In a system, a fuel supply increasing unit increases, upon determination that abnormal combustion takes place in at least one cylinder, a quantity of fuel to be supplied into the at least one cylinder in comparison to a quantity of fuel to be supplied into the same cylinder in which no abnormal combustion takes place. A vibration determiner determines whether a level of vibrations of a vehicle has reached a predetermined level. A disabling unit disables, upon determination that the level of vibrations of the vehicle has reached the predetermined level while the fuel supply increasing unit is increasing the quantity of fuel to be supplied into the at least one cylinder, the fuel supply increasing unit from increasing the quantity of fuel to be supplied into the at least one cylinder.

There are some technologies to increase the compression ratio in engines for improvement of their fuel economy. A high compression ratio in engines may result in abnormal combustion, such as knocking and pre-ignition, therein. In order to address such a problem, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H11-36906 discloses a technology that retards, using a VVT (Variable Valve Timing) mechanism, the closing timing of intake valves of an engine according to when detecting knocking or an ion current flowing through an ignition plug. This aims to avoid abnormal combustion in the engine.
However, if the technology disclosed in Patent Publication No. H11-36906 is applied to an engine controlled in harsh operating conditions requiring high compression ratio and high exhaust interference, it may be difficult for only the retardation of the intake-valve closing timing to sufficiently suppress abnormal combustion in the engine operating in a specific environment with a high-temperature coolant and high-temperature intake air in which the engine may be subject to thermal damage.
In addition to the technology disclosed in Patent Publication No. H11-36906, there is another technology that increases a quantity of fuel to be supplied into a cylinder of an engine in which knocking or pre-ignition is determined to occur to cool the interior of the cylinder, thus suppressing abnormal combustion in the cylinder.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3382771 discloses a technology that increases a quantity of fuel to be supplied into an engine upon rapid drop in the RPM of the engine, operating at full load, i.e. at WOT (Wide Open Throttle), from a high value to a low value. This aims to prevent the occurrence of pre-ignition in the engine.

System for controlling combustion condition in vehicle engine


A circuit breaker housing includes a base having a main portion and a separate subbase portion. The line contact arms for the breaker are mounted on the subbase portion and attached to the main portion which includes the load contact arms. The main portion of the base includes a bottom wall which insulates the load contact arms from the line contact arms along a portion of their lengths. In addition, the bottom wall forms a structural member which rigidly ties the two sidewalls of the main portion of the base. The bottom wall of the main portion of the base includes an opening through which line contacts coupled to the line contact arm make contact with load arm contacts coupled to the load contact arms. Adjacent to the opening, the main portion of the base includes vertical ribs directly tied to the bottom wall which strengthen internal and external side walls in the main portion of the base and reinforce the structural member formed by the bottom wall of the main portion of the base. The subbase may be attached to the base with screws, adhesives, a combination of screws and adhesives or by other methods.

The present invention relates generally to the housing for a circuit breakers and in particular to a housing which includes a base having improved structural characteristics and a subbase which allows easy assembly of the breaker.
A conventional circuit breaker comprises several components including source and load side terminals, a line strap, a movable load contact arm, a latch mechanism which is used to manually open an close the breaker and an electromagnetic tripping device which operates in response to an overcurrent flowing through the load contact arm and line strap to trip the latch and open the breaker. For circuit breakers which protect three-phase circuits, all of these components except for the latch are duplicated three times.
The assembly of a conventional circuit breaker may be a complex task because some of these components overlay other components in the breaker housing. Because high currents are involved, each of the component parts of the circuit breaker is typically mounted in the breaker housing with tight tolerances. For example, in many breakers it is desirable for the principal current carrying components, the load contact arm and the line strap, to be parallel and in close proximity along at least a portion of their length and yet insulated from each other. This construction enables these breaker components to generate the strong magnetic repulsive forces that are used to "blow-open" the connection between the load and line contacts during a large overcurrent condition. In many existing breakers this structure is achieved by applying insulation directly over each line strap and then assembling the load contact arm directly over the insulation.
The assembly requirements of a circuit breaker contribute directly to its cost. Accordingly, it is desirable to design a circuit breaker to simplify its assembly as much as possible.
One way in which assembly may be simplified is to provide more open space in the circuit breaker housing. A relatively open housing may allow at least some components to be assembled before they are inserted into the housing. In addition, components close to the bottom of the housing, for example, the line straps, may be inserted more easily if the circuit breaker housing has open space through which these components may be guided to their destinations.
The insertion of the line contact arms or line straps into a circuit breaker housing may be particularly difficult because these components often have shapes which bend back upon themselves. The line contact arms are shaped so that the line and load terminals may be on opposite sides of the breaker but also, for blow-open operation, so that at least a portion of the line contact arm may be parallel to a corresponding portion of the load contact arm. For the blow-open mechanism to work properly, the current flow through the parallel portion of the load contact arm should be in the opposite direction to the current flow through the corresponding parallel portion of the line strap. These line straps are typically in the bottom of the breaker housing and include a line terminal which is accessible from outside the circuit breaker housing. Thus, in many existing breakers, the line straps are dropped into the bottom of the housing and then maneuvered to push the line terminal through a slot in the side of the circuit breaker.
In conventional circuit breakers, there is often a tradeoff between ease of assembly and structural integrity. If a circuit breaker housing is designed with too much open space, it may not be strong enough structurally to withstand the normal forces to which the circuit breaker is subject to during installation and use, especially forces generated when the breaker is subject to heavy short-circuit currents. During a heavy short-circuit condition, electrical arcing which occurs when the line contact is separated from the load contact may cause an explosive rise in pressure inside the breaker housing.


A motor vehicle tank that includes a tank container formed by a tank wall, and a holding element to fasten a component to the tank wall at an interior of the tank container. The holding element has at least one attachment point for fastening the holding element to the tank wall, at least one fastening element for fastening the component to the holding element, and a plurality of spring elements arranged between the at least one attachment point and the fastening element to facilitate fastening of the component to the tank wall in a spring-elastically decoupled manner.

It is known that built-in parts can be arranged in the interior of tanks of motor vehicles, in particular of fuel tanks, and can be fastened to the container of the tank. For example, fuel pumps for delivering a fuel from the tank or various valves must be fastened in the tank.
The components can be screwed to the tank wall, via holders for example. The holders are usually rigid components which are used for fastening, on the one hand, to the tank wall and, on the other hand, to the component.
Some built-in parts in tanks of motor vehicles can generate unwanted noise during operation of the motor vehicle. Especially in the ever-increasing number of electric and hybrid vehicles, the drives of which can operate with low noise, troublesome noises from the tank system which could be perceived in the interior of the vehicle should be avoided.
Owing, however, to their mechanical operation, some built-in parts almost inevitably generate noises, in particular built-in parts with movable balls, such as roll-over valves (ROV) and pressure-maintaining valves (DHV).


A method and a gas sensor arrangement for determining an absolute gas concentration with a gas sensor and a decomposing gas to be measured are disclosed. In an embodiment a method includes acquiring a first sensor signal and determining from the first sensor signal at least one initial data point, decomposing the gas to be measured using a means for decomposing the gas of the gas sensor arrangement, acquiring a second sensor signal and determining from the second sensor signal at least one decay data point and deriving an absolute gas concentration from a gas concentration function realized as a mathematical function by evaluating the gas concentration function at least for the at least one initial data point and the at least one decay data point.

Gas sensors are used to detect the presence of gases in an area, often as part of a safety system. For example, one area of application includes the regular measurement of Ozone content in air and other media. Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent and can cause a wide range of symptoms in humans, including lacrimation, irritation of the mucous membranes in the mouth, throat, and bronchial tubes, headaches, coughing and even deterioration in lung function. Gas sensors can be used to monitor gas concentration and content in environmental air and can be implemented into systems to alert a user when a gas concentration exceeds hazardous thresholds for humans.
There is an increasing demand to implement gas sensors into mobile applications such as Smartphones, tablets and mobile computers. Thus, gas sensor design seeks to come up with compact and affordable concepts. At the same time, however, the decreasing footprint of gas sensors should not be traded for accuracy. It remains a challenge to combine both compact design and accurate measurement of absolute gas concentration into a single mobile device.
It is to be understood that any feature described below in relation to any one embodiment may be used alone, or in combination with other features described hereinafter, and may also be used in combination with one or more features of any other of the embodiments, or any combination of any other of the embodiments, unless explicitly described as an alternative. Furthermore, equivalents and modifications not described below may also be employed without departing from the scope of the method for determining an absolute gas concentration and the gas sensor arrangement for determining an absolute gas concentration as defined in the accompanying claims.

Method and gas sensor arrangement for determining an absolute gas concentration with a gas sensor and decomposing gas to be measured


Systems and methods include transforming a digital file into a three-dimensional object that is spatially positioned in a three-dimensional virtual environment to visually organize the digital file relative to the three-dimensional virtual environment. Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to receiving the digital file that includes digital file parameters and is in a file format. The digital file is transforming into the three-dimensional object based on the digital file parameters associated with the digital file. The three-dimensional object is representative of the presentation of the digital file when executed by the computing device. The three-dimensional object is spatially positioned at a spatial location in the three-dimensional environment based on the digital file parameters of the digital file. A user is enabled to engage the three-dimensional object as spatially positioned in the three-dimensional virtual environment so that the three-dimensional object is executed in the three-dimensional virtual environment.

Conventional digital file management requires that each digital file is saved in a location that typically organizes the saved digital files in a hierarchy of file folders. In doing so, the user is required to navigate through the hierarchy of file folders stored at the specific location as well as the numerous digital files saved in each of the file folders to identify the digital file that the user requests to execute. Often times such navigation of the hierarchy of file folders is a cumbersome task for the user in that the user is required to recall the specific file folder that the digital file is saved as well as the file name of the digital file in order to adequately identify the digital file from the numerous digital files to execute the digital file.
Further, users typically save digital files in numerous different locations depending on the device and/or navigation method that the users are incorporating when saving the digital files. For example, the user typically saves work related documents on the user's work computer and are stored in a hierarchy of file folders. The user may then save personal related documents on the smart phone that the user typically incorporates for personal use. However, the user may also save personal digital files on the user's work computer thereby complicating the navigation of determining where the personal digital files are stored. Additionally, navigating significant quantities of documents such as digital pictures, work documents and so on stored on a cloud based storage device is also significantly difficult to navigate and identify as to which digital files are stored where. Such difficulty in navigating the location of numerous digital files introduces significant inefficiency and is a daunting task.

Three-dimensional conversion of a digital file spatially positioned in a three-dimensional virtual environment


A method includes detecting a signal on a switching node connected to a power switch, detecting a gate drive voltage of the power switch, during a gate drive process of the power switch, reducing a gate drive current based on a first comparison result obtained from comparing the signal with a first threshold, and during the gate drive process of the power switch, increasing the gate drive current based on a second comparison result obtained from comparing the gate drive voltage with a second threshold.

As technologies further advance, a variety of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablet PCs, digital cameras, MP3 players and/or the like, have become popular. Each electronic device may be powered by a power converter.
The power converter such as a buck converter includes two power switches connected in series. A first power switch not connected to ground is referred to as a high-side switch. A second power switch connected to ground is referred to as low-side switch. A common node of the high-side switch and the low-side switch is a switching node of the power converter. A low-side gate drive circuit and a high-side gate drive circuits are employed to control the gates of the low-side switch and the high-side switch, respectively. The bias supply of the low-side gate drive circuit is supplied from a regulated bias voltage source. The high-side gate drive circuit may need a gate voltage higher than the voltage of the input power source connected to the power converter.
The low-side switch and the high-side switch may be implemented as metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFET). MOSFETs are voltage controlled devices. When a gate drive voltage is applied to the gate of a MOSFET, and the gate drive voltage is greater than the turn-on threshold of the MOSFET, a conductive channel is established between the drain and the source of the MOSFET. After the conductive channel has been established, a current flows between the drain and the source of the MOSFET. On the other hand, when the gate drive voltage applied to the gate is less than the turn-on threshold of the MOSFET, the MOSFET is turned off accordingly.
In operation, the turn-on and turn-off of the power switch cause a variety of issues. For example, a fast turn-on and/or turn-off of the power switch may generate switching noise causing Electromagnetic interference (EMI). Furthermore, the fast turn-on and/or turn-off of the power switch may cause voltage spikes that can damage the power switch. The issues above can be resolved through reducing the slew rate of the switching node voltage. However, a reduced slew rate of the switching node voltage may increase the switching losses of the power switch. It would be desirable to have a simple and reliable slew rate control method so as to have a balance between improving efficiency and solving EMI issues.


A heat sink for electronic devices which are surface mounted on a printed circuit board includes two side members, a connecting bridge, a foot on each side member which is soldered to a mounting pad on the printed circuit board, a locating element on each side member which engages an aperture in the printed circuit board during assembly, and a group of heat dissipating fingers on each side member. The heat sink can be placed over an electronic device which is surface mounted to the mounting pad on the printed circuit board and the feet of the heat sink can be soldered to the mounting pad simultaneously with the soldering of the electronic device to the mounting pad on the printed circuit board.

The present invention relates generally to heat sinks, and more specifically relates to heat sinks designed for use with surface mounted semiconductor components.
Many electronic circuits require the use of heat sinks to properly dissipate the heat generated in certain semiconductor components. Current heat sink designs are generally not compatible with surface mount semiconductors and generally do not lend themselves to automated assembly.
One currently used solution to this problem is to leave a large copper landing on the circuit board in order to dissipate the heat in the semiconductor that is soldered to it. There is a major disadvantage to this approach, in that it requires a large amount of surface area on the circuit board because it is not thermally efficient. In today's increasingly compact electronics packaging, this is often unacceptable.


An electrical connector including a metal plate including an insulating portion and an insulating portion; and a contact support portion including a hole portion that is extended in a thickness direction, of which a top end is blocked by a connection portion, and of which a bottom end exposes the insulating portion but not the metal plate, and a hole portion that is extended in the thickness direction, of which a bottom end opens to an outer surface and is blocked by a connection portion, and of which a top end exposes the insulating portion but not the metal plate.

As a conventional electrical connector, one including an insulating housing in which a contact support portion of plate shape that supports contacts and is mated and unmated with a mating connector is included, the contacts being arranged on both top and bottom surfaces of the contact support portion for multipolarization, has been known. To reinforce the plate-shaped, low-strength contact support portion, such an electrical connector includes a metal plate held in the contact support portion (for example, Patent Literature 1).
The metal plate is buried in and fixed to the contact support portion by integral molding with the housing. Specifically, the metal plate is set in a mold and sandwiched between retaining pins from above and below so that the set metal plate is not displaced from a predetermined position by the pressure for filling a molten resin into a cavity formed between the upper and lower molds. In such a state, a molten resin is filled into the cavity. After the temperature of the resin lowers and the resin is cured, the retaining pins are removed, whereby the metal plate is fixed to the contact support portion of the housing by integral molding. The contacts then are pressed into and fixed to the housing, whereby the contacts are arranged to be exposed in part in the outer surfaces of the contact support portion of the housing.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-202656


A large-sized columnar body made of a fiber reinforced plastics materials (FRP) has three layers A, B and C in this order, respectively formed by a fiber reinforced plastics material consisting of continuous fibers and a resin, wherein the reinforcing fibers of the layer B are carbon fibers arranged in the longitudinal direction of the columnar body and that the reinforcing fibers of the layers A and C are carbon fibers and/or glass fibers arranged at .+-.50 to .+-.70 degrees with respect to the longitudinal direction of the columnar body. The large-sized columnar body made of FRP has a high compressive strength and hence can be lighter than conventional large-sized columnar bodies. Hence, it is suitable as a primary structural member used in buildings, structural components, aircraft, ships, and the like.

A large-sized columnar body typically used as a mast of a racing yacht is required to have light weight, high rigidity and high strength, for securing the high speed stability, maneuverability and safety of the boat. In addition, aerodynamically for the necessity of high air releasability, a large-sized columnar body with a simple circular cross section is insufficient, and a large-sized columnar body with an ellipsoidal cross section or with a specific streamlined cross section selection of which is based on wind tunnel experiments is demanded.
A long and large columnar body generally called a pole must be tapered for the necessity of weight balance in the longitudinal direction.
As large-sized columnar bodies to meet these demands, those made of FRP are attracting attention in recent years, and are proposed in (1) Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 57-60989, (2) Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 59-63289, (3) Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 4-255306, etc.
(1) Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 57-60989 discloses a technique to reinforce the rigidity of a mast of a sling boat by letting the mast have a reinforcing portion swelling outside at least in either bow or stern direction. Furthermore, the patent gazette discloses a structure in which layers oriented in directions of .+-.20 to .+-.70 degrees with respect to the longitudinal axis of the mast are formed inside the reinforcing portion, for the purpose of improving the torsional rigidity of the mast.
(2) Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 59-63289 discloses a mast made of FRP for surfing with a hollow cylindrical structure in which an intermediate layer with glass fibers and reinforcing fibers with a modulus higher than that of glass fibers is held between layers with glass fibers as reinforcing fibers.
(3) Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 4-255306 discloses a large-sized columnar body in which two shells prepared by laying up unidirectional prepreg sheets consisting of carbon fibers and an epoxy resin are bonded in the longitudinal direction to form an integral structure.
In the meantime, FRP is low in compressive strength as compared with tensile strength, unlike metallic materials, and for this reason, when FRP is used as a large-sized columnar body, how to highly manifest the compressive strength of FRP is a key issue to achieve weight reduction. In other words, in most cases, the compressive strength decides the weight of a large-sized columnar body.
While all of the above patent gazettes (1) to (3) relate to large-sized columnar bodies made of FRP with light weight and high performance, the patent gazette (3) only describes that it is desirable to let a layer of 0 degree in fiber orientation degree account for 50% or more or, as required, to lay up a 45-degree layer or 90-degree layer in combination, as a means for improving the compressive strength of a large-sized columnar body.
The object of the present invention is to provide a large-sized columnar body made of FRP improved in compressive strength, and with lighter weight and higher safety.

Large-scale columnar structure made of a fiber reinforced plastic


In a motion detecting device, with respect to a target pixel for which detection of motion is going to be performed, the threshold value to be used by comparator circuits 9 and 10 is varied based on the difference of image data between two pixels vertically adjacent to the target pixel. The comparator circuit 9 compares the difference, between two fields, of the image data of the target pixel with the threshold value, and the comparator circuit 10 compares the differences, between two fields, of the image data of the two pixels vertically adjacent to the target pixel with the threshold value. An adder circuit 12 adds together the comparison results with weights assigned thereto, and the detection of motion is performed based on the resulting sum.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motion detecting device for detecting the motion of a subject that is reproduced from field to field as a motion picture is played back.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In interlaced scanning, a picture is shot by performing image sensing alternately in the pixels in even-numbered lines and in the pixels in odd-numbered lines for each field of the picture. Thus, when such a picture shot by interlaced scanning is played back, it is necessary to interpolate the image data for those pixels to which no image data is allotted in a given field. One method of interpolating image data for pixels to which no image data is allotted is spatial interpolation whereby interpolation is achieved using the image data of a plurality of pixels nearby, and another is temporal interpolation whereby interpolation is achieved using the image data of identical pixels among a plurality of fields before and after the one currently being reproduced.
Whether to rely on spatial or temporal interpolation to interpolate necessary image data is decided by detecting the motion of a subject in the picture. Specifically, spatial interpolation is used to interpolate image data for pixels that are sensing a subject in motion, and temporal interpolation is used to interpolate image data for pixels that are sensing a motionless subject. In this way, by switching interpolation methods according to the state of motion of the subject being sensed by individual pixels, it is possible to faithfully reproduce the sensed subject in each field of the picture being played back.
Conventionally, such detection of motion is achieved by calculating differences of the image data of identical pixels among even-numbered and odd-numbered fields, and then comparing those differences with a predetermined threshold value. Specifically, to detect the motion of a subject that is being sensed by the pixels for which image data is going to be interpolated, the differences between the image data obtained from those pixels one field before and the image data obtained from the same pixels three fields before are compared with a predetermined threshold value, and, if the differences are greater than the threshold value, the subject being sensed by the pixels in question is recognized to be in motion.
In this way, by comparing the field-to-field differences of the image data of identical pixels with a predetermined threshold value, whether the subject being sensed by the pixels for which image data is going to be interpolated is in motion or not is judged. However, as long as such a threshold level is kept constant, for example, in a case where motion was present up to the field immediately previous to the one currently being reproduced but no motion is present any more in the current field, the motion that had been recognized just up to the previous field leads to an erroneous judgment that the motion is still present in the current field. In this case, although the image data of adjacent pixels now have nearly equal values and therefore spatial interpolation is appropriate, in fact temporal interpolation is performed. This makes faithful reproduction of the real image impossible, and sometimes causes flickering or the like while a motion picture is being played back.


Techniques described herein provide efficient object detection and tracking in video images, such as may be used for real-time camera control in power-limited mobile image capture devices. The techniques include performing object detection on a first subset of frames of an input video, detecting an object and object location in a first detection frame of the first subset of frames, and tracking the detected object on a second subset of frames of the input video after the first detection frame.

The present disclosure relates to techniques for video image analysis.
Cameras have become virtually ubiquitous on mobile electronics devices such as cell phones. Images and video captured by a camera can be generally improved by understanding the contents of a scene being captured by the camera. For example, detection of an object such as a face may allow for control of a camera parameters, such as focus distance and white balance, based on location, movement, and lighting conditions of the detected object. However, reliable object detection techniques are often a compute intensive, power-hungry, and offline processes.


A scorecard (1) and a method of recording the number of strokes in a game of golf by means of movable indicator devices (2) are described, the scorecard (1) being provided with at least one further movable indicator device (3) to enable the indication of a marker of a player, and a player indicator (4), and both the movable marker indicator (3) and the player indicator (4) being designed for mechanical, optical reading.

When a game of golf is being played, the achievements of the individual player are measured by recording the number of strokes used on the individual golf hole. After the game is finished, the results from the individual hole are, in short, added up, and the player who has used the fewest number of strokes, possibly corrected for the so-called handicap of the player, has won the game.
The recording of the player's achievements is usually done after each hole played, by recording the number of strokes used for the individual hole on a so-called scorecard of paper by means of a pen or pencil, or a scorecard including movable indicators that are moved to a position expressing the number of strokes used. After the game is finished, the results are added up both for each individual hole and in total.
For the recorded result to be valid in a tournament and/or for changing the player's handicap, it is required that it should be confirmed by a marker. The marker is one of the other players who are playing in the same starting group. Marker tasks, that is to say who is going to be a marker of whom, will be distributed by the players in the starting group before start. In the course of the game, the player and the marker each record the number of strokes used by the player on a respective scorecard. After the game is finished, the values that the player and marker have recorded are compared. If they agree, the result is approved and the player and marker attest that the result is correct.
In many cases, a golfer will additionally compile statistics from some chosen results in a round of golf. This may be fairway hits, out of bunker in one stroke and the number of putter strokes used. These results are often kept, preferably for comparison with the statistics of a round played later on the same golf course.
Especially in connection with tournaments, there is a wish to record the results of the golf game in a scoring list or a database as quickly as possible, with the least possible time consumption and with the least possible risk of errors in the recording.
For this recording to take place in the simplest possible way, optical recording devices already known may be utilized. They take a picture of the scorecard and the picture is transferred to a computer, in which software reads the results from the picture. The results are processed by the computer by means of the software and, thus, the result may be provided relatively quickly. This system is referred to hereinafter as a reading system.
However, these reading systems turn out to have difficulties in recognizing and interpreting the handwriting of some people. A known solution to this problem is a scorecard intended for mechanical optical reading, wherein the scorecard has been realized in a design in which movable indicators uncover predefined values that the software has been programmed to recognize.
The optical recording device may also be used to compare the player's scorecard with a scorecard in which the marker has recorded the player's results, and validate these.
To simplify the reading operation further, a plural number of scorecards may be placed on the reading system at the same time, after which a reading system is arranged to recognize each scorecard and read it as an isolated scorecard. The drawback of this solution is how to make a flexible identification of the marker and the player.
A system like that is known from the applicant's Norwegian patent application NO20120187 which discloses a reversible scorecard for recording the number of strokes in a game of golf, wherein the number of strokes used to complete a golf hole is recorded in the scorecard in a binary number system, characterized by the scorecard being provided with a plurality of spaced-apart indicator devices, each of the indicator devices being arranged to be moved to any one of the at least a first position and a second position, and each of the indicator devices placed in the first position showing a first indicator picture which is mechanically optically distinguishable from a second indicator picture which is shown when the indicator device is placed in the second position.
Said system has turned out to work excellently with respect to recording speed and accuracy. However, it is riddled with some drawbacks with respect to providing a flexible identification of the marker and connecting him to a player. This must be indicated and connected manually in the system.


A semiconductor wafer having an active region where the active semiconductor devices are formed and a peripheral region between the active region and the wafer edge, is patterned by forming a patterned photoresist layer on the active region, such that the peripheral region is free of photoresist thereon. The patterned photoresist layer may be formed by forming a photoresist layer on the active region and on the peripheral region of the semiconductor wafer and removing the photoresist layer from the peripheral region of the semiconductor wafer. The photoresist in the active region is patterned. By removing the photoresist layer in the peripheral region of the wafer, excess etchant accumulation at the boundary of the active region and peripheral region is prevented, thereby reducing or preventing pitting of an underlying layer at the boundary.

Lithography is often used in the fabrication of microelectronic devices. As is well known to those having skill in the art, during lithography, a geometrical pattern in a mask or reticle is transferred to a thin layer of photosensitive material, referred to as a photoresist, on the surface of a wafer. The pattern may be used to define various regions on the wafer, such as ion implantation regions, contact holes, metal lines, bonding pads and the like.
In lithography, the patterned photoresist layer is generally not a permanent part of the microelectronic device. Rather, the photoresist pattern is generally transferred to an underlying layer using a selective etch process. The photoresist is then generally removed. The etched layer may or may not become a permanent part of the semiconductor device.
A conventional wafer patterning method will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1-3. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a semiconductor wafer after it has been patterned using conventional lithography. As shown in FIG. 1, because the size of the semiconductor wafer is larger than that of an integrated circuit chip, a plurality of patterns having the same shape or different shapes can be formed on wafer 1. Accordingly, the exposure process is generally carried out by repeatedly exposing a patterned reticle 2 while the wafer 1 moves two-dimensionally in the exposure apparatus, to thereby repeatedly form the same pattern on the wafer. As shown in FIG. 1, four chip patterns are formed in one reticle 2. However, it will be understood by those having skill in the art that larger or smaller numbers of patterns may be formed.
Since the shape of the wafer 1 is generally circular or oval, but the patterns 3 which are formed on the chip are generally rectangular, an active region 5 of the wafer 1 is limited to the central portion of the wafer. The peripheral region 4 of the wafer 1, between the active region 5 and the wafer edge, generally does not contain active semiconductor devices and is generally cut from the wafer during the chip scribing process.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line A--A of FIG. 1, and which illustrates a patterning process according to a conventional lithography process. An etch stop 11 and a layer 12 are sequentially formed on a semiconductor substrate 10. A patterned photoresist layer 14 is formed on active region 5 and a blanket photoresist region 13 is formed on peripheral region 4. Regions 13 and 14 are generally formed by blanket depositing a photoresist layer on wafer 1 and repeatedly stepping a patterned reticle over the active region. As is well known to those having skill in the art, the reticle may include a predetermined pattern which is formed in a metal film and which is aligned to the wafer. Ultraviolet rays or other radiation is irradiated through the reticle to expose the photoresist layer. The exposure operation is repeatedly performed while the wafer and reticle are stepped in two directions to thereby expose the active region 5. The photoresist is then developed to remove the patterned photoresist, thus forming the structure of FIG. 2. As is well known to those having skill in the art, during the developing process, the photoresist layer 13 in the peripheral region and the unexposed portions of the photoresist layer 14 in the active region of the wafer are not removed, but remain on the wafer.
FIG. 3 illustrates a cross-sectional view of the wafer of FIG. 2 after etching. The photoresist layers 13 and 14 serve as an etch mask so that the pattern of the photoresist layer 14 is transferred to the layer 12 formed thereunder. Unfortunately, when following a conventional photolithography and etching process as described above, a pitting effect may be produced at the etch stop 11 between the active region and the peripheral region. This pitting can damage the etch stop 11, as illustrated in FIG. 3. The damaged etch stop layer may adversely impact the wafer during subsequent fabrication steps.

Methods of patterning a semiconductor wafer having an active region and a peripheral region, and patterned wafers formed thereby


The invention provides a connector incorporating an overmolded housing that may control the position of the mounting ends of the connector and may provide a structure to help transfer the forces for press fit of the connector to the printed circuit board (PCB). Such a connector may include a first leadframe assembly having a plurality of contacts, a second leadframe assembly having a plurality of contacts, an edge card, and a tail alignment housing. Each contact may include a lead portion and a mounting end. The lead portions of the contacts may engage the edge card. The tail alignment housing may include a housing body and a plurality of tail supports extending from the housing body. The tail alignment housing may be overmolded onto at least a portion of the mounting ends.

Advanced Mezzanine Cards are printed circuit boards (PCBs) that follow a specification of the PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturers Group (PICMG). PICMG AMC connectors may be used in accordance with such a specification. Typically, manufacturers of such connectors mold the contacts in a vertical (or "column") direction. Accordingly, each column of contacts is molded into a separate leadframe assembly. In some such connectors, as many as 80 or more contact columns are required. Consequently, a relatively large number of individual insert molded leadframe assemblies (IMLAs) may be required to make such a connector.
Due to the number of separate IMLAs required to make such a connector, manufacturers have proposed insert molding the contacts into a plurality of horizontal arrays, or "rows." With such connectors, however, there are problems with controlling the positioning and straightness of the mounting ends of the electrical contacts (i.e., the contact "tails") in a cost-effective manner.


A method for at least partially filling a feature on a workpiece includes obtaining a workpiece including a feature having a high aspect ratio in the range of about 10 to about 80, depositing a first conformal conductive layer in the feature, and thermally treating the workpiece to reflow the first conformal conductive layer in the feature.

The present disclosure relates to methods for electrochemically depositing a conductive material, for example, a metal, such as copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni) gold (Au), silver (Ag), manganese (Mn), tin (Sn), aluminum (Al), and alloys thereof, in features having a high aspect ratio, such as in a Through Silicon Via (TSV) feature, on a microelectronic workpiece.
TSV deposition is generally directed to creating vertical interconnects through the workpiece for top and bottom connection with interconnects on other workpieces. In one non-limiting example of TSV integration, metal is deposited to fill a TSV via, then the back of the wafer is ground until the bottom of the via is exposed, creating a second connection point for the via. However, it should be appreciated that other types of TSV integrations are also within the scope of the present disclosure.
Typical TSV features have dimensions that may be in the range of about 1 micron to about 15 microns in diameter, and in the range of about 20 microns to about 120 microns in depth. The feature opening is generally large to enable plating to significant depth. Even considering the large opening, TSV features typically still have a very high aspect ratio.
The TSV process may include via etching, insulator and barrier deposition, seed layer deposition, metal filling, and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). A deposit in a TSV feature may include a dielectric layer, a barrier layer, a seed layer, and a fill layer. In one example, the TSV deposit may include copper in the seed layer, the fill layer, or both.
Because copper tends to diffuse into the dielectric material, barrier layers can be used to isolate the copper deposit from the dielectric material. However, for other metal deposits besides copper, it should be appreciated that barrier layers may not be required. Barrier layers are typically made of refractory metals or refractory compounds, for example, titanium (Ti), tantalum (Ta), titanium nitride (TiN), tantalum nitride (TaN), etc. Other suitable barrier layer materials may include manganese (Mn) and manganese nitride (MnN).
The barrier layer is typically formed using a deposition technique called physical vapor deposition (PVD), but may also be formed by using other deposition techniques, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or atomic layer deposition (ALD). In TSV applications, the barrier layer may typically be about 500 Å to about 4000 Å (about 50 nm to about 400 nm) in thickness.
A seed layer may be deposited on the barrier layer. However, it should also be appreciated that direct on barrier (DOB) deposition is also within the scope of the present disclosure, for example, barriers that are made from alloys or co-deposited metals upon which interconnect metals may be deposited without requiring a separate seed layer, such as titanium ruthenium (TiRu), tantalum ruthenium (TaRu), tungsten ruthenium (WRu), as well as other barrier layers that are known and/or used by those having skill in the art.
In one non-limiting example, the seed layer may be a copper seed layer. As another non-limiting example, the seed layer may be a copper alloy seed layer, such as copper manganese, copper cobalt, or copper nickel alloys. In the case of depositing copper in a feature, there are several exemplary options for the seed layer. First, the seed layer may be a PVD copper seed layer. See, e.g., FIG. 3 for an illustration of a process including PVD copper seed deposition. The seed layer may also be formed by using other deposition techniques, such as CVD or ALD.
Second, the seed layer may be a stack film, for example, a liner layer and a PVD seed layer. A liner layer is a material used in between a barrier and a PVD seed to mitigate discontinuous seed issues and improve adhesion of the PVD seed. Liners are typically noble metals such as ruthenium (Ru), platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), and osmium (Os), but the list may also include cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni). Currently, CVD Ru and CVD Co are common liners; however, liner layers may also be formed by using other deposition techniques, such as ALD or PVD.
Third, the seed layer may be a secondary seed layer. A secondary seed layer is similar to a liner layer in that it is typically formed from noble metals such as Ru, Pt, Pd, and Os, but the list may also include Co and Ni, and most commonly CVD Ru and CVD Co. (Like seed and liner layers, secondary seed layers may also be formed by using other deposition techniques, such as ALD or PVD.) The difference is that the secondary seed layer serves as the seed layer, whereas the liner layer is an intermediate layer between the barrier layer and the PVD seed. See, e.g., FIGS. 5 and 6 for illustrations of processes including secondary seed depositions, followed by, respectively, ECD seed deposition in FIG. 5, as described below, and flash deposition in FIG. 6. (A "flash" deposition is primarily on the field and at the bottom of the feature, without significant deposition on the sidewalls of the feature.)
In TSV applications, the seed layer may typically be about 2000 Å to about 8000 Å (about 200 nm to about 800 nm) in thickness. It can be challenging to reliably deposit a seed layer on the sides and bottom of the via (particularly using the PVD technique) as a result of the high aspect ratio of the via. In that regard, discontinuities in the seed layer often result, which can cause typical defects such as bottom-sidewall voids and pinch-off in the via.
After a seed layer has been deposited according to one of the examples described above, the feature may include a seed layer enhancement (SLE) layer, which is a thin layer of deposited metal, for example, copper having a thickness of about 1000 Å (100 nm). An SLE layer is also known as an electrochemically deposited seed (or ECD seed). See, e.g., FIG. 4 for an illustration of a process including PVD seed deposition and ECD seed deposition. See, e.g., FIG. 5 for an illustration of a process including secondary seed deposition and ECD seed deposition. As seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, ECD seed may be a conformally deposited layer.
An ECD copper seed is typically deposited using a basic chemistry that includes a very dilute copper ethylenediamine (EDA) complex. ECD copper seed may also be deposited using other copper complexes, such as citrate, tartrate, urea, etc., and may be deposited in a pH range of about 2 to about 11, about 3 to about 10, or in a pH range of about 4 to about 10.
After a seed layer has been deposited according to one of the examples described above (which may also include an optional ECD seed), conventional ECD fill and cap may be performed in the feature, for example, using an acid deposition chemistry. Conventional ECD copper acid chemistry may include, for example, copper sulfate, sulfuric acid, methane sulfonic acid, hydrochloric acid, and organic additives (such as accelerators, suppressors, and levelers). Electrochemical deposition of copper has been found to be the most cost effective manner by which to deposit a copper metallization layer. In addition to being economically viable, ECD deposition techniques provide a substantially bottom up (e.g., nonconformal) metal fill that is mechanically and electrically suitable for interconnect structures.
Conventional ECD fill, particularly in features having a high aspect ratio, like TSV features, has proven to be difficult. For example, the high aspect ratio of the feature and discontinuities in the seed layer greatly increase the chances of pinch-off at the top of the feature and bottom-sidewall void formation in the via. To avoid pinch-off and void formation in the via, conventional ECD fill in a TSV via is typically a slow process because of the amount of metal required to fill the TSV via, sometimes taking hours to partially fill the via, and still proving to be difficult for fill because of void formation in the via.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved feature filling process for a high aspect ratio feature, for example, a TSV feature.

Semiconductor reflow processing for high aspect ratio fill


The present invention relates to a clutch for transmission power. The clutch for transmission power according to the present invention includes flywheel, clutch cover and clutch disk assembly positioning between the flywheel and the clutch cover; moreover, the clutch disk assembly includes a clutch facing having main body portion formed with a center hole in the middle thereof, and a contacting portion wherein one side thereof faces the friction pad at said flywheel side and the other side thereof faces the press plate of said clutch cover, and the portion facing each other between the friction pad and the press plate is made of carbon-carbon composition; a spline hub being overlapped with one side of the clutch facing wherein a spline groove is formed in the inner diameter thereof and a connecting means for connecting the clutch facing with the spline hub. Furthermore, the clutch disk assembly and the method of manufacturing the friction substance for clutch according to the invention can improve assemblability and reduce weight by simplifying it as a single part without using shock absorbing apparatus such as coil spring or the like on clutch disk assembly. In addition, the power transmission of an engine can be improved, and also it has an effect that an automobile can start softly and slippage does not occur even at abrupt acceleration by providing with carbon-carbon composition or carbon-silicon carbide composition having excellent shock absorption function.

In general, a clutch characteristically requires response characteristics, such as soft gearshift and fast and high transmission power, as a mechanical element for transmitting power wherein a driving shaft and a driven shaft are connected to each other in mechanical devices. This clutch can be used for various industrial areas such as automobiles, motorcycles, industrial machines, presses, ships, etc.
In particular, the clutch used for automobile is designed to allow slippage movement by half clutch operation to attain soft start for vehicles. Accordingly, high-temperature frictional heat can be created within the range of 200° C.˜600° C. with this half clutch operation.
As a result, the clutch undergoes phenomena such as thermal load and fatigue, dynamic load by intermittent contact torque of the clutch caused by friction, and deterioration of clutch cover and disk at high temperature due to friction over the areas such as flywheel, clutch disk, press plate, etc. since high torque power is transmitted by friction.
Caused by this phenomena, fatigue, crack or the like are created by thermal load and dynamic load, and also fading is created due to the reduced friction coefficient at high temperature as well as at high RPM (revolutions per minute). This is the main cause for reducing the life of a clutch.
Various studies for solving the above-mentioned problem have been progressed until now. As for known solutions for these problems, there are a clutch cushion plate, a rubber damper, wave spring, etc. which are used for the shock absorption structure, and also a method of providing ventilation grooves at clutch disk or providing holes at flywheel or press plate was developed as cooling system.


A liquid crystal display device includes a display part which has a plurality of divided segments and a control part, configured to control voltages applied to the segments. The control part changes a turning-on pattern of segments to be output to the display part from a first turning-on pattern which turns on a first segment group to a second turning-on pattern which turns on a second group, and subsequently to a third turning-on pattern which turns on a third segment group. Change of the turning-on pattern includes a control to apply a voltage to at least one of segments of the plurality of segments which are not commonly used in the first segment group in a period from a predetermined time before starting of change to the third turning-on pattern.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A segment type liquid crystal display device is known as a liquid crystal display device, which includes a display part that has a plurality of divided segments, and which controls voltages applied to the segments to turn on/off the segments, thereby displaying various information (for example, refer to JP-A-59-9641).

Liquid crystal display device that addresses non-synchronous response times


An apparatus for synchronously controlling the actual operation of a machine using one or more motors, such as servo motors, by simulating in program form a combination of selectable machine mechanisms, including drivers, connecting shafts, clutches, gears and cams. Each such machine mechanism is represented by a virtual mechanism, preferably as a software module that contains information uniquely identifying the module, operation information that defines the generation of position information and connection information that defines other modules to which connection is made. The software modules comprise drive modules for generating position information, transmission modules for simulating the transmission mechanisms and output modules for outputting motor commands.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the generation of positioning commands for controlling motors, such as servo motors, and particularly to a positioning apparatus for exercising synchronous control with only the motors, without employing actual machine mechanisms, such as connecting shafts, clutches, gears and cams.
2. Description of the Background Art
It is known in the art that there are industrial machines consisting of a large number of movable parts which must operate synchronously with each other.
A first conventional embodiment will be described in reference to the appended drawings. FIG. 121 illustrates the arrangement of a fluid filling machine as an example of a machine described above, of which numerous movable parts operate synchronously with each other. Referring to FIG. 121, the numeral 400 indicates a motor, 401 a connecting shaft, 402a, 402b, 402c and 402d gears, 403a, 403b and 403c clutches, 404 a transfer shaft, 405 a lifting shaft, 406 a filling shaft, 407 a conveyor, 408 a transferring cam, 409 a lifting cam, 410 a filling cam, 411 a lifting table, 412 a vessel filled with liquid, 413 a filling cylinder, 414 a filling piston, and 415 a filling nozzle.
FIGS. 122A-122C show the operations of the conveyor 407, lifting table 411 and filling piston 414 illustrated in FIG. 121, wherein a horizontal axis indicates time and a vertical axis denotes the velocities of the conveyor 407, lifting table 411 and filling piston 414.
In FIGS. 122A-122C, the velocities of the conveyor 407, lifting table 411 and filling piston 414 are determined in accordance with the patterns of the transferring cam 408, lifting cam 409 and filling cam 410 in FIG. 121.
The operation of the machine in FIG. 121 will now be described. The motor 400 not only provides power to the whole filling machine but also rotates the connecting shaft 401 to synchronize the whole filling machine. The connecting shaft 401 transmits the motion of the motor 400 via the gears 402a-402d to the transfer shaft 404, lifting shaft 405 and filling shaft 406. The transfer shaft 404 is connected to the conveyor 407 to transfer the vessel 412 filled with liquid. The lifting shaft 405 is connected to the lifting table 411 which is risen up to the position of a fill hole for filling the vessel 412 with liquid and is lowered as the vessel 412 is filled with liquid, and the filling shaft 406 is built to operate the filling piston 414 for sucking the liquid into the cylinder 413, discharging the liquid from the cylinder 413, and filling the vessel 412. The clutches 403a to 403c are engaged when the rotation of the connecting shaft 401 is transmitted to each of the transfer shaft 404, lifting shaft 405 and filling shaft 406, and are disengaged when the rotation is not transmitted.
Referring to FIG. 121, all the clutches 403a to 403c are first disengaged, the clutches of the transfer shaft 404, lifting shaft 405 and filling shaft 406 are then engaged separately on a shaft-by-shaft basis, and the shafts are operated to move the conveyor 407, lifting table 411 and filling piston 414 to their initial positions. All the clutches 403a to 403c are then engaged at the same time, and the transfer shaft 404 is operated in accordance with the motion of the motor 400 and the pattern of the transferring cam 408, thereby operating the conveyor 407. At this time, as shown in FIG. 122C, the filling piston 414 simultaneously performs suction operation in accordance with the pattern of the filling cam 410 (Interval A in FIG. 122C). After the conveyor 407 has reached a predetermined place, the lifting table 411 rises in accordance with the pattern of the lifting cam 409, moving the vessel 412 to be filled with liquid up to a predetermined height (interval B in FIG. 122C). The lifting table 411 is then lowered in accordance with the pattern of the lifting cam 409, and the filling piston 414 concurrently performs filling operation in accordance with the pattern of the filling cam 410 (interval C in FIG. 122C). By thus transmitting the motion of the motor 400 via the connecting shaft 401 to the transfer shaft 404, lifting shaft 405 and filling shaft 406, the sequence of operations are performed in synchronization with the motion of the motor 400.
A second conventional embodiment will now be described with reference to the appended drawings. FIG. 123 shows a conventional embodiment employing a single positioning controller to control transfer, lifting and filling operations with servo motors, wherein 421 indicates a transferring servo motor, 422 a lifting servo motor, 423 a filling servo motor, 424 a servo amplifier for controlling the transferring servo motor 421, 425 a servo amplifier for controlling the lifting servo motor 422, 426 a servo amplifier for controlling the filling servo motor 423, and 420 a positioning controller for giving position commands to the servo amplifiers 424 to 426, and 427 is equivalent to a transfer apparatus including the transfer shaft 404 and conveyor 407 in FIG. 121, 428 equivalent to a lifting apparatus including the lifting shaft 405 and lifting table 411 in FIG. 121, and 429 equivalent to a filling apparatus including the filling shaft 406, filling cylinder 413, filling piston 414 and filling nozzle 415 in FIG. 121.
The operation of the second conventional embodiment will now be described in reference to FIG. 123. The positioning controller 420 gives position commands to the servo amplifiers 424-426 in accordance with a positioning program which causes the conveyor, lifting table and filling piston to operate as shown in FIGS. 122A-122C. The positioning program is written to perform the two-axis interpolative operation of the transfer shaft 404 and filling shaft 406 in the interval A in FIGS. 122A-122C, so that the transferring servo motor 421 is rotated to operate the conveyor 407 and locate the vessel 412 to a liquid filling position, and also the filling servo motor 423 is rotated to lower the filling piston 414 and fill the filling cylinder 413 with liquid. Then, in the interval B in FIGS. 122A-122C, the program is written to rotate the lifting servo motor 422 to raise the lifting table 411. Finally, in the interval C in FIGS. 122A-122C, the program is written to perform the two-axis interpolative operation of the filling shaft 406 and lifting shaft 405 so that the filling servo motor 423 is rotated to raise the filling piston 414 and fill the vessel 412 with the liquid from inside the filling cylinder 413, and simultaneously, the lifting servo motor 422 is rotated to lower the lifting table 411.
A third conventional embodiment will now be described with reference to the appended drawings. FIG. 124 shows the third conventional embodiment using three servo amplifiers having a single-axis positioning function with the transfer shaft 404, lifting shaft 405 and filling shaft 406 for operating them in accordance with commands from a single sequence controller. 421 to 423, 427 to 429 and 431 to 433 indicate parts identical to those shown in FIG. 123.
The operation of the third conventional embodiment will now be described with reference to FIG. 124. When provided with an operation command 1, the transferring servo amplifier 431 rotates the transferring servo motor 421 to operate the conveyor 407 in a pattern indicated in the interval A in FIG. 122A. When given an operation command 2, the lifting servo amplifier 432 rotates the lifting servo motor 422 to operate the lifting table 411 in a pattern indicated in the interval B in FIG. 122B, and when provided with an operation command 3, rotates the lifting servo motor 422 to operate the lifting table 411 in a pattern indicated in the interval C in FIG. 122B. When given an operation command 4, the filling servo amplifier 433 rotates the filling servo motor 423 to operate the filling piston 414 in a pattern indicated in the interval A in FIG. 122C, and when provided with an operation command 5, rotates the filling servo motor 423 to operate the filling piston 414 in a pattern indicated in the interval C in FIG. 122C.
The sequence controller 430 simultaneously provides the transferring servo amplifier 431 with the operation command 1 and the filling servo amplifier 433 with the operation command 4. After receiving completion signals indicating that respective operations are complete, the sequence controller 430 gives the lifting servo amplifier 432 the operation command 2. Thereafter, when receiving a completion signal indicating that the operation of the lifting table 411 is complete, the sequence controller 430 simultaneously issues the operation command 3 to the lifting servo amplifier 432 and the operation command 5 to the filling servo amplifiers 433, thereby operating the conveyor 407 and filling piston 414. The sequence controller 430 thus communicates the operation commands and completion signals with the transferring servo amplifier 431, lifting servo amplifier 432 and filling servo amplifier 433 to operate the conveyor 407, lifting table 411 and filling piston 414 in the patterns shown in FIGS. 122A-122C.
A fourth conventional embodiment will now be described with reference to FIG. 125 which shows an example of a conveyor line where products transferred on a belt conveyor are machined in sequence by a plurality of machines to finish them into end products. 444 indicates a belt conveyor, 443a and 443b objects to be machined which are transferred on the belt conveyor, 442a and 442b rollers supporting the belt conveyor, 440 an induction motor for driving the roller 442a via a gear 441, 445 an encoder mounted to the roller 442b for detecting the travel of the belt conveyor, 446a and 446b positioning controllers, 447a and 447b encoder input interfaces provided inside the positioning controllers 446a and 446b, respectively, and 448a and 448b objects to be controlled incorporating servo motors, such as robots or machines, controlled by the commands of the positioning controllers 446a and 447b, respectively.
The operation of the fourth conventional embodiment will now be described. The induction motor 440 keeps running at a constant velocity, rotating the roller 442 via the gear 441. The rotation of this roller 442a drives the belt conveyor 444, transferring the objects to be machined 443a, 443b. The objects to be controlled 448a, 448b, which are machines containing servo motors for machining the objects to be machined 443a, 443b, operate in accordance with the commands of the positioning controllers 446a, 446b written as positioning programs for machining operations to be performed when the belt conveyor 444 is at a stop. The positioning controllers 446a, 446b have different positioning programs according to the conveyor line, and the objects to be controlled 448a, 448b may either be identical or different.
When the objects to be machined 443a, 443b are at a stop, they can be machined by the above operations. When the belt conveyor 444 is in motion, however, machining must be carried out in synchronization with the motion of the belt conveyor 444. For this purpose, the travel of the belt conveyor 444 is detected from the encoder 445 and fetched into the controllers 446a, 446b via the encoder input interfaces 447a, 447b. Each of the positioning controllers 446a, 446b contains firmware which composes the fetched travel of the belt conveyor 444 and the travel of positioning operation by the positioning program. The results composed by the firmware are given to the objects to be controlled 448a, 448b as commands. This allows the objects to be machined 443a, 443b to be machined in synchronization with the motion of the belt conveyor 444 by only writing positioning programs for machining with the belt conveyor 444 at a stop, whereby machining time can be reduced as compared to machining performed after stopping the belt conveyor 444.
A fifth conventional embodiment will now be described in reference to the appended drawings. FIG. 126 is an arrangement diagram showing tension control by a dancer roll known in the art, wherein 190 indicates a hold-down roller for roll #1, 191 a roll #1, 192 a motor #1 for rotating the roll #1, 193 a servo amplifier #1 for controlling the motor #1, 195 a dancer roll, 194 and 196 rollers, 200 a hold-down roller for roll #2, 201 a roll #2, 202 a motor #2 for rotating the roll #2, 203 a servo amplifier #2 for controlling the motor #2, 198 a displacement detector for converting a displacement value from the center position of the dancer roll 195 into an electrical signal, 197 a spring for providing the dancer roll 195 with predetermined force, 460 a velocity command given to the servo amplifiers #1 and #2, 461 a compensation velocity command output from the displacement detector 198, and 462 an interface for inputting the compensation velocity command 461.
The operation of the fifth conventional embodiment will now be described. When the velocity command 460 is given, both the rollers #1 and #2 run at identical speeds if the compensation velocity command 461 is zero. The speed of the roller #2 is controlled by the displacement detector 198 which outputs a positive compensation velocity command 461 as shown in FIG. 127 when the displacement of the dancer roll 195 is on the upper side, and outputs a negative compensation velocity command 461 as shown in FIG. 127 when the displacement of the dancer roll 195 is on the lower side. This controls the dancer roll 195 to be kept in the center of an allowable stroke.
A sixth conventional embodiment will now be described with reference to the appended drawings. FIG. 128 is an arrangement diagram showing differential gears known in the art, wherein 480 indicates an input axis, 481 a gear a rotated jointly with the input axis 480, 483 a gear b revolving around the gear a 481 while simultaneously rotating on its own axis by the rotation of the gear a 481 and a gear d 484, 482 a gear c disposed on the opposite side of the gear b 483 relative to the center point of the gear a 481 and similar to the gear b 483, 484 a cylindrical gear d concentric with the gear a 481 and equipped with an internal gear and an external gear, 485 an output axis connecting the center points of the gears b and c 483 and 482, 487 an auxiliary input axis for rotating a gear e 488, 488 a gear e rotated jointly with the auxiliary input axis 487, 486 a cam rotated by the output axis 485, and 489 a load moved linearly by the rotation of the cam 486.
The operation of the sixth conventional embodiment will now be described. When the input axis 480 rotates, the gear a rotates in the same direction as the input axis 480. When the gear a rotates, the gears b and c rotate in the opposite direction. If the gear d is at rest at this time, the gears b and c revolve around the gear a in the same direction as the input axis 480, and the output axis 485 connecting the center points of the gears b and c rotates in the same direction similarly. The cam 486 connected with the output axis 485 also rotates in the same direction similarly. The load moves linearly in accordance with the shape of the cam 486. When the auxiliary input axis 487 rotates in the same direction as the input axis 480, the gear e rotates in the same direction as the auxiliary input axis 487. When the gear e rotates, the gear d rotates in the opposite direction. When the gear d rotates, the gears b and c rotate in the opposite direction and revolve around the gear a in the opposite direction to the auxiliary input axis 487, and the output axis 485 connecting the center points of the gears b and c rotates in the opposite direction similarly. Therefore, the output axis 485 is driven from both the input axis 480 and auxiliary input axis 487.
FIG. 129 shows the displacement curve of the cam 486, wherein one revolution of the output axis 485 is one cycle. Fundamentally, the cam 486 is rotated only by the input axis 480. When it is desired to adjust the phase of the cam 486 displacement curve, however, the auxiliary input axis 487 is rotated to turn the cam 486, thereby adjusting the starting position. This allows the phase of the cam 486 displacement curve to be adjusted without changing the rotational pattern of the input axis 480.
To rotate the cam 486 without turning the input axis 480 during adjustment, the auxiliary input axis 487 may only be rotated.
A seventh conventional embodiment will now be described in reference to the appended drawings. FIG. 130 indicates the settings of a positioning program consisting of a target position address, command velocity, and acceleration and deceleration times.
The operation of the seventh conventional embodiment will now be described. When positioning is started, a positioning pattern is calculated from the target position address, command velocities and acceleration and deceleration times, and is output to a servo amplifier in a pattern as shown in FIG. 131. Hence, the positioning pattern cannot be fine-adjusted.

Method of operating a virtual mechanical module which simulates a mechanical device


Disclosed is a method for fabricating a thin film transistor for a liquid crystal display device using four masks and without using a diffraction mask. The method of the present invention uses a first mask when forming a gate electrode, a second mask when forming an active pattern, a third mask when forming a plurality of contact holes at an upper portion of a channel layer, and a fourth mask when forming a pixel electrode and source and drain electrodes, so that the resulting liquid crystal display device may be completed by four masks without using a diffraction exposure method. Instead of using a diffraction mask, the present invention uses different etching rates between an insulating layer and an electrode layer, which is used for source and drain electrodes, in fabricating a thin film transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for fabricating a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly, to a method for fabricating a thin film transistor as a switching device of LCD by only four masks without using a diffraction mask.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display device includes a thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate on which a plurality of thin film transistors are arranged in a matrix form, a color filter substrate facing the TFT array substrate for displaying an image in color, and a liquid crystal layer filled into the space between the substrates.
Processes for forming the thin film transistor substantially affect the performance of the liquid crystal display device. A process for fabricating a thin film transistor (TFT) of a liquid crystal display device will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1E.
A process of fabricating a TFT is typically performed by either a five-mask process or a four-mask process. FIGS. 1A to 1E are views illustrating a process of fabricating a thin film transistor using five masks.
As illustrated in FIG. 1A, a metal is deposited on a transparent substrate 1 such as a glass. In general, the metal is formed by a sputtering method. After forming the metal, photoresist (not shown) is deposited on the metal layer. By means of photolithography using a first mask (now shown), a gate electrode 2a in a channel region, a first storage electrode 2b in a storage region and a gate pad pattern 2c are formed.
Subsequently, as illustrated in FIG. 1B, a gate insulating layer 3 of silicon oxide or silicon nitride is formed on the substrate on which the gate electrode 2a, the first storage electrode 2b and gate pad pattern 2c are formed, and a semiconductor layer is formed on the gate insulating layer 3. Then, by means of photolithography using a second mask (not shown), an active layer 4 is defined on the channel region. The active layer 4 may include an amorphous silicon layer forming channel and a high impurity doped semiconductor layer for ohmic contact characteristics. The gate insulating layer 3 and the active layer 4 may generally be formed by a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method.
After forming the active layer, as illustrated in FIG. 1C, a conductive layer is formed on the active layer and the gate insulating layer 3. The conductive layer is patterned to form a source and drain electrodes 5 and 6 at the channel region, a second storage electrode 7 at the storage region, and a data pad pattern 8 at a data pad portion by a photolithography process using a third mask (not shown).
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 1D, a passivation layer 9 on the source and drain electrodes 5 and 6 is formed by photolithography using a fourth mask (not shown). Contact holes are formed on the passivation layer to expose the drain electrode 6 at the channel region, the second storage electrode 7, the gate pad pattern 2c and the data pad pattern 8.
After forming the contact holes on the passivation layer, as illustrated in FIG. 1E, a transparent electrode material is sputtered. A pixel electrode 10 connected to the drain electrode 6 at the channel region and to the second storage electrode 7 at the storage region is formed by photolithography using a fifth mask (not shown) in conjunction with the transparent electrode materials. The transparent electrode materials are selectively etched to form a gate pad 11 connected to the gate pad pattern 2c at the gate pad portion and a data pad 12 connected to the data pad pattern 8.
The method for fabricating a liquid crystal display device according to the related art has a problem that there are limits to reduction of fabrication costs and simplification of processes due to multiple photolithography procedures corresponding to five masks.
A related art solution to this problem involves a method for fabricating a liquid crystal display device using four masks, which is described below in reference to FIGS. 2A to 2G.
As illustrated in FIG. 2A, after depositing electrode materials on a substrate 21, a gate electrode 22a, a storage electrode 22b and a gate pad pattern 22c are selectively formed on a channel region, a storage region and a gate pad portion on the substrate 21, respectively. In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 2B, a gate insulating layer 23 of silicon oxide or silicon nitride is formed on the substrate; a semiconductor layer 24 is formed on the gate insulating layer 23; and a conductive layer 25 is formed on the semiconductor layer 24, sequentially. The semiconductor layer 24 may be a dual layer of amorphous silicon (a-Si) and a semiconductor layer doped with high density impurities.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 2C, a photoresist 26 is deposited on the conductive layer 25 and subsequently patterned using a second mask 27. The resulting photoresist pattern 26a remains at the channel region, the storage region, and the data pad portion. In particular, diffraction exposure is radiated onto the photoresist 26a formed at the gate electrode 22a to form a stepped photoresist pattern having a thin center portion. As a result of the diffraction exposure, the photoresist on the channel region has a stepped shape such that the photoresist on the channel region is thinner than that on source and drain regions, thereby two-step processes exposing the channel region and forming source and drain electrodes may be performed. As also illustrated in FIG. 2D, the conductive layer 25 and the gate insulating layer 24 are partially removed by the photoresist pattern 26a formed by the diffraction exposure to define the channel region, a second storage electrode 25b and a data pad pattern 25c.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 2E, the photoresist 26a on the channel region is ashed and selectively removed. As a result, a conductive layer 25a on the channel is exposed. As illustrated in FIG. 2F, drain electrodes 28 and 29 are formed by etching the conductive layer 25a using the photoresist pattern 26a as an etching mask, and the photoresist pattern 26a is stripped.
Referring to FIG. 2G, a passivation layer 30 is formed on an entire surface of the substrate. Then, through use of photolithography and a third mask (not shown), contact holes are formed in the passivation layer 30 to expose the drain electrode 29, the second storage electrode 25b, the gate pad pattern 22c, and the data pad pattern 25c.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 2H, transparent electrode materials are formed on an upper portion of the result, and a pixel electrode 31 is formed by performing photolithography using a fourth mask (not shown). The transparent electrode materials are selectively etched to form a gate pad 32 connected to the pattern for gate pad 22c and a data pad 32 connected to the data pad pattern 25c at the same time.
As so far described, a method for fabricating a liquid crystal display device using four masks may reduce fabrication costs and simplify processes in comparison to a method for fabricating a liquid crystal display device using five masks. However, since a diffraction mask used for the four-mask process is an expensive element, the diffraction mask causes fabrication costs of a thin film transistor to increase.

Method for fabricating liquid crystal display device


An apparatus transports a discrete paper or film object in a machine direction for insertion into an envelope. A guide assembly of the apparatus includes opposed first and second channels facing one another for guiding the object in the machine direction, with the channels extending upwardly to thereby define an uphill path of travel for the object. A drive apparatus includes engaging elements for moving the object along the first and second channels. At least one support element holds the object against the guide assembly.

Converting equipment is known for automatically stuffing envelopes. Such equipment may include components for feeding a pre-printed web of paper, for cutting such web into one or more discrete sheets for collating sheets, and for feeding such discrete sheet collations into envelopes. Such equipment may further include components to convey the stuffed envelopes to a specified location. The industry has long known apparatus which accomplish these and other functions. However, improvements are needed where high volumes of paper piece count and high speeds are required without sacrificing reliability accuracy and quality of end product.
More particularly, a large roll of paper is typically printed in discrete areas with piece specific information. That is, the initial roll of paper comprises vast numbers of discrete areas of already-printed indicia-specific information with each discrete area defining what is to eventually comprise a single page or sheet of indicia specific information. To complicate the process, a variable number of sheets with related indicia must be placed into the envelopes so that the content of one envelope varies from the content of another by sheet count and, of course, by the specific indicia on the included sheets. As one example, financial reports of multiple customers or account specifics may require a varied number of customer or account specific sheets to be cut, respectively collated, stuffed and discharged for delivery. Thus, the contents of each envelope include either a single sheet or a "collation" of from two to many sheets, each "collation" being specific to a mailing to an addressee.
In such an exemplary operation, a financial institution might send billing or invoice information to each of its customers. The billing information or "indicia" for one customer may require anywhere from one final sheet to a number of sheets which must be collated, then placed in that customer's envelope. While all this information can be printed in sheet size discrete areas, on a single roll, these areas must be well defined, cut, merged or collated into sheets for the same addressee or destination, placed into envelopes, treated and discharged. Thus, a system for conducting this process has in the past included certain typical components, such as a paper roll stand, drive, sheet cutter, merge unit, accumulate or collate unit, folder, envelope feeder, envelope inserter, and finishing and discharge units. Electronic controls are used to operate the system to correlate the functions so correct sheets are collated and placed in correct destination envelopes.
In such multi-component systems, the pass-through rate from paper roll to finished envelope is dependent on the speed of each component, and overall production speed is a function of the slowest or weakest link component. Overall reliability is similarly limited. Moreover, the mean down time from any malfunction or failure to repair is limited by the most repair-prone, most maintenance consumptive component. Such systems are capital intensive, requiring significant floor plan or footprint, and require significant labor, materials and maintenance capabilities and facilities.
In such a system, it is sometimes necessary to transport a single discreet sheet or a stack of such sheets toward the envelopes as part of a stuffing operation. In conventional systems of this type, high speed transportation of the sheets may result in poor control of the sheets as they travel toward and into the envelopes. Lack of control may, for example, result in lifting of the sheets away from the plane of travel of the sheets. When a stack of sheets is processed, this lack of control may for example further result in the edges of the sheets not being aligned with one another.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved transportation apparatus and methods for handling discrete sheets and stacks of discrete sheets in a high speed handling machine. It is also desirable to provide a transportation system and related methods that address inherent problems observed with conventional paper systems. Moreover, it is desirable to provide a converting apparatus in the form of an automatic envelope stuffing machine that address the problems of conventional machines for stuffing envelopes.

Transporting apparatus for discrete sheets into envelopes and related methods


A galvanic resistivity tool with one or more measurement electrodes and guard electrodes, and one or more shielding electrodes. The impedance seen by the measurement electrode (indicative of the formation resistivity) is determined by using a directional coupler that measures a reflection coefficient of an electrical signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to well logging. In particular, the present invention is an apparatus and method for determining the resistivity of subsurface formations using electrical methods.
2. Background of the Art
In conventional galvanic resistivity measurement tools using a focusing technique, a guard electrode emits current in order to lead the current beam of a measurement electrode deeper into a conductive material. The resistivity of the material is determined by means of measurement electrode's voltage and current registration. The driving potential on guard and measurement electrode must be exactly the same to avoid disturbances of the ideal electrical field, which makes sure that the focusing effect takes place. Higher driving potential differences may lead to currents from guard to measurement electrode or vice versa passing the borehole fluid around the tool, which would completely destroy the focusing effect and lead to high measurement errors if not considered. In general, the focusing effect will lead to an electrical current with a higher penetration depth compared to that without focusing.
Birdwell (U.S. Pat. No. 3,365,658) teaches the use of a focused electrode for determination of the resistivity of subsurface formations. A survey current is emitted from a central survey electrode into adjacent earth formations. This survey current is focused into a relatively narrow beam of current outwardly from the borehole by use of a focusing current emitted from nearby focusing electrodes located adjacent the survey electrode and on either side thereof. Ajam et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,387) discloses an apparatus wherein simultaneous logs may be made at different lateral distances through a formation from a borehole by guard electrode systems located on a sonde which is lowered into the borehole by a logging cable. A single oscillator controls the frequency of two formation currents flowing through the formation at the desired different lateral depths from the borehole. The armor of the logging cable acts as the current return for one of the guard electrode systems, and a cable electrode in a cable electrode assembly immediately above the logging sonde acts as the current return for the second guard electrode system. Two embodiments are also disclosed for measuring reference voltages between electrodes in the cable electrode assembly and the guard electrode systems
Techniques for investigating the earth formation with arrays of measuring electrodes have been proposed. See, for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 2,930,969 to Baker, Canadian Pat. No. 685,727 to Mann et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,623 to Gianzero, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,686 to Dory et al. The Baker patent proposed a plurality of electrodes, each of which was formed of buttons which are electrically joined by flexible wires with buttons and wires embedded in the surface of a collapsible tube. The Mann patent proposes an array of small electrode buttons either mounted on a tool or a pad and each of which introduces in sequence a separately measurable survey current for an electrical investigation of the earth formation. The electrode buttons are placed in a horizontal plane with circumferential spacings between electrodes and a device for sequentially exciting and measuring a survey current from the electrodes is described.
The Gianzero patent discloses tool mounted pads, each with a plurality of small measurement electrodes from which individually measurable survey currents are injected toward the wall of the borehole. The measurement electrodes are arranged in an array in which the measurement electrodes are so placed at intervals along at least a circumferential direction (about the borehole axis) as to inject survey currents into the borehole wall segments which overlap with each other to a predetermined extent as the tool is moved along the borehole. The measurement electrodes are made small to enable a detailed electrical investigation over a circumferentially contiguous segment of the borehole so as to obtain indications of the stratigraphy of the formation near the borehole wall as well as fractures and their orientations. In one technique, a spatially closed loop array of measurement electrodes is provided around a central electrode with the array used to detect the spatial pattern of electrical energy injected by the central electrode. In another embodiment, a linear array of measurement electrodes is provided to inject a flow of current into the formation over a circumferentially effectively contiguous segment of the borehole. Discrete portions of the flow of current are separately measurable so as to obtain a plurality of survey signals representative of the current density from the array and from which a detailed electrical picture of a circumferentially continuous segment of the borehole wall can be derived as the tool is moved along the borehole. In another form of an array of measurement electrodes, they are arranged in a closed loop, such as a circle, to enable direct measurements of orientations of resistivity of anomalies
The Dory patent discloses the use of an acoustic sensor in combination with pad mounted electrodes, the use of the acoustic sensors making it possible to fill in the gaps in the image obtained by using pad mounted electrodes due to the fact that in large diameter boreholes, the pads will necessarily not provide a complete coverage of the borehole.
The electrochemical equilibration process between a metal (e.g. electrode) and an electrolytic fluid leads to layers of complex resistive behavior. The impedance of these layers is called contact impedance. When current flows into or from an electrode, a difference between the potential immediately outside and inside the electrode will be created by the impedance layer. Contact impedances are highly variable and nonlinear. They depend mainly on electrode material, electrochemical properties of the fluid, current density and frequency of the applied voltages. In natural environments, the formation is filled with fluid whose chemical composition is not completely controllable, it is almost impossible to predict exactly contact impedances for measurement and guard electrodes. The focusing effect will be weakened or damaged whenever the potentials of guard and measurement electrodes beyond the impedance layer become different. This difference could cause a current to flow through the mud between the electrodes. The contact impedance thus has at least significant impact on the resolution of the measurement.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,373,254 to Dion et al. describes a method and apparatus to control the effect of contact impedance on a formation resistivity measurement during a logging-while-drilling operation. The control of contact impedance is accomplished by maintaining a substantially zero difference in potential between two monitor electrodes positioned on the resistivity logging tool near a current electrode.
Others have discussed the use of monitor electrodes for wireline applications. See, for example, Davies et al. (SPE24676), Evans et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,025,722), Seeman (U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,175), Smits et al. (SPE 30584), and Scholberg (U.S. Pat. No. 3,772,589). The monitor electrode technique uses two additional electrodes (called monitor electrodes) located between measurement and guard electrode to observe a possible potential difference. The potential on measurement or guard electrode is adjusted by means of a control circuit in order to keep the voltage between the monitor electrodes ideally at zero. Monitor electrodes emit no current and are therefore assumed to be unaffected by contact impedances. From the minimum voltage drop between the monitor electrodes it is concluded that the potential difference between guard and measurement electrodes each beyond the impedance layer immediately outside the electrode is zero.
FIG. 3 (prior art) is a schematic diagram of a typical resistivity imaging tool suitable for use in water-based mud. The formation is depicted by 151. The imaging tool includes one or more center electrodes (measurement electrodes) 157, one or more guard electrodes 155 which focus the measure current, and a return electrode 153, (usually the tool body). An AC voltage source is connected between the guard and return electrodes, resulting in a current flow from guard to return through the drilling mud and the formation. The measurement electrode is connected to the guard electrode by means of a current transformer, providing a negligible impedance between guard and current electrode, thus allowing for a current to flow through the current electrode into the formation. This current is then measured with the current transformer and associated electronics.
FIG. 4 (prior art) is a schematic circuit diagram of prior art resistivity measurement devices. Zg represents the impedance from the guard electrode to the return electrode, Zc the impedance from measurement electrode to the return electrode, and Zm the mud channel impedance between measurement electrode and the guard electrode. The measurement transformer impedance between measurement electrode and the guard electrode is assumed to be negligible compared to Zm, so that there is virtually no current flow through the mud between the measurement electrode and the guard electrode.
With the measured center current Ic and the (also measured) voltage source output voltage V0, the measurement electrode impedance Zc can be calculated:
                              Z          c                =                                            V              0                                      I              c                                .                                    (        1        )            All the parameters in Eqn. (1) may be complex numbers.
There are two problems with the prior art configuration that have not been addressed in the past. Firstly, the signal-to-noise ratio of the galvanic resistivity imaging tool is largely dependent on the current amplifier equivalent input voltage noise, which limits the precision of the measurement system for a given electrode voltage. Conversely, the required signal-to-noise ratio determines the electrode voltage.
Secondly, since currents in the guard electrode and the measurement electrode are substantially independent, there can be several orders of magnitude difference between these currents. The magnetic field generated by the current in the guard electrode couples into the current measurement transformer TX1 and leads to severe crosstalk. This can result in large measurement errors depending upon the ratio of currents in the guard electrode and the measurement electrode. This results in the dynamic range of the measurement system becoming a function of this current ratio. The present invention addresses these two problems to give an improved method and apparatus for determination of resistivity images of earth formations.

Reflection coefficient measurement for water-based mud resistivity imaging