An orthodontic wire ligating member is engageable with an orthodontic bracket to retain an archwire inserted into a groove in the bracket. The ligating member is an elastically deformable member made of a synthetic resin and has at least two spaced engaging portions detachably engageable with the bracket, and a back portion integral with the engaging portions and elastically deformable flexibly to engage the bracket to retain the archwire. Thus, the friction between the archwire and the bracket slot is minimized, and the archwire is retained in a friction-free or low-friction state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an orthodontic wire ligating member for use in orthodontic treatment. More particularly, the present invention relates to an orthodontic wire ligating member made of a synthetic resin and engaged with a bracket to retain an archwire.
2. Description of the Related Art
Orthodontic treatment methods using brackets, tubes, etc. to correct a row of improperly positioned teeth are well known. In a typical orthodontic method, brackets, for example, are bonded to teeth to shift the positions of the teeth gradually by applying thereto mechanical tension, i.e. pushing force, pulling force, twisting or other elastic restoring force, with an archwire attached to the brackets, thereby correcting the malpositioned teeth. In this treatment method, each bracket has a slot for engagement with an archwire formed in the center of the bracket body. In addition, wings are provided on the outside of the bracket body. After being inserted into the slot, the archwire is held in the slot by using a ligating device that is mounted in engagement with the wings.
As the ligating device, for example, a ligature wire (ligating wire) of stainless steel, an O-ring of polyurethane, or a ligating module is used to ligate the archwire to the bracket. When the ligature wire, O-ring or ligating module is fitted or replaced, a force of not less than 2 to 3 N (Newtons) is applied to the tooth in the form of vibration. This inflicts pain on the patient.
FIG. 18 shows a conventional example in which an O-ring 50 made of an elastic material is used to ligate an archwire 51 to a bracket 52. In this ligation example, the O-ring 50 is mounted by being wound around the wings of the bracket 52 to retain the archwire 51 on the bracket 52 by elastic force.
The ligating method using a ligature wire is a method that has heretofore generally been used. With this method, the ligature wire is gripped by using the tip of a pair of pliers selected according to each particular application, and the wire is wound around the bracket by manipulating the pliers to thereby ligate the archwire to the bracket. These days, however, O-rings made of silicone rubber or a thermoplastic synthetic resin elastomer, e.g. polyurethane, are frequently used as disclosed, for example, in the specifications of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,038,753 and 4,950,158.
European Publication No. 0 623 320 A1 and the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,666 disclose techniques relating to self-ligating orthodontic brackets that allow an archwire to be ligated with a simple operation. The former of the two techniques uses a slide member that is slidable to cap the archwire. The latter technique uses a ligating member having a spring effect to ligate the archwire.
In orthodontic treatment, teeth are gradually moved by applying forces thereto in three-dimensional directions using orthodontic appliances such as brackets, wires, etc. To effect efficient tooth movement, it is better to move teeth with an archwire that is retained in such a manner as to be slidable in a friction-free state (i.e. a state where friction can be minimized in the present invention) where unnecessary friction between the archwire and the brackets is minimized when forces required for orthodontics are generated, or in a low-friction state. With the conventional ligating methods using a metal wire, rubber, etc., the archwire is held down to the bracket slot surface with an excessive pressing force. Consequently, static friction, shearing stress by the archwire, etc. occur besides corrective forces required for the tooth movement physiologically. These unnecessary forces make it difficult to effect the desired tooth movement.
Accordingly, as the orthodontic treatment progresses, improper force other than force necessary for the movement of the patient's teeth acts. This gives a foreign body sensation to the patient, irritates the mucous membrane of the mouth, and inflicts orthodontic pain on the patient during the treatment. The technique that uses a self-ligating bracket solves the above-described problems. However, the bracket has a large and complicated structure because it comprises a slide member, a spring member, etc. Further, there are cases where a special-purpose tool is needed to attach and detach the slide member or the spring member to and from the bracket. Accordingly, the orthodontist is required to have proficient skill in ligating.
Moreover, the foregoing conventional ligating methods are unhygienic because food and plaque are likely to be left on the orthodontic appliances. In regard to configuration, the ligating members have a configuration with many projections and recesses. Therefore, the conventional methods have a problem in terms of aesthetics. Accordingly, there is a demand for a ligating technique that inflicts minimal corrective pain on the patient and allows ligating to be effected easily with a simple arrangement.


A vehicle air-conditioning system includes an air-conditioner and an air outlet for opening and closing an opening formed in a rear part of a vehicle body. A control unit causes the air outlet to open and close the opening in accordance with changes in air conditions in a passenger compartment, so as to keep the passenger compartment environmentally good condition.

A vehicle air-conditioning system provided with a heat exchanger for the exchange of heat between inside air and outside air when the outside air is being introduced into a passenger compartment and the inside air is being discharged from within the passenger compartment is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-200916, for example. This air-conditioning system will be described with reference to FIG. 10.
In an air-conditioning unit 100 shown in FIG. 10, a blower fan 101 is rotated and the opening and closing of first and second introduction doors 102, 103 is controlled, whereby outside air and inside air (hereinafter referred to as "introduced air") are delivered to the blower fan 101.
The introduced air is delivered to an evaporator 105 by the blower fan 101 so that the introduced air is cooled and dehumidified by the evaporator 105.
Part of the cooled and dehumidified introduced air is heated by a heater core 106 and delivered to a mixing chamber 107. The other part of the introduced air is directly delivered through an opening 108a of a mixing door 108 into the mixing chamber 107. The two flows of the introduced air are mixed in the mixing chamber 107 and adjusted to a desired temperature.
The introduced air adjusted to the desired temperature is discharged through, for example, a third passage 114 by opening, among first, second and third outlet doors 111, 112 and 113, the third outlet door 113, and through an outlet (not shown) into a passenger compartment.
The air-conditioning unit 100 is provided with an inside air discharge passage 118 which communicates with the passenger compartment, and an outside air introduction passage 119 upstream of the blower fan 101.
Inside air introduced from an inlet 118a of the inside air discharge passage 118 is delivered through a heat exchanger 120 to an outlet 118b of the inside air discharge passage 118.
The inside air passing through the outlet 118b of the inside air discharge passage 118 is discharged through a passage 122 formed in a door 121 and through an inside air discharge opening 122a to the outside.
When outside air introduced from an outside air inlet 119a is delivered through the heat exchanger 120 and through the outside air introduction passage 119 to the blower fan 101, the outside air exchanges heat with inside air delivered to the heat exchanger 120, being warmed by the heat of the inside air. Thus, the outside air is increased in temperature utilizing the heat of the inside air discharged from the passenger compartment, and the outside air having the increased temperature is delivered to the blower fan 101, resulting in an increased effect of heating.
However, a common vehicle is provided with an air outlet valve for discharging air in a lower area of a trunk for maintaining a desired internal pressure in a passenger compartment. As the air outlet valve, a louvered one is known, for example. When the internal pressure in the passenger compartment is not as high as a specified value, the air outlet valve keeps the louver closed by a spring force of an elastic member. When the internal pressure in the passenger compartment rises to the specified value, the internal pressure exceeds the spring force, opening the louver against the spring force of the elastic member. Inside air in the passenger compartment is discharged from the opening of the louver to the outside.
When inside air in the passenger compartment is discharged from the opening of the louver to the outside as described above, the heat of the inside air is released outside from the opening of the louver. The heat released outside from the opening of the louver cannot be utilized as heat for increasing the temperature of outside air introduced into the air-conditioning unit 100.
It is thus desired that an air-conditioning system allowing for an efficient exchange of heat between inside air discharged from within a passenger compartment and outside air introduced into an air-conditioning unit come into practical use.


A process for the preparation of a self assembled superlattice thin film of organic nanocrystal particles is described comprising: (i) combining one or more functional organic material to be precipitated as nanocrystal particles and one or more surface active material in a compressed CO2 phase with a density of at least 0.1 g/cc, where the functional material is substantially insoluble in the compressed CO2 in the absence of the surfactant, the surfactant comprises a compressed CO2-philic portion and a functional material-philic portion, and the compressed CO2 phase, functional material and surfactant interact to form an aggregated system having a continuous compressed CO2 phase and a plurality of aggregates comprising surfactant and functional material molecules of average diameter less than 50 nanometers dispersed therein; (ii) rapidly depressurizing the compressed CO2 phase thereby precipitating the dispersed functional and surfactant materials in the form of composite organic nanocrystals of average diameter less than 50 nanometers, and (iii) depositing the organic nanocrystals on a substrate surface, wherein the organic nanocrystals form a thin film having an ionic content of less than 0.001 M in equivalent sodium chloride concentration on the substrate surface, and the thin film exhibits a long range periodicity in the arrangement of the organic nanocrystals in a self assembled superlattice structure, as evidenced by x-ray diffraction.

Interactions between atoms in condensed matter result in properties that are characteristic of bulk solids. Bulk solids are classified as large particles or crystallites that are multiple tens of nanometers or larger in size. Classic scientific fields of study including physics, chemistry, and materials science that are used to explain the physical, mechanical, optical, etc., properties of bulk solids require the use of quantum mechanics to explain observed phenomena such as chemical bonds, superconductivity, electron spin and magnetic properties of matter, radiant heat emission, or radioactive decay.
As the length scale in these bulk solids approach a very small size, e.g., <50 nm (where nm=nanometer, i.e., 10−9 meter), these materials exhibit changes in properties that diverge from those in the bulk state. Particles in this size range can be referred to as nanocrystals. These changes in properties are the result of a reduction in electron energy levels. For example, small nanocrystals of gallium nitride (GaN), referred to as quantum dots, have been shown to have a photoluminescence peak centered at 2.95 eV (electron volts), which is 0.5 eV below the bulk GaN bandgap (B. Daudin et al., MRS Internet J. Nitride Semicond. Res. 4S1, G9.2 (1999)). These quantum dots trap electrons in a point comprised of a tiny cluster of inorganic semiconductor material <30 nm in diameter. Many investigators believe that quantum dots will provide a variety of advances for electronics: increased efficiency, reduced power consumption, increased speed of operation and novel electronic characteristics (M. May, Science Observer, July-August (1996)). A challenge that exists is to develop general processes for creating these small nanocrystals at the required size scale.
When these small nanocrystals are organized in a manner such that interparticle separations are on the order of 0.5–10 nm, energy transfer between neighboring nanocrystals and electronic tunneling between proximal nanocrystals gives rise to dark and photoconductivity (C. B. Murray et al., Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci., 30, 545–610 (2000)). At separations <0.5 nm exchange interactions result in semiconducting, metallic, or superconducting properties in assemblies that are normally insulating in the bulk. A major challenge in this area is to develop a general procedure for creating superlattices of nanocrystals (an ordered, periodic array of nanocrystals) having the desired interparticle separation necessary to produce desired materials properties.
Most of the nanocrystal work mentioned in the literature centers around inorganic/ionic materials (C. B. Murray et al., IBM J. Res. & Dev., v45, No. 1, pp 47–56, January 2001). The assembly of atoms to generate superlattices of such inorganic nanocrystals requires specific methods of synthesis and functionalities added to surfaces to induce self-assembly. Generation of self-assembled superlattices of inorganic nanocrystals has been reviewed in the literature (C. B. Murray, et al., Ann. Rev. Mat. Sci., 30, 545–610 (2000). Typically, fabrication of self-assembled nanocrystals starts with atomic deposition onto a surface of a semiconducting substrate, with the deposited material having a smaller bandgap than the substrate (P. Petroff, Physics Today, 54(5), 46–54 (2001)). Though this and other similar methods, which are high vacuum processes, such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) or chemical-vapor deposition (CVD) are currently practiced, they require exacting control of deposition parameters. Typically, the procedures described for creating self-assembled superlattices of inorganic nanocrystals require very slow solvent evaporation under controlled conditions, as rapid evaporation of the solvent will result in an amorphous aggregate.
Organic compounds are defined as molecular compounds containing the element carbon with covalent bonds. Such compounds are most often isolated or synthesized from petroleum, coal, vegetable, or animal sources, as well as synthesized from other organic, carbonate, or cyanide compounds (R. T. Morrison and R. N. Boyd, Organic Chemistry 3rd edition, Allyn and Bacon Inc., Boston, 1, (1976)). Though the number of classes of organic molecular materials is significantly greater than inorganic compounds, the literature related to formation of organic molecular nanocrystals is limited. One example of the formation of organic molecular nanocrystals previously described relates to dye compounds that form H- or J-aggregates. The number of monomer units associated with H- and J-aggregate nanocrystals has been estimated to be ca. 4 monomer units per absorbing unit (A. Herz, Photog. Sci. Eng., 18, 323–335 (1974)). Interactions among dye molecules can generate large spectral shifts and/or changes in spectral band shape and intensity in absorption spectra. The magnitude and the direction of these shifts are determined by the internal structure (i.e., H- or J-aggregate structure) of the nanocrystal. It is known that nanocrystals of certain dyes can be generated by gradually increasing their concentration in solution, and the internal structure of the nanocrystal is identified by the gradual shift of the absorption spectra to shorter wavelength (in the case of H-aggregates) or a sudden shift to longer wavelengths (as in the case of J-aggregates) (E. Jelley, Nature, 138, 1009–1010 (1936)). These H- and J-aggregate nanocrystals exhibit unique properties that differ from the properties of the bulk solid, and are used, e.g., in silver halide based photographic products.
Precipitation from liquid solvents is regarded as a general process for generating crystals of organic molecular materials. An analogous, general process for generating nanocrystals of organic materials is precipitation from compressed fluids such as CO2 by the rapid expansion of supercritical solutions (RESS) techniques such as described in U.S. 2003/0054957 A1. Nanoscale particles resulting from such process may exhibit multiple molecular packing structures that are the result of rapid depressurization leading to rapid desaturation of a compressed fluid that contains an organic molecular material. A fundamental difference between precipitation from liquids and precipitation from compressed fluids such as CO2 by the RESS process is the significantly faster rates of supersaturation generation and dissipation (D. Matson et al., Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 26, 2298–2306 (1987)). Hence, precipitation from compressed fluids such as CO2 is a convenient process for generating organic nanocrystals.
An important challenge in the study of organic nanocrystals is the ability to create self assembled organic nanocrystal superlattices. High vacuum techniques used for creating superlattices of inorganic nanocrystals are not easily adapted to deposition of most organic or polymer materials (S. Forrest, MRS Bulletin, Jan.Feb., 108–112, (2001)). Further, deposition on large substrates using high vacuum techniques is difficult due to practical limitations of chamber size as well as problems with proper substrate alignment and deposition pixellation. Techniques such as spin casting or spraying from liquids, which are sometimes used to create superlattices of inorganic nanocrystals, are limited by the solvent evaporation process. After coating, the solvent must be removed, which hinders the ability to make defect-free coatings. Spin-casting techniques are also limited in terms of scalability, due to a limit in the substrate size that can be accommodated in a spin-cast apparatus.
Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) film techniques have been shown to be of use for deposition of organic and polymer materials, especially for the deposition of molecularly self assembled materials. However, it is not clear that such LB techniques would be useful in generating self assembled superlattices of organic nanocrystals (the distinction being that organic nanocrystals comprise a cluster of organic molecules, and hence the superlattice is a self assembled structure where each individual entity is a cluster of molecules). Further, scaling LB methods for large-scale applications is prohibitive due to technical considerations including the need for clean-room environment and functionalized surfaces which are material specific. Cost considerations are also an issue in trying to scale up LB deposition. A LB deposition apparatus built at the University of Connecticut (C. Mirley et al., Langmuir, 10, 230–2375 (1994)), e.g., was capable of dipping the substrate to be coated at a rate up to 0.13 m (meters) per minute, and the device had to be housed in a class 100 clean room. At the United States Department of Energy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a state of the art KSV-5000 Langmuir-Blodgett Instrument has been configured in a class 1000 clean room which is capable of dip coating a substrate at a rate up to 0.80 m per minute. The maximum substrate size that can be coated is 0.1 m×0.1 m.
In contrast, in conventional roll-roll coating operations (e.g., offset printing), flexible substrates are coated at speeds that are faster than the state of the art LB techniques by more than three orders of magnitude. Further, the width and the length of the substrate coated in these roll-to-roll operations are also typically significantly larger (e.g., width by at least an order of magnitude and the length by 4–5 orders of magnitude).
Hence, there is a need for a process that would allow for the rapid generation of organic molecular nanocrystal superlattices. In particular, there exists a need for a simple, robust and rapid coating procedure for the generation of self assembled, superlattice thin films of organic molecular nanocrystals, that can be easily adapted and scaled to a large number of materials, surfaces, environments and deposition conditions. Such a procedure can find application in many technologies and industrial products requiring thin films of organic materials such as display technologies and display products that can include liquid crystal (LC) displays and organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays.
In the case of charged colloidal suspensions, it has been observed that crystallization may be induced by deionizing the suspension to an ionic strength below about 0.001 M (Y. Monovoukas and A. P. Gast, J. Colloid Interface Sci., 128, 533–548, (1989). The general procedure used here is again very slow, requiring the use of ion exchange resin to reduce the ionic strength of the suspension. Hence, once again, there is a need for process that would allow for the rapid generation of organic nanocrystal superlattices.

Self assembled organic nanocrystal superlattices


A robotic end effector or blade suitable for transferring a substrate in a processing system is provided. In some embodiments, an end effector can include a body having opposing mounting and distal end, the body fabricated from a single mass of ceramic. The body can include a pair of arcuate lips extending upward from an upper surface of the body. Each lip is disposed on a respective finger disposed at the distal end of the body. An arcuate inner wall extends upward from the upper surface at the mounting end of the body. The inner wall and lips define a substrate receiving pocket. A plurality of contact pads extend upward from the upper surface of the body for supporting the substrate thereon. A recess is formed in a bottom surface of the body to accommodate a mounting clamp.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention generally relate to robot components utilized in high temperature semiconductor processing systems.
2. Background of the Related Art
Semiconductor substrate processing is typically performed by subjecting a substrate to a plurality of sequential processes to create devices, conductors and insulators on the substrate. These processes are generally performed in a process chamber configured to perform a single step of the production process. In order to efficiently complete the entire sequence of processing steps, a number of process chambers are typically coupled to a central transfer chamber that houses a robot to facilitate transfer of the substrate between the surrounding process chambers. A semiconductor processing platform having this configuration is generally known as a cluster tool, examples of which are the families of PRODUCER®, CENTURA® and ENDURA® processing platforms available from Applied Materials, Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif.
Generally, a cluster tool consists of a central transfer chamber having a robot disposed therein. The transfer chamber is generally surrounded by one or more process chambers. The process chambers are generally utilized to process the substrate, for example, performing various processing steps such as etching, physical vapor deposition, ion implantation, lithography and the like. The transfer chamber is sometimes coupled to a factory interface that houses a plurality of removable substrate storage cassettes, each of which houses a plurality of substrates. To facilitate transfer between a vacuum environment of the transfer chamber and a generally ambient environment of the factory interface, a load lock chamber is disposed between the transfer chamber and the factory interface.
As line width and feature sizes of devices formed on the substrate have decreased, the positional accuracy of the substrate in the various chambers surrounding the transfer chamber has become paramount to ensure repetitive device fabrication with low defect rates. Moreover, with the increased amount of devices formed on substrates both due to increased device density and larger substrate diameters, the value of each substrate has greatly increased. Accordingly, damage to the substrate or yield loss due to non-conformity because of substrate misalignment is highly undesirable.
A number of strategies have been employed in order to increase the positional accuracy of substrates throughout the processing system. For example, the interfaces are often equipped with sensors that detect substrate misalignment within the substrate storage cassette. See U.S. patent application Ser. No. 6,413,356 issued Jul. 2, 2002 to Chokshi, et al. Positional calibration of robots has become more sophisticated. See U.S. patent application Ser. No. 6,648,730 issued Nov. 18, 2003 to Chokshi, et al. Additionally, methods have been devised to compensate for substrate misplacement on the blade of the robot. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,194, issued Nov. 9, 1499 to Freerks, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,650, issued Jul. 31, 1490 to T. Matsumoto. Further methods have been devised to compensate for thermal expansion of the robot linkages. See U.S. Pat. No. 7,039,501, issued May 2, 2006 to Freeman, et al.
However, these strategies for increasing the accuracy of the robot generally do not compensate for thermal expansion for expansion and contraction experienced by the end effector (e.g., blade) robot as heat is transferred to the end effector from hot wafers and from hot surfaces within the process chambers. As evolving process technology has led to higher operating temperatures for many processes, transfer robots are increasingly exposed to high temperatures. Due to the increased thermal exposure of transfer robots, further strategies must be developed to minimize the adverse effect of robotic thermal expansion on substrate placement and undesired thermal exchange between the robot and substrate.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved robotic end effector having low thermal expansion to minimize thermal effects on robot positioning while minimizing thermal exchange between the robot and substrate carried thereon.


The present invention provides a BeiDou-based grid augmentation autonomous driving multi-level warning system comprising a Beidou Satellite Ground-based Augmentation system, user terminals and a Vehicles internet system, wherein the Beidou Satellite Ground-based Augmentation system comprises Beidou grid reference stations, a data processing system and a data broadcast system; the user terminal comprises an in-vehicle receiver and a calculating chips. The present invention can reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents and reduce the loss of life and property.

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology can provide stable and accurate location information for people all over the world and has been widely applied to various fields. FIG. 1 shows a principle diagram of a BeiDou Satellite Ground-Based Augmentation System (BDS GBAS). The BDS Ground-Based Augmentation System is an augmentation system for service precision and integrity of the BeiDou satellite navigation system. The land of mainland China is gridded, and a BeiDou high-precision satellite navigation receiver is installed at each grid node to receive a BeiDou signal and transmit, in real time through a communication network, the signal to a national data integrated processing system, which processes the signal and generates such data products as precise satellite orbit, clock difference, ionosphere, comprehensive corrections, and integrity. The data product is broadcast by using satellites, digital broadcasting, mobile communication or the like. A user uses a BeiDou high-precision receiver/application terminal to receive the corrected data product and then perform computing, thus obtaining a real-time meter-level, decimeter-level, centimeter-level, or even millimeter-level positioning service.
The autonomous driving technology is a technology enabling a computer to autonomously and safely drive a motor vehicle without human intervention based on the collaboration between artificial intelligence, visual computing, radars, monitoring devices and global satellite navigation systems. It has been developing toward practical application in the 21st century and has a good prospect. Complex and diverse automobile driving environments and highly uncertain movement states of automobiles impose high requirements on the safety performance of autonomous driving.
Therefore, to solve the above problem, there is a need of a BeiDou-based grid augmentation autonomous driving multi-level warning system, to achieve collision prevention during autonomous driving.

Beidou-based grid augmentation autonomous driving multi-level warning system


A magnesia-carbon brick comprised of about 50 to about 95% by weight magnesia and about 1 to about 20% by weight carbon, with or without metallic additions, such that the chemical analysis of the mixture of aggregates used in the brick will comprise, by chemical analysis, about 2 to about 15% SiO2, about 3 to about 50% Al2O3, and about 50 to about 95% MgO.

Steel ladles are used in the manufacture of steel. It is known to use different types of refractory materials in various areas of the ladles to achieve the most cost-effective lining. In this respect, different wear mechanisms exist in various areas within a steel ladle. Refractory materials that are appropriate for various areas have been developed.
For example, magnesia-carbon bricks are often used in slaglines of steel ladles. The term "slagline" refers to that area of the ladle sidewall that comes in contact with the slag layer that floats on top of the molten steel. On the other hand, either burned alumina bricks or alumina-magnesia-carbon bricks are often used in the "barrel" portion. The term "barrel" typically refers to the area of the ladle sidewall that is below the slagline. This is the area that is in contact with the molten steel when the ladle is filled to capacity. Magnesia-carbon bricks exhibit significantly better slag resistance than burned alumina bricks or alumina-magnesia-carbon bricks. Accordingly, magnesia-carbon bricks are well-suited for use in the slagline. Burned alumina bricks and alumina-magnesia-carbon bricks exhibit substantially poorer slag resistance than magnesia-carbon bricks, but have been heretofore considered the more cost-effective refractory selections for ladle barrels.
Alumina-magnesia-carbon bricks generally exhibit better erosion resistance, and are less subject to attack at the brick joints compared to burned alumina bricks. Brick "joints" refer to the areas where refractory bricks come into contact with each other after they are placed in the ladle lining. Thus, alumina-magnesia-carbon bricks are often used to line the barrel portions of steel ladles.
The decision of whether to use alumina-magnesia-carbon brick in steel ladle barrels is dictated by many factors. For instance, one factor to be considered in the selection of materials is the availability of raw materials. In this respect, about 65% to 90% of alumina-magnesia-carbon brick may be formed of bauxite. Calcined bauxite is made by taking an ore of aluminum composed largely of hydrous aluminum oxides, and heat-treating it to remove the hydrous phases and to increase the bulk specific gravity of the material.
Bauxite is basically a raw material bought and sold in a world market. In today's global economy, companies must compete worldwide for raw materials, such as bauxite. At the present time, a large proportion of refractory-grade bauxite comes from Asian countries, most notably, China. As with any commodity, demand and availability dictate the cost of bauxite. In addition, currency exchange rates and shipping costs can significantly affect the cost of bauxite to a refractory manufacturer.
Therefore, there is a desire to reduce cost fluctuation and provide refractory linings that are even more cost-effective and less susceptible to market fluctuation than those currently in use. Thus, fluctuations in global demand, shipping costs and currency rates can significantly affect the availability and cost of the raw materials needed to form refractory materials used to line steel ladles.
The present invention provides an improved refractory material for forming refractory linings for steel ladles, which refractory materials are more cost effective than refractory materials known heretofore.


Systems and methods for imaging seismic data using hybrid one-way wave-equation-migration in tilted transverse isotropic media and/or hybrid two-way reverse-time-migration in tilted transverse isotropic media.

As a commonly applied technique for imaging seismic data, conventional tilted transverse isotropic ("TTI") reverse time migration ("RTM") (collectively "TTI-RTM") propagates a source wave field forward in time and a receiver wave field backward in time to image the subsurface reflector by any well-known two-way wave equation such as the two-way wave equation described in the paper "Reverse Time Migration: Geophysics" by Baysal, et al. and in the paper "Migration by Extrapolation of Time-Dependent Boundary Values: Geophysical Prospecting" by G. A. McMechan. Although wave equation migration and/or reverse time migration are referred to herein as two-way, they may also be referred to as full-way. In the paper "Acoustic Approximations for Processing in Transversely Isotropic Media" by T. Aikhalifah, for example, conventional TTI-RTM is referenced to propose a pseudo-acoustic approximation in transversely isotropic media with a vertical axis ("VTI"). Based on the pseudo-acoustic approximation in VTI media, research such as, for example, that described in the papers "An Anisotropic Acoustic Wave Equation for Modeling and Migration in 2D TTI Media" by Zhou, et al. and "Reverse Time Migration in Tilted Transversely Isotropic (TTI) Media" by Fletcher, et al. extended this approximation from VTI to TTI media. These techniques enable structures with strong anisotropy to be imaged. Although conventional TTI-RTM has been applied widely, the computation cost and storage for wavefields are still disadvantages for current computer systems. In other words, the computation cost and memory requirement are still problems for large dataset migration, especially for three-dimensional ("3D") conventional TTI-RTM.
Instead of a two-way wave equation associated with conventional TTI-RTM, a one-way wave equation can provide faster processing and handle strong lateral velocity variation. One-way wave equations, such as a Finite Difference propagator, a Phase-Shift-Plus-Interpolation propagator, and/or a Generalized Screen propagator, demonstrate good accuracy in general. By extending the one-way isotropic wave equation migration ("WEM") to TTI-WEM as described in the papers "3D Wavefield Extrapolation in Laterally Varying Tilted TI Media" by San, et al., "Implicit Wave Equation Migration in TTI Media Using High Order Operators" by A. A. Valenciano, and "3D TTI Implicit Finite Difference Migration With Nonlinear Optimized Four-Direction Splitting Expansion" by Hua, et al., one-way WEM is able to produce an anisotropic image with high efficiency. Nevertheless, because the one-way WEM ignores up-going waves, one-way WEM fails to handle extremely complex structures, such as steeply dip events and overturned reflectors.
To combine the advantages of one-way WEM and two-way WEM, a hybrid propagator for prestack migration in isotropic media was developed and is described in the paper "Hybrid One-Way and Full-Way Wave Equation Propagator and Prestack Migration" by Luo and Jin ("Luo and Jin") The hybrid propagator combines one-way and two-way WEM to extrapolate a wavefield progressively. In this manner, a one-way propagator may be applied to less complex media while the two-way propagator may be applied to extremely complicated media. Although the use of the Luo and Jin hybrid propagator in isotropic media generates comparable image results with two-way WEM for RTM with less noise and computational costs, it has not been applied to TTI media. Moreover, the Luo and Jin hybrid propagator does not contemplate the use of Pade approximation, which could provide maximum accuracy for wave propagation.


A mobile support frame for supporting radiation detection equipment used to detect radiation from material passed through the frame including a base structure and at least one support member extending substantially upward from the base with at least one detector mount movably supported along the support member such that the detector mount may be located at a plurality of positions along the support member. A radiation detector probe is operatively mounted on the detector mount. The detector mount is rotatable about an axis perpendicular to the support member such that the radiation detection equipment may be orientated in a plurality of positions about said perpendicular axis to monitor the radioactivity from material passed through the frame.

(1) Technical Field
The subject invention is directed toward a support frame for radiation detection equipment employed to aid in consistent detection of radioactivity of material passed through the frame.
(2) Description of The Prior Art
As the world has become more environmentally conscious, manufacturers, hospitals, clinics and other waste producers must now monitor the radioactivity of their waste. Landfill and incinerator operators which receive waste are sometimes not licensed to handle radioactive materials. Should they detect any radioactivity in waste, these operators may reject the waste and the originator may be required to retrieve, sort and reclaim the radioactive materials in the waste. In addition, fines may be imposed by the relevant regulatory agencies. Hospitals and medical waste producers have been particularly vulnerable to these situations.
Although such waste producers may have procedures in place for handling regulated radioactive medical waste, there have been many instances where radioactive materials have by-passed these procedures and have gotten into the normal waste stream. As such, many waste producers have turned to monitoring the radioactivity of their own wastes. Unfortunately, this also requires additional personnel to monitor the waste, typically using hand held survey meters. Waste producers have a difficult time insuring consistency in the procedures for radioactivity inspections necessitating even additional personnel having oversight responsibilities with no guarantee of greater monitoring consistency. The additional labor costs necessary to monitor radioactive wastes in this way makes such costly procedures very unattractive.
The subject invention overcomes these problems in a mobile support frame for radiation detector equipment which requires no active oversight or monitoring of employees and which insures consistency in the procedures for radioactivity inspection in an efficient, cost effective manner.

Mobile support frame for radiation detection equipment


A system for speeding up an establishment's foundation through Internet comprises a data storage device having databases built therein and an electronic hub connected to the data storage device through computer program. The electronic hub is cooperated with the data storage device, whereby is capable to communicate, examine the resource provider, save the resource provider, and match the resource provider and whereby speeds up the establishment's foundation. A method for speeding up founding establishment through Internet comprises communicating, examining the resource provider, saving the resource provider, and matching the resource provider.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system and a method for founding establishment, and more particularly to a system and a method for speeding up founding establishment through Internet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is introduced that concept of electronic hubs (eHubs) in Business-to-Business (B2B) E-commerce. The eHubs is defined as neutral Internet-based intermediaries that focus on specific industry verticals or specific business processes, host electronic marketplaces, and used various market making mechanisms to mediate any-to-any transactions among businesses.
To understand B2B hubs, it is useful to understand how businesses buy, and what they buy. At the broadest level, business purchases can be classified into manufacturing inputs and operating inputs. Manufacturing inputs are raw materials and components that go directly into the manufactured product or manufacturing process. Manufacturing inputs tend to be vertical in nature, because the finished products that they go into are industry-specific. Operating inputs, on the other hand, are indirect materials and services that do not go into finished products. Operating inputs, sometimes call MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operating) inputs, include industrial supplies, capital equipment, services, and travel-related services. Unlike manufacturing inputs, operating inputs tend to horizontal nature (with the exception of capital equipment and some industrial supplies).
The other important distinction in business purchasing lies in how business buy products and services. Businesses can either engage in systematic sourcing or in spot sourcing. Systematic sourcing involves buying through pre-negotiated contracts with qualified suppliers. These contracts are often long-term in nature, so systematic sourcing tends to be relationship-oriented. Spot sourcing is transaction-oriented, and rarely involves a long-term or ongoing relationship between buyers and sellers.
Furthermore, there is one other dimension that is important in describing a B2B hub: its bias. B2B hubs can be either neutral or biased. Neutral hubs do not favor buyers over sellers or vice versa. Biased hubs, in contrast, favor either buyers or sellers. Neutral hubs by definition, they need to be careful in taking equal investments from large buyers as well as from large suppliers, because they can be perceived as biased. The benefit that neutral hubs have is that they are true "market-makers", because they bring both buyers and sellers together.
There is another category of hubs that are one-sided and biased by design. There biased hubs either work for sellers or buyers, and help them to negotiate better terms or streamline the buying/selling process. Biased hubs (like neutral hubs) can occur both as aggregations in systematic markets and as matchers in spot markets. When they favor sellers, biased hubs act as forward aggregators or most likely to succeed and add value in markets that are fragmented on both the buyer and seller sides.
Despite flourishing development of e-business, eHubs just passively provide connection services rather that meet requirements for those undefined buyers and sellers. For example, the business services provided by eHubs nowadays are rarely helpful to establishment founders. Depicted in FIG. 1, a company or factory consists of some fundamental resources, such as capital 110, factory building or land 120, technology groups 130, management group and human resource 140, and rules and regulations 150 in addition to administration idea or business plan 160 coordinated therein. In general, each cooperation among these fundamental resources is successfully implemented according to a series of advanced research, communication, negotiation, and making contrasts. Such model of the establishment-founded process is called a vertical model, whereby a company or factory can't be begun construction without some specific resources in advance, such as capital. There are doubtful effects on the reduction of search consumption for establishment foundation through B2B e-commerce. On the contrary, no in-time modification of suitable negotiation provided by the B2B e-commerce may result in the addition of cycle time, downcast establishment value and lower successful probability of establishment.

System and method for founding establishment through internet


A two-part bucket stabilizing apparatus for use with cylindrical joint compound buckets or the like during the mixing of the contents thereof includes a horizontal base member containing an opening for receiving the bottom of the bucket, and a support member having a first edge portion pivotally connected with the base member, and a remote edge portion containing a semi-circular recess. The support member is pivotally operable from an initial horizontal position upwardly and inwardly toward a clamping position above the base portion in which the wall of the semi-circular recess is in clamping engagement with the outer circumferential wall surface of the bucket.

1. Field of the Invention
A two-piece bucket stabilizing apparatus for use with cylindrical joint compound buckets or the like during the mixing of the contents thereof includes a horizontal base member containing an opening for receiving the bottom of the bucket, and a support member having a first edge portion pivotally connected with the base member, and a remote edge portion containing a semi-circular recess. The support member is pivotally operable from a horizontal position toward a clamping position above the base portion, whereupon the wall of the semi-circular recess is brought into clamping engagement with the outer circumferential wall surface of the bucket.
2. Description of Related Art
Various types of devices have been proposed in the patented prior art for stabilizing a bucket during the stirring and mixing of the viscous contents thereof, such as joint compound, coatings, sealers and the like. In each of the patents to Kennard U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,208, and Foster U.S. Pat. No. 6,779,915, and in the Forshee et al Published Application No. US 2005/0045780, the bucket to be stirred is inserted into an opening contained in a support device upon which the user stands. In the Zagorsky Published Patent Application No. US 2004/0021043, the planar clamping device contains an opening that receives the bucket, and clip and chain means support the planar member at an angle from the top edge of the bucket. In the Lytle U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,184, the bucket to be mixed is supported on a base that includes a plurality of sections that are adjustable to correspond with the size of the bucket, together with at least one swing member that is biased by spring means toward an open position relative to the base, and upon which the user stands. In the Durand U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,001, a unitary tubular container holder slips concentrically downwardly over the bucket to be stirred, and a pair of outwardly extending foot portions are provided upon which the user stands to steady the bucket.
These known devices are relatively complex, require a large number of parts, and are expensive to produce. The present invention was developed to provide a simple two-part light-weight inexpensive bucket stabilizing device that includes only a single base member and a single pivotally-connected clamping member.


A medial buttress construct for femoral neck includes a support part and an attachment fixing part fixedly connected to each other. The support part includes a structure matching an inferior surface of a proximal end of the femoral neck. The attachment fixing part includes structures simultaneously matching a front side surface of a distal end of the femoral neck and a front side surface of an upper end of femoral shaft. The attachment fixing part includes at least one opening for allowing a screw to pass through the structure matching the front side surface of the distal end of the femoral neck, and at least one opening for allowing a screw to pass through the structure matching the front side surface of the upper end of the femoral shaft. A fracture fixation device for femoral neck may include the medial buttress construct for femoral neck.

Femoral neck fracture, as the name implies, is a fracture of the neck of the femur, and usually refers to the fracture between the bottom of the femoral head and the basal part of the femoral neck. The femoral neck fracture is the most common fracture in the hip. In the record of the global statistical hip fracture cases, femoral neck fractures account for about ⅔ of them, and the femoral neck may occur within all ages. Most of femoral neck fractures in a young patient usually are caused by severe violence, such as a traffic accident or a high falling injury. Most of the patients are usually older middle-aged and elderly, and most of femoral neck fractures are caused by careless walking and their buttocks touching the ground. They have pain in the hip and can not stand and walk after injury, and it also may lead to complications such as avascular necrosis of femoral head. In addition, the older patients usually have systemic diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and other diseases. Because of the bedridden after injury, a significant decline in resistance and poor rehabilitation ability, it is usually possible to cause complications of several diseases, so the mortality rate of the older patients is higher than that of the general fracture patients. Therefore, the treatment of the femoral neck fracture is one of the important topics in the field of medical technology in department of orthopedics.
From the anatomical and biomechanical characteristics of the femoral neck, it is known that most femoral neck fractures have a distinct shift, and the fracture is unstable. That is, the femoral neck fracture part (and the femoral head) often bears great torsion force and shear force, which affects the stability of the fracture and its reduction, thus affecting the internal fixation effect, and therefore the rate of bone nonunion is higher than other fractures; and because of the special blood supply of the femoral head and the femoral neck, it is easy to cause interruption of blood supply when fracture, thus affect the fracture healing and cause complications such as avascular necrosis of femoral head and collapse of the femoral head. The treatment of femoral neck fracture usually includes conservative treatment and surgical treatment. In view of the higher bone nonunion rate of more than 50% in conservative treatment, active surgical treatment is advocated in modern department of orthopedics. Surgical treatment usually includes closed reduction and internal fixation, open reduction and internal fixation, and artificial joint (prosthesis) replacement. Wherein the closed reduction and internal fixation is less traumatic but has poor fixation effect, and artificial joint (prosthesis) replacement has great trauma and high cost and its fixed effect depends on the quality of artificial joint (prosthesis). Therefore, open reduction and internal fixation is often used, which usually includes three stages: fracture reduction, internal fixation and screw insertion. At present, the internal fixation methods of femoral neck fracture usually use several screws (such as three cannulated screws), and the process of applying the corresponding screw insertion is as follows: the screws are inserted from the bottom of the femoral greater trochanter through the femoral trochanter part (viz. the greater trochanter part), the femoral neck part (via the femoral neck fracture end) to the femoral head part to achieve the effect of fixation for fracture end (that is the broken part of the femoral head). But because the shear force of the fracture end that caused by the longitudinal pressure of the femoral head because of the quality of the femoral head itself and the weight of the patient's body is larger, so the requirement for the fixed position of the screw is very high. If the screw position is not good, it is very easy to lead to screw fixation difficulties, which leads to fixation failure, redislocation of femoral neck fracture part, and then causes bone nonunion; and even if more screws are used or a variety of screw arrangement is used to strengthen the fixation effect, the stability is usually not ideal, the screw's resistance to rotation and torsion is poor, and the femoral head is easily displaced, and then causes femoral neck nonunion, varus displacement of femoral head, femoral neck malunion healing or femoral neck shortening; especially in the majority of middle-aged and elderly patients with osteoporosis, these problems are more prominent and serious. In order to solve these problems, the internal fixation method of femoral neck fracture includes another way, that is, a bone plate is placed on the lateral of the femoral greater trochanter or the basal part of the femoral neck, and the locking nail is inserted into the femoral neck part through the bone plate in order to fix the femoral neck fracture part. However, this method has not solved the problem of the dislocation of the femoral neck fracture part caused by the greater torsion force and shear force suffered by the femoral neck fracture part (and the femoral head).

Medial buttress construct and a fracture fixation device for femoral neck

Tianjin Zhengtian Medical Instrument Co., Ltd


An apparatus for inspecting a liquid discharge head including an energy generation element provided on an element substrate and configured to make energy act on a liquid to discharge the liquid from an orifice, a lower protection film having an electrical insulating property and provided on the element substrate while covering the energy generation element, a wiring layer provided between the element substrate and the lower protection film and configured to supply electrical signal for driving to the energy generation element, and a conductive upper protection film provided on the lower protection film is provided. The apparatus comprises a detection circuit configured to detect a potential of the upper protection film when the energy generation element is driven; and a determination circuit configured to determine a driving state of the energy generation element from information about the potential detected by the detection circuit.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid discharge head that discharges a liquid from an orifice by making energy act on the liquid. In particular, the present invention relates to an inspection apparatus and method for inspecting the quality of driving of an energy generation element that is provided on the liquid discharge head and generates energy to discharge the liquid, and a liquid discharge head suitable for the inspection method.
Description of the Related Art
A liquid discharge head makes energy act on a liquid existing in a fluid channel and thus discharges the liquid from an orifice. To make energy act on the liquid in the fluid channel, an energy generation element is often provided in the vicinity of the fluid channel. The energy generation element is generally formed on one surface of a substrate made of, for example, silicon. The energy generation element is in contact with the liquid via a protection film formed on its surface, and is driven by a pulse-like electrical signal. The substrate on which the energy generation element is provided is called an element substrate. In a liquid discharge head of a type that applies thermal energy to a liquid to partially vaporize and expand the liquid and thus discharges the liquid from the orifice as a droplet, for example, a resistive heating element is used as the energy generation element. In a liquid discharge head of a type that makes mechanical energy directly act on a liquid, for example, a piezoelectric element is used as the energy generation element.
A representative example of the liquid discharge head is an inkjet print head that discharges an ink droplet to print. When the liquid discharge head is an inkjet print head, the energy generation element is particularly called a print element. In the inkjet print head, to achieve printing of higher image quality at a higher speed, print elements and orifices are arranged at a higher density, and a number of orifices are arrayed. Accordingly, the occurrence probability of a fault such as a rupture of a print element itself or disconnection of an electric wire provided on the element substrate and connected to a print element rises. Hence, inspection in the manufacturing process is one of important steps. Even during actual use after shipment, the occurrence frequency of a malfunction such as a rupture of a print element or disconnection of a wire rises as the use time accumulates. Hence, the inkjet print head is demanded to be inspectable even in an actual use environment.
Considering the above problems, print inspection by actually discharging ink is widely carried out for the inkjet print head in the manufacturing process or in an environment where the inkjet print head is actually used. In print inspection, the inkjet print head is driven to print a specific image pattern on a print medium such as a paper sheet surface. The print pattern formed on the print medium is visually recognized or read by an optical sensor and inspected.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-208052 discloses, in a liquid discharge head using a resistive heating element, providing a detection circuit configured to detect the value of a current flowing to the resistive heating element on a wire that supplies power to the resistive heating element and detecting a rupture of the resistive heating element based on the current value detected by the detection circuit.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-217471 discloses, as a method of inspecting an inkjet print head that uses conductive ink, a method of doing inspection by monitoring a voltage waveform applied to a print element by an electrode in an ink tank. In the method of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-217471, using a protection film provided on the surface of the print element as a capacitor, the voltage waveform is monitored via the capacitor and the ink that is a conducting path, and clogging in an ink channel, a rupture of a print element, or disconnection of an electric wire is inspected based on the obtained voltage waveform.
Out of the above-described inspection methods, print inspection in the inkjet print head can inspect whether discharge is normal or not but cannot determine whether the cause of a discharge error is an electrical failure such as a rupture of a print element or disconnection of a wire, or a fault in an orifice or an ink channel. For this reason, if deterioration of print quality has occurred during use, a recovery operation such as ink suction is performed regardless of the cause. If the cause is an electrical failure, ink and time are wasted.
According to the method of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-208052, it is possible to inspect an electrical failure in the inkjet print head. A detailed arrangement of the detection circuit is not mentioned in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-208052. As a general and simple arrangement, a current sensing resistor is inserted midway through a power supply line, and a voltage drop that occurs in accordance with a current value is measured by a voltmeter and inspected. In the inkjet print head, however, a smoothing capacitor is inserted in the power supply line to a print element. When performing inspection, the smoothing capacitor needs to be detached to detect an accurate current.
Inspection using the method of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-208052 is inspection performed under an operation condition including the voltage drop. In a strict sense, an actual operation is not reproduced in the inspection.
In the method of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-217471, both a discharge error caused by an electrical failure and a discharge error caused by a fault in an ink channel can be inspected using ink as a conductor. However, since the ON resistance of the ink variously changes in accordance with the amount or distribution of bubbles generated in the ink channel, quality determination may be difficult depending on the obtained voltage waveform. Since the electrode for detection needs to be provided in the ink tank, the cost of the ink tank becomes high. In addition, the method of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-217471 assumes use of conductive ink and is therefore hardly applicable to a general liquid discharge head that does not necessarily discharge a conductive liquid.

Inspection apparatus and method for liquid discharge head and liquid discharge head


A dual channel microwave sensor employs single sideband Doppler techniques in innumerable vibration, motion, and displacement applications. When combined with an active reflector, the sensor provides accurate range and material thickness measurements even in cluttered environments. The active reflector can also be used to transmit multi-channel data to the sensor. The sensor is a homodyne pulse Doppler radar with phasing-type Doppler sideband demodulation having a 4-decade baseband frequency range. Ranging is accomplished by comparing the phase of the Doppler sidebands when phase modulated by an active reflector. The active reflector employs a switch or modulator connected to an antenna or other reflector. In one mode, the active reflector is quadrature modulated to provide SSB reflections. Applications for the low-cost system include a mechanical motion/rotation sensor, a robust security alarm, a throat microphone, a stereo guitar pickup, a direction sensitive cardiac monitor, an electronic dipstick, a material thickness/dielectric sensor, a metal smoothness meter, a non-contact electronic readout, an RFID tag, silent xe2x80x9ctalkingxe2x80x9d toys, a passive-emitter data link, a beam interrupter, and a gold nugget finder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to microwave motion sensing and ranging, and more particularly to single-sideband pulse-Doppler radar including an active reflector system.
2. Description of Related Art
The Doppler effect is used to detect or measure motion in police radars, security radars and automatic door radars. Microwave vibration sensing, while similar to Doppler sensing, relies on target-induced phase modulation of a radar return, and has generally been limited to specialized industrial/scientific use. One well-publicized exception was the microwave illumination of the U.S. embassy in Moscow during the Cold War, where voices may have caused a subtle vibration in reflecting objects that could be intercepted by a vibration-sensing microwave receiver outside the embassy.
Vibration sensing radars show great potential in medical diagnostics/monitoring and speech recognition, such as cardiac monitoring (e.g., xe2x80x9cBody Monitoring and Imaging Apparatus and Method,xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,012 to McEwan, 1996), respiration monitoring (e.g., xe2x80x9cRespiration Monitor,xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,995 to Kaplan et al, 1976), and vocal cord sensing (e.g., xe2x80x9cSpeech Coding, Reconstruction and Recognition Using Acoustics and Electromagnetic Waves,xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,694 to Holzrichter et al, 1998).
One problem in sensing vibrations with radar is the occurrence of periodic nulls in the sensing field located every xcex/2 of the RF wavelength. Thus, it is possible to fail to detect a vibrating object depending on its range from the radar. This problem is present in both single phase and quadrature phase radars. It can only be eliminated with SSB radar.
The direction of motion can be sensed by Doppler radars outfitted with quadrature detectors. A further adjunct to direction sensing is displacement sensing, where a direction-signed motion signature is integrated over a number of Doppler cycles such that a definite target displacement in one direction must occur before a detection threshold is reached (e.g., xe2x80x9cIntrusion Detection System,xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,178 to Hackett, 1976).
Displacement sensing overcomes the hair-trigger nature of a motion sensor by requiring a substantial target movement before triggering. Displacement sensing also reduces another false alarm nuisance: trigging on RF interference. It would be very difficult for RF interference to appear like it is moving in one direction only, i.e., appear as a single sideband to a microwave carrier that is consistently within perhaps 100 Hz of a 10.5 GHz carrier-generally, neither the radar nor the interference would have such coherence or stability. Unfortunately, prior art displacement sensors do not implement interference rejection in a robust fashion, nor do they fully demodulate the Doppler sidebands into separate analog channels.
Prior art Doppler radars are lacking in key features needed to enable innumerable applications, e.g., they lack dual channel analog single sideband demodulation combined with short-pulse range-gating while implemented in a low cost architecture. Also, the prior art does not teach the use of an active reflector to measure range or material thickness from the phase relation between the range-gated Doppler sidebands.
The present invention is a system comprised of a homodyne pulse Doppler radar employing SSB demodulation which can be used either separately or in combination with an active reflector, which may also have SSB capability.
The radar transmits RF pulses, or sinewave packets or bursts, at a pulse repetition frequency PRF. As used herein, the entire burst or packet is referred to as an RF pulse, with each pulse containing one or more cycles of a sinusoidal waveform at a carrier frequency. The transmitted pulses and receive echoes are applied in quadrature to a pair of peak-hold detectors that have a large hold time spanning multiple pulse repetitions. The RF pulse width may be 30 ns wide at a 915 MHz carrier frequency with a corresponding RF bandwidth of about 30 MHz. By integrating pulse repetitions over a long time, e.g., 1-second, Doppler sidebands only 0.1 Hz removed from the RF pulse carrier can be detected.
The maximum range, or range gate, is defined by the RF pulse width, since the RF peak detectors operate only while the transmitted pulse is present, such that echoes that arrive after the transmitter RF pulse ends do not get peak detected.
The RF peak-hold detector outputs are phase shifted and algebraically summed to provide upper sideband (USB) and lower sideband (LSB) outputs. USB outputs occur with objects moving toward the radar and LSB outputs occur with objects moving away from the radar.
One feature of the invention is that the USB and LSB outputs (or channels) can be rectified and filtered to provide a directional displacement indication. These indications can be combined in a weighted fashion such that a small amount of displacement in the wrong direction, for a given LSB or USB channel, will effectively reset that channelxe2x80x94an especially useful feature for eliminating false alarms from loitering or RF interference.
When sensing vibrations, either the USB or LSB channel provides an output free of nulls that occur every xcex/2 with non-quadrature radar or in the I or Q channel of a quadrature radar, thus removing a barrier to practicality in many applications.
Stereo operation as provided by the LSB and USB channels is non-obvious and quite unexpected in many applications such as picking up guitar string vibrations, where each stereo output has the same general frequency of the vibrating string but a different tonal quality, providing a rich, airy sound on stereo headphones. Other vibration sensing applications include (1) sensing machine vibration or motion, including blade rotation with rotational direction indication, (2) direction sensitive cardiac motion sensing, (3) respiratory motion sensing, and (4) a vocal cord microphone.
When detecting a vibrating object, the phase between signals at the LSB and USB outputs varies 360 degrees with every xcex/4 of distance from the vibrating object. For an RF center frequency of 915 MHz, 360 degrees represents a distance of 8.2 cm. Since the phase signals are very clean, it is an easy matter to measure sub-millimeter variations in distance, or equivalently dielectric constant or material thickness of objects inserted between the radar antenna and the source of vibration. One application of this effect is water or oil level measurement in a tank, by measuring the transit time through the height of the liquid. The advantage to this technique is that low frequency RF can be used without the need for a large focusing antenna, since the measurement is confined to reflections from the vibrating object, which is usually the only object in the field of view that is vibrating.
Changes in radar cross section (xcex94-RCS) can be detected with the present invention, such as might occur when two metallic objects scrape against each other. If two smooth tweezers are slid across each other near the radar antenna, a large noise-like response is produced by the radar indicating the degree of surface smoothness. The xcex94-RCS technique can also be used in combination with mechanical or acoustic pressure to locate gold nuggets in quartz, such as might be found in a gold mine.
Electronic objects that contain switching circuits or variable conduction devices, such as audio transistors, also provide a xcex94RCS signature that is readily detected by the present invention. Applications include non-contact electronic circuit readout, toys that xe2x80x9ctalkxe2x80x9d upon illumination by a radar, and RF identification (RFID) tags.
The xcex94-RCS effect can be deliberately enhanced by designing a reflector that undergoes a large xcex94-RCS under electronic control. Accordingly, another aspect of the present invention is a modulated dipole or other reflector/antenna, wherein the modulation is voice, music, continuous tones or data. The modulation can be provided by a very low power CMOS circuit, such as the type used in wrist watches, and the modulating device may be a FET, which requires essentially no current to drive its gate. The micropower active reflector thus formed emits no RF energy and is thus not subject to emission regulations, and yet it can transmit information when illuminated by the radar of the present invention.
The active reflector can be quadrature modulated to provide a SSB reflection that appears in either the LSB or USB channel of the illuminating radar. Thus, multi-channel operation is possible, beyond the usual code or frequency division techniques.
An RF beam interruption system can be configured with a radar and active reflector by forming a beam path through which passing objects will create an interruption. Advantages include (1) the ability to operate through panels and environmental overcoatings such as snow, and (2) the ability to freely locate micropower active reflectors as stick-on appliques. When solar powered, the active reflectors can be permanently attached to trees, lampposts, swimming pool gates, garage door frames, etc. for simplified security, safety, or home automation control.
A system of active reflectors can be combined with the radar to form a radiolocation system wherein the range to each reflector is measured by the radar and used to calculate the location of the radar and/or one or more reflectors.
The entire radar system of the present invention can be implemented with low cost off-the-shelf components. The applications cited herein are but a few of the many novel uses for this invention.

SSB pulse Doppler sensor and active reflector system


Still image apparatus and methods that are suitable for compact camera environments are described. In another aspect, image segments are captured during corresponding exposure intervals of a frame exposure period. Respective motion sensor signals are generated during the respective exposure intervals of the image segments. One or more corresponding movement measures are determined from the respective motion sensor signals for each of the exposure intervals. The image segments are combined into an output image based on the one or more corresponding movement measures.

Image stabilization techniques have been used in a wide variety of different applications, including surveillance applications, vehicle-mounted image sensor applications, robotics applications, and consumer electronics applications. Image stabilization is the process of eliminating or at least reducing the effects of unwanted image sensor motion (e.g., unwanted image sensor vibration or irregular image sensor motion) on still images or video sequences. Many image stabilization approaches attempt to eliminate or at least reduce the amount of unwanted image sensor motion relative to a scene while preserving any intentional image sensor motion. In this regard, these image stabilization techniques synthesize a new image or video sequence from the perspective of a stabilized image sensor trajectory.
Among the primary classes of image stabilization techniques are mechanical image stabilization methods, electromechanical image stabilization methods, optical image stabilization methods, and electronic image stabilization methods. Mechanical image stabilization systems attempt to dampen the motion of the image sensor (or just the lens/image sensor subsystem). Electromechanical image stabilization systems detect motion of the image sensor using, for example, an inertial sensor, and alter the position or orientation of the image sensor to offset the detected image sensor motion. Optical image stabilization approaches stabilize the image of the sensor by displacing the image as it is formed by the lens system in a way that offsets image sensor motion. Electronic image stabilization techniques involve modifying the captured images in ways that makes the captured images appear to have been captured by a more stable image sensor.
Many image stabilization techniques are not suitable for compact camera environments, such as handheld electronic devices (e.g., mobile telephones), cameras designed for desktop and mobile computers (often referred to as "pc cameras"), and other embedded environments. For example, optical image stabilization techniques require large and bulky components that cannot be accommodated in most compact camera environments. Electronic image stabilization techniques, on the other hand, are computationally intensive and require significant memory resources, making them unsuitable in compact application environments in which processing and memory resources typically are significantly constrained.
What are needed are systems and methods of reducing motion-induced blur in still images within the significant size, processing, and memory constraints of typical compact camera environments.

Still image stabilization suitable for compact camera environments

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A protein is efficiently nitrosylated with nitrogen monoxide by merely mixing S-nitrosoglutathione as a nitrogen monoxide donor with a protein solution containing a stabilizing agent comprising at least one compound or a combination of plural compounds selected from an N-acetylamino acid, a fatty acid, and a fatty acid salt. The method that enables efficient NO addition to a cysteine residue in un-nitrosylated protein without changing the structure of protein and hence provides NO to a living organism.

Nitrogen monoxide (hereinafter abbreviated as NO) has been widely studied in various fields such as applications to control physiological functions, clinical episodes, and therapy. In particular, in ischemic disorders or at the time of organ transplantation, various disorders are caused by endogenous reduction in NO production due to substrate depletion accompanying blood flow decrease, so that exogenous NO supplementation (called NO supplementation therapy) is indispensable. Although among others NO inhalation therapy has been tried as the NO supplementation therapy, the current situation is that NO disappears in an extremely short time in a living organism and selective obtention of advantageous effects is difficult because of NO itself having high reactivity and diversity (Ignarro L. J. et al., Pharm Res., 1989, 6, 651-659).
NO is known to react, in a living organism, with a thiol group (hereinafter, abbreviated as an SH group) of a protein or the like and converted into S-nitrosothiol (hereinafter, abbreviated as RS-NO), which maintains a relatively stable state and functions as an NO reservoir, thus participating in control of NO concentration in the living organism (Ignarro L. J. et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 1981, 218 739-749).
Usefulness of nitrosylated proteins has been reported. Analyses on the efficiency of nitrosylation and antibacterial activity of various bacteria-infected model animals using albumin variants having a mutation in one or more amino acid residues in the constituent amino acid sequences indicated that the albumin variants are efficiently nitrosylated and the nitrosylated products exhibit more potent antibacterial activity than NO and low molecular weight nitrosothiol (JP 2005-206577 A, US2005/0222026).
On the other hand, albumin can be used as an NO transport protein. In spite of having a free cysteine residue at the 34th position, albumin is known to have only a low reactivity, so that attempts to allow albumin and an NO donor to react to promptly obtain S-nitrosylated albumin fail. Then, to add NO to albumin, a method is known in which the binding efficiency is increased by adding a suitable chemical modulator to albumin or the reaction efficiency is increased by mutating a part of amino acids of albumin to cysteine. These methods involve changing the inherent structure of albumin, which causes the problem that the behavior of albumin in the living organism may be changed.

Method of producing S-nitrosoprotein preparation


A structure for controlling displacement of a vehicle pedal includes: a pedal bracket supporting a rotating shaft portion of a suspended-type vehicle pedal, a front end portion of the pedal bracket being joined to a first vehicle structural member which deforms substantially toward a rear of a vehicle when an external force of a predetermined value or greater is applied to a front portion of the vehicle, and a rear end portion of the pedal bracket being joined to a second vehicle structural member which is disposed at a substantially vehicle rear side of the first vehicle structural member; a separating device for canceling a joined state of the rear end portion of the pedal bracket and the second vehicle structural member by the pedal bracket being displaced substantially toward the rear of the vehicle, so as to separate the rear end portion of the pedal bracket and the second vehicle structural member; and a displacement controlling device disposed in a vicinity of the rear end portion of the pedal bracket, for controlling displacement of a stepping surface of the vehicle pedal by regulating displacement, in a substantially vehicle transverse direction, of the rear end portion of the pedal bracket which rear end portion has been separated from the second vehicle structural member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for controlling the displacement of a vehicle pedal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various conventional structures have been devised as countermeasures for the time an external force of a predetermined value or greater is applied from the front of a vehicle. An example of such countermeasures is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open (JP-U) No. 1-73464.
To briefly explain the structure disclosed in JP-U No. 1-73464, as illustrated in FIG. 24, a steering column 402 which covers a steering shaft 400 is supported at a vehicle body by a tilt bracket 408 and a shaft 410. The tilt bracket 408 is formed from an upper plate member 404 and a pair of side plate members 406. The shaft 410 passes through the side plate members 406 and supports the lower side of the steering column 402.
A knee protector 412, which is shaped as a substantially circular arc-shaped surface and is elastically deformable, is disposed beneath the tilt bracket 408. The knee protector 412 is elastically supported at the lower side of the steering column 402 via an elastically deformable stay 414.
In accordance with the above-described structure, when an external force of a predetermined value or greater is applied from the front of the vehicle, a vehicle occupant starts to inertially move toward the front of the vehicle, and accordingly, the legs of the vehicle occupant start to inertially move in the same direction while bending with the knees as the starting point of bending. Therefore, if the knee protector 412 were not provided, the driver's knees might contact the tilt bracket 408. However, if the knee protector 412 is provided beneath the tilt bracket 408 as described above, the driver's knees only contact the knee protector 412.
This structure in which the knee protector 412 is provided is useful as a countermeasure at the time that an external force of a predetermined value or greater is applied from the front of the vehicle. However, countermeasures for protecting the legs of the vehicle occupant can also be studied from other points of view.
Other examples of conventional structures for controlling displacement of a vehicle pedal include German Patent No. 4,305,290, which discloses a structure for bending a pedal bracket upward and displacing a pedal upward, German Patent No. 4,340,633, which discloses a structure for rotating and displacing a pedal upward when a steering column is displaced toward the front of a vehicle, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 8-175346, which discloses a structure for deforming a pedal bracket and displacing a pedal.
The present inventors conceived of the idea of the present invention from this standpoint, conducted various experiments, and arrived upon extremely effective countermeasures which control the displacement of a vehicle pedal such as a brake pedal at the time that an external force of a predetermined value or greater is applied from the front of the vehicle, by focusing on the deformation and the displacement behavior of the body panel and the like at the time such an external force is applied.

Structure for controlling displacement of vehicle pedal


A semiconductor device includes: a first interconnection line and a second interconnection line which extend apart from each other on a first plane at a first level on a substrate; a bypass interconnection line that extends on a second plane at a second level on the substrate; and a plurality of contact plugs for connecting the bypass interconnection line to the first interconnection line and the second interconnection line. A method includes forming a bypass interconnection line spaced apart from a substrate and forming on a same plane a plurality of interconnection lines connected to the bypass interconnection line via a plurality of contact plugs.

Example embodiments of the inventive concepts relate to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, one or more of the example embodiments of the inventive concepts relate to a semiconductor device including an interconnection structure and a method of manufacturing the same.
An increase in the integration density of semiconductor devices has led to a reduction in the design rules of elements of semiconductor devices. As the size of semiconductor devices has been reduced, the distances between a plurality of interconnection lines and a plurality of contact plugs interposed therebetween have been gradually reduced. As a result, parasitic capacitances between adjacent conductive patterns and line resistivity may increase, thereby adversely affecting an operation speed or refresh characteristics of the semiconductor devices.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same


A propulsion system assembly includes a propeller and a motor configured to drive the propeller to rotate. The propeller includes one of a first body and a second body. The motor comprises the other one of the first body and the second body. The propulsion system assembly also includes a locking mechanism configured to detachably connecting the first body and the second body. The locking mechanism includes a locking member and a position limiting lock catch. The locking member is configured to lock the first body and the second body. The locking member includes locking parts located at at least two sides of the locking member. When the locking parts of the locking member rotate to a locking position, the position limiting lock catch is mounted to a side of the locking parts, to restrain the locking member from rotating relative to the first body.

A propeller generally includes a blade, a propeller hub for mounting the blade, and a motor coupled with the propeller hub. The motor drives the blade to rotate. Currently, the coupling between the propeller hub and a housing of the motor generally adopts a permanent fixing configuration, a threads tight fitting configuration, or a mechanical position limiting configuration.
When a permanent fixing configuration is used, and when the propeller needs to be transported, the propeller hub cannot be disassembled from the motor. As a result, the blade cannot be folded, causing inconvenience for transportation. Unfolded blade is also susceptible to damages. When a threads tight fitting configuration is used, and when the motor abruptly reduces its rotation speed, the blade may cause the propeller hub to disengage from a coupling interface with the motor due to the inertial of the blade, thereby causing the blade to be ejected (blade ejection).
When a mechanical position limiting configuration is used, during acceleration and deceleration movement processes, wear may be caused to the mechanical position limiting structure, thereby causing the blade to be ejected. In addition, the mechanical position limiting configuration generally needs to provide a threaded hole on the propeller hub and the motor, to couple with a screw for mounting the propeller hub on the motor. However, in high speed rotation, the screw may become loose, and therefore, may cause the blade and the propeller hub to fall off altogether.

Locking mechanism, propeller, motor, propulsion system assembly, and aircraft


A linear motor driven elevator comprises: a cab capable of upward and downward movement; a linear motor comprising a movable element and a stationary element; a counterweight attached to the movable element such that the movable element is disposed thereon out of register with the center of gravity of the counterweight; and a rope connecting the cab and the counterweight at the center of gravity of the counterweight.

A conventional linear motor type elevator is shown in FIG. 4. Cab 101 is powered upwardly and downwardly in a building by means of a linear motor 102. The linear motor 102 comprises a movable element 103 having an axial hole through which a rod-shaped stationary element 104 passes. A frame 107 houses weights 105 and 106 at both sides of the movable element 103. The frame, the weights and the movable element form a counterweight for balancing the weight of the cab 101.
Ropes pairs 108a, 108b and 109a, 109b, attach at one end thereof to either side of the stationary element at the upper end of the frame, pass over sheaves 110a, 110b 111a, 111b and attach at a second end thereof to the top of the cab.
If ropes 108a, 108b, 109a, 109b are somehow severed, two buffers 112, 113 are provided at both sides at the lower end side of the movable element 104 to prevent the frame, movable element and weights from colliding with the floor of the building.


A control apparatus and a control method for a vibration type driving apparatus are disclosed which can maintain output performance even when low-speed driving is continued for a long time. The vibration type driving apparatus comprises a vibrating body and an electro-mechanical energy conversion element, and a contact body in contact with the vibrating body. By applying a plurality of driving signals to the electro-mechanical energy conversion element to excite a traveling vibration on the vibrating body, the vibrating body and the contact body are relatively moved. The control apparatus and the control method controls the driving signals such that the largest displacement of the traveling vibration fluctuates and a position where the largest displacement reaches the peak is changed in a direction of the relative movement of the vibrating body and the contact body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to control of a so-called vibration type driving apparatus which uses an electro-mechanical energy conversion element to form traveling vibrations on an elastic body to relatively move the elastic body (a vibrating body) and a contact body.
2. Description of Related Art
A vibration type driving apparatus which uses an electro-mechanical energy conversion element to form traveling vibrations on an elastic body to drive a moving body (a contact body) is used as an actuator from which a large driving force at a low speed can be provided.
Particularly, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-157473 has proposed a vibration type driving apparatus using traveling waves which excites a traveling vibration wave on an elastic body and continuously drives a moving body in press contact with the elastic body to allow more smooth driving.
In the vibration type driving apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-157473, a vibrating body is formed of an annular elastic body in which a group of protrusions in a comb shape is formed on one side of the elastic body in an axis direction. A friction material is bonded to the top surface of the group of protrusions. An annular piezoelectric element is bonded as an electromechanical energy conversion element on the other side of the elastic body in the axis direction, and a pattern electrode is formed on the piezoelectric element.
The pattern electrode is equally divided into electrode elements, the number of which is four times larger than the order of vibration modes excited in the annular portion of the vibrating body. The respective electrode elements are supplied with alternating voltages in a generally sine wave shape having time phases sequentially shifted 90 degrees. When an alternating voltage is supplied at a frequency near the natural frequency of an excited vibration mode, the piezoelectric element expands and contracts to provide bending moment for the elastic body to cause resonance of the elastic body. Vibrations (modes) excited by the alternating voltages having time phases shifted 90 degrees have the same shape and different phases. The vibrations are combined into a traveling vibration wave (a traveling wave).
FIG. 44 shows a driving circuit for driving a vibration type driving apparatus. The driving circuit is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-176788, in which a switching circuit formed of MOSFETs 22 to 29 is controlled to turn on/off with a pulse generated by a pulse generating circuit, not shown, to produce an alternating voltage across transformers 30 and 31 with a center tap, thereby sequentially supplying alternating voltages with phases shifted 90 degrees to terminals 32 to 35 connected to secondary sides of the transformers corresponding to A(+), B(+), A(−), and B(−).
On the other hand, some of so-called standing wave driving type motors in which different vibrations (modes) are superimposed combine longitudinal vibrations with torsional vibrations as proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,424. In this example, the longitudinal vibrations and torsional vibrations are excited to have a phase difference of 90 degrees to use the longitudinal vibrations as vibrations for causing a vibrating body to separate from or come into contact with a moving body and the torsional vibrations as vibrations for carrying the moving body.
In such a vibration type driving apparatus driven by the superimposed different vibration modes, it is necessary to generally match the resonance frequencies in modes of different vibration directions in order to drive the modes of different vibration directions at the same frequency. However, the matching of the resonance frequencies is difficult because of anisotropy of the materials of the vibrating body and the like even when the vibrating body is formed in a uniform shape, and thus a frequency adjusting step is required.
In contrast, in the aforementioned so-called traveling wave vibration type driving apparatus driven by the superimposed vibrations (modes) of the same shape, the vibration modes have the same deformation distribution, so that the resonance frequency is unlikely to vary depending on the vibrating direction. Thus, almost no adjustment is necessary for matching the resonance frequencies in two modes.
The traveling wave vibration type driving apparatus, however, have the following problems since the vibrations (modes) of the same shape are superimposed.
FIGS. 45A and 45B schematically show a contact and driving state in a vibrating body (an elastic body) and a moving body.
FIGS. 45A and 45B show vibration displacement of a vibrating body 101 and response displacement of a moving body 106, and protrusions on the vibrating body and a friction material are omitted. Shown by solid line arrows in FIGS. 45A and 45B is driving vibration of the vibrating body 101 to drive the moving body 106 in a direction shown by outline arrows. FIG. 45A shows driving at a high speed with a large vibration amplitude, while FIG. 45B shows vibration in driving at a low speed with a smaller vibration amplitude than that in FIG. 45A. The smaller vibration amplitude as shown in FIG. 45B reduces the feed speed at each position to provide a lower speed (the speed is represented by the lengths of the outline arrows).
The moving body 106 is provided with bending rigidity and responsiveness such that a portion thereof is in contact with a portion of the vibrating body 101 where the feed speed is high, that is, where large displacement is produced. However, as the speed is reduced, the area of the vibrating body 101 in contact with the moving body 106 becomes larger, and finally, the vibrating body 101 is driven at a low speed with substantially the entire surface thereof in contact with the moving body 106 as shown in FIG. 45B.
When they are brought into contact in this manner, the efficiency is reduced since sliding friction acts on substantially the entire contact surface due to a partial difference in speed between the vibrating body and the moving body. In addition, wear powder produced on the contact surface is unlikely to be discharged to the outside and serves as grains to increase the wear amount of the moving body and the vibrating body.
Techniques for reducing the speed while the vibration amplitude is maintained to a certain degree include, for example as proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8 (1996)-80073, a method of switching to a standing wave at the time of stop, a method of changing to a standing wave by reducing a phase difference between an A phase and a B phase from 90 degrees, and a method of using a smaller vibration amplitude in one of the A phase and the B phase, although as a means, mainly for enhancing vibration responsiveness.
Such methods, however, have adverse effects on the contact surface between the vibrating body and the moving body.
For example, in the annular vibration type driving apparatus, a plurality of vibration modes which cause bending deformation of the vibrating body are superimposed with their positional phases shifted 90 degrees.
FIG. 46 is a developed view schematically showing vibrations of the vibrating body, and specifically, shows the vibrations when A(+), B(+), A(−), and B(−) of a piezoelectric element 102 are supplied with driving voltages having time phases shifted 90 degrees. Ellipses "a" to "g" shown in portions of the vibrating body 101 represent elliptical motions produced at positions of the vibrating body 101. Arrows shown in each ellipse show vibration components of the A and B phases constituting the elliptical motions (solid line arrows show the A phase and dotted line arrows show the B phase).
The vibration components of the A and B phases constituting the elliptical motions have varying directions depending on the positions. If the vibration amplitude of the A phase is reduced to produce a standing wave component, the longitudinal amplitude is reduced at some positions and the transverse amplitude is reduced at other positions to produce an uneven friction state. The unevenness leads to variations in wear speed of the friction surface to reduce flatness of the friction surface, causing degraded performance.
In addition, the maximum traveling wave vibration, that is, a large driving force, is always present at the same position. Thus, variations in surface pressure of the moving body and the vibrating body occur, or vibrations in rotation occur in synchronization with rotation of the moving body due to an uneven plane of the portion of the moving body in contact with the vibrating body, so that rotation accuracy may be reduced.

Control apparatus capable of low-speed driving of vibration type driving apparatus, actuating apparatus using the control apparatus, control method capable of low-speed driving of vibration type driving apparatus, and storage medium storing program including program codes capable of realizing the control method