The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and a method for filling holes in a substrate and more particularly, relates to an apparatus and a method for filling holes in electronic substrates that have high aspect ratios of at least 5:1 in a process for forming vias and interconnects.
In the electronics packaging industry, there is often a need to fill holes in various substrates for forming vias and interconnects. The hole filling process is affected by a number of processing and material parameters, for instance, the diameter of the via hole, the depth of the hole and the type of the substrate material, etc.. Typically, via holes are through holes and are used to electrically connect a top surface and a bottom surface of a substrate, the filler material utilized in forming the vias must be electrically conductive. A number of techniques have been used to perform the via hole filling process. Depending on the type of the substrate, the techniques may include electroplating, electroless plating, solder paste screen printing and conductive paste screen printing.
A fundamental processing problem arises when the depth-to-width ratio, or the aspect ratio grows. The problem gets more complex when the hole diameter is made aggressively small, i.e., 125 xcexcm or less. For instance, for holes having depth-to-width aspect ratios of 5:1 or larger, it is no longer possible to use a conventional technique such as paste screening to fill the holes. Even the more advanced plating techniques cannot be used when diameters further decrease and aspect ratios further increase.
An attempt to fill via holes that have 17:1 aspect ratio with conductive epoxies by a screen printing method was found ineffective, even when the screening process is conducted from both the top and the bottom side of the substrate. One other attempt to fill a glass substrate that has via holes of 17:1 aspect ratio was carried out by utilizing a conductive material that has extremely low viscosity, i.e., an eutectic solder that has a viscosity of only 2 centipoise in its molten state, approaching that of water. Even at such low viscosity, known techniques for filling the high aspect ratio via holes were found ineffective. For instance, the conventional techniques tried include an injection molded solder technique with only pressure utilized. The injection molded solder technique was not able to fill deep vias holes that have very small diameters, i.e., smaller than 25 xcexcm.
A second technique of vacuum injection molding was also tried. A graphic illustration of the vacuum injection molding process is shown in FIGS. 1Axcx9c1D. The vacuum injection molding process was disclosed in a co-pending application that was assigned to the common assignee of the present invention under Ser. No. 08/518,874 and now U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,333 B1. The vacuum injection molding method utilizes a pressure differential formed between either ambient and vacuum or positive pressure and vacuum. The pressure and the vacuum are both supplied on the same surface of a substrate 10, as shown in FIG. 1A. The process is carried out by utilizing a shallow vacuum link 12 that allows a continual evacuation of air from via holes 20 that have a large aspect ratio such as 5:1. The vacuum link 12 must be sufficiently shallow such that the surface tension of molten solder prevents cross-leaking during the operation. Such a shallow link 12 effectively choke a significant part of the full pressure differential and thus producing only partial filling of via holes 20 that have high aspect ratios.
As shown in FIG. 1A, an injection head 14 which includes spaced apart vacuum slot 16 and injection slot 22 is positioned on top of a mold plate, or substrate 10 in fluid communication with the mold cavities, or via holes 20 contained therein. Relative axial sliding is effected between the injection head 14 and the mold plate 10 for sequentially evacuating gas from the mold cavities 20 using a continuous vacuum and injecting into the evacuated mold cavities 20 a liquid fed from a continuous source (not shown). The sliding of the injection head 14 over the mold plate 10, as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C, automatically provides self valving for sequentially evacuating and filling the mold cavities 20 from the same side, i.e., the top side 18 of the mold plate 10. In a preferred embodiment, the vacuum slot 16 and the injection slot 22 are linked together at the mold plate 10 so that surface tension of the liquid restrains flow of the liquid (not shown) from the injection slot 22 to the vacuum slot 16 while allowing gas flow thereinbetween for effecting vacuum in the mold cavities 20.
As shown in FIG. 1A, at the start of the process, i.e., before scanning begins, the mold cavities 20 are empty. As the scanning process begins, as shown in FIG. 1B, some cavities 24 are evacuated. As the scanning of the injection head 14 continues, some cavities 26 are filled with the liquid. In the final step of the process, as shown in FIG. 1D, the vacuum supply to the vacuum slot 16 is turned off while the scanning of the injection head 14 is completed, i.e., all the cavities 20, 24 and 26 are filled with liquid.
The vacuum injection molding method illustrated in FIGS. 1Axcx9c1D applies a vacuum and a liquid injection on the same surface of the substrate. To enable the operation, a shallow vacuum link must be used to allow the continual evacuation of air from mold cavities that have a larger aspect ratio such as 5:1. The drawback of the process is that the vacuum link must be sufficiently shallow such that the surface tension of molten solder prevents cross-leaking during the operation. The shallow link chokes off a significant part of the full pressure differential and thus only produces partial filling of the mold cavities, or the via holes that have high aspect ratios.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for filling a liquid in high aspect ratio holes that does not have the drawbacks or shortcomings of the conventional apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for filling a liquid in high aspect ratio holes in a substrate that applies a vacuum and a liquid injection on the opposite sides of a substrate.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for filling a liquid in high aspect ratio holes in a substrate by utilizing a filler plate and a vacuum plate sandwiching a substrate thereinbetween such that vacuum and liquid injection are applied on the opposite sides of the substrate.
It is another further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for filling a molten solder in high aspect ratio via holes in an electronic substrate which is effective in filling holes that have aspect ratios of at least 5:1.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for filling a molten solder in high aspect ratio via holes in an electronic substrate wherein a filler plate and a vacuum plate are connected together and are further equipped with a veneer adjustment means such that a relative position of the two plates can be adjusted corresponding to the viscosity of the liquid injected.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for filling a liquid in high aspect ratio holes in an electronic substrate by pulling vacuum and injecting molten solder simultaneously from and into the same holes when the liquid injected has high viscosity.
It is still another further object of the present invention to provide a method for filling high aspect ratio via holes in an electronic substrate by pulling a vacuum from via holes on a first side of the substrate and injecting liquid on the opposite side of the substrate into the via holes.
It is yet another further object of the present invention to provide a method for forming interconnects in a substrate for a display panel such that a voltage potential can be placed on pixel display elements formed on the display panel.
In accordance with the present invention, an apparatus and a method for filling high aspect ratio via holes in electronic substrates are provided.
In a preferred embodiment, an apparatus for filling a liquid in high aspect ratio holes in a substrate is provided which includes a filler plate adapted for receiving an injection head therein, the filler plate has a bottom surface adapted for receiving an injection slot provided on the injection head, a vacuum plate adapted for receiving a vacuum slot in a top surface, the vacuum slot is in fluid communication with a vacuum source, and a connection means for connecting the filler plate and the vacuum plate together in a face-to-face, spaced-apart relationship forming a gap thereinbetween with the bottom surface of the filler plate positioned parallel and opposite to the top surface of the vacuum plate, the connection means further includes an adjustment means for adjusting a relative axial position of the filler plate to the vacuum plate, the gap formed between the filler plate and the vacuum plate is sufficiently large to slidingly engaging a substrate therein and to form abutting contacts between the substrate and the bottom surface of the filler plate and between the substrate and the top surface of the vacuum plate so that holes in the substrate are first evacuated by the vacuum slot and then filled with a liquid by the injection slot in the filler plate.
In the apparatus for filling a liquid in high aspect ratio holes in a substrate, the adjustment means may include a veneer adjustment for fixing a relative axial position of the filler plate to the vacuum plate. The adjustment means may further include a veneer adjustment for transforming a circumferential displacement into a linear axial displacement. The filler plate may be positioned by the adjustment means to lag behind the vacuum plate such that the injection slot lags behind the vacuum slot. The filler plate may be positioned by the adjustment means at the same axial position of the vacuum plate such that the injection slot and the vacuum slot are in fluid communication with a hole in the substrate simultaneously.
In the apparatus for filling a liquid in high aspect ratio holes in a substrate, the injection slot may have a width sufficiently large to cover substantially all the high aspect ratio holes in the substrate. The injection head may be in fluid communication with a liquid reservoir for feeding a liquid through the injection slot. The injection slot may be adapted for feeding a high electrical conductivity liquid solder therethrough. The connection means may further include an adjustment means of a threaded veneer mechanically attached to the filler plate and at least one engagement pin connecting the threaded veneer to the vacuum plate. The high aspect ratio holes in the substrate are selected from the group consisting of via holes, deep through holes and deep trenches.
In the apparatus for filling a liquid in high aspect ratio holes in an electronic substrate, the high aspect ratio holes may have an aspect ratio of at least 5:1, or an aspect ratio of at least 20:1. The high aspect ratio holes may have a diameter not smaller than 5 xcexcm. The electronic substrate may be adapted for making sliding movement between the filler plate and the vacuum plate at a speed of between about 25 mm/min and about 250 mm/min. The apparatus may further include a drive means slidingly engaging the substrate between the filler plate and the vacuum plate.
The present invention is further directed to a method for filling a liquid into holes that have aspect ratios of larger than 5:1 in a substrate which can be carried out by the operating steps of providing a substrate that is equipped with a plurality of through holes that have aspect ratios of larger than 5:1, each of the plurality of through holes has a first opening on a first surface of the substrate and a second opening on an opposite second surface of the substrate, contacting the first surface of the substrate with a vacuum plate equipped with a vacuum slot such that air is evacuated from the first opening of each of the plurality of through holes, and contacting the second surface of the substrate with a filler plate equipped with an injection slot such that a liquid can be injected into the second opening of each of the plurality of through holes which was evacuated by the vacuum plate.
The method for filling a liquid into holes that have aspect ratios of larger than 5:1 in a substrate may further include the step of contacting the first surface of the substrate with a vacuum plate and contacting the second surface of the substrate with a filler plate simultaneously. The method may further include the step of connecting the vacuum plate to the filler plate by a connection means which further includes an adjustment means of a veneer adjuster. The method may further include the step of adjusting the veneer adjuster such that the injection slot lags behind the vacuum slot when a substrate is slidingly displaced inbetween the filler plate and the vacuum plate. The method may further include the step of slidingly engaging a substrate between the filler plate and the vacuum plate, or slidingly moving a substrate inbetween the filler plate and the vacuum plate by a motor means, or the step of slidingly moving the substrate inbetween the filler plate and the vacuum plate at a speed between about 25 mm/min and about 250 mm/min.
The method for filling a liquid into high aspect ratio holes in a substrate may further include the step of covering substantially all the through holes in the substrate by the injection slots situated in the filler plate when the substrate is placed between the filler plate and the vacuum plate. The method may further include the step of connecting the vacuum plate to the filler plate in such a way that the vacuum plate is situated below the filler plate. The method may further include the step of providing a pressurized liquid reservoir in fluid communication with the injection slot, or the step of feeding a liquid to the injection slot in the filler plate from a liquid reservoir.
The method may further include the steps of feeding a molten solder in a liquid form to the injection slot in the filler plate, injecting the molten solder into the through holes, and solidifying the molten solder and forming via contacts. The method may further include the step of connecting a vacuum evacuation source to the vacuum slot in the vacuum plate such that air is evacuated from the first opening of each of the plurality of through holes.
In another preferred embodiment, the present invention provides an apparatus for filling an electrically conductive material into high aspect ratio holes in an electronic substrate which includes a first plate equipped with an injection slot for delivering an electrically conductive material, a second plate equipped with a vacuum slot for evacuating air, means for fixing the first and second plates together in a parallely face-to-face, spaced-apart relationship forming a dispensing unit for intimately engaging an electronic substrate therein, the electronic substrate may have holes with aspect ratios larger than 5:1 therein and the holes are in fluid communication with the injection slot and the vacuum slot when intimately engaged between the first and second plates, and drive means for causing sliding engagement and relative motion between the dispensing unit and an electronic substrate positioned therein.
In the apparatus for filling an electrically conductive material into high aspect ratio holes, the apparatus may further include an electrically conductive material reservoir for feeding the material into the injection slot. The apparatus may further include vacuum evacuation means for withdrawing air from the vacuum slot. The fixing means may further include adjustment means for adjusting a relative position of the first plate to the second plate, the adjustment means may be a veneer adjuster. The injection slot in the first plate may be adjusted behind the vacuum slot in the second plate, or the injection slot in the first plate may be adjusted to the same axial position of the vacuum slot in the second plate. The electrically conductive material delivered may be a molten solder at the lower end of the viscosity range, or a conductive polymer at the higher end of the viscosity range. The drive means drives the electronic substrate and cause it to slide between the first and second plates. The drive means may be a motor means.
The present invention is still further directed to a method for forming interconnects in a substrate for a display panel which can be carried out by the steps of first providing a substrate for a display panel that has a plurality of interconnect holes therein, each of the plurality of interconnect holes may have a first opening on a first surface of the substrate and a second opening on an opposite second surface of the substrate, withdrawing air from the plurality of interconnect holes by contacting the holes at the first opening with a vacuum slot provided on a vacuum plate, and filling the plurality of interconnect holes with a molten solder by contacting the holes at the second opening with an injection slot provided on a filler plate.
In the method for forming interconnects in a substrate for a display panel, the method may further include the step of solidifying the molten solder in the plurality of interconnect holes and forming the interconnects. The method may further include the step of contacting the plurality of interconnect holes with the vacuum slot and the injection slot simultaneously. The method may further include the step of forming the interconnects and placing a voltage potential on pixel display elements formed on the display panel. The method may further include the step of mounting the vacuum plate and the injection plate together in a parallely face-to-face, spaced-apart relationship with a cavity formed therein for slidingly engaging the substrate in abutting contact. The method may further include the step of adjusting a relative axial position of the vacuum plate to the injection plate, wherein the adjustment means may be a veneer adjuster. The method may further include the step of feeding a molten solder to the injection slot from a molten solder reservoir.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to pictorial communications and, more specifically, to signal processing techniques for use with the electronic copiers, printers, and like devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Digital halftoning can be used in devices or systems, such as copiers and printers, where the pixels of the image data are represented by digital values. Halftoning is frequently used when the rendering device, or print engine, does not have the same gray-level capability as the input information. In halftoning, halftone cells are created wherein the overall density of the halftone cell is expected to be equal to the density of a group of pixels in the original input data. This provides the appearance of the same gray-level density for the area without the need for a gray-level rendering device. The most frequent use of digital halftoning is associated with reproducing gray-level input data with a binary output device. Although the overall density of the cell appears to be near the desired density, some sharpness information is lost from the original pixel data with many conventional halftone processing systems.
Error diffusion is another technique which may be used to convert gray-level values to binary values, or to gray-level values with a smaller number of usable levels. However, if error diffusion is used alone, the process stability of a single pixel dot at high resolution is a usual concern. In some processing, error diffusion and digital halftoning can be used together to provide the proper data for rendering the image on a binary device. This can provide good process stability and more overall-area gray-levels. If error diffusion is applied to each pixel of the halftone cell, much of the sharpness of the original data is preserved. However, pixel-to-pixel error diffusion is computationally intensive and can present major speed and hardware restraints. Error diffusion between halftone cells is much more economical as far as processing time is concerned, but a degree of sharpness is sacrificed with this arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,645, issued on July 14, 1987, discloses a method for rendering gray-level image data by a binary device. According to this patent, pixel-to-pixel error diffusion is used in conjunction with a variable sized dot rendering system. The variable sizes are modulated by the error in the gray-levels diffused or propagated to other pixels. Halftone cells are not used in this system. The background section of the patent includes a general discussion on error diffusion at column 1, lines 42-64.
In order to obtain an improved digital halftoning system, it is desirable, and an object of this invention, to provide a system for converting gray-scale data into binary data which accurately represents the density and sharpness information in the original image with reduced computations.


1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to catheter systems used in diagnosis and treatment of various body tissues and, more specifically, to steering systems incorporated into catheter systems for ablating cardiac tissue in the treatment of electrophysiological diseases.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well know, catheters provide medical professionals access to various interior regions of the human body, in a minimally invasive manner, in support of diagnosis and treatment. Catheters allow such professionals to place one or more medical instruments, pharmacological agents or other matter at a target tissue site. For example, in cardiac procedures in support of diagnosis and treatment of atrial fibrillation, catheters provide access to various chambers of the heart, carrying ablation devices which translate therein to such sites for ablation of specific cardiac tissue associated with atrial fibrillation.
Ablation of tissue, cardiac tissue for example, is directly related to the orientation of the ablation element from which energy sufficient to ablate biological tissue is emitted. For such procedures, precise control of the ablation device is desirable to ensure proper placement of the ablation element utilized in creation of one or more desired lesions. As a surgeon, or other medical professional, manipulates the proximal end of the catheter system, the distal end of the catheter must be responsive to such movement in a very predetermined, smooth-flowing and proportional way.
Proper placement of an ablation device is exasperated by the fact that some ablative energy technologies require energy transmission conduits which are bulky, or otherwise constructed from materials less flexible, making the distal portion of the catheter difficult to properly position. For example, distal portions of optical fiber or microwave based ablation systems, or catheter systems comprising an endoscopic device, may be more difficult to maneuver due to the lack of {flexibility in the transmission mediums utilized therein. As should be readily apparent, when the distal portion of an ablation catheter system is not properly positioned, ablative energy is not properly directed and applied to the target tissue, resulting in poor lesion formation. It is therefore essential that the ablative device be able to be manipulated and sufficiently controlled to be properly positioned to transfer the requisite energy to ablate biological tissue and create a desired lesion therein.


Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) convert time-discrete analog input values to a digital form. A type of ADC, the successive approximation register (SAR) ADC, digitizes the analog input values using a successive approximation search algorithm. While the internal circuitry of the SAR ADC may run at a higher frequency (such as several megahertz (MHz), for example), the sample rate of the SAR ADC is generally a fraction of that frequency (such as several kilohertz (kHz), for example) due to the successive approximation search algorithm used. For example, normally each bit of the SAR ADC is fully realized prior to proceeding on to the next bit.
Since modern ADC devices are highly precise, testing them calls for even more precise stimuli for the results to be of relevance. Providing these high precision stimuli can be expensive. Additionally, in order to reach the required high precision, the stimuli generators often need long settling times, resulting in longer test times.
Often, front-end and back-end testing using automatic test equipment (ATE) is performed as part of ADC production. For production tests using ATE, the ADCs can be tested with architecture-independent methods, such as the linear ramp test or the histogram test. With the linear ramp test method, a slowly changing high-resolution high-linearity voltage ramp is applied to the input of the ADC, and the conversion results are used to determine the ADC transfer curve. The histogram test method uses a predetermined input signal as input to the ADC, and statistically deduces the transfer curve from the observed code histogram.
Both methods often use a minimum number of hits per code to provide usable results. Consequently, the runtime for an n-bit binary ADC grows linearly with the number of possible output codes, which is 2^n. For high resolution ADCs, this leads to long test times and, as a consequence, high test costs.
A compromise for easier stimulus generation may be achieved by using a first-order resistor-capacitor low pass filter. The inherent mismatch of the RC time constant is measured first, and then the transfer curve can be obtained. As the charge or discharge speed of the capacitance must be adapted to the fastest changing part of the voltage curve, the measurement takes longer than the linear ramp test. Additionally, the high time constant can require an unfeasibly large (external) capacitance.
Expensive stimuli generators and long settling times can lead to increased test costs. Further, when tests are lengthy and expensive, the user may have no simple means to check that the circuits are fully functional during field operation, including throughout the product lifetime. For example, some methods are used for production testing, and are prohibitive for use in the field. This can lead to a violation of specified functional safety requirements of some automotive applications, for example.
Other proposed methods often result in substantial chip area overhead and can also increase the BOM for the customer.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of display, and in particular to a thin film transistor (TFT) backplane and manufacturing method thereof.
2. The Related Arts
In the field of display technology, liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light emitting diode (OLED) display and other flat panel display technology have gradually replaced CRT monitors, wherein the OLED provides the advantages of self-luminous, low driving voltage, high luminous efficiency, short response time, high clarity and contrast, wide viewing angle of near-180°, wide operating temperature range, enabling flexible display and large full-color display, and is recognized as the technology with most potential.
The driving types of OLED can be divided according to the passive matrix OLED (PMOLED) and active matrix OLED (AMOLED). The low temperature poly silicon (LTPS) thin film transistor (TFT) has gained attention from the industry in high resolution AMOLED technology. Compared with the amorphous silicon (a-Si), LTPS TFT has higher carrier mobility, and the device has fast response and good stability to meet the requirements of high resolution AMOLED display.
The gate insulation (GI) commonly used in known LTPS TFT backplane of AMOLED usually uses the double-layered structure of silicon dioxide/silicon nitride (SiO2/SiNx), wherein the SiO2 layer contacts the polysilicon active layer, and the SiNx layer contacts the gate. Compared to SiO2 layer, SiNx layer provides better barrier for mobile ions, such as, sodium ions (Na+), potassium ions (K+), has a greater dielectric constant, can be made thinner than the SiO2 layer under the same insulating capacity, has a higher hydrogen (H) content, and has a passivation effect on dangling bond in polysilicon. However, the SiNx layer in contact with the polysilicon active layer has a poor interface due to the stress. Hence, a SiO2 layer is often deposited plus a layer of SiNx layer to form the gate insulating layer.
The thicker the SiNx layer is, the better the capabilities are as barrier to mobile ions and passivation effect. However, the reliability of the TFT elements will decrease. This is because the gate will continually inject the carrier stream into the SiNx layer, which will destroy the SiNx layer, so that the quality of the SiNx layer is deteriorated, resulting in reduced reliability of the TFT element. Therefore, under normal circumstances, SiNx layer is not thick. In addition, during fabricating the gate in the etching process, the SiNx layer is often over-etched. If a protective layer is superimposed over the SiNx layer simply to protect the SiNx layer, the thickness of the gate insulating layer corresponding to storage capacitor area is increased, resulting in performance degradation in capacitive storage. The only solution is to increase the capacitance area and sacrifice the opening ratio to ensure the capacitance storage performance.


1. Technical Field
The embodiments herein generally relate to emergency control mechanisms, and, more particularly, to an emergency safety shutoff system for a glovebox air intake.
2. Description of the Related Art
Environmental accidents, toxic chemical spills, and testing to support verification inspections are examples of situations where chemical and biological testing may be required. Gloveboxes are used for such testing. The availability of safe, reliable, and efficient containment vessels, such as gloveboxes and fume hoods, for conducting environmental tests help to protect the investigators and preserve the evidentiary value of the collected materials and the on-site tests.
The glovebox serves as engineering control and primary protection during a hazardous test operation. During the test, in the event of pressure loss due to power failure or exhaust blower malfunction, there is a potential for containment loss through the air intake valve which would allow for hazardous materials to enter into the operators breathing zone. It is desirable to eliminate the potential hazard with an improved glovebox system.


In U.S. Pat. No. 6,888,196, a conventional structure of power semiconductor device is disclosed, as shown in FIG. 1, wherein an N-channel trench MOSFET comprising a plurality of trenched gates 110 surrounded by n+ source regions 112 encompassed in P body regions 114 is formed in an N epitaxial layer 102 over an N+ substrate 100. To connect said source regions 112 and said body regions 114 to a source metal 122, a trenched source-body contact 118 with vertical sidewall is employed penetrating through a contact interlayer 120, said n+ source regions 112 and extending into said P body regions 114. Furthermore, a p+ body ohmic contact doped region 116 is implanted surrounding bottom of said trenched source-body contact to decrease a contact resistance between said P body regions 114 and said trenched source-body contact 118.
The conventional structure in FIG. 1 is accoutering a technical difficulty which is that avalanche always occurs near bottom of said trenched gates 110, causing a hazardous condition to the power semiconductor device. As we all know that, in the trench MOSFET shown in FIG. 1, a avalanche current Iav (illustrated in FIG. 1) flows between said trenched gates 110 and said source-body contact 118, triggering turning-on of a parasitic bipolar transistor (illustrated in FIG. 1) when Iav*Rb>0.7V, wherein Rb is a resistance between said p+ body ohmic contact doped region 116 and channel region near said trenched gates 110. As is known to all that, the doping concentration of said p+ body ohmic contact doped region 116 is higher than that of said P body region 114 (please refer to FIG. 2 for Y1-Y1′ cross section of FIG. 1), which is helpful to decrease resistance Rb, however, as the sidewall of said trenched source-body contact is perpendicular to the front surface of said N epitaxial layer 102, when carrying out implantation through a contact trench, said p+ body ohmic contact doped region 116 can be formed only surrounding bottom of said trenched source-body contact, resulting in a high resistance Rb underneath said n+ source regions 112. Therefore, said parasitic bipolar transistor is easily to be triggered turning on due to the high resistance Rb, thus weakening the avalanche capability of the trench MOSFET.
FIG. 3 shows another trench MOSFET in prior art disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 20080890357. Comparing to FIG. 1, the trench MOSFET in FIG. 3 comprises a plurality of trenched gates 130 having terrace gate structure for gate resistance reduction, wherein top surface of gate conductive layer filled in gate trenches is higher than the sidewall. However, the limitation of poor avalanche capability discussed above is still pronounced in this structure due to the easily turning-on of a parasitic bipolar transistor and the occurring of avalanche near bottom of said trenched gates 130.
For other power semiconductor power device, for example trench IGBTs, the same disadvantage of poor avalanche capability is also affecting the performance of the power semiconductor device.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide new and improved power semiconductor devices to avoid the constraint discussed above.


This invention is in the field of terminally guided, anit-armor missiles. Heretofore known terminal guidance missile systems have used proportional navigation with limited trajectory shaping for high accuracy against moving targets. This limited use of trajectory shaping results in either a flat approach trajectory which has reduced warhead penetration or a lofted or ballistic like trajectory. The ballistic like trajectory is often unable to perform well when low cloud cover condition exists. The including of a gimbal angle regulator and boost/cruise trajectory shaping allows low altitude ground or air launch, climb to cruise altitude under a low cloud cover, and then dive onto the target thereby achieving a high probability of penetrating the armor of the target. This invention is not limited to tracker systems that must acquire the target prior to launch such as an infrared imaging seeker, but works equally well with systems that can acquire the target after launch such as laser semiactive systems. The use of conventional known guidance schemes cannot accomplish the high probability of accurate hit concurrent with control of the dive angle for maximum warhead performance. Any ballistic like trajectory for terminally guided missiles must reacquire after descending through the cloud cover adversely affecting the probability of hit and limiting the controllability of the impact attitude.


The present invention relates to fittings for securing articles in a desired position and, more particularly, to a tie-down connector fitting for securing automobiles and the like to the bed of a transporter, such as a railroad car or truck.
Automobiles and other vehicles are normally transported from the factory to a location near the point of purchase by transporters, including trucks and railroad cars. In the past, various means of securing vehicles to such transporters have been used, the most popular method being a tie-down assembly attaching the undercarriage of the vehicle to the bed of the transporter. Generally, prior tie-down assemblies consist of a hook section and a single chain extending therefrom to an idler assembly movable along a track formed in the floor or bed of the transporter to accommodate vehicles of different lengths. In securing a vehicle, the idler assembly is moved along the track to a position beneath the vehicle, where the hook is attached to an opening or slot in the undercarriage of the vehicle. The chain is attached at its free end to a conventional ratchet, movable within the track, which tightens the chain for securing the vehicle to the bed of the transporter for shipment. This procedure was often repeated at each of the four corners of the vehicle as a safety precaution to avoid potentially dangerous and damaging movement of the vehicles should one of the chains break.
In an effort to reduce material and labor costs in tying down vehicles for shipment, shippers have begun to use single tie-down assemblies at the front and rear of the vehicles. Such an arrangement, however, introduces the danger of a loose vehicle on the transporter should one of the chains break. Accordingly, improved vehicle tie-down systems have been developed to safeguard against the possibility of chain failure, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,022,134 to Krokos, issued May 10, 1977, which shows multiple chains attached to a clevis 41, pivotally pinned to the center of a connector fitting formed in various configurations. A further improvement is shown in patent application Ser. No. 703,594, filed July 8, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,691, issued Aug. 30, 1977, by Donald C. Kilgus and entitled "Vehicle Tie-Down System for Rail Cars".
These improved tie-down systems generally provide a connector fitting which attaches to a pair of chains or at a point along the length of a single chain in a triangular configuration. In such systems, each separate chain or the ends of a single chain are secured to the transporter so that one will hold the vehicle alone, should the other break. It has been discovered in using such tie-down systems, however, that a great deal of stress and strain is placed on the fitting itself, and particularly on the end link of the chain which attaches to the fitting. The tensile and torsion stresses applied to the chains and fitting by the motion of the vehicle on the transporter, especially in starting and stopping, have caused failures in both after relatively short periods of use.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a tie-down system wherein the chains may be separated from the fitting should one fail before the other. However, in many prior art designs, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,229 to Peisner, issued Sept. 20, 1977, the chains are integral with the fitting and may not be separated therefrom. In such designs, if either one of the fitting or chains prematurely fail, the entire connector fitting, including the chains, must be replaced.


Clamping claws are generally used to secure an object in a recess of a support. The clamping claws have a securing leg and a clamping leg, with the clamping claw in the installed state being secured on the support by way of its securing leg by means of a bolt and clamping the object in the recess by means of its clamping leg.
Such clamping claws are used, for example, as part of a cutting tool for machining metallic materials, with the support also being referred to as a gripping holder. The object that is clamped by means of the clamping claw in this connection is a cutting plate made from a ceramic material, hard metal or other material that is suitable for machining.
The underlying aim of the invention is to convert the application of axial force applied to an object by a clamping claw in part into an application of force that acts transversely thereto so that the object is pressed not only onto the support, but also onto the side wall of the recess.
The clamping claw includes two portions, namely a clamping base and a clamping finger.
The clamping base sits on the support in the installed state of the clamping claw.
The clamping finger has a securing leg and a clamping leg, and in the installed state the securing leg sits on the clamping base over an oblique plane formed as a sliding surface and clamps the object with its clamping leg.
During clamping the bolt presses the securing leg of the clamping finger onto the clamping base and secures both on the support, in which case as a result of the oblique plane that is formed as a sliding surface the securing leg and thus the clamping leg of the clamping finger execute a lateral movement transversely in relation to the longitudinal axis of the clamping base.
The application of force applied to the object by the clamping claw is split into an axial component and a component that acts transversely thereto.
So that the component that acts transversely in relation to the axial component draws the object into the recess of the support, a trough, for example, into which, for example, a cam on the clamping leg of the clamping finger engages, is arranged in the object.
The clamping base is advantageously secured on the support in a secure manner with respect to rotation, but so that it can be displaced in the clamping direction. To this end, at least one projection that extends parallel to the longitudinal axis of the clamping base and engages into a longitudinal slot in the support that is matched thereto is arranged on the clamping base.
In a preferred embodiment, the clamping base at its end that faces the securing leg of the clamping finger has an oblique plane that is formed as a sliding surface, and the securing leg of the clamping finger at its end that faces the clamping base likewise has an oblique plane that is formed as a sliding surface. Both sliding surfaces are matched to each other and are formed so that they slide one on top of the other.
The clamping base in the installed state preferably rests with a first guide surface against a second guide surface on the securing leg so that the securing leg of the clamping finger is arranged on the clamping base in a secure manner with respect to rotation. Since the clamping base also sits on the support in the installed state in a secure manner with respect to rotation, the clamping finger is also arranged on the support in a secure manner with respect to rotation. This is necessary in order to achieve correct clamping of the object.
Advantageously, the clamping base has a projecting flange with which the clamping base sits on a recess in the support in the installed state.
The clamping claw is preferably a part of a cutting tool for machining metallic materials, in which case the support is a gripping holder and the object is a cutting plate.
In an advantageous embodiment, arranged on the clamping leg of the clamping finger there is a raised portion, like a cam for example, which in the installed state engages into a corresponding trough in the object or in the cutting plate.
In a preferred development in accordance with the invention, the raised portion or the cam on the clamping leg of the clamping finger is formed as a circular ring which in the installed state engages into an object or a cutting plate that has a spherical or circular raised portion and in so doing embraces the raised portion.
The invention is explained in greater detail in the following with the aid of six figures.


This invention is concerned with an adapter to enable a dry cell battery to be used in an application in which it might be charging or discharging for which it is electrically acceptable but for which it is physically too small.
Batteries in flash lights, portable radios or so called chargers and other equipment are usually supported in a tube or clips or other mechanical contrivances so that they are securely held in electrical contact with the terminals of the circuit or element which they are to supply or from which they are to be supplied (charged). The support means may hold a single battery between the terminals or a plurality of batteries in end to end relationhip may be so held but almost always the support means are arranged to receive a battery of particular transverse cross sectional dimensions.
As is well known, there are generally available several differently dimensioned batteries which have similar electrical discharge and charging characteristics. It frequently occurs than when a physically large battery is needed there is available only a battery of a smaller size but one which is electrically acceptable.
Further, as batteries are reduced in size with advancing technology, it becomes technically and economically desirable to use the new and smaller batteries in equipment designed specifically to receive older and larger batteries. For example, a nickel/cadmium AA battery has similar electrical discharge characteristics to a zinc/carbon D battery but of course as it is rechargeable it is desirable to be able to use such a battery in place of the larger zinc/carbon battery.
Major differences between existing large and small batteries is their working lives. Many pieces of equipment such as, for example, flash lights are designed to receive large batteries that fit them for long and continuous use but in practice those pieces of equipment may be used for only short periods with long intervals of non-use between those periods. During those periods of non-use the battery deteriorates or, because of faulty terminals in the equipment, discharges. In many cases these long periods of non-use can be foreseen but because of the physical design characteristics of the pieces of equipment one is obliged to use a large and expensive battery knowing that were its use physically possible a small, cheaper battery having a shorter working like would be quite adequate.


Fuel injected engines employ fuel injectors, each of which delivers a metered quantity of fuel to an associated engine cylinder during each engine cycle. Prior fuel injectors were of the mechanically or hydraulically actuated type with either mechanical or hydraulic control of fuel delivery. More recently, electronically controlled fuel injectors have been developed. In the case of an electronic unit injector, fuel is supplied to the injector by a transfer pump. The injector includes a plunger which is movable by a cam-driven rocker arm to compress the fuel delivered by the transfer pump to a high pressure. An electrically operated mechanism either carried outside the injector body or disposed within the injector proper is then actuated to cause fuel delivery fuel to the associated engine cylinder.
In prior fuel injector designs, high pressure fuel is conducted through passages which are located outside of a central recess containing a solenoid which operates a valving mechanism. The passages are located close to the outer surface of the fuel injector and are formed by drilling intersecting holes. After drilling, portions of some of the holes must be filled with plugs. These passages and plugs are subjected to very high fluid pressures, thus requiring careful design, thus increasing complexity and cost.
In addition to the foregoing, because the high pressure passages are located outside of the solenoid, the size of the solenoid is necessarily limited, thereby limiting the available solenoid force.
Still further, a prior type of fuel injector utilizes a direct operated check valve, which includes upper and lower valve seats which must be precisely aligned for proper operation. Manufacturing and assembly tolerances must, therefore, be kept tight, further increasing cost.


Physicians have often used endoscopes to examine, to biopsy, and to ablate the tissue of patients within lumens such as the esophageous and the bowel. These procedures include esophageal duodenoscopy, (EGD), colonoscopy, and polypectomy. Endoscopes used in these procedures can be several feet long and generally comprise one or more instrument channels and optical fiber bundles. The instrument channels and optical fiber bundles open into the body at the distal end of the endoscope and are generally parallel to the axis of the flexible endoscope. Physicians place flexible instruments through the instrument channels while visualizing and illuminating a site using the optical fiber bundles. The instruments have end-effectors at the distal end for performing useful therapeutic work to tissue. The instruments also provide at their proximal ends operating mechanisms for actuating the end-effectors. Such instruments placed through an instrument channel of an endoscope may include biopsy forceps for tissue sampling, electrical wires for radiofrequency ablation, or tubes used for irrigation, gas transfer, particular matter transfer, and suction.
A physician performing a therapeutic procedure with the use of an endoscope places a long, flexible instrument through the endoscope's instrument channel and then positions the instrument near the site within the body lumen where a therapeutic procedure is to be performed. The physician grasps the endoscope with one hand and introduces the flexible instrument from an entrance at the proximal end of the endoscope with the other. An assistant usually holds the proximal end of the flexible instrument and operates the mechanism at the proximal end of the instrument to actuate the end-effector.
Locating the end-effector within the lumen presents difficulties to the physician. The flexible instrument emerges from the instrument channel of the endoscope in a direction parallel to the axis of the endoscope. Many times work needs to be performed by the instrument at the inner wall of a body lumen, and at an angle to the axis of the endoscope. Much tedious maneuvering of both endoscope and instrument is needed to place the end-effector into a position to perform useful work. The flexible nature of the instrument creates difficulties in locating the end-effector at the needed position on the inner wall of the body lumen. Rotating the endoscope to accommodate the instrument causes the image on the monitor to rotate creating visualization difficulties for the physician.
When the task to be performed is a biopsy, a tissue sample or specimen must be transported away from the work site for collection. To collect the specimen, the physician pulls the entire instrument from the endoscope, removes the specimen, places the specimen into a collection jar, and replaces the instrument into the endoscope. The physician must then manipulate the instrument into a new position to take another specimen.


A dicing apparatus, which performs a cutting or groove-forming process on a workpiece such as a wafer on which semiconductor elements or electronic components are formed, includes at least: a rotary blade which is formed of a thin grindstone called a blade and is rotated by a spindle at high speed; a worktable which holds the workpiece; and X, Y, Z, and θ moving shafts which change a relative position between the worktable and the blade. At the time of processing the workpiece, a cutting fluid for cooling or lubrication is supplied from a nozzle to the rotating blade or a processing point at which the workpiece and the blade contact each other, and the cutting or groove-forming process is performed on the workpiece by the operations of the respective moving shafts.
FIG. 8 illustrates a conventional example of the dicing apparatus. A dicing apparatus 70 includes a processing part 75. The processing part has: high-frequency motor built-in type spindles 72, 72 respectively equipped with a blade 71 and a wheel cover (not shown) on their tips, and disposed so as to be opposed to each other; a worktable 73 which adsorbs and holds a workpiece W; and an image pickup device 74 formed of a microscope, a CCD camera, or the like for picking up an image of the workpiece W. In addition to these components, the dicing apparatus 70 includes: a cleaning part 76 which spin-cleans the processed workpiece W which has been processed by the processing part 75; a load port 77 onto which a cassette that houses a large number of the workpieces W mounted on a frame F is set; a conveyance device 78 which conveys the workpiece W; a controller 79 which controls the operations of the respective parts; and the like.
As illustrated in FIG. 9, the structure of the processing part 75 includes an X table 83 which is guided by X guides 81, 81 provided to an X base 80 and is driven by a linear motor 82 in an X direction indicated by X-X of the figure. A worktable 85 is provided to the X table 83 via a rotary table 84 which rotates in a θ direction.
On the other hand, Y tables 88, 88 which are guided by Y guides 87, 87 and are driven by a stepper motor (not shown) and a ball screw (not shown) in a Y direction indicated by Y-Y of the figure are provided on a side surface of a Y base 86. A Z table 89 which is driven by a drive device (not shown) in a Z direction indicated by Z-Z of the figure is provided to each of the Y tables 88. The high-frequency motor built-in type spindle 72 which has the blade 71 on its tip is fixed to the Z table 89. The processing part 75 has the structure as described above, and hence the blade 71 is step-fed (fed in a stepwise manner) in the Y direction and also is fed while cutting-in (cutting-in feed) in the Z direction, and the worktable 73 is fed while cutting (cutting feed) in the X direction.
The spindles 72 are both rotated at a high speed of 1,000 rpm to 80,000 rpm, and a supply nozzle (not shown) which supplies the cutting fluid into which the workpiece W is to be immersed is provided in the vicinity of the spindles 72.
An electrodeposition blade obtained by electrodepositing diamond abrasive grains or CBN abrasive grains with nickel, a metal-resin bonding blade obtained by bonding with a resin mixed with a metal power, or the like is used as the blade 71. The dimensions of the blade 71 are variously selected depending on the processing type. In a case where a general semiconductor wafer is diced into the workpiece, a blade having a diameter of approximately 50 mm and a thickness of approximately 30 μm is used.
In addition, the controller which controls the operations of the respective parts of the dicing apparatus 70 includes a CPU, a memory, an input/output circuit part, various control circuit parts, and the like, and is incorporated inside a pedestal of the dicing apparatus 70. As the dicing apparatus having the above-mentioned structure, for example, a dicing apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 has been proposed.
In the dicing apparatus 70 having the above-mentioned structure, as a stage prior to the processing, an alignment operation is performed, in which an image of the workpiece W is picked up by the image pickup device 74 and the position of the workpiece W is aligned with the blade 71. Also during the processing, if necessary, an image of the workpiece W is picked up by the image pickup device 74 as appropriate to check a processing condition. However, in the dicing apparatus 70, only one worktable 73 onto which the workpiece W is set and only one image pickup device 74 which picks up an image of the workpiece are provided. Therefore, during the processing of one workpiece W, it is not possible to set another new workpiece W onto the worktable 73 to perform the alignment by the image pickup device 74. Accordingly, the utilization rate of the image pickup device is low, and in addition, the utilization rate of the entire dicing apparatus is also deteriorated.
As a solution to such a problem, Patent Document 2 discloses a dicing apparatus in which two blades, two worktables, and two image pickup devices are provided. In this dicing apparatus, a workpiece which is set onto one worktable is aligned by one image pickup device, while a workpiece which is set onto another worktable is aligned by another image pickup device. Then, the workpiece which is set onto the one worktable is processed by one blade, while the workpiece which is set onto the another worktable is processed by another blade. Alternatively, the workpiece which is set onto the one worktable or the another worktable is processed by both the one blade and the another blade. In this manner, two workpieces are aligned individually by the two image pickup devices, and one workpiece is processed by the two blades, whereby the utilization rate of the dicing apparatus is improved.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-280328    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-156809


It is well known that photovoltaic cells use specially prepared semiconductor junctions to convert energy from sunlight to electricity.
It is also known that a specific photovoltaic semiconductor junction utilizes, for conversion to electricity, only a portion of the spectrum of energy available in the available light. For example, the conversion of sunlight to electrical energy using well known silicon photovoltaic cells is strongly dependent upon the conversion of light with energy at or above 1.1 electron volts while the lower energy light also present is, at least in part, converted to heat instead of electricity. The heat generated can reduce the efficiency of the silicon cell for the conversion of the higher energy light to electricity.
Some of the sunlight which penetrates the solid light transmitting member of a conventional photovoltaic array is lost such as by passing through an interstice between adjacent photovoltaic cells, reflection back out of the member, absorption, and the like.
Accordingly, current photovoltaic arrays receive more energy input from incident light than they retain for conversion into electrical output, and it is highly desirable to increase the amount of light an array retains for such conversion.
One known approach for increasing the capacity of photovoltaic arrays to convert light energy to electricity is to employ one or more solid luminescent agents in the solid light transmitting member. Such agents, when exposed to sunlight, take in light from one direction and emit lower energy light in numerous directions. Examples of such agents are organic dyes such as the dyes heretofore employed in scintillation counters, lasers, and the like.
The particular luminescent agent or agents employed in conjunction with an array of specific photovoltaic cells are chosen, inter alia, for their ability to emit light in an energy level range which suits the conversion characteristics of that cell. This way, a portion of the light that would otherwise be lost for electrical generation by transmission, reflection, and the like is transformed by the luminescent agent into multi-directional light that is more readily retained in the light transmitting member and which the photovoltaic cell or cells can readily convert into electricity, thereby increasing the overall efficiency of the array.
A photovoltaic array which employs this approach is referred to as a luminescent photovoltaic array. Such an array usually employs fluorescent dyes, fluorescence being that species of luminescence wherein the emitted light is usually in the visible spectrum. However, other species of luminescence exist. Phosphoresence (light emission continues after the stimulating light has stopped) is one such species.
It should be understood that this invention covers all species of luminescence, as well as all types of luminescent agents.
Heretofore the prior art has required the photovoltaic cell or cells employed to be mounted on the thin edge of a solid, plastic or glass, light transmitting luminescent member. Such a device is fully and completely disclosed in Applied Optics, Volume 15, No. 10, Pages 2299 and 2300, October, 1976, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.


1. Technical Field
In general, the disclosed embodiments relate to devices and methods for the introduction and subsequent evaluation of therapeutic agents to biological tissue, and in particular to the simultaneous introduction of a plurality of agents to the tissue in vivo.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous cancer-related therapeutics are under phase I or phase II clinical trial and evaluations at any particular time; however, most of them will fail to advance. In fact, it is estimated that more than 90% of cancer-related therapeutics will fail phase I or II clinical trial evaluation. The failure rate in phase III trials is almost 50%, and the cost of new drug development from discovery through phase III trials is between $0.8 billion and $1.7 billion and can take between eight and ten years.
In addition, many patients fail to respond even to standard drugs that have been shown to be efficacious. For reasons that are not currently well understood or easily evaluated, individual patients may not respond to standard drug therapy. One significant challenge in the field of oncology is to exclude drug selection for individual patients having cell autonomous resistance to a candidate drug to reduce the risk of unnecessary side effects. A related problem is that excessive systemic concentrations are required for many oncology drug candidates in efforts to achieve a desired concentration at a tumor site, an issue compounded by poor drug penetration in many under-vascularized tumors (Tunggal et al., 1999 Clin. Canc. Res. 5:1583).
Clearly there is a need in the art for improved devices and methods for testing and delivering cancer therapies, including improved methodologies for performing efficient pre-clinical and clinical studies of candidate oncology medicines, and for identifying therapeutics having increased likelihood of benefiting individual subjects. The present invention addresses these and similar needs, and offers other related advantages.


The senile plaque and congophilic angiopathy are abnormal extracellular structures found in abundance in brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The biochemical composition of these structures has been extensively studied to better understand their possible role in the pathogenesis of this dementing disease. The mature senile plaque is a complex structure, consisting of a central core of amyloid fibrils surrounded by dystrophic neurites, axonal terminals and dendrites, microglia and fibrous astrocytes. See D. Selkoe Neuron 6, 487-498 (1991). The amyloid core of the senile plaque surrounding blood vessels, producing the congophilic angiopathy, is a peptide of 39 to 43 amino acids termed the .beta.-Amyloid (A.beta.) peptide. G. Glenner and C. Wong, Biochem. Bioshys. Res. Comm. 120, 885-890 (1984). A.beta. peptide is found in brain in Alzheimer's disease, Down's syndrome, hereditary cerebral hemorrhage of the Dutch type, and in old age. K. Kosik, Science 256, 780-783 (1992). A.beta. is produced by abnormal proteolytic processing of a larger protein, the amyloid precursor protein (APP). See K. Bayreuther and C. Masters, Brain Path. 1, 241-251 (1991).
The senile plaque and congophilic angiopathy contain proteins in addition to .beta.A peptide. APP itself, among others, has been identified in the senile plaque by histochemical studies employing antibodies recognizing either the amino- and carboxy- termini of the precursor protein. See, e.g., F. Tagliavine et al., Neurosci. Lett. 128, 117-120 (1991); C. Joachim et al., Amer. Jour. Path. 138, 373-384 (1991); The mechanisms by which these proteins aggregate in the extracellular space to associate with the senile plaque and congophilic angiopathy are not known.
Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) performs various functions as a protein constituent of plasma lipoproteins, including its role in cholesterol metabolism. It was first identified as a constituent of liver-synthesized very low density lipoproteins which function in the transport of triglycerides from the liver to peripheral tissues. There are three major isoforms of ApoE, referred to as ApoE2, ApoE3 and ApoE4 which are products of three alleles at a single gene locus. Three homozygous phenotypes (Apo-E2/2, E3/3, and E4/4) and three heterozygous phenotypes (ApoE3/2, E4/3 and E4/2) arise from the expression of any two of the three alleles. The most common phenotype is ApoE3/3 and the most common allele is E3. See Mahley, R. W., Science 240:622-630 (1988).
The amino acid sequences of the three types differ only slightly. ApoE4 differs from ApoE3 in that in ApoE4 arginine is substituted for the normally occurring cysteine at amino acid residue 112. The most common form of ApoE2 differs from ApoE3 at residue 158, where cysteine is substituted for the normally occurring arginine. See Mahley, Science, supra.
While there has been considerable research into the mechanisms underlying Alzheimer's disease, there continues to be an ongoing need for new ways to investigate and combat this disorder.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting arrangement for fixedly mounting one end of a piezoelectric element which comprises a carrier strip having at least one ceramic strip applied thereto and which element operates in a bending mode about the point of mounting for producing essentially linear movement for a part of a moving component operatively connected to the other end of the element.
2. Prior Art
Piezoelectric elements or piezoelectric benders which operate in a bending mode are well known in prior art. For example, an element having a metal carrier strip disposed between a pair of strips of piezoelectric material, such as lead-zirconium titanate, with electrodes for applying electrical current to the ceramic strip have been suggested. One proposed use of such elements is by rigidly mounting one end of the element in a body and by attaching the other end to a part of a movable component so that during a bending mode, the element creates substantially linear movement of the part attached to the other or free end. Various arrangements have been proposed to form so-called piezoelectric motors which have one or more of the elements arranged in parallel and mounted in the above manner. It has also been suggested to vary either the particular orientation of the ceramic layer or the application of the electrical current so that the element will bend in a substantial S configuration during operation.
While the elements used either alone or in a motor arrangement have proven very useful, they have suffered failure due to the high stress applied to the element adjacent to the rigid mounting point at the one end or in the case of an S bending operation at both ends. In the case of the element which is rigidly mounted at each end and has an S shape bending mode, failure often occurs at either of the fixed or rigid ends.


Toothpaste dispensers are well known in the art. Most existing toothpaste dispensers are in the form of simple tubes that dispense toothpaste when users manually squeeze the tubes. Some of these tubes are formed of flexible plastic, and older ones of these tubes were formed of a soft, malleable metal. Alternatively, some toothpaste dispensers exist in a pump form. Simpler versions of these pump dispensers are manual and a user operates them by depressing the top of the dispenser, and other variants utilize a pump lever on the dispenser. Such toothpaste dispensers are not user-friendly for people who have arthritis in their hands or have other physical limitations such as Parkinson's disease.
In addition, such traditional tube and pump toothpaste dispensers are messy. It is easy to squeeze a tube of toothpaste or to press a manual pump type toothpaste dispenser with an incorrect amount of pressure and eject too much toothpaste that falls on a counter or, worse, on the floor. Further, the caps of tube type toothpaste dispensers often become messy and covered with toothpaste that dries out and thereby makes a worse mess.
In view of the shortcomings described above automatic toothpaste dispenser that can dispense toothpaste without manual operation have come into vogue. They are easier to use, thereby making it easier for young and old to brush their teeth. They are then subtly encouraged to brush their teeth more often. As a result automatic toothpaste dispensers promote oral hygiene.
While automatic toothpaste dispensers have made it easier to dispense toothpaste onto a brush they are still not user-friendly for people who have arthritis in their hands or who have other physical limitations such as Parkinson's disease. These people have difficulty in holding the bristle end of a toothbrush under the dispensing spout of the automatic toothpaste dispensers and the toothpaste too often does not go onto the bristles but, rather, onto the counter or floor.
Whether toothpaste tubes, manually operated toothpaste dispensers or automatic toothpaste dispenser, they all have a common problem. A person using them often touches the opening where the tooth is dispensed from such devices with the bristles of their toothbrush. This creates a hygienic problem because the bristles and handles of virtually all toothbrushes have germs, bacteria and sometimes viruses thereon. A fast rinse of a toothbrush under a running faucet after brushing does not properly clean a toothbrush. They still have germs, bacteria and viruses thereon. Very few families will have a separate toothpaste dispensers for each person in a family and germs, bacteria and viruses are thereby easily spread between members of a family or other group who share one of the many types of toothpaste dispensers described above. This problem is exacerbated when people with physical limitations, such as Parkinson's disease, must hold their toothbrush bristles against the opening where the toothpaste is dispensed in order to get the toothpaste on their toothbrush.
Therefore, there is a need for means to dispense toothpaste using a dispenser that is shared by people while minimizing the transfer of germs, bacteria and viruses between the people. In addition, there is a need in the art for means to help a person position their toothbrush to receive toothpaste only onto their toothbrush and thereby minimizing any messes caused during dispensing toothpaste.


The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors act as nuclear transcription factors and occur in three different forms, PPAR-alpha, PPAR-delta and PPAR-gamma. When activated, these receptors regulate the expression of genes involved in a variety of metabolic pathways. PPARα-regulated target genes are centrally involved in the metabolism of fatty acids. Specific PPARα effects include an increase in fatty acid oxidation in peroxisomes and mitochondria. Additional evidence indicates that PPARα activation leads to a variety of anti-inflammatory effects. Known activators include fibrates, in use clinically, as well as herbicides and phthalate plasticizers (Reddy, et al., Crit. Rev. Toxicol. 12:1-58 (1983)).
The PPAR-alpha receptor has been isolated and is known to be activated by fatty acids (Isseman, et al., Nature 347:645-650 (1990); Gottlicher, et al., Proc. Nat'l Acid. Sci. USA 89:4653-4657 (1992); Tugwood, et al., EMBO J. 11:433-439 (1992); Bardot, et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 192:37-45 (1993); Muerhoff, et al., J. Biol. Chem. 267:19051-19053 (1992); Marcus, et al., Proc. Nat'l Acid. Sci. USA 90:5723-5727 (1993)). There have been suggestions that activators of this receptor may be useful in treating skin conditions (U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,515) and obesity (U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,109). In addition, at least one report has suggested that activators of the gamma form of PPAR may be useful in treating inflammatory skin conditions (U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,586). A better understanding of the way in which the PPAR receptors are activated, especially in terms of endogenous pathways, may lead to new and better approaches to therapy.


Recycling of waste materials is highly desirable from many viewpoints, not the least of which are financial and ecological. Properly sorted recyclable materials can often be sold for significant revenue. Many of the more valuable recyclable materials do not biodegrade within a short period, and so their recycling significantly reduces the strain on local landfills and ultimately the environment.
Typically, waste streams are composed of a variety of types of waste materials. One such waste stream is generated from the recovery and recycling of automobiles or other large machinery and appliances. For examples, at the end of its useful life, an automobile is shredded. This shredded material is processed to recover ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The remaining materials, referred to as automobile shredder residue (ASR), which may still include ferrous and non-ferrous metals, including copper wire and other recyclable materials, is typically disposed of in a landfill. Recently, efforts have been made to further recover materials, such as non-ferrous metals including copper from copper wiring and plastics. Similar efforts have been made to recover materials from whitegood shredder residue (WSR), which are the waste materials left over after recovering ferrous metals from shredded machinery or large appliances. Other waste streams that have recoverable materials may include electronic components (also known as “e-waste” or “waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)), building components, retrieved landfill material, or other industrial waste streams. These recoverable materials are generally of value only when they have been separated into like-type materials. However, in many instances, no cost-effective methods are available to effectively sort waste materials that contain diverse materials. This deficiency has been particularly true for non-ferrous materials, and particularly for non-metallic materials, such as non-ferrous metals, including copper wiring. For example, one approach to recycling wiring has been to station a number of laborers along a sorting line, each of whom manually sorts through shredded waste and manually selects the desired recyclables from the sorting line. This approach is not sustainable in most economics since the labor component is too high.
While some aspects of ferrous and non-ferrous recycling has been automated for some time, mainly through the use of magnets, eddy current separators, induction sensors and density separators, these techniques are ineffective for sorting some non-ferrous metals, such as copper wire. Again, labor-intensive manual processing has been employed to recover wiring and other non-ferrous metal materials. Because of the cost of labor, many of these manual processes are conducted in other countries and transporting the materials adds to the cost.
Many processes for identifying and separating materials are know in the art. However, not all processes are efficient for recovering non-ferrous metals and the sequencing of these processes is one factor in developing a cost-effective recovery process. Also, many processes are “wet,” that is, they involve using water or other liquid media. Wet processes tend to be less cost effective, in part, because of the extra processing required to manage and dry materials.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for cost-effective, efficient methods and systems for recovering materials from a waste stream, such as materials seen in a recycling process, including non-ferrous metals, in a manner that facilitates revenue recovery while also reducing landfill and, preferably using a dry process.


As a semiconductor memory device for storing a data which is excellent in a portability, there has been widely used a flash memory corresponding to a nonvolatile memory. A cost per bit of the flash memory has rapidly come down year by year, and a falling degree is sharper than a falling degree which is expected only by reduction of memory cell size. This has been achieved by reducing an area per bit on the basis of an artifice of an element structure or an introduction of a multilevel storage. In the semiconductor memory device, an area of a memory cell is reflected on a chip area, thereby being reflected on a manufacturing cost of the semiconductor memory device. A rough standard of the cost can be grasped by calculating how many times F2 a unit memory cell can be constructed, in which reference symbol F denotes a patterning dimension. At the present day, NAND type flash memory and AG-AND type flash memory can achieve a cell size which is approximately equal to a memory cell size corresponding to an ideally small 4F2. To make a memory cell smaller, it is necessary to line up the structure at a pitch smaller than 2F corresponding to twice of the lithography dimension F. To realize this, there can be considered such an artifice as to form a half pitch structure by utilizing a side wall of the once formed structure. As an example of the technique mentioned above, there can be listed up Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 08-055908 (Patent Document 1). And, there can be considered a technique of relaxing a pitch of a local data line (a local bit line) so as to connect to a global data line (a global bit line), however, in the case of relaxing the pitch of the local data line so as to connect to the global data line (the global bit line), it is necessary to set a select transistor to multi stages. As an example of a method of achieving a multi-stage select transistor with a small area penalty, there can be listed up Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-31448 (Patent Document 2).


Hydroxyl terminated polyethers find uses as raw materials of polyurethane and polyester resins. Others uses include cosmetics, plasticizers, surfactants and raw materials of these products. Conventional polyethers are terminated with primary or secondary alcoholic groups, the presence of which normally contributes to their desirablity for intended uses. It has been experienced in certain cases that the primary or secondary alcohol function is too active and therefore the presence of which is not desirable. For example, polyethers having too active an alcoholic function can lead to a premature reaction when reacted with polyisocyanates. Attempts have been made to remove the hydroxyl function by blocking with a group such as methyl or acyl, or replacing the hydroxyl group with chlorine. Obviously, polyethers having blocked or chlorinated terminals are not suitable for uses in which the presence of a hydroxyl function is essential, e.g. for the production of polyurethane and polyester resins.


For circuits such as switching power supply circuits and inverter circuits, semiconductor devices such as switching devices and diodes are used. Such semiconductor devices are required to have high breakdown voltage and low on-resistance. There is a trade-off relationship determined by device materials between the breakdown voltage and the on-resistance.
With the advancement in development of technology, low on-resistance for semiconductor devices has been realized down to the limit of silicon which is a major device material. In order to further improve the breakdown voltage and further reduce the on-resistance, it is necessary to change the device materials. By using GaN-based semiconductors such as GaN and AlGaN as switching device materials, it is possible to improve the trade-off relationship determined by the materials and to achieve rapidly-progressive high breakdown voltage and low on-resistance.
However, for example, in a switching device using a GaN-based semiconductor, there is a problem of “current collapse” in which on-resistance increases when a high drain voltage is applied.


Systems for rapid thermal processing of glass panels for flat panel displays are known in the art. Such systems include a heating assembly and a transport assembly within an enclosure. Glass panels having one or more coatings enter the system in a horizontal orientation and are transported through the system on rotating quartz cylinders. The glass panels pass through a series of preheating zones at increasing temperatures. The preheating zones contain infrared heaters that are oriented perpendicular to the direction of movement of the glass panels. The panels then move through a region where they are exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation supplied by a xenon arc lamp mounted in a reflector. The panels then move through a cooling zone and exit the system at the end opposite the first preheating zone.
An important parameter in the operation of rapid thermal processing systems is temperature uniformity across the surface of the glass panel or other substrate. Prior art systems have provided generally satisfactory performance but have had certain drawbacks.
The system requires a non-contact temperature measurement technique. An optical pyrometer, which measures temperature based on sensed infrared energy, is typically utilized. The conventional prior art approach is to mount a pyrometer sensing head in a fixed position such that a line profile at one location along the direction of workpiece motion is produced. This configuration has limited temperature measurement capability and thus limits the ability to achieve uniform heating.
Prior art rapid thermal processing systems typically utilize long filament infrared heaters positioned at 90.degree. to the direction of glass panel movement. This arrangement produces excellent longitudinal uniformity, but limited lateral uniformity due to edge effects. It is therefore desirable to provide a lamp configuration having improved lateral heating uniformity. Lateral uniformity refers to uniformity in a direction perpendicular to the direction of substrate movement.
As noted above, glass panels typically enter the rapid thermal processing system at one end and exit at the opposite end. The distance between the entrance end and the exit end increases as the dimensions of the glass panels being processed increases. This distance may be unacceptable in some fabrication facilities.
A method for selectively heating a film on a substrate, such as a glass substrate for a flat panel display, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,698 issued Dec. 17, 1991 to Stultz. A semiconductor wafer heating chamber, including an optical element between a light source and a wafer and an optical pyrometer for measuring wafer heating, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,755,654 issued Jul. 5, 1988 to Crowley et al. A long arc lamp for semiconductor wafer heating is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,906 issued Apr. 11, 1989 to Stultz.
All of the known prior art rapid thermal processing systems have had one or more of the drawbacks discussed above. Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods and apparatus for rapid thermal processing of large area substrates.


Retail shopping facilities often have thousands of different items that can be purchased. In some instances, one or more of these items are uniquely identified through a bar code, radio frequency identifier (RFID) tag, or other identifier. When RFID tags are used, the retail facility uses RFID tag readers to detect and read the RFID tags. Often these RFID tag readers are positioned a distance from the tags when read. There is a need for improvements in RFID tag usage.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.


Computing devices, such as personal computers, mobile smartphones, personal digital assistants, tablets, televisions, digital glasses, video game systems, digital projection systems, and holographic display systems, can be used to view various kinds of computer stored data such as computer generated documents stored on digital media, scanned documents generated on external sources and then digitized and stored on digital media, and photographic images captured on various devices and then stored on digital media. Displaying various kinds of documents on computing device screens or on printed media may involve disparate and incompatible operating systems (OSs), which would require native applications specific to each OS, and sometimes specific to each device, in order to interact with the digitally stored data in a visual format.
This OS incompatibility can result in end users having to buy separate applications for each different category of devices, e.g., an application specific for a PC plus an application specific for a mobile device. In this regard, to access and manipulate a document across different device platforms, an end user must buy or download an application for each category of device utilized. In some cases, a user is required to buy or download two applications for the same category of device, e.g., an application specific for an Android device and an application specific for an iOS smartphone. While some envision mobile devices replacing desktop computing at some point in the future, the average consumer today continues to make use of various computing devices with different operating systems, such as personal computers (laptops and desktops), video game systems (Sony's PlayStation or Microsoft's Xbox) and other proprietary devices with native OSs. This situation also remains a burden to software developers, who, in order to address the widest potential market for their product, must spend the time, resources and money to develop their same basic application to run separately and specifically on each different device or platform.
With the advent of cloud computing, an extra wrinkle to the already challenging equation of accessing digitally stored data over the Internet has been created—that of efficiently retrieving and storing digital data on the cloud.
Apple's iOS and Google's Android OS currently dominate the world of mobile device OS, followed by Nokia, RIM's Blackberry, Microsoft's Windows Mobile and others. Although each mobile OS is different from an operations standpoint, they all share a common trait—their proprietary nature from both an internal architecture, as well as, the external applications (Apps) required for consumers to interact with the devices running on the OSs.
A huge drawback of the current state of mobile computing is the lack of computational support from the server side. Although mobile devices have increased their capacity to serve and process data in the last couple of years, computing large tasks on mobile devices is still very costly; and it often requires cellular/wireless carrier subsidies to make the products affordable on the front-end and then through ongoing enhancements, new feature sets, improved processing power and other design feature or operational improvements, it creates frequent upgrade cycles.


A heat pump is understood to be a system involving a heat-circulation process of the type wherein a liquid cooling means at +2.degree. C. is evaporated in an evaporator and consequently absorbs the heat from a medium, for example water or air, at a temperature of +10.degree. C. The cooling-medium vapor of +2.degree. C. absorbs here approximately 10 kW. heating efficiency and is then drawn away by a compressor. The cooling-medium vapor is condensed to 15.5 bar in said compressor, is heated to +60.degree. C. and is fed to a condenser while absorbing a further 5 kW. (compressor output). Here the cooling-medium vapor emits again the absorbed 15 kW. at an unchanged high pressure and becomes liquid. The heating water, for example for a heating system of a house of the conventional type, is guided through the condensor and absorbs the heat which is emitted from the cooling-medium vapor, which heat is fed now in the heating water to the actual heating purpose.
The liquid cooling means at +60.degree. C. moves from the condensor on to an expansion valve, expands here and assumes a lower pressure of 3.5 bar at a temperature of +2.degree. C. This cooling means is returned to the evaporator and a new cycle of said means in the heat pump starts. (The aforementioned values are only exemplary values and are provided to aid one to easily understand the circulation processes of the heat pump. The physical principles of a heat pump are discussed in detail for example in "VDI-Statusbericht Warmepumpe" VDI-Verlag, GmbH, Dusseldorf 1976.).
The purpose of the present invention is now to provide a drive unit which is coupled with the compressor in such heat pumps, which drive unit can be operated and serviced easily and without any errors by nontrained persons, for example housewives. This purpose is attained according to the invention by the unit including a fuel-injection internal combustion engine which drives the compressor and a starter associated with said engine being fed power from an electric power line, wherein the starter can be connected to the electric power line by means of a switch.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the starter is constructed as an electromagnetic drive motor having a rotor and a stator. The rotor is secured to the crackshaft of the engine and serves at least partially as a flywheel. The stator has coil windings of which current from a three-phase a.c. power-line is fed.
The starting switch can be operated manually in heat pumps of a simple construction. In systems which have a high ease of operation, however, automation will be used, for example a thermostatically controlled relay, which, when falling below a fixed minimum value in the temperature of the heating water for the heating system of the house, closes the starting switch. This automation is preferable in view of the fact that a heat pump is used often only as an auxiliary heating system in a house, which is heated with heating oil, and must be started and turned off many times during changing weather temperatures.
A preferable further development of the invention results when a coupling is arranged between the crankshaft of the engine and the driven shaft of the compressor, which coupling is constructed as a centifugal clutch. The compressor is connected in this manner to the driving fuel-injection internal combustion engine only after same has reached the necessary speed and the predetermined torque.
For the purpose of designing the drive unit as an easily transportable and installable unit, it is preferable to provide a common support frame, on which, with the interpositioning of vibration-damping elements therebetween, the structural components (internal combustion engine, starter, compressor) are secured. An arrangement which is very advantageous with respect to space results when the starter is arranged between internal combustion engine and compressor such that its housing is secured on the one side to the internal combustion engine and on the other side to the compressor.


Virtual reality (VR) is a computer technology that uses VR devices, such as headsets, sometimes in combination with physical spaces or multi-projected environments, to generate realistic images, sounds, and other sensations that simulate a user's physical presence in a three-dimensional (3D) virtual environment and allow the VR user to interact with the virtual environment. Many applications such as gaming, content consuming, and productivity have been developed using VR technology to provide user a more immersive experience.
In some cases, when a user needs to select a virtual element (for example, a virtual key) in a VR user interface (UI) to interact with a VR scenario, the user can select the virtual element in the VR UI by using an external device connected to the VR device. The external device connected to the VR device can be a smartphone, a joystick, or other handheld input devices. When using a VR application, the user can use the external device to control an operational focus (for example, a cursor) in the VR UI, move the operational focus to a virtual element, and select the virtual element in the UI by clicking a button or touchscreen on the external device.
In some cases, a clicking action can be simulated using a “hover timeout” event to select the virtual element in the VR UI. That is, a virtual element can be selected by hovering the operational focus on the virtual element for a pre-determined duration (for example, a three second timeout). When the operational focus stays on the virtual element for the duration, the virtual element is selected. Because the user needs to wait for a period of time to select the element, this method may not be suitable for VR applications that require real-time responses.