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There are a variety standard ways to encode information in a machine-readable code that is either affixed to or applied to the surface of a tangible object. Perhaps the most widespread form of machine-readable code is the barcode, but there are many others. Other forms of machine-readable identification include magnetic stripe, magnetic ink character recognition (MICR), optical character recognition (OCR), optical mark recognition (OMR), radio frequency identification (RF/ID) etc.
While these forms of machine-readable identification are widely used and effective for many applications, they all have the disadvantage that they must occupy a dedicated portion of the physical object that they reside on. For example, if one wishes to apply a barcode or magnetic stripe to an object, the physical implementation of the code must occupy some portion of the object's surface apart from the other information content on the object. For some applications, this limitation does not pose a problem. For many applications, however, the need to locate the code on a dedicated portion of the object is a significant drawback. One drawback is that it requires the user to position the object so that the portion carrying the code can be read. Another drawback is that the code is not aesthetically pleasing, and may detract from the overall appearance of the object. In addition, the placement of the code may require an expensive and cumbersome manufacturing and application process.
Another characteristic of these forms of machine-readable identification is that they are perceptible to the users of the object. Again, for many applications, this characteristic is not a concern, and may in fact be a benefit. In some cases, however, it is a disadvantage for the code to be visually perceptible. As noted above, one drawback is that it detracts from the aesthetic appearance of the object. Another drawback is that it may be more likely to be tampered with.
Watermarks provide an alternative machine-readable code that addresses some or all of these drawbacks. Watermarks may be embedded in the information content (e.g., an image or graphics) or texture of an object's surface, and thus, do not require a separate, dedicated portion of the surface area. While some forms of image watermarks are visible, others may be embedded in image content such that they are virtually imperceptible to the user, yet readable by a machine.
In the following detailed description, watermarks and related machine-readable coding techniques are used to embed data within the information content on object surfaces. These techniques may be used as a substitute for (or in combination with) standard machine-readable coding methods such as bar codes, magnetic stripes, etc. As such, the coding techniques extend to many applications, such as linking objects with network resources, retail point of sale applications, object tracking and counting, production control, object sorting, etc. Object message data, including information about the object, machine instructions, or an index, may be hidden in the surface media of the object.
An object messaging system includes an embedder and reader. The embedder converts an object message to an object reference, and encodes this reference in a watermarked signal applied to the object. The reader detects the presence of a watermark and decodes the watermark signal to extract the object reference.
Further features and advantages will become apparent with reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In recent years, a wireless power supply system in which a power supply cord or a power transmission cable is not used has been focused as a power supply system that supplies power to a battery mounted on a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle. In such a resonance-type power supply system, a pair of resonance coils electromagnetically resonating with one another is provided in a way such that one is installed at a ground surface of power supply equipment and the other is mounted to a vehicle so as to supply power in a non-contact manner from the resonance coil installed on the ground surface of the power supply equipment to the resonance coil mounted to the vehicle. Hereinafter, the one resonance coil installed to the power supply equipment is referred to as a power supply side resonance coil, and the other resonance coil mounted to the vehicle is referred to as a power receiving side resonance coil.
The above-described resonance type power supply system is advantageous in that power may be wirelessly supplied even when there is a certain distance between the power supply side resonance coil and the power receiving side resonance coil. However, there is a concern that a great electromagnetic leakage may be generated around the coils since there is a distance between the power supply side resonance coil and the power receiving side resonance coil.
Therefore, as illustrated in FIGS. 14 and 15, a method is considered in which metallic shield frames 103 and 104 that surround side surfaces of a power supply side resonance coil 101 and a power receiving side resonance coil 102 are provided, and, magnetic bodies 105 and 106 are disposed to each side of the power supply side resonance coil 101 and the power receiving side resonance coil 102, the sides which are separated apart from one another (Patent Literature 1) as a method of preventing such an electromagnetic leakage. However, the method has a problem that it is difficult to prevent the electromagnetic leakage sufficiently in a high-power power supply for a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle.
In addition, when the power receiving side resonance coil 102 is mounted to an automobile, there are some cases in which power is supplied in a state where the power supply side resonance coil 101 and the power receiving side resonance coil 102 are misaligned from each other. When power is supplied in such a state, the electromagnetic leakage further increases. Moreover, in the high-power power supply, an eddy current occurs at outer surfaces of the shield frames 103 and 104 due to the influence of the electromagnetic leakage so that an electromagnetic noise is generated therefrom, which is problematic. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Center pivot irrigation systems are widely used for the irrigation of large agricultural areas. A center pivot system consists essentially of an elongated conduit which has one end fixedly secured at a center pivot around which the conduit is driven by a series of drive towers. Water is pumped into the conduit at the center pivot and exits the conduit through a plurality of sprinklers spaced along its length. The length of a commercial system of this kind may range from about 200 feet (61.0 meters) to over 1500 feet (457.2 meters). In any such system, because the inner portion of the radially extending conduit moves much more slowly than the outer portion, it is necessary and customary to provide for a substantially larger discharge of water at the outer end of the system than at the inner end. This control may be exercised in various ways as is known in the art including providing sprinklers or discharge nozzles with an orifice size varying from the inner end to the outer end in relation to the rate of water flow desired, or some type of programmed time control using discharge nozzles of uniform size, or some other method.
The conventional center pivot irrigation system covers a circular area out of what may be a rectangular or square field, leaving the corners unirrigated and also uncultivated. One of the ways that has been developed to at least partially irrigate the corners of a rectangular or square field has been to provide long distance sprayers or end guns mounted at the end of the conduit for spraying the water into the corner area as the conduit sweeps the adjacent central or primary area. The normal mode of operation calls for the end gun to be off when the outer end of the conduit is adjacent the edge of the field and on when the conduit sweeps adjacent a corner area or other odd shaped area. The control for the end guns is usually provided by some combination of switches and cams mounted at the center pivot which turns on the end guns as the system approaches the corner and off after the system has passed through the corner.
In the past, the use of end guns has been somewhat limited due to the water pressure balance problems experienced in the conduit when the end guns are cycled on and off as well as the maximum flow rate and pressure of the water supply which limits the effective operation of an end gun mounted at the extreme end of the system. A tremendous drop in pressure and flow rate is experienced along the conduit as the end guns are turned on, the end guns usually requiring a much higher pressure and flow rate than the nozzles along the conduit. This is especially a problem for the longer range end guns which spray up to twice as far and cover much greater areas than the short range end guns.
Some systems in the prior art use various combinations of short and long range end guns with their standard center pivot irrigation systems but these systems utilize sequencing operations requiring multiple sweeps or alternate starting and stopping beyond that normally used for controlling average speed in an effort to achieve an equal watering throughout the center circular area as well as the additional area beyond the periphery of the circle. In one of these systems, a short range and a long range end gun are mounted near the outer end of the conduit and are operated in one of two modes each requiring two or more sweeps to complete an irrigation cycle.
In the first mode of operation, the complete system must sweep through the field twice to complete an irrigation cycle. During the first sweep, the short range end guns are sequenced on during a first and last portion of sweep through the corner. During a second sweep, the conduit travels at 100% speed except for the middle portion of the corners. For its sweep through this section, the nozzles along the entire length of the conduit are turned off and the long range end gun is turned on to irrigate that portion of the field beyond the periphery of the circular area not irrigated during the first sweep. The speed of the conduit is set for approximately three times the speed used when the short range end guns are on as the long range end gun has an application rate of about three times that of the short range end guns.
There are several inefficiencies encountered in a system using the sequencing mode described above, including a watering imbalance between the corner areas and the central circular area, and application rates which vary widely between that of the long range end gun and the conduit discharge nozzles. Furthermore, the sequence requires at least two sweeps through a field which may be as much as a full 24 hours longer than one sweep.
In a second mode of operation, the same system may utilize four sweeps through the field in an attempt to equally water corner areas as well as the central circular areas. In this mode, the first three sweeps may be the same as the first sweep in the other mode of operation in that the short range end guns are turned on when the conduit sweeps through a first and last portion of the corner area. The long range end gun is not cycled on. For the fourth sweep through the field, the conduit operates much as in the second sweep of the previous mode in that the conduit travels at 100% speed but slows to the same speed that was used for short range end gun operation for its sweep through the middle portion of the corner. During its sweep through the middle portion of the corner, the long range end gun is cycled on and the nozzles along the length of the conduit are cycled off so that all of the water is diverted for operation of the long range end gun. As the long range end gun applies water at about three times the rate of the short range end guns, one sweep with the long range end gun will apply approximately the same amount of water as that applied by three sweeps with the short range end guns on.
This mode of operation provides a better balance of water throughout both the corner and the center portion of the field, but there still exists an imbalance because the center conduit must be turned off during its sweep through the middle portion of the corner to operate the long range end gun. Furthermore, the middle portion of the corner receives an excessive amount of water by the long range end gun as it must receive water equal to that received by other areas of the field during three or four sweeps of the conduit. This produces a large amount of run-off and inefficient irrigation as compared with a more balanced application rate as experienced by other portions of the field. Also, the time required to complete a full cycle of irrigation is four sweeps and not two as in the previous mode which may be as much as three days longer than that required to sweep through the field one time.
Another system which utilizes a short and long range end gun in combination with a center pivot conduit has a somewhat different sequencing method for irrigating a corner area. During a first part of the corner, a short range end gun is cycled on. During a large middle portion of the corner, the system operates in two alternate modes. The conduit will move for a short distance with the short range end gun on to irrigate partway into the corner, and then the conduit will stop, all the discharge nozzles along it will be turned off, and the long range end gun will be cycled on for a period of time to irrigate a portion of corner area beyond that irrigated by the short range end gun. The conduit will then start up again and will travel to another stopping point, with the short range end gun and the nozzles along the conduit on in between the two stopping points. There may be as many as ten stopping points through the middle portion of the corner to provide for an adequate amount of water to be delivered to the area beyond the short range end gun's reach. The system operates through the last portion of the corner as it did in the first portion, with the short range end gun on.
This mode of sequencing has inefficiencies due to the continual starting and stopping of the system which greatly increases the mechanical wear and tear, control system requirements, and maintenance problems. Furthermore, there must be a great deal more of overlap between the sprinkling patterns of the end guns as the short range end gun is used to irrigate between the central area and that area irrigated by the long range end gun. This, in addition to the multiple stopping of the system at selected locations requires that the watering patterns overlap much more than in a continually moving system to ensure that there are no areas which receive little or no water. Also, the time required for one sweep through the field is increased over that of a system which moves continuously through the field, although not as greatly as in the other systems.
Applicant has developed a system for balancing the water pressure and flow rate between the center pivot conduit and the end guns and which provides for an even distribution of water and application rates throughout both the area included within the arc as well as the area sprayed by both the long range and short range end guns. In addition, applicant's system utilizes a sequencing mode which equally irrigates all parts of the field with each sweep of a continuously moving conduit. It is to be understood that by "continuously moving" is meant that the conduit is always moving at an average speed in a manner customary in the art for controlling the normal operation of a center pivot irrigation system. It does not mean that the conduit is always moving at every instant of time as it is customary to control the average speed of a conduit by alternately stopping and starting a selected one or more of the control towers such as by use of a percent timer or the like. But, the system of the present invention is moving continuously at some average speed in the sense that the system is not made to stop at selected locations while one or more end guns operate.
In applicant's system, the sprinklers along an outer section of the conduit are turned off to increase the water pressure and flow available for use by the longer range end gun. By turning off this portion of conduit, applicant's system provides water at a sufficient pressure and flow rate to effectively operate the long range end gun at something less than maximum range. However, applicant's system at the same time continues irrigation along the majority of the conduit which eliminates the inefficiencies of the systems in the prior art. To compensate for the section of conduit that's off, the watering pattern of the longer range end gun is adjusted so that it sprays inwardly of the arc to irrigate the area normally swept by the outer section in addition to a substantial area beyond the arc and into the corner. This is made possible by the relatively greater capacity of the end gun as compared with the standard nozzles of the conduit. A typical long range end gun delivers approximately three times the water delivered by a section of conduit over equal areas. In applicant's system the spray pattern of the longer range end gun is adjusted to provide about two thirds of its spray beyond the outside of the arc and only about one third along the inside of the arc to balance the delivery of water.
Thus, a center pivot irrigation system may be provided with a short and long range end gun at its outermost end which will continuously irrigate an inner area as well as provide for the irrigation of land along two different ranges beyond the central arc with a balanced application of water and without the need to start and stop the conduit at selected locations or miss complete sections of land during a single pass of the system through the field.
As the watering pattern for end guns may be erratic in that they tend to distribute more water towards the periphery of their spray pattern, auxiliary sprinklers may be provided along the outer section of conduit to fill in any inconsistencies in the long range end gun coverage. These auxiliary sprinklers are generally very few in number and do not significantly reduce the amount of pressure and flow rate available for the longer range end gun.
Another feature of applicant's system is that it can be added to an existing center pivot system or supplied on new systems by the use of an existing control wire extending from the central pivot out to the periphery of the conduit where the end guns are mounted. This is important as the conduit may be up to 1500 feet (457.2 meters) long and extra wires would be substantially more expensive to supply and connect. With the one wire, applicant can operatively electrically select one of two ranges of end guns for operation in various parts of the corner area. This provides increased capability for spraying as one or more shorter range end guns may be used to fill in areas which could not be properly covered by a longer range end gun and a longer range end gun can be used to reach beyond the range of a short range end gun. A second short range end gun may be provided to increase the irrigation rate and improve the coverage. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Generally, an engine may cause vibrations or noise due to an inertial force generated by a reciprocating motion of a piston. To reduce the vibration or noise, various apparatuses are provided. For example, a cylinder block of the engine may be provided with a balance shaft to reduce the vibrations while the balance shaft rotates in an opposite direction to a crankshaft.
The balance shaft is provided with a driving gear and thus rotates due to a driving force from the crankshaft and may be coupled with a driving/driven transmission gear, an intermediate gear, or the like. Further, the balance shaft is provided with a balance weight for stably rotating the balance shaft and an oil pump for pumping oil.
The oil pump includes an oil pump gear, an oil pump shaft, a housing and a rotor part. The oil pump gear receives a rotating force from a gear of the crankshaft of the engine to rotate while being engaged with the oil pump shaft. The rotor part is press-fitted on an outer circumferential surface of the oil pump shaft and rotates when the pump shaft rotates. Further, the oil pump shaft is press-fitted in an inner side of the rotor part.
The housing includes a support surface extending in the axial direction along the outer circumferential surface of the oil pump shaft and a thrust surface extending radially outwardly from the support surface and contacting both surfaces of the rotor part.
When the engine rotates, an angular acceleration of the engine may be changed. A torque generated therefrom is transferred to the oil pump gear through the crank gear. As a result, the oil pump gear, the oil pump shaft and the rotor part all receive an irregular load. In this case, the oil pump shaft may eccentrically rotate due to torsion or bending. The eccentric rotation of the oil pump shaft is transferred to the rotor part press-fitted on the outer circumferential surface thereof. The rotor part is configured to contact the thrust surface of the housing, and therefore when the oil pump shaft eccentrically rotates, a durability thereof may be lowered or may cause irregular noise.
Meanwhile, according to the related art, the oil pump gear and the rotor are press-fitted in the oil pump shaft and the related art has a structure in which only the rotor is enclosed with the housing, in which the housing is integrally formed with the balance shaft housing. Therefore, a backlash control between the driving gear connecting between the balance shaft fixedly mounted in the balance shaft housing and the oil pump shaft and the oil pump gear may not be made. As such, if the appropriate backlash is not performed between the gears, gear whine noise or a rattle noise may occur.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a spark plug for internal combustion engines used for automobiles, cogenerations, gas feeding pumps, etc. and a method for manufacturing the spark plug.
2. Description of the Related Art
Spark plugs are still used abundantly as an ignition means of a fuel-air mixture introduced into a combustion chamber of internal-combustion engines used for automobiles, etc.
As an example, a spark plug disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-204233 is known.
The spark plug disclosed in the publication is shown in FIGS. 34 and 35. As shown in the figures, the spark plug 9 has a center electrode 94 and a ground electrode 95.
The ground electrode 95 is fixed to a mount fitting 92, while the ground electrode 95 has a projection part 951. The projection part 951 is made of a part of base materials of the ground electrode 95 where the part is facing the center electrode 94, and is projected toward the center electrode 94. A precious-metal-chip 953 is welded to an electric discharge surface 952 of the projection part 951.
However, there are the following problems in the above-mentioned spark plug 9.
That is, the precious-metal-chip 953 and the base material of the ground electrode 95 are joined only at a joint part 954. In another words, the precious-metal-chip 953 and the base material of the ground electrode 95 are welded only on the circumference of contacting surfaces of the projection part 951 and the precious-metal-chip 953.
For this reason, if heat stress acts on the joint part 954 by a thermal cycle, a crack or oxidization will take place in the joint part 95 fourthus the reliability in joint of the precious-metal-chip 953 and the base material of the ground electrode 95 will fall.
In addition, since the thermal conductivity of the joint part 954 is smaller than that of the precious-metal-chip 953, heat radiation of the precious-metal-chip 953 worsens, and there is a possibility that the temperature may rise thereof. Thereby, the precious-metal-chip 953 is worn and there is a possibility that demand voltage may become large.
Further, in order to lower demand voltage, it is necessary to make a spark discharge gap G formed between the center electrode 94 and the precious-metal-chip 953 small, but in this case, the amount of the precious metals used will increase, and there is a possibility that the cost of manufacturing the spark plug 9 may rise. | {
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U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,172 to Arce discloses a flexible, finger-mounted toothbrush including an elongate flexible bag member with a closed distal end and an open proximal end. Its bristles are covered by folding the device in half but such folding does not seal the bristles from the ambient environment. The tight fit of the device on the finger prevents the device from slipping from the user's finger during use.
Lerner (U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,733) shows a mitten-like device that is folded inside-out momentarily as it is being turned inside-out after use. It has no sanitized parts and, accordingly, no means are provided to maintain any part thereof in a sanitary condition.
Pipkin (U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,650) discloses a cylindrical finger-mounted paint brush that is stored in a configuration that is partially inside out; it is held on the user's finger by the tight fit of the elastomeric finger-receiving part thereof, and the bristles are always exposed to the ambient environment.
Thus, a consumer desiring to purchase a flexible, finger-mounted toothbrush that is maintained in a clean, sanitary condition up to the time of use and which will not slip from the finger when used will not be able to fulfill said desire. Significantly, no combination of the existing devices can produce a device that would meet the consumer's requirements. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paintball feeding device of a paintball marker gun, more particularly one, which will feed a paintball to the paintball marker gun as soon as a paintball is shot out, thus preventing blockage and jams of paintballs.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In a major part of a survival game, the participants try to mark each other's bodies with paintballs, which are shot out from paintball marker guns. A participant will be considered out if his/her body is shot and marked with paints by paintballs. Such games are very exciting and getting more and more popular.
Various paintball marker guns are available to players in survival games. A conventional paintball marker gun structure includes a gun main body, a paintball feeding device connected to an uppermost side of the gun main body, and a high pressure gas tank connected to the gun main body; the paintball feeding device contains paintballs; when the trigger of the gun main body is pressed, the gas will make a paintball shot out from the gun main body. The paintball feeding device is equipped with a sensor, which is positioned in a space between a main body of the feeding device and the gun main body for detecting whether there is any paintball present in the space; a direct-current of the paintball feeding device will start rotating to feed paintballs to the gun main body if the sensor doesn't detect presence of any paintball in the space. However, blockage and jams of paintballs are prone to happen because paintball shooting and feeding aren't carried out in a synchronized manner, and the speed of paintball feeding isn't precisely controlled.
Another conventional paintball marker gun structure includes a gun main body, a sensor in the gun main body, and a paintball feeding device, which is connected to an upper side of the gun main body, and contains paintballs; when a paintball is shot out from the gun main body, a paintball will drop from the feeding device into the gun main body automatically owing to gravity; the sensor is used for detecting paintball shooting. Although paintballs can be automatically loaded with the help of gravity, the loading speed is relatively low. Consequently, the players can't have the pleasure of making continuous shots when using such paintball marker guns. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Conventional relational database systems employ page-based memory storage schemas both in cache and disk storage. The page-based memory storage includes multiple pages that store rows of related and unrelated data on the same page. When multiple clients attempt to access data frequently and concurrently from the cache memory storage, where some clients try to read the data while other clients concurrently try to update some other data, the server experiences contention. The contention occurs when unrelated clients attempt to read or modify different data items located in the same memory page where only one client is able to access one memory page at a time. This results in overall system latency and reduced performance because one client, which is attempting a read data from a row in a page, waits until another client that updates some other data row(s) in the same page completes accessing the memory page.
Therefore, what is needed are systems and methods for decreasing contention in a relational database when the database memory cache is accessed concurrently by multiple clients.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical or similar elements. Additionally, generally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears. | {
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This invention relates to electronic devices and accessories for electronic devices.
Electronic devices such as computers, media players, and cellular telephones typically contain audio jacks. Accessories such as headsets have mating plugs. A user who desires to use a headset with an electronic device may connect the headset to the electronic device by inserting the headset plug into the mating audio jack on the electronic device. Miniature size (3.5 mm) phone jacks and plugs are commonly used electronic devices such as notebook computers and media players, because audio connectors such as these are relatively compact.
Stereo audio connectors typically have three contacts. The outermost end of an audio plug is typically referred to as the tip. The innermost portion of the plug is typically referred to as the sleeve. A ring contact lies between the tip and the sleeve. When using this terminology, stereo audio connectors such as these are sometimes referred to as tip-ring-sleeve (TRS) connectors. The sleeve can serve as ground. The tip contact can be used in conjunction with the sleeve to handle a left audio channel and the ring contact can be used in conjunction with the sleeve to handle the right channel of audio.
In devices such as cellular telephones, it is often necessary to convey microphone signals from the headset to the cellular telephone. In arrangements in which it is desired to handle both stereo audio signals and microphone signals, an audio connector typically contains an additional ring terminal. Audio connectors such as these have a tip, two rings, and a sleeve and are therefore sometimes referred to as four-contact connectors or TRRS connectors. When a four-contact connector is used, the sleeve or one of the rings may serve as ground. The tip contact and the outermost ring contact may be used in conjunction with the ground to carry audio for the left and right headset speaker audio channels. The remaining contact (e.g., the sleeve contact) may be used in conjunction with the ground to carry microphone signals.
In a typical microphone-enabled headset, a bias voltage is applied to the microphone from the electronic device over the microphone line. The microphone in the headset generates a microphone signal when sound is received from the user (i.e., when a user speaks during a telephone call). Microphone amplifier circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry in the cellular telephone can convert microphone signals from the headset into digital signals for subsequent processing.
Some users may wish to operate their cellular telephones or other electronic devices remotely. To accommodate this need, some modern microphone-enabled headsets feature a button. When the button is pressed by the user, the microphone line is shorted to ground. Monitoring circuitry in a cellular telephone to which the headset is connected can detect the momentary grounding of the microphone line and can take appropriate action. In a typical scenario, a button press might be used be used to answer an incoming telephone or might be used skip tracks during playback of a media file.
Conventional button arrangements such as these offer limited functionality and may introduce undesirable clicking noises if the button is actuated during normal use of the microphone.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved arrangements for supporting interactions between electronic devices and accessories such as headsets. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Gas turbine engines operate to produce mechanical work or thrust. Land-based gas turbine engines typically have a generator coupled thereto that uses the mechanical work to drive an electrical generator. In operation, fuel is directed through one or more fuel nozzles to a combustor where it mixes with compressed air and is ignited to form hot combustion gases. These hot combustion gases then pass to a turbine by way of at least one transition duct. The hot combustion gases drive the turbine, which in turn, drives the compressor.
The transition duct, which can often reach temperatures upwards of approximately 1400 deg. Fahrenheit, directs the hot combustion gases from the combustion section to the turbine. Depending on the type of engine, the combustor may be located radially outward of the turbine and the engine may comprise a plurality of combustors. In this arrangement, the transition duct changes radial position along its length between the combustor and the turbine. Regardless of geometry, the transition duct requires a sufficient amount of cooling to overcome the elevated operating temperatures and maintain metal temperatures of the transition duct such that the base materials can withstand the mechanical and thermal stresses. There is yet another issue with respect to cooling of a plurality of transition ducts that feed the turbine inlet. When multiple transition ducts having impingement sleeves are positioned adjacent to each other, there is often times little space for cooling air to pass between the transition duct impingement sleeves. The smaller space causes the cooling air that does pass between adjacent transition ducts to move at a higher velocity than would normally be desired in order to achieve effective cooling. As such, the cooling is not as effective in these regions as other locations along the transition duct. In order to improve cooling to the transition duct, FIGS. 1 and 2 depict a gas turbine transition duct 100 in accordance with the prior art where a plurality of semi-hemispherical flow catching devices 102 are used to divert cooling air into a passageway 104 of the transition duct 100. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for stabilizing a spinning spacecraft exposed to disturbing moments.
2. Description of Related Art
Spin stabilization is the simplest technique for controlling spacecraft attitude for spacecraft orbited around the earth. A spacecraft can be characterized as having three orthogonal moment of inertia axes which typically each have a unique moment of inertia value, thus defining a principal or maximum axis, a minimum axis, and an intermediate axis. Rotation about any axis presents stability concerns which are alleviated by the present invention.
As an alternative to rotating a spacecraft about an unstable axis or when subjected to destabilizing forces, a three-axis active control system can be used. These systems are complex, and are subject to gyro drift error which can lead to attitude inaccuracies.
Present nutation control systems for spinning spacecraft typically require nutation to reach a predetermined level before corrective thruster firing occurs and thus does not provide proportional attitude control. In some cases, this can cause loss of control. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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As the use of portable devices, such as high-performance notebook computers and mobile phones becomes increasingly popular in all over the world, a demand for high-performance secondary batteries with high energy density is being explosively increased. Particularly, lithium ion secondary batteries are being increasingly applied in most portable electronic products despite their short history, and thus, studies to extend the run-time of portable devices by increasing the capacity of lithium secondary batteries are being actively conducted. However, since an increase in the battery capacity leads to deterioration in the battery safety, there are various attempts to improve the safety of lithium secondary batteries.
Putting together the results of studies conducted up to now on the safety of the lithium secondary batteries, the thermal stability of active material and electrolyte in a charged state has the greatest effect on the battery safety. For this reason, studies to improve the safety of the lithium secondary batteries consist mainly of attempts to develop positive active materials with excellent thermal stability and studies to improve the thermal stability of electrolytes.
At present days, solvents used in electrolytes for the lithium secondary batteries are mainly cyclic and linear carbonates. Such solvents are inflammable and thus, upon either an increase in temperature caused by local short circuits within the batteries or an increase in surrounding temperature, the solvents will easily react with oxygen generated by the structural degradation of an active material, particularly a positive active material, resulting in combustion and explosion. For this reason, imparting flame retardancy to the electrolytes will greatly contribute to the improvement of the battery safety.
Many studies on flame retardant electrolytes which can be used in the lithium secondary batteries have been conducted centering around either solvents containing a compound having a fluorine-for-hydrogen substitution in carbonate or solvents containing phosphorus. Such a solvents have lower flammability and combustibility than those of the prior carbonate or ester solvents, but needs to be used at large amounts in order that electrolyte has sufficient flame retardancy. Also, such a flame retardant solvent shows a lower dissolution of lithium salts than that in the existing cyclic carbonates and contains fluorine or phosphorus with a higher atomic weight than that of hydrogen, resulting in a great increase in the viscosity of electrolytes. Thus, if the volume ratio of this flame retardant solvent in electrolyte solvent increases, the performance of batteries will be greatly deteriorated due to a great reduction in lithium ion conductivity.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei 10-199567 discloses that if trifluoropropylene carbonate of the following formula 1 is used at the amount of 60-90% by volume relative to the total volume of electrolyte solvent, the safety of batteries can be improved:
However, trifluoropropylene carbonate has about two times higher viscosity than that of ethylene carbonate or propylene carbonate, a generally used solvent. Thus, if it is used at the amount described in the Japanese publication, it will result in a great reduction in the ion conductivity of electrolyte, thus making the deterioration of battery performance inevitable. Moreover, as the trifluoropropylene carbonate is a propylene carbonate substituted with fluorine, it has some of the disadvantages of propylene carbonate. Thus, if it is used in electrolyte solvent, the stability of a coating layer formed at the interface between a graphite negative electrode and an electrolyte will be somewhat insufficient and a problem in the charge/discharge life cycles of the battery will occur, as described in Electrochimica Acta Vol. 45, p. 99, 1999.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,506,524 describes a solvent consisting of fluoroethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate used as electrolyte solvent and the resulting electrolyte-stable protective layer capable of being formed on the surface of a graphite negative electrode material. However, if the solvent of this composition is used as electrolyte solvent, the ion conductivity of electrolyte will be reduced to less than 7 mS/cm, thus deteriorating the performance of batteries, because fluoroethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate have high dielectric constant but undesirably high viscosity. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to insulating devices for beverage containers and more particularly, to insulating beverages and foods by using air as the insulator.
2. Background and Related Art
Disposable cups are routinely used in fast food and roadside restaurants to contain both hot and cold drinks. Because such cups have relatively thin walls, insulation is poor. As a result, the cups in which hot beverages are served are often too hot to hold comfortably, and the outside surface of cups in which cold beverages are served often accumulate moisture also making the cups difficult to hold, thus causing the holder's hand and the table to become wet. In addition, cold drinks warm quickly and hot drinks lose heat rapidly.
In response to the need for a better beverage insulator, various types of disposable cardboard and paper sleeves have been used. The sleeves are sized to slide onto the outside of a beverage cup and are held in place by friction. The wide-diameter end of the typical beverage cup prevents the sleeve from sliding off the cup while the cup is being held. However, such devices are poor insulators because they are generally thin. Moreover, the close contact with the cup causes additional heat transfer to the outside of the insulator. Additional insulation is needed at the bottom of beverage cups because the fluid has been there for a longer period of time. Also, such devices typically cover any printable material on the outside of the cup, resulting in a lost opportunity for advertising. While some transparent insulators have been created, they also lose effectiveness as insulators because of the close contact with the cups and the conductive material out of which they are typically made. Some of the more effective insulators are too bulky and take up too much storage space in small convenience stores, thus making the disposable cups too big to fit in most cup-holders. Another problem with most disposable cups is that since typical cups have narrow bases, they are unstable. Thus, there is a great need in the beverage industry for cups with better insulation and overall improvement.
To solve the problem of difficulty in gripping either hot drinks or cold drinks that accumulate moisture on the outside of the cup, some disposable cups include handles. Unfortunately, the problem with handles is that they are typically made out of paper or other sheet-like material and they lack sufficient strength to hold the cup in an upright position when the user is holding the cup by the handle. In other words, the weight of the cup can cause the handle to sag or tear such that the cup will tilt, spilling the beverage. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a fuel assembly of a light water reactor, wherein the fuel assembly is charged with fuel rods in which a plutonium-uranium mixed fuel is packed.
It is possible to effectively utilize resource or improve fuel economy in a nuclear power plant by utilizing plutonium (Pu) obtained by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel in a light water reactor.
In a case where the plutonium is used as a fuel, since the nuclear characteristics of the plutonium fuel are different from those of the uranium fuel, the core and the core characteristics in case of using the plutonium fuel are also different from those in case of only using the uranium fuel. The main differences in the nuclear characteristics between the plutonium (Pu) and the uranium (U) reside in that (1) a thermal neutron absorption cross section of Pu-239 or Pu-241 of a fissile material of Pu is as large as twice that of U-235 of a fissile material of U and (2) a fissile material Pu-240 of Pu has a considerably large neutron absorption peak in a resonance region being an energy region in which the neutron is subjected to resonance absorption.
According to these facts, when Pu is charged in a reactor core, (1) neutron flux in a thermal region is decreased and the neutron flux in the resonance region or fast region is increased, that is, a neutron spectrum is hardened, and (2) on the basis of the increasing of the neutron absorption in the resonance region, the absolute value of the void coefficient (which is represented by a moderator temperature coefficient in a pressurized water reactor (PWR)) in a boiling water reactor (BWR), i.e., core reactivity change due to the change of the moderator density becomes large.
These facts affect the core characteristics in the following points manner.
(1) The core reactivity in a core cooling period is increased and the core shutdown margin is decreased. The reason why this is caused is represented by FIG. 14 as a mode.
(2) The core shutdown margin is decreased by the presence of a burnable poison such as gadolinium compound (gadolinia Gd.sub.2 O.sub.3) or boron (B) or the decreasing of a reactivity controlling ability of control rods.
(3) Particularly, in case of BWR in which the moderator density is largely changed in the core axial direction, the distortion of the power distribution in the core axial direction is made large in comparison with a core in which only the uranium fuel is used and the thermal margin is decreased. This reason will be explained with reference to FIG. 15.
Since Pu is a radioactive material and also has a chemical toxicity as a heavy metal, the formation process of the U-Pu mixture is carried out in a glove box. For this reason, the usage of less of the kind of fuel rods of different Pu enrichments is economical for the formation working or process and is also desirable for the management or handling.
For conveyance of the U-Pu mixture fuel, called hereinlater MOX fuel, assembly, it is necessary to convey the same by accommodating it in a container provided with a specific radiation shielding for preventing the radiation emitted from the Pu and in the nuclear power plant, the MOX fuel assembly is managed under a specific control. In this meaning, it is desired to utilize smaller number of MOX fuel assemblies also in view of economy. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
(1). Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protective covering for open electrical equipment and computer server racks. In particular, the present invention relates to a shield or canopy to prevent water damage to server computers and other electrical equipment mounted in open equipment racks.
(2). Description of the Prior Art
Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and other unexpected events can damage the roofs and ceilings of buildings housing electrical equipment racks, such as computer server racks. Severe roof damage will allow rain water to pour through ceilings, causing major damage to sensitive and expensive electrical equipment and computer servers mounted in open electrical equipment racks. Other water sources, such as burst water pipes, leaking HVAC systems, sub-grade water infiltration, and broken windows can also result in water damaged electrical equipment.
Present measures to prevent water damage to computer servers and other electrical equipment mounted to open equipment racks have proven inadequate. For example, in recognition of this water damage problem, attempts are made to locate server rooms in areas of a building that are considered to be relatively safe from roof failure and other causes of water damage. However, server and electrical equipment room location is not always an option due to cost constraints and building architecture. Therefore, a need remains for an effective shield against water damage and falling debris for computer server and electrical equipment racks. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Electrical therapy has long been used in medicine to treat pain and other conditions. For example, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) systems deliver electrical energy through electrode patches placed on the surface of a patient's skin to treat pam in tissue beneath and around the location of the patches. However, the TENS systems may not adequately alleviate pain in certain circumstances.
More recently, a technique in which electrodes are placed through the patient's skin into the target tissue has been proposed. Percutaneous Neuromodulation Therapy (“PNT”) (also sometimes called Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation or “PENS”) using percutaneously placed electrodes achieves significantly better pain relief results than TENS treatments using skin surface electrodes. This therapy is described in Ghoname et al., “Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for Low Back Pain,” JAMA 281:818-23 (1999); Ghoname et al., “The Effect of Stimulus Frequency on the Analgesic Response to Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain,” Anesth. Analg. 88:841-6 (1999); Ahmed et al., “Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (PENS): A Complementary Therapy for the Management of Pain Secondary to Bony Metastasis,” Clinical Journal of Pain 14:320-3 (1998); and Ahmed et al., “Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation: An Alternative to Antiviral Drugs for Herpes Zoster,” Anesth. Analg. 87:911-4 (1998). The contents of these references are incorporated herein by reference.
Thus far, PNT practitioners have used percutaneously placed acupuncture needles attached to waveform generators via cables and alligator clips to deliver the therapy to the patient. One feature of conventional PNT systems is that they typically include a number of electrical cables that must be properly connected to the corresponding percutaneous electrodes to deliver effective electrical therapy. Accordingly, a drawback with these conventional systems is that it can be difficult (particularly for inexperienced practitioners) to connect each electrical cable to the proper corresponding electrode. This drawback is shared as well by other systems that require multiple connections to the patient. Such systems include electrical monitoring systems and drug delivery systems. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for conditioning tobacco particles, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for conditioning tobacco particles in the form of whole leaves, laminae, ribs and stem and/or shreds which preferably form a continuous stream and are transported through a series of conditioning zones. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in a method and apparatus for conditioning tobacco particles by means of a gaseous fluid, preferably air.
It is well known that many treatments of tobacco must be preceded by increasing its moisture content so as to enhance the flexibility of tobacco particles (e.g., prior to shredding) and to thus reduce the likelihood of undesirable breakage or comminution and the formation of dust. It is also known to treat tobacco with a variety of substance (known as casing) in order to improve its aroma; such treatment also involves increasing the moisture content of tobacco. At least some moisture must be expelled from tobacco prior to final processing into cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and/or other types of smokers' products. For example, prior to feeding tobacco shreds into a modern mass-producing cigarette making machine, it is necessary to insure that the moisture content of tobacco shreds is invariably within an extremely narrow range which cannot deviate from an optimum moisture content by more than a small fraction of one percent. Heretofore known procedures which are employed in connection with conditioning of tobacco particles normally involve contacting tobacco with a gaseous fluid which is conveyed countercurrent to or concurrently with the direction of tobacco transport through the conditioning apparatus, or a combined concurrent-countercurrent treatment.
The countercurrent treatment involves conveying a current of hot air counter to the direction of transport of tobacco particles and across the tobacco stream. Such treatment is desirable in many instances because the tobacco is treated gently. This is due to the fact that the particles of tobacco are contacted first by a current of hot air at less than maximum temperature i.e., the hottest portion of the air stream comes into contact with that portion of the tobacco stream which was already treated by cooler air. In other words, the moisture content of tobacco particles is inversely proportional to the temperature of air which contacts successive increments of the stream. As the temperature of air decreases in response to continued contact and energy exchange with tobacco, the moisture content of air rises so that each increment of the tobacco stream is contacted first by an air current having a relatively high moisture content and a relatively low temperature; the moisture content of air decreases and the temperature of air increases in the direction of tobacco transport. Thus, the very hot air contacts those particles of tobacco whose moisture content is already reduced and the relatively cool air contacts tobacco particles whose moisture content is high. Otherwise stated, the maximum exchange of energy takes place at the downstream end of the conditioning zone where the partially conditioned tobacco is contacted by freshly admitted air whose temperature is high. An advanatage of such countercurrent conditioning is that the final moisture content of tobacco can be selected and maintained with a high degree of accuracy because, if the moisture content in a region slightly ahead of the downstream end of the conditioning zone deviates from the desired optimum moisture content, the temperature of freshly admitted hot air can be readily changed to compensate for such differences without any delay or with negligible delay. However, the just described countercurrent conditioning cannot insure that the moisture content of each portion of each tobacco particle is within the desired range, i.e., the overall moisture content of a batch of tobacco particles is satisfactory but the moisture content is likely to vary from portion to portion of a discrete tobacco particle.
The conditioning of tobacco with a current of hot air which is conveyed concurrent with the direction of tobacco transport involves conveying the tobacco in and often by the current of air. Such treatment renders it possible to achieve a hygroscopic equilibrium between tobacco and air at the downstream end of the conditioning zone, i.e., all portions of each tobacco particle will have a desired moisture content. However, the concurrent treatment exhibits a serious drawback, namely, that the tobacco particles are contacted first by very hot air which effects an abrupt drying of strata adjacent to the external surfaces of tobacco particles. As a result of such treatment, certain types of tobacco are likely to develop hard crusts. Moreover, the intervals between the measurement of moisture content and an effective adjustment in the event that the final moisture content of tobacco is unsatisfactory are very long. Thus, if the moisture content of tobacco is measured downstream of the conditioning zone and if such moisture content is unsatisfactory, it takes a relatively long interval of time to change the moisture content by changing the characteristics of the air current. This means that a substantial amount of tobacco is allowed to leave the conditioning zone with a final moisture content which is unsatisfactory for further processing. Also, the regulating system which is used to change the characteristics of an air current flowing concurrent with the direction of tobacco transport is likely to begin to oscillate. Since the main drying action takes place in the relatively short foremost portion of the conditioning zone, it is difficult to influence the moisture content of tobacco in the remaining portion of the conditioning zone if such moisture content is unsatisfactory.
The combined concurrent-countercurrent conditioning of tobacco exhibits the advantage that the adverse effects of the preceding (concurrent) treatment can be compensated for during the next-following (countercurrent) treatment. However, this takes place at the expense of uniformity of moisture content in all portions of tobacco particles which leave the conditioning zone. Thus, the countercurrent treatment which follows the concurrent treatment is likely to reduce the uniformity of moisture content in each portion of a tobacco particle which leaves the treating apparatus. Furthermore, even though the concurrent treatment allows for convenient elimination of substantial deviations of measured moisture content from a desired moisture content by proper regulation of the temperature of air currents which are transported concurrent with tobacco particles, such concurrent treatment is likely to bring about undesirable incrustation of tobacco particles in that portion of the conditioning zone where a current of very hot air comes into contact with tobacco. Therefore, conditioning apparatus whose operation is based on the just discussed principle have failed to find widespread acceptance in the tobacco industry.
Freshly gathered tobacco leaves are normally dried at the farm. Prior to compacting of leaves in barrels, hogsheads or in the form of bales (this is the customary form of compacting tobacco for shipment to manufacturing plants), the moisture content of tobacco leaves must be reduced to an accurately determined relatively low value. Such accurate drying cannot be achieved by mere exposure of tobacco leaves to atmospheric air because various portions of tobacco leaves lose their moisture content at a different rate. Thus, the laminae will dry much faster than ribs and stem. Therefore, freshly gathered tobacco leaves are often stemmed or destalked to separate laminae from stem so that the thus separated stem and laminae can be dried independently of each other. Tobacco which is subjected to a drying action after gathering is often called greenleaf tobacco. Accurate drying of greenleaf tobacco (so that the moisture content of each tobacco particle and of each portion of each tobacco particle remains within a narrow range) is desirable and necessary because, after the tobacco is compacted in barrels or in the form of bales, batches with a higher moisture content tend to mildew and the molding spreads very rapidly throughout an entire barrel or bale to cause substantial damage. A contemporary drying apparatus for greenleaf tobacco normally comprieses a rotary open-ended vessel or barrel through which a stream of tobacco is conveyed with a current of air with attendant agitation of tobacco to insure more satisfactory exchange of energy between air and tobacco particles. It is also known to employ drying apparatus in the form of pneumatic conveyors wherein greenleaf tobacco is conveyed in a current of hot air passing through a pipe or the like.
Since a bale or barrel of dried greenleaf tobacco is likely to remain in storage for extended periods of time, the manufacturers require that the moisture content of such tobacco be maintained within an extremely narrow range because a very small nest of mildewy tobacco is likely to contaminate the contents of an entire barrel or an entire bale before the barrel or bale is removed from storage. As mentioned before, the moisture content must be reduced to a very low value, and the transport through a drying or conditioning apparatus wherein the moisture content is reduced to such low value is likely to result in undesirable breakage or comminution of tobacco and/or in the formation of excessive quantities of tobacco dust. The likelihood of breakage or dust formation is particularly pronounced in the aforementioned drying apparatus wherein a stream of tobacco is conveyed through a revolving open-ended vessel in the presence of hot air. This is due to the fact that the revolving vessel subjects the particles of tobacco to a very pronounced agitating action during which the particles are repeatedly lifted well above the bottom zone of the vessel by orbiting rakes or blades and are allowed to drop by gravity back into the bottom zone. Nevertheless, many tobacco growers still employ such types of drying apparatus because their conditioning action is more uniform than that of pneumatic drying apparatus.
Additional problems in connection with conditioning of tobacco arise due to the fact that the space in a modern tobacco processing plant is at a premium. Thus, the manufacturers strive to accommodate the conditioning apparatus in a small area while simultaneously desiring a high output and an accurate conditioning of each and every tobacco particle, i.e., the temperature and/or moisture content of conditioned tobacco should equal or should be very close to an optimum temperature and moisture content. This can be achieved if the dimensions of conditioning apparatus can be increased at will, i.e., if the drying of moist tobacco can be carried out while the particles of tobacco are advanced at a relatively low speed and through a relatively long conditioning zone so that the reduction of moisture content can be achieved gradually. In other words, a satisfactory reduction of moisture content and a satisfactory heating or cooling of tobacco presents no problems if the changes in such characteristics are effected at a slow rate, namely, if the extent of drying per unit length of the conditioning apparatus and per unit of time is relatively small. Such treatment insures reliable homogenization of the final product so that the temperature as well as the moisture content of each particle issuing from the conditioning zone is best suited for further processing. This is due to the fact that a conditioning for a long period of time and in a relatively long conditioning zone can readily compensate for fluctuations in initial temperature and/or moisture content as well as for eventual fluctuations in the intensity of treatment during one or more drying stages.
In certain presently known tobacco conditioning apparatus, a relatively short heating zone is followed by a homogenizing zone whose function is to eliminate eventual variations in moisture content of tobacco which issues from the drying zone. Such procedure is satisfactory only if the initial moisture content of tobacco (i.e., of tobacco which enters the drying zone) is constant or deviates only slightly from a fixed value. It has been found that the just described conditioning apparatus fail to insure a satisfactory homogenization and cannot achieve a reduction of moisture content to a fixed value unless the initial moisture content is constant or deviates only negligibly from a fixed value. Thus, fluctuations of initial moisture content are likely to adversely influence the drying action or to prevent a satisfactory drying to such an extent that the homogenizing or uniformizing treatment cannot cure the defective drying action. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a variable compression ratio apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a variable compression ratio apparatus that changes compression ratio of air-fuel mixture in a combustion chamber according to a driving condition of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, thermal efficiency of combustion engines increases as the compression ratio thereof increases, and if ignition timing is advanced to some degree, thermal efficiency of spark-ignition engines increases. However, if the ignition timing of the spark-ignition engines is advanced at a high compression ratio, abnormal combustion may occur and the engine may be damaged. Thus, the ignition timing cannot be excessively advanced and accordingly engine output may deteriorate.
A variable compression ratio (VCR) apparatus changes the compression ratio of an air-fuel mixture according to a driving condition of the engine. The variable compression ratio apparatus raises the compression ratio of the air-fuel mixture at a low-load condition of the engine in order to improve fuel mileage. On the contrary, the variable compression ratio apparatus lowers the compression ratio of the air-fuel mixture at a high-load condition of the engine in order to prevent occurrence of knocking and improve engine output.
A conventional variable compression ratio apparatus includes a connecting rod connected to a piston and receiving combustion force of the air-fuel mixture, a pin link receiving the combustion force of the air-fuel mixture from the connecting rod and rotating a crankshaft, and control means changing a rotation trace of the pin link according to the driving condition of the engine. According to the conventional variable compression ratio apparatus, the compression ratio of the air-fuel mixture changes as the rotation trace of the pin link changes.
According to a conventional variable compression ratio apparatus, the control means are disposed vertically under the crankshaft or are disposed horizontally next to the crankshaft. Therefore, volume of the crank case may increase.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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A laminator is a kind of common office machines for laminating two films and an object, such as a photo or a business card, disposed between the two films. After the two films and the object disposed between the two films pass through a roller set inside the laminator, the object is sealed between the two films, so as to reduce the probability of the object being damaged and thus increase the storage life of the object. It should be noted that the films provided by different suppliers may have various thicknesses, and the thicker films need more heat energy for laminating during a heat laminating process. Therefore, with the film thicknesses increasing, the laminator needs to reduce a rotational speed of the roller set for increasing a time of the films receiving the heat energy, or increase a heating temperature of the roller set, and thus the films are capable of receiving more heat energy at the same time. In order to apply to the films with various thicknesses, a laminator with a rotational speed adjusting function or a heating temperature adjusting function becomes commercially available.
For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 7,556,077 discloses a laminator with a rotational speed adjusting function. Referring to FIG. 1A to FIG. 1C together, wherein FIG. 1A illustrates a side view of the laminator with changeable rotation speed of the U.S. Pat. No. 7,556,077 at a first rotational speed status, FIG. 1B illustrates a side view of the laminator with changeable rotation speed of the U.S. Pat. No. 7,556,077 at a second rotational speed status, and FIG. 1C illustrates a side view of the laminator with changeable rotation speed of the U.S. Pat. No. 7,556,077 at a third rotational speed status.
The laminator 1 comprises a driving device 11, a driving gear wheel set 12, a transmission gear set 13, a first roller 14, a second roller 15 and an adjusting device 16. Herein, the driving gear wheel set 12 comprises a first driving gear wheel 12a, a second driving gear wheel 12b, a third driving gear wheel 12c and a first shaft 12d. In addition, the transmission gear set 13 comprises a first transmission gear wheel 13a, a second transmission gear wheel 13b, a third transmission gear wheel 13c and a second shaft 13d. Furthermore, the first roller 14 comprises a first gear wheel 14a. Moreover, the second roller 15 comprises a second gear wheel 15a. Besides, the adjusting device 16 comprises a frame 16a and an adjusting rod 16b.
Herein, the first shaft 12d connects with the driving device 11. Moreover, the first driving gear wheel 12a, the second driving gear wheel 12b and the third driving gear wheel 12c pass through the first shaft 12d respectively, wherein a diameter of the third driving gear wheel 12c is larger than a diameter of the first driving gear wheel 12a, and a diameter of the first driving gear wheel 12a is larger than a diameter of the second driving gear wheel 12b. Furthermore, the second shaft 13d is disposed over the first shaft 12d. In addition, the first transmission gear wheel 13a, the second transmission gear wheel 13b and the third transmission gear wheel 13c pass through the second shaft 13d respectively, wherein a diameter of the second transmission gear wheel 13b is larger than a diameter of the first transmission gear wheel 13a, and a diameter of the first transmission gear wheel 13a is larger than a diameter of the third transmission gear wheel 13c. Before the first transmission gear wheel 13a moves along the second shaft 13d to engage with the second transmission gear wheel 13b or the third transmission gear wheel 13c, neither the second transmission gear wheel 13b nor the third transmission gear wheel 13c is able to drive the second shaft 13d to rotate. Moreover, the first gear wheel 14a is disposed at an end of the first roller 14, and the end of the first roller 14 connects with the second shaft 13d. In addition, the second roller 15 is disposed over the first roller 14, the second gear wheel 15a is disposed at an end of the second roller 15, and the second gear wheel 15a engages with the first gear wheel 14a. Furthermore, the frame 16a surrounds the first transmission gear wheel 13a, while the adjusting rod 16b is located over the frame 16a for moving the frame 16a.
An operating process of the laminator 1 is illustrated herein after. Referring to FIG. 1A first, before a user moves the adjusting rod 16b, the first transmission gear wheel 13a engages with the first driving gear wheel 12a. When the driving device 11 is activated, it brings the first shaft 12d and the first driving gear wheel 12a to rotate and thereby brings the first transmission gear wheel 13a and the second shaft 13d to rotate. Therefore, the first roller 14 and the first gear wheel 14a rotate with the second shaft 13d simultaneously. At the moment, the first gear wheel 14a rotates and thereby brings the second gear wheel 15a engaging with the first gear wheel 14a to rotate, and thus the first roller 14 and the second roller 15 simultaneously rotate with a first rotational speed. After that, the user is able to put two films with a first thickness and an object disposed between the two films inside the laminator, and thus the two films with the first thickness and the object disposed between the two films pass through the first roller 14 and the second roller 15, so as to seal the object between the two films with the first thickness.
When the user desires to seal the object between two films with a second thickness, and the second thickness is larger than the first thickness, the first roller 14 and the second roller 15 need to rotate with a lower rotational speed. Therefore, the user must to move the adjusting rod 16b leftward, and thus the frame 16a pushes the first transmission gear wheel 13a leftward to engage with the second transmission gear wheel 13b. At the time, the second transmission gear wheel 13b is unable to rotate relative to the second shaft 13d. After the driving device 11 is activated, the driving device 11 brings the first shaft 12d and the second driving gear wheel 12b to rotate and thereby brings the second transmission gear wheel 13b and the second shaft 13d to rotate, and thus the first roller 14 and the second roller 15 simultaneously rotate with a second rotational speed.
Since a diameter of the second driving gear wheel 12b is smaller than a diameter of the second transmission gear wheel 13b, and a diameter of the second driving gear wheel 12b is smaller than a diameter of the first driving gear wheel 12a, the required number of circles that the second driving gear wheel 12b rotates is more than that the first driving gear wheel 12a rotates in order to drive the second transmission gear wheel 13b to rotate one circle, and thus the second rotational speed is lower than the first rotational speed.
In contrast, when the user desires to seal the object between two films with a third thickness, and the third thickness is smaller than the first thickness, the first roller 14 and the second roller 15 need to rotate with a higher rotational speed. Thus, the user must to move the adjusting rod 16b rightward, and thus the frame 16a pushes the first transmission gear wheel 13a rightward to engage with the third transmission gear wheel 13c. At the time, the third transmission gear wheel 13c is unable to rotate relative to the second shaft 13d. After the driving device 11 is activated, the driving device 11 brings the first shaft 12d and the third driving gear wheel 12c to rotate and thereby brings the third transmission gear wheel 13c and the second shaft 13d to rotate, and thus the first roller 14 and the second roller 15 simultaneously rotate with a third rotational speed.
Since a diameter of the third driving gear wheel 12c is larger than a diameter of the third transmission gear wheel 13c, and a diameter of the third driving gear wheel 12c is larger than a diameter of the first driving gear wheel 12a, the number of circles that the third transmission gear wheel 13c being driven to rotate when the third driving gear wheel 12c rotates one circle is more than when the first driving gear wheel 12a rotates one circle, and thus the third rotational speed is higher than the first rotational speed.
According to a summary of the above mentioned descriptions, it is understood that the conventional laminator 1 provides a combination of the driving device 11, the driving gear wheel set 12, the transmission gear set 13, the first gear wheel 14a, the second gear wheel 15a and the adjusting device 16, and thus the first roller 14 and the second roller 15 can rotate with three different rotational speeds according to different film thicknesses.
It should be noted that the laminator disclosed in the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 7,556,077 has following disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that the user need to push the adjusting rod leftward or rightward for moving the first transmission gear wheel when the rotational speed of the first roller and the second roller is required to be adjusted. However, in a long term use, the adjusting rod is probably damaged or even fractured by the external force, and thus the conventional laminator is unable to adjust the rotational speed any more.
Besides, the laminator disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,556,077 does not have a function of adjusting heating temperature. Hence, no matter how the film thickness is, the heating device needs to heat the first roller and the second roller to the same heating temperature. Therefore, the laminator is in an environment with a high temperature for a long period during being operated, and thus a probability of melt damage is increased. In addition, when the thickness of the film required to be laminated is thinner, the user needs to wait for the same heating time as laminating a thicker film, and thus it is quite inconvenient to the user.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved laminator for overcoming the disadvantages of the conventional laminator. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Chrysanthemum plant, botanically known as Chrysanthemum×morifolium and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Yoguide’.
The new Chrysanthemum is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Salinas, Calif. and Alva, Fla. The objective of the breeding program is to create new cut Chrysanthemum cultivars having inflorescences with desirable colors and good inflorescence form and substance.
The new Chrysanthemum originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in May, 1995, in Salinas, Calif., of the Chrysanthemum×morifolium cultivar Alma, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Chrysanthemum×morifolium identified as code number 1849, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent.
The cultivar Yoguide was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Alva, Fla., in April, 1996. The selection of this plant was based on its desirable inflorescence color and good inflorescence form and substance.
Asexual reproduction of the new Chrysanthemum by terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Alva, Fla. since June, 1996, has shown that the unique features of this new Chrysanthemum are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a seal ring for vehicles used for a vehicle transmission and so on.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various seal rings for sealing an annular gap between a rotating shaft and a housing have been proposed. For example, International Publication No. 2003/078873 (WO2003/078873A) describes a seal ring of substantially rectangular cross-sectional shape adapted to enhance sealing performance at a single incision in the circumferential direction. The seal ring described in WO2003/078873A is accommodated in an annular groove formed in the outer peripheral surface of the rotating shaft and a side surface of the seal ring is pushed against a side surface of the annular groove by the pressure of oil in a sealed space, thereby preventing leaking of oil.
However, when no oil pressure acts on the sealed space, such as when an associated engine stops, any axial direction movement of the rotating shaft relative to the housing allows a gap to form between the side surface of the housing and the side surface of the seal ring, so that oil is apt to flow out of the sealed space through the gap. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Prior to the conception and development of the present invention users of motorized welding-cutting tools, such as the Gullco KAT®, had to manually lift the welding apparatus onto a work table or other elevated areas. Bug-O® offers a similar apparatus. Typically, these motorized burner/welders operate on about an 8-foot long straight rigid track, and the combined apparatus is sometimes called a track burner. Carriages, dollies, and other lifting and transporting devices are well known in industry for moving and otherwise facilitating the use of heavy power tools, but not for such track cutting units.
Hardin et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,930, McCoy et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,823, Hodges in U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,031, and Hewitt in U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,625 all teach variations of a size adjustable wheeled cart for moving and supporting a load such as a machine. These all have four wheels fixedly connected to a frame. Others, such as Larouche in U.S. Pat. No. 6,634,658 and Wareham in U.S. Design Pat. No. D535,454 both teach wheeled moving systems with separated wheel units. However, these two merely offer flanges that support cargo for the purpose of manually moving the cargo. They would not engage and work with the track beam of a cutting/welding apparatus. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus and vehicle control method which performs driving assist control on an entrance ramp or exit ramp connected to a main road where the safe cruising speed limit is different than it is on the entrance ramp or the exit ramp.
2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-10-141491, for example, includes road information storing means for storing road information, host vehicle position detecting means for detecting the position of the host vehicle on the road, vehicle speed detecting means for detecting the vehicle speed, connecting road detecting means for detecting a connecting road that connects with a road having different attributes from the stored road information, control zone setting means for setting a control zone based on the host vehicle position and the detected connecting road, automatic transmission for select gear ratio automatically, gear ratio regulating means for determining a range into which the gear ratio can be shifted based on the vehicle speed in the control zone, driving operation detecting means for detecting a driving operation by a driver, and gear ratio setting means for setting the gear ratio selected by an automatic transmission to within the determined range based on a predetermined driving operation.
In the foregoing technology, the connecting road is detected from the stored road information and the control zone is set based on the detected host vehicle position and connecting road. As a result, depending on the accuracy of the road information and the detection accuracy of the host vehicle position, the positional relationship between the host vehicle position and the starting and ending points of the connecting road may not be able to be accurately detected. As a result, an accurate control zone may not be able to be set. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field
This invention relates to remote control facilities for adjustable beds.
2. Background
Adjustable beds may contain at least one section of which a user may control the position. The user may typically adjust the bed by using a control to move the adjustable section in its direction of movement. Additionally, the adjustable bed may include various types of mattresses and vibration of sections. Often, users that have adjustable beds because a medical issue may require certain positions to aid recovery, positioning to relieve discomfort as a result of pain, or the like. These users may, because of these issues, spend significant amount of time in the adjustable beds, some users may be confined to bed.
Many existing adjustable beds may provide the basic requirements of moving bed sections to positions that are required by a user, but do not account for controlling other devices that may be beneficial to the user and provide for a level of independence to the user.
A typical adjustable bed may consist of a wood decking for each of the sections of the bed connected together with hinges to allow the various positions between the sections. There are actuators connected between the bed frame and the wood decking for moving the adjustable sections into user-desired positions. The adjustable bed may have a “wall hugging” feature that maintains a consistent distance between the mattress and the wall as the bed is adjusted. Some adjustable beds may use wooden or plastic slats to support the mattress instead of a solid wood platform.
The adjustable bed may have at least one actuator to position the adjustable bed sections. In some cases there is one actuator to position more than one, such as positioning both the thigh and foot sections with one actuator. There may also be more than one actuator for each adjustable section.
Hospitals have used adjustable beds for many years to provide comfortable and medical required positions.
A need exists for an adjustable bed that provides for the adjustable function required in an adjustable bed and provides for control of additional devices, a plurality of different bed section actuator types and movable memory types that may provide independent activities to the user of the adjustable bed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a vehicle behavior control system, such as a yaw rate control system, for controlling behavior of a vehicle, and more specifically to a vehicle behavior control system devised to provide adequate control performance just after a start of the system.
A Japanese Patent Provisional (Kokai) Publication No. 6(1994)-219300 discloses a conventional vehicle behavior control system for controlling the vehicle behavior by varying a rear wheel steer angle with an electric motor. From turn-on of the ignition switch until detection of the neutral steering position, this control system is unable to determine the steering wheel angle relative to the neutral position, and the behavior control based on the steering angle remains inaccurate, incurring the possibility of unwanted rear wheel steering operation. Therefore, the behavior control by the rear wheel steering is not initiated until the vehicle is brought to a neutral state in which the neutral position of the steering wheel can be detected, the rear wheel steering position is around the neutral position, and the target value of the rear wheel steer angle is in a neutral region.
A Japanese Patent Provisional (Kokai) Publication No. 5(1993)-310141 shows another behavior control system. When the neutral signal representing the neutral position of the steering wheel is not available, this system controls the rear wheel steer angle by determining a target rear wheel steer angle from a vehicle speed and a sensed yaw rate without using the steering wheel angle as input information.
When the vehicle is started from the resting state with the steering wheel turned away from the neutral position, the former control system must defer a start of the behavior control until the steering wheel is returned to the neutral position. In the latter system using the sensed yaw rate to determine the target motion variable, calculation of the target behavior causes a response delay, and tends to incur hunting in the behavior control.
Some problems can be solved by a high accuracy absolute steering angle sensor. However, such a sensor is costly. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Hand puppets featuring a chamber for receiving a human hand and appendages that can be manipulated by the inserted hand and/or its fingers have delighted children of all ages for many decades. Frequently, such puppets are in the form of animals and the chamber is situated to permit the fingers of a hand to work such parts as the mouth, arms, legs, wings and/or head, whereupon the puppet can be made to appear to come to life.
What has not been achieved with such puppets, prior to the present invention, is a way of using the inserted hand to give life-like movement to long narrow appendages, such as a neck (swans, flamingos, giraffes, etc.), an elephant's trunk, or the like, when the passages are too small to allow the insertion of a hand and too long to be worked by a finger. | {
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Several types of memory devices, such as Flash memories, use arrays of analog memory cells for storing data. Each analog memory cell stores a quantity of an analog value, such as an electrical charge or voltage, which represents the information stored in the cell. In Flash memories, for example, each analog memory cell holds a certain amount of electrical charge. The range of possible analog values is typically divided into regions, each region corresponding to one or more data bit values. Data is written to an analog memory cell by writing a nominal analog value that corresponds to the desired bit or bits.
Some memory devices, commonly referred to as Single-Level Cell (SLC) devices, store a single bit of information in each memory cell, i.e., each memory cell can be programmed to assume two possible memory states. Higher-density devices, often referred to as Multi-Level Cell (MLC) devices, store two or more bits per memory cell, i.e., can be programmed to assume more than two possible memory states.
Flash memory devices are described, for example, by Bez et al., in “Introduction to Flash Memory,” Proceedings of the IEEE, volume 91, number 4, April, 2003, pages 489-502, which is incorporated herein by reference. Multi-level Flash cells and devices are described, for example, by Eitan et al., in “Multilevel Flash Cells and their Trade-Offs,” Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), New York, N.Y., pages 169-172, which is incorporated herein by reference. The paper compares several kinds of multilevel Flash cells, such as common ground, DINOR, AND, NOR and NAND cells.
Eitan et al., describe another type of analog memory cell called Nitride Read Only Memory (NROM) in “Can NROM, a 2-bit, Trapping Storage NVM Cell, Give a Real Challenge to Floating Gate Cells?” Proceedings of the 1999 International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials (SSDM), Tokyo, Japan, Sep. 21-24, 1999, pages 522-524, which is incorporated herein by reference. NROM cells are also described by Maayan et al., in “A 512 Mb NROM Flash Data Storage Memory with 8 MB/s Data Rate”, Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2002), San Francisco, Calif., Feb. 3-7, 2002, pages 100-101, which is incorporated herein by reference. Other exemplary types of analog memory cells are Floating Gate (FG) cells, Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) cells, magnetic RAM (MRAM) cells, Charge Trap Flash (CTF) and phase change RAM (PRAM, also referred to as Phase Change Memory—PCM) cells. FRAM, MRAM and PRAM cells are described, for example, by Kim and Koh in “Future Memory Technology including Emerging New Memories,” Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Microelectronics (MIEL), Nis, Serbia and Montenegro, May 16-19, 2004, volume 1, pages 377-384, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Analog memory cells are often programmed using Program and Verify (P&V) processes. In a typical P&V process, a cell is programmed by applying a sequence of voltage pulses, whose voltage level increases from pulse to pulse. The programmed voltage level is read (“verified”) after each pulse, and the iterations continue until the desired level is reached.
Various methods for increasing the speed of memory device programming are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,177,200, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method that initially programs a Flash memory device in a quick manner that produces relatively broad threshold voltage distributions, which would render the flash memory unreliable in the long term if left uncorrected. Then, while the host of the memory device is idle, the memory device shifts and tightens up its threshold voltage distributions sufficiently to obtain long-term reliability.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2002/0118574, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a programming method, which programs each cell to its target state using a data-dependent programming voltage. In some embodiments, the programming operation is performed in multiphase wherein each successive phase is executed with a finer programming resolution, such as by employing a programming voltage with a gentler staircase waveform.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,151, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes an adaptive programming method for Flash memory analog storage. The voltage of a programming pulse is adjusted based on the result of the previous pulse. The expected change in the programmed value is compared to the measured change, and the difference used to improve the model of that cell after each programming pulse.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2006/0285396, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a programming process, which increases the programming voltage of successive programming cycles in relation to the percentage of the data bits that failed programming verification during the previous programming cycle and were not correctly programmed into the memory array. | {
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The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for automatically controlling a semiconductor manufacturing process in a semiconductor factory automation system, capable of improving a manufacturing efficiency and yield.
A semiconductor device is generally manufactured on a semiconductor wafer through various unit processes, e.g., a photolithography process, an etching process, a thin film process and a diffusion process. A plurality of process equipments are used in each unit process. Generally, each unit process is typically performed based on a predetermined number of semiconductor wafers, referred to as a lot.
In manufacturing the semiconductor device, however, an abnormally manufactured lot may occur which has a process result data exceeding or falling below a predetermined level required in a lot specification. The abnormally manufactured lot may occur due to a problem of a lot itself, a problem of equipment conditions, a problem of manufacturing steps and the like.
A method for controlling a semiconductor manufacturing process by failure analysis feedback is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,553 issued to Yi, filed on Oct. 5, 1996. The method includes the steps of: a) the establishing a monitoring database with abnormal process condition data, the abnormal process condition data being obtained by a correlation between a yield for each manufactured lot and corresponding process conditions for semiconductor equipment when the yield is lowered or semiconductor equipment malfunctions have occurred; b) establishing an equipment data base by obtaining real-time process conditions for on-line semiconductor equipment; c) comparing the real-time process conditions for on-line semiconductor equipment with the abnormal process conditions of the monitoring data base; and d) stopping the operation of the on-line semiconductor equipment when differences between the real-time and abnormal process conditions fall below a predetermined level.
At this time, Yi""s patent discloses that the causes of the abnormally manufactured lot is the equipment or the process condition malfunction. For solving the problem, the operation of the corresponding equipment is stopped. However, the abnormally manufactured lot may mainly occur due to the processed lot itself.
As can be seen above, however, even when a lot is abnormally manufactured in the middle of the lot process, a following process is continued without considering the abnormally manufactured lot until a completion of the entire lot process. Therefore, a manufacturing efficiency is reduced.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for automatically controlling a semiconductor manufacturing process in a semiconductor factory automation system, capable of improving an efficiency in manufacturing semiconductor devices.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for automatically controlling a semiconductor manufacturing process in a semiconductor factory automation system, comprising: a common communication line; a plurality of equipments, coupled to the common communication line, each processing a lot; a plurality of equipment control means, each converting command message from an exterior into command to control each equipment; a plurality of test equipments, each testing the processed lot to generate a lot process data; a plurality of test equipment control means, each receiving the lot process data to transfer the lot process data; a storage means for storing the lot process data and a lot specification data, respectively; a comparison means, coupled to the common communication line, for comparing the lot process data with the lot specification data to determine whether a difference between the processed lot data and the lot specification data exceeds or falls below a predetermined range, wherein if the difference exceeds or falls below the predetermined range, the comparison means generates a first message representing an occurrence of an abnormally manufactured lot; and a transaction generation means, coupled to the common communication cable, for generating a first transaction in response to the first message, the first transaction representing that the lot is abnormally manufactured, wherein a next lot process to the abnormally manufactured lot is prevented.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for automatically controlling a semiconductor manufacturing process in a semiconductor factory, comprising the steps of: a) receiving a lot specification data and a lot process data; b) comparing the lot specification data with the lot process data to determine whether a difference between the lot specification data and the lot process data is within a predetermined range; c) if a difference between the lot specification data and the lot process data exceeds or falls below a predetermined range, generating a first message representing an occurrence of an abnormally manufactured lot; d) generating a first transaction in response to the first message, the first transaction representing that the lot is abnormally manufactured; and e) storing the first transaction into a storage means, wherein a next lot process to the abnormally manufactured lot is prevented. | {
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Embodiments of the invention relate generally to diagnostic imaging and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus of computed tomography (CT) imaging capable of having high temporal resolution, reduced image artifacts due to missing data and longitudinal truncation, and reduced radiation dose.
Typically, in computed tomography (CT) imaging systems, an x-ray source emits a fan-shaped beam toward a subject or object, such as a patient or a piece of luggage. Hereinafter, the terms “subject” and “object” shall include anything capable of being imaged. The beam, after being attenuated by the subject, impinges upon an array of radiation detectors. The intensity of the attenuated beam radiation received at the detector array is typically dependent upon the attenuation of the x-ray beam by the subject. Each detector element of the detector array produces a separate electrical signal indicative of the attenuated beam received by each detector element. The electrical signals are transmitted to a data processing system for analysis which ultimately produces an image.
Generally, the x-ray source and the detector array are rotated about the gantry within an imaging plane and around the subject. X-ray sources typically include x-ray tubes, which emit the x-ray beam at a focal point. X-ray detectors typically include a collimator for collimating x-ray beams received at the detector, a scintillator for converting x-rays to light energy adjacent the collimator, and photodiodes for receiving the light energy from the adjacent scintillator and producing electrical signals therefrom.
Typically, each scintillator of a scintillator array converts x-rays to light energy. Each scintillator discharges light energy to a photodiode adjacent thereto. Each photodiode detects the light energy and generates a corresponding electrical signal. The outputs of the photodiodes are then transmitted to the data processing system for image reconstruction.
One of the key modern applications for CT imaging is its use in cardiac imaging. However, cardiac imaging techniques such as coronary CT angiography pose unique technical challenges, one of which is the need for high temporal resolution to avoid motion artifacts in the image. One way to achieve such high temporal resolution is to use wide-coverage multi-detector-row CT (MDCT) systems to scan the entire heart region within one gantry rotation. Here, the wide coverage refers to the x-ray beam coverage in the longitudinal direction, which can cover the majority of the human's heart within one axial rotation. Typically, only data from roughly half of the scan is utilized for image reconstruction to maintain the temporal resolution. Unfortunately, however, such cardiac half-scan imaging methods face severe missing data and longitudinal truncation issues when the large x-ray cone beam angle is large. The cone beam artifacts caused by this cardiac half-scan method are easily observed in the reconstructed images and greatly deteriorate the image quality.
In order to mitigate the missing data and longitudinal truncation problems associated with the cardiac half-scan technique described above, the use of wide-coverage, full-scan cardiac imaging (albeit using a half-scan reconstruction method) is one solution. This wide-coverage, full-scan cardiac imaging offers a way to maintain temporal resolution while alleviating the missing data and longitudinal truncation problems associated with half-scan imaging. However, full-scan cardiac imaging imposes a larger radiation dose on the subject as compared to half-scan cardiac imaging. In fact, the radiation dose in full-scan cardiac imaging represents a 50 percent (or greater) increase in radiation dose over half-scan cardiac imaging. With every effort made to minimize the radiation dose and scan time to which the patient is subjected, conventional full-scan cardiac imaging is less than ideal.
Therefore, it would be desirable to design an apparatus and method for CT imaging capable of having high temporal resolution, reduced image artifacts due to missing data and longitudinal truncation, and reduced radiation dose. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a nonmagnetic one-component toner used to develop an electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of a photosensitive medium for an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a laser printer or a facsimile, forms an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive medium, such as a photosensitive drum or a photosensitive belt, develops the electrostatic latent image with a developing agent having a predetermined color, and transfers the developed electrostatic latent image onto a sheet of paper, thus obtaining a desired image.
There are two types of electrophotographic image forming apparatuses, such as a dry-type electrophotographic image forming apparatus and a wet-type electrophotographic image forming apparatus, depending on a developing agent. In the dry-type electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a powder state of toner is used as the developing agent, and in the wet-type electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a liquid developing agent in which a toner that is mixed with a liquid carrier is used as the developing agent.
Dry-type developing methods using the powder state of toner include a two-component developing method using a two-component toner in which carrier particles used to transport toner particles are contained, and a one-component developing method using only toner without a carrier. The one-component developing method includes a magnetic one-component developing method and a nonmagnetic one-component developing method. In the magnetic one-component developing method, a developing operation is performed using a toner for the magnetic one-component development. In the nonmagnetic one-component developing method, a toner layer is formed on a developing roller using a toner for the nonmagnetic one-component development and is developed either in contact with not in contact with a photosensitive medium.
In the contact-type nonmagnetic one-component developing method, the price is very competitive. However, since it is difficult to attain dot reproducibility, line reproducibility, and high-resolution implementation, it is not easy to obtain a high quality image. Meanwhile, in the noncontact-type nonmagnetic one-component developing method, the structure of a developing unit is simple, and thus may be minimized. In addition, since attaining color reproducibility, edge reproducibility, high tone gradation, and high-resolution implementation is facilitated, a high quality image may be obtained.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a noncontact-type developing unit for a conventional electrophotographic image forming apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive medium 10, a charging roller 12, a laser scanning unit (LSU) 14, a developing roller 16, a toner supplying roller 18, and a toner layer regulation unit 20.
The photosensitive medium 10 has a structure in which a photosensitive film formed of a photosensitive material is formed on the circumference of a metallic drum. The surface of the photosensitive medium 10 is charged by the charging roller 12 to a predetermined potential, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the charged photosensitive medium 10 by light irradiated from the LSU 14.
Toner 30 stored in a toner storage space 32 is supplied by the toner supplying roller 18 to the surface of the developing roller 16. The toner 30 supplied to the surface of the developing roller 16 becomes a thin film having a uniform thickness using the toner layer regulation unit 20. Simultaneously, the toner 30 is rubbed by the developing roller 16 and the toner layer regulation unit 20 and is charged with a predetermined charge. In this case, M/A (mg/cm2) and Q/M (μC/g) of the toner 30 are regulated by the toner layer regulation unit 20. Here, M/A (mg/cm2) is the weight of the toner 30 per unit area measured on the developing roller 16 after going through the toner layer regulation unit 20, and Q/M (μC/g) is an amount of charge of the toner 30 per unit weight measured on the developing roller 16 after going through the toner layer regulation unit 20.
As described above, the toner 30, which is charged with a predetermined charge and in which M/A (mg/cm2) and Q/M (μC/g) are regulated, moves to the surface of the photosensitive medium 10 using the developing roller 16 that is spaced a predetermined gap apart from the photosensitive medium 10 and rotated. In this case, the movement of the toner 30 is performed by a potential difference between the developing roller 16 and the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photosensitive medium 10. The toner 30 that moves to the surface of the photosensitive medium 10 is attached to the electrostatic latent image. As such, the electrostatic latent image is developed as a desired image.
The image developed on the surface of the photosensitive medium 10 is transferred onto a sheet of paper by a transfer roller (not shown), and then is fused on the sheet of paper by a fusing unit (not shown). Toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive medium 10 after the image is transferred onto the sheet of paper is removed by a cleaning blade 22 and is stored in a waste toner storage space 34.
Nonmagnetic one-component polymerization and pulverization-type toner used in the above-described conventional noncontact-type developing method includes toner particles in which a coloring agent, a charging control agent (CCA), and a release agent are added uniformly into a binder resin to improve chromaticity, charging characteristics, and fusing properties, and a variety of types of external additives added to toner particles to provide the fluidity, the charging stability, and the cleaning properties of toner.
In the noncontact-type nonmagnetic one-component developing method, to maintain stable developing properties, prevent contamination (fog or background) on a nonimage portion, and prevent the scattering of toner, the charging amount of toner should be maintained uniformly, and the distribution of the charging amount of the toner should be maintained uniformly both at an initial developing stage and after a long-term image printing operation. In this way, to provide uniform charging properties to toner, toner should be formed to a small thickness on a developing roller. However, when a toner layer is formed to a thin film on the developing roller, the toner may easily deteriorate due to a large amount of stress, or may be easily fused on a toner regulation unit. In addition, when the toner layer is formed to a small thickness on the developing roller, a developing efficiency may be rapidly lowered due to an increase in a toner charging amount, and the concentration of an image may be thereby lowered. When the toner charging amount is reduced to improve the developing efficiency, an increase in contamination (fog) on the nonimage portion and contamination caused by the scattering of toner occur.
Accordingly, in the noncontact-type nonmagnetic one-component developing method, the charging amount of the toner should be maintained uniformly, and the distribution of the charging amount of the toner should be maintained uniformly so that the occurrence of contamination (fog) on the nonimage portion is prevented, and excellent developing properties are maintained even after the long-term image printing operation. This has a close relation to the type and composition of an external additive added to toner particles.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-122336 discloses a two-component negative charge type toner in which two or more external additives which are at least positive charge type inorganic particles of 80-800 nm number average diameter and negative charge type inorganic particles of 5-50 nm number average diameter, where the weight ratio of the positive charge type inorganic particles to the negative charge type inorganic particles is in a range of 2.5:7.5 to 7.5:2.5, are mixed with a carrier. In addition, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-061682 discloses a nonmagnetic one-component toner composition in which an external additive including hydrophobic silica having a specific surface area of 20-80 m2/g, hydrophobic silica having a specific surface area of 130-230 m2/g, and titanium oxide having an average diameter of 100-500 nm is added to the surface of toner particles.
In the related art, to grant fluidity to the toner, prevent an increase in a toner charging amount, and remove a low electrical resistance material, such as remaining toner, fat or ozone adducts attached to a photosensitive medium and a toner layer regulation unit, as described above, silica particles and two or three types of inorganic fine particles are used as external additives. The inorganic fine particles are effective as an abrasive to provide a cleaning effect, an initial toner charging property, and fluidity. However, after long-term use, the improvement in charging stability and in the transfer property of the toner are not sufficient. In addition, even though the size of the inorganic particles is very small, the inorganic particles easily cohere to one another. Thus, it is easy to form a cohesive substance having the size of the coarse particles of several tens of μm, and it is difficult to attach the cohesive substance onto the surface of the toner particles electrostatically. Thus, a larger energy is needed to attach the inorganic particles that are joined together onto the surface of the toner particles. In this case, the inorganic particles are easily buried under the surface of the toner particles. Meanwhile, when the inorganic particles do not stick sufficiently to the surface of the toner particles, the inorganic particles separate from the toner particles and are accumulated in the toner stored in a developing unit, and due to white coarse particles formed of inorganic fine particles that are joined together, a white point appears on a printed image after a developing or fusing operation. In particular, when only hydrophobic titanium dioxide TiO2 ultrafine particles are added as an external additive together with silica, image defects, such as offset and line burst, occur, and the characteristic of prevention of contamination (fog) on the nonimage portion is lowered after a long-term operation.
Meanwhile, positive charge type polymer beads may be added so that the charging stability of the toner and the uniform distribution of a toner charging amount are maintained for a long time. However, since the polymer beads have the size of coarse particles, unlike silica particles having a size equal to or less than 50 nm, the polymer beads easily separate from the toner particles. In particular, the polymer beads attached to the photosensitive medium are not easily cleaned due to a spherical shape. As such, the polymer beads remaining on the photosensitive medium are attached and accumulated to a charging roller, causing contamination of the charging roller and image contamination. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to toner used for copiers, laser beam printers (LBP), plain paper facsimiles, color electrophotography (PPC), color LBPs or color facsimiles and a method for producing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, electrophotographic apparatuses, which commonly were used in offices, have been used increasingly for personal purposes, so that technologies to achieve compact or maintenance-free electrophotographic apparatuses are required. To meet this end, it is necessary to improve maintenance properties such as recycling of waste toner and reducing emission of ozone.
It is well-know that toner for electrostatic charge development used in an electrophotographic method generally includes a resin component, a coloring component including a pigment or a dye, a plasticizer, a charge controlling agent, and an additive, if necessary, such as a releasing agent. As the resin component, natural or synthetic resin is used alone or in combination. An additive is pre-mixed in an appropriate ratio and the resulting mixture is heated and kneaded by thermal melting, and pulverized by an air stream collision board system, and fine powder is classified to complete a toner base. Thereafter, an external additive is added to the toner base externally so as to complete toner. The single component development typically uses toner only, and in the two component development system, the developer material includes toner and carrier comprising magnetic granules.
For color copiers, a photoconductive member is charged by corona discharge with a charger, and then is exposed to optical signals for latent images for each color to form electrostatic latent images. The latent images are developed by a first color toner, e.g., yellow toner, to form visible images. Thereafter, a transfer material charged with a polarity reverse to that of the charged yellow toner is contacted with the photoconductive member so that the yellow toner images formed on the photoconductive member are transferred thereto. The photoconductive member is cleaned by removing residual toner that has not been transferred, and the development and transfer of the first color toner ends with discharging the photoconductive member. Thereafter, the same operations as those for the yellow toner are repeated for toners for other colors such as magenta and cyan. The toner images of the colors are superimposed on the transfer material so as to form color images. Then, the superimposed toner images are transferred to a transfer paper charged with a polarity reverse to that of the toner, and fixed. Thus, the copying operation ends.
As a method for forming color images, a transfer drum method and a successive superimposition method generally are used. In the transfer drum method, toner images for each color are formed on a single photoconductive member one after another, and a transfer material wound on a transfer drum is opposed to the photoconductive member repeatedly by rotating the drum so that the toner images for each color formed sequentially are superimposed and transferred to the transfer material. In the successive superimposition method, a plurality of image formation sections are provided, and toner images for each color are transferred to a transfer material conveyed by a belt sequentially while moving the image formation sections so that the color images are superimposed. One example using the transfer drum method is a color image formation apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Tokkai-Hei) No. 1-252982. One example of a color image formation apparatus using the successive transfer method is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Tokkai-Hei) No. 1-250970. In this conventional example, four image formation stations, each of which includes a photoconductive member, optical scanning means or the like, are arranged to form images for four colors. A paper conveyed by a belt passes below each photoconductive member so that color toner images are superimposed. As another method for forming color images by superimposing toner images for different colors on a transfer material, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Tokkai-Hei) No. 2-212867 discloses the following method. Toner images for each color formed on a photoconductive member sequentially are superimposed on an intermediate transfer material, and then the toner images on the intermediate transfer material are transferred to a transfer paper collectively.
Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Tokkai-Sho) No. 59-148067 discloses toner using as a resin an unsaturated ethylene based polymer including a low molecular weight and a high molecular weight portion, where the peak value of the low molecular weight and Mw/Mn are defined, and containing polyolefin having a specific softening point. This disclosure is intended to provide fixability and an anti-offset property. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Tokkai-Sho) No. 56-158340 discloses toner comprising a resin including a specific low molecular weight polymer component and a specific high molecular weight polymer component as the main component. The low molecular weight component is used to provide fixability, and the high molecular weight component is used to provide the anti-offset property. Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Tokkai-Sho) No. 58-223155 discloses toner having containing a resin including an unsaturated ethylene based polymer having the local maximum in molecular weight ranges of 1000 to 10000 and 200000 to 1000000 and Mw/Mn of 10 to 40, and a polyolefin having a specific softening point. The low molecular weight component is used to provide fixability, and the high molecular weight component and the polyolefin are used to provide the anti-offset property.
However, when the melt viscosity of a binding resin is reduced or a low molecular weight resin is used in order to raise the fixing strength with high-speed machines, so-called "spent", which is caused by toner adhering to carriers, may occur during long period use in the case of two component development. In the case of the single component development, the toner is likely to adhere to a doctor blade or a development sleeve, so that the stress resistance property of the toner deteriorates. When the toner is used in a low-speed machine, offset caused by toner adhering to a heat roller may occur at the time of fixing. Further, blocking caused by toner particles fused with each other may occur during long period storage.
On the other hand, the successive transfer system includes image formation positions corresponding in number to the number of colors, and a paper is allowed to pass by the image formation positions one after another. Therefore, a transfer drum is not required. However, this system requires a plurality of latent image formation means, such as laser optical systems, for forming latent images on the photoconductive member corresponding in number to the number of colors. This complicates the structure and makes the apparatus expensive. Moreover, since there are a plurality of image formation positions, positions of portions where images for different colors are formed may not match each other, the rotation axis may be off center, or the parallelism of the portions may not match. These factors prevent the colors from being placed in intended positions and make it difficult to obtain high quality images stably. In particular, it is necessary to register the latent images for different colors precisely by the latent image formation means. As shown in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Tokkai-Hei) No. 1-250970, considerable efforts and complicated configuration for an image exposure system, which is a latent formation means, are required.
Furthermore, in the example of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Tokkai-Hei) No. 2-212867 employing an intermediate transfer material, toner images for all colors are formed on one and the same photoconductive member. Therefore, a plurality of developing devices are required to be provided around the single photoconductive member, and therefore the photoconductive member should be large. Furthermore, the photoconductive member is belt-shaped, which is difficult to handle. Moreover, at the time of replacement of each development device for maintenance, matching adjustment is required, or at the time of replacement of the photoconductive member, position adjustment relative to each development device is required. Thus, the maintenance of the development device for each color and the photoconductive member is difficult.
Furthermore, a process for producing toner includes a pre-blending treatment, a kneading treatment, a pulverization treatment, a classification treatment and an external addition treatment. The classification treatment is intended to classify toner powder so as to obtain a predetermined particle size distribution. In the current system, the toner powder that has been classified out is disposed of, because if the removed toner powder is used to be blended again, fog increases. Especially polypropylene or polyethylene wax, which is added to improve a releasing property, increases fog significantly. The reuse of the toner powder, which is generated in an amount of about 10 to 20 wt %, would result in effective use of resources. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In a color diffusion transfer photographic element using a dye releasing redox compound capable of releasing a diffusible dye (hereinafter referred to as "DRR compound") as a result of a redox reaction with an oxidation product of a developing agent formed by development of silver halide, it is known to add a silver halide developing agent to an alkaline processing composition. Known silver halide developing agents include 3-pyrazolidinones, aminophenols, phenylenediamines and reductones, etc. The best available silver halide developing agents thereof are the 3-pyrazolidinones, from the viewpoint of low degree of stain (low Dmin stain) and high efficiency of reaction between the oxidation product and the dye releasing redox compound. However, an alkaline processing solution containing 3-pyrazolidinones as the silver halide developing agent is disadvantageous in that the performance thereof changes with the passage of time. It is noted in this regard that such processing solution typically is put on sale in the form of an instant photographic film containing the processing solution, and it often takes a fairly long time before photography is conducted by purchasers of the film. The passage of time has an adverse influence upon photographic properties, e.g., the processing solution increases its sensitivity by the passage of time. A silver halide emulsion layer placed near the processing solution is easily influenced by the change of performance of the processing solution when development is carried out. Accordingly, in the case of multicolor diffusion transfer photography, the balance of each color changes over time to cause deterioration of the quality of images. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plating device for a wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
This type of device is adapted to position a wafer in horizontal state and to perform plating by injecting a plating fluid from the lower side onto the lower surface of the water. Conventionally, the wafer is depressed from the upper side by means of a holding means during plating process in order to support the water against the pressurized plating fluid injected from the lower side, to assure contact of the wafer with a cathode electrode and for other purposes (see Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publications Nos. 2-38472 and 2-122067 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,137,867 and 4,170,959 and so forth).
Therefore, in the conventional water plating device, a depression disc connected to a pressure cylinder or a depression means commonly used as a cathode electrode are inherently required. This equipment is positioned above the wafer during the plating process to occupy the upper side space. Since such plating devices are often employed in combination with a transporting robot apparatus for setting and removing the water, the device must have a construction and operation that permits movement of, the equipment including the depression means positioned in the upper side space of the plating device, to another position every time of setting and removing of the wafer by the transporting robot in order to avoid interface with the transporting robot. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Properties of a channel affect the amount of data that can be handled by the channel. The so-called “Shannon limit” defines the theoretical limit of amount of data that a channel can carry.
Different techniques have been used to increase the data rate that can be handled by a channel. “Near Shannon Limit Error-Correcting Coding and Decoding: Turbo Codes,” by Berrou et al. ICC, pp 1064-1070, (1993), described a new “turbo code” technique that has revolutionized the field of error correcting codes.
Turbo codes have sufficient randomness to allow reliable communication over the channel at a high data rate near capacity. However, they still retain sufficient structure to allow practical encoding and decoding algorithms. Still, the technique for encoding and decoding turbo codes can be relatively complex.
A standard turbo coder is shown in FIG. 1. A block of k information bits 100 is input directly to a first encoder 102. A k bit interleaver 110 also receives the k bits and interleaves them prior to applying them to a second encoder 104. The second encoder produces an output that has more bits than its input, that is, it is a coder with rate that is less than 1. The encoders 102, 104 are also typically recursive convolutional coders.
Three different items are sent over the channel 150: the original k bits 100, first encoded bits 111, and second encoded bits 112.
At the decoding end, two decoders are used: a first constituent decoder 160 and a second constituent decoder 162. Each receives both the original k bits, and one of the encoded portions 110, 112. Each decoder sends likelihood estimates of the decoded bits to the other decoders. The estimates are used to decode the uncoded information bits as corrupted by the noisy channel.
Turbo codes are effectively parallel concatenated codes with an encoder having two or more constituent coders joined through one or more interleavers. Input information bits feed the first encoder, are scrambled by the interleaver, and enter the second encoder. A code word is formed by a parallel concatenated code formed by the input bits to the first encoder followed by the parity check bits of both encoders.
Trellis coded modulation is described in “Channel Coding with Multilevel Phase Signaling”, Ungerboeck, IEEE Trans Inf. Th. Vol. IT-25, pp 55-67, January 1982. Trellis coded modulation can produce significant coding gains in certain circumstances.
In some situations it may be desirable to have a very low bit error rate, e.g. less than 10−9. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The outlet of a grain auger is a tubular opening, usually circular or oval, leading into the auger tube housing the auger flighting. This is a very attractive nesting site for birds so that cleaning bird nests from augers is an annual chore. The present invention proposes a gate for the auger outlets that addresses this problem. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to laser gyroscopes such as solid state fiber optic gyroscopes and ring laser gyroscopes and, more particularly, to an interconnection in a housing for such gyroscopes for maintaining the magnetic shielding properties of the housing.
2. Description of Related Art and Other Considerations
The present invention is generally applicable to laser gyroscopes, such as solid state fiber optic gyroscopes and ring laser gyroscopes. Both provide paths for directing travel of coherent laser light. In the former, optical fibers in a housing provide the paths. In the latter, travel is provided within a lasing chamber which comprises a laser housing having bores and mirrors positioned where the bores change direction. One problem relating to such laser gyroscopes involves polarization changes due to the Faraday effect, also termed Faraday rotation. This problem can arise when the magnetic shielding about the housing is inadequate, that is, magnetic flux leaks into to housing, with the result that magnetic lines contaminate or interfere with the traverse of the coherent light about its path.
Because the present invention was conceived to address problems relating to fiber optic gyroscopes, the following exposition will be directed thereto; however, it is to be understood that the present invention is as applicable to ring laser gyroscopes and similar instrumentation utilizing coherent radiation and the specific problems solved by the invention described herein.
Accordingly, a fiber optic gyroscope of the type encompassed by the present invention typically comprises an assembly which includes, among other elements, a coil of optical fiber mounted on and secured to a spool, and magnetic shielding enclosing the fibers. Such magnetic shielding may include the spool itself and a cover secured to the spool to form a magnetically protective housing or inner shield enclosing the coil. An outer or external shield is placed over this inner shield protective housing, with proper separation provided by a spacer ring to further enhance the magnetic shielding about the optical fiber coil. For some inertial navigation applications, a combined shielding factor (magnetic field attenuation) on the order of 104 may be required. In prior art constructions, the separate shields are typically are bonded together, through the intermediary of a spacer ring, to provide a fully assembled gyroscopic instrument. This assembly is then bolted to a stable support member, such as an inertial sensor block. Because the bonding of both the inner and outer shields is of a generally permanent nature, it is difficult to dismantle the assembly, such as for rework or repair. Such rework often occurs during early production, when it is needed to open the assembly, which may occur when minor failures need repair. Rework of such an assembly may result in damage or failure to the shield and/or its contents.
In the above-described construction, both the inner and outer shields are formed of a high magnetic permeability material, which is subjected to a stress annealing process to enhance and maximize its magnetic permeability. Such shields comprise a ferromagnetic material having high relative permeability (xcexc/xcexc0). Preferred high permeability materials include alloys, for example, of Carpenter High Permeability xe2x80x9c49xe2x80x9d(copyright) and Carpenter HyMu xe2x80x9c80xe2x80x9d(copyright) (trademarks of Carpenter Technology Corporation) whose compositions are respectively a 48% nickel-iron alloy and an unoriented 80% nickel-iron-molybdenum alloy.
The shields, when properly annealed, are generally malleable and, therefore, are subject to damage. They are strain and impact sensitive and, should the assembly be dropped, bent, dented, or even mishandled or slightly deformed, the magnetic permeability will be compromised and, thus, the magnetic shielding invariably will be deleteriously affected. Such mishandling or mishap can occur during the above-mentioned dismantling and disassembly, e.g., for repair and rework, when the inner and outer shields must be separated. Such dropping, bending, denting or mishandling can cause the assemblies, that is, the shields and their contained fiber optics and associated parts, to be destroyed and, therefore, they need replacement.
Another problem, to which the present invention provides a solution, relates to the connections between the respective parts of the inner and outer shields. The current practice of manufacturing the inner shield is to bond or weld, for example, the inner shield cover to an inner shield base or the optical fiber supporting spool. The outer shield assembly comprises upper and lower shield portions which must be bonded, welded or screwed together. Gaps at the joined portions deleteriously affect the magnetic flow path. These joining techniques also present other disadvantages and problems. For example, the bonding process is subjected to high labor costs and tight process controls. Both bonded and welded joints suffer from the difficulty, if not impossibility of rework, and the resulting scrapping of welded parts. Use of threaded parts requires the use of extremely tight, expensive machining tolerances, and the threads can gall, thus making rework difficult, if not impossible.
Further, the joint must be solid and robust, that is, free from movement between the portions over wide temperature excursions and vibration conditions, to prevent rattling during vibration which would harmfully affect operation of the gyroscope.
These and other problems are successfully addressed and overcome by the present invention by an elastic interference fit positioned between the cover and spool of the inner shield and between the upper and lower portions of the outer shield. In the preferred embodiment, this yieldable interference fit comprises a snap-fittable or spring-like biased joint engagement between the respective parts. Although they are subject to deformation, bending of the inner shell cover and the outer shield portions are within the elastic limits of the shield material, so that the deformation will not become permanent and affect their magnetic performance.
Several advantages are provided by this arrangement. Principally, deformation of the parts, but within their elastic limits, prevents loss of magnetic shielding over the course of repeated assembly and disassembly of the fiber optic gyroscope. Wide dimensional tolerance stamping with light touch-up machining is possible. Repair and rework is facilitated without damage to the shield or internal components. Labor costs for assembly and rework are reduced. Scrap is decreased, with corresponding savings in parts and materials.
Other aims and advantages, as well as a more complete understanding of the present invention, will appear from the following explanation of exemplary embodiments and the accompanying drawings thereof. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates to a device to deliver or administer medication to a patient, and more particularly, concerns a syringe pump intended for the delivery or administration of such medications.
2. Background Description
Hospitals typically use intravenous (I.V.) administration sets to deliver liquid medication to patients. When the patient needs medication, such as an antibiotic, standard practice until recently has been to deliver such a drug by a "piggy-back" drip into the primary infusion line. Recently, however, the procedure for delivering antibiotics and other drugs to patients on I.V. therapy has been changing Mechanically driven syringes, oftentimes called or referred to as syringe pumps, are available to hospitals and other users for the administration of drugs and other liquid medications which the patient may require.
Indeed, a wide variety of syringe pumps and other liquid medication delivery devices are becoming available. With particular reference to a syringe pump, as that term is used herein, such pump employs a conventional or modified syringe which holds the liquid medication, the plunger of which is typically driven or pushed by a mechanized element for the automatic delivery of the liquid contents within the syringe. These syringe pumps are now available in battery-powered form, include microprocessor technology for programming rates or times of medication delivery, have digital displays for ease of viewing by the user or the patient, include alarm circuits in the event of duty cycle completion, failure, or line occlusion, and other features to facilitate the operation or performance of the syringe pump. As these syringe pumps become more sophisticated, the technological advances oftentimes have a tendency to increase the expense of making and using the device, increase the complexity of use, and increase the opportunities for breakdown and repair if one or more of the operational elements break down.
For example, many existing syringe pumps include an occlusion circuit for producing an alarm (visual and/or audible) when the syringe cycle has been completed, if the I.V. line or syringe is occluded or if there is a system failure. One common mechanism for activating the occlusion circuit has been the use of one or more switches which are tripped after the syringe plunger passes a certain point during its travel into the syringe barrel. In other instances, the syringe is mounted on a spring-loaded platform which is subject to a small linear movement after a certain force level has been reached. Thus, if the plunger being pushed into the syringe barrel either reaches the bottom of the syringe or cannot expel the liquid contents due to an occlusion in the line, the force against the plunger causes the entire spring-mounted syringe to move in linear fashion This movement, in turn, either trips a switch or may be sensed by position-sensitive sensors to send a signal to the occlusion circuit so that the automatic operation of the syringe pump may be terminated. Improvements in such an occlusion circuit are not only desirable, but are still being sought, in order to reduce the expense of the elements heretofore needed in such an occlusion circuit, as well as to eliminate the need for switches or sensing elements in order to achieve the desired results.
Some syringe pumps accept different size syringes for carrying different kinds or amounts of liquid medication. It is known to have an automatic measurement or sensing of the syringe size positioned in the syringe pump so that control of the rate and time of medication delivery may be automatically determined as a function of the size of the syringe placed in the syringe pump. Improvements in the sensing mechanism for accommodating and measuring different size syringes are desirable to provide a superior product.
Many available syringe pumps employ membrane switches on the front panel which the user depresses with a finger in order to activate a function of the syringe pump. These membrane switches, which include both on and off capabilities, are relatively expensive, and as the number of these switches increases with the sophistication of the functions, further it increases the expense of the entire device. Accordingly, improvements in the panel switches or buttons for access by the user are also desirable, and are being sought.
It is toward such improvements, as mentioned above, as well as other improvements to be pointed out below, that the present invention is directed. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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An inductor, which is a coil electronic component, is a representative passive element configuring an electronic circuit together with a resistor and a capacitor, or the like, for removing noise from the electronic circuit or forming an LC resonance circuit.
Recently, as products in which electronic components are used are becoming complex and multi-functional, a demand for compact, large-current, and high-capacity coil electronic components for use in such products has increased. Therefore, conventional inductors have rapidly been replaced by small, high-density chips which may be automatically surface-mounted, and thin film-type inductors have been developed by mixing a magnetic powder with a resin and forming coil patterns on upper and lower surfaces of a thin film insulating substrate by plating.
However, the thin film-type inductors may have a considerable amount of magnetic flux leakage when the amount of current flowing in the products containing electronic components increases, which leads to malfunction of such products. To address this problem, research into suppressing the leakage of magnetic flux from the thin film-type inductors has been continuously conducted. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Varieties of chronic hepatitis are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The pathogenesis of hepatitis involves death of liver cells (hepatocytes) and fibrosis (cirrhosis). Chronic hepatitis can be caused by persistent infection with a virus such as hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV), and may also involve autoimmune processes. The involvement of immunopathology in some forms of hepatitis has led to the treatment of chronic hepatitis conditions with glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive drugs, including azathioprine, cyclosporine and methotrexate. However, these compounds have undesirable side effects and are limited in therapeutic efficacy.
Chronic HBV infections have been treated with interferon. However, this treatment produces limiting side effects and induces prolonged suppression of HBV replication in only about 25% of patients. Nucleoside analogs have also been used to suppress the replication of HBV, but can have severe side effects. In the case of treatment with glucocorticoids, it has been found that the inhibition of the immune response can lead to an elevated level of replication of HBV, augmenting the spread of virus and increasing the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma. Moreover, prolonged use of glucocorticoids is associated with metabolic bone disease.
Accordingly, there is need for better therapeutic drugs for treating HBV infection. Ideally, such a drug will be effective to inhibit viral replication in hepatocytes. In addition, the drug should be amenable to delivery by a variety of routes, including oral administration. The drug should also have a long shelf life to allow for shipping and storage. It would also be desirable for such a drug to have anti-replicative activity as well as an ability to inhibit the immune response. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Shrimp and prawn cultivation and trade is a very important activity all over the world. The main species under cultivation are Penaeus monodon (Giant tiger prawn, Jumbo tiger prawn, Jumbo tiger shrimp, Black tiger prawn, Blue tiger prawn, and Grass shrimp, etc.), mainly cultivated in Asia, with an aquaculture production of about 600,000 tons in 2003; and Penaeus vannamei (Whiteleg shrimp, white shrimp), mainly cultivated in the Americas and in China and Thailand, with an aquaculture production that is comparable to P. monodon. For those species, aquaculture is far more important than capture.
Increasing demands for aquaculture production mean increasing pressure for the development of more efficient production systems. More and more, modern genetics are used to support stock improvement and breeding programs (Hulata, 2001). Genomic research and gene mapping developed fast during recent times. DNA markers have been characterized for use in establishing pedigrees, linkage mapping and identifying Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs).
As most Penaeus sp. are sexually dimorphic (Hansford and Hewitt, 1994), a lot of effort has been made to find a reliable sex marker, which could help in setting up and maintaining monosex cultures. Several groups developed linkage maps, mainly based on the use of AFLP markers (Moore et al., 1999; Wilson et al., 2002). Pérez et al. (2004) published a sex-specific linkage map of the white shrimp Penaeus vannamei. However, they did not identify a sex-linked marker or linkage group. Li et al. (2003) disclosed a sex-specific linkage map of Penaeus japonicus, with a presumed sex marker on the maternal linkage map. Zhang et al. (2006) published a linkage map of P. vannamei, with sex-linked microsatellite markers present on the female map. In the latter two cases, however, the sex-marker association was not challenged among genetically unrelated individuals.
It should be stressed that the relatively low number of sample meioses within designed populations (e.g., half-sib families) leads to relatively long stretches of chromosomes being in Linkage Disequilibrium (LD). Consequently, in such linkage studies, the observed high LD between marker and sex dimorphism results from the nature of the population rather than from the tight physical linkage. Therefore, markers found via linkage analysis to be in LD with the sex often fail to discriminate between the two sexes in a population of unrelated individuals. Indeed, Li et al. (2003) admit that the presumed marker is not necessarily linked to a sex-specific sequence, and no sequence data are disclosed. Moreover, Zhang et al. (2004) were unable to identify sex-specific markers in Penaeus chiniensis using the AFLP approach. Likewise, Khamnamtong et al. (2006) could not identify sex-specific markers in Penaeus monodon. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electrically-powered vehicles and, more specifically, to an Electric Vehicle Having Exchangeable Battery Modules and Method of Resupply Therefor.
2. Description of Related Art
The rate of growth of electric vehicles has become exponential in recent years. With regard to electric passenger cars intended for use on standard vehicle byways, two general classes of vehicle propulsion systems have evolved: pure electric vehicles, and so-called hybrid electric vehicles. The instant invention relates to pure electric vehicles, or vehicles having their propulsion provided only by electric motor and onboard batteries.
Conventional all-electric vehicles differ in sizes, body styles and cost, but there are several elements that are consistently found in all such vehicles: Cost—rechargeable batteries of the type acceptable for use in electric vehicles are extremely expensive. As a result, most electric vehicles cannot compete with gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles because the equivalent electric vehicle will cost at least fifty (50) percent more. While the operating cost of an electric vehicle is substantially lower than an internal combustion vehicle, the upfront cost for the conventional all-electric vehicle is so high that the typical user will never reasonably recoup the cost. Range limitation—while the onboard batteries in the conventional all-electric vehicle will allow the vehicle to achieve highway speeds, their size, weight and cost generally limit the number of batteries that can feasibly be installed within a vehicle. In the case of virtually all conventional all-electric cars, the car will only be able to travel approximately one hundred (100) miles between recharges. Recharge requirements—the short-range nature of the conventional all-electric vehicle makes it virtually mandatory that the user recharge the vehicle at least daily. A high-power (240 VAC) battery charger can generally give a full charge to the onboard vehicle batteries in less than an hour. The problem is that these types of stations are not the norm—usually the user charges the vehicle at home during the evening. The typical home charging station is 120 VAC, and it will require up to four (4) hours for a full recharge.
Usage pattern—there is a cultural complication related to a user's transition from an internal combustion vehicle to an all-electric vehicle. The driver of an internal combustion engine-powered vehicle can drive virtually as far and as long as they like. Refueling stations are widely available and open for business so that refueling is generally a relatively short pause in any driving trip. In contrast, the short range capacity of the all-electric vehicle, coupled with the need for regular recharging, means that the user of these types of vehicles really has to change the way in which they use the vehicle. The user of the conventional all-electric vehicle must either stick to a confined, regular, short-distance route, since at least an hour recharging session is required for every 100 miles driven.
What is needed is an all-electric vehicle and replenishment system that allows a driver to emulate the driving pattern and ownership cost of an internal combustion engine-powered vehicle without the prohibitively high upfront cost. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern correction apparatus, a pattern optimization apparatus, and an integrated circuit design apparatus for correcting, optimizing, and designing a pattern of an integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
With a leap progress in LSI manufacturing techniques, an ultrafine process called deep submicron has been used. From a physical viewpoint, further miniaturization a process poses difficulty in designing a layout. Moreover, in relation to a signal delay (a gate delay or a trace delay), the influence of a trace delay becomes greater, and hence a contrivance to trace design is required.
In association with the shorter life of LSI products, yields of the LSI manufacturing technique must be enhanced immediately. For instance; in order to realize a design for simpler production, a commitment to a DFM (Design For Manufacturing) technique is sought. Improvements in design quality and reductions in fraction defective are sought not only in the field of LSIs for use in automobiles but also in the field of consumer-oriented or industrial LSIs.
What greatly affects a trace delay as a result of a reduction in the minimum pitch between wires associated with recent miniaturization is crosstalk. A principle approach for avoiding occurrence of crosstalk is a reduction in inter-trace capacitance and asynchronous switching among adjacent wires. A method for increasing a trace pitch is available for reducing inter-trace capacitance. For example, in connection with layout data acquired after detailed routing, a trace pitch disregarding trace grids is enlarged by use of an automatic layout tool.
Next, a finer design rule poses extreme difficulty in mask processing, which in turn raises a problem of deteriorated yields and a failure to manufacture an LSI at worst. These problems are attributable to a graphics pattern of a semiconductor mask being finer than the wavelength of light used for exposure. Further, at some locations, the problems are attributable to a layout relationship between wires and vias. For example, when denseness and nondenseness are present in the pattern, it may be the case where a pattern cannot be transferred accurately.
Although degeneration failure or open failure is detected by use of a test pattern, detecting all nodes is difficult to perform. There is the possibility of a short circuit or a break arising between traces as a result of minute dust or extraneous matters having adhering to nodes (undetected nodes) that cannot be detected by means of the test pattern, to thus cause product deficiency.
An example of the technique for creating a layout pattern which is intended for reducing the chance of occurrence of a cross talk in an LSI or enhancing yields is described in JP-A-2005-301799. Correction of a layout of a pattern of an integrated circuit will be described briefly by reference to FIG. 28.
As shown in FIG. 28, a method for correcting a pattern of an integrated circuit comprises selecting an arbitrary trace pattern by means of taking, as an input, pattern information (21-1) which is an aggregate of trace patterns (step 21-2); computing the degree of adjacent balance from inter-trace capacitance between a trace pattern R selected in step 21-2 and a trace pattern adjacent to the trace pattern R (step 21-3); and moving the position of an adjacent trace pattern in accordance with the degree of adjacent balance computed in step 21-3 (step 21-4).
According to the above method, an adjacent trace pattern is moved in accordance with the degree of adjacent balance determined from inter-trace capacitance developing between a selected trace pattern and an adjacent trace pattern, so that a trace pitch can be increased when compared with a trace pitch determined by the original trace pattern. Therefore, optimization of timing of an LSI chip and realization of a layout which diminishes crosstalk are possible, and yields can be enhanced. Patent Document 1: JP-A-2005-301799
However, under the previously described method for correcting a pattern of an integrated circuit, when a necessity for correcting a trace pattern after optimization of a trace pitch has arisen, it is difficult to correct a trace which is not present on any trace grid by use of an automatic routing tool. Even if correction of the trace is feasible, enormous time is consumed. Further, an evaluation function does not include vias, it may be the case where yields are reduced by means of denseness and nondenseness of the graphics pattern. In association with further miniaturization of a process in future, denseness and nondenseness of a graphics pattern pertaining to vias must also be taken into consideration.
Moreover, a fraction defective in the market (hereinafter called a “market fraction defective”) is computed from the rate of detection of degeneration failures acquired by use of a test pattern. However, in association with miniaturization of a process, a market fraction defective cannot be ascertained by means of a parameter including only the rate of detection of failures determined through use of a test pattern. Further, since graphic pattern information is not included in parameters used for computing a fraction defective, graphics pattern correction for diminishing a market fraction defective cannot be made. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates generally to a method for profiling pitches using a computerized, programmable pitching machine and, more particularly, to such a method for programming a computerized pitching machine to throw pitches having the same pitch profile of actual pitchers.
Pitching machines and ball-throwing machines are well-known in the art and generally fall into four categories: (1) machines that employ a spring actuated arm mechanism to propel the ball; (2) machines that employ at least one rotating wheel or a pair of rotating, coacting wheels to propel the ball; (3) machines that rely on pneumatic pressure to propel the ball; and (4) machines that employ converging and diverging rotatable discs to propel the ball.
The marriage of a ball-throwing machine with a video display of a pitcher is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,744 which issued on Mar. 23, 1993 to Neil S. Kapp et al. for Baseball Batting Practice Apparatus with Control Means. Such device, however, fails to offer the unique advantages of delivering a variety of different pitches as contemplated by the present invention. The synchronization means of such device relies upon an audio signal generated by the video, without any regard to the status of the ball in the queued position. Furthermore, the ball queuing system of this device relies on gravity and is imprecise and subject to failure.
In recent years, a number of computerized pitching machines have come onto the market which permit the user to throw a series of different pitches on an interchangeable basis. Heretofore, it was necessary to re-adjust the machine between different pitches which prevented the machine from being able to truly simulate live pitching.
The concept of programming a pitching machine to deliver a variety of different pitches has been discussed in prior patents, most notably in U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,653 which issued to Ferenc Kovacs et al. on Jun. 30, 1992 for Computer Controller Ball-throwing Machine and U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,208 which issued on Nov. 7, 1995 to Richard A. Pierce for Programmable Baseball Pitching. Such machines are of the two-wheel type and are incapable of rapid change in order to interchangeably deliver a variety of different pitches. Accordingly, the degree of programming offered by these devices is minimal, at best.
ProBatter Sports, LLC of Milford, Conn. introduced a line of pitching machines under the ProBatter trademark which can interchangeably deliver different pitches at different speeds to different locations. This line is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,134 which issued on Feb. 13, 2001 to Gregory J. Battersby et al. for Pitching System with Video Display Means; U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,133 which issued on Feb. 13, 2001 to Gregory J. Battersby et al. for System and Method for Establishing Pitch Parameters in a Ball Throwing Machine; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,649 which issued on Feb. 6, 2001 to Gregory J. Battersby et al. for Ball Throwing Machine.
Chin Music, LLC of Seattle, Wash. has also developed a computerized pitching machine which is has licensed to Fastball Development Inc. for a product called xe2x80x9cAbner.xe2x80x9d This technology is described more fully in U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,350 which issued on Jul. 4, 2000 for Accurate, Multi-Axis, Computer Controlled Object Projection Machine; U.S. Pat. No. 6,111,693 which issued on Aug. 29, 2000 for Projection Screen with Movable Shutter; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,011 which issued on Feb. 12, 2002 for Projection Screen with Movable Shutter.
Pitching machines of the ProBatter and Abner type are capable of being programmed to develop pitch profiles of actual pitchers, including Major League Baseball pitchers by separately programming the machine to deliver individual pitches.
The ability to use these machines to simulate the pitch profiles of actual pitchers is the final step in making equipment of this type true pitching simulators for hitters to better prepare for game like conditions. The creation of such pitch profiles permits a hitter to take batting practice before a game against the very pitcher that they will be facing, thereby increasing the odds of being able to hit such pitchers. The problem presented, however, is that each pitcher throws different pitches and the individual programming of the machine for each different pitcher can be complex, time-consuming and potentially beyond the limits of the computer used to control the machine. There are more than 300 pitchers in Major League Baseball and thousands more at the other levels of the game. To expect an operator to individually program these machines to simulate the pitches of each of these pitchers is a daunting task, at best.
As will be appreciated, none of these prior patents even address the problem faced by applicant let alone offer the solution proposed herein.
Against the foregoing background, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method for profiling pitches using a computerized pitching machine.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a method which permits the pitching machine to be programmed to deliver pitches having a pitch profile of actual pitchers.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a method which can accommodate a variety of different pitchers and pitches without the need to separately program pitch parameters for individual pitchers to create a profile.
To the accomplishments of the foregoing objects and advantages, the present invention, in brief summary, comprises a method for profiling pitches of an actual pitcher using a programmable pitching simulator of the type having at least two wheels and a video display component. The method comprises the steps of: (a) creating pitch profile codes for all pitches that a pitcher can reasonably pitch, the pitch profile codes including information regarding pitch type, pitch speed and pitch movement; (b) developing a master pitch parameter table for each of the pitch profile codes, the pitch parameter table including all data reasonably necessary to program the programmable pitching simulator to throw profiled pitches; (c) developing pitch profile codes for a particular pitcher, the pitch profile codes also including a code for a video image to be displayed; (d) entering into the programmable pitching simulator the specific pitch profile codes for a particular pitcher by the use of a card containing the pitch profile codes; and (e) re-programming the programmable pitching simulator to deliver pitches with the same pitch profiles of the pitcher. The method can further include developing specific sequences of particular profiled pitches to a particular batter in the sequence that the pitcher has historically pitched to the batter. | {
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The invention relates to control systems used for stabilizing a vehicle, such as wheel slip control systems, antilock systems, braking assistants or vehicle dynamics control systems.
The triggering of an automatic control system for stabilizing a vehicle, for example, a wheel slip control system, typically does not take place before the start of any instability of a vehicle, for example, when a permissible wheel slip limit is exceeded; i.e. when the wheel slip is outside the limits permissible with respect to vehicle stability.
The reaction of the automatic control system takes place within a different time period as a function of vehicle-specific integration environments (components, hardware, onboard wiring system, etc.). Under unfavorable marginal conditions, the reaction may not take place before a point-in-time at which the control deviation is already quite advanced which, in turn, results in intensive interventions of the control system.
The high intensity of the control interventions leads to an increased load profile of the onboard wiring system and of components as well as to loss of comfort in the driver's perception.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a process and a corresponding system which decrease the high intensity of the control interventions of such automatic control systems and reduce the disadvantages connected therewith.
This and other objects are achieved by a process and corresponding system for limiting a torque or an amount characteristic thereof of a control loop used for stabilizing a vehicle. The process detects a coefficient of friction (μs,r, μs,f), determines a limit value (Mg) for the torque or the amount characteristic thereof as a function of the estimated coefficient of friction (μs,r, μs,f), and limits the torque or the amount characteristic thereof to the limit value (Mg).
A first aspect of the invention is aimed at processes for limiting a torque, or an amount characteristic thereof, of a control loop used for stabilizing a vehicle. The control loop may, for example, include a wheel slip control system, an antilock system, a brake assistant system or a system controlling the dynamics of vehicle movements. The torque preferably causes a buildup of force in the longitudinal direction of one or more wheels, because typically no active torque influence takes place in the transverse direction. The torque may, for example, be an acceleration torque or a deceleration torque. The resulting longitudinal-force buildup of the vehicle takes place, for example, in the deceleration or acceleration direction of the vehicle and can influence the dynamic longitudinal and/or dynamic lateral behavior.
An amount characteristic of a torque is an amount or parameter that has a certain connection with a torque, particularly a linear connection. The value may, for example, be power, force or acceleration information. Thus, in the application, all information concerning the torque also applies to such a characteristic value in the same fashion. And, as used herein, the term “torque” includes an amount characteristic thereof.
In the process, a coefficient of friction is determined. For detecting the coefficient of friction, an additional sensor system for determining the coefficient of friction can be used. The coefficient of friction is preferably estimated by way of vehicle-internal quantities. The estimation of a coefficient of friction by way of vehicle-internal quantities is described in Chapter 2.3.1 of the reference book “Verbesserungspotenzial von Stabilisierungssystem im Pkw durch eine Reibwertsensorik” (“Improvement Potential of a Stabilization System in a Passenger Car by Means of a System for Sensing the Coefficient of Friction”), by Ingo Weber, Fortschr.-Ber. VDI Reihe 12, No. 592, VDI Verlage 2005. The statements concerning the estimation of a coefficient of friction made there are hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. The estimation of the coefficient of friction by means of vehicle-internal quantities can be supported by additional sensor systems (for example, systems integrated in the tire, or camera-based). The estimated coefficient of friction can thereby be checked with respect to plausibility by use of a sensor in the tire or by use of the camera image. The coefficient of friction may, for example, be a coefficient of friction of a tire, of a vehicle axle or a coefficient of friction of the entire vehicle.
A limit value for the torque or the amount characteristic thereof is determined as a function of the coefficient of friction. This limit value may, for example, be oriented according to the torque radius of a Kamm's friction circle, which is a function of the coefficient of friction. In particular, it may be slightly larger than this torque radius. The torque or the amount characteristic thereof is limited to the thus determined limit value.
The limitation by the limit value can take place, for example, in the upward or downward direction. A limitation of the drag torque by the limit value in the downward direction makes sense, for example, in the case of an automatic engine drag torque control, where the negative torque is briefly increased in the acceleration direction, and the drag torque is thereby reduced in order to keep the vehicle stable. The method of limiting the drag torque can also be used in a drive drag torque control of a hybrid vehicle with recuperation, where the recuperation torque of the electric machine is controlled in the coasting operation, instead of being used in an engine drag torque control.
As a result of the determination of a limit value for the control disposed on the input side of the current control, the torque (or the amount characteristic thereof) can be limited to a value adequate for the driving situation, so that the intervention of the control system in the vehicle driving performance is clearly reduced. This leads to a reduced load profile of the on-board wiring system and components as well as to the improvement of comfort in the driver's perception.
The process according to the invention is therefore to some extent a pilot control disposed on the input side of the control loop or a preconditioning of the field. However, in contrast to a classic pilot control, this pilot control determines a limit value within the control loop, for example, for a control variable of the control loop or for a value within the controlled system (particularly within the driving or braking control), instead of directly applying a value to the control variable of the control loop. The process according to the invention preferably determines a limit value for the transmission behavior (and optionally for the transmission dynamics) within the controlled system. The pilot control preferably limits the occurring control difference, for example, in the absolute value or in the time behavior, by influencing the controlled system or the transmission behavior of the controlled system essentially independently of the control loop; the control on the output side is thereby weakened or the initial control threshold is not reached.
The coefficient of friction is preferably determined when the reaching of a stability limit is detected or in the case of a control activity (which typically takes place when the stability limit has been reached). The reaching of a stability limit or control activity can be recognized by analyzing a slip signal or by analyzing a yaw rate signal. For example, it can be determined that a slip exceeds a certain limit (a certain overslip is therefore present), and/or a yaw rate exceeds a certain limit (for example, when the yaw rate exceeds a so-called Ackermann yaw rate in the downward or upward direction). For this purpose also, an arbitrary control signal (such as a binary digital signal) can be analyzed, which indicates a control activity.
When the stability limit, i.e. the traction limit has been reached, conclusions on the coefficient of friction can be drawn particularly well, because Kamm's static circle is then intersected and the maximal static friction force is reached.
According to a preferred embodiment, the limit value will then be selected such that the control system can pass through the detected stability limit. This permits an activation of the control (which is typically activated at the stability limit) despite the limitation to the limit value. If the amount of the limit value were selected such that there could no longer be a passing through the detected stability limit, the control system could later no longer be activated.
Preferably, when the reaching of a stability limit or the activity of the control loop is detected again, the coefficient of friction will be determined again. Among other things, this makes it possible to adapt the determined coefficient of friction in the downward direction when the nature of the road changes, for example. Specifically, when the traction limit has been reached again, the current coefficient of friction may have decreased and the determined coefficient of friction can then be reduced correspondingly.
The determined coefficient of friction is preferably stored. As long as no adaptation of the determined coefficient of friction takes place, the process can take place by using the stored coefficient of friction. The torque limitation at the current point-in-time will then not take place as a function of the current actual coefficient of friction but rather as a function of a coefficient of friction that was determined from vehicle-internal quantities which describe a condition of the past.
According to an advantageous embodiment, the coefficient of friction is therefore stored. In addition, a current coefficient of friction is determined continuously. The determined coefficient of friction is updated as a function of the stored coefficient of friction and of the current coefficient of friction. When the reaching of a stability limit is detected or an activity of the control system takes place, the updated coefficient of friction will preferably correspond to the current coefficient of friction. The determined coefficient of friction can thereby be reduced (in this manner, the process can “learn down” to a lower value). If the traction limit was not reached or no activity of the control system takes place, the updated coefficient of friction will correspond to the maximum from the current coefficient of friction and the stored coefficient of friction. When the currently determined coefficient of friction therefore is above the stored coefficient of friction, the coefficient of friction can thus be increased (the process can therefore “learn up” to a higher coefficient of friction).
In the process, the coefficient of friction is preferably determined as a function of a torque or of an amount characteristic thereof, particularly a torque or a characteristic value when reaching a traction limit or a control activity. This may, for example, be a wheel torque.
As indicated above, when determining the limit value, it should preferably be taken into account that the control loop will still be capable of passing through the previously detected stability limit. For this purpose, the amount of the limit value per wheel should preferably be larger than the amount of torque per wheel that is used for determining the coefficient of friction.
According to a preferred embodiment, for determining the limit value, a maximal torque or an amount characteristic thereof is determined first as a function of the determined coefficient of friction. The limit value is determined as a function of this maximal amount, in which case the limit value will exceed the maximal amount by a certain extent, for example, by 5% to 15%, particularly by 10%. However, in this case, the limit value should preferably be at least 150-750 Nm (wheel-related axle torque, i.e. behind the differential), for example, 250 Nm or 500 Nm above the maximal amount. Depending on the vehicle and control system, the limit value is applied, for example, by 10% but at least by 250 Nm wheel-related axle torque above the maximal amount.
The maximal amount preferably corresponds to the maximal amount of a torque that causes a buildup of force in the longitudinal direction of one or more wheels thus of a wheel torque or of the sum of several wheel torques in the circumferential direction. Here, the maximal amount of the torque is estimated as a function of the determined coefficient of friction and as a function of a lateral acceleration. This will be explained below in greater detail by means of an embodiment.
According to a preferred embodiment of the process, a vertical wheel force or an amount characteristic thereof is also determined as a function of the vertical wheel force or of the amount characteristic thereof.
A further aspect of the invention is aimed at an arrangement for determining a limit value for a torque (or an amount characteristic thereof) of a control loop used for stabilizing a vehicle.
The arrangement includes devices for detecting a coefficient of friction. In addition, devices are provided for determining a limit value for the torque (or the amount characteristic thereof) as a function of the determined coefficient of friction. These devices operate as described above.
The above statements concerning the process of the invention according to the first aspect of the invention correspondingly apply also to the arrangement according to the invention.
The invention is also aimed at an automatic control system, which includes the above-mentioned arrangement for determining a limit value. The control system may provide devices (for example, a limiting device) which are used for the limitation to the limit value.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. | {
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The present invention relates to a method for fabricating a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a method for forming a transistor with a bulb-type recessed channel in a semiconductor device.
As dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices become highly integrated, memory array transistor devices with a design rule of 100 nm or less are in demand. However, the array transistor of 100 nm or less has a very low threshold voltage characteristic due to a short channel effect. Thus, retention time decreases.
A transistor including a recessed channel has been developed in order to solve the above described limitations. The transistor including a recessed channel has a very long retention time characteristic, since it has a very long channel length unlike a typical planar type transistor.
Recently, a method to extend a length of the recessed channel has been proposed to obtain better data retention time and current characteristics than those of the recessed channel. To extend the length of the recessed channel, a bottom portion of a trench for forming the recessed channel is additionally etched to obtain a ball shape. Thus, a bulb-type recessed channel is formed. A transistor including the bulb-type recessed channel is referred to as a bulb-type recessed channel array transistor (BRCAT).
FIG. 1 illustrates a method for fabricating a transistor with a conventional bulb-type recessed channel. A bulb-type recessed region including a trench pattern 12A and a ball pattern 12B is formed over a substrate 11. A gate insulating layer 13 is formed over the surface profile of the bulb-type recessed region and the substrate 11. A gate conductive layer 14 for use as a gate electrode is formed over the gate insulating layer 13 and fills in the bulb-type recessed region. The gate electrode 14 may include polysilicon.
However, when forming the conventional bulb-type recessed channel, the ball pattern 12B has a wider width than the trench pattern 12A in the bulb-type recessed region. Thus, the gate conductive layer 14 may not completely fill the ball pattern 12B during formation. Consequently, a void V may be formed in the middle of the ball pattern 12B. As the gate conductive layer 14 is recrystallized by a subsequent high temperature thermal process, the void may move toward the gate insulating layer 13. The void may result in a portion where the gate insulating layer 13 and the gate conductive layer 14 are not directly in contact with each other.
FIG. 2A illustrates a cross-sectional view of a movement of the void after the subsequent high temperature thermal process is performed and FIG. 2B illustrates a micrographic view of the movement of the void after the subsequent high temperature thermal process is performed. The subsequent high temperature thermal process is performed at a temperature ranging from approximately 650° C. to approximately 1,050° C. The gate conductive layer 14 includes polysilicon. The void moves from the middle of the ball pattern 12B to an interface of the gate insulating layer 13 during the subsequent high temperature thermal process. Thus, the void may contact the gate insulating layer 13.
The void moves because vacancies melted in equilibrium in the gate conductive layer 14 cause growing and moving of the void during a subsequent thermal process. The vacancy is a lattice defect in a crystal lattice where an atom is missing. Specifically, the void is a portion where the gate conductive layer 14 does not contact the interface of the gate insulating layer 13. Thus, the portion, i.e. the void, may result in a decrease of channel capacitance, causing a drain current to decrease. Moreover, a threshold voltage may be difficult to control due to the void. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relation to an improvement in frequency synthesizers in a phase locked loop circuit configuration for producing an output signal which differs from an input signal by a certain frequency difference, particularly adapted for use as a frequency signal generator in radio tranceivers, optical range measuring equipments and so on.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, frequency synthesizers, such as a circuit made up of two quadrature phase shifters, two balanced modulators and one adder, have been used for local oscillators in various kinds of equipments. This kind of frequency synthesizer, however, has several disadvantages; that is, difficulty in precisely tuning the above mentioned circuit units, a large number of circuit elements, and difficulty in reducing, through a simple circuit, spurious components which are introduced into a local oscillator output signal due to a change in amplitude of the quadrature phase shifter's output as the input signal frequency varies (for instance, by channel switching in a tranceiver). To overcome the above disadvantages, recently a frequency synthesizer in phase locked loop (PLL) circuit configuration has been proposed as a frequency signal generator for producing a signal of frequency f.sub.R equal to a frequency f.sub.T -f.sub.IF or f.sub.T +f.sub.IF, where f.sub.T is the frequency of an input signal and f.sub.IF is an intermediate frequency which is predetermined as a frequency difference. Such PLL frequency synthesizer still has a specific disadvantage. In this synthesizer, there is a problem in that when frequency f.sub.T of the input signal changes by more than 2f.sub.IF, the PLL is thrown out of the capture range and then can no longer acquire lock. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of optical feature recognition, and more particularly to a system and method for automatically interpreting and analyzing gauges, readouts, the position and state of user controls, and the exterior of a vehicle, such as an aircraft, including the position and state of flight control surfaces, in an environment with highly dynamic lighting conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recording and automated analysis of image data is well known in the prior art. For example, optical character recognition, or OCR, is the process of analyzing an image of a document and converting the printed text found therein into machine-editable text. OCR programs are readily available and often distributed for free with computer scanners and word editing programs. OCR is a relatively simple task for modern software systems, as documents are typically presented with known lighting conditions (that is, an image of dark text on a light background, captured with the consistent, bright exposure light of a document scanning system) using predetermined character sets (that is, known and readily-available character fonts).
Systems attempting to recognize handwritten text have the added challenge of handling the variations in personal handwriting styles from one person to the next. Still, these systems often require that the writers print the text instead of using cursive and that they follow certain guidelines when creating their printed characters. Even in these systems, where the individual style variations must be accounted for, the lighting conditions used to capture the text images are well-controlled and consistent.
Another example of automated image analysis is facial recognition. A facial recognition system is a computer application for automatically identifying a person from a digital image of the person's face. Facial recognition programs are useful in security scenarios, such as analyzing passengers boarding an aircraft in an attempt to identify known terrorists. A typical facial recognition program works by comparing selected facial features from the image, such as the distance between the person's eyes or the length of the nose, against a facial feature database. As with optical character recognition, facial recognition works best in controlled lighting conditions when the subject matter (that is, the face) is in a known orientation relative to the image.
It is also common to use video cameras in the cockpit of an aircraft or cab of a land-based, marine or other vehicle as a means of gathering data. In the event of an incident, such as a crash or near-miss, the recorded video can be post-processed (that is, processed by experts and systems off-board the vehicle, after the image data has been downloaded to an external system) to determine what conditions were present in the vehicle during the incident. Storing the video data on board the vehicle requires a large amount of storage space. Because of this, mechanisms are often used to limit the amount of storage required on board the vehicle, such as only storing the most recent video data (for example, only storing the most recent 10 minutes of data, and overwriting anything older than this.)
Cameras can also be mounted to the exterior surface of a vehicle to capture images while the vehicle is in motion. Image and video data of the vehicle's exterior surface, including the position and state of the vehicle's control surfaces and lights, can be relayed to a monitor near the operator of the vehicle. This image data can be recorded in the same manner that image data is recorded from the cockpit or cab of the vehicle, as previously described. The external image data thus captured is subject to the same storage and quality limitations inherent in the storage of image data from the interior of the vehicle.
The ambient lighting conditions of both the interior and exterior of a vehicle are highly dynamic, and vary based on the time of day, the angle of the vehicle in relation to the sun, and on the presence of other external sources of illumination. One portion of an instrument panel or vehicle control surface may be concealed in shadow, while another portion is bathed in direct sunlight. The dividing line between dark and light constantly changes as the vehicle maneuvers and changes position in relation to the sun. Commercially available camera systems for use in vehicles do not perform well in these conditions, and provide low-quality images. These limitations make the task of post-processing the image data to clearly identify details within the images difficult if not impossible.
A single clear image of an aircraft cockpit, however, would contain a wealth of information about the ongoing flight. An image of a cockpit would capture a snapshot of the current state of each of the flight instruments, the position of the pilot and copilot, and the presence of any unusual conditions (such as smoke) for any given moment in time.
Similarly, a clear image of the exterior surfaces of an aircraft or vehicle would capture the current state of items such as control surfaces (rudder, elevator, ailerons, flaps, landing gear, etc.), vehicle lights (headlights, turn signals, etc.), and other vehicle components (doors, windows, wings, etc.).
If automatic image analysis of this image data could be consistently performed in real time, while the trip is in progress, this visual information could be interpreted and stored as numeric data and/or communicated to the operator and/or other onboard systems. Further, if this image data could be captured by a self-contained camera module with built-in processing capabilities, the ability to process and analyze interior and exterior image data could be added to any vehicle, regardless if that vehicle had its own onboard computer or sensing systems. This stand-alone camera module could capture the image data while the trip was in progress, analyze the image data and convert it to numeric data, and then compare that numeric data to pre-existing data, such as a flight plan or terrain model, already contained in the camera module.
What is needed in the art is an imaging system which can, in real time, capture high quality images of an aircraft or vehicle or portions thereof, compensate for the dynamic lighting conditions that can be present, analyze the image data and translate it into numeric data, and provide information and/or advisories to the operators and other onboard systems. This system should also incorporate other information and capabilities such that it is aware of its own position and orientation in three-dimensional space and such that it can operate as a stand-alone unit, without the need to be tied into other onboard vehicle systems. | {
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Strollers are known in the art. Typically, known strollers include a foldable frame, wheels, and one or more seats to support a child or infant in a seated, prone, and/or lying position. Stroller frames are usually foldable in at least one direction to allow the stroller to collapse to a folded position. | {
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Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a conventional stand for supporting a saxophone 15. The stand includes a base 11, a post formed on the base 11, an inclined rod 12 formed on the post, a clip 13 attached to the inclined rod 12 and an inverted yoke 14 attached to the inclined rod 12. The clip 13 includes two prongs 16. The bell of the saxophone 15 is clipped with the clip 13. Another portion of the saxophone 15 is supported on the inverted yoke 14. The stand is robust. However, the stand is bulky when it is not in use because it is not collapsible.
Referring to FIG. 3, another conventional stand is shown. The stand includes a tripod 20, a clip 23 and an inverted yoke 30. The tripod 20 includes three legs 26 each including a lower end for contact the ground or a floor, a middle point pivotally connected to a lower ring securely provided around a post 22 and an upper end pivotally connected to an upper ring movably provided around the post 22. A threaded bolt 21 is inserted through the upper ring. The tip of the threaded bolt 21 can be abutted against the post 22 to position the upper ring on the post 22 and hence keep the legs 26 open. The clip 23 includes a U-shaped portion formed on a rod. The U-shaped portion is used to clip the bell of the saxophone 15. The rod is inserted in the post 22. A ferrule and threaded bolt 25 is used to position the rod of the clip 23 on the post 22. A yoke 31 is attached to the inverted yoke 30. A boss 32 is attached to the yoke 31. The yoke 31 is mounted on one of the legs 26 while the boss 32 is disposed in a selected one of three dents 27 made in the leg 26. However, the mounting of the yoke 31 on the leg 26 is not reliable since the insertion of the boss 32 in the dents 27 is not firm.
Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown modification of the stand shown in FIG. 3. The yoke 31 includes two prongs 33 each formed with a tip for insertion in a groove 34 defined in one of the legs 26.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art. | {
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Active ingredients, such as drugs or pharmaceuticals, may be prepared in a tablet form to allow for accurate and consistent dosing. However, this form of preparing and dispensing medications has many disadvantages including that a large proportion of adjuvants that must be added to obtain a size able to be handled, that a larger medication form requires additional storage space, and that dispensing includes counting the tablets which has a tendency for inaccuracy. In addition, many persons, estimated to be as much as 28% of the population, have difficulty swallowing tablets. While tablets may be broken into smaller pieces or even crushed as a means of overcoming swallowing difficulties, this is not a suitable solution for many tablet or pill forms. For example, crushing or destroying the tablet or pill form to facilitate ingestion, alone or in admixture with food, may also destroy the controlled release properties.
As an alternative to tablets and pills, films may be used to carry active ingredients such as drugs, pharmaceuticals, and the like. However, historically films and the process of making drug delivery systems therefrom have suffered from a number of unfavorable characteristics that have not allowed them to be used in practice.
Films that incorporate a pharmaceutically active ingredient are disclosed in expired U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,145 to Fuchs, et al. (“Fuchs”). These films may be formed into a sheet, dried and then cut into individual doses. The Fuchs disclosure alleges the fabrication of a uniform film, which includes the combination of water-soluble polymers, surfactants, flavors, sweeteners, plasticizers and drugs. These allegedly flexible films are disclosed as being useful for oral, topical or enteral use. Examples of specific uses disclosed by Fuchs include application of the films to mucosal membrane areas of the body, including the mouth, rectal, vaginal, nasal and ear areas.
Examination of films made in accordance with the process disclosed in Fuchs, however, reveals that such films suffer from the aggregation or conglomeration of particles, i.e., self-aggregation, making them inherently non-uniform. This result can be attributed to Fuchs' process parameters, which although not disclosed likely include the use of relatively long drying times, thereby facilitating intermolecular attractive forces, convection forces, air flow and the like to form such agglomeration.
The formation of agglomerates randomly distributes the film components and any active present as well. When large dosages are involved, a small change in the dimensions of the film would lead to a large difference in the amount of active per film. If such films were to include low dosages of active, it is possible that portions of the film may be substantially devoid of any active. Since sheets of film are usually cut into unit doses, certain doses may therefore be devoid of or contain an insufficient amount of active for the recommended treatment. Failure to achieve a high degree of accuracy with respect to the amount of active ingredient in the cut film can be harmful to the patient. For this reason, dosage forms formed by processes such as Fuchs, would not likely meet the stringent standards of governmental or regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (“FDA”), relating to the variation of active in dosage forms. Currently, as required by various world regulatory authorities, dosage forms may not vary more than 10% in the amount of active present. When applied to dosage units based on films, this virtually mandates that uniformity in the film be present.
The problems of self-aggregation leading to non-uniformity of a film were addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,246 to Schmidt (“Schmidt”). Schmidt specifically pointed out that the methods disclosed by Fuchs did not provide a uniform film and recognized that that the creation of a non-uniform film necessarily prevents accurate dosing, which as discussed above is especially important in the pharmaceutical area. Schmidt abandoned the idea that a mono-layer film, such as described by Fuchs, may provide an accurate dosage form and instead attempted to solve this problem by forming a multi-layered film. Moreover, his process is a multi-step process that adds expense and complexity and is not practical for commercial use.
Other U.S. Patents directly addressed the problems of particle self-aggregation and non-uniformity inherent in conventional film forming techniques. In one attempt to overcome non-uniformity, U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,003 to Horstmann et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,430 to Zerbe et al. incorporated additional ingredients, i.e. gel formers and polyhydric alcohols respectively, to increase the viscosity of the film prior to drying in an effort to reduce aggregation of the components in the film. These methods have the disadvantage of requiring additional components, which translates to additional cost and manufacturing steps. Furthermore, both methods employ the use the conventional time-consuming drying methods such as a high-temperature air-bath using a drying oven, drying tunnel, vacuum drier, or other such drying equipment. The long length of drying time aids in promoting the aggregation of the active and other adjuvant, notwithstanding the use of viscosity modifiers. Such processes also run the risk of exposing the active, i.e., a drug, or vitamin C, or other components to prolonged exposure to moisture and elevated temperatures, which may render it ineffective or even harmful.
In addition to the concerns associated with degradation of an active during extended exposure to moisture, the conventional drying methods themselves are unable to provide uniform films. The length of heat exposure during conventional processing, often referred to as the “heat history”, and the manner in which such heat is applied, have a direct effect on the formation and morphology of the resultant film product. Uniformity is particularly difficult to achieve via conventional drying methods where a relatively thicker film, which is well-suited for the incorporation of a drug active, is desired. Thicker uniform films are more difficult to achieve because the surfaces of the film and the inner portions of the film do not experience the same external conditions simultaneously during drying. Thus, observation of relatively thick films made from such conventional processing shows a non-uniform structure caused by convection and intermolecular forces and requires greater than 10% moisture to remain flexible. The amount of free moisture can often interfere over time with the drug leading to potency issues and therefore inconsistency in the final product.
Conventional drying methods generally include the use of forced hot air using a drying oven, drying tunnel, and the like. The difficulty in achieving a uniform film is directly related to the rheological properties and the process of water evaporation in the film-forming composition. When the surface of an aqueous polymer solution is contacted with a high temperature air current, such as a film-forming composition passing through a hot air oven, the surface water is immediately evaporated forming a polymer film or skin on the surface. This seals the remainder of the aqueous film-forming composition beneath the surface, forming a barrier through which the remaining water must force itself as it is evaporated in order to achieve a dried film. As the temperature outside the film continues to increase, water vapor pressure builds up under the surface of the film, stretching the surface of the film, and ultimately ripping the film surface open allowing the water vapor to escape. As soon as the water vapor has escaped, the polymer film surface reforms, and this process is repeated, until the film is completely dried. The result of the repeated destruction and reformation of the film surface is observed as a “ripple effect” which produces an uneven, and therefore non-uniform film. Frequently, depending on the polymer, a surface will seal so tightly that the remaining water is difficult to remove, leading to very long drying times, higher temperatures, and higher energy costs.
Other factors, such as mixing techniques, also play a role in the manufacture of a pharmaceutical film suitable for commercialization and regulatory approval. Air can be trapped in the composition during the mixing process or later during the film making process, which can leave voids in the film product as the moisture evaporates during the drying stage. The film frequently collapse around the voids resulting in an uneven film surface and therefore, non-uniformity of the final film product. Uniformity is still affected even if the voids in the film caused by air bubbles do not collapse. This situation also provides a non-uniform film in that the spaces, which are not uniformly distributed, are occupying area that would otherwise be occupied by the film composition. None of the above-mentioned patents either addresses or proposes a solution to the problems caused by air that has been introduced to the film.
Therefore, there is a need for methods and compositions for film products, which use a minimal number of materials or components, and which provide a substantially non-self-aggregating uniform heterogeneity throughout the area of the films. Desirably, such films are produced through a selection of a polymer or combination of polymers that will provide a desired viscosity, a film-forming process such as reverse roll coating, and a controlled, and desirably rapid, drying process which serves to maintain the uniform distribution of non-self-aggregated components without the necessary addition of gel formers or polyhydric alcohols and the like which appear to be required in the products and for the processes of prior patents, such as the aforementioned Horstmann and Zerbe patents. Desirably, the films will also incorporate compositions and methods of manufacture that substantially reduce or eliminate air in the film, thereby promoting uniformity in the final film product. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly to a display device in which thin film transistors are formed on a substrate and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An active-matrix-type display device is configured as follows. Respective pixels are arranged in a matrix array. By supplying a scanning signal to a signal line (gate signal line) shared in common by the respective pixels arranged in a row direction, a group of pixels arranged on the same row is selected. Then, the signal lines which supply the scanning signal are sequentially scanned in a columnar direction (from top to bottom in a display region, for example). In conformity with such selection and scanning timing, a video signal is supplied to the respective pixels arranged in the columnar direction through a signal line (drain signal line) shared in common by the respective pixels.
For this end, each pixel includes a thin film transistor which is a switching element for supplying a video signal from the drain signal line to the pixels (pixel electrodes) in response to the supply of the scanning signal.
Further, on the same substrate on which the pixels are formed, a drive circuit which supplies a scanning signal to the gate signal lines and supplies a video signal to the drain signal lines is mounted. The drive circuit is also constituted of a circuit which includes a plurality of thin film transistors.
Here, the thin film transistor is constituted of a so-called MIS (Metal Insulator Semiconductor) transistor in which a gate insulation film is formed so as to cover a gate electrode, a semiconductor layer is formed on an upper surface of the gate insulation film in a state where the semiconductor layer straddles the gate electrode, and a pair of electrodes (a drain electrode and a source electrode) which are arranged in an opposed manner with a region above the gate electrode (channel region) sandwiched therebetween is formed on an upper surface of the semiconductor layer.
Further, there has been known a thin film transistor where portions which connect a semiconductor layer and respective electrodes include a high-concentration impurity layer (n+ layer) as a contact layer, and a low-concentration impurity layer (n− layer) having the same conductive type as the high-concentration impurity layer is formed on a channel region side of the high-concentration impurity layer. The low-concentration impurity layer is referred to as a so-called LDD (Lightly Doped Drain) layer and, for example, is provided for alleviating the concentration of an electric field between the contact layer and the gate electrode.
A display device having such a thin film transistor is disclosed in JP-A-10-96956 (patent document 1), for example. | {
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When a mobile device user lands in a foreign country and attempts to access data on the mobile device, the foreign mobile network makes a connection to the home network of the mobile device to perform various data access-related operations such as DNS operations. This happens for each attempt to access data on the mobile device. Therefore fore each attempt to access data on the mobile device, signals may be transmitted from the foreign mobile network on satellites, fiber optic cables, and/or underwater cables. Energy resources are used for establishing these complex international connections and transmitting signals on these complex international connections. The present invention enables conservation of these precious energy resources by eliminating these needless signals that are transmitted from the foreign mobile network to the home mobile network for each attempt to access data on the mobile device. The present invention conserves energy resources by providing data access to a mobile device user in a foreign country by facilitating easy access to the foreign mobile network without involving any signaling to the home mobile network. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Vehicle engines may be configured to shut-off during idle conditions when the vehicle comes to a stop while a brake is applied and restarted once the brake is released (e.g., a stop/start system) in order to reduce fuel consumption. Fuel consumption may be further reduced by shutting down the engine during braking or by shutting down the engine when the operator is not braking and not requesting torque, before the vehicle has come to a stop.
One approach to shutdown and subsequently restart the engine while the vehicle is traveling is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,951,525. In the cited reference, the engine is restarted prior to a transition from free-wheel mode to engaged clutch travel mode by employing the fuel injection system using a charge regulator and/or an electric motor. In one embodiment the charge regulator reactivates the engine by sequentially activating a fuel injection system. In an alternative embodiment, engine restart may be supported by an electric motor. However, sequentially activating a fuel injection system to restart an engine is of little use in starting an engine that is not rotating because the injected charge may not be compressed so that it can be combusted and thereby restart the engine. And, starting an engine using a starter can interrupt other electrical systems since a large current may be required to restart the engine.
The inventors herein have recognized the above problems and have devised an approach to at least partially address them. Thus, a method for controlling an engine coupled to a transmission in a vehicle is disclosed. The method comprises, under selected conditions, shutting-off the engine and spinning-down the engine to rest while the vehicle is traveling, and, in response to an operating condition, restarting the engine by at least partially engaging the transmission to assist in spinning-up of the engine from rest while the vehicle is traveling.
Specifically, in one example embodiment when the vehicle is moving, a torque converter or another clutch is engaged when an engine restart is requested. Engaging the clutch transfers wheel torque to the at-rest engine so that the engine is rotated. An electric pump may be driven while the engine is at rest so that hydraulic pressure in the transmission is maintained during engine rest conditions. The transmission clutches can be shifted based on vehicle speed so that a desired amount of starting torque can be applied to start the engine (e.g., top gear reduces the resulting vehicle deceleration rate during a “push start”). In this manner, vehicle inertia can be used to assist in spinning-up the engine from rest when the vehicle is moving. Thus, fuel can be conserved by stopping the engine while engine torque is not required. And, the engine can be quickly restarted without having to engage the starter and draw current from the vehicle battery.
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. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention is in the general field of methods for modulating the rates of chemical reactions, enzymatic reactions, biomolecular separations, and purification processes conducted in buffers.
Buffers are compounds that reduce the sensitivity of free ion activity to perturbations caused by added or in situ generated ionic compounds. Reactions can be carried out in buffer solutions, especially if it is desired that the reaction rate or equilibrium position remain fairly constant.
One method for exerting control over free ion activity is to add ion-generating reagents (e.g., acids, bases, salts, or additional buffer compositions) to change the nature of the buffer solution at the elected time. This method is often effective for systems in which the free ion concentration is changed only a few times. Each addition of the reagents, however, increases contamination of the solution with salts and causes the reaction solution to become more dilute in reactants, which can slow the reactions over time. The effects of adding ionizing reagents are thus generally not strictly reversible, because additional reagents must be added if it is necessary to counteract the outcome of the addition of the first reagents. Addition and subsequent removal of salts require more labor, more complicated instruments, and, thus, more time and expense. Hence, it is generally desirable to avoid such additions. | {
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Load straps are used to secure loads, primarily on flat bed trailer of tractor-trailer rigs. These straps readily adapt to any size load and securely hold such loads for long distances across interstate highways. If not used properly, loads can move about and possibly fall from the truck. If the cargo straps are tightened too tightly, they may damage the load or cause the strap to excessively wear and break. Much time is taken to ensure that the cargo straps are properly applied. This excessive time may cause many users to not properly apply the straps in an effort to save time. Also, after unloading a truck, all loose straps must be wound up on their reel, which, once again, takes a good deal of time. Accordingly, there is a need for a means by which load straps can be quickly and properly applied and rewound without risk of the dangers listed above. The development of the mechanism herein described fulfills this need.
The present mechanism comprises an apparatus designed to aid in the winding of cargo straps used on flat-bed trailers of tractor-trailer rigs comprising a metal cylinder with an internal helical spring. A first end of the cylinder is a closed outer spring case while a second end is a winching gear and locking assembly, both of which are mounted to a standard cargo strap winch system commonly found on conventional flat bed tractor trailers. A similar arrangement is used on all cargo winch systems on a truck. To use the invention, the user simply pulls out enough strap to anchor on an opposite side of the truck and over a carried load. The strap is then tightened and cinched down in a conventional manner. When unloaded, a lever is simply released, and the entire cargo strap is quickly retracted back onto a winch shaft. This not only represents a huge time savings for the truck driver, but also protects the stored cargo strap from damage.
Several attempts have been made in the past to secure cargo to vehicles particularly using strap and tie-down mechanisms. U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,974, issued in the name of Scarola, describes an apparatus for securing cargo to a vehicle comprising an elongated flexible member having a fastening mechanism attached to one (1) end for securing said end to said vehicle. However, unlike the present mechanism, the Scarola cargo strap is intended for use with a passenger vehicle and utilizes a mechanical screw to tighten the flexible strapping member.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,499, issued in the name of Bird, discloses a retractable strap assembly comprising a spool having wound strapping member and a spring entirely within a mountable housing assembly. However, unlike the present mechanism, the Bird retractable cargo securement strap comprises elongated arms and pivoting members to operate the retractable spool assembly does not provide a mechanism to ratchet down the cargo strap into a tight and secure position.
Other known prior art cargo securement straps and spring mechanisms include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,860,408, 4,216,922, and 4,564,308.
The prior art appears to disclose various attempts at cargo securement using strapping members. However, none of the prior art particularly describes an apparatus comprising a cargo strap winching shaft, a winch assembly for tightening said strap, and a spring assembly for automatically retracting said strap after use. Accordingly, there exists a need for a retractable cargo strap that operates without the disadvantages as described above. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In domestic appliances, operation to carry out any of a number of different operating cycles selectable by the user is controlled mechanically via electromechanical timers or electronically via electronic microprocessor based on sequential logic controls. A dishwasher, for example, is pre-programmed to operate in any of a number of different automatic cycles, and within each cycle, to operate in any of a preselected group of "options". Each automatic cycle comprises a sequence of washing, rinsing, and drying operations, such as a pre-rinse cycle, a plurality of wash cycles, at least one post-rinse cycle and a dry cycle, together comprising a NORMAL dishwasher cycle. Other automatic cycles contain greater or fewer separate operations, having durations controlled by the timer or solid state clock.
Options enable the user to tailor each automatic cycle to the user's requirements. For example, an AIR DRY option carried out during a NORMAL automatic cycle deenergizes the heater during the dry cycle to enable dishes to air dry and thereby conserve energy. Of course, only those options which are compatible with the particular automatic cycle being executed by the appliance can be selected.
The dishwasher or other appliance is provided with a control panel having an array of switches and buttons that enable the user to select manually the particular cycles and options desired, depending upon the particular load being washed or otherwise processed. In the event that no selections are made by the user, the appliance will operate in a "default" cycle which, in accordance with the prior art and in the case of a dishwasher, consists of the cycle and option selected by the user when the dishwasher was last operated. The default operation of the dishwasher or other appliance may, however, have no relationship to the types of load that the user tends to wash or otherwise process and no relationship to the user's habits or inclinations.
Accordingly, one object of the invention is to provide an appliance control that selects, as a default cycle, a cycle that is automatically determined as a result of patterns of prior usage of the appliance.
Another object is to provide a method of and apparatus for controlling an appliance to operate, in the absence of a current user selection, in a default cycle determined by the cycle selections most commonly previously made by the user.
Another object is to provide, in a dishwasher control, default cycle and option selections that are based upon the favorite selections made previously by the user.
An additional object is to provide a method of and system for establishing and displaying to the user a default cycle in accordance with previously established patterns of usage of the appliance. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to portable heating and air conditioning systems, and is particularly concerned with a portable or transportable unit that can deliver heated or cooled and filtered air to headgear of a worker, e.g., the helmet worn by a welder.
At the present time, welders working in a hostile environment need to be provided with fresh filtered air delivered via a flexible air hose to their mask or helmet. In some environments where welding is performed, the welder may become unbearably warm, with temperatures often well over 100° F. In an outdoor winter environment, the welder may need to work in sub-zero surroundings, and the constant cold makes it difficult to work.
Currently, there are systems to provide air to welders masks and welders helmets, but these do not provide properly heated and filtered air or refrigerated and filtered air. Accordingly, welders working in a hostile environment, i.e., extreme heat or extreme cold, have had difficulty in working continuously due to the discomfort in the heat or cold.
Accordingly there is a need for a mechanical refrigeration/heating system that provides filtered and heated or chilled air, as needed, via an air hose to a welder's helmet. Such a unit should be electrically powered from an available source, such as the local AC mains, and the unit should be designed so that it can be wheeled by one person into the area where needed, outdoors or indoors. | {
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As the market for laptop computers, cellular phones, electric cars, and the like expands, the demand for secondary batteries having high energy density increases. As means for obtaining such a secondary battery having high energy density, a method of using a negative electrode material having a high capacity, a method of using a positive electrode having a high potential, and the like are under development. Conventionally, many of the general lithium ion secondary batteries have a voltage of 3.5 V to 4.2 V. However, lithium ion secondary batteries that use a positive electrode with a high potential have a potential of equal to or higher than 4.5 V, and an improvement in the energy density thereof is anticipated. If a negative electrode having a higher capacity is combined with a positive electrode, the capacity of the lithium ion secondary batteries is likely to be further increased.
However, the use of a positive electrode having a high potential leads to a problem in that the battery performance deteriorates due to the decomposition of the electrolyte. As a method for preventing the decomposition of the electrolyte, for example, PTL 1 discloses a method of adding an aliphatic compound or the like having a 1-propenyloxy group to the electrolyte. PTL 2 discloses a method of adding a specific fluorinated chain-like ether to the electrolyte. PTL 2 describes that an electrolyte obtains fluidity in this way. PTL 3 discloses a non-aqueous electrolyte in which a vinylboronic acid compound represented by a specific chemical formula is contained in an electrolyte. PTL 3 describes that a non-aqueous electrolyte results in excellent discharge capacity at the time of charge and discharge at a low temperature. | {
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This invention pertains to the adsorption of SO.sub.2 from gas mixtures and in particular to the use of crosslinked polymers of N-glycidylpiperazine or N-glycidyl polyalkylpiperazines as the adsorbents.
Power plant gas effluents as well as other industrial waste gases contribute to the general environmental air pollution problems extant. One of the six chief air pollutants, SO.sub.2, is a common component of these waste gases. In the past many methods have been used in attempts to reduce SO.sub.2 air pollution by control at its source, but none are being practiced widely in attempts to consistently meet the National Air Quality Standards which call for a maximum of 0.14 parts per million (ppm) of SO.sub.2 for a 24 hour period. Alkaline water scrubbing, ammonia scrubbing, and limestone scrubbing are examples of limited solutions to this problem. Similarly, effective means for removing SO.sub.2 from ambient air, especially within buildings and homes, are not available. Since people spend about 80% of their lives indoors, control of pollutant concentrations that they actually come into contact with represents another approach to solving air pollution problems.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method of SO.sub.2 adsorption from gas mixtures, including ambient indoor and outdoor air, which is selective for SO.sub.2. For example, CO.sub.2 is present in stack gases in much larger quantities than SO.sub.2 and its adsorption is undesirable.
Another object of this invention is to provide an adsorbent with a high capacity for SO.sub.2 adsorption which is chemically stable, water-insoluble and which is readily regenerated. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Electrical insulation films are thin plastic sheets that are found in electronic components for computers, laptops, printers, fax machines, appliances, audio equipment, video equipment, telephones, radios, motors, generators, wires, cables, and the like. In order to function properly, electrical insulation films must be flame retardant. In particular, they must pass objective flame resistance tests such as those described in Underwriter's Laboratory Standard UL 94, “Tests for Flammability of Plastic Materials for Parts in Devices and Appliances”. Historically, it has been difficult for electrical insulation materials to achieve the required UL 94 ratings without incorporating halogenated flame retardants in the composition used to make the electrical insulation film.
However, recently there has been a desire to reduce or eliminate halogenated components used in electronics and electrical devices. A number of countries have adopted the Waste in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) and/or the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS). WEEE addresses toxic electronic waste and sets recycling and recovery targets for electrical equipment while RoHS restricts the use of hazardous materials in the manufacture of electronic and electrical devices. The incorporation of halogenated flame retardants in electrical insulation materials has made them difficult to recycle. With pressure to eliminate halogenated flame retardants in order to improve the recyclability and environmental safety of electric insulation films, there is a real need for plastic insulation films with good flame retardancy performance that do not contain halogenated flame retardants. In addition to being flame retardant and electrically insulating, the electrically insulating films must be esthetically pleasing and have good general workability. Workability refers to a film's ability to be cut into various shapes and sizes without fracture, and its ability to be fabricated via either cut-score or crease-score and folded into three-dimensional shapes. It has been very difficult to satisfy all these performance requirements with a halogen-free electrically insulating film. | {
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Film and sheet products are often stressed and cold formed during the assembly process in many applications. For example, in some appliance applications, opaque and colored films are often laminated to metal in place of paint. In this case, the polymer film is laminated to the metal in a flat form. The metal with the polymer film lamination is then bent or pressed into shape to form appliance housings for washers, dryers, refrigerators, and the like. During this cold forming process, some polymer film formulations tend to whiten as they are bent and stretched into shape and cause unattractive white streaks to appear in the finish of the appliance. This problem is more pronounced with darker colors. Stress whitening behavior is usually determined visually. A film is usually stretched to 50% or 100% elongation and examined for color changes. Flexible film and sheet products that do not exhibit stress whitening properties are therefore highly desirable for many applications.
Calendering is an economic and highly efficient method to produce film and sheet from plastics such as plasticized and rigid poly(vinyl chloride), abbreviated herein as “PVC”, and polypropylene compositions. The film and sheet usually have a thickness ranging from about 1 mil (0.025 mm) to about 80 mils (2.0 mm). Calendered PVC films or sheets are readily thermoformed into various shapes, which can be used in a wide range of applications including packaging, pool liners, graphic arts, transaction cards, security cards, veneers, wall coverings, book bindings, folders, floor tiles, and products that are printed, decorated, or laminated in a secondary operation. Additional discussion on polypropylene resin compositions used in calendering processes may be found in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 9-40823 and European Patent Application No. 0 744 439 A1.
By contrast, conventional processing of polyesters into film or sheet involves extruding a polyester melt through a manifold of a flat die. Manual or automatic die lip adjustment is used to control thickness across a web of material. Water-cooled chill rolls are used to quench the molten web and impart a smooth surface finish.
PVC compositions are, by far, the largest segment of the calendered film and sheet business. Small amounts of other thermoplastic polymers such as, for example, thermoplastic rubbers, certain polyurethanes, talc-filled polypropylene, acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene terpolymers (ABS resins), and chlorinated polyethylene, are sometimes processed by calendering methods. By contrast, polyester polymers such as, for example, poly(ethylene terephthalate), abbreviated herein as “PET”, or poly(1,4-butylene terephthalate), abbreviated herein as “PBT”, are difficult to calender successfully. For example, PET polymers with inherent viscosity values of about 0.6 deciliters/gram (abbreviated herein as “dL/g”), typically have insufficient melt strength to perform properly on the calendering rolls. Melt strength is defined as the ability of a polymer to support its weight in the molten state. In calendering, melt strength is related to the ability to remove the film from the roll process without deformation. For example, when calendered, a polymer with low melt strength will quickly sag and hit the floor; whereas, a polymer with high melt strength will maintain its shape for a much longer amount of time and can be further processed. Melt strength is thus important to minimize the amount of “drawdown” and gravity-induced sagging the polymer experiences during the calendering process. Drawdown is defined in calendering as the amount of thickness reduction between the calendering rolls and the take-up system and is expressed as the ratio of the nominal thickness or width dimension as the film exits the calendering rolls with the same dimension at the take-up roles.
PET and other polyester polymers also are prone to crystallize at typical processing temperatures of 160° C. to 180° C., resulting in a non-homogeneous mass which also causes high forces on the calender bearings. Increasing processing temperatures will reduce melt viscosity and improve processability. Higher temperatures, however, can cause degradation of the polyester such as, for example, by thermal degradation, hydrolysis of polymer by exposure to atmospheric moisture, and the formation of color bodies. Typical PET polymers also have a tendency to stick to the calendering rolls at higher processing temperatures. The calendering of various polyester compositions and several approaches to these problems has been described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,998,005; 6,068,910; 6,551,688; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/086,905; Japanese Patent Application Nos. 8-283547; 7-278418; 2002-53740; 10-363-908; 2002-121362; 2003-128894; 11-158358; and WO 02/28967. Although some of these difficulties can be avoided by the careful selection of polymer properties, additives, and processing conditions, calendering of polyesters at high rates of production is difficult.
The above shortcomings of the art illustrate the need for film or sheet products that may be produced by extrusion or by calendering and that do not exhibit stress whitening. These products would have applications as wood and metal laminates, graphic arts, transaction cards, security cards, veneers, wall coverings, book bindings, folders and the like. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to communication systems and more particularly to RFID systems.
2. Description of Related Art
A radio frequency identification (RFID) system generally includes a reader, also known as an interrogator, and a remote tag, also known as a transponder. Each tag stores identification or other data for use in identifying a person, item, pallet or other object or data related to a characteristic of a person, item, pallet or other object. RFID systems may use active tags that include an internal power source, such as a battery, and/or passive tags that do not contain an internal power source, but instead are remotely powered by the reader.
Communication between the reader and the remote tag is enabled by radio frequency (RF) signals. In general, to access the identification data stored on an RFID tag, the RFID reader generates a modulated RF interrogation signal designed to evoke a modulated RF response from a tag. The RFID reader then also generates an unmodulated, continuous wave (CW) signal to activate and power the tag. The RFID tag converts the CW signal into stored power to respond to the RFID reader and uses a backscattering technique in which the tag modulates and reflects the CW signal back to the RFID reader. The RF response from the tag includes the coded data stored in the RFID tag. The RFID reader decodes the coded data to identify or determine the characteristics of a person, item, pallet or other object associated with the RFID tag.
RFID systems typically employ either far field or near field technology. In far field technology, the distance between the RFID reader and the tag is great compared to the wavelength of the carrier signal. Typically, far field technology uses carrier signals in the ultra high frequency or microwave frequency ranges. In far-field applications, the RFID reader generates and transmits an RF signal via an RF antenna to all tags within range of the RF antenna. Tags employing far field technology RF coupling at microwave or UHF have been used in applications involving shipping units such as pallets or carton level tracking or other applications needing long-distance reads.
In near-field technology, the operating distance is usually less than one wavelength of the carrier signal, and the reading range is approximately limited to 20 cm or less depending on the frequency. In near field applications, the RFID reader and tag communicate via electromagnetic or inductive coupling between corresponding reader and tag coil antennas. Typically, the near field technology uses carrier signals in the low frequency range. Generally, tags employing near field technology operating at LF or HF have been used in applications involving item-level tagging for inventory control in the supply chain management or applications involving short range reads such as smart cards or vicinity credit cards, e.g. for access control or monetary use, passports, money bills authentication, bank documents, etc. Such applications do not need long range reads of the tags but may need more security provided by near field technology. In addition, near field technology is known for better performance on tags near fluids, such as fluid medications, wherein far field RF coupling tends to incur interference from the fluids.
Currently, an RFID reader consists of a controller or microprocessor implemented on a CMOS integrated circuit and a transmitter and receiver implemented on one or more separate CMOS, BiCMOS or GaAs integrated circuits. It is desirable to reduce the size and power consumption and cost of the RFID reader for both near field and far field applications. In addition, to avoid blocking RF component from the transmitted signal, currently RFID readers and tags operate wherein the RF signal from the reader to tag must end before the RF signal from the tag to reader can begin. This mode of operation is undesirable and slows communications between readers and tags. Therefore, a need exists for a highly integrated, low-cost RFID reader that can operate in with passive and active tags in both near field mode and far field mode while simultaneously transmitting and receiving. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Generally, a typical semiconductor device includes a substrate having active devices such as transistors and capacitors. These active devices are initially isolated from each other, and interconnect structures are subsequently formed over the active devices to create functional circuits. Generally these interconnect structures include conductive features (e.g., metal lines and vias) formed in a plurality of stacked dielectric layers. To reduce the capacitive coupling of conductive features in dielectric layers, low-k dielectric materials are generally used for interconnect layers. However, as the density of conductive features increases in these layers, traditional low-k materials may no longer sufficiently reduce capacitive coupling.
Voids may be formed in dielectric layers to further reduce the k-value of the dielectric material and reduce parasitic capacitance amongst conductive features. However, void formation in interconnect layers poses numerous challenges such as difficulties in controlling the dimensions of voids and the risk of damaging conductive features adjacent to voids during the subsequent patterning of any overlaying layers. | {
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Storz-type outlets are used for quickly connecting and disconnecting fire hoses to fire hydrants and pumps. Exemplary Storz-type outlets and caps for sealing such outlets are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,387,320; 6,733,045; 6,450,542; 6,447,027; and 6,102,444. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In a clock signal dividing circuit which divides a clock signal having a frequency to generate a clock signal having a lower frequency, there can be realized a dividing circuit (integer dividing circuit) in which a dividing ratio, i.e., a ratio of a frequency of a clock signal obtained before frequency dividing to a frequency of a clock signal obtained after the frequency dividing is 1/M (M is a positive integer) by using a counter circuit.
On the other hand, a dividing circuit (rational number dividing circuit) which can perform frequency dividing even though a dividing ratio is N/M (N and M are positive integers) is proposed in the past (for example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2). According to the conventional art, values (value N in the dividing ratio N/M) each of which sets a numerator of the dividing ratio are cumulatively added every cycle of an input clock signal. When the addition result is larger than a value (value M in the dividing ratio N/M) which sets a denominator of the dividing ratio, an operation which subtracts M from the addition result is performed, and pulses of the input clock signal are arbitrarily thinned out with reference to the addition result to realize rational number dividing.
As a conventional art, a clock generating circuit using a phase interpolator is proposed (for example, see Patent Document 3). According to the art described in Patent Document 3, an edge is generated by the phase interpolator at a timing except for an edge of an input clock signal to make it possible to generate a rational number divided clock signal having a constant cycle time. Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-45507 Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-148807 Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-57578 | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cylindrical shape measuring apparatus for measuring the surface state (surface shape) of, for example, a cylindrical lens or cylindrical mirror by utilizing interference, as well as a method of measuring the system errors of such an apparatus. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a cylindrical shape measuring apparatus which is capable of measuring the surface shape accurately and two-dimensionally by removing the system errors inherent in the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a demand for an apparatus capable of measuring the optical surface of an optical member, such as a cylindrical lens or a cylindrical mirror, with a high degree of accuracy, e.g., on the order of one-tenth of a wavelength or less. Various interference measuring apparatuses (light wave interferometers) of the type which utilize the interference principle, are extensively used as such an apparatus for measuring the optical surface. Particularly, various types of interference measuring apparatuses capable of accurate and quantitative measurement have been put into practical use in recent years owing to the wide use of lasers exhibiting excellent coherence and the development of electronics.
However, in the measuring operation by the interference measuring apparatus, since a difference of two surface shapes is read, if one of the surfaces is not an ideal one, the measuring operation must be conducted a few times under different measuring conditions so as to obtain surface shape errors in each of the operations by analyzing the results of the measurement.
In such a light wave interferometer, absolute accuracy is guaranteed by measuring error components inherent in the interferometer, which are generated by manufacturing errors of the optical parts constituting the interferometer, called system errors, and then by subtracting the measured inherent error components from the shape measuring data of an object to be measured, such as a lens or a mirror. Such an absolute accuracy guaranteeing method, which is used for a Twyman-Green interferometer, has been disclosed by J. H. Bruning in APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 13, No. 11 (1974) 2693. The absolute accuracy guaranteeing method for a Fizeau interferometer has been disclosed by B. E. Truax in SPIE Vol. 966 (1988) 130.
FIG. 1 schematically shows a typical Twyman-Green interferometer.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a He-Ne laser, which serves as a light source, reference numeral 102 denotes a beam expander for expanding the aperture of an incident beam, and reference numeral 103 denotes a polarization beam splitter which constitutes the interferometer. Reference numerals 104a and 104b denote quarter-wave plates for rotating the angle of polarization by 90 degrees between the rays of light that are incident thereon for the first time and the rays of light that are incident thereon for the second time. Reference numeral 105 denotes a reference mirror, reference numeral 110 denotes a condenser lens for generating a reference spherical surface, and reference numeral 106 denotes an object to be measured. Reference numeral 107 denotes a polarizing plate, reference numeral 108 denotes a CCD camera for observing an interference fringes, and reference numeral 109 denotes a computer for operating interference fringe image.
In the thus-arranged structure, the coherent rays of light emerging from the light source 101 are expanded by the beam expander 102 in terms of the aperture, and then are incident on the polarization beam splitter 103 which divides the incident rays of light into a light La, which propagates toward the reference mirror 105, and a light Lb, which is directed toward the object to be measured 106.
The light La, which is directed toward the reference mirror 105, emerges from the quarter-wave plate 104a circularly polarized. The circularly-polarized light that is reflected by the reference mirror 105 passes through the quarter-wave plate 104a again. The quarter-wave plate 104a rotates the angle of polarization by 90 degrees between the light that has passed therethrough for the first time and the light that has passed therethrough for the second time. The introduced plane-polarized light passes through the polarization beam splitter 103 and propagates toward the CCD camera 108.
The light Lb, which is directed toward the object to be measured 106, emerges from the quarter-wave plate 104b circularly polarized. The circularly-polarized light is converted into a spherical wave by the condenser lens 110, and is then reflected by the object to be measured 106 having a spherical shape. The reflected light passes through the condenser lens 110 and then the quarter-wave plate 104b again. The quarter-wave plate 104b rotates the angle of polarization by 90 degrees between the light that is incident thereon for the first time and the light that is incident thereon for the second time. The plane-polarized light emerging from the quarter-wave plate 104b is reflected by the polarization beam splitter 103, whereby it is directed toward the CCD camera 108. At that time, the two plane-polarized lights La and Lb, which are perpendicular to each other, are caused to interfere by the action of the polarizing plate 107. The resultant interference fringes are observed on the CCD camera 108.
The observed interference fringes are considered to be the display of contours whose intervals are one half the wavelength and which represent a difference between the wavefront shape of the wave light, which has been divided by the polarization beam splitter 103 and then reflected by the reference mirror 105, and the wavefront shape of the wave light, which has been divided by the polarization beam splitter 103 and then reflected by the object to be measured 106.
Thus, if the reference mirror 105 has an ideal flat surface and if the condenser lens 110 is completely aplanatic, the obtained interference fringes represent the spherical surface errors of the object to be measured 106.
However, it is impossible in a practical way to manufacture an ideal flat surface or an aplanatic lens. Thus, the observed interference fringes contain the flat surface errors of the reference lens 105 and the aberration of the condenser lens 110.
Hence, the previously mentioned article by Bruning has proposed a method of removing the error components inherent in the interferometer, such as the flat surface errors of the reference mirror 105 or the aberration of the condenser lens 110.
In this method, three measurement operations are performed each having measuring systems 1, 2 and 3 shown in FIGS. 2(A), 2(B) and 2(C).
Each of the measurement results W.sub.1 (x, y), W.sub.2 (x, y) and W.sub.3 (x, y) obtained by the corresponding measuring systems 1, 2 and 3 is considered to be the difference between the wavefront errors in the measuring optical path and those in the reference optical path, and is given by: EQU W.sub.1 (x, y)=W.sub.M (x, y)-W.sub.R (x, y) (1) EQU W.sub.2 (x, y)=W.sub.M '(x, y)-W.sub.R (x, y) (2) EQU W.sub.3 (x, y)=W.sub.C (x, y)-W.sub.R (x, y) (3)
where W.sub.R is the wavefront of the reference light, W.sub.M is the wavefront of the measured light reflected at the surface measuring position in FIG. 2(A), W.sub.M ' is the wavefront of the measured light reflected by the object to be measured 106 which has been rotated around the optical axis by 180 degrees, as shown in FIG. 2(B), and W.sub.C is the wavefront of the measured light cat's eye reflected, as shown in FIG. 2 (C). Under the assumption that the wavefront aberration does not change as the wave light propagates, W.sub.R, W.sub.M, W.sub.M ' and W.sub.C are given by EQU W.sub.R (x, y)=W.sub.i (x, y)+W.sub.r (x, y) (4) EQU W.sub.M (x, y)=W.sub.i (x, y)+W.sub.L (x, y)+W.sub.S (x, y)(5) EQU W.sub.M '(x, y)=W.sub.i (x, y)+W.sub.L (x, y)+W.sub.S (-x, -y)(6) EQU W.sub.C (x, y)=W.sub.i (-x, -y)+{W.sub.L (x, y)+W.sub.L (-x, -y)}/2(7)
where W.sub.i (x, y) represents the wavefront errors of the light source, W.sub.r (x, y) represents the wave front errors (x2) of the reference mirror 105, W.sub.L (x, y) represents the wavefront errors (x2) of the condenser lens 120, and W.sub.S represents the wave front error (x2) of the object to be measured 106.
From equations (1) through (7), we have an equation (8) which expresses the system errors as follows: EQU W.sub.L (x, y)-W.sub.r (x, y)={W.sub.1 (x, y)-W.sub.2 (-x, -y) +W.sub.3 (x, y)+W.sub.3 (-x, -y)}/2 (8)
where W.sub.2 (-x, -y) indicates that the address of the measurement data W.sub.2 obtained in the second measuring operation is rotated about the optical axis by 180 degrees.
When the surface shape other than the spherical surface, e.g., the rotation asymmetric surface shape of the object to be measured, such as a cylindrical lens or a cylindrical mirror, is to be measured by the interferometer shown in FIG. 1, a cylindrical wavefront must be generated using a cylindrical lens in the condenser lens.
In that case, the light reflected by the object to be measured in the system indicated by FIG. 2 (C) returns to the condenser lens as the light wavefront which is symmetric with respect to the focusing line.
Therefore, the equation (7) is transformed to EQU W.sub.C (x, y)=W.sub.i (x, y)+{W.sub.L (x, y)+W.sub.L (x, -y)}/2 (9)
Consequently, the system errors cannot be expressed by the equation (8). | {
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Tagging apparatuses include, and may in their most rudimentary form consist exclusively of, a fastener dispensing gun or similar device having a hollow needle through which the fasteners are dispensed and onto which the articles to be tagged and the tags themselves are impaled. When the apparatus is of this most basic type, the operator manually effects impalement of the tags and articles upon the needle of the dispensing device, and then manually actuates the device to effect insertion of an interconnecting filamentary fastener through them. Although perhaps suitable for some occasional tagging operations, the foregoing manual technique is too slow, fatiguing and hazardous for high-production tagging operations, particularly those in which more than a single tag is to be attached to each article. In recognition of this fact, automatic tagging apparatuses have heretofore been proposed.
Illustrative of the previously proposed automatic tagging apparatuses is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,161, issued Nov. 25, 1980 to Kunreuther and Beringhaus. Such apparatus includes means for mounting the fastener dispensing device in a fixed position, means for effecting automatic operation of the device in response to operator actuation of a readily accessible switch, and means for conducting tags from a supply hopper or the like to and onto the hollow needle of the dispensing device. In one embodiment the apparatus has two tag conveying assemblies that operate in sequence with each other to lessen the time required to secure a plurality of tags to each garment. An apparatus of the aforesaid automatic type can greatly increase the speed, efficiency and safety of the tagging operations, and therefore should significantly reduce the cost of such operations. However, this desirable result has not always been realized by the automatic tagging apparatuses heretofore commercialized, for a variety of reasons. Due to their size and/or complexity, such machines may be unduly expensive and difficult to manufacture, ship, assemble, adjust and/or maintain. Since adjustment of the apparatus is normally necessary not only during initial setup thereof, but also whenever there is a significant change in the size of the tags to be secured to the garments, a capability for rapid adjustment of the apparatus is particularly desirable. An additional disadvantage of those previously proposed "double" apparatuses having a pair of tag supplying mechanisms is that such mechanisms are both used only when a plurality of tags are to be secured to an article. When the tagging operation requires only a single tag per article, one of the tag conveying mechanisms remains unused and unusable. The economic wastefulness of this situation is aggravated if, as might well be the case, there is a concurrent need for another "single" tagging machine in the same plant where the only partially-used "double" machine is present.
With the foregoing in mind, a primary object of the present invention is the provision of a modular tagging apparatus that is of highly compact, efficient, economical and reliable construction, and that may be easily adjusted and/or modified to accommodate tags of differing size and/or to be uable in either single-tag or multiple-tag tagging operations. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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This invention relates to a novel soluble form of rapamycin 42-ester with 3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropionic acid.
Crystalline rapamycin 42-ester with 3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropionic acid (CCI-779) has poor solubility, which leads to slow dissolution of the solid crystalline form, typically oral solid dosage forms including tablets, in physiologically acceptable solvents.
The dissolution and absorption of rapamycin 42-ester with 3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropionic acid has reportedly been improved by the formation of solid dispersions with carrier systems using co-precipitate technique, spray drying, use of nanoparticles, and wet granulation methods. However, while the art asserts that rapamycin can be in crystalline or amorphous form, amorphous rapamycin 42-ester with 3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropionic acid has never been previously prepared, isolated and/or characterized.
Since rapamycin 42-ester with 3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropionic acid is a therapeutically active compound, it is highly desirable to obtain amorphous rapamycin 42-ester with 3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropionic acid that has improved solubility, dissolution rate and bioavailability. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for cutting successive portions from a column of plastic material such as viscous glass.
In the glass forming process, glass is fed from an outlet spout of a feeder bowl to a glass forming machine. A shear mechanism is mounted underneath the feeder bowl to successively cut gobs from the column of glass from the feeder bowl. One type of shear mechanism utilizes a pivoted shear structure wherein shear blades are mounted on swinging arms. In high speed applications, especially, there is a tendency for excessive wear in mechanisms of that type. Further, in double or triple gob applications, the gobs are not cut at exactly the same time. Thus, the gobs will not be delivered to the molds of a given machine section at exactly the same time thereby affecting the forming times.
To overcome the above problems, straight line shearing has been proposed. In straight line shearing, the shear blades advance in a straight line toward the issuing gobs from opposite directions. U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,642,966 issued to W. J. Miller on Sept. 20, 1927; 3,435,719 issued to F. J. Wythe on Apr. 1, 1969; and 3,996,037 issued to F. J. Wythe on Dec. 7, 1976 show examples of straight line shearing. Straight line shearing mechanisms may also be provided with means to adjust the vertical height of either the upper or lower shear blades to adjust the "tension" between opposite blades when they overlap during the cutting stroke. Such an arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,319 issued to F. J. Wythe and H. Hoette on May 18, 1971. Additionally, the drop guides for guiding the severed gob during its initial downward movement as it is being separated from the suspended molten glass column may be adjustable toward and away from the suspended column of molten glass as also shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,319. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The present invention relates to a premium package and, more particularly, to a premium package having an easily removable premium panel secured thereto and disposed therein.
A premium package is an ordinary package which has thereon or therein a printed premium which acts as an additional inducement to purchase the package. The premium itself may have an intrinsic value and be, for example, a baseball or similar collector's card, a cooking recipe, or the like. Alternatively, the premium may have little or no intrinsic value, but be redeemable for an item of value, for example, by the purchaser removing the premium and mailing it to the manufacturer for a refund or prize. Still further, the premium may merely provide more space on which the packager may print advertising material or the like. Regardless of whether or not the premium has intrinsic value, there are common problems associated with premium packages.
If the premium is merely inserted into the package and is not secured thereto, then the premium may be forgotten or may be removed with the contents of the package and thereby lost. Accordingly, it is desirable to have a premium package where the premium panel is secured thereto rather than loosely disposed therein. On the other hand, when the premium is secured to the outer surface of the package, it is too easily removable by retail personnel and passing customers without purchase of the package, thereby defeating the purpose of the premium package and discouraging potential customers who desire the premium from purchasing the now premium-free package.
If the premium is a structural part of the actual package, for example, a coupon, emblem, or the like constituting a part of a package wall, then the premium is typically not easily removable from the package, requiring either the tearing of the package walls or the use of a knife or scissors. Furthermore, once the premium which formed a part of the package body is removed, the ability of the package to perform its intended function may be impaired as its integrity has been destroyed.
Finally, even if the premium were secured to and disposed within the package, separate and apart from the package structural walls, it would frequently be difficult to remove it from the package until all of the contents of the package were first removed.
Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide a premium package having an easily removable premium panel secured thereto and disposed therein.
Another object is to provide such a package where the premium panel can easily be removed (without tools) prior to removal of the contents of the package in many instances and without destruction of the structural integrity of the package. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The invention relates to thermoplastic polycarbonate resins and more particularly relates to thermoplastic copolyester-carbonate resins having inherent mold release properties. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The repetoire of digital computers commonly contains a count ones instruction, which instruction computes the number of bits in a data word which are equal to binary "1". This computer count ones instruction may be implemented either under discrete logical or microprogrammable control. The generalized prior art computer logical structure for the implementation of a computer count ones instruction is shown in FIG. 1. The count ones instruction is typically implemented by shifting the data word as resides in DATA REGISTER 102 one bit at a time. The shifted-off bits are captured as represented by block C 104 and then added together, one at a time, by inserting them as the carry of an add operation performed within ALU 106. The intermediary sum is held in RESULT REGISTER 108. At the conclusion of the shifting and adding together of all bits, RESULT REGISTER 108 contains the final number of ones which were within the original data word.
The prior art method of performing the count ones instruction requires a shift and an add for each bit in the data word. Special hardware can combine the shift operation and the add operation into a single computer clock cycle in order to give a net instruction execution rate of one clock cycle per data word bit. If the embodiment of the shift operation and the add operation was enabled under microprogram control, one micro instruction execution time would be required for each bit within the data word. For example, a data word of 32 bits would require a minimum of 32 clock cycles, or microinstruction times, for execution of the computer count ones macroinstruction. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Casing and tubing failures are a source of great concern to producers of oil and gas. During the drilling of oil and gas wells, at least a portion of the well is lined with a tubular casing. Drilling fluids are circulated for various purposes through the drill string and back to the surface through the casing. Failure of this casing will allow undesirable leakage of drilling fluids into surrounding formations.
A more serious problem may result from the failure of production tubing. Tubing runs from the producing formation downhole up to the wellhead. If the tubing fails, the gas or oil being produced may leak to the surface along the outside of the tubing, and thence into the atmosphere, creating a risk of explosion or fire. In the case of subsea wells, the leakage may flow into the water causing serious pollution.
Many of the failures of casing and tubing are caused by longitudinal manufacturing flaws, such as laps, seams and plug scores, or from service induced defects such as caliper tracks. As such, it is not unusual for each length of casing or tubing to be inspected prior to installation in a well. Although inspection of the shank portion of tubing and casing is relatively straightforward, the inspection of the end areas of tubing and casing is not as simple. These ends are often "upset" (manufactured so that the wall of the tubular product is of extra thickness and strength near the end) and threaded. Currently, the magnetic particle inspection method is the primary method used for such end area inspections. In this method, the area to be inspected is magnetized and then dusted with fine particles of iron or iron oxide. These particles accumulate in the presence of cracks, thus giving a visual indication of the location of any flaws. This method is limited in that the area to be inspected must be thoroughly cleaned before the inspection. The method is also dependent on the alertness and visual acuity of the inspector.
A better method for detecting flaws at the end areas of tubular products makes use of magnetically sensitive transducers to detect flaws. A system of this type is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 308,749, filed on Oct. 5, 1981 by Moyer et al., the entirety of which is incorporated by reference. The apparatus described therein comprises an apparatus for applying a magnetic force to produce a generally axial field through the threaded end of a pipe and having various means for sensing radial magnetic fields and generating signals corresponding to those magnetic fields. Substantially transverse flaws in the pipe cause discontinuities in the magnetic flux lines which are generated in the pipe. These discontinuities in the magnetic field are detected by the sensing elements. The apparatus is not designed to detect the substantially longitudinal flaws often found in tubing and casing.
Another apparatus for detecting flaws on the ends of tubular products is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,236, issued Jan. 9, 1973 to H. P. Halsey et al. Halsey et al. disclose an apparatus for detecting longitudinal flaws in a magnetically energized body using a pair of overlaying, overlapping Hall devices. The apparatus includes a mounting assembly for fixedly positioning the Hall devices at the proper angle relative to the pipe. Should the body being inspected have both straight and tapered surfaces, the device mounting must be readjusted for inspection of the different surfaces. This apparatus provides no means for mechanically engaging the body being inspected and automatically moving the Hall devices about the end area of the body so as to scan the entire end area. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Non-volatile semiconductor memory devices are memory devices that can preserve stored data even when power is not supplied to the device. Various types of memory cells that are appropriate for non-volatile semiconductor memory devices are known. One such type of memory cell is the single transistor type memory cell.
A conventional single transistor type memory cell MC is illustrated in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the memory cell MC includes a current path formed between a source S and a drain D on a semiconductor substrate, a floating gate FG formed between a dielectric oxide DOX and a gate oxide GOX, and a control gate CG. The floating gate FG traps electrons, and the trapped electrons establish the threshold voltage of the memory cell MC. To perform a read operation on the memory cell MC, the threshold voltage of the memory cell MC is detected and the value of the data is determined based on the detected threshold voltage level.
Most non-volatile semiconductor memory devices include memory cells MC that can be programmed and erased repeatedly. A single transistor memory cell MC is programmed by trapping electrons in the floating gate FG. The electrons may be trapped in the floating gate FG by, for example, Fowler-Nordheim tunneling (FN) or electron injection. Electron injection may be performed, for example, by Channel Hot-Electron injection (CHE) or Channel-Initiated Secondary Electron Injection (CISEI). Fowler-Nordheim tunneling is widely used in flash memory devices in which data is erased simultaneously.
Typically, a single transistor memory cell MC stores one of two data values. As shown in FIG. 2, the two data values are determined by a threshold voltage that is set to one of two levels. For example, data may be read as “1” when the detected threshold voltage of the memory cell MC is lower than a reference voltage VM, and data may be read as “0” when the detected threshold voltage of the memory cell MC is higher than the reference voltage VM.
A four-level memory cell has been developed that can provide for increased integration of semiconductor memory devices. The four-level memory cell, as illustrated in FIG. 3, can be programmed with one of four threshold voltage levels. As a result, the four-level memory cell can store any one of four data values. Therefore, a non-volatile semiconductor memory device having four-level memory cells (hereinafter referred to as a “four-level non-volatile semiconductor memory device”) has a data storage capacity that is twice that of a non-volatile semiconductor memory device having two-level memory cells (hereinafter referred to as a “two-level non-volatile semiconductor memory device”).
In a four-level memory cell, the margin of the threshold voltage between neighboring levels typically is very narrow (e.g., about 0.67 V). Moreover, the threshold voltage of each memory cell may be shifted due to the leakage of electrons or the like. Accordingly, the threshold voltage of the memory cell MC may be shifted from a threshold voltage programmed with one of the four levels to a neighboring level threshold voltage, which can result in errors in reading the data stored in the four-level memory cell. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electromagnetic switching devices and particularly to an improved magnetic latching reed relay.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One type of a magnetic latching read relay includes a pair of reeds made from a magnetic material which, when exposed to a magnetic flux, will assume a magnetic state and remain in that state until exposed to a magnetic flux of opposite direction. The ends of the reeds overlap to function as a pair of normally open contacts. An example of such a relay is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 3,059,075 issued to R. L. Peek on Oct. 16, 1962.
Various arrangements of control windings have been employed with magnetically latched reed relays. One such arrangement is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 3,037,085 issued to T. N. Lowry on May 29, 1962. That arrangment employs the principle of differential excitation and employs two pairs of windings connected so that the relay is released, i.e., the contact pair is opened, by applying a current pulse to one pair of windings and the relay is operated, i.e., the contact pair is closed, by concurrently applying pulses of the same polarity to both pairs of windings.
Another control winding arrangement taught by U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,601 issued to R. J. Anger et al. on Feb. 19, 1974 operates or releases the reeds with a single pulse. Each of a pair of identical release windings is arranged over a corresponding one of a pair of reeds. The release windings are series connected so that a single pulse applied to the windings causes a magnetic field of one direction to be produced around one reed and a magnetic field of an opposite direction to be produced around the other reed. The resultant magnetic flux is such that the contact ends of the reeds are of the same magnetic polarity and thus separate. An operate winding in association with one of the two release windings is wound in a manner to produce a magnetic flux magnitude greater than the magnitude magnetic flux generated by the associated release winding and having a flux direction opposite to the flux direction produced by the associated release winding. The operate winding is series connected to the associated release winding so that a single current pulse flowing through the operate and the pair of release windings causes the contact ends of the reeds to have magnetic states of opposite polarity with the result that the contact ends of the reeds attract whereby the contact pair is closed.
The arrangement taught by the Anger patent has an inefficiency in its operation to close the reed contacts in that the operate winding must generate a magnetic field of sufficient strength to overcome the magnetic field concurrently produced by one of the release windings. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Most support devices providing vertical support for elongated shafts having a cylindrical or other appropriate cross section and which may be pole-like products are made of rigid metal, wood and plastic materials that are relatively expensive or difficult to produce, pack, transport or assemble; frequently requiring special tools, parts and instructions. Existing state-of-the-art collapsible support devices depend upon costly and complex multiple primary materials or secondary parts to form a three dimensional structure using a fastening method such as glue, velcro.RTM., rivets, clips, tape and the like. Additional disadvantages of the prior types of collapsible support devices include instability, complete dependence on the lightweight base for support and potential weakness which can lead to collapse due to improperly sized or attached points of fastening. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle driven by an engine and a motor. In particular the invention relates to a control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle, which regulates the deceleration regeneration amount by a motor according to traveling conditions.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application, Unpublished, No. Hei 11-280682, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore there is known a hybrid vehicle incorporating a motor in addition to an engine as a drive source for vehicle propulsion.
For one type of such hybrid vehicle, there is a parallel hybrid vehicle where the motor is used as an auxiliary drive source for assisting the output from the engine. With this parallel hybrid vehicle, for example at the time of acceleration, the output from the engine is assisted by means of the motor, while at the time of deceleration, various control is carried out such as performing charging of a battery by deceleration regeneration, so that the remaining charge (electrical energy) of the battery can be maintained while satisfying the requirements of the driver. (For example, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 7-123509.)
According to the control apparatus for the above-mentioned conventional hybrid vehicle, for example, in a situation where the degree of throttle opening (e.g. the extent of the throttle opening) is fully closed state, or fuel supply to the engine is stopped such as when traveling at high speed, the hybrid vehicle is decelerated by the two actions of regeneration by the motor and engine braking. Therefore, if the deceleration of the vehicle is as the driver has estimated, there is no problem, however, if the deceleration is greater than estimated, against the driver""s intention, for example, when there is a vehicle traveling ahead, if the distance from the forward vehicle is increasing, a situation may occur when the accelerator pedal is pressed again with the intention of following the vehicle traveling ahead. In this case, the frequency of regeneration the motor is reduced, the frequency of stopping fuel supply is reduced, and there is a problem of deterioration in fuel consumption rate.
The present invention takes into consideration the above situation, with the object of providing a control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle that can improve fuel consumption rate by regulating the regeneration amount by the motor to make appropriate the perceived deceleration of a vehicle.
To solve the abovementioned problem and achieve this object, a control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle (hybrid vehicle 10 in an embodiment as mentioned later) comprising: an engine (engine E) for outputting a propulsion force for a vehicle, a motor (motor M) for assisting the output from the engine depending on the driving conditions of the vehicle, and a storage unit (battery 22) for storing generated energy when the motor is used as a generator under the output from the engine, and regenerated energy obtained from regeneration of the motor at the time of vehicle deceleration, comprising: a remaining charge computing device (battery ECU 13) for computing the remaining charge of the storage unit, a speed detector (vehicle speed sensor S1) for detecting the speed of the vehicle, a regeneration amount setting device (step S202 and step S203) for setting the amount to be regenerated from the motor, and a regeneration amount reduction device (step S207) for, at the time of reducing the speed of the vehicle when a degree of throttle opening of the vehicle is fully closed state, or fuel supply to the engine is stopped, in the case where the remaining charge is computed by the remaining charge computing device to be greater than or equal to a predetermined remaining charge, and the speed is detected by the speed detector to be greater than or equal to a predetermined speed, multiplying the amount to be regenerated by a predetermined reduction coefficient.
According to the control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle of the above construction, in the case where the remaining battery charge of the storage unit is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, and the speed of the vehicle is greater than or equal to a predetermined speed, the regeneration amount by regeneration of the motor is reduced to prevent excessive deceleration of the hybrid vehicle, and the deceleration perceived by the driver is made appropriate. Consequently, unnecessary pressing of the accelerator pedal by the driver can be controlled. As a result, a decrease in frequency of regeneration of the motor can be prevented, and deterioration of fuel consumption ratio can be prevented by a decrease in the frequency of stopping the fuel supply.
Furthermore, the control apparatus for the hybrid vehicle of the present invention of a second aspect further comprising: a brake operation detector (brake switch S4) for detecting the brake operation of the vehicle, and a regeneration amount reduction inhibiting device (step S201) for, in the case where the brake operation detector detects that the brake is working, inhibiting the operation of the regeneration amount reduction device.
According to the control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle of the above construction, in the case where the brake pedal is pressed, it is determined that deceleration of the hybrid vehicle is requested by the driver, and reduction of the regeneration amount from the regeneration of the motor is inhibited. Consequently, the driver""s intention is accurately reflected, and the hybrid vehicle can be decelerated, and regenerated energy can be obtained without unnecessary reduction of the regeneration amount.
Moreover, according to the control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle of the present invention of a third aspect, the hybrid vehicle is provided with an automatic transmission (transmission T) and gear shift schedule controller (CVTECU 14) for changing a gear shift schedule according to traveling conditions of the vehicle, and the regeneration amount reduction inhibiting device, in the case where the gear shift schedule controller is operating, or a deceleration ratio of the automatic transmission is larger than a predetermined deceleration ratio, inhibits the operation of the regeneration amount reduction device.
According to the control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle of the above construction, in the case where gear shift control is performed by the automatic transmission or the gear shift schedule controller, by inhibiting reduction of the regeneration amount, for example, it is possible to avoid disturbing the control for setting a large deceleration ratio to decelerate the hybrid vehicle at the time of traveling down a slope, and for changing the gear shift schedule to improve the effect of the engine brake. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The invention generally relates to an adapter for a vehicle-towed trailer capable of use with a variety of cooking devices to render them mobile. In more particular detail the invention is related to portable or mobile outdoor cooking grills including an adapter releasably mounted on the frame of a trailer for accommodation of different type grills or roasting devices.
Mobile outdoor cooking devices that are offered in combination with trailers are known in the industry and allow the commercial caterer, restaurant service, or the like, to travel to remote locations and provide food service for large numbers of people, such as at picnics, carnivals and other social activities. Some outdoor cooking grills and ovens are mounted on their own legs and wheels and may be wheeled about, for example, on a patio or clubhouse veranda. With certain cooking devices the legs and wheels may be removed for storage or transport. Cooking devices utilizing hitched trailers have heretofore been formed as part of the trailer and have not been able to be removed from the trailer frame for separate, or independent use.
It would be a great advantage to those that provide outdoor cooking services to have available to cooking grill or oven device that may be used on its own legs in the first instance, and secondly, also be capable of being easily mounted on a mobile trailer unit. It would therefore accordingly be desirable to provide a transport vehicle that includes a trailer adapter that may be removable from the trailer frame so that the trailer may be used to transport other things, but primarily used for attachment of the trailer adapter. The trailer adapter would be also desirably formed to accommodate a plurality of grills whereby to render them all mobile upon the removal of any support legs and positioning onto the trailer adapter.
It would be desirable to provide a trailer adapter that releasably fastens to the frame of a vehicle-drawn trailer whereby the trailer may have other uses so that it is not limited to use as a cooking device. In this way, the cooking devices also might be separately used as stand-alone units on their own support legs.
It would also be a great advantage to the cooking industry in providing a transport vehicle for grills having standard removable legs whereby the legs might be removed and the grill conveyed to a remote location whereupon the grill may be taken from the trailer adapter and remounted with the legs. In this regard the trailer is simply used as a conveyance device and is not required to be present for cooking at the remote location, but may be taken elsewhere for other purposes.
In brief summary, the invention may be described as a trailer adapter, preferentially having a rectangular configuration in plan with two opposing long panels and two opposing shorter panels. The trailer adapter panels are desirably welded together for unitary construction, wherein a first shorter panel is arranged to be disposed generally adjacent the hitch assembly end of the trailer and joined to front ends of the long panels. In one form of the invention an opposing second shorter panel has a height less than the first shorter panel and is welded to the opposite, or rear, ends of the long panels; and in an alternate form the second shorter panel has the same height as the first shorter panel.
The trailer adapter includes inward flanges at the lower ends of the panels for resting atop the typical box-beam frame members of a trailer and having bolt-receiving holes facilitating removable attachment to the frame. The upper edges of the long panels and upper edges of said first shorter panel adjacent the hitch assembly are provided in the first form of the invention with outward flanged portions for supportively nesting underneath the complementarily shaped flanged lips of the firebox walls of a gas grill device having gas control panel means at one end. Thereby the adapter is flange-nested along the two opposing long panels and one shorter panel. The opposing second shorter wall includes a flange for supporting the bed of the firebox therealong. In the second form, the second shorter panel of the trailer adapter is the same height as the first shorter panel and also includes an outward flange for nesting underneath the flanged lip of the fourth wall of a grill firebox.
The firebox of the supported grill is arranged to be disposed generally with a major portion within the four panels of the trailer adapter. The first shorter panel of the adapter is desirably provided with engageable apertures for the receipt therethrough of bolts whereby to be capable of receiving bolts that may extend through a corresponding end wall of a firebox and through a grill support panel mounted to said firebox wall, for releasably securing the grill to the adapter.
The trailer adapter is preferably provided with L-shaped angle bracket connectors weld-engaged to the ends of the long panels and to the first shorter panel whereby the first shorter panel is spaced lengthwise and forward of the long panels to form spaces, or slots, in order to accommodate flanged portions of the end walls of grill fireboxes within the slots. Slots may also be similarly created by means of bracket connectors at the second shorter wall for the second form having a height substantially the same as the first shorter wall for use particularly with charcoal grills where the front and rear end walls are the same and no gas control panel is attached at either end wall.
The trailer adapter may be readily removable from the trailer by use of simple nut and bolt fasteners, whereby to allow the trailer to be quickly converted for other purposes.
For additional anti-rattle and anti-vibration construction to withstand over-the-road-transport, bolts or self-tapping screws may be engaged through the flanged lips of the firebox walls and the upper flanges of the adapter panels. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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In manufacturing industries in which a product lifecycle becomes short and the market change is vigorous, it is important to organize the production planning work capable of quickly meeting a customer's request.
In the production planning work, the production plan of specifying when and where each product is produced and how many products are produced is prepared at intervals of months or weeks, and this result is provided for the work in which the material procurement or manufacturing instruction is performed.
However, in the production planning work, in the case where even in the same product, a change occurs in multiple input information, or in the case where a manufacturing machine is shared by multiple products, since it is uncertain which input information influences which production planning result, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. JP-A-11-282824 (“patent document 1”), operations of (1) calculation of a manufacturing (production) availability number, (2) comparison of the previous/current manufacturing (production) availability numbers, and (3) recalculation of a manufacturing (production) availability number after input information correction have been repeatedly performed.
As disclosed in the patent document 1, since the operations of (1), (2) and (3) are repeated until a satisfactory production plan is obtained, it takes much time, and a practical production planning preparation work can not be performed. In particular, there has been a serious problem in a production line in which customer demand is frequently changed, a change in yield of the production line is vigorous, and a manufacturing process routing is complicated. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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The published patent application EP 0 303 741 describes a display comprising light-emitting diodes. The light-emitting diodes are in this case situated on a circuit board, to which they are electrically conductively connected in each case.
The published patent application WO 02/33756 A1 discloses an LED module having a carrier with a planar main area, on which a plurality of LED semiconductor bodies are applied. The LED semiconductor bodies can be electrically connected by means of a chip connection region situated between the carrier and the LED semiconductor body, and a contact area applied on that side of the LED semiconductor body which is remote from the carrier. For connecting the LED semiconductor bodies to one another, wire connections run from the contact area of the LED semiconductor bodies to the chip connection region of the adjacent LED semiconductor bodies.
Modules comprising radiation-emitting semiconductor bodies having small dimensions and a high luminance are required for many applications. Modules of this type are suitable in particular as semiconductor light source in conjunction with imaging optical arrangements such as projectors, for example.
An increase in the luminance of a module comprising radiation-emitting semiconductor bodies can be achieved, in principle, by increasing the radiation density of the individual semiconductor bodies, at the same time the optical output power being maintained or increased.
Furthermore, in order to increase the luminance it is possible to reduce the area on which the radiation-emitting semiconductor bodies are arranged. However, in the context of advancing miniaturization of the module, one problem consists in accommodating bond pads for making contact with the semiconductor bodies on an ever decreasing area of the module. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a flexible printed circuit board connector for electrically connecting a flexible printed circuit board.
2. Related Art
As shown in FIG. 4, a conventional flexible printed circuit board connector for electrically connecting a flexible printed circuit board comprises a male connector 32, having spring terminals 31, and a female connector 35 which is provided with the flexible printed circuit board 33, and has an opening 34 for receiving the terminals 31 of the male connector 32.
The flexible printed circuit board 33 is placed on the female connector 35 to cover the opening 34, and then the terminals 31 are pushed into the opening 34 through the flexible printed circuit board 33, and are contacted with the flexible printed circuit board 33.
As shown in FIG. 5, inner side surfaces of the opening 34 in the female connector 35 are flat, and a guide portion 36 (see FIG. 4) for guiding the male connector 32 is formed at a longitudinal end of the opening 34.
The male connector 32 includes a male connector casing 37 made of an insulating material, and the plurality of terminals (terminal plates) 31, corresponding to the number of poles, are mounted in the male connector casing 37. Integrally formed at a rear end of each of the terminals (terminal plates) 31 is a tab terminal 38 for electrical contact with a third connector (not shown).
The terminals (terminal plates) 31 are provided at the front and rear sides of the male connector 32. The front end portion (in a connector-inserting direction) of the terminal (terminal plate) 31 is folded back, and with this construction the terminal 31 has suitable resiliency in a direction of expansion of this folded-back portion (for example, in a right-left direction in FIG. 5), and its contact portion projects from the male connector casing 37.
When the male connector 32 is inserted relative to the female connector 35 in such a manner that a guide projection (not shown), formed on the male connector casing 37, is registered with the guide portion 36 of the female connector 35, the contact portions of the terminals (terminal plates) 31 of the male connector 32 press the flexible printed circuit board 33 against the inner side surfaces of the female connector 35, so that the terminals (terminal plates) 31 are electrically contacted with contact portions of the flexible printed circuit board 33, respectively.
However, in the conventional flexible printed circuit board connector, for example, when the ambient temperature abruptly changes, the dimensions of the parts vary as shown in FIG. 6, and therefore an expansion-contraction load acts on the flexible printed circuit board 33, so that an excessive bending motion develops in the flexible printed circuit board 33 because a flange portion 39 of the male connector 32 abuts against this board 33.
As a result of repetition of this bending motion (indicated by arrow B in FIG. 6), a repeated bending stress develops in that portion of the flexible printed circuit board 33 held by the flange portion 39, which leads to a possibility that conductors on this portion 33a are cut.
This invention has been made in order to solve the above problem, and an object of the invention is to provide a flexible printed circuit board connector in which a trouble, such as the cutting of conductors on a flexible printed circuit board by expansion-contraction due to an ambient temperature change, is prevented.
The above object has been achieved by a connector of the invention for a flexible printed circuit board comprising a male connector, having spring terminals, and a female connector which is provided with the flexible printed circuit board, and has an opening for receiving the terminals of the male connector, wherein the flexible printed circuit board is placed on the female connector to cover the opening, and then the terminals are pushed into the opening through the flexible printed circuit board, and are contacted with the flexible printed circuit board; CHARACTERIZED in that a gap for allowing the movement of the flexible printed circuit board is provided at the male connector.
In the flexible printed circuit board connector of the present invention, the terminals, provided at the male connector can have such resiliency as to allow the movement of the flexible printed circuit board.
In the flexible printed circuit board connector of the present invention, even if the flexible printed circuit board repeatedly expands and contracts when the ambient temperature abruptly changes, a bending load will not act in a concentrated manner on one portion of the flexible printed circuit board since the flexible printed board can move, and therefore the cutting of conductors on the flexible printed circuit board is prevented.
In the flexible printed circuit board connector of the present invention, there are provided the gap for allowing the movement of the flexible printed circuit board, and besides the resiliency of the terminals of the male connector prevents the flexible printed circuit board from being held in undue restraint, and therefore the risk of cutting of the conductors is avoided more effectively. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Mobile telephones and other such mobile communication devices are typically assigned a unique identity at manufacture. For example, all communication devices capable of communicating with a GSM or 3G network have a unique international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number. For GSM and 3G devices the GSM association allocates IMEI numbers to device manufacturers. The IMEI information is maintained in a global IMEI database (IMEI DB), formerly known as the central EIR (CEIR), and is made available to all GSM and 3G network operators.
Additionally, each network operator maintains their own equipment identity register (EIR). An EIR enables a network operator to maintain a so-called blacklist of GSM or 3G devices that should be denied service on mobile networks because they have been reported as lost, stolen, faulty, or otherwise unsuitable for use.
The IMEI DB also maintains a blacklist that is updated regularly from the EIRs of participating GSM and 3G network operators. This in turn enables each network operator to update their own EIRs with the global blacklist of devices. In this way, each EIR is able to deny service to any device on the global blacklist.
However, as the number of network operators who provide their EIR blacklist to the IMEI DB, so the size of the IMEI DB blacklist grows. Consequently, when a network operator wishes to download the global IMEI DB blacklist, huge amounts of data are involved.
Accordingly, one aim of the present invention is to overcome, or at least alleviate, at least some of the problems of the prior art.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of controlling access to a communication network, comprising receiving a request from a communication device to connect to the communication network, the request including a substantially unique identifier of the device, and determining whether the identifier is contained in a local device database of the network. Where it is determined that the identifier is not contained in the local database the method further comprises authorizing the device to connect to the network, and at a subsequent update of the local device database, determining the status of the identifier from a shared device database, and updating the status of the determined identifier in the local device database with the determined status.
Suitably, the local database comprises identifiers of devices authorized to connect to the network and identifiers of devices not authorized to connect to the network, the step of authorizing comprising determining whether the received identifier is authorized to connect to the network.
Suitably, the method further comprises, where an identifier is not contained in the local database, marking the identifier such that the status thereof is subsequently retrieved from the shared device database.
Suitably, the local database comprises a white-list of device identifiers authorized to connect to the network, a black list of device identifiers not authorized to connect to the network, and a gray-list of device identifiers authorized to connect to the network but to be monitored, the step of authorizing comprising determining whether the device is authorized to connect to the network by way of the identifier.
Suitably, where the identifier is not contained in the local database, the method further comprises adding the identifier to the gray-list of the local database.
Suitably, during the update of the local device database, the method further comprises updating the status of any gray-listed devices with the status stored in the shared device database.
Suitably, the method is adapted for use for with a mobile telecommunication network.
Suitably, the method is adapted for use with a GSM or 3G telecommunications network, the device identifiers being international mobile equipment identity numbers, the local database being an equipment identity register and the shared database being a global IMEI database.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication system operable in accordance with any of above-mentioned method steps. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
In the technical field constituted by the production of satellite structures made of composite materials, it is essential to provide strict thermic control of the elements constituting the structure by equipping them with both cooling units and heaters distributed at appropriate locations on the assembly. In fact, it is known that, depending on their position in sunlight or in shade, the various parts of a satellite are subjected to extremely wide temperature variations which, despite the choice of appropriate materials, may result in spacial deformations which, even if minimal, may render inoperative observation and communication transmission devices. One known solution consists of gluing to the appropriate elements of the structure a heater mainly consisting of a heating resistor, such as a printed circuit mounted on a plastic strip. This technique can be combined with another known technique and used in aeronautics so as to ensure the deicing of the fuselage or wings of an aircraft. This other technique consists of placing a composite structure with current conducting fibers at the critical zones to be de-iced, as described in the document FR-A 2 356 336. The feeding of electric current needing to traverse the fibers is effected via the connection of wires to a metallic frame mounted at the edge of the critical zones which is kept in contact with the fibers, or to a metallic deposit which is produced by vaporization or electrolytic means at the extremities of the critical zones containing the fibers. Apart from the drawback of being complex to mount and dispose, these devices have one major defect as regards the electric contacts required between the fibers and the feed wires owing to the fragility of gluings of the electric link. Moreover, the excess thicknesses existing at the locations of the electric connections are detrimental to the aerodynamic profile of the wings and impede the correct placing of structures for shielding and protecting the leading edges against impacts and erosion.
By virtue of the document FR-A 2 578 377 in the name of the Applicant, there exists a de-icing device able to avoid these drawbacks, a device in which the conductive fibers are carbon fiber appearing in the form of at least one strip in which the fibers are orientated longitudinally, the strip being preimpregnated with resin and having at least one extremity being fixed in the shape of a deformable tubular element with a metallic meshwork ensuring the required electric link via contact with said strip and by welding or crimping such to the corresponding feed wire.
However, as regards the embodiment of elementary parts made of a composite material and intended to form the load bearing structure of a satellite which are needing to be equipped with a heater, it seems impossible to add a strip and tubular element such as is shown in the prior art to each part.
The document FR-A 2 339 314 also describes conductive heating very thin layers incorporating conductors parallel to the direction of the orientation of these layers. The documents FR-A 2 233 487 or FR-A 1 533 941 describe motor vehicles with heated windows or laminated panels equipped with incorporated resistance wires, but these production techniques clearly prove to be totally unsuitable for employment in a satellite load bearing structure.
At the current moment, the adding of a heater to a composite support requires the prior cleaning of said support at the same time as the preparation of the surface quality of the heater, followed by masking of the support receiving the heater and then spreading a coating of glue on the assembled elements. Finally, after polymerization of the glue, the gluing zones need to be demasked and cleaned before fixing the connection cables, for example with the aid of collars. This gluing needs to be effectedly fully and evenly, firstly to ensure a correct regular thermic contact with the support, and secondly so as to avoid the risks of tearing or hooking of the corners of the heater during its various handlings and avoid leaving any air bubbles caught under the heater and which would burst in space!
This production technique does nevertheless have a certain number of drawbacks. In addition, it requires the passage of each elementary part through at least two workshops or production zones, namely firstly to make the basic part according to either of the known methods, namely via filamentary winding, draping of strips, etc., and then of adding to it the heating element. These operations not covered by each of these techniques and dealt with by the same specialists are thus effected one after the other and thus they double the production time and risks of pollution, and thus require that constricting precautions be taken as regards cleanness. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to assembly of devices and systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to self-assembly and related processes and the resultant devices.
Self-assembly refers in general to processes for assembling devices or components in which the assembly takes place without active interaction from an external force. Instead, self-assembly techniques rely on characteristics of individual components that urge the components to assemble together in a desired manner.
Self-assembly techniques are desirable because they can greatly reduce manufacturing costs. Further, they are particularly well suited for assembly of very small components, such as micro and nanometer sized components, in which their extremely small size makes physical and robotic assembly difficult.
Robotic assembly lines are (i) ineffective in assembling components that are smaller than 1 mm in size fundamental challenges appear at <100 μm length scale, as a result, components are connected on a board level not a chip level, and system performance goes down; (ii) are ineffective in assembling components in three dimensions; (iii) are ineffective in forming interconnects between non-planar and three-dimensional structures; (iv) have a limited throughput due to the serial nature of robotic pick and place; and (v) require a large capital investment.
Previous demonstrations of directed self-assembly to generate functional electrical microsystems include the coplanar integration of segmented integrated circuit (IC) devices into 2D “superchips” using capillary forces by Fung and Sliwa (see, C. D. Fung, P. W. Cheung, W. H. Ko, D. G. Fleming, Micromachining and Micropackaging of Transducers (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1985, 1985) and J. W. Sliwa Jr., in US Patent. (1991), vol. U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,253); shape-directed fluidic methods that position electronic devices on planar surfaces using shape recognition and gravitational forces (see, A. Stemmer, H. Jacobs, H. F. Knapp, Proceedings of the SPIE—The International Society for Optical Engineering 2906, 80-5 (1996); and M. Sitti, H. Hashimoto, Advanced Robotics 13, 417-436 (1999)) by Smith and Yeh (see, H. J. J. Yeh, J. S. Smith, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters 6, 706-708 (1994) and J. S. Smith, H. J. J. Yeh, U.S. Pat. No. 5,824,186 (1998)); liquid-solder-based self-assemblies that use the surface tension between pairs of molten solder drops to assemble three-dimensional electrical networks, ring oscillators, and shift registers (see, C. Baur et al., Nanotechnology 9, 360-364 (1998). And L. T. Hansen, A. Kuhle, A. H. Sorensen, J. Bohr, P. E. Lindelof, Nanotechnology 9, 337-342 (1998).) by Whitesides and Jacobs; capillary force directed self-assembly that uses hydrophobic-hydrophilic surfaces patterns and photo curable polymers to integrate micro-optical components, micromirrors and semiconductor chips on silicon substrates (see, R. Resch et al., Applied Physics a 67, 265-271 (1998); P. E. Sheehan, C. M. Lieber, Nanotechnology 7, 236-240 (1996); P. Kim, C. M. Lieber, Science 286, 2148-2150 (Dec. 10, 1999)) by Boeringer and Howe; and solder-receptor directed self-assembly where metal contacts on segmented semiconductor devices bind to liquid-solder-based-receptors to assemble and electrically connect devices on planar and non-planar surfaces (see, J. Fraysse, A. Minett, O. Jaschinski, C. Journet, S. Roth, Vide-Science Technique et Applications 56, 229−+ (2001)) by Jacobs and Whitesides. The shape-directed method by Smith and Yeh (see, A. Stemmer, H. Jacobs, H. F. Knapp, Proceedings of the SPIE—The International Society for Optical Engineering 2906, 80-5 (1996); and M. Sitti, H. Hashimoto, Advanced Robotics 13, 417-436 (1999)) is used by Alien Technology (www.alientechnology.com) to direct the assembly of small radio frequency identification tags. They flow suspended semiconductor chips over a surface that carries correspondingly-shaped “holes” that act as receptors for the device components. The device components settle into these holes due to gravitational forces. The process by Fung and Sliwa uses segmented integrated circuits that float at an air-liquid or liquid-liquid interface (FIG. 2). The circuit segments are pulled together due to the reduction of the interfacial free energy of the system.
There will be no universal self-assembly strategy that can solve every engineering problem. For example, the processes by Smith and Yeh and Fung and Sliwa allow the formation of two-dimensional assemblies; their extension into three dimensions, however, appears to be impossible. Both strategies do not address the formation of electrical interconnects during the assembly step and require additional processing.
There is an ongoing need to improve self-assembly techniques and expand their functionality. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Electronic integrated circuits frequently need a power supply detection circuit to initialize the circuits for ensuring predictable operation after the power supply has reached a specified value. In the past, power supply reset circuits have used resistor and capacitor delay constants to create a delayed version of the power supply. The integrated circuit is fully powered by the time the delayed power supply signal reaches its final value. The initialization only occurs when the delayed power supply signal obtains a predetermined value. Therefore, the integrated circuits are fully operational by the time the initialization occurs. The length of the delay is varied by changing the values of the resistor and capacitor. However, a resistor-capacitor (RC) time delay initialization circuit is limited in its usefulness. The power supply may rise so slowly that large values of resistors and capacitors must be used. If implemented on the integrated circuit, the delay resistors and capacitors will cover a large amount of valuable substrate surface area. Another approach is to place the delay resistor and capacitor outside of the integrated circuit. This approach is also problematic because valuable integrated circuit pins must be used to access the delay resistors and capacitors. The delay resistors and capacitors will also use printed circuit board area and add to the number of components that must be placed on the printed circuit board. Problems can also arise when the power supply rises slower than the RC time constant. In this case, the circuit initialization may occur to early. For example, when the power supply is turned off, the RC time delay network must discharge before the power supply can be turned back on. If the power supply is turned back on too soon, the initialization may occur too early.
A power supply detection circuit which is physically on the integrated circuit, and which uses no resistors or capacitors but does use only the standard enhancement mode NMOS and PMOS transistors, would be advantageous because less integrated circuit substrate area would be used, and no integrated circuit pins would be used. U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,067 describes a solution that incorporates these advantages. However, this method does not allow for the integrated circuit to initialize when the power supply is cycled quickly. That is, if the power supply to the integrated circuit is rapidly turned from the state of "on" to the state of "off" and then back to the state of "on", there is no guarantee that initialization of the integrated circuit will occur. The method of this patent also requires an excessive amount of circuit elements which occupy valuable integrated circuit substrate surface area.
It is desirable that a power supply detection circuit system use the least amount of circuit elements so that the amount of integrated circuit substrate surface area is minimized. A power supply detection circuit should also reliably initialize the integrated circuit at a precise but adjustable power supply voltage level. It is desirable to be able to guarantee initialization of the integrated circuits when the power supply is cycled to ensure that the circuitry is properly initialized.
Thus, there is a need for a power supply detection circuit that uses a minimal amount of integrated circuit substrate surface area, dissipates a minimal amount of power and allows the power supply initialization detection voltage to be variable. The power supply initialization should also be reliable and predictable when the power supply is rapidly cycled over a short period of time. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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As power grids become more and more complex, system operation security has become a big concern. Voltage security assessment is a powerful way for measuring system operation security because such assessment can provide information about how certain contingency would affect the whole power system. Base on the assessment, the system operators can evaluate system security and determine feasible control actions.
Several conventional techniques have been developed to perform voltage security assessment in a power system. For example, traditional operational planning studies may be applied with transmission line tripping and load forecast. These studies, however, are time consuming and are only suitable for off-line analysis. In another conventional technique, P-V curves and V-Q curves are used in voltage stability analysis. Information, such as critical limits, operation region, etc, can be readily identified in these curves. In a further example, dynamic and/or static modal analysis may be performed for voltage security assessment. Dynamic analysis is similar to transient stability analysis while static analysis is based on eigenvalue analysis or singular value decomposition of a system power flow Jacobian matrix. A stability degree can be identified by computing the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the reduced Jacobian matrix. Bus, generator, branch participation factors can also be attained to evaluate the contribution of each component.
On-line voltage security assessment has attracted a great deal of interest lately. Many techniques have been proposed. However, most of these techniques utilize at least some of the foregoing techniques for assessment. Other techniques have also been developed to perform the same function, such as neural network method, fuzzy-logic method, adaptive bounding method, and case-based reasoning approach. However, these techniques are complex and computationally demanding. Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for efficiently and cost-effectively assess operation security in a power system. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
Within the field, many scenarios involve the storage of values to a storage device set comprising at least one storage device, such as a collection of hard disk drives or a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID). When a storage device is first provided, or when capacity on a storage device is deallocated and then reallocated, the physical media of the storage device may be initialized; e.g., the locations of the storage device may be wiped to a default value. This initialization may enable a process that accesses a location of the storage device where a value not yet been written to receive a specific value rather than an arbitrary value, including the previously written value in a deallocated area.
The initialization of a storage device may also be significant in storage scenarios involving a location set of comprising at least two associated locations, where the values stored therein have a particular relationship. As a first example, in a mirroring resiliency plan, identical copies of a storage set may be stored at two or more locations (often on different storage devices), such that a value stored in one location is anticipated to match the value stored in one or more other locations involved in the mirroring relationship. As a second example, in a parity resiliency plan, when a set of data values is written to data locations of a location set, a parity of the written values may be calculated and stored in a parity location of the location set that is reserved for the parity value, which may enable error detection, error correction, and the reconstruction of the data values in the event of a failure of some of the storage devices storing the values of the location set. In these scenarios, a failure to initialize a location may impact the confidence in the validity of the associated data sets; e.g., if data is written to a first mirror location but a failure occurs before the same data can be written to the associated location, a mismatch may arise that erodes confidence in the value stored in the first mirror location, and possibly in the remainder of the storage device set. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for measuring an air volume of a blower motor.
Description of the Related Art
Typically, to monitor the air volume of an air conditioning system, an anemometer or an air volume meter is installed at the air outlet or in the ventilation duct. However, to achieve the monitoring, additional hardware and complex wiring are required. This increases the production cost. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat dissipating substrate and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As electronic components have been becoming miniaturized, densified and thinned, thinned and highly-functionalized semiconductor package substrates are being required.
Particularly, in order to realize a multi-chip package (MCP) technology for stacking and mounting several semiconductor chips on one substrate or a package on package (PoP) technology for stacking several substrates mounted with a semiconductor chip, it is required to develop a substrate exhibiting a thermal expansion behavior similar to that of a semiconductor and having excellent bendability. Further, as the operation speed of a semiconductor chip increases due to advances in semiconductor chips, it is also required to solve the problem of heat generation.
In order to meet the above requirements, technologies for manufacturing a metal core substrate by inserting metal into a core are being used. The reason for this is that metal serves to block the thermal expansion behavior of a substrate and promote heat dissipation because it has very excellent thermal expansion characteristics and high thermal conductivity.
FIGS. 1 to 5 are sectional views showing a conventional method of manufacturing such a metal core substrate. The conventional method of manufacturing a metal core substrate is described as follows with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.
First, as shown in FIG. 1, a metal core 11 having high thermal conductivity is provided.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 2, through-holes 12 are formed in the metal core 11 by drilling work using a CNC drill or a CO2/YAG laser or by etching work.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 3, an insulation layer 13 is formed on both sides of the metal core 11 provided with the through-holes 12.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 4, via holes 14 for making interlayer connections are formed by machining the insulation layer 13 corresponding to the through-holes 12 formed in the metal core 11. In this case, the via holes 14 must have smaller sizes than the through-holes 12 formed in the metal core 11 in order to insulate copper plating layers formed on the inner walls of the via holes 14 from the metal core 11.
Finally, as shown in FIG. 5, copper plating layers are formed on the surface of the insulation layer 13 and the inner walls of the via holes 14 by electroless and electrolytic copper plating processes and an electrolytic plating process, and then the copper plating layers are formed into circuit layers by exposure, development and etching processes to manufacture a metal core substrate 10.
However, such a conventional method of manufacturing a metal core substrate is problematic as follows.
First, in order to prevent the electrical defect of the metal core substrate 10 due to the short of the plating layers formed on the surface of the insulation layer 13 and the inner walls of the via holes 14 formed in the metal core 11, the through-holes 12 must be formed to have a sufficient size. In this case, the residual ratio of the metal core to the substrate is at most about 50%, thus reducing thermal conductivity. Further, in order to perform drilling work such that the sizes of the via holes 14 are smaller than those of the through-holes 12, working accuracy is required, thus increasing manufacturing cost and time.
Furthermore, the metal core 11 is embedded in the insulation layer 13 in order to increase the rate of heat radiation, so that the thickness of the substrate is increased, with the result that, at the time of performing drilling work, a drill bit is easily worn compared to other substrates having the same structure, and working accuracy is also decreased. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a droplet discharge method, an electro-optical device, and an electronic device.
2. Related Art
The droplet discharge head of an inkjet printer is able to discharge microscopic ink droplets in the form of dots, which affords extremely high precision in terms of the uniformity of the size and pitch of the ink droplets. This technology has been applied to the manufacture of many different products, such as electro-optical devices. For instance, it can be applied in the formation of a film for the light-emitting components of organic EL display devices or the color filter layers of liquid crystal devices.
More specifically, a droplet discharge head is filled with a special ink, a photosensitive resin liquid, or another such functional liquid, and droplets of this functional liquid are discharged onto prescribed portions provided on a substrate. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-267927 is an example of related art. A number of different colors are usually formed in the light-emitting components or color filters used in conventional electro-optical devices, and a plurality of types of functional liquid are discharged onto the substrate, each by a different device, one at a time.
When the apparatus discussed in the above mentioned reference is used, however, since a plurality of types of functional liquid are discharged onto the substrate by different devices one at a time, the overall discharge process ends up taking a long time. In view of this, the idea was conceived to discharge all types of functional liquid with a single device in order to shorten the discharge time.
Also, the prescribed portions provided to the substrate usually have a larger volume than the droplets of functional liquid, and cannot be fully filled with functional liquid in a single scan, so scanning is performed a number of times. Further, since the prescribed portions have a large bottom surface area compared to the size of the droplets of functional liquid, in each scan the functional liquid is discharged evenly over the entire bottom surface of the prescribed portions so that the functional liquid will not be distributed unevenly within the prescribed portions.
However, as the functional liquid starts to fill the prescribed portions over a plurality of scans, the functional liquid newly discharged toward the prescribed portions can sometimes rebound upon hitting the surface. Particularly around the peripheral edges of the prescribed portions, any functional liquid that rebounds can splash out of the prescribed portions and may become mixed up with another type of functional liquid, such as the functional liquid held in an adjacent prescribed portion. Furthermore, if discharged functional liquid comes into contact with the top of the dividing walls that separate the prescribed portions, the functional liquid may rebound, or the functional liquid adhering to the top part of the walls may flow and become mixed with the functional liquid of another prescribed portion adjacent to the targeted prescribed portion. If functional liquids of different types become mixed in an electro-optical device, this can lead to a decrease in contrast. Also, even if functional liquids of the same type become mixed, the targeted prescribed portions may end up not holding the intended amounts of functional liquid, which causes density unevenness.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved droplet discharge method, an improved electro-optical device, and an improved electronic device. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure. | {
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The present invention relates to a method for the generation of raised or recessed structures on workpieces as well as to a corresponding apparatus for carrying out the method.
Various products or workpieces, such as, for example, glass products, are provided during their production to some extent with projections, offsets, elevations, etc. (raised structures) and/or indentations, depressions, grooves, etc. (recessed structures). These raised and recessed structures are generated simultaneously with the production of the product or workpiece or glass body, by blowing, for example, a glass gob into an empty metallic mold which has the desired structure (settle blow). The quality, i.e. dimensions, roughness, etc. of the raised and recessed structures generated as a result, however, are relatively low. Thus, the generated glass product gives the user the impression of it being of cheap or low quality. There is, consequently, a need for an improvement of the raised or recessed structures with respect to their quality.
The invention therefore addresses the problem of providing a method for the generation of raised and recessed structures, with which qualitatively high-grade products or workpieces can be generated. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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High-end mobile electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets provide ubiquitous network connectivity to the users thereof. For example, a group of users may connect their devices to a game server, and play an online game together anywhere they want. However, when the connection quality is unstable and/or the communication speeds between the devices and the server are slow, the users have to bear with the inconvenience of the discontinuity of the game. Further, as the number of devices connected to the server increases, the amount of data traffic to be transmitted from the server correspondingly increases, which results in a heavy load on the network. | {
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Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A typical image forming apparatus such as a copier and a printer includes a fixing device that fixes a toner image transferred on a paper sheet on the paper sheet. A fixing device includes a fixing roller and a pressure roller that form a fixing nip by being brought into pressure contact with one another. A toner image undergoes heating and pressurization to be fixed on a paper sheet when the paper sheet passes through the fixing nip.
In such a fixing device, a paper sheet sometimes winds around a fixing roller after passing through a fixing nip. Accordingly, to prevent winding of the paper sheet, the fixing device includes a separating member that separates the paper sheet from the fixing roller after the paper sheet passes through the fixing nip. The separating member includes a separation plate that faces an outer peripheral surface of the fixing roller and a contact member that holds the separation plate with a predetermined clearance from the outer peripheral surface. The contact member forms the clearance between the separation plate and the outer peripheral surface by being brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface in a non-paper passing region, which is outside a paper passing region of the fixing roller.
Thus, since the contact member always contact the fixing roller, the contact portion with the contact member of the fixing roller fiercely wears. Use of an IH as a heat source may cause a fixing member to be driven even during waiting because of heat equalization for the fixing roller and thus may cause wear to further progress. In view of this, a fixing roller using a fixing belt causes a failure of the fixing belt.
Meanwhile, passing a special paper such as an envelope requires reduction of a fixing pressure of the fixing nip. In view of this, the fixing roller and the pressure roller are separably located such that the fixing pressure is switchable between a pressurized state and a reduced pressure state. Even in such reduced pressure state, a predetermined clearance needs to be allocated between the outer peripheral surface of the fixing roller and the separation plate. An unstable clearance may cause a paper-passing-through failure where a distal end of an envelope is caught by a distal end of the separation plate.
There is known a fixing device configured to separate a contact member from a fixing roller during switching a fixing pressure from a pressurized state to a reduced pressure state. This fixing device is configured to switch the fixing pressure by moving the fixing roller with respect to the pressure roller. Then, during movement of the fixing roller in switching of the fixing pressure from the pressurized state to the reduced pressure state, a movable frame that supports the fixing roller interferes with the contact member to separate the contact member from the fixing roller. | {
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the production of hydrocarbon-containing fluids from subterranean formations. In another aspect, the invention concerns a system for measuring and monitoring the production of a plurality of individual wells, each operating as part of a common production field. In a further aspect, the invention concerns a system for more accurately measuring and continuously monitoring the production of oil, gas, and water from individual hydrocarbon wells, each operating as part of a common production field.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Conventional systems for measuring and monitoring the production of individual wells in a common production field require an individual to manually perform monthly tests on each well in the field. Each test typically consumes approximately 2 to 8 man-hours and thus, is a labor intensive undertaking, particularly for fields with a high number of individual wells. Further, the results from such manual, monthly individual well tests are suspect due to the limited number of data points collected and the integrity of the testing system if not properly maintained. A typical well testing system may include a test header which is connected in parallel by a plurality of valves with a production header so that production from an individual well can be directed through the test header while the production of the remaining wells is directed through the production header. Such a test header can be costly to install and maintain.
In many areas where hydrocarbons are produced from subterranean formations, in particular the area known as the North Slope of Alaska, periodic manual well tests, as described above, are being used for the custody transfer of unprocessed production between oil fields upstream of the final processing plant. For custody transfer purposes, a minimum of two well tests per month on each well, and additional well tests within 24 hours of any significant operational change of the well is required. Further, a full time surveillance engineer is required to validate the well testing and production allocation process. Using this method for custody transfer requires a significant capital expenditure to standardize all well testing equipment.
Responsive to these and other problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a system for measuring and monitoring individual well production without requiring time-consuming, periodic, manual, individual well tests.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a well production measuring and monitoring system which continuously monitors the production of each individual well.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an individual well production measuring and monitoring system which allows for the elimination of costly test headers.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a system for more accurately measuring the production of a plurality of individual wells operating as part of a common production field.
It should be noted that the above-listed objects need not all be accomplished by the invention claimed herein, and other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention and appended claims.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a method of determining fluid production from a plurality of individual hydrocarbon wells is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (a) simultaneously measuring a plurality of individual well multi-phase flow measurements, each indicative of the fluid produced by a respective one of the individual wells; (b) measuring a combined multi-phase flow measurement of the combined fluid cooperatively produced by all of the individual wells; and (c) allocating the combined multi-phase flow measurement from step (b) to each of the individual wells based on the individual well multi-phase flow measurements from step (a) to thereby determine an adjusted individual well multi-phase flow measurement for each individual well, the adjusted individual well multi-phase flow measurements providing a more reliable indication of actual multi-phase fluid production from each individual well than the individual well multi-phase flow measurements from step (a).
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a method of determining fluid production from a plurality of individual hydrocarbon wells is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (a) simultaneously measuring an upstream multi-phase flow of the fluid produced by each individual well; (b) generating a plurality of upstream flow signals each indicative of the upstream multi-phase flow of a respective individual well; (c) measuring a downstream multi-phase flow of the combined fluid cooperatively produced by all of the individual wells; (d) generating a downstream flow signal indicative of the downstream multi-phase flow of all the individual wells; and (e) computing an adjusted upstream multi-phase flow measurement based on the upstream and downstream flow signals by allocating the downstream multi-phase flow to each individual well based on the upstream multi-phase flow, the adjusted multi-phase flow measurement provides a more accurate indication of the actual multi-phase flow of the fluid produced by each individual well than the upstream multi-phase flow measured in step (a).
In accordance with a further embodiment of the present invention, a method of determining fluid production from a plurality of individual hydrocarbon wells is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (a) simultaneously measuring a plurality of upstream gas flow rates, each indicative of the flow rate of an upstream gas-phase component of the fluid produced by an individual well; (b) simultaneously measuring a plurality of upstream liquid flow rates each indicative of the flow rate of an upstream liquid-phase component of the fluid produced by an individual well; (c) measuring a plurality of upstream water-cuts each indicative of the amount of water in the upstream liquid-phase component of the fluid produced by an individual well; (d) physically combining the fluids produced by all of the individual wells into a combined flow; (e) physically separating the combined flow into a downstream gas-phase cut and a downstream liquid-phase cut; (f) measuring a downstream gas flow rate indicative of the flow rate of the downstream gas-phase cut; (g) measuring a downstream liquid flow rate indicative of the flow rate of the downstream liquid-phase cut; and (h) physically recombining the downstream gas-phase cut and the downstream liquid-phase cut.
In accordance with a still further embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus for measuring fluid production from a plurality of individual wells is provided. The apparatus generally comprises a plurality of upstream metering devices and a downstream metering device. Each of the upstream metering devices are adapted to be fluidically coupled to a respective individual well. Each of the upstream metering devices is operable to measure an upstream gas flow rate and an upstream liquid flow rate of the fluid produced by a respective individual well. The downstream metering device is adapted to be fluidically coupled to all of the individual wells and is operable to measure a downstream gas flow rate and a downstream liquid flow rate of the combined fluid cooperatively produced by all the individual wells.
In accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus for measuring fluid production from a plurality of individual hydrocarbon wells is provided. The apparatus generally comprises a plurality of upstream metering devices, a downstream metering device, and a computing device. Each of the upstream metering devices is adapted to be fluidically coupled to a respective individual well. Each of the upstream metering devices is operable to measure an upstream multi-phase flow of the fluid produced by a respective individual well. Each of the upstream metering devices is operable to generate an upstream flow signal indicative of the upstream multi-phase flow of the respective individual well. The downstream metering device is adapted to be fluidically coupled to all of the individual wells. The downstream metering device is operable to measure a downstream multi-phase flow of the combined fluid produced by all of the individual wells. The downstream metering device is operable to generate a downstream flow signal indicative of the downstream multi-phase flow of the combined fluid produced by all the individual wells. The computing device is operable to receive the upstream and downstream flow signals and compute a plurality of adjusted multi-phase individual well flow measurements by allocating the downstream multi-phase flow to each individual well based on the upstream multi-phase flow for each individual well. | {
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This invention relates to a computer implemented method and apparatus for processing forms and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for processing customizable application forms that share information from an extensible database.
The processing of college admission application forms described below is illustrative of the current state of forms processing. Students applying to colleges and universities typically complete a separate paper application for each institution to which they seek admission. Each application is then mailed to the corresponding institution along with an application fee.
Many institutions would like to simplify the application process by allowing students to apply over the Internet. Although an Internet application allows an institution to process the application information electronically, a student is required to re-enter the same information for each subsequent application to a different institution or to the same institution for a different academic term. Moreover, if the institution wishes to change the application form, the institution must typically revise the source code that creates the application form, thereby making changes to the application form expensive and inconvenient.
One could reduce redundancy in the application process by allowing students to complete a single, generic application provided by a third party who would then transmit the application to any designated institution. Such systems, however, would make it impossible for institutions to customize their applications form. In an environment where schools are competing for top students, the image that a school projects to potential students is important, and a customized application can help project the image that the school wishes to create. The questions that a school asks on its application reflect the values of the institution. Many schools want information different from that which would be on a generic form. Thus, it is unacceptable to many institutions to use a generic application form.
Most institutions continue, therefore, to use primarily paper applications or their own on-line applications, with the disadvantages described above. Moreover, the institution must then process the application fee for on-line applications, which may require that the institution have some expertise in electronic commerce.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method of processing forms.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a method that allows data sharing between customizable forms, the customization including branding of forms to specific institutions.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide such a method that uses an extensible data-sharing database.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an improved method of processing admissions applications.
The present invention comprises a universal forms engine that permits the creation and processing of customizable electronic forms and selective sharing of information between the customized forms. A user thus enters data only once, and the data is shared through an extensible database between disparate forms. The forms are completed by a user over a computer network and information from each completed form is forwarded to the appropriate entity over a computer network. The ability of the forms engine to present a form for user input, to receive data from the user, and to provide the data to the appropriate entity is independent of the computing platform of the user and the entity. Any fees associated with the forms can be processed electronically over a computer network together with the forms.
The invention thus creates forms, parses data on forms, stores data, retrieves the data, and deploys the data onto other forms. As additional forms are completed and additional information becomes part of the database, the amount of information that must be manually entered on new forms decreases because the new forms are automatically populated with the previously entered data.
A form is considered to be essentially a container for data and implies an associated process. The forms engine integrates the form, the data, and the processing regardless of the appearance of the form, the type or significance of the data, and the processing that follows collection of the data.
Metadata, that is, information that characterizes the applicant data is also stored. For example, in one embodiment, an attribute table describes characteristics, such as permissible values and accessibility to various institution personnel, of applicant attribute data. In another embodiment, such properties of the applicant attributes are stored in XML files. Storing metadata provides greater control over the data validation, sharing between forms, grouping, and access.
User information and application information are abstracted from the coding, that is, the user information and application information is stored in a way that allows the application information and the user information to be changed without reprogramming. This abstraction allows the set of user data to be extended without reprogramming, allows the user data to be displayed in different formats in different applications, allows the data to be validated to ensure that it can be used by the institutions, and eases access to the information over the Web by institutions. Abstracting the application information allows the application itself to readily changed, and allows changes, such as changes to application dates, to be made by the institutions themselves. The abstracted information is saved, for example, in a relational database or in an XML file.
The subject matter of the present invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of this specification. However, both the organization and method of operation, together with further advantages and objects thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to like elements. | {
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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to object instantiation and migration in a network environment, and more particularly to systems and methods for improved instantiation and migration of objects including virtual machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a cloud computing environment virtual machines (VMs) are instantiated on demand based on client needs. For management and scalability reasons, the instantiation of VMs usually happens over a datacenter network. In a typical scenario, a client selects a preconfigured VM image (created either by the client or another person) and requests the instantiation of the VM (or multiple VMs) based on that image. Instantiating the VM image requires transferring all the contents of the image over the network from an image library server to a hypervisor that is going to host the VM. In different implementations, it is possible to transfer on-demand the contents of the image that are needed for a given computation task. In addition, for reasons related to the optimization of the cloud infrastructure, VMs may dynamically migrate from one hypervisor to another over the datacenter network.
If VM instantiation and migration happen in high frequency (as it is expected in a cloud computing environment), they can lead to considerable consumption of network resources. The exhaustion of networking resources can result in a bottleneck which will prevent realization of the full potential of cloud computing since the current solutions to this problem either: 1) try to minimize the VM migrations to those that are absolutely necessary (only after hardware/hypervisor failures), which unfortunately limits the potential of the cloud infrastructure to deal with very dynamic loads; 2) try to deploy the image library servers closer to the host servers (hypervisors), which comes at the cost of either replicating the image library contents to multiple locations or limiting the deployment of specific images to specific locations (e.g., in the Amazon cloud, the image deployment is limited to regions); and 3) try to limit the maximum number of network resources used by the VM instantiation and migration processes (by rate limiting their traffic), which results in longer instantiation or migration times, again limiting the agility of the cloud environment. | {
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This invention pertains to an AC-to-DC converter circuit, and in particular, to such a circuit which employs a bridge rectifier featuring legs containing insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) switching/rectifying devices.
The converter of the present invention, in relation to the structure and operation of the mentioned bridge rectifier, is a very simple and economical structure, with respect to which the choice to employ IGBT devices in two of the legs in the bridge circuit results in significantly improved efficiency in operation over prior art converter circuits, and related, normal operation and with only modest heat loss. Cooperating with the bridge rectifier in the overall converter circuit is a zero-crossing tracker which collaborates with a flip-flop device to trigger operations of the IGBT devices. Preferably, such triggering taking place through opto-isolator structure. The specific design and disposition of the zero-crossing tracker and cooperating flip-flop in this invention is such that if, for some reason, the tracker fails in its operation, the overall operation of the bridge rectifier, and thus effectively of the converter as a whole, shuts down so as to remove, effectively, any DC output voltage. Additionally, the zero-crossing tracker, during normal operation, coacts with the mentioned flip-flop circuit, and with firing of the IGBT devices, to play a role in effecting reliable output voltage-level control.
Use, in accordance with this invention, of IGBT switching/rectifying devices in the bridge rectifier is to be distinguished from conventional use in converter rectifier circuits of so-called SCR devices. As is well known, an SCR device cannot be switched arbitrarily from a conducting state, and specifically cannot be turned off selectively with anything approaching the versatility and timing precision of the turn-on and turn-off operations that characterize the behavior of an IGBT device. In addition, IGBT devices are faster switching devices than are SCRs. As a consequence, conventional SCR rectifiers cannot be employed to create an AC-to-DC converter which has the remarkable flexibility and operation of the circuit of the present invention. Further, the xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d resistance to current flow in an IGBT device is extremely low, and specifically, much lower than that which is characteristic of an SCR device. Accordingly, an IGBT device turns out to be inherently a better-efficiency device, one requiring less energy to turn on, and one which generates less dissipatable heat during normal use.
All of these important advantages that are offered by use, according to this invention, of IGBT rectifying/switching devices, result in an overall structure wherein efficiency of operation, simplicity of packaging, and minimization of heat dissipation, are dramatically improved over the prior art offerings.
Various other objects and advantages that are attained by this invention will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. | {
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It is often desirable to track the transport of items between locations, such as the point of manufacture and the point of sale or use. In particular, the secure transport of pharmaceutical products between production facilities, distribution centers, and/or pharmacies is important. The use of RFID tags in close proximity to each other can introduce additional costs and/or errors into the process of tracking a multiplicity of separately RFID tagged items. Also, it can be difficult to read all the RFID tags placed individually on a large number of items placed in close proximity to each other. Further, it is often desirable to prevent others from reading the RFID tags of tagged items being transported.
There is a need for a method and system for using RFID tags to accurately identify items being transported between various locations, such that RFID tags can be read and distinguished for a plurality of RFID tagged items proximate each other. There is also a need to prevent the reading by others of RFID tagged items being transported in certain situations. | {
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Most general purpose computer systems support a display of text-based characters, including letters, numerals, and other symbols, on pixel-oriented display devices. A pixel is a discrete segment of an overall field in which an image can be displayed. Although pixels are typically square or round in shape for most devices, many newer pixel-oriented display devices include rectangular pixels. A pixel is activated or "turned on" when the process that generates the display determines that it is appropriate to activate that portion of the image field. Accordingly, the display surface for a pixel-oriented display device consists of a grid of points, or pixels, each of which can be individually illuminated or "darkened" to display an image. Common pixel-oriented display devices are raster scan cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, liquid crystal display (LCD) displays, dot matrix printers, and laser printing devices.
In general, to display text on a pixel-oriented display device, a computer system utilizes one or more fonts. A font is a collection of characters designed by a typographer in a consistent style. Specifically, a typographer designs a character outline or "glyph" of each character for a particular font, including characters, numbers, punctuation, and any other image for a given font. A particular font refers to selected geometric characteristics of the characters within a character set. A glyph for a given character in a font is described as a numbered sequence of points that are on or off a curve defining the boundary of the character. In general, number sequence for the points should follow a recognized rule for how the points relate to the area to be filled and the area not to be filled when rendering the glyph. For TrueType font descriptions, the points are numbered in consecutive order so that as a path is traversed in the order of increasing point numbers, the filled area will always be to the right of the path. This glyph or outline description of the character is typically stored within a font file maintained by the computer system. TrueType font files are described in the Technical Specification, Revision 1.5, January 1994, entitled "TrueType 1.0 Font Files," by Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash.
In response to the information supplied by a font file, the outline is scaled according to the font size requested by the user and the characteristics of the display device on which it is to be displayed. The outline also may contain hints, which are routines that, when executed, adjust the shapes of the character outlines for various point sizes to improve their appearance. The outline is then scan converted to produce a character bitmap that can be rendered on the selected display device.
A character bitmap represents a grid-like array of pixels and each array element contains a pixel center. The pixel centers are connected in either horizontal or vertical directions by straight lines commonly described as scan lines or reference lines. Each character bitmap contains data reflecting which pixels in a subset of the display grid must be illuminated in order to form an image of a particular character. When a computer system needs to display a particular character at a display location, it accesses the character bitmap for that character. The computer system then turns the illumination of pixels near the display location on or off in accordance with the data stored in the character bitmap. The concept of displaying a character extends to a temporary display, such as a CRT display, as well as a more permanent image creation in the form of a printer.
Using font descriptions, computer systems can now create character bitmaps defining the images to be displayed, also described as raster fonts, dynamically in different typefaces in response to the needs of users. A computer program, which is also described as a rasterizer program, is typically incorporated as part of an operating system or printer control software program to provide this font technology service. The rasterizer program may be called by an application program, such as a word processor or a spreadsheet, when the program requires a raster font. In response to this request, the rasterizer program reads a description of the character outline from a font file stored within a memory storage device. The font file can be stored within either volatile or nonvolatile memory of the computer system or the display device.
The rasterizer program also receives the character's height or "point" size and the predetermined resolution of the intended display device to support the scaling of the character outline. The resolution of a pixel-oriented display device is specified by the number of dots or pixels per inch (dpi) that are to be displayed. This information supports a mapping of the description of the character outline into physical pixel units for the display device to be employed in displaying the character in that particular size. Thus, the geometric description of the character outline is scaled in physical pixel coordinates and represents a function of the predetermined physical pixel size of the display device and the requested point size. This process alters the height and width of the character.
To support the rendering of fonts at low resolution and/or small sizes, the rasterizer program typically includes a routine that analyzes the outlines of fonts and "hints" the fonts according to the size specified by the user in the resolution of the display device. The fundamental task of hinting is to identify critical characteristics of the original font design and to use instructions which adjust the outline to insure that those characteristics will be preserved when the character outline is rendered in different sizes on different devices. Common hinting goals include consistent stem weights, consistent intensity, even spacing, and the elimination of pixel dropouts.
If required, the rasterizer program applies hints to the scaled character outline to fit it to pixel boundaries while distorting the scaled character outline as little as possible. The rasterizer program thereafter conducts a scan conversion operation for the hinted character outline by superimposing a grid corresponding to the horizontal and vertical densities of the intended display device over the hinted outlines, then designating the subset of pixels of the grid whose centers fall within, or precisely on, the hinted outlines as pixels requiring illumination by the display device. The rasterizer program then returns the resulting raster font to the application program, which may use it to display text. The raster font also may be stored within an allocated buffer of computer system memory or display device memory to be used to satisfy any identical request received in the future.
The scan conversion process represents the task of "coloring" inside the lines of the character. For the rasterizer program, a scan converter generates a character bitmap which includes pixels which are activated based upon the relationship of the pixel centers with the character outlines. For conventional scan converters, two rules are generally used to determine if a particular pixel should be turned on or turned off. First, if a pixel's center or reference point falls within the character outline, that pixel is turned on and becomes part of that character outline. Second, if a contour of the character outline falls exactly on a pixel's center, that pixel is turned on. These rules define the conventional "centerpoint" fill method of bitmapping a character outline or glyph and is well known in the art of digital typography.
In general, at the start of a conventional scan conversion process, the character outline is traversed to determine the maximum and minimum coordinate values of the outline. The amount of memory required for the computer system to support the scan conversion tasks is then estimated to insure sufficient workspace memory for the storage of calculation results generated by the rendering operation. Each contour of the character outline is subsequently broken into individual segments of lines and splines and these segments are rendered. The rendering process detects each occurrence of an intersection of a scan line with one of the representations of a line segment or spline segment. Each scan line intersection represents a transition having a particular transition sense, i.e., an on-transition or an off-transition. For each detected transition, a transition entry containing the transition location is stored within a data array called a transition table. Depending upon the sense of the transition entry, the transition entry is stored within either the "ON" transition table or the "OFF" transition table. These transition entries are typically sorted by ascending order of the scan lines to support the creation of a character bitmap. Each transition having an "ON" sense is paired with its corresponding transition having an "OFF" sense and the pixels associated with the scan line are set or "filled" for the character bitmap. The character bitmap defines the pixels to be activated for supplying an image of the character on a connected display device.
Reviewing now certain aspects of the scan conversion process, one method for estimating the amount of workspace memory to support scan conversion tasks is to multiply the number of scan lines in the character bitmap times the maximum possible intersections of a character outline per scan line. The maximum possible intersections per scan line is calculated by traversing the character outline and counting the character's local maxima and minima, which are also described as "reversals" in direction. Although this method represents a simple computational solution for the memory estimate, it supplies an overly conservative estimate of workspace memory for character outlines with small details. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method that defines a more efficient use of memory to support scan conversion tasks. The present invention provides an improved method for allocating memory workspace by accurately calculating memory requirements for character outlines with either large details or many small details, thereby supporting the efficient use of this computer resource.
The use of splines to represent outline curves is known in font technologies. One technique for rendering a spline is to break it into short line segments and then to render those segments sequentially by using a parametric equation to define the short line segments. However, the use of a parametric equation to render a spline supplies only an approximate representation of the actual curve. In addition, to obtain a reasonably accurate approximation, a large number of line segments must be used to represent the character outline. This increases the number of calculations, thereby increasing the time required to render the spline. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method of rendering splines that is both faster and more accurate than the above-described conventional technique. The present invention implements an implicit rendering algorithm based on a second order equation for a parabola to achieve improvements in speed and character image quality.
In general, rendering a bounded character outline or shape produces for a given scan line both an on-transition and an off-transition based upon the entering and exiting intersections of the scan line with the character outline. However, the concept that a bounded shape intersects a given scan line in matched pairs of transitions breaks down when the scan line contacts extrema of the shape, or when an endpoint of the shape is coincident with scan lines. The present invention addresses the special case of rendering an endpoint on a scan line by supplying a structured approach that examines all geometric possibilities for approaching and exiting the endpoint to determine whether the pixel associated with the endpoint should be activated.
As pixel-oriented display devices have achieved higher resolution characteristics, it has become possible to display text in smaller-sized characters on these devices while still maintaining readability. However, as physical character size becomes smaller for a display device of a given resolution, sampling error distortion can occur. Accordingly, after making an initial determination for which pixels to turn on, the contour of the character outline is analyzed to detect one type of sampling error that commonly occurs when displaying characters of a given font on a pixel-oriented display device, an error called "dropout." A dropout condition may be defined as an interior region of a character outline that passes through a scan line and between adjacent pixels in which neither pixel has been turned on in accordance with the previously described Rules 1 and 2. In other words, a dropout condition occurs when the space within the character outlines become so narrow that this contour portion misses one or more pixel centers.
If a dropout control technique is not used to correct the dropout condition, the decision-making algorithm for activating a pixel may determine that a particular pixel should not be activated, thereby causing a break at a point in a character that the viewer would expect to be a continuous line. Although this problem will naturally arise even if the physical size of the character to be displayed is rather large (if the resolution of the display device is low, or if the character features are very thin), it is mostly problematic when characters are to be displayed with a small physical size.
It is known that the subjective response of a reader to dropout is to prefer having a pixel illuminated, even if it tends to geometrically distort the character, over a situation in which an inappropriate discontinuity occurs in the strokes of the character. Therefore, the art has addressed the subject of dropout control so that the results in a displayed image is most pleasing to viewers. A conventional technique for addressing the dropout problem is to always activate the pixel on the left for a horizontal pair of pixels and, for a vertical pair of pixels, to always activate the pixel below. From a typographical view, this convention produces a less than desirable result. Another technique is to always illuminate the pixel located nearest the contour of the character outline. This generally provides a displayed image having an appearance preferred by viewers because it preserves the symmetry of the character outline. However, this approach requires knowledge and storage of intersections of the character outline with the scan lines, or transitions, in sub-pixel precision, thereby increasing the processing time and memory requirements for scan conversion. The present invention provides an improved solution for the dropout condition by reducing the number of calculations required to obtain sub-pixel accuracy for the rendering of line segments and splines.
In summary, the present invention provides an improved scan converter to support the efficient and accurate display of character outlines by pixel-oriented display devices. To conserve the finite resource of memory, the present invention supports an efficient use of available memory workspace by accurately determining an upper bound for the amount of memory required to support scan conversion calculations. To achieve improvements in speed and character image quality, the present invention renders the spline segments of a character outline by using a quadratic equation to calculate an implicit function based on the spline control points. The present invention further addresses in a systematic manner the rendering of an endpoint located on a scan line to determine whether the pixel associated with the endpoint should be activated. This decision is based upon the direction of approach to and exit from this endpoint for the pair of segments connected to the endpoint. The present invention also reduces the number of calculations requiring sub-pixel precision to support the selection of the pixel located nearest the contour, thereby providing an improved solution for dropout condition. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
The present invention relates to a charge air cooler for a supercharged combustion engine, and particularly to control over the flow of air to be cooled through the air cooler.
The amount of air which can be supplied to a supercharged combustion engine of a vehicle depends on the pressure of the air but also on the temperature of the air. Supplying the largest possible amount of air to a supercharged combustion engine entails cooling compressed air in a charge air cooler before it is led to the combustion engine. The charge air cooler is usually situated in front of the conventional radiator of a vehicle. A charge air cooler usually comprises two tanks and a plurality of tubular elements arranged in parallel which connect the tanks to one another. The parallel tubular elements are arranged at a distance from one another so that surrounding cold air can flow between the tubular elements and cool the compressed air in the tubular elements. Depending on the efficiency of the charge air cooler, the compressed air can be cooled to a temperature more or less corresponding to the temperature of the surrounding air.
Charge air coolers in vehicles are usually so dimensioned as to be of relatively good efficiency. In certain circumstances when there is a cold ambient temperature and/or very high air humidity, the compressed air in a charge air cooler is cooled to a temperature below the dewpoint temperature of the air. Water vapour in the compressed air condenses, with the result that water in liquid form is precipitated in the charge air cooler. When the temperature of the surrounding air is very low, there is also risk that water in liquid form may freeze to become ice inside the charge air cooler. This may cause operational malfunctions if the cooler freezes up, resulting in a lack of air supply to the combustion engine. When a vehicle is started up from cold, it is also advantageous that the cooling of the compressed air led to the supercharged combustion engine should at first be reduced to enable the combustion engine initially to produce hotter exhaust gases which will warm up the vehicle's catalyst quicker. GB 1 255 956 refers to a charge air cooler for cooling compressed air before it is led to a combustion engine. The charge air cooler comprises a bypass line with an adjustable valve so that at least a desired portion of the compressed air can be led past the charge air cooler without being cooled. The uncooled portion and the cooled portion of the compressed air are thereafter mixed before being led to the combustion engine. Cooling a suitable portion of the compressed air makes it possible for the temperature of the air led to the combustion engine to be controlled to a desired value. | {
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
} |
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