in which a blood product is infused into the patient, while being warmed. There is an infusion system in which a blood product is caused to flow in a warming flow path, while the warming flow path is heated with a heat plate having a heater (see Patent Document 1).
In the infusion system mentioned above, to rapidly warm a low-temperature blood product, the blood product needs to be efficiently warmed. To satisfy the need, it can be considered to, e.g., increase the temperature of the heater and produce a large temperature difference between the heat plate and the blood product. However, when heated to a high temperature, the blood product results in morphological or functional abnormality or hemolysis. Accordingly, there is an upper limit temperature which allows the blood product to be held (in a preferable state) without resulting in abnormality or hemolysis. The upper limit temperature is about 42° C. so that there is a limit to increasing the temperature of the heater.
To efficiently warm a liquid for which an upper limit temperature is determined, such as a blood product, there is a method in which the power of a heater portion is set higher in the upstream warming section thereof than in the downstream warming section thereof (see Patent Document 2).


A method for preventing CMP-induced (chemical-mechanical polish) damage to a substrate disposed below a pad nitride layer of a mesa. The pad nitride layer is disposed below a conformally deposited dielectric layer. The dielectric layer is disposed below a conformally deposited polysilicon layer. The method includes planarizing the polysilicon layer down to at least a surface of the dielectric layer using the CMP to expose a first region of the dielectric layer. The method further includes etching partially through the first region of the dielectric layer using first etch parameters. The first etch parameters include an etchant source gas that is substantially selective to the pad nitride layer to prevent the pad nitride layer from being etched through even in the presence of a CMP defect. Additionally, there is also included removing the polysilicon layer after the etching partially through the first region of the dielectric layer.

The present invention relates to the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits (IC's). More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques for protecting device components from chemical-mechanical polish (CMP) induced substrate damage.
In semiconductor IC fabrication, devices such as component transistors are formed on a substrate, which may typically be made of silicon. Uses for the substrate may include, for example, the fabrication of ICs or flat panel displays. Successive layers of various materials may be deposited onto a substrate and selectively removed to form layered mesa structures on a silicon wafer. In a previously-filed patent application entitled "Self-Aligned Polysilicon FET Devices Isolated with Maskless Shallow Trench Isolation and Gate Conductor Fill Technology and Method of Manufacture Thereof," (Attorney Docket No. HQ9-96-051), filed May 1, 1997 (Ser. No. 08/515,714) and incorporated herein by reference, a layered mesa structure is described for isolating devices in the formation of FET devices fabricated in accordance with very large scale integration (VLSI) techniques. In general, a layered mesa structure may include pad layers, e.g., pad nitride and pad oxide layers, deposited over a silicon mesa (which may be single crystal silicon in structure). To facilitate discussion, FIG. 1 illustrates a layer stack 110, which may be formed on a substrate 112. A pair of mesas 114 and 116 are formed on substrate 112 by masking and etching a shallow trench into the substrate to form the silicon mesas. The resulting mesas are then capped with one or more pad layers.
As shown in FIG. 1, mesa structure 114 includes pad layers, some of which are shown as a pad nitride layer 118 overlying a pad oxide layer 120. Pad oxide layer 120 may be, for example, about 25-300 angstroms thick. Pad nitride layer 118 may be, for example, about 500 to about 2,500 angstroms thick. Likewise, mesa structure 116 includes pad layers, some of which are shown as a pad nitride layer 122 overlying a pad oxide layer 124. A dielectric layer 126, which may be TEOS or silicon dioxide, is shown conformally deposited over substrate 112 and the pad layers of mesa structures 114 and 116. This dielectric layer 126 may be, for example, about 3,000 to about 9,000 angstroms thick. The dielectric material disposed between the mesa structures provides the shallow trench isolation (STI) region to isolate devices of the mesa structures.
Above dielectric layer 126, there is disposed a polysilicon layer 130, representing the layer from which a mask may be formed to facilitate the subsequent etching of dielectric layer 126. The polysilicon may be, for example, about 2,000 to about 8,000 angstroms thick. FIG. 2 shows the substrate of FIG. 1 after a chemical-mechanical polish (CMP) step has been employed to planarize polysilicon layer 130 and silicon dioxide layer 126. The CMP process typically terminates when the high areas of silicon dioxide layer 126 break through polysilicon layer 130, and/or the exposed silicon dioxide layer is planarized to a specific design thickness (i.e., it is not always required that the CMP step terminates exactly when high areas of silicon dioxide layer 126 break through polysilicon layer 130). After CMP, the high areas of the dielectric layer are exposed through the polysilicon layer to facilitate dielectric etching while other areas of the substrate are masked off by the remaining polysilicon.
During CMP, however, the exposed surface of silicon dioxide layer 126 may be damaged by various CMP process defects. These CMP process defects include, for example, scratching and over-polishing. Scratching may occur when an abrasive particle comes between a CMP rotating pad and the exposed oxide surface. The rotational force and pressure of the pad against the abrasive particle may gouge the exposed oxide surface. This scratch is illustrated as scratch 200 over mesa structure 116. As can be seen in FIG. 2, the presence of scratch 200 decreases the thickness of the dielectric material above pad nitride layer 122.
Over-polishing may also produce thin areas of the dielectric layer and may result from improper CMP process parameters, which may include improper process duration, pad pressure, pad abrasiveness, brushing speed, slurry chemistry and other factors. When one or more CMP process parameters are incorrect it may not be possible to precisely control the material removal and a thinner than desired dielectric layer may be present over the mesa structure. dielectric etch has removed portions of the unprotected areas of silicon dioxide layer 126 to form hollows. During the dielectric etch, the regions of polysilicon layer 130 that were not removed by CMP act as a hard mask which protects the underlying dielectric material. Typically, the dielectric etch is designed (e.g., timed) to leave a controlled amount of dielectric material above the pad layer, e.g., above the pad nitride layer. By way of example, the dielectric etch may represent a partial reactive ion etching (RIE) or wet etch of the exposed surface of the dielectric material and remove about 2,000 to about 9,800 angstroms of silicon dioxide. With reference to FIG. 3, the dielectric etch is designed to form a hollow 302 in dielectric layer 126 and to leave a thin (e.g., about 800 to 900 angstroms thick) dielectric layer 320 above pad nitride layer 118 of mesa structure 114. However, where silicon dioxide layer 126 is thinner than intended due to CMP process defects (e.g., due to scratch 200 as shown in FIG. 2), the thinner silicon dioxide layer above the mesa may be completely etched through instead of only partially etched. Further, the previously disclosed dielectric etch chemistry, which typically includes a mixture of CHF.sub.3, CF.sub.4, and/or argon, permits the pad layer(s) (e.g., pad nitride 122 and pad oxide 124) to be etched through during this dielectric etch step, thereby exposing some of the underlying substrate 112 material (typically single crystal silicon in structure). The inadvertent etching of the pad nitride layer and the pad oxide layer is depicted above mesa structure 116 of FIG. 3. Due to the fact that the dielectric etch chemistry is typically selective to silicon (so as to avoid attacking the polysilicon hard mask), the underlying silicon substrate 112 is typically not attacked during this dielectric etch step even if the pad layers are inadvertently etched through.
To facilitate further processing, the polysilicon hard mask may then be removed. Because the polysilicon etchant (typically comprising SF.sub.6 and NF.sub.3) or wet etch employed to remove the polysilicon hard mask typically does not readily attack the dielectric material, layers underlying thin dielectric layer 320 (e.g., pad nitride layer 118, pad oxide layer 120, and the substrate materials underlying these layers) are protected during this polysilicon removal step. However, the polysilicon etchant readily attacks any silicon substrate material (e.g., single crystal silicon) exposed by a combination of CMP process defects and the CHF.sub.3 /CF.sub.4 /Ar dielectric etch or wet etch. With reference to FIG. 3, the substrate material at the region of mesa structure 116 would then be inadvertently etched away during the polysilicon removal step. The result is a CMP-induced substrate defect (which is shown as a void 402 in FIG. 4) in substrate 112 in the region of mesa structure 116.
This void may also be formed if the layer stack is over-polished during the CMP step such that a thinner-than intended dielectric layer is present above mesa structure 116 prior to the subsequent dielectric etch step. The result of over-polishing is depicted in FIG. 5, which shows a thinner layer of dielectric material overlying mesa structure 116 as compared to the layer of dielectric material overlying mesa structure 114. The presence of void 402 in the substrate may cause problems to devices subsequently formed. By way of example, void 402 may result shorting of the subsequently deposited gate conductors and/or gate oxide breakdown, which leads to gate-to-substrate, gate-to-ground shorts, etc.
In view of the foregoing, there are desired improved methods for protecting device components from CMP defect-induced etching damage during dielectric etching.

Methods for protecting device components from chemical mechanical polish induced defects


Systems, apparatuses, and methods are described for auto-discovery of port-to-port connectivity through correlative analysis on performance metrics. Statistical data corresponding to each port of routers and transport devices may be collected. The collected data may be processed such that missing data may be patched and time frames may be aligned. Statistical analysis may be performed on the collected data. Such statistical analysis may comprise generating a waveform based on the data and determining, e.g., correlations in the data. If the analyzed data of one port matches analyzed data of another port, the two ports may be determined to be connected to one another. A match may be based on meeting various criteria and/or thresholds.

In some networks, two routers may be located at a great distance away from one another. For example, one router may be located on the east coast of the United States (e.g., in Boston) and the other router may be located on the west coast of the United States (e.g., in San Francisco). In order to transmit messages between the two routers, the routers may relay communications over long distances to one another via a transport network. Furthermore, on such a transport network, different routers and transport devices may be connected using different ports. For example, port 5 of a router may be connected to port 3 of a transport device. Technicians may document such port-to-port mappings of a transport network, but such documentation may become lost, outdated, and/or erroneous, particularly as the network is updated and reconfigured.