An electroluminescent lamp is driven by a driving circuit that can supply an approximately sinusoidal signal, a bi-directional sawtooth signal or a single-ended sawtooth signal. Switches selectively transfer energy from a battery to an inductor and then from the inductor to the lamp. In one embodiment, the lamp voltage is compared to a reference waveform, such as a sinusoid. The switches are activated responsive to the error between the lamp voltage and reference waveform to minimize the error. The lamp can thus be driven with a closer approximation of the reference waveform.

Electroluminescent devices are used in a variety of low power applications. For example, many battery-operated devices, such as wrist watches, utilize electroluminescent illuminators to illuminate their displays. In such devices, energy for activating the electroluminescent lamp typically is provided by a battery at a voltage range of 1-9 V. However, for proper operation, electroluminescent lamps operate at much higher voltages, on the order of 50-300 V. Thus, typical battery output voltages are inadequate for directly driving electroluminescent lamps.
Another limitation of battery sources is that batteries supply DC voltages, while electroluminescent displays typically emit light responsive to AC voltages. To improve the lifetime of the lamp and for acceptable performance, the driving voltage for the electrolimrlinescent lamp preferably approximates a sine wave.
A variety of circuit structures have been suggested for driving electroluminescent lamps using batteries as power sources. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,269 to Kimball employs two inverters that each supply high frequency pulses to a lamp. To improve the efficiency of the lamp, each of the inverters drives an opposite terminal of the lamp so that the overall voltage change across the lamp is twice the voltage of pulses from each of the inverters. Unfortunately, the use of two inverters increases the cost and difficulty of fabrication of the driving circuit, in part because each of the inverters requires a separate inductor.
In another approach described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,096 to Kindlmann, a single inductor is used to drive opposite sides of an electroluminescent lamp through a switching network. The inductor drives a first side of the electroluminescent lamp while the second side of the lamp is coupled to ground. The inductor injects current to the first side of the lamp thereby charging the lamp to high voltage. Then, the lamp is discharged by coupling the first side to ground.
The switching network then couples the inductor to the second side and the inductor charges the second side. The second side is then grounded, once again discharging the lamp. The resulting waveform across the electroluminescent lamp is a sawtooth wave having positive and negative peaks. The sawtooth waveform deviates substantially from the preferred sinusoidal waveform and produces a rapid discharge of the electroluminescent lamp at a relatively high current. This rapid discharge can cause premature failure of the lamp and typically does not provide optimum current draw or efficiency.

Method and apparatus for driving an electroluminescent lamp


A TOP level switch for use in a drive circuit in power-electronic systems having a half-bridge circuit formed by two power switches, a first so-called TOP switch and a second so-called BOT switch, which are arranged connected in series. The TOP level shifter transmits an input signal from drive logic to a TOP driver. In this case, the TOP level shifter is designed as an arrangement of an UP and a DOWN level shifter path, as well as a downstream signal evaluation circuit. In the associated method for transmission of this input signal, the signal evaluation circuit passes an output signal to the TOP driver when either the UP or the DOWN, or both, level shifter paths emit a signal to the respectively associated input of the signal evaluation circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to the field of transmission circuits, and more particularly, to level shifter used to transmit control inputs to drive power semiconductor modules
2. Description of the Related Art
The invention is directed to a level shifter used with a drive circuit, and an associated method for transmission of an input signal from drive logic to a driver. Drive circuits such as these are required in power-electronic systems to drive power semiconductor switches which are arranged as individual switches or in a bridge circuit. Bridge circuits such as these are known as single-phase, two-phase or three-phase bridge circuits, with the single-phase so-called half-bridge representing a basic module of a multiplicity of power-electronic circuits. Two power switches, a first so-called TOP switch and a second so-called BOT switch, are arranged connected in series in a half-bridge circuit.
In general, a half-bridge such as this is connected to form a direct-current intermediate circuit. The output, typically the alternating-voltage connection of the half-bridge, is generally connected to a load. In general, the drive circuit comprises a plurality of circuit elements or functional blocks. The control signal is preprocessed in a first circuit, known as the drive logic, and is supplied via further components to the driver circuits and finally to the control input of the respective power switch.
For relatively high intermediate-circuit voltages, for example of more than 100 V, the drive logic is generally DC-isolated from the driver circuits since the associated power switches are at different potentials, making DC isolation essential. This isolation is required at least for the TOP switch although, for relatively high power levels, it is also applicable to the BOT switch, because of the ground potential possibly being dragged during switching. By way of example, such isolation may be provided by pulse transformers, by optocouplers or optical waveguides (galvanic isolation) or with the aid of integrated circuit technology using an HVIC (High Voltage Integrated Circuit). The latter variant is used increasingly frequently because of various advantages, such as small dimensions, low price and long life. At the same time, HVICs offer the capability to integrate a high-voltage component with a breakdown voltage that is greater than or equal to the intermediate-circuit voltage which can be used in circuits for signal level conversion, in so-called level shifters. A lateral high-voltage MOSFET is generally used for this purpose.
The described level shifter is part of the drive circuit and is preferably in the form of an integrated circuit arrangement. It is used to transmit a signal from a circuit part at a first defined reference-ground potential to a circuit part at a second reference-ground potential which is higher or lower at times then the first reference ground potential, or vice-versa. An arrangement such as this is required for an integrated and DC-isolated drive for power semiconductors.
Two fundamental isolation technologies are known to form level shifters for HVICs (Silicon on Insulator) technologies on the one hand and pn-isolated technologies (Junction Isolation) on the other hand. SOI technology offers dielectric isolation of components and component groups, but is available at the moment only up to a withstand voltage of 800 V. SQI substrate wafers are considerably more expensive than standard substrates, although the costs are compensated for by a number of advantages and considerable process simplifications which result from the dielectric isolation. In the case of pn-isolated technologies, the reverse voltage is blocked by a reverse-biased ˜0 junction. This technology is available for up to 1200 V at the moment. However, production is highly complex and therefore costly. Furthermore, there are technical problems, for example with leakage currents and latch-up effects, inter alia at relatively high temperatures, for example at an operating temperature of more than 125° C., and when the ground potential is dragged during first dynamic processes.
In integrated drive circuits according to the prior art, level shifter transmission of the driver signals from the drive logic to the TOP driver is known. This is necessary since the TOP driver, in contrast to a BOT driver, is at a higher reference-ground potential, on a phase basis. According to the prior art, the signal transmission from the drive side to the TOP driver takes place by means of pulsed (dynamic) and differential transmission, that is to say switch-on and switch-off pulses are produced on the drive side from the signal to be transmitted, and are transmitted via the respective level shifter to the TOP driver. This type of transmission is distinguished by a high level of transmission reliability and low power consumption. Various integrated level shifter topologies are known. The simplest topology comprises an HV transistor with an appropriate blocking capability and a resistor, connected in series. When a signal is passed to the gate of the HV transistor, it switches on. The parallel current produced in this way through the level shifter causes a voltage drop across the resistor, and this can be detected as a signal by an evaluation circuit.
German patent application DE 101 52 930 A1 discloses an upgraded level shifter topology, in which the drive signal is transmitted in steps by means of n−1 intermediate potentials by means of n known level shifters which are connected identically in cascade. This makes it possible to use transistors which have only the n-th part of the required blocking capability of the entire level shifter. If transistors with the required blocking capability are available, the blocking capability of the level shifter can be increased by the factor n.
German patent application DE 10 2006 037 336, discloses a level shifter in the form of a series circuit formed by n series-connected HV transistors. This topology has the advantage over that disclosed in DE 101 52 930 A1 on the one hand that the power consumption is reduced and on the other hand that the circuit complexity is reduced. This results in less space being required and in reduced costs.
All the known topologies have the common feature that, with a complementary level shifter design, signals can also be transmitted from a circuit part with a high reference-ground potential to a circuit part with a low reference-ground potential. This characteristic can be used to transmit signals back from the TOP driver to the drive logic.
According to the prior art, in the case of integrated drive circuits, the drive logic (on the primary side) and the BOT driver (on the secondary side) are at the same reference-ground potential, or at reference-ground potentials which differ from one another by only a few volts, so that there is no need to transmit signals via level shifters. In this case, the connections for the reference-ground potential on the primary side and on the secondary side are generally externally shorted. However, module-internal and system-internal inductances, for example line inductances, can result in the reference-ground potential of the BOT drivers being dragged severely in the positive or negative direction during switching of the power component. This occurs particularly severely in medium-power and high-power systems in which heavy currents, for example of more than 50 A are switched. The potential difference can in this case assume values which are higher than the blocking voltage of the gate oxide of the transistors being used, for example more than 20 V. Junction isolation technologies have the disadvantage that parasitic thyristor structures can be triggered, so-called latch-up, in the negative direction if the reference-ground potential is dragged in a corresponding manner. This leads to loss of function and possibly to destruction of the components affected. SSOI technologies are not subject to this restriction, caused by the dielectric isolation of the components, so that it is possible to implement level shifter circuitry which ensures reliable signal transmission even if the reference-ground potential on the secondary side becomes negative, whether briefly or permanently.
German patent application 10 2006 050 913 discloses a level shifter such as this for BOT drivers using SOI technology in the form of an UP and DOWN level shifter path. However, this drive circuit is not adequate for a bridge topology, since the reference-ground potential of the TOP driver on the secondary side may also be more negative in the reference-ground potential on the primary side.

Drive circuit with a TOP level shifter for transmission of an input signal, and method for transmission


The invention relates to the filed of regeneration of cells, self-renewal of (micro-organisms), and the vegetative propagation of plant parts such as plant tissues or organs.

The invention relates to the field of regeneration of cells, self-renewal of (micro)-organisms, the vegetative propagation of plant parts such as plant tissues or organs thereof, for example cells grown in tissue or organ culture, and more in particular to the seedless propagation of plants.
Renewal of plant and animal cells into more cells, tissues, organs and even whole plants and organisms is a process central to life that has been set to men's whims and desires already for a long time. Self-renewal of specific micro-organism starter cultures are used to ferment foods and drinks. Yet other cultures are useful for the metabolites they produce per se, such as produced by modern day's large scale fermentor cultures for the production of antibiotics or enzymes. Within the realm of animal cells, use of the renewed cultured cells, although being of fairly recent date, has taken great flight with the production of for example viral vaccines in cell- or tissue culture. Even more recent is the use of donor cells harvested from an individual, and grown and/or differentiated in culture, for transplantation purposes. Such cells (take for example bone marrow cells) are, after having been sufficiently regenerated and differentiated, proliferated or equipped with the desired characteristics, transplanted into a recipient for medical purposes. Shortly, such therapies will even include transgenic cells, transformed with modern recombinant techniques, that are thereby equipped with the desired characteristics and transplanted.
Regeneration is very well studied in plants, where it is crucial in vegetative propagation. In principle, plants can be propagated in two ways, via seeds or vegetatively without using seeds as starting material to obtain the desired plant. Both types of propagation may be impossible or undesirable under certain conditions. When propagation via seeds is unsatisfactory (when no seeds or too few of the desired seeds are formed or the desired seeds quickly loose their germination viability) then seedless propagation is often adopted. Also, when due to sexually crossing a very heterogenous progeny is or may be obtained due to its strong heterozygosity, propagation via seeds is often also considered unsatisfactory. Of course, seedless propagation of essentially seedless starting material may in a later phase give rise to the desired seeds, which can further be used to obtain the desired plants.
Within seedless propagation of plants two major fields can be distinguished: In vivo and in vitro vegetative propagation. In vivo vegetative propagation (via for example cuttings, splitting or division, layering, earthing up, grafting or budding, and other methods known to the gardener or horticulturist), has for many years played an important role in agriculture; e.g. with potatoes, apples, pears, many ornamental bulbs and tuberous plants like potatoes, many arboricultural crops, carnations, chrysanthemums, etc. Vegetative propagation is also very important in plant breeding: parent lines have to be maintained and propagated vegetatively for seed production; cloning is often required for setting up gene banks; adventitious shoot formation is needed to obtain solid mutants after mutation induction.
However, the classical methods of in vivo vegetative propagation often fall short (to slow, too difficult or too expensive) of that required or are completely impossible. In the last couple of decades, since the discovery that plants can be more rapidly cloned in vitro than in vivo, knowledge concerning vegetative propagation has grown quickly; this holds equally true for plants from temperate, subtropical as well as tropical regions. It has now even become possible to clone species by in vitro culture techniques that are impossible to clone in vivo. Different methods of in vitro vegetative or seedless propagation from plant starting material are for example using single-node cuttings, axillary branching, regeneration of adventitious organs (roots or shoots) on starting material such as explants or callus tissue and regeneration of plants from suspensions of, or even single, cells or protoplasts used as starting material. For the generation of transformed or transgenic plants, in vitro propagation is even considered a prerequisite, since it is the totipotency of individual plant cells that underlies most plant transformation systems.
To propagate plants from starting material in vitro, it is in principle necessary that at least one cell in the starting material is capable of regeneration. The ability to regenerate is for example determined by the genotype, the environmental conditions (nutrient supply, regulators and physical conditions) or the developmental stage of the plant, or combinations of these. It is well known that some families and genera have high regeneration ability: Solanacea (Solanum, Nicotiana, Petunia, Datura, and Lycopersion), Crucifera (Lunaria, Brassica, Arabidopsis), Generiaceae (Achimenes, Saintpaulia, Streptocarpus) Compositae (Chicornum, Lactuca, Chrysantemum), Liliaceae (Litium, Haworthia) Allium, Ornithogalum) but others, such as many decorative plants, woody species such as shrubs, conifers or trees, especially fruit trees, Rosacea, Alstroemeria, Euphorbia, and bulbs such as Tulipa, and others are notoriously difficult, even with in vitro techniques.
As indicated above, regeneration (self-renewal of (micro-)organisms and self-renewal of plants, animals or parts thereof, i.e. vegetative reproduction/propagation) can also be considered a repair strategy observed throughout the realm of micro-organisms, animal and plant species. Regeneration in plants for example comprises the formation of new tissues containing both root and shoot meristems, separate shoot or root meristems, plant organs or organ primordia from individual cells or groups of cells. Regeneration in general mimics the process of normal cellular and organ differentiation that takes place during plant development and results in the formation of the different plant organs. In normal development, early in ontogony, cells and tissues of common lineage diverge into often contrasting paths of development as they respond to developmental signals. This ability to develop in response to a specific signal is also known as cellular competence or cellular potentiality. As competent cells become committed to particular paths of differentiation, they are not readily diverted into other pathways; this restriction of the developmental potentiality of cells is referred to as determination.
Plant cells or groups of cells that under normal conditions are unable to initiate the formation of certain plant organs, meristems or organ primordia can often be stimulated by extracellular stimuli modifying the differentiation stage of the cell. Extracellular diffusible factors have shown to be essential for cellular redifferentiation in plant cells (Siegel and Verbeke, 1989 Science 244, 580-582). The perception of these signals at the cellular surface and the intracellular signal transduction that finally result in changes in transcriptional regulation provides cells with the ability to respond to such extracellular stimuli. Regeneration can result in the formation of either a shoot alone or a root alone or both together. Only after redifferentiation of a cell or tissue, regeneration is possible that results in differentiated tissue that again comprises the necessary three-dimensional layout of the emerging plant, the apical-basal or shoot-root body plan from which the mature desired plant can develop.
Indeed, central in in vitro techniques for seedless propagation are phytohormones and other factors often added to the culture medium that mimic these extracellular stimuli. For the process of regeneration of the original starting cell into a multicellular totipotent tissue underlying and preceding somatic embryogenesis or organogenesis in vitro in cell, tissue or explant cultures which lead to a fully differentiated plant again, in general a well balanced, and per plant species often different, phytohormone addition to the culture is required. Overall, a balance is required between auxins on the one hand and cytokinin on the other. After exogenous exposure to auxin (such as 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), chloramben or dicamba) or cytokinin (such as 6-benzylaminopurine or zeatine) or both, cells or tissue react by development of the shoot-root body plan, for example by forming shoots and/or roots, sometimes readily, sometimes erratically especially when the proper balance between the hormones is not properly selected.
Regeneration in vitro and especially the manipulatable nature of in vitro culture thus depends mainly on the application of these two types of hormones, and also on the ability of the tissue to respond to phytohormonal changes during culture. In general, three phases of regeneration are recognisable. In the first phase, cells in the culture acquire "competence", which is defined as the ability (not capacity) to respond to hormonal signals of organ induction. The process of acquisition of said organogenic competence is often referred to as "dedifferentiation" of differentiated cells to acquire organogenic competence. The competent cells in the culture are canalised and determined for specific tissue and organ formation for re-entry of quiescent cells into cell cycle, and organisation of cell division along the lines of the shoot-root body plan to form specific primordia and meristems under the influence of the phytohormone balance through the second phase. Especially auxin is thought to be involved in specific regenerative signal transduction pathways for adventitious root initiation, whereas cytokinin is thought to be involved in specific regenerative signal transduction pathways for adventitious shoot initiation.
Then the morphogenesis, the growing of the plant to its fully differentiated state, proceeds independently of the exogenously supplied hormones during the third phase.
Although the general principles governing regeneration via addition of exogenous phytohormones are thus fairly well understood, designing working in vitro culture protocols finding the right balance, the right time of administration or the right type or subtype of said hormones for a great many individual species is still more or less a process of trial-and-error. However, as already indicated above, for in vitro regeneration or seedless propagation of a great many plant species is a large interest, especially for those that are in general hard to propagate.
The invention provides a culture method for propagation of a plant from plant starting material wherein, especially in the phase of the development of the shoot-root body plan, root or shoot initiation is stimulated by introducing at least one recombinant gene product or functional fragment thereof in said starting material, for example by stimulating at least one signal transduction pathway for root or shoot initiation, said gene product or gene products for example derived from a gene or genes involved in the regulation of plant development, allowing reducing or omitting exogenous phytohormone addition to said culture in the regeneration process. In a preferred embodiment the invention provides a culture method for vegetative propagation of plants from plant starting material comprising regeneration of said starting material wherein during regeneration of said starting material at least one specific signal transduction pathway for adventitious root or shoot initiation is endogenously stimulated allowing reducing or omitting exogenous phytohormone addition to said culture, in particular wherein said pathway is endogenously stimulated by a recombinant gene product derived from a gene involved in the developmental regulation of regeneration, such as a gene or gene product involved in hormone production, a gene or gene product giving feed back on hormone production, or involved in the cascade of events leading to regeneration.
Preferably, the method as provided by the invention comprises at least one step of in vitro culture, since it is in in vitro culture that the auxins or cytokinins are most widely used, in the regeneration process, especially for plants that are notoriously difficult to regenerate for vegetative propagation such as many decorative plants, woody species such as shrubs, conifers or trees, especially fruit trees, Rosacea, Alstroemeria, Euphorbia, and bulbs such as Tulipa. However, clearly, said hormones are also commonly used in in vivo cultures as well, (in vivo cultures essentially being all crop or plant culture methods traditionally used in agriculture) where such hormones are commonly added by (root or stem) dipping, spraying or watering. Especially those plants that are propagated in an essential seedless way can now be regenerated or propagated more easily, consequently, in a preferred embodiment, the invention provides a culture method for essentially seedless propagation of plants from plant starting material comprising regeneration of said starting material wherein during regeneration at least one specific signal transduction pathway for adventitious root or shoot initiation endogenously is stimulated, e.g. by above mentioned gene product, allowing reducing or omitting exogenous phytohormone addition to said culture.


An image sensor operable in global shutter mode ma include small pixels with high charge storage capacity, low dark current, and no image lag. Storage capacity of a photodiode and a charge storage diode may be increased by placing a p+ type doped layer under the photodiode and the charge storage diode. The p+ type doped layer ma include an opening for allowing photo-generated charge carriers to flow from the silicon bulk to the charge storage well located near the surface of the photodiode. A compensating n− type doped implant may be formed in the opening. Image lag is prevented by placing a p− type doped region under the p+ type doped photodiode pinning layer and aligned with the opening. The p+ type doped layer may extend under the entire pixel array.

This relates to solid-state image sensors and, more specifically, to image sensors capable of operating in global shutter mode and having small pixels with high well capacity.
Typical image sensors sense light by converting impinging photons into electrons or holes that are integrated (collected) in sensor pixels. After completion of an integration cycle collected charge is converted into a voltage, which is supplied to the output terminals of the sensor. In complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, the charge to voltage conversion is accomplished directly in the pixels themselves and the analog pixel voltage is transferred to the output terminals through various pixel addressing and scanning schemes. The analog signal can be also converted on-chip to a digital equivalent before reaching the chip output. The pixels have incorporated in them a buffer amplifier, typically a source follower (SF), which drives the sense lines that are connected to the pixels by suitable addressing transistors.
After charge to voltage conversion is completed and the resulting signal transferred out from the pixels, the pixels are reset in order to be ready for accumulation of new charge. In pixels that use a floating diffusion (FD) as the charge detection node, the reset is accomplished by turning on a reset transistor that conductively connects the floating diffusion node to a voltage reference, which is typically the pixel drain node. This step removes collected charge; however, it also generates kTC-reset noise as is well known in the art. This kTC-reset noise is removed from the signal using a Correlated Double Sampling (CDS) signal processing technique in order to achieve the desired low noise performance. CMOS image sensors that utilize a CDS technique usually include three transistors (3 T) or four transistors (4 T) in the pixel, one of which serves as the charge transferring (Tx) transistor. It is possible to share some of the pixel circuit transistors among several photodiodes, which also reduces the pixel size. An example of a 4 T pixel circuit with pinned photodiode can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,210 to Lee, incorporated herein as a reference.
FIG. 1 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a portion of a typical image sensor pixel 100. As shown in FIG. 1, image sensor pixel 100 includes a pixel photodiode (PD) that collects photon-generated carriers, a charge transfer gate 110 of a charge transfer transistor, and a floating diffusion 104. The pixel is fabricated in a substrate 101 having a p+ type doped layer 102 deposited on a back surface. The device substrate 101 also includes an epitaxial p− type doped layer 115 situated above the p+ type doped layer 102. The photons that enter this region generate carriers that are collected in the potential well of the photodiode (PD) formed in region 108.
The surface of epitaxial layer 115 is covered by an oxide layer 109 that isolates the doped poly-silicon charge transfer gate Tx 110 from the substrate. A masking cap oxide 111 is deposited on an upper surface of poly-silicon gate 110, which serves as a patterning hard mask as well as an additional blocking mask for the ion implantation that forms the photodiode charge storage region. The photodiode is formed by an n− type doped layer 108 and a p+ type doped potential pinning layer 107.
Sidewall spacers 116 are sometimes incorporated to control the mutual edge positions of p+ type doped layer 107 and charge storage layer 108. The floating diffusion diode 104 that senses charge transferred from the photodiode is connected to the pixel source follower transistor (not shown). The floating diffusion, source follower, and the remaining pixel circuit components are all built in the p− type doped well 103 that diverts photon-generated charge into the photodiode potential well located in layer 108. The pixels are isolated from each other by p+ type doped regions 105 and 106, which may extend all the way to the p+ type doped layer 102. The whole pixel is covered by several inter-level (IL) oxide layers 112, (only one is shown in FIG. 1) that are used for pixel metal wiring and interconnect isolation. The pixel active circuit components are connected to the wiring by metal via plugs 114 deposited through contact holes 113.
Pixel well capacity is determined primarily by the capacitance between p+ type doped layer 107 and charge storage layer 108. By increasing the doping levels in these layers, it is possible to achieve close-to-abrupt doping profiles in the vertical direction in these layers and approach the maximum electric field intensity permissible in the silicon before breakdown. Some contribution to charge storage capacitance is also obtained from the capacitance between n− type doped layer 108 and pixel p+ type doped separation layers 105 and 106. However, due to ion implantation doping profile straggle in the lateral direction, it is not generally possible to achieve the same abrupt doping profile characteristic in this direction as in the vertical direction. There is also almost no storage well capacity contribution from the capacitance between layer 108 and substrate p− type epitaxial doping region 115.
Image sensors are being fabricated with smaller and smaller pixels. It is not uncommon for pixels to have sub-micron dimensions. When pixel size is reduced, the area of doping layers 108 and 107 is also reduced, which in turn leads to a loss in well capacity. An improvement in storage well capacity in small size pixels is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,247,853 to Hynecek, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Additional challenges arise when image sensors operable in global shutter mode are provided with smaller pixels. For global shutter operation, it is necessary to incorporate another storage site into each pixel to store charge that is transferred from the photodiode after a global transfer operation and to hold the charge until it can be read out in a row-by-row fashion.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view of a conventional image sensor having circuitry for operating in global shutter mode. FIG. 2 also shows the corresponding maximum potential profile under each region of the pixel.
Image sensor 200 of FIG. 2 includes a pixel photodiode (PD) that collects photon-generated carriers, a charge transfer gate 210 of a charge transfer transistor, and a floating diffusion (FD) 204. The pixel is fabricated in a substrate 201 having a p+ type doped layer 202 deposited on a back surface. The device substrate 201 also includes an epitaxial p− type doped layer 215 situated above the p+ type doped layer 202. The photons that enter this region generate carriers that are collected in the potential well of the photodiode formed in region 208.
The surface of epitaxial layer 215 is covered by an oxide layer 209 that isolates the doped poly-silicon charge transfer gate Tx1 210 from the substrate. A masking cap oxide 211 is deposited on an upper surface of poly-silicon gate 240, which serves as a patterning hard mask as well as an additional blocking mask for the ion implantation that forms the photodiode charge storage region. The photodiode is formed by an n− type doped layer 208 and a p+ type doped potential pinning layer 207. Sidewall spacers 216 are sometimes incorporated to control the mutual edge positions of p+ type doped layer 207 and charge storage layer 208.
The floating diffusion diode 204 that senses charge transferred from the photodiode is connected to the pixel source follower transistor (not shown). The floating diffusion diode, source follower transistor, and the remaining pixel circuit components are all built in the p− type doped well 203 that diverts photon-generated charge into the photodiode potential well located in layer 208. The pixels are isolated from each other by p+ type doped regions 205 and 206, which may extend all the way to the p+ type doped layer 202. The whole pixel is covered by several inter-level (IL) oxide layers 212 (only one is shown in FIG. 2) that are used for pixel metal wiring and interconnect isolation. The pixel active circuit components are connected to the wiring by metal via plugs 214 deposited through contact holes 213.
To implement global shatter functionality, image sensor 200 includes a storage diode (SD) well 218 and a corresponding pinning implant 217. These are fabricated at the same time that regions 208 and 207 are fabricated, using the same implant doses and energies. A second transfer gate (Tx2) is used for transferring charge from the storage diode well 218 to the floating diffusion node 204 during row-by-row sequential readout operations.
Global shutter is activated by applying a pulse to the transfer gate (Tx1). This gate has an additional implanted region 228 under a portion of its gate, which forms a potential barrier preventing charge from flowing back into the photodiode during charge transfer to the storage region. Applying a pulse to the Tx1 gate results in a potential profile change under the gate from level 224 to level 223 and back to level 224. Charge that has accumulated in the photodiode potential well 221 during the integration period is thus transferred to storage well 222.
During a readout cycle, the Tx2 gates of the selected row are pulsed, which results in a maximum potential profile change under the Tx2 gate from level 226 to level 225 and back to level 226. This causes the charge carriers to flow to the floating diffusion region and change its potential from its reset level 227. This change is sensed by the SF transistor and delivered to the array row processing circuits located at the periphery of the image sensor.
As shown in FIG. 2, the pixel storage diode (SD) area occupies almost the same area of the pixel as the photodiode (PD). This can in turn lead to challenges when fabricating an image sensor with small pixels. For example, forming a conventional pixel of the type shown in FIG. 2 with sub-micron dimensions can have adverse effects on pixel charge storage capacity, dark current, image lag, and overall image sensor performance.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved image sensors such as image sensors operable in global shutter mode and having small image sensor pixels (e.g., pixels with sub-micron dimensions).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Image sensors operable in global shutter mode and having small pixels with high well capacity

Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC


A data transforming method and apparatus of a database management system for transforming data within a disk storage device between database data formats, thereby reducing the system load, when converting data formats between database management systems. The invention includes a skeleton program for instructing data transformation and a communication program being provided on a host computer, and a data transformation program for transforming data formats and a communication program being provided on a disk storage. A request sent from the skeleton program via the communication programs to the data transformation program, causes the data format transformation to occur within the disk storage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for transforming data formats between different database management systems and an apparatus for executing the method, and more particularly to a method for transforming data formats between different database management systems, which needs no data transfer between a host computer and a disk storage device to reduce the system load when transforming a large scale database, and an apparatus for achieving the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the decade of 1990, data intensive applications have been emerged, such as data mining, data warehouse, and decision support system, which may process large amount of data. In such a situation, the amount of data doubles year by year, solutions adapted for efficiently managing data have been demanded. SAN (Storage Area Network) is one of solutions proposed in the second semester of 1998.
SAN is a network dedicated for data transfer, composed of storages and computers that access the storages. For example, data backup was done by using a LAN connecting other computers. When using SAN, the network dedicated for data transfer, the load traffic on the LAN can be reduced. The reduction of load on the LAN is one of major purposes of SAN. SAN may also be characterized by easy data sharing. This is because computers connected to SAN have physically access to any magnetic disk drives connected thereto.
However, when two computers can physically access to one same magnetic disk drive, it does not necessarily mean that the data can be shared at the application level. Data that is managed by a database management system (DBMS herein below) or a file system on one of those computers may be accessed by another computer, however another computer may have no means to interpret it. For this reason a variety of converter softwares have been developed for achieving data sharing between a file system and a DBMS or between different DBMS.
Data mining is often discussed as a method of effective exploitation of huge amount of data and tools for data mining are actively developed. In general, data mining tools may use data (for example, consumers' data) stored by OLTP (Online Transaction Program). An OLTP usually runs on a mainframe, and uses a DBMS for managing data. A data-mining tool, on the other hand, runs on an open system such as Unix or Windows NT, and analyses data after storing data into a DBMS. Here lies the necessity of data transfer from a mainframe to an open system and data conversion between different DBMS.
As known techniques of data conversion method between different DBMS there are discloses such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,016,501 and 6,035,307.
An EDM system (Enterprise Data Movement) system, cited in the above patent application Ser. No. 6,016,501 extracts data from the source DBMS to transform data format to that of targeted DBMS and feed the transformed data to the target DBMS. In general, data of the source DBMS and that of target DBMS are stored in a disk storage device, and the EDM system runs on a server. The data of source DBMS will be extracted to the server from the disk storage device through a SCSI channel, transformed to the data format specified by the target DBMS on the server, and loaded to the data field of the target DBMS through the SCSI channel.
FIG. 11 shows schematically this method.
FIG. 11 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a data conversion method in accordance with the Prior Art.
In the data conversion as shown in FIG. 11, data in a DB 1 format, stored in a disk 200A of a disk storage device 120 will be loaded into a Unix host computer 100B, transformed to data in a DB 2 format by the data extraction/conversion/loading program to write into the disk 200B.
The data transfer between server and disk storage occurs twice here (once for reading out source data, and once for writing down the transformed data).
For the purpose of performing data mining, the amount of data transferred from the mainframe to the Unix host can easily reach to a few Tbytes (terabytes). This amount can be otherwise described a 10-hours course using a fibre channel of 100 Mbytes per second. The load to the entire system will be reached to an extreme.
There may be cases in which instead of one-step operation of the extraction/conversion/loading from the source DBMS data format to the target DBMS data format, the operation may be performed in three separated steps of extraction, conversion, and loading. In FIG. 11 of the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,307, an example of the Prior Art is cited, which perform database format conversion via a few intermediate-working formats.
A database format conversion using some intermediate file formats will be described here by referring to FIG. 12.
FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary data conversion in accordance with the Prior Art.
In a mainframe 100A, there is an extractor program, which transforms DB 1 format data in a disk 200A to the format 1 data on the disk 200B. On a Unix host 100B a transformer program and loader program are installed, the transformer program transforms the format 1 data on the disk 200B to the format 2 data on a disk 200C, while the loader program transforms the format 2 data on the disk 200D to the DB format 2 data on the disk 200D.
When transforming data of a database, if the intermediate data formats are used, the transformed intermediate data will also be written to the disk storage device. As a result the number of data transfer between the serve and disk storage will increase to 6 in this case, indicating the increase of data transfer time 6 times.
In the Prior Art as have been described above, data transformation is done on the host. This causes a problem that the data transformation will put some extreme load for the system. The larger the size of database is, the severer the problem becomes.
On the other hand, if the data transformation can be performed within a disk storage device, the data transfer between the server and the disk storage will be omitted.

Method for transforming data formats between different database systems, an apparatus for executing the method and the program of the method


An apparatus for nonobtrusively determining one or more parameters, such as dead band, dead time, or response time of a process control device that is connected on-line in a process control loop includes a measurement unit and a processing unit. The measurement unit is coupled to the process control loop to detect stochastic changes in a control signal sent to the process control device and to detect an indication of the response of the process control device to the changes in the control signal while the process control device is operating on-line. The processing unit calculates the device parameters from one or more sets of the detected changes in the control signal and the detected response indication.

Large scale commercial manufacturing and refining processes typically use a process controller to control the operation of one or more process control devices such as valve mechanisms which, in turn, control one or more process variables comprising, for example, fluid flow, temperature, pressure, etc., within the process. Generally, each process control device has an actuator controlled by a positioner that moves an associated control element, such as a valve plug, a damper, or some other alterable opening member in response to a command signal generated by the process controller. The control element of a process control device may, for example, move in response to changing fluid pressure on a spring biased diaphragm or a piston or in response to the rotation of a shaft, each of which may be caused by a change in the command signal. In one standard valve mechanism, a command signal with a magnitude varying in the range of 4 to 20 mA (milliamperes) causes a positioner to alter the amount of fluid and thus, the fluid pressure, within a pressure chamber in proportion to the magnitude of the command signal. Changing fluid pressure in the pressure chamber causes a diaphragm to move against a bias spring which, in turn, causes movement of a valve plug coupled to the diaphragm.
Process control devices usually develop or produce a feedback signal indicative of the response of the device to the command signal and provide this feedback signal (or response indication) to the process controller for use in controlling a process. For example, valve mechanisms typically produce a feedback signal indicative of the position (e.g., travel) of a valve plug, the pressure within a fluid chamber or the value of some other phenomena related to the actual position of the valve plug.
While a process controller generally uses these feedback signals, along with other signals, as inputs to a highly tuned, centralized control algorithm that effects overall control of a process, it has been discovered that poor control loop performance may still be caused by poor operating conditions of the individual control devices connected within the control loop. In many cases, problems associated with one or more of the individual process control devices cannot be tuned out of the control loop by the process controller and, as a result, the poorly performing control loops are placed in manual or are detuned to the point where they are effectively in manual. The processes associated with these control loops require constant supervision by one or more experienced human operators, which is undesirable.
Poor control loop performance can usually be overcome by monitoring the operational condition or the "health" of each of the process control devices connected within the loop, or at least the most critical process control devices connected within the loop, and repairing or replacing the poorly performing process control devices. The health of a process control device can be determined by measuring one or more parameters associated with the process control device and determining if the one or more parameters is outside of an acceptable range.
One process control device parameter that may be used to determine, and that is indicative of the health of a process control device is dead band. Generally speaking, in process instrumentation, dead band is the range through which an input signal may be varied, upon reversal of direction, without initiating an observable change in an output signal. Dead band, which may be caused by the physical play between mechanically interconnected components, friction, and/or other known physical phenomena, is best observed when a command signal causes a reversal in the direction of movement of a moveable element of a process control device. During this reversal, the command signal undergoes a discrete amount of change (dead band) before the movable element of the process control device actually exhibits movement in the new direction. Put another way, the difference between the value of the command signal (or other control signal) at which movement of the process control device element in a first direction last occurred and the value of the command signal (or other control signal) at which the movement of the process control device element first occurs in a second and different direction is a measure of the dead band of the process control device.
Other device parameters that may be used to determine the health of a process control device are dead time and response time. Dead time is associated with, and may be considered to be a measurement of the amount of time it takes the process control device to actually begin moving a moveable element in response to a change in a control signal. Response time is the amount of time it takes the moveable element of a process control device to reach a certain percentage, for example 63 percent, of its final value in response to a change in a control signal.
If the dead band, dead time, response time, or other process control device parameter(s) of a process control device increase a significant amount over their calibrated values, it may be necessary to repair or replace the process control device to establish adequate control within the process control loop. However, it is not usually very easy to measure process control device parameters, such as dead band, dead time, and response time to monitor the health of functioning process control devices when those devices are connected on-line within a control loop.
In the past, operators have had to remove a process control device from a control loop to bench test the device or, alternatively, control loops have been provided with bypass valves and redundant process control devices to make it possible to bypass a particular process control device to thereby test that device while the process is operating. Alternatively, operators have had to wait until a process is halted or is undergoing a scheduled shut-down to test the individual process control devices within the process. Each of these options is time consuming, expensive, and still only provides intermittent measurement of the parameters of the individual process control devices required to determine the health of those control devices.

Method of and apparatus for nonobtrusively obtaining on-line measurements of a process control device parameter


This invention provides a light-emitting element and the manufacture method thereof. The light-emitting element is suitable for flip-chip bonding and comprises an electrode having a plurality of micro-bumps for direct bonding to a submount. Bonding within a relatively short distance between the light-emitting device and the submount can be formed so as to improve the heat dissipation efficiency of the light-emitting device.

Employing light emitting diode (LED) in high power illumination, besides continuously promoting brightness, heat dissipation is another main problem that is indeed necessary to be solved. When light extraction efficiency is not good, the light, which cannot pierce a light-emitting device including LED and its encapsulant, transforms into heat. If the heat cannot be dissipated out of the light-emitting device effectively, the temperature is going to raise during operation. Thus, reliability problem comes out. Prior arts provide a lot of methods for solving the problem of heat dissipation of elements. Taking a light-emitting element having GaN series grown on a sapphire substrate as example, double transfer method is used to remove the sapphire substrate with worse heat dissipation by laser lift-off or chemical etching, then a silicone substrate with better heat dissipation is connected to the light-emitting element in order to improve the heat dissipation effect of the light-emitting element. Another improving method is to take flip-chip bonding to replace traditional wire bonding. FIG. 1 shows that a known light-emitting device with flip-chip bonding comprises a LED 10 and a submount unit 20. Solder bumps 24 are formed on a first bond pad 22 and a second bond pad 23, for connecting the LED 10 to the submount unit 20 in a bonding process. The solder bumps 24 are formed on the first bond pad 22 and second bond pad 23 one by one through the gold stud bump method. Through thermosonic bonding method, ultrasonic wave is provided on the junction of the solder bumps 24 of the submount unit 20 and electrodes 15 and 16 of the LED 10 to make the junction quickly rub to produce high heat for melting and bonding. Generally, diameter of a gold stud is about 50 um. Dimension of every gold stud must be close to avoid that the short gold stud cannot tough the junction to influence the characteristics of products and bonding performance. In addition, because the gold stud is that the front of a gold wire is melted to become a spheroid and then is bonded on the submount through thermosonice bonding, dimension of the gold stud is restricted to that of the gold wire not to be further contracted. Thickness is still larger than 20 um after bonding so the thermal resistance between the LED 10 and a submount 21 cannot be reduced. Thus, the application of the LED 10 in the high power device is restricted.
Therefore, this invention provides a light-emitting element which is applicable to direct flip-chip bonding, without additional solder bump on the submount. This invention also comprises the advantages of wide bonding area, short bonding distance, high heat dissipation, great reliability, and low cost.

Light emitting device and the manufacture method thereof


Transistor-based sensors and fabrication methods for a transistor-based sensor. A semiconductor layer is arranged over a substrate, and an interconnect structure is arranged over the semiconductor layer and the substrate. The semiconductor layer includes first sections composed of a semiconductor material, second sections composed of the semiconductor material, and cavities. The first sections have an alternating arrangement with the second sections in a lateral direction. The semiconductor material of the first sections is polycrystalline, and the semiconductor material of the second sections is single-crystal. First and second openings each extend in a vertical direction through the metallization levels of the interconnect structure to the semiconductor layer or through the substrate to the semiconductor layer. The first opening defines a first fluid inlet coupled to the cavities, and the second opening defines a first fluid outlet coupled to the cavities.

The invention relates generally to semiconductor device and integrated circuit fabrication and, in particular, to structures including transistor-based sensors and fabrication methods for a transistor-based sensor.
A bipolar junction transistor is a three-terminal electronic device that includes an emitter, a collector, and an intrinsic base arranged between the emitter and collector. In an NPN bipolar junction transistor, the emitter and collector may be composed of n-type semiconductor material, and the intrinsic base may be composed of p-type semiconductor material. In a PNP bipolar junction transistor, the emitter and collector may be composed of p-type semiconductor material, and the intrinsic base may be composed of n-type semiconductor material. In operation, the base-emitter junction is forward biased, the base-collector junction is reverse biased, and the collector-emitter current may be controlled with the base-emitter voltage.
A heterojunction bipolar transistor is a variant of a bipolar junction transistor in which at least two of the collector, emitter, and intrinsic base are composed of semiconductor materials with different energy bandgaps, which creates heterojunctions. For example, the collector and/or emitter of a heterojunction bipolar transistor may be composed of silicon, and the base of a heterojunction bipolar transistor may be composed of silicon germanium (SiGe), which is characterized by a narrower band gap than silicon.
Bipolar junction transistors may be used in sensing applications, such as biosensors. Transistor-based sensors rely on sensing charged ions or charged particles with a solution-receiving cavity that is incorporated into a modified back-end-of-line structure on a wafer. Modifications to the back-end-of-line structure to accommodate the cavity tend to be costly because a large sense area must be reserved in the back-end-of-line structure for the formation of the cavity. In addition, packaging from the front-side of the wafer is needed in order to receive solutions in the cavity.
Improved transistor-based sensors and fabrication methods for a transistor-based sensor are needed.

Sensors based on a heterojunction bipolar transistor construction


Methods, systems, and computer readable media for predicting imminent Diameter overload conditions using load information are disclosed. One embodiment of a system for implementing the subject matter described herein includes a first Diameter node including at least one network interface for receiving Diameter messages and a Diameter overload prediction unit. The Diameter overload prediction unit may be configured to extract load information from the Diameter messages, detect a traffic pattern using the extracted load information, predict at least one overload condition associated with one or more other Diameter nodes, and communicate an indication of the predicted overload condition to at least some of the other Diameter nodes before a time at which the overload condition is predicted to occur.

Diameter is an authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) protocol for computer networks, and is a successor to Radius. The Diameter base protocol is defined in International Engineering Task Force (IETF) request for comments (RFC) 6733 which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Diameter messages use a per user framework and exist in the format of request-answer messages. Diameter answer messages travel back to the request source via the same path through which the request message was routed using hop-by-hop transport.
Diameter messages may be exchanged between Diameter nodes for performing various functions. For example, a mobility management entity (MME) and a home subscriber server (HSS) may interact for authentication, authorization, and/or accounting (AAA) purposes. Since communication networks use Diameter messages to perform a variety of functions, it is necessary to make sure Diameter nodes are working correctly and as expected, and to prevent and/or abate overload conditions from occurring at one or more Diameter nodes.
Diameter overload control is a mechanism by which a Diameter node indicates to other Diameter nodes that the reporting Diameter node is in an overloaded condition. The Diameter overload control mechanism may also be used to communicate existing load state information. Currently, there are two mechanisms proposed by the Diameter maintenance and extensions (DIME) working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for carrying and reporting overload conditions and load information within a network. The first mechanism is a piggy-backing mechanism that uses existing Diameter messages to carry overload conditions and/or load state information over the existing messages. This mechanism is specified in IETF Internet Draft draft-roach-dime-overload-ctrl-03, May 17, 2013, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The second mechanism uses Diameter application messages that are used only for communicating Diameter overload control information and/or load state information. This mechanism is specified in IETF Internet Draft draft-korhonen-dime-ovl-01.txt, Feb. 25, 2013, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Using either mechanism, problems exist when overload conditions are not detected and/or reported quickly enough, resulting in one or more networks and/or elements thereof becoming slow, congested, and/or altogether stop working. Other problems occur when overload conditions onset quickly and/or occur suddenly. For example, when an abnormal event occurs within a highly populated area (e.g., a crime or tragic event occurs at a largely attended sporting event), people naturally reach for their phones to make emergency calls, exchange text messages, send/upload pictures, download videos, etc. This sudden onset of activity can overload networks and/or components thereof, and may cause the networks to get extremely sluggish and possibly fail.
Accordingly, in light of these difficulties, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for predicting impending Diameter overload conditions using load information.

Methods, systems and computer readable media for predicting overload conditions using load information


A method for producing semiconductor wafers is by a repeated sequence of grinding the end face of a monocrystal using a grinding tool and cutting a semiconductor wafer having a thickness from the monocrystal using a cutting tool, a grinding abrasion of a specified depth being produced during grinding and the semiconductor wafer being cut in a cutting plane which is as parallel as possible to the ground end face. The method includes (a) simultaneously grinding a part of the surface of an auxiliary body, to produce a ground surface of the auxiliary body and the end face of the monocrystal lying substantially in one plane and the thickness of the material abraded from the auxiliary body by grinding being substantially equal to the grinding abrasion; (b) cutting into the auxiliary body in the cutting plane using the cutting tool and producing a cut section which has a ground part and an unground part, and (c) determining the grinding abrasion, either (1) as the distance between the ground surface of the auxiliary body and the surface of the auxiliary body before grinding, or (2) as the difference in the thickness of the cut section in the unground part and the thickness of the semiconductor wafer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing semiconductor wafers by a repeated sequence of grinding the end face of a monocrystal using a grinding tool and cutting a semiconductor wafer from the monocrystal using a cutting tool, a grinding abrasion of a specified depth being produced during grinding, and the semiconductor wafer being cut in a cutting plane which is as parallel as possible to the ground end face.
2. The Prior Art
The grinding of the end face of the monocrystal produces a first flat side face on the semiconductor wafer. After the semiconductor wafer is separated from the monocrystal, this first flat side face is used as a reference face and the opposite side face is ground parallel to this reference face. The desired result is a semiconductor wafer having flat and parallel side faces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,461 describes how the grinding of the end face of the monocrystal eliminates unevenness which is attributable to deflections of the saw blade during the cutting of a semiconductor wafer and which would result in warped semiconductor wafers. Conventionally, the saw blade of an annular saw is used as the cutting tool. While the saw blade is working through the monocrystal, sawing forces occur which deflect the saw blade from the intended cutting plane situated parallel to the ground end face of the monocrystal. The actual cutting plane is therefore not completely flat, but slightly curved and this unevenness is reflected in the quality of the end face of the monocrystal. Before the next semiconductor wafer can be cut, the end face has to be ground flat again.
The repeated sequence of grinding the end face of the monocrystal and cutting a semiconductor wafer from the monocrystal applies stresses both to the grinding tool and to the cutting tool. The condition of the grinding tool can be determined with a perthometer. However, this requires a fairly long shutdown time for the grinding machine since the investigation is carried out on the grinding tool and much time has to be expended on dismantling and reassembly and also on the readjustment of the grinding tool. Wear phenomena or changes in operating parameters may result in the deflection behavior of the saw blade altering over the course of time. These changes may alter the cutting pattern when a semiconductor wafer is being cut, and lead to a different cutting pattern from the cutting pattern that results when a subsequent semiconductor wafer is later being cut. Sensors were therefore developed to enable alterations in the cutting pattern to be observed and followed even during the cutting operation. Suitable sensors are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,475.
When the end face of the monocrystal is being ground, an attempt is made to keep the grinding abrasion to a minimum. The grinding abrasion is specified in a length unit. It corresponds to the distance between the ground end face and the highest material elevation on the unground end face. If the resulting grinding abrasion is too high, material is wasted and the yield of semiconductor wafers per monocrystal is reduced. If the grinding abrasion is too low, the unevenness on the end face of the monocrystal is not adequately removed and the semiconductor wafers produced are defective.
A specified grinding abrasion can be set very accurately with the aid of the feed unit which moves the grinding tool and/or moves the monocrystal for the purpose of grinding. A predetermined required grinding abrasion may, however, soon prove to be too low, for example, because the magnitude of the deflection of the saw blade has increased during the course of the wafer production. On the other hand, the saw gap in the monocrystal due to the saw blade may become thinner, for example, as a consequence of wear of the saw blade. This wear will cause the result that, if the original grinding abrasion is maintained, more material would be ground from the end face of the monocrystal than necessary.
Since the reference grinding abrasion and the necessary actual grinding abrasion may be different, there is an urgent requirement to be able to determine the grinding abrasion at least from time to time. However, this is difficult to do. One known method is to cut a semiconductor wafer from the monocrystal at regular intervals without the end face of the monocrystal being previously ground beforehand. The grinding abrasion is then measured directly from the thickness of the semiconductor wafer, provided the cutting conditions have not changed since the penultimate cutting of a semiconductor wafer. Constant cutting conditions may be assumed if sensors do not reveal any substantial alteration in the cutting pattern during the cutting of two consecutive semiconductor wafers. A disadvantage of this known method described above, in particular, is that the semiconductor wafer investigated becomes a reject and reduces the yield, because it lacks the flat reference face and cannot be used as intended.

Method of producing semiconductor wafers

Wacker Siltronic Gesellschaft fur Halbleitermaterialien AG


An image sensing device is disclosed. The image sensing device includes a semiconductor substrate including an active region, a first impurity region and a second impurity region formed in the active region, a photoelectric conversion region disposed over the semiconductor substrate to be directly coupled to the first impurity region and configured to generate photocharges in response to incident light and transmit the generated photocharges to the first impurity region, a switching element disposed coupled to the first impurity region and the second impurity region and configured to transmit the photocharges stored in the first impurity region to the second impurity region, an insulation structure disposed on sides of the photoelectric conversion region and a plurality of conductive lines disposed in the insulation structure and configured to read out an electrical image signal corresponding to the photocharges generated by the photoelectric conversion region.

An image sensing device is a semiconductor device for converting an optical image into electrical signals. Image sensing devices may be classified into CCD (Charge Coupled Device)-based image sensing devices and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor)-based image sensing devices.
In recent times, with the increasing development of CMOS image sensors, demand for high-quality and high-performance CMOS image sensors is rapidly increasing in various electronic appliances, for example, smartphones, digital cameras, etc. The CMOS image sensor includes a photoelectric conversion element to generate charges from incident light received from an external part, and one or more circuits to process electrical signals corresponding to the generated charges.

Image sensing device and method for forming the same


An exemplary surface contact card holder (800) for holding a surface contact card (40) includes a body (10) and a guiding mechanism (20). The body has a receiving space (105) therein. The guiding mechanism is movably provided in the receiving space. The guiding mechanism is configured for selectably one of retaining the surface contact card in the receiving space and withdrawing the surface contact card from the receiving space. The guiding mechanism includes a pulling lever (201) and a spring element (202). One end of the spring element is fixed on the pulling lever and the other end of the spring element resists the body. The spring element is pressed when the guiding mechanism is pushed out from the receiving space. The guiding mechanism automatically returns to its original position by rebounding of the spring element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to mechanisms for holding card members in an electronic device and, particularly, to a surface contact card holder for holding a surface contact card in a portable electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of wireless communication and information processing technologies, portable electronic devices such as mobile phones are now in widespread use. These electronic devices enable consumers to enjoy high-tech services, anytime and anywhere. Surface contact cards having special circuits are widely used in portable electronic devices to enhance or specialize the functions of the portable electronic devices. For example, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card can be placed in a mobile phone to dedicate the mobile phone's functions to the SIM card owner. By changing SIM cards, a single mobile phone can be used as a personal phone by many different SIM card owners.
Referring now to FIG. 7, a conventional mechanism for holding a SIM card therein includes a base 62 made of an insulating material and a holding structure 64. The base 62 defines a receiving groove 621 and a SIM connector 60 and further includes a plurality of contacts set in the middle of the receiving groove 621. The shape and size of the receiving groove 621 are the same as those of the SIM card, thus allowing the receiving groove 621 to accommodate the SIM card therein. The holding structure 64 is located adjacent to one end of the receiving groove 621 and can be moved back and forth along the direction indicated by the arrow shown in FIG. 7.
In use, firstly, the holding structure 64 is moved away from the receiving groove 421, and the SIM card is inserted into the receiving groove 621. Then, the holding structure 64 is moved to a position adjacent the receiving groove 621, so as to latch the SIM card in the receiving groove 621. In the same way, the SIM card can be released by moving the holding structure 64 away from the receiving groove 621.
In the above conventional mechanism, the holding structure 64 can be easily moved. If a mobile phone employing such a mechanism for holding a SIM card drops to ground, the mechanical shock/impact can, oftentimes, be sufficient to force the holding structure 64 to move off the receiving groove 621. As a result, the SIM card will not connect well with the SIM contactor 60 in such an instance and may even be released from the receiving groove 621. Clearly, such a conventional mechanism cannot hold the SIM card steadily in the receiving groove 621.
Therefore, a new surface contact card holder is desired in order to overcome the above-described shortcomings.

Shenzhen Futaihong Precision Industry Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to a system for charge balancing over a plurality of rechargeable energy storage devices coupled in series, said system comprising a plurality of balancing units each assigned to one of the rechargeable energy storage devices, an AC signal generator for providing an AC signal to the plurality of balancing units, and a capacitive coupling between the AC signal generator and each of the plurality of balancing units for common mode rejection. A first balancing unit comprises a plurality of switches for transferring, on the one hand, charge from the AC signal generator or from an energy storage device assigned to another balancing unit for charging the energy storage device assigned to the first balancing unit, and, on the other hand, for transferring charge to the AC signal generator or to an energy storage device assigned to another balancing unit for discharging the energy storage device assigned to the first balancing unit.

Series strings of energy storage cells are extensively used as batteries in many applications, such as, as examples only, laptops, standby power supplies, electric vehicles. Imbalances in the charges of these cells tend to occur and grow over time, as the string is charged and discharged or even when the string is left charged but unused. This reduces the efficiency of the charging and discharging process, and also limits the life and capacity of the battery. It is therefore important to ensure the uniformity of charge for all cells in a battery or capacitor string. This is called balancing the cells.
When electrical capacitor cells connected in series are charged, each cell receives the same amount of charge. According to the capacity or state of health of the cell, the voltage across each of the cells may deviate from the expected or average voltage. Hence, as the energy E stored in a cell is given by E=CU2/2, whereby C is the capacitance of the cell, and U is the voltage across the cell, the voltage U may be different for each cell, depending on the capacity or state of health of the cell. The energy stored in a cell should be as high as possible for any cell; however, the voltage across a cell should not be higher than the maximum voltage allowed for that cell. Hence, as soon as the maximum voltage for one cell is reached, there must be refrained from further charging the string, although other cells are not necessarily loaded up to their maximum voltage yet. This results in a decreased performance of the complete string of series connected cells.
Prior art attempts to balance cells have included providing a constant shunt resistor over all individual cells (passive balancing) or a means for measuring the voltage of each cell, and then switching a resistor across those with a higher charge in order to discharge them to the level of the cell with the lowest charge (active balancing). An example thereof is described in US-2002/195994. However, as most cells perform substantially identical between pre-determined boundaries, and the cells which deviate most often have a lower than expected or desired charge, this causes a wasteful loss of energy, because lots of cells need to be discharged. Moreover, this system produces heat which is undesirable in a battery container.
Alternative arrangements rely on charge transfer between cells (dynamic balancing). An example thereof is described in EP-1283580, where each energy storage device is assigned a circuit balancing unit which circuit balancing units are connected such that they draw power from their assigned energy storage device if voltage balancing is performed, and forward it to the series connection of energy storage devices. Balancing is achieved by means of an inverter and transformer for each cell for common mode rejection. Hence, this arrangement requires isolating windings, and expensive and bulky components.
DE-102007045836 discloses a charging device having an electric accumulator formed by a plurality of series-connected electric accumulator cells. The charging device is capable of charging individual ones of a plurality of electric accumulator cells. However, it is a disadvantage of this charging device that only charging or not charging is possible. In order to be able to charge individual electric accumulator cells while others are not charged, DE-102007045836 describes that an AC generator is needed for each cell. This is a further disadvantage.
It is desirable to increase the voltage of individual cells with a low voltage and/or to decrease the voltage of cells with a high voltage, as charging is limited by the highest voltage cell and discharging is limited by the lowest, hence battery capacity is determined by the two extremes.

Method and system for balancing electrical cells


An apparatus for cleaning and testing endoscopes by injecting pressurized air into the sheath and pressurized air and washing liquid into the ducts, and monitoring the same. A washing chamber is provided which contains retractable cages to hold the endoscopes during cleaning and testing. The cages include a coupler for detachably connecting tubes supplying the air and washing liquid to the endoscopes. The cages also have markings for automatically activating the apparatus when a cage containing an endoscope is inserted into the washing chamber.

The present invention relates to a new and useful apparatus for cleaning tubular articles, in particular those used in chemical, medical, biological and other laboratories, and in numerous other fields such as medicine, space technology, nuclear technics, etc. The apparatus is particularly useful for cleaning endoscopes, preferably gastroscopes, i.e. stomach endoscopes. The cleaning operation as contemplated includes disinfecting and drying of the tubular articles.
Endoscopes are devices for viewing and monitoring the interior of cavities of human and animal bodies and often allow, in addition, the taking of tissue samples (biopsy) from the body. Endoscopes are tubular, flexible optical devices which are normally introduced into the body through a natural opening therof so that a local inspection of the body cavity may be made. The particular endoscope used is adapted to the anatomical conditions of the body. A light source is incorporated into the endoscope at the leading end of a tubular, flexible shaft, and a mechanism for the movement of the endoscope head is mounted at the other, outer end of the endoscope. The image produced by the light source is conducted to an outer ocular by a light conductor, such as a fiber optic. In addition, endoscopes have several ducts or conduits for the supply and recovery of stomach or other liquids, the supply of contrasting agent, etc. All these ducts are incorporated into the tubular sheath or shaft.
Endoscopes are very expensive instruments which cannot be discarded after use but have to be cleaned, disinfected and/or sterilized.
The cleaning of the fine ducts in the endoscope is difficult. A simple rinsing is not sufficient if the ducts are clogged. Moreover, sometimes the outer shell or sheath is damaged and leaks. Finally, the correct drying of the ducts is difficult to do as well.
A washing machine disclosed in German Patent No. DE-C2-3,143,005 for cleaning laboratory and hospital articles, especially hoses, comprises the following main parts:
a machine body having a washing chamber, a collecting pool for washing liquor, a circulating pump and rotating spray arms, all these parts being known from conventional dish washing machines, and a retractable cage for receiving said tubular articles; PA0 connection means for removably connecting said tubular articles to supply tubes for washing liquor; and PA0 means for programming and controlling the washing cycle.
A cleaning apparatus for elongated devices, e.g. endoscopes, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,678 (Ott). Surprisingly, the Ott apparatus can only clean endoscopes which are attached to the free outside of the cleaning apparatus, and the mandatory sterilization of an endoscope can therefore not be performed. Cleaning hoses are attached to the endoscope by a manually operated coupling device which is not shown nor described in the patent. There is no carriage to receive the endoscope and to introduce it into a washing chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,244 (Hirai) describes an endoscope washing apparatus where the endoscope to be washed is submerged in flowing water. Washing liquor is also admitted to the channels of the endoscope but the connector unit is not described. There is no carriage to receive the endoscope and to introduce it into a washing chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,767 (Aoshiro) merely describes an endoscope and a general method for washing and testing the channels of the instrument but fails to disclose a washing apparatus.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,245 (Archer et al.) discloses a hot air sterilization device having a removable tray to support the instruments to be sterilized. However, since medical instruments having internal ducts are not mentioned for sterilization, the problem of connecting such instruments to the sterilization device is not concerned.
A major objective of this invention is to provide a washing machine that improves the known machine in several respects and allows a better, more secure, and highly automated operation.

Apparatus for cleaning and testing endoscopes


A disposal processing system is provided and includes: a disposal section that disposes of a document; a reading section that reads identification information of the document, the identification information being attached to an image on the document; a judging section that makes a judgment whether disposal of the document is permitted on the basis of the identification information; and a controller that controls the disposal section so that the disposal section disposes of the document at least one of: when the judging section makes a judgment that the disposal of the document is permitted; and when the controller acquires information indicating that the disposal of the document is permitted while the judging section makes a judgment that the disposal of the document is prohibited, and so that the disposal section does not dispose of the document when the judging section makes the judgment that the disposal of the document is prohibited.

(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a disposal processing system and a disposal processing apparatus which are suitable for use in document management.
(ii) Related Art
In general, many secret documents that should be kept secret from outsiders (e.g., parties outside the company) are handled in offices of companies and public organizations such as city halls. To prevent leakage to third parties, the originals of such secret documents are kept in storage under strict management. On the other hand, secret documents that are no longer necessary are disposed of with a shredder or the like.
In many cases, compulsory storage periods are specified for secret documents relating to accounting (bills, receipts, statements of accounts, etc.). Therefore, before disposing of a secret document by shredding, a person in charge needs to confirm, using a register of originals or the like, that disposal of the secret document the person is going to dispose of is really appropriate.
However, in the case of disposing of a large number of secret documents, the work of disposing of the secret documents while checking their respective storage periods one by one is very troublesome and takes long time. Furthermore, there is a risk that a secret document whose storage period has not expired yet may be discarded erroneously due to a human check error.

Disposal processing system and disposal processing apparatus


A high frequency, full bridge, resonant DC to DC converter provides a main DC output voltage that is regulated by adjusting the phase shift of the input power to a main input transformer and at least one additional DC output voltage that is regulated on the secondary side of the power input transformer. A main DC output voltage is regulated by a full bridge resonant switching converter with lossless switching of input power devices. At least one additional secondary winding on the transformer supplies a second DC output voltage that is regulated independently of the main DC output voltage. Two switching devices are used for each auxiliary DC output to regulate each auxiliary output voltage by adjusting the length of the on time of the pulses from the transformer's auxiliary secondary windings. Soft switching techniques are used to ensure that the switching devices turn on when the voltage across them is effectively zero.

DC-to-DC converters are known for converting a first DC voltage to a second, regulated DC voltage. Typically, a first DC voltage is converted to a series of AC pulses that are then rectified and regulated to create a second DC voltage. In many instances the AC pulses are input to the primary winding of a transformer and the secondary pulses, which may be at a higher or lower voltage than the input voltage, are rectified and regulated, the regulation often involving variation of the input pulse width. One very efficient DC-to-DC converter design is a full-bridge, resonant power converter. Such a converter is described in Steigerwald U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,479 issued Jul. 4, 1989. The converter of the Steigerwald patent is capable of operating at high frequencies, e.g. 1 MHz, and achieving high power densities. The Steigerwald converter employs a zero-voltage switching technique to produce the DC output voltage. Furthermore, zero voltage switching allows for a highly efficient conversion of power and reduced switching noise.
One way to obtain multiple output voltages from a DC-to-DC converter, such as the aforementioned full bridge resonant converter, is to provide additional windings on the output transformer. One main DC output voltage can be regulated according to the method taught in the '479 patent. In order to obtain auxiliary regulated output voltages, however, a high degree of coupling among all transformer windings is important. At high frequencies, tight coupling among all transformer windings can be difficult to achieve, resulting in output voltages that do not track closely enough. Thus it is desirable to have a regulation means for auxiliary outputs that is not closely coupled to the regulation means for the main output.
One means of regulating auxiliary DC output of a zero voltage switching power supply is described in Steigerwald, U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,264, issued Jun. 11, 1990. The '264 Steigerwald patent employs linear series-pass regulators to regulate the auxiliary voltages. A series-pass regulator, however, may be less efficient than desired, since power is wasted in the drop in voltage from the input to the output of the regulator. A more efficient scheme is desirable that would employ a switching regulator to regulate each auxiliary output and would advantageously synchronize the auxiliary regulation with the switching waveform of the secondary side of the main power transformer.

Soft switched secondary side post regulator for DC to DC converter


A global position system device including a host and a plurality of direction indicating lights is provided. The direction indicating lights are disposed at the host, wherein each direction indicating light is represented as one direction. The host controls the direction indicating lights such that one of the direction indicating lights is bright and the others are dark. Then, users are indicated by the direction indicating lights to make a turn or keep running straightforward.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a global position system (GPS) device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a global position system device, by which a user can identify the moving direction readily.
2. Description of Related Art
Global position system (GPS) is a navigation system that combines satellite technology with wireless technology for providing the position, speed, and time of a particular location. Along with the improvement of the satellite technology, business opportunities related to GPS has been rapidly developed. Through the combination of space satellites and advanced communication equipment, the technology makes a revolutionary change in the applications of our daily life. For example, a moving vehicle can use GPS to determine the exact time and path to reach a destination; an ambulance can provide with emergency medical care more effectively; the driver of a vehicle can obtain the current position and destination through an electronic map.
GPS automatic vehicle guidance system (AVGS), employs the GPS technology, wherein the satellite antenna installed inside the vehicle is incorporated with the embedded GIS database to display the current location on the computer screen, so as to guide the driver while driving. In addition, the driver can select the driving path to arrive the destination more quickly.
However, the aforementioned GPS automatic vehicle guidance system is constructed on the car, which increases the manufacturing cost of the car as well as the purchase loading of the consumer. Due to the above drawback, a mobile device with GPS function is developed.
The GPS mobile device reminds a user of the moving direction through a display panel and a voice device. Thus, the display panel needs to display the moving direction continuously and consumes the power of the GPS device. Further, the display panel of the GPS device is small. The users may make a wrong decision when observing the unclear direction indication on the display panel. Additionally, the environment noise may disturb the reminding of the GPS device and affect the decision of the users.


An apparatus for detecting a substance in a sample, particularly for in vivo detecting and measuring glucose in body tissue or blood contains a semiconductor laser for emitting mid-infrared laser light at at least two discrete wavelengths, each at a different peak or valley in the absorption spectrum of the substance in the sample. A photoacoustic detector detects acoustic signals originating from absorption of the laser light. An indication unit evaluates the acoustic signals separately for each wavelength and calculates a detection result based on all acoustic signals from the different wavelengths.

The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for detecting a substance in a sample, particularly for detecting and measuring the concentration of a substance such as glucose in body fluid or tissue.
Insulin dependent diabetics have to monitor their blood glucose concentrations at regular intervals. At present, this is mostly done by taking a blood sample and analyzing it outside the patient""s body. Patients who monitor their blood glucose level themselves use a finger lance to obtain a drop of blood which is applied to a reagent strip for analyzing. Naturally this process causes pain and discomfort. There have been various attempts, therefore, to detect blood glucose concentrations in vivo.
EP-A-282234 proposes in vivo detection of glucose in the blood stream by infrared spectroscopy using a laser beam penetrating a person""s skin. The wavelength of the laser beam is selected in the near-infrared (NIR) range of 0.76 to 2.5 xcexcm.
As explained by H. A. Mac Kenzie et al. in Phys. Med. Biol. 38 (1993) 1911-1922 and in Clinical Chemistry 45:9 (1999) 1587-1595, the near-infrared range and in particular the wavelength region of 1 to 2 xcexcm is preferred for non-invasive blood glucose measurement as the absorption of light of other wavelengths in the human skin is too large for the light to penetrate to a suitable depth for interaction with blood. In Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, May 1993, 284 to 290, Mac Kenzie et al. report also the use of the mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength region of 2.5 to 25 xcexcm for glucose measurements. But due to the very low skin transmission at these wavelengths, they have not measured glucose concentrations in vivo. The mid-infrared light source used is a CO2 laser and the glucose concentration is obtained by measuring the absorption coefficient in the sample at a certain wavelength and relating it to the absorption coefficient of distilled water at the same wavelength.
In the above-discussed prior art, the optical absorption coefficient is measured through the photoacoustic effect: optical absorption of infrared radiation leads to molecular resonance such as vibrational modes of Cxe2x80x94O bonds in glucose; when de-excitation occurs through nonradiative molecular transitions, the sample is locally heated, producing a temperature gradient and a material strain. The strain can be detected by an acoustic sensor. Localized heating and expansion of the material from a pulse of light produces a pulse of an acoustic wave.
The use of a photoacoustic detector for in vivo measuring blood glucose levels is disclosed in WO 91/18548. In this prior art, infrared light of two wavelengths in the MIR region is applied at two different locations to a person""s skin. One wavelength is selected such that blood glucose shows a specific absorption and the other wavelength is selected such that there is no specific absorption by glucose. An acoustic detector detects the pressure difference between the locations where the different wavelengths are applied.
A simple arrangement for measuring blood glucose levels by infrared transmission through a person""s finger is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,941. This arrangement uses a filament infrared source and silicon photodetectors with filters to select a certain wavelength band from the source.
None of the above techniques has yet led to a practically usable device for noninvasive detection of glucose. At infrared intensities which are practically usable without unduly heating or even burning a person""s skin, all the known techniques are not sensitive and reliable enough or are too bulky for daily use.
It is an object of the invention to provide a simple and reliable apparatus and method for noninvasive detection of a substance in a sample.
This object is solved by the apparatus and the method set forth in the independent claims. The dependent claims are directed to further embodiments of the invention.
Substances of interest such as glucose have covalent bonds with fundamental resonance frequencies in the mid-infrared region of the light spectrum, i.e. at frequencies corresponding to infrared light wavelengths from 2.5 to 25 xcexcm (wavenumbers of 4000 to 400 cmxe2x88x921). Hence, the mid-infrared region of the absorption spectrum of these substances contains relatively narrow absorption lines specific to each individual substance. This is an advantage over the use of the near infrared region at wavelengths from 0.76 to 2.5 xcexcm where infrared absorption by the substances of interest is due to harmonics of the oscillating molecular bonds and absorption bands are broader, overlap each other, have smaller and wider peaks and it is thus more difficult to attribute absorption to the substance to be detected.
What was previously believed a disadvantage of noninvasive detection of substances such as glucose in body fluids or tissue by mid infrared spectroscopy, namely the high parasitic absorption of mid infrared light by water is overcome by detecting absorption through the photoacoustic effect and by using laser light at a plurality of discrete wavelengths.
The use of the photoacoustic effect for detecting infrared light absorption has the advantage of enabling detection of the substance in a noninvasive technique from within a sample even if light absorption by the sample is too high to allow detecting the substance from transmitted or reflected light.
Irradiating the sample with laser light of at least two distinct and discrete wavelengths at a peak or valley in the absorption spectrum of the substance to be detected in the sample has two effects. Firstly, these are the wavelengths where the absorbance is less dependent on wavelength variations and on a possible shift in the absorption lines due to unknown other components in the sample. Secondly, unnecessary heating of the sample by light of other wavelengths such as in conventional spectroscopy with infrared sources emitting a broad range of wavelengths is avoided. The admissible light intensity can therefore be concentrated on the discrete wavelengths which offer the most accurate results.
The features of the present invention improve the accuracy of the detection. A measurement at the same location of the sample in accordance with the present invention avoids errors from sample inhomogeneities.
A preferred laser device includes a semiconductor laser having a quantum well structure. Quantum well structures are made by alternating layers of different semiconductor material and form energy sub-bands wherein sub-band transitions are used for operation of the laser. The transition energy depends on the semiconductor material and on the layer thickness and can be adjusted to meet the wavelength requirements of the invention. One such laser device is the quantum cascade laser. A description of the quantum cascade laser can be found in J. Faist: xe2x80x9cQuantum Cascade Laserxe2x80x9d Science, 264 (1994) 553 to 556.
The present invention relates to the measurement of the concentration of the detected substance.
An embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

Apparatus and method for detecting a substance