Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated (Cas) systems are prokaryotic immune system first discovered by Ishino in E. coli. Ishino et al. 1987 (Journal of Bacteriology 169 (12): 5429-5433(1987)). This immune system provides immunity against viruses and plasmids by targeting the nucleic acids of the viruses and plasmids in a sequence-specific manner.
There are two main stages involved in this immune system, the first is acquisition and the second is interference. The first stage involves cutting the genome of invading viruses and plasmids and integrating segments of this into the CRISPR locus of the organism. The segments that are integrated into the genome are known as protospacers and help in protecting the organism from subsequent attack by the same virus or plasmid. The second stage involves attacking an invading virus or plasmid. This stage relies upon the protospacers being transcribed to RNA, this RNA, following some processing, then hybridizing with a complementary sequence in the DNA of an invading virus or plasmid while also associating with a protein, or protein complex that effectively cleaves the DNA.
There are several different CRISPR/Cas systems and the nomenclature and classification of these has changed as the systems are further characterized. In Type II systems there are two strands of RNA, a CRISPR RNA (crRNA) and a transactivating CRISPR RNA (tracrRNA) that are part of the CRISPR/Cas system. The tracrRNA hybridizes to a complementary region of pre-crRNA causing maturation of the pre-crRNA to crRNA. The duplex formed by the tracrRNA and crRNA is recognized by, and associates with a protein, Cas9, which is directed to a target nucleic acid by a sequence of the crRNA that is complementary to, and hybridizes with, a sequence in the target nucleic acid. It has been demonstrated that these minimal components of the RNA-based immune system could be reprogrammed to target DNA in a site-specific manner by using a single protein and two RNA guide sequences or a single RNA molecule. The CRISPR/Cas system is superior to other methods of genome editing involving endonucleases, meganucleases, zinc finger nucleases, and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), which may require de novo protein engineering for every new target locus.
Being a RNA-guided system, CRISPR/Cas systems can be prone to issues with RNA-DNA hybrid structures, such as RNase A degradation of the RNA strand and higher possibility of RNA-DNA mismatches. Furthermore, synthesis of DNA oligonucleotides is more economical and robust than synthesis of RNA oligonucleotides. DNA-guided CRISPR systems may also recruit additional machinery to a specific target, compared to naturally occurring RNA-guided CRISPR systems. A need exists for an improved system that overcomes the problems associated with RNA based CRISPR/Cas systems, provides access to the decreased cost and increased robustness of DNA synthesis, and improves the specificity of the CRISPR/Cas system.


1. Field
Micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) devices and systems and in particular, but not exclusively, MEMS probe based memory storage.
2. Background
Solid state memories typically employ micro-electronic circuit elements for each memory bit. Since one or more electronic circuit elements are required for each memory bit (e.g., one to four transistors per bit), these devices can consume considerable chip “real estate” to store a bit of information, which limits the density of a memory chip. The primary memory element in these devices is typically a floating gate field effect transistor device that holds a charge on the gate of field effect transistor to store each memory bit. Typical memory applications include dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), and electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM).
Phase-change memory uses a phase-change material as the data storage mechanism and offers significant advantages in both cost and performance over conventional memories based on charge storage. Phase-change memories use phase-change materials that can be electrically switched between two or more phases having different electrical characteristics such as resistance. One type of memory element, for example, uses a phase-change material that can be electrically switched between a generally amorphous phase and a generally crystalline local order, or between different detectable phases of local order across the entire spectrum between completely amorphous and completely crystalline phases.
The phase-change memory can be written to, and read from, by applying current pulses that have the appropriate magnitude and duration and that cause the needed voltages across and current through the volume of phase-change material. A selected cell in a phase-change memory can be programmed into a selected state by raising a cell voltage and a cell current for the selected cell to programming threshold levels that are characteristic of the phase-change material. The voltage and current are then typically lowered to quiescent levels (e.g. essentially zero voltage and current) that are below the programming threshold levels of the phase-change material. This process can be performed by the application of, for example, a reset pulse and a set pulse which can program the cell into two different logic states. In both of these pulses, the cell voltage and cell current are caused to rise at least as high as certain threshold voltage and current levels needed to program the cell. Next, to read the programmed cell, a read pulse can be applied to measure the relative resistance of the cell material, without changing its phase. Thus, the read pulse typically provides a much smaller magnitude of cell current and cell voltage than either the reset pulse or the set pulse.
Electrical memory devices employing phase-change material typically do not use field effect transistor devices, but comprise, in the electrical context, a monolithic body of thin film chalcogenide material. As a result, very little chip real estate is required to store a bit of information, thereby providing for inherently high density memory chips. The phase-change materials are also truly non-volatile in that, when set in either a crystalline, semi-crystalline, amorphous, or semi-amorphous phase representing a resistance value, that value is retained until reset as that value represents a physical phase of the material (e.g., crystalline or amorphous).


The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
During various procedures, two or more components can be combined to form a mixture of the materials for various purposes. For example, a first and second material may be mixed to polymerize, seal, or the like. For example, thrombin and fibrinogen can be mixed to form a tissue sealant that is biocompatible.
Autologous material can be used to form a tissue sealant. The tissue sealant materials, including thrombin, can be extracted or concentrated from a patient, such as from a whole blood sample. The tissue sealing materials can be provided or held separately until applied to an area to be sealed.
A tissue sealant can be used in various procedures, such as a minimally invasive procedure to speed healing. In addition, an autologous material can provide various benefits such as reducing or eliminating cross contamination or infection. The materials that can form a tissue sealant, however, are generally held separately until applied to a selected area.


Electrohydraulic valves (EHVs) operated by a torque motor are widely used in industrial applications. For example, single-stage electrohydraulic valves may be used in myriad systems and environments. One typical system and environment is the fuel control system on-board a jet-powered aircraft. No matter the specific end-use system and environment, single-stage EHVs typically include at least one nozzle that is disposed between a pressurized hydraulic fluid source and a hydraulically controlled load. Pressurized hydraulic fluid flow through the nozzle, and thus to the hydraulically controlled load, may be controlled via the torque motor.
A conventional torque motor that is used with a single-stage EHV includes a plurality of coils, an armature assembly, and a flapper. The coils are controllably energized to control the rotational position of the armature assembly. The flapper is coupled to the armature assembly and extends between the outlet of the nozzle and a flapper stop in the single-stage EHV, defining a “nozzle-flapper assembly.” The flapper in the nozzle-flapper assembly is conventionally a steel bar. By controlling the rotational position of the armature assembly, the position of the flapper relative to the nozzle outlet in the nozzle-flapper assembly is controlled and thus fluid pressure and/or flow to the hydraulically controlled device is controlled. When the EHV is used as a shut-off valve, the flapper is held against the nozzle outlet in a closed position to prevent flow of the pressurized hydraulic fluid therefrom to the hydraulically controlled device. When the flapper is off the nozzle outlet, the EHV is in an open position, permitting flow of the pressurized hydraulic flow.
Conventional nozzle-flapper assemblies exhibit limited life and excessive leakage between the flapper and the nozzle outlets even in the closed position due to wear of the flapper and/or nozzles in high vibration environments. Over time, the leakage increases as the wear increases.
Hence, there is a need for flapper assemblies for torque motors of electrohydraulic valves. In particular, there is a need for flapper assemblies that may be used in nozzle-flapper assemblies of torque motors of electrohydraulic valves, that exhibit relatively less leakage and extended operating life, and that are relatively inexpensive to manufacture. The present invention addresses at least these needs.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a toner cartridge which is detachably mounted on a toner box of a copier/duplicator or a printer to supply toner into the latter.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are available a variety of toner cartridges that are detachably mounted on the toner box. Toner cartridges, that are mounted on the toner box after opening are well known in the art. However, a toner box of this type is disadvantageous in that in the process of mounting it on the toner box, the toner is often scattered, thus contaminating the surrounding area. In order to eliminate this difficulty, toner cartridges have teen proposed, for instance, by Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 224364/1983 (the term "OPI" as used herein means an unexamined published application"), and Japanese Utility Model Application (OPI) No. 77151/1983, where the cartridges are opened after being mounted on the toner box. Another toner cartridge is proposed by this inventor in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,246.
One example of a conventional toner cartridge is shown in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10. FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the cartridge, FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along line A--A of FIG. 8, and FIG. 10 provides a bottom view for a description of the opening of the conventional toner cartridge. The conventional toner cartridge comprises a toner container body 1 that has an opening at the bottom and is substantially in the form of a rectangular box. A mouth ring member 2 has a bonding region 8 along the opening edge to which a sealing film 4 is bonded. The mouth ring member 2 also holds a lid 3 in such a manner that the lid is slidable. The sealing film seals the opening in such a manner that it can be peeled off when necessary. At one nd of the opening, a locking member 11 is present to secure one end of the sealing film and the lid for the opening. Toner 6 is contained in the toner container body, which is covered with a top plate 7. The sealing film is bonded to the bonding region of the mouth ring member, thus supporting the toner. One end portion of the sealing film, is folded over one end portion of the lid, and secured to the locking member 11. The locking member 11 is slidably provided over the rear surface of the lid and the lid is slidably held by a side wall 10, which is integral with the mouth ring member.
The toner is supplied by the conventional toner cartridge as follows. First, the toner cartridge is mounted or the toner inlet of the toner box. Then, the locking member is moved in the direction of the arrow of FIG. 8 with a suitable means (not shown) to peel the sealing film off the opening of the toner container body thereby opening the latter. As a result, toner is supplied to the toner box from the toner container body.
In the conventional toner cartridge described above, the bonding region of the mouth ring member is adjacent to the opening. If the toner cartridge is dropped during transportation or handling, it often occurs that the sealing film falls off, or is damaged or punctured by the impact of dropping, resulting in toner leaking out of the toner cartridge. This difficulty may be eliminated by strongly bonding the sealing film to the bonding region but this results in requiring greater power to peel off the sealing film to supply the toner, resulting in a toner supplying operation that cannot be easily or smoothly carried out.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a toner cartridge that has the seemingly contradictory characteristics of allowing the peeling of the sealing film to be easily and smoothly performed while providing a toner cartridge configuration that reduces damage to the sealing film as a result of accidental dropping of the toner cartridge during handling or transportation.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.


Polar organisms should overcome the problems of decreased enzyme activity, decreased membrane fluidity, inactivation and improper folding of proteins, formation of intracellular ice crystals, etc. to survive in low-temperature, polar environments. Among others, the formation of ice crystals causes physical damages and dehydration of tissues due to the growth of ice crystals, thus causing serious damage to polar organisms. Polar organisms produce various antifreeze proteins (hereinafter referred to as “AFPs”) to survive at low temperatures. AFPs inhibit the growth of ice crystals in vivo and the recrystallization of ice to protect polar organisms from sub-zero temperatures to survive (Davies, P. L. and Sykes, B. D., Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 7, 1997, 828-834; Davies, P. L. et al., Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 357, 2002, 927-935; D'Amico, S. et al., EMBO Rep. 7, 2006, 385-389).
AFPs are proteins that generally have a flat ice-binding surface and bind to specific surfaces of ice crystals, thus inhibiting the growth of ice crystals and the recrystallization of ice. AFPs create a difference between the melting point and freezing point. This is called thermal hysteresis (TH), which can be measured using a nanoliter osmometer and used as an indicator of AFP activity. Moreover, AFPs do not lower the freezing point in proportion to the concentration, unlike typical antifreeze used in vehicles. That is, AFPs can effectively lower the freezing point even at very low concentrations by direct interaction with ice, thus minimizing damage due to osmotic pressure generated in vivo during freezing (Jia, Z. and Davies P. L., Trends Biochem. Sci. 27, 2002, 101-106).
The unique features of AFPs that prevent the growth of ice crystals and inhibit the recrystallization of ice have been used in various commercial fields. For example, in the agricultural field, AFP expression in plants has been attempted for the purpose of preventing cold-weather damage to plants. Moreover, in the field of fisheries, there has been an attempt to produce a transgenic fish by expressing AFPs in commercially available fish such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) or goldfish (Carassius auratus) so as to enable farming in cold areas. Furthermore, in the medical field, research on the use of AFPs in cryosurgery and as an additive in cryopreservation of blood, stem cells, umbilical cord blood, organs, and germ cells has continued to progress. In addition, in the food field, AFPs are also used in product production for frozen storage of smoother ice scream. In the field of cosmetics, functional cosmetics containing AFPs for preventing frostbite have already been sold. Although AFPs are widely used in various commercial fields as mentioned above, there are still limitations in mass production of recombinant AFPs due to low-level expression of AFPs and folding problems. This is mainly because most AFPs have disulfide bonds and are stabilized by disulfide bonds, which thus makes it difficult to express recombinant proteins and yields improper folding of expressed proteins.
Since AFPs were first discovered in fish living in cold water, various types of new AFPs have been discovered in insects, plants, fungi, microorganisms, etc. New AY30 AFP derived from arctic yeast, Leucosporidium sp., has recently been recovered. The AY30 AFP has no cysteine amino acid residues, and thus during production of recombinant proteins, the level of protein expression is high, and the folding problem due to improperly formed disulfide bonds does not occur, As a result, the AY30 AFP is suitable for mass production of recombinant AFPs.
Therefore, the present inventors have synthesized a recombinant polynucleotide by modifying an AFP gene to be expressed using codon optimization for a yeast expression system and inserted the recombinant polynucleotide into a yeast-derived expression vector so as to mass-produce an antifreeze protein (AFP) derived from arctic yeast by overexpressing AFP in the form of activated protein. As a result, the present inventors have obtained a large amount of AFP and found that the AFP is glycosylated, thus completing the present invention. All references cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.


1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for mobile on-line and off-line monitoring of colored and high-gloss automobile component surfaces. For evaluating the surface quality of series-produced coated and/or painted automobile body components, it is standard procedure at the present time to analyze quality parameters such as color, gloss, layer thickness and wave (waviness) to determine different characteristics, dependencies and parameters. Commercially available manual measuring devices are used for this, for example the angle spectrometer X-Rite MA 68 II and gloss-measuring devices such a Wave Scan plus by the company BYK-Gardner GmbH, 82534 Geretsried.
For measuring the colored and high-gloss automobile component surfaces, coating samples—so-called test panels—are generally produced which are then used to determine the optical characteristics to be examined, such as color, gloss, layer thickness and wave of the coating, as well as to analyze the mutual dependencies of the coating characteristics.
As a rule, this is done in the laboratory or during the production by taking random samples using the aforementioned measuring methods and devices.
2. Related Art
Reference DE 19709406 A1 discloses a method and a device for measuring painted test panels to determine the surface quality—color, gloss, layer thickness and wave—with the aid of a laboratory robot in combination with a corresponding measuring method.
The disadvantage of this method and device is that the evaluation of the measuring results with the aid of test panels does not take into account the geometric form of automobile component surfaces, thus allowing only indirect conclusions to be drawn for the quality analysis.
Reference DE 19717593 A1 discloses a measuring method for evaluating the surface quality of motor-vehicle bodies by detecting in a non-contacting manner the surfaces of series-produced, automatically coated motor vehicle components in conjunction with a multi-axis robot moving along pre-programmed movement paths.
This invention has the disadvantage of high investment costs for the robot required for use and the associated program-technical links for controlling its measuring movement along the automobile component surface to be measured, as well as the stationary connection.
Also known from prior art are non-contacting measuring techniques using cameras, which are aimed at defined angles onto the automobile component surfaces to be measured and which measure these surfaces under various types of lighting and lighting angles.
However, these measuring techniques do not meet the requirements of the automobile industry with respect to mobile use, degree of automation, low investment costs, flexibility of the measuring requirements, ability to simultaneously measure various measuring variables such as color, gloss, layer thickness and wave and the option of a data-technical analysis. Furthermore, a variable measuring of critical automobile component surface parameters on-line and off-line is not possible with the presently used methods, but is desired by the automobile industry.
It is the object of the present invention to develop a method that allows a mobile on-line and off-line monitoring of the quality of colored and high-gloss automobile component surfaces, so that parallel measurements of the parameters for color, gloss, layer thickness and wave can be realized quickly and structured according to different requirements. The core of the invention is the mobile on-line or off-line measuring through optical scanning of the colored and high-gloss automobile component surfaces with an angle-dependent spectrophotometer during the production or final control.
The measuring beam, formed with polarized light of different wave lengths, is thus the measuring beam for the angle-dependent spectrophotometer which is combined with a reference beam for the angle-dependent spectrophotometer and contains the reflection, interference, depolarization and phase values of the measured automobile component surface for different wavelengths as surface information, wherein these represent locally precise images of the optical surface conditions of the automobile component surfaces.
The electronic camera system is embodied as image-recognition system, which detects ahead of time the shape and position of automobile component surfaces to be measured optically with a spectrophotometer. The system carries out a form and position identification with the aid of the electronic databank, embodied as optical neuro-fuzzy structured image databank, and then initiates an optical-angle dependent spectrophotometer measurement, defined for this form and position, for the identified and classified automobile component surface, using predetermined measuring parameters such as wavelength, measuring angle, type of combination measuring—that is to say a measuring and scanning for color, gloss, layer thickness and wave.
The form of the automobile component surface is identified with the aid of electronic classes of automobile component surfaces which are stored object-related in the optical neuro-fuzzy structured image databank.
The neuro-fuzzy techniques are known in principle from the literature and have been used for years in different areas of the industry, that is for modeling, analysis, monitoring and control of industrial processes.
In contrast to the above methods, the method according to our invention distinguishes itself in that it is faster, meets more comprehensive object-specific measuring requirements and allows the classifying of measuring tasks with respect to the automobile component surfaces.
The present invention uses an optical neuro-fuzzy structured image databank in which the automobile component surface images are stored together with the associated measuring techniques. A camera image for comparing the image-patterns on the automobile component surface permits an allocation and/or classification of the measuring object and, following the object detection, controls the object-specific measuring technique of the angle-dependent spectrophotometer for the integral color, gloss, layer thickness and wave measuring with respect to the identified automobile component surface.
Deviations in color, gloss, layer thickness and wave of the measured automobile component surfaces, including different automobile components, are stored object-specific and component-specific in a computer-aided optical quality databank, called a CAOQ databank, for the optical characterization. This CAOQ databank computes and administers as databank logical links, measured integrally for the various automobile component surfaces at different object points to obtain color, gloss, layer thickness and wave data and compares these data to required specified datasets for desired values predetermined by the automobile manufacturer for the automobile component surfaces as target values and tolerances. The data are transmitted with standardized statistic methods, outlier analyses, graphic representations of color, gloss, layer thicknesses and wave differences to a test station for surface measuring technology, via intelligent neuronal net, and can be visually displayed for an operator. Thus, the operator at the test station for surface measuring technology can reach a comprehensible decision that can be implemented with respect to the quality of individual, measured automobile component surfaces.
At least two mobile on-line and off-line monitoring methods of the above-described type are advantageously used at different locations during a production and are linked via intelligent neural net to the control station for surface measuring technology.
In a further step, the data and decisions recorded by the control station for surface measuring technology are transmitted to the production planning system, called PPS, via data transmittal and stored electronically for the specific automobile component. In particular, the production planning system records deviations in color, gloss, layer thickness and wave and the values determined with this method are then transmitted back electronically via the net to the production unit for automobile painting/coating, so that the detected deviations can enter into corresponding changes to the automobile painting/coating processes.
In an additional processing step, the transport system for the following automobile component surface to be measured is clock-pulse actuated.
The data are furthermore transmitted via network to a client-information system which transmits data on-line from the supplier to the automobile manufacturer.
The invention is explained in further detail with the exemplary embodiment shown in the drawing. This embodiment shows a schematic representation of a device for realizing the method for the mobile on-line and off-line monitoring of colored and high-gloss automobile component surfaces. Automobile component surfaces 1a-1c are produced in an automobile component production unit, not shown in further detail herein, and are then transported with the aid of a transport system 18 to the mobile on-line and off-line monitoring. The automobile component surface 1b, which is measured for example, is optically recorded with a camera 2. A pixel image signal for the automobile component surface 1b and its form is present at the output 3 of the camera 2. This information, which contains a pixel image that shows exact details of the surface image of the automobile component surface 1b, is transmitted to an optical neuro-fuzzy structured image databank 4 in which automobile component surface classes are electronically stored. In this optical neuro-fuzzy structured image databank 4, the real automobile component surface images are compared to the automobile image classes, stored therein, of the image databank 4. Following the identification of the automobile component surface 1b, the measuring technique associated with the object-class for the on-line and off-line monitoring of the colored and high-gloss automobile component surface 1b is initialized radio-wave supported 5a for the optical surface determination of color, gloss, layer thickness and wave and the angle-dependent spectrophotometer 6 is started with object-specific settings for the scanning with the measuring beam 7a. At the same time, the computer-aided optical quality databank 11 is initialized via radio wave 5b for the detector signal 10 data recording. The measuring beam 7a, formed with polarized light of different wavelengths from the angle-dependent spectrophotometer, then scans the automobile component surface 1b. The de-polarized measuring beam 7b, which is reflected by the automobile component surface 1b, travels to the angle-dependent spectrophotometer 6 with detector unit 8, a charge-coupled diode [CCD] array.
The output 9 of detector unit 8 carries a detector signal 10 for the surface conditions relating to color, gloss, layer thickness and wave. This detector signal, which contains reflection, interference, polarization and phase information and includes the values for color, gloss, layer thickness and wave for the automobile component surface 1b, is transmitted to a computer-aided optical quality databank 11, called CAOQ, which is initialized radio-wave supported 5b at point 4. This CAOQ databank 11 computes, compares and administers the detector signals 10 for different object points on the automobile component surface 1b and generates color, gloss, layer thickness and wave data that are compared to required data sets specified by the automobile manufacturer. These data are transmitted to different addressees via an intelligent neuronal network 12, which links at least two mobile on-line and off-line monitoring techniques 13 of the above-described type to different addressees and can be visualized on at least one control station for the surface measuring technology 14. The data recorded by the control station for surface measuring technology 14, are transmitted in the following step via electronic network to the production planning system 15, called PPS, and are then electronically stored for the specific automobile component. The deviations recorded in the production planning system 15 relating to color, gloss, layer thicknesses and wave data are transmitted via a different electronic network to the production unit for automobile painting/coating 16 and/or the client information system 17, so that necessary measures relating to automobile painting/coating can be initiated in unit 16. In a further step, the transport system 18 for the automobile components is controlled by the production planning system 15 and is clocked in time, so that the following automobile component surface 1c can be recorded and measured in accordance with the above-described method.


The operating speed of electronic devices such as a computer continues to increase.
For this reason, in recent years, as described, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-332301, development of a photoelectrical composite substrate is being advanced for achieving communication between LSI or IC chips included in the electronic devices, by using optical signals. In a telecommunication field such as Internet, communication using optical signals is performed as described, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-85756.
When a photoelectric composite substrate is manufactured, for example, a drive element which drives an optical element and a package equipped with the optical element are prepared beforehand. The package is then mounted on a printed circuit board with the position of the optical element aligned with the position of an optical waveguide mounted on the printed circuit board. The package is mounted on the printed circuit board via an electrical connector such as a solder ball.
When an electrical connector such as a solder ball has an electrical contact, an electrical signal may be transmitted therethrough. On the other hand, when an optical axis is not at a predetermined position, the connecting part between the optical element and the optical waveguide does not allow an optical signal to be transmitted. Thus, the positional precision demanded for the connecting part between the optical element and the optical waveguide is higher than the positional precision demanded for the electrical connector such as a solder ball. However, when the package equipped with the optical element is mounted on the printed circuit board, connection failure may occur between the optical element and the optical waveguide because of inevitable positional displacement therebetween caused by heat deformation or the like at the time of reflow.
Thus, it is an object of the present application to provide a method of manufacturing a photoelectric composite substrate, the method enabling relative positional precision between the optical element and the optical waveguide to be improved.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of electronic sensors and pertains particularly to an improved reflectance sensor usable in various commercial and consumer applications.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of sensory devices, more particularly electronic sensors, proximity sensing and motion detection are regimens that provide contact-less control and object detection useful in a large variety of consumer, industrial, and security applications.
Development of various electronic technologies for proximity sensing has occurred and development continues. Each accepted technology has provided one or more advantages depending on the specific application of those technologies. These techniques can be classified in terms of the operating principle of the device versus the detection medium used, whether light, radio waves, or the like.
To provide one example, a well-known proximity sensor based on measuring an echo transit time that uses radio waves as a medium is called a radar. Another echo-principled proximity sensor that uses sound as a medium is called a sonar sensor. Still, another echo-principled proximity sensor that uses light as a medium is called a light-imaging detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor. Although these classic echo-based sensors provide relatively accurate distance and speed information, they can, depending on the application, be expensive, bulky, may consume high power, and/or may require very high frequency technologies to be successful.
In contrast to the sensor device types described above, there are less expensive and much smaller proximity sensors that use field disturbance techniques to detect proximity. These sensors may be classed as either passive or active sensors. These types of sensors detect proximity base on changes in a field caused by interactions with a detected object.
Of the above-described sensors, passive field-disturbance detectors use background radiation or the emissions of an object as the source of the field. To exemplify, a sound-activated switch may be provided in a “smart toy” to sense when a human is talking nearby. In another case of what would be termed a passive sensor, an infrared motion detector may sense changes in the infrared background due to movement of objects irradiating infrared above the background because of their higher temperature. Such passive infrared sensors are widely used in high-volume applications for alarm systems, automatic light turn-on sensors, and the like.
An active proximity sensor may detect changes in field disturbances caused by an active source. One example of such an active sensor may be a magnetic field-disturbance proximity sensor (metal detector) that senses changes in a local alternating current (AC) magnetic field due to eddy current or magnetic characteristics of metal objects. Another well-known example is that of a “stud finder” used in carpentry. A stud finder is an AC electrostatic field disturbance sensor that senses the change in dielectric constants between air and wood as the finder is slid across overlying plaster.
Still another example of an active field disturbance detector is a proximity sensor that detects changes in optical reflectance, avoiding technical difficulties of nanosecond time resolution necessary for RF or optical echo transit time devices. Optical reflectance proximity sensors have certain key advantages over other types of proximity sensors for sensing objects in the range of 1 to 100 centimeters (cm). The advantage may be due to the fact that they typically use a small LED as a light source and a small photodiode driving a receiver circuit. Another advantage is that they can be small enough to fit in miniature electronic devices. Even these types of active reflectance sensors, although fairly small and robust, have been too expensive for consumer applications and consequently have found applications mostly in the industrial and commercial markets.
Passive infrared sensors are the most common in consumer application due to lower cost. However, they are too large for many consumer products because they require a collecting lens and a photodiode of several centimeters in diameter to gather a sufficient signal to sense changes in the ambient background visible to the sensor. Moreover, a major handicap of such sensors is a lack of reliability earmarked by spurious triggering and by failure to trigger. For example, large, far-away objects or sudden temperature changes may trigger them and they can completely miss radiation-neutral objects.
Reflectance sensors have been developed that overcome the handicaps described immediately above even though they do not inherently measure distance (as echo transit-time devices do). Reflectance sensors can detect an object moving into certain ranges unambiguously because of a strong fourth-power decrease of reflected light from the object sensed. A 20% change in distance will cause approximately a 100% change in reflected signal. For objects with a 10-to-1 variation in reflectance between them, this amounts to less than 50% difference in detection range.
Small, short range (1 cm to 2 m) reflectance proximity sensors are more useful than passive infrared sensors in many applications. However, widespread use in consumer applications is not apparent because of higher cost factors.
In general, proximity-sensor applications break down into two broad functional groups: (1) those that provide an on-off function and (2) those that provide analog or digital proportional information. Examples in the first category include: automatic flushing for a public lavatory; an automatic doorbell that detects a person passing through a door; or an object sensor on an automatic production line. Examples in the second category are: an automobile bumper warning indicator that puts out an audible warning signal whose pitch is proportional to the distance from an obstacle; a toy car that slows down when it approaches an object and steers away from it; or a light switch that can be activated and dimmed by waving one's hand near it.
Proximity sensors that provide on-off functions can often serve as replacement for switches that are either operated manually or by some other machine function. In both cases, the electronic proximity switch will be more reliable than a standard mechanical switch especially if a very high number of cycles occur over the life of the switch. But since most proximity sensors require significant amounts of power, they are not normally used for power switches on battery-powered products. Of course, like normally open or normally closed switches, a proximity sensor can provide either an “on” or “off” function when an object moves in or out of proximity.
Further to the above, some proximity-sensor applications also need to measure the ambient background light such as a proximity-activated security light. Proximity sensors that provide analog proportional information can functionally replace analog controls allowing smarter processing of proximity information for more complex applications. However, unlike on-off proximity sensors, proportional sensors generally need to interface to a microprocessor.
The inventors are aware of a method taught by Holcombe (U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,591) for using circuitry to reduce feedback in an infrared data receiver. The method includes a circuit that is configured as an infrared receiver including an automatic gain control (AGC) circuit where the AGC is isolated from the input to the receiver in response to the output signal from the receiver in order to suppress the effect of feedback from the output signal to the input of the receiver.
The inventors are also aware of an enhancement to the method taught by Holcombe (U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,283). The enhancement includes a method and apparatus for controlling the input gain of a receiver whereby the input gain is controlled by sampling an amplified data signal during a time interval when a positive-going feedback transient from an output terminal of the receiver to an input terminal of the receiver is not present in the amplified data signal.
In this enhanced circuit, an input amplifier has variable gain determined by a gain control signal, a comparator which compares the amplified data signal from the input amplifier to a detection threshold voltage to produce a demodulated data signal and an analog delay circuit which delays the amplified data signal by a predetermined time interval to produce a delayed data signal. The method is enabled by a switch that is driven by the demodulated data signal to sample the delayed data signal for input to an automatic gain control circuit. The automatic gain control circuit compares the sampled delayed data signal to an automatic gain control threshold potential and rectifies and integrates the resulting waveform to produce the gain control signal.
In one application, the data signal is amplified by a gain factor and the signal is then compared to a detection threshold voltage to produce a demodulated data signal. The amplified signal is also delayed to produce a delayed data signal. The delayed signal is sampled using the demodulated data signal to produce a sampled data signal that is used to adjust the gain factor in the amplifier. Although the technique described by Holcombe may provide some feedback immunity from a detected infrared receiver output to a photodiode in a IRDA communications receiver, there may also be significant feedback from the LED driver to the photodiode. For example, the LED driver produces both a voltage and an inductive current transient when it initially turns on. The voltage transient can couple to the photodiode input via wire-bond and PCB-trace capacitances. The inductive transients can couple to the photodiode input through ground and power-supply traces. These transients (voltage and inductive) may produce spurious signals that mask low-level reflectance signals, thus limiting the minimum detectable signal levels in the communications receiver circuit.
It has occurred to the inventor that with some innovative enhancement to the feedback immunity techniques described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,591, and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,283, a low cost optical reflectance proximity sensor could be provided that could overcome the problems associated with the relevant art described above.
Therefore, what is clearly needed in the art is a reliable and sensitive optical reflectance proximity sensor that is very small and inexpensive to manufacture. Such a sensor would consume very little power, would not be required in all applications to interface with a microprocessor, and could be implemented in some analog output applications without the complexity and cost of using a standard digital-to-analog (DAC) converter.


Interventional cardiologists incorporate a variety of diagnostic tools during catheterization procedures in order to plan, guide, and assess therapies. Fluoroscopy is generally used to perform angiographic imaging of blood vessels. In turn, such blood vessel imaging is used by physicians to diagnose, locate and treat blood vessel disease during interventions such as bypass surgery or stent placement. Intravascular imaging technologies such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) are also valuable tools that can be used in lieu of or in combination with fluoroscopy to obtain high-resolution data regarding the condition of the blood vessels for a given subject.
Intravascular optical coherence tomography is a catheter-based imaging modality that uses light to peer into coronary artery walls and generate images for study. Utilizing coherent light, interferometry, and micro-optics, OCT can provide video-rate in-vivo tomography within a diseased vessel with micrometer level resolution. Viewing subsurface structures with high resolution using fiber-optic probes makes OCT especially useful for minimally invasive imaging of internal tissues and organs, as well as implanted medical devices such as stents.
Stents are a common intervention for treating vascular stenoses. It is critical for a clinician to develop a personalized stent plan that is customized to the patient's vascular anatomy to ensure optimal outcomes in intravascular procedures. Stent planning encompasses selecting the length, diameter, and landing zone for the stent with an intention to restore normal blood flow to the downstream tissues. However, flow-limiting stenoses are often present in the vicinity of vascular side branches. Side branches can be partially occluded or “jailed” during deployment of a stent intended to address a stenosis in the main vessel. Since side branches are vital for carrying blood to downstream tissues, jailing can have an undesired ischemic impact and also can lead to thrombosis. The ischemic effects of jailing are compounded when multiple side branches are impacted or when the occluded surface area of a single branch is increased.
Metal stent detection methods typically detect individual stent struts by detecting shadows cast by the struts onto the blood vessel wall, followed by detecting the location of the struts within the detected shadows. However, struts over jailed side branches are difficult to detect via this method. Side branches appear as large shadows in images because the scan line can be perpendicular to the side branch opening. As a result, it is difficult or impossible to detect strut shadows overlying side branches. Consequently, jailing struts are easily missed by the shadow based detection methods.
The present disclosure addresses the need for enhanced detection of jailing stent struts.


The present invention relates generally to the fabrication of thin-walled articles of tungsten-nickel-iron alloy and more particularly to a method of fabricating such articles wherein the articles are of near theoretical density and possess essentially uniform properties.
Tungsten has proven to be a particularly useful material for various industrial applications and in the construction of nuclear reactors. The tungsten metal can be placed in a somewhat ductile form without seriously detracting from the desirable properties by alloying it with nickel and iron. An alloy composition found to be particularly useful is formed of essentially 95 weight percent tungsten, 3.5 weight percent nickel and 1.5 weight percent iron. However, alloy compositions with a nickel concentration in a range of about 2.1 to 7.0 weight percent and an iron concentration in a range of about 0.9 to 3.0 weight percent iron have proven to be useful in essentially the same areas as the 3.5 weight percent nickel and 1.5 weight percent iron compositions. Structures of the ductile tungsten-nickel-iron alloys are generally prepared by employing conventional powder metallurgical procedures. These procedures usually comprise the blending desired weight percents of elemental tungsten, nickel, and iron alloy powders, pressing the blended powders into a compact of the desired configuration and thereafter sintering the compact at a sufficiently high temperature to convert the minor phase of the alloy into a liquid to provide structural integrity to the sintered structure. Final densification, microstructure and properties of the structure are dependent upon the pressing and liquid phase sintering operation.
While tungsten-nickel-iron alloy structures of various configurations have been successfully fabricated by cold pressing and sintering the resulting compact, there have been some difficulties associated with the fabrication of structures having relatively thin walls, such as open cylinders and the like, because of the required liquid phase sintering operation. More specifically, the pressed compacts shrink approximately 40 volume percent during the liquid phase sintering step so that the thin-walled articles are usually subjected to extensive distortion and stresses which lead to deleterious cracking and other stress associated problems. Some techniques have been employed to overcome the distortion and cracking problems such as the use of multiple sintering steps and special sintering mandrels. However, even with such techniques, uniform, physical and mechanical properties are seldom achieved. For example, the density and tensile strength of the sintered structure usually vary by greater than 1 percent and 4 percent, respectively, over the structure.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photovoltaic module, and particularly relates to a thin film solar cell module of see-through type.
2. Description of Related Art
Solar energy is a renewable energy, which causes no pollution. It has been the focus in the development of environmental-friendly energy as an attempt to counter the problems such as pollution and shortage of fossil fuels. Herein, solar cells can be used to directly convert solar energy into electrical energy, which becomes a very important research topic now.
Currently, mono-silicon and poly-silicon cells account for more than 90% of the solar cell market. However, manufacturing these types of solar cells requires silicon chips with thickness of 150˜350 micrometers, which increases the production costs. Furthermore, the raw material of solar cells is high-purity silicon ingot. Due to the significant increase in the consumption of silicon ingot, it is being depleted by day. Hence, thin film solar cells have become the new direction in the research and development of solar energy. Thin film solar cells are suitable for mass production and have the advantages of lower production costs and simpler module fabricating process.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a conventional thin film solar cell module. As shown in FIG. 1, a thin film solar cell module 150 comprises a glass substrate 152, a transparent electrode 154, a photoelectric conversion layer 156, and a metal electrode 158. Herein, the transparent electrode 154 is disposed on the glass substrate 152. The photoelectric conversion layer 156 is disposed on the transparent electrode 154 by position displacement. In addition, the metal electrode 158 is disposed on the photoelectric conversion layer 156 by position displacement and is in contact with the transparent electrode 154 underneath. In the thin film solar cell module 150, the photoelectric conversion layer 156 usually includes a p-i-n structure composed of a p-type semiconductor, an intrinsic semiconductor, and an n-type semiconductor. Light is transmitted through the bottom of the glass substrate 152 and is absorbed by the photoelectric conversion layer 156 to generate electron-hole pairs. The electron-hole pairs are then separated by an electric field established across the device to form a voltage and an electric current, which are transmitted by a conductive wire for loading. To enhance the efficiency of the cells, in the conventional thin film solar cell module 150, pyramid-like structures or textured structures (not shown) are formed on the surface of the transparent electrode 154 to reduce the reflection of light. The photoelectric conversion layer 156 is usually formed by using an amorphous silicon thin film. However, the band gap of the amorphous silicon thin film is usually between 1.7 eV and 1.8 eV, which merely absorbs sunlight of wavelength less than 800 nm. To increase the utility of light, usually a layer of micro-crystalline (or nano-crystalline) thin film is stacked on the amorphous silicon thin film to form a p-i-n/p-i-n tandem solar cell. The band gap of micro-crystalline (or nano-crystalline) is usually between 1.1 eV and 1.2 eV, which absorbs sunlight of wavelength less than 1100 nm.
In the early times, it was costly and difficult to manufacture solar cells, and solar cells were only used in special fields such as astronautics. Now solar cells, which feature converting solar energy into electric energy, have become more widely used and applied. The applications of solar cells range from the use in apartments and high-rise buildings to that in camper vans and portable refrigerators. However, silicon wafer solar cells are not suitable for certain applications such as transparent glass curtains and buildings integrated with photovoltaic (BIPV). Thin film solar cells of see-through type are used in the aforesaid applications because they are energy-efficient and pleasing to the eye. Further, they accommodate more readily with our living demands.
Currently, techniques related to the thin film solar cells of see-through type and the methods for fabricating the same have been disclosed in some U.S. patents.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,858,461 (6,858,461 B2) provides a partially transparent photovoltaic module. As shown in FIG. 2, a photovoltaic module 110 includes a transparent substrate 114, a transparent conductive layer 118, a metal electrode 122, and a photoelectric conversion layer disposed between the transparent conductive layer 118 and the metal electrode 122. Similarly, light is transmitted through the bottom of the transparent substrate 114. In the photovoltaic module 110, a laser scribing process is performed to remove a portion of the metal electrode 122 and a portion of the photoelectric conversion layer to form at least one groove 140 so as to achieve partial transparency of the photovoltaic module 110. However, the laser scribing process is performed at a high temperature. Due to such a high temperature, the metal electrode 122 easily forms metal residues or melts down and accumulates in the grooves, resulting in short circuits of the top and bottom electrodes. On the other hand, an amorphous silicon photoelectric conversion layer recrystallizes at such a high temperature and forms low resistant micro-crystalline (or nano-crystalline) silicon on the sidewalls of the grooves. Consequently, current leakage is increased, and the process yield and the efficiency of the solar cells are affected. In addition, pyramid-like structures or textured structures are usually formed on the surface of the transparent conductive layer 118 to enhance the efficiency of the cells. However, light transmittance is not effectively enhanced because the light transmitted through the bottom of the transparent substrate 114 would be scattered.
In view of the above, to achieve a certain level of light transmittance, larger portions of the metal electrode and the photoelectric conversion layer in a solar cell need to be removed. Please refer to Table 1, which lists the technical specifications of various thin film cells of see-through type manufactured by MakMax Taiyo Kogyo (Japan). According to Table 1, to increase light transmittance, larger portions of the metal electrode and the photoelectric conversion layer need to be removed to decrease the maximum output, efficiency, and fill factor (FF).
TABLE 1TypeKN-38KN-45KN-60Size (mm)980 × 950980 × 950980 × 950Transmittance Rate (%)105<1Maximum Power Output (W)38.045.058.0Vpm (V)58.664.468.0Ipm (A)0.6480.6990.853Voc (V)91.891.891.8Isc (A)0.9721.0901.140Efficiency4.14.86.2FF0.430.450.55
In addition, a photovoltaic device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,795,500 (4,795,500). As shown in FIG. 3, a photovoltaic device includes a transparent substrate 1, a transparent conductive layer 3, a photoelectric conversion layer 4, a metal electrode 5, and a photoresist layer 8. In the photovoltaic device, holes 6 are formed in the metal electrode 5, the photoelectric conversion layer 4, and even in the transparent conductive layer 3 to achieve transparency. Nevertheless, this patent utilizes a lithographic process which requires expensive facilities and increases the production costs. Additionally, if this patent utilizes a laser scribing process to directly form the holes 6, the problems of metal residue contamination and short circuit will occur to affect the process yield.


The present invention relates to a condenser for condensing exhaust steam of steam turbines of thermal power plants and atomic power plants.
Generally in a steam turbine plant, steam which has worked in a steam turbine and inflated is condensed by a surface contact type-condenser for recovery.
FIG. 11 is a sectional view of one example of the above-described condenser. In a condenser body 1 into which exhaust discharged from the steam turbine not shown there are disposed cooling pipe bundles 2 of a number of cooling pipes which are extended in a first direction (which is perpendicular to the sheet of FIG. 11) and in parallelism with each other, whereby the exhaust from the steam turbine is heat-exchanged with cooling water, such as sea water, river water or others, on the surfaces of the respective cooling pipes and condensed to be drained.
Each cooling pipe bundle 2 is divided in a plurality of pipe groups 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e, and the pipe groups are defined by partition plates 3, 4 so that the heat conducting pipe groups do not affect by the drain the heat-exchange of the other heat conducting pipe groups. Air cooling pipe groups for condensing residual energy of the steam 6, 7 are provided below the cooling pipe bundle 2. Partition plates 5a, 5b are provided between the cooling pipe bundle 2 and the pipe groups 6, 7 respectively. Gas discharging devices 8, 9 are provided respectively on the sides of the air cooling pipe groups 6, 7. Enclosure plates 10, 11 are provided respectively below the air cooling pipe groups 6, 7, and a sprinkler box 12 having a U-seal is provided between the enclosure plates 10, 11 and therebelow.
Drain thus heat-exchanged and condensed by the cooling pipe bundle 2 as the steam flows is collected at the center of the pipe bundle 2 and flows into the below sprinkler box 12 through between the air cooling pipe groups 6, 7 enclosed by the enclosing plates 10, 11, then falls through the U-seal into a hot well 13 which is a lowermost part of the condenser body 1 and discharged outside through a drain exit 14.
On the other hand, uncondensed gases, such as steam which could not be condensed by the cooling pipe bundle 2, air, etc. flows through the air cooling pipe groups 6, 7 horizontally toward the outside of the condenser body to be discharged to the outside of the condenser body 1 through an air exhaust pipe 15 via the gas discharging devices 8, 9.
Because the air exhaust pipe 15 is connected to the outside of the air cooling pipe groups 6, 7 as described above, drain generated in the air cooling pipe groups 6, 7 tends to intrude the air exhaust pipe 15. For the purpose of prohibiting the drain intruding the air exhaust pipe 15 as described above from residing in the air exhaust pipe to return to the sprinkler box 12, the air exhaust pipe includes a vertical piping or an inclined piping portion to lead the uncondensed gas upward, whereby exhaust of the uncondensed gas is smoothed, and downstream machines and instruments are protected from erosion and corrosion. Accordingly it is necessary to arrange the air exhaust pipe extended upward along the sides of the cooling pipe bundle 2.
The drain once intruded the air exhaust pipe is sometimes carried against the gravity by the uncondensed gas in the air exhaust pipe when the uncondensed gas has a high flow rate. In addition, pressure loss increase much affects achievement of the condenser. Accordingly, thick pipes are used for low flow rates.
However, the sides of the cooling pipe bundle 2 are places where the steam which has flowed from upward flows into the cooling pipe bundle 2. In these places the flow passage has a most restricted area by the cooling pipe bundles 2, and the steam has a highest flow rate.
Accordingly it causes pressure loss increase to dispose the air exhaust pipe 15, which is to be a barrier, in such a high flow rate area. As a result of that, the outlet pressure increase of the turbine occurs. Resultant problems are that effective use of thermal energy is affected, and others. The air exhaust pipes 15 must be arranged extended between the cooling pipe bundles and between the cooling pipe bundle and the condenser body, which results in the increased width of the bottom of the condenser body 1. Problems are that the condenser cannot be compact, and others.
In view of the above-described problems, the present invention was made, and an object of the present invention is to provide a condenser which can prevent pressure loss of steam flow due to the air exhaust pipe, prevent thermal energy loss, and can be compact.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus which provides a capability of displaying a color image.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a color image display apparatus, a liquid crystal display has been proposed which includes a liquid crystal panel served to control a light transmittance of each pixel and a backlight unit combined therewith so that a color image may be displayed.
To display a color image, it is necessary to include at least three primary color components of RGB (Red, Green and Blue) in the backlight and locate sub-pixels each of which has one of at least RGB color filters as the pixels composing the liquid crystal panel. This arrangement makes it possible to control a light quantity on the overall range of a wavelength. Herein, the sub-pixel provides any one of RGB color filters and corresponds to a minimum unit of transmittance control. The pixel, termed herein, designates a combination of three sub-pixels of the RGB. Lots of pixels are ranged on the screen plane of the display apparatus. The other display apparatuses of a CRT (Cathode-ray Tube) system, a plasma system, a projector system and so forth have the same fundamental principle of display as that of the liquid crystal display apparatus, that is, those apparatuses also display a color image by properly arranging the pixels.
In the meantime, illumination brightness is considered as an environmental condition of a place where the display apparatus is located. An observer of a display screen watches an image in the synthesized light of ambient light reflected on the display screen and the light displayed by the display apparatus itself.
Letting a contrast R be a ratio of a maximum to a minimum of brightness of a display screen, the relation between the display light and the reflected light is represented as follows:R=(Maximum Display Light Quantity+Reflected Light Quantity)/(Minimum Display Light Quantity+Reflected Light Quantity)
In general, as the contrast R becomes greater, a visibility is made better. Herein, the maximum display light quantity designates a display light quantity corresponding with a maximum value of a display signal and the minimum display light quantity designates a display light quantity corresponding with a minimum value of a display signal. To improve the contrast, it is effective to make the maximum display light quantity greater or the reflected light quantity smaller.
To manage the contrast of the display screen, a method has been known in which a light sensor for sensing a brightness of ambient light is prepared so that an intensity (luminance) of the display light may be variably set according to the output of the light sensor.
The JP-A-2006-106294 discloses a technique of varying a luminous quantity of the backlight unit depending upon the ambient light, for example, in a gloomy room or a bright outdoor place. Concretely, during daylight, the technique is caused to increase the maximum display light quantity of the display screen by raising the luminous quantity of the backlight unit based on the output signal of the light sensor. This technique makes the contrast R higher and thereby the visibility better.
The US 2005/0225562 proposes a technique of adding a sub-pixel of W (White) to a combination of three RGB sub-pixels of RGB in order to improve the luminance of the display panel itself. The W sub-pixel provides no color filter, so that it has a high light transmittance and thus is effective in improving the luminance. Concretely, when the conventional pixels each composed of the RGB sub-pixels are compared with the pixels each composed of the RGBW sub-pixels on the same area, the area ratio of the sub-pixels of the former to the latter is made to be 4:3. The RGB color filters cut a wavelength distribution of a light source into one third, while the W color filter transmits a light quantity of a light source as it is. In light of this relation, the ratio of the maximum display light quantity of the RGB panel to the RGBW panel is made to be ((4+4+4)/3):((3+3;3)/3+3×1)=1:1.5
As a method of generating a RGBW signal to be used for driving the RGBW pixels, the following process has been proposed. The minimum values of the input color signals of the RGB are set to a W=MIN (R, G, B) signal or the values derived by subtracting W from the RGB color signals are newly set to a R′ G′ B′(R′=R−W, G′=G−W, B′=B−W) signal. By multiplying a proper amplification factor by the W signal, it is effective to improve the luminance.
Further, the technical background of the color reproducibility is discussed in detail in “Chromatic Science Handbook, Second edition, edited by Chromatic Academic Society of Japan, published by Tokyo University Publication, 1998”.


1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a droop circuit, and more particularly to a multi-phase DC-DC converter with a droop circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a droop circuit can control a swing of an output voltage in a DC-DC converter. FIG. 1A shows an output voltage of a DC-DC converter without a droop circuit, and FIG. 1B shows an output voltage of a DC-DC converter with a droop circuit. As shown in FIG. 1A, the output voltage is operated at a normal voltage Vnom except for a time t1 and a time t2. Transients of the output voltage are generated due to an output current I1 which is varied with a load of the DC-DC converter, and rapidly increases and decreases at the time t1 and the time t2. Referring to FIG. 1B, an output current I2 of the DC-DC converter with a droop circuit rapidly increases and decreases at a time t3 and a time t4. The output voltage is operated at a minimum voltage Vmin during a duration between the time t3 and t4. However, the output voltage is operated at the normal voltage Vnom outside of the duration between the time t3 and t4. Thus, for a DC-DC converter, transients of the output voltage are avoided by the droop circuit.
FIG. 2 shows a conventional multi-phase switching regulator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,683,441. In FIG. 2, an amplifier circuit 28 generates a voltage Vcs according to an output voltage Vout and a summing voltage of a summing node 26. Then, the output voltage Vout is subtracted from the voltage Vcs to generate a droop voltage Vdroop by a summation circuit 30. Thus, the multi-phase switching regulator needs the summation circuit 30 to obtain the droop voltage Vdroop, and the output voltage Vcs of the amplifier circuit 28 is equal to the output voltage Vout plus the droop voltage Vdroop. FIG. 3 shows a conventional droop amplifier circuit disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,064,528 for generating a droop voltage VDROOP. In FIG. 3, a positive polarity (+) of the droop voltage VDROOP is provided by an output of an amplifier A2, and a negative polarity (−) of the droop voltage VDROOP is provided by an output node of a multi-phase DC-DC regulator. Hence, an output voltage of the amplifier A2 is equal to an output voltage VOUT of the multi-phase DC-DC regulator plus the droop voltage VDROOP.


1. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates to an auxiliary detachable assembly for electronic devices; in particular, to a detachable assembly and the memory module using the same which can prevent electrostatic interference.
2. Description of Related Art
As the volume of electronic devices continues to miniaturize, the processing speed and operational functions are gradually becoming faster and more powerful, respectively. As a result, mainboards and electronic components in electronic devices are not only required to be miniaturized, but are also required to provide even higher operational speed in order to meet users' demand. As the data processing power increases, the demand for higher capacity and speed from memory modules of computers increases.
Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is presented in the form of a module within a computer. In other words, DRAM module includes integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. Users usually first align the printed circuit board of the DRAM module against the memory slot, then apply a force on the top portions of the DRAM module such that the printed circuit board is inserted into the memory slot, thus, the computer system can operate normally.
However, static electricity tends to store in the hands of users and is transmitted to the DRAM module which can lead to abnormal operations thereof. In severe cases, electronic components may malfunction or even be damaged. Moreover, the surface area on top of the DRAM module in which users can apply force upon is relatively small. Specifically, the force applicable area is substantially the thickness of the printed circuit board. As a result, users are more likely to misalign the DRAM module with the memory slot, thus, affecting normal operations, or even worse, damaging the DRAM module.
To address the above issues, the inventor strives via associated experience and research to present the instant disclosure, which can effectively improve the limitation described above.


In Japan Patent Application Nos. 67,013/84 and 69,929/84, the present inventor proposed vibratory apparatuses which are directed for hypnosis and dehypnotization, as well as for therapy of myalgia and stiffness in the shoulder.
These apparatuses, however, have the disadvantage that they consume a relatively large amount of electricity to radiate heat when used for a long duration, because these apparatuses are of forced vibration-type wherein a magnetic coil and an iron core are attached to the same iron plate.


Plasma arc torches are widely used in the cutting, and marking of materials. A plasma torch generally includes an electrode and a nozzle having a central exit orifice mounted within a torch body, electrical connections, passages for cooling, and passages for arc control fluids (e.g., plasma gas). Optionally, a swirl ring is employed to control fluid flow patterns in the plasma chamber formed between the electrode and nozzle. In some torches, a retaining cap can be used to maintain the nozzle and/or swirl ring in the plasma arc torch. The torch produces a plasma arc, a constricted ionized jet of a gas with high temperature and high momentum. Gases used in the torch can be non-reactive (e.g., argon or nitrogen) or reactive (e.g., oxygen or air). In operation, a pilot arc is first generated between the electrode (cathode) and the nozzle (anode). Generation of the pilot arc can be by means of a high frequency, high voltage signal coupled to a DC power supply and the torch or by means of any of a variety of contact starting methods.
One category of hand held plasma arc torch systems include a manual gas control knob on the control panel of the power supply or power supply housing. Before cutting a workpiece, an operator is required to manually adjust the gas pressure or gas flow rate based on the process parameters set forth in a cut chart. The operator manually adjusts the gas pressure or flow rate for each type of cut and therefore, constantly refers to the cut chart for the appropriate gas pressure or flow rate. Moreover, if the operator inadvertently inputs an incorrect gas pressure or flow rate, the plasma arc torch can operate incorrectly or can operate inefficiently.
Another category of hand held systems eliminate the gas control by automatically setting the gas pressure based on the user selected current level and mode (i.e., gouging or cutting). This category of hand held plasma arc torches does not provide the operator with any flexibility in setting the gas pressure beyond the preset automated systems. Therefore, if the operator determines that the gas pressure or flow rate should be changed due to a changed operating parameter or to optimize the plasma arc torch, the operator does not have the flexibility to make these operational and/or optimizing adjustments.


This invention relates to cleaning systems and apparatus, in particular a vehicle used for pumping waste from a pond, pit or other area.
In many industrial settings certain areas have been used to dump various solid and liquid wastes. These areas are often ponds or pits and contain a mixture of water, nonaqueous liquids, suspended solids, flowable wastes and solid trash such as bottles, old tires and used drums.
It has become painfully evident that such waste sites can create a severe environmental problem due to leaching of substances into the earth. Even if leaching is not a problem, such sites can create serious problems if simply filled in with soil once the site is no longer needed. Accordingly, there has been an increased interest in cleaning these sites, collectively called sludge ponds in this application. However, because of the physical makeup of sludge ponds, substantial obstacles hinder cleanup. There are problems associated with the process of physically removing and separating the water, muck, trash and other material, collectively termed sludge, found in the sludge pond. The wide variety of toxic and noxious materials often dumped into or which leak into sludge ponds creates substantial health risks to those removing the sludge.


There is a constant rise in demand for artificial meniscal grafts mimicking native articular tissue to be used for surgical treatment of meniscal lesions. In Europe alone over 400,000 surgical cases involving the meniscus are being performed annually, and over 1 million similar cases are treated in the United States. By far meniscectomy is known to be the most common surgical procedure performed in the orthopedic field today. The current therapeutic strategy for this type of meniscus tears is either partial or subtotal meniscectomy, with only a small percentage being successfully repaired but finally leading to osteoarthritis of the knee with time (Fairbank, 1948; Englund et al., 2003).
A functional intact meniscus is of paramount importance for homeostasis of the knee joint. It helps perform complex knee joint biomechanics, in load bearing, load transmission, shock absorption, joint stability and joint lubrication. However, due to lack of vasculature, human meniscus has a poor healing potential. Blood vessels are reported to be present only in the outer 10-30% of the meniscal body and can be sutured successfully with a high success rate (Englund et al., 2003; Buma et al., 2004). In contrast, majority of these meniscal tears are situated in the inner avascular zone lacking spontaneous healing process and hence be resected (Kohn et al., 1999). Removal and/or damage of all this important anatomical structure eventually leads to degenerative changes of the articular cartilage, osteoarthritis and subsequent clinical symptoms due to increased peak stresses (Fairbank, 1948; Cole et al., 2003; Chatain et al., 2003; Englund et al., 2003). It has been estimated that cartilage volume loss after meniscectomy is at 4% per year and is known to be more pronounced in the lateral compartment as compared to medial compartment (Verdonk and Kohn, 1999).
To this problem, meniscus allo/autograft transplantation represents a potential tissue engineering solution for the symptomatic, meniscus deficient patient to substitute for lost meniscal tissue to prevent cartilage degeneration, relieve pain and to improve function. The strategies included delivery of potent cells to the defect site for repair including chondrocytes, fibrochondrocytes and stem cells (Peretti et al., 2004; Izuta et al., 2005; Port et al., 1996). The other strategy being direct replacement of defective tissue in part or as a whole has also been carried out using both natural and synthetic scaffolds, including collagen-based grafts, subintestinal submucusa, cell free hydrogels, degradable porous foams, macro- and microporous polymeric meshes to improve immediate or long term outcomes (Buma et al., 2004; Stone et al., 1992; Cook et al., 2006 a; Setton et al., 1999; Sweigart et al., 2001; Kobayashi et al., 2005; Kelly et al., 2007; Van Tienen et al., 2002; Heijkants et al., 2004; Cook et al., 2006 (a, b). In the past, a variety of these materials have already been reported for cartilage tissue engineering including, poly-glycolic acid (PGA), poly-L-lactic acid (PLA), copolymer poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) and alginate (Grande et al., 1997; Freed et al., 1993 a,b; Paige et al., 1996; Marijnissen et al., 2002; Ma et al., 2003). However, these materials have intrinsic limitations, including inflammation in vivo in the case of the polyesters and rapid degradation and high swelling in the case of collagen, which can limit their use (Cancedda et al., 2003; Athanasiou et al., 1996; Wakitani et al., 1994; Meinel et al., 2004 a,b). In terms of meniscus shape, a PGA spun matrix was used in a rabbit model but failed to recapitulate the complex internal meniscus architecture (Kang et al., 2006). Additional efforts have focused on mimicking the native mesh-like meniscus architecture using cell alignment on biodegradable electrospun fibers for enhanced biomechanics (Baker and Mauck; 2007; Baker et al., 2009). Many of the above studies employed in vivo animal models to show chondroprotection by the implant, but with a low success rate due to failure to mimic the complex internal architecture and biomechanics of the native meniscus.
In order to develop a functional tissue engineered meniscus, mimicking its complex internal architecture is most important. In this regard, none of the approaches previously reported have successfully recapitulated the complex native meniscal multiporous and aligned structure as a single meniscus wedge shaped unit to completely and/or partially eliminate cartilage degeneration. Thus, in order to mimic the meniscus in a tissue engineered approach, understanding its structural and functional components is important. Menisci are wedge-shaped semi-lunar discs present in duplicate in each knee joint which are attached to the transverse ligaments, the joint capsule, the medial collateral ligament (medially) and the menisco-femoral ligament (laterally) (McDevitt and Webber, 1990; Sweigart and Athanasiou, 2001). An extensive scanning electron micrograph study of the human meniscus by Peterson and Tillmann showed 3 distinct zones comprising of outer finer meshwork, middle broader mesh like fibrous structure and bottom most aligned collagen bundles in laminar orientation (Petersen and Tillmann, 1998). This particular aligned laminar orientation of fibers along with mesh structure within was reported to contribute maximally for its high intrinsic tensile and compressive properties of native meniscus (Sweigart and Athanasiou, 2001; Tissakht and Ahmed, 1995; Petersen and Tillmann, 1998). As a fibrocartilaginous structure, the meniscus has characteristic of both fibrous (outer region) and cartilaginous (inner region) properties (O'Connor, 1976; Petersen and Tillmann, 1998). Knee meniscal fibrocartilaginous tissue contains mainly water (72%), collagens (22%) and glycosaminoglycans (0.8%) (Proctor et al, 1989; Herwig et al, 1984). Of the total collagen content, Type I collagen accounts for over 90%. The remaining 10% are meniscal collagens Type II, III and V collagen (Eyre and Wu, 1983; McDevitt and Webber, 1990). It has been shown that peripheral two-thirds of the meniscus solely consist of type I collagen, whereas type II collagen comprises a large portion of the fibrillar collagen on the inner side (Cheung, 1987). Proteoglycans make for 2-3% of the dry weight and are mainly concentrated in the inner cartilaginous region of the meniscus (McDevitt and Webber, 1990; Buma et al., 2004). Also, the cellular component of the meniscus further reflects its fibrocartilaginous nature, the main cell type being meniscus fibrochondrocytes (McDevitt and Webber, 1990). Regarding cell types, at least two cell populations are present within the human meniscus (Ghadially et al., 1983). The fibrochondrocytes being the main cell type are reported within the inner and middle part of the meniscus having a rounded or oval shaped cell structure surrounded by an abundant ECM deposition (McDevitt and Webber, 1990; Ghadially et al., 1983). The outer one-third meniscus is reported to be populated mainly by spindle shaped fibroblast like cells with a dense connective tissue (Ghadially et al., 1983).
Over the years, newer improvised methods such as meniscus allograft or autograft transplantation have been constantly searched for substituting the resected meniscus in case of either total or partial meniscectomy. However, none to date have generally been able to recapitulate and recreate the native meniscal multiporous and aligned structure as a single meniscus wedge shaped unit to completely and/or partially eliminate cartilage regeneration. As such, there is still a strong need to develop a scaffold that can mimic heterogeneous architecture and functions of native meniscal tissue.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an EL (electro luminescence) display device having a semiconductor element (an element using a semiconductor thin film) formed on a substrate, and electric equipment using the EL display device as a display (display portion). The EL (electroluminescent) devices referred to in this specification include triplet-based light emission devices and/or singlet-based light emission device, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a technique by which a TFT is formed on a substrate has greatly progressed, and the application of that technique to an active matrix display device has been increasingly developed. In particular, a TFT using a polysilicon film enables high-speed operation since it is higher in field effect mobility (also called mobility) than a conventional TFT using an amorphous silicon film.
Attention has been paid to the above active matrix display device because various advantages such as a reduction in manufacturing costs, a downsizing of the display device, an improvement in yield, and a reduction in through-put, are obtained by forming various circuits and elements on the same substrate.
The active matrix EL display device provides a switching element formed of a TFT (hereinafter referred to as a switching element) on each of pixels and activates a driver element that conducts a current control by the switching TFT, to thereby make an EL layer (speaking rigidly, a light emitting layer) emit light. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 10-189252 discloses the EL display device.
As the active matrix EL display device, there are proposed two EL element structures depending on light radiating directions. One of those structures is that a light emitted from the EL element penetrates an opposing substrate and is then radiated so as to enter eyes of an observer. In this case, the observer can recognize an image from the opposing substrate side. The other structure is that a light emitted from the EL element penetrates an element substrate and is then radiated so as to enter eyes of the observer. In this case, the observer can recognize an image from the element substrate side.
In the former structure, the light from the outside penetrates the opposing substrate and is then irradiated onto the TFTs existing in gaps between the respective pixel electrodes, to thereby deteriorate the TFTs. However, because the light from the outside is not high in intensity, the deterioration of the TFTs is not large.
On the other hand, in the latter structure generally frequently employed, because the light emitted from the EL element penetrates the element substrate and is then radiated, the light emitted from the EL element is irradiated onto the TFTs, resulting in such a serious problem in that the TFTs are deteriorated.
Also, a storage capacitor is provided in the pixel and a high aperture ratio is demanded for the pixel from the viewpoint of the display performance. If the respective pixels have the high aperture ratio, the light application efficiency is improved, thereby being capable of achieving the power saving and the downsizing of the display device.
In recent years, the fine pixel size is developed, and a higher definition image is demanded. The fine pixel size increases an area of one pixel on which the TFT and the wirings are formed, to thereby reduce the pixel aperture ratio.
Under the above circumstances, in order to obtain the high aperture ratio of each pixel within the limit of a regular pixel size, it is essential to efficiently layout circuit elements necessary for the circuit structure of the pixel.
As described above, in order to realize the active matrix EL display device high in pixel aperture ratio with a small number of masks, an entirely novel pixel structure that has not existed up to now is demanded.
The present invention has been made to meet the above demands, and therefore an object of the present invention is to provide an EL display device having a pixel structure that realizes a high aperture ratio without increasing the number of masks and the number of processes.
In order to solve the problems with the conventional art, the present invention provides the following means.
The present invention is characterized by a pixel structure in which gaps between respective TFTs and gaps between respective pixels are shielded from a light without using a black mask. As one means for shielding the TFTs from the light, a gate electrode and source wirings are formed on a first insulating film, and most of a semiconductor layer that serves as an active layer is covered with gate wirings formed on a second insulating film different from the first insulating film. Also, as one means for shielding the gaps between the respective pixels from the light, pixel electrodes are so disposed as to be superimposed on the source wirings.
The above-mentioned TFTs are directed to switching TFT disposed on the respective pixels or current control TFTs.
According to the structure of the present invention disclosed in this specification, there is provided an electronic device comprising a plurality of source wirings, a plurality of gate wirings, a plurality of current supply lines and a plurality of pixels, characterized in that:
each of the plurality of pixels includes a switching TFT, a current control TFT, and a light-emitting element; and
the switching TFT includes a semiconductor layer (first semiconductor layer 200) having a source region and a drain region on an insulating surface, and a channel-forming region interposed between the source region and the drain region; a first insulating film (gate insulating film) formed on the semiconductor layer (first semiconductor layer 200); an electrode formed (first electrode 113) on the first insulating film so as to be superimposed on the channel-forming region; a source wiring (115) formed on the first insulating film; a second insulating film that covers the electrode (first electrode 113) and the source wirings; and a gate wiring (145) formed on the second insulating film and connected to the electrode (first electrode 113).
In the above structure, the electronic device is characterized in that the semiconductor layer (first semiconductor layer 200) has a region, which is superimposed on the gate wiring.
Further, the electronic device is characterized in that the region of the semiconductor layer which is superimposed on the gate wiring includes at least the channel-forming region, a region existing between the channel-forming region and the drain region, or a region existing between the channel-forming region and the source region, and is protected from light from the outside.
In case of the electronic device of a multi-gate structure in which a plurality of gate electrodes are on one semiconductor layer through an insulating film, it is characterized in that the semiconductor layer includes a plurality of channel-forming regions that the gate wiring is so disposed as to be superimposed on a region existing between one of the channel-forming regions and another channel-forming region.
Further, the electronic device is characterized in that the electrode and the source wirings are made of the same material on the first insulating film and that the pixel electrode, the connection electrode and the gate wiring are made of the same material on the second insulating film.
According to another structure of the present invention, there is provided an electronic device comprising a plurality of source wirings, a plurality of first gate wirings, a plurality of current supply lines, a plurality of second gate wirings and a plurality of pixels, characterized in that:
each of the plurality of pixels includes a switching TFT, a current control TFT, an erasing TFT and a light-emitting element; and
the switching TFT includes a semiconductor layer (first semiconductor layer 900) having a source region and a drain region formed on an insulating surface, and a channel-forming region interposed between the source region and the drain region; a first insulating film (gate insulating film) formed on the semiconductor layer (first semiconductor layer 900); an electrode (first electrode 805) formed on the first insulating film and superimposed on the channel-forming region; a source wiring (803) formed on the first insulating film; a second insulating film that covers the electrode (first electrode 805) and the source wiring (803); and a first gate wiring (801) formed on the second insulating film and connected to the electrode (first electrode 805).
Further, according to another structure of the present invention, there is provided an electronic device comprising a plurality of source wirings, a plurality of first gate wirings, a plurality of current supply lines, a plurality of second gate wirings and a plurality of pixels, characterized in that:
each of the plurality of pixels includes a switching TFT, a current control TFT, an erasing TFT, and a light-emitting element; and
the erasing TFT includes a semiconductor layer having a source region and a drain region formed on an insulating surface, and a channel-forming region interposed between the source region and the drain region; a first insulating film (gate insulating film) formed on the semiconductor layer; a first electrode (third electrode 807) formed on the first insulating film and superimposed on the channel-forming region; a second electrode (second electrode 806) formed on the first insulating film; a second insulating film that covers the first electrode (third electrode 807) and the second electrode (second electrode 806); and a second gate wiring (802) formed on the second insulating film and connected to the first electrode (third electrode 807).
In the above structure, the electronic device is characterized in that the semiconductor layer has a region which is superimposed on the second gate wiring (802) and that the second gate wiring (802) is superimposed on at least the channel-forming region.
Further, the electronic device is characterized in that the region of the semiconductor layer which is superimposed on the second gate wiring (802) includes at least the channel-forming region, a region existing between the channel-forming region and the drain region, or a region existing between the channel-forming region and the source region, and is protected from light from the outside.
In the above structure, the first electrode (third electrode 807) that is superimposed on the channel-forming region comprises a gate electrode of the erasing TFT.
In the above structure, the second electrode (second electrode 806) comprises a gate electrode of the current control TFT, which is connected to the drain region of the switching TFT.
Further, it is characterized in that the first gate wiring and the second gate wiring are made of the same material in order to suppress the increase in the number of masks.


This invention relates, in general, to a dual language electronic reference machine. More particularly, this invention relates to a bilingual language teaching machine is which words in either of the two languages involved can be entered and information, in either language, is provided about the entered word. The information provided includes inflections of the translation of the input word and information about those inflections.
A wide variety of electronic language reference products are available or taught in the literature. These products provide information concerning spelling, grammar and pronunciation. A number of products have been devised which disclose some dual language capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,192 issued in February 1989 to Washizuka et. al. discloses a language translator with a speech synthesizer which in effect is a talking phrase book with ability to input certain words.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,462 issued Jul. 12, 1983 to Tanimoto et. al. discloses a precision electronic translator that provides pronunciation of an input word and means for pronouncing the translated word equivalent to the input word.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,396 issued Dec. 18, 1984 to Hashimoto et. al. is a translator with a voice synthesizer for pronunciation of the specific words in the input word language.
These and other translation devices provide translation of a word, and in some cases a phrase, together with pronunciation of the input word and/or pronunciation of the translated word or phrase. They sometimes also provide definitional information. They are useful in the limited context of a traveler. But they provide little or no introduction to the use of a language and are inadequate as a teaching or learning tool for learning about a second language.
What is needed is a technique for providing in depth information about a foreign language to enable a user to employ the language in a more usual conversational fashion. This requires the presentation of not only a translation and the usual dictionary information but also the inflected forms of the word in the language being learned and a discussion of the inflected forms. These inflected forms include tenses and moods of verbs, masculine and feminine forms of the words and plurals. Furthermore, instructional material concerning the significance and meaning of the various inflected forms is important in order to understand the context of the usage.
Providing all this information in a usable and useful manner for the person learning the language requires a mode of presentation that avoids burying the user in the information yet provides information necessary to enable the user to learn a language in depth. The mode of presentation is the key to the utility of an electronic language learning machine.
Accordingly, a major purpose in this invention is to provide a dual language reference product that is optimally accommodated to the learning requirements of a user so as to facilitate the learning of a foreign language.
It is a related purpose of this invention to provide such a device as can be used by individuals having a wide range of competence in the language being learned.
More particularly, it is a purpose of this invention to provide a compact, hand held, self-contained dual language reference product that meets the above objectives.