A sensor (20) arranged in a deep groove ball bearing (10) includes an encoder (22) attached at an inner ring (1) to be rotatable integrally with the inner ring (1), and a magnetism detecting element (24) attached at an outer ring (2) via a sensor housing (26) to face the encoder (22) with a sensor gap. Then, the magnetism detecting element (24) is capable of measuring a rotating state of the encoder (22) rotating in the rotating state identical to that of the inner ring (1) in conjunction with a rotation of the inner ring (1). The deep groove ball bearing (10) includes a foreign material entering prevention portion that prevents a foreign material from entering the inside of the bearing from a gap between the inner ring (1) and the sensor housing (26). The size of the gap between the inner ring (1) and the sensor housing (26) is substantially identical to the sensor gap between the magnetism detecting element (24) and the encoder (22), and the gap configures non-contact seal and functions as the foreign material entering prevention portion.

In one technology, a rolling bearing having a sensor that measures the state of rotation (indicative of, for example, rotational speed, number of rotations, or rotating direction, hereinafter, also referred to as "rotating state") of the rotating ring is known. In a rolling bearing having such a sensor, as the sensor is attached at one end side in the axial direction of the rolling bearing, the other end side in the axial direction can be sealed by attaching seal, but one end side in the axial direction at which the sensor is attached has to be devised for sealing.
For example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2 each disclose a rolling bearing having a sensor, in which a mechanism of preventing the entering of foreign materials is arranged at one end side in the axial direction at which the sensor is attached to suppress the entering of the foreign materials into the sensor or the rolling bearing. This rolling bearing having the sensor includes an inner ring that is a rotating side bearing ring, an outer ring that is a fixed side bearing ring (non-rotating ring), rolling elements rotatably arranged between both rings, and a sensor that measures the rotating state of the bearing.
The sensor includes a detected object that rotates in an identical rotating state to the inner ring, a detecting body that detects the rotating state of the detected object, and a sensor housing that accommodates the detecting body. The detected object is fixed at the inner ring and rotates integrally with the inner ring, whereas the detecting body is fixed at the outer ring with being accommodated in the sensor housing to be capable of facing the detected object at a predefined space from the detected object. Then, the sensor housing includes the mechanism of preventing the entering of foreign materials from a gap between the inner ring and the sensor housing.
The rolling bearing having the sensor disclosed by Patent Literature 1 includes a foreign material entering prevention portion with a following configuration, as the mechanism of preventing the entering of foreign materials from the gap between the inner ring and the sensor housing. That is, the detected object is rotating together with the inner ring with being attached to a detected object holder fixed at the inner ring. The foreign material entering prevention portion is formed to protrude toward the detected object holder on a whole circumference of a facing surface, of the sensor housing, facing the detected object holder. Then, the sensor housing is located such that a protrusion end of the foreign material entering prevention portion faces the detected object holder at a predefined space therefrom, and a facing space between the protrusion end of the foreign material entering prevention portion and the detected object holder is set to be smaller than the facing space between the detected object and the detecting body.
In addition, the rolling bearing having the sensor disclosed by Patent Literature 2 includes a foreign material entering prevention portion with a following configuration, as the mechanism of preventing entering of foreign materials from the gap between the inner ring and the sensor housing. That is, the detected object is rotating together with the inner ring with being attached to a detected object holder fixed at the inner ring. The foreign material entering prevention portion is partially formed of an elastic material, one end side in the axial direction is fixed to the sensor housing, and a seal lip formed at the other end side is in sliding contact with the detected object holder or the inner ring side face.

Roller bearing having sensor, motor, and actuator


This invention relates to a polyamide resin composition and more particularly, to a polyamide resin composition exhibiting better improved mechanical strength and gasoline-resisting property under thermally severe conditions, when a specifically formulated polyamide resin complex comprising a glassfiber whose surface is treated with coupling agent and organic nucleic agent in the form of phosphoric acid-metal salt, is applied to some automobile parts such as a delivery pipe, being directly contacted with gasoline, automobile fuel.

A delivery pipe is a peripheral part of engine. However, the conventional delivery pipe, mainly prepared by a method of aluminium dye casting, has recognized several disadvantages in that a) manufacturing process is complicated, b) the weight of a product is increasing, and c) when metal materials are applied, their heat conduction is large and then, increasing gasoline temperature of the pipe plays a role to increase a total internal pressure within a fuel system, thus leading to reduction of engine efficiency and environmental problems due to gasoline discharge.
In order to comply with the aforementioned problems the conventional delivery pipe face, i.e., a) more simplified manufacturing process, b) reduced weight of product, c) enhancement of engine efficiency, and d) prevention of gasoline discharge, therefore, it is advisable to use plastic materials. The first priority for plastication of the delivery pipe should be placed on mechanical durability such as strength and rigidity, when metal materials are replaced and in addition to that, on impact-resistance and vibration-resisting properties during the driving. Further, since gasoline fuel is always filled within the delivery pipe, metal-substitute materials should be selected from gasoline-resisting ones, which may minimize the discharging amount of gasoline to the outside via internal walls of the pipe.
In order to meet the above requirements, the conventional metal materials used in a delivery pipe may be replaced by a resin such as polyamide resin, one of the engineering plastics. Since the common polyamide resin within its molecules contains amide group having a strong binding force, it exhibit a high melting point and remarkable mechanical strength. Among the engineering plastics, polyamide resin is a material with a wide scope of use and recently, it has been widely used in some parts of automobiles, electrics and electronics.
In particular, in parallel with the recent trends of favoring smaller automobiles, the demand for polyamide resin has been on a drastic increase. Now that much attention has focused on the additional properties of polyamide resin together with basic advantages, the development of novel polyamide materials is now in very active status.
When the conventional polyamide resin is applied as an automobile part, its most common manufacturing process is that after mixing the polyamide resin with various types of polyolefin resin, the polyolefin resin in fibrous or tabular form is present in the product and several layers with different properties exist towards the direction of the product, thus having a resistance against the infiltration or penetration of gasoline. Further, another method designed to enhance the resistance against gasoline has been suggested in such a manner that with the addition of a polar resin such as polyvinyl acetate to the polyamide, more large resistance may be induced by the penetration of non-polar gasoline. However, the above method has recognized some disadvantages in applying peripheral parts of engine, since the addition of components having a poor thermal stability resulted in unstable heat resistance or reduced mechanical strength at high temperature. To overcome the poor thermal stability, some reinforcing agents (e.g., glassfiber or mineral) have been added so as to improve a thermal deformation temperature and bending strength but when these agents are applied, the gasoline-resisting property, being obtained from non-reinforcing materials, is not expected due to the fact that the multilayer structure having remarkable penetration effects is destroyed.
The main reasons why the parts manufactured by glassfiber-reinforced polyamide resin shows their poor infiltration against gasoline is that 1) if there are a poor adhesive force in the interface between glassfiber and polyamide resin, gasoline vapor become diffused from the resulting interfacial crevices, and 2) gasoline, which is infiltrated into the amorphous areas of polyamide resin is delivered.
The aforementioned reasons have supported the following hypothesis in that the poor adhesive power in the interface can be ascertained by weight gains or reduced strength due to infiltration of gasoline; and in the case of second factor, the gasoline-resisting property may be increased, when the degree of crystallization of polyamide resin components using a crystal nucleating agent.
During these experiments, it has been ascertained that the improvement of gasoline-resisting property has been made available when a resin of same composition is injected at somewhat low temperature and in parallel with increase of injection rate even at a same resin temperature. As a result of analyzing the above matter, it has been noted that from the common parts where the resin flow occurs towards the rectangular direction of the product thickness, better gasoline-resisting property has been induced by enhanced orientation of glassfiber more than in the case of somewhat reduced orientation. Based upon such results, the inventor et al. have performed various experiments designed to enhance the orientation degree of glassfiber in terms of resin's own properties instead of injection conditions.
In order to enhance the orientation of glassfiber followed by increasing the viscosity of polyamide resin, therefore, experiments for the enhancement of viscosity have been performed using various types of additives via their reaction with the amine or carboxyl terminal of polyamide but the improvement of gasoline-resisting property has not eventually been shown. The inventor et al. has concluded that such poor gasoline-resisting property may occur, since the reaction of molecular terminals reduced the. crystallization of polyamide resin components and gasoline is infiltrated into the amorphous areas and thus, have completed this invention with the following conclusion that a method of using plural polyamide resins with different properties of melting flow is the most useful in improving the gasoline-resisting property, instead of a method to improve the viscosity via reaction of terminal groups.
In an effort to provide the polyamide resin with thermal stability, the inventor et al. has performed extensive studies Lo overcome the poor gasoline-resisting property induced by adding glassfiber as a reinforcing agent and in consequence, have successfully the polyamide resin composition having improved gasoline-resisting property by dint of enhancement of orientation degree of glassfiber using plural polyamide resins with different properties of melting flow.


A radiation image conversion panel comprising a phosphor sheet having a stimulable phosphor layer and a protective layer provided so as to cover the surface of the phosphor layer, wherein mean slope Δa of an outer surface of the protective layer not adjacent with the phosphor layer is from 0.01 to 0.1 and the surface roughness Ra in μm of the inner side or the phosphor sheet side of the protective layer is 0.05 μm to 0.45 μm, and the stimulable phosphor layer is provided by a coating method.

Radiographic images such typically as X-ray images are widely employed in various fields, for example, in the medical diagnosis. To obtain the X-ray image, radio-photographic method is principally utilized in which radiation penetrated through a subject is irradiated to a phosphor layer, also called as a phosphor screen, and light emitted from the phosphor layer is irradiated to silver halide photographic light-sensitive material and then the light-sensitive material is developed to obtain a visible image. Recently, however, new method for directly obtaining the image from the phosphor layer is proposed instead of the image forming method by the light-sensitive material.
In such the method, radiation penetrated through the subject is absorbed by a phosphor and then the phosphor is stimulated by light or thermal energy so as that the energy accumulated in the phosphor by absorbing the radiation is released as fluorescence and the fluorescence is detected and imaged. In concrete, the method is a radiation image conversion method utilizing a stimulable phosphor such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,527 and Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection, hereinafter referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication, No. 55-12144.
In this method, a radiation image conversion panel containing the stimulable phosphor is utilized. In detail, the radiation image conversion panel is exposed to radiation penetrated through the subject so that the radiation energy corresponding to the radiation transmission of each parts of the subject is accumulated in the stimulable phosphor, and then the energy of the radiation accumulated in the phosphor is emitted as light by time serially stimulating the phosphor by stimulating electromagnetic radiation such as visible light and infrared rays. The signal according to the variation of the emitted light is readout, for example, as electric signals by photo-electric conversion, and the electric signals are reproduced as a visible image on a usual image recording medium such as the light sensitive material or an image displaying apparatus typically such as a CRT.
The foregoing reproduction method for reproducing the radiographic image record has an advantage such as that a radiographic image with abundant information by an exposure amount of radiation considerably smaller than that to be required in the radio-photographic method employing a combination of the radiographic light-sensitive material and an intensifying screen.
On the outer surface of the stimulable phosphor layer, namely the surface not to be faced to the support, a protective layer for protecting the phosphor layer from a chemical deterioration or a physical impact. As the protective layer, the followings have been known: one formed by coating on the phosphor layer a solution composed of an organic polymer such as a cellulose derivative and poly(methyl methacrylate) dissolved in a suitable solvent; one formed by adhering a separately prepared protective layer forming sheet or film composed of an organic film such as polypropylene and poly(ethylene terephthalate) or a glass plate on the phosphor layer by a suitable adhering agent; and one formed by depositing an inorganic compound by a method such as vapor deposition.
The stimulable phosphor is a phosphor which emits light when irradiated by stimulating light after exposed to radiation. The phosphor emitting light of from 300 to 500 nm by stimulating light of from 400 to 900 nm is usually employed in practice. Examples of the stimulable phosphor employed hitherto in the radiation image conversion panel are alkali-earth metal fluoride-halide compound type phosphors each activated by a rare-earth element described on Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 55-12145, 55-160078, 56-74175, 56-116777, 57-23673, 57-23675, 58-206678, 59-27289, 59-27980, 59-56479 and 59-56480; di-valent europium-activated alkali-earth metal halide type phosphors described in 59-75200, 60-84381, 60-106752, 60-166379, 60-221483, 60-228592, 60-228593, 61-23679, 61-120882, 61-120883, 61-120885, 61-235486 and 61-235487; rare-earth element-activated oxohalide phosphors described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 59-12144; cerium-activated tri-valent metal oxohalide phosphors described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 58-69281; bismuth-activated alkali halide type phosphors described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 60-70484; di-valent europium-activated alkali-earth metal halo-phosphate phosphors described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 60-141783 and 60-157100; di-valent europium-activated alkali-earth halo-borate phosphors described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 60-157099; di-valent europium-activated alkali-earth hydrogen-halide phosphors described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 60-217354; cerium-activated rare-earth composite halide phosphors described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 61-21173 and 61-21182; cerium-activated rare-earth halo-phosphate phosphors described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 61-40390; di-valent europium-activated cerium rubidium phosphors described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 60-78151; di-valent europium-activated halogen phosphor described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 60-78153; and rare-earth metal-activated tetradecahedron alkali-earth metal fluoride-halide type phosphors precipitated from a liquid phase described in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 7-233369.
Among the above-described stimulable phosphors, the di-valent europium-activated iodide-containing alkali-earth metal fluoride-halide type phosphors, the di-valent europium-activated iodide-containing alkali-earth metal halide type phosphors, the rare-earth metal-activated iodide-containing rare-earth metal oxohalide type phosphors, and the bismuth-activated iodide-containing alkali metal halide type phosphors each emit high luminance light.
It is one of the advantages of the radiation image conversion panel employing that the panel can be repeatedly usable because such the phosphor emits by scanning by the stimulating light and radiographic image can be re-accumulated thereafter. Such the method is also advantageous from the viewpoint of the resources protection and the economical efficiency since the radiation image conversion panel can be repeatedly usable contrary to that the radiographic light-sensitive material is consumed every once of the photographing in the usual radiographic method.
As described above, though the radiographic image recording-reproducing method has various advantages, it is demanded to the image conversion panel to be used in such the method that the sensitivity and the image quality such as the sharpness and the graininess are as higher as possible.
In the performance of the method, the radiation image conversion panel is repeatedly employed in the circle of exposure to radiation for recording the radiographic image, irradiation of the stimulating light for reading the recorded radiographic image and irradiation of erasing light for erasing the remained radiographic image. In a cassette type panel, the panel is conveyed through each steps by a conveying means such as a belt and a roller to perform such the repeatedly use of the panel. On the occasion of such the operation, the temperature of the interior of the apparatus is made higher than the room temperature by the presence of the light source and the driving system. In the case of an exclusive type apparatus, the temperature interior of the apparatus tends to be raised higher than that of the cassette type apparatus by heating by the light source in the course of continuous image taking even though there is no panel conveying means in the apparatus. It has been known that the unevenness of image density is degraded when heat is applied. Consequently, high resistivity against heat is required to the panel.
On the other hand, it has been considered that the sharpness of the image obtained by the radiation image conversion panel is higher when the thickness of the protective layer is thinner. However, the durability of the conversion panel tends to be lowered because the scratches and the cracks on the protective layer surface tend to be formed in the course of the repeatedly use when the thickness of the protective layer is thin. Therefore, suitable materials are elected so that the functions as the protective layer such as anti-scratch property and the conveying suitability can be maintained even when the thickness of the protective layer is made as small as possible for inhibiting the degradation of the sharpness. For example, the use of a material having a high strength and transparency such as poly(ethylene terephthalate), combination of plural kinds of resins, coating of a layer of a composition containing fluorine-containing resin having high anti-scratch ability and the use of multi-layered protective layer are applied.
However, the thickness of the protective layer should be increased in the usual technology to obtain the durability for prolonged period in the apparatus so that degradation of the sharpness is resulted.
Problems that unevenness of the density other than the density variation caused by the subject occurs when a film of polypropylene, poly(ethylene terephthalate) or poly(ethylene naphthalate) is used as protective layer, or the density unevenness caused by the coating of the resin composition containing fluorinated resin occurs. As the countermeasure to such the density unevenness, Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 59-42500 and Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 1-57759 discloses a measure to disappear the density unevenness by raising the haze ratio of the protective layer. However, a drawback is caused that the increasing of the haze ratio results further lowering of the sharpness.
Consequently, a method described in, for example, Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 10-82899, in which the protective layer is constituted by a plastic film and a fluorinated resin-containing resin composition which contains light scattering fine particles coated on the film, and a method described in, for example, Japanese Patent O.P.I Publication No. 2002-122698, in which the protective film has a stimulating light absorbing layer and specified surface roughness, are disclosed. However, the improvement of the sharpness is insufficient and the compatibility of high sharpness and low density unevenness cannot be satisfied yet.


A semiconductor chip constituting an image pickup device is provided on a substrate and includes a connection terminal and an image pickup portion. A lens sheet having a lens portion is provided on the semiconductor chip. A groove is formed in at least the substrate to expose the connection terminal. A conductor pattern is formed in the groove and has one end electrically connected to the connection terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a micro camera module with a lens and a built-in CCD or CMOS sensor and a method for manufacturing the camera module.
2. Description of the Related Art
Micro camera modules usually have, for example, an image pickup sensor, an infrared (IR) cut filter, a substrate, passive parts, an optical lens, and a diaphragm.
In recent years, growing desires have been made to reduce the size of camera modules. The following are important in reducing the size of camera modules.    (1) Reduction in the sizes of a sensor chip and passive parts used    (2) Reduction in the size of pixels for the sensor and in the thickness of an optical system
(1) is mainly a reduction in lateral size which can be achieved by improving parts and mounting techniques. In particular, much attention has been paid to a mounting technique using a substrate of the same size as that of the sensor chip, for example, a chip scale package (CSP). On the other hand, (2) is mainly a reduction in vertical size. Normally, optical parts such as an IR cut filter, a diaphragm, and an optical lens need to be stacked on the sensor. This makes it difficult to reduce the thickness.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-238103 discloses an image pickup device serving as a camera module. This image pickup device has an image pickup element provided on a substrate and on which an optical element having a coupling lens portion is provided. The image pickup element and the substrate are electrically connected together via wire. The substrate is further sealed with resin so as to expose the coupling lens portion to integrate the substrate, image pickup element, and optical element together.
However, the conventional camera module requires a lens barrel and holder which support the lens, a holder that supports the IR cut filter, a housing that holds the substrate, image pickup element, and optical element, a sealing resin that seals the stack, and the like. Further, the lens barrel and holder, the holder supporting the IR cut filter, the substrate, the image pickup element, and the optical element are separate parts. These parts are very small and difficult to assemble. Furthermore, if these parts are assembled, their sizes and thicknesses cannot be easily reduced to required values. Therefore, it has been desirable to provide a high-performance camera of a reduced size and reduced thickness and a method for manufacturing such a camera.

Micro camera module and method of manufacturing the same


A method of fabricating a gate electrode of a semiconductor device is disclosed. A disclosed method comprises growing a silicon epitaxial layer on a silicon substrate; making at least one trench through the epitaxial layer and filling the trench with a first oxide layer; etching the first oxide layer to form reverse spacers in the trench; depositing a second oxide layer and a polysilicon layer over the silicon substrate including the trench and the reverse spacers and forming a gate; implanting ions in the silicon substrate at both sides of the gate to form pocket-well and LDD areas; depositing a nitride layer over the silicon substrate including the gate and etching the nitride layer to form spacers; implanting ions using the spacers and the gate as a mask to make a source/drain region; and forming a silicide layer on the top of the gate electrode and the silicon epitaxial layer positioned on the source/drain region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a gate electrode of a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to a method of making a nanoscale gate channel by forming reverse spacers and creating shallow junction structures by forming an elevated source/drain using a silicon epitaxial layer.
2. Background of the Related Art
The size of a metal-oxide-metal (hereinafter referred to as "MOS") transistor has been gradually reduced as semiconductor devices become highly integrated. The width of a gate electrode and the area of a source/drain region are shrunken in proportion to decreasing size of the MOS transistor and, therefore, the contact resistance of the source/drain region as well as the resistance of the gate electrode are increased. Moreover, the source/drain region in a MOS transistor of a high-integrated semiconductor device has to be formed so that it has a shallow junction to avoid short channel effect. However, if the junction of the source/drain region becomes shallow in depth, the junction leakage current characteristics deteriorates and, therefore, the resistance of the source/drain region increases. In recent years, a method of reducing the contact resistance of metal interconnect lines by bringing a material layer such as a SiGe layer, which has a lower band gap energy than that of silicon, into contact with a metal interconnect line has been presented (Materials Research Society, pp. 223˜228, Shigeaki Zaima et al., 1997.).
On the other hand, it is generally known that a transistor fabrication method uses a salicide process to reduce the resistance of gate electrodes and the contact resistance of source/drain regions. However, in making a small-size MOS transistor of a high-integrated semiconductor device, the salicide process may deteriorate more seriously the junction leakage current characteristics of the source/drain region. To avoid this problem, a method using an elevated source/drain technology together with the salicide technology has been presented to reduce the resistance of gate electrodes and source/drain regions at the same time for the purpose of improving the junction leakage current characteristics. Here, the elevated source/drain technology forms a SiGe layer on the source/drain region using a selective epitaxial growth (hereinafter referred to as "SEG") process.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,885, Kang et al., describes a method of manufacturing a transistor having a shallow junction formation. Kang et al. uses two layers of a silicon epitaxial layer to fabricate a transistor having a good short channel effect and good drive current.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a transistor with an elevated source/drain formed by a conventional fabrication method. As shown in FIG. 1, a gate insulation layer 3 such as a thermal oxide layer is formed on a predetermined area in a semiconductor substrate 1 with a first conduction-type. Then, a gate pattern 5 is formed on the gate insulation layer 3. The semiconductor substrate is made of single crystal silicon. The gate pattern is a doped polysilicon layer. In another embodiment, the gate pattern may consist of a doped polysilicon layer and a capping layer. The capping layer is a silicon nitride layer or silicon oxide layer. Next, spacers 9 made of an insulating material such as silicon oxide or silicon nitride are formed on the sidewalls of the gate pattern. A source/drain region 13 with a second conduction-type is then formed on the surface of the substrate at both sides of a channel area under the gate pattern. The source/drain region is a lightly doped drain (hereinafter referred to as "LDD) type. The second conduction-type is opposite to the first conduction-type. Then, a SiGe layer 15 doped with impurities is selectively formed on the source/drain region. Here, the SiGe layer 15 has the same conduction-type as the source/drain region. A metal silicide layer 17a is then formed on the SiGe layer. Here, if the gate pattern is a doped polysilicon layer, the SiGe layer and the metal silicide layer are also formed on the gate pattern in sequence. As a result, an elevated source/drain consisting of the source/drain region and the SiGe layer are completed, as shown in FIG. 1. Here, the metal silicide layer is a layer consisting of silicon and a fireproof metal such as cobalt, tantalum, or titanium. The metal silicide layer has lower specific resistance than that of the source/drain region 13 doped with impurities. In addition, the SiGe layer positioned between the metal silicide layer and the source/drain region has a lower band gap energy than that of the silicon substrate.
By adopting the elevated source/drain structure, the above-described prior art can increase the distance between the metal silicide layer and the junction area of the source/drain region in a MOS transistor while the low junction depth of the source/drain region is maintained. Accordingly, the leakage current characteristics of the source/drain region as well as the short channel effect of the MOS transistor can be improved. However, the described prior art includes the epitaxial layer made of a different material from the silicon substrate, which has to be selectively deposited over a source/drain region. Moreover, the epitaxial layer has additionally to be doped with the same impurities as those doped into the source/drain region. Therefore, the process for fabricating a transistor becomes complicated.

Method of fabricating gate electrode of semiconductor device


A sampling density for capturing a plurality of two-dimensional images of a three-dimensional scene may be determined. The sampling density may be below the Nyquist rate. However, the sampling density may be sufficiently high such that captured images may be promoted to multiplane images and used to generate novel viewpoints in a light field reconstruction framework. Recording guidance may be provided at a display screen on a mobile computing device based on the determined sampling density. The recording guidance identifying a plurality of camera poses at which to position a camera to capture images of the three-dimensional scene. A plurality of images captured via the camera based on the recording guidance may be stored on a storage device.

Conventional photo-realistic rendering requires intensive manual and computational effort to create scenes and render realistic images. Thus, creation of rendered content for high quality digital imagery using conventional techniques is largely limited to experts. Further, highly-realistic rendering using conventional techniques requires significant computational resources, typically substantial amounts of computing time on high-resource computing machines.

Free-viewpoint photorealistic view synthesis from casually captured video


A multi-compartment housing with a plurality of cavities forms the main part of the housing. The multi-compartment housing has a side portion that has a smooth, continuous surface and a plurality of individual cavities that are perpendicular to a central axis of the multi-compartment housing. The individual cavities have a plurality of plugs capable of being placed in communication with a corresponding individual cavity. The multi-compartment housing also has a sealing bottom that is capable of being secured onto the multi-compartment housing after the plug array has been placed in position and separated from adjacent plugs from the array so as to close off the of the multi-compartment housing and to isolate each plug from adjacent cavities.

Many medical diagnostic tests, pharmaceutical products, and unit dose over the counter (OTC) products are often individually packaged for consumer use or to be used in a dispensing device. Often, these products are moisture sensitive and require the use of a drying agent or desiccant to be incorporated into the package to protect the product. Both for economic reasons and user convenience, there is a desire to make these packages as compact as possible. A package that is an array of the product in a unit of use format is a preferred packaging format.
As the packages become more and more compact, the space available for the drying agent or desiccant is reduced. Typically small amounts of the drying agent or desiccant are needed, but handling these small quantities precisely becomes difficult as the space available gets reduced. Each compartment, with its corresponding drying agent or desiccant needs to be isolated from the others. One way to do this is to have an injection point for each piece of drying agent or desiccant material that is desired. As the size becomes smaller and the spacing closer together, having a separate injection point may not be practical—e.g. due to the physical space required for the injection point and the flow of material to the injection point.

Product for embedding a plurality of plugs into a plastic multi-component housing


There is provided an arrangement (100) which allows for mixing a first fluid with a second fluid at a predetermined volume mixing ratio in a capillary driven fluidic system. The arrangement (100) allows filling an initially empty mixing chamber (110) with the first fluid. The arrangement then allows emptying a predetermined fraction of the first fluid from the mixing chamber (110) such as to form an empty space in the mixing chamber (110). The arrangement then allows filling the empty space of the mixing chamber (110) with the second fluid, thereby allowing a predetermined volume of the first fluid to mix with a predetermined volume of the second fluid over time.

Microfluidics deals with the behavior, precise control and manipulation of fluids that are geometrically constrained to a small, typically sub-millimeter, scale. Technology based on microfluidics are used for example in ink-jet printer heads, DNA chips and within lab-on-a-chip technology. In microfluidic applications, fluids are typically moved, mixed, separated or otherwise processed. In many applications, passive fluid control is used. This may be realized by utilizing the capillary forces that arise within the sub-millimeter tubes. By careful engineering of a so called capillary driven fluidic system, it may be possible to perform control and manipulation of fluids.
Capillary driven fluidic systems may be useful for integrating assay operations such as detection, as well as sample pre-treatment and sample preparation on one chip. For such applications it is often of interest to accurately mix two or more fluids, such as mixing a sample fluid with a buffer fluid so as to dilute the sample fluid. A simple approach for mixing two fluids is to use a simple T-junction and allow the two fluids to meet, and subsequently mix, at the junction. However, in capillary driven fluidic systems, when two fluids mix in such a T-junction, the mixing ratio will depend on the viscosities of the fluids. Because viscosities of bio-fluidic samples, such as blood and plasma, vary among different individuals, accurately mixing of said fluids by capillary driven fluidic systems may be challenging. Hence, there is a need for an improved arrangement in a capillary driven fluidic system which allows for accurately mixing a first fluid with a second fluid at a predetermined volume mixing ratio.

Arrangement for mixing fluids in a capillary driven fluidic system


An integrated circuit comprises a plurality of integrated circuit die arranged in a stack, with a given die other than a top die of the stack carrying current for itself and at least one additional die of the stack via substrate conduction. In one arrangement, each of the die other than a bottom die of the stack carries its power supply current by substrate conduction via a bus or other power supply conductor of an underlying die.

In a typical substrate conduction arrangement, current passes from field effect devices formed on an integrated circuit die to the VSS power supply via the substrate of the integrated circuit die. This advantageously reduces the number of VSS bond pads needed on the front side of the die, and in some cases entirely eliminates the need for such bond pads. Substrate conduction also provides other advantages, including a reduction in power supply lead inductance, as well as alleviation of ringing and ground bounce problems. Single-die substrate conduction arrangements are described in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,228, issued Aug. 7, 1990 in the name of inventor T. J. Gabara and entitled "Integrated Circuit Power Supply Contact," the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of conventional single-die substrate conduction of the type described in the above-cited U.S. patent. It should be understood that this drawing, and other drawings herein, are considerably simplified for clarity of description. As shown, an integrated circuit 100 comprises a P+ substrate 102 on which a p-type epitaxial layer 104 is formed. The epitaxial layer is lightly doped relative to the substrate, and thus provides a high resistivity layer. A tub region 106, of p-type conductivity in this example, is formed in the epitaxial layer 104, and a highly-doped P+ tub tie 108 is formed in the tub region 106. The tub tie 108 is connected to a VSS bus 110 of the integrated circuit, which is coupled to terminals of field effect devices not explicitly shown in this simplified drawing. The integrated circuit 100 further includes a VDD bond pad 112 and a signal bond pad 114, which are coupled to a VDD bonding wire 116 and a signal bonding wire 118, respectively. The VDD bonding wire 116, VDD bond pad 112, signal bonding wire 118, signal bond pad 114, and the substrate conduction path formed by the VSS bus 110, P+ tub tie 108 and p-tub 106, can be replicated numerous times on a die.
Although not shown in FIG. 1, a metallic layer may be formed on the back of the substrate 102, that is, on a side of the substrate opposite the epitaxial layer. Such a metallic layer is coupled to a VSS power supply external to the integrated circuit, which is also not shown.
In the FIG. 1 arrangement, a current I passes through the integrated circuit from a VDD supply external to the integrated circuit via VDD bonding wire 116 through VDD bond pad 112 to terminals of field effect devices. Assuming for simplicity of illustration that no current enters or leaves the integrated circuit via signal leads, such as signal bonding wire 118, the current I passes from other terminals of the field effect devices to the VSS bus 110. From the VSS bus, the current I passes through the tub tie 108, p-tub 106 and epitaxial layer 104, and finally through the substrate 102 to an external VSS supply which is not shown in the drawing. The direction of substrate conduction is indicated by the arrow 120. Thus, in this substrate conduction arrangement, the VSS current from the field effect devices flows through the substrate 102, rather than through VSS bonding wires.
A problem with conventional substrate conduction is that the technique was developed in the context of single-die integrated circuits. However, numerous integrated circuits have recently been developed which utilize a stacked-die configuration, in which multiple integrated circuit die are stacked on top of one another with at least a partial overlap between adjacent die. Although the above-noted advantages of single-die substrate conduction would also be desirable in the stacked-die context, it has not heretofore been apparent whether or how substrate conduction could be provided in such a context.
Accordingly, a need exists for techniques for providing substrate conduction in an integrated circuit having a stacked-die configuration.

Integrated circuit with stacked-die configuration utilizing substrate conduction


The invention provides a surface-modified titanium dioxide particle inhibited in photocatalytic activity and reduced in amount of volatile water. The surface-modified titanium dioxide particle has on the surface a crystalline composite compound of at least one of alkaline earth metals selected from magnesium, calcium, barium and strontium complexed with titanium dioxide in an amount of 0.1-20% by weight based on the weight of the surface-modified titanium dioxide particle in terms of oxide of the alkaline earth metal. The surface-modified titanium dioxide particle is produced by heating a compound of an alkaline earth metal and a titanium dioxide particle at a temperature of 60° C. or higher so that the alkaline earth metal is complexed with titanium dioxide to form a crystalline composite compound on the surface of the titanium dioxide particle in an amount of 0.1-20% by weight based on the weight of the surface-modified titanium dioxide particle in terms of oxide of the alkaline earth metal.

Titanium dioxide particles are known as a white pigment, ultraviolet ray shielding agent and the like, and in wide use for paint products, coloring agents for plastics products and so on. However, the titanium dioxide particles have photocatalytic activity so that paint compositions or resin compositions containing such titanium dioxide particles suffer gloss deterioration, chalking, discoloration or the like with time. Furthermore, the titanium dioxide particles hydrolyze resins with volatile water which the particles contain.
Therefore, it has been conventionally proposed that the surface of titanium dioxide particle is modified or treated with a hydrous oxide of silicon, aluminum, zirconium or the like to inhibit the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide particle to prevent oxidative decomposition of resins (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 7-292276 and 7-292277). However, a large amount of surface modification is required to inhibit the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide particle, and such a large amount of surface modification causes a problem that it increases the amount of volatile water which titanium dioxide particle contains, resulting in promoting the hydrolysis of resin when it is blended with the resin. Accordingly, the amount of surface modification of titanium dioxide particle must be reduced if the amount of volatile water is to be reduced, but when the amount of surface modification is reduced, the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide particle cannot be sufficiently inhibited.
No technique has hitherto been known which is capable of simultaneously inhibiting the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide particle and the amount of volatile water by surface modification of titanium dioxide particle.
The invention has been completed to solve the above mentioned problems associated with the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide particle.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a surface-modified titanium dioxide particle which has on the surface thereof a crystalline composite compound formed by complexing an alkaline earth metal with titanium dioxide, and which is hence inhibited in photocatalytic activity and reduced in amount of volatile water, and is suitable for use in paint compositions and resin compositions which require high weather resistance.
In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a surface-modified titanium dioxide particle which, when it is used as a pigment in a paint composition, provides the paint composition with a higher tinting strength than a conventional titanium dioxide particle having on the surface thereof a non-crystalline or amorphous composite compound.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for producing such a surface-modified titanium dioxide particle.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Surface-modified titanium dioxide particle and method for producing the same


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that enables a background process to access encrypted data. During operation, the system executes the background process. Next, the system obtains a set of unencrypted keys by decrypting a set of encrypted keys with a server-key. The system then makes the set of unencrypted keys available to the background process, thereby enabling the background process to encrypt and decrypt data. Finally, the system deletes the set of unencrypted keys.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer security. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for securely executing a background process.
2. Related Art
To protect confidential information from getting into the wrong hands, users often employ cryptographic techniques when storing and/or transmitting the confidential information. When a user needs access to encrypted information, the user typically executes a method to decrypt the encrypted information. Executing this method often involves first performing a verification operation to ensure that the user has permission to access the encrypted information.
In many cases, background processes also need to access encrypted information. Hence, a system that uses a background process which accesses encrypted information must find a secure way to give the background process access to the encrypted information. Previous techniques for enabling a background process to access encrypted information involve hard-coding passwords or cryptographic keys into the code which the background process executes. This can be extremely time-consuming for systems that support many background processes and many cryptographic keys. Furthermore, the security of the hard-coded cryptographic keys is only as great as the security of the storage medium containing the executable code for the background process.
Hence, what is needed is a method for executing a background process without the problems listed above.

Method and apparatus for securely executing a background process


A film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) has a support structure, a piezoelectric resonator, and a signal line that is electrically connected, e.g., through a via, to the piezoelectric resonator, all on a semiconductor substrate. Support(s) and/or the via mount the piezoelectric resonator at a predetermined distance from the semiconductor substrate, allowing an ideal shape of the resonator to be realized. The signal line may include a patterned inductor. A capacitor can be formed between the via and the signal line. The resonance characteristics can be enhanced since the substrate loss caused by the driving of the resonator can be prevented due to an air gap formed by the predetermined distance. The resonance frequency can be adjusted by altering the pattern of the inductor, the capacitance of the capacitor and/or the thickness of the piezoelectric layer, also allowing Impedance matching to be readily realized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an acoustic resonator and a manufacturing method therefore, and more particularly to a film bulk acoustic resonator using a piezoelectric material and a manufacturing method therefore.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently there have been dramatic developments in wireless mobile communication technologies. Such mobile communication technologies require diverse radio frequency (RF) parts that can efficiently transfer information in a limited frequency bandwidth. In particular, the filter of the RF parts is one of key element in mobile communication technologies. This filter serves to filter innumerable waves in air to allow users to select or transfer desired signals, thereby enabling high-quality communications.
Currently, wireless communication RF filters are typically dielectric filters or surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters. A dielectric filter provides high dielectric permittivity, low insertion loss, stability at high temperatures, and is robust to vibration and shock. However, the dielectric filter cannot be sufficiently reduced in size and cannot be integrated with other integrated circuits (ICs), including the recently developed Monolithic Microwave Integration Circuit (MMIC). In contrast, a SAW filter provides a small size, facilitates processing signals, has a simplified circuit, and can be manufactured in mass production in use of semiconductor processes.
Further, the SAW filter provides a high side rejection in a passband compared to the dielectric filter, allowing it to transmit and receive high-quality information. However, a SAW filter's line width for the InterDigital Transducer (IDT) is limited to about 0.5 μm since the process for creating the SAW filter includes a light exposure using ultraviolet (UV) rays. Accordingly, the SAW filter cannot cover the high frequency bands, e.g., over 5 GHz, and it is still difficult to construct the MMIC structure on a semiconductor substrate as a single chip.
In order to overcome the limits and problems as above, a film bulk acoustic resonance (FBAR) filter has been proposed in which a frequency control circuit can be completely constructed in the form of MMIC with other active devices integrated together on the existing Si or GaAs semiconductor substrate.
The FBAR is a thin film device that is low-priced, small-sized, and can be designed to have a high-Q. Thus, the FBAR filter can be used in wireless communication equipment of various frequency bands, for example, ranging from 900 MHz to 10 GHz and military radar. The FBAR can be made an order of magnitude smaller than a dielectric filter or a lumped constant (LC) filter and has a very low insertion loss compared to the SAW filter. The FBAR can be integrated with the MMIC while providing a filter having a high stability and a high-Q factor.
The FBAR filter includes a piezoelectric dielectric material such as ZnO, AIN, or the any appropriate material having a high acoustic velocity.
The piezoelectric material may be directly deposited onto a Si or GaAs semiconductor substrate, e.g., by RF sputtering. The resonance of the FBAR filter arises from the piezoelectric characteristics of the piezoelectric material used therein. More particularly, the FBAR filter includes a piezoelectric film disposed between two electrodes, and generates bulk acoustic waves to induce resonance.
FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 illustrate conventional FBAR structures. FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-section of a conventional membrane-based (or bulk micro-machining-based) FBAR. This membrane-based FBAR includes a silicon oxide layer (SiO2) deposited on a substrate 11 forming a membrane layer 12 on the reverse side of the substrate 11 through a cavity 16 formed by isotropic etching. A resonator 17 includes a lower electrode layer 13 formed on the membrane layer 12, a piezoelectric layer 14 on the lower electrode layer 13, and an upper electrode layer 15 on the piezoelectric layer 14.
The above membrane-based FBAR provides a low dielectric loss of the substrate 11 and less power loss due to the cavity 16. However, the membrane-based FBAR occupies a large area due to the orientation of the silicon substrate, and is easily damaged due to the low structural stability upon a subsequent packaging process, resulting in low yield. Accordingly, recently, an air gap-type and Bragg reflector-based FBARs been created to reduce the loss due to the membrane and simplify the device manufacturing process.
FIG. 2 illustrates a cross-section of a Bragg reflector-based FBAR.
The Bragg reflector-based (or solidly mounted) FBAR includes an acoustic reflector 28 formed on a substrate 21 and a resonator 29 formed on the acoustic reflector 28. The acoustic reflector 28 typically includes a plurality of dielectric layers 22–24 alternating between low impedance and high impedance materials to insure efficient confinement of the acoustic energy in the resonator 29. The resonator 29 includes a lower electrode layer 25, a piezoelectric layer 26 and an upper electrode layer 27. Thus, such a Bragg reflector-based FBAR includes substances having large acoustic impedance difference therebetween disposed in multiple layers 22–24 on the substrate 21, which induce Bragg reflection to resonate due to acoustic waves between lower and upper electrode layers 25 and 27.
Accordingly, the Bragg reflector-based FBAR has a robust structure, does not cause stress due to the bending of the resonator 29, saves manufacturing time, and can withstand external impact. However, the Bragg reflector-based FBAR the thickness adjustments of the layers 22–24 for the total reflection are not easy and the manufacturing cost increases due to the formation of these reflection layers.
FIG. 3 illustrates a cross-section of an air gap-based (or surface micromachining-based) FBAR structure. The air gap-based FBAR has an air gap 36 formed through a sacrificial layer on a substrate 31 using micromachining technologies and has a membrane layer 32, e.g., a silicon oxide film. A resonator 37 is provided on top of the membrane layer 32.
The resonator 37 includes a lower electrode 33, a piezoelectric substance 34, and an upper electrode 35.
Compared with the membrane-based FBAR of FIG. 1, the air gap-based FBAR reduces processing time, eliminates the possible danger due to a hazardous gas used in this etching, has a lower substrate dielectric loss, and occupies a smaller area. However, the manufacturing yield of the air gap-based FBAR is reduced since the structure is easily damaged due to exposing the structure for a long time while the sacrificial layer is removed.
Further, the manufacturing process of the air gap-based FBAR is complicated.

Film bulk acoustic resonator having supports and manufacturing method therefore


An automatically tuned on-chip active continuous-time real bandpass filter operates on a differential signal while simultaneously being tuned using a common-mode (CM) reference signal, which results in a superior accuracy of its center frequency and bandwidth. The filter consists of two or more pairs of gm-C or other types active resonators that can be single-ended or differential. The two identical filters are tuned with CM reference that is rejected at the output of each pair of resonators. For each pair of resonators, the present frequency-tuning finds the resonant frequency, for which the bandpass (BP) and lowpass magnitude values are equal. For each pair of resonators, the present Q-tuning scheme adjusts BP magnitude at the resonant frequency and its Q to the appropriate value. The present tuning method allows building a reasonably flat passband BP filter using two or more pairs of resonators. Additionally, since both present tuning schemes rely on the amplitude detection the CM reference signal can be made small, which prevents the build-up of the intermodulation distortion in the filter.

Nearly all practical transceivers require some form of filtering. Up to the date, a majority of their radio-frequency (RF) and intermediate-frequency (IF) bandpass (BP) filters are realized as off-chip ceramic or surface-acoustic wave (SAW) devices. These devices do not have a practical way to change their center frequency (CF) and/or their bandwidth (BW).
In cases when a BP filter is required to change its CF and/or its BW discrete component solutions are used that apply varactors as tunable capacitors that together with external coils (inductors) allow to tune the filter CF. Since the off-chip filter components can easily pick up noise and radio interference they need to be shielded by a metal can. This requirement unavoidably increases the cost and dimensions of the transceiver module.
Widely tunable LC BP filters for applications operating at few tens of MHz are not easy to integrate on-chip because of the prohibitively large physical size of the required on-chip inductors. Moreover, their tuning range is limited by that of the varactors that varies form a few to few tens of percent, which may not be adequate for applications such as TV tuners, where hundreds of percent of CF change is required. Additionally, due to limited Q-factors of on-chip inductors and varactors the active Q-enhancement schemes must be added that further limit the filter noise and distortion performance and the resulting dynamic range (DR). Such schemes also increase the filter power consumption. Finally, the viable at high-frequency BP filter synthesis methods such as mutually coupled resonators suffer from the asymmetry of the transfer function due to frequency dependent loss of resonators as well as to parasitic C couplings. Moreover, for these class of circuits the Q-tuning often fails due to instability or lack of convergence unless special techniques are applied.
It would be much more convenient if a BP filter was realized in a pure active technique such as in gm-C, active R-C, MOSFET-C, gm-active-C or other, to improve its tunability range and to obtain a flat symmetrical transfer function. It is not uncommon to achieve a tuning range in excess of 1000 percent when using one of these techniques. This class of circuits is also free form Q-tuning problems typical for Q-enhanced LC mutually coupled resonators. However, the noise, distortion, the resulting DR and power consumption are all worse than that of LC Q-enhanced BP filters.
Another obstacle in the integration of RF filters is the need to adjust their CF and their Q-factors. The accuracy problems of the required tuning systems may result in the whole filter not meeting the stringent system specifications over process, voltage supply and temperature variation (PVT). Due to the matching errors between the Master and Slave the most frequently used indirect tuning, or Master-Salve (M-S) schemes suffer from significant accuracy errors up to 5% for CF and up to several tens of percent for Q-factor. Naturally, for majority radio applications such a modest accuracy is not acceptable. Additionally, the reference feed-through degrades the overall noise performance of the filter. The typically achievable S/N ratio for an active filter tuned with a M-S scheme is about 40 dB.
In the case of presented BP filters instead of using the M-S scheme the tuning accuracy can be substantially improved by directly tuning the filter as a self-tuned filter or as a self-tuned with common-mode (CM) signals filter as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,665 by passing the CM reference through the filter while simultaneously processing the differential signal. The simplest configuration is obtained by two single-ended structures forming a pseudo-differential filter. Because these tuning schemes are free from the M-S matching errors the expected accuracy of self-tuned frequency- and Q-tuning systems could be as good as 0.5% and 2% respectively.


The invention is directed to denoising techniques for electrograms, or other biomedical signals, in which wavelet transformations are used in the denoising process. For example, an electrogram can be represented by a finite set of wavelets which comprise a decomposition of the electrogram in the scale-time domain. In accordance with the invention, an electrogram can be transformed into a set of wavelets, and thresholding can be performed on the wavelets to eliminate noise while preserving the information of the electrogram. Different thresholds can be used for the wavelets in different scales for improved denoising results. If a respective threshold exceeds a wavelet coefficient, the wavelet coefficient is reduced. Following the thresholding process, the wavelets can be converted into a denoised electrogram, which can be analyzed or processed. In this manner, wavelet transformations can be exploited for effective electrogram denoising.

A wide variety of medical devices have been developed to monitor patient conditions and possibly deliver therapy to the patient. In some cases, the medical devices comprise external medical devices that are used to monitor a patient. In other cases, the medical devices are implantable medical devices (IMDs) that are surgically implanted inside a patient for short or long term therapy. Telemetry can be used to communicate sensed electrograms from one medical device to another medical device, e.g., from an IMD to an external medical device.
One common example of an IMD is a pacemaker. A pacemaker typically includes one or more pacing and sensing leads for delivery of pacing pulses to a patient's heart. Another example of an IMD is a combination pacemaker-cardioverter-defibrillator. Other examples include implantable brain stimulators, implantable gastric system stimulators, implantable nerve stimulators or muscle stimulators, implantable lower colon stimulators, implantable drug or beneficial agent dispensers or pumps, implantable cardiac signal loops or other types of recorders or monitors, implantable gene therapy delivery devices, implantable incontinence prevention or monitoring devices, implantable insulin pumps or monitoring devices, and so on.
Medical devices, including IMDs and external medical devices, often sense and record electrograms of a patient. Electrograms refer to signals which represent recorded changes in electric potential of the patient. Examples of electrograms include electrocardiograms, i.e., recorded electrical potentials associated with a patient's heart; and electroencephalograms, i.e., recorded electrical potentials associated with a patient's brain. Other more specific examples of electrograms include atrial electrograms, coronary sinus (CS) electrograms, esophageal electrograms, high right atrial (HRA) electrograms, His bundle electrograms, intra-atrial electrograms, intracardiac electrograms, right ventricular electrograms, right ventricular apical electrograms, sinus node electrograms, and the like.
Signal processing of electrograms is a common challenge in the medical field. In particular, it is often necessary to identify specific features of an electrogram so that medical events can be identified in the patient, such as arrhythmias in the patients heart. However, in many cases, signal noise can complicate analysis of electrograms. For this reason, denoising techniques are desirable in order to reduce or eliminate noise from electrograms.


An assisting instrument allows a person to effectively train their core muscles by movements in twisting directions or one leg raises, and allows the twisting movements to be made in a prone posture. A first body part is comprised of a rectangular parallelepiped part and an integrated semicircle pillar section. When the assisting instrument is used during workouts in the prone posture, the person's two anterior superior iliac spines and pubis part are protected by a first pad, a second pad, and a third pad, respectively, and their abdomen is fitted into a groove part. When the person raises one of their legs, the semicircle pillar section rolls to the opposite side. As a result of holding their body to prevent the rolling and prevent their body from being thrown out of the instrument, the person puts their strength in their core muscles which can thus be trained.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view schematically illustrating a conventional workout assisting instrument 100, publicly available under the brand name "StretchPole Active®," which is used in a prone posture. The workout assisting instrument 100 is entirely formed by a rubber member made of an elastic material. When a person works out, since a surface of a planar part of the instrument 100 is in full contact with a floor surface, the instrument 100 enables the person to work out in the prone posture in a three-point supporting state, while maintaining an immobile state. That is, a first part 100PA projected from a central part of the instrument 100 contacts a pubis part of the body of the person working out in the prone posture. Further, a second part 100PB extending in an upper right direction at an angle of about 45° from the first part 100PA contacts a protruding part (left anterior superior iliac spine) of a left pelvis part of the person's body. Further, a third part 100PC extending in an upper left direction at an angle of about 45° from the first part 100PA contacts a protruding part (right anterior superior iliac spine) of a right pelvis part of the person's body. By the three-point contact between the parts and the person's body, the workout assisting instrument 100 supports the person's body in the prone posture at the three points. The workout assisting instrument 100 has an advantage as a product in that it is always in a fixed state and immobile during workouts, when the person working out performs the various movements of the workouts while the surface of the planar part of the instrument is in full contact with the floor surface, as described above. The person working out can mainly strengthen their running ability by performing an exercise of raising their limbs in the prone posture with the three-point support as described above.


A dynamic damper for a hollow drive shaft, including a damper mass member disposed in a hollow bore of the drive shaft, such that the damper mass member is coaxial with the drive shaft with a predetermined clearance being provided between the damper mass member and an inner circumferential surface of the drive shaft; and a pair of elastic support members respectively fixed to axially opposite ends of the damper mass member, the support members connecting the damper mass member to the drive shaft, thereby elastically supporting the damper mass member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a dynamic damper and particularly to a dynamic damper for a hollow drive shaft of an automotive vehicle.
2. Related Art Statement
It is conventional that a drive shaft of an automotive vehicle is equipped with a dynamic damper for absorbing or attenuating vibration transmitted from a power unit to a vehicle body and preventing lowering of strength of the drive shaft due to metal fatigue thereof. Generally, a conventional dynamic damper includes a cylindrical damper mass member located outside a drive shaft with a suitable clearance provided therebetween, and elastic support means disposed between opposed surfaces of the drive shaft and damper mass for connecting the damper mass to the drive shaft and thereby elastically supporting the damper mass.
Meanwhile, there is a tendency that a conventional solid drive shaft is replaced with a hollow drive shaft which includes a tubular portion having a hollow bore inside. A hollow drive shaft is lighter than a solid drive shaft, and at the same time has flexural and torsional rigidities comparable to those of the solid drive shaft. Therefore, the use of a hollow drive shaft leads to lightening the overall weight of an automotive vehicle.
However, a hollow drive shaft has an outer diameter greater than that of a solid drive shaft. For applying the above-indicated conventional dynamic damper to a hollow drive shaft, it is necessary to adapt the damper mass to have a greater outer diameter, which leads to increasing the overall size of the dynamic damper. However, the enlarged dynamic damper needs widening of space for provision thereof.
In addition, when the damper mass having the increased outer diameter is rotated about the rotation axis thereof, the damper mass produces increased inertia force in the circumferential direction thereof. This means that, when torsional vibration is applied to the damper mass or dynamic damper, increased vibrational load is inputted to the elastic support means of the dynamic damper. This results in extreme reduction in durability of the elastic support means and thus the dynamic damper.


A composition for oral delivery of a poorly absorbed drug is disclosed. The composition includes the drug, an enhancer for increasing absorption of the drug through the intestinal mucosa, a promoter, which alone does not increase absorption of the drug through the intestinal mucosa, but which further increases the absorption of the drug in the presence of the enhancer, and optionally a protector for protecting the drug from physical or chemical decomposition or inactivation in the gastrointestinal tract. Illustrative enhancers include sucrose fatty acid esters, and illustrative promoters include aminosugars and amino acid derivatives, such as poly(amino acids). Illustrative protectors include methylcellulose, poly(vinyl alcohol), and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone).

This invention relates to drug delivery. More particularly, this invention relates to compositions and methods for oral delivery of poorly absorbed drugs.
The gastrointestinal tract, particularly the small intestines, is the primary site for absorption of nutrients and most bioactive agents. To accommodate the processes of absorption, the amount of surface area in the small intestines is enlarged due to the presence of villi and microvilli. However, before a bioactive compound is transferred from the intestinal lumen to the blood, the compound may be subject to degradation or deactivation by the various components of the lumen. Moreover, the compound may be required to pass through several barriers to absorption, such as the mucous layer and the intestinal brush-border membrane. Many compounds pass these barriers easily, but there are many nutrients and bioactive agents to which these barriers represent a serious obstruction.
There are many factors that can affect the oral bioavailability of drugs in the gastrointestinal tract. They include, for example, factors relating to the drug itself, such as active or passive transport, water solubility, molecular weight, chemical stability, ionization, pH, and the like; factors relating to chemical processes, such as deamination, hydrolysis (or ionization), oxidation, racemization, beta elimination, disulfide exchange, and the like; and factors relating to physical processes, such as aggregation, precipitation, denaturation, adsorption, and the like.
While prior art products and methods of use thereof are known and are generally suitable for their limited purposes, they possess certain inherent deficiencies that detract from their overall utility in delivering poorly absorbable drugs by the oral route. Namely, these prior art products and processes fail to increase intestinal absorption of the drugs while preventing physical and/or chemical decomposition or inactivation of the drugs.
In view of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that providing compositions and methods for efficient oral delivery of poorly absorbed drugs would be a significant advancement in the art.

Oral formulation for delivery of poorly absorbed drugs


A person tracking support device includes a processor. The processor acquires identification information of a tracked person identified from a face image of a person imaged by a first camera, and a first time at which the tracked person is imaged by the first camera, and also acquires a second time at which the tracked person is imaged by a second camera positioned away from the first camera, predicts a time at which the tracked person reaches a specific area on the basis of an elapsed time from the first time to the second time and a distance from the first camera to the second camera, and notifies a mobile terminal device possessed by each of a plurality of observers of the identification information of the tracked person, the specific area, and the time predicted.

In recent years, recognition ability of face recognition technology using a computer has greatly advanced, and with the face recognition technology, a wanted suspect (hereinafter referred to as a wanted criminal) or the like can be detected from a face of a person imaged by a surveillance camera at an airport, for example. Furthermore, a technology that supports dispatch of a police officer to an incident site, and a technology that supports tracking of a trespasser in a facility have also been devised.
In JP 2018-60481 A, a guidance system is disclosed that sends a request for going straight to an incident site (target point) to a site terminal possessed by a police officer, and displays map information including route information from a current position of the site terminal to the target point.
In JP 2019-53483 A, a trespasser tracking device is disclosed that estimates a destination of a trespasser who has trespassed on a site on the basis of position information of the trespasser and facility information in the site, calculates a trespassing route to the destination of the trespasser on the basis of the estimated destination and path information in the site, derives a siege route on the basis of the trespassing route and position information of a security guard, and displays a site map and the siege route on a mobile terminal of the security guard.
In JP 2019-9529 A, a face authentication device is disclosed that stores a list of face photographs of specific persons such as wanted criminals, and, when a face photograph of a specific person in the list is detected from an image acquired by a surveillance camera, notifies a predetermined terminal device of a warning including information of the face photograph.

Person tracking support device and person tracking support system

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC BUILDING SOLUTIONS CORPORATION


A pair of spooled tubing strings are simultaneously run into a hydrocarbon well carrying a chamber providing a check valve. The chamber is positioned below a hydrocarbon formation so that liquid produced from the formation falls adjacent and passes into the chamber through the check valve. Periodically, gas is delivered through one of the spooled tubing strings to push liquid out of the chamber upwardly through the other of the tubing strings. Gas produced from the formation flows upwardly in an annulus between the spooled tubing strings and a production string in the well. The apparatus can be used to run only one string of tubing into a well and has a number of features, including measuring the load applied to the tubing string and measuring the amount of tubing run into or out of a well.

This invention is a method and apparatus for running spooled tubing into a well, particularly into a hydrocarbon well.
There are a number of techniques for artificially lifting formation liquids from hydrocarbon wells. Reciprocating sucker rod pumps are the most common because they are the most cost effective, all things considered, over a wide variety of applications. Other types of artificial lift include electrically driven down hole pumps, hydraulic pumps, gas lift, rotating rod pumps, and free pistons or plunger lifts. These alternate types of artificial lift are more effective, either in cost or efficiency, than sucker rod pumps in the niches or applications where they have become popular.
Gas wells reach their economic limit for a variety of reasons. A very common reason is the produced gas volume declines to a point where it is insufficient to move formation liquids upwardly to the surface. Two phase upward flow in a well is complicated and most equations thought to predict flow are only rough estimates of what is going on. One reason is the changing relation of the liquid and gas flowing upwardly in the well. At times of more-or-less constant flow, the liquid acts as an upwardly moving film on the inside of the flow string while the gas flows in a central path on the inside of the liquid film. The gas flows much faster than the liquid film. When the volume of gas flow slows below some critical value, the liquid runs down the inside of the flow string and accumulates in the bottom of the well.
If sufficient liquid accumulates in the bottom of the well, the well is no longer able to flow because the pressure in the reservoir is insufficient to cause flow against the pressure of the liquid column. The well is said to have loaded up and died. Years ago, gas wells were plugged much quicker than today because it was not economic to artificially lift small quantities of liquid from a gas well. At relatively high gas prices, it is economic to keep old gas wells on production. It has gradually been realized that gas wells have a life cycle that includes an old age segment where a variety of techniques are used to keep liquids flowing upwardly in the well and thereby prevent the well from loading up and dying.
The appropriate technique for keeping old gas wells flowing depends on where the well is in its life cycle. For example, the first technique is to drop soap sticks into the well. The soap dissolves in the formation liquid and some agitation causes the liquid to foam. The well is then turned to the atmosphere and a great deal of foamed liquid is discharged from the production string. Later in its life cycle, when soaping the well has become ineffective, other techniques such as those listed above are used. Another effective technique is running a velocity string of 1xe2x80x3 or 1xc2xdxe2x80x3 tubing inside the production string so the upward velocity of gas moving in the velocity string is sufficient to keep the liquid moving upwardly.
These techniques all have their advantages and disadvantages. Some techniques work reasonably well but only for a short time and then become ineffective. Some techniques are costly and require substantial maintenance. Some techniques require the well to be reworked by pulling the production string from the well and rerunning it.
Disclosures relevant to this invention are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,260,308; 3,971,437; 4,585,066; 4,673,035; 4,681,169; 5,161,956; 5,180,014; 5,183,391; 5,211,242 and 5,611,671.
In this invention, a pair of tubing strings are simultaneously run into a well for a variety of reasons. One may be to provide a down hole pump of some description, to provide multiple strings for injecting materials into the well and the like.
In a preferred embodiment of this invention, a chamber is run into a well at the end of two strings of spooled tubing, one being a gas supply string and the other being a liquid production string. The spooled tubing strings are run simultaneously into the well at a sufficiently fast rate to land the chamber adjacent the perforations in a relatively short time. The strings are suspended in a landing sub on the well head. The gas supply string is connected to a source of relatively high pressure gas, such as a compressor or high pressure gas system. The liquid production string is connected to conventional production equipment for handling the produced liquid and gas. Typically,. the gas is delivered to a low pressure gas system or to a compressor for delivery to sales.
The chamber is preferably landed below the perforations so there is no liquid buildup above the perforations impeding gas flow to the surface. The system accordingly acts as a downhole gas-liquid separator where gas flows upwardly in the annulus between the production string and the spooled tubing strings and the liquid flows downwardly into the chamber. The chamber includes a check valve allowing flow into the chamber and preventing reverse flow. Gas is delivered down the gas supply string, either periodically or continuously, which pressurizes the chamber and closes the check valve. When gas at sufficient pressure and in sufficient volume is delivered down the gas supply string, the liquid in the chamber is pushed upwardly through the liquid production string and discharges at the surface into the separator. When the supply gas is turned off, the chamber and spooled tubing strings exhaust into the compressor or low pressure gas system which reduces the pressure in the chamber and allows the check valve to open thereby allowing liquid flow into the chamber. The process is repeated as often as necessary or desirable to keep the well flowing at a commercial rate.
Preferably, the only moving part in the well is the check valve in the chamber, which is made of long lived materials so the apparatus of this invention operates for long periods of time without pulling the spooled tubing strings. Because the chamber is preferably located below the perforations, this invention provides a long term solution to keeping gas wells flowing at commercial rates with minimum maintenance. Because the chamber is preferably located below the perforations, this invention provides the least possible restriction against gas flow from the formation and accordingly provides a liquid lift system that operates effectively from the time of installation to the economic limit of the well. In other words, no further capital costs are needed to produce the well to its economic limit and the well""s economic limit is prolonged to the greatest extent possible.
It is one object of this invention to provide a technique for producing hydrocarbon wells that are prone to load up and die.
A further object of this invention is to provide a technique for simultaneously running multiple strings of spooled tubing into a well.
Another object of this invention is to provide a technique for simultaneously running multiple strings of spooled tubing and a down hole pump into a well.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become more apparent as this description proceeds, reference being made to the accompanying drawings and appended claims.

Method and apparatus for running spooled tubing into a well


According to an assigning method and its apparatus having a resource use recording section for recording a use state of a resource necessary for executing given operations, a functional unit possession recording section for recording information representing an inexecution functional unit, and an operator information management section for storing an operation executable by each functional unit and a clock count necessary for executing the operation, in order to assign an operation selected from the operations (by the operation selection step) to an optimal functional unit, the use state of the resource is checked from the resource use recording section (with reference to the usable resource decision step), the operation executable functional unit is found from the operation unit possession recording section (by the operation assignable unit decision step). A clock count necessary for executing the operation in the executable functional unit is considered with reference to the operator information management section. The optimal functional unit to be assigned with the selected operation is selected and decided (finally by the functional unit selection step), thereby performing an effective operation assigning process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operation assignment method and its apparatus using a processor having a plurality of functional units to selectively assign operations constituting an operation sequence to the functional units, thereby effectively executing the operation sequence.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technique for causing a processor having a plurality of functional units to parallelly execute the individual operations constituting an operation sequence is available as a technique for executing the operation sequence at high speed. In general, units having different functions and units having identical or equivalent functions are present in the plurality of functional units in the processor. It is, therefore, important to properly determine an assignment correspondence between each operation and each functional processor so as to processing.
The related art in which a plurality of operations are selectively assigned to a plurality of functional units and the respective operations are executed is described in the following literature in detail:
"Bulldog; A Compiler for VLIW Architectures" John R. Ellis, The MIT Press PA1 (a) a functional unit having a smallest clock count for executing the instruction; PA1 (b) a functional unit having a smallest clock count to execute a subsequent operation and selected from assignable functional units obtained with reference to the operator information management section; and PA1 (c) a functional unit having a predetermined priority.
Operations (i.e., types of operation) executable in each functional unit are limited depending on its process functions. For this reason, operations must be selectively assigned to functional units capable of executing specific operations in accordance with the types of operations. In order to selectively decide an assigning correspondence between the functional units and the operations, the types of operations and the functions of functional units must be carefully taken into consideration.
In practice, when a given operation is to be assigned to a given functional unit after consideration of such a constraint, the given unit has often been used for (or assigned to) another operation and cannot be assigned with the given operation. In this case, the assignment process of the given operation is delayed until the execution of the current operation in the given functional unit is completed, or an assignment destination of the given operation must be changed to another functional unit having an identical function.
A functional unit which executes one operation with a given clock count may execute another operation with a clock count different from the given clock count. When the assignment destination (i.e., target functional unit) of the given operation is changed, an execution process time of the given instruction may be prolonged against expectation.
When the assignment process is executed upon selection of only functional units having smaller clock counts (so-called "high speed") required to execute operations, assignment of operations is concentrated on only a specific functional unit. As a result, the assignment process speed of the operation sequence as a whole and the execution speed tend to be undesirably reduced.
It is difficult to increase an execution speed of an operation by considering only the function of each functional unit and the types of operations. Demand has arisen for realizing a method and apparatus for efficiently assigning operations.
In a conventional system for selectively assigning a plurality of operations constituting an operation sequence to a plurality of functional units and parallelly executing the operations, not only the functions of the functional units and the types of operation to be assigned to target units are taken into consideration, but also the operation assignment process must be executed while assignment conditions of the operations assigned to the plurality of functional units are taken into consideration. Therefore, an "operation assigning technique" is required to perform a (complicated) assignment process at high speed and efficiently execute the operations.

Operation assignment method and apparatus therefor


A method controlling a hybrid electric vehicle. The hybrid electric vehicle includes a power transfer unit having a plurality of gear ratios and at least one power source adapted to drive the power transfer unit. The method includes calculating a speed ratio value, comparing the speed ratio value to a threshold value, and inferring a torque disturbance if the speed ratio value is greater than the threshold value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the control of a hybrid electric vehicle, and more particularly to a method for detecting torque disturbances in a wheel drive system of a hybrid electric vehicle.
2. Background Art
Previously, hybrid vehicles employed control strategies that sensed a difference in rotational speed between a driven end of a wheelshaft and the wheelshaft's respective wheel to dampen wheel torque oscillations. An example of such a strategy is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,628 assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In the prior art, wheel torque oscillations were dampened by commanding a torque "pulse" that counteracted a torque hole that occurred during automatic transmission upshifts. However, such strategies did not address torque disturbances such as gear backlash that may occur in a hybrid vehicle wheel drive system.

Method of detecting torque disturbances in a hybrid vehicle


Methods and systems are provided for adjusting an anticipatory controller of an exhaust gas sensor coupled in an engine exhaust. In one embodiment, the method comprises adjusting fuel injection responsive to exhaust oxygen feedback from the anticipatory controller of the exhaust gas sensor and adjusting one or more parameters of the anticipatory controller responsive to a type of oxygen sensor degradation. In this way, the anticipatory controller may be adapted based on the type and magnitude of the degradation behavior to increase performance of the air-fuel control system.

An exhaust gas sensor having an anticipatory controller may be positioned in an exhaust system of a vehicle to detect an air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas exhausted from an internal combustion engine of the vehicle. The exhaust gas sensor readings may be used to control operation of the internal combustion engine to propel the vehicle.
Degradation of an exhaust gas sensor may cause engine control degradation that may result in increased emissions and/or reduced vehicle drivability. Accordingly, accurate determination of exhaust gas sensor degradation and subsequent adjustments to parameters of the anticipatory controller may reduce the likelihood of engine control based on readings from a degraded exhaust gas sensor. In particular, an exhaust gas sensor may exhibit six discrete types of degradation behavior. The degradation behavior types may be grouped into filter type degradation behaviors and delays type degradation behaviors. An exhaust gas sensor exhibiting filter type degradation behavior may have a degraded time constant of the sensor reading while an exhaust gas sensor exhibiting delay type degradation behavior may have a degraded time delay of the sensor reading. In response to sensor degradation, anticipatory controller parameters may be adjusted to increase accuracy of the readings of the degraded exhaust gas sensor.
Previous approaches to adjusting parameters of the anticipatory controller of an exhaust gas sensor, responsive to degraded behavior, include reducing anticipatory controller gains irrespective of the type and magnitude of sensor degradation. In one example, to maintain stability of the anticipatory controller system, controller gains may be reduced aggressively to reduce system instability. However, adjusting controller parameters in this way may result in reduced performance of the air fuel control system.
The inventors herein have recognized the above issues and identified an approach for adjusting one or more parameters of the anticipatory controller of the exhaust gas sensor responsive to a type of oxygen sensor degradation. The type of oxygen sensor degradation may include a filter degradation or a delay degradation. In one example, the filter degradation may be indicated by a degraded time constant being greater than an expected time constant and the delay degradation may be indicated by a degraded time delay being greater than an expected time delay. A magnitude of the sensor degradation may be determined from the degraded time constant and/or degraded time delay. Adjusting one or more parameters of the anticipatory controller may include adjusting a proportional gain, an integral gain, a controller time constant, and a controller time delay. The controller time constant and time delay may be utilized by a delay compensator of the anticipatory controller.
In one example, the parameters of the anticipatory controller may be adjusted by a first amount responsive to a delay degradation and the parameters of the anticipatory controller may be adjusted by a second, different, amount responsive to a filter degradation. Fuel injection of the engine may then be adjusted responsive to exhaust oxygen feedback from the anticipatory controller. The amount of adjusting the parameters may be further based on the magnitude of the degraded time constant and/or degraded time delay. As such, the anticipatory controller may be adapted based on the type and magnitude of the degradation behavior. In this way, performance of the air-fuel control system may be increased.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

Exhaust gas sensor diagnosis and controls adaptation


Methods and apparatus permit: reading a rewritable storage medium, the rewritable storage medium including digital content and a flag indicative of whether the digital content is encrypted; determining whether the digital content of the rewritable storage medium is encrypted based on the flag; encrypting the digital content of the rewritable storage medium using an identification (ID) number as an encryption key when the flag indicates that the digital content is not encrypted, the ID number being unique to a processing apparatus operable to execute the digital content; and overwriting the digital content of the rewritable storage medium with the encrypted digital content.

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for customizing a rewritable storage medium such that only authorized use of digital content contained within the storage medium is permitted.
The widespread use of personal computers and other microprocessor-based equipment has opened very large and profitable markets in the sale of software applications that run on such computing equipment. Conventional software applications are stored on either a write-once or rewritable storage medium in order to distribute same to end users. Such storage media include (floppy) diskettes (such as 3.5-inch diskettes, 5.25-inch diskettes, etc.), discs (such as compact discs, CDs, CD-ROMs, CD-Is, CD-RWs, CD-ROM XAs, CD-Ws, Photo CDs, Video CDs, etc.), electronic storage media (such as programmable read only memories, PROMs, erasable programmable read only memories, EPROMs, electronic erasable programmable read only memories, EEPROMs, etc.)
As the software application is contained in the storage medium in digital form, those seeking to obtain unauthorized copies of the software application can easily do so. Moreover, irrespective of whether a particular copy of the software application is authorized or not, such software application may be loaded and run on any compatible computing device. Such copying and ease of use on different computing devices has the unfortunate effect of significantly reducing sales and profits on the software applications.
Accordingly, there are needs in the art for new methods and apparatus that permit the use of only authorized copies of software applications, or any other digital content, and to permit the use of such digital content on only authorized computing devices.

Methods and apparatus for customizing a rewritable storage medium