Disclosed is a DC/DC converter apparatus comprising a full bridge non-resonant pulse-width-modulated (PWM) switching circuit, which includes inductive device(s), clamp diodes, and an output transformer rectifier and filter circuit. Capacitive and diode elements associated with bridge switching devices operate to switch current through the switches at substantially zero voltage (ZVS). The inductor element and clamp diodes are used to reduce the primary transition shoot through current resulting from reverse recovery of the transformer secondary rectification stage while also reducing emi and semiconductor stresses.

The present invention relates in general to power converters and, more specifically, to a full bridge DC/DC converter having an improved ZVS (Zero Voltage Switching) operation mode and primary winding clamp circuit to minimize secondary reverse recovery current losses.
A common practice in the field of power conversion is to use switching power supplies to convert DC voltage of one level to an isolated DC voltage at a second level. A circuit topology that is well suited for this purpose is the full bridge converter. One of the major disadvantages to switching power conversion is the losses associated with the switching elements in the power converter, and a common approach is to utilize nearly zero voltage switching (ZVS) to minimize these losses.
A common ZVS topology for a prior art full bridge converter is a phase-shifted full bridge. Such a circuit is described in detail in a Texas Instruments (formerly Unitrode Corp.) generated application note U-136A entitled xe2x80x9cPhase Shifted Zero Voltage Transition Design Considerations and the UC3875 PWM Controller,xe2x80x9d published in May 1997 and presently available from Texas Instruments, Inc. The phase shifted full bridge described therein relies on the parasitic elements of the switching elements, typically MOSFET transistors, and transformer primary winding inductance to transition the voltage across the switching elements to zero prior to turning on these switches. Since the switching losses are a function of the voltage across the switch prior to turn on, this approach reduces these losses to near zero under most operating conditions or characteristics.
While the phase-shifted full bridge minimizes switching losses associated with the primary circuit elements, it does not address inherent switching losses caused by output rectifier diode reverse recovery. These losses are primarily associated with the reverse recovery time of the secondary diodes, and result in ringing and emi (electromagnetic interference) when combined with parasitic elements of the main power transformer. Common prior art approaches to mitigate these losses have included using one or more of dissipative snubbers, saturable reactors, primary clamping circuits and low loss active filters.
By reducing the rate of change of current in the output rectifiers, the peak reverse recovery current is limited in some of the prior art circuits. Clamping elements on the primary side of the power train in other of those circuits have resulted in the capture of a majority of the reverse recovery energy in the primary resonant inductors, thus minimizing the dissipated energy.
Although these attempts to mitigate losses have, to various degrees, improved power dissipation efficiency from circuits not using the described approaches, there are still drawbacks of existing known circuits. These include, among others, cost, control, excessive emi and excessive switching losses.
It would thus be desirable to provide a converter with increased power conversion efficiency whereby a given size converter container can provide a larger amount of output power, or a given power rated converter can be packaged in a smaller container. It would also be desirable to provide a converter that minimizes component stresses and reduces generated high frequency interference signals, such as emi, for example.
The present invention comprises a full bridge non-resonant pulse-width-modulated (PWM) switching circuit. The circuit comprises four switches, inductive device(s), clamp diodes, a transformer and an output rectification stage including a filter connected to a transformer secondary. Capacitor and diode elements associated with the switching elements (part of the switching devices or external) are operatively connected to the four switches so as to switch current through the switches at substantially zero voltage (ZVS). The inductive device(s) and clamp diodes reduce the primary transition shoot through current resulting from reverse recovery of the transformer secondary rectification stage. The optional use of a current doubler as part of the filter circuit operates to reduce conduction losses in the main power transformer whereby even greater power conversion efficiency is obtained.

DC/DC ZVS full bridge converter power supply method and apparatus


A glass tempering furnace having a chamber, rollers extending laterally within a chamber to form a transport surface for the plate glass, radiant coils positioned along the bottom of the chamber underneath the rollers, a plurality of spaced nozzle assemblies arranged in lateral side-by-side fashion within the chamber above the rollers, and fans coupled to the nozzle assemblies to draw heated air from the chamber and force the heated air onto the top surface of the plate glass. Heating elements, preferably electrically heated rods, extend between each of the nozzle assemblies and are positioned within the return path of the heated air after it is flowed onto the plate glass surface. The air then rebounds from the glass plate prior to the air again being drawn up into the fan and blown back down onto the glass. Air is then again drawn from the furnace chamber and forced through ducting to a nozzle assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to furnaces for heating glass sheets and more particularly to a system and method for preventing the arching of sheet glass, and particularly glass sheets having a low emissivity coating, in a horizontal tempering conductive heat furnace.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known that patents exist whereby plate glass, as it passes along rollers within a furnace, can be heating using radiative (e.g. heated coils operating on the same principal as a toaster), conductive (e.g. contact with a heated surface such as rollers), or convective (e.g. hot air blown on the glass). Examples of furnaces using these various heating mechanisms are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,671 (McMaster). Other known patents are U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,654 to Plumat, U.S. Pat. No. 3,488,178 to Welker and U.S. Pat. No. 3,402,038 to Hordis. These patents appear to only disclose convective heating whereby air heated within the confines of the furnace is circulated over the glass via compressed air nozzles.
Annealed glass sheets are processed to tempering grades in furnaces utilizing radiation heat transfer as the primary energy source. Typically heating coils comprised of serpentine or helical nichrome wire are arranged in a spatial relationship with the glass surfaces such that the sheet is uniformly heated to high temperatures approaching 615° C. (1139° F.) and then air quenched in subsequent processing.
Manufacturers of glass tempering furnaces have favored radiative designs. These designs are field proven with a minimum of internal components and complexity, and process glass to uniform material and optical qualities. Standard float glass exhibits emissivity values of 0.85 and higher, leading to production times and material qualities in radiative furnaces acceptable to processing plants.
Architectural styles and building codes have changed, however, thus introducing increasing surface areas suitable for tempered glass such as doors, windows, and exterior glazing in both residential and commercial structures. Glass manufacturers are sensitive to the increasing energy requirements of the building industry. One priority is to reduce the solar load transmitted through this glass exterior. To minimize the solar influx, the exterior exposed face of the glass has been modified by application of sputtered reflecting films, etchings, or surface treatments such that the solar infrared radiation incident on the surface is highly reflected and the visible light spectrum transmitted. The interior glass face, not requiring specialty treatments, retains the emissivity and heating characteristics of typical annealed glass. Glass treated in this manner is marketed as low-E, or low-emissivity glass. Emissivities are generally stated as 0.15 and lower, with special treatments capable of producing emissivity values as low as 0.04. Though usage of this energy efficient glass is popular for the discussed energy reasons, conventional tempering using radiation heating means is quite difficult.
In a standard radiant furnace, when the high-performance Low-E glass in conveyed into the furnace, the bottom skin of the glass, which does not have the coating, receives its heat at the normal rate from the conduction of the ceramic rolls. The top skin however reflects most of the radiant energy being produced by the heating elements and does not absorb much heat. This causes the bottom skin to expand much more than the top skin and causes the glass to bow or dish up, inside the furnace. This phenomenon occurs on normal uncoated glass also but it is a very short-lived condition. In other words the top will absorb heat at a rate that will allow the skin temperatures to equalize. When this bowing occurs, there are several problems that are caused. One of the problems is related to high heat transfer from the ceramic rolls to the bottom surface of the glass due to the weight of the glass being concentrated in a smaller contact area. One of the most severe problems is that while in this bowed state, the glass is no longer contacting the ceramic rolls except for the reduced area in the middle and is no longer receiving heating from conduction. This will lead to very non-uniform heating of the glass and will result in breakage, warpage, or exceedingly long heating times.
Accordingly, a need remains for an improved glass sheet heating furnace that overcomes the drawbacks in the prior art.

Furnace apparatus and method for tempering low emissivity glass


Image data obtained from cameras or the like of a monitored are abstracted into a set of trajectories which may be displayed and used for referencing images or activating alarms based on trajectory location, angle or speed.

A common means of monitoring an area is through the use of one or more closed circuit television cameras. These cameras may be connected to one or more video monitors, or a single video monitor providing a split screen function, which monitors may be observed by security personnel. The cost of having security personnel to monitor the images produced by the cameras is substantial. Further the tedium of the monitoring television images may make such monitoring unreliable.
It is known to connect the outputs of such closed circuit cameras to a video tape recorder in addition to or in lieu of providing the television signals to video monitors. Long duration video recorders using time lapse techniques can record several days worth of video input. This approach, however, provide no alarm signal but simply a record of the intrusion. If the time of the intrusion is not known, one or more videotapes must be manually reviewed, a time consuming process.
In order to minimize the recording of unimportant information, a motion sensitive video tape system may be employed where the video tape recording is activated only when motion is detected either by the camera or a separate motion detector. Such motion sensitive systems reduce the amount of video tape which must be reviewed if an intrusion is subsequently discovered, but are ineffective in areas where constant motion is to be expected. The motion sensitive devices, when connected to an alarm, tend to produce false alarms.


The present disclosure provides bandgap reference circuits having multi-level chopping actions to current mirror circuits for the purpose of reducing the flicker noise of the output reference voltage. A bandgap reference circuit includes a first current mirror including a pair of a first MOSFET and a second MOSFET, a second current mirror comprising a third MOSFET electrically connected to the first current mirror, and configured to provide a reference voltage at a drain, a first bipolar junction transistor electrically connected to the first current mirror, a second bipolar junction transistor connected to the first current mirror via a first resistor, a third bipolar junction transistor connected to the third MOSFET via a second resistor. The bandgap reference circuit further includes an operational amplifier to control the MOSFETs and a plurality of chopping switches configured to perform chopping actions on outputs of the first current mirror and the second current mirror.

Bandgap reference circuits are electrical circuits commonly used for generating accurate reference voltages and currents. Bandgap reference circuits achieve stable reference voltage over temperature by combining the Vbe and ΔVbe with certain coefficients to cancel their temperature drifts, where Vbe is a base-emitter voltage of a forward-biased bipolar junction transistor or anode-cathode voltage of a forward-biased diode, and ΔVbe is a difference between base-emitter voltages of unequally sized forward-biased bipolar junction transistors or between anode-cathode voltages of unequally sized forward-biased bipolar diodes.

Bandgap reference circuit with reduced flicker noise

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A system and method using edge processing to remove blocking artifacts comprises an edge processor having an image converter for building an edge representation of a received image, a statistics analyzer for compiling a histogram containing edge intensities of the edge representation, a reference calculator for using the histogram to compute reference values corresponding to the blocking artifacts and an artifact remover for identifying and removing the blocking artifacts using the computed reference values.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to image postprocessing techniques and more particularly to a system and method using edge processing to remove blocking artifacts from decompressed images.
2. Description of the Background Art
Producing high-quality visual images using modern computer techniques is an important consideration of many computer manufacturers and designers. When displayed on a video monitor, an image frame typically comprises many separate picture elements or pixels which are each represented using a corresponding binary value. The computer system thus requires large amounts of digital information to represent each displayed image frame. To conserve memory space and expedite transmission of the digital information, modern computer systems typically code the image frames using a variety of compression techniques. One popular compression coding technique uses an encoder device to divide an image into a number of discrete blocks which are each processed and compressed independently. A corresponding decoder device subsequently decompresses the compressed image prior to display on a video monitor. Examples of conventional formats which utilize block-based image coding and decoding include JPEG, MPEG, H.261 and H263.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a sample blocked image 110 processed by a conventional block-based image decoder is shown. Sample blocked image 110 includes adjacent blocks 112 and 116 which are separated by boundary 114. Sample blocked image 110 contains sixteen blocks for reasons of clarity, however, in practice, a blocked image may typically contain a greater number of discrete blocks.
Blocking artifacts are relatively common to block-based encoder/decoder systems. Each discrete image block is processed and compressed separately, resulting in frequent variations in average pixel intensity between the various blocks. This causes the human eye to perceive the resultant image frame as a collection of individual blocks, as illustrated in FIG. 1.
For example, block 112 lies adjacent to block 116 along boundary 114. If block 112 and block 116 have different pixel intensities, the human eye will perceive an "edge" along boundary 114. This edge is created by the discontinuity in pixel intensity across boundary 114 between block 112 and block 116. Furthermore, this edge will have an edge intensity proportional to the magnitude of the average difference between the pixel intensity of block 112 and the pixel intensity of block 116.
One conventional postprocessing technique for reducing the block edges is low-pass filtering. The low-pass filter, however, smoothes both the block edges and the perceptually important features of the image, resulting in a blurred image. Adaptive filtering and image restoration techniques may also be used to reduce block edges, however, these techniques may also create new artifacts in the image. Therefore, in accordance with the present invention, an improved system and method is needed for using edge processing to remove blocking artifacts in image decoder devices.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method using edge processing to remove blocking artifacts from decompressed images


A light source device for a liquid crystal projector in which it is possible to prevent distinct appearance of a shadow of the conducting wiring of a lamp on a screen, even if an integrator lens is used, is achieved according to the invention by the fact that, in a light source device which has a metal halide lamp with bilateral sealed terminations in which seal areas are joined in one piece to two ends of an arc tube, and a concave reflector, in which one of the seal areas of the lamp is installed and held in a base opening of the concave reflector, and in which the other seal area extends in toward the front opening of the concave reflector, by conducting wiring connected to the outer lead pin which projects from the seal area toward the front opening of the concave reflector being positioned running toward the arc tube in a manner resting directly on this seal area, and then being drawn out in the vicinity of the arc tube with to behind the concave reflector.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a light source device for a liquid crystal projector in which a short arc metal halide lamp with bilateral sealed terminations is used for a light source.
2. Description of Related Art
In a short arc metal halide lamp with bilateral sealed terminations, at least one metal halide is encapsulated as the emission metal in an arc tube which is made of quartz glass and in which a pair of electrodes is located, at a distance of roughly a few millimeters from one another, together with mercury and a starting rare gas. Seal areas are joined in one piece to the two ends of the arc tube. In the respective seal area, a molybdenum foil is inserted, to the ends of which an electrode and one end of an outer lead pin are welded for purposes of power supply. Thus, the outer lead pin projects out of the respective seal area.
In a metal halide lamp of this type, as a result of the vaporization of the metal halide due to heating, a vapor pressure which is lower than in the case of using at least one metal element is obtained to a sufficient degree. In this case, the radiant efficiency is higher than in a high-pressure mercury lamp. In addition, by suitable selection of the metal to be encapsulated, outstanding color reproduction is obtained. Therefore, a metal halide lamp is often used for a light source device for a liquid crystal projector.
A light source device for a liquid crystal projector comprises, as is shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a short arc metal halide lamp 10 with bilateral sealed terminations, as mentioned above, and a concave reflector 20 which has base opening 21 in the middle area. Metal halide lamp 10 is held securely in the state in which the axis of metal halide lamp 10 and the optical axis of concave reflector 20 roughly agree with one another, such that seal area 12 of metal halide lamp 10 is installed in base opening 21 by embedding using a filler material or by similar methods. The other seal area 13 of metal halide lamp 10, therefore, extends in the direction to front opening 22 of concave reflector 20. Outer lead pin 15, to which one end of conducting wiring 30 is connected, projects out of this seal area 13.
The conducting wiring 30 connected to projecting outer lead pin 15 is first withdrawn in the vertical/radial direction and then parallel to metal halide lamp 10, then passes through base opening 21 of concave reflector 20 and is drawn out to behind concave reflector 20, as is shown in FIG. 8. Alternatively, conducting wiring 30 is withdrawn from the end of seal area 13 in a large arc, and then passes through a through opening 24 which is formed on reflection surface 23 of concave reflector 20 is drawn out to behind concave reflector 20, as is shown in FIG. 9. This means that the conducting wiring 30 is withdrawn, in any case, from the end of seal area 13 of the metal halide lamp 10 and is in a state in which it is spaced very far from seal area 13 and from arc tube 11.
In a liquid crystal projector device, as is illustrated in FIG. 10, parallel light which has been reflected by concave reflector 20 passes through a condenser lens 51 and is incident on a liquid crystal cell 60, with an image which is displayed on a screen (not shown) by projection lens 52. Recently however, a liquid crystal projector device is being used more and more frequently in which an integrator lens 40 is provided between the concave reflector 20 of the light source device and the condenser lens 51 in order to make the distribution of illumination intensity as uniform as possible on the screen. Integrator lens 40 has a pair of lenses, i.e., an incidence side lens 41 and an exit side lens 42, in which several lens elements arranged flat. Furthermore, besides the above described components, if necessary, there are also parts such as a color filter and a polarization element and the like.
In an integrator optics system, the lens elements of the incidence side lens 41 are imaged by means of the exit side lens 42 on liquid crystal cell 60. For the light which emerges from this integrator lens 40, the distributions of the illumination intensity of the light which has emerged from several lens elements which form the integrator lens 40 are therefore added. This means that, in doing so, a distribution curve of illumination intensity is formed in which the mildly curved distribution curves of the illumination intensity of the exit light have been assembled by small phase differences from one another. Thus, the distribution curve of illumination intensity achieves a roughly flat shape. Therefore, the illumination intensity on the screen can be made roughly uniform.
The incidence side lens is also called a second light source, because the lens elements of the lens on the incidence side are imaged in this way by the exit side lens on the liquid crystal cell. Therefore, if there is a body in the vicinity of the lens on the incidence side as a second light source, its picture is imaged on the liquid crystal cell and therefore appears as a shadow on the screen, the shadow becoming more distinct, the smaller the distance between the body and the lens on the incidence side.
In a liquid crystal projector device, as a result of the requirement for reducing the size of the device, the design is also made such that the distance between the light source device and the lens on the incidence side of the integrator lens is a small as possible. The distance between the tip of the front opening of the concave reflector and the lens on the incidence side of the integrator lens is roughly 20 mm. Furthermore, the distance between the area in which the conducting wiring is removed and the lens on the incidence side is roughly 10 mm, since the conducting wiring connected to the outer lead pin proceeds from the end of the seal area, the outer lead pin projecting out of the seal area which extends in the direction to the front opening of the concave reflector as was described above. This means that this distance is extremely small. Therefore, the disadvantage arises that the shadow of this conducting wiring appears clearly on the screen.
Therefore, if the length of the seal area of the metal halide lamp is reduced, the distance between the conducting wiring and the lens on the incidence surface is greater, and the shadow on the screen becomes weak.
In a metal halide lamp in which the tube wall load is great and which reaches an extremely high temperature during luminous operation, when the length of the seal area decreases, however, the molybdenum foil inserted in the seal area is exposed to high temperature oxidation; this shortens the service life of the lamp. Attenuation of the shadow by reducing the length of the seal area is therefore limited.
Furthermore, for a metal halide lamp of the short arc type, a trigger electrode is ordinarily used as the outer auxiliary electrode to improve the starting characteristic. Between the arc tube of the metal halide lamp and the concave reflector there are, therefore, two wires, that is, the conducting wiring and the trigger electrode. However, here, the disadvantages arose that these two wires hinder the light incident from the metal halide lamp on the concave reflector and that the degree of utilization of the light decreases. Furthermore, there was the disadvantage that production of the trigger electrode is very costly.
Additionally, it is considered a disadvantage that, when using a liquid crystal projector as the light source device, the shadow of the conducting wiring is displayed on the screen because the conducting wiring which is withdrawn at a great distance from the arc tube is in a position which is nearer the integrator lens.

Metal halide lamp light source device having conducting wire positioned to prevent it from casting a shadow


A system, computer program product, and computer-implemented method for mining software code and assimilating legacy system functionalities are provided. Embodiments comprise a system configured for installing a mining tool on a first system having a first format, the mining tool being configured to continually capture code stored on the first system; identifying a function on the first system, wherein the function is configurable to be independently executable; pulling the function from the first system; converting the function from the first format to a second format; and deploying the function in the second format onto a second system, wherein the function is stored on the second system in the second format and configured to be called by a program.

Presently, there are various kinds of modularized functionalities already developed in legacy monolithic applications of large enterprises that can be utilized individually as working software by existing users. However, due to incompatibility with modern program architectures, these legacy functionalities are not directly accessible and require recoding before they can be properly integrated into modern systems which can be a resource intensive and time-consuming process. As a result, there exists a need for a new technology for assimilating functionalities from legacy systems into modern programming architectures.

Software code mining system for assimilating legacy system functionalities


A flare stand is provided. The flare stand has a first stand member and a second stand member rotatable with respect to the first stand member between an open working position and a folded position. In the open working position, the flare stand is configured for supporting a flare in a substantially upright position. In the folded position, the first and second stand members substantially overlap in the vertical plane for a reduced footprint of the flare stand. A flare support structure, arranged on the second stand member is configured for supporting the flare in the upright position. The first and second stand members engage a ground surface in the open working position to maintain the flare in the upright position. The flare stand is used to hold a flare in the upright position, but may be folded into the reduced footprint device for storage.

Electronic flares, which also double as flashlights, are becoming popular. Flares are typically used to signal a hazard or an emergency condition, such as an accident or a large pothole. A flare is placed at or near the hazard, and are expected to last for a few hours at least. Electronic flares are safer to use than regular flares and can provide multiple functions. For example, an electronic flare may feature an emergency flashing light mode, and a flashlight. In case of an emergency, the electronic flare needs to be placed on the ground in an upright position with the lighting end elevated from the ground.
To keep an electronic flare in an upright position, a base or a stand is needed. Some weather conditions such as strong wind may cause the flare to tip over or to be moved out of its place. Additionally, a large or bulky flare stand would discourage users from carrying that stand in their vehicles, as it would take up too much storage space.
It is desirable to have a flare stand that addresses at least some of the aforementioned issues.

SBI Smart Brands International (America) Ltd.


A wireless communication system includes platforms that generate spot beams and wide-area beams. The system includes a network operations controller that receives signals from user terminals. User terminals determine the signal strengths of the spot beams and the wide-area beams and a ratio may therefore be calculated between the spot beam and the wide-area beams. Based upon the ratio of the spot beam strength and the wide-area beam strength, the network operations controller may adjust the orientation of the platforms relative to the earth to correct for pointing errors and, the network operation controller may compensate as is best possible depending on the type of antenna, a correction for distortion in the antenna.

Satellite and other wireless communication platforms often employ a large number of narrow spot beams that form a cellular coverage of a wide geographic area. It is preferred that the alignment of the spot beams is maintained so that complete coverage of the geographic area is maintained. The spot beam patterns are nominally fixed unless the platform is perturbed, or as the antenna characteristics change. The device itself may be perturbed by various forces including the gravitational effects of various heavenly bodies. The antenna's characteristics may change in response to factors such as sun-induced warping. Spot beam pattern changes may be simulated by computer but cannot be easily measured in an operational system.
Satellites systems typically employ star trackers to help maintain the alignment of the satellite. However, even if the satellite is accurately maintained, the antenna may still contribute to pointing errors. Star trackers are expensive and add mass to the satellite. One goal of satellite implementations is to reduce the mass of the satellite. Thus, it would be desirable to eliminate such components as a star tracker.
Communication systems sometimes use closed-loop beacon tracking systems. Such systems use a transmitter on the ground and one or more receiving beams on the satellite. A closed-loop system operates to null a signal. When the tracking signal is nulled, the antenna is correctly pointed at the beacon location. Even though the antenna is pointed correctly, the antenna pattern may still be incorrect. Beacon tracking systems also add hardware and mass to the communication platform.
It would therefore be desirable to eliminate star trackers or beacon tracking systems in a communication platform while allowing the communication platform to be accurately positioned and adjusted relative to the beam pattern.

Closed-loop pointing system for wireless communication with spot beams and wide-area beams


The present invention discloses a device with connecting member having an elastic ring, and the device includes a body having at least one accommodating cavity on the body and an exhaust opening on the internal periphery of each accommodating cavity; and at least one connecting member having an insert unit at an end of each connecting member, at least one positioning block at the periphery of the insert unit and at least one elastic ring sheathed onto the periphery of the insert unit, such that if the connecting member is inserted into the accommodating cavity, the shape of the accommodating cavity can accommodate the insert unit and each positioning block precisely.

In recent years, our living standard becomes increasingly higher, and thus the needs of household appliances such as display devices and other electronic devices are no longer the same anymore. Nowadays the user not only pursue a multiple of functions with lower price, but also emphasize on the stylish appearance of the device, so that each device can satisfy personal visual needs as well as providing a convenient use. To cope with the market trend, manufacturers spare no effort to make changes and improvements to the stylish design of the device, in the hope of designing a device more appealing to consumers to gain market share effectively.
In order to meet the visual needs, manufacturers have to introduce new device with innovative appearances from time to time to keep up with the market trend. If a device is manufactured and integrated as a whole, manufacturers have to produce a brand new mold to manufacture the device with an innovative stylish design, and therefore incurring higher costs for the design and production cost of the device. Furthermore, the device may have an innovative look, but consumers cannot change the appearance of the object freely as needed since the device is produced as a whole device. If any external part (such as a support) of the device is damaged, consumers cannot replace the damaged part separately and easily. Therefore, such prior art not only causes tremendous inconvenience to the user, but also limits the appearance to a fixed design that may bored the user after a long use.
To overcome the foregoing drawbacks, some manufacturers conducted researches and developed a mechanism for a device with connecting member having an elastic ring, and the device includes a body and at least one connecting member, wherein the body is a display device and the connecting member is a support of the display device adopted in a preferred embodiment of the present invention for illustrating the invention. A prior art shown in FIG. 1, the body 10 includes at least one threaded hole 100, and an end of each support 11 includes a threaded rod 110, so that a user can align the end of threaded rod 110 to the position of the threaded hole 100 and connect the support 11 to the body 10 by screwing the threaded rod 110 into the threaded hole 100. If a user needs to replace or change the support 11 to another design or shape, the user should hold the support 11 and unscrews the threaded rod 110 from the threaded hole 100 to complete the process of removing the support 11 from the body 10.
As to manufacturers and users, this type of devices with connecting member still has the following major drawbacks:
(1) In a process of assembling a device with connecting member by manufacturer or user, it is necessary to align the end of threaded rod 110 at the precise position of the threaded hole 100 and keep turning the support 11 in a direction to screw the threaded rod 110 into the threaded hole 100 for installing each support 11 onto the body 10. However, manufacturer or user not only consume much time on connecting the support 11 to the body 10, but also require to apply sufficient force to securely fix the support 11 and the body 10 together. Therefore, the process of assembling the device with a support incurs relatively long manufacturing time and extra production cost to manufacturer and relatively inconvenient assembly, repair and maintenance for the user.
(2) Since the support 11 and the body 10 are assembled with each other by screwing the support 11 with respect to the body 10. If the support 11 and the body 10 come with a design in a specific direction, then manufacturers have to design the support 11 and the body 10 for complying with the direction of the threaded rod 110 and the threaded hole 100 precisely. The level of difficulty for the production and design becomes higher for the manufacturers, so that the manufacturing cost cannot be lowered effectively and the market competitiveness may be affected adversely. Furthermore, the level of difficulty for the assembling process causes tremendous inconvenience to the user.
Therefore, an objective of the present invention is to find a way of designing and providing an innovative device with connecting member having an elastic ring to effectively reduce the assembling time for the user and manufacturer. Another objective of the present invention is to complete the assembling process of the device with the connecting member in a correct direction is an important subject of the present invention.

Device with connecting member having an elastic ring


A magnetron sputtering apparatus has a controller for selectively releasing the spread of plasma on a substrate on a support. The controller can also contain the plasma when the substrate is to be coated with the target material. This enables cleaning of the target surface during intervals between deposition of target material onto a desired substrate, such as a wafer, and ensures that layers or flakes of back-scattered deposited target material do not build up on the target itself. A platen coil is located between the magnetron and the support to increase both uniformity and density of target material arriving nearly normal to the substrate surface.

This invention relates to apparatus and methods for magnetron sputtering.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,551 issued to Lai, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, there is described an apparatus and method for magnetron sputtering in which a first closed-loop magnet means is positioned adjacent to a dish-shaped sputter target back surface for creating a closed-loop magnetic tunnel to the front surface of the sputter target, the magnet means being in the form of a plurality of magnets surrounding a central axis of a dish-shaped sputter target for containing and guiding a plasma relative to a substrate. The improvement is a second closed-loop magnet means positioned around the sputter target perimeter and being comprised of a number of bucking magnets, which may be permanent magnets or electro magnets, which collectively provide a fixed field around the sputter target to thereby reduce or inhibit the spreading of the discharge track of the plasma beyond the edge of the target as the operating pressure of the sputtering system is reduced.
The second closed-loop magnet means solves the problem in that the voltage at which a magnetron operates is primarily a function of the ease of ionisation. It is, in turn, a function of the gas, its pressure, the applied voltage, the strength of the magnetic field and the ionisation losses from the plasma. As pressure is dropped so operating voltages rise until practical limits are reached e.g. the power supply or electrical connections to the target.
Extremely high voltages are undesirable as they cause the plasma to emit higher energy electromagnetic waves that are potentially dangerous. Therefore, work has concentrated upon reduction of losses from the plasma by e.g. operating the plasma in an enclosed area bounded by a bucking arrangement, as in the '551 patent. This allows magnetron operation at pressures of 0.1 mT to 1 mT. This low pressure operation is beneficial as a means of improving step coverage.
However, the design of this system and method of sputtering has the disadvantage that due to the confinement of the primary magnetic field by the secondary magnetic field, there is little or zero erosion of the target material around the periphery of the target. As a consequence, the periphery thereof can thereafter be contaminated by back scattered deposits of eroded material, such as atoms or molecules. This re-deposited material generally does not adhere well to the otherwise clean periphery of the target and can thereafter flake off to contaminate the substrate to which a thin film of the material is being applied or is to be applied.


Buffer management in a network device. A new data packet is received at a packet buffer queue of the network switch, wherein the new data packet is a portion of a burst block. If the packet buffer queue is full, a data packet from within the packet buffer queue that is not a last sequential data packet of a burst block is dropped.

Recent technological advances have enabled increasingly higher network bandwidths. In order to fully utilize the increased network bandwidth, block-oriented protocols continue to increase the amount of data sent at a time. For example, the amount of data transmitted within a burst block has increased significantly. Moreover, these higher network bandwidths are reducing the packet buffer sizes in network switches because the packet buffers must be very fast to support the higher network bandwidths. To provide fast access, the packet buffers are often placed directly inside the network switch chip, in close proximity to the packet processing. Since there is limited space and thus limited available memory on these chips, packet buffer sizes have significantly reduced. Either of these two factors, increased data block size or reduced packet buffer size, can significantly negatively impact network performance. For example, the potential for data packets being dropped is increased because the data packets may be received in a burst and do not fit within the available packet buffer space. This is especially true if the incoming link has a higher data rate than the outgoing link (e.g. a 1 Gb/s server feeding a 100 Mb/s desktop), so the block burst cannot be just passed through, but must be buffered up to be transmitted at the lower data rate.
Data transfer protocols, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), provide mechanisms for managing dropped packets. TCP is able to notify a sender of a dropped packet upon the receipt of the next two sequential packets in the burst block (TCP is stream-oriented, not block-oriented). The sender will then retransmit the dropped packet, so the receiver will not lose any packet data. Other data transfer protocols provide similar mechanisms for managing packets dropped from the beginning or middle of a burst block.
However, acknowledgement mechanisms for data packets dropped from the end of a burst block are typically very slow. For example, TCP behaves such that when one of the last two packets of a burst is lost there is a much greater delay to recover than when any other packet in the burst is lost. Since there are not two packets of the burst block following either of the last two packets, there is no quick mechanism to notify the sender of a dropped packet. If one of the last two packets is dropped, the destination and sender assume the packet was delayed, and wait for a timeout to occur before resending the packet. A timeout may take a very long time to happen, e.g., on the order of seconds. As a result of waiting for the timeout before resending, network performance drops precipitously. Dropping the last packet or packets of a burst is a performance issue because the acknowledgment mechanism is typically very slow to recover from these packet losses.
Current mechanisms for managing how incoming packets are dropped from a filled packet buffer can exacerbate the drop in network performance. One such mechanism, tail dropping, drops all incoming packets if the packet buffer is full. This is very likely to result in dropping packets at the end of the burst block, the very packets which take the longest to be resent.
Another mechanism, random early drop (RED) attempts to improve on tail dropping by randomly dropping packets from within the packet buffer to make room for potential new packets, thus attempting to reduce the traffic load by causing TCP backoff mechanisms to engage. This scheme may drop earlier packets, but still has a reasonable chance that the last packet of a burst is dropped as it does not differentiate its drops across the burst. There are many variants of RED, such as Weighted Random Early Discard (WRED), REM, DRED, BLUE, etc., all of which drop packets without distinction of location within a burst. Schemes that drop the last packet with equal probability to any other packet are vulnerable to significant performance impacts from the lost final packets.
The drawings referred to in this description should not be understood as being drawn to scale except if specifically noted.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A transfer device includes: a transfer belt hung around a roller; and a transfer belt sealing member in contact with a transfer surface and a circumferential end surface of the transfer belt and in contact with the circumferential end surface of the transfer belt diagonally relative to a thickness direction of the transfer belt.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a transfer device by which liquid developer images are transferred and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
A variety of wet-process image forming apparatuses using a high-viscosity liquid developer in which toner particles of solid components are dispersed in a liquid solvent to develop an electrostatic latent image for visualizing the electrostatic latent image have been proposed. The liquid developer used in the wet-process image forming apparatuses contains liquid carrier of an electrically insulating organic solvent (carrier) such as silicone oil, mineral oil, vegetable oil and solid components (toner particles) dispersed therein. The toner particles are extremely fine, having particle diameters around 1 μm. Using such fine toner particles, the image quality can be made higher in the wet-process image forming apparatuses than in dry-process image forming apparatuses using powder toner particles having particle diameters of about 7 μm. In the image forming apparatus using the liquid developer, an image forming apparatus including a transfer device that transfers liquid developer images on image carriers onto a transfer belt is proposed (for example, see JP-A-2006-71836). In the image forming apparatus using the liquid developer, an image forming apparatus including a transfer unit that transfers liquid developer images that have been transferred onto an image carrier belt onto a transfer material such as paper is proposed (for example, see JP-A-2005-338734). In the transfer device used in the image forming apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2006-71836, a cleaning blade is brought into contact with the transfer belt after transfer to scrape and remove the residual toner and carrier.
However, the liquid developer scraped by the cleaning blade flows along the cleaning blade surface and is collected and the liquid developer accumulated in the contact part between the cleaning blade and the transfer belt surface spreads to the ends of the cleaning blade due to capillary action, and thus, a problem that a band of liquid called a liquid ring is generated and causes image defects such as color contamination and a problem that the liquid developer runs around to the rear side of the transfer belt and the transfer belt slips and unstably drives arise. When sealing members for transfer belt are provided in contact with the end surfaces of the transfer belt for preventing the liquid developer from running around to the rear side of the transfer belt, a problem that the leading end of the sealing member is entangled with the transfer belt due to friction and damaged arises.

Transfer device and image forming apparatus with sealing member in contact with transfer belt


A device for climate control of a vehicle is provided which includes a coolant circuit in which coolant flows through a compressor, a condenser, and an evaporator; a heat transfer medium circuit in which heat transfer medium flows through a heat source and a heat exchanger; and a heat/cold reservoir in which the evaporator and the heat exchanger are located. The device of the present invention provides an improved and comparatively economical approach to climate control in the area of a driver's bed in a motor vehicle interior by, at least in part, using a heating/cooling surface for a driver's bed and/or vehicle interior wall, which is integrated into the heat transfer medium circuit such that the heat transfer medium can flow selectively through the heating/cooling surface, or the heat transfer medium which is conveyed by the heat source can flow through the heating/cooling surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for climate control of a vehicle interior with a coolant circuit, in which coolant flows through a compressor, a condenser, and an evaporator, with a heat transfer medium circuit in which heat transfer medium flows through a heat source and a heat exchanger, and a heat/cold reservoir in which the evaporator and the heat exchanger are located.
2. Description of Related Art
A device of this type is known from German patent 100 65 279 C1 and corresponding U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0100290. In this climate control means, a coolant circuit and a heat transfer medium circuit are coupled in terms of themral engineering using a reservoir which is used to store both heat and cold. In particular, the device has a comparatively simple structure and furthermore has an especially fast response behavior.
German patent application 196 45 544 A1 discloses a climate controlled driver's seat which has at least one combined heating/cooling element which for climate control of the vehicle seat can be connected to the secondary circuit of a heat exchanger which is supplied on the primary side by at least one on-board heat generator, or to the secondary circuit of a heat exchanger which is supplied on the primary side by at least one onboard cold generator. It is furthermore proposed that alternative heating/cooling of the driver's seat is possible by it being selectively connectable via the heat exchanger to the vehicle heating system or the auxiliary heating system or to the vehicle air conditioning system or auxiliary air conditioning system.

Device for climate control of a driver's bed


A method for shaping a metal can comprising a substantially cylindrical body and a bottom such that the body acquires a cross-sectional form varying with the axial position comprises the steps of: (1) providing said can; (2) exerting substantially radial forces on the body in the direction of the desired shaping; and (3) exerting a substantially axial force on the body simultaneously with step (2).

Metal cans are known in many embodiments. It is an object of the invention to shape a metal can, consisting substantially for instance of tin or aluminium which may or may not be provided with coatings consisting of lacquer, printing ink or the like, such that a desired form is obtained, wherein the cross-sectional form varies with the axial position.
It has been found in experiments that it is not possible to obtain desired body forms by only applying substantially radial forces to a can. Due to the stresses which occur the shaping process is very difficult to control and there is the danger of the body collapsing.
In respect of the above the invention provides a method for shaping a metal can comprising a substantially cylindrical body and a bottom such that the body acquires a cross-sectional form varying with the axial position, which method comprises the steps of:
(1) providing said can;
(2) exerting substantially radial forces on the body in the direction of the desired shaping; and
(3) exerting a substantially axial force on the body simultaneously with step (2).
Surprisingly, it has been found that by simultaneously exerting the forces acting in radial direction and exerting axial forces, the ability to shape the metal is improved considerably, whereby desired can shapes can be realized which correspond to comparatively high percentages of deformation.
With respect to the radial forces it is noted that in order to obtain a locally smaller diameter the radial forces must be exerted inwardly. When such a force is applied the can has a natural tendency to elongate. The axial auxiliary force in accordance with step (3) can be applied to the outside (tensile force) as well as to the inside (pressure force). It is also possible to start with a relatively small can which is subjected to locally outward directed radial forces. The can hereby has a natural tendency to become shorter. Also in this case the axial auxiliary force can be directed to the outside as well as to the inside.
In order to exert the said radial forces use can be made of mechanical means such as segmented pressure rings with variable diameter or a rubber press or pressure medium, for instance gas or liquid under pressure.
In order to exert radial pressure forces use can be made of simple pressing punches. To exert axial tensile forces a pressure force can be exerted on the bottom via the mouth of the can in combination with a tensile force which is applied by an annular claw on the edge zone of the mouth opening.
Particularly in the case where the desired final shape of a can displays a specific profiling, for instance a plurality of recesses, ribs, flat facets or the like, the method according to the invention can be performed such that the radial forces press a can body toward and against a shaping wall, which wall has a shape corresponding with the desired final shape of the can body.


An RFID system includes a pair of guide tracks located on opposite boundaries of at least one zone. A channel is movably attached to the guide tracks and is configured to move along the guide tracks through the at least one zone. A mobile RFID reader is movably attached to the channel and the mobile RFID reader is paused at a plurality of read points to scan for RFID tags located. The read points are determined by an arrangement of a plurality of hexagonal areas which are grouped together to create a combined area, where the combined area is aligned with the predefined area to define locations of the plurality of hexagonal areas, and where substantially central locations of each hexagonal area represent the plurality of read points.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology uses radio frequency (RF) waves to exchange information for a variety of purposes, including identification. An RFID system typically includes an RFID reader or transceiver having an antenna and an RFID tag or transponder containing information. Active RFID systems utilize a dedicated power source to power RFID tags. In contrast, passive RFID systems do not rely on an internal power source to power RFID tags. Instead, the antenna of the RFID reader emits RF signals to activate passive RFID tags within a reading range. When activated, the passive RFID tags are configured to transmit a responding signal to the RFID reader.
RFID technology has been widely used for tracking and monitoring items. For example, RFID systems are used in warehouses to monitor the movement of products and inventory. In many inventory control systems, an RFID tag containing a unique code is attached to items in the warehouse. This allows each item in the warehouse to be identified by the unique code of the attached RFID tag. One or more RFID readers are installed at predefined locations in the warehouse to read the RFID tags attached to the items. By keeping track of all the unique codes read by the RFID readers, an accurate record of inventory levels and movement is maintained. Accordingly, the use of RFID technology in inventory control systems also reduces the possibility of human error, which may arise in manual tracking processes.
In large-scale deployment of RFID technology for inventory control systems, the positioning of the RFID readers in the warehouse is crucial. Current positioning techniques of the RFID readers in warehouses typically result in blind-spots in the RFID signal coverage or interferences between the RFID readers. For example, insufficient RFID readers or poor RFID reader placement in the warehouse may result in less than 100% area coverage of the RFID reader signals. Therefore, RFID tags in certain locations of the warehouse will not be read by the RFID readers. Similarly, if the RFID readers are spaced too closely together, interference among the RFID readers reduces the reliability and efficiency of the RFID system.
It would thus be beneficial to have the ability to obtain data from RFID tags positioned throughout a relatively large space without suffering from the disadvantages and drawbacks associated with conventional tracking techniques.


A method and apparatus for dynamically adjusting the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) threshold used to control signal transmission power in closed loop communication systems. The closed loop power control comprises an inner loop that provides up/down transmission power control commands to a transmitter based upon a comparison of the SIR for a received signal to the threshold SIR. The outer loop dynamically adjusts the threshold SIR using historic inner loop power control information. When it is detected that the inner loop is not acceptably performing power control, the target SIR is not changed, or may increased or decreased more or less than 0.5 dB or 0.5 dB/99, respectively.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communications system. In particular, the present invention describes a closed loop power control system.
II. Description of the Related Art
The invention described in this application is discussed in the context of a code division multiple access (CDMA) communications system. However, one skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is adaptable for use in all types of wireless communication systems, especially high-rate systems where data transmission may result in a lack of sufficient transmission power to ensure reliable transmission of all information.
1. CDMA Modulation Techniques
The use of code division multiple access (CDMA) modulation techniques is one of several techniques for facilitating communications in large-scale wireless communication systems. Other multiple access communication system techniques, such as time division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) are well known in the art. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307, entitled "SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS," and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,459, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING SIGNAL WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
As wireless communication has become more common, there has been an increasing demand for wireless communications systems that can transmit digital information at high-rates. One method for sending high-rate data from a remote station to a base station is to allow the remote station to send the data using the spread spectrum techniques of CDMA. This method allows the remote station to transmit its information using a small set of orthogonal channels, and is described in detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/886,604, entitled "HIGH DATA RATE CDMA WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM," now U.S. Pat. No. 6,396,804 issued May 28, 2002, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
However, as more customers use wireless communication systems, control of the power or energy used to transmit a communication signal becomes even more important. If a communication signal is transmitted at too high a power level, the transmission may interfere with other transmissions. If it is sent at too low a power level, the information contained in the signal might not be received with sufficient reliability. Further, transmitting a signal at the lowest possible power is desirable because, among other things, transmitter battery power in a mobile station can be saved.
2. Power Control
Generally, current "fast" power control techniques used in closed loop wireless communication systems consist of an inner loop and an outer loop. A known and useful method and apparatus for controlling transmission power in this fashion is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,109, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING TRANSMISSION POWER IN A CDMA CELLULAR MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM," assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. Another technique, used to control the maximum transmission power by gating, capping, or ignoring a power control command, is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/239,454, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING TRANSMISSION POWER IN A POTENTIALLY TRANSMISSION GATED OR CAPPED COMMUNICATION SYSTEM," filed Jan. 28, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,373,823, issued Apr. 16, 2002, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and incorporated by reference herein.
As shown in FIG. 1(a), the inner loop controls transmission power by tracking a desired or target signal-to-interference ratio (SIR). A target SIR is selected, and then the estimated SIR for each transmission received by a respective station is compared to the target SIR. If the received transmission is below or above the target SIR, then a responsive up or down (up/down) power control command is sent back to the transmitter to adjust the transmission power as shown in FIG. 1(b). Because these power increases are usually done in increments of ±0.5 dB, the power increases and decreases only approximate the ideal transmit power, as shown in FIG. 1(c).
The outer loop sets the target SIR that is used by the inner loop. Typically, an outer loop employs an algorithm that increases substantially the target SIR if the quality of a decoded received signal degrades below an acceptable level, usually triggered by a frame error detection or an unacceptably high frame error rate (FER). However, as discussed below, when a selective deep fade of a transmitted signal occurs, or when a transmitter cannot increase its transmission power, increasing the target SIR by any amount will not be an appropriate response.
A selective deep fade is a deep fade condition that is short in duration. As shown in FIG. 2(a)—where line 202 represents the strength of an ideal received signal and t represents time—when the strength of the received signal 204 abruptly decreases, thereby causing the quality of the received signal to fall outside an acceptable range 206, a selective deep fade condition has occurred. In current power control systems, when this selective deep fade condition occurs—causing the quality the received signal 204 to degrade—the target SIR will be increased. But due to the temporary nature of the selective deep fade condition, increasing the target SIR may not be an appropriate power control command response, because the cause of the reduced signal reliability is not due to an inappropriately set target SIR.
Another limitation of current power control techniques is the inability to track sudden severe changes in the propagation path of the transmitted signal whereby large increases in signal transmission power are needed for the signal to be received reliably. This problem, referred to herein as a slope overload problem, is illustrated in FIG. 2(b). As shown, when power variation requirements in the signal to be tracked are large compared to the update frequency and "step" size of the actual power changes, quantization of the signal cannot follow. Although the target SIR may be increased or decreased in steps as required, this may not be a correct response, and even if it is, the subsequent change in transmission power will not always be adequate. Current systems generally limit power adjustments to approximately ±0.5 dB (regardless of the amount of degeneration in the propagation path.) The slope overload condition illustrated in FIG. 2(b), shows that when the ideal power requirement P rises quickly, the stepped power increases Pt of current systems cannot keep up.
Yet another limitation of currently known systems is that the inner loop continues to make power increase requests even when the communication system cannot fulfill the request. This power-ceiling problem occurs when the transmitter is incapable of increasing transmission power. For example, the transmitter batteries may be low, or the transmitter's amplifier may be saturated if more power is used. In these cases, repeated "up" power requests may be made by the inner loop power control that cannot be fulfilled. During this period when the transmission energy is capped, the target SIR may be needlessly increased by the outer loop because the signal is received with inadequate reliability.
What is needed is a power control technique that uses a "smarter" outer loop power control. The outer loop power control should be able to detect events that prohibit the transmission power of a signal from being increased or decreased. The outer loop should also be able to detect selective deep fading, a slope overload condition, or system symptoms that indicate that the closed loop power control is not correctly responding to a signal quality problem. Ideally, the outer loop would also be able increase or decrease of power proportional to the detected problem be initiated.

Method and apparatus for adjusting a signal-to-interference threshold in a closed loop power control communications system


An optical component having a diffractive element and/or refractive element is provided. The optical component includes a photosensitive glass and/or a photosensitive glass ceramic and a plurality of structures influencing propagation of light in at least a part of the photosensitive glass and/or a photosensitive glass ceramic.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for producing an optical component, to the optical component produced according to the method and to devices comprising such components.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical components, which are based on the guiding and manipulation of light by structures such as waveguides and gratings, are already well known for example in the fields of sensors and telecommunications.
Beam shaping refractive devices are furthermore used, for example in imaging or illuminating systems, and especially for beam shaping of the light emitted by semiconductor lasers.
Devices for beam shaping of the light from high-power lasers are conventionally constructed in: an elaborate way with multilens refractive systems (for example lens and/or prism arrays), see for example DE 195 00 513 or DE 198 46 532 and EP 0 961 152. These optics are used to carry out beam shaping, in particular circularization of the elliptical beam cone between the so-called fast and slow axes.
Furthermore, PCT/EP02/03283 proposes linear prism fields for correcting the light emerging from a laser array. In this case, respectively different tilted prisms are intended to compensate for a lateral offset of individual lasers, known as a "smile", in which the respective light exit surface of the individual laser lies not on a straight line but on a curved line.
In general, however, lens and prism arrays are difficult to manufacture and adjust, and have step-shaped lateral surfaces between the respective prisms, which are detrimental to the light propagation owing to reflection. Further multiple prism arrangements are also known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,178 B1.
WO 00/19248 describes a biconcave micro-cylinder lens system, in which at least two aspherical lenses are produced with high accuracy.
It is known from the standard textbook "High-Power Diode Lasers" by R. Diehl, Springer (2000) that for exact fast axis collimation (residual divergence <5 mrad) of diode laser emitters or emitter arrays by means of purely refractive optics, it is necessary to use materials of high refractive index (generally >1.7) in conjunction with aspherical surfaces. Disadvantages of such systems are not only the high outlay for producing the aspherical surfaces to be adjusted relative to each other, but also the difficulty of exact mounting, for example in exact alignment with a stationary light source.
In many technical application fields, an increasing need for high-performance optical systems is developing. The spectrum comprises, for example, laser technology, printing technology, solar technology, biochemistry, sensors, adaptive optical systems, optical computers, optical memory systems, digital cameras, two- and three-dimensional image reproduction, lithography and measuring technology.
In order to compensate for optical errors, or in order to produce particular beam profiles or complicated geometries, optical systems having a plurality of optical components are often necessary.
The production of individual optical components by shaping glass material is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,734,118, 4,854,958 or 4,969,944. In order to join two optical components together to form an optical system, they are typically bonded to each other by a suitable adhesive layer or mounted in a common frame.
It is known from JP 60205402 A, for example, to connect a glass optical component to a plastic optical component by means of an adhesive layer. It is furthermore known, for example from JP 07056006 A, to apply a colored plastic layer onto a glass optical component.
The bonding of two glass optical components and the application of plastic onto glass generally require cost-intensive reprocessing, for example in the form of fine polishing or edge grinding.
It is furthermore known from DE 43 38 969 C2 to apply complex diffractive structures onto the surface of an optical component by etching. This method, however, requires elaborate process steps and therefore entails high costs.
To a certain extent, bi- or multifunctional components can be produced by corresponding diffractive structures in fibers; for example, suitably doped silica glass (SiO2) (for example Ge-doped) is already used for the production of Bragg gratings as de/multiplexers (wavelength filtering) or sensors in fibers. An inhomogeneous defect distribution, which leads to refractive index changes by changing the absorption coefficient, is in this case generated in the Ge-doped glass by UV irradiation.
It is furthermore known that structures can be generated in glass by irradiating various glasses with suitable high-energy pulses (fs pulses). For example, positive refractive index changes in the range of 10−2 are generated by the fs scribing of Ge-doped SiO2 glass (K. Hirao et al., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 235, pp. 31-35, 1998). Similar index changes have also been observed in borosilicates, sulfide and lead glasses (Corning WO 01/44871, PCT/US00/20651). By suitably adjusting the pulse energy and scribing rate, it is in this case possible to produce refractive index changes without physical damage to the glass (ablation, micro-cracks).

Method for producing an optical component, optical component produced according to the method and devices comprising such components


A silkscreen printer machine (8) includes:                a support structure (48); and        at least one printing station (54) secured to the structure (48) and including at least one screen support (68) presenting a reception area adapted to receive a screen texture (70) having a pattern for printing placed thereon. The screen support (68) is carried by at least three support elements (78) secured to the structure (48), the support elements (78) not being in alignment and being positioned on either side of the reception area (69). The invention also provides associated printer apparatus.

As is known per se, articles are printed in a silkscreen printer machine in a printing station by pressing a wiper blade against a silkscreen texture, the texture being squeezed between the article and the blade.
While printing flat articles, such as compact disks, telephone cards, or solar cells, the articles for printing are placed on a turntable suitable for transferring them between various processing and printing stations.
In conventional manner, the printing station comprises a support structure, a screen support secured to the structure, and a blade-carrier carriage mounted on a support beam secured to the support structure and extending along a side face of the screen support.
The blade-carrier carriage is guided in translation on the support beam so as to enable the screen to be wiped by the blades. During the displacement of the blade-carrier carriage, the pattern for printing is pressed against the article by the blade pressing against the mesh of the screen and by said mesh coming into contact with the surface of the article for printing.
Such a printer machine is described in particular in patent document FR 2 666 050. In that document, the side face of the screen support is secured at two points to the support beam. The screen support is cantilevered out from the support structure over the turntable and thus over the article for printing.
Nevertheless, it has been found that the printing of the pattern on the article is not uniform. Such a printer machine therefore cannot be used for printing that requires printing of great precision, as is the case for printing solar cells where precision of one hundredth of a millimeter is required.

Silkscreen printer machine and apparatus


A hybrid, hardwired and wireless well communication system having a fiber optical, electrical or other signal transmission conduit extending from the wellhead into the well and one or more wireless signal transducers that are located at a distance from the conduit and transmit wireless signals to one or more signal converters which are coupled to the conduit, and which are located near branchpoints of a multilateral well.

Currently known well communication systems are either hardwired or wireless systems. Wireless systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,893,644 and 5,706,896 and in European patent No. 646304 and have the disadvantage that the acoustic or electromagnetic signals transmitted through the well tubulars and/or fluids passing therethrough can only convey a limited datastream through the well and that the signal to noise level of the transmitted datastreams is low.
Hardwired downhole communication systems are able to transmit large datastreams with a high signal to noise level, but are extremely expensive and difficult to install and/or to modify and maintain after installation, in particular if the well is a multilateral well and the wires need to extend into different well branches.
The system according to the preamble of claim 1 is known from UK patent application GB 2340520. This prior art reference discloses an unbranched well having a horizontal inflow section in which a series of wireless signal transmitters transmit signals in a bucket-brigade mode to a signal receiver at the bottom of the vertical upper part of the well, where the received signal is transmitted via a signal transmission cable.
The known wireless signal transmitters transmit relatively weak acoustic or electromagnetic signals through the produced well fluids, which requires the use of a series of transmitters along the length of the horizontal inflow region of the well. Such an arrangement would be impractical in a multilateral well since the signals transmitted in different well branches would interfere with each other.
The present invention aims to alleviate the disadvantages of the known system and to provide a cost effective and flexible well communication system which is able to transmit large datastreams at a high signal to noise ratio and which can be adapted easily after installation to changing circumstances and to various types of equipment that may be installed during the lifetime of a well, in case the well is a multilateral well and one or more well branches are added after drilling and completion of the original well in which a communication system has already been installed.


Disclosed herein are methods of using anti-ILT5 antibodies and ILT5-binding fragments thereof for the treatment of various diseases and for use as immunostimulatory adjuvants.

The immune system has evolved multiple mechanisms to preserve immune homeostasis and protective immunity while sparing "self' from autoimmune destruction. The initiation of immunity is a tightly controlled process that relies in part on interplay between inhibitory and activating receptors. Immunoglobulin-like transcripts (ILTs), which encompass both types of receptors, are encoded by rapidly evolving genes found in human and non-human primates. Immunoglobulin-like transcript 5 ("ILT5") is a cell surface molecule that is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily and is highly expressed on antigen-presenting cells (APCs), such as immature dendritic cells and monocytes.

Immunoregulation by anti-ILT5 antibodies and ILT5-binding antibody fragments


An air swirler, a fuel and air admission assembly, and a staged combustor are disclosed. The staged combustor may be equipped with the fuel and air admission assemblies incorporating the air swirlers for use in gas turbine engines, such as for example gas turbine engines powering aircraft having supersonic cruise capability.

Gas turbine engines, such as those used to power modern commercial aircraft, include a compressor for pressurizing a supply of air, a combustor for burning a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of the pressurized air, and a turbine for extracting energy from the resultant combustion gases. In aircraft engine applications, the compressor, combustor and turbine are disposed about a central engine axis with the compressor disposed axially upstream of the combustor and the turbine disposed axially downstream of the combustor.
Combustion of the hydrocarbon fuel in air in gas turbine engines inevitably produces emissions, such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, which are delivered into the atmosphere in the exhaust gases from the gas turbine engine. It is generally accepted that oxides of nitrogen are produced at high flame temperatures. One approach to lower NOx emissions is to lower flame temperature by operating the combustor under fuel lean conditions. However, during operation of the combustor under fuel lean conditions, combustion instability and flame-out may occur if the fuel and air mixture becomes too fuel lean. Additionally, during operation of the combustor under fuel lean conditions, the lower flame temperatures could result in incomplete combustion and a consequent increase in carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons emissions.
Another approach to lower the emissions of oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from a gas turbine engine is through staged combustion. In one arrangement for implementing staged combustion in a gas turbine engine is to provide a plurality of fuel injection nozzles and associated air swirler assemblies, of which only a selected portion are operated at engine idle and under low power demands and all of which are operated at engine cruise and under high power demands.
In general, it is desirable to rapidly mix the fuel and the air in an attempt to provide uniform fuel lean conditions and eliminate as many local pockets of combustion under near stoichiometric fuel/air conditions to avoid pockets of high flame temperature conducive to NOx formation or of combustion under fuel rich conditions to avoid carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon resulting from incomplete combustion. Various designs of swirler assemblies have been developed for use in association fuel injection nozzles in an attempt to provide rapid fuel and air mixing. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,937 discloses a fuel injector and a two-pass air swirler disposed about the fuel injector, the air swirler having an inner swirled air passage and an outer swirled air passage. The fuel is injected through the end of the fuel injector into the swirling airflow generated by the inner air swirler. U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,211 discloses a fuel injector and a three-pass air disposed about the fuel injector, the air swirler having an inner swirled air passage, an intermediate swirled air passage and an outer swirled air passage. Again, the fuel is injected through the end of the fuel injector into the swirling airflow generated by the inner air swirler.
There is a desire for an efficient, low-emission, and stable combustor for use in gas turbine engines for powering supersonic cruise vehicles. It is contemplated that combustors in gas turbine engines for powering supersonic cruise vehicles will operate with pre-vaporized, that is gaseous, jet fuel. While the aforementioned air swirlers have performed well in mixing liquid jet fuel and air in conventional gas turbine engines on commercial subsonic aircraft, there is a desire for an air swirler assembly that provides rapid and efficient mixing of gaseous jet fuel with air.

Swirler, fuel and air assembly and combustor


Preservative compositions for wood products is described. The compositions include at least one boron-containing material, such as but not limited to boric anhydride, and at least one silane-containing material, such as but not limited to methyltrichlorosilane. Optionally, at least one solvent, such as tetrahydrofuran, pentane, or water, may also be employed in the compositions. The compositions impart protection to the treated wood products, especially damage caused by exposure to water and insects.

The present invention relates generally to wood product preservatives, and more particularly to wood product preservative compositions including at least one boron-containing material and at least one silane-containing material.
The use of wood products, such as lumber, in modern society is extremely widespread. For example, wood products are found in housing construction materials, crating materials, telephone pole materials, fencing materials, indoor and outdoor furniture, as well as many other applications.
Although wood is an extremely useful and versatile material to employ with respect to the afore-mentioned applications, it does suffer from certain disadvantages. This is especially true with respect to wood products that are used primarily for outdoor applications.
For example, wood, especially untreated wood, is susceptible to damage caused by the elements, especially water, as well as insects (e.g., termites, certain types of ants, and other boring insects).
Water damage typically causes wood products to warp, crack, check, as well as become discolored and mildewed. Insect damage typically causes wood products to rot and decay. Typically, water and/or insect damage leads to the eventual replacement of the damaged section of wood at great expense, effort, and inconvenience.
Although wood preservative and protectant manufacturers have marketed various wood treatment products to supposedly prevent, or reduce the likelihood of, the occurrence of water and insect damage to wood products, these products have not been completely satisfactory, especially with regard to effectiveness, cost concerns, ease of application, duration of treatment time, and duration of protection afforded.
Therefore, there exists a need for preservation compositions for various wood products that will provide satisfactory protection against water and insect damage, as well as being highly effective, relatively inexpensive, relatively easy to apply, have a relatively short treatment time, and provide a relatively long period of protection.


A drive train includes a gearbox having an input shaft, and a belt-driven pulley for transmitting rotation to the input shaft. The drive pulley is mounted to the main shaft by a bearing so as to be rotatable relative thereto. A clutch disk is mounted for rotation with the input shaft and is slidable relative to the input shaft so as to be movable into and out of contact with the drive pulley. When the clutch disk is in contact with the drive pulley, the input shaft is rotated. An actuator enables an operator to disengage the clutch disk from the drive pulley.

The invention relates to a de-clutching mechanism for belt-driven transmissions, such as are used in small tractors like self-propelled lawnmowers.
Small tractors, like self-propelled lawnmowers, include a gearbox which carries a gear shift mechanism. The gears are driven by an input shaft which is fixedly connected to a drive pulley, the pulley being driven by a belt that is rotated by a motor.
In order to shift gears, it is necessary to declutch in order to interrupt the power being transmitted to the input shaft. That has traditionally been performed by loosening the belt tension to permit the belt to slip relative to the drive pulley.
Such an arrangement involves a number of shortcomings. The loosening of the belt gives rise to a risk that the belt can become dislodged from the drive pulley. Also, the slippage of the belt relative to the drive pulley produces appreciable wearing of the belt, thereby shortening the belt life. Special belt design techniques have been implemented to reduce the loss of belt life but the result is relatively expensive belts. Also, the mechanisms for loosening/tightening the belt can be relatively complicated and expensive.
In addition, when it is desired to change gears as the tractor is moving downhill, the large gear ratio typical of such gearboxes means that even the slightest force applied to the pulley by the belt will make it difficult to effect a smooth gear shift. Therefore, it would be desirable to ensure that smooth gear shifting can be effected at all times, as well as to increase belt life, reduce belt cost, and minimize the risk of the belt becoming dislodged from the pulley.

Drive train of a pulley-driven gearbox and clutch device therefor


A cover for an intake of an air-breathing engine in a missile is disclosed. The cover comprises a motive arrangement operable to move from a first configuration in which the cover is lockable to a missile, to a second configuration in which the cover is pushed outwardly from the missile. In the first configuration, the surface of the cover is flush with the surface of the missile and the motive arrangement is located inwardly of the cover surface. A missile provided with such a cover is also disclosed.

Missiles for launch from aircraft typically spend some time in storage and transit prior to being loaded onto an aircraft-mounted launcher, following which they will spend some time in air carriage on the aircraft prior to a possible launch. Subsequent to launch, the missile is propelled by its own engine, which may for example be either a rocket-type engine, or an air breathing engine. In the latter case, the missile will be provided with one or more air intakes. It is known to provide air intake covers to prevent ingress of environmental debris prior to launch of the missile.
These covers must be removed from the air intakes before the engines can begin to operate, and it is known to provide ejection mechanisms that operate to eject the cover from the missile on or shortly after launch. During storage and transit of the missile it is possible for the covers to become lightly stuck to the missile surface as a result of the accumulation of dirt; and it is known that ice can form around the interface between the cover and the missile during air transit. Since the missile's engine will not function without the air intakes being open, it is important that the ejection mechanisms are reliable and will operate with sufficient force to break through any sticking resulting from accumulation of dirt, or from the formation of ice.
Since launchers are often already present on aircraft onto which missiles are to be loaded it is not generally desirable to need to adapt the launcher in order to accommodate a cover ejection mechanism; and it is also desirable not to extend the space required by the missile in transit. Moreover, space within the missile itself is also limited and most normally taken up by internal components providing desired functionality to the missile, or by fuel needed in order to meet a desired range for the missile. Air intake covers, and their associated ejection mechanisms, must therefore be designed with these competing constraints in mind, whilst still ensuring a reliable and consistent ejection operable after some time in storage.


A metalization structure having a first conductor layer on the surface of an underlying layer and, further, a second conductor layer connected conductively with the first conductor layer in which a polyimide insulative film of low thermal expansion coefficient is present between at least an end of a pattern of the second conductor layer and the first conductor layer, for stably obtaining a metalization structure of high reliability and free from the worry of peeling of the conductor portion from a substrate or occurrence of cracking to the underlying layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a metalization structure and, more in particular, it relates to a metalization structure suitable to a case of using a conductor layer of a conductive material comprising nickel as a main ingredient, as well as a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as development has been made for increasing the number of layers, increasing the degree of integration and improving the performance of wiring substrates for mounting LSI, higher characteristics have been demanded for insulative films used therefor. As one of such insulative films, polyimides have been used generally at present in view of their excellent thermal and chemical stability.
For mounting a wiring substrate such as a multichip module and electronic parts such as LSI by way of soldering connection, connecting electrodes are disposed to the wiring substrate. In this case, nickel or nickel-based alloy is desirably used for the outermost layer of the electrode (layer in direct contact with solder). This is because of facilitating repair of the soldering connection.
In view of the above, as a method of forming an electrode for soldering connection, there may be considered, as shown in FIG. 6, a method of providing an aligning pad 63 comprising three Cr/Cu/Cr layers on the surface of a wiring substrate 62 having copper wirings 61, forming an Ni--W alloy electrode 64 on the surface, insulating the same by covering with a polyimide film 65 and forming through holes 66 to the polyimide film. In this method, the entire surface of the electrode 64 facing the aligning pad 63 is in an intimate contact with the surface of the aligning pad 63 to obtain a metalization structure in which ends of the aligning pad 63 and the electrode 64 are covered with the polyimide insulative film 65.
This method has a merit capable of collectively making film formation and fabrication for the aligning pad and the electrode respectively.
When the electrode 64 is formed in this method, it is necessary to etch the Ni--W alloy film into a shape of the electrode with phosphoric acid+nitric acid+acetic acid system. However, since the etching solution also etches Cr and Cu, it involves a problem that the aligning pad 63 in the lower layer is eroded from the end upon etching of the electrode 64.
Further, since the film stress of Ni--W is large, when the electrode 64 is formed by etching, there is a problem that the conductor portion (the electrode 64 and the aligning pad 63) is cleaved or peeled from the substrate or the substrate suffers from cracking or chipping by the film stress. That is, when a pattern of a conductor mainly composed of a copper is formed on the underlying layer such as a glass substrate, ceramic substrate or polyimide film and a conductor pattern comprising nickel as a main ingredient is formed on the above-mentioned pattern, a strong stress is caused between the conductor comprising copper as a main ingredient and the conductor comprising nickel as a main ingredient to cause cracking or chipping in the underlying layer. The cracking or chipping hinders electric connection of internal conductors in the underlying layer or causes peeling of the conductor comprising nickel as a main ingredient from the underlying layer to remarkably deteriorate the reliability of the metalization structure.

Metalization structure and manufacturing method thereof


There is disclosed a process and apparatus for receiving and reproducing radiographic information from an anisotropic storage phosphor screen including an auto-collimating photostimulable phosphor layer of a material selected from the group consisting of europium activated barium fluorobromide, europium activated potassium chloride, indium activated potassium bromide or indium activated rubidium iodide, which absorbs impinging ionizing radiation emanating from or passing through an object to be imaged, a collimated or focused interrogating beam of photons directed parallel to the columnar structure of the screen to stimulate the trapped electrons within the storage phosphor to release the energy stored therein as luminescent photons, an opto-electro-mechanical assembly to achieve a raster scan of the interrogating beam over the area of the phosphor screen, a detector for converting the luminescent photons into electrical signals, and a computer to record and/or display the intensity versus positional information as a radiographic image of the object.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process and apparatus for interrogating a storage phosphor screen, and more particularly to an improved process and apparatus for retrieving information of improved resolution and sensitivity from a storage phosphor screen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ionizing radiation images have been and continue to be used as basic investigative tools in medicine, industry and science. There are two general categories of phosphor-based imaging systems. The first employs phosphors chosen from the scintillators wherein the incident ionizing radiation interacts with the phosphor to immediately produce a visible-light image. The second employs photostimulable storage phosphors wherein the phosphor temporarily stores the incident radiation patterns for retrieval as infrared or visible-light images an interval of time later by scanning or flooding with electromagnetic radiation, such as described in: U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,527 to Luckey, or U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,968 to Kotera, et al., or U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,023 to Lindmayer, or U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,090 to DeBoer, et al.
In both types of system, there is an inverse relationship between two fundamental determinants of image quality, namely: resolution, referring to the sharpness or the spatial detail evident in an image; and sensitivity, referring to the energy conversion efficiency from the ionizing radiation to the luminescent image. Generally, sensitivity is increased by using a thicker phosphor layer thereby increasing the probability of interaction between the radiation and the phosphor layer, but the resulting luminescence is more widely scattered thereby decreasing resolution. Conversely, increasing resolution by decreasing phosphor thickness decreases the probability of interaction, and therefore, sensitivity.
Several methods to improve this reverse relationship have been disclosed, such as, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,898 to DeBoer et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,850 to Beerlage; U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,144 to Mouyen; U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,023 to Lindmayer; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,588 to Soltani et al.
There remains the continuing need for improved process and apparatus to retrieve information of improved spatial resolution and sensitivity with lower exposure from a storage phosphor screen.

Process and apparatus for retrieving information from a storage phosphor screen