The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus.
Recently, image forming apparatuses have a function to be set to a power saving state in which for example power sources for some devices included therein are turned off (also referred to below as a sleep operation mode) in order to reduce power consumption. However, in a situation in which a user uses such an image forming apparatus in the sleep operation mode, it takes a waiting time to return the mode of the image forming apparatus from the sleep operation mode to a normal operation mode through touch panel input or key input. A technique using a motion sensor as described below is proposed to reduce the waiting time.
An image forming apparatus stores a detection state of the motion sensor and a state of a user using the image forming apparatus for a specific period and changes sensitivity of the motion sensor. When the motion sensor is used, mis-detection resulting in reversion to the normal operation mode from the sleep operation mode may occur due to a person who does not use the image forming apparatus approaching the image forming apparatus, besides detection resulting in normal reversion to the normal operation mode from the sleep operation mode due to a user approaching the image forming apparatus. A technique to change the sensitivity of the motion sensor is proposed to solve the above problem.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical devices, and more particularly to methods and circuits for programming of antifuses.
2. Description of Related Art
Programmable semiconductor devices include programmable read only memories ("PROMs"), programmable logic devices ("PLDs"), and programmable gate arrays. Programmable elements suitable for one or more of these device types include fuses and antifuses.
A fuse is a structure which electrically couples its first electrode to its second electrode, but which, when programmed by passage of sufficient current between its electrodes, electrically decouples the first electrode from the second electrode.
An antifuse is a structure which when unprogrammed does not electrically couple its first and second electrodes, but which, when programmed, permanently electrically couples the first and second electrodes. An antifuse is programmed by applying sufficient voltage ("programming voltage") between its first and second electrodes. One type of antifuse comprises a high resistivity material in which a low resistivity filament is formed when the material is heated by electrical current. Amorphous silicon, silicon dioxide and silicon nitride have been used successfully as the high resistivity materials. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,181 issued Apr. 18, 1989 to Mohsen et al.; B. Cook et al., "Amorphous Silicon Antifuse Technology for Bipolar PROMs," 1986 Bipolar Circuits and Technology Meeting, pages 99-100.
An antifuse, when programmed, should have a low resistance. It was generally believed that in order to obtain lower resistance one needs to raise "programming" current (the current passing through the antifuse during programming). Namely, the physics of antifuse programming was believed to be as follows. When the programming voltage is applied between the antifuse terminals, the high resistivity material breaks down at its weakest portion. Current flows through that portion and heats the material. The heat creates a conductive filament through the material. As the filament grows in size, the resistance across the material decreases. Hence the temperature of the material also decreases. Gradually the temperature becomes so low that the conductive filament stops growing. See Hamdy et al., "Dielectric Based Antifuse for Logic and Memory ICs," IEDM 1988, pages 786-789. In order to reduce the resistance further, the current has to be increased so as to generate more heat.
It was confirmed experimentally that a higher programming current does provide a lower resistance. However, the current in a programmable circuit cannot be increased indefinitely because high current can damage circuit devices. Thus, it is desirable to find a programming method that provides a low antifuse resistance while using a low programming current.
Further, the resistance of the programmed antifuse varies from one antifuse to another even among antifuses of the same general construction, and even when the same technique is used to program the antifuses. Since the resistance is variable, designers and users of circuits with antifuses have to accommodate a wide range of antifuse resistances. There is a need for a programming method that would make the resistance less variable.
A typical programmable circuit (for example, a gate array) contains hundreds or thousands of antifuses. The programming circuit must address the antifuses being programmed so as to program only those antifuses. At present, addressing circuits typically require a decoder. The decoder makes the programming circuit more complex. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,459 issued Oct. 10, 1989 to El Gamal et al.
It is desirable to provide a simpler programming circuit suitable for use in programmable circuits with many antifuses. In addition, such a programming circuit should consume little power. Further, the programming circuit should program a large number of antifuses fast.


Work machine operators can experience significant levels of vibration. Many regulatory bodies have imposed restrictions on the vibration levels that an operator may be exposed to over time. To comply with these restrictions, an operator's time on a particular machine can be limited. Specifically, the operator may be required to cease operation of the machine once he has experienced a certain vibration level for a predetermined period of time. Alternatively, an active vibration management system may be employed in an attempt to reduce the average vibration level experienced by the operator and, therefore, prolong his allowed time on the machine.
Various systems have been proposed for actively reducing vibrations in a machine. Many of these systems involve sensing of vibrations produced in the machine and reducing the vibrations transferred from a vibration source to the frame of the machine. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,590 to Terpay et al. (“the '590 patent”), which issued on Nov. 11, 2003, describes an active system and method for reducing vibrations generated by a gearbox in a rotary wing aircraft. In this system, an active mount is connected between the gearbox and the airframe using hydraulic actuators to suspend the airframe from the gearbox. Based on output signals from various vibration sensors, hydraulic fluid may be supplied to the actuators to move the gearbox relative to the airframe. This motion may be controlled to minimize the transfer of vibrations from the gearbox to the frame.
While the system of the '590 patent may help reduce the vibrations transferred to certain machine components, the system has several shortcomings. For example, the system of the '590 patent cannot monitor or track average vibration levels experienced by an operator or component. Further, the system includes no predictive capability for determining the vibration response of a system to various operator inputs. In addition, the system does not include the capability of adjusting the response of a machine component to reduce the amount of vibration produced. Therefore, the system of the '590 patent may be unsuitable as a means for ensuring that an operator of a work machine does not experience a certain vibration level for greater than a permissible length of time.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems associated with the prior art active vibration reduction systems.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of a complementary metal insulator semiconductor device (CMIS) using a metal gate electrode, and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to meet the requirements for an effective reduction in the thickness of a gate insulating film associated with increasing performance and increasing integration of semiconductor devices, it will be necessary in the future to introduce the technique for a metal gate electrode and a high dielectric (high-k) gate insulating film. To obtain proper performance in a CMIS transistor (cMISFET) using the metal/high-k gate insulating film, an effective work function φeff of a metal gate material needs to be about 3.9 to 4.3 eV for an n-channel MIS transistor (nMISFET), and about 4.8 to 5.2 eV for a p-channel MIS transistor (pMISFET).
However, a metal having a low work function suitable for the n-channel MIS transistor is generally not stable in a heat treatment step necessary for a transistor formation process, and cannot have a φeff of about 3.9 to 4.3 eV suitable for the n-channel MIS transistor especially on the high-k gate insulating film after the formation of the transistor. Therefore, insertion of a layer containing groups IIA and IIIA metallic elements into a gate stack structure is necessary, which is effective as a technique of reducing Vth in the n-channel MISFET.
On the other hand, the layer containing the groups IIA and IIIA metallic elements increases Vth in the p-channel MIS transistor, so that there is a need for a step of detaching the layer containing the groups IIA and IIIA metallic elements in the p-channel MISFET region.
However, the layer containing the groups IIA and IIIA metallic elements is generally low in resistance to an etching solution (e.g., refer to H. Y. Yu et al., Tech. VLSI, P18(2007)). Accordingly, there has been concern that the layer containing the groups IIA and IIIA metallic elements in the n-channel MISFET region may also be detached in the step of detaching the layer containing the groups IIA and IIIA metallic elements in the p-channel MISFET region or in an associated mask detaching step, and proper Vth modulation may not be obtained in the n-channel MISFET region.
Thus, there has been desired the realization of a CMIS structure which inhibits the effects of the Vth modulation by the layer containing the groups IIA and IIIA metallic elements in the p-channel MISFET region without performing the step of detaching the layer containing the groups IIA and IIIA metallic elements formed in the p-channel MISFET region.


The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Continuing advances in semiconductor manufacturing processes have resulted in semiconductor devices with finer features and/or higher degrees of integration. Functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while feature size (i.e., the smallest component that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling-down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs.
Despite groundbreaking advances in materials and fabrication, scaling planar devices such as a metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) device has proven challenging. To overcome these challenges, circuit designers look to novel structures to deliver improved performance, which has resulted in the development of three-dimensional designs, such as fin-like field effect transistors (FinFETs). The FinFET is fabricated with a thin vertical “fin” (or fin structure) extending up from a substrate. The channel of the FinFET is formed in this vertical fin. A gate is provided over the fin to allow the gate to control the channel from multiple sides. Advantages of the FinFET may include a reduction of the short channel effect, reduced leakage, and higher current flow.
However, since feature sizes continue to decrease, fabrication processes continue to become more difficult to perform. Therefore, it is a challenge to form a reliable semiconductor device including the FinFET.


With recent process miniaturization, the number of processing steps necessary to manufacture a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory has been increasing. Increases in the numbers of times of deposition, etching, and exposure cause more defects on a semiconductor substrate, and therefore it becomes difficult to ensure reliability of a capacitance element including a gate oxide film on semiconductor substrate.
For example, JP-A-Heisei 2-76251 (Patent Literature 1) discloses a technique that automatically prevents defective operation due to insulation breakdown in a device including a large scale capacitance unit such as a charge pump circuit. A polysilicon electrode PSi divided into a plurality of sections is present on the surface of a semiconductor substrate, and an oxide film is present between the polysilicon electrode sections PSi and the semiconductor substrate, to form a capacitance. The polysilicon electrode sections are connected with narrow aluminum wiring lines Al.
In an ordinary state, the polysilicon electrode sections are all connected with a same wiring line, and therefore the plurality of electrode sections can operate as an integrated capacitance element. If an oxide film for a capacitance is broken through a specific polysilicon electrode portion in a state that a voltage difference is supplied between the substrate and the electrode, leakage current flows, concentrating on a broken electrode portion. In this case, a wiring line for connection between the electrode sections is narrow, and therefore the wiring line connected to the broken electrode section is fused and disconnected by an extraordinary leakage current due to the insulation breakdown to separate the broken polysilicon electrode section from the device.
In this technique, a fuse function for removing the defective device is covered by the wiring line. However, in the recent miniaturized process, to stably fabricate a narrow wiring line as a process node serving as the fuse is difficult in terms of a fabrication method. At a miniaturized process node, influence of a variation on a wiring line width is large, and therefore it is difficult to equalize a current value at which the fuse disconnects the connection to an arbitrary value.
Also, JP2003-338553A (Patent Literature 2) discloses a technique related to a semiconductor device provided with a nonvolatile memory that interrupts a leakage current to a broken electrostatic protective component.


Immunological assays are receiving attention as a method of identifying and quantitating, with high accuracy, proteins such as virus, bacteria, and allergenic substance contained in biological samples (for example, blood).
The immunological assay is roughly classified into an immunonephelometry and an immunolabeling assay. The immunonephelometry is a method of determining the change in turbidity of a sample solution that is caused by an antigen-antibody complex produced by an antigen-antibody reaction. The immunolabeling assay is a method of determining the change in the amount of a labeling substance after an antigen-antibody reaction by using an antibody labeled with the labeling substance.
The immunolabeling assay is subdivided according to the type of the labeling substance. Examples thereof include a radioimmunoassay in which a radioisotope is used as the labeling substance, an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) in which an enzyme is used, and a fluorescence immunoassay in which a fluorescent substance is used. In the EIA, as compared to other immunolabeling assays, the safety of the labeling substance is higher, it can be carried out by a simpler operation, and the measurement accuracy is higher. Therefore the EIA is used frequently.
A typical example of the EIA is an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). An example of the ELISA is described with reference to FIG. 1.
<Step 1-A: Forming a Solid-Phase Antigen>
A solution containing a capture antigen having an epitope identical to that of an antigen to be measured is introduced into a reaction chamber 7 and is maintained at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined period of time, and thereby the capture antigen is allowed to adsorb to the surface of the reaction chamber 7. Thereafter the capture antigen to be allowed to adsorb is covered with protein that is not involved in a later antigen-antibody reaction and enzyme reaction (blocking). Thus a solid-phase antigen 6 is formed inside the reaction chamber 7. The solid-phase antigen 6 is being fixed to the surface of the reaction chamber 7 and therefore is not removed from the reaction chamber 7 by the washing described later.
<Step 1-B: Binding Reactions Between Antibody and Antigen to be Measured as Well as Solid-Phase Antigen>
An antibody 3 that specifically binds to an antigen to be measured 2 is added to a sample solution 9. The antibody 3 is being labeled with a labeling substance (an enzyme) 4. Thereafter, the sample solution 9 containing the antibody 3 is introduced into the reaction chamber 7. Thus, the antigen-antibody reaction proceeds between the antibody 3 and the antigen 2 to be measured as well as the solid-phase antigen 6 in the reaction chamber 7.
<Step 1-C: Removal of Unreacted Antibody and Antigen-Antibody Complex>
Using a wash solution, the inside of the reaction chamber 7 is washed. Thereby the antigen-antibody complex formed through binding of the antibody 3 to the antigen 2 to be measured and the antibody 3 that has not been bound to the solid-phase antigen 6 are removed from the reaction chamber 7. Accordingly, a conjugate of the solid-phase antigen 6 and the antibody 3 remains in the reaction chamber 7.
<Step 1-D: Measurement of the Amount of the Labeling Substance>
The amount of the labeling substance 4 of the conjugate of the solid-phase antigen 6 and the antibody 3 that has remained in the reaction chamber 7 is measured. This measurement is carried out, for example, as follows. First, a solution containing a measuring reagent (for example, a substrate of the enzyme) that reacts with the labeling substance 4 is prepared. The solution is prepared by adding the measuring reagent to a buffer solution typified by Tris-HCl buffer. Next, this solution is introduced into the reaction chamber 7, and thereby a measurement solution 10 is obtained that contains the measuring reagent and the conjugate of the solid-phase antigen 6 and the antibody 3. After the reaction between the measuring reagent and the labeling substance 4 is allowed to proceed in the measurement solution 10, a signal that reflects the amount of reaction product is detected.
As a result of this measurement, the amount of the antigen 2 to be measured in the sample solution 9 is calculated based on the amount of the solid-phase antigen 6 and the amount of the sample solution 9 introduced into the reaction chamber 7 in Step 1-B.
From the viewpoint of measuring the amount of the substance to be measured in the sample solution using a trace amount of sample solution in a short period of time, a chip-type biosensor is receiving attention. For example, JP 2 (1990)-062952 A discloses a chip-type biosensor including an insulating chip substrate, an electrode system disposed on the chip substrate, an enzyme reaction layer disposed on the electrode system, and an insulating layer that has notches and is disposed above the chip substrate in such a manner that the electrode system and the enzyme reaction layer are exposed. The enzyme reaction layer contains a measuring reagent for inducing an enzymatic cycling reaction, which is typified by an oxidoreductase and an electron mediator. An enzyme containing as a substrate the substance to be measured is used as the oxidoreductase. For example, glucose oxidase is used when the glucose amount is to be measured, and cholesterol oxidase is used when the cholesterol amount is to be measured. In this biosensor, a sample solution is dripped into the notches, so that the measuring reagent is dissolved in the sample solution. Thereby the reaction between the enzyme and the substance to be measured through an electron mediator (an enzymatic cycling reaction) proceeds. The amount of the substance to be measured in the sample solution is calculated based on the oxidation current value that is obtained by electrochemically oxidizing the electron mediator reduced by the enzyme reaction.
In the conventional immunological assay as shown in FIG. 1, as described above, Step 1-D is carried out using the measurement solution 10 containing a buffer solution as a solvent. Accordingly, in order to carry out the immunological assay on a chip, it is necessary to supply the buffer solution from the outside of the chip or to allow the buffer solution to be retained on the chip beforehand. However, when the buffer solution is supplied from the outside of the chip, extra time and effort is required for the supply. When the buffer solution is allowed to be retained on the chip, this solution desirably is allowed to be retained on the chip in a hermetic state and in the state that facilitates it to be introduced into the reaction chamber for assaying while containing a component that reacts with the labeling substance. However, it is not easy to form such a retaining state on a chip.


Electronic mail (email) has become an integral part of business and personal communications. As such, many users have multiple email accounts for work and home use. Moreover, with the increased availability of mobile cellular and wireless local area network (LAN) devices that can send and receive emails, many users wirelessly access emails from mailboxes stored on different email storage servers (e.g., corporate email storage server, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc.).
Yet, email distribution and synchronization across multiple mailboxes and over wireless networks can be quite challenging, particularly when this is done on a large scale for numerous users. For example, different email accounts may be configured differently and with non-uniform access criteria. Moreover, as emails are received at the wireless communications device, copies of the emails may still be present in the original mailboxes, which can make it difficult for users to keep their email organized.
One particularly advantageous “push” type email distribution and synchronization system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,779,019 to Mousseau et al., which is assigned to the present Assignee and is hereby incorporated herein by reference. This system pushes user-selected data items from a host system to a user's mobile wireless communications device upon detecting the occurrence of one or more user-defined event triggers. The user may then move (or file) the data items to a particular folder within a folder hierarchy stored in the mobile wireless communications device, or may execute some other system operation on a data item. Software operating at the device and the host system then synchronizes the folder hierarchy of the device with a folder hierarchy of the host system, and any actions executed on the data items at the device are then automatically replicated on the same data items stored at the host system, thus eliminating the need for the user to manually replicate actions at the host system that have been executed at the mobile wireless communications device.
The foregoing system advantageously provides great convenience to users of wireless email communication devices for organizing and managing their email messages. Yet, further convenience and efficiency features may be desired in email distribution and synchronization systems as email usage continues to grow in popularity. For example, in new user accounts, an email provisioning and authentication system can run through a series of possible email server configurations to determine how to access an electronic mailbox for a user email account. The user can supply email address parameters such as an email address and password, but often becomes frustrated if the wrong email address parameter is typed. The user typically must wait a relatively long time to determine if something is wrong, or worse, the user may be given an advanced configuration screen and asked to provide difficult to know IP address numbers, ports and other entries because of the mistake. Some prior art systems have parsed emails and tried to provision, and as a subsequent step after failure, used MX records to aid in the process for accessing email. But those systems have not been used for provisioning in a more direct manner.


This invention relates in general to a magnetically enhanced wafer processing system and relates more particularly to a wafer processing plasma reactor in which the processing rate at the wafer is adjusted by means of magnetic material included within the reactor processing chamber.
Plasma processing, such as plasma etching and deposition processing, in the fabrication of circuits is attractive because it can be anisotropic, can be chemically selective and can produce processing under conditions far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Anisotropic processing enables the production of integrated circuit features having sidewalls that extend substantially vertically from the edges of a the masking layer. This is important in present and future ULSI devices in which the depth of etch and feature size and spacing are all comparable.
In FIG. 1 is shown a typical wafer processing plasma reactor 10. This reactor includes a metal wall 1 1 that encloses a plasma reactor chamber 12. Wall 11 is grounded and functions as one of the plasma electrodes. Gases are supplied to chamber 12 from a gas source 13 and are exhausted by an exhaust system 14 that actively pumps gases out of the reactor to maintain a low pressure suitable for a plasma process. An rf power supply 15 connected to a second (powered) electrode 16 capacitively couples power into a plasma in chamber 12. A wafer 17 is positioned on or near powered electrode 16 for processing. Wafers 17 are transferred into and out of reactor chamber 12 through a port such as slit valve 18.
A plasma consists of two qualitatively different regions: a quasineutral, equipotential conductive plasma body 19 and a boundary layer 110 called the plasma sheath. The plasma body consists of substantially equal densities of negative and positive charged particles as well as radicals and stable neutral particles. RF power coupled into the reactor chamber couples energy into the free electrons, imparting sufficient energy to many of these electrons that ions can be produced through collisions of these electrons with gas molecules. The plasma sheath is an electron deficient, poorly conductive region in which the gradient in the space potential (i.e., the electric field strength) is large. The plasma sheath forms between the plasma body and any interface such as the walls and electrodes of the plasma reactor chamber.
When the powered electrode is capacitively coupled to the rf power source, a negative dc component V.sub.dc, of the voltage at this electrode (i.e., the dc bias) results (see, for example, H. S. Butler and G. S. Kino, Physics of Fluids, 6, p. 1348 (1963). This dc component, typically several hundred volts, is a consequence of the unequal electron and ion mobilities and the inequality of the sheath capacitances at the electrode and wall surfaces.
The dc component of the sheath potential at the powered electrode is useful in accelerating ions to higher energy in a direction substantially perpendicular to the powered electrode. Therefore, a wafer 17, to be processed by ions from the plasma, is positioned on or slightly above the powered electrode 16 so that this flux of positive ions is incident substantially perpendicular to the plane of the wafer.
The process rate is dependant on the dc component of the sheath potential and on the density of ions in the plasma near the sheath. To achieve high process throughput, it is advantageous to have an increased density of ions near this sheath. One method of increasing plasma ion density near the wafer utilizes magnets to produce a magnetic containment field that traps electrons within the vicinity of the wafer, thereby increasing the ion production rate and associated density at the wafer. The magnetic containment field confines energetic electrons by forcing them to spiral along helical orbits about the magnetic field lines, caused by a Lorentz force F=q(E+vxB), where E is the electric field vector and B is the magnetic field vector. Unfortunately, nonuniformities of the magnetic containment field of such "magnetically enhanced" plasma processing systems result in increased nonuniformity over the surface of the wafer.
To reduce the spatial variation of process rate uniformity over the surface of the wafer, some systems, such as the model 5000E from Applied Materials, Inc., produce a magnetic field that is substantially parallel to the surface of the wafer along a direction that rotates around an axis that is concentric with and perpendicular to the wafer. This rotation produces at the wafer surface an approximately cylindrically symmetric time-averaged field that has improved average uniformity over the wafer, thereby producing improved process uniformity.
Although the rotating magnetic field is to produce a uniform processing rate across the entire surface of the wafer, tests of the process rate at various points of the wafer exhibit some significant nonuniformity. It is therefore advantageous to identify the source of this nonuniformity and to provide a mechanism for eliminating or compensating for this nonuniformity.


This invention relates to a biometric authentication system, and more particularly, to registration of a biometric certificate generated from biometric information.
A biometric authentication system performs personal authentication based on biometric information such as a fingerprint, a vein, an iris, a face, voice, and handwriting. Those pieces of biometric information are private information to be handled with care, and it is therefore required to manage the information properly to prevent leakage of the information. Further, the biometric authentication is expected to be widely used as social infrastructure from now on, but in order to use a large number of biometric authentication systems, it is required to register biometric information with each system. Thus, the user's time and effort to register the information is a factor that inhibits the widespread use of the biometric authentication systems.
JP 2013-123142 A is known as a technology for solving those problems. JP 2013-123142 A has the following description: “At the time of registration, a biometric signature system embeds a predetermined secret key into a feature quantity of biometric information on a user, and issues a biometric certificate containing a set of the feature quantity and a corresponding public key. At the time of signature, the biometric signature system newly generates a pair of a temporary secret key and a temporary public key for a signature feature quantity of biometric information on the user, creates a signature for a message through use of the temporary secret key, creates a commitment by embedding the temporary secret key into the signature feature quantity, and sets a set of the temporary public key, the signature, and the commitment as a biometric signature. At the time of verification of the biometric signature, the biometric signature system verifies the signature based on the temporary public key, and generates a difference secret key and a difference public key from the biometric certificate, the commitment, and the temporary public key to verify their correspondence.”


1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to user interface applications for autonomous driving systems. More specifically, user interfaces for displaying the status of the autonomous driving system are provided.
2. Description of Related Art
Autonomous vehicles use various computing systems to transport passengers from one location to another. Some autonomous vehicles may require some initial input or continuous input from an operator, such as a pilot, driver, or passenger. Other systems, for example autopilot systems, may be used only when the system has been engaged, thus the operator may switch from a manual to an autonomous mode where the vehicle drives itself. These systems may be highly complicated and generally do not provide for a user friendly experience.


A common technique for transporting call control signals over a digital telecommunication network, such as, but not limited to a T-1 data rate network, is the use of `robbed`-bit signaling, in which least significant bits are `robbed` from selected DS0 communication channels and used instead for the transport of in-band signaling information (termed ABCD bits). Although in-band, robbed bit signaling allows the service provider to use all of the available TDM channels for customer traffic, and has been found to be generally acceptable for the transport of quantized voice, it can constitute a significant impairment to the quality of transported data traffic.
This data traffic degradation problem can become particularly exacerbated in networks containing a plurality of concatenated signaling discontinuities, such as repeaters and/or cross-connect nodes--that do not allow DS1 extended superframe alignment to maintained. Since the robbed bits cannot be tracked across these discontinuities, a series of three dB noise penalties may be incurred. One possible alternative of using one of the (twenty-four) communication channels as an out-of-band channel for the transport of signaling information for the remaining twenty-three `clear` DS0 communication channels is unacceptable to telecommunication service providers as a cost prohibitive allocation of resources and usurping of useful DS0 bandwidth.


A shallow groove isolation (SGI) structure is now available to make an electrical insulation or isolation between adjacent elements such as transistors, etc. on a semiconductor substrate. As shown in FIGS. 1A to 1D, the SGI structure typically comprises a shallow groove formed on a semiconductor substrate 31 of silicon and an oxide film 35 and the like embedded in the groove and is suitable for devices requiring processing dimensional precision of 0.25 μm or under, because its processing dimensional precision is higher than that of the structure so far by local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS). However, the SGI structure sometimes suffers from formation of sharp protrusions 34 of semiconductor substrate 31 of silicon formed in the oxide film 35 formed by oxidation at the upper edge of the groove during the oxidation step, as shown in FIG. 1C. The presence of such sharp protrusions 34 of semiconductor substrate 31 of silicon causes concentration of electric fields around the protrusions during the circuit operation, sometimes deteriorating gate breakdown voltage or capacitance, as disclosed, for example, by A. Bryant et al (Technical Digest of IEDM '94, pp. 671-674). It is known from experiences that such deterioration of gate breakdown voltage occurs when the radius of curvature of the substrate is not more than 3 nm around the groove upper edge, even if the angle of substrate is not less than 90° around the groove upper edge. To overcome the deterioration, pad oxide film 32 of FIG. 1B is recessed backwards by about 0.1 μm as shown in FIG. 1B′ and oxidized with an oxidant, preferably steam at a temperature of about 1,000° C. to form a desired radius of curvature at the groove upper edges, as disclosed in JP-A-2-260660.
Even though the desired radius curvature can be obtained by the prior art procedure, step (or unevenness) 44 is formed on the upper surface of semiconductor substrate of silicon 31 around the groove upper edge, as shown in FIG. 1C′. Such step 44 can be formed presumably due to the following mechanism. That is, semiconductor substrate 31 of silicon has a silicon-exposed region and a silicon-unexposed region in the recessed area at the edge of pad oxide film 32; the silicon-exposed region undergoes faster oxidant diffusion, i.e. faster oxidation, than the silicon-unexposed region, resulting in formation of step 44 at the edge of pad oxide film 32 as a boundary. Gate oxide film 37, when formed in such a step region, has an uneven thickness, which leads to variations of electrical properties. Furthermore, stresses are liable to concentrate therein, resulting in a possible decrease in the electrical reliability of a transistors to be formed on step 44.
Further, the silicon oxide film 36 is deposited on the semiconductor substrate 31 by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to embed the silicon oxide film 36 in the groove and then the semiconductor substrate 31 is heat treated to sinter the silicon oxide film 36 embedded in the groove. Sintering is carried out for improving the quality of the silicon oxide film 36 embedded in the groove. If the sintering is insufficient, voids are often generated in the groove in the subsequent steps.
Furthermore, it is said that wet or steam oxidation is effective for sintering the silicon oxide film 36 embedded in the groove, but the wet or steam oxidation is liable to oxidize the inside, particularly side wall, of the groove. Oxidation starts from the groove surface and thus the groove bottom is less oxidized. Once the groove side wall is oxidized, the active region is narrowed. This is another problem. Thicker oxide film will cause a larger stress on the boundary between the oxide film and the substrate and the once rounded shoulder edge will return to the original sharp one and crystal defects are also generated. This is a further problem. To overcome these problems, it was proposed to provide a silicon nitride film along the groove inside wall.
According to a process for forming a groove, disclosed in JP-A-8-97277, a groove is trenched on a silicon substrate at first, and then an oxide film is formed on the groove inside surfaces (side wall and bottom surfaces) by heat oxidation, followed by further formation of a silicon nitride film thereon and still further formation of a silicon film such as anyone of amorphous, polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon films on the silicon nitride film. Then, the groove is embedded with a silicon oxide film completely, followed by flattening of the groove top. After the deposition of the silicon oxide film on the entire surface of substrate, but before the fattening, the silicon film is oxidized in an oxidizing atmosphere including steam at about 950° C. to convert it to a silicon oxide film. The silicon substrate is not oxidized during the oxidation, because the silicon substrate is protected by the silicon nitride film. According to the process, a film having a good compatibility with a silicon oxide film, i.e. a silicon film is formed as a thin film on the groove inside surfaces and thus the groove can be embedded with the silicon oxide film without any remaining voids in the groove. The silicon film in the groove must be then converted to a silicon oxide film by oxidation, but the silicon nitride film is provided between the silicon film and the silicon substrate, the silicon substrate is never oxidized during the oxidation of the silicon film. That is, no device characteristics are deteriorated at all.
In the above-mentioned prior art processes for forming a groove, heat treatment is carried out at a high temperature such as 1,000° C. or higher to round the shoulder edge of element isolation groove. However, large-dimension wafers are liable to undergo dislocation, which will serve as nuclei for defects, by heat treatment at a high temperature such as 1,000° C. or higher, and thus a heat-treatment process at a high temperature such as 1,000° C. or higher would be hard to use in view of the future trend to use much larger-dimension wafers. In the heat treatment at a low temperature such as less than 1,000° C., it is hard to round the shoulder edge of element isolation groove.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the injection of idle current into a current switch and, more particularly, to the use of fast response diodes to cause the injection of the idle current in the current switch to reduce the propagation delay in said switch.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, both Emitter-Coupled Logic (ECL) gate circuits and cascode circuits have been used at current switches. FIG. 1 illustrates the basic current-switch emitter-follower ECL gate circuit. The propagation time delay between the midpoint of a signal V.sub.IN, input to the basic circuit and the midpoint of (either of) its output voltage signal(s) may be expressed as:
t.sub.pd = t.sub.pd1 + t.sub.pd2 + t.sub.pd3 wherein (for a positive input signal transition), PA1 t.sub.pd1 is the time required to charge the emitter-base junction (capacitance) of the input transistor from its initial value to a value at which the transistor can begin to conduct (e.g. from 0.4 to about 0.7 volts), PA1 t.sub.pd2 is the time required for current transfer given that both switching transistors are fully activated, PA1 t.sub.pd3 is the time required to charge (or discharge) the equivalent capacitance at either collector node through the load resistor connected thereto.
To improve the speed of such basic ECL circuits, the possibility of incorporating idle current injection features and "keep alive" (KA) diodes in a manner similar to that suggested in FIG. 2 and discussed below was studied by Rigby with the intent of reduction of the t.sub.pd1 component of delay and addition instead of another smaller delay component, the diode switching time. Rigby's work, reported in 1963 in an article entitled High Speed Emitter Current Switching, published in the (Australian) technical journal, Proceedings of IREE, dealt only with the use of discrete component circuits and in general found that the response time of conventional p-n junction diodes available in 1963 and considered by him was too great to afford any meaningful overall circuit delay reduction. One aspect of the invention at hand, however, concerns the use of Schottky or other fast response KA diodes in the basic current switch, their incorporation in integrated circuits being accomplished in a manner similar to that used in the manufacture of "Schottky Transistor Logic" so as to entail the expense of relatively little extra monolithic circuit silicon area, and utilizing only currently "standard" manufacturing processes. The switching time of such Schottky diodes, being much shorter than t.sub.pd1 in a circuit not incorporating them, meaningful delay reduction can actually be attained.
Another aspect of the invention pertains to the use of Schottky or any other KA diodes and idle current injection circuitry in cascode switching circuits, in a manner suggested in FIG. 3 and discussed below. In this application, idle current injection permits improvements of cascode circuit performance in a manner not described in the literature or any known prior art. Neither cascode circuits or their improvements were discussed by Rigby. Such cascode circuits have greater logical flexibility and computational capability than basic ECL gates because of their series gating structure. One of the problems though with these switches is their slightly increased delay in switching relative to conventional current switch emitter follower circuits and their generation of spurious output signals or glytches under certain conditions, as described later below. The present invention though nearly eliminates these glytches and speeds up the switching time of, both lower and upper switching sections, said circuits by injecting idle current through the lower current switch transistors of said circuits and to the cascode nodes, i.e. those at the emitters of the upper switching transistors. The injection of said idle current is controlled by the use of Schottky diodes.
In still another aspect of the present invention, no KA diodes are used and idle currents are injected only at the upper current switch cascode nodes. This injection and the means for its accomplishment as well as the particular improvements obtained thereby, not described in any known literature or prior art, are also disclosed in the following.


Some vehicles are used in mines. One such vehicle is generally known as a mine scoop. This versitile vehicle has a low profile for mobility within the low-overhead mine tunnels beyond the area generally known as the cross-cut.
The mine scoop has a hydraulic system and as most vehicles, has areas of exposed grease, oil and other moist substances.
Coal dust is prevalent in the atmosphere of the mine shafts. This highly abrasive, fine dust adheres to moist areas on the mine scoop such as around hydraulic lines where hydraulic fluid may have leaked. The coal dust not only adheres to these moist areas but packs and builds a substantial deposit. As a result, expensive damage may occur to the hydraulic hose on the vehicle unless these coal dust deposits are periodically removed.
The existance of the highly explosive atmosphere of the mine beyond the cross-cut requires strong safety measures. For example, cleaning of equipment in this area is usually only done with water. To clean effectively, the scoop must be brought to a less hazardous area where strong cleaning solutions may be used in connection with high pressure cleaning equipment. Portable cleaning equipment is available but, since it is electrically powered, it cannot be used in the areas having a highly explosive atmosphere.
Contamination problems attributed to coal dust are not limited to vehicles but also may do damage to tools and other equipment used in the mine. Cleaning of all such equipment is required.
In view of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a washing device using water and detergent under high pressure for cleaning vehicles and other equipment which overcomes the problems associated with the prior art.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to apparatus for balancing the rotor of a magnetic suspension system including a magnetic bearing and more particularly to apparatus for auto-balancing the rotor so that it spins about its principal axis of inertia rather than its central geometric axis when the two axes are not coincident.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In any suspension system for a rotating element such as the rotor of an electromagnetic machine, rotor balance poses a problem since it is virtually impossible to machine and mount a rotor in bearings so that the axis of inertia of the rotor exactly coincides with the axis of rotation defined by the bearings. The resulting non-coincidence results in undesired vibration and power loss. To alleviate this problem, great efforts have been expended to mechanically balance the rotor with high precision and great delicacy; however, it is virtually impossible to thereafter compensate for aging or thermal deformations without additional mechanical rebalancing requiring undesired shut-down of the equipment and furthermore such deformations cannot always be substantially compensated for all operating speeds.
With the development of magnetic bearings for the suspension of a rotor, the existence of any rotor unbalance results in the tendency of the rotor to rotate about the principal axis of inertia lying closest to a desired axis of rotation defined by the bearing rather than the axis of rotation. In the context of this application, the principal axis of inertia of the rotor is hereinafter referred to simply as the axis of inertia or inertial axis. Where such a condition exists, it can be compensated for by detecting the position of the rotor for any departure from its predetermined axial position from which energizing signals are generated and applied to the windings of the bearing to bring the axis of rotation back into proper alignment.
One known technique for compensating for synchronous disturbances of a rotor which is supported by a radial magnetic bearing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,143, entitled, "Device For Compensating Synchronous Disturbances In The Magnetic Suspension Of A Rotor", issued to H. Habermann, et al. on Oct. 17, 1978. As disclosed in this patent, a two axis tracking notch filter implemented by a pair of lowpass integrators and two resolvers are connected in a two axis feedback loop which is coupled into the X and Y axis position control loops of the magnetic bearing control system. The tracking notch filter reduces the control loop gain at the rotor's frequency of rotation, thus allowing the rotor to spin about its inertial axis rather than its central geometric axis. This in turn reduces the reaction forces and vibration coupled to the stator and so reduces the power dissipated in the control system. An inherent limitation exists in such a system due to the fact that since resolvers multiply their respective inputs by the factors sin .omega.t and cos .omega.t, where .omega. is proportional to rotational speed of the rotor and generate therefrom a pair of output signals utilized in the feedback loop, the loop gain reduction can only occur at the fundamental rotational frequency .omega.. Accordingly, any imbalances and asymmetries which exhibit higher harmonics of the rotational fundamental frequency, will still transmit vibrations forces to the stator and thus cause the control system to necessarily dissipate power in trying to oppose these forces.
It is a primary object of the present invention, therefore, to provide an improvement in the control of a magnetic suspension system for a rotor which is supported by a radial electromagnetic bearing.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improvement in the auto-balancing a rotor in a magnetic bearing system.
And yet another object of the invention is to provide an improvement in a system for auto-balancing the magnetically suspended rotor so as to allow the rotor to spin about its inertial axis rather than its geometric axis.
And still a further object of the invention is to provide an improvement in an auto-balancing magnetic bearing system which operates to eliminate external vibration and reduce power consumption.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image formation apparatus such as a copier or a printer and in particular to an improvement in an image formation apparatus of the type comprising a charger having a charging member in contact with or brought close to the top of a photoreceptor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, demands for miniaturizing a color image formation apparatus and devises thereof have been made as the demands of the market.
For example, a tandem image formation apparatus comprises a plurality of photoreceptors such as photoconductor drums and devices such as a charger and a developing device disposed on each of the photoreceptors. As the apparatus itself is miniaturized, a so-called cleanerless system wherein a cleaning device and a remaining toner collection device are not provided for each of photoreceptors is often adopted.
However, in this kind of cleanerless system, after transfer, remaining toner exists on a surface of the photoreceptor although a trace quantity of toner remains, and the remaining toner becomes xe2x80x9cmemoryxe2x80x9d at a next image formation time, to affect the image quality adversely.
Thus, in a related art, for example, an art has been proposed wherein a memory removal member (for example, a brush roll) is placed in an upstream of a charger member (for example, a charge brush) as a charger to disturb the remaining toner (for example, refer to JP-A-Hei.4-371975).
However, in this kind of image formation apparatus, for example, using a charger of a charging roll type, as shown in FIG. 11, a phenomenon in which random spots are produced at arbitrary points on paper or continuous points, for example, which are spots in correspondence with every rotation period of a charging roll or a photoconductor drum (P/R), are produced is observed. The spots are roughly classified into background spots (BKG spots) occurring in a background and image part spots occurring in an image part (for example, a halftone image).
Particularly, it is acknowledged that such a spot phenomenon appears noticeably at the initial use stage of first using an image formation apparatus.
Next, the production principle of such spots is estimated. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, when a foreign substance 502 such as an aggregate of a developer is deposited on a photoconductor drum 510 and enters a nip area between a charging roll 511 and the photoconductor drum 510, the foreign substance 502 portion shields an electric field and a tenting part is formed on a surface layer film portion of the charging roll 511 in which the foreign substance 502 intervenes to cause a charge failure to occur in the part corresponding to the photoconductor drum 510 portion.
At this time, if the charge failure part caused by the foreign substance 502 moves to downstream of the photoconductor drum 510 and an electrostatic latent image is formed in the charge failure part and is developed, a spot having a comparatively large diameter is produced.
On the other hand, if the foreign substance 502 is deposited, for example, on the charging roll 511 side, a continuous point is produced every rotation period of the charging roll 511.
Pursuing the production cause of such a spot phenomenon, the inventors have estimated that the main cause of producing a spot is the fact that since the developer in a developing device often coagulates particularly at the initial use stage of an image formation apparatus, the aggregate of the developer is easily deposited on a charging roll.
If the developing device is immediately used at the initial use stage of the image formation apparatus, shortage of the charge amount of the developer is prone to occur and accordingly foreign substances of an external additive, a coating agent, etc., of the developer are parted to be easily transferred to the photoreceptor side; it is estimated that this factor also becomes the cause of producing a spot.
The invention is intended for solving the above-described technical problems and it is an object of the invention to provide an image formation apparatus intended for effectively avoiding a spot phenomenon at the initial use time.
According to the invention, there is provided an image formation apparatus comprising: a photoreceptor; a charger having a charging member placed in contact with or close to the photoreceptor, the charger for charging the photoreceptor; a latent image write unit for writing an electrostatic latent image onto the photoreceptor charged by the charger; a developing device having an agitating and charging element of a developer, the developing device for rendering visible the electrostatic latent image written onto the photoreceptor with the developer; and a performance maintaining controller for executing a performance maintaining initial sequence for agitating and charging the developer uniformly to such a degree that aggregating of the developer in the developing device is at least eliminated under a condition that the image formation apparatus is first used, wherein in the performance maintaining initial sequence, a unit sequence is executed a predetermined number of times, the unit sequence comprising a charge-up mode for agitating and charging the developer in the developing device to raise the charge amount of the developer and a cleaning cycle for cleaning a foreign material of the developer transferred to the photoreceptor.
According to the invention, as shown in FIG. 1, there is provided an image formation apparatus comprising a photoreceptor 1, a charger 2 having a charging member 2a placed in contact with or close to the photoreceptor 1, the charger 2 for charging the photoreceptor 1, a latent image write unit 3 for writing an electrostatic latent image onto the photoreceptor 1 charged by the charger 2, a developing device 4 having an agitating and charging element 4a of a developer G to render visible the electrostatic latent image written onto the photoreceptor 1 with the developer G, and a performance maintaining controller 5 for executing a performance maintaining initial sequence A for agitating and charging the developer G uniformly to such a degree that aggregating of the developer G in the developing device 4 is at least eliminated under a condition that the image formation apparatus is first used.
In such technical means, the invention includes not only a form in which a single photoreceptor 1 is provided, of course, but also a tandem form in which a plurality of photoreceptors 1 are arranged and further includes various forms such as a form in which a record material transport body and an intermediate transfer body are placed to face the photoreceptor 1.
The charger 2 is required to have the charging member 2a placed in contact with or close to the photoreceptor 1.
Since it is taken into consideration that it is possible to charge by minute space discharge even in the form in which the charging member 2a is placed close to the photoreceptor 1, the form in which the charging member 2a is placed not to contact with the photoreceptor 1 is also included.
However, preferably the charging member 2a is placed in contact with the photoreceptor 1 because it is facilitated to position the charging member 2a relative to the photoreceptor 1 and the dimension accuracy of the charging member 2a need not be high.
Further, the charger 2 may basically comprise the charging member 2a, but is not necessarily be limited to this. For example, the charger 2 maybe provided with a removal member disposed in contact with the photoreceptor 1 in upstream of the charging member 2a, the removal member for removing the deposit on the photoreceptor 1.
The removal member may be of contact type for removing the deposit on the photoreceptor 1 or may temporarily remove the deposit on the photoreceptor 1; the removal member may serve as a functional member for eliminating a situation in which the deposit on the photoreceptor 1 arrives at the charging member 2a and holding a good charge property.
The developing device 4 is mainly intended for a developing device using a dual-component developer, but is not necessarily be limited to this.
In this case, the developer G, which is a spherical toner having a form factor of 130 or less, may be used from the viewpoint of easily providing high image quality and a cleanerless system.
Further, the agitating and charging element 4a of the developing device 4 may be any element for agitating and charging a developer and may be an agitating member such as so called an auger, a charge bias with an AC component superposed (in a developing area, the developer alternation-operates to be agitated and charged), etc.
An appropriate apparatus may be selected as the performance maintaining controller 5 if the apparatus can execute the performance maintaining initial sequence A.
The expression xe2x80x9csuch a degree that aggregating of the developer G in the developing device 4 is at least eliminatedxe2x80x9d means that aggregating of the developer G, which is the main cause of the spot phenomenon at the initial use time, may be eliminated by executing the performance maintaining initial sequence A.
The expression xe2x80x9cat leastxe2x80x9d is used to assume that ejecting (corresponding to a cleaning cycle) of a foreign substance of the developer, such as an external additive or a coating agent, which are another main cause of a spot phenomenon at the initial use time, or the like is also contained.
Further, the requirement xe2x80x9cagitating and charging the developer G uniformlyxe2x80x9d is based on the fact that not only charging, but also agitating is required to eliminate aggregating of the developer G.
A representative form of the performance maintaining initial sequence A executed by the performance maintaining controller 5 is to execute a predetermined number of times a unit sequence comprising a charge-up mode for agitating and charging the developer G in the developing device 4 to raise the charge amount of the developer G and a cleaning cycle for cleaning a foreign material of the developer G transferred to the photoreceptor 1.
In this case, mainly, the xe2x80x9ccharge-up modexe2x80x9d corresponds to agitating and charging the developer and the xe2x80x9ccleaning cyclexe2x80x9d corresponds to the ejecting of the foreign substances of the developer such as an external additive.
Particularly, in the form in which the developing bias with an AC component superposed is applied to the developing device 4 in an image formation mode, preferably the performance maintaining controller 5 applies at least a charge bias with an AC component superposed to the developing device 4 in the charge-up mode.
In this case, charging up the developer G is promoted by the charge bias with an AC component superposed and ejecting foreign substances in the developer G is also promoted.
The charge bias may be any charge bias so long as superposed an AC component and may be set the same as or different from the developing bias.
If the user opens interlock by mistake, for example, while the performance maintaining initial sequence A is executed, and the apparatus itself shuts down accordingly, a situation in which the performance maintaining initial sequence A is interrupted can occur.
As a preferred form in such a circumstance, the performance maintaining initial sequence A executed by the performance maintaining controller 5 may make it possible to store an incomplete sequence process if the performance maintaining initial sequence A is interrupted at a midpoint and restart the performance maintaining initial sequence A from the midpoint.
According to the form, fruitless repeating the performance maintaining initial sequence A can be avoided.
The performance maintaining controller 5 may be any as long as it executes the performance maintaining initial sequence A; it may also execute a performance maintaining sequence B in addition to the performance maintaining initial sequence A.
For example, in addition to the performance maintaining initial sequence A, the performance maintaining controller 5 may execute the performance maintaining sequence B for uniformly agitating and charging the developer G in the developing device 4 at least based on elapsed time since the immediately preceding image formation mode.
The performance maintaining sequence B is executed to improve a phenomenon in which the charge performance of the developer G is degraded in correspondence with leaving time, and to avoid degradation of the image quality.
In this case, as the performance maintaining sequence B, it is common practice to the unit sequence including a charge-up mode and a cleaning cycle a predetermined number of times, but the performance maintaining sequence B is not limited to this.
Further, a measuring unit for measuring xe2x80x9cthe elapsed time since the immediately preceding image formation modexe2x80x9d may be a unit for measuring based on the power on time, but preferably the measuring unit can continuously measure the elapsed time when the power is off from the viewpoint of more precisely measuring the elapsed time.
In the form, preferably the performance maintaining initial sequence A involves the charge-up mode degree distributed larger than that of the performance maintaining sequence B.
According to this form, the spot phenomenon can be avoided more reliably because the charge property of the developer G can be provided more reliably at the initial use time.
At this time, the expression xe2x80x9cthe charge-up mode degree distributed largerxe2x80x9d includes prolonging the charging time itself, enhancing the charging degree itself of the developer G, or a combination both.
A preferred form of the performance maintaining sequence B may be taken an environmental condition into consideration.
In this case, the performance maintaining sequence B may be to uniformly agitate and charge the developer G in the developing device 4 based on the elapsed time since the immediately preceding image formation mode and the environmental condition of the image formation apparatus.
The expression xe2x80x9cthe environmental condition of the image formation apparatusxe2x80x9d may be a humidity condition largely affecting the performance of the developer G, but is not limited to this. An ambient temperature condition, temperature and humidity conditions, etc., maybe selected whenever necessary.
As a representative determination technique as to xe2x80x9cthe condition that the image formation apparatus is first used,xe2x80x9d for example, in a form in which a process cartridge that can be attached to and detached from the main unit of the image formation apparatus is installed, an identifier indicating that the process cartridge is unused may be provided and the performance maintaining controller 5 may determine whether or not the image formation apparatus is first used based on the identifier information of the process cartridge to execute the performance maintaining initial sequence A.
The expression xe2x80x9cthe process cartridge is unusedxe2x80x9d means not only a new product, but also a product unused in a wide sense including a recycled product.
On the other hand, the identifier means an unused flag, etc., previously written into a monitor in the process cartridge, for example.


It is well known that ambient illumination, that is light originating from sources external to the display device, is reflected to the observer from various optical interfaces of the device and thus reduces the image contrast by increasing the apparent brightness of the dark image areas. Under conditions of high ambient illumination, the image contrast is severly degraded. In addition, a part of the light emitted by the luminescent material of the device also undergoes undesired reflections, producing a further degradation of contrast and of resolution. When the luminescent material consists of a layer of phosphor material in the form of small powder particles, scattering of the emitted light also occurs, further degrading resolution.
Various means for overcoming these problems have been proposed. These include the use of various filters including polarizing, neutral density and restricted angle or multi-apertured opaque filters. Other methods include the incorporation of a dark material into the glass of the tube face, or a black dye in the phosphor dielectric layer of the display device. All of the methods have the common disadvantage that the emitted light as well as the reflected ambient light intensity is reduced, with the result that the improvement is contrast ratio is less than desired because the emitted light intensity is a factor upon which the contrast ratio depends.
The remarkable reflection-reducing properties of inhomogeneous films were recognized as early as 1880 by Lord Rayleigh (Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 11, 51, 1880); the properties of such films have been extensively reviewed in a recent series of articles by Jacobsson (Progr. in Optics 5, 247, 1965; Arkiv Fysik 31, 191, 1966; Physics of Thin Films 8, 51, 1975). According to Jacobsson, experimental studies to date have been mainly devoted to transparent inhomogeneous films composed of graded mixtures of two nonabsorbing materials such as ZnS--Na.sub.3 AlF.sub.6, ZnS--CeF.sub.3, CeO.sub.2 --CeF.sub.3, and CeO.sub.2 --MgF.sub.2. These films were found to be durable and of good optical quality. A high index mixture of Ge--ZnS has been produced for application in the infrared wavelength region but were found to be relatively soft and sensitive to moisture and inferior to Ge--MgF.sub.2 films. KBr--Au films were found to have a very low absorption index, with k = 0.01 even at a concentration of gold of 0.16 parts by volume of gold. By contrast, an absorption index of 1.0 was found for a Ge--Au mixture containing 0.1 parts by volume of gold. Ge--In films were also found to have relatively high absorption. Due to the low solubility of In in Ge, the In was expected to remain a separate phase in the form of more or less spherical inclusions.
An inhomogeneous Ge--Si.sub.x O.sub.y film was shown by Jacobsson (1965) and also Olsen and Brown (Res./Develop. 16, 52, 1965) to lower the reflectance of a Ge surface to that of a surface of Si.sub.x O.sub.y (refractive index 1.62). Even lower reflectance was obtained with Ge--MgF.sub.2 films, although the transmittance was higher than expected (Jacobsson and Martensson, App. Optics, 5, 29, 1966). One of the first applications of inhomogeneous films as an antireflection coating was described by Nadeau and Hilburn in Canadian Pat. No. 418,289 (1944), and U.S. Pat. No. 2,331,716 (Oct. 12, 1944), in which a plastic layer of polystyrene or urea-formaldehyde resin having a high refractive index is diffused into the surface of an article and overcoated with a second plastic of low refractive index such as cellulose caproate or ethylcellulose. An important commercial application of inhomogeneous films as a low reflectance, absorbing coating on sunglasses was described by Anders in U.S. Pat. No. 3,042,542 (German Pat. No. 1,075,808; 1960). The inhomogeneous films described by Anders consisted of a mixture of low refractive index material, CeF.sub.4, ThF.sub.4, MgF.sub.2, or SiO.sub.2, and a metal, Ni, Fe, Mn, or Cr, or lower oxide of Nb, Ta, or Ti.
Recently, Steele has proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,784 the use of a dark dielectric layer consisting of SiO.sub.2 with a tapered concentration of codeposited aluminum applied to the rear side of a light transmissive phosphor layer to serve as a light absorbing layer. The tapered concentration of aluminum results in a continuous variation of the index of refraction through the layer, and such layer comprises an optically inhomogeneous film. Steele claimed novelty for a high contrast cathode ray tube utilizing this construction in which the refractive index of the silicon oxide was substantially equal to that of the phosphor. Phospors suitable for use with the inhomogeneous film of Steele were not otherwise identified. The same objective was the object of an earlier patent of Coltman (U.S. Pat. No. 2,616,057) in which the light absorbing layer was described as lampblack or the black deposits produced by evaporating metals such as aluminum or antimony under poor vacuum conditions.
Up to the present, the deposition of tapered inhomogeneous films such as in the Steele patent has required the evaporation of two different materials, with the rate of evaporation of each varied as a function of time. Also, it is usually desired that the initial portion of the deposit consist of one component only with the end portion consisting of the second different material only. Steele shows the initial and end materials to be SiO.sub.2 and aluminum, respectively. These requirements pose severe technical difficulties and to achieve reproducible results, elaborate monitoring and control equipment is required so that despite the superior performance offered by inhomogeneous films as compared to homogeneous films, very limited commerical application has been made of inhomogeneous films.
Osterberg (J. Opt. Soc. Am. 48, 513, 1958) has shown that transmitted waves cannot suffer loss of energy by reflection as they traverse nonabsorbing, inhomogeneous media in which the optical properites have no discontinuities. This result is strictly true only when the medium is infinite in extent. For practical applications, film thicknesses used are of the order of the wavelength of light so that interference due to reflection at the boundaries occurs. The width of the reflectance minimum has been found, however, to be greater than can be achieved with homogeneous films. It also has been shown by Osterberg that inhomogeneous absorbing media similarly cannot exhibit reflectance when the optical properties are continuous. In this case, the medium need not be infinite in extent. Anders (Dunne Schichten fur die Optik, Wissenschafftliche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Stuttgart, 1965, English translation as Thin Films in Optics, The Focal Press, London, 1967) has observed that a film thickness of only one wavelength is sufficient for essentially complete absorption in an absorbing inhomogeneous film. This property is basic to the dark dielectric layer described by Steele in U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,784 (1971) since the tapered concentration of aluminum results in an absorbing inhomogeneous film. The deposition of such film entails, however, the technical difficulties previously described, including the deposition of two different materials from two sources.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to non-volatile semiconductor memory capable of storing an analog value or multiple bits per memory cell.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical electrically erasable non-volatile memory contains a memory array including hundreds or thousands of rows of memory cells and hundreds or thousands of columns of memory cells, where each memory cell contains a transistor such as a floating gate or split-gate transistor having a programmable threshold voltage. The threshold voltage of a memory cell (or a transistor within the memory cell) indicates a stored value and is programmed by applying appropriate programming voltages to the control gate, source, and drain of the memory cell. Depending on the resolution of read and write circuits which read and write threshold voltages, non-volatile memory can store one bit, an analog value, or a multi-bit value per memory cell.
In a typical non-volatile memory architecture, each row of memory cells in a memory array has a row (or word) line coupled to control gates of the memory cells in the row, and each column of memory cells has a column (or bit) line coupled to drains of the memory cells in the column. Sources of the memory cells in an array may be connected in a variety of ways. For example, a virtual ground array often has neighboring columns of memory cells that share a column line so that each column line in a virtual ground array is coupled to the drains of memory cells in one column and to the sources of memory cells in the neighboring column. For flash memory, sources of all memory cells in an erasable sector are coupled to a source line for the sector. Accessing memory cells for erase, write, or read operations applies appropriate voltages to the row, column, and source lines coupled to the memory cell or cells to be erased, written, or read. When programming (or writing to) a selected memory cell, programming voltages applied to selected row, column, and source lines for a sufficient period change the threshold voltage of the memory cell coupled to those lines.
A problem in non-volatile memories is that voltages applied to row and column lines of memory cells selected for a write or erase operation can disturb or change the threshold voltages of memory cells in the same columns or rows as the selected memory cells. The accumulated threshold voltage disturbances from writing to hundreds or thousands of memory cells in the same row or column can significantly change the threshold voltage of a memory cell and the value stored in the memory cell. This problem is particularly significant for large memory arrays which have more memory cells per row and column. The problem is also significant in analog or multilevel memories where a relatively small variation in a threshold voltage changes the value stored. Accordingly, methods and architectures for reducing the write and erase disturb in analog and multilevel memories are sought.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of soybean breeding. In particular, the invention relates to the novel soybean variety D5852641.
2. Description of Related Art
There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that possess the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is to combine in a single variety an improved combination of desirable traits from the parental germplasm. These important traits may include higher seed yield, resistance to diseases and insects, better stems and roots, tolerance to drought and heat, better agronomic quality, resistance to herbicides, and improvements in compositional traits.
Soybean, Glycine max (L), is a valuable field crop. Thus, a continuing goal of plant breeders is to develop stable, high yielding soybean varieties that are agronomically sound. The reasons for this goal are to maximize the amount of grain produced on the land used and to supply food for both animals and humans. To accomplish this goal, the soybean breeder must select and develop soybean plants that have the traits that result in superior varieties.


Anxiety and depression are major psychiatric disorders of significant clinical and socioeconomic significance. Clinical Depression generally presents alongside Anxiety Disorders, and vise-versa. Rarely does a patient present symptoms of only one or the other.
In the general population, these disorders affect daily performance and correlate with impulse control, financial behaviors, substance abuse and organization. Anxiety is an unpleasant state that involves a complex combination of emotions that include fear, apprehension, and worry. It is often accompanied by physical sensations such as heart palpitations, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath, or tension headache. Anxiety disorder is a blanket term covering several different forms of abnormal, pathological anxiety, fears, phobias and nervous conditions that may come on suddenly (acute anxiety) and/or gradually over a period of several years (chronic), and may impair or prevent the pursuing of normal daily routines. Anxiety disorders are often debilitating chronic conditions, which can be present from an early age or begin suddenly after a triggering event. They are prone to flare up at times of high stress.
Anxiety is often described as having cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components (Seligman, Walker & Rosenhan, 2001). The cognitive component entails expectation of a diffuse and uncertain danger. Somatically the body prepares the organism to deal with threat (known as an emergency reaction): blood pressure and heart rate are increased, sweating is increased, bloodflow to the major muscle groups is increased, and immune and digestive system functions are inhibited. Externally, somatic signs of anxiety may include pale skin, sweating, trembling, and pupillary dilation. Emotionally, anxiety causes a sense of dread or panic and physically causes nausea, and chills. Behaviorally, both voluntary and involuntary behaviors may arise directed at escaping or avoiding the source of anxiety. These behaviors are frequent and often maladaptive, being most extreme in anxiety disorders. However, anxiety is not always pathological or maladaptive: it is a common emotion along with fear, anger, sadness, and happiness, and it has a very important function in relation to survival.
Neural circuitry involving the amygdala and hippocampus is thought to underlie anxiety (Rosen & Schulkin, Psychol. Rev., 105(2):325-350, 1998). When confronted with unpleasant and potentially harmful stimuli such as foul odors or tastes, PET-scans show increased bloodflow in the amygdala (Zald & Pardo, PNAS, 94(8):4119-4124, 1997; Zald, Hagen & Pardo, J. Neurophysiol., 87(2):1068-1075, 2002). In these studies, the participants also reported moderate anxiety. This might indicate that anxiety is a protective mechanism designed to prevent the organism from engaging in potentially harmful behaviors.
Conventional treatments for anxiety include behavioral therapy, lifestyle changes and/or pharmaceutical therapy (medications). Most drugs used to treat these disorders are known to have negative side effects that may limit their use, or cause habituation and dependence.
Postsynaptic density-95 protein (PSD-95) couples NMDARs to pathways mediating excitotoxicity and ischemic brain damage (Aarts et al., Science 298, 846-850 (2002)). This coupling was disrupted by transducing neurons with peptides that bind to modular domains on either side of the PSD-95/NMDAR interaction complex. This treatment attenuated downstream NMDAR signaling without blocking NMDAR activity, protected cultured cortical neurons from excitotoxic insults and reduced cerebral infarction volume in rats subjected to transient focal cerebral ischemia. This result has led to the proposal to use peptide antagonists of PSD-95/NMDAR for treating stroke and other diseases mediated by excitotoxicity. No significant side effects have been observed in phase I trials of one such antagonist.


Many wireless network operators enter into roaming agreements with one or more other wireless network operators. The roaming agreements allow wireless devices to exchange wireless communications with visited wireless networks when a home wireless network, to which the wireless devices are subscribed, is not available. Moreover, a roaming agreement may allow a visited wireless network to provide wireless connectivity over a protocol that is not available on a home wireless network in the same area despite the home wireless network offering connectivity in the area over other protocols. For example, the visited wireless network may provide service in the area using both 3G and 4G wireless protocols while the home wireless network only provides service using the 3G protocol. Thus, even though the home wireless network is available in the area, a wireless device may be able to roam on the visited wireless network using the 4G protocol.
The roaming agreements discussed above typically require a fee be paid the home wireless network operator to the visited wireless network operator for the use of the visited wireless network. Moreover, these fees may vary depending on the protocol used by a wireless device when roaming. Accordingly, limiting when a wireless device roams and what protocol the wireless device uses when roaming may help minimize roaming fees paid by the home wireless network operator.
Overview
Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for compelling a cell selection metric to indicate that a wireless cell is not suitable for communications. In a particular embodiment, a method provides receiving system information from a base station of a visited wireless communication network, wherein the system information includes at least a portion of cell selection parameters for a wireless cell of the base station. The method further provides calculating a cell selection metric from the cell selection parameters and a cell selection offset stored in the wireless communication device, wherein the cell selection offset causes the cell selection metric to indicate that the wireless cell is not suitable for communications. The method further provides receiving a request for a data connection from an application executing on the wireless communication device and, in response to the request, recalculating the cell selection metric from the cell selection parameters without the cell selection offset. The method further provides determining whether the wireless cell is suitable for communications based on the cell selection metric.


1. Field
The invention pertains to enhancing the quality of recorded service data, such as data recorded on service tickets, in a data center or call center.
2. Description of the Related Art
Service delivery centers are large, complex and dynamic ecosystems, which engage hundreds of thousands of experts globally to manage thousands of processes supporting thousands of IT systems with hundreds of configurations. While operations at service delivery centers are typically associated with back-end processes, its efficiency affects quality at front-end (e.g., client experience and satisfaction).
Multiple ticketing systems, data stores and warehouses trace the operations in service delivery centers. They capture practices of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), who are typically System Administrators (SAs), and changes in the IT infrastructure (e.g. server decommissioning). These ticketing systems, and enterprise-level warehouses are only reliable as their sources, whether human-driven (tickets submitted by SAs) or system-driven (automated updates of server registries).
All too often, there is poor quality of captured data when managing a data center or call center. Administrators are time pressured to achieve high throughput and problem resolution, and no incentive exists for quality of records and logs when capturing and describing problems and resolutions. Low quality of such data leads to inefficiencies in operations (e.g. incomplete tickets slow down the problem resolution process), or leads business analytics to reach wrong or suboptimal conclusions. Frequently, data records such as tickets are blank with insufficient data, and as such are unusable.
Moreover, low quality of data affects the business decisions (e.g. leading to poor business insights when identifying opportunities for new service offerings, such as “show me the low utilization servers across the banking sector”). Business insights and problem resolution processes require careful quality assessment to build credibility with stakeholders and efficiently resolve problem tickets. Moreover in such volatile environments, quality of operations and business insights will vary depending on the corresponding data source.
Planning activities also depend on good quality data. Take for example server consolidation, where old servers or underutilized servers are migrated into virtual environments with newer hardware. Being able to understand the configuration information such as number of CPUs, speed, memory, operating system and software configured as well as resource information such as network bandwidth, disk and CPU utilization are all key to be able to prepare a plan that maps to proper sized servers. Bad quality data could easily derail a plan from improper source selection to bad target allocations.
Accumulated problem resolution records contain tremendous source of information about the managed system, its efficiencies and weaknesses, and in addition to analytics, it is a valuable source for knowledge transfer and learning in attempt to train new administrators. The record data are also used for reporting and report generation in billing and service level agreement (SLA) measurements.
Accurate records of services provided are valuable for a number of business aspects. These include planning of future system improvements, automating problem resolution, optimization of tasks, and awarding the best administrators and skill development. It would be desirable to have a way to improve capturing of incident and problem description and resolution in a data or call center.


With the advent of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), consumers may receive and manage media programming functions such as video and/or music on demand from an IPTV set-top box (STB) receiver, computer, digital telephone system, or other computing device. The IPTV STB receiver can also be used for digital video recording (DVR) and to management personal media files such as picture albums and family movies. IPTV devices, however, are not readily manageable when the consumer is in transit.
A need therefore arises for a system and method for configuring media services.


Panoramic videos enable a viewer to view video content in an immersive video environment.
The listing or discussion of a prior-published document or any background in this specification should not necessarily be taken as an acknowledgement that the document or background is part of the state of the art or is common general knowledge. One or more aspects/examples of the present disclosure may or may not address one or more of the background issues.


1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an arrangement for microwave transmission between wave guide regions having different internal gas pressures and/or different fill-gas compositions, that is to say, for coupling or outcoupling microwaves of such a wave guide region into another region.
2. Description of the Related Art
In German Patent Application No. DE-OS 36 22 614 which corresponds to commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,642, is disclosed a method of manufacturing electrically conductive moulded bodies by a plasma-activated chemical deposition from a gaseous phase. With such methods the coupling of high-power microwaves is effected through a hermetically sealed insulating microwave aperture of dielectric material in a microwave resonator used as a reaction chamber, in which a plasma is formed and electrically conductive layers are chemically deposited. During this process the problem arises that an electrically conductive film generally covers the surface of the microwave aperture arranged at the coupling place, that is, its inside surface facing the reaction chamber, as a result of which the coupling is stopped. This problem is solved according to DE-OS 36 22 614 either by having the inside of the microwave aperture rinsed by an inertial gas, or selecting for the microwave aperture a dielectric material which is kept free from growth of electrically conductive film as a result of an etching reaction with one of its reaction partners.
A cognate problem occurs when high-power microwaves from gyrotrons are outcoupled during transition from high-vacuum to air. With microwave powers of the order of 0.1 to 1 MW the thermal load of the known materials used for microwave apertures becomes too large, as a result of which the output power is restricted. With maximum power levels of 0.3 MW one manages by enlarging the wave guide and additionally cooling the aperture consisting of, for example, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3.
Evacuation of a wave guide through non-radiating or non-coupling slots is known from British Patent Specification No. GB-PS 644,749.


The rapid rise of health care costs has become an important issue in modern society. To help reduce the costs, professional care givers have begun to seek alternatives, one of which is home health care services. These services not only tend to reduce costs, but are also preferred by the patient wishing to remain in his familiar environment. Among the many types of services provided are: respiratory care, rehabilitation therapy, cardiac monitoring procedures, and infusion therapy.
Infusion therapy involves IV administration of drugs. Making this therapy safe and convenient for a home situation allows a great number of patients who would otherwise be hospitalized to remain at home and still receive medication. Currently, over 300,000 patients annually use a home infusion therapy delivery system. Typically, patients include the elderly with chronic diseases like cancer, patients with either Crohns disease, HIV or other immune system disorders, and patients suffering from chronic pain. Many of these patients require infusion treatment over a long duration such as months or even years.
One characteristic of home IV drug therapy, in contrast to hospital administered therapy, is that a nurse is not always present or readily available. To provide safe and effective treatment, home infusion therapy usually requires that the patient himself, or other non-professional caregiver, such as a relative, administer IV fluids. Special training is required because many home care patients on IV therapy require multiple drugs or multiple doses of the same drug each day. The average nursing visit to a home infusion therapy patient is typically about 90 minutes including commuting time. The typical patient gets between 1 and 4 nursing visits per week, but has to take IV medications daily. Since the cost of daily care by a nurse is not usually covered by most insurers, the cost of attention by a nurse is most economically applied in training the patent or other amateur caregiver and in monitoring the therapy program.
In the home care situation non-compliance, over-medication or under-compliance with the IV therapy protocol is a serious issue and quite prevalent. For instance, non-compliance (not taking a medication) or under compliance (taking fewer or smaller dosages than prescribed) occurs in up to approximately one-third to one-half of elderly home therapy patients. Typical compliance related problems include forgetting to follow the specified procedure for administration of the IV medication, forgetting to turn on the various devices used to administer the IV medication and forgetting to turn off a medical device which then delivers too much medication (over-medication). Reasons for compliance related problems are varied and include poor communication, confusion or forgetfulness regarding the procedures and/or equipment, or even attempts to avoid the adverse side effects of IV medications and fluids. Misapplication of the home IV therapy protocol can have serious ramifications resulting in greatly increased home health care nursing expenses, re-hospitalization, and reduction in health status of the patient. Thus, there is a strong need for improved monitoring of patient compliance with the health care program. Benefits of such improved monitoring and compliance include, but are not limited to, improved health at a lower cost, while still remaining in the preferred home environment.
To properly monitor compliance with an IV therapy protocol, a device may be provided for monitoring the flow of IV medications and fluids. The IV fluids for a single patient are likely to come from several different sources or systems including IV pumps, IV fluid controllers, gravity drips, syringes, and other devices.
A typical gravity powered IV may be as simple as an IV bag hanging on a pole in which a nurse or care giver manually adjusts a valve to limit the flow rate, but not control it accurately, or it may use an electronic controller which optically counts the drops of fluid as they pass an optical sensor and then adjusts the flow rate accordingly. However, optical drop counting sensors only provides an indication that the fluid is flowing past the sensor when in a vertical orientation such as hanging from an IV pole. Thus the patient and IV delivery equipment must remain relatively stationary during the administration of the medication or fluid. Optical drop counters also function poorly at higher flow rates and higher line pressures, such as when a syringe is used, because the fluid moving past the drop counter tends to become a continuous stream rather than remaining discrete drops. Therefore, the optical drop counter technique cannot be adapted for use with all fluid sources.
An alternative to an optical drop counting sensor, or as a stand-alone measuring device, is a single point pressure transducer to measure the fluid pressure in the IV tubing at a selected point of measurement. This type of sensor is common in IV pumps and is used to indicate that the pump is generating a static pressure head and, correspondingly, causing fluid flow or backpressure in the event of an occlusion in the IV line. This type of sensor only determines line pressure at the selected point, and is only useful in monitoring the pressure caused by the IV pumping device and the related backpressure caused by moving fluids into the patient's body. However, this type of single-point pressure sensor is useful in many IV delivery systems to determine if fluid pressures are at correct levels, and to detect changes in fluid pressure which are indicative of an occluded or collapsed vein. Often, when a certain threshold pressure is detected in a device using this type of sensor, an alarm is sounded to warn of a flow problem. This type of device measures changes in the static line pressure of a fluid line, but is unable to determine if a patient is following proper IV drug administration procedures and cannot differentiate between changes in pressure due to fluid flow versus some other cause, such as an occlusion in which there is actually no fluid flow.
Increased backpressure in an IV fluid line causes problems, and, as described above, many IV fluid delivery systems use a sensor to determine when high backpressure develops, i.e. , greater than a few inches of water, for instance when an infiltration of tissue occurs or the tubing becomes occluded. Upon the detection of a significant backpressure, the device sounds an alarm and may function to automatically discontinue the delivery of the IV medication and fluids. Therefore, it is important that any device used to monitor whether or not fluid is flowing does not cause a substantial increase in backpressure or a false occlusion alarm might be triggered.
Other alternatives use indirect methods to monitor the flow of IV fluids. For instance, the speed and number of rotations in a pump mechanism may be monitored to indirectly determine when fluid flow is occuring. This is useful for flows caused by an IV pump, but is of no value to patients who also receive gravity drips or fluids via syringe. Since nearly all infusion therapy patients must perform venous access device maintenance procedures, such as a heparin flush via syringe to maintain the patency of their IV lines, this pump rotation technique is not of value for monitoring all infusions.
The time usage for an IV delivery system may be recorded to prepare bills to patients. Typically, the information is printed or stored in an electronic memory device such as the electronic controls for the drop counter or IV pump. The information may be used to determine which of several patients are using the IV system being monitored, it may be used to coordinate several IV delivery systems with a centrally managed pump, or it may be used to facilitate billing and reimbursement. Unfortunately, none of these systems accommodate tracking of fluid delivered from a variety of sources such as to a patient who receives syringes, gravity drips, and IV pump infusions. The present invention provides an improved flow indicator switch, which overcomes the above-mentioned limitations of the prior art.