A method for using Bluetooth® information for inferring user context and computing sociability is presented. The method includes receiving wireless sensor data from wireless sensor communication for an electronic device. Information units are formed using the wireless sensor data. User context is inferred using the information units. An entropy metric is computed based on the inferred user context. Social profiling is created based on the entropy metric and one or more user context characteristics.

Mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) use embedded sensors, for example, global positioning system (GPS), accelerometer, Bluetooth®, and Wi-Fi, as well as increased capability in computation (e.g., CPU performance, battery life, and memory size). Among these various sensors, Bluetooth® is relatively more stable and less expensive because of low cost, less constraints (both indoor and outdoor), and less battery drain as compared to other sensors, such as GPS and Wi-Fi.
Bluetooth® sensors are typically used for exchanging files between devices within a short distance from one another, indoor location positioning by combining Bluetooth® and Wi-Fi signals, and estimating nearby device/people population in a crowd.

Context recognition and social profiling using mobile devices


In accordance with embodiments of the present invention an offer is presented to a player (e.g., at a gaming device or a table game in a casino). The offer defines a benefit to be provided in exchange for the player's commitment to an obligation defined by the offer. The offer may be provided once it is determined that a condition of a gaming device satisfies a predetermined criterion. The benefit defined by the offer may be provided to the player and/or to one or more associated persons designated by the player.

Gaming devices such as slot machines generate billions of dollars of revenue per year for casinos located in the United States and other countries. Typically, a casino generates well over half of its revenue from gaming devices. The profit a casino realizes from a player playing at a gaming device tends to increase as the duration of the player's play session at the gaming device increases. Accordingly, casinos are acutely interested in increasing the duration of a player's play session at a gaming device. Unfortunately most players who play a gaming device have limited funds or a fixed budget, which tends to limit the duration of the play session. Most players would welcome the opportunity to increase the amount of funds they have available for playing the gaming device and/or to offset any losses they may have incurred while playing the gaming device. Further, a player's attention is typically focused on the gaming device the player is playing, making the player susceptible to respond to any offers that may be presented to the player via the gaming device.
The acquisition of new customers and the inducement of the return of previous customers is a key concern for most businesses. Businesses tend to set a monetary budget to be spent on the achievement of these goals. This budget is typically spent on advertising of the business to potential customers. However, the effectiveness of most advertising (even targeted advertising) is less than ideal. This is partly due to the fact that most people are typically bombarded with a multitude of advertisements for a variety of businesses at any given time. Adding to the lack of satisfactory effectiveness of conventional advertising is the fact that many people are presented with advertisements at a time when they are not sufficiently motivated to act on the advertisement (e.g. by purchasing the product or visiting the merchant being advertised). Further, even if the viewer of the advertisement is interested in the subject of the advertisement, the viewer tends to get distracted and forget about acting on the advertisement as time passes. Thus a need exists for an improved method for businesses to acquire new customer and/or induce the return of previous customers.

Methods and systems for facilitating play at a gaming device by means of third party offers


A method of spawning a communication service comprises the steps of detecting (201) a failed call attempt initiated by a first communication unit (101) and directed to a second communication unit (109), and determining (207) if a code associated with the first communication unit (101) is an authorized code associated with the second communication unit (109), wherein the first communication unit (101) is associated with a first user and the second communication unit (109) is associated with a second user. If the code is an authorized code, a communication service is spawned (209), resulting in a message directed at a user other than the second user, such as the first user or a third user, or a communication unit other than the second communication unit (109), such as the first communication unit (101) or a third communication unit (109), which may be associated with a third user other than the first user or the second user.

Inter-system and intra-system communications are known. Communications between wireline and wireless networks proceed regularly and transparently to the user.
It is well known that subscribers of paging systems must wear their pagers at all times when they are expecting others to contact them. The subscriber may be on the run, and forget his or her pager. When the subscriber is not on the run, he or she may advise expected callers to call the user's wireline telephone. When a user fails to answer a page, for example when the user takes off the pager to charge it, loses the pager, or forgets to turn the pager on, the page may be forwarded to the user's television, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,894 titled "Television Paging System," or some other device such as a cellular phone associated with the user. Some systems allow for a page to be forwarded into another communication system or even into another type of device, such as a cellular phone.
In cellular phone systems or wireline phone systems, call forwarding, call waiting, and voice mail are just a few of the options that a user has when the user does not answer an incoming call for any reason. Users of cellular phones may also make use of another diversion feature, commonly known as "no answer transfer," to divert an incoming call to a second predetermined phone number should the intended recipient fail to answer their cellular phone. The second phone number may be a voice mail server or another phone device where the original call recipient may be contacted.
Thus, when the recipient of a call or page does not answer the call or page, many options exist for the recipient to redirect a call or otherwise use another service such that the recipient is made aware of the call. Generally these options are referred to as diversion or notification.
The initiator of the failed call, however, has very few options. Some voice mail systems allow the caller to forward the call to another number, where someone may or may not answer the call, and that someone may or may not be able to help the initiator get the information sought.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of providing information to the initiator of a call when the intended recipient does not answer the call.

Method of spawning a communication service


There is provided an eyelid closure patch for use by anesthesiologists to ensure that the patient's eyes are closed during surgery. The patch consists of a flexible transparent material which contains a layer of a transparent pressure sensitive water soluble gelatinous or hydrocolloidal adhesive. The patch has an adhesive free tab and a cover sheet.

When patients are under anesthesia during surgery, the patient's eyes are generally taped shut by the use of ordinary tape. The taping of the eyes is performed for a variety of reasons. The most common reason is to protect them from abrasions or cornea drying out while under anesthesia. The patient does not tear while asleep so that the eye can dry out especially when under anesthesia. For the anesthesiologist, this requires tearing a strip of tape while wearing rubber gloves and gripping the tape to remove it after the operation. The use of ordinary tape provides a problem for the patient since the eyelashes can stick to the adhesive and cause problems.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,339,546 and 4,062,361, which are herein incorporated by reference, disclose hydrocolloids which can be used in the adhesives of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,944 to Rice discloses a narrow skin closure dressing for eyelids comprising an adhesive layer on backing material, a multi-layered pad covering a portion of the face of the backing material and an outer layer of the backing material being free of adhesive. One or more side tabs are provided to assist in removal. The closure is primarily for use after surgical procedures.
The prior art closure dressings have the problems that they are difficult to handle with gloves. They are non-transparent and do not cover the eyes but only the upper eye lid so that the eyes can still be unprotected.


Antibodies that bind to CCX-CKR2 and methods of their use are provided.

Chemokines constitute a family of small cytokines that are, inter alia, produced in inflammation and regulate leukocyte recruitment, activation and proliferation (Baggiolini, M. et al., Adv. Immunol. 55: 97-179 (1994); Springer, T. A., Annu. Rev. Physiol. 57: 827-872 (1995); and Schall, T. J. and K. B. Bacon, Curr. Opin. Immunol. 6: 865-873 (1994)). Chemokines are capable of selectively inducing chemotaxis of the formed elements of the blood (other than red blood cells), including leukocytes such as neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, eosinophils, basophils, mast cells, and lymphocytes, including T cells and B cells. In addition to stimulating chemotaxis, other changes can be selectively induced by chemokines in responsive cells, including changes in cell shape, transient rises in the concentration of intracellular free calcium ions (Ca2+), granule exocytosis, integrin upregulation, formation of bioactive lipids (e.g., leukotrienes), expression of cytokines, and respiratory burst, associated with leukocyte activation, growth and proliferation. Thus, the chemokines are early triggers of the inflammatory response, causing inflammatory mediator release, chemotaxis and extravasation to sites of infection or inflammation.
Two subfamilies of chemokines, designated as CXC and CC chemokines, are distinguished by the arrangement of the first two of four conserved cysteine residues, which are either separated by one amino acid (as in CXC chemokines SDF-1, IL-8, IP-10, MIG, PF4, ENA-78, GCP-2, GROα, GROβ, GROγ, NAP-2, NAP-4, I-TAC) or are adjacent residues (as in CC chemokines MIP-1α, MIP-1β, RANTES, MCP-1, MCP-2, MCP-3, I-309). Most CXC chemokines attract neutrophil leukocytes. For example, the CXC chemokines interleukin 8 (IL-8), platelet factor 4 (PF4), and neutrophil-activating peptide 2 (NAP-2) are potent chemoattractants and activators of neutrophils. The CXC chemokines designated MIG (monokine induced by gamma interferon) and IP-10 (interferon-γ inducible 10 kDa protein) are particularly active in inducing chemotaxis of activated peripheral blood lymphocytes. CC chemokines are generally less selective and can attract a variety of leukocyte cell types, including monocytes, eosinophils, basophils, T lymphocytes, granulocytes and natural killer cells. CC chemokines such as human monocyte chemotactic proteins 1-3 (MCP-1, MCP-2 and MCP-3), RANTES (Regulated on Activation, Normal T Expressed and Secreted), and the macrophage inflammatory proteins 1α and 1β (MIP-1α and MIP-1β) have been characterized as chemoattractants and activators of monocytes or lymphocytes, but do not appear to be chemoattractants for neutrophils.
CC and CXC chemokines act through receptors that belong to a superfamily of seven transmembrane spanning G protein-coupled receptors (Murphy, P. M., Pharmacol Rev. 52:145-176 (2000)). This family of G-protein coupled receptors comprises a large group of integral membrane proteins, containing seven transmembrane-spanning regions. The receptors may be coupled to G proteins, which are heterotrimeric regulatory proteins capable of binding GTP and mediating signal transduction from coupled receptors, for example, by the production of intracellular mediators. Additionally chemokine receptors may act independently of G protein coupling. For instance the Duffy receptor expressed predominantly on red blood cells is a promiscuous chemokine binding receptor which is believed to act as a chemokine, removing chemokines from the circulatory environment.
Generally speaking, chemokine and chemokine receptor interactions tend to be promiscuous in that one chemokine can bind many chemokine receptors and conversely a single chemokine receptor can interact with several chemokines. There are a few exceptions to this rule; one such exception has been the interaction between SDF-1 and CXCR4 (Bleul et al., J Exp Med, 184(3): 1101-9 (1996); Oberlin et al., Nature, 382(6594): 833-5 (1996)). Originally identified as a pre-B cell growth-stimulating factor (Nagasawa et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 91(6): 2305-9 (1994)), SDF-1 has been the only reported human ligand for CXCR4. The SDF-1 gene encodes two proteins, designated SDF-1α and SDF-1β, by alternative splicing. These two proteins are identical except for the four amino acid residues that are present in the N-terminus of SDF-1β and absent from SDF-1α.
There are many aspects of chemokine receptor signaling and selectivity for ligands that were not previously understood. For example, there are a number of orphan receptors for which no function has been previously determined. RDC1, for example, though earlier thought to be a receptor for vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), until recently has been considered to be an orphan receptor because its endogenous ligand has not been identified. See, e.g., Cook et al., FEBS Letts. 300(2):149-152 (1992).
Recently, RDC1, renamed as CCX-CKR2, was determined to bind to both chemokines SDF-1 and I-TAC. See, e.g., PCT/US04/34807 and U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/698,541, 10/912,638 and 11/050,345 each of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety.


An apparatus for testing for the presence of a drug is provided. The apparatus includes a first drug testing reagent, a first ampule, a vessel that contains the first ampule, and a fracturing means. The first drug testing reagent contains a controlled substance detecting chemical reagent. The vessel serves as a mixing chamber for mixing the reagents with the test subject fluid. Further, the vessel may include a transparent wall through which changes in coloration of mixtures of test subject fluids and reagents may be viewed. The vessel may also comprise a test subject fluid injection port to allow for the injection of a test subject fluid into the vessel. The vessel may also contain means for fracturing the ampule without damaging or opening the vessel. A method for conducting a drug test is also provided.

This invention relates to drug testing. More particularly, this invention relates to color change indicia chemical reagent drug testing, and to apparatus and method steps for facilitating color change indicia chemical reagent drug testing.
Conducting tests for the presence or absence of drugs is known. One method of testing for the presence of a drug is to mix a reagent with the substance to be tested, which indicates the presence of a drug by a color change. Commonly known chemical reagents for color change indicia testing for the presence or absence of controlled substance drugs include Meyer's reagent, Marquis reagent, Nitric acid reagents, Cobalt Thiocyanate reagent, Dille-Koppanyi reagent, Mandeline reagent, Mecke's modified reagent, and Diazepam/Valium reagent. Classes of controlled substance drugs which are detectable through reagent color indicia testing include barbiturates, amphetamines, opiates, and synthetic opiates.
In order to test for the presence or absence of controlled substance drugs, a reagent, for example liquid nitric acid, is commonly held in an unsealed container. Thereafter, a test subject fluid, for example a fluid suspected of including the opiate Demerol, is introduced and mixed with the nitric acid fluid within the open-ended container. A change in coloration of the solution represents a positive result, indicating the presence of an opiate. The absence of any change in coloration indicates the absence of opiates within the test subject fluid.
However, the performance of such chemical reagent drugs tests suffer from a number of drawbacks and deficiencies. For instance, the test described above typically requires one or more measuring steps and the manipulation of various vials, which can be time consuming and inconvenient. Moreover, the aforementioned technique may result in mis-measurements, inaccuracies, and spillage of liquids, which may compromise the reliability of the test results. Furthermore, the vials and vessels used to perform such drug tests commonly have no capacity for preserving the results of a test for future observation.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a convenient apparatus and method for testing for the presence of a drug that substantially reduces mis-measurements, inaccuracies and the spillage of liquids while providing for the preservation of the test result. The present invention fills these needs as well as other needs.


A technique for forming die stacks. Specifically, a stacking tip is provided to facilitate the stacking of die in a desired configuration. A first die is picked up by the stacking tip. The first die is coated with an adhesive on the underside of the die. The first die is brought in contact with a second die via the stacking tip. The second die is coupled to the first die via the adhesive on the underside of the first die. The second die is coated with an adhesive coating on the underside of the die. The second die is then brought in contact with a third die via the stacking tip. The third die is coupled to the second die via the adhesive on the underside of the second die, and so forth. Die stacks are formed without being coupled to a substrate. The die stacks may be functionally and/or environmentally tested before attaching the die stack to a substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor processing and, more particularly, to a stacked die module and techniques for forming a stacked die module.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Packaging of electrical circuits is a key element in the technological development of systems implementing electrical components. Various techniques have been developed to meet the continued demands for improving system performance and capability. Engineers have been challenged with finding ways to increase hardware capabilities while the space in which to provide these hardware capabilities continues to decrease.
One technique for saving valuable system board geography is to implement die stacking techniques. A standard integrated circuit package, such as a memory or processor package, may include a substrate whereon chips or die may be stacked. Die stacks are generally formed directly on a substrate. A first die may be adhesively and/or electrically coupled to the substrate. A second die may then be stacked on top of the first die and adhesively and/or electrically coupled to the first die. In addition or alternatively, the second die may be electrically coupled directly to the substrate by bondwires or leads, for example, or electrically coupled to the substrate through the first die. A third die may then be attached to the second die, and so forth.
While current stacking techniques provide more hardware capability in smaller areas by eliminating the need to populate additional substrate surface area for each individual die used in the system, the present techniques have several disadvantages. One problem is that the die are becoming extremely thin (1-6 mil). While thinner die have some advantages, the thinner die are more difficult to handle with the current die stacking tools. Stacking a die onto a substrate and then stacking a number of die one on top of the other, often involves numerous iterations using various tools and instruments which creates a number of handling iterations which may result in damage to one or more of the die in the stack. Further, the substrates on which the die are stacked generally have a different coefficients of thermal expansion. Thus, once the stack is formed on the substrate and cured, as in typical die stacking systems, a mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs) may be introduced, which may cause cracking or other problems with the die stack since the interface between each of the die and the interface between the die and substrate are being cured at the same time but have different CTEs. Further, the processing difficulties may result in the wasting of previously good substrates since the die may be damaged in the die stacking process but this damage may not be realized until the entire package is assembled and electrically tested, as is the case in typical systems.
The present invention may address one or more of the problems set forth above.

Stacked die module and techniques for forming a stacked die module


A method of car access includes receiving a localization secret at data processing hardware. The localization secret defines a portion of vehicle authentication information for a vehicle. The method also includes receiving at least one localization frame from a mobile device at the data processing hardware. The at least one localization frame includes identification information for the mobile device. The method further includes determining, by the data processing hardware, whether the at least one localization frame includes a derived localization secret. The derived localization is defined by the localization secret. The method further includes, when the at least one localization frame includes the derived localization secret, supplying, by the data processing hardware, power to a vehicle control module of the vehicle and authentication information to the vehicle control module of the vehicle.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure and is not necessarily prior art.
A mobile device, such as a smartphone, a smart watch, or a computer (e.g., a tablet, laptop, personal digital assistant, etc.), for example, can be used to communicate with a motor vehicle. For example, a mobile device can communicate with vehicle systems of the vehicle in order to access, diagnose faults, start/stop, or provide power to certain components or systems within the vehicle. In particular, a user may utilize a wireless communication protocol (e.g., short-range radio wave communication, Wi-Fi, BLUETOOTH®, BLUETOOTH® low energy (BLE), near field communication (NFC), etc.) to access or to operate the vehicle. For example, the operator may access or operate the vehicle by utilizing a wireless communication protocol controlled and powered by a mobile device.
Vehicles today may use Bluetooth low energy nodes as a wireless communication method to communicate with vehicle systems. As more and more vehicles begin to use Bluetooth low energy systems for vehicle access and vehicle operation, a user who operates the vehicle conveniently may use a mobile device to communicate with the vehicle systems via BLUETOOTH® or BLUETOOTH® low energy as the wireless communication protocol. Because many mobile devices may be within range of a Bluetooth low energy system for a vehicle, Bluetooth low energy vehicle systems may be susceptible to security threats, which can occur when one or more unauthorized mobile devices communicate with the vehicle. Unauthorized mobile devices may intercept, or otherwise receive, one or more wireless communications between a vehicle and an authorized mobile device. Unauthorized wireless communication may compromise the safety of the vehicle and the vehicle system because, for example, the vehicle may allow an unauthorized mobile device to unlock the doors on the vehicle or to start the engine of the vehicle. The vulnerability of the vehicle system may become even more complex when an owner of the vehicle wishes to grant or to manage privileges to more than one vehicle operator. For example, the owner of the vehicle is a car rental agency or a car share service. In this scenario, the owner of the vehicle only wants trusted users to have the capability to control functions of the vehicle. Unfortunately, the vehicle must, therefore, be able to constantly distinguish between mobile devices of trusted users and mobile devices of users who are not trusted. If the Bluetooth system of an adjacent mobile device is active, the adjacent mobile device broadcasts Bluetooth signals that may be heard or received by the Bluetooth system of the vehicle. Because the vehicle must constantly determine the status of users, the vehicle may consume costly amounts of power if the vehicle systems are active during this process. While known systems and methods for low energy mobile device recognition have proven acceptable for their intended purpose, a continuous need for improvement in the relevant art remains.

System and method of low energy mobile device recognition


An apparatus for preparing a sample for analysis by a mass spectrometer system. The apparatus has an entry chamber and an ionization chamber separated by a skimmer. A capacitor having two space-apart electrodes followed by one or more ion-imaging lenses is disposed in the ionization chamber. The chamber is evacuated and the capacitor is charged. A valve injects a sample gas in the form of sample pulses into the entry chamber. The pulse is collimated by the skimmer and enters the ionization chamber. When the sample pulse passes through the gap between the electrodes, it discharges the capacitor and is thereby ionized. The ions are focused by the imaging lenses and enter the mass analyzer, where their mass and charge are analyzed.

1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to mass spectrometry. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus for improving the signal-to-background ratio in mass spectrometry.
2. Discussion of Background:
The ionization source is an integral part of mass spectrometry instrumentation. Resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI), electron impact ionization (EI), chemical ionization, etc. are techniques available to the mass spectroscopist. These techniques have advantages and disadvantages depending on the particular application. Some molecules or atoms, particularly the noble gases, are extremely difficult to ionize, or the ionization efficiency is too low, requiring large samples for analysis.
In using a mass spectrometer to analyze a gas sample, traces of a previous sample may interfere with subsequent measurements. Molecules may remain within the system, adhering to the walls of the system and then desorb during subsequent analyses. These residual molecules produce the so-called "memory" effect, that is, a form of measurement "noise" or interference with a subsequent measurement caused by traces of previous samples. Memory effects are difficult to eliminate. The decreased signal-to-background ratio resulting from memory effects may invalidate or at least compromise subsequent measurements. They are particularly troublesome when analyzing small volume or low-concentration samples. Moreover, when the residual gas is the same as that being measured in a subsequent measurement, the effect is particularly troublesome. Hydrogen, nitrogen, water, and carbon dioxide molecules are known to be especially difficult to remove.
A number of techniques are available to improve the sensitivity of mass spectrometer measurements. The signal-to-background ratio can be increased by increasing the concentration of the sample. If a sufficient amount of the sample is available, this can be done simply by increasing the amount of sample gas introduced into the system. Vacuum pumps can purge the system between measurements to reduce the background signal. However, a vacuum purge may not remove molecules that adhere to the walls of the system. A neutral background gas may be pumped through the system between sample measurements to help detach and remove any residual molecules adhering to the walls.
Other techniques involve pulsing the sample gas into the vacuum chamber of a mass spectrometer. Kimock, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,594) use sample gas pulses with a density high enough to substantially sweep residual background gas from the path of the pulse, thereby increasing the system's signal-to-background ratio for signal detection. The pulse frequency is adjusted to maintain a quasi-continuous flow of sample gas through the vacuum chamber.
Bursack, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,913) describe a valve that pulses to admit small volumes of sample gas to an antechamber disposed between the sample stream and the high vacuum enclosure of a mass spectrometer. The duration and frequency of the pulses are controlled so that sample flow into the high vacuum enclosure remains essentially constant. Bursack (U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,626) uses pulsed gas samples to a mass spectrometer for use with atmospheric gases. The pulse duration and frequency are chosen so that the amount of gas admitted during each pulse does not exceed the removal capacity of an ion-getter pump in the interval before the next pulse.
Implementation of these techniques generally requires relatively large samples. It would be advantageous, particularly for small and difficult-to-ionize samples, to have a high-energy, pulsed ion source that could be activated by a small packet of gas produced by a pulsed valve. If desired, the sample could be diluted with a carrier gas such as argon, neon, xenon, and so forth. For a small, pulsed sample, the residual background molecules would not contribute significantly to the signal produced by the sample.

Apparatus for preparing a sample for mass spectrometry

The United States of America as represented by the United State Department of Energy


A toner, including: a binder resin; and a colorant, wherein the binder resin contains: a crystalline polyester resin (A); a non-crystalline resin (B); and a composite resin (C), where the composite resin (C) contains a condensation polymerization resin unit and an addition polymerization resin unit, wherein the toner contains chloroform insoluble matter in an amount of 1% by mass to 30% by mass, wherein the toner has a molecular weight distribution having a main peak in a range of 1,000 to 10,000 and a half width of 15,000 or less, where the molecular weight distribution is obtained through gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of tetrahydrofuran soluble matter of the toner, and wherein the toner has an endothermic peak in a range of 90° C. to 130° C. in measurement through differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to: a toner for forming an image through electrophotography; and an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a process cartridge each of which uses the toner.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, toners for use in electrophotography have been demanded to be fixed at lower temperatures. This demand results from energy saving achieved by reducing energy for fixing and also from requirements for increasing process speed and image quality of electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
In general, as the process speed of electrophotographic image forming apparatus is increased, the image quality thereof is degraded. The reasons why this phenomenon occurs depend on various factors. However, among them, the greatest factor is an effect of fixing failures in a fixing step of an image forming process.
In the fixing step, a prefixed toner image on a recording medium typified by paper is fixed on the recording medium by heat and pressure to be a fixed toner image. In a rapid system speed, a prefixed toner image cannot receive a sufficient amount of heat in the fixing step. As a result, fixing failures occur to potentially roughen the surface of the finally obtained toner image or cause afterimage formation called cold offset, leading to failure images. In one possible measure to avoid fixing failures, a fixing temperature is increased in accordance with an increase in the system speed in order to keep image quality. Such an increased fixing temperature is not necessarily the best measure from the viewpoints of: adverse side effects of leakage of heat from a fixing device on other processes in the image forming apparatus; acceleration of abrasion speed of fixing members; and increase in consumption energy.
In view of this, particularly in high-speed image forming apparatus, improvements in fixing performance of toners themselves have been required. More specifically, demand has arisen for toners exhibiting sufficient fixing property at lower temperatures in the fixing step.
Conventionally, various attempts have been made to improve fixing property of toners. In one known method for improving fixing property of toners, binder resins contained in toners are controlled in terms of thermal characteristics typified by glass transition temperature (Tg) and softening temperature (T1/2). However, a resin having a lowered Tg causes degradation of heat resistance storageability, and a drop in T1/2 of a resin, which is attained by reducing its molecular weight, raises problems such as occurrence of hot offset. Therefore, only controlling thermal characteristics of a resin itself is not enough to obtain a toner satisfactory in all of low-temperature fixing property, heat resistance storageability and hot offset resistance.
In proposals of changing the kind of a binder resin for responding to fixing at lower temperature, widely-used conventional stryene-acryl resins are changed to polyester resins excellent in low-temperature fixing property and better in heat resistance storageability (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 60-90344, 64-15755, 02-82267, 03-229264, 03-41470 and 11-305486). In another proposal, a binder is supplemented with a specific non-olefin crystalline polymer exhibiting sharp melt property at its glass transition temperature to improve low-temperature fixing property (see JP-A No. 62-63940). In these proposals, however, it cannot be said that resultant toners are optimized in molecular structure and molecular weight. There is a problem that they do not have sufficient low-temperature fixing property.
In addition, it has been proposed to use a crystalline polyester having sharp melt property similar to the above specific non-olefin crystalline polymer in a toner in order to improve its fixing property (see Japanese Patent (JP-B) No. 2931899 and JP-A No. 2001-222138). In this proposal, however, the acid value and the hydroxyl value of the crystalline polyester used in the toner are as low as 5 mgKOH/g or lower and 20 mgKOH/g or lower, respectively. The crystalline polyester has low affinity to paper, raising a problem that the toner does not have sufficient low-temperature fixing property.
In this proposal, optimization is not made on the molecular weight of the finally obtained toner and the existing state of the crystalline polyester. Therefore, toners obtained using the crystalline polyester of this proposal cannot sufficiently exhibit excellent low-temperature fixing property or heat resistance storageability attributed to the crystalline polyester, which is problematic. Also, it does not respond to requirements on hot offset resistance, raising a problem that a range of temperature for good image fixing cannot be ensured.
In one proposed method for controlling the existing state of the crystalline polyester, a crystalline polyester resin and a non-crystalline polyester resin, which are not compatible, are used to establish a sea-island, phase-separated structure (see JP-A No. 2004-46095). This proposal uses three different kinds of resins including a crystalline polyester resin as binder resins of toner. However, trying to maintain the sea-island structure of the crystalline polyester resin results in an increase in dispersion diameter of the crystalline polyester, which raises problems of potentially leading to degradation of heat resistance storageability, causing transfer failures in a transfer step due to excessively lowered electrical resistance, and roughening the finally obtained image.
In still another proposal, a toner is provided with low-temperature fixing property and heat resistance storageability by defining the peak endothermic amount in a DSC curve measured with a differential scanning calorimeter to thereby control the existing state of a crystalline polyester resin for allowing the crystalline polyester resin to significantly exhibit its effects (see JP-A No. 2007-33773). In this proposal, however, the crystalline polyester resin is supposed to be used in combination with a non-crystalline polyester resin having a relatively high softening temperature. Therefore, the crystalline polyester resin is responsible for development of low-temperature fixing property, which naturally increases the amount of the crystalline polyester resin. As a result, the crystalline polyester resin and the non-crystalline polyester resin become in a compatible state to impair heat resistance storageability.
It has been proposed to incorporate into a toner an ester bond-containing crystalline polyester resin having a specific structure as a method for attaining low-temperature fixing property, heat resistance storageability and hot offset resistance at the same time (see JP-A No. 2005-338814). In this proposal, however, since the amount of the crystalline polyester resin incorporated is quite large, the crystalline polyester resin and the non-crystalline polyester resin turn into a compatible state, raising a problem that the heat resistance storageability is degraded.
In even another proposed method, a toner is defined in terms of the peak and the half width of its molecular weight distribution and of the amount of its chloroform insoluble matter, and two or more kinds of resins having different softening temperatures are used as a binder resin (see JP-B No. 4118498). In this proposal, however, since a crystalline polyester resin is not used, the low-temperature fixing property is inferior to a toner formed using a crystalline polyester resin.
As described above, at present, there is not a toner that is satisfactory in all of low-temperature fixing property, hot offset resistance and heat resistance storageability at the same time and in a balanced manner.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Toner, image forming apparatus, image forming method, and process cartridge


An expanded graphite sheet is provided that can remarkably improve the quality and yield rate by preventing chipping and cracks in the surface in molding the sheet into a desired shape by inhibiting degradation in the flexibility while reducing the ash content to a certain degree. An expanded graphite sheet (3) has a flexibility of 25 times or greater, as determined in a flexibility test in which the flexibility is defined as the number of times the expanded graphite sheet (3) can be bent using a flexibility testing device having a rotator (2) to which one end of a plate-shaped expanded graphite sheet (3) is fixed, a weight (7) fixed to the other end of the expanded graphite sheet (3), and a bending position determining member (5) for determining a bending position of the expanded graphite sheet (3) when the rotator (2) is rotated.

Expanded graphite sheets are commonly fabricated in the following manner. Natural graphite, pyrolytic graphite, kish graphite, or the like is treated with a mixture solution of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, or the like, washed with water, and then dried. Thereafter, the resultant material is subjected to an expansion process in an expansion furnace at about 1000° C., and this is made in a sheet form by pressure-rolling using rollers or the like. The expanded graphite sheets have excellent heat resistance and excellent gas-liquid impermeability. For this reason, they are used for packings, gaskets, mold release sheets in hot pressing, linings for carbon crucibles, heat dissipating members for electronic devices, and the like.
Here, if the expanded graphite sheet contains ash in a large amount, the mating materials such as metal may be damaged in the case where the expanded graphite sheet is used as a packing, a gasket, or the like. In the case where it is used for mold release in hot pressing or the like, it is possible that the ash may be transferred to the materials to be molded and bumps and dents, or patterns may be formed.
In view of this, a technique has been disclosed of obtaining a high-purity expanded graphite sheet that can reduce the content of impurities by subjecting an expanded graphite sheet to a refining process under a halogen gas atmosphere at 800° C. or higher, and this material is also used for a semiconductor manufacturing process (see Patent Document 1 indicated below).

Expanded graphite sheet and method of manufacturing same


A current conveyor circuit, which comprises: a first current transmitting route; a second current transmitting route, which has the same devices as the first current transmitting route; and at least one control circuit, to control the first current transmitting route and the second current transmitting route to enter a normal mode or a current splitting mode, wherein the first current transmitting route and the second current transmitting route are both enabled and can transmit current in the normal mode, where the first current transmitting route is enabled to transmit current but the second current transmitting route is disabled thus can not transmit current in the current splitting mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a current conveyor circuit, and particularly relates to a current conveyor circuit that can split current.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a previous current conveyor circuit, currents flow in both a true route and a bar route. However, in such mechanism the two routes are not easily to match well thus may cause current difference between two routes. Accordingly, the current consumption is high, and current detection is not easily performed thereto.


Embodiments of the subject invention can utilize a single coil structure for dual-mode operation. In a specific embodiment, a single coil structure can be used as a volume coil in the transmitting phase and as a phase array in the receiving phase. In an embodiment, a transmit coil array in accordance with the subject invention can be utilized for one or more of the following: 1) parallel RF excitation on an MRI scanner equipped with a multiple-channel transmitter; 2) serial RF excitation with the use of a switch system with a single channel transmitter; and 3) generation of a homogeneous B1 field for regular MRI with the use of a power splitter on a standard scanner. In a specific embodiment, the use of a concentric double loop coil with different tunings of inner and outer loops can be implemented. In an embodiment, the coil elements can be decoupled using the CRC mode of a concentric double loop coil. In an embodiment, a surface coil transmit array can provide better compatibility with a receive array. In a specific embodiment, an over-coupled technique can be used to improve the phase control of the transmitting pulse.

In most head coil designs, a double coil structure is used. Typically, the outside coil is a volume coil for RF excitation and the inner coil is a surface coil array for signal reception.
In head imaging, two important design criteria for the coil design are homogeneity in RF excitation and sufficient sensitivity in signal reception. These requirements are usually achieved using the combination of a volume coil, such as a TEM or Birdcage coil, and a surface coil array with active decoupling circuits.
It has been shown that placing a shield on the side of a surface coil can offer good decoupling. This is equivalent to the use of a counter rotating current (CRC) coil, which is also efficient in coil decoupling. However, placing a shield on the side of a surface coil does not allow good control in the coil decoupling.

High field head coil for dual-mode operation in magnetic resonance imaging


Device for determining the size of a blind void comprises an elongated rigid rod, an actuator slidably movable relative to the rod, the actuator having a distal end for insertion into the void, a distal flexible element fixed at one end thereof to the rod, a second flexible element fixed at one end thereof to the rod and proximally removed from the distal flexible element. Movement of the actuator is operative to cause equal movements of the distal end portions of the distal and proximal elements, to cause the distal element to bulge outwardly from the rod to engage interior walls of the void and to cause the proximal element to bulge outwardly in a configuration duplicative of the distal element bulge, the proximal element being outside of the void and subject to observation.

This invention relates to the field of surgical devices used primarily for the repair or replacement of human tissue, including, but not limited to, the nucleus pulposus of the spine. The invention further relates to the method of using such devices.
The spinal column is a flexible chain of closely linked vertebral bodies. In a normal human spine there are seven cervical, twelve thoracic and five lumbar vertebral bodies. Below the lumbar vertebrae are the sacrum and coccyx. Each individual vertebra has an outer shell of hard, dense bone. Inside the vertebra is a honeycomb of cancellous bone containing red bone marrow. All of the red blood cells and many of the white blood cells are generated inside this cancellous bone, where the blood cells mature before being released into the blood circulation.
The spinal disc serves as a cushion between the vertebral bodies to permit controlled motion. A healthy disc consists of three components: a gelatinous inner core called the nucleus pulposus; a series of overlapping and laminated plies of tough fibrous rings called the annulus fibrosus; and two superior and inferior thin cartilage layers, connecting the disc to the thin cortical bone of the vertebral bodies, called the endplates.
The spinal disc may be displaced or damaged due to trauma or disease, such as a herniation or degenerative disc disease.
A herniated disc may bulge out and compress itself onto a nerve, resulting in lower leg pain, loss of muscle control, or paralysis. To treat a herniated disc, the offending nucleus portions are generally removed surgically.
Disc degeneration gradually reduces disc height, forcing the annulus to buckle, tear or separate radially or circumferentially, and causing persistent and disabling back pain. Degenerative disc disease is generally treated presently by surgically removing the nucleus and fusing the adjacent vertebral bodies to stabilize the joint.
In either case, whether removing a portion of the nucleus or all of the nucleus, these procedures ultimately place greater stress on adjacent discs to compensate for the lack of motion, which may cause premature degeneration of those adjacent discs.
Modern trends in surgery include the restoration of bodily function and form (i.e., repair) of anatomical structures through the use of minimally invasive surgical techniques. The ability to surgically repair damaged tissues or joints, creating as few and as small incisions as possible, produces less trauma, less pain and better clinical outcomes in general.
An emerging technique to treat degenerative disc disease is to replace the degenerated nucleus with a prosthetic nucleus in an attempt to restore function, versus fusion which severely limits the function of the spine. Since a degenerated nucleus can be removed using relatively small diameter instruments (e.g. 5 mm or less), this approach is more conducive to minimally invasive techniques.
A deficiency of current minimally invasive surgical techniques to replace the nucleus is the difficulty in determining whether enough space in the disc has been created to properly fit an implant. Creating the proper dimension cavity may be particularly important when implanting a device that expands, such as with a hydrogel implant. If the cavity created is larger than the implant, unintended implant movement or instability can occur. If the cavity created is smaller than the implant, an implant either may not fit, may not be positioned correctly or an expandable device may not achieve its proper functional shape.
It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a device and method for determining how much space is created in human tissue, particularly when the space is in a visually impaired location.
A further object of the invention is to provide a device and method for determining how much space is created in the inner portion of the intervertebral disc space to facilitate the implantation of an artificial nucleus pulposus. The present invention is adapted to be placed through a small opening created in the annulus to minimize trauma to surrounding tissue.
With the above and other objects in view, a feature of the invention is the provision of a device for determining parameters of a blind void. The device comprises an elongated rigid rod, and an actuator extending lengthwise of the rod and slidably movable relative to the rod, the actuator having a distal end for insertion into the void. A first flexible element is fixed at one end thereof to the rod proximate the distal end of the rod. A second flexible element is fixed at one end thereof to the rod and proximally removed from the distal end of the rod and from the first element. Movement of the actuator is operative to cause equal movements of the distal end portions of the first and second elements, to cause the first element to bulge outwardly from the rod to engage interior walls of the void and to cause the second element to bulge outwardly in a configuration substantially duplicative of the first element bulge, the second element being outside of the void and subject to observation.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, there is provided a method for determining parameters of a blind void, the method comprising the steps of providing a device comprising an elongated rigid rod, a first flexible element fixed at one end thereof to the rod proximate a distal end of the rod, a second flexible element fixed at one end thereof to the rod and proximally removed from the distal end of the rod and from the first element, and an actuator extending lengthwise of the rod and engageable with distal end portions of the first and second elements. The method further includes the steps of inserting the distal end of the actuator and the first element into the void, moving the actuator to cause movements of the distal end portions of the first and second elements, to cause the first element to bulge outwardly to engage interior walls of the void, and to cause the second element to bulge outwardly in a configuration duplicative of the first element bulge, the second element being outside of the void, and determining from the size of the second element the size of the first element and thereby the void.
The above and other features of the invention, including various novel details of construction and combinations of parts and method steps, will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims. It will be understood that the particular device and method embodying the invention are described by way of illustration only and not as limitations of the invention. The principles and features of this invention may be employed in various and numerous embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention.

Device and method for determining parameters of blind voids


A residential monitoring system incorporates both physiological sensors and activity sensors. Some of the sensors can be in wireless communication with control circuitry. One or more activity profiles can be established for a resident to expand upon and supplement information from the physiological sensors.

Known in-home monitoring systems at times combine scheduled sensing of physiological parameters of a resident with an exchange of information to a remote location. At that remote location, a monitoring person, or agent, may assist the resident through messages. Many of the known systems only measure predetermined physiological parameters of the resident. This is only a partial indication of an individual's health.
A resident may not realize when his/her behaviors are contributing to a potential decrease in health. Furthermore, many health related issues of the individual may not be included in the query that the individual answers. Thus the resident's health may be degrading without it being detected by the remote monitor. In addition, even if an abnormality is detected, it may be difficult to determine the reason—even if a nurse is called to visit the resident later.
There is thus a continuing need to be able to better assess the health of individuals whose activities of daily living may be impacted by one physiological condition or another. Preferably, much functionality would be compatible with and integratable into an upgraded in-residence monitoring system. It would be further desirable to be able to create and maintain an activity profile. Such a profile could exist as an averaged activity representation of an individual's activities. Alternatively, it could exist as a plurality of different daily activities.
Further, it would be desirable to take into account the comings and goings of a resident. In known systems where a displaced monitor can make calls to check on the condition or status of an individual, a failure to answer can be a cause for concern. Thus, it would be preferable to be able to advise the displaced monitor as to the presence or absence of the respective individual from the residence.

System for monitoring activities and location


A microwave oven includes an electric heater disposed in the cooking chamber for cooking by radiant heat. A temperature sensor senses a temperature of the heater, and a door sensor senses an open state of the oven door. If the oven door is open, and the heater temperature is at or above a reference temperature (i.e., a temperature which could burn a user), an alarm, such as an audio and/or visual alarm, is activated to warn the user.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a microwave oven having an electric heater for cooking by radiant heat.
2) Description of the Prior Art
A microwave oven is a cooking appliance which cooks food with high speed frequency energy of 2,450 MHz. This energizes food molecules to move at high speeds to produce frictional heat. Such a microwave oven also has a heater in its cooking chamber to provide a grilling function for cooking food using direct heat.
FIG. 1 is a front view of a conventional microwave oven. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional microwave oven includes a cooking chamber 10 in which food is cooked by high frequency energy; a door 20 for opening and closing the cooking chamber 10; a rotary motor (not illustrated); a rotary stand 11 connected with the rotary motor; and a tray 12 adapted to be positioned on the rotary stand 11, and on which the food is placed.
The conventional microwave oven also includes a heater 13 for performing the grill function; a thermistor 14 which senses the temperature of the cooking chamber 10; a control panel having a display 30 showing the operation information of the microwave oven and a function selection part 40; a magnetron antenna (not illustrated) mounted on the sidewall of the cooking chamber's upper portion for emitting high frequency energy to the cooking chamber 10; and a magnetron (not illustrated) installed in a space at the rear of the display 30 for applying the high frequency energy to the magnetron antenna.
The heater 13 is positioned on the rear upper portion of the cooking chamber 10 and is able to be rotated by a predetermined angle. The heater 13 is held in place by a supporting member each provided on a side wall of the cooking chamber 10. Thus, when a user cooks with the heater 13, a lamp of the cooking chamber 10 (not illustrated) is switched on to illuminate the cooking chamber 10, and the tray 11 then rotates. Heat is produced when electricity is applied to the heater 13. When the programmed cooking time is complete, the electricity applied to the heater 13 is shut off, and the heater 13 stops producing heat. When the cooking operation is complete, the microwave signals the user.
The heater 13 remains hot for a predetermined period of time even after the cooking time has finished, since its temperature diminishes slowly. Since the conventional microwave oven cannot measure the temperature of the heater 13, the user may not know that the temperature of the heater 13 is higher than the microwave oven's internal temperature. Thus, when the user tries to cook food with the conventional microwave oven before the heater 13 cools, he may touch the hot heater 13 as he either puts the food being cooked in the cooking chamber 10 or takes it out of the cooking chamber 10. If his or her hand touches the heater 13, he or she may get burnt, and instantaneously drop the food that he or she is holding.

Safety system for microwave oven with electric heater


A process is described for producing drug-containing multiparticulates with improved stability, characterized by an improvement in one or more of chemical stability, physical stability, or dissolution stability.

Multiparticulates are well-known dosage forms that comprise a multiplicity of particles whose totality represents the intended therapeutically useful dose of a drug. When taken orally, multiparticulates generally disperse freely in the gastrointestinal tract, maximize absorption, and minimize side effects. See, for example, Multiparticulate Oral Drug Delivery (Marcel Dekker, 1994), and Pharmaceutical Pelletization Technology (Marcel Dekker, 1989).
It is well known that some drugs are capable of existing in several different crystalline forms. A specific example of a drug that may exist in one of several crystalline forms is azithromycin, for which many different crystalline forms have been identified thus far. See commonly owned U.S. patent application Publication No. 20030162730. The most stable form of azithromycin at ambient temperature and humidity (e.g., 25° C. and 50% relative humidity) is the crystalline dihydrate, described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,268,489, which is a crystalline form that includes water.
It is known that some drug multiparticulate formulations, especially those using a lipid or glyceride-based carrier, show changes in performance upon aging under controlled conditions. See, for example, San Vicente et al., 208 Intl. J. Pharm. 13 (2000), U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,810, Jorgensen et al., 153 Intl. J. Pharm. 1 (1997), Eldem et al., 8 Pharm. Res. 47 (1991) and Eldem et al., 8 Pharm. Res. 178 (1991). The observed changes in performance are often attributed to changes in the morphology of the carrier over time, but there is no disclosure or suggestion of any method to prevent such changes in morphology.
Product literature provided by Gattefossé, makers of Gelucire® products (mixtures of fatty acid esters of glycerol and polyethylene glycol) suggest heat treatment of Gelucir®-based drug formulations filled into hard gelatin capsules. Gelucire® Technical Dossier (2d Ed 1996). However, the use of such a process for stabilization of multiparticulates is not disclosed.
Bulletin Technique Gattefossé No. 89, page 47, (1996) discloses that drug release from formulations containing Gelucire® bases may change with storage, but concedes that very little is known regarding how to prevent such changes.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,597,416, 5,869,098, 6,048,541, and 6,165,512 all disclose a process for crystallizing sugars in an amorphous feedstock by exposing the feedstock to a crystallization enhancer, such as ethanol. However, there is no suggestion of using such a process to stabilize a drug-containing multiparticulate.
Thus, there is a need in the art for processes for forming drug-containing multiparticulates that have improved stability. This invention addresses that need.

Multiparticulate compositions with improved stability


A functional training rig kit includes a box and a plurality of components adapted to fit within the box. At least some of the components and the box include elements by which the components are adapted to be attached to the outside of the box to provide at least one functional training rig attached to the outside of the box.

Functional training rigs are frameworks that allow one or more users to perform a range of functional training exercises, developing body strength using traditional bodyweight exercises, as well as providing a structure to support accessories such as jumping platforms, grapplers, bungee hooks, dip bars and J-pegs which facilitate integration with other gym equipment to enhance the functionality of the rig by allowing additional exercises to be performed. To this end a functional training rig generally comprises a plurality of upright components, each supporting a cantilever, with horizontal bars interconnecting the cantilevers. A problem with such functional training rigs is that, once assembled, they are permanent structures which occupy a significant space. There are many situations where an individual or group wishes to undertake exercise in an area which is not permanently dedicated to fitness training alone, or an area which temporarily has no gymnasium, or a permanent fitness training area which has no storage for functional training rigs or other gym equipment. It would be desirable to be able to provide a functional training rig which can readily be assembled, dismantled and conveniently stored for transportation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a functional training rig which overcomes, or at least ameliorates, the above-mentioned problem.


An integrated photonic apparatus that includes a glass substrate having a major surface, wherein the glass substrate includes a plurality of regions, each region having a different index of refraction, including a first region having a first index of refraction and a second region having a second index of refraction lower than the first index of refraction, and a first waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the first waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an intrinsic index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and wherein the first waveguide passes through the first region and through the second region of the glass substrate.

This invention relates to the field of optics and lasers, and more specifically to a method and apparatus including multi-compositional glass substrates and related devices and optical waveguides on a glass substrate.
The telecommunications industry commonly uses optical fibers to transmit large amounts of data in a short time. One common light source for optical-fiber communications systems is a laser formed using erbium-doped glass. One such system uses erbium-doped glass fibers to form a laser that emits at a wavelength of about 1.536 micrometer and is pumped by an infrared source operating at a wavelength of about 0.98 micrometer. One method usable for forming waveguides in a substrate is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,503 issued Jan. 14, 1992 to Najafi et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference. A phosphate glass useful in lasers is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,559 issued Aug. 2, 1994 to Joseph S. Hayden, which is also hereby incorporated by reference. An integrated optic laser is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,708 issued Feb. 13, 1996 to Malone et al., which is also hereby incorporated by reference.
To increase signal-carrying bandwidth, an optical fiber can carry a plurality of different wavelengths (i.e., colors), wherein each wavelength is modulated (e.g., using amplitude modulation) with a different signal stream. Dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) is the name for one such scheme wherein each signal stream is modulated on a carrier wavelength that is close to, but slightly different than, the neighboring wavelengths. For example, the carrier wavelengths can be chosen in the infrared at, say, 1536 nm, 1536.8 nm, 1537.6 nm, etc., for a wavelength spacing of 0.8 nm per channel. Many such wavelengths/channels can be combined and transmitted on a single optical fiber. Since photons have extraordinarily low or no interaction with one another, these channels are transmitted with no crosstalk or other interchannel interference. Further, a broadband light amplifier can be used to simultaneously amplify all the colors/channels by equal amounts, also without introducing crosstalk. The challenge, thus, is to be able to separate the channels (i.e., to split off each channel""s color without also getting interfering light signals from adjacent channels"" colors).
It is desirable to be able, at, for example, a building in downtown Minneapolis, to extract one channel from the plurality of optical channels of data carried on a single optical fiber, e.g., to extract a first data stream that is modulated on the 1536.8 nm channel from all the other channels on some single optical fiber, and to insert in its place a second data stream that is modulated on the 1536.8 nm channel. The remaining channels being transmitted on the optical fiber should be undisturbed. This allows data that has a destination in that building to be separated and delivered into that building, and for other data in the second data stream to be sourced from that building and sent elsewhere.
There is a need in the art for an integrated optical system, including one or more high-powered lasers along with routing and other components, that can be inexpensively mass-produced. The system should be highly reproducible, accurate, and stable. There is further a need to having improved delivery of pump light to the active waveguides. There is further a need for improved add-drop devices that permit extraction of a first signal stream at a first wavelength from a plurality of other signal wavelengths, and insertion of a second signal stream modulated onto a laser carrier of the first wavelength.
The present invention is embodied by a laser, amplifier, other optical or combined component that includes a glass substrate, in some or all portions possibly doped with one or more optically active lanthanide species, and having a plurality of waveguides defined by channels within the substrate.
One aspect of the present invention provides an integrated photonic apparatus that includes a glass substrate having a major surface, wherein the glass substrate includes a plurality of regions, each region having a different index of refraction, including a first region having a first index of refraction and a second region having a second index of refraction lower than the first index of refraction, and a first waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the first waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an intrinsic index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and wherein the first waveguide passes through the first region and through the second region of the glass substrate.
In some embodiments, the first region includes a dopant including an optically active species, wherein the first region acts to substantially confine a pump light. In some embodiments, the higher index of refraction of the first region allows pump light to enter the first region but not escape to the second region.
Another aspect of the present invention provides an integrated photonic apparatus that includes a glass substrate having a major surface, wherein the glass substrate includes a plurality of regions, each region having a different index of refraction, including a first region having a first index of refraction and a second region having a second index of refraction lower than the first index of refraction, the first region forming a first waveguide for constraining a pump light, and a second waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the second waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an intrinsic index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and wherein the second waveguide passes through the first region and through the second region of the glass substrate, and wherein the pump light enters the second waveguide along its side in the first waveguide.
Another aspect of the present invention provides apparatus and methods for stabilizing and/or flattening gain curves. For example, a tuned grating to stabilize the input pump laser light, to flatten output gain curve, or both.
One embodiment includes an integrated photonic apparatus that has a glass substrate having a major surface, an input signal waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the input signal waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, an input pump waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the pump waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, an output pump waveguide, optically coupled to the input signal waveguide and to the pump waveguide, and formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the pump waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and a first pump-stabilizing grating formed on the pump waveguide, wherein the first grating is transparent a first wavelength and is dispersive to a plurality of other wavelengths, such that the first wavelength is passed to the output waveguide and the plurality of other wavelengths are attenuated.
Yet another aspect of the present invention provides an integrated photonic apparatus including a glass substrate having a major surface, the substrate including at least a portion having one or more active optical species, an input signal waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the input signal waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, an input pump waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the pump waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, an output pump waveguide, optically coupled to the input signal waveguide and to the pump waveguide, and formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the pump waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and a first output-flattening grating formed on the output waveguide, wherein the first output-flattening grating has a wavelength-transfer function that is complementary to a gain curve of the active species of the substrate in order to flatten a gain curve of the apparatus.
The present invention also provides apparatus and methods for adding and/or dropping one or more optical wavelengths from a light signal having a plurality of wavelengths. For example, selectable gratings to get a tunable/selectable drop (peel-off) wavelength, an add waveguide that is run in an undoped region running parallel to the active drop section, and/or an add/drop peel-off section surrounded with a confined active region. Some embodiments selectively pump waveguides in a lossy gain region to activate add/drop attenuation/amplification functions, such that specific waveguides are activated. In some such embodiments, this is combined with an undoped region fused to active region, wherein pump light is launched into undoped waveguides that route activation light to selected doped waveguides.
Some embodiments include an integrated photonic apparatus that has a glass substrate having a major surface, an input signal waveguide formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the input waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, an output signal waveguide, optically coupled to the input waveguide, and formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the output waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, a drop signal waveguide, optically coupled to the input waveguide, and formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the drop waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and a first grating formed on the output waveguide, wherein the first grating reflects a first wavelength and is transparent to a plurality of other wavelengths, such that the first wavelength is passed to the drop waveguide and the plurality of other wavelengths is passed through to an exit interface of the output waveguide.
Some such embodiments further include a second grating formed on the output waveguide, wherein the first and second gratings are electrically activatable, and wherein the first grating when activated reflects a first wavelength and is transparent to a plurality of other wavelengths including a second wavelength, wherein the second grating when activated reflects the second wavelength and is transparent to a plurality of other wavelengths including the first wavelength, such that when the first grating is activated and the second grating is deactivated the first wavelength is passed to the drop waveguide and the second wavelength is passed through to the exit interface of the output waveguide, and when the second grating is activated and the first grating is deactivated the second wavelength is passed to the drop waveguide and the first wavelength is passed through to the exit interface of the output waveguide.
Some embodiments further include an add signal waveguide, optically coupled to the output waveguide, and formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the add waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and wherein the first grating reflects a first wavelength and is transparent to a plurality of other wavelengths, wherein a third wavelength is launched into the add waveguide, such that the first wavelength is passed to the drop waveguide and the plurality of other wavelengths and the third wavelength are passed through to an exit interface of the output waveguide.
Some embodiments further include an add signal waveguide, optically coupled to the output waveguide, and formed along the major surface of the substrate, wherein the add waveguide has a higher index of refraction than an index of refraction of adjacent portions of the substrate, and wherein the first grating reflects a first wavelength and is transparent to a plurality of other wavelengths, wherein a third wavelength is launched into the add waveguide, such that the first wavelength is passed to the drop waveguide and the plurality of other wavelengths and the third wavelength are passed through to an exit interface of the output waveguide.

Apparatus and method for integrated photonic devices having gain and wavelength-selectivity


A method for adjusting a touch screen, a touch chip, and an electronic terminal are provided. The method for adjusting a touch screen includes: receiving a characteristic signal corresponding to a usage scenario type of a terminal device that includes the touch screen; acquiring a touch screen adjustment parameter corresponding to the characteristic signal, where the touch screen adjustment parameter includes: at least one of a chip simulation parameter for controlling a touch chip of the touch screen and a firmware algorithm parameter; and adjusting an operating state of the touch screen based on the touch screen adjustment parameter. Through the embodiments of the present disclosure, a user can get excellent experience when using the touch screen in various usage scenarios.

With the development of terminal technologies, touch screens have been widely applied in various terminal devices. A touch screen detects a gesture operation through a touch chip, and further processes an application based on the detection result.
A terminal device may be applied to various different usage scenarios, such as a hand-held scenario, a non-held scenario, a motion scenario, and a set application running scenario. Thus, some functions or performances of the touch screen are mutually restricted or even mutually exclusive. As a result, various functions or performances cannot be optimal. At present, in terminal devices such as mobile phones or tablets, the functions and performances related to the touch screen are based on various usage scenarios and various user requirements during the development and debugging phase, and adjust the results of a relatively solid equilibrium comprehensively and mutually.
Although the equilibrium result enables the terminal devices to be applicable to various usage scenarios, the effect is not satisfactory to users, and excellent performance cannot be achieved under different usage scenarios.

Method for adjustment touch screen, touch chip, and electronic terminal


A circulator is used as a notch filter having a notch at a notch frequency band outside its frequency band of operation as a circulator. It has been observed that circulators operate as a notch filter at a relatively narrow band of operation outside its typical band of operation as a circulator. In certain embodiments, the circulator operates as a narrowband notch filter with sharp edges. Such a notch filter can be used between frequency bands carrying communications signals to reduce energy from one frequency band from spilling into a different frequency band. Since the notch has been observed to be relatively narrow and deep with sharp edges, such a notch filter can be used to reduce the guard bands between frequency bands, thereby increasing the amount of bandwidth that can de used to transmit communications signals. Furthermore, since a typical ferrite circulator is a relatively low cost component, the resulting notch filter can also be of low cost.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a notch filter system which can be used to filter radio frequency communications signals.
2. Description of Related Art
A filter allows signals having certain frequencies to pass (pass band) while suppressing signals with other frequencies (attenuation band). The frequencies that separate the pass and attenuation bands are the cut-off frequencies. An ideal filter passes the pass band without attenuation and completely suppresses the attenuation band with sharp cut-off edges. In practice, typical filters attenuate the pass band somewhat, do not completely suppress the attenuation band and, at least at higher frequencies, do not have sharp cut-off edges. There are four general categories of filters related to the relation between the pass and attenuation bands: low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and band-stop. A notch or band stop filter passes frequencies below a frequency f1 and above a frequency f2 while suppressing frequencies between the frequencies f1 and f2.
A circulator is a ferrite device, i.e., a device that includes ferrite material. A typical ferrite component will include a compound of iron oxide with impurities of other oxides added. The iron oxide retains the ferromagnetic properties of the iron atoms while the impurities represented by the other oxides increase the ferrite's resistance to current flow. In contrast, elemental iron has good magnetic properties but a very low resistance to current flow. Such low resistance causes eddy currents and significant power losses at high frequencies. Ferrites, on the other hand, have sufficient resistance to be classified as semiconductors.
The magnetic property of any material is a result of electron movement within the atoms of the material. The two basic types of electron motion are the more familiar orbital motion (of the electron around the nucleus of the atom) and the less familiar electron spin (movement of the electron about its own axis). Magnetic fields are generated by current flow. The magnetic fields caused by the spinning electrons spin combine to give a material magnetic properties. In most materials, the spin axes of the electrons are so randomly arranged that the magnetic fields largely cancel out and the material displays no significant magnetic properties. But within some materials, such as iron and nickel, the electron spin axes can be caused to align by applying an external magnetic field. The alignment of the electrons axes within a material causes the magnetic fields to add together with the result that the material exhibits magnetic properties.
In the absence of an external force, the axis of spinning electrons tend to remain pointed in one direction in certain materials. Once aligned, the electrons tend to remain aligned even when the external field is removed. Electron alignment in a ferrite is caused by the orbital motion of the electrons about the nucleus and the force that holds the atom together, i.e., binding forces. When a static magnetic field is applied to the ferrite material, the electrons try to align their spin axes with the external magnetic force. The attempt of the electrons to balance between the external magnetic force and the binding forces causes the electrons to wobble on their axes. The useful magnetic properties of a ferrite is based upon the behavior of the electrons under the influence of an external magnetic field and the resulting wobble frequency.
Reciprocity is a term generally used to describe the transformation of a signal by a device. Fundamentally, if a signal S1 is input to a terminal T1 of a device and a signal S2 is output at a terminal T2 of the device, then the device is considered to be reciprocal if inputting a signal S2 at terminal T2 of the device yields the signal S1 on terminal T1 of the device. Ferrite devices are non-reciprocal devices. Such non-reciprocity is based upon Faraday rotation, in which a linearly polarized plane wave propagating through the ferrite material undergoes a rotation of its polarized direction independently of whether it is propagating in a forward or backward direction if the frequency of the propagating wave is much greater than the wobble frequency.
A circulator is more appropriately described as a non-reciprocal ferrite device. The cross-section of a ferrite device according to the Background Art is depicted in FIG. 1A. There, a circulator 100 includes a conductive launching disk 102 having terminals 104a, 104b, and 104c. Above and below the launching disk 102 are located ferrite disks 106a and 106b, respectively. Above the ferrite disks 106a and 106b are located permanent magnets 108a and 108b, respectively. The operation of the circulator 100 will be described in terms of corresponding FIGS. 1B and 1C.
FIG. 1B is the circuit diagram symbol for the circulator 100 of FIG. 1A. The circulator 100 provides unique transmission paths, allowing RF energy to pass in one direction (namely the rotation direction 110) with little (insertion) loss, but with a high loss (isolation) in the opposite (counter-clockwise) direction. The direction of rotation is determined according to the direction (perpendicular or anti-perpendicular) of the static magnetic field induced through the launching disk 102 by the permanent magnets 108A and 108B.
The direction of rotation 110 in FIG. 1B is clockwise. As depicted in FIG. 1C, if a signal is input to the circulator 100 at terminal 104a, then the signal will come out at terminal 104b. If a signal is input at terminal 104b, then the signal will come out at terminal 104c. And if a signal is input at terminal 104c, then the signal will come out at terminal 104a.
If one of the terminals, e.g., 104c, is terminated with an impedance-matched load, then the circulator 100 functions as an isolator. The loaded terminal absorbs the energy passing to it. Hence, in the use of three-terminals, the isolator acts as a device that passes energy in one direction but not in the opposite direction.
A circulator/isolator can be constructed with 2 or more terminals, though a typical number of terminals is 3 or 4.
Wireless communications systems use both circulators/isolators and notch filters. Wireless communications systems include conventional cellular communication systems which comprise a number of cell sites or base stations, geographically distributed to support transmission and receipt of communication signals to and from wireless units which may actually be stationary or fixed. Each cell site handles communications over a particular region called a cell, and the overall coverage area for the cellular communication system is defined by the union of cells for all of the cell sites, where the coverage areas for nearby cell sites overlap to some degree to ensure (if possible) contiguous communications coverage within the outer boundaries of the system's coverage area.
When active, a wireless unit receives signals from at least one base station or cell site over a forward link or downlink and transmits signals to (at least) one cell site or base station over a reverse link or uplink. There are many different schemes for defining wireless links or channels for a cellular communication system, including TDMA (time-division multiple access), FDMA (frequency-division multiple access), and CDMA (code-division multiple access) schemes. In CDMA communications, different wireless channels are distinguished by different codes or sequences that are used to encode different information streams, which may then be modulated at one or more different carrier frequencies for simultaneous transmission. A receiver can recover a particular information stream from a received signal using the appropriate code or sequence to decode the received signal.
In the wireless communications industry, a service provider is often granted two or more non-contiguous or segregated frequency bands to be used for the wireless transmission and reception of RF communications channels. For example, in the United States, a base station for an "A" band provider for cellular communications receives frequency channels within the A (825–835 MHz), A′ (845–846.5 MHz) and A″ (824–825 MHz) bands, and the wireless units receive frequency channels within the A (870–880 MHz), A′ (890–891.5 MHz) and A″ (869–870 MHz) bands. A base station for a B band provider receives frequency channels within the B (835–845 MHz) and B′ (846.5–849 MHz) frequency bands, and the wireless units receive frequency channels within the B (880–890 MHz) and B′ (891.5–894 MHz) frequency bands. Additionally, a base station for a Personal Communications Systems (PCS) provider may receive frequency channels from wireless units on one or more PCS bands (1850 MHz–1910 MHz), and the wireless units receive frequency channels on one or more PCS bands (1930–1990 MHz).
A circulator can be used which has an operating band encompassing the frequency bands of operation to enable only a single antenna to transmit and receive, which can be referred to as duplex operation. The circulator can be arranged such that signals being transmitted enter into a first terminal of the circulator and are output at a second terminal to the antenna. Signals received at the antenna can be input into the second terminal and produced at a third terminal to the receiver circuitry.
Filters are used to prevent energy from one frequency band from interfering with another frequency band. Here, the frequency band can be narrower than the frequency bands described above or wider. For example, the frequency band can be a 1.25 MHz wide CDMA loaded carrier or a 5 MHZ wideband CDMA loaded carrier within the frequency bands described above. However, due to the finite roll-off characteristics of filters in the radio receiver, a signal from an adjacent band may come through the radio receiver at a power level strong enough to interfere with an adjacent band. To help prevent this, guard bands are used to space the carrier frequency bands apart. However, the use of guard bands removes bandwidth which can be used to transmit actual communications signals.


There is provided a high-temperature Pb-free solder paste having the strength required to join electronic parts to a substrate and having excellence in wettability and workability.

In recent years, restrictions on chemical substances harmful to the environment have become increasingly stringent, and the restrictions on solder materials used to join electronic parts or the like to a substrate are no exceptions. Pb has been used as a major component of solder materials since old times, but has already been designated as a restricted substance by, for example, RoHS Directive. Therefore, solders containing no Pb (Pb-free solders) have been actively developed.
Solders used to join electronic parts to a substrate are broadly divided into high-temperature solders (about 260 to 400° C.) and low- and medium-temperature solders (about 140 to 230° C.) based on their service temperature limits. As for low- and medium-temperature solders, Pb-free solders mainly containing Sn have already been practically used. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a Pb-free solder alloy composition containing Sn as a major component, 1.0 to 4.0 mass % of Ag, 2.0 mass % or less of Cu, 0.5 mass % or less of Ni, and 0.2 mass % or less of P. Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a Pb-free solder alloy composition containing 0.5 to 3.5 mass % of Ag, 0.5 to 2.0 mass % of Cu, and the balance being Sn.
On the other hand, Pb-free solder materials for high-temperature applications are under development in various organizations. For example, Patent Document 3 discloses a Bi/Ag brazing filler material containing 30 to 80 mass % of Bi and having a melting temperature of 350 to 500° C. Further, Patent Document 4 discloses a solder alloy obtained by adding a binary eutectic alloy to an eutectic alloy containing Bi and by further adding an additive element thereto, and describes that this solder alloy is a quaternary or higher solder, that is, a multi-component solder, but it is possible to adjust its liquidus-line temperature and to reduce variations in composition.
Patent Document 5 discloses a solder alloy obtained by adding Cu—Al—Mn, Cu, or Ni to Bi, and describes that when such a solder alloy is used to join a power semiconductor device having a Cu surface layer to an insulator substrate having a Cu surface layer, an undesired reaction product is less likely to be formed at a joint interface between the solder and each of the Cu layers so that the occurrence of defects such as cracks can be suppressed.
Patent Document 6 discloses a solder composition containing, based on the total mass of the solder composition, 94.5 mass % or more of Bi as a first metal element, 2.5 mass % of Ag as a second metal element, and a total of 0.1 to 3.0 mass % of at least one selected from the group consisting of 0.1 to 0.5 mass % of Sn, 0.1 to 0.3 mass % of Cu, 0.1 to 0.5 mass % of In, 0.1 to 3.0 mass % of Sb, and 0.1 to 3.0 mass % of Zn as a third metal element.
Patent Document 7 discloses a Pb-free solder composition containing a Bi-based alloy containing at least one of Ag, Cu, Zn, and Sb as an accessory component and 0.3 to 0.5 mass % of Ni. Patent Document 7 further describes that this Pb-free solder has a solidus-line temperature of 250° C. or higher and a liquidus-line temperature of 300° C. or less. Further, Patent Document 8 discloses a binary alloy containing Bi, and describes that this binary alloy has the effect of suppressing the occurrence of cracks in the inside of a soldering structure.
Patent Document 9 discloses a Bi alloy having a melting temperature of 270° C. or higher and containing 0.2 to 0.8 mass % of Cu and 0.2 to 0.02 mass % of Ge. Patent Document 10 discloses a Bi alloy having a solidus-line temperature of at least 262.5° C. and containing 2 to 18 mass % of Ag and 82 to 98 mass % of Bi. Patent Document 11 discloses a Bi alloy having a solidus-line temperature of 260° C. or higher and containing at least 80 mass % of Bi.
Patent Document 12 discloses a Bi—Sn-based solder paste and an article joined by means of the solder paste, in which the solder paste contains 30 mass % or more of Bi in the form of metal alloy powder. The solder paste provides higher joint strength after joining and produces no void even though an object to be joined includes Au. Patent Document 12, for example, discloses a solder paste containing 30 to 98 weight % of Bi, 0.01 to 0.5 weight % of either Al or Mn, and the balance being Sn.
Patent Document 13 discloses a solder paste including a solder powder having bismuth or an alloy mainly containing bismuth and having a solidus-line temperature of 250° C. or higher and a liquidus-line temperature of 370° C. or less, a thermoplastic resin to be melted at a temperature higher than the solidus-line temperature of the solder powder and having a function to support the strength of the solder by remaining after soldering, and a flux.

Abstract: The solder paste formed by mixing a solder alloy and a flux, the solder alloy consisting of, based on the total mass of the solder alloy as 100 mass %: 0.4 to 13.5 mass % of Zn, at least one of 0.01 to 2.0 mass % of Cu or 0.03 to 0.7 mass % of Al, and a balance being Bi except for inevitable impurities.


A vehicle includes a front wheel assembly, a handle assembly, a frame assembly and a rear wheel assembly, the front wheel assembly is connected to the handle assembly, one end of the frame assembly is connected to the handle assembly, the other end of the frame assembly is connected to the rear wheel assembly, the front wheel assembly is provided with a shock-absorbing device, and/or the rear wheel assembly is provided with a shock-absorbing assembly to reduce the vibration of the vehicle.

With the development of modern technology, people began to choose a healthy way of travelling—scooters. In order to make the riders more comfortable, the wheels are equipped with shock absorbers using coil springs.
However, coil springs used in the scooters are less than satisfactory. Even if the coil springs are replaced by leaf springs, the results are still far from satisfactory. Therefore, there is a need for improved shock absorbers used in the scooters.

X.L.T. INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.


The current invention provides a method of attaching a plurality of cores wherein a core has a via with a conductive surface to be electrically connected to a conductive surface on another core. The method provides for applying a metallurgical paste to a conductive surface, removing a portion of the flux from the paste and joining the two cores. The current invention also provides a structure including a plurality of cores wherein a metallurgical paste electrically connects a via with a conductive surface on a core to a conductive surface on another core.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to circuit board processing and attaching cores. Specifically, the present invention provides a method and structure wherein cores are attached and an electrical connection is made between conductive surfaces on the cores using a metallurgical paste.
2. Background Art
A common procedure in circuit board processing involves laminating multiple cores together. However, generally, the cores are not electrically connected via to via during lamination. For example, one method involves first electrically connecting the cores using conductive pads. After lamination, a hole is drilled through the conductive pads and electroplated with copper to form the via.
An alternative solution uses conductive adhesive to electrically attach vias during lamination. The conductive adhesive is placed onto a via and electrically connects the vias when the cores are laminated together. However, conductive adhesives contain plate-like structures greater than 0.5 mils in size. These plates tend to clog at the top of the holes. Therefore, the adhesives cannot be used effectively with thicker cores and smaller vias. Additionally, conductive adhesives require precious metal for good connections, making the products more expensive. Finally, a substantial number of manufacturing sites are not equipped to handle conductive adhesives. Consequently, significant costs may be required to modify current manufacturing sites to use conductive adhesives.
As a result, there exists a need for a structure and method of attaching cores having vias with conductive surfaces using a conductive material having smaller particle sizes than what is currently used.

International Business Machines Corporation